Family Album was the second recording Jay made. While Eye Of The Storm was more of a song collection loosely associated by style, he wanted each song in this album to revolve around a single concept. The result was a somber reflection on family and separation, recorded in 1989. It went through several versions over the following years. The recording he finally released was actually completed in 1991.
From the opening number, Wake Up (a thinly-veiled comment on the presidency), the songs present a much darker mood than Storm did. But the richly poetic lyrics found him some new fans. Musically, his technique began to improve significantly. He experimented with Robert Fripp's New Standard Tuning in the song Cloudy Day. For Cinderella At 11:59, he went back to his first instrument, the piano.
The Children's Park, one of the more popular tracks, was written for a campaign to save the carousel that he used to run at Mountain Park in Holyoke, Massachusetts. (There's a happy ending: the carousel did get saved, and Jay ended up running it once again.)
THE SONGS
WAKE UP copyright Jay Ducharme 1989
Wake up / Wake up little children / Time to wake up wake up / Wake up / Wake up little children / Please wake up wake up // I know the sky looks cloudy / But the day can't wait / Better get out of bed / Before it gets too late to / Wake up wake up // Your father's in his office / Handing down the laws / And you're trusting his opinion / Though you've got no cause / He's the boss in this house / So he can do no wrong // You better wake up / Wake up little children / Time to wake up wake up / Wake up / Wake up little children / Please wake up wake up // He says he only wants to do good / For our family / But look at what's been happening / To you and me / You better open your eyes / It's not too late to see / You better wake up / Wake up little children / Time to wake up wake up / Wake up / Wake up little children / Please wake up wake up / I know he says he's representing / God and man / But you've heard of other men / Who had a master plan / You better stand up on your feet / While you still can / You better wake up wake up // So open your eyes / And see through the lies / He's the devil in disguise // You gotta get dressed / Before your daddy arrives / If he sees you like this / Don't you realize / He's gonna send you back to bed / For the rest of your lives / You better wake up / Wake up little children / Time to wake up wake up / Wake up / Wake up little children / Please wake up wake up
BALLAD OF CHICO MENDES copyright Jay Ducharme 1989
Oh Chico / Married to the forest trees / And buried on a Christmas Eve / Oh Chico / How sad the man who gives his life / In order to protect his wife // They want to pave a highway though your town / And cut your bride, the mighty forest, down // Oh Chico / How sad the man who gives his life / In order to protect his wife / Oh Chico / Businessmen are not aware / Their money can't clean up the air // They want their cows to graze on open land / Perhaps things work out different than they planned // Oh Chico / Businessmen are not aware / Their money can't clean up the air / Oh Chico / What will it take to save the earth / Is what you paid what it's all worth // Your empate know even though you die / You're harvesting a forest in the sky // Oh Chico / What will it take to save the earth / Is what you paid what it's all worth / Oh Chico / Married to the forest trees / And buried on a Christmas Eve // If rubber trees are what men aim to kill / Your bride will rise again to claim Brazil // Oh Chico / Married to the forest trees / And buried on a Christmas Eve / Oh Chico / How sad the man who gives his life / In order to protect his wife
DRY YOUR EYES copyright Jay Ducharme 1989
If I had a child / A fragile young girl / With eyes as bright as the stars / And skin as pure as pearl / I'd treat her so tenderly / As if she might break / I'd want to give her the world / I've wanted to make / And if she fell / And started crying / I'd take her in my arms / And say, "Hey, the world's not coming to an end / It's okay / Daddy's here / You made a mistake / But now there's nothing to fear // So dry your eyes my dear / Let my wipe away your tears / Don't want to see you sad / While I'm here / So dry your eyes my dear" // If I had a lover / And I knew she was true / I'd do for her everything / I could humanly do / I'd give her devotion / I'd give her my time / I'd give her the love I held on to / All of my life / And if it came time / To go our separate ways / I'd take her in my arms / And say, "Hey, the world's not coming to an end / It's all right / I'm still here / We made a mistake / But there's nothing to fear // So dry your eyes my dear / Let my wipe away your tears / Don't want to see you sad / While I'm here / So dry your eyes my dear"
