Jay's first collection of songs was Eye Of The Storm. This guitar-driven rock album debuted in 1988 in a stripped-down version. Though the songs were complete, Jay didn't have the technology to realize the orchestrations he envisioned. The album was re-recorded in 1992 and this current version features Scott Haworth contributing stunning drum work. Jay created the lush audio backdrop that he longed for. The drums were recorded in an abandoned carousel building at his former place of employment, Mountain Park in Holyoke, MA.
This debut set the standard that Jay was to follow through the rest of his pop albums: an eclectic mix of styles and subjects loosely bound by an all-encompassing theme. This album also features the only one of Jay's songs to have gotten significant airplay: Everybody's Got Somebody ('cept The Schlep). Ironically, none of his songs originally received much notice in his native country. Schlep became popular in Germany and the Netherlands.
THE SONGS
Everybody's Got Somebody ('cept The Schlep)
EYE OF THE STORM copyright Jay Ducharme 1988
I saw the clouds turn black above me / When you said you didn't love me / There's nowhere I can run for safety now / I see the storm surrounding me / And soon the wind is pounding me / Then all at once I'm in the clear again // In the eye of the storm / Where my heart once was torn / I appear safe from harm / In the eye of the storm // My life gets twisted round and round / And though my feet stay on the ground / I never know just where my head is at / And when the world stops hitting me / My vision clears enough to see / There's nothing left around me to hit back // In the eye of the storm / Where my heart once was torn / I appear safe from harm / In the eye of the storm // In my tropical depression / There's no escaping night / Battered by my own emotions / Drowned by years of rain / Swirling in a hurricane / That swells before my sight / Holding on to hope / Until I find your calm again // In the eye of the storm / Where my heart once was torn / I appear safe from harm / In the eye of the storm // I heard that ignorance is bliss / Just too hard to ignore all this / When all I know and love has washed away / My life appears so peaceful now / But I won't rest until I know / I'm past the last disaster on the way // In the eye of the storm / Where my heart once was torn / I appear safe from harm / In the eye of the storm
EYE TO EYE copyright Jay Ducharme 1988
My baby and me sat down late last night / To have a talk about who was wrong and who was right / The talking turned to yelling just as sleeping turns to dreaming / Both of us seeming to be drowning in our screaming // She packed her bags and sorted out her points of view / She said, "I don't know how I ever put up with you" / She left me saying "Sorry" to the slamming of the door / Well if that's the way it's going to be, don't come back here anymore // As long as we're not seeing eye to eye / I think I better say my last goodbye / As long as we're not seeing eye to eye / You better kiss this love goodbye // I tossed and turned and couldn't sleep and jumped up out of bed / I called her up to apologize for all I did and said / She said, "Live your own life, I found another one tonight, / You were a mistake and now I'm going to set you right" // As long as we're not seeing eye to eye / I think I better say my last goodbye / As long as we're not seeing eye to eye / You better kiss this love goodbye // I hung up the phone / Now I'm out on my own / Finding someone for me / Just wait and see / Yeah, right // Well I knew you'd come back, it didn't take long / And I knew you'd be crying and saying you were wrong / And I know how much you wanted me to live my own life / Well I took you advice and didn't think twice/ Now I know that you were right // As long as we're not seeing eye to eye / I think I better say my last goodbye / As long as we're not seeing eye to eye / You better kiss this love goodbye
EVERYBODY'S GOT SOMEBODY ('CEPT THE SCHLEP) copyright Jay Ducharme 1988
Walking down a long and lonely avenue / Staring at the smiles drifting past my view / Wondering to myself why I'm one of the few / Who doesn't have a lover to hold on to // Yesterday's newspaper blowing by my feet / Talks of lots of lovers loving indiscrete / Why then do I find myself one of the elite / Who sits at home alone at night and repeats // Everybody's got somebody 'cept the schlep / Everybody's got somebody 'cept the schlep / Everybody's got somebody 'cept the schlep / And I'm sorry if I'm so inept // A friend once tried to set me up with someone new / He told her I was Sampson and she thought it was true / When we got together she knew what to do / She sat me down and cut my hair and we were through // You see, everybody's got somebody 'cept the schlep / Everybody's got somebody 'cept the schlep/ Everybody's got somebody 'cept the schlep / And I'm sorry if I'm so inept // Sad to be / As free as me / The only girls I see / Are trapped in my TV // I call up my old girlfriend and say, "How ya' been?" / She tells me she's been really busy once again / I ask her if she'd like to see me when she can / She tells me that she'd rather be a lesbian / You see, everybody's got somebody 'cept the schlep / Everybody's got somebody 'cept the schlep / Everybody's got somebody 'cept the schlep / And I'm sorry if I'm so unhep
