Marjorie's New Album

Here's where you can order Marjorie's exciting new album, Good, Fast & Cheap!

Exciting new album? You bet. It would be exciting just to be able to say that it's Marjorie's first album on the prestigious Woodstock Records label -- which, by the way, it is. But there's so much more.

Good, Fast & Cheap is a double album -- and one with a difference: It has 11 of Marjorie's original songs (including the one that she says is the best of all the songs she has written, and everyone who has heard it agrees). It also has a Lennon-McCartney tune as you've never heard it before.

And it has all these songs -- twice!

That's right. One CD has all the songs performed with a top-notch band comprising Jason Crosby playing violin; Barry Mitterhoff, mandolin; Lincoln Schleifer on bass; and Christian Cassan, percussion.

The other has all those songs performed solo, by Marjorie and her guitar alone.

Both CDs were produced by the legendary Michael Falzarano.

“My previous four albums all had the band, and I love that sound,” says Marjorie. “But people who come to my concerts, where I’m often performing solo, wanted an album that better reflected their concert experience. So we did both. The result is pleasing -- and people who have heard it have remarked at the difference in mood between the two. Some prefer the band version, some the solo version, and some say it varies, depending on their mood.”

You'll be surprised by the difference between the two, how the mood varies, how it's almost as if they're entirely different records. It's a bold, innovative, unique approach -- and at the same price as a single-CD album!

What is consistent across both versions is Marjorie’s clear, sweet voice, her expert fingerstyle playing, and, as critics have noted in her previous albums, the intelligence of her lyrics. The CDs open with the clever “Luck Runs Out” and continue through the delights and sadness of human experience, all with Marjorie's one-of-a-kind take. She hitches a ride with St. Peter, explores melancholy, takes a lascivious look at housework, turns an early Beatles hit into an intimate conversation, and more. The final song, “Oldtimers,” is an anthem to love found and kept, and she believes -- as have concert audiences -- that it is her strongest song to date. In other songs she takes on the vicissitudes of aging, the biochemical origins of life, and the annoyance and anguish that accompany affectionate obsession.

Order Good, Fast & Cheap today! Buy yourself a present -- it makes a perfect gift!



"You sound great and get better all the time. Congratulations."

Pat Donohue

"Marjorie Thompson's experience as a seasoned performer, folk guitarist and songwriter shines through on her latest album, Good, Fast & Cheap. Her delivery has the authority that only many hours playing and travelling on the road can give. I strongly recommend giving the album a listen, and if you see Marjorie coming to your town, by all means pop down and spend an evening listening to her unique brand of folk - you won't be sorry."

Pete Sears

Track Listing

1. Luck Runs Out
2.59
2. Clean My House
3.32
3. Fill Me Up
3.23
4. Good, Fast, Cheap
2.28
5. Cordelia
3.57
6. Best I Can
3.06
7. Darkest Dreams
3.57
8. Too Old To Care
2.40
9. She Loves You
3.06
10. Spirit Train
3.42
11. Judgement Day
3.37
12. Oldtimers
3.22

 

Lyrics

Luck Runs Out

Luck is a redhead with a real short fuse
Luck has a temper, all she has to lose
Each time I’d like to walk away, she throws away my shoes
Luck runs out at the meanest time and leaves me with the blues.

Luck is a collector, here to take your dues
Luck is an editor in charge of your reviews
She’s a seasoned old reporter and you’re the latest news
She sharpens up her poison pen and sticks you with the blues.

She leaves you feeling lonesome
She leaves you feeling sad
She leaves you when you lost the finest friend you ever had
She leaves you with your bills to pay
And nothing left to eat
The only soul that stays behind is aching in your feet.

Luck is the landlord, gonna raise the rent
Luck is your accountant, checks on every cent
Luck makes her mark and it’s a permanent tattoo
You thought she carved a bright red rose but its colored with the blues.

Luck is a fighter, will leave you with a bruise
Luck is a poet, can run off with your muse
Luck is a dealer with cards you can’t refuse
You signed the toughest contract, and now you own the blues.
Clean My House

Baby you can do my laundry
Baby you can make my bed
Open up them windows
Please make sure my kitty’s fed
You can do my dishes

You can clean my house
I’m giving clear instructions
All you have to do is listen
Said, go and get that polish
Rub my table til it starts to glisten
You can do my dishes
You can clean my house

Grab the dust pan
Get the broom
You can straighten up my livin room
Oh baby, You can clean my house

Oh get the vacuum cleaner
Put in a brand new bag
Get right down upon that floor
Don't forget to rinse my rag
You can do my dishes
You can clean my house
Don’t forget to lift my carpet
Make the woodwork shine
Shake those pillows, change the sheets
Well I’ll do yours if you’ll do mine
You can do my dishes
You can clean my house
Fill Me Up

I’m a blank sheet of paper in a crisp notebook
An empty cup on a rusty hook
I’m a vacant room, a tire that’s low
A burnt out wire
Whose juice won’t flow.

