Modern Vespa

Plus 1 on Arlo

Here's the "ten-inch" translation:

I don't want a tuber,
I just wanna ride on my motorscooter.
And I don't wanna call an Uber,
I just wanna ride on my motorscooter.
And I don't wanna get the boot,
I just wanna ride on my motorscoot... er!

Ves-pa, that's my baby
No sir, don't mean maybe
Ves-pa, that's my baby now.

John Prine is my favorite for lyrics.

This one for when the time comes.

Please don't bury me, down in the cold cold ground
No, I'd rather have 'em cut me up and pass me all around
Throw my brain in a hurricane and the blind can have my eyes.
The deaf can take both of my ears, if they don't mind the size.

The man had a way with words.

We lost him to COVID last year.

Bill

Know your History
Know your Destiny is in the abundance of water,
the Food is thirsty.
Rat Race

Earlier in this thread I expressed my fondness for the lyrics of Cole Porter.

John Prine (aka "The Singing Mailman') was a folkier version of equal genius. My wife and I like to do our rendition of his duet with Iris Dement "In Spite of Ourselves" accompanied by our ukuleles.

I had tickets in hand to see John at Wolf Trap Farm Park when COVID did him in.

Miss you, John. Hope you're fishin' and whistlin'.

Jonathan Richman sings drive, but I think ride.

In Spite of Ourselves is among my favorites too.

Very close to the top.

I hear it on my Spotify feed every day.

Bill

Lyrics? I don't need no stinkin' lyrics.

They hung a sign up in our town
"If you live it up, you won't live it down"
So she left Monte Rio, son
Just like a bullet leaves a gun
With her charcoal eyes and Monroe hips
She went and took that California trip
Oh, the moon was gold, her hair like wind
Said, "don't look back, just come on, Jim"
Oh, you got to hold on, hold on
You gotta hold on
Take my hand, I'm standing right here, you gotta hold on
Well, he gave her a dimestore watch
And a ring made from a spoon
Everyone's looking for someone to blame
When you share my bed, you share my name
Well, go ahead and call the cops
You don't meet nice girls in coffee shops
She said, "baby, I still love you"
Sometimes there's nothin' left to do
Oh, but you got to hold on, hold on
Babe, you gotta hold on and take my hand
I'm standing right here, you gotta hold on
Well, God bless your crooked little heart
St. Louis got the best of me
I miss your broken China voice
How I wish you were still here with me
Oh, you build it up, you wreck it down
Then you burn your mansion to the ground
Oh, there's nothing left to keep you here
But when you're falling behind in this big blue world
Oh, you've got to hold on, hold on
Babe, you gotta hold on
Take my hand, I'm standing right here, you gotta hold on
Down by the Riverside motel
It's ten below and falling
By a ninety-nine cent store
She closed her eyes and started swaying
But it's so hard to dance that way
When it's cold and there's no music
Oh, your old hometown's so far away
But inside your head there's a record that's playing
A song called "Hold On", hold on
Babe, you gotta hold on
Take my hand, I'm standing right there, you gotta hold on
You gotta hold on, hold on
Babe, you gotta hold on
Take my hand, I'm standing right there, you gotta hold on
You gotta hold on, hold on
Babe, you gotta hold on
And take my hand, I'm standing right here, you gotta hold on
You gotta hold on, hold on
Babe, you gotta hold on
And take my hand, I'm standing right here, you gotta hold on
You gotta hold on
You gotta hold on
You gotta hold on
You gotta hold on
You gotta hold on, baby
You gotta hold on, girl
You gotta hold on
You gotta hold on


Aaand ... most everything else by Tom Waits.

"I wish you luck with a capital F" - Elvis Costello

The Honda PC800 Pacific Coast ('89-'98) was the original "born to be mild" bike.

AKA "Scooter on Steroids" and "Body by Tupperware".

But, it does fit for Vespas, too.

(Now into the Youtube rabbit hole to find something on-topic...)

Here we go.
It brings the PC800 into the topic, in a sense -- mine was an '89, in pearl white.

Wish I knew what you were looking for.
Might have known what you would find.