TWO OF A KIND copyright Jay Ducharme 1988
Look at our lovers / Leaving us lonely / This bar is our only friend / But now that I've met you / And you got to know me / Let's let our lonliness end / Because the longer we wait / The more it gets too late / So as long as there's time to spend / I know one thing for sure / There's no need to pretend anymore // 'Cause we're two of a kind / Baby maybe you'll find / You can't be alone forever / And baby I wouldn't mind / If we were two of a kind together // Walking with you / By the light of the moon / Surrounded by stars in the night / There's no place to go / And nothing to do / And somehow it feels so right / Though the streets seem so dark / As we walk through the park / We don't need to be guided by sight / We see what we think of / And nothing's as bright as our love // 'Cause we're two of a kind / Me and you have a mind / For getting our love together / And baby I wouldn't mind / If we were two of a kind together // Now that we're lovers / No longer lonely / Our world seems so much more secure / There's no need to hurry / No reason to worry / We won't be alone anymore / We were strangers before / When you walked in the door / Who could know we'd be so much alike / You're one of a kind / And I'm one of a kind / And that adds up just fine with me // 'Cause we're two of a kind / Baby maybe you find / You won't be alone forever / And baby I don't mind / That we're two of a kind together
HOIST A RIPPING SAIL copyright Jay Ducharme 1988
My ship is sitting on the silver sea / Not far from where I think I ought to be / A wind comes up to carry me / A strong and chilling gale / And when at last / The wind has past / I hoist a ripping sail // I live and breathe the sting of salty air / Sun and sea surround me everywhere / My body burns but I don't care / I feel so weak and pale / I try to stand / To search for land / Instead I hoist a ripping sail // I could float forever on this sea / Going wherever the tide carries me / That's not the way a man's supposed to be / If I don't try I'm sure to fail / And so I hoist a ripping sail // My endless journey's end has just begun / I live among a mutiny of one / Argue with the setting sun to no avail / And when the night / Removes my sight / I hoist a ripping sail // Waves attack and crash upon the deck / My battered ship becomes a sinking wreck / I cling to driftwood floating by / The sea won't be my jail / If I must die / At least I'll try to hoist a ripping sail // I won't float forever on this sea / I'll drift to where dry land will shelter me / If that's the way I want my life to be / But if I don't try I'm sure to fail // I met a man on land the other day / He said to me, "I think I've lost my way" / I said to him, "Don't worry friend / Have faith and you'll prevail / Every problem has an end / Just hoist your ripping sail"
THE WORLD TURNS ON copyright Jay Ducharme 1988
Staring at my TV screen / That entertains with violent scenes / It's not enough the world's at war / I gotta watch a little more / My TV looks like ancient Rome / A coliseum in my home / Each day phoney preachers sell / Apocalypse and burning hell / If God was guiding what they said / Well then how come we're not dead // And the world turns on // The TV tells me what to buy / To give me that consumer high / I need a car I can't afford / To pick me up when I get bored / I need a gum that's sugar-free / To help my masculinity / Crack and smack and ecstasy / Supposed to be so bad for me / Keep it clean with nicotine / And codeine and caffeine // And the world turns on // Sexy ladies lounging by the bay / I turn on to their lacy lingerie / The news says sex transmits disease / Well there go my fantasies // Forget about reality / Hide inside your color TV / It's easy to avoid disaster / Simply change the channel faster / Who needs brains when we got style / Who needs brains to turn a dial / Everybody's watching their TV screen / Everybody knows everything's fine / Killing sprees are prime time scenes / And making love's a crime // And the world turns on
WOULD YOU BELIEVE ME? copyright Jay Ducharme 1988
I go down / Look around / The house is empty / You're not around / I can't believe it's true / I'm still so in love with you / What can I do? // But now you're gone / Life goes on / The house grows colder / As I grow older / I know I can't take back the years / But can I dry away the tears / What can I do? // If I loved you now / Would you believe me? / If I showed you how / Would you believe me? / If I loved you now / Would you believe me? // Life is strange / How things change / Rooms too empty / Furniture to rearrange / I see you everywhere / But you're never really there / What can I do? // If I loved you now / Would you believe me? / If I showed you how / Would you believe me? / If I loved you now / Would you believe me? // Could I bring you back again / Find the words to tell you then / What can I do? // If I loved you now / Would you believe me? / If I showed you how / Would you believe me? / If I loved you now / Would you believe me?
