ted hawkins, “stay close to me,”
from: watch your step, 1982
“I know you want me
By the strange way
That you kiss me
What was your reason
For the wise crack
That you made
If you knew you’d act this way
Why did you leave me, oh
Please stay close to me
You’re from the upper class
You dislike long hair
Anyway, I know you do
I’m going to the barber shop
I read the paper, just like you
Tomorrow morning, I swear to God
I’m gonna see if I can find a job
But please stay close to me
I realize the life I live
Is not the right thing to do
But how was I to know that someday
I’d meet someone like you
It isn’t easy, I’ll tryin’ to kick
If you help me to
Oh my darling
You don’t know how I need you
Lord...
There’s a cold sweat, sweaping over me
Right now, oh, yes it is
I need a fix, wont somebody help me
Come to my rescue, oh yeah
… Perhaps I’d still be stepping high
Had I not promised you that I would try
Oh, please stay close to me
… There’s a rough road to spleed out before me
Oh, yes it is
There’s gonna be flashbacks of bad trips
All sommer long
You wouldn’t force me to live like you
If you knew the agony that I am going through
Oh, please stay close to me
Oh, please stay close to me
Oh, please stay close to me...
”
If I could make a film about the life of any musician, it would be Ted Hawkins. Without going into an exhaustive chronology, suffice it to say his path had so many twists, turns, false starts, apocalypses, hospitalizations, reinventions, nervous breakdowns, imprisonments, drugs, dead ends and revelations to last several lifetimes. He pressed on fueled by his love of making music inspired, in particular, by the work of Sam Cooke. It’s a story in the end, not to sum him up in any way, with a musical bounty of simplicity. If you listen to his guitar work on this piece, he has carved out a resting place for the listeners to dwell. He played on the sidewalks surrounding Venice Beach, California for so long, that the blowing sand badly damaged his vocal chords. As serendipity would have it, a fan/surgeon in the UK who became aware of Ted’s music was able to repair them. Justice was a long time coming for Ted Hawkins, but his deep humanity enveloped him all along.
