Holding On

(Holding on) I was in Chicago several years ago I was invited to play at a nightclub (At a nightclub? Can you imagine that? Can you see me in a nightclub?) It was the old Quiet Night up on Belmont Street, across from Cliff Raven's tattoo parlor (Holding on) Well, I went up to The Quiet Night at 3:00 in the afternoon, because I was scared Fought my way past the guard dogs, got up there And the janitor had taken the garbage out He was in the big hall by himself Sitting in the, just under the, just a nightlight up on the stage An older man, he was sitting there playing the Moonlight Sonata, beautifully, quietly I stood in the shadows, he didn't know I was there A great shock of white hair standing back on his head Lines on his face I looked closely and saw that he was just playing with the one hand The other was a stump off about here (Holding on) Well he began to pound the piano with the one good hand And in a rumbling baritone voice started to sing Freiheit, freedom The song of the Thälmann Brigade during the Spanish Civil War The war that, if we had gotten involved in it, there might not have been a Second World War He sang Los Cuatro Generales, The Jarama Valley, White Cliffs of Gandesa Powerful music of the Spanish Civil War Well, that was Eddie Balchowsky Eddie Balchowsky had been a concert pianist, a brilliant pianist as a young man But he went and joined the Abraham Lincoln Brigade and went to Spain To fight against Franco and the fascists Crossing the Ebro River he got his arm blown off Well, they put him in the field hospital on morphine Which turned him into a junkie for the next thirty years of his life He haunted the alleys of Chicago, a mad poet, a derelict, a drug addict, an alcoholic He began to put himself back together Got the job at The Quiet Night Got to practice the piano, Richard Harding was good about that. And not just to learn the songs of the civil war He learned Hayden's and Liszt's left-hand variations He'd play Bach's Chaconne with one hand, it was beautiful Hi daughter Rayna just sent me recordings, tapes that he'd made for her I'd never heard Him playing the whole classical repertoire on the piano with one hand Chopin, that was his favorite Well he taught me powerful things about endurance, about holding on, about holding on (About holding on) I left Chicago A week later I got a call, said Eddie Balchowsky had died I sat down and I made him up a death song A week later I got a call from Eddie (Audience laughter) First thing I asked him was, "Hey Ed, where you calling from?" (Audience laughter) Well, he said he was calling from Chicago I said, "Hell, dead, or in Chicago, it's all the same to me, fella" (Audience laughter) And a week after that I was back at The Quiet Night Sitting on a barstool with Eddie Balchowsky himself sitting across from me Had us a chance to sing him his death song He was amused Well, it was just a while ago that Ed Balchowsky at the age of 74 Was found on the subway tracks in Chicago They just had a museum show of his art and poetry and music and recollections From old comrades all over the country And then I sang his death song (Holding on)