Author: Allegra

Early one morn on a unicorn well I launched a rocket ship
and I wore my silks and tie dyes and gave mundane life the slip
And it cost me more than I could afford but I had to take the trip
and I have myself to thank that I’m a filker
For we sing the sweetest music and we laugh the loudest laughs
The robots sell their spares to hear, the wizards pawn their staffs
the circle calls in the function halls for a chorus fine and free
You can keep your wretched autotune it’s a filkers life for me!

This is Katie’s fave song of mine. Well it was the last time she told me. My oeuvre is large enough at this point that I have to say MY favourite is ‘the next one…. and the one after that, and who cares anyway, it’s all about how it lands.’ So here’s something for bisexual gals errywhere.

For she is a healer
who sees to the heart
a friend who has always
taken my part
though miles lie between us
I knew from the start
Her voice will sustain me
her love is now part of the home that is feeling
and not just a place
for me to park my belongings
and rest from the race
our home is the earth as it circles in space

we lovers have learned to escape from our words
to nourish the peace and attend to the hurts
to know who we love and will never desert

I long to be with her, and never let go
but life isn’t simple, or we’d never grow
to most of life’s longings, the answer is ‘no’
I treasure the mem’ries we made out of the
snow that is transformed by the weather and nature’s design
from crystalline enchantment to something as fine
as the mist on the mirror that once framed your face

we lovers have learned to escape from our words
to nourish the peace and attend to the hurts
to know who we love and will never desert

I wrote this for a friend and her lover and they promptly broke up.

long distance relationships I tell ya

She had the most beautiful tie dye outfits! and anything else gets under the zip of lips.

This won’t mean anything to anyone who doesn’t have an early model yellow Korg Kaossilator

new tune:

L06/G09/C_/120bpm/5ths

Play starts in the exact middle. Slide fingers between the top right and bottom left corners of the touch screen. Describe acute triangles with your finger. Go wild. After a couple of minutes park your finger just to the right of the top middle and leave it there til fadeout.

‘cheerful cheerful movement’

Well I’m never at a loss for something to say
but a strange thing happened to me today
I may know every word in the dictionary
but all of a sudden they are all very
inadequate to convey
what I want to say
and I guess I never felt this way
and I guess I never felt this way

Isn’t it romantic
isn’t it a thrill
just to watch you walking
just to catch a smile
Day and night I pray
for the perfect thing to say
and I guess I never felt this way
and I guess I never felt this way

Isn’t it romantic
isn’t it a joke
that I never feel things
like ordinary folk
let this be a lesson
for those who like to talk
you’d better keep your mouth shut
if you can’t walk the walk
Cause after all the hormones
after all the play
you gotta do the work
so the FUN won’t go away!

I know how I feel
but the words run astray
I can look at you now
and I can honestly say
that what I feel is true
and I mean it from today
and I guess I never felt this way
I guess I never felt this way

wrote this for a crush in Montréal, so 1995
The other thing that’s important about this song is that I yelled at the kids to leave me alone so I could write it and with sad little faces they brought me paper and a pencil so I could write the words down and did I feel like a shitheel. IT IS NO FUN TO LIVE WITH SOMEONE CREATIVE when they are in the throes and cranky with it. I’ve thanked them both for it since.

this got written on the same day as Catnip on my Shoe. I had the date written down somewhere and I imagine if I tear my room apart I could find it but it doesn’t seem that important candidly. I was making fun of Bob Dylan’s writing style all the way through this. That no good lousy son of a seacook Dave Dowker (/s) said BUT ALLEGRA YOUR SONGS NEVER HAVE BRIDGES and I thought I’ll fix you, you fucker, (Dave, man, you *know* I love ya past the edge of time and words) so note the bridge. IT’S A LITTLE ON THE NOSE but that my dears is a feature of the true Allegra style.

Please also note that the line about ‘gave me all her money’ IS TRUE. A friend was experiencing mental health problems and she gave every dime she had on her to a street musician. She had no way to know that he was about to be evicted; she prevented him, his then girlfriend and infant child from being thrown into the street. YEARS LATER all three of us met in the friend’s apartment – he was now an IT wrangler in Vancouver – and I GOT TO PLAY THIS SONG FOR HIM. That is one of the many extremely spooky song magic things that’s happened to me over the course of my life (you would NOT BELIEVE some of the strangest of it, but this example is nice and family friendly) but it’s amped up since I moved to MST country. My song magic is powerful enough to reach into the future and be there waiting for unforeseeable events.

He left me in a dimestore
with a book and half a shoe
I said I can’t believe this
it’s so very good of you
and we’ll have some words before we’re through
Oh I bless the man who wastes no time debating
the splendour of the true

The truth is broken furniture
you can leave it in the street
right next to the newspapers
the hoboes need the heat
I’ll lay my empty pack at your feet
Oh I bless the woman who gave me all her money
and made my set complete

I’ll be to hell and gone before I find another friend so good
she went to the dictionary and tore out the word should
Half a paycheque gone, just to be misunderstood
Oh I bless the woman who listened to me
Just because she could

A bridge, a bridge is what I see
no more analysis, one more river to cross
A bridge, a bridge is what I see
no more analysis, one last river to cross

Sometimes I’d rather sit in darkness
than see a single light
and see so much that needs healing
and being put to rights
better to be broken than never to have tried
and now the dawn has come
and the dark gets swept aside