So write me down, don’t erase
Scribble me with ink
Finish up my sentences
Tell me what I think
You fill me up
You fill me up
you fill me up I’m sinking

I’m a chalice, mug, a shotglass, a stein
I’m paralyzed, senseless; deaf, dumb and blind
I’m a jigsaw puzzle, missing pieces of the sky
You’re my mother lode
You’re my seeing eye.

I’m a car without an engine
A sink without a drain
A siren blinkin silent
A street without a name
You fill me up
You fill me up
you fill me up I’m sinking

You can train me with your whistle, ply me with some wine
You’re pennies in my wishing well, the letters on my sign.
You’re my compass, curve and ruler, the point upon my line
You’re my blueprint, my pattern, my intelligent design.

You lock up my free verse
Throw away the key
Leave me bound and helpless
Though I struggle to be free
You fill me up
You fill me up
you fill me up I’m sinking.
Good, Fast & Cheap

Got a natural born body, tailormade soul
Kind of like a diamond, pressed out of coal
Well I’d like to thank whoever who made me whole

They made me good, fast and cheap
Got a custom finished brain, a sophisticated mind
Sparkling personality, usually kind
Sometimes I need help when there’s stuff I can’t find
They made me good, fast and cheap

Oh, it started off with water
Then, molecules and soap
Zapped with some lightning and Voila!
We were made from dust and air
And a dollars worth of hope.

I got memories, and they’re mine to keep
My desires may be shallow but my thoughts are usually deep
I’m grateful when I wake from a good night’s sleep
And feelin good, fast and cheap

I got peace of mind, somewhere in the heap
Times to sow and times to reap
I’m glad I can distinguish a good guy from a creep
Well, I’m good, fast and cheap
Cordelia

Bumping through the vapors of time, time time.
She came in from the future and she came from behind
She may have lived on Main St, or perhaps on Bergenline
She was everywhere and nowhere
I thought she was mine
Cordelia, Cordelia

She held a box of diamond stars, available to borrow
She was carrying the mirror that reflected all sorrow
She may have come from yesterday or some say from tomorrow.
She was everywhere and nowhere
I thought she was mine
Cordelia, Cordelia

Swimming in the gene pool, raking eden's garden
Her heart was molten lava, already hardened
She made you say you're sorry and still you ask for pardon
She was everywhere and nowhere
I thought she was mine
Cordelia, Cordelia

Beating back the swine in black velvet and pearls
Her hair was heavy drapery pulled in satin curls
Dressed in lace and leather, she was one of the girls
She was everywhere and nowhere
I thought she was mine
Cordelia, Cordelia

And I swore she'd never be a weakness of the flesh She was a figment of the moment, right here Released from the heart and freed from the mesh But when she'd hit the bottom, I'd be there To catch her.
Cordelia
I thought she was mine
She barely gave a sign
Love was nearly blind
Cordelia
Best I Can

All my life all I do its try
To mind my business as time goes by
Drink a little whisky, get a little high
Have a good time like an ordinary guy

So don't call me up
Don’t send no letter
Don’t want no therapist saying I can do better
Well I’m doin the best I can
I’m giving it my best shot
I’m doin the best I can
with what I got

My mama she calls me, starts to moan and sigh
She got a bone to pick, and she got a fish to fry
I pretend to listen, then I say good bye
Made her no promises and I told her no lie

My boss comes in, askin why
I gave him a different answer, that seemed to deny
A different conclusion than what he meant to imply
I might burn in office hell, but just from nine to five

The lord came down when it was time to die
I said please give me a little more time to say goodbye
Too old to save time and nothing left to buy
Well, you can’t take it with you, that was his reply.
Darkest Dreams

In my wildest dreams
I'm caught in the tunnel
Bathed in the darkness, to which I’ve adjusted
Assaulted by devils I shouldn’t have trusted
They bought me a round in the café of night.

In my darkest dreams,
I’m inside a tunnel
Climbing the walls but can’t find a hold
Its stifling, windy, raining, cold,
Weathering the café all night.
And its all around, we go all around,
I open my mouth but can’t make a sound.

In my latest dreams
I enter a tunnel
With only some instincts serving as guide
No way to live and no way to die
At home in the café of night.

In my fondest dreams
You appear in the distance
Coming to save me, amazing grace
I thought I would recognize your merciful face
Stranger to see in the café of night.
(And its all around, we go all around,
I open my mouth but can’t make a sound.)

