Category Archives: Songs

Rusty’s Posted Song List

Songs

Bandito Christmas

Audio

Christmas songs I have written over the years. Mostly I write and move along, but this year as I turned 68 I decided it’s time to organize 51 years of songwriting and I was surprised to find this many Christmas songs. Please enjoy and have a Merry Little Christmas!

I am putting some of my originals and some Suno versions of my songs on the list.

Songs

Hush-a-bye Baby

Hushabye Baby (1987)

I wrote this as an exercise in metaphor and simile—nothing heavy on my mind, just letting the images come. A valley where flowers won’t grow, a maiden whose tears bring them back, love as renewal. It came out sweet, simple, and lovely.

But it took on an entirely different meaning the week my father went into the hospital.

He was heavily sedated on morphine, barely aware, not speaking. They told me to bring my guitar, so I did. I played him a few songs—no response. Then I started singing Hushabye Baby. And something happened.

He moved. He reached out.

I took his hand. I sang the rest of it a cappella, and somewhere in his medicated sleep, he smiled.

It was a quiet moment, but one of the most profound in my life. A small, fragile connection between a son and a father at the edge of parting. I didn’t write the song for him—but that night, it became his. And now, it’s ours.

Lyrics:
[Chorus]
Hushabye baby, there’s no need to cry
Hold your sweetheart close to mine
Close your eyes and I’ll sing you a sweet lullaby
And we’ll leave your sad teardrops behind

[Verse 1]
There once was a valley surrounded by hills
Where the flowers would no longer grow
Then a pretty fair maiden cried down on those hills
‘Cause she loved the wild flowers so
Her tears fell like rain on the parched barren soil
And the flowers came back to bloom
Those hills were my heart when I met you, my darling
And the pretty fair maiden was you

[Chorus]
Hushabye baby, there’s no need to cry
Those flowers still bloom in my heart
Close your eyes and I’ll sing you a sweet lullaby
And we’ll leave your sad teardrops behind

[Chorus]
Hushabye baby, there’s no need to cry
Hold your sweetheart close to mine
Close your eyes and I’ll sing you a sweet lullaby
And we’ll leave your sad teardrops behind
[Outro]
Let’s leave these sad teardrops
Behind

Songs

Getting Old Will Be The Death Of Me

This one ain’t a pity party — it’s a victory lap on creaky knees. -OR-
It’s all fun and games until you lose a knee! 🙂

Written with a brand-new titanium joint and an old-school bluesy grin, this song is what happens when you finally understand what your dad meant by “Getting old’s not for sissies.” Spoiler alert: he wasn’t joking.

Yeah, I’ve had parts replaced and more aches than a country song has metaphors, but I’m still standing (slowly), still singing (loudly), and still dreaming (daily). This isn’t about giving up — it’s about calling out aging for the sneaky bastard it is… and doing it with rhythm, rhyme, and a raised eyebrow.

Because if you’re gonna go down eventually, you might as well go down swinging — with a guitar in hand, a smirk on your face, and a chorus worth repeating.

So here’s to all of us ticking like old clocks:
We may be falling apart… but we’re doing it in style.

Enjoy,
Rusty – “Limpy”
Lyrics:
[Verse 1]
My father he built homes
And that’s very hard work
I know because I did it too
It made my back hurt
You don’t know what it’s worth
Until the day that you slip
Sure enough, it got my back
And then it took my right hip
Last year I lost my left knee
Like when he said you’ll see
“Getting old’s not for sissies,
It’ll be the death of me”
[Chorus]
Feels like a train
Rolling through my brain
Feels like a lightning bolt
Is striking me
With all this pain
I can’t be the same
I guess this getting old
Will be the death of me
[Verse 2]
Now as I’m stumbling through
the evening of my life
The age I’m feeling cuts me like a knife
Nowadays I hear his voice
It’s haunting me
And I realize getting old
Will be my death you’ll see
[Chorus]
Feels like a train
Rolling through my brain
Feels like a lightning bolt
in my right knee
With all this pain
I can’t be the same
I guess this getting old
Will be the death of me
I realize that getting old
Will be the death of me

“I replaced the parts. The punchlines stayed original.”

#GettingOldWillBeTheDeathOfMe
#RustyCline
#NotForSissies
#AgingOutLoud
#BluesyTruth
#SongwriterWisdom
#TitaniumAndTunes
#MidlifeAnthem
#StillGotIt
#Rustyisms
#LifeInLyrics
#TruthHurtsButItSingsRealPretty

Songs, Videos

I’ve Got Time

A Bottle of Water in Every Room

In 2014, I had knee replacement surgery.
Joanne took off work and stayed home to take care of me.
For days, she helped me move, propped up my leg,
checked my meds, cooked, cleaned — you name it.
She was patient, funny, gentle. Present.

Eventually, she had to go back to work.
I was mobile by then — barely.
Still stiff, still slow, still sore.

That morning, after she left, I shuffled through the house…
And everywhere I sat,
in every chair, on every couch,
there was a bottle of water waiting for me.
Even in places I never sit.

I paused, took it in, and whispered aloud:
“Aww… she took the time.”

