I WANNA KNOW (Wale Liniger, ©
2013)
I wanna now what is on your mind
You drive me crazy and your lovin' drives me wild
Don't tell to nobody where we was last night
If you do, you'll mess up both our lives
Crazy 'bout you baby, ain't nothing I can do
Crazy 'bout you woman, I still dream of you
I wanna know, what we gonna do
We both know I can't go on lovin' you
I tell you baby, why we have to part
Gotta get you out of my mind, get out of my heart
I wanna know what is on your mind
You drive me crazy and your lovin' drives me wild
The story in I Wanna Know sounds kind of cliché as it shares its topic with a myriad of
other blues tunes. However, the roots to this song go back several years, to my affair with a married woman.
I remember it as a period fraught with hidden daytime play and guilt-ridden nights. And that is where the
cliché becomes a real story again.
BAD LUCK MAN
(Wale Liniger, © 2013)
Talk about leaving, dream of a distant land
Fly across the ocean, walk in hot desert sand
Just like a gambler, cheating the golden rule,
Sometimes I got lucky, sometimes was nothing but a fool
Everybody loves a winner, stay away from the bad luck man
Want good luck on my side and the ace card in my hand
People tell me time is longer than the rope
It might catch you if you fall, but it might hang you when you run
I woke up one morning, found myself all alone
Blues makes me remember times I've done wrong
If I had to choose one unconditional song it would be Bad Luck Man. Sometimes it feels as
if this song had been with me all my life. How many times have I tried to dodge the rope, to outsmart
intuition and Time? Issues surrounding Time have always fascinated me. I believe most cultures use
references to Time in order to encourage and warn us, such as “be patient,” or “what goes around comes
around.” Everything I do is somehow bound to Time. Time might be a universal unifier. Alas, its significance
is always relative (I believe Einstein is still correct).
QUICKSAND (Wale Liniger, © 2013)
Walking in quicksand, take one step at a time
Walking in quicksand, take one step at a time
I believe my baby got someone else on her mind,
Walking in quicksand, doing the best I can
If you're walking in quicksand, this is what you got to do
For every step you take, you got to give back two
Walking in quicksand, the longest road I know
Been walking in quicksand just to get to your door
You can love me or leave me, anything you choose to do
'cause I'm walking in quicksand just to get to you
If you're walking in quicksand, this is what you got to do
For every step you take, you got to give back two
Walking in Quicksand (or in deep snow for that matter) is a rather exhausting endeavor
with little progress to show. As a metaphor it describes certain periods of my life as I was reminded of the
steadily running sand in an hourglass. As I grew up without a telephone, I often had to use a
neighbor's phone: I still remember the small 3-minute sand-timer and my desperation to say what needed
saying within three minutes.
MIND YOUR OWN
BUSINESS (Wale Liniger, © 2013)
Mama killed a chicken, thought it was duck
Put him on the table with his legs sticking up
Mind your own business, mind your own business
Won't you mind your own business and leave my business be
A nickel is a nickel, a dime is a dime
Don't want no woman when she drinks wine
I might be old and up in years
But I ain't too old to shift your gears
I told my gal, week before last
The gait she had was a little too fast
Front door shut, back door too,
Blinds pulled down, what we gonna do?
Mama killed a chicken, thought it was duck
Put him on the table with his legs sticking up
Mind Your Own Business is a small collection of verses that have been meandering through
Time. It reminds me that the blues uses metaphors understood by most people: quite often those were
fragments of sermons and/or proverbs. Using metaphors in a narrative invites for interpretation, and,
hopefully, transcendence. The challenge is to create a platform that will encourage independent thought,
particularly in times that appear to be strangled by the frenzied calls for transparency and more security.
INTERSECTIONS (Wale Liniger, ©
2013)
Intersections is an attempt to marry a Swiss mercenary song (Im Aargaeu sind zweu Liebi)
with a German emigrant song (Muss I' denn zum Staedtele hinaus). Both songs are about mobility, and so
is the shuffle that connects them. A good example that a compromise challenges every component to giving up
a certain amount of its idiosyncrasies: the march ceases to be a march and the shuffle loses some of its
dynamics as well. My life often feels like that.
IN THE EVENING (Wale
Liniger, © 2013)
Have you ever been lonesome, found yourself all alone
When everything you try to do seems to turn out wrong
It's getting late in the evening, when the sun goes down
The moon is rising, dark night falling down
I got worries, thoughts that never sleep
They keep my heart in trouble and my mind thinking deep
Ain't no use in worrying 'bout things that might have been
The Blues don't care where you're going, Blues don't care where you've been
Have you ever been lonesome, found yourself all alone
When everything you try to do seems to turn out wrong
What can I say? In the Evening is not only a classic blues statement; it also relies on
my belief that most of us feel that way from time to time. With advancing age my sleep patterns have
shifted. Nighttime and sleeplessness create a territory populated by doubts and worries. The felt blues as
such doesn't need an explanation.
