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Looking for a Perfect Trip

by Rod Johnson

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1.
Lafayette 04:22
I’m sick of the cold in this place Nobody looks me in my face Losing time I can’t replace, every day Don’t know why I’m here in this town Why not disappear and not be found And not let myself be ground down this way Why should I stay? I’ve been gone for too long Everything here has gone wrong I may not be feeling too strong But I ain’t dead yet Time to say my goodbyes Hitting the road with dry eyes I’m gonna see the sun rise in Lafayette I’ve had enough of being alone I think it’s time to go back home Let in the wind and I’m blown out the door I’m feeling better every mile Can’t wait to be where people smile Being a stranger’s not my style anymore Not anymore I’ve been gone for too long Everything here has gone wrong I may not be feeling too strong But I ain’t dead yet Time to say my goodbyes Hitting the road with dry eyes I’m gonna see the sun rise in Lafayette
2.
Here comes another endless winter Will I be all alone again? Will I have to keep on writing you those letters That I won’t know where to send? When you’re out there on your travels Do you ever think of me When you’re heading for another lonely town? Is this the way it has to be? I don’t care where you are heading Battle Creek or Borneo But please take me with you when you go Do you just let the four winds take you? Do you know what you’re looking for? Do you wonder when they blow you home at last If I’ll be waiting by the door? You know it doesn’t have to be this way Let’s sing a different song If you need to wander restless through the world Then why not take me along? I don’t care where you are heading Timbuktu or Tupelo But please take me with you when you go Where will you be tomorrow? Riding in some dusty bus Don’t you think it would be easier to take If it was both of us? I don’t need a destination Let’s just watch the river flow But please take me with you when you go
3.
You get used to life at sea Just you and the horizon There through all the calms and storms It never is surprisin’ But when you’re back in port again Nothing seems familiar All the bars have changed their names A friendly face might kill ya Drydock drunken seasick sailor Where has your ocean gone? But like an able seaman should You just keep sailing on The past forever seems to drift Farther back behind you And if you wind up overboard No one will ever find you Sometimes you don’t think You can tolerate one day more The only thing worse than being lost at sea Is being found on shore Drydock drunken seasick sailor Where has your ocean gone? But like an able seaman should You just keep sailing on So you’ll just sit and think Until they throw you out Maybe the tide will rise again, It’s something to think about Maybe someone will feel the urge To offer you a hand And hear the story of how you got Washed up on dry land Drydock drunken seasick sailor Where has your ocean gone? But like an able seaman should You just keep sailing on
4.
I went down to Broadway Street just looking for a meal But it was coffee shops and brewpubs serving basil-crusted veal This used to be a cowboy town, honky tonks and flops and rodeos But now that town has vanished and where it’s gone, nobody knows Wandering down Broadway in the unforgiving sun Singing songs that no one wants to hear There was a time this felt like home but now that time is done And there’s a lot of homeless cowboys around here I used to make a living singing in the Broadway bars Songs of love and loneliness beneath the desert stars But now they’re full of college kids, and all they want to do is dance And if that ain’t your style, you haven’t got a chance Wandering down Broadway in the unforgiving sun Singing songs that no one wants to hear There was a time this felt like home but now that time is done And there’s a lot of homeless cowboys around here Hey, friend, can I play you a song It won’t take very long Time was you could hear it on the radio It was not so very long ago Headed up toward Front Street to Billy’s Liquor Store But all I found was condos, there’s no Billy’s anymore Thought I might just drown myself but the riverbed was dry Now I walk down Broadway Street and no one looks me in the eye Wandering down Broadway in the unforgiving sun Singing songs that no one wants to hear There was a time this felt like home but now that time is done And there’s a lot of homeless cowboys around here There was a time this felt like home but now that time is done And there’s a lot of homeless cowboys around here
5.
Hitchhiker 03:47
The Sandhills whisper from the shadows I thought I’d have to spend another night outside This wind’s been at me, ever since Seattle So I thank you for this ride Sometimes the road is kind of lonely It’s easy to get lost when I’m out on my own I’d tell you where I’m going, if only I knew which road would take me home Everyone’s looking for a perfect trip Find a family, make a friend But I’m a hitchhiker baby I know this ride’s gonna end Sometimes I wish that I could settle And things would work out so that I could call you friend But some time soon you’ll see an exit from this road And I’ll be stuck out here again But I don’t want to be misunderstood I’m glad we’re together on this long empty road The scenery’s pretty and the company’s good But there’s only so far we can go Everyone’s looking for a perfect trip Find a family, make a friend But I’m a hitchhiker baby I know this ride’s gonna end It’s not that I’m not grateful for the chance To take this journey For a while, by your side But I don’t really have a destination, I work best when I’m in motion So let’s just ride, yeah let’s just ride Everyone’s looking for a perfect trip Find a family, make a friend But I’m a hitchhiker baby I know this ride’s gonna end
6.
The Missouri flows beside the town The river water's flat and brown With the dust that blows in off the prairie You can see the trucks from up on the ridge Heading west across the bridge Loaded with all that they can carry She pictures all those little towns What if no one ever came around Waiting forever for their next delivery Out there all alone, she thinks, Wouldn't that be shitty? My god, she laughs, I’m so Sioux City Lewis and Clark spent a winter here Telling lies and shooting deer Before they headed out into the great unknown She often thinks she might move on Maybe Des Moines or Madison But she knows she'd miss her family and her home It's a risky thing, why take a chance And put her life in someone's hands Who didn't understand the way she saw the world? And she would miss those prairie skies That would be a pity Ah, she thinks, I'm so Sioux City Somewhere out there in the oil towns around Williston She had a friend He finally lost his willingness to wait for her to make a move No more time to spend She hung a picture in her hall Somewhere in France, if she recalls, Of flowers growing in a wooden window box When winter seems like it'll never be done She sits imagining the sun It keeps her going till the equinox One time he asked her why she stayed Didn't she want to see that place Why was she satisfied with looking at a picture? She just shrugged and said, I think it's pretty Man, he said, that's so Sioux City Oh man, he said, that's so Sioux City
7.
River Town 04:32
