AROUND KARLA BONOFF

http://www.karlabonoff.com

 

Everywhere I look the sun is shining
But it’s always raining here inside
I can see
You really had a hold on me
It’s a mean old love
With a flame that never dies

Won’t you tell me why
I can’t say goodbye

Everywhere I go you're in my shadow
When I turn around there’s no one there
And it’s a real bad sign
I’m walking on a real thin line
A fool in love with a fool that never cared

Won’t you tell me why
I can’t say goodbye
Won’t you tell me why

Ask anyone you know


And they’ll say love fades away
But this hearts' cryin’ just like yesterday

And it’s a real bad sign
I’m walking on a real thin line
A fool in love with a fool that never cared
So won’t you tell me why
I can’t say goodbye

Won’t you tell me why
I can’t say goodbye




The water is wide, I can't cross o'er
And neither have I wings to fly
Give me a boat that can carry two
And both shall row, my love and I

Oh love is gentle and love is kind
The sweetest flower when first it's new
but love grows old and waxes cold and fades away
like morning dew


There is a ship and she sails the sea
She's loaded deep as deep can be
But not as deep as the love I'm in
I know not how I sink or swim

The water is wide, I can't cross o'er
And neither have I wings to fly
Give me a boat that can carry two
And both shall row, my love and I
And both shall row, my love and I

Rolling Stone Magazine
Issue 250
October 20, 1977
review by Stephen Holden

Karla Bonoff
Karla Bonoff (first album)

 

The impressive debut by Karla Bonoff, three of whose songs appeared on Linda Ronstadt's Hasten Down the Wind, is marred only by its emphasis on the two women's similarities; this does a disservice to Bonoff, a writer just recently becoming known as a performer, since comparisons will be inevitable. Karla Bonoff was produced by Kenny Edwards, Ronstadt's bass player, and uses most of Ronstadt's 1976 band. Although tasteful, the production's scaled-down variation on the formula that scored for another artist makes the formula, powerful as it is, begin to sound like a cliché.

Bonoff's songs of longing, loving and losing are extraordinarily sympathetic to Ronstadt, but her singing is not as similar as the material and the settings would suggest. Bonoff's approach is softer, plainer and more tentative. Vocally, she's a cross between Jennifer Warnes and Wendy Waldman. Bonoff's own versions of "Lose Again" and "If He's Ever Near" are more understated and personal expressions of loneliness than Ronstadt's. Of the unfamiliar tunes, three are outstanding. "I Can't Hold On" has a mid-Sixties British lilt enhanced by Andrew Gold's catchy guitar hooks; "Falling Star" and "Rose in the Garden" are hauntingly plaintive folk-rock ballads on a par with "Lose Again." The consistency of the material confirms a major writing talent; the performances show a promising singer.

Save me,
Free me from my heart this time.
The train’s gone
Down the track and I've stayed behind.

But nothing can free me
from this ball and chain
I've made up my mind
I would leave today.

But you're keepin'
Me goin'
I know it's insane
Because I love you
And lose again

When the heart calls
The mind obeys
Oh it knows better than me, baby.
If I hold on
For one more day,
Oh maybe, maybe he'll be true

And nothing can free me
From this ball and chain
I've made up my mind
I would leave today
But you're keepin'
Me goin'
I know it's insane
Because I love you and lose again.

There's somebody waiting alone in the street
For someone to walk up and greet

Here you are all alone in the city
Where's the one that you took to your side
Lonely faces will stare through your eyes in the night
And they'll say - woman sweet woman please come home with me
You're shining and willing and free
But your love it's a common occurence
Not like love that I feel in my heart
Still you know that may be what I need

Is someone to lay down beside me
And even though it's not real
Just someone to lay down beside me
You're the story of my life

Well morning is breaking the street lights are off
The sun will soon share all the cost
Of a world that can be sort of heartless
Not like love that you feel in our heart
Still you know that may be all you get

Is someone to lay down beside me
And even tho it's not real
Just someone to lay down beside me
You just can't ask for more