Talking With You
from Birdboys by Penelope Houston
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Compact Disc (CD) + Digital AlbumSigned by Penelope! 12 track CD in jewel case.
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Full Digital Discography
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about
Essential to the folk revival in late 1980s San Francisco--a mini-movement that sourced JA's "Surrealistic Pillow" and the musical terroir of the city--the fogs, the quiet, the Pacific light--was this beautiful album by the distinguished once and future punk rocker. The dozen love songs and other forms of songs here are closer to Judy Henski than classic punk. Still, Penelope addresses her rough and tumble past in "Full of Wonder" and the album is a kind of series of musical bouquets for a dead movement, and perhaps a few fallen musicians ( Phil "Snakefinger" Lithman gets the dedication; he plays bells on the song "Summers of War" ). Mostly, this recording shows that punkers and the alternative types who'd come to SF in the 1960s were more closely related than they seemed. Only fashions and manners separated their similar desire to escape the American Empire.
Houston's version of the Scots folk tune "Wild Mountain Thyme" is, I know, going to ornament some movie soundtrack someday; "Talking With You," another thing of beauty and a joy forever, is a piercing song of miscommunication, and "Waiting Room"...well, a particular summing up of the doldrums of the late 1980s. The Birdboys here include Steven Strauss, a talented multi instrumentalist still visible to lucky Berkeleyites; Mel Peppas's mandolin emphasizes the eastern Mediterranean sadness in some of these tunes; regular Houston collaborator Pat Johnson keeps it together. During this era, I once saw Houston play at a place in San Francisco and the crowd did something I've never seen since: they sat on the floor of the bar as if around a campfire to listen to her. I'm glad Penelope's still writing and performing--and I hope someday this key San Francisco album gets the audience it deserves.
Houston's version of the Scots folk tune "Wild Mountain Thyme" is, I know, going to ornament some movie soundtrack someday; "Talking With You," another thing of beauty and a joy forever, is a piercing song of miscommunication, and "Waiting Room"...well, a particular summing up of the doldrums of the late 1980s. The Birdboys here include Steven Strauss, a talented multi instrumentalist still visible to lucky Berkeleyites; Mel Peppas's mandolin emphasizes the eastern Mediterranean sadness in some of these tunes; regular Houston collaborator Pat Johnson keeps it together. During this era, I once saw Houston play at a place in San Francisco and the crowd did something I've never seen since: they sat on the floor of the bar as if around a campfire to listen to her. I'm glad Penelope's still writing and performing--and I hope someday this key San Francisco album gets the audience it deserves.
lyrics
You and me baby, are a word apart
and that word is branded, letters tattooed on my heart
Maybe someday we can call ourselves friends
And now you're trying to tell me something
I think you're trying to tell me something
I really wish you'd tell me something
But you've got nothing, nothing to tell me at all
Talking with you is a dejevu
of things I thought before and never bothered to say
if there's nothing about me that you can love
than I don't think we'll ever get along anyway
Now you're trying to tell me something
I think you're trying to tell me something
I really wish you'd tell me something
But you've got nothing, nothing to tell me at all
like a vine crawling up your wall
starts out big but it ends up small
tell me something, tell me nothing at all
Talking with you is a dejevu
of things I thought before and never bothered to say
if there's nothing about me that you can love
than I don't think we'll ever get along anyway
Now you're trying to tell me something
I think you're trying to tell me something
I really wish you'd tell me something
But you've got nothing, nothing to tell me at all
like a vine crawling up your wall
starts out big but it ends up small
tell me something, tell me nothing at all
Oh, I'm talking to you
and that word is branded, letters tattooed on my heart
Maybe someday we can call ourselves friends
And now you're trying to tell me something
I think you're trying to tell me something
I really wish you'd tell me something
But you've got nothing, nothing to tell me at all
Talking with you is a dejevu
of things I thought before and never bothered to say
if there's nothing about me that you can love
than I don't think we'll ever get along anyway
Now you're trying to tell me something
I think you're trying to tell me something
I really wish you'd tell me something
But you've got nothing, nothing to tell me at all
like a vine crawling up your wall
starts out big but it ends up small
tell me something, tell me nothing at all
Talking with you is a dejevu
of things I thought before and never bothered to say
if there's nothing about me that you can love
than I don't think we'll ever get along anyway
Now you're trying to tell me something
I think you're trying to tell me something
I really wish you'd tell me something
But you've got nothing, nothing to tell me at all
like a vine crawling up your wall
starts out big but it ends up small
tell me something, tell me nothing at all
Oh, I'm talking to you
credits
from Birdboys,
released October 10, 1988
license
all rights reserved
tags
shows
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Apr 29Hamburg, Germany
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May 8Vienna, Austria
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May 9Munich, Germany
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May 24Oxford, UK
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Jun 6San Francisco, CA
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Jun 13Seattle, WA
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Jun 15Portland, OR
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Jun 16Portland, OR
discography
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May 2012 -
Jan 2012 -
Apr 1999 -
Apr 2004 -
Apr 2004 -
Oct 1994 -
Jan 1993 -
Oct 1988 -
Jun 1993 -
Jun 2000 -
Oct 1994 -
Feb 2000
contact / help
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Thank you for being part of our lives going on 45 years. Saw this show and glad to have it on vinyl. Yung Wu indeed!
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Every song is great, but the lyrics to this one put it at the top for me.
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A lovely addition to the best project of 2023, that at some points feel like B-Sides, but is overall just as strong as the work that made it on "the record"
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