In the towns down on the river People wonder why they stay At the mercy of the rain Five hundred miles away Can’t think about tomorrow You just try to carry on When you don’t know what’s comin’ You won’t miss what’s gone People watch the weather, in a river town Even on a bright and sunny day People know better, in a river town You’re only one hard rain away When you wake up in the morning Everything may seem secure But you know what you have built there Is not fated to endure You can’t ignore the water When your house is built upon the sand When the flood begins a-risin’ It’s something nothing will withstand People watch the weather, in a river town Even on a bright and sunny day People know better, in a river town You’re only one hard rain away You may build the highest levee But the river pulls it down Some day it will make the levees crumble And wash away your town People watch the weather, in a river town Even on a bright and sunny day People know better, in a river town You’re only one hard rain away
8.
Have you ever had a thought that you couldn’t shake Couldn’t get it out of your head? Have you ever had a dream and you couldn’t wake Couldn’t dream of something else instead? Well this is what she is to me and I can’t escape it No matter how I try to forget But it’s my song to sing and it’s my life to shape And I’m not surrendering yet So I swear, from this day forward Until the end of the world This is my last song, my last song About that girl Well so many times in the dark of the night I wake up lonely and lost And there’s so many times when I try to move forward I’m too afraid of what it will cost But it’s time that I shook off this grieving Stood up and said color me gone So this is the day I start believing That things will be better from now on And I swear, from this day forward Until the end of the world This is my last song, my last song About that girl Oh there’s so many songs worth singing Fiery and fearless and proud And there’s so many people to sing to So I’ll say it out loud That I swear, from this day forward Until the end of the world This is my last song, my last song About that girl Yeah I swear, from this day forward Until the end of the world This is my last song, my last song About that girl
9.
I left my home on a chilly night I think about it still There was nothing left to keep me there Up in those dark hills I went to meet the bus When it stopped at Conley’s store And it rained all the way to Baltimore West Virginia mountains Are like a bruise in my mind Reminding me of all the people That I left behind But I couldn’t make the pieces fit The way they were before So I came all the way to Baltimore Sometimes I think about The songbirds in the spring But you can’t get paid for memories They ain’t worth a doggone thing Now I hear the seagulls crying Down along the shore Stuck in this dirty city God damn you Baltimore But it’s mostly you I think about When the evenings fall I wonder what you think of me If you think of me at all I’ll never see your face again Till I stand at heaven’s door Unless you come all the way to Baltimore Won’t you come all the way to Baltimore All the way to Baltimore
10.
Kings 04:35
It doesn’t matter who you stepped on When you made your climb You always knew that at the summit The view would be sublime Now here you are, top of the world Nothing above but sky Trying hard to convince yourself You’ll never have to die So throw your outrageous parties, Jay Gatsby style You can live like kings, for a while It all feels like some kind of game Something to do after dinner Playing a hand you dealt yourselves Another winner And if the people they grow restless And turn to casting stones You don’t have to worry about anything On your gilded thrones So have a fabulous time, Gloria Vanderbilt style You can live like kings, for a while We take care of each other God takes care of fools But the kings don’t need a god Cause they make all the rules Looking down from your palaces, in the Romanov style You can live like kings, for a while Looking down from your palaces, in the Romanov style You can live like kings Brothers you can live like kings Yeah you can live like kings, but only for a while
11.
I bought this bucket of bolts and rattles and rust It goes where I point it and that’s all that it needs to do People tell me that it drives like a tank, so I guess it must And tonight I’m going to drive it away with you We don’t have too many places we can go People are always telling us to move on But here inside this metal box we can head out on the road And no one’s gonna notice that we’re gone I don’t know how long this time is gonna last But I’ll make it as long as I can And we’ll make love in the light Of the aftermarket radio installed in the dash Of the telephone company surplus Econoline van Here’s a nice place we can call our own for a little while Just sitting in the night with some music on the radio Though the lights are off I can still make out your pretty smile When you’re lying here against me, reflected in the panel glow I don’t know how long this time is gonna last But I’ll make it as long as I can And we’ll make love in the light Of the aftermarket radio installe in the dash Of the telephone company surplus Econoline van I treasure this time when the world goes away & we’re left all alone No one sees, we can make this night our own At the end of a difficult day we can be here in the dark Help each other shed our heavy load Paradise is nothing but a place to park Down at the lonely end of a country road I don’t know how long this time is gonna last But I’ll make it as long as I can And we’ll make love in the light Of the aftermarket radio installed in the dash Of the telephone company surplus Econoline van
12.
Just about every morning I walk these leafy streets Familiar places I know so well In a dark forest of promises and signs In search of Evabel Sometimes just living seems so perilous I have days when nothing much is clear But there is one thing I can count on to be true I know that Evabel lives here I see her shadow round every corner, in every shop It’s like some kind of magic spell So I keep looking, I won’t be satisfied Till I catch sight of Evabel Sometimes just living seems so perilous I have days when nothing much is clear But there is one thing I can count on to be true I know that Evabel lives here Once Evabel told me she would always be my friend And that means more than I can tell I may not understand much about this world But I know Evabel, yeah I know Evabel Sometimes just living seems so perilous I have days when nothing much is clear But there is one thing I can count on to be true I know that Evabel lives here Yeah there is one thing I can count on to be true I know that Evabel lives here
13.
Sometimes I hear voices No one else can hear They come from deep inside me Carried through the years The little boy that I once was I keep him somewhere still And though I’ve grown I guess I always will And he has wants That I cannot fulfill A life laid down in layers Sheets of love and hate All those experiences Start to accumulate Living high and lying low Happiness and strife Eventually it settles in to this Sedimentary life Every day I think about My innocence and guilt All the things I might have done They cover me like silt Mistakes I’ve made or barely missed The things I’ve tried to hide They’re all there Preserved down deep inside And in the end They cannot be denied A life laid down in layers Sheets of love and hate All those experiences Start to accumulate Living high and lying low Happiness and strife Eventually it settles in to this Sedimentary life