EVERYBODY LAUGH copyright Jay Ducharme 1988
Pity the clown with the pie in his face / Finishing last in the human race / He started slow out of the gate / And crossed the line a little bit late / He does what he's paid to do / And he does it all for you / Could you indulge him for a while / He only wants to see you smile / Everybody laugh / Could you oblige him / Everybody laugh // Someone's falling from the flying trapeze / Dying hard with the greatest of ease / No net below to stop the descent / A thrill is bought as life is spent / Death is something all clowns know / Still they go on with the show / And as the body is carried away / I can hear one of them say / Everybody laugh / What's the matter / Everybody laugh // How can the world be a giant circus / When life seems like it's bound to hurt us / Lions are loose and the crowd is fresh meat / But nobody moves 'cause they paid for their seat / The human cannon is shot to hell / Still the barkers shout to sell / Everybody laughs / Step right up! / Everybody laughs / Hurry! Hurry! / Everybody laughs / Only a dollar! // Ever look on a dollar bill / At Washington's grin / It's as if he knows something now / He didn't know then / Greed is such a cold desire / But it sets the world on fire / And as the circus tent goes up in smoke / Remember it's all been a joke / Everybody laugh / Holy smoke / Everybody laugh / I can't hear you / Everybody laugh / What's the matter
PLASTIC DADDY copyright Jay Ducharme 1988
Well I got a dad / Who's ever so glad / To give me what I never had / He's ever so nice / Whatever the price / He never leaves me feeling sad / I give his number out to any operator / Who's glad to send me something that I'll pay for later / My life's improving greatly 'cause he's spoiling me so badly / Lord I love my plastic daddy // Well he's shiny and hard / And oh what a card / I take him to the shopping mall / Whatever I see / He'll buy it for me / He doesn't criticize at all / Mommy says he's dangerous / But I don't care / He's always in my wallet / When I need him there / Besides how could he harm another member of his family / Lord I love my plastic daddy // Being a kid was really tough / I couldn't find a toy that was cheap enough / Mommy always told me to put it back / Now my plastic daddy is where it's at // Well my daddy once said it / There's nothing like credit / To get you where you want to go / I guess that it's true / But I wish that I knew / Some things my daddy didn't know / The money that he borrows / Doesn't grow on trees / Real daddies never spend / As much as they please / With all the ways I've found to live beyond my means / I'm glad I have a plastic daddy // Lord I love my plastic / My debts are getting drastic / But lord I love my plastic daddy
DESERT SUN copyright Jay Ducharme 1988
desert sun / climbing high / if I don't find me an oasis soon / I'm gonna die / desert sun / sinking low / days go by / how long I've been here I just don't know // I remember cities / tall against the night / shining with a promise / of a future that was bright / mapped among my memories / mirages now remain / still I keep on hoping / they'll rise from the dust again // desert sun / climbing high / if I don't find me an oasis soon / I'm gonna die / desert sun / sinking low / I'm looking for familiar sights / I used to know / I'm followed by my footprints / and abandoned where I stand / searching for my childhood / in the burning desert sand / reality has won the fight / I fought all through my youth / but stubborness and sadness / blind me from the truth // desert sun / climbing high / if I don't find me an oasis soon / I'm gonna die / desert sun / sinking low / I'm looking for a fading dream / of freezing snow // Some young men ran ahead of me / to settle someone's score / the enemy has long been dead / and still they search for more / I never understood / what all those men were fighting for / can they rebuild the cities / with the ashes of a war // desert sun / climbing high / if I don't find me an oasis soon / I'm gonna die / desert sun / sinking low / I better find me peace right here / there's nowhere left to go