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Melody & Jack

from A White Album by Rain Perry

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Bryan Frazier
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Words & Music by Rain Perry Ó 2022 Precipitous Music/BMI

lyrics

Picture a shipyard town
In California after the war
Salt air and daffodils
And everybody on the edge of poor

At the clothesline
My Nana keeps an eye
As my mom Melody and her friends
Go running by

“Those kids were like Our Gang,” Nana said
Which meant one of them was Black
And then her face got strange
As she told me about Jack

In her kitchen one day
When the rest had gone to play
He smiled at my Nana
And this is what he had to say

“I love Melody
She’s the girl for me
I’m gonna marry her someday
And raise a family”
Then off he went with his friends
And left Nana with a tale she told again and again

Every time she mentioned it
She had an actual furrowed brow
I didn’t understand it at the time
Like I do now
I felt bad for him
Because it was so impossible
But this would’ve been about the same year as Emmett Till

So when I think about it now
My heart breaks
Picturing his small, sweet, innocent little face

Saying “I love Melody
She’s the girl for me
I’m gonna marry her one day
And raise a family”
Oh Jack, did your mom sit down with you
And have The Talk that every mother of a Black son goes through?

Are you still alive, Jack?
Did you move away?
Has life been good to you?
Are you doing ok?
Did you join the service?
Did you go to Vietnam?
Do you have a family?
Do you remember my mom?
If you’re still near the shipyard
She’s there too
Buried down the road
From where she played with you
I’m thinking about you guys
Running near the waves
In the salt air and daffodils
And I’m dreaming of better days

credits

from A White Album, released April 15, 2022
Rain Perry – vocal
Mark Hallman - acoustic and electric guitars, piano, Hammond organ, synths and samples, concertina, drums, bass

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Rain Perry Ojai, California

Rain Perry’s “Beautiful Tree” was the theme for the CW Network’s Life Unexpected, on which she also had the surreal pleasure of appearing as herself. She has released four albums on her own Precipitous Records, as well as writing and touring a solo play about her childhood. In 2016 she completed The Shopkeeper, her first film. She teaches a series of classes called Songwriting for Civilians. ... more

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