Tunes - Volume 3
"There's a ghost town called cloudbase way up in the sky
The streets run forever ten thousand feet high
It's the place where old dust devils go when they die
To rest at the end of the day . . ."
- Ed Kilbourne
Contents
1) The I-Yi Song
2) The Pilgrim
3) Big Sur
4) Pilot's Lament
5) House of the Rising Glider Prices
6) A Truckload of Kites
7) Himalaya
1. The I-Yi Song
I-yi sky-yied out on you today
When I go hang gliding it's my favorite thing to say
I love to tell the stories of the great flights I have flown
I'm the greatest glider pilot that this world has ever known!
I-yi sky-yied out on you today
Blown launches or bad landings, not me, I'd never say
Forget that mile of tubing I have not mentioned yet
Enough bent up aluminum to fill a jumbo jet!
I-yi sky-yied out on you today
But when I see my doctor I hate to hear him say
You're coming here each week my friend, I'm amazed that you're alive
If you don't change your flying style I don't think you'll survive!
I-yi sky-yied out on you today
I agree you waxed my ass where on the ground I stay
I watched you skying out my friend, flying far and near
While I was flirting with your wife and drinking all your beer!
I-yi sky-yied out on you today
And when I've blown my last great flight and on the ground I lay
I'm sure that I'll be bragging until I'm finally dead
Remember when you bury me the last words that I said!
I-yi-yi-yi Sky-yi-yi-yied out on you today
When I go hang gliding it's my favorite thing to say
I love to tell the stories of the great flights I have flown
I'm the greatest glider pilot that this world has ever known!
# # #
(an original composition,
words and tune by Mike Wilson
of Orangevale, California)
2. The Pilgrim
See him wasted in the skyways
in his cowboy hat and jeans
wearing yesterday's hard landing like a smile
Once he had a future
full of money, love and dreams
that he spent like they was going out of style
And he keeps right on a'flying
for the better or the worse
searching for a flight he's never found
Never knowing if hang gliding
is a blessing or a curse
or if the going up was worth the coming down
CHORUS:
He's a poet, he's a picker
he's a pilot, he's a pusher
he's a pilgrim and a preacher
and a problem when he's stoned
He's an airborne contradiction
partly truth and partly fiction
taking every wrong direction
on his lonely way back home
He has tasted good and evil
in your bedrooms and your bars
and he's traded in tomorrow for today
Flying from his demons, Lord
reaching for the sky
losing all he loved along the way
But if them thermals keep on cracking
for the better or the worse
and all he ever gets is higher and around
From the rocking of the cradle
to the rolling of the hearse
the skying out was worth the coming down
CHORUS
(There's alot of wrong directions
on that lonely way back home . . .)
# # #
(from the song "The Pilgrim - Chapter 33
written and sung by Kris Kristofferson
on the album "The Silver Tongued Devil and I"
released by Monument Records)
3. Big Sur
[G] I've got a launch ramp up at Plasket
here at Big Sur mountain [C] bay
I'd get off work and fly till [G] sunset
then drink my nights [D7] away
I [G] had a plan to take my wages
leave the Coast behind for [C] good
but the flying here's con- [G] tagious [D7]
and it gets down in your [G] blood
I lived in Big Sur with my brother
we were always in the sky
we were bad for one another
but we were good at gettin high
we got stoned along the seawall
we got drunk and wrecked the car
we knew the girls at every hot tub
we had a tab at every bar
CHORUS:
[G] If I could live my life all [D7] over it wouldn't matter any- [G] way
Cuz I never could stay [D7] sober down at Big Sur mountain [G] bay
My brother had a wife and family
you know he gave 'em a good home
but his wife thought we were crazy
and one day we found her gone
we threw her clothes into a basket
her photographs, her rosary
then we flew our kites at Plasket
and threw it all into the sea
CHORUS
Now my bro' lives south of Stockton
he flys McClure all the time
he got a good job with the union
and it's keeping him in line
he came to Big Sur just this weekend
it was good to see him here
he said he finally gave up drinking
then he bought us both a beer
CHORUS (TWICE)
# # #
(from the song "Corpus Christi Bay"
written and sung by Robert Earl Keen Jr
on the album "A Bigger Piece of Sky"
released by Sugar Hill Records)
4. Pilot's Lament (Shannon's Song)
While [C] I was out test [F] flying
My [C] new bird just checking its [G7] trim
The [F] sun was so bright as I [C] finished my flight
And read a [G7] letter from back home and a [C] friend
CHORUS:
He asked me
[F] "Why do you [G7] fly for your [C] money
[F] Why do you [G7] fly for short [C] pay
You ain't [F] getting no- [G7] where and you're [C] losing your [F] share [C] [F]
Boy you [G7] must have gone crazy up [C] there"
He tells me "Last night I ran into Rosie
She's married and has a good life
Boy you sure missed the track when you never came back
She's a perfect professional's wife"
CHORUS:
She asked me
"Why does he fly for his money
Tell me why does he fly for short pay
He ain't getting nowhere and he's losing his share
They all must be crazy up there"
But they've [F] never [C] flown with a [G7] hawk on the [C] wing
[F] Never heard an [G7] eagle [C] scream
[F] Never seen the [G7] spring hit [C] Tellu- [F] ride [C] [F]
[G7] Never heard them flying wires [C] sing
Well I read up the last of my letter
Cracked open a big bottle of gin
Set up my kite for another test flight
And just looked at that letter and grinned
CHORUS:
Why does he fly for his money
Why does he fly for short pay
He ain't getting nowhere and he's losing his hair
Boy he must have gone crazy up there
(Yeah, I knew a Sky King who could make his
vario sing like Luciano Pavarotti . . .)