WANT SOMEBODY TO TALK TO copyright Jay Ducharme 1989
I'm barely awake but I can't go to bed / So many troubles running through my head / I need you to tell me everything's fine / But it looks like I'll talk to myself for the rest of the night / I give you a call hoping you're home / But the only voice I hear is from your machine / "Sorry I can't come to the phone / Please leave your message after the tone" // I want somebody to talk to / 'Cause I'm all alone / I want somebody to talk to / But you're never home when I call // I open my photograph album to see / Your face smiling up at me / I try to imagine you're here in my room / But only the sound of your voice can dispell my gloom // I want somebody to talk to / 'Cause I'm feeling down / I want somebody to talk to / But you're never around when I call // I wish I had saved all those sunny days we spent together / To carry me through this long evening of stormy weather // I stare at the silent phone on the wall / Hoping that soon you'll give me a call / It's worth it to wait for the rest of the night / I know that you know what to say to make everything right // I want somebody to talk to / 'Cause I'm all alone / I want somebody to talk to / But you're never home when I call
THE FACE ON THE MOON copyright Jay Ducharme 1989
There are eyes that are following me / For as far as the eyes can see / A comforting light from a face in the starry sea / A friend in the darkening sky / Who slowly gets higher and higher / And the light from those eyes brightens the darkness in me / I have someone to talk to / Someone who's watching / And listens to me / Someone who silently / Calms all the violence / I can't set free // Keeping me company / The face on the moon // The evening air is so cold / But it's colder when I'm alone / I need someone around while I wait for the warming dawn / A light in the eastern sky / That slowly gets brighter and brighter / And as the face rises my lonliness dies and is gone / I have someone to walk with / Someone to talk with / Who won't hurry away / Someone who'll take / All the problems I make / And cast them away // Keeping me company / The face on the moon
THE CHILDREN'S PARK copyright Jay Ducharme 1989
Here once played a little boy / In this paradise of joy / A children's park of thrilling rides / And cotton candy dreams / An open door to fantasy / Where life was fun as it could be / Where everyone was always young / And laughter reigned supreme / No grown-up rules / No need for schools / No science, math or history / He came to let his mind run free / Far from the world grown-ups shape / The children's park was his escape / Bathed in never-setting sun / It beckoned him to come have fun / The horses on the carousel cried / Ride me // Here now stands a grown-up boy / With only memories to enjoy / He put his paradise aside / To live like other men / He holds a job he doesn't like / And slowly grows to hate his life / He wishes he could one day be / A little boy again / Where did it go / The joy he used to know / He played away his youth so fast / Not knowing childhood wouldn't last / The boy grew up / The fun is through / The children's park recedes from view / Far ahead the future waits / But at the park, the music fades / The horses on the carousel cry / Ride me // The boy becomes a man to find / He's leaving all his dreams behind / The spark of life once shone so bright / But now he slowly dims the light / The sun sets on the children's park / He locks his laughter in the dark / The horses on the carousel cry / Ride me / Ride me
CLOUDY DAY copyright Jay Ducharme 1989
Cloudy day / Such a cloudy day / I saw the sun this morning / Now it's gone / Far away / You're so far away / Even when you're with me / I'm alone // Summer comes, the endless days of heat / The hazy sun that never seems to set / So much time to wonder where you are / We used to sit beneath a shady tree / Skipping stones across a quiet stream / Watching ripples glistening like stars // Cloudy night / Such a cloudy night / A curtain drawn across the milky way / But what a sight / On a starry night / Watching constellations form your face // Autumn comes with cool and soothing rain / Blown by wind against my window pane / Filling up my silent room with sound / I'm haunted by a face I can't forget / I dream about the fall when we first met / Kicking up the leaves upon the ground // Cloudy skies / I see cloudy skies / Shadows soaring on a misty breeze / Memories / All these memories / Colors fading from the fallen leaves // Winter whiteness dusts the mountainside / But even though the world looks purified / The changes that the seasons bring are few / And so I find a frozen hill to climb / Looking back at all the wasted time / I could have better spent in search of you // Cloudy day / Such a cloudy day / Naked trees are shimmering with frost / Gone away / Now I've gone away / Too late to find the innocence I lost
