Here’s the very first song I wrote that I still remember…It’s called Formica Bartop Blues and I wrote it in the December of 1976 while I was shoveling snow. It’s also the first song that I wrote “in character” stepping into the shoes of someone other than myself and writing the song through the eyes of that person. Lyrics are below.
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Video:
Audio:
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Lyrics:
Formica Bartop Blues | Song #1 | December 1976
I will sing for you my buddy
Formica Bartop Blues
And you know that we are brothers
We’re standing in each other’s shoes
We get buzzed ‘bout every night now
In the Firefly Hotel
They got a good dark bar in the basement
Where we drink our souls to Hell!
Refrain:
Let me tell you that
There ain’t no easy winners
In this world of wounds and woe
If you want to get to the top man
Something’s got to go!
And we love to roam dark alleys
With switchblades in our fists
And we want to get from Sally
Much more than a kiss…
Refrain:
And these sneakers have seen ‘Bout a million miles
Of New York’s cracked blacktop
And this body has seen it’s share of trials
Mostly from those blue bellied cops…
Refrain:
Standard Tuning
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Formica Bartop Blues by Mark Shepard is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License
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Get Your Back Stage Pass! (it’s free for a limited time) and you get unlimited downloads of the entire Life in Song Project