1. |
Tall
04:34
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Your baby boy, he done grown so tall
You lent him all your joy, he done spent it all
Hear him cry for home in a dry creek bed
Your baby boy, he grown so tall, got to hang his head
O God of love, O song of home
Who touched this body that I do not seem to own
The sky is low and made of lead
Your baby boy, he grown so tall, got to hang his head
Where are you going? Where have you been?
Heard you cry for home into an old tin can
Well you ain't well-spoke, you just well-read
My baby boy, you grown so tall, got to hang your head
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2. |
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I know the game, I know the rules
They made it famous in the Paris school
Back when love was free
Of course we came to it quite late
Love loved its last way back in sixty-eight
Now it's an industry
Still we were both born to be free
Both born the prisoners of philosophy
Mine for you and yours for me
And I make no claim upon your kiss
We were both born free to feel like this
All wrecked with jealousy
I know the rules, we both agreed
I know it's not supposed to bother me
Where you may have stayed last night
And I know the truth might set you free
But all the truth has ever done for me
Is kill my appetite
Can't you lie, lie, lie, darling, lie to me
Can't you lie, lie, lie, darling, lie to me
Like it's only me
Lie, lie, lie, darling, lie to me
I didn't come here for your honesty
Yes, we both came to it quite late
No longer love, but loss that felt like fate
And that great big closed account
And I'd already had a wife
Had payed the state to mate for life
To this day I wonder if I made it out alive
And that's the only wisdom I've acquired
The sting that lingers from the fire
The rings on fingers and the yokes on necks
We each get burned and so it goes
And anymore I do not care to know
Which one's the second sex
Can't you lie, lie, lie, darling, lie to me
Can't you lie, lie, lie, darling, lie to me
Make me believe
Lie, lie, lie, darling, lie to me
I didn't come here for your honesty
For fear the truth might set you free
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3. |
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She tossed her cigarette as the ignition turned
She said, "There's one thing now that every clown must learn"
We drove away and she said, as the warehouse burned
"There is no heaven for i Pagliacci"
She said, "American boy, that's how freedom feels
Not the kind they give you, but the kind you steal
And you will never be free until you see there really
Is no heaven for i Pagliacci"
I said I'd pray for her, she said, "Tell a joke for me
Life is much too short to waste on dignity
Let our laughter burn all of Italy
There is no heaven for i Pagliacci"
And so we lay together 'neath the Turkish smoke
I said my heart might break, she said, "It long since broke
We are not vandals, love, we simply get the joke
It goes, 'But doctor, I am Pagliaccio'"
Was that how grace would feel? Was that how angels pray?
"Trick or treat, my sweetheart"? "Tanti auguri a te"?
From happy April Fool to merry Judgment Day
There is no heaven for i Pagliacci
And so that's how I found my way
My signorina and the kerosene and me
Drove to the shipyard, singing, "Ta-ra-ra-boom, non ce
Paradiso per i Pagliacci"
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4. |
A Little Off the Top
03:33
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It's a long week, but you're still short
And that don't look too good on the report
And your job feels like a blood sport
A coliseum calling for your head
Here's the straight dope from an old hand
Working hard don't work, you need a new plan
Your livelihood is messing with your life span
So here's a method you should try instead
You take a little off the top, a dollar from the till
Cause if you don't do it then the next guy will
We're all entered in a ledger of haves and have-nots
Those who've been getting and those who've been got
It's a small thing, a detail
To redirect the proceeds of your next sale
Play it cool, kid, and you can't fail
While the other guys are swimming in the red
You take a little off the top, a dollar from till
Cause if you don't do it then the next guy will
We're all entered in a ledger of haves and have-nots
Those who've been getting and those who've been got
They say there's no honor among thieves and sharps
But I've heard my share of lies sung with angel harps
You take a little off the top, a dollar from till
Cause if you don't do it then the next guy will
We're all entered in a ledger of haves and have-nots
Those who've been getting and those who've been got
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5. |
Cry for Me
03:45
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Cry for me, lady, be my mourning dove
In a word this filled with sorrow you can never cry enough
Just for me, there's no one listening up above
They don't sing this song in heaven, honey, it ain't that kind of love
Pray for me, that His name may comfort you
You just might be forgiven for this sinful thing we do
Pray for me, the way I pray for you
With that name divine, just nevermind which gods I'm praying to
See that angel, darling, dressed in black
Where nature waits to take her treasures back
And lady, don't it just break your heart to know
That what you get is what you see
So honey, cry for me
Cry for me, and maybe this old world might be redeemed
The one thing that we all fear most is the one thing guaranteed
Can't you see, there ain't no prize for your good deeds
And these sins are all just exercise if you won't cry for me
Here comes that devil, darling, dressed in white
Tonight's the night two sinners see the light
And lady, don't it just break your heart to know
That what you get is what you see
So honey, cry for me
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6. |
From Grace to Ground
04:14
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You won't believe me, but here goes
You know that sort of scamp who strikes the poet's pose?
