Poem, other stuff

She wasn't that bright She wasn't quite right But she looked like Princess Diana In the right phase of the moon She could light up a room And play the crowd like a piano But when her demons came 'round Her sunshine dropped down The tubes like the Mississippi River Paranoid schizophrenia My ex-girlfriemd Virginia I miss her tonight more than ever. Paul Craft This is the first in what I hope to be a long group of "poems"...little pieces that I wrote just because, never really intended to be songs. I havn't entered a blog a long time and the person who is helping me with this started fussing at me about "blogging' more so I'm going to "blog" if it kills me The next little thing, which I plan to do tomorrow, will be about the same lady. We were never meant to be as a couple but i hate to lose her from my list of acquaintances. I heard the final mix of Willie Nelson doing my song "Keep Me From Blowing Away". It's supposed to be on an album which is coming out in the early part of next year. It turned out much better than I ever dreamed it would. I expected it to be good. This is very, very, very good. 'Til next time, Paul I'm going to put the answers for my "pretty hard Elvis quiz' in the next blog. It was in #2. There hasn't been a whole lot of response on that. I thought it would be kinda fun for Elvis people to look at but it seems to be more "intimidating" than anything. PC

A Pretty Hard Elvis Quiz

This is a "pretty hard Elvis quiz" that I made up. See how you do: 1. Elvis recorded four songs at Sun Records on two different occasions, supposedly as presents for his mother. Which of these, if any, did he later record for RCA? 2. What was the first song Elvis performed on the Dorsey show on his first network television appearance? 3. What was the title of the last song he performed on his final Ed Sullivan show appearance? 4. What young lady stopped seeing Elvis because she started seeing James Caan? They were married for a time (hint: She was in "Junior Bonner" with Steve McQueen and alledgedly had a fling with him, too). 5. Who sang a duet with Elvis on "I Will Be Coming Home"? 6. Elvis' mother appeared in an audience scene in one of his movies. After she died, he avoided seeing the movie. Remember which one it was? it was one of his best. 7. Who was the first actress to appear as Elvis' leading lady twice? She later gave up acting and joined a convent. (If you don't know 6 or 7, you're not going to do well) 8. What actress/singer sang "Your Groovy Self" as a solo in an Elvis movie? If you know the name of the movie, it makes you twice as cool. 9. What was the first song Elvis recorded on his first RCA session? It was in Nashville and the next song on the session was "Heartbreak Hotel". 10. Who played the guitar that backed up Elvis' voice on "Love Me Tender"? 11. While we're on the subject, the five songs in the movie "Love Me Tender" are credited to "Vera Matson & Elvis Presley" as co-writers. Who really wrote them? 12. Who played the fantastic lead guitar on "Hound Dog'? 13. How about the lead guitar on "I Need Your Love Tonight" and "A Big Hunka Love"? 14. Who played the unmistakeable guitar stuff on "Guitar Man", "U.S. Male" and "Big Boss Man"? This ain't hard but is harder than #12 and finally: 15. Who sang "Heavenly Father" at Elvis' funeral? I'll put the answers in the next "blog" along with some comments on your score. Hint: if you got one or none right, you don't know s**t about Elvis...so don't be tellin' people you do. Love, Paul

My First Blog

Hi...Gotta start somewhere and this is it. You may have seen this before because it was originally the first part of my "Greeting" section: "What songwriter has had songs recorded by the Eagles and The Anita Kerr Singers, Linda Ronstadt and Ruth Buzzi, Randy Travis and Howard Keel, Kenny Rogers and George Burns, Moe Bandy and J.J. Cale, Barbara Mandrell and Billy Lee Riley, T. Graham Brown and The Lewis Family, Willie Nelson and Charlie Sizemore!!? (We're not talking duets here, folks)" I guess I thought everyone who read this would see the humor intended...that someone like Linda Ronstadt would be mentioned together with Ruth Buzzi, who most people don't even know sing. But right after I put that bio together, I appeared at a career day at Webb School in Bell Buckle, TN, where I went to high school. I was introduced as someone who had been fairly successful as a songwriter/publisher who had had songs recorded by Clint Eastwood, Ruth Buzzi and Howard Keel. Those are fine artists but that wasn't the introduction I wanted for that occasion. A psychiatrist told me a ways back, "Your trouble is that you think everybody is like you". I think he was right. In the case of the paragraph above, I just assumed people would see the humor I wanted them to see. When I wrote "Dropkick Me, Jesus (through the goal posts of life)", I figured everybody knew about songs like "I'm Using My Bible for a Roadmap" and "We Need a Lot More Jesus (and a lot less rock and roll)" and would appreciate what I had accomplished with my song. Well, my mother didn't, for one. She just KNEW there was something wrong with a song that had "kick" and "Jesus" that close together in the title. And she wasn't alone. But Elvis Costello and Bill Clinton understand it and like it. And so do I I was just talking on the telephone to my son, Paul. Today is his birthday. He and his wife, Holly, my oldest grandchild, Mary Shields, Paul and Holly's two children, Collin and Katie are in the car going to their cabin at Pickwick Lake. Paul's mother and my first wife, Anne Snowden is also in the car. They wondered where they were on my website. Right Here. Willie Nelson just recorded a song of mine, The Seldom Scene have two about to come out on their new album. Some recent cuts that aren't out include Charlie Sizemore (2), Darren Beachley and Sally Jones. A writer I've been very aware of lately is Geoff Stephens. He's from England and wrote one of the great pieces of music ever, "The Crying Game", had three Elvis cuts....and, "There's a Kind of Hush (all over the world)" and "Daddy, Don't You Walk So Fast". Pretty scary. Have completed and are working on some of the best songs yet. Hope we'll be hearing them soon. All the Best, Paul