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Peter Mayer

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Welcome to my music page!  Click on the "Buy CD" links to make a purchase, or call 1-800-BUY-MY-CD (1-800-289-6923).  CD Baby handles all online and phone orders for CDs.

  
  • Third Street
  • Heaven Below
  • Novelties
  • Midwinter
  • Earth Town Square
  • Elements
  • Million Year Mind
  • Bountiful
  • Straw House Down
  • Uncrowded Sky
Elements
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Elements
1. Molly O'Malley's
Molly O'Malley's
Molly O’Malley’s is not too far from here
Where not a soul, the story goes, ever pays for beer
At Molly O’Malley’s the patrons understand
That the player’s fee is a pint or three
So everyone’s in the band
Everybody’s in the band

Some join in with voices, some with pipes or reeds
Some in the band clap their hands or laugh and slap their knees
Some are still and listen with attentive eyes and ears
And it’s always strange how the music changes
When they disappear
When they disappear

CHORUS:
Over the doorway, painted bold
A question begs your pardon
“Is this a place of many souls
Or just one very large one?”
Over the bar, another reads
“Are there many songs
Or just one that goes on and on?”

At Molley O’Malley’s they go chair to chair
And each one croons a little tune they would like to share
Some are sad, some happy, and singing has its rules
That you can’t be shy and you cannot lie
But you sing a song that’s true
Sing a song that’s true

CHORUS:

When the night is over, before the last farewell
They find the jar on the bar and kindly tip themselves
At Molley O’Malley’s, the patrons understand
That the player’s fee is a pint or three
So everyone’s in the band
Everybody’s in the band

2. The Birthday Party
The Birthday Party
I saw the Buddha open up his eyes
One Sunday morning
Say he’s invited to a party for Christ
And he must be going
He heaved himself up with a groan, standing slowly
Came down those steps of stone, and asked me
Where to catch the next train to Jerusalem

In India he sang with Hindus as they prayed
By the Ganges when the dawn came
Near Arabia, he saw Mohammed on the train
And asked if he would join him
Passing those teeming towns, they talked for hours
All about the truth and how it’s discovered
Trading bits of news and stories from these thousand years

Saying “great idea, this party for Jesus”
Then Mohammed said “hey Buddha, it’s great to see ya”

Finding the place with the help of Abraham
Waving from the doorway
They greeted faces from a thousand holy lands
Present day and all ages (always)
Everybody talking, laughing, fiercely debating
Saying how desperately the world is changing
Then somebody lit the two-thousand candles

And they all toasted Jesus, born in a stable
Then Jesus said “hey, let’s not be such strangers”
3. Skyblaster Man
Skyblaster Man
Skyblaster Man
There in the lights of the midway he stands
Mustache and tattoos, caught in the thralls of his carnie dance
Entrancing passers-by, daring that they take
A turn on his dangerous ride
Making them see that the magic that he commands
Makes them feel like they’re flying
Skyblaster man

Skyblaster man
Taking the tickets they have in their hands
Their faces like many in the towns along his carnival caravan
Dollar thrill-seekers and brief death-defeaters who
Come from their comfortable lives
To be spun around, and turned upside down
And reminded that they’re alive
Skyblaster man

To be convinced you’re alive
It’s a mighty big job for a three minute ride
So he brings his powers to bear
As if he’s in prayer
While they’re in the air

And when they land
They stand in a daze and stagger and laugh
And he knows at that time, by the look in their eyes that a few understand
But will they remember, he wonders as he
Very carefully helps them all down
As if in his care, he’s aware of the much greater
Perils of life on the ground
Skyblaster man
4. Canoe Song
Canoe Song
I like to make ‘em out of birch bark skins
I studied how with the Indians
A little pine tar, nice and thin
Makes a boat float just right

I like to brag about the perfect stroke
I own a paddle made of aged oak
Every maneuver I can do by rote
But there’s one thing I don’t like

CHORUS: Don’t like to put the paddle in the water
That would be a crazy thing to do
I don’t want to be no fishes’ fodder
I don’t want to tip in that canoe
I’d rather be a dreamer on the shoreline
Than a hero at the bottom of the lake
I never put the paddle in the water
That would be a dangerous mistake

I sing “Allouette” in Francais
Just like the French in Hudson Bay
I smoke a pipe and drink Beaujolais
And I tell a tall tale or two

I know every river and portage
And in an emergency, I know triage
I smell a storm like a weather cock
But there’s one thing I won’t do

CHORUS:

