Source:
AMG All Music Guide - Song List with active links
Biography part
AMG
Afternoon Delight
Gonna find my baby, gonna hold her tight
Gonna grab some afternoon delight
My motto's always been 'when it's right, it's right'
Why wait until the middle of a cold dark night?
When everything's a little clearer in the light of day
And we know the night is always gonna be there any way.
Thinkin' of you's workin' up my appetite
Looking forward to a little afternoon delight
Rubbin' sticks and stones together makes the sparks ignite
And the thought of rubbin' you is getting so exciting
Sky rockets in flight
Afternoon delight
Afternoon delight
Afternoon delight
Started out this morning feeling so polite
I always though a fish could not be caught who wouldn't bite
But you've got some bait a waitin' and I think I might
Try nibbling a little afternoon delight
Sky rockets in flight
Afternoon delight
Afternoon delight
Afternoon delight
Please be waiting for me, baby, when I come around
We could make a lot of lovin' 'for the sun goes down
Thinkin' of you's workin' up my appetite
Looking forward to a little afternoon delight
Rubbin' sticks and stones together makes the sparks ignite
And the thought of rubbin' you is getting so exciting
Sky rockets in flight
Afternoon delight
Afternoon delight
Afternoon delight
Afternoon delight!
(The title derived from a menu at Clyde's Restaurant on M Street
in Georgetown in Washington, DC. The Grammy Plaque still hangs in the
restaurant. It is just down the street from where "The Cellar Door" was
located, famous for hosting numerous folk stars of day. It is where Bill
worked behind the scenes before playing there with Taffy Nivert and meeting John
Denver when he headlined there.)
Baby You Look Good To Me Tonight
I've been out on this highway now five days in a row
My words all run together and my feet are movin' slow
I've got to stop and eat while it's still light
There's a local angel sittin' on my right
Do you believe in love at first sight?
Baby, you look good to me tonight
Well I'm ordinarily very shy
And I'd be polite if I had the time
Baby, you look good to me tonight
Tomorrow I'll be good and gone
Please don't make me wait that long
Baby, you look good to me tonight
"I get off at eleven," she said and walked away
She poured a cup of coffee and she brought it on a tray
She said, "It would be nice if you could stay,
You're the best idea I've had all day,
Usually I put up a fight
But baby, you look good to me tonight"
Well I'm ordinarily very shy
But I grinned at her as I ate my pie
Said, baby, you look good to me tonight
I thought I must be in a dream
When she asked me if I wanted cream
Baby, you look good to me tonight
All in all you know it's not a bad life on the road
If you've got wheels to roll and lucky stars above
Your destiny's your own, you go as far as you can go
And if there's time to sleep
There's time to make love
I came I saw I conquered and I rode off in the sun
But I know the look she left me with keeps telling me she won
Her face is the only thing I see
Whispering these words of prophecy:
"Well, I may come easy but I don't come free
You're never gonna see the last of me"
Baby, you look good to me.
I was born to love you now can't you see
Baby, you look good to me tonight
Well, I'm ordinarily very shy
But I take the time to satisfy
Baby, you look good to me tonight
Baby, you look good to me tonight.
Dearest Esmeralda, in another age
Antiques would be modern, we would be the rage
Silk would be in fashion, we would dress in lace
Love would be the passion and the saving grace
I slept one rainy night with you in Paris
Made up for a thousand wasted years
Dearest Esmeralda, you are magic
I close my eyes and you make love appear
Dancing in the shimmer of a crystal chandelier
Shadows singing so low only we could hear
Moving to the glimmer, shaking to the storm
Outside it was raging, but inside it was warm
We said goodnight in the candlelight and thunder
Now I wake and find you're never there
I'm becoming old enough to wonder
Happy that I'm still too young to care
Masterpieces crumble, empires tumble down
Refugees and fantasies go underground
Romance lasts forever, love don't fade away
They may take our future, but they don't stop yesterday
Cause somewhere in the cloudy skies of Paris
we were part of some artists design
Dearest Esmeralda, you are magic
In the gray around me how you shine
Oh oh, how you shine.
What a friend we have in time
Gives us children, makes us wine
Tells us what to take or leave behind
And the gifts of growing old
Are the stories to be told
Of the feelings more precious than gold
Friends I will remember you,
Think of you, pray for you
And when another day is through
I'll still be friends with you
Babies' days are never long
Mother's laugh is baby's song
Gives us all the hope to carry on.
