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Louis Rosen & Capathia Jenkins
SOUTH SIDE STORIES
(2006, Rosecap/Di-Tone Records™)
Produced by Louis Rosen & Scott Lehrer
Music and Lyrics by Louis Rosen
“Rosen, who accompanies on piano and guitar, has a James Taylor-like talent for setting intimate lyrics over facile, catchy melodies.... Don’t miss this…” Bloomberg News
“... a fine and sometimes somber portrait of heartbreak and survival, joy and its absence, and love that endures even when the objects of that love are long vanished." Chicago Tribune
“...the songs are as intelligent as they are soulful, appealing to the brain as much as the heart. ... A musical saga of generations and the joy, pain, love and death they've experienced …. a performance of elegance, sensibility and passion.” Cabaret Scenes
"Consider the case of Louis Rosen ... and his nostalgic, romantic, emotionally charged song cycle, 'South Side Stories....'" Chicago Sun-Times
“Rosen's protean talents are obvious to all but the oblivious. ... [He] does more than talk a good game; he writes it, composes it and performs it, too.” The Jewish Exponent
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LISTEN to songs from "SOUTH SIDE STORIES"
Songs
Lucky, Lucky Girl - The South Side - Troubled Children - Mae’s Chevrolet - South Side Blues - Fast - When They Dance - Family Business - If I Were a Reincarnationist - Many Ghosts at the Party - The Peace That Comes - Lullabye for Teddy
Capathia Jenkins - vocals
Louis Rosen - vocals, piano, acoustic guitar, additional percussion
David Loud - piano
Mike Freeman - vibraphone
Dave Phillips - acoustic & electric bass
Erik Charlston - drums & percussion
Arrangements by Louis Rosen
LYRICS
LUCKY, LUCKY GIRL
Take a slow stroll
In the warm light
As the night falls
On this fall night
Your hand holding mine
Lights a light in my soul
Makes me feel wise
Makes me feel whole
I’m a lucky, lucky girl
Thought my romance days were through
If you feel like me
Lucky me and lucky you
And our son plays
As we stroll on
He knows warm days
Soon are long gone
His games are the dreams
Of a boy soon to fly
As the moon smiles
In the fall sky
I’m a lucky, lucky girl
Because one plus one made three
If you feel that too
Lucky you and lucky me
I’m a lucky, lucky girl
Because three came out of two
And if you agree
Lucky me and lucky
Boy we’re lucky
Me and lucky you
Lucky girl
There’ll be more strolls
When the day’s done
As our boy grows,
As the years run
But the moments are few
When the stars line up right
For a slow stroll
On a fall night
I’m a lucky, lucky girl
Thought my romance days were through
If you feel like me
Lucky me and lucky you
I’m a lucky, lucky girl
Because three came out of two
And if you agree
Lucky me I’m lucky
Boy, we’re lucky
Me and lucky you
Lucky me
Lucky you
Lucky girl
THE SOUTH SIDE
I was born
In some North Side room
Near the Edgewater Beach Hotel
Now my folks knew that hotel well
It’s there they used to go to dance the
Nights away
And like they planned
I was the first child born since my
Father’s father had died
So, with a sad, sweet, expectant pride
They gave me his name and they
Carried me home to
The South Side
Now my clan,
If it has roots anywhere
Claims that part of town
It’s where Mom’s family settled down
It’s where Dad was living when he
Came of age
And they met
A blind date at some downtown club
Where Jews didn’t usually go
Where the service and the dancing were slow
In a month he proposed
In a year they were married on
The South Side
Known for Capone and his rat-tat-tat,
That’s the South Side
But in the baby-boom years it was
Nothing like that
It was bungalows all in a row
Where a family dream could grow
And only Democrats knew where the
Bodies were buried on
The South Side
Uncle Ted and Aunt Syl lived
Right near by
Uncle Irv lived a mile away
Grandma Fanny lived with Jen by the
U. of C., near
Ida, Uncle Joe and Aunt Dora Lee, we were
Four generations of the family tree, and the
Child I was
Imagined we’d always be
On the South Side
Latino, white and black, each a separate part,
But the South Shore of the South Side had the
Avenues and alleys that I
Knew by heart,
It was Hyde Park down to U.S. Steel
It’s a memory, yet so real
And my parents both assumed that their
Bodies would be buried
I guess I just assumed that some-
Day we’d all be buried on
The South Side
On the South Side
TROUBLED CHILDREN
Ronnie and me in the back of the bus
There on the edge of first love
Watching our friends
Watching the kisses
Hoping for a sign from above
“Will he kiss me?”
