BROADWAY SONGS AND STANDARDS

 I thought about the Vagabond lover
 Always in search of someone true 
 It is not an unusual tale

 One I found chose someone else
 I was brokenhearted, but
 with a little help from my friends,
 I endured
  
 They had seen the troubled waters ahead
 One said lean on me and then lead
 me over the bridge.  You know:  
 The Bridge over Troubled Waters
 There were those who cheered; lots of them,
 but another hundred people who felt bad.
 They were to have been our wedding guests
  
 They had already purchased from our registry 
 We had listed some of my favorite things
 Who am I, though?  I am not going to cry,
 come back to me.  Life would just have to go on
 It did for her; she found another and later
 when I met her significant other I thought,
 there, but for you go I.  I felt lifted
  
 Thank God, my friend said for the road you didn’t take; 
 I must say, I had to agree
 Imagine, I said, when walking through 
 the mall and saw her across the way,
 this nearly was mine
 All the things you are, became to me
 a new sentiment.  

 I felt relief, especially on gray days and 
 even on a clear day
 If ever I would leave you, I would, is how 
 I felt, now refreshed and 
 I would not expect you to pleadingly cry,  
 come back to me, but maybe
 I could imagine you saying brother, can you 
 spare a dime, as your world was slipping away
  
 Where is the life that late I lead?  
 It has to be somewhere and in the meantime I wanted
 to look at pieces of something in the past
 that had meant something special to me
 If you think I’m just a wearyin’ for you, I’m not
 So don’t get that feeling of satisfaction
  
  
  
 There was that tale of the oyster with the natural pearl, 
 more valuable than oil
 Hard to grasp, but the Japanese developed
 the cultured pearl using "duna" as the irritating 
 agent and suddenly oil became 
 the next big thing to cause wars
  
 What a wonderful world, bright sunny days,
 dark sacred nights, all the jabber and 
 I keep thinking how lucky I am
  
 I remember hearing of Frank Sinatra singing, 
 Ol’ Man River, in a concert in 1963 
 that was so dramatic and done with such feeling 
 that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. sat weeping
  
 It was not a song of love, but an example of
 the power of music and the stories 
 told through music.  

 Hey friend, brush those troubles from my back.  
 Thank you, I’m feeling lighter already
  
 Stanski
 October 15, 2019 ^