Raincan

01. Lyin’ Around Louise
02. River Rats
03. Christine
04. Blues For Two Big Ears
05. Raincan 9
06. Raincan (Original Version)
07. Slow Burn
08. Lazybug
09. Softly, As In A Morning Sunrise
10. M’Druthers
11. The Parlour
12. Duration
13. Reign (Bonus Track)
14. Children (Bonus Track)
“Raincan” by Willie Wisely Trio
Wooden/Gark Records GD-20015 | released 1992 | CD/Cass/mp3

“…a dervish-like musical packrat: saving up influences and whipping them out like shiny baubles. RAINCAN runs an alarming musical gamut from laid-back jazz to startlingly delicate power-pop to full out rural blues. The cohering force: Wisely’s voice, completely saturated with character and inflection.” ––Jon Hunt, MINNESOTA DAILY

  CD | PayPal | $30 (very rare)
   downloads | iTunes
   downloads | direct from artist via bandcamp (mp3/AAC/FLAC…)


Wow, A Real Studio!

Bare Ass Beach, by Shannon Kennedy 1991

Bare Ass Beach, by Shannon Kennedy 1991

The sessions for RAINCAN were a heady time for the Trio. We’d just signed to Gark Records, home to recent releases by the popular Gear Daddies, and personal heroes Trip Shakespeare––for whom we’d eventually have the honor of opening up for at First Avenue. It was also the Trio’s first experience with professional multitrack recording. Everything up to this point had been cut on consumer grade 4- or 8-track decks, almost entirely in rehearsal spaces. So we were excited to use the studio to its fullest and set ourselves free of the lo-fi constraints.

Ezra Gold was our producer, and I marvel at the clarity of the sound he captured. Like with all our collaborators, I remember running him ragged with indulgent techniques: cutting lead vocals out on the street as city busses drove by, mixing in double drumkits, recording the band live all in one room, micing guitar amps from inside the speaker cabinet, recording the tapping of my feet while playing electric guitar, recording mumbled vocal overdubs, and capturing the sound of zippers, footsteps, door slams, rocking chairs and generally pushing him for up to 14 hours per session. He abided all this, while recording to tape–not with the we’ll-fix-it-later digital recording studios we have now. We should’ve just named the record “Ezra, I’m Sorry”.


Album Credits | Lyrics

Produced by Willie Wisely
Engineered & Mixed by Ezra Gold
Art Direction by John Berry for Nothing Arts
Photography by Shannon Kennedy except Trio Before Backdrop by Daniel Corrigan
Backdrop by John Berry
Liner Notes by Tim DuRoche

all songs ©1992.Wisely Publishers ASCAP except 9 by Hammerstein II/Romberg (Warner Publishing)

Peter Anderson: Drums
James Voss: String Bass
Willie Wisely: Vocals and Guitars
Greg Wold: Trombone

Recorded and mixed February through June 1991. All songs recorded at Gark Studio, Minneapolis except 4 & 10 recorded and mixed at Total Music Systems and Underground Studio in Minneapolis.
Executive Producer: Willie Wisely.
Produced by Willie Wisely Trio and Ezra Gold
Mixed, mastered & engineered by Ezra Gold


Lyrics

Lyin’ Around Louise

I got me a pad
A closed of plaids I keep on the floor
I’m known for these rags
A real gone barn
A plate of chicken con carne I left on the stoop
Ants think its a farm

The crowning touch to it all
Is Lyin’ Around Louise
We may get a little fat but we do as we please
Well the crowd can’t touch her at all
‘Cause she’s Lyin’ Around Louise
We may get a little horny we do as we please

With black lava lights
Quadrophonic hi-fi the dinosaur flies
In spite of its size
A closet of plants
Well I’m sucking up amps when I turn on my grow lamps
Please don’t tell my parents

The crowning touch to it all
Is Lyin’ Around Louise
Well we may get a little plump but we do as we please
The crowd can’t touch her at all
‘Cause she’s Lyin’ Around Louise
You look great without your clothes on you do as you please