about

This is a record about places. Where you wish you weren’t and where you wish you were. Leaving home, coming home, staying home, missing home. Going somewhere, going nowhere, having nowhere to go, and wishing, somehow, you could find a perfect place, a perfect person, a perfect trip.

It started out in the late fall of the hell year 2020 as a stripped-down acoustic album, but at some point I realized the last thing the world needs is another quarantine album—everyone had been stuck in that place too long already. So here's something I made instead, with the help of some talented, generous friends.

credits

released September 1, 2021

Produced by Rod Johnson and Dave Roof
Engineered by Dave Roof
Recorded at Rooftop Recording, Grand Blanc MI
www.rooftoprecording.net

Rod Johnson: acoustic and electric guitars, vocals, percussion
Dave Roof: bass, guitars, vocals, piano, keyboards, percussion
Donn Deniston: drums
Beverly Meyer: vocals, handclaps
Bobby Pennock: vocals
Drew Howard: dobro, pedal steel, baritone, acoustic slide guitar
Brian Kingsley: acoustic and baritone guitars
Dave Solo: acoustic and 12-string guitars
Cheryl Beauchamp: piano
Daniel Tavani: strings and string arrangement on “Drydock Drunken Seasick Sailor”

All songs © 2021 Rod Johnson • All rights reserved

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Rod Johnson Ann Arbor, Michigan

Singer, songwriter, not really a singer-songwriter though. Just trying to make something good.

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