Get all 11 David Hakan releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Count. Me. In., Gypsy Wagon Man, Stone and Steel, Warning Bell, Out of Print, David Hakan - Rough Cuts, David Hakan Live at the Corbin Theater, Loose Upon The Street, and 3 more.
1. |
Out of Print
03:35
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Out of Print (capo on 4th in B) (The Luddite’s Lament)
G D C
They say the pages of our lives, will read like a book.
I don’t think there are many who will take a look.
Lord knows I’ve plenty of chapters, written in blood and flint.
But it’s been too long since my first song. I’m out of print.
Oh, I’m out of print.
Refrain
Em D Em C
It’s too long since my boyhood time, before the seas were bent.
If you go to a back roads town you can still find a hint.
But the shelves will be empty, fading light just a glint.
Listen to these songs while you can, ‘cause I’m out of print.
Oh, I’m out of print.
I went to get a new record, oh yeah, they’re just CDs.
But they’d taken out all the music. Who wants stacks of cases? No me.
Next time the books were all gone, ‘cause we download tales and melodies.
Enewspapers, ezines, etweets, eposts, ejunk, we’re out of print, you and me.
Oh, we’re out of print.
Refrain
Words and music by David B. Hakan
© 2012 All Rights Reserved
3-11-2012
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2. |
The Sunrise
02:49
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The Sunrise (partial Capo on 2nd for drop E)
D G
When the sun comes up and I’m rushing around,
D A
I sigh and breathe in a new day.
D G
When that train comes and stops at the end of my life,
D A D
I’ll hop on board, wave and I’ll say,
Chorus
G D
The sunrise has warmed the hope in me.
F# G
My temper’s been cooled by the moon.
D A Bm G
The rushing stream has carried off all my cares,
D A D
And the coyotes have sung my tune.
When your eyes first open, Honey, in the morning,
My hands look for refuge and warmth.
It’s my heart full of love and thanksgiving
For the way your smile heals where I’m torn.
Chorus
When the time bell rings and my workday starts,
My mind is overrun with doubt.
But the generous hug from a fatherless child
Reminds me what it’s all about.
Chorus
Words and music by David B. Hakan © 2007 All Rights Reserved 8-13-2007
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3. |
The Promise
03:52
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The Promise (drop D tuning in D)
D A G D
I believe in the promise living
Inside the handshake of a friend
Like the strength of the words forgiving
That heal the tension at the journey’s end.
When the words of the dear departed
Wrap around and entangle me,
I wear the smile of the broken-hearted.
I don’t fool a single soul but me.
Refrain
Will you be there when the darkness beckons
With your arms opened wide?
Will you be there when all time is driven
Into forever and the by and by?
I believe in a faith unwritten
Like a melody sweet and high.
I try to live my life like harmony,
Find the intervals that praise the sky.
So I land at your kitchen table,
Cool wind flaps at the curtain lace.
Your house feels like a rocking cradle.
On my shoulders your hands say grace.
Refrain
Vamp: In the by and by. In the by and by.
Words and music by David B. Hakan
© 2008 All Rights Reserved 4-13-2008
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4. |
Clear Sailing
03:21
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Clear Sailing (for Doc Pendleton)
D A
In my rambling days I had aviator goggles,
D G
mementoes from World War II.
D A
Those pilot lenses worked on
D
endless headlight glare, too.
I’d think of my grandpa, the surgeon.
How he hated the Japanese the most.
On a hospital ship he saw
the War’s nightmares up close.
G D Bm G D A D
Clear sailing, clear sailing, my life seems like clear sailing.
At Pearl Harbor he’d tell of trying to sew up
The wounded in choppy seas.
He made it out alive but he remembered
Each dying soldier’s plea.
refrain
He woke to find his wife’s heart had quit.
And had to live with that silent terror.
He put his scalpel down at 80
When his hands took on heir final tremor.
refrain
Words and music by David B. Hakan
© 2011 All Rights Reserved
3-22-2011
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5. |
The Missouri Waltz
04:44
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The Missouri Waltz (Capo on 4th fret, in B)
G D G C
From the flood plains up by Nebraska a great river draws our state line.
Then bends east across to St. Louis. I set my watch by Kansas City time.
