Category Archives: Love

Listen to the Mockingbird Sing Crow

I wrote this after watching a Netflix special about Glen Campbell and his Alzheimer’s disease, of which he ultimately dies on August 8, 2017). In celebration of still knowing that I remember things I forgot, forget things I want to remember and wonder why and where they go when I forget. This song is dedicated to Glen Campbell and all the remembering and forgetting and never knowing for certain quite why we do either.

I mean seriously, how is it I can remember a cigarette jingle from the 1960’s and forget a grand child’s birth date?

In the writing of this song I remembered a little girl named Tammy Holmes, when we were in 5th grade, we skipped school and made out all day long, nothing but kissing and petting over and over again, two young children exploring one another’s bodies and feelings…. why would I remember that as I am writing this song.

That memory reminded me of a woman named Tamara tha tI met in Salt Lake City, when when I was 30, and she was only 20. She was drop dead gorgeous. I remembered watching her sleep as moonlight through the rain on the window painted beautiful shadows on her naked body, why would I remember those things today after all these years???

I guess I was “Listening to the Mockingbird Sing Crow”

CD – Full Moon Spirits

What does one do if one knows one is a conduit to the spirit world? Keep writing and singing what flows through the conduit I guess….
So… here you go!

Landslide is dedicated to my daughter Elaynia Parker/Cline.

“Always the Same in the End” Was handed to me with this full moon – no rehearsal, no prelude, turn on the recorder and an instant song comes from my full moon muse… Listen carefully a few times.. this is more than what is seems… maybe this should be played at my funeral 🙂

Cold Hard Canyon

The Meanings and Metaphors of “Cold Hard Canyon”

The wind can blow hard in the canyon
When the cold air falls from the sky

When our Arizona monsoons build an anvil out of a cloud it gathers cold air that eventually falls, sometimes at over a hundred miles an hour creating a down-burst of air that is turbulent and violent. The past few years has brought age and great pain to my body that feels at times like an ice cold blast of air is coursing through my body.

I can still feel your heart beating
And taste your warm lips in my sighs

I still feel my youth. It hasn’t disintegrated or disappeared yet, though I suspect it will one day in the no longer distant future. It is something I am trying to accept, fight off, defend and deny all at the same time… usually in this condition I reflexively let out a unconscious sigh.

My lantern is starting to flicker
As the lightening and thunder do clash

canyon moonI have come to realize that the light at the end of this tunnel really is a train, and it is on its way to run me over somewhere in the unknown future. This again creates a polarization of energy in me that feels like lightning and thunder.

The cactus has ripped my old slicker
As the lantern’s obscured by the sky

As my joints have worn out and arthritis has taken a hold of my knees and my wrists (making it very hard to play the guitar and dance) it feels like cactus needles poking into my flesh. At times like this I find it very hard to bring forth the virility and youthful feeling that still resides in my bones.

Whoopee tie yie yo get along little doggies
I’ve got a long way to go
Whoopee tie yie yo get along little doggies
Tucson was never your home

I have know for too many years that the earth and my current physicality is temporary, thus, “Tucson Was Never Your Home”. This makes me feel like I need to whip things into a frenzy around me because time is running out. Oh I may have decades still to live (or may not), but my youth is dissipating and I feel like I need to capture all of the moments I can before it is all gone. There are so many things I still want to do. “Let’s dance, come on get that right! Turn it on let’s go!” At times I feel bad for Joanne, because since I drive myself so hard, even though I try not to, as her dance partner, I sometimes drive her too hard as well.

The storm makes the cattle so restless
The darkness makes them hard to read

canyon lightWhen I slip out of the brilliant light of my own existence I almost always screw something up and make a mess. I slip into the darkness that resides in my artist and I lose track of what and who is real sometimes and it begins to feel like everything is dark, even though it is only me that I can take in or out of the light.

So I’m sitting low in the saddle
Praying that they don’t stampede

Sometimes in a crowd, I withdraw into myself for fear I will say the wrong thing and piss someone off. Too often I am quite frank in my observations, and I have a knack for being observant.

I’m holding a torch for your love here
Like a match in a cold hurricane

I have come to learn that even though love is abundant, it is not always easy to keep a relationship together, consequently I hold my love for Joanne in the highest of esteem I honor and guard it like a knight errant wanting to preserve and hold it sacred for as long as we may freely love one another.

My light is a bright yellow lantern
That’s pelted by cold winter rain

cactus canyonThere is that dimming light again. I am trying so hard to accept the inevitability of my aging without capitulating to becoming the same old man my elders were. I am determined to stay in shape to the best my body and pains will allow, but lately the pain is frequently making me back away from a strain as I workout.

Repeat Chorus…


I look through the night to tomorrow
Seeing the depth of your soul

I see Joanne and how she loves me, she loves my artist, all of him. I have never been so fully accepted by any other person. I feel for her, she didn’t choose a rich man, or a successful business man that put money away for his old age. I worry sometimes that I will not be able to provide what she needs as she ages… and then she shows me once again, that not only is she capable of taking care of her own future, she loves me just as I am and she happily shares all she has with me.

Rusty-Good-smallKnowing I’d beg steal or borrow
To warm you when you are cold


Repeat Chorus…

Thank you for loving me Joanne, I will do whatever it takes to keep you safe, happy and well traveled!

I love you Joanne Lee Canalli!

Love Songs By Rusty Cline

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A blessed reminder of what makes things tick!
Life, Wind & Soul


A song for dear sweet Joanne Canalli
All I wanted Was


“When I give mine to you… It’s the best thing I do!”
Ah Love


Falling in Love With Joanne
I’ve Fallen


Pretty Souls is about all the people that died to make civil rights a real and true happening in our hear and now!
Pretty Souls


“I stand here before you as my heart and soul adores you and give to you the best love of my life…” For Joanne!
Waters To Rivers


A song that now seems so old – I wrote this in 1985 after a bad divorce!
She Threw a Damn Good Love Away


For my son Christopher Jack Cline – a memory of a day at the fair…
Life Was So Simple


Sitting in a cabin in Pine Top Arizona the clouds broke open and the rain fell like rocks from a huge black storm.
Let It Rain All Day


A little ditty for Joanne Canalli my love my best friend my Aussie Rose.
Wild Aussie Rose


For my dear deceased friend Aurthur Miscione – Arthur is playing the bass on this song – Harmony by Sapphire Kieft
Arthur I love You

Love

When I wrote this I stumbled onto the line: “Love, it’s a great point of view!.” I knew I would love this song! This is one of my favorites.

Love & Light,
Rusty
“Love: By all means, it’s the means to all ends!” ~”It’s Love” by Rusty Cline~