George and the Arizona Star

Arizona Star    3:24
(Guy Clark / Rich Alves)

ã 2002 EMI April Music Inc.
& Acuff-Rose Music, Inc. (ASCAP)

Guy Clark: vocal, guitar
Verlon Thompson: guitar
Darrell Scott: dobro
Overdubs:
Verlon Thompson: mandolin
Darrell Scott: accordion, marimbula
Gillian Welch & Dave Rawlings: harmony vocals

‘Twas in the town of Nashville in the year of ‘75
This Arizona star just fell out of the sky
Shinin’ like a diamond she had tombstones in her eyes
She liked drinkin’ she liked smokin’ she liked dancin’ in the aisle

She was a pre Madonna primadonna part time southern belle
She shoulda been an actress she played the part so well
She might’ve been a singer you really couldn’t tell
She was the Arizona star and she was born to give ‘em hell

Chorus
When you’re cool the sun shines all the time
So she always kept her shades on to keep from goin’ blind
She was cool she was out there so far
Nothin’ less and nothin’ more than the Arizona star

She had a girlfriend named George and George carried a sword
And wore purple tights and hung out every night
I’m talkin’ ‘bout a circus I’m talkin’ ‘bout three rings
Four or five clowns in a washing machine

She never met a stranger as far as I could tell
She was the Arizona star Jim McGuire he knew her well
She made real an oxymoron she made mirrors she made smoke
She had a curve ball that wouldn’t quit a girlfriend for a joke

It was in the fall of 1973 that I saw George and the Arizona Star in a club in San Francisco. I think I even shared the stage with them in an open mic night scene at Coffee Gallery on Grant. Either way I was a fan the second I heard the music and humor.  "Mock Rock" is what they called their act. 

I was such a fan that while working at a silkscreen printing company I designed and printed a few George and the Arizona Star tee shirts with a dripping ice cream cone with a cherry on top the was something reminiscent of a Magnollia Thunderpuusy cone from Haight Street. I know I have my wife's original shirt somewhere ... I swear after forty years I'll find it and send it to Girl George who is still rockin' in Berkeley and Nashville. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ka4GICN_ozM