Peter Alsop‘s SONGS TO CHEW

I BELIEVE YOU

When you tell me you are scared A-F#m

I will listen ‘cause I care F#m-A

I remember bein’ scared too Bm-F#m

So when you tell me, I believe you E-A

When you’re angry or you’re sad

Even if you’re feeling bad

I remember feelin’ bad too

So when you tell me, I believe you

Maybe I can help you with an idea D-C#m

Maybe I know something that’ll make things clear Bm-A

Maybe I won’t know what to do D-C#m

But I can be a safe place, and I bel...

LIFELINE

You carried me, home in your arms G-C-D,G-C-D

You loved me so much, and you kept me from harm

You washed me and fed me, the years how they flew

And now you need my help, and I’ll care for you!

There’s a lifeline that ties me to you, Am-C-G

Life rolls like a wheel through whatever we do

Through all of the hard times and anger we feel G-D9-C-G

The love that we have, well it helps us to heal, G-D9-Am-D

Love’s a lifeline that pulls us ...

While we think we’re just watching, we’re also being shaped by the stories and images we see. We watch how others live their lives and we see the values they hold. Our brains notice everything, even if we’re not paying much attention, and we compare what we do, with what ‘they’ do. Here’s a live concert video from 1990 when Pete Seeger invited me to join him on stage at the Theatricum Botanicum in Topanga.

YOU GET A LITTLE EXTRA WHE...

It’s the end of October again, and I’ve noticed scatterings of children test-driving their Halloween costumes in the super-market aisles, making sure they work! Hidden inside their new identity, they are no longer just a ‘child-in-a-supermarket’! They’ve been transformed by their costume and they want to be sure that they’re all set for the big night. It’s delicious fun to become someone or something else, isn’t it?! Costumes enabl...

I wrote “Gotta Lotta Livin’ To Do” in the midst of the HIV/AIDS crisis in the 1980’s, which was spreading like wildfire through the Gay community.

My daughters Megan and Willow joined me when I went to perform at a California Men’s Gathering back then, ... and the men kept coming up to ‘thank me’ for coming to sing and bringing my daughters along. There was so much fear back then about contracting HIV from gay men. No one knew for c...

THE LETTER TO MR. BROWN

Dear Mr. Brown, from the kids in Room Two G-C-G

We’re writing you a letter, like you taught us to do C-G-C-D

We all got together at lunch this noon G-Em-C

And we decided we’d better do something soon. G-C-D9-G

‘Cause lately you’ve been diff’rent, and we don’t know why G-A-Am-G

Did we do something wrong? Am7-G

We’re sorry and we’ll try C-D9

To act a little better, if we’ve been bad G-A-Am-G

We all think that you’re th...

As a psychologist and songwriter, I’ve made my living lecturing, consulting, writing songs and doing concerts for kids, parents and human service professionals. I’ve presented at conferences and concerts all over the world for more than 50 years.

I wrote ‘Baby Needs A Parent’ in 1980, when most single parent families were headed by Moms. These days there are more Dads heading single-parent families than there were back then, but a 2...

Have you ever laughed, cried or sung-along with one of my songs? If so, I’m guessing you’ll like this full length feature video of my new play-concert “Ebenezer’s Make Over”!

It’s about a modern-day Ebenezer Scrooge who is visited by three spirits in the night. They shake him awake with passionate and humorous songs written by Holly Near, Geof Morgan, Charlie Murphy, myself and other cultural workers from the feminist men’s and wo...

Here’s an anthem I wrote from one of the Twelve-Step sayings. We sang this on the main stage with the audience at the 1986 Philadelphia Folk Festival, along with my friends Kim and Reggie Harris. Join us!

WHEN ONE IS TOO MANY

One drink, one smoke, one snort of coke A-D

A sugar slip, hey, a mainline trip A-E-E7

Are you sick and tired of feeling sick and tired? A-D

My friend, I know you know what’s required! A-E-E7

Cho: When one is too...

