18) Wall Street

Okay, I was feeling a little bad about throwing this one out but screw it. This is a masterpiece that everybody should hear. It's a Van Dyke Parks composition written on September 11th, 2002 about the date one year earlier. It is simply incredible. If you still have dry eyes after hearing this one, move on to Anvil or Judas Priest.

I e-mailed Van Dyke about releasing this song and although he did get back to me it seemed liked he scrapped the whole idea of a new studio album. If he happens to check out this blog and does not like it being here I will pull it immediately. But it has to be heard. I cannot hold this to my own without sharing with the rest of the class.

LISTEN

I don't feel like laughin' now I could use a laugh and how
I could use a telephone All alone Me and my old radio
Let's forget the news all right We won't get the blues tonight
Just gotta get together Tell that so and so
Shankin' the Big Apple tree Barkin' for a bite
You see sun is up on New York town Honkin' round run down my Battery
Drop me off at Walk Don't Walk It's about another block
And it's been lovely here on Wall Street

I can see nothin' but ash in the air Confetti all colored with blood
The jewel-encrusted mud-flattened Hudson
She's beaten and battered and buttressed and broke
Dining on dregs, gone begging, no joking
And in the confetti is human desire, love-letters lost in space, now smoking
The mouth of the river yawning south to the sea

In this cloud of disarray Floats a falling man in grey
Upside down and holding hands with his mate Why wait for speculation?
Like two stones we gravitate There's no time to hesitate
Just time to say I love you Say I love you Wall Street

Two flaming birds on fire They kiss their lives good-bye
Whereon the concrete street they meet in dying Without a trace of our embrace
You can't place my face though you are trying
'Til dust will stop our labored love We must drop all fear now of flying
A heart-beat from The Hudson down to the sea