“Is he really in love?”
Two popular kids
The perfect couple
An adolescent dream come true
Ronnie and me
Magnet and iron
Attracted by the secrets we knew
The unspoken secrets we knew
We were troubled children
Joined by the feelings we shared
Troubled children
Daring and eager, but scared
We both disguised it
Hoped that no one could see
Not even Ronnie and me
Then came high school days
We seemed to drift apart
There were older boys who promised
Right from the start
To steal her heart
Waitressing nights in some Chicago dive
She brightened when she caught my eye
She said,
“Six long years since we
Watched those kisses
Why’d you let that moment go by?”
I said, “I panicked
I just let it go by.”
She insisted, so we drove to where she lived
Met her lover
Had a drink or two
Ronnie tried hard to make her
World seem happy
But sadness seemed to seep right through
She didn’t know it
It just seeped right through
We made a plan to meet
Decided where and when
But then something changed
A message was left, and then
We drifted again
Fifteen years pass and the telephone rings
A reunion of the old South Side
“Will Ronnie be there?”
The question’s met with silence
Then I hear this voice say she died
That one night she O.D.’d and she died.
Memories flooded in and out of view
Time just seemed to disappear
Ronnie and me
Forever searching
Now it finally seemed so clear
What we were together seemed so clear.
We were troubled children
Joined by the feelings we shared
Troubled children
Chasing our dreams unprepared
We tried to hide it
Hoped that no one could see
The story of Ronnie
The story of Ronnie and me
The story of Ronnie and me
MAE’S CHEVROLET
It was the Old Black Funk
A ‘60 Impala
Rescued from a junkyard grave
Man, what a mixed-up ride
Blew heat in the summer
Air in the winter
Nothin’ made that car behave
We’d wheel down the road with our
Windows down,
The radio wailin’ away
In Mae’s Chevrolet
Now Mae was cool
Kind of slick
But funny
Lookin’ for her lover boy
Saturday night we’d cruise
Adventure our mission
Boys were our passion
Music our main-line joy
Marvin was singin’,
“What’s Goin’ On”
Blue Monday seemed miles away
In Mae’s Chevrolet
Chicago streets, kind of
Wild and rough,
Made suburban kids turn pale.
Chicago cops played it
Mean and tough.
If you’re fro was too long or you
Looked at them wrong
They’d haul your ass into jail
Then there was Backseat Joy
Her fingers in motion
Air guitar day and night
Smokin’ her homemade smoke
We’d sing ourselves dizzy
Lost in the music
Howling out with all our might
We’d float down the skyway like
Fish downstream
Reality hours away
In Mae’s Chevrolet
Chicago’s race thing was
Wound so tight
Made us feel the South Side Blues
Suburban life seemed so
Rich and white
The black white and brown of the
South Side of town was the
Only side we could choose.
It was the Old Black Funk
A ‘60 Impala
Clearly more dead than alive
These were the days we’d ride with
Time on our hands
Mae at the wheel
Me riding shotgun
Nothin’ else to do but drive
We’d roll down the road singing
“Let It Be”
The future seemed lives away
In Mae’s Chevrolet
SOUTH SIDE BLUES: 1968
Black folks here
Black folks there
Black folks movin’ everywhere
On the South Side
A change was comin’
And we all heard the news
“Are we leavin’? Are we stayin’?”
That’s the South Side Jews Blues
Blacks move in
Whites move out
That’s Chicago without a doubt
On the South Side
Knock down those dominos
And light up that fuse
“Are we leavin’? Are we stayin’?”
That’s the South Side Jews Blues.
Some will hold on with all their might
They can’t afford to move away
Some will try hard to do what’s right
And some will run to live and run another day
I asked myself, “Why?”
I asked myself, “Who?”
I answered, some just don’t like barbecue
On the South Side
I watched my buddies
I was lookin’ for clues
Would their Daddies think by leavin’ there was
Nothin’ to lose?
Were their Mommies maybe prayin’ that they
Won’t have to choose?
Was the question, “What to do?”
Or was the question, “What excuse do we use?”
“Are we leavin’? Are we stayin’?”
That’s the South Side.
“Leavin?” “Stayin?”
