1. |
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before the sun first rose
there was nothing we could do
all the water in our hearts froze fast
the world begin anew
I finally woke up and pulled
these sheets across my eyes
to once and all dispel the myth
that everything must rise
this gravity that holds me down
leaves creases on my mind
It’s erasing more than memories
and space between the lines
hours spent beside myself
hold true to all these lies
until my name’s forgotten by the
continents and tides
but my name is not important now
and neither is my station
here lies the only home i know
the stars
my destination
then I’m reaching for the lightswitch
to return the morning’s glare
the hum of electricity
the ozone in the air
the energy, the glory
the spark that gave them breath
the iron and obsidian
laid heavy on their breast
when first i came to understand
that nothing really dies
It just changes rearranges
all the space between the lines
i felt myself elongate
stretched across the field of time
And i saw my name splashed on a sea
of shimmer and of shine
do you see it written there in lights?
a sun for each occasion
It’s a marquee lit in candlelights
the stars
my destination
Then turning for the door
I see her standing there
With blazing circles in her eyes
and diamonds in her hair
There’s carbon laced with carbon
laid in braids across her back
the lattice cracks and shatters
but the heart remains intact
Ah the growing paranoia of
the blackness in the sky
When these seconds, minutes, hours
days and years before us lie
vessels surging forward
salty veins that crash and fall
until the channel widens
and the sea reclaims us all
Then my words become a sextant
Meant to aid my navigation
I borne across the endless sea
the stars
my destination
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2. |
St. Germain
04:29
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meet me by the church at saint germain
you won't know to call me by my name
the eyes are different but the words remain
the tongue unbroken and the songs all sound the same
as they did
when i left
before
there was time
now i want
for more
at the center of the rose in the petals whirl
there's a motion round the middle like the turning of the world
the gears set spinning turn the hands of a girl
puts the thorn into her thumb as the colors all unfurl
as the red
becomes
something more
than blood
something more
than love
when i saw you by the fountain
you'd been waiting there so long
every fiber on your overcoat was torn
you said these chances don't come often
to see the path that you’ve worn
you're born once into the world
twice into the dawn
third onto the mountain
And the fourth into my arms
i’m not a prophet ‘cause i haven’t earned a cent
i’m not enlightened i just learned to travel light
i’m not the kind to say the things he meant
i’m not afraid when you turn out the light
in the dark
i can hear
my heart
in my ears
the blood
is the spark
when i saw you at the chapel
on the altar dressed in red
there’s a grand intoxication just coursing through my head
Oh to live a thousand years
And to walk on through the morning like you said
you’re born once into the world
twice into the dawn
third onto the mountain
and fourth into my arms
meet me by the church at st germain
it’s been a hundred years but it feels just the same
don’t put your hair up ‘cause i think it’s going to rain
just say you love me and you’ll never leave again
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3. |
Lighthouse Keeper
04:58
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I didn't know that I was running
Til I found myself at sea between the waves
And in the wake I left behind
I saw the days we put behind us slip away
It's just a quick trip up and back
To leave essentials with the old men at the dock
A spot of land out in the ocean
Where no one goes and no one ever stops for long
There's a man here on a motorbike
With three miles worth of road to call his own
It's the closest thing to freedom
He can get without straying too far from home
And every day he revs his engine
To wake the fisherman and the last of the late sleepers
He's lonely as a lighthouse keeper
There’s a man been seen around
With a sheen of glass and glaze upon his eyes
He’s got a beard of twenty years
And a voice that makes the mountains creak and sigh
He's got a tattoo of a woman
On his arm and there's a sadness in her eyes
And with the salt and spray upon him
She turns away so you can't see her when she cries
She's the keeper of the rocks and reefs
The face that launched a hundred shipwrecked souls
The spirit of the light that keeps him safe
When the ocean rocks and rolls
And every day he counts his blessings
And says a prayer for all those lost out in the deep there
He's lonely as a lighthouse keeper
Heaven is aglow
With a burning scar upon the northern sky
And it might set the sea on fire
Turn to glass he waves that roll for miles and miles
And you who watch and you who wait
Will be rewarded when the circle comes undone
And we will all turn on our lights
And shine them down like we are bringing back the sun
He's the keeper of the rocks and reefs
The face that saved a hundred shipwrecked souls
The spirit of the light keeps them safe
When the ocean rocks and rolls
And every day he says a prayer
For the fishermen and last of the late sleepers
He’s lonely as a lighthouse keeper
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4. |
Green Dress
04:18
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green dress
you wore with feathers one time at the circus
backless
open to the water, wind and sun
you could be waiting there for anyone
brown eyes
open to another morning’s sunrise
disguised
a fire burns beneath the old world yet
the glowing ember end of cigarettes
take off your shoes and settle down
even when you’re sleeping
the world stills circles round and round and round
take up your hair
and let it down down down
as your green dress falls
in circles to the ground
green leaves
a robe built from a canopy of oak trees
with green sleeves
to celebrate the coming of the sun
to usher in a season just begun
red veins
running up the trunk right through the wood grain
blue rain
for purple blossoms whirled around the crown
And two-part broken hearts that can’t be found
