1. |
Going Steady
03:28
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Wherever could a weary brother wander?
Still the sour season that I’m under.
Takes one to know one, on your face it shows.
Everybody knows.
Tied to your bed,
I knock a winter from your bones,
Your hands, wild above your head.
Pulling on the string, chasing down my pain.
Only trouble that it brings, I’ll take the back road.
We’re going steady, my old friend.
Wherever could a weary brother wander?
Soothe the savage beast we tore asunder.
The sleeping state I live in, so it is and so it goes.
Everybody knows.
Pressed against the wall with a fever in my blood,
Fucked my way past it all.
The sweetness that I’ve found, and the shame.
All my love has run aground - let it all go.
We’re going steady once again.
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2. |
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Your grip slips in the guillotine -
A fresh missive for the sucker scene.
The air is thick on the pedestal,
That's just the pain and pleasure principle.
I'm a one-percenter, the main eventer.
I'm a shooter, man!
I'm the One Man Gang.
In a hall of mirrors with a rope of sand.
I was a true believer.
Never meant to let this get so far out of hand.
A little death in the tv gloom.
Fugazi sitting in the waiting room.
The haze of something coursing through my spine.
Just play me Green or maybe Out of Time.
I'm a baby boomer, an early bloomer.
From you to me, my flamingo on some foreign isle far out of reach.
In a hall of mirrors with a rope of sand.
I was a true believer.
Never meant to let this get so far out of hand.
A hall of mirrors and a game for fools.
I shouldn’t cry about it.
Never meant to let this make me lose my cool.
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3. |
Mercy Me
02:33
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Oh mercy, it’s a hard grind
Fell so hard, fallen behind.
No mercy and no rest,
I drank all that my money could get.
A hunger had burned deep in my chest.
A fever had spun my head so west.
Craving was the feeling that I knew best.
Oh mercy me, where can a poor man go?
When the damn breaks slow.
When I’m dust and bones.
Oh mercy me, oh mercy me, oh mercy me.
Oh mercy, we’re living in sin.
I’ve got a woman keeping me thin.
Small mercies in the thick gloom
Screaming mercy in the bedroom.
A hunger had burned deep in my chest.
A fever had spun my head so west.
Craving was the feeling that I knew best.
Oh mercy me, where can a poor man go?
When the damn breaks slow.
When I’m dust and bones.
Oh mercy me, oh mercy me, oh mercy me.
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4. |
Didn't It Rain
03:35
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Grab your keys, put on your coat
The baby clothes are boxed to go
The foxglove and the sprawling oak
Are blowing north again.
I made mistakes I couldn't hide
Holding onto foolish pride
Waiting on a hand to guide
Left rudderless and spent.
Didn't it rain.
Poison tears down the drain.
Didn't it rain.
My heart is tongue-tied, my head is pins
Still can't equate this mess I'm in.
All elbow grease fails to convince.
Do you love me like you did?
Port Manteau, please take me back.
Your neon is a heart attack.
Make up the shortfall for all that I lack.
I'm coming home today.
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5. |
Smoke
04:06
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Chequered flag Vans and an old suit jacket.
You and I were on a tear, running rabid.
Time waits for no man, time has passed me by.
It’s still you for who my soul is thirsting.
It’s the bad dream I’ve been having every night this week.
On a balance beam.
It’s a day late – I was sleeping in this stalemate.
Treading water.
Time, oh time - did I wither on the vine?
You were mine, all mine.
Was I clear enough in the words we spoke?
Did you know I was that ghost?
We are smoke.
So I’m going where the ocean meets the land.
My father walked the steps in which I stand now.
Was I drinking the Kool Aid when I said I felt you there?
In this new loss I feel the weight of you, I swear.
It’s a shoulder fake - for each passing car, a half-life taken.
I bide my time and keep it well hid – a book of matches for the latchkey kid.
I set a fire to my insides.
You hold it up to the light.
Take a look from both sides now.
You hold it up to the light.
Say never mind, let it ride.
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6. |
The Slow Knife
03:58
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The horse has bolted in the stable
A force that split me at the seams
What was it that you said about cards on the table?
You don't know what that means
This house was built on my desire
There’s bodies swept beneath the rug
Somebody said love's all there was, but I killed away my love
Now come give me a hug
You don't know how long I've run, just what it takes
You don't know how hard I've shook, how soft it breaks
We got tangled up in this
Time just seems to move so quick
Why get all bent up over it?