Friends I will remember you,
Think of you, pray for you
And when another day is through
I'll still be friends with you
Friends I will remember you,
Think of you, pray for you
And when another day is through
I'll still be Friends with You
Friends I will remember you,
Think of you, pray for you
And when another day is through
I'll still be Friends with You.
Boulder to Birmingham
(Emmylou Harris/Bill Danoff)
I don't want to hear a love song
I got on this airplane just to fly
And I know there's life below
But all that it can show me
Is the prairie and the sky
And I don't want to hear a sad story
Full of heartbreak and desire
The last time I felt like this
It was in the wilderness and the canyon was on fire
And I stood on the mountain in the night and I watched it burn
I watched it burn, I watched it burn.
I would rock my soul in the bosom of Abraham
I would hold my life in his saving grace.
I would walk all the way from boulder to Birmingham
If I thought I could see, I could see your face.
Well you really got me this time
And the hardest part is knowing I'll survive.
I have come to listen for the sound
Of the trucks as they move down
Out on ninety five
And pretend that it's the ocean
Coming down to wash me clean, to wash me clean
Baby do you know what I mean
I would rock my soul in the bosom of Abraham
I would hold my life in his saving grace.
I would walk all the way from boulder to Birmingham
If I thought I could see, I could see your face.
I Guess He’d Rather Be in Colorado
Word and music by Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert
I guess he’d rather be in Colorado
He’d rather spend his time out where the sky looks like a pearl after the rain
Once again to see him walkin’
Once again to hear him talkin’
To the stars he makes and askin’ them for bus fares.
I guess he’d rather be in Colorado
He’d rather play his banjo in the morning when the moon is scarcely gone
In the dawn the subway’s comin’
In the dawn I hear him comin’
Some old song he wrote of love in boulder canyon
Guess he’d rather be in Colorado
Guess he’d rather be in Colorado
Guess he’d rather work out where the only thing you earn is what you spend
In the end I’m in his office
In the end a quiet cough is all he has to show
He lives in New York city
Words and Music by Bill and Taffy Danoff
There's lonely hearts in Arkansas
There's truckers in Des Moines
All there to keep me company in the early morn
A world unknown to daytime
Is forever going on
The airwaves of the nation
Between midnight and the dawn
Late night radio
Take it everywhere I go
My best friend when I'm lonely
Is my late night radio
Well I turn the dial
A little bit past one-o-one point two
In time to catch the news
And see who's shooting who
Then I hunt around for old songs
They're so good to hear again
To think of how it was
Imagine how it might have been
Late night radio
Take it everywhere I go
My best friend when I'm lonely
Is my late night radio
La La La I sing along
Cause I never know the words
La La La La La La La La
Id love to call a talk show
But I haven't got the nerve
La La La Oh Oh Oh radio
The Lord is still my shepherd
But these preachers got to go
This time of night my interest
Lies in U.F.O.s
So I turn the dial a little
Past fifty-six point three
To find myself a lullaby
To rock me off to sleep
Late night radio
Take it everywhere I go
My best friend when I'm lonely
Is my late night radio
Late night radio
Take it everywhere I go
My best friend when I'm lonely
Is my late night radio
Please Daddy (Don't
Get Drunk This Christmas)
Words and music by Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert
Please Daddy, don't get drunk this Christmas
I don't wanna see my Mamma cry
Please Daddy, don't get drunk this Christmas
I don't wanna see my Mamma cry
Just last year when I was only seven
And now I'm almost eight as you can see
You came home at a quarter past eleven
Fell down underneath our Christmas tree
Please Daddy, don't get drunk this Christmas
I don't wanna see my Mamma cry
Please Daddy, don't get drunk this Christmas
I don't wanna see my Mamma cry
Mamma smiled and looked outside the window
She told me son, you better go upstairs
Then you laughed and hollered Merry Christmas
I turned around and saw my Mamma's tears
Please Daddy, don't get drunk this Christmas
I don't wanna see my Mamma cry
Please Daddy, don't get drunk this Christmas
I don't wanna see my Mamma cry
No, I don't wanna see my Mamma cry
Words and Music by Bill Danoff
The world is fast becoming younger;
The news is all they've ever known.
They've seen the wars, the hurt, the hunger.
How will they choose when they are grown?
What do you tell forever's children
When it's their turn to hurt and heal?
Whatever spins a grim tornado
Can also turn a potters wheel.
Take a little clay,
Put it on a wheel
Get a little hint
how God must feel.
Give a little turn,
Listen to a spin,
Make it into the shape
you want it in.
Tell with your life the bloody story,
Teach to their dreams, not burning steel.