River Rats

We hung our clothes on the hickory limb
Our bodies froze in the river
She’s so fine, mine, all mine, my
River rats we love the water

Barren were the boughs of the hickory limb
Some mad joke I ‘spose of my sisters’
We’ll sneak back to town after sundown
River rats, we’re caught in hot water

She’s so fine, mine, all mine
We’re river rats, we love the water
She’s so fine, mine all mine
We’re river rats, we love the water

On out tippy-toes we ran through the orchards
But Ida Redd’s big nose from her porch on her rocking chair
“Hey, you kids! Oh, I see where you hid.”
River rats we love the water
“Didn’t mean no hastles, well I swear we weren’t pluckin’ your apples”
River rats we love the water
River rats we love the water
Yeah, river rats we love the water


Christine

She’s ripped on flipsies lives in the sixties
Her hair is tumble-dry
Her eyes are white with lye
Her mind beyond repair
But I know it’s out there somewhere

Take me down tonight Christine
Lord you are my sweetest dream
Pick me up in your limousine dear
Lay me on your evergreens

She loves to tease and men upon their knees
She gets what she please
Her heart’s for rent or lease
Her mind is so corrupt
But all the boys lick it up

Chorus

I’m standing in the mirror sniffing out the atmosphere
I turn and she’s in bed
With visions of gingermen cooking bread
Watch out girl your oven’s red
Knead that dough till it’s bled

Chorus

Take me down tonight
Lord I’m feeling all right
Pick me up, pick me up, pick me up
Ball me on your golfing green


Blues For Two Big Ears

Blues for two big ears
Ears big as bells
Poor ol’ Theodore
Pity Little Ted

The kids would hide
Sneak up behind him with rulers
(Ted you better watch your ass)
‘Cause you’ll run home with your ears split like cauliflower

Chorus

Well he asked hi ma,
“Please Ma, can I grow my hair long?”
(Ted you better turn and run)
‘Cause she comes back with a razor, a bowl, and a scowl

Then Ted met Michelle
She said, “With flaps like that you ought to be a jazz cat.”
(The better to hear your sharps and flats)
Now when Ted blows the ladies circle more like crows
When he sings gossamers all take wings
When he plays the chicks are fighting like blue jays

Chorus..Well blow my, my man Ted


Raincan 9
Instrumental


Raincan

I wander up a hill
To see the city by the bay it fills with bildge
And all the sewage of one day
I’m blown away

So I bought myself a raincan
I prayed for water

I ride my bike through town
For years I never feared until they knocked me down
They stole my shit and kicked my face
I am amazed

So I bought myself a raincan
I prayed for water
My raincan caught a cup
Of bildge and water

A car pulls up the curb
The window rolls as a pistol is exposed
He says, “No whities on my turf”
His pistol squirts

refrain

A friend pulls me aside
He said stop singing about the issues of our day
Everything you’ve said is just so base
You’re just a pretty face

refrain


Slow Burn

Give me a slow burn
I’ll sing a torching tune
Give me a slow burn
I’ll sock it to you good
Not too hard or too soft
Just as steady ahead as she goes
Give me a slow burn
And don’t turn up your nose

Give me a dew drop
I’ll suck it off your ear
Give me a wet spot
I’ll gladly slap your rear
Not too much just enough
Just a pull and a pinch in repose
Give me a slow burn
And don’t turn up your nose

Give me a rug burn
You’re so hard on the knees
Let’s move to the sofa
I’ll be much more eager to please
Not too far or too near
Just as long as our lips can compose
Give me a slow burn
And don’t turn up your nose…

Turn up your nose
Rip off your clothes
Leave on your clothes


Lazybug

I spy me old lazybug
Truckin’ up my leg
She’s coming to see me

After winter spent away
She comes and she goes
Makes way toward my elbow
Tucks her wings and goes away
Away

