Street Lady
Many thanks to Donald Byrd for the inspiration today. Street Lady was released in 1973 on Blue Note Records.
Here's the track listing:
The music:
My Companion Poetry Suite:
Street Lady
Side A
“Lansana’s Priestress (sic)”
Bopping up and down the block
Lansana’s passing by the shops
Switching hips, clicking heels
Alley ways, garbage piles, fruit peels
What’s up honey?
Need a good night?
Lansana’s my name,
I’ll love you right.
Early morning, after
Dark hotel rooms,
she slips to sleep
& dreams bloom:
Floating free on a forest trail
Soaring steps and rhythmic flair.
Blue sunny sky,
where she finds her God.
While down here,
on the ground,
Lansana’s only got her priestess,
Another Jane she’s friendly with:
Miss Kane, self proclaimed
"Real ass bitch."
“Miss Kane”
Don’t be giving me no
down hearted blues shit;
I’m a prostitute,
I turn a trick.
But I’m wising up,
not in it for forever.
I know my future’s bright,
I take it night by night.
Yesterday I had to jet
Out a no good John Doe’s grip,
I gave him the slip.
Mased his ass after
He bust my lip.
Lost my lacey pair of panties,
At least that’s what I told
Old Lansaney,
I call her Lost in the Woods.
Like a robin kicked out the nest.
With no body but me
to teach her to fly.
"Sister Love”
Out here on the corners
Grab me for a dollar fifty,
Hit you up nice and nifty.
But I ain’t go no time for
The cheapies or junkies.
Give me the healthy bloodlines
Young, fresh, and sublime.
Each and every day
I make young men lose their way,
Push 'em far enough to stray.
Temptation's devilish, I say betray!
Hey there, baby cakes!
Tornadoes and earthquakes
are all that’s left in my wake -
Sister Love,
Sissy Boo Boo,
Either way, you'll do me
And I'll do you you
Everything is fair
Living in the city.
Hard luck and late nights
Giving street ladies no pity.
Side B
“Street Lady”
Oh hell no, here he come again
That loud mouthed, no good
Disrespecting, beating man.
Telling me I ain’t got no right
To say no to Sheldon Grady:
“I ain’t hearing that,
Not from no STREET lady.”
But I’m strolling on
Switching my hips,
a ciggy at my lips
just bobbing my head.
A couple blocks later I stop
Look back to relief,
Sheldon’s outta sight
Ears ringing though
With that painful echo;
"STREET,
STREET,
STREET
Lady"
Oh, no!
"Witch Hunt”
Alright now, listen up,
I’ve taken about all I can from
That flat assed corner walker
Late night stalker sex hawker.
Me and Eddie got the guns
Stuck em in her guts
Just to watch her run
Seconds later, tires spun
Cruising down the block
Finger on that trigger, cocked
Eddie saying, "this ain’t no fun."
But she got to make me fly,
I had Miss Kane and Sissy Boo Boo!
Lansana think she more than
a fucking hooker? boo hoo.
Eddie better shut the hell up,
My temper’s flaring
And he’s running outta luck.
But, I gotta find that skinny ass uppity cunt
On this here midnight witch hunt.
“Woman of the World”
Sheldon got 25 to life
For killing my Miss Kane
with his steel knife.
Couldn’t have me, so she he slain.
He went behind them bars
lifting mine from me,
So I could finally see
Past the wasted years.
Now I got that self respect
Me and Sissy Boo Boo.
I thank God, I do
For that freedom blowin wind
That came in the form
Of the knife wieldin' Sheldon.
Sheldon Grady, killer of the street lady,
Miss Kane,
the same Priestess to Lansane (I,
Woman of the world,
Lansana).