It's not in bombs where lies the glory,
But in what's shattered on the field.
The potters wheel takes love and caring,
Skill and patience fast and slow.
The works it makes are easily broken,
Once they survive the potters throw.
Take a little clay,
put it on a wheel;
Get a little hint how God must feel.
Give a little turn,
listen to it spin;
Make it into the shape you want it in.
Some day some children will be digging
In some long forgotten ground.
And they'll find our civilization
Or what's left of it to be found.
They'll find the weapons of destruction.
But buried deeper in the hole,
They'll find a message and a promise,
In the sand, the potters bowl.
Take a little clay, put it on a wheel,
Get a little hint how God must feel.
Give a little turn, listen to a spin,
Make it into the shape you want it in.
Earth and fire and wind conspire,
With human hands, and love, and fire.
Take a little clay, put it on a wheel,
Get a little hint how God must feel.
Give a little turn, listen to a spin,
Make it into the shape you want it in.
Readjustment Blues
Bill Danoff
Just out of the
infantry this morning, I had to pay my dues across the sea.
No one back in boot camp ever warned me what the readjustment blues would
do to me.
"Welcome to Havana", said the pilot. “We must have made a wrong turn on the way.
Let's buy some cigars and keep it quiet, if they don't know we're here we'll get
away."
Just as I had realized he was joking, I saw we were in Washington D.C.
'Cause there was all the patriotic buildings, just like I had seen them on TV.
It must have been a holiday, 'cause there was this parade.
People carried signs, I couldn't read, that they had made.
'Till I got closer and my heart fell to
my socks,
There was a battle raging and the air was filled with teargas and rocks.
There was the flag I'd fought against so often, the one I fought for hanging
upside down.
The wind was blowing hard, the dirt was flying, it made the city sky look
dark and brown.
I saw a girl, she could have been my sister, except her hair was long and in
her face.
She explained this was a demonstration against the war and for the human
race.
Now, I've seen a lot of strange things in my travels. Cannibals, yes, and
aliens galore.
But I never thought I'd see so many people saying, “we don't want your war!”
The troops all had on uniforms just like the one I'd worn,
But they were all domestic and my duty chose war.
They carried guns just like the ones
across the sea,
Except this time, I was the citizen, and they were pointing their guns at
me.
Yes, I was just a citizen, and I was
walking down the street,
And it was just that night, the readjustment blues got through to me.
l
Take Me Home Country Roads
Bill Danoff/Taffy Nivert/John Denver
Almost heaven west Virginia
Blue Ridge Mountains Shenandoah river
Life is old there older than the trees
Younger than the mountains blowin' like a breeze
Country roads take me home
To the place I belong
West Virginia mountain momma
Take me home country roads
All my memories gather round her
Miner's lady stranger to blue water
Dark and dusty painted on the sky
Misty taste of moonshine teardrop in my eyes
Country roads take me home
To the place I belong
West Virginia mountain momma
Take me home country roads
I hear a voice in the morning how she calls me
The radio reminds me of my home far away
Drivin' down the road I get a feelin'
That I should been home yesterday, yesterday
Country roads take me home
To the place I belong
West Virginia mountain momma
Take me home country roads
Country roads take me home
To the place I belong
West Virginia mountain momma
Take me home country roads
Take me home country roads
Take me home country roads
John Denver had a week-long
concert engagement at the Cellar Door in Georgetown during the last week of
December, 1970. After the concert on the 29th, John, wife Annie, Kris and
Bonnie O'Connor joined Bill and Taffy in a late-night song-writing session back
at the Danoff's basement apartment. Bill and Taffy sang an incomplete
version of this song, using a verse that was later discarded in the early hours
of the next morning. John loved the song, helped them finish the last
verse and the bridge, and wanted the three of them to record it on his album
"Poems, Prayers and Promises" which was almost completed. They debuted the new
song later that night on December 30, 1970, at the Cellar Door to cheering
crowds.
However, Bill saved that discarded
verse; it was:
In the foothills hidin' from
the clouds,
Pink and purple, West Virginia
farmhouse.
Naked ladies, men who looked like
Christ,
And a dog named Pancho, nibbling on
the rice.
D.C. restaurateur and Grammy-winning songwriter Danoff expressed his own view
of the state two decades ago, in what became West Virginia's unofficial anthem,
"Take Me Home, Country Roads." Though he had yet to set foot in the state when
he, Taffy Nivert (his wife at the time) and John Denver co-wrote the song in
1971, he said years later "it's everything I ever said it was."
