Lyrical Autobiography

[Editor's note] On the occasion of my birthday, I decided to publish a little project I've been working on for weeks. Largely consisting of lyrics from some of my favorite artists, I put together a story that pretty much sums up who I am. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed working on it.

Jerry is here to share with you some rare and stimulating insight into his cosmic fabulosity. He is a boy, a very strange enchanted boy. He was born in the wagon of a traveling show, his Mama used to dance for the money they’d throw. He was justified when he was five. Raising cane, he’d spit in your eye. He never lived the dreams of the prom kings and the drama queens. He likes to think the best of him is still hiding up his sleeve. The more he lives, the more he learns. The more he learns, the more he realizes the less he knows.

He cleaned a lot of plates in Memphis and he pumped a lot of ‘tane down in New Orleans. But he never saw the good side of the city ‘til he hitched a ride on a Riverboat Queen. He’s been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn and a king. Jerry was a showgirl, with yellow feathers in his hair and a dress cut down to there. He used to visit all the very gay places, those come-what-may places where one relaxes on the axis of the wheel of life. He's seen all the movie stars in their fancy cars and their limousines. He's been high in the Rockies under the evergreens... Once he rose above the noise and confusion just to get a glimpse beyond this illusion. He was soaring ever higher, but he flew too high. Like a poor wayfaring stranger that they speak about in song, he's just a weary pilgrim trying to find what feels like home. Each step he takes, each page he turns, each mile he travels only means the more he has to go.

Like anyone would be, Jerry is flattered by your fascination with him. He rules his life like a fine skylark. He has a lot of pretty, pretty boys he calls friends. He has a boogie style that no one else could play. He taps his fingers on the table to the rhythm in his soul. He lives and learns from fools and from sages. He knows just when to face the truth, and then he knows just when to dream. If he ruled the world, every man would say the world was his friend. There'd be happiness that no man could end. He loves the night life; he's got to boogie on the disco round. He wants to take a ride on your disco stick. But he doesn't pop his cork for every man he sees! He's a classy honey kissy huggy lovey dovey ghetto princess.

He could drink a case of you darling, and he would still be on his feet. When you put your arms around him, he gives you fever that's so hard to bare. He may be mad, he may be blind, he may be viciously unkind but he can still read what you're thinking. He speaks the language of love like he knows what it means. He ain't nobody's baby, he ain't nobody's fool. He’s a hard one, but you know that he’s got his reasons. He knows how the heartaches come and they go and the scars they're leaving.

He keeps every tear like an ocean for every day that his fortune kept him from being with you. He smiles though his heart is aching, he smiles even though it's breaking. Since you're gone and won't be his again, there are many stars that will not shine again. In his solitude, you haunt him with dreadful ease of days gone by. His eyes adored you, like a million miles away from him you couldn't see how he adored you. In the roaring traffics boom, in the silence of his lonely room he thinks of you. You go to his head, with a smile that makes his temperature rise. Like a summer with a thousand Julys, you intoxicate his soul with your eyes. If he could reach the stars he'd give them all to you. The beating of his heart is a drum, and it’s lost and it’s looking for a rhythm like you. He needs that sweet sensation of living in your love.

But for once in his life he won’t let sorrow hurt him, not like its hurt him before. He broke a thousand hearts before he met you. He’ll break a thousand more baby, before he is through. He doesn't know who you think you are, but before the night is through, he wants do bad things with you.