(I Tell Her Just For Kicks) And She Shuts Down And Says No

and everytime I tell her uncle Osvald played the trumpet and was a bandleader and  played for kicks she shuts down and says no, Osvald wasn’t a musician, he was an engineeer and chief and worked below deck and never showed himself upstairs, not even on shore leave, and I don’t care if he sailed from Stavanger, Norway to New York and back again, he didn’t play the trumpet, he was an engineer and a chief and worked below deck, and I say OK mom, he was an engineer and didn’t play for the cruisers and stayed down all the time, and I love you, mom, but come on, he played the trumpet, and knew how to jump and shout when that bottle felt empty, and

mom, he knew how to jump and shout and he knew he was headed for  a heartache, and knew

he didn’t need the silent treatment or the chill, and I still think he

played a blue trumpet down below

and knew just how to make that cruise go down smooth, and she says

you look just like him, G, you look just like him, and everytime I try to tell you something you don’t care, now go down and play that blue trumpet

yourself

just go down and make that crossing go down smooth,

just go down and make that crossing go down slow like Osvald did, and

just one thing and that blue trumpet down below

and I tell her he played it for kicks

I tell her he meant it

I tell her Osvald played that blue horn just for kicks