Go cry yourself to sleep
Its the slow knife that cuts deep
I swear it feels just like I'm dying
I know that you've been dying too
Darling, teach me how to live with this heart full of spiders
God damn, it’s surely gonna give soon
Never had to pry, never made as far as your cellar door.
It's the very thing that I want from you, that you should ignore.
Such a crooked thing, so selfish is this love for you
I'll be selling on all I take from you as living proof.
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7. |
Pomona
03:42
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I fixed my gaze, quick in the wind.
Turned my heels again - walk away.
My starving eyes had swallowed all.
The devil's on his way.
All my fumbled words rise up - the serpentine.
These narrow margins I have built.
These solid lines I am now caught between.
I hold my heart up in spite.
I hold my heart out for more.
So turn the soil, repay the cost.
Some sense from all you've lost.
A fleur de lys will take it's root, I search for you.
So funny, what desire does.
All my fumbled words rise up - a serpentine.
The time it took to take my time, to dull my tongue.
Give me red wine and sertraline.
I hold my heart up in spite.
I hold my heart out for more.
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8. |
Who's Gonna Love You?
03:06
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I'll hold you, love, now the hounds are circling.
Show you shelter in the dark place that I stand.
It's only love.
There are nights I could scream until I'm sore,
And I run 'til my lungs burn raw.
Where was my mind, what's with wasting time away?
Settle your doubts, bury them with my name.
When I lift my shirt it's the same as you -
What do your demons do?
Tell me, who's gonna love you?
I'll hold you, love, now the hounds are gathering.
We'll mark all of your burdens on my skin.
It's only love.
Lose my shoes, my cool, take it all too far,
Submit to the grip of the reservoir.
There's a debt to contest I won't ever put to rest,
And the slow, stutter rhythm that grows so still now in my chest.
I'm ready for the new road, lost my patience with it all.
Tell me, who's gonna love you?
I know who's gonna love you.
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9. |
When I'm Alone
05:45
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Cast against the clay, into that sole and solemn place,
I'll hold you still, fragrant from the kill.
Say, are we distant islands now?
I still feel that heat somehow.
I could hold you closer.
Am I the tolling bell that hounds you?
My kingdom now surrounds you - this time I've found you.
I barrel back and buckle up when I'm alone with you.
Swept adrift for days - could I eat all you allow?
Open up your gates, I shall heave my chariots down.
Because it's heavy on your breath, love, that fever in your frame.
There's this pleasure in your flesh, love, calling out my name.
Am I the tolling bell that hounds you?
Such sweet ecstasy surrounds you.
I barrel back and buckle up when I'm alone with you.
Here poised above the skyline, here from my high trapeze,
It's the only thing I see.
As you lay on your side, bruises on your thighs - I barrel back and buckle up.
The light pirouhettes in the nape of your neck - I barrel back and buckle up.
When the mist lifts in the morning and you call for me,
Will I barrel back? Will I buckle up?
Would you swallow my shame? Though it was not earned.
In love's company, does it all return?
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10. |
Follow You Around
03:53
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Every night is sole and same
I don’t really like to tell.
Do I really love you?
I guess I might as well.
Your song, it echoes through this old house,
Sunlight burns into the wall.
Birds, mocking at the window.
Were you ever here at all?
You’ve been picking me up and breaking me down
Putting me back together again
I don’t know where and I don’t know how
You’re leading me to the water again.
So take me
I’m ready - I surrender to the deep.
You bind my hands behind me,
And you burn the whole house down. I still follow you around.
I echo you somehow – could I follow you around?
I could split your skull wide open,
Put the spark behind your eyes.
The ever-present danger,
That’s where my true love lies.
But darling, living don’t come easy.
So how am I supposed to die?
I’ve got a woman,
She could teach you how to cry.
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11. |
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Lover, trouble knows my name.
I’ve been wandering, headless, had it out with the rain.
The half-light, silent - I still feel the same
In the merciful dark, with this bloat in my veins.
I’m a stranger in a map of my sins.
Poison oak has weaved it’s wicked way within.
I shift my gait, leave it all to the breeze again.
Shadows lengthen on the lonely hearts of Lordship Lane,
They’re singing: “lover, trouble knows my name.”
I was looking for you when the streets rearranged.
Tunneled hillsides, cut a swathe through my skin.
Poison oak has weaved it’s wicked way within.
Wishing well’s fit for picking, I’ve been up to my old tricks.
Another year, same old mistakes.
Gold is past due but I can’t shake my baby blues.
Different council, same estate.
My heart remains blind to my shame
Everyone I’ve hurt knows that trouble, trouble, trouble knows my name.
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