My first business card for Looking West Music designed by a local graphic artist.

This photo was  taken Looking West from the balcony at 1206- 711 Broughton in 1972.

I Thought It Was Worth A Song

VANCOUVER 1972

 I Thought It Was Worth A Song

      Vancouver 1973C

 San Francisco 1975

My first place to "land"; the beginning of me. This was a time of unprecedented creativity. I was 25 and thanks to Gerry Lacoursiere, I had a record deal with a great label, (something I had been striving for for years).  I was writing every day all day long and in most of the songs I can hear myself working my way through questions about love and life that I had not had before. Years later, I have had  time to go back and collect all the ideas from the papers I managed to keep with song titles or lyrics.It was probably the most extended, emotionally charged time in my life that I was able to capture in song. In the same way that a photograph of good times can put the viewer in the picture; Perhaps a recording of discovered moments can do the same thing for the listener. Vancouver in 1972 was a magical place in a magical time and I was lucky to be there and in love.

​

    LYRICS

Then and Now

Who You Are

February 1972

​

Some girls wear jeans

Poor boys and patchouli

They're groovy babies

Others sit and type at a desk

Hopin' they'll get a raise maybe

​

But that doesn't mean

That you have to be

One or the other

There's lots of things

That make up a dream

So take some time

And discover

Who you are

The Life Men Lead

2:00 am December 26, 1972

​

Leaning in the Broadway doorway

Living life in such a poor way

Always thinking about the wine

What a bitter life their tasting

Standing on the corner

Down on East Hastings

Askin' each other

"Can you spare a dime"

​

Oh lord

The life men lead

It's sad enough

To make a jade stone bleen

And make those beautiful mountains

Start to cry

Why lord why

​

My woman's in the next room sleepin'

It's two in the mornin' and I'm still up thinkin'

Why aren't those men

Lucky like me

I've got a home that I can come to

And I've got a good woman

That I can run to

But all that they have

Is wine and the street.

​

Crazy Man (The Blue Dress Song)

July 1972

​

Oh the beat of life

Turned into a song

To the rhythm of a word

Left hanging there

Another golden sight

Suddenly gone wrong

Cashing in upon the bank

Of deep despair.

​

There's so much to say

About what went down today

And I don't think that I understand

Anyway

There's too many dreams

Wrapped up in this scene

And I don't think that I  could explain

Except to say

I'm a crazy man

  Vancouver July 3rd 1971

That's All That Love Can Do

May 1972

​

I can't solve your problems

I can't make things right

If you gave me twenty years

Or only overnight

I can't erase the memories

You've had through the years

But what I can do

Is be there for you

When the memories

Give you tears

​

That's all that love can do

That's what I'd like to do for you

Take all of your old dream

Replace them with brand new

Take your bad times

Make them all mine

That's what I'd do

Melville Street Symphony....

November 1971

​

Wind on the window

Wind through the trees

Don't blow so lonely

On people I need

Rain on the rooftop

Rain in the night

Don't fall so sadly

On people I like

​

Don't give her dreams

Cause dreams make her lonely

Don't ask her questions

That would be a mistake

She don't want answers

Or even suggestions

She just needs time

Cause time's what it takes

​

Time on the table

Time on her wrist

Don't pass so slowly

Through sad times like this

Girl softly sleeping

Boy on the floor

Wind on the window

Raining some more

FOR SARAH (2020)

Feel that wind a blowin cross the prairies

It feels just like it felt those years ago

When you and I were still the young ones Sarah

With miles ahead and many dreams to know

​

I took you from the place you were intended

And brought you to the east along with me

You lost the big sky and your appaloosa

And you almost  lost the girl you were meant to be

But there were nights when we both were dreamers

And almost caught the stars as they flew by

We loved each other in those youthful hours

The sun came up and I knew you had to ride

​

And  here’s the song I always meant to write you

And though it’s late I hope that you can tell

I never lost my love in all the sadness

And I hope your heart is kind to me as well

I remember the first time I saw you ridin

You were up on Doc he was all of 16 2

Then you took off like you both were flyin

And I think that’s when I fell in love with you

​

Forgive me for that thoughtless complication

I should have seen the Western girl in you

But now upon a lifetime of reflection

Things worked out the way they were meant to

​

This guitar is the gift you gave me

Now it’s more that 50 years ago

I can’t count how many times it saved me

So you were always here but didn’t know.

​

I’m asking you to do me one more favor

Some prairie night as the sun goes down

Ride your horse to someplace that feels lonely

And call my name as if I’m close around

I’ll be a star in your deep dark heaven

I’ll be the wind you feel on a summer days

I’ll be a song some cowboy might be singing

About a boy and girl who loved and went their ways

Silver Springs MD 1968

       Coleridge Drive

Looking West from Scottsbluff Monument