On a soft southern California Sunday morning the 24th of May in 1987, the New York Times Crossword Puzzle number 4 across asked; "shade of blue"? Five letters. Alice! But I passed right by Teddy's daughter dressed in her signature icy blue gown of 1919 and drifted into a dark, damp, leaky studio loft on lower forty-first street in the mostly abandoned slight of town. Deep within she sat. An artist, spectral perhaps; and a painter of the homeless. She was living only a short step above the portraits of her dripping subjects hanging from her failing ceiling. She had me at word one!
Lyrics
Alice Blue
Alice Blue, sits in the dark outside my window
Alice Blue, waits for the pall of night to shed
She is there, living between the greens and violets
Sun is up; she combs the light into her hair
Alice Blue lives in a loft on forty-first street
Canvass walls, lit by white rice paper shades
She is there moving between the greens and violets
Alice Blue, close my eyes and she appears
Alice Blue, portraits hanging from the piping
Some have died; some are living on the street
Alice Blue, the greens are bleeding on the violets
Alice Blue, doesn’t someone somewhere care
Secret Alice,
Deep blue Alice,
Alice Blue, the rain is melting from your ceiling
Sun is down, the wind is misting on the glass
Alice Blue, the greens are bleeding on the violets
Alice Blue, the color’s running from your hair
Alice Blue, sits in the dark outside my window
Alice Blue, waits for the pall of night to shed
She is there, living between the greens and violets
Alice Blue, Alice blue
copyright: 1987 paul shire colarusso