That afternoon, guitar in lap, leg on a chair,
the song came to me.
At first it felt small — quiet, sweet.
But by verse four, it had become a cosmic meditation.

Flowers. Moons. Oceans.
Red dwarfs. Comets. Supernovas.

Love starts as a gesture.
But when it’s real,
it stretches across galaxies.

“I’ve Got Time” was my way of saying thank you.
To the woman who showed me what it means to love ahead.
To plan for someone’s comfort — even when you’re not there.
To see love in the little things…
and feel the universe open in return.

[Verse 1]
The sun comes up, the day goes by
The world it turns, and the night time sighs
[Chorus]
And I’ve got time, just to be with you
Yes I’ve got time, just to be with you
[Verse 2]
A baby is born, an old man dies
A family’s torn, and a mother cries
[Chorus]
And I’ve got time, just to be with you
Yes I’ve got time, just to be with you
[Verse 3]
A flower blooms, a moonbeam shines
An ocean waves, and a poet rhymes
[Chorus]
And I’ve got time, just to be with you
Yes I’ve got time, just to be with you

[Instrumental]

[Verse 4]
Quasars burn, red dwarfs glow
A comet returns, and super novas implode
[Chorus]
And I’ve got time, just to be with you
Yes I’ve got time, just to be with you
[Outro]
Yes I’ve got time, just to be with you
I’ve got time, just to be with you

Songs, Videos

Orange and Red and Gold


It was one of those Tucson sunsets that should stop traffic.
Instead, it just slowed it down.

I was crawling along in the usual rush hour mess
when I saw him — a boy with a pack,
walking the opposite direction of everyone else.

He looked up.
Paused.
Then turned away from the city
and headed into the foothills,
toward the sky that was bleeding gold across the mountains.

He wasn’t on his phone.
He wasn’t rushing to make a meeting.
He was just there.
Present.
And then… gone, swallowed up by that burning horizon.

I couldn’t take a picture —
but maybe this song is better.

“Orange and Red and Gold” is my snapshot.
A musical photograph of a boy, a sky,
and a fleeting moment of magic
that reminded me to look up,
breathe deep,
and write it all down.
Enjoy,
Rusty

Lyrics:
[Verse 1]
As the sun goes down in Tucson
The sky will burn with orange and red and gold
A boy sets out to walk into the foothills
[Refrain]
As his eyes reflect the orange, the red and gold
[musical signature]
[Verse 2]
As the sun sets low in Tucson
Cars are filling up the open road
Tail lights flash and crawl into the traffic
[Refrain]
As the sky burns bright with orange, red and gold
[musical signature]
[Bridge]
And all the cars that pour out of the city
Are painted by the sunset’s glow tonight
And all the while it seems such a pity
That the boy’s the only one to see the sky
[Refrain]
As the sunset burns with orange and red and gold
[instrumental]
The sun sets down in Tucson
Inflame the sky with orange and red and gold
[Outro]
Yes, the Tucson sky burns orange and red and gold
Yes, the Tucson sky burns orange and red and gold

Songs

The Sky

When The Metaphor Becomes The Reality
I used to think I was being poetic.
That calling her my sky was just a metaphor — you know, the kind of thing cowboys and songwriters say when they don’t know how else to express what’s gone missing.
But then the sky actually disappeared. Once upon a time I almost lost my Joey!
I woke up one morning, and it wasn’t there.
No sunrise, no blue. Just emptiness. And darkness.
And that’s when I knew.
She really was the sky.
All that time, I thought she was just the mood in the room — the emotional weather that rolled in and out of my life. But turns out, she was the light that let me see, the rain that helped me grow, the wind that moved me, the darkness that made stars possible.
And when she left, I didn’t just lose a person.
I lost the sky.
This song is the story of that realization.
It’s a love letter to what I almost lost — an elegy for what I’m so grateful I could salvage. I love you Joanne!

The Sky
[Verse 1]
The sky it was there
like the sky always is
Filled up with stars
until dawn when they kiss
Kiss the sun in the face
and then go away

[Verse 2]
Sometimes it clouds
and rains a whole day
No matter my mood,
or my plans to play
The sky does its thing
like skies ought to do

[Verse 3]
It might disappoint,
get snow in my hair
Blow wind in my face,
it just doesn’t care
Yes the sky does the things
that skies always do

[Verse 4]
Then one certain morning
I climbed out of bed
The sky wasn’t there,
just a note in its stead
Said I’ve left you for good,
I’ll never come back

[Verse 5]
Need I say next
I slipped into a funk
With no sky above
like a topless bed bunk
It rained, sunned, snowed, and shined
But I never gave back

[Verse 6]
No light to see,
reed or refrain
An empty sad darkness
filled up my brain
Was nothing to do,
no air to breathe

[Verse 7]
The sky it was gone,
or was that you
Leaving me

[Chorus]
Oh the sky and the sun,
the wind and the rain
The light and the dark
and the love and the pain
It was you here with me

[Chorus]
The sky and the sun,
the wind and the rain
The light and the dark
and the love and the pain
It was you here with me

[Chorus]
The sky and the sun
and the wind and the rain
The light and the dark,
the love and the pain
It was you here with me
It was you leaving me