SHADOWS IN MY MIND
(Wale Liniger, © 2013)
Every time I hear that whistle blow
Take me back to the days that ain't no more
I walk through the streets alone
Can't find my way back home
Places I long to see
They don't look like home to me
Been here for a great long while
Feel like leaving just one more time
The past is so hard to find
Just like Shadows in my mind
I still remember the first time I didn't feel “at home” in my hometown of Bern,
Switzerland anymore. I thought to recognize people, but they didn't recognize me. Streets and houses
were still in their remembered places, but soundtrack to life in the streets and backyards had changed.
There comes a point in life when memories are in opposition to the present.
MOVE ACROSS THE DEEP BLUE SEA (Wale
Liniger, © 2013)
I woke up one morning feeling bad
Thought about them good days I once have had
I'm gonna move way across the deep blue sea,
I'm gonna move where those bad dreams don't worry me.
I got a mind to ramble, a mind to stay back home
I got a mind to worry and a mind I call my own.
Some tell the truth, some will tell you lies
They all tell you stories, put candy in your eyes
Bad dreams will worry you both night and day
Wake up in the morning, don't know what to say
I sit and I wonder what might become of me
Do I stay here or move across the deep blue sea
I have been living my life in two cultures. In America I lack my first 33 years (and with
that many emotional components of my daily vocabulary), and in the context of my native home of Switzerland
my mother language has stopped to evolve. Unfortunately I have never really embraced my American existence.
I've always thought that one day I would return to Switzerland but this appears to be more and more
unlikely. Obviously Moving Across the Deep Blue Sea won't be a solution to reign in those bad dreams,
but I thought I'd give it a try anyhow.
ETTA'S DANCE (Wale Liniger, ©
2013)
Etta's Dance is built on guitar riffs I remember playing behind most of Etta
Baker's dance tunes. How many times did I get lost in her instrumental memories? As I had never seen
and played for such dances, I lacked the visual guides through the many repetitions. I remember my insight
though: no matter how many old songs I may be able to play, I must wonder whether people would have danced
or not? The dance is another form of physical response, maybe the most direct and unfiltered one.
THINGS HAVE
CHANGED (Wale Liniger, © 2013)
I don't look like I used to
I don't walk like I want to
I don't see what I need to
I don't hear what I like to
Things have changed, yes, things have changed
Things I used to do, I can't do no more
When I was a young man and in my prime
We were together all the time
But things have changed, I done got old
It's part of living, so I am told
Remember the days, baby, have passed and gone
When I could love you all night long
I can still rock you for a little while
Roll with you, baby, to the beat of time
Eyes are getting old, hair is turning grey
People talking but can't hear what they say
Pains in my body, worries on my mind
I can't find no rest at night
Life is about changes. Some of them are voluntary, others are clearly part of Organic
Time and its cycles. Things Have Changed is not intended to be a lament, quite the opposite. I want it to be
a rather realistic assessment of my Time.
CASABLANCA TANGO (©
Chrigel Burkhard)
I have liked Casablanca Tango from the first time I heard Chrigel Burkhard & The
Alligators play it. The tune brings back some musical strains from my childhood: the waves crashing around
the voice of Hans Albers version of “La Paloma,” dreams of distant lands, of being torn between leaving and
staying.
BROKEN HEARTED
BLUES (Traditional)
I got a broken hearted blues every day since you went away
I believe tomorrow gonna be a better day
I'm calling and calling, no one answers me
I'm gonna take all of my troubles, throw them in the deep blue sea
Blues come down like the showers of rain
I believe they'll be dancing on the windowpane
Got a broken hearted blues every day since you went away
I believe tomorrow gonna be a better day
Broken Hearted Blues serves as a reminder that I am by and large in control of how I
choose to express my internal world-view. I am who I say I am. Whilst I heard Etta Baker state “I believe
tomorrow gonna be a better day,” James Son Thomas' statement invariably ended up being “I believe
tomorrow gonna be the same ol' way.” Yes, opposites like day and night.
GOOD-BYE BOOZE
(traditional)
Well good-bye booze for evermore
My boozin' days soon will be over
We had a good time, we couldn't agree
Don't you see now what booze did to me
She tore my clothes, she swelled my head
Well good-bye booze it's time to go to bed
She swelled my head, she broke my heart
Well good-bye booze it's time for us to part
She whispers low, how sweet the sound
Take another ride on my merry-go-round
I quit drinking alcohol in 1981, but I also remember my brief relapse in 1993. Good-Bye
Booze tells a rather accurate story. It has become “my song” through shared experience.
9
BELOW ZERO / WALK ALL NIGHT LONG (Williamson/Liniger)
Ain't that a pity, it's a crying shame
She wait till 9 below zero, put me down for another man
I gave her all of my money, my love and everything
She wait till 9 below zero, put me down for another man
I walk all night long, my feet got soaking wet
Ain't got nobody look like my baby yet
I walk all night long, my head hung down and cry
Keep me worried, baby, bothered all the time
I remember one freezing January in Washington state. It was midnight. The woman I had
been staying with sent me packing because I had cheated on her. She did not allow me to stay until daybreak.
As I had to free my car from piles of snow and ice, it took the better part of the darkest hours to shovel
and scrape. Whilst I didn't think this to be funny at that time, this story has become one of my
fondest memories about “a moment of learning.” Isn't the blues about such instances, really?