Dear reader, I was one of those
Of that disheveled set of self-style Romeos
I was quite charming in my day
No, not a skill, a liability, I'd say
Christ, they were everywhere, my poor heart used to break
To think I'd never love them all, still I tried anyway
Hallelujah, the world will wear you down
Until it pours right through you, filled from foot to crown
From grace to ground
Now here's a terrifying thought
What if each one of us deserved everything he got?
The idea disgusts you, but guess what?
This world remembers everything that we conveniently forgot
And think, more terrifying yet
Each of us will deserve exactly what he gets
A fact we're hard-pressed to accept
That rather brutal way things work out for the best
One night a knocking at my door
A girl I knew, but with a gun I hadn't seen before
Well, all is fair and love is war
Suffice to say, I lived, but ne'er would walk no more
And friends, I know how strange this sounds
But after years of wheeling this old body round
There is a certain simple peace that I have found
The equanimity of having settled one's accounts
Hallelujah, the world will wear you down
Until it pours right through you, filled from foot to crown
Hallelujah, the world will wear you down
Until it pours right through you, filled from foot to crown
From grace to ground
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7. |
Just Before Hate
03:08
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Sappho, Casanova and the Marquis de Sade
Drove up the hill to call a conference with God
They said, "Lord, what is this plague laying waste to the state?
It came a little after lust and just before hate"
God said, "A kiss is just a mouth before it's learned how to bite
And a caress is just a fist before it's learned how to fight
And love is just loss before it's learned it's too late
It comes a littler after lust and just before hate"
O, we stuttered our rhymes, we cut our crimes in the skin
We taught the flesh to drink all the ink we wrote them in
We confessed ourselves in swellings where the needle agitates
Where we pierced past lust and came just short of hate
And remorse is just a decadence, it won't get you acquitted
And your guilt don't make you good, girl
It just makes you uncommitted
See, we cut our crimes in history, we hand-picked our fate
Sometime a little after lust and just before hate
Now the skin turns to parchment as the years slip behind
And a man forgets the flesh and turns to crimes of the mind
So he goes back down to stack his guns by the gate
That sits a little past lust and just before hate
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8. |
Devil Like Me
03:48
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Bless my soul, ain't you a real child bride
The kind of woman likes a little somethin wicked on the side
Here I'm passin through, there's you, here's me
Now that's quite a coincidence, wouldn't you agree?
See the bartender sendin us the two-o'clock stare
Like his distinguished clientele can go to hell for all he cares
So what you say about a little change of scenery?
You won't never love another devil like me
Your small-town boys, I bet they think they got magic
Pullin one quick trick with their little white rabbit
It's tragic, how slow you got to grow up, when
You know you're gonna have to go and grow up over again
See, I'm a travelin man, hustlin Houston to Phoenix
And I been down the road enough to know a couple dirty tricks
Honey, you oughta see how sinful sin can be
You won't never love another devil like me
Now, pardon my french, but honey, this is your life
A trailer in New Mexico, a bag-boy's wife
And I wouldn't know, but it sounds like a shame
To have to live with everybody knows your business and your name
Where I come from, things you do in the dark stay dark
Now buckle up, this here's a real mean car
And if I was you I know what I woulda thunk:
The hell's a man who sells insurance need with such a big trunk?
It's a beautiful night, there must be millions of stars
The desert goes forever out the window of my car
I ain't gonna lie, I been with ladies before
But funny, you're the first to mention ain't no handle on the door
Now there's two ways this can go, and neither one of 'em nice
But little darlin, if you like I'll give you piece of my advice:
Ain't no copping no plea, ain't no let's-make-a-deal
Your lover and your Maker wanna see if you're for real
Ain't no facin your fears, time for makin your peace
How many men ever get to hear a woman say please?
