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Speed Demons

from Quarantine Kitchen by Jim Ballard

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about

I remember when I was very young, seeing West Side Story and thinking it was like my neighborhood. Gangs, fights, knives, dead ends.
Originally recorded as the title track of the Speed Demons album, this one is on our live ONE NIGHT album as well. This is the coffee house basement tapes version.

lyrics

Speed Demons ©Jim Ballard 1986 2020

The air is heavy ain’t no breeze tonight
crowd o’ young boyz gathered by the street lamp light
in the atmosphere you could cut with a knife
somebody gonna hear about the street lamp life

Everything’s quiet on the east side front ‘cept for
Jacknife Lenny and his paradise punks
talkin bout skippin out them night school classes catch a
cross town ride kick some rich boyz asses

Speed Demons on a one way street
Sucked in by the light burned up by the heat
Where muscle and blood is all the promise you get
Some make it through and some are caught in the net
In the naked night in the final toll
You can give up the fight or you can give up your soul
Swallowed up by the night

One child thinkin was i born to this? to survive
among the dead end streets to never know the kiss
of the well off widows of the debutantes growin
fat and contented in their restaruants

Somewhere in the sidestep of a tire iron dance
Is this some kinda joke or this some kinda romance
Hard lessons learned early never wanna die that a
young man surely ain’t supposed to cry

The flower girls on the promenade
The shoe shine boys with their razor blades
With every kind of dream that won’t be stilled tonight
Risin from the ruins of another rigged fight
Stormin the beaches of this conquered land
In every heart that’s diggin in to make a stand
Swallowed up by the night

I know the lessons that they tell ya in the school make it
make it sound so sweet
But the pavement never learned the golden rule you got to
stay on your own feet or be
swallowed up by the night

credits

from Quarantine Kitchen, released February 8, 2021
Hand Drums~Joe Lang
PayPal.me/redpearldrums

Keyboards~Tim Longfellow
www.paypal.me/typhoonmacpro

Guitar~Wes McCraw
www.paypal.me/WesMcCraw

Bass~Bill Watson
paypal.me/BillW65P

Guitar/Vocal~Jim Ballard

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Jim Ballard Akron, Ohio

Jim Ballard
A native of NE Ohio, Jim Ballard has been, for many years a part of the recording/performing community. After touring and performing all over the country with artists from 10,000 Maniacs to Gordon Lightfoot,The Mekons to Pete Seeger, he moved into his studio, Skylyne. There, he has recorded and worked with artists from Michael Stanley to Don Dixon and Alex Bevan. ... more

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