AFTER HOURS

All the gang has gone home
Standing on the corner
All alone

You and me, streetlight
We’ll paint the town – grey
Oh, we are so many lamps
Who have lost our way

Say goodnight, America
The world still loves a dreamer

And all the gang has gone home
And I’m standing on the corner
All alone

For the first time in almost 40 years, I’m sitting down at the keyboard, re-learning to play. This lovely song with its sad lyrics and lyrical keyboard accompaniment, full of major seventh, minor ninth and diminished seventh chords, is where I’m starting.

I took the photo last night, just down the street — the pond down the hill behind these trees was frozen over and very quiet, peaceful and serene in the moonlight.

If you’re not familiar with the song, you can hear it here. You can listen to some of her CD’s here and her live recordings here. Rickie Lee is an avid civil libertarian (though her activist website ‘furniture for the people’ is temporarily offline) so if you like her work, please consider buying something from her site. She’s one of us.