Yesler Way

Performance at the 1996 Folklife Festival in Seattle, WA.

Artist's Statement

This song refers to Seattle's Yesler Way, America's original "Skid Row," where drunk and out-of-work men lurked in the gutters, back around the turn of the last century and well into the 1970s. The original name of the street was Skid Road, for along this path the timber was slid down from higher elevations in the logging days of the city.

Yesler Way,

That's where I spent most of yesterday,

Drinking whiskey, rum and chardonnay,

Oh, I got soused on Yesler Way.

Bankruptcy,

That is why the firm just fired me,

There were quirks in my accountancy,

Oh can't you see the irony?

If the forms had cleared, they'd have cheered,

And raised my pay,

But the IRS thought much less

Of me than they. . .

Yesler Way,

Sitting, sulking in a small café,

Think I'll order up a tall latté

And work upon my resumé

Yeah, they cut my throat, to promote

My protégé,

Now that little slob has my job

While I turn gray.

I must say,

I like my office in this small café,

Got my laptop and my black beret,

I'm unemployed on Yesler Way...

Mmmmmmm...