If you are a dreamer, come in...

[Jennifer]

"If you are a dreamer,come in. If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, a hoper, a prayer, a magic-bean-buyer. If you're a pretender, come sit by my fire, for we have some flax-golden tales to spin. Come in! Come in!”
- Shel Silverstein


So there I am on my way home from work yesterday, waiting in the left hand lane for the arrow to make my turn when I popped Don Quixote in the CD player. As the strains of music begin, I haphazardly perused the small print on the sleeve (it's a long red light...) and the name Shel Silverstein pops out at me as a co-writer on "On Susans Floor"... no way! I never noticed this before. *The* Shel Silverstein on a GL album?!?! The man who wrote about the "yipiyuk that will not let go" and "oh, I'm being eaten by a boa constrictor, a boa constrictor, a boa constrictor, and I don't like it one bit!"???

I am such a huge fan of Shel's poetry, my copies of Where the Sidewalk Ends and Light in the Attic are old and tattered but still so dearly loved. I was so happy to see his name on this sleeve, in collaboration with another great songwriter and poet that I love, that I would have missed my turn if the guy behind me hadn't beeped his horn! LOL.

Did Gordon and Shel actually meet at one time? Has Gordon recorded anymore of Shel's songs? I would be interested to know.

Peace ~

Jen

[Auburn Annie]

Words and music by Shel Silverstein and Vince Matthews - also recorded by Hank Williams, Jr. No idea if they ever met but it wouldn't be a surprise if they had.

I know there was a real Susan who has since died (cancer maybe? Shel himself died of heart disease in 1999). I vaguely remember reading an article about her; she may have lived in Nashville. She did take in struggling musicians.

Funny how Gord can take another's song and make it sound so much like his own - careful selection of material, I guess.

[RM]

And let's not forget "A Boy Named Sue".

A very creative soul.

RMD