I know the tensile strength of each one
Fiberglass or aluminum
I make plans and study maps
Draw lines across the world and back
I like to train on weight machines
Carbo-load and high protein
I’m a fanatic, it would seem
But baby, I’m no fool

CHORUS:
5. World of Dreams
World of Dreams
Mr. Isaac Newton tested everything
Poked and prodded, then said
“Solid things are as real as they seem”
Mr. Albert Einstein pondered light and speed
And with his mind’s eye, declared “oh my,
This is a world of dreams”

When we investigate the highest heavens
They seem to race away faster than we can follow
And when we penetrate the heart of atoms
We find there something strangely resembling
Nothing at all

In the smallest measure of anything at hand
Entities of energy are alive in a whirling dance
Even our own bodies are not as we perceive
But made of the same stuff our thoughts are made
In this world of dreams

So do we live and move amidst illusions?
Has what we’re seeing fooled us
And only exists in our minds?
And what are we to do with such conclusions?
For what cannot come true in a world of a
Mystical kind?

Mr. Albert Einstein woke one day from sleep
To arise, to his surprise, in a world of dreams
So as we move closer, the farther we must reach
We may fight for what we like, but this is a world of dreams
We may feel that this is real, but this is a world of dreams
Or proclaim no, it can’t be so
But this is a world of dreams
6. The Dark
The Dark
Edgar Allen Poe had it
In his tell tale heart
It’s the finest time to strike
Said Napolean Bonaparte

Inmates make their break into it
Cavemen make their art
Spy planes fly and spelunkers hunker
Somewhere in the dark

Batman catches criminals in the dark of night
Saving Gotham City from evil designs
Darkness, lovers love in and
Dreamers tend to like
And if you think you’re neither one
Well, in the dark, that’s just what
You might become

Some celestial bodies like to
Strut their stuff alot
But we know Mr. Black Hole is the
Big boy on the block

King Tut looked pretty comfy
In that old dark tomb
What’s good for an Egyptian mummy
Might be right for you

What’s the fun relying on something you can see?
That’s just so passe when you run toward the light
Why not make a dangerous tryst with mystery?
It’s a downright frightening hole
Watch your head
Down you go

Larry lost his inhibitions
Sally felt a spark
Jacob saw a mystic vision
Somewhere in the dark

Black cats eke out a descent living
Monsters make it far
You might find what you’ve been missing
Somewhere in
The Dark
7. Scatterbrain
Scatterbrain
Scatterbrains are just the same as regular people
Except for some impairments they display
Like seldom remembering your name
Even if they are in your family

When the phone rings at home, sometimes they open the
Refrigerator door and say hello
They load washing machines with clean clothes
That they just unloaded from the dryer

It may seem sad, you may think that they have gone mad
But it’s just the peculiar ways of the scatterbrain

They put stuff like coffee cups and purses and grocery bags
On the top of the car and drive away
And notice this some moments later
When they brake or take a corner

And they spend time trying to find
The glasses they’re wearing
Or the keys that they are holding in their hand
And when they find them they call themselves bad names like
You stupid moron or you idiot or you loser

It may seem sad, like a tragic and cruel handicap
But it’s just the peculiar ways of the scatterbrain

There’s one now in the kitchen, he’s sweeping the floor
But he needs a new broom so he runs to the store
But in the car, on the way, he hears a new song he likes
So he stops to buy the record but he runs into Mike
And they talk over coffee until Mike has to go
And our man can’t remember just why he left home

So if you see one of these
Directionless people
Maybe you can offer them a hand
Instead of just pointing and laughing
But if you do, well, who could blame you?

It may seem sad, but actually it’s not that bad
It’s just the peculiar ways
The truly inscrutable daze
The thick intellectual haze
The look in the eyes kind of glazed
The life like a mouse in a maze
Of the scatterbrain
8. Running with the Buffalo
Running with the Buffalo
His kin came from across the sea
He’s as tame as he can be
Born of the western mind
A child of the left-brained kind
A metal car on a concrete road
Is how he gets everywhere he goes
An automated and a mechanized mode
Is all he’s ever known

In his sober land
He does the dance of a modern man
But sometimes, when he’s sleeping, his soul
Is running with the buffalo

His mind calculates another fact
But his memory is searching back
To something he can’t quite recall
Or doesn’t remember at all
Something like a spiritual trance
Round and round in a circle dance
Round the light of a midnight fire
Freeing him as it grows higher

In his sober land
He does the dance of a modern man
But sometimes, when he’s sleeping, his soul
Is running with the buffalo

Great Spirit of this broken land
Have mercy on the modern man
Teach him how, body and soul
To go running with buffalo

