NZ Folksong * Get Out Alive

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Mel was in a car that rolled four times and was totalled. She walked
away without any serious injury, but it made her re-evaluate her life.

Capo 3rd fret
Em I crashed my car on my way home
I wasn't even on the G phone, Em on the phone
Over and over we did roll
What a way to start the show,

C Lucky to G be Em ali-i-ive
Lucky to be alive

My mortality jumped in my throat
I held on and Lord I G hoped, Lord I Em hoped
I’m a cat with one less life
Someone looked out for me to-G-night, me to-Em-night

CHORUS
Oh, oh, C oh! Oh, oh, oh!
Oh, G I got C lucky and I Em walked away
Yeah, G could’a so easily C been the other Em way x2

And what would happen to my things?
My books, papers, my silver rings,
And who would wear all of my clothes?
They'd be useless, I suppose, I suppose

Lucky to get out al-i-i-ive
Lucky to get out alive

CHORUS

Now there is glass among my teeth
And when I spit it out I bleed, oh I bleed
I got a good knock to the head
I could just as well be dead, well be dead

CHORUS, then

Oh, I got lucky and I walked away
Yeah, could'a so easily been the other way x3

Mel Parsons

Mel was born in 1981 and grew up on a sheep and beef farm in Cape Road on Cape Foulwind, on the West Coast near Westport. The piano introduced her to music performance, then at 14 she took up the guitar.

After finishing high school she studied for a year at the Nelson School of Music then went to Auckland University to popular music and performance, history, anthropology and Spanish. She then spent time overseas including a year close to the Atacama Desert in Chile, and two years in the Rocky Mountains in Canada.

Early influences on her included Cat Stevens, Paul Simon, Sinéad O'Connor, Bob Dylan, and Neil Young. Later influences included Tracy Chapman and Gillian Welch.

In 2007 she started on the first of her four albums, backed by a night club band, and the fourth album won the 2019 Tui Awards. She is however at her best singing and playing live, without studio musicians and engineers modifying her music.

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Webpage put onto folksong.org.nz website Jan-Feb 2020.