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about

LINER NOTES:

In the mid-1970s, I was having a lot of trouble finding my direction in life. One day, I was walking down Stuart Street in Boston, in front of the Jacob Wirth Restaurant. I had dropped out of college and I was trying to decide what to do. All of a sudden, a wild eyed, filthy man came up to me looked me in the eye and yelled, “You need to stay in school ! “ then he wandered off muttering unintelligible stuff that I was too amazed to figure out… I really don’t know if that was a divine intervention or just a weird coincidence, but I have been paying attention to the people we used to call winos and bums ever since.

Jumping ahead to April of 2019 during the COVID lockdown, I was looking through some old spiral bound notebooks from the 1990s. I came across a page containing the words "Maharajah of Muscatel" along with a few lines of lyrics. I don’t remember the circumstances, but apparently, I wrote them down after seeing a homeless man on the street.

If we are honest with ourselves, we know that it could happen to us very easily.

lyrics

SONG LYRICS:

On the sidewalk, you see a man can barely stand up on his feet
He holds his open palm out to everyone he meets
No one listens to his words
‘cause only he knows what they mean
It don’t matter, what street your on, he’ll be there on the scene

He might have a Broken body or even more Broken mind
But he’s laughing at the world that he … has left behind
Wan-der-ing back and forth in his own private Hell
He lives on mostly nothing The Maharaja of Muscatel
{SOLO}

You might say to him, “I’m sorry, but I … never carry any cash”.
Or sometimes you’ll just look away to avoid the smell of trash
But if you do dig in your pocket
you’ll grab the coins AND LEAVE the bills
to minimize the tax you pay to the Maharaja of Muscatel

If you see him up ahead soon enough
you can fake a cellphone call
..look into some store window or read a sign up on a wall
you’ll buy a minor victory with a tiny piece of your immortal soul
but what you’re really doing is digging yourself deeper in a hole

Some day life might chew you up and spit you out again
to live in a world of strangers without a single friend
AND WHEN we look at you … all we’ll see is a .. a shattered, empty shell
and we’ll all ignore you, as you ascend your throne the Maharaja of Muscatel
the Maharaja of Muscatel

credits

from 2Sides: The Maharajah of Muscatel / Ode to Evil, released June 14, 2022

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Bobby Faria Boston, Massachusetts

Award Winning Guitarist, Saxophonist, Singer and Songwriter from Boston, Massachusetts

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