they shatter but they never make a sound
take off your shoes and settle down
even when you’re sleeping
the world stills circles round and
round and round
take up your hair
and let it down down down
as your green dress falls
in circles to the ground
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5. |
Nevada
05:22
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They say that Reno has got it made
we can stay here at the circus
we can be our own parade
but a tiger in its cage is missing teeth
It’s made of paper skin and fury
with no reason to believe
and it dreams of southeast asia
and the mist between the trees
and the blood of the barasingha
flowing eastward to the sea
but i’m stuck here on the south of nothing new
I wish that I was driving
through Nevada with you
somewhere north of Vegas there’s a ranch
a thousand dusty miles
of empty gypsum flats
in the time before there was a lake
the same unchanging surface
between here and Utah state
Now the screams of jet propulsion
crack the sky and make it shake
as i watch the cars roll by
heading east on the interstate
I wish that I could have that point of view
i wish that i was driving
through Nevada with you
i could dream a highway in my mind
It’s rolling through the mountains
to where the rivers all unwind
though i don’t know all their names
i’m certain they know mine
‘cause the water has a way
of remembering the time
but there’s nothing i can say to make it true
i wish i was that river
winding its way back to you
I could make it down to the inland sea
I could float on down on the Jordan
all the way to Galilee
your hand in mine we walk across
on a stretch of highway 93
that time and space have lost
just to watch the sun rise over
All the mountains, salt and dust
where they come to know the difference
between belief and trust
and there’s nothing much in common with the two
and i wish that i was driving
through nevada with you
i could dream a highway in my mind
rolling through the mountains
To where the rivers all unwind
though i don’t know all their names
I’m certain they know mine
‘cause the water has a way
of remembering the time
there’s nothing i can say or make or do
i wish i was that river
winding its way back to you
There’s nothing i can say would make it true
I wish that i was driving
Through Nevada with you
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6. |
Eveline
05:11
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Eveline unwinds herself from sleep and throws an arm across my side
She’s long and soft and languid and her heart beats close, her eyes are open wide
She says “Last night I dreamt of serpents racing down the mountainside
With their tongues all forked like lightning and their bodies forged in fire
They drove us to the water and with nowhere left to hide
We jumped in with all our clothes on and went out just like the tide”
Lines of sweat are forming, yeah she’s burning, giving off an inner heat
She’s coal, she’s fire, she’s naked under earth and rock and cotton sheets
The pressure building slowly every time her red heart beats
Like the world might split apart when our bodies finally meet
And there’s only stone and diamond where a woman used to be
All that fire all that fury making channels towards the sea
so open up
and swallow me in
I would like to feel the same way that i did when we began
i sail away
oh, you draw me back
the waters rush to fill the places where the ocean cracks
Eveline’s the sound that tears a hole across the blue uncertain sky
She’s a metronome of thunder sounded back and forth to keep the time
She says “Last night I dreamt of trumpets down from heaven’s gate on high
While the smell of burning sulfur seeps from hell’s one open eye
The fever finally breaking in the cooling winds that wind
From the falling walls of Jericho to crumbling mountainsides”
And I know that day is coming
And in my mind I plainly see
Two statues laid in embrace
Where our bodies used to be
And the years may treat us kinder
Than the years had meant to be
Yes I know that day is coming
When there’s only you and me
Eveline unwinds herself from sleep and throws the window shutters wide
It’s morning on the mountain she comes back to bed and lays down by my side
She says there’s nothing to remember from the dreams of sleep gone by
So we might as well just lay here with the sunlight in our eyes
Or we’ll walk down to the water laid before us deep and wide
We’ll jump in with all our clothes on and go out just like the tide
so open up
and swallow me in
I would like to feel the same way that i did when we began
i sail away
you draw me back
And the waters rush to fill the places where the ocean cracks
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7. |
Harpo and Amelia
03:22
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Harpo and Amelia
Walking through the backlot
She doesn’t have a flight plan
He doesn’t have the words
She asks him if he’d like to take
A ride up in her airplane
He just honks his horn
And pretends he hasn’t heard
Harpo and Amelia
Talking like they’re old friends
She offers him her hand
He offers her his leg
She knows it’s just a joke
But still it kind of hurts her
He’s the number one dogcatcher
But she doesn’t want to beg
All she wants is a night out at the opera
The touch of hands on 47 strings
All she’s got is the music of her engines
And he’s lost in the silver screen
He’s lost in the silver screen
Harpo and Amelia
Flight of passing fancy
They’ve been circling for hours
With no place to land
Fuel is running low
Altitude is dropping
She tells him that it’s serious
But he doesn’t understand
All she wants is a night in Casablanca
The touch of hands on 47 strings
But all she’s got is the music of her engines
And he’s lost in the silver screen
He’s lost in the silver screen
Harpo and Amelia
No more monkey business
She went west
And he went back to work
Now he’s a Pinky
Waiting for his Chicolini
And she’s an angel
Waiting for her fall to earth
All she wants is a night out at the opera
The touch of hands on 47 strings
But all she’s got is the music of her engines
And he’s lost in the silver screen
He’s just lost in the silver screen
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8. |
Ida
05:32
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We owe a rooster to