Drummer Dancer The Lyrics
By Steven M. Thomas

Collected here are the complete lyrics of Steven M. Thomas from his acclaimed autobiography “I was a drummer she was a dancer.” A fascinating insight, he offers up stories behind each of the lyrics not mentioned in the book. Includes handwritten excerpts and reviews of the original book.

Now
It’s funny how little perspective you have when you’re 21. Yet some of the best poetry is written by very young people. That’s probably because it is honest and full of emotion. I wrote this one with the thought in mind that I was going to be with this one girl for the rest of my life and that was the most important thing in the world to me. There were a lot of very attractive girls out there, but I was only going to be with this one forever. That was my choice, and I was happy with it. Even then, I was reflecting back on my past, even though I hadn’t much of a past at that age. It’s all perspective. And it’s all honest and full of emotion.
My Love Speaks From The Sky
I had to go deep inside myself to write this one, but when I did, it came flowing out like water. Intentionally Dylan. It is just a wide open love song. And it is one of those I wrote during the course of writing the book, so it is this year. Not when I was twenty-one, but fifty-four. I wanted to see if I could still do it, and it turns out, I could. Maybe even better now. It is full of imagery and word play and of course, I wrote it in one sitting.

My love speaks
from day to day
Reciting silent poetry
I see her eyes
What no one sees
Casting spectrums of
academy
What words just
Can not own

And whistling through
The bus lined streets
An image slowly matching me
In spite of all
The energy
Their faces stand alone

In bluish traces from
A thread
The clothes give image
To the head
Despite the novelty, they’re dead
What the needle pricked
It has not sewn

The passing clouds
Envision things
And tumble slowly
Over me
The wise man looks
But doesn’t see
The prophecies above his
Head and home

The world spins like
A penny
Escaping more than many
Deflecting love and pity
Like the money
Passing through your bones

My love speaks from the sky
On cold nights
When trash blows by
She stays too busy
To ask me why
Never knowing what
The clouds may bring