TOAST TO LORETTA is lyrics inspired by a FB conversation where the line 'simmering guitars' came from Kevin Radley...and music both blue and bluegrass was discussed with class and ease by friends...from such simple lines come simple songs about complex people and the lives of those in the Purple Gangs of our San Francisco Bay Area....

TOAST TO LORETTA

CHORUS:

Loretta and You were good friends and great drinkers
The guitars just simmered the saxes just sang
The blues and the heartaches: you sang them all evenin'
Loretta and You and your sweet Purple Gang
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She was a loner and your were no stranger
To dark alleys, heartaches, and tempers, sad songs -
She pouted and put on a lotta red lipstick
You whispered of love and small nights and great wrongs...

She mainlined in dramas and covered the bruises
With cold steaks when hunger was all you went through -
She growled out them lyrics with pathos and bathos:
About all the rats and the crooks that she knew...
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CHORUS
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So beat them drums slowly and keep up the rhythms
Of cold and hot sorrow and pain every night -
Keep up the cruel laughter and light up the cigs now:
Hold your head high when just nothin' goes right....

The Purple Gang loves ya and so do the beat cops
And so do I, darlin' and so does this song...
You kept the faith true between you and Loretta
She loves ya tonight and she will all night long....
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CHORUS
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