Wednesday, September 11, 2013
The Last Song in My Set (The Meeting Place): Close Your Eyes
(We're back at the Meeting Place now, what Mike Cooney calls "a Swim Club coffee house! Only in California!" where "a couple of guys who worked in the kitchen went on to form 'The Association' ")
The last song in my set, because I had mentioned "war" and "blood" in the "Battleship of Maine" was an uplifting, all join together piece, every one is like every one else. A tune I had heard and eventually learned from Mike Cooney, and as I had paid for some guitar lessons from him out in the orchard house somewhere in Upland near a lemon grove where he lived in a small house where his new baby slept in a dresser drawer as a cradle, and had practiced extensively, I could fingerpick the accompaniment fairly well.
Mike always called this one "The Blood Types Song." He'd learned it ... "learned it from someone in the Tucson folksong club when I was in high school. It was from a ten-inch LP made by (I think) the B'nai Brith, called "Little Songs On Big Subjects. Someone gave me a cassette tape of it long ago. (Wonder where it is?) As I recall, the song on the tape was considerably different from the one I learned. (The folk
process.)." Mike sent me the lyrics (below).
Well, I can barely remembers now the version I played there, and wail, "Oh, the folk process!"
Close Your Eyes and Point Your Finger
Words: Hy Zaret
Music : Lou Singer
© 1947 Oliver Music & Argosy Music (ASCAP)
Close your eyes and point your finger,
On the map just let it linger —
Any place you point your finger to,
There’s someone with the same type blood as you!
England, China or Alaska,
Mexico or Madagascar,
Indonesia, Ireland or Peru —
There’s someone with the same type blood as you!
No type of blood is better,
No type of blood is best,
Each type of blood is just as good —
No better than the rest!
Close your eyes and point your finger,
On the map just let it linger —
Any place you point your finger to,
There’s someone with the same type blood as you!
In the mountains or in the valleys,
Rich hotels or slum-like alleys —
Any place you point your finger to,
There’s someone with the same type blood as you!
Plumbers, bankers, men of science,
Clerks or teachers, dwarfs or giants —
Makes no difference what they are or do,
There’s someone with the same type blood as you!
It may be “A” or “AB”,
It may be “B” or “O”,
Whatever type it may be, sir,
There’s one thing you should know:
Nature has no fav’rite nation,
Color, creed, or occupation —
Any place you point your finger to,
There’s someone with the same type blood as you!
Someday you may be in danger;
Then along will come a stranger
With a bit of blood to pull you through…
A stranger’s blood may save your life for you!
Close your eyes and point your finger,
On the map just let it linger —
Any place you point your finger to,
There’s someone with the same type blood as you!
(The audience closed their eyes, and pointed their fingers at me as I slunk off the stage. Floparooni.).
(In closing, anybody know Ken Carter's whereabouts these days? Mike Cooney wonders. "I'm wishing I
could find a fellow I knew there (at the Meeting Place), Ken Carter. Last I heard (40 years ago), he was in Sacramento.")
(played the top of my guitar like it's bongo drums: "I came from monkey blood, I came from monkey blood,
And likely so did you!")
You can only guess now why they didn't appreciate me then. I was so in their face about things.
(Here's a link to a memory about The Jesters, and Little Songs on Big Subjects", which has a great illustration for "Close Your Eyes and Point Your Finger.)
Oh my GOD! Here's a link to the actual RECORD and SONG, so you can play it and pretend it's me onstage at the Meeting House (or at least get a drift of the tune). Mike's version was much better than either me or the Jesters, anyway.
Close Your Eyes and Point Your Finger (the SONG!!!)
(Mudcat advises these were UNICEF recordings.)
(Those were the days, eh?) ¶ 9/11/2013 10:08:00 AM
(We're back at the Meeting Place now, what Mike Cooney calls "a Swim Club coffee house! Only in California!" where "a couple of guys who worked in the kitchen went on to form 'The Association' ")
The last song in my set, because I had mentioned "war" and "blood" in the "Battleship of Maine" was an uplifting, all join together piece, every one is like every one else. A tune I had heard and eventually learned from Mike Cooney, and as I had paid for some guitar lessons from him out in the orchard house somewhere in Upland near a lemon grove where he lived in a small house where his new baby slept in a dresser drawer as a cradle, and had practiced extensively, I could fingerpick the accompaniment fairly well.
Mike always called this one "The Blood Types Song." He'd learned it ... "learned it from someone in the Tucson folksong club when I was in high school. It was from a ten-inch LP made by (I think) the B'nai Brith, called "Little Songs On Big Subjects. Someone gave me a cassette tape of it long ago. (Wonder where it is?) As I recall, the song on the tape was considerably different from the one I learned. (The folk
process.)." Mike sent me the lyrics (below).
Well, I can barely remembers now the version I played there, and wail, "Oh, the folk process!"
Close Your Eyes and Point Your Finger
Words: Hy Zaret
Music : Lou Singer
© 1947 Oliver Music & Argosy Music (ASCAP)
Close your eyes and point your finger,
On the map just let it linger —
Any place you point your finger to,
There’s someone with the same type blood as you!
England, China or Alaska,
Mexico or Madagascar,
Indonesia, Ireland or Peru —
There’s someone with the same type blood as you!
No type of blood is better,
No type of blood is best,
Each type of blood is just as good —
No better than the rest!
Close your eyes and point your finger,
On the map just let it linger —
Any place you point your finger to,
There’s someone with the same type blood as you!
In the mountains or in the valleys,
Rich hotels or slum-like alleys —
Any place you point your finger to,
There’s someone with the same type blood as you!
Plumbers, bankers, men of science,
Clerks or teachers, dwarfs or giants —
Makes no difference what they are or do,
There’s someone with the same type blood as you!
It may be “A” or “AB”,
It may be “B” or “O”,
Whatever type it may be, sir,
There’s one thing you should know:
Nature has no fav’rite nation,
Color, creed, or occupation —
Any place you point your finger to,
There’s someone with the same type blood as you!
Someday you may be in danger;
Then along will come a stranger
With a bit of blood to pull you through…
A stranger’s blood may save your life for you!
Close your eyes and point your finger,
On the map just let it linger —
Any place you point your finger to,
There’s someone with the same type blood as you!
(The audience closed their eyes, and pointed their fingers at me as I slunk off the stage. Floparooni.).
(In closing, anybody know Ken Carter's whereabouts these days? Mike Cooney wonders. "I'm wishing I
could find a fellow I knew there (at the Meeting Place), Ken Carter. Last I heard (40 years ago), he was in Sacramento.")
(played the top of my guitar like it's bongo drums: "I came from monkey blood, I came from monkey blood,
And likely so did you!")
You can only guess now why they didn't appreciate me then. I was so in their face about things.
(Here's a link to a memory about The Jesters, and Little Songs on Big Subjects", which has a great illustration for "Close Your Eyes and Point Your Finger.)
Oh my GOD! Here's a link to the actual RECORD and SONG, so you can play it and pretend it's me onstage at the Meeting House (or at least get a drift of the tune). Mike's version was much better than either me or the Jesters, anyway.
Close Your Eyes and Point Your Finger (the SONG!!!)
(Mudcat advises these were UNICEF recordings.)
(Those were the days, eh?) ¶ 9/11/2013 10:08:00 AM
