New
Re-release CD of the first album
"Cormac McCarthy"
Selections from Cormac McCarthy with the original track,
Friend of the Family,
in mp3 files and lyrics appear below.
Friend of the Family
Bad Company
River Round
the Bend
Romance at
Fenway Park
"...make sure you have (the first album). I particularly like Madness in the Family, Used Cars, The Blue Mountains , and Friend of the Family because they combine beautiful imagery with some great character depictions."
Dick Pleasants,
The Folk Heritage, WGBH Boston
Cormac McCarthy,the first album sold out. A new release CD is now available. You may never have heard such great songs as Madness in the Family, Used Cars, The Blue Mountains or other great songs on the first album.
"...great writing, great guitar playing, great singing -- a triple threat! The Red Sox could use him." Bill Morrissey
Contact
Cormac
Friend of the
Family
The air was cold and the Autumn sun
Had burned the leaves a delirious yellow
By a small house, amid the junk cars
Just off the road by the river
He used to hang around the house
Bring presents to the kids
Tell them stories and show them his rifle
He and Bud would hunt together out of season
And put some red meat on the table
Suppertime was a real good thing
Full of boasting and Black Label
But sometimes Billy would sit down first
Right there at the head of the table
And Billy would argue
He said, "Bud you’re a lucky man"
Bud said, "I’m shackled to a wife and kids."
Billy didn’t want to understand
He said, "I’d give my right arm to be a family man!"
Bud’s wife liked Billy like the rest
But got tired of his talk and his bragging
He spent more time at home than her husband did
And did her husband’s share of the drinking.
"Damn it, Billy, you’re drunk again,
Sally, get him some coffee
Bud would never put up with this
If you weren’t a friend of the family."
Bud’s wife took all she could
She gave Billy his walking papers
He just laughed, went to the fridge
To get himself another Schaefer
"Damn it, Billy, you’re drunk again,
Sally, get him some coffee
Bud would never put up with this
If you weren’t a friend of the family."
The more we give, the more you take
And you take when we stop giving
Billy, you are a grown-up man
You make a decent living"
He grabbed a chair, threw in down
Said, "No one talks to me that way!
Ain’t I the one that split your wood
The one who hauled in the hay?
I’ve told your children about the rainbow’s end
I told’em ‘bout the ships in the sea
How could I have ever known
They’d mean that much to me?
He knew and she knew
There was nothing left to say
A friend of the family...
Tomorrow’s another day
So Bud’s wife went to bed
Wishing he weren’t out of town
She heard Billy stumble round the kitchen
She put on her sleeping gown
"Damn it, Billy’s drunk again
I wish he’d drink some coffee
Never put up with this…
A friend of the family"
Billy sat in the warmth of the kitchen
Till all the beer had lost it’s foam
And as the sun warmed the trees
And hurt his eyes
He stood up
And started home
He started for home.
Copyright 1986-2000, Cormac McCarthy. All rights reserved.
mp3
Bad Company
I once loved a woman with all of my heart
And that’s what she took from me
When all the smoke and the dust had cleared
I was bad company
It’s a woman that’s gonna be the death of me
She’ll kill me for something I just can’t see
She won’t do in a fit of passion
She’ll do it so sensibly, so sensibly
What do you need a woman for?
Oh, woe is me
A man unloved all by himself
He’s in very bad company
It’s an art as grand as the Sistine Chapel
To live with the opposite sex
It’s a hell as dark as Dante’s Inferno
To escape from the witch’s hex
Thirteen men will carry me
To my grave beneath the trees
And on that stone write
"It was the last one
That would not set me free, not set me free"
What do you need a woman for?
Well, it’s A through Z
A man unloved all by himself
He’s very bad company
To make it work
Let's make it last
That’s the hardest part
An icicle makes a perfect weapon
It’s as cold as a woman’s heart
I once loved a woman with all my heart
And that’s what she took from me
When all the smoke and dust had cleared
I was bad company, bad company
What do you need a woman for?
Oh, woe is me
A man unloved all by himself
He’s very bad company.
Copyright 1986-2000, Cormac McCarthy. All rights reserved.
mp3
River Round the Bend
Excerpt
Mill wheels turn and they turn through the night
The river drives the mill silent in the light
From a window you can watch the river flow away
River round the bend and here we stay
Sure there’s time to sit and think
There’s no time to work things out
Somedays I think I’m setting the world on fire
Really, I’m just burning myself out.
Copyright 1986-2000, Cormac McCarthy. All rights reserved.
Romance at Fenway Park
Excerpt
I used to live on Bridge StreetBy the old folks home
At the time I was a lucky man
I didn’t know I was so alone
I didn’t realize why I
Slept near the phone
Or took the dog for long walks
And hoped that he wanted to go
Things were like that
Before we met
It makes love hard to believe
So hard to forget
It’s no good living
Living with a troubled heart
So let’s toss it aside
And make a brand new start.
Copyright 1986-2000, Cormac McCarthy. All rights reserved.