Description
Paul Levinson recorded new eight songs for Old Bear Records in October 2018 for his new album Welcome Up: Songs of Space and Time, to be released by Old Bear Records on vinyl, CD, and digital in early 2020. This is Paul Levinson’s first new album since Twice Upon A Rhyme on HappySad Records in 1972!
A list of the songs follows, with the songwriters’ names in parentheses (scroll down for lyrics):
“Welcome Up”
(words & music by Paul Levinson)
“If I Traveled to the Past”
(words by Paul Levinson, music by John Anealio)
“Samantha”
(words & music by Paul Levinson)
“Tau Ceti”
(words by Paul Levinson, music by John Anealio)
“Picture Postcard World”
(words & music by Paul Levinson)
“I Knew You By Heart”
(words by Paul Levinson, music by Peter Rosenthal)
“Alpha Centauri”
(words by Paul Levinson, music by Peter Rosenthal)
“Cloudy Sunday”
(words by Paul Levinson, music by Linda Kaplan Thaler)
produced by Chris Hoisington
all lead vocals by Paul Levinson
backing tracks: Chris Hoisington (harmonies), Jeremy Thompson (guitars, stand-up bass, mellotron, etc), Steve Padin (keyboard, drums), Anthony Hoisington (piano on Tau Ceti), Don Frankel (accordion on If I Traveled to the Past & Tau Ceti), Peter Rosenthal (guitar on Cloudy Sunday), Barbara Krupnick (piano on Cloudy Sunday)
Video of Paul Levinson singing most of these songs at Philcon concert on November 9, 2019
=Lyrics to the songs on Welcome Up: Songs of Space and Time=
“Welcome Up” (words and music by Paul Levinson, 1968, 2018)
Hiding behind a raindrop
Shyly opening her sweet milk-chocolate eyes
Sleepily peeking out from dreams nine times her size
Welcome up
Stories below her window
She sees people puttering like pebbles on the street
Sunshine buttering the sidewalk ‘neath their feet
Welcome up
Always reaching for the source
Always reaching something lost
Gliding beyond the same drop
Stars are clear as day although it’s just past noon
Moons are plentiful and every crow’s in tune
Soaring above the sunbow
Light’s an avenue for worlds that may found
Life is teeming there in every crazy sound
Welcome up
Always reaching for the source
Always reaching what was lost
Riding until she can’t stop
Never in reverse, her trip is set on send
What is the universe and just where does it end?
Where does it end?
“If I Traveled to the Past” (words by Paul Levinson, music by John Anealio, 2010)
If I traveled to the past
to change your mind
so you loved me then, and you loved me now,
would I have known to travel back in the first place?
If I traveled back so fast
that the world was blind
could I slip through time, could I slip the vine
of paradox that turns the best into the worst case?
It ain’t simple, it ain’t right
To turn the sun into the darkest night
If I could make it work, just one time
I could have it all, I could have you mine
If I traveled to the past
I would never tell
a single soul, my lips would be sealed
except when they brushed against your sweet face
If I traveled to the past
to change your mind
so you loved me then, and you loved me now, how
would I have known to travel back in the first place?
It ain’t simple, it ain’t right
To turn the sun into the darkest night
If I could make it work, just one time
I could have it all, I could have you mine
If only I could travel back through time
If only I could travel back through time ….
