ฟังเพลงEstelle (Album Version)

Estelle (Album Version) - Dan Bern

I was painting a still life this morning

Of a throat lozenge sitting

On a copy of Tropic of Cancer

The only thing weird

About it is that a year ago

I never thought I'd paint anything again

I decided I wasn't ever gonna paint again

It didn't bother me too much Warhol's dead

David Hockney's still alive

I don't need to paint

I painted over ten thousand paintings

Sad ones funny ones

Dark ones and light ones

I've done haystacks and

Rich old ladies by their pools

Wearing nothing but a scarf

I've painted everything there was to paint

Now it was time to sit back give interviews

Get on the internet hang out at club med

Take stock of what I've done

You know the best friend I ever had was a dog

It sounds like a cliche

Unless it's happened to you

Some days that dog was the

Only reason I even got out of bed

That dog went everywhere with me

And then I heard the crack addicts

Were stealin' dogs and

Selling them for animal research

It sounded like an urban myth to

Me like the mouse in the Coke bottle

But I started leavin' her at home after that

You know Paula was my wife for a while

She ran off to Paris with

The great grandson of Van Gogh

A cartoonist who did

Fashion graphics for Le Monde

When Paula left she took

My dog I never saw her again

Except in the court during the custody battle

She won and got to keep the dog

And I didn't speak to anyone for months

You know sometimes it feels

Like there's so much that you need

Sometimes the world is upside down

Sometimes it seems like the only thing you need

Is holdin' someone's

Hand as you walk through town

I started hanging around with Dino

He used to run a poker game back east

Now he has a little coffee shop

Sells cappuccino to his old pals

Tommy Chicago and Jimmy the Wig and Ugly Rose

You know the best person I ever knew

Was a Mormon woman named Estelle

She still calls me drunk every few months

And asks me stuff I don't want to talk about

You can't talk to her long

Unless you're drunk yourself

Then we go all night

Yeah she goes "Why baby

Why baby why baby why

Have you turned your back on love

You had so many chances

Why have you let 'em all go by "

Well one morning I was sitting

Out in front of Dino's place

With Jake the Shears a guy

From Philly who gives free mohawks

There were a couple of young

Painters I was hopin' to come by

So I could give 'em some advice

Yeah I was sittin' there updating my list of enemies

When this girl walks in

And the universe kind of stops

Turned out she drank the same tea as me

Don't take more than that

To start a conversation sometimes

She believed collage was

The greatest of all the arts

And was busy pasting pictures

Of horses next to ads for laundry soap

Next to Mohammed Ali

She had a turquoise in her ear

And said Rachmaninoff

Was always in her head

But later that day I was trying

To describe her to Jimmy the Wig

I couldn't find any words and

I realized I'd started to sketch her chin

Somehow it didn't look right

I scratched it out and tried it again

I filled an entire pad I threw

It away I never even came close

For a six days I sat at Dino's place

The rain wouldn't quit

And no one came in

Finally on the seventh day

It cleared and in she walked

I asked her to sit with me

And I bought her a cup of tea

And I asked her to

Model for me sometime

That afternoon I was at a canvas

She was wearing a yellow dress

I swore if she let me I'd get it right

I've painted over ten thousand paintings

Sad ones funny ones

Dark ones and light ones

But sitting there it was like

I couldn't even write my own name

I apologized and said "It's been a few months

If you have patience

I'll get the hang of it again"

In the next few weeks

I painted her hundreds of times

If I get the nose right the chin's too long

If I get 'em both right the face is too thin

But I keep after it and

One day I I'll get it all right

I painted a still life

This morning of a throat lozenge

Sitting on a copy of Tropic of Cancer

The only thing was funny is that

I never thought I'd paint anything again

I think I might go visit Estelle

Those Utah mountains are good for the soul

I'll bring my brushes and some Jack Daniels

And we can make up for lost time

And she said "Why baby

Why baby why baby why

Baby why have you turned your back on love

You had so many chances

Why have you let 'em all go by "

And she says "Why baby

Why baby why baby why

Baby why have you turned your back on love

You had so many chances

Why have you let 'em all go by "

Sometimes it seems like

There's so much that you need

Sometimes the world is upside down

Sometimes it seems

Like the only thing you need

Is holdin' someone's hand

As you walk through town