Loners

OK, I'm going to the same well twice in a week.

Though most know him for the pop/country Wildfire, Carolina in the Pines, and What's Forever For, or maybe the Cosmic Cowboy from the early days of the Austin outlaw scene and Geronimo's Cadillac, 1978 found Oak Cliff-raised Michael Murphey (Martin was added later, after Hard Country) with a little more edge than the earlier folk/pop and later country/cowboy work.  Though he reportedly was unhappy that his record label was trying to mold him into another Dan Fogelberg, his Lonewolf album featured sharp writing and insights on the cultural changes taking place in post-Viet Nam era modern America, equal in many ways to the social critiques of another Texas ex-pat at that time (and now Dallas resident), Don Henley.

Herewith, Loners:

As the night gives up to the light, I'm in Tia Sophia's café.

I've got chili, I got huevos, I got beans and coffee thawing out my day.

Look outside, I watch the falcon fall.  Deep inside, I hear the lonewolf's call.

Sooner or later, it gets us all...

We all learn to be loners, in the urban sprawl.

Never knowing where we're going - loners.

Day by day, we're learning to be loners.

We've learned to be lovers, without getting too intertwined.

I don't need your approval, baby, and I'm sure you don't need mine.

Dependencies are easily contrived, so keep your own identity alive.

When we're apart, we both must learn to survive

For the rest of our lives.

Disconnected, misdirected - loners.  Heartbroken, soft-spoken loners.

Never knowing where we're going - loners.

Day by day, we're learning to be loners.

As I look out on the traffic, I realize the cowboy myth is dead.

Drifter's dreams are crushed beneath the Caterpillar tread.

There's an old man dead in the Oxford Hotel.  The hobo can no longer ride the rail.

The outlaw's just an image up for sale.

We all learn to be loners, it's just as well.

[refrain]

Michael Martin Murphey, 1978