As I look at the lyrics of the songs Knees wrote back in the 60s and 70s it occurs to me that he didn't have a particularly wide range of rhymes. Most of his lines ended with with words rhyming with "hand" or "dead". Also, he was fond of long lyrical lines instead of short, catchy ones that successful songwriters like Tom Petty use. 1977 was probably his most prolific songwriting year because the Las Cruces Inn was really jumping and he had a ready-made soundboard for his tunes. He'd write a song in the daytime and the Calhoons would try it out that night.
Written: Melendres Street, Las Cruces NM, 1977
Knees was flying high at the Las Cruces Inn in 1977. The bar was packed every night and
he and Mark Coker, the other guitarist/singer, were coming up with new songs regularly. In this song Knees put just about every one of the modern C&W
clichés he knew. The people at the bar called it that “boy’s first kiss” song.
I was a kid for a long
time
Livin on the farm there
was no need to grow
An sure I love my folks
but that ain’t enough
When I needed to leave
More than they could
know.
Then you came into my
life like a whirlwind
An you blew this
tumbleweed right offa the farm
Now no matter where we
go
I just want you to know
That I love you an
lovin you keeps me warm.
Oh I’m just a man, I’ll
do all I can
But I’ve never been in
love like this before
So try an understand
You’re a boy’s first
kiss
Oh and this boy just
can’t miss
With a woman like you
to take me by the hand
It took a woman like
you to show me I’m a man.
Partridge
The CALHOON BROTHERS LIVE VERSION
(Sometime in the late 70s at the Las Cruces Inn, Las Cruces NM)