And it's something quite peculiar,
Something that's shimmering and white.
Leads you here, despite your destination
Under the Milky Way tonight.
"Under the Milky Way" -- The Church

... still in the rabbit-hole but this'll do for on-topic content for now.

Frontier Psychiatrist by The Avalanches

Indeed he did. Normally I'm not all that affected by the loss of someone I don't know personally, but I was gutted with Prine's passing.

Love Iris too....she's got one of those voices that's simultaneously homely and endearing. Saw her live in Oshkosh a dozen or so years back.

Amethyst Kiah's Black Myself is pretty powerful...as is her voice.

I am surprised no one has mentioned this profound anthem:

Chris from CLE

From one of the greatest storytellers of our era.

Mr. Tanner was a cleaner from a town in the Midwest
And of all the cleaning shops around he'd made his the best
But he also was a baritone who sang while hanging clothes
He practiced scales while pressing tails and sang at local shows
His friends and neighbors praised the voice
That poured out from his throat
They said that he should use his gift instead of cleaning coats
But music was his life, it was not his livelihood
And it made him feel so happy and it made him feel so good
And he sang from his heart and he sang from his soul
He did not know how well he sang, it just made him whole
His friends kept working on him to try music out full time
A big debut and rave reviews, a great career to climb
Finally they got to him, he would take the fling
A concert agent in New York agreed to have him sing
And there were plane tickets, phone calls, money spent to rent the hall
It took most of his savings but he gladly used them all
But music was his life, it was not his livelihood
And it made him feel so happy and it made him feel so good
And he sang from his heart and he sang from his soul
He did not know how well he sang, it just made him whole
The evening came, he took the stage, his face set in a smile
And in the half filled hall the critics sat watching on the aisle
But the concert was a blur to him, spatters of applause
He did not know how well he sang, he only heard the flaws
But the critics were concise, it only took four lines
But no one could accuse them of being over kind
Mr. Martin Tanner, baritone of Dayton, Ohio
Made his town hall debut last night
Be came well prepared, but unfortunately his presentation
Was not up to contemporary professional standards
His voice lacks the range of tonal color
Necessary to make it consistently interesting
Full time consideration of another endeavor might be in order
He came home to Dayton and was questioned by his friends
Then he smiled and just said nothing and he never sang again
Excepting very late at night when the shop was dark and closed
He sang softly to himself as he sorted through the clothes
Music was his life, it was not his livelihood
And it made him feel so happy, it made him feel so good
And he sang from his heart and he sang from his soul
And he did not know how well he sang, it just made him whole

Guthrie, Prine, Chapin... I'm so proud of this group!

I swear that's Robot from Vespa Motorsport....


Graham

Wait a minute! We're on this forum, and no one has offered:

I ride a GS scooter with my hair cut neat,
I wear my wartime coat in the wind and sleet!

How is that possible!?

Edit: After looking at the thread more closely, I am NOT "disappoint" with fleece.

We're huge Prine fans, and that was one of the suckiest moments of 2020, a year known for sucking.

And now I'm going to try to make you jealous/envious. We saw him 6 times in the 6 months before he passed, 4 nights in a row (different sets every night, different warm ups who of course were in on combined band songs) at the All the Best Fest in the Dominican Republic (10/2019), then two nights at the 30A Songwriter Festival in January 2020. Once on the main stage, once in a microbrewery playing for about 250 people, we were 2nd row.

So we have some really great memories of his final days.

I go back a fair ways as a Prine fan. I've seen Bonnie Raitt warm up for John, and then John warm up for Bonnie when she made it big. Either way, you got to see them do Angel as a duet.

He's having a Handsome Johnny (vodka and ginger ale) and smoking a cigarette that's 9 miles long.

Yeah, that'll do it! I saw him first in the '70s with my Prine-loving buddy...drove 3 hours in a snowstorm to get there, he'd driven up from Chicago. Plopped a 6-pack on a stool and went to work singing and telling stories. Well-worth the (harrowing) drive.

And then there was this....
You know, I'm not exactly country, but I do love me some folk.