Songs
Ken started writing songs in the Sixties. When he went on the road, hitchhiking and riding freights from Montreal to San Francisco, he brought his guitar. Over the years, he performed sporadically at coffee shops in Montreal, Haight-Ashbury, Vancouver, and Calgary. In the Nineties, after fronting a house band in Calgary for a couple of years, he formed a trio with pianist Frank “Freeman” Huether and percussionist Fred Engle. While performing around town as Ken McGoogan and the Immoral Minority, he wrote the Greatest Hits featured here. You can see the lyrics by clicking on the + sign. And bonus with Tell Tale Heart, the last song in the list: You can hear the audio version OR catch a video rendition.
Lyrics
Greatest Hits
Chorus:
Oh we chanted our slogans and sang our songs
Swore that forever we’d go marching on
We would always right what was wrong
We’re Baby Boomers
Back in the 60s when we came of age
Leave it to Beaver was all the rage
We thumbed our noses at the two-car garage
And took to the streets in a wave
Chorus
Into the 70s, still running well
We spoke for the weak told the strong, Ring a bell,
Invented Women’s Liberation and of course
Called it a mere bagatelle
Chorus
Then in the 80s we hit a wall
Discovered raising children isn’t easy after all
Took out second mortgages and suffered stress
Still we vaguely could recall how
Chorus
Now in the 90s we see a gleam
Of light at the end of the tunnel of dreams
We keep running, catch a second wind
Cry, we’ve our history to redeem
Chorus
A certain woman moved into my brain.
I don’t know how she got here but I’m going insane
She brought all her things, I mean records and books
Dresses and a leotard too, and what’s more,
It looks like she means to stay
She’s already been here for a year and a day
Let me go, let me go, let me go, let me go
She’s got no business taking over my mind
Lolling round half-dressed as if I were blind
How can I concentrate? She’s all laughter and lace
And long blond hair in the sun and besides
She brought a cat and a dog and a bird
It’s a zoo in here, I cannot make myself heard,
Let me go, let me go, let me go, let me
She does aerobics in the early a.m.
See to her my brain is nothing but a private gym
I’ve got to sit here and watch while she stretches and bends,
Reaches and does leg raises too oh my god
And that ain’t nothing to what happens at night
But I can’t go on, it wouldn’t be right.
Let me go, let me go, let me go, let me
So if you think two is company, you’re wrong.
In my brain two’s a crowd and I’m driven to song
I want to throw her out, say goodbye and good luck
And we’ll meet again someday but you see
I’m a quiche-eating kind of a man, so I fall to my knees
And I take her hand, I cry,
Let me go, let me go, let me go, let me go
When I woke up this morning
The ghost of Robert Johnson sat drinking coffee at my desk
I said oh, Mr. Johnson, oh please, Mr. Johnson
You know that I do my best
But at times the Blues disturb me
And I can’t get my beauty rest
He said, The Blues ain’t nothing, Blues ain’t nothing
But a bad woman on your mind
I said, All the ladies tell me, all the nice ladies tell me
That a good man is hard to find
He said, All the bad ladies answer
That a hard man is good to find
I said, A naughty lady did say
That her husband had gone away
But she’s locked the front door tight
He said, That’s just discretion
Get over there on the run
Back door’s open every night
Boy, she sent me here to tell you
Back door’s open every night
I said, Thank you, Mr. Johnson,
Oh, no, no, don’t go, Mr. Johnson
Not after being so benign
He said remember what I told you
Let those bad ladies enfold you
Nice ladies they aren’t your kind
Ah, but those bad ladies know you
They say a hard man is good to find.
Repeat 1.
They say you’ve chosen and that you’re going
They say you’re going away with him
All my life I will be sorry
That you and I didn’t meet back when
It was only infatuation
So you say and you want to believe
Fine by me. But I know better.
Don’t say goodbye, walk away, just leave.
Some other time, some other place, who knows?
We might have been more than the best of friends,
The best of friends, we greet tomorrow,
But tomorrow for us, it will never end
Say I’m dreaming, say I’m crazy,
Say that you never thought of me
In your eyes I see reflected
A truth that wasn’t ever meant to be (repeat)
I read a book last Friday for the first time in 17 years
Now I don’t mean I perused the whole thing,
cause certain words pollute the atmosphere
On every second page I found profanity
In the mouth of this here penniless bum
Who was cussing and swearing and taking in vain
The names of the father and son
Chorus:
Say goodbye to John Steinbeck
Hey what’s a Nobel Prize?
