Macidol Mac music community

Song Information:

This is the title song of my first real professionally recorded album from 1994-95, a cassette-only release called "Bucket", which obviously this is the title song. I re-did this song in GB a while back and if you hunt on my jamroom music page you'll find it; this is the original version recorded back in 1994; dubbed from tape into Peak Pro and cleaned up a little from the cassette version, but other than that the mix is from the tape release. I play guitar and bass and sing and Brian Doser operated the big tape machine and my dear friend Alexis Gewertz sings harmonies on this. This is special for me because it was only a couple years after this that Alexis was run over by a big truck while riding her bicycle to work and died instantly. It was very sad and I am lucky to have recorded with her a few times. I always loved her sweet keening voice and though it was an odd match with mine, I'm glad I convinced her to do this for me. I miss her a lot when I listen to this and it makes me a little sad, but it was great that we got ot make music together.

There's a little bit of an old song tacked onto the end of this that some might recognize; I was playing this in a church coffeehouse one time and some old lady came up and said, "that's one old song, we used to sing that up in the hills where I'm from, or somethin' like that!"
I have another version of this recording was remixed by my brother Albert, the same basic recording with a new bass part and him playing drums and bass harmonica, and maybe I'll upload that sometime, but I like this lazy and sort of mournful version. I hope you do too. I hope to put out a CD of all the songs from this Bucket tape and will be uploading more. The cover art is a painting that my wife Andrea Tamkin. She sold the painting so all we have are reproductions, but it was a sweet little painting too.

Song Lyrics:

Bucket ©1994 Jim Bouchard

It’s a liquid life in which we slip
all sorts of excuses not to handle it
drowning in the sound of drumming
of the persistant drip of a life slipping away
you’ll find not much remains in a leaky bucket

I don’t want to hear you complain
that’s just playin it for a loser’s game
little kid in a candy store bellyaches but he still wants more
just living from day to day
you’ll find not much remains in a leaky bucket

You might be staring at the ground when in comes your ship on top of the world when your suddenly set adrift
life would be simple if it weren’t so hard to predict
I do my best to wade through it

You can’t tell a nut by it’s shell
gotta look at the tree from which it fell
get a sense of the insides from heaven to hell
barely contained you’ll find
not much remains in a leaky bucket

I’m standing on a corner I got my hat in my hand
I’m lookin’ for a woman, I haven’t got a plan
My bucket’s got a hole in it. I can't buy no beer

I went up to the mountain looked down at the sea
I seen the crabbies and the fishies doin the be-bop-be
My bucket’s got a hole in it, I can't buy no beer

what’s the use of me workin so hard
when I got a woman in the bossman’s yard
My bucket’s got a hole in it, I can't buy no beer