FAMILY ALBUM copyright Jay Ducharme 1989
There are people I've never seen / There are places I've never been / And they all seem to live in my family album / People I should know / Who lived so long ago / On a pleasant street that calls out to be known / Wish they were here // There are photographs that seem / To have been taken in a dream / And pasted up inside my family album / Time is standing still / For someone on a hill / Holding a baby and squinting up at the sun / Wish they were here // And I see myself as my parents did / When I was just a skinny kid / And they were oh-so-proud of their growing son / Wish they were here // Though no one can withstand the ages / My family lives on in these pages / Leaving me their past to dwell upon / Captured in their youth and glory / I watch their pictures tell the stories / I never saw while life was going on / Wish they were here // Will I tell my kids, "I knew you when..." / Will memories take them back again / Will my kids have an album of their own / And whisper, "Wish they were here / Wish they were here"
SHADY CREEK copyright Jay Ducharme 1989
Grandmother sits on a hard wooden chair / In a cold empty room with a cold empty stare / A moment ago she saw family there / But they left in a hurry and didn't say where she was / They took her away from her home in the hills / And gave her to nurses to give her some pills / They kept on repeating it's for her own good / But couldn't care less whether grandmother understood // She cared for her family / Treated them right / She did what was best / And worked hard all her life / The world she inherits for being so meek / Is a room down the hall at a place called Shady Creek // Her family says that she hardly can hear / So a doctor comes in and examines her ear / They buy her a hearing aid, send her the bill / Then leave her alone with the rain on the window sill // They'll think of her often / And someday they'll write / Wishing her well / For the rest of her life / But no one will visit / The rest of the week / In her room down the hall at a place called Shady Creek // She quietly sits staring out of the door / She's simply too tired to cry anymore / Facing her death is no longer a fright / She knows she'll be cared for by somebody dressed in white // She's praying for angels to take her tonight / Though her family told her to go on with life / Nobody listens so why should she speak / In her room down the hall at a place called Shady Creek // Her strength slowly fades and she's losing her sight / But she clings to the dignity left in her life / They won't leave her die but they're leaving her weak / In a room down the hall at a place called Shady Creek
CINDERELLA AT 11:59 copyright Jay Ducharme 1989
She's almost ready for her date / She hopes she isn't running late / She's so excited that she cries / She's taken hours with her hair / She has a brand new dress to wear / She wants her date to be surprised // Cinderella at 11:59 / You'll remember the little girl who looked so fine // She's sure he'll think she looks a mess / She's sure he's at the wrong address / But then she hears the doorbell ring / He meets her in the pouring rain / Regrets that he forgot her name / She's just so happy that he came // Cinderella at 11:59 / You'll be leaving your innocence behind / Cinderella at 11:59 // His pickup truck waits in the street / He says he thinks she's really neat / She really thinks that he's sincere / She's waited for this day all year / She's looking forward to the dance / Her handsome prince has other plans // Cinderella at 11:59 / Where'll you run to when you hear the tower chime / Cinderella at 11:59 // He says he'll have her home on time / He drives her down a darkened lane / He's going to have his way tonight // Cinderella it's 11:59 / And you're wondering how you could have been so blind / Cinderella it's 11:59 // He leaves her in the pouring rain / She's so upset he tore her dress / He doesn't even say goodbye // Cinderella at 11:59 / Your crying couldn't stop the hands of time / Cinderella at 11:59