Just Jesus and me, and the desert makes three
You won't never love another devil like me
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9. |
Sunday Night Gorgeous
03:43
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I used to have someone who kept me at home
Sometimes the anchor and sometimes the storm
Strong chain'll break if you pull hard enough
It ain't the waves, but the drifting that's tough
I used to have reasons to get out of bed
A ladder to climb and team to be led
Bullet point dreams projected on screens
One day I could no longer hear what was said
They tell you that work is a blessing
But I know Monday morning's a curse
And a new day just feels like a new way for things to get worse
If I've learned one lesson, it's never to face
Anything that you can postpone
But you're Sunday night gorgeous and I'm praying that you're alone
I used to have demons I bothered to fight
I wish that I may and I wish that I might
Sometimes the hard part's pretending to care
A hand once extended is no longer there
They tell you that work is a blessing
But I know Monday morning's a curse
And a new day just feels like a new way for things to get worse
If I've learned one lesson, it's never to face
Anything that you can postpone
But you're Sunday night gorgeous and I'm praying that you're alone
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10. |
I Named You for a Song
04:29
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Schools are named for teachers, streets are named for trees
Girls are named for songs that boys sing on their knees
I named you for some letters scratched in trees
I named you for a song that begs for tender mercies
I named you for the water on my kissing little tongue
I named you for the wind in my crying little lungs
I named you for the life's work of honeybees
I named you for a song that begs for tender mercies
I named you for the number on a little piece of paper
I named you for a wish, I named you for the words I would whisper
Half-weeping, when I could not sleep:
"Help me keep her, help me keep her"
Schools are named for teachers, streets are named for trees
Girls are named for songs that cry, "Baby please"
I named you for a warm wash of memories
I named you for a song that begs, and begs, and begs...
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11. |
Emma Goldman's Arrest
02:53
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Still your nerves, close your eyes
Raise your hands up to the skies
No reason now to worry
Your fears were long-since realized
Sergeant Moses comes to preach
The law, sees this atheist reaching
Up toward the Lord, he laughs
Says, "I've heard you'd like to teach
"The world to sing in perfect harmony"
You say, "Why yes, how charming
All the cops and commies
Making love in just their body armor
"Yes, to teach the world to sing
And let the dirge of freedom ring
No more shame or fear, my dear
Mommy fixed everything
"And once the world has perfect pitch
I'd like to dig that world a ditch
And carve upon its headstone:
'The flesh is dead which does not itch'
"I'd like to buy that world a Coke
Filled with gasoline and a soaking
Scrap of cloth, I'd like to teach this anthem:
'I started a joke'
"The one that starts the whole world crying
When grief saves the world from dying
There's no worth in peace on earth
Save for the love of fighting"
Old Red Emma, only you remember
Eighteen-eighty-seven, the eleventh of November
Their costumes spotless, the play so plotless
The way their silence taught this
World to sing in perfect harmony
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12. |
You're Losing Her
04:14
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The devil sat on my shoulder, a little sparrow bird
A bird who never sang - Slowly, lowly, he whispered
He said, "Dear boy, dear loving boy, dear lover, have you heard?
You're losing her
"She's standing by the window, she's a daydream in her eye
She's staring down the street to where the sidewalk meets the sky
She wants to say she's sorry, she wants to say goodbye
You're losing her
"You're losing her in pieces, you're losing her so slow
She seeps away like water, you do not see her go
You're losing her so gently you'd never even know
You're losing her"
My sparrow stopped his speaking, he spread his bat-like wings
I said, "Devil, please don't leave me, I'll give you everything
That I have left... My darling devil, I cannot go on living
Knowing I'm losing her
"Show me to the contract, show me where to sign"
I said, "Devil, please don't leave me", but already he was flying away
He said, "Dear loving boy, your soul's already mine
And still you're losing her"
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13. |
Already Over
05:57
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I said to the night, "O mother above
Must it be in hatred we suffer our love?
O mother above, O darkness within
I swore I would never come back here again
"Where every goodbye feels like the end
And the deepest devotion is a jealous revenge
This endless unrest, this heart full of hell
O mother I'm lost"
And she said, "You asked, and I've answered you well"
She said, "Tired of your name and sick of your breath
You wished for a woman who'd fuck you to death
You ached for a love so raw and so deep
It would burn you like anger and drown you like sleep
"Such was your prayer and such was your heart
The faith of a lover in love with the dark
And such is your fate and such is your fall
But the wisdom of heartache
Knows even the grieving is already over"
"It's already over, it's already over
Even the grieving is already done
"Mother, she's killing me slow, she's killing me long
But not very softly, and not with her song
Like seeds upon stones, like stones against seeds
Each forcing the field to yield up our needs
"And we're thrown through these years, we're tossed 'cross this age
Like long lines of fine print upon a blank page
And your night is so vast and our tears are so vain
But there are no proportions in love or in pain
"And they both run so deep, O as deep as a knife
Until every moment becomes a whole life
And each life a world, and each world a truth
And each truth eternal, and each pang its proof
"And mother, I'm lost..." And she said, "It's true
And all things eternal are lost just like you
Each truth is a lie, each world is so small
And each moment so fleeting
That even the grieving is already over
"It's already over, it's already over
Even the grieving is already over
It's already over, it's already over
Even the grieving is already done."
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The Blood Feud Family Singers Phoenix, Arizona
Up-tempo down-hearted poetic-philosophic country-fried hostility for sentimental haters.
A rollicking bad time.
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