1. |
Harlequin Bands
03:48
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I was wrong
She showed me disaster footage at night
I played along
I was shipped out and I swore I would write
Towers of tapes
She used them as candles when her people died
Just a storm off the capes
Every few nights I dream she is alive
We built some dams
We took on the river, we raised the deceased
Harlequin bands
Shoveling sand at the mouth of the beast
We watched them 'till dawn
Mudslides, firestorms, twisters, and floods
Since she's been gone
The sunset glows with the heat of her blood
We built some dams
We took on the river, we raised the deceased
Harlequin bands
Shoveling sand at the mouth of the beast
I've got her name tattooed on my boat
I left her after my weeks on the shore
I told her I worked for the government
Now no one goes to the shore anymore
We built some dams
We took on the river, we raised the deceased
Harlequin bands
Shoveling sand at the mouth of the beast
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2. |
Overpass
06:18
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My heart and your windows, opaque and broken
Hello to your folks and welcome to Oakland
Your Dad sold that coke and was sold up the river
I say I get it, you say it's different
My parents are livid, yours went ballistic
The local cabs won't pick me up in your district
You say you'll miss it, I'm more realistic
You say it's forever, I know the statistics
You were on fire when you walked away
Your friends call me cracker, I hope they're joking
Drunk in the back of my parents' car smoking
Outside the club taking shots in the Taurus
I called you baby, you called me a tourist
This liquor is sordid, I can't take much more of it
Your brother the dealer stares me down as he pours it
It's not that I'm bored of the foothills well sort of
We just need the Lord above to support us
You were on fire when you walked away
The cops busted you for your brothers' kis and
They would have been lenient if you were European
I hope you believe that the narc wasn't me and
I think it's a crime you weren't tried as a minor
But I wouldn't blame you if the powder was yours
And the Pyrex and firearms under the floorboards
Now I feel horrible, like I was a long shot
Like man is his own God, call in the bomb squad
You were on fire when you walked away
If I could stay with you I would
Crosstown traffic does no one any good
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3. |
New Virginia
04:14
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A Chicago needle took her in the summer
I pawned our shit and caught a bus out west
I got off the Greyhound in a corn and cattle town
Because the name recalled my mother's place of rest
It seemed like a haven for clean Christian maidens
Who'll love a man despite the holes he's made
But the scourge arrived a decade before I did
Provided by the trailer parade
New Virginia, Iowa
Virgin land apart from who I was
New Virginia, Iowa
Poisoned boys do as poison does
Cornfields can't quite cover the bodies of our lovers
Singing from the Cook County morgue
I managed to bandage my memory of the damage
With the sheets of the clerk from the store next door
She had left the church when her cursing father left her in the lurch
She told me sleep is for the old
I met her friends tending bar when harvest ended
So wide awake I couldn't feel the cold
New Virginia, Iowa
Virgin land apart from who I was
New Virginia, Iowa
Poisoned boys do as poison does
For our sins we've got modern bathtub gin
It's a long night, a long night to go
And I know in the shack on Felton's curve
I'll get, I'll get what I deserve
Lord steady my nerves
The lives we've led are never really dead
Nor the psalms that set the bombs off in our heads
By the time I'm clean this prairie will mean nothing to me
I'll curse another place instead
Whoah, it's a long night, a long night to go
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4. |
Complicated Men
05:19
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5. |
Concrete and Chrome
06:57
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When I returned everyone who'd wished me well two years ago was scared
'Freedom Fighter' is what they'd said but they don't know it was like a jail over there
I can't sleep without the screams, I can't dream without the feel of desert sun on my face
So you're leaving with the kids, claiming that for now your Mom's is just a safer place
But the only thing that got me through was knowing that
Someday I'd be coming home to you and the love that we made
Where is my parade? Where is my welcome home?
Where is my parade? Where is my welcome home?
Guess I should have stayed with the concrete and the chrome
When I got free all my friends stopped by once and never called again
Unwelcome for my sin, they say 'peace' but it was like a warzone in that pen
I can't go out without the stares, I can't ask for work without the stain on my hands
So you're saying you've moved on, claiming that five years is too long to wait for a man
But the only thing that got me through was knowing that
Someday I'd be coming home to you and the love that we made
Where is my parade? Where is my welcome home?
Where is my parade? Where is my welcome home?
Guess I should have stayed with the concrete and the chrome
I should have stayed
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6. |
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Corsets, bowties, and a bottle of Ides in the back of the car
Your daddy threw my hands in the gutter, underneath the stars
And I laughed ‘cause it was funny the way he screamed
And the way you put your hands inside of my jeans
Summer at the stable, your old camera, playing cards
We stole a pint of whiskey and pitched a tent in the old junkyard
And we talked of going to college in the fall
And the pictures we’ll put up on sorority walls
We try to hold the moment and make it last
But paradise has locked its wicked doors
Now that I’m a man you’re just a memory
My innocence I left in Tennessee
A marriage made on eggshells and that man you found in hell
Kids with that look in their eyes that mother isn’t well
And it’s funny how you try to make your love
When I’m the only one you’re dreaming of
The love we made betrayed the Southern Cross
We turned our backs and look at what we lost
Now that I’m a man you’re just a memory
My innocence I left in Tennessee
But the photographs of our beautiful youth
They don’t lie they can only tell the truth
But the photographs of our beautiful youth
They don’t lie they can only tell the truth
They don’t lie they can only tell the truth
They don’t lie they can only tell the truth
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7. |
Borders without Doctors
03:17
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8. |
The Carpenter
05:07
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It's a good talent, work with your hands and food on the table
Sight to blind and water to wine in barrio fables
Oh holy night up in Boyle Heights, then the workday begins
We awake to the colonial din of gringos driving in
My only son you're truly a wonder, maybe a harbinger
Day labor harlot, Home Depot car lot, 8 dollar carpenter
Oh holy night up in Boyle Heights, then the workday begins
We awake to the colonial din of gringos driving in
Jesus I cannot explain
Why you and Dad don't look the same
Time will come, lawns will brown when the aqueduct fails
Time will come, they'll need you for more than hammering nails
Time will come, lawns will brown when the aqueduct fails
Jesus they'll need you for more than hammering nails
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9. |
Black and Blue Devil
08:35
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So we sent you to camp where the other boys were white
So a coach came to our doorstep, oh was he polite
A leading program in the country on a full scholarship
Named for a tobacco family who didn't spare the whip
Your mother and I tried to do what was best
Your mother and I tried to do what was best
I remember the cops and the hoses and the dogs
I remember the cops and the hoses and the dogs
So we let you play the only native game
So we told you that this country sees every boy the same
So we told you to forget all about the past for shame
So we taught you that the silent man's as bad as he who sins
In a house in the night
I hope you never chipped in
I've been alive too long to trust genetic tests
I've been around too long to believe in just arrests
I grew up knowing separate isn't equal after all
But now you're all, you're all equally at fault
Your mother and I tried to do what was best
Your mother and I tried to do what was best
I remember the cops and the hoses and the dogs
I remember the cops and the hoses and the dogs
So your skin set you free and the white girls show support
The boys of North Buchannan won't even go to court
But we're not welcome in the church we rebuilt in '68
You share in the disgrace but you'll never be one of them
In a house in the night
My God she could have been your kin
What we said
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The Lonelyhearts Iowa City, Iowa
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