G D G – C – G
I set my watch, by Kansas City time.
The Mississippi draws down to the Boot Heel, river towns dotting the way.
Paddle wheel steamboats and log rafts, fill our dreams even today. (2x)
Refrain
C G Em C
I’ll think of your beautiful laughter as I walk each rolling-hill mile.
G D G – C – G
And I’ll see you again, where the Missouri bends with a smile.
Once forest from border to border there are trees between all the fields.
A long growing season for cropland, and a blessing of rain for good yields. (2x)
refrain
But the cedar, white oak and sycamore are still home to the fox and the deer.
the owl and hawk and all of their prey. Beavers build their dams here. (2x)
refrain
The great finger lakes in the Ozarks form a parkland 200 miles wide.
The caves in those bluffs are enormous. Spelunkers come from far and wide. (2x)
Refrain
Words and music by David B. Hakan
© 2011 All Rights Reserved
12-31-2011
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6. |
Say Hello to Summer
03:38
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Say Hello To Summer (capo on 5th fret in C)
G Bm Em C
Creek slows. Weeds grow, tomatoes on the vine.
Stars bright, warm nights, your eyes in the moonshine.
G D G
Say Hello to Summer.
Clouds stack, turn black, thunder and rain for a while.
Hearts full, kisses cool on your knee just to make you smile.
Say Hello to Summer.
Refrain
C D G
Our table’s set and overflowing.
Wishes come true.
C D G – Em
With you here beside me,
C D G-Bm-Em-C-G D G
The sun is finally shining through. Oohh say Hello to Summer.
Stuff the car. We’re going far, looking for a mountaintop.
Breathe deep. Promises keep. Make the noise in our heads stop.
Say Hello to Summer.
Seasons turn. I have learned not to waste this time.
Once 22 and stuck on you, determined to make you mine.
Now we say Hello to Summer.
Refrain
Words and music by David B. Hakan
© 2011 All Rights Reserved 7-16-2011
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7. |
The Monster
03:02
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The Monster (capo on 5th fret in Dm)
Am C D
There’s a monster in the failing light.
It travels ‘round the world.
There’s a monster but it’s out of sight.
It hides in every flag unfurled.
refrain
F G Am
There’s a monster and it eats whole towns.
F G C - E
It feeds on men in their prime.
(women in their prime)(children all the time)
F G Am
It started with the first rock thrown.
F G Am
It’s as old, it’s as old as time.
It’s in the paychecks for the factories
That make our bullets and our guns.
Till in each nation a hunger grows
To use that power on someone.
Refrain
Is there any hope of freedom
From this cycle we are in?
Will we see this monster’s face someday
And know we’re looking within?
Refrain
Words and music by David B. Hakan, © 2009 All Rights Reserved
4-13-2009
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8. |
Baby Boomer Bum
04:02
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Baby Boomer Bum (on banjo in G tuning)
G7
On the highway, in my hybrid, I was saving gas and going slow.
Some bikers roared passed me and I said, “What do those kids know?”
Hell’s Angels chains and leather. They looked hard as nails.
Till I saw their smiles and pot bellies and gray ponytails.
Refrain
C G7
Now I want to be a Baby Boomer Bum,
Travel ‘round the country, quit my job and have some fun,
Sell the house, get a Harley, a laptop and some rum.
C D G
I want to be a Baby Boomer Bum.
We’ll get a camping tent for two, find a warm and sandy beach.
But we’ll need a 9-inch air mattress and keep our glasses within reach.
Refrain
Maybe I’ll move to a college town where I can teach a class.
I’ll throw out all their textbooks, get them talking and smoking
(insert noun here).
Refrain
Words and music by David B. Hakan, © 2009 All Rights Reserved
3-13-2009
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9. |
Saving Grace
03:04
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Saving Grace (capo on 2nd fret in B)
G D
I buy a woman’s smile served with a coffee drink.
G C
Southbound lane traffic blurs, each face a ghostly blink.
Home is a virtual place on a memory drive.
Nike Synch tells me that I’m barely still alive.
Refrain
D C G
Each corner has a bar and we all plug in.
My seat’s like a parking place.
I lock it up tight but roll the windows down
D C D G
And try to find my saving grace.