That’s the South Side Jews Blues.
FAST
Lonnie goes back to Jenny's
Sixteenth year
The first boy she ever undressed
They were in her cousin’s basement
A kind of teenage lover’s nest
Chicago was cold on that New Year’s Eve
So under the covers they stayed
And with Laura Nyro singing
A tender teenage love was made
They were fast
Couldn’t wait to grow up
Taste a love that sweet
Fast
Dancing to the rhythm of a hungry beat
They were young
Thinking maybe love would let them feel complete
Jennie and Lonnie
Carved in tree-trunk
Shaped like a heart to
Let their love grow
Jennie said, “Visit me in La-la-Land”
Lonnie said, “You won’t have to ask twice”
Took a seven-forty-seven
Found an urban paradise
Canyons and beaches and an endless sky
That was L.A. in ‘75
And the girl from South Chicago
Felt her senses come alive
They were fast
Sneaking out and staying up ‘till
Who knows when
Fast
Nothing seemed impossible to
Try back then
They were young
Thinking they would never feel alone again
Jennie and Lonnie
Carved in a tree-trunk
Shaped like a heart to
Let their love grow
Lonnie and Jennie
Jennie and Lonnie
Drifting apart
Can’t let their love grow
Teenage romance isn’t made to last
By fall these young lovers were through
Lonnie’s fragile world was shaken
Jennie fell for someone new
But, time can turn lovers into old, old friends
Joined by the secrets they share
Now they talk on Jennie’s birthday
Each glad to know their friend is there
They were fast
Couldn’t wait to grow up
Taste a love that sweet
Fast
Dancing to the rhythm of a hungry beat
They were young
Thinking maybe love would let them feel complete
Jennie and Lonnie
Carved in a tree-trunk,
Shaped like a heart to
Let their love grow.
WHEN THEY DANCE
They smoke cigarettes
I mean they really smoke
Light a new one from the last one
Anytime
Everywhere
But for those dressed-up nights
When they dance
They talk none too well
Some nights no talk at all
Disagreements by the dozen
Walk away
Feel the chill
But for those tender nights
When they dance
She loves the gentle way he holds her
Holds her tight, but never holds her down
He loves the way she feels the music
Loves the way she loves to paint the town
One boy grown and gone
The house quiet at last
Too much time to think and question
All at once tired and old
But for those reckless nights
When they dance
She wonders did she ever love him?
Then they whirl and she remembers when
He wonders, Could he ever leave?
Then twirls her out and spins her back again
And again
Once again...
They smoke cigarettes
I mean they really smoke…
FAMILY BUSINESS
One fall night
So long ago
Set the path for my whole life
Had the best guy
We were so in love
I said,
“Yes, I'll be your wife"
I floated home
Told my Ma and Dad
Ma was cold as cold could be
Said, “A light-skinned girl
And a dark-skinned boy…
Will you bring this shame on me?”
Family business
Family ties
Debts that we pay
Dreams of the mother
Father and child
Don’t just fade away
So I slammed out
Found a corner bar
And I drank ‘till I was blind
We could drive off
Elope there and then
Just leave this life behind
But Ma and Dad
Meant the world to me
Words alone cannot explain
How does someone choose,
Make a happy life
On the soul of someone’s pain?
Family business
Family ties
Debts that we pay
Dreams of the mother
Father and child
Don’t just fade away
So I told my beau
We’d have to wait
Maybe Ma would come around
Let’s just carry on
Though I fooled myself
He faced our fate
Well before I knew we were through
He was gone.
Family business
Family ties
Debts that we pay
Dreams of the mother
Father and child
Don’t just fade away
Dreams of the mother,
Father and child
Faithful or foolish
Reckless or wild
Don’t just fade
Don’t just fade away
One fall night
So long ago
Set the path for my whole life
IF I WERE A REINCARNATIONIST
I’m the middle daughter of a
Middle daughter
And I hated my mother
Just like she hated hers
She was smart, but selfish
Witty, but cruel
I’ve thought about why she hurt me
‘Till the memory blurs
But if I were a reincarnationist
A true-blue reincarnationist
I’d know we’ve played our drama out
Through various lives
Maybe I was her mother once
Or she was my lover once
Though flesh may turn to dust
Perhaps the spirit survives
Maybe back to Egypt
I’m the jealous daughter of an
Absent father
He loved gambling
He loved women
More than family life
He fought with my mother
She turned me against him
I never got to know him through the
Anger and strife
But if I were a reincarnationist
A die-hard reincarnationist
I’d know we’ve played our drama out
Through various lives
Maybe I was his father once
Or he was my mother once
Though flesh may turn to dust
Perhaps the spirit survives
What could be the reason we’d keep coming back?
