The eleventh track off of
Joan Osborne's 1995 album release, "
Relish". Written by Joan. Released by
Polygram Records, under her label, Blue Gorilla.
I don't particularly care for Joan Osborne a great deal. I don't bend one way or another concerning her music, really, and her voice fluctuates from sicky sweet to coarsley grating on this album but the first time I heard this song I ran right out to the nearest used cd store, being the poor college student that i was, and purchased "Relish" anyway.
At the time it reminded me of myself. My world at the time was wrought with darkness and confusion. I chain smoked my Camels, drank my Cuervo, nursed my hangovers with an array of handy illegals and generally drove myself into the ground as if I had a contract to destroy myself. Many days found me without the effort to get out of bed, much less leave the house. I played this song to the point of musical exhaustion and the increasing annoyance of my roommates. It would be a few years before I would hear it again.
Finding myself on the path of self-detriment once again and hearing another song whose guitar intro was remiscent to those in the beginning chords of "Crazy Baby", I spent one entirely coked up evening ransacking my apartment (sans roommates this time, luckily) till I unearthed the scratched and dusty copy of "Relish" and drowned in Eric Brazilian's electric riffs, Joan's acoustic guitar and her sultry lullaby wail. Upon another change of residence and lifestyle, I'm sure this cd was lost in the shuffle and again, years would pass before it was brought, once more, to my attention.
This time, thank god, it was not myself I envisioned in between these lines, but maybe just as sadly so, a friend. I see her just as helpless and floundering as I have been. The miles between us are many and though I know I am incapable of saving her from herself, I would like to tell her that "I know" and she is NOT alone.
However, being so much like I was when I was her, she would never listen. Not with any understanding that life could and should be better, anyway.
Crazy Baby
Eric Bazilian: electric guitar
Mark Egan: bass
Rob Hyman: electric piano
Andy Kravitz: drums
Joan Osborne: acoustic guitar/vocals
And your hands are really shakin' something awful
As you light your twenty-seventh cigarette
Oh, how long have you been sittin' in the darkness?
...You forget
Oh, you know, you're gettin' really hard to be with
and you're cryin' every time you turn around
And you wonder why you cannot pick your head up
...Off the ground
Oh, my crazy baby
Try to hold on tight
Oh, my crazy baby
Don't put out the light
the light
the light
And they look at you like they don't speak your language
And you're living at the bottom of a well
And you've swallowed all the awful bloody secrets
...That you can't tell
Oh, you know you ought to get yourself together
But you cannot bear to walk outside your door
No, you cannot bear to look into the mirror
...anymore
Oh, my crazy baby
Try to hold on tight
Oh, my crazy baby
Don't put out the light
the light
the light
And your hands are really shakin' something awful
As your worries crawl around inside your clothes
Oh, how long will you be sittin' in the darkness?
...Heaven knows
Oh, my crazy baby
Try to hold on tight
Oh, my crazy baby
Don't put out the light
the light
the light