D-Squared

 

 Owlsong [3:41m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (383)

This song was the result of spending 3 months touring the Great Northern Plains in the dead of winter where we saw lots of white and many birds of prey sitting on fence posts. Even owls. Being from southern climes, we were sure we were going to die at any minute. The performance was captured at Greg West’s studio by our webms., Cheryl Colan, whose website is well worth checking out for sheer quirkiness. She’s a hoot.

I wrote this after a trip down the Colorado through the Grand Canyon with some very dear friends. Ostensibly it is about the river but, of course, it’s really about the Big Trip that we’re all on. This is our most requested song, appears on two of our CDs, and has been included on several compilations, most notably the Smithsonian Folkways release, “Songs and Stories of Grand Canyon”.

There’s no stronger wind a-blowing than the one that blows tonight
Up the canyon from the desert hey it don’t know wrong from right
It don’t give a damn about your convictions or what deity you endorse
If you run up your abstractions it’ll blow you plumb off course
You better row

From the snowmelt in the Rockies, from the San Juan and the Green
The Colorado herds her children like souls into the stream
You can take the wild ride if you choose flushed like so much sand
But keep your eyes peeled downstream this ain’t Disneyland
You better row
You better row

Now the river rocks and rumbles as it rolls down through the ages
And shatters any sense of scale when it turns back the pages
And the ruins of your history, civilizations in their prime
Are swept into an eddy, they were just a wink in time
You better row

So if time is what you’re after, if that’s what you think you lack
Take all the time you want here you might not be coming back
You can lift your eyes in wonder as you drift from shore to shore
But when the river snakes it’s savage tongue, you better grab an oar
You better row
You better row

Did you think that you could come here and fail to be impressed
With the terrifying beauty of the earth when she’s undressed
Did her passion leave you breathless, did you find the truth you seek
And when you hit the hole at Lava Falls was it difficult to speak
You better row

It’s an adolescent fantasy and we really ought to lose it
‘Cause acting like we’re in control we’re destined to abuse it
But the lyric that the rocks will echo long into the night
Is you may dare to dam the river but you cannot stem the tide
You better row
You better row

Now I know you know the parable of the sailors out at sea
There were four men in the gunnels, there was room for only three
And if my friend you don’t believe we’re all in the same boat
How long can you tread water, how long you gonna stay afloat
You better row
You better row
You better row
Row, row, row your boat
Gently down the stream
Merrily merrily merrily merrily
Life is but a dream
Life is but a dream
Life is but a dream

You can play a sample of this tune:
[audio:row.mp3]

Guest appearances in this song by my baby – Deb, my old cowdog – Okey; my high school buddy – Doug; and a couple of notable religious figures.
I have walked and talked with all of `em at some length and felt plumb good about it.

Walking with my baby, walking down Telegraph Avenue
Walking with my sweet baby, walking down Telegraph Avenue
Hey if I didn’t tell you this morning baby
I really really really really really love you so I say
Hoo li li li Hoo li li li li
Hoo li li li Hoo li li li li
Hoo li li li Hoo lay Hoo lay Hoo lay Hoo

Walking with my good friend, walking with my good friend Doug
Walking with my good friend, walking with my good friend Doug
He walks like a duck and he talks like a duck but he ain’t no duck
He’s my good friend Doug and we say
Hoo li li li Hoo li li li li
Hoo li li li Hoo li li li li
Hoo li li li Hoo lay Hoo lay Hoo lay Hoo

Walking with my old dog, walking with my old dog Sam
Walking with my old dog, walking with my good old dog Sam
Well I call him Okey Dokey but you can just call him Sam
Sam I am that I am that I
Hoo li li li Hoo li li li li
Hoo li li li Hoo li li li li
Hoo li li li Hoo lay Hoo lay Hoo lay Hoo

Walking in the garden, walking with Jesus and Buddha too
Walking in the garden, walking with Jesus and Buddha too
We gotta slow down every now and then
Buddha got a rock in his shoe (and Jesus say boohoohoo)
But I say
Hoo li li li Hoo li li li li
Hoo li li li Hoo li li li li
Hoo li li li Hoo lay Hoo lay Hoo lay Hoo

“Thirty spokes converge on a single hub, but it is in the space where there is nothing that the usefulness of the cart lies.” (Tao de Ching)

We were talking about infinity and the trinity and the difference that
separates the three
The arcing wheel of existence of all that has been or ever will be
How we dance on the arc, we court and we spark in a blood rushing spin
And this spinning around makes a terrible sound but it’s only the wind
The wheel is round, the wheel is round, the wheel is round

Now if there was a beginning then there will have to be an end
But Uncle Albert taught us bravely to depend upon the bend of light
When cast in to space to return to the place from whence it has come
And if that is so tell me where do you suppose the light came from
The wheel is round, the wheel is round, the wheel is round

Jesus, Mohammad, Abraham we call on you
You left us with so much work to do
There’s work to do

Ezekiel saw the wheel way up in the middle of the air
And four winged beasts with burnished hooves churning and burning
up there
And they four had the face of a lion, an ox, an eagle, and a lamb
Speaking the language of thunderbolts so that Israel will understand
The wheel is round (Ezekiel saw it)
The wheel is round (tell Israel all about it)
The wheel is round (2pi r 2pi r 2pi r 2pi r 2pi r 2pi r squared)
The wheel is round (2pi r 2pi r 2pi r 2pi r 2pi r 2pi r squared)
Infinity is greater than zero, the wheel is round