Joe’s Tavern

from “Paradise - when Jazz was swingin”

 

I’m kickin’ my heels up and sayin’

time to kill the telephone.

I’m takin’ the time out to cool down

my problems all can wait.


There’s nothing I see here that’s pressin’

I’ll save it for a rainy day.

A record with Miles Davis groovin’

will melt your cares away.


When they start in to swingin’

and singin’

they’re bringin’

the blues that I’m ringin’ away.


So just kick up your heels now and listen’

hang out in Joe’s tavern.

Check out the pool game a playin’

and watch your cares go, unawares you go.


Just kick your shoes off, Baby.

So come on in, hang out!

This song is based on a real tavern that was next door to the famous Montreal club: Rockheads Paradise on de la Montagne street in Montreal, Quebec. Ken was a drummer at the downstairs club at the time and in between sets, the bassist and Ken would hang at the Tavern, where the bartender Joe sold tap beer for a dollar and pickled eggs for 50 cents. The beer was cool, the pool tables were fine and those pickled eggs had definitely seen better days.

Lyrics, Libretto and Music by Ken Rabow

Click on the underlined tracks below to play

excerpts.

Song List


  1. 1.Rockhead’s Paradise

  2. 2.Joe’s Tavern

  3. 3.Who’s Da Bossa?

  4. 4.I’m Kinda Funny That Way

  5. 5.(Where’s My) Cuppa Coffee?

  6. 6.Bye-Bye (Instrumental)

  7. 7.No Such Luck

  8. 8.It’s A Shame (Instrumental)

  9. 9.Baby, You Belong To Me

  10. 10.Best I can Be

  11. 11.Don’t It Show?