“Samantha” (words and music by Paul Levinson, 2005, 2018)
Samantha, can’t ya see
There’s no way lovin’ me’s
Gonna work for you
Yeah that’s sad but true
Samantha, fantasy
Is so sweet when it’s free
But our bill’s past due
Not much we can do
You come from an alternate dimension
That’s what makes you so appealing
That’s what puts me on the ceiling
You come from an infinite extension
They’ll pull you back there any time
Pull you back there on a dime
Samantha, dance with me
But don’t think that we’ll be
On the floor next year
Cause you won’t be near
Samantha, chances we
Could drift way out to sea
And it won’t be clear
If you’re really here
Your love just won’t survive inspection
Doesn’t matter what we’re feeling
All that matters is what’s real and
Your love’s just an astral projection
I can’t do the time
You can’t do the crime
Against reality
Samantha can’t you see
That we’re inside out
We can’t twist and shout
No, no, Samantha …
“Tau Ceti” (words by Paul Levinson, music by John Anealio, 2010)
Tau Ceti
oh ya let me
go too fast, throw my past
to the winds and the fates of a sheer empty space
Tau Ceti
your doors met me
open wide, broke the ride
in the swirls to the gates of an unfathomed place
(bridge)
Everything’s bright at the speed of light
But I can’t tell if it’s cloudy or clear
Plato said we can only know what we already know
But he never took a space ship out here
Tau Ceti
no force set me
on this course, found and lost
I came to your chill of my own free will
Tau Ceti
don’t forget me
when I leave, just a leaf
that blew through the halls of your soft cosmic squalls
“Picture Postcard World” (words and music by Paul Levinson, 1968)
Two people lounging in an air-conditioned room
filled with pushbutton perfume
and plastic petals always in full bloom
Two people gazing at a 98-inch screen
living color fills the scene
in electric shades of morning blue serene
(chorus)
We live in a picture postcard world
We do
They sent us a picture postcard, girl
It’s true
Where everything’s perfect but
nothing is real
Though our lives seem ideal
We’re unable to feel
Two people taking breakfast with a high-tech shake
just like grandma used to make
And for dinner there’ll be cybernetic steak
Two people playing hard at all the latest sports
Up and down the plasma courts
A sound mind must dwell in a sound body of course
(repeat chorus)
Two people …
“I Knew You By Heart” (words by Paul Levinson, music by Peter Rosenthal, 2000)
The breeze that blew through your hair
when we passed on the street
The way you smiled when I stared
like you knew that we’d meet
It’s like we’ve been there before
But we’ve got to have more
It’s long overdue that we start
(chorus 1)
I knew you by heart
I knew you by heart
I knew you (by heart)
The sun that plays on your face
when I’m touching your cheek
The way it falls into place
every time that we speak
It’s way too strange to explain
but we’re right as the rain
It’s like we were never apart
(chorus 2)
I knew you by heart
No learning curve babe with you
I knew just what I should do
The first time out there’s no doubt
I knew you by heart
No point in playing a part
No point in being too smart
I loved you right from the start
I knew you (by heart)
(bridge)
Some day, something could go wrong
It’s true
No way that it could last too long
Cause you, you, you, you, you
(chorus 3)
Would know me by heart
No learning curve babe with you
I knew just what I should do
The first time out there’s no doubt
I knew you by heart
No point in playing a part
No point in being too smart
I loved you right from the start
I knew you by heart…
“Alpha Centauri” (words by Paul Levinson, music by Peter Rosenthal, 2000)
Think of a place
far away as can be
and I’d still be thinking of you
Way out in space
beyond any sea
You’d still be the dream that was true
(chorus)
‘Round Alpha Centauri
You’re still the most beautiful star
Around Alpha Centauri
Our love can reach that far
Our love can reach that far
Light years from home
far away as can be
but I could be back in a flash
Worlds that I’ve known
mean nothing to me
Hey baby, you don’t have to ask
(repeat chorus)
(bridge)
From Alpha Centauri
I send you my story
’til I am no longer away
‘Round Alpha Centauri
there’s no need to worry
My love will grow stronger each day
(repeat chorus)
“Cloudy Sunday” (words by Paul Levinson, music by Linda Kaplan Thaler, 1968)
Cloudy Sunday
I wake to find you gone
Cloudy Sunday
The bed I sleep upon is strangely smooth and white
touched only by me and the empty night
Cloudy Sunday
A fog upon my brain
Cloudy Sunday
condenses into rain and tears begin to swell
But you couldn’t tell That I loved you well
(bridge)
So we loved each other in passing
But I’ll keep searching for something more lasting
Like the poet, looking, for the once in a lifetime rhyme
Cloudy Sunday
I glimpse a distant form
Cloudy Sunday
I sense that she is warm but question what I feel
Reflection of me or something more real
Cloudy Sunday …
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