Nina Simone wrote amazing songs and propelled forward great songs by others. It’s an honour for Randy Newman that she would record his music. It’s also one of the most likeable things about Jim Guthrie — he knows everything she did. You can quiz him.
by Randy Newman
Beat-up little seagull
On a marble stair
Trying to find the ocean
Looking everywhere
Hard times in the city
In a hard town by the sea
Ain’t nowhere to run to
There ain’t nothing here for free
Hooker on the corner
Waiting for a train
Drunk lying on the sidewalk
Sleeping in the rain
And the people hide their faces
And they hide their eyes
‘Cause the city’s dying
And they don’t know why
Oh, Baltimore
Man, it’s hard just to live
Oh, Baltimore
Man, it’s hard just to live, just to live
Get my sister Sandy
And my little brother Ray
Buy a big old wagon
Gonna haul us all away
Living in the country
Where the mountain’s high
Never coming back here
‘Til the day I die
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Man, it’s hard just to live
Oh, Baltimore
Man, it’s hard just to live, just to live
