1. |
Midlife Chrysler
02:49
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“I’m gone,” it read. A scrawl across an envelope left by the bed so unceremoniously. “We’re only human, you’ve got to try. All life is water so just pick up your oars and row on.” Were you really there, or were you only building castles in the air? The fruit of a poison tree. In silent halls these years pass by like traffic. Slept through the call. Irrelevant unpleasant mess. “Where are we going,” I ask on high. But no reply is all we get and all we ever will until the end. Were you really there, or were you only building castles in the air? The fruit of a poison tree.
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2. |
Spitting Teeth
02:44
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Everything’s dancing to the sway of your step. Not even trying, but you’re doing your best. You’re wowing the crowds and you don’t know how. I think it’s time to break it, I think you know your cue. Shot right out of the sky. Spitting teeth, doing fine. Shot right out of the sky, when we collide there will be no survivors. Well, I think it’s time you break it. Everything’s too good for you. Shot right out of the sky. Spitting teeth, doing fine. Shot right out of the sky, when we collide there will be no survivors. She was prettier than the last one, yeah, she took your breath. Breakfast in bed was pancakes while she gave you head. “Last living person left who doesn’t know that you’re a wreck,” I say with a grin while I wipe off your chin.
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3. |
Trust Falls
02:56
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Every ounce of it. Every drop, every taste on the tip of my tongue. Bend my nail, bite my thumb. Evidence won’t clear my name and your presence will be felt forever, into the moment when I press my eyes shut. Now I’m praying. The only answer’s what we’ve always wanted. When we hold each other no one else can let us down. I’ll do anything. I’m not asking, this is mine. Pull the perfect strings, ten thousand days on the line. Evidence won’t clear our names. Our last kiss will last forever, past the moment when I press my eyes shut.Now I’m praying. The only answer’s what we’ve always wanted. When we hold each other no one else can let us down.
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4. |
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I saw the new day rising. I heard the band downstairs, playing their hearts out. Last gasp of a long night dying, still bleeding in the sky so fair. A craft so long to learn. All we touch we burn, this wheel’s meant to turn. Ears still ringing now. Never changing drone means you’re not alone. Light smeared from all night driving. Queen City to just about anywhere. New town, but on arrival, same demon’s already there. A craft so long to learn. All we touch we burn, this wheel’s meant to turn. Ears still ringing now…once you win the world, no place to call home.
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5. |
Bone Flute
03:25
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I don’t think I’ve ever cried. I wouldn’t even do it if you died. Worn out and laid low asking why nothing ever lasts forever. No, I don’t think the world is perfect, at least not the first four times. I speak a broken dialect of honest people whom I can’t affect. Even if it means I’m all alone, daylight, lamplight, dog with no home. If we never touch how can we connect? In the undertow, navigating oceans of neglect. I would say I love you if I could do. Or maybe I’ll just play a false fugue on this bone flute. No love, no hate, no joy, too late I’m leaving. No rage, no pain, no sun, no rain, and no grieving. Nothing’s squeezing past your reason even when I play with feeling. I don’t think you’ve ever cried. You wouldn’t even do it if I died. Worn out and laid low asking why nothing ever lasts forever. When at last this melody has lost you we’ll have proof nothing gets to you unless you want it to. I would say I hate you if it was true, or maybe I’ll just play a false fugue on this bone flute. No love, no hate, no joy, too late I’m leaving. No rage, no pain, no sun, no rain, and no grieving. Nothing’s squeezing past your reason even when I play with feeling.
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6. |
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Maybe I’ve grown bitter since that ugly winter. Under skies like a bruise with a soul full of splinters. So we drink with our doubles under sodium light and follow these footsteps until something goes right. We’ll shout a rooftop toast to the streets below, “here for a good time not a long time.” Come and get your raindogs, collect your beautiful losers. We’ve heard all the things in heaven and earth. But no reply was all she gave. Her six sisters all the same. So now it’s back to the street and the slush and the snow and the sleet and the dark and the freezing rain. We’ll shout a rooftop toast to the streets below, “here for a good time not a long time.” Torch the night, until it burns out the east. Let’s go all the way down to the belly of the beast. Beware the rhythm of death is sleep.
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7. |
Dragging Out Stars
03:23
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It doesn’t feel like it’s over but I know it is. Like somehow this thing’s not finished, but I’m the one who forced its hand. Gave my boss notice. Rented a truck. Scrolled through “for sale” signs. Landlord called my bluff. Called up anyone I knew who might be shocked to hear it’s true. I’m coming home, or the closest place that I can find. My wasted space will be replaced, my presence paved over in time. I’m coming home, I get to take it slow now. Dragging out stars in a big black sky, open spaces and overgrowth. Maybe it doesn’t feel real because I’m still here, like I can make all the plans I want but fate will have a different deal. This grid of gray taught me that pain comes from every angle, in every shade. If you think there’s nothing left to take, it’ll show you where you are mistaken. I’m coming home, or the closest place that I can find. My wasted space will be replaced, my presence paved over in time. I’m coming home, I get to take it slow now. Dragging out stars in a big black sky, open spaces and overgrowth.
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8. |
99 Broadway
02:57
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I quit you twenty years ago. It seems things were far too complicated for a boy beyond his means. The radio’s been playing all these songs that went too far above my head, but now, I guess that’s where I belong. Laughing, making shadow puppets speak. Grainy cardboard camera photos catching vibrant, dying dreams. When I find myself I’ll tell you what that means from a rat-infested alley down the street. Screaming in shrill voices, raw from ninety nine encores around the way from old Broadway Joe’s. When the ringing in your ears would find a harmony with mine. He’s not a friend, it’s just a place you’ll never get to know. Blurred out by the high life, champagne of years. Gone down so smooth. Screaming in shrill voices, raw from ninety nine encores around the way from old Broadway Joe’s. When the ringing in your ears would find a harmony with mine. He’s not a friend, it’s just a place you’ll never get to know.
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9. |
Iron Sights
03:52
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These lines are lies, still, they hold me aloft. Cuts bonds stronger than family ties until falling feels like flying. You’re so alive until the moment you are dying. Ours is not to reason why. Just keep trying. Lie still alone. Lie still and hope that the chaos won’t come home and you can build tomorrow from that ache inside your bones. Lie still. Hope your children will be whole and you will leave a legacy for everyone you love, lie still. Sweat of your brow will bind you and blind you and might define you. A mercy of this sightlessness will warp that lasting pain to bliss and boil your best years down to bullion. Sewed your treasures in a mattress, the place you have come to lie still. Lie still alone. Lie still and hope that the chaos won’t come home and you can build tomorrow from that ache inside your bones. Lie still. Hope your children will be whole and you will leave a legacy for everyone you love, lie still. This all comes from you, what’s true will feel right. In between two breaths line your iron sights and fire.
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10. |
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We saw the ups but we felt the downs. Streets all boarded up in this border town. All the small secret landmarks, the shortcuts and routes, crude maps that we drew to make sense of our youth. May these many cauliflowered, calloused chords say something different than they did before. Like the sordid dove and the holy crow singing “as above, so below.” Burn down the old days’ memories, all this fire in my throat. These stories twist ‘round and grow so much longer than you know, but I could never tell you that. Maybe next year, one more time.
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Snakeland Buffalo, New York
Tone Bone, Declan, Jimmy, Bill & Steve.
@snakelandband
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