Home
 1974
 1975
 1977
 1978
 1979
 1980
    The Evolution of Adrienne Rae: A Concert
    Introduction/Poem
    Genesis (Instrumental)
    Celebration
    Autobiography
    The Feminist Complaint
    I Don't Know Why I Should Worry
    Everyone's a Miracle
    The Woman in the Moon
    Moon Chant
    The Beat (Instrumental)
    Even If You Hate
    Do You Hear What I Hear? (Instrumental)
    The Activist's Darker Moments
    The Gambler Must Choose
    A Christ Complex or Something
    Sun on the Water
    Leonardo
    The Evolution of Adrienne Rae: Lyrics
    Lyrics sheet 1
    Lyrics sheet 2
    Lyrics sheet 3

Jim Andris, Facebook

The Gambler Must Choose

We can spend months running from a feeling that would vanish by our simple recognition.

© Glenda Dilley/Cea Hearth, October 19, 1980

Your browser does not support HTML5 audio.

Alright, so while we're in a dark spot, we will go even darker. This song connotes to me the reality of yin and yang from one of the darkest times I have a song that I think is probably one of the best, in my opinion, one of the prettiest songs that I have written. And it's about the, when a piece of me wants to die, but there's other pieces that don't, but a piece of you dies. So when I was writing the title to this song, I wrote down what I thought I was writing, Facing the Death Wish, but then when I looked back at it, it was Faithing the Death Wish, Faithing, and the unconscious made the better selection, since there's affirmation of life in the song, you can spot it. [Laughs.]

It makes me cry to want to die
So I know I really mustn't want to, but
With no wins and five losses
A gambler ought to choose
Why should I be persisting
   in a game I always lose?
Just cash the chips
   and pay my dues
And I feel just like dying
So tired of trying …

I go to work, take exercise—
the healthy thing to do
I talk to my friends, have dinner out
As though I wanted to

When all along I'm turning
Back inside my own mind
Hearing like the deaf hear
Seeing like one blind
Making proper comments as I know
   how to be nice
Frowning at the sad spots
Raising eyebrows at the spice
I raise my eyebrows at the spice

Waiting to be alone
At ease, at home, alone
Where I fill the hours
And I carve the stone

But lately all such carings
   just spring out to haunt me
I make music for no one to hear
I make pictures for no one to see
I am alone and lonely. lonely

I've done fair well
   Let me just lay down now
If my life deeds all were traced
   They'd show I made a better place
So can't I just lay down now?

It's so hard to keep livin' alone
When friends sound like strangers
   on my telephone
And love leaves me standing
   all alone
And my love leaves me standing
   all alone

In my intellectual mind
   I like myself just fine
It's just the resister
The sad, weeping sister with no wins
   and five losses,
That the gambler must choose

The sad weeping sister
With no wins and five losses
That the gambler, the gambler
   has to choose.