# # #
(from the song "Night Rider's Lament"
sung by Jerry Jeff Walker
written by Mike Burton
on the album "Ridin' High"
released by MCA Records)
5. House of the Rising Glider Prices
There is a glider built today
They call the Exxtacy
It's the financial ruin of many a poor boy
And one of them was me
My mother was a tailor
She sewed my jeans for me
A wealthy woman she'd be now
If she'd sewed Exxtacys
So, pilots, sell your children
But don't do as I do
‘Cause you know when I get this thing paid off
They'll bring out the Exxtacy 2!
# # #
(words by Tim Ward of Mira Loma, California
to the tune of the song "House of the Rising Sun"
written and sung by
on the album "The Best of the Animals"
released by ABKCO Records)
6. A Truckload of Kites
(Clearlake is a Vacuum if You're Talking About Cloudsuck)
Spoken introduction:
"Once upon a time, some time ago on the West Coast, the Santa Clara
Valley to be exact, a couple of flyboys started feeling real superior to
their inland counterparts who hung out at cloudbase in the Sacramento
Valley. So these 2 flyboys got together and decided they'd take a flying
trip and show those snotty inland pilots a thing or two about skying out.
So they loaded up their truck. It was a swell, spanking new pumpkin
colored Datsun with mudflaps, TV, AM-FM auto-reverse cassette
stereo, coconut rug mats and naugahyde seats, all fresh with Bennett
kite decals and a bumper sticker that said "DON'T TRUST ANYONE
UNDER 5000 FEET", and "Skyking" painted on the side of the door
with solid 24-karat gold leaf type. And they loaded up their truck with
salami, cans of new potatoes, their sleeping bags and a guitar, and
topped it off with their most significant kites, heaps of high-performance
clevis pins, multi-colored fluorescent saddles, chrome plated down
tubes, and pretty little cute red end caps. They went out and harvested
their crop, and headed east towards Telluride to chide, cajole, humble,
and humiliate the inland fliers. But this here is the true story of their trip . . ."
[C] Yeah a truckload of kites from [F] Cali- [C] fornia
Came rolling down the [G7} road
Ah, the [F] driver was singing and the [C] sunset was pretty
But the truck turned over and she [G7] rolled off the [C] road [C7]
Yeah a [F] truckload of kites, it's [C] burning near the highway
Carabineers are scattered all over the [G7] ground
And it's a [F] terrible sight if a [C] pilot were to see it
But there weren't no [G7] pilots a- [C] round
Yeah the travelers went flip-flopping high in the sky
Smacked in before they got their first flight
And St. Peter he said "Boys, you're better off dead
Than hauling a truckload of Bill Bennett kites"
Yeah a truckload of kites, it's burning near the highway
Carabineers are scattered all over the ground
And it's a terrible sight if a pilot were to see it
But there weren't no pilots around
Yes, some important kites have gone burning to the ground
Tragically landing in the weeds
And the smoke could be seen from miles all around
Yeah but nobody cares what it means
Yeah a truckload of kites, its's burning near the highway
And a tough job for the Skyway Patrol
I'll soon see the smoke, and some fun I will poke
then dig a big ditch and throw the kites in a hole
Yeah a truckload of kites, it's burning near the highway
It's raging far out of control
And what the critics have jeered is now scattered and queered
And your colorful dacron has been stewed on the ground
Yeah a truckload of kites, it's burning near the highway
Carabineers are scattered all over the ground
And it's a terrible sight if a pilot were to see it
But there weren't no pilots around
# # #
(from the song "Truckload of Art"
written and sung by Terry Allen
on the album "Lubbock"
released by Special Delivery/Topic Records)
7. Himalaya
[C] Sun was shining
[F] on that [C] mountain
sun was shining
[F] on that [C] mountain
we are [F] flying
Hima- [C] laya
we are [F] skying
Hima- [C] laya
Take me back
to that mountain
take me back
to that mountain
take me home
Himalaya
lead me on
Himalaya
Thermal flowing
to the sky
thermal flowing
to the sky
way up high
Himalaya
where we fly
Himalaya
Sun was shining
thermals cracking
sun was shining
thermals cracking
where my home is
Himalaya
take me home
Himalaya
Hima- [C] laya, Hima- [F] laya, Hima- [C] laya, Hima- [G] laya
Hima- [C] laya, Hima- [F] laya, Hima- [C] laya, Hima- [G] laya
(repeat chant and fade)
# # #
(from the song "Himalaya"
written and sung by Shankar and Bill Lovelady
on the compilation album "Music and Rhythm"
released by PVC Records)
End of Volume 3
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