c Flora Newberry, Feb 13 2007


What if Men came in boxes like Chocolate?
Wrapped up pretty and tied with a bow?
Each one in his cozy compartment,
ready to swear that he loves you so
ohhh ready to swear that he loves you so

If you had a whole box to choose from,
tell me, girl, what would you do?
Would you share them around with your girlfriends?
Or would you keep the whole box just for you
oooo-would you keep the whole box just for you



Now if men came in bottles like fine wine,
labelled, lined up on the shelf,
would you sample a sip from each vintage
just to find the right one for yourself?
oooo just to find the right one for yourself

would you have some whenever you wanted,
like a new Beajolais or Merlot?
Or would you wait till he'd aged to perfection,
and then savor him oh so slow
ooo- would you savor him oh so slow?

(having written the on the eve of Valentines Day I thought it would be nice to sing it for my husband the next day....but when I reread what I had written I realized he might get the wrong impression... it needed a third verse)

Well if men came in boxes like Chocolate,
tell you just what I would do
If I had the whole box to choose from,
baby I'd still choose you
oh darling, what else could I do?
(maybe just one or two others too?)

And if men came in bottles like fine wine
I'd savor you oh so slow......yeah
cause I can rell that you're aged to perfection,
and baby I love you so,
oh darling I love you so,
I love you more than you know

Bethlehem Steel
cFlora Newberry
Words by Flora Newberry, music by Flora Newberry based on a melody by Joe Glazer


Once Giant Factories dotted this land
seething with people as each day began
they ran rollers and forges and sewing machines,
making carpets and stockings and giant steel beams

Chorus:
Bethlehem Steel, Bethlehem Steel,
the one I remember is Bethlehem Steel
Bethlehem Steel, Bethlehem Steel,
the one I remember is Bethlehem Steel

The workers they came from the whole world around,
sometimes enough to fill up a new town,
and even the smallest of children was paid
to work dangerous conditions and 16 hour days

the workers formed unions and fought for their rights;
when the bosses resisted they went out on strike
they brought those goliaths right down to their knees
but their children were starving while they fought in the street

Then wartime prosperity brokered a truce,
for armies of fascists and Nazi's were loose,
and with Europe's economy bombed all to hell,
american industry geared up to sell

(Chorus)

Now some say the unions demanded too much,
fair wages and pensions and health care and such
some say inefficiency did the dark deed,
or cheap foreign labor,
or the bosses' own greed

but those great hulking giants sit dark and forlorn
barely a ghost of what they were before
as they crumble like sandcastles what can we say
except globalization has washed them away

Last Chorus:
Bethlehem Steel, Bethlehem Steel,
I never thought I would miss Bethlehem Steel
Bethlehem Steel, Bethlehem Steel,
Never though I would miss Bethlehem Steel

Tag(thank you to John Prine)
and daddy won't you take me down to the big factory
where the pistons they thunder and the furnaces roar
I'm sorry my son but your too late in asking
we don't have factories here....anymore

Text goes here.

1.
When your sweet face looked at me
I had forgotten all the questions
but the answers were plain to see

When your sweet smile shined my way
I knew that I would like to have you
for mine always

So baby if you must say something
can't you try and say something sweet?
Cause I can tell just what you're made of
You're sugar from your head down to your feet

When your sweet lips first touched mine
from then I knew that everything would turn out
just fine

2.
When your sweet voice hits my ear
there's not a sound that could be sweeter than that
my dear

When your sweet hands hold me tight
now that's a feeling that could warm up a
cold, dark night

Oh don't you know that I adore you?
and I want to dry all you tears
smooth out all the rough spots for you
all along the road and through the years

when this sweet song came to me
I knew for sure that it was all about you-
Baby

1.
You never loved me, but if you had
I would have jumped at the chance.
If thinking of me just drove you mad
you could have made your advance

Funny how live comes uninvited
stays unrequited too
just when you think you're over it
it's back much too soon

You never saw me,
but if you had even stolen a glance,
I would have jumped at the chance for love
2.
You never wooed me, but if you had
I could have swooned in your arms.
Had you pursued me, I'd have been glad
to be a fool for your charms

For all your love, your hugs and kissing,
the chance of missing you.
Just to get mad and then make up
the way lovers do...

You never asked me, but if you had,
it could have been quite a dance
cause I would have jumped at the chance
for love

You're not going to call,
so why should I answer the phone
lovers in the fall
by winter I'm all alone
a refrain that sounds so plaintive
runs through everything I do:
It's not the same without you

In a smoky bar with mirrors on the wall
lots of handsome guys
but they don't move me at all
Why am I so apathetic?
My life feels like cheap synthetic.
It's not the same without you

Maybe I'm creating a myth
but the face of the world has changed;
Without you to tango with
my psyche is rearranged,
And I come to find I love you
just in time to find we're through.
It's not the same without you.

I don't want to work
I don't want to play
I don't want to find someone new
But still there are bills to pay
and Monday the rent is due
but I look out on the city
and it's all a cold grey-blue
It's not the same
It will never be the same
It's not the same without you.

(Still trying to figure out if this is about the collective or the personal. Is it about loved ones who have passed away, traumatic events of the past, or American foriegn policy? Can it be about all of them at once? The latest rewrite leans towards the collective interpretation)

Do the ghosts of the past inhabit the present
does that mean they're always here
and whether they're pleasurable or unpleasant
what is it that we fear?

Why do we build a wall of repression
thinking they can't get through?
They always seem to leave an impression
whatever we do

(Chorus)
They're only memories
Face them now and they will lose-(sung simultaneously with the line above)

they're only memories
All their power over you-(simultaneous with line above)

they're only memories
Don't you think it's about time?-(simultaneous with line above)

To let he walls come tumbling down
down, down, down, down
let the walls come tumbling down
down, down ,dopwn, down
let the walls come tumbling down

If time is a stream where we go a-fishing
where does it meet he sea?
And if we're all one by our own admission,
what is our destiny?
How many times can a white dove go sailing
till we can let her be?
How many times can the past bear repeating
It's just history

(Chorus)

Some of us wish for re-incarnation
or to be born anew
some of us wish for emancipation
just like a bird that flew
Out of the past come all of the answers
why don't you look and see?
The ghosts of the past are locked in your closet
and you've got the key
(Chorus)

Well the Ghosts of the past are here in the present
but who's gonna be their voice?
We can face our mistakes or repeat them forever
All of us have the choice

(This song is about contradictions, not judgements)

Tell me all about
the Rosenbergs
The KKK
The Holy Word

Tell me all about Vietnam
the Ten Commandments
the Atomic bomb

Tell me all about Plymouth Rock
and human beings on the auction block
tell me all about wounded knee
the trail of tears
the land of the free

Why do you ask such questions child?
What makes you think I know?
If I say everything will be alright
what will you think of me
when you find it isn't so

What to tell you I just don't know
the world's a great big horrorshow
I'm too small to block your view
and I won't always be here with you
What to tell you, what to tell you
what to tell you, I just don't know

Tell me all about genocide
ethnic cleansing
national pride

tell me all about the Holy land
Godly clerics
bloody hands

Famine, massacre, civil war
why can't we say we don't want anymore
desperation and misery
tell me what grows from these

Planes flying into buildings
people that are wired to blow
one day it seems like armageddon's here
next day I can't help thinking
we've got so far to go

(Chorus)

What to tell you I just don't know
the world's a great big horrorshow
but in your innocence you love it so
what to tell you, what to tell you,
What to tell you, I just don't know