The A Cappella Handyman: Songwriting in Benicia

Seriously? Who writes songs in Benicia? I know this old eccentric guy in Benicia, lives up in the hills, comes down from time to time to water his dogs and attends open mics and occasionally sings a song he’s written at a BenLit event at the Rellik Tavern on First Street or maybe at an ArtWalk or Rosanna’s…sometimes at Poets Picnic in the Park in August, even sang once at Cafe Voltaire when it was in operation in the Tannery building, years ago, also on First Street. And fancy this, 12 to 16 of his original songs are on YouTube.com. You can check them out, here’s his nearly complete A Cappella song list:

Two Right Shoes
Colitis Blue
Bottom Back
Can’t Find the Pharaoh
(Quarry Song/Rooms and Brooms)
Daddy was a Hard Drive
Dog Food Commercial
Buy The Farm
East Benicia Jail Song
Laid Off American Man
I’ve Been Better &
I’ve Been Worse
Life’s Just a John Prine Song
I Buy Jam
Methane Jane
You Are The Song

Here’s one of his favorites:

Buy The Farm

“She won me over with her French Fries
(they weren’t French Fries but Chicken Saltimbocca,
a beautifully set table, wine glasses, fabric napkins
in hand-carved wooden napkin rings, flowers)
but that wouldn’t be half as funny as saying,

“She won me over with her French Fries,
her good looks and her charm,
but she never married me to this day,
so I think I’m gonna buy the farm,
Uh-Oh, I think I’m gonna buy the farm.

Now a marriage ya see,
is a bunch of bills, romance and some thrills,
a marriage scene caught somewhere between
the kids and the undertaker.
But if you’re lucky,
you’ll only DO IT once,
and while some get better with age,
for me and you it was ONE and TWO,
and THREE would be a royal rage,
Oh yeah, three would be a royal rage.

She won me over with her French Fries,
her good looks and her charm,
but she never married me to this day,
so I think I’m gonna buy the farm,
Uh-Oh, I think I’m gonna buy the farm.

I got married for the first time,
when I was younger than the garden gate,
Number 2 we ran right through,
but Three says we’ll have to wait.
Well, I’ve never been such a Patient Man,
I guess I’ll have to settle down,
and buy a little farm at the edge of town,
and wait for her to come around.

“She won me over with her French Fries,
her good looks and her charm,
but she never married me to this day,
so I think I’m gonna buy the farm,
Uh-Oh, I think I’m gonna buy the farm.
I think I’m gonna buy the farm,
Uh-Oh, I think I’m gonna buy the farm.
©Peter Bray 1989
All rights reserved
(We married in 1994, so this is officially
an Old Song! Pedro & The Mrs. Janice Jaffe-Bray)