Friday February 5, 2021 “Estelle” Dan Bern

This may be a bad idea for the opening for today’s song of the day, but you probably won’t like this song.  I guess that qualifies for a frivolous Friday

 Dan Bern is writing about Estelle, kind of, and she may be the only Mormon woman who consumes copious amounts of alcohol and after she does she calls Dan and asks him stuff he doesn’t want to talk about and he can’t talk to her for long unless he’s drunk as well and then they talk all night long. But that’s not what the song is about.

 Dan Bern is a musician, song writer, author and visual artist who was born in Iowa and spent many of his formative music years in Chicago,  In addition to his own material he has written songs for a number of movies like “Walk Hard”, “Get Him to the Greek” and Lawrence Kasdan’s first film “Zero Effect” among others.

 OK, I know Dan isn’t what you might think of as a traditional singer and he may be an acquired taste but this is just a clever, sardonic, entertaining, funny story song that almost made it into our story song week, but well it didn’t.  So ride along with Dan for the seven minutes of the song and follow the lyrics below because there are a lot of words, but I promise you it will be a fun ride and you may have an obscure song to recommend to your friends...then again maybe not.

 Stay safe and well...and now that the world is upside down be sure that you do have someone’s hand to hold as you walk through town, because sometimes that’s all you need.

And just a reminder that all of the songs of the day exist on Spotify. “Covid - Song of the Day” (Wilson)

I was painting a still life this morning

Of a throat lozenge sitting on a copy

Of Tropic of Cancer

The only thing weird about it

Is that a year ago,

I never thought I'd paint anything again

I decided I wasn't ever gonna paint again

It didn't bother me too much

Warhol's dead,

David Hockney's still alive

I don't need to paint

 I painted over ten thousand paintings

Sad ones, funny ones, dark ones, and light ones

I've done haystacks

And rich old ladies by their pools

Wearing nothing but a scarf

I've painted everything there was to paint

Now it was time to sit back

Give interviews

Hang out at club med

Get on the internet

Take stock of what I've done

 You know, the best friend I ever had was a dog

It sounds like a cliche unless it's happened to you

Some days that dog was the only reason I even got out of bed

That dog went everywhere with me

And then I heard the crack addicts

Were stealin' dogs and selling them for animal research

It sounded like an urban myth to me

Like the mouse in the Coke bottle

But I started leavin' her at home after that

You know, Paula was my wife for a while

She ran off to Paris with the great grandson of Van Gogh

A cartoonist who did fashion graphics for Le Monde

When Paula left she took my dog

I never saw her again

Except in the court during the custody battle

She won and got to keep the dog

And I didn't speak to anyone for months

 You know sometimes it feels

Like there's so much that you need

Sometimes the world is upside down

Sometimes it feels

Like the only thing you need

Is holdin' someone's hand as you walk through town

 I started hanging around with Dino

He used to run a poker game back east

Now he sells cappuccino to his old pals

Tommy Chicago and Jimmy the Wig and Ugly Rose

 You know the best person I ever knew

Was a Mormon woman named Estelle

She still calls me drunk every few months

And asks me stuff I don't want to talk about

You can't talk to her very long unless you're drunk yourself

Then we go all night

 She says, "Why baby, why baby, why baby, why

 Have you turned your back on love?

You had so many chances

Why have you let 'em all go by?"

 Well, one morning I was sitting in front of Dino's place

with Jake the Shears, a guy from Philly

Who gives free mohawks

There were a couple of young painters

I was hopin' to come by

So I could give 'em some advice

Yeah, I was sittin' there updating my list of enemies

When this girl walks in

And the universe kind of stops

Turned out she drank the same tea as me

It don't take more than that to start a conversation sometimes

She believed collage was the greatest of all the arts

And was busy pasting pictures of horses

Next to ads for laundry soap

Next to Mohammed Ali

She had a turquoise in her ear

And said Rachmaninoff was always in her head

 \Later that day I was trying to describe her to Jimmy the Wig

I couldn't find any words

And I realized I'd started to sketch her chin

Somehow it didn't look right

I scratched it out and tried it again

I filled an entire pad

I threw it away, I never even came close

 For six days I sat at Dino's place

The rain wouldn't quit and no one came in

Finally on the seventh day it cleared

And in she walked

I asked her to sit with me

And ibought her a cup of tea

And I asked her to model for me sometime

That afternoon I was at a canvas

She was wearing a yellow dress

I swore if she let me, I'd get it right

 I've painted over ten thousand paintings

Sad ones, funny ones, dark ones, and light ones

But sitting there, it was like I couldn't even

Write my own name

I apologized and said, "It's been a few months

If you have patience, I'll get the hang of it again"

In the next few weeks, I painted her hundreds of times

If I get the nose right, the chin's too long

If I get 'em both right, the face is too thin

But I keep after it and one day

I get it all right

 I painted a still life this morning

Of a throat lozenge

sitting on a copy of Tropic of Cancer

The only weird thing about it

Is I never thought

I'd paint anything again

I think I might go visit Estelle

Those Utah mountains are good for the soul

I'll bring my brushes

And some Jack Daniels

And we can make up for lost time

 She said, "Why baby, why baby, why baby why?

Have you turned your back on love

You had so many chances

Why do you let 'em all go by?

Why baby, why baby, why baby why?

Have you turned your back on love

You had so many chances

Why do you let 'em all go by?"

 Sometimes it seems like there's so much that you need

Sometimes the world is upside down

Sometimes it seems like the only thing you need

Is holdin' someone's hand as you walk through town