Why would we repeat this pain?
Maybe there’s some holy secret I lack
Maybe I’m working something out
That I don’t understand
That I can’t explain...
I’m the nervous parent of a
High-strung daughter
And I fear she hates her mother
Just like I hated mine
I pray that my husband
Won’t turn her against me
And I wonder,
Is it chance that our lives intertwine?
‘Cause if I were a reincarnationist
A true-blue reincarnationist
I’d know we’ve played our drama out
Through various lives
Maybe we were all brothers once
Maybe we were all lovers once
Flesh may turn to dust
But some connection survives
If I were a reincarnationist
A true-blue reincarnationist
If I were a reincarnationist
MANY GHOSTS AT THE PARTY
Dad lies alone in his bed
With a faraway look on his face
Old pictures dance in his head
Distant moments that time can’t erase
Dad sighs and turns off the light
There are many ghosts at the party tonight
Sweet streams of memories fly
Ma and Pa seem to be everywhere
Old scenes go whispering by
All his brothers and sisters are there
Dad’s overwhelmed by the sight
There are many ghosts at the party tonight
He wonders why
Why he is the last one?
Shakes his head
Almost starts to cry
He’s lived his life
Four score years and more
A life well-lived
He wonders what he’s waiting for
Dad lies awake on his bed
With a glimmer of hope in his eyes
Unsure of what lies ahead
After all of the final goodbyes
Dad sighs and turns toward the light
There are many ghosts at the party
There are so many ghosts at the party tonight
He wonders why
Why he is the last one?
Shakes his head
Almost starts to cry
He’s lived his life
Four score years and more
A life well-lived
He wonders what he’s waiting for
Dad lies alone in his bed
With a glimmer of hope in his eyes…
THE PEACE THAT COMES
Father died on Friday night
Monday he was buried
Tales were told and
Blessings made
Over his grave
Daniel hoped the words would ease the
Sorrow he carried
A lucky man
So thankful for the
Love Father gave him
There are prayers we say
There are songs we sing
We fill the void
Tumble on
Wandering blind
What we long to feel
Only time may bring
It’s the peace that comes with
Healing right behind
Mother hardly sleeps at night
Thoughts keep on turning
She told her son,
“We mourn as one,
But we all grieve alone”
A story told
Or a coffee cup
Bring out such yearning
A neighbor calls
A friend comes by
But she’s on her own now
There are prayers we say
There are songs we sing
We fill the void
Tumble on
Wandering blind
What we long to feel
Only time may bring
It’s the peace that comes with
Healing right behind
Mother and Daniel seem to
See life so differently
Yet a poet’s words
Keep sounding in Daniel’s ear,
Saying, “Birth is hard
And dying’s mean
So love in the between time"
Don’t turn away from what you hold dear
Soon enough we all disappear…
Prayers we say
Songs we sing
Sing
Wandering blind
What we long to feel
Only time may bring
It’s the peace that comes
With healing right behind
What we long to feel
Only time may bring
It’s the peace that comes with healing
The peace that comes with
Healing right behind
LULLABYE FOR TEDDY
(after William Shakespeare)
Sleepy boy, come rest your head
Sleep a cool and dream-filled sleep
Sandman soon will bless this bed
Say a prayer your soul to keep
Hear the voice of melody
Sing in our sweet lullabye
Lulla lulla lullabye
Lulla lulla lullabye
Sleep won’t harm or scare or charm
Close your eyes and breathe a sigh
Say goodnight with lullabye
Lulla lulla lullabye.
Ghosts and ghouls aren’t welcome here
One-eyed monster stay away
Evil demons
Don’t come near
Go find somewhere else to play
Hear the voice of melody
Sing in our sweet lullabye
Lulla lulla lullabye
Lulla lulla lullabye
Sleep won’t harm or scare or charm
Close your eyes and breathe a sigh
Say goodnight with lullabye
Lulla lulla lullabye
All songs © 2006 by Louis Rosen. Publisher: Lullwater Music, ASCAP. All Rights Reserved.
