John Wesley Harding Talkin` Return Of The Great Folk Scare Blues Lyrics

Talkin` Return Of The Great Folk Scare Blues Lyrics

Well I was born in 1965

That was a hell of a good time to be alive

Except that by the age of ten

The music had turned crap again

    Now people say they wanna bring back the 70's

    I say hey give the bad music of today a chance



Punk came round, that was pretty scary

It was like a contemporary Peter, Paul and Mary

Shocking!

And before the 80's got too far

It was time for me to pick up my guitar

    Picked it up

    Looked good!



All my friends turned up their noses

At Freewheelin' and For The Roses

Preferring image over substance

A hairstyle for a musical influence

    All those Ultravox records, they're gathering dust

    But me, I'm still listening to Live Rust

    And if the 90's are the 60's turned upside down

    Then the 80's were the 60's the right way up 

    Only with half the top cut off?

    If you think about it!



And in the town where I did live

There was no-one  I could do hoot night with

So I sat alone with my six strings

And I learned how to play and sing

    Woody Guthrie's guitar killed fascists and crime

    But in Hastings, East Sussex, South of England

    My guitar killed time?



And I got gigs opening for bands

And things would get outta hand

Cos big men would yell out their derision

So I developed humor as a defense mechanism?

    The main band of the night would be?..

    And I'd go on first and I'd get carried away?

    Literally



And I moved to the big old smoky city

Just after University

And I got a gig opening for a friend of mine

Where I happened to be playing my ace in the right place at the

Right time?

    So I gave up my PhD

    To become a dustbowl folky

    That's Phil Ochs not Phil Oakey 



And then I learned the Folksinger's Prayer and it goes like this:



Our Father

Who art on Folkways

Ramblin' Jack be thy name

Thy Folk City come

Thy will be done

On CD as it was on vinyl

Give us this day our daily gig

And forgive us our protest

As we forgive those who protest against us

And lead us not into electricity

But deliver us from commercialism

For Prine is the kingdom

The power of the story

Forever be clever

A minor?



So hey everybody the time is near

The Folk revival's coming here

But it's a tough thing to revive today

Cos it never really goes away

That's cos it's a good thing

    So everyone it's time to come and claim your share

    It's time to re-iron your hair

    It's time to relearn Scarborough Fayre

    And in 5 years time you're gonna look back

    You're gonna say 'I was there'

    At the return of the great folk scare