True Love is by the dock smoking a cigarette.
Rock bands are network geeks trying hard to forget.
YouTube has no applause ringing in your ears.
Where is that dope perfume calming all our fears?
Refrain
I run up the escalator. Can’t talk now. Call me later.
Reboot and update now. Boss screaming Holly Cow.
White sharks of data swim. Daydreaming’s the new sin.
Screen Savior hear my prayer. I’m coming up for air.
Refrain
Words and music by David B. Hakan, © 2009 All Rights Reserved
1-9-2009
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10. |
Quiet Girl
02:13
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Quiet Girl (in G on Banjo tuned open G)
G C G
The club is hoping but she’s sitting down at a table under a light.
G C G
A heavy book sits in her lap. She’s not showing much skin tonight.
D C
She’s not circling the tables with a tease and a trumpet laugh.
D C D
She’s listening to the music. And when they stop she claps.
Refrain
C G
Quiet Girl, you wonder if she’s lonely.
C G
Quiet Girl, she’s not your one and only.
D C
Quiet Girl, is doing just fine.
G D G
She doesn’t have to flash her lights to shine.
She doesn’t drive with the mirror turned so she can check her face.
She doesn’t know she’s the loveliest one when she walks in a crowded place.
She’ll tell you what the Senate botched up yesterday.
But if you ask about a TV show, she won’t have much to say.
Refrain
Words and music by David B. Hakan
© 2008 All Rights Reserved 7-14-2008
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11. |
The Swing
04:00
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The Swing
D G
It was hard to say goodbye to friends when she was only eight.
D A
But the tire swing in the tall oak tree at her new house was just great.
D G
She’d glide upon its arc so long and wonder where she’d be,
D G A D
In orbit around Saturn or a sailboat on the sea.
She’d skinned her knees and bruised her heart as she made that house her home.
But she’d never fallen from that swing, and it gave her time alone.
Had someone brave made it just so she could let down her guard?
She wondered who it was that made the swing in her back yard.
Refrain
G D
Did the Angels smile and put it there to bring joy to the world?
A D D7
Or did a Devil hope to see young ones fall and get hurt?
G D Bm
Either way she decided it made life a bit less hard.
G A D
And she was glad there was a swing in her back yard.
When she cut her hair to chin length, she was planning her career.
She hadn’t gotten on that swing in well over a year.
She tried to read her textbooks, but she thought about the boys.
Some would spark a fantasy, others just annoy.
Why did she enjoy it so when they’d lift her off her feet?
She craved a meeting of the minds and a friend she could keep.
They listened to her hopes and dreams though sharing was still hard.
But what made them stop & turn around was the swing in her back yard.
Refrain
Now her internship is ended, and she can make it on her own.
But that nutcase, Jeff, in marketing won’t leave her alone.
They argue and they laugh and drive each other insane.
The night she wore a Teddy, he demanded a Scrabble game.
The closing on his new house was finally coming due.
He wanted her to see it and called it “her house”, too.
She opened the back door, froze and swallowed hard,
And the two of them jumped onto the swing in her backyard.
refrain
Words and music by David B. Hakan
© 2010 All Rights Reserved 5-22-2010
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12. |
The Brookside Song
03:12
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The Brookside Song (capo on 5th fret in C)
G C
There’s an island in the city that harkens to a time
D C G - D
Before the highway loop and the giant shopping malls.
It’s lost its corner drug store counter, but the Dime Store still survives.
Man, one look at that wooden floor says it all.
Refrain
C D G
We can walk to Brookside.
Our neighbor’s kids play in the park
We can live in Brookside,
The small town in the city with a heart.
The independent shops do fine here. They don’t need to be on TV.
There’s a cat asleep in the window of the Reading Reptile.
Your dog is welcome at the Barkery or out on the patios.
For you Sunday morning coffee, you’ll stand in line for a little while.
Refrain
Its tiny frozen custard shop, has a taste as big as the Milky Way.
You can get your shoes or hem repaired or buy one balloon.
The old schoolhouse was built in ’24. It has a Wild Prairie Grass Preserve.
And on Halloween the kids are out under the moon.
Words and music by David B. Hakan
© 2010 All Rights Reserved
10-13-2010
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