(Stay) My lazy bug don’t stray away
My lazybug (don’t) please (stray) stay, hey, away

Well I’d step on the ant hill
But not on that lucky bug
She ran through my hands
Oh, as a kid in the neighborhood
She comes now and then
The same girl I knew when
I was twenty, twelve, or ten
She comes and she goes

Chorus

Well go away lazy bug
I cannot sashay today
But she grins and she grabs me
Woah, push me back madly
Well she gums me up twice
Well thrice, four, or five times
Won’t you be mine
Be mine, be my guide

Chorus


Softly, As In A Morning Sunrise

Softly as in a morning sunrise
The light that gave you glory
Will take it all away

Woah, flaming with all the glow of sunrise
The light of love is steeling
A vow that all betray

For the passions that thrill love
And lift you high to heaven
Them’s the passions that kill love
And let you fall to hell
So ends each morning

Softly as in an evening sunset
The light that gave you glory
Will take it all away

For the passions that thrill love
And lift you high to heaven
Them’s the passions that kill love
And let you fall to hell
So ends each morning

Softly as in a morning Bundt cake
The light that gave you gory
Will snatch it back
Will snatch it all away
Will snatch it all away
All away…
Softly…
Soft…


M’Druthers

I’ll get your love
I’ll take your wheels
I’ll get m’druthersYou’ve got them legs that kill a man
Oh you’ve got that part in your hair
You’ve got the wind in the power lines
You’ve got the world in despair

Well now you’ve got the earth between your knees
You’re hummin’ like an old Frigidaire
You’ve got the trees bent down behind you
You’ve got the world by the hair

You’ve got them bellies that chide
You got them mean old skin of naugahyde
You got them bellies awh, full of brew
And a pithy disposition to tan me black and blue

I’ll get your love
I’ll take your wheels
I’ll get m’druthers
I’ll get your love
Take m’druthers


The Parlour

I went to the parlour
If only to see Delore
She’d warm the armchair
Wait for me to come on through the door
Her eyes were olive-orange
Calico in pewter-gray
Men come to the parlour
Just to see her face

I went to the parlour
Ladies were all my friends
They told me secrets
Man, we’d laugh at their gentlemen
Delores love their company
She loved my lap on sunny afternoons
The parlour ain’t the parlour
Without her in the room

Woah, all the parlour ladies all had envied her
Alluring parlour ladies sordid eye for her
Young and soft and cozy, men come to see her strech and bow
Once you’d seen Delore ya’ll come back for more

Went to the parlour
The ladies were cold as stone
Rose tries seducing me
She takes me upstairs rips off her clothes
“Hold on Rose what’s going on?”
Rose breaks down in a ball of tears
“The ladies took Delore
To the river pier.”

Chorus…Once you’d seen Delore, she’d never let you go

Went to the parlour
The ladies would not get my share
I’d fill my own glass
Drink it down ina cold armchair
Though Delore the deed was done
I reckon these ladies miss you some
Now men come here mostly just to fill their cups
I said, now men come here mostly just to fill their cups

Chorus…

Young and soft and cozy, now men come to see her stretch
Once you’d seen Delore ya’ll come back for more, ya hear
I said once you’d done Delore she’d never let you go
Once you’d done Delore you didn’t want no whore
Well once you’d done Delore you didn’t want no whore, yeah


Duration
Bring me on lassy
Take me along
We’ll find a canyon
Make it our home, make it our home
Well bring me ‘long with you now
Show me your dreams
Bring me to places
I ain’t never been to, I ain’t never been

I’m in for the duration
I’m in for the dura-
Take me on down on your crusading mission
I’m in for the duration

Take me from body now
Show me your mind
My life it’s yours
So don’t leave it behind, I love your behind, flaughty!
Take me from territory
Fortress of gold
I’ll walk the fences
You take the road, I’ll take the road.

I’m in for the duration
I’m in for the dura-
Take me on down on your crusading mission
I’m in for the duration