Stevieslaw: I don’t want you hangin round
Every now and again our local newspaper, the Centre Daily Times, graces its pages with a picture of our governor, Tom Corbett. I will admit that seeing his face in the morning paper puts me off my feed for the entire day. For one thing, I hate his politics. For another, he bears a startling resemblance to my Uncle Arthur, and Arthur—although the relatives don’t speak of it—was barely housebroken, barely sentient, and quite unkind. See the resemblance?
Today, he was featured in the paper for his signing of a bill that would keep the NCAA fine, of 60 million, in the Commonwealth. He has been an outspoken supporter of Penn State lately, and as everyone knows this can only signal that his reelection campaign has begun. That means that soon his picture will be plastered everywhere, and what is worse, some versions of that picture will began to speak.
This somehow brings me to Patrick Sky, who according to Pandora Radio is an enigmatic folk singer from the sixties. I heard him perform back “in the day.” He had some songs that might have been written by Woody Guthrie, “Many a Mile,” which was performed by his then girlfriend Buffy St. Marie comes to mind, and some that were good satire—like Phil Ochs with good guitar skills. My favorite is actually the haunting “Words without Music,” an instrumental. Patrick wrote “hangin’ round” for Corbett’s reelection campaign, although he certainly didn’t know that in the 60’s. I’m looking at it as a sort of anti-Corbett rally song. It’s simple and we can sing it at the top of our lungs at every Corbett event. It goes:
Well, I don’t want you hangin’ round
Don’t wanna see you after the sun goes down
Said, I don’t want you hangin’ round
Better cross the street that you see me walkin’ down

Well, remember how I found you
And how you talked so sweet
Well, you lied to me you was livin’ in a tree
And you didn’t have nothin’ to eat

Said, Babe you hear what I’m puttin’ down
I don’t want you hangin’ round

Well, put that box of Kleenex down
Said, I don’t want you hangin’ round
Yes, I said put that box of Kleenex down
Go and blow your nose on the other side of town

Well, you can sit and cry your tears
But there’s one thing I know
It’s plain to see it’s you or me
And I ain’t about to go

So just point your shoes towards the edge of town
Said, I don’t want you hangin’ round
In my vicinity
Said, I don’t want you hangin’ round

Everybody sing. Enjoy.