All songs
copyrighted
by David Rood
except as noted.
Star City Blues
8/17/03Story
When Brenda Sutton recorded "I Knew A Guy Once", I wanted to do something in the same style. The subject grew from the title.
Lyrics
[am] In Pasedena [em] the [am] JPL [Bb7] families
[am/E] Are living in one of our [dm] sister cities [E7b9]
[am] Well they say in [em] Houston that [am] oil built their town
[am/E] But part of it stands on [dm] drier [E7b9] ground
[am] And there’s a town in [em] Florida ‘bout [am] halfway [Bb7] South
[am/E] Where the windows rattle when a [dm] rocket lifts off [E7b9]
[am] And cameras [em] come down to [am] watch the launch
[am/E] They bring people with money and we [dm] serve them [E7b9] lunch
[am] Sometimes we feel like that [dm] cosmonaut [E7]
[am] Left up in Mir alone [F] [E]
[am] No homeland to go [dm] back to
[E] Star City is [E7b9] dark
We did a booming business back in ‘63
The whole nation watched us on color TV
The Cold War was good for business, you know
But they changed the channel when we made our first goal
We tightened our belts and we spun our gears
It was “Any day now” for ten long years
The hotels closed and the politicians left
The roads got worse and the schools lost their creds
Sometimes we feel like that cosmonaut
Left up in Mir alone
No homeland to go back to
Star City is dark
[A] When people lose faith, [A7b9] we lose our trade
[gmin7] This city lives on dreams
[dm] And the dusty streets that [dmin-maj7] once were filled
[f#min7] With telescopes and [f#dim] bright-eyed kids
[am] Are empty
[em] No tourist dollars
[bdim] And we can’t send our [E7b9] children to college
Then the Shuttle came and lifted us out
We polished our shoes and painted the house
And hung out our shingle for America
The same flag we’d always flown
It’s a high stakes game and we play to win
And we bring them home again and again
But we are not perfect, and every fall
Puts a generation’s future against the wall
Sometimes we feel like that cosmonaut
Left up in Mir alone
No homeland to go back to
Star City is dark
There’s a city in my mind like this one at its best
A little bit Pleasantville, a little bit Odessa
Except that it’s nowhere here on Earth
It waits in the sky at the end of a search
It’s our Star City and the buildings shine
The sky has starbows all of the time
From departing ships redshifting away
Making room in the docking bay
(rubato)
And every trade makes a dream come true
For some successful wild-eyed fool
On a planet nobody cared about
In the time when I dreamed my Star City up
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