Buffalo
Prairie below your feet
The hunter’s bow
Keeping your senses keen
The milky way
Over your traveling
And the plain
Is like an endless sea
9. Astronaut Dreams
Astronaut Dreams
Maggie Jane has a family
And makes a good salary
Her life is quite ordinary
Except for her astronaut dreams

They happen when she is sleeping
They happen when she’s awake
They come like abductors who sneak in
And carry poor Maggie away

CHORUS:
Suddenly Maggie Jane is floating high in space
Up among the super novi and the bright nebulae
And the earth is just another point of light, far away

Keep busy say the doctors
Clean house, turn on the TV
And they give her pills to stop her
From having her astronaut dreams

But the Universe still keeps calling
And haunting her daily routine
And defenses are slim when the light years creep in
And then steal her away beyond reach

CHORUS:

And that world of her work and her bills and her children
Is a tiny place in a remote solar system
And the size and the scope of the space where she floats
Is so big, so very big

So if you run into Maggie
And meet with an eerie stare
Don’t think she’s cold if you get no hello
Because Maggie Jane may not be there
10. O Sun
O Sun
You are the sun
I am the dew
Gifted with life for a moment or two
That I for my time
May sparkle and shine
O Sun, come fill me with you
O Sun, come fill me with you

You are the wind
I am the sail
You are my strength and without you I fail
Breathe but a sigh
And I’ll open wide
O Wind, come fill me with you
O Wind, come fill me with you

You are the wine
I am the cup
I can yield nothing till I am filled up
Hold me upright
And pour forth your life
O Wine, come fill me with you
O Wine, come fill me with you

O Wine, come fill me
O Wind, come fill me
O Sun, come fill me
With you
11. Easy Street
Easy Street
I’ve played it out in my head so many times before
I’m fixing dinner at home and there’s a knock on the door
He holds the check out in his hand
Oh my God, it’s Ed MacMahon!

CHORUS: Every night I pray to God above me
To send his love along with lots of money
Because in my heart I feel him calling me to
Easy Street

Swimming down at the Y for exercise is hard
When I know God could provide me with a pool in my yard
And I could meet my deeper needs
With a couple thousand more square feet

CHORUS:

A masterbath with double sinks would help me out for sure
A TV screen as high as me might be the only cure
For this middle class depravity, the sacrifices I endure
Deliver me Oh Lord!

And so I dream of the day when all my worries are gone
The lotteries and the sweepstakes, man, I play ‘em all
And though my faith has made me strong
These days I’m barely hanging on

CHORUS:

Grant us peace oh God and feed the hungry
And don’t forget to give me lots of money
Because I believe you have a plan for me
On Easy Street

12. Magic Beans
Magic Beans
That’s not how the story goes
When do heroes play it safe?
You’ve got a job and a family-o
But not a single golden egg
And a pocket full of possibilities
Hey ho Jack, when
Will you plant them
Magic beans?

Jack, Oh Jack, what scared you so?
Made you hide those beans and run
Did you hear the rumors-o
Of the fee, fi, fo, and fum?
Were you frightened of the things you
Just might see
Hey ho Jack-o
If you plant those
Magic beans?

Jack, it’s not too late you know
To sow those seeds of fate
So throw them out your wind-o
Go to sleep, and when you wake
Things will happen
Things you never dared to dream
But they won’t happen
Unless you plant them
Magic beans
13. The Introvert Song
The Introvert Song
People bug me when they interrupt me with calls
And unannounced visits
And on top of that when they chat about nothing at all
And I ask “what is it?”

I do have a lot to do
Can you return at two?
I will not be here by then
Just leave what you need me for
On a note on my door
So I can ignore it my friend

You may think it maddening when you ring my answering machine
And I’m right there listening
But I’d like to hire my own secretary who's mean
Someone who says things like

“Mr. Mayer can’t be reached
He is not in, you see
He’s in a meeting till ten
I suppose I could take your name
Who are you anyway?
Please never call here again

If I see you before you see me in the hall
Then while you’re not looking
I’ll find the nearest bathroom and hide in the stall
Till I think the coast is clear

Then I will take a peak
And, if you’re gone, I’ll sneak
Back to my private abode
There in my world of one
I have a lot more fun
Because people bug me you know

I do have a lot to do
Can you return at two?
I will not be here by then
Just leave what you need me for
On a note on my door
So I can ignore it my friend (repeat first verse)
14. Moon River
"Elements" is a collection of songs taken from a variety of Peter's live performances over the past few years, as well as a few recorded in the studio. Most are solo versions, and two songs feature a band.
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Third Street
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Third Street - Peter Mayer
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