In my wildest dreams
I live in the tunnel
Tunnel of lies, tunnel of fear
No windows or doors, no business here
Its always closing time in the café of night.

And its all around, we go all around,
I open my mouth but can’t make a sound.
There’s plenty of tunnel and no sign of light.
In the café of night, the café of night.
Too Old to Care

Sometimes you bother to fix your hair
Think for a minute bout what you’ll wear
Brush your teeth and go downstairs
You say it don’t matter
Cause you’re too old to care.

Well you wake each morning, skin’s more lined
You’re a little more deaf, a little more blind
You lost a little more of what’s left of your mind
And you’re too old to care
Bout what you can’t find.

Oh the years they’yre not generous
Time always takes
It never fixes the things that it breaks
Does not return the stuff that it borrows
Just comes back for more,
in the night or tomorrow.

You got an ache in your shoulder, back feels sore
Knees so weak walkin’s a chore
And you’re to old to worry what that thing is for
You hardly can remember
You once wanted more

Time’s like a river
memories on the ride
Squeeze through the narrow, drift through the tide
Left on the banks, to take root and grow
Try and retrieve them
they’re done for the show.
But it don’t matter you got your nice chair
and it’s too late to change
And you’re too old to care.
She Loves You
Copyright Lennon McCartney; Arr. Marjorie Thompson 2009

You think you lost your love,
I saw her yesterday.
It's you she's thinking of
And she told me what to say.

She loves you
You know that can't be bad.
She loves you
You know you should be glad.
She loves you
She loves you
She loves you
She loves you.

She said you hurt her so
She almost lost her mind.
But now she said she knows
You're not the hurting kind.

You know it's up to you,
I think it's only fair,
Pride can hurt you, too,
Apologize to her
Spirit Train

I got the spirit
I got the key
I got the light of this world on me
I got the soul I got the energy
those angels are callin me.

Pull up your boots
Tie them tight
Plant your feet and brace them for a fight
When you’re enlisted in the army your duty you must do
those angels are callin you.

Call me up, I got no shame
Ring that bell, call my name
I hear your voice, I feel your hand
We’re headed for the freedom land.

We’ll be soldiers and here’s the story
Uphold the honor and his glory
From the City of New Orleans
To the Mobile Line
From New York Central to the Metroliner
That train is passing by

Hear him whisper
Hear him cry
I’ll be on that train when it passes by
There is no question
We understand
We’re headed for the freedom land.

All on board I’ll be there
All on board I’ll be there
All on board I’ll be there
All on board I’ll be there
Judgement Day

Everybody goes to town
On Judgement Day
And lines up for a last chance to say
How they’d played out their part
And did it with heart
Sorry for cheating, anyway.

Oh we’ll dress up so fine
Pour a last glass of wine
I’ll look your eyes,
And you’ll look in mine
Then we’ll wait for our ride
To the great other side
Saint Peter, are you going my way.

Everybody gets a ticket
On Judgement Day
And lines up for a last chance to pay
For the great ones and small
The ones they let fall
And the ones that should have never got away.

Everybody sees their neighbor on
On Judgement Day
And lines up for a last chance to play
Get in that formation
It’s the last stop station
The colors have all tuned to gray.
Oldtimers

Oh I’m an old timer
In newcomerstown.
Where hope gets a good name
When change comes around
I’d cling to St Christopher, but he can’t be found
One day we’re up and the next week we’re down.

Everythings so new
Everything’s so gay
Everything’s not ruined
Everything’s ok
And I’ve made up my memories like an old feather bed
That I sleep in-
Here in newcomerstown.

I wait for you til midnight
And keep your dinner hot
I thank you when you bring me
The things I haven’t got
I’d love you if you were ugly
But I’m really glad you’re not
I’m your oldtimer in newcomerstown.

We can make up our minds
That things are still whole
That the pipes don’t leak
And there’s soup in the bowl.
That time has stood still
And we’re diamonds in the coal.
We’re oldtimers in newcomerstown.

Well, the world keeps on spinning
And the sun comes up
There’s toast and real butter
And coffee in my cup
I’m glad we got married without a pre nup
We’re just oldtimers in newcomerstown.

Everything’s so new
Everything’s so gay
Everything’s not ugly
Everything’s ok
And I’ve made up my memories like an old feather bed
That I sleep in-
Here in newcomerstown.
Listen

Purchase


Good, Fast & Cheap CD
$15.00

To order by mail, complete an order form & include check or money order.

 

All songs written, arranged, produced & performed by Marjorie Thompson, except where noted.
Copyright © 2005-2009, Marjorie Thompson. All rights reserved.