WHEN JESUS WAS A KID

It’s Christmas time again D

And the mall is really weird.

Everyone gets stressed out

Christmas shopping every year. D-A7

I have to stop and wonder,

Looking at my Christmas list

When Jesus was a kid,

Would He be doing this? A7-D

I know He was a baby,

But did He ever cry?

Did Jesus wet His diapers,

Or were they always dry?

Did He use a bottle

Before He used a cup?

Did Jesus throw things on the floor

Fo...

When my buddy Utah Phillips recorded my song, ‘It’s Only A Wee-Wee, So What’s The Big Deal?’, he introduced it by saying,

“Now here’s my idea of a kids’ song folks! Full bore, overhead cam, spoke wire-wheels, no holds barred damn kids’ song! None of that ‘knicky-knacky-nu’ stuff we were stuck with when we were kids. When’s the last time you actually said ‘wee-wee’ in public? ‘It’s only a wee-wee, so what’s the big deal? It’s only a ...

    Today's 'Song To Chew' is YECCH! from my “Wha'D'Ya Wanna Do?" album.  I play this song at almost every family concert because almost veryone loves screaming "Yecch!" at the top of their lungs!  It's a 'scream-along' so you can join in with us!  It's full of make-believe and playfulness, and it's an example of how story and oral tradition grab our attention and engage us. There is an air of danger wh...

    Today's 'Song To Chew' is LET'S FACE IT! from my “In The Hospital" album.  It addresses facial disfigurement, and all the unsettling emotions that we go through when we feel that we're different than others around us.  It's difficult emotionally, whether we're an adult or a child, to figure out how we're going to behave when others stare at us and feel uncomfortable. We have to cope with our own fee...

    Today's 'Song To Chew' is INSPECTION.  I wrote it with Penny Pefley, one of the pediatric nurses who helped us make our “In The Hospital"album.  My buddy Bill Harley and I 'rap' this one.  Our personal privacy is challenged regularly in a hospital by doctors, nurses and assistants who want to make sure we're okay.  They even wake us up at night to make sure we're sleeping soundly!  Today's kids are t...

    Today's 'Song To Chew' is JUICE, from my “Stayin Over" album.  It's an uncomplicated song, about the complicated concepts of 'love' and 'energy'.  When we feel we’re not loved, we feel empty, and we search for any kind of 'juice' to fill us up, like booze, sex, drugs, money, food or approval from others.  But when we’re actually filled up with 'love', we don't have to go on that search.  We can pass ...

    Today we'll 'Chew' on the title song from my STAYIN' OVER album.  Do you remember the first night you went to 'stay over' at a friend's house?  Maybe it was a camping trip with other families.  These adventures are loaded with memories and lessons we learned from our social interactions with others.  It's a big step in independence for most kids.  When we do it, we face separation from our own bed, b...

    Today's 'Song To Chew' is WIGGLE.  It's a song about freedom!  We all “wiggle” when someone won’t let us do what we want to do.  'Being alive!" means that in one form or another, we just need to "wiggle"!  Some of us wiggle emotionally because we don't want to be 'pinned down'.  Some wiggle physically because we'll jump out of our skin if we can't get down and run around and chase the kitty cat!  And...

Today's 'Song To Chew' is THE PRIZE from my “Did You Walk?" album.  It's song lyrics without any music, so actually, it's a poem.  We're constantly being taught that it's important to 'come in first', to 'win the game', to 'win the race!'  Some of us do it to get approval from others.  Some think we have to do it so we can become financially independent and better able to care for ourselves and our loved...

    Today's 'Song To Chew', SANDWICHES, was written by Bob King.  One of the subjects that kids love to sing about is food!!  We'll 'chew on' ideas about kids and food and the interconnectedness of all the human things we do in our lives.  There's 'enjoyment' and 'sharing'.  There's 'mooching', which is trying to get something that someone else has, but not wanting to 'share' what we have.  'Mooching' is...