Who needs Of Mice and Men?
In God’s Country we don’t sympathize
Hey, hey, say goodbye to John Steinbeck
He’s just the first on the list
Of Bleeding-Heart-know-it-alls
You give us time and we’ll get rid of the rest
Say goodbye to Bellow and to Hemingway
And say goodbye to Pearl S. Buck
Say goodbye to William Faulkner, say goodbye you’re out of luck
Say goodbye to Singer and Eugene O’Neill
And say goodbye to Morrison
Say goodbye Sinclair Lewis
In God’s Country we have just begun
The List of Nobel winners who live far away
It goes on and on and on: Garcia Marquez,
Canetti, Soyinka, in God’s Country they are going, going, gone
And we will not neglect to rid our own back yard
Of smut and filth and sacrilegious ink
Mitchell and Atwood, Richler and Laurence,
You can count on us not to blink
We’ll hunt down uppity writers and we won’t stop there
We’ll round up those who buy their books
We’ll stamp out reading in God’s Country
Except for what’s okayed by us
We’ll take these lowlife bookworms and those creeps and bums
The poor, the sick, the halt and the lame
We’ll take kids who crave a broad education
And ship the lot back whence they came
I was working on a mountaintop as a fire lookout in the Rockies
I sat basking in the sun, rereading On the Road
That is where one afternoon something happened that shocked me
A man turned up and did declare, hey, I wrote that tome
Chorus:
I said oh, what do you know, who do you think you’re fooling?
I said hey, Jack, haven’t you heard? Kerouac is dead and gone
He said yes, dead and gone, but I am not forgotten
I have come to find someone to witness my self-restraint
He said, In my life I made mistakes with drink and drugs and women
Even so I’m on the road to be a Great Walking Saint
Chorus
He said in my lifetime I did work three bonafide miracles
Finally, they were just enough to make them beautify me
In the Perfect One World Church of Yesterday’s Tomorrow
In death I must work one more to be a Great Walking Saint
Chorus
The first miracle that I did work was cure Memere of asthma
The second was a prophecy I made in Dharma Bums
Where I saw the rucksack revolution in our kharma
The third one was a painting in which I identified the pope to come
Chorus
He said I see that you are going to take convincing
Let’s climb up into that tower and look around your abode
Once up there he stepped outside through an open window
Did not fall but walked away up an invisible road
Chorus
I said oh, wouldn’t you know, turns out he was not kidding
I said hey Jack, wait for me, Kerouac he lives on
[This song draws on Kerouac’s Ghost]
Once upon a magic, mild and misty morning
I did spy a pirate ship sailing for our island
So I called to Friday and said what do you think?
I fear if we stay here, we will surely die
For if we do say hi, they will murder us
As pirates are wont to do, Here we will surely die
Friday said Don’t worry, I will find a way to
Signal them that we’re here, alive, well and waiting
To be disabused of innocence and treasure
But then we will trick them, just you wait and see
We’ll defeat them, you and me
We will teach them not to mess with Robinson
Crusoe, Just you wait and see
So we hung a big net from the tallest palm tree
When those dirty pirates came ashore we dropped them
Over their surprised heads, made them yell and holler
They did not think much of swinging in the air
They did curse and they did swear
We took their ship sailed away, looked back and saw them
There, Swinging in the air
Now when I remember the awful way we treated them
I do feel quite badly, though I will survive it
Friday says Don’t worry, just revise the story
Write that we were rescued by a sailing ship
Oh, what an apocalypse
And so to make it real I write it down, insist we were
Saved by a sailing ship
1/ It was a Friday, I do remember
I’d been working, trying to start a trend
I got home early, what did I find there
But my wife wrapped in the arms of my best friend
Chorus:
I’m calling out to you, I don’t know what to do,
That woman made me blue, said toodle-oodle-oo
I’m calling out to you, please tell me what to do
It’s down to you, cause all I do is boo hoo hoo
2/ Got out my Ouija to consult the spirits
I never do a thing until I know what they think
But when I asked if maybe I should seek revenge
The spirits told me to go see a shrink
Went to the doctor, discussed my story,
Answered his questions about when I was a kid
He did determine under hypnosis
That my problem in a past life it was hid
3/ Under hypnosis, I travelled backwards
All the way back beyond 2000 AD
I found the problem, something I’d eaten
But I got stuck in time and could not get free
I don’t belong here, I am from the future
But you won’t believe no matter what I have to say
My wife is cheating in 2390
With my doctor-friend who sent me here to stay
Chorus
(With pianist Frank “Freeman” Huether)
Warrior, I know that you’re deep within
Hear my drum, hey, we need a Gungha Din
Warrior, to stay away would be a sin
‘Cause the captains of industry have taken
Every chief stronghold
The last night has fallen, terrible, dark, and cold
Sorcerer, I have come to conjure you
Prophecy says you know a trick or two
Sorcerer, don’t you hear the ballyhoo
‘Cause the money-lenders have white magic
In a stranglehold
The last night has fallen, terrible, dark, and cold
Interlude:
Entering stage left, the lover sings a song
Debtors tie him down and treat him cruelly wrong
He finds out where they dwell, steals their book of magic spells
And makes them sing along
Oh my king, we call on you to intercede
Majesty, we’re not ready to concede
Oh my king, bring a whip to make them bleed
‘Cause the marketplace is now a temple
Even god is bought and sold
The last night has fallen, terrible, dark, and cold
Interlude
Warrior, I know that you’re deep within
Hear my drum, hey, we need a Gungha Din
Warrior, to stay away would be a sin
‘Cause the captains of industry have taken
Every chief stronghold
‘Cause the money-lenders have white magic
In a stranglehold
‘Cause the marketplace is now a temple
Even god is bought and sold
The last night has fallen, terrible, dark, and cold
Summer 1966, I do remember lighting out upon the road
Hitching out of Montreal, heading west, free, bound for Mexico
Work-boots on, long black hair, two hundred dollars in my jeans
Meant, hey, I did not have a care
Walk into a room, party laughter tinkles
A woman smiles, tells me I’m a latter-day Rip Van Winkle
Got to San Francisco, found myself in the Haight-Ashbury
Who needed Mexico, this I knew was where I had to be
Free love in the grass, free rock-and-roll
I chuckled at a highway sign that warned about freedom’s toll
Step into the night, high above stars twinkle
My oldest friend, he confirms that I’m a latter-day Rip Van Winkle
Fell in with some magic people, older than me but maybe not so very wise
Scaled that psychedelic steeple, revelation lay beyond the acid highs
Eighteen years old, took one too many pills
Yesterday I woke up on the wrong side of the hill
Now where is when, time it cracks and crinkles
A voice within whispers I’m a latter-day Rip Van Winkle
Hey it took a little while for Rip to rise on returning from Dreamland
But he dug out an old guitar and put together a knock-em-dead Rock band
Rip Van Winkle arose, cried, What an episode!
He made his flashbacks sing and took them out on the road
How did I get here? Time’s not flat, it’s crinkled
I am delighted to be nothing but a latter-day Rip Van Winkle
When the snow begins to fall
And those Alberta winds do blow
I sing out at how I’m seeing
Winter paint a perfect scene
Hear the mountains, how they call,
Hey, it’s sunny, two below
Hard to describe the joy I’m feeling
Time for my Rocky Mountain Dream
Chorus:
White my Rocky Mountain Dream
Blue my Rocky Mountain Dream
Bright the sunshine, I’m off skiing,
High in my Rocky Mountain Dream
Should we go to Mystic Ridge?
Or to mighty Lake Louise?
Where Paradise means mogul-dancing
Summit Platter makes you scream
Ah but Sunshine gets the snow
Two feet of powder, guaranteed,
See Brewster Rock reach for the blue sky
Time for my Rocky Mountain Dream
Early on I take it slow
Visit Wawa, cruise Birdcage
Then I ride the Great Divide Chair
Oh, what a vista, who’d believe?
See me dance down North Divide
Now I’m slashing through the trees
What’s that noise? Sounds like Yee-haw!
Time for my Rocky Mountain Dream
I fell in love with a young Peggy Sue
Though she went around with a Buddy I knew
The worst of it was I had a tell-tale heart
Whenever I saw her, the drumming would start
I did not know what I would do
If she smiled at me and said, I hear it too
My life became a sad merry go round
The beating of my heart was the only sound around
You’ve heard Buddy’s stories but don’t be deceived
What really happened? What can you believe?
Buddy proposed and Peggy said yes
We went to the wedding, she wore a white dress
She marched down the aisle, my heart it went mad
I shuffled my feet and I felt like a cad
Peggy Sue whispered, oh what’ll we do?
The beating of your heart, yes, I hear it too
Peg and I fled and we did not look back
We married, had kids, and we lived in a shack
Then we won eight million, we live only in art
We dance every night to my tell-tale heart
