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MY OLD FRIEND, FRED

Written: Motel, Page AZ, summer 1973

 

Knees and Diane, the singer in the band, obtained some incredible substance that they were told was THC, but probably wasn’t. It was a great rubberizer of the body and apparently stimulated the mind because Knees wrote this song in a fitful hour on the stuff one night. It’s that most rare of songs, an anti-alcohol song written to be sung in a bar.

 

Well I know this is a bar an everbody’s drinkin

But an ol friend of mine just set me to thinkin

That mebbe we oughta try somethin else.

So if you just settle back an listen a spell

You’re liable to hear an educatin tale

About sex, booze and ourselves.

 

Well I was up in Denver bout two weeks ago

Wudn’t doin nothin thought I’d take in a show

So I parked my car an started walkin

The first show I came to was just my style

Triple X rated called “Everthing’s Wild”

A whole buncha sex an not much talkin.

 

An on the poster I saw the name

Of a guy that I used to know

Ol Fred always said he was gonna make it big

An sure enuf he’s the star of the show.

 

So I paid my admission and went inside

Bought me some popcorn an a three dollar Sprite

Then I saw somethin that stopped me dead

Well remember I tole you a little while ago

About my ol friend who’s the star of the show

Well there, the projectionist was Fred.

 

We must have talked for an hour or two

Bout people and places like ol friends do

Relivin good an bad memories

An I wondered how Fred had sunk so far

When a few years ago he was a big porno star

So I axed him and here’s what he tole me.

 

Put the blame on the whiskey and wine;

They sucked the man outa me

I once had the world spread before my very eyes

But the bottle was all I could see.

 

So alla you people gathered in here

Guzzlin your whiskey, your wine an your beer

Remember bout my ol friend Fred

Well here was a man who had all he could handle

Till somethin took the wick right outa his candle

An that somethin, here’s what Fred said

 

Put the blame on the whiskey and wine

They sucked the man outa me

I once had the world spread before my very eyes

But the bottle was all I could see.

 

Well I know this is a bar an everbody’s drinkin

But an ol friend of mine just set me to thinkin

That mebbe we oughta try somethin else.

 

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