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Sweet Words and History

from Visitors by Howard Simon

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Another song with roots in Jerusalem in 1980. I think this one pretty much tells its own story . . .

lyrics

Sweet Words and History

“Play it again, that song that you wrote
For your friend getting married, like a personal note
That song made me love you,” she said, shy, and smiled
So he played it and it made him feel safe as a child

While orange hills of Judah sat softly below
They built on their histories, words measured and slow
And the walls fell to sand on the brown sacred earth
As they stood there together to celebrate a birth

Sweet words and history, another sad song
A specter of loneliness, you might sing along
While another day’s failings are falling away
With sweet words and history to give you today

The demon within him ran fast and ran strong
And it sat down beside him to help his day along
With words that burned like acid – give a nickel, take a dime
While quietly he poisoned her, crime after crime

How do you sing a compassionate tune?
For the way that she suffered, for the loss of the moon
That set before dawn on nativity down
As they watched, falling desperately down (doobie-do-down-down)

Chorus

But hadn’t he cautioned her right from the start
That to love half a woman would tear him apart?
But to find that he’d scar her while opening her heart
Makes me think he’s the one who got it wrong from the start
Makes me think he’s the one who ought to bow and depart

Chorus

credits

from Visitors, released June 27, 2016

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Howard Simon image

Howard Simon San Francisco, California

I am a San Francisco-based singer-songwriter. My songs are about love (romantic and otherwise), family, morality and mortality. If there is a common thread to my songs, it is the people we love, the desire to do right, and the hope and fear, the peace and the struggle that constitute life bring wonder in addition to its joy and sadness, and sometimes loss. ... more

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