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about

This song ls dedicated to Oliver John Brown alias Chicago Joe. He was my grandfather. Recording began in Santa Fe the day ‘Joe returned to hospital for the final time. It was finished 6 days later on the day of his death. I returned home not knowing he had died. l attended his funeral wake that same day - ABB From Santa Fe Sessions.

lyrics

CHICAGO JOE

You were born on the day of St. Valentine
1901, horse and buggy times
a romantic spirit the tear-away kind

They called you Chicago Joe
dapper and dashing wherever you`d go
You soon found yourself in the throes of love
and her name was Nell

She was heading out to her brother`s farm
A homesteading woman with pioneer charm
And while she was in the kitchen
kneading the dough
you were on the streets of roaring twenties
Chicago

Finally you were married on a bright sunny clay
You headed out to Jasper on the National Railway
to have a honeymoon holiday
That’s where l am now but it’s 60 years away

You’re a wrinkled old leaf in a hospital bed
People creep around you
like you’re already dead
but l think you`ve caught most of what’s been said
‘cause you’re squeezing my hand

I see a tenuous thread to a fragile frame
Do you know what day it ls?
Do you know your name?
You`re dancing so close to the great divide
Can you hear the music on the other side?

Nell’s half blind, standing over you
saying "who'lI read to me, what will l do?"
She’s either too brave or too afraid too cry
and ‘though she’s an atheist she’s praying
“God don’t let him die"

You were an old country boy
the Wild west kind
Just think of all those cigars and card games
you left behind
when you lost it all on Black Tuesday
Did you ever learn to shrug them blues away?

Well you say the elephant never forgets
but you`re saying "poor elephant"
with a little too much regret
Come on, worse things could happen at sea
What about The Cremation of Sam McGee?

Even the willow breaks and the old oak falls
lt’s just a shock when we find we`re mortal after all
There’s just got to be a reason to live and die
from that first gasp right on down to the last
sacred sigh

I poke up the fire in this mountain home
It`s colder than Hades and l`m all alone
l feel you moving into wind and smoke
and away from flesh and bone

Oh damn too bad Joe. Hey, Chicago Joe

credits

from keyhole and the eternal kiss, released February 21, 2012

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about

Anne Beverly Brown Calgary, Alberta

There are few excursions more enchanting than those taken in the imagination of an inspired songwriter. This experience is offered by Anne Beverly Brown in
'Keyhole and the Eternal Kiss' and 'The Landlord's Daughter'. Both are original song collections of color and romance, immediacy and intimacy, grace and pulse. "Better than music, better than poetry..." ... more

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