I said Help me Doc I got songwriters’ block
I just can’t find my inspiration
He said That ain’t no block you just ran out of stock what you need dude is a long vacation
I was in the east my heart was in the west
and when asked why resist assimilation
I left my heart back in Asbury Park
that was the explanation
In junior high I would lift my eyes
to from where will come my salvation
In the army I swore I’d head straight for the shore
when my three years reached their cessation
The beacon that shined its light into a mind
blackened by social darkness and isolation
With the promise that someday after the bull gets blown away I’d undertake massive relocation
Chip on my shoulder since I was a soldier
Drive your friends crazy don’t get lazy
Underground homesick grab yourself a broomstick
This ain’t no statement just block abatement
Tramping around through the streets of this town
under an onslaught of precipitation
The mist was so thick I knew I’d be sick
without some spiritual medication
I staggered my way to nuevo dolce cafe
and sat down to the taste of innovation
Then the evening sky cleared so I regrouped and steered my sights to nocturnal invasion
Saw her sitting on the boardwalk rails with her usual gang of friend females
in sweatshirt jeans and flirtation
Flashed her my jazz and blues and snakeskin shoes
and then she was mine for the duration
She took my arm she felt so warm
she was a summer night's soft intoxication
I didn’t inquire she was lover for hire
but she didn’t fit the characterization
What am I trying to say here this ain’t no cliché here
You wanna be a beatnik you gotta be a streetnik
Check the rhyme and meter you ain’t gonna beat her
Blinded by the light Bruce no use call a truce
But you know it’s all right
Yeah you know it's all right
But you know it's all right
It's all right if it's all night
Well maybe the agencies declared a hiring freeze
But I’m not looking for a job or a vocation
This is the time I’ll seize just to follow the breeze
Blowin’ through town on revisitation
I’ve come here to spurn the life of Sit And Learn
And I don’t want no redemption or salvation
No matter which way I turn my bridges seem to burn
So I’m just here in life to find my station
From the seaside bar joints to the land’s end points
Pick choose and shoot for my destination
I’ve come to anoint the long-awaited counterpoint
To these trends of cynicism and stagnation
127 miles of as many different styles
The possibilities of limitless exploration
No more self-denial or tribulations and trials
I won’t accept any statute of limitation
Playing my wordgames so what if it all sounds the same
None of this crap rap beatin’ like a clap trap
Radio hum drum makes me go ho hum
Rock’n’roll tidy bowl no soul pigeonhole
Grab your attention keep it in suspension
It’s the great backlash against all the cheap trash
Mindless conformity mental deformity
If you ain’t receivin’ it don’t you believe in it
©2007, 2022 The Hesh Inc.
When I was living in Boston during my college/first-marriage years, I wrote a song called "Northeastern Beachtown Boogie," in which I expressed my desire to become a local in a place that I had only dreamed about for the preceding decade. It was borne of a Dylan-style stream of consciousness melded together with a travelogue straight out of Life Is A Beach by beach bums/authors Parke Puterbaugh and Alan Bisbort. It became the second song in a five-song suite that expanded on these themes and also expressed my dissatisfaction with where I found myself in life at the time. That suite made up "Side One" of the Soul In Exile record that I envisioned from the start. I kept the music to myself for a number of years, not quite ready to perform it live, but eventually, I changed the title and last verse to make it a bit less location-specific. I recorded it for my second album, Soul In Exile 2: Jersey Shore Baby, in 2002, and I released it five years later.
In 2021, while hunkered down at home in North Jersey during the Covid-19 era, I decided that it is time to remix and remaster the Soul In Exile opus so that I can put it in front of newer and hopefully wider audiences. The result was Soul In Exile Redux, which was released on January 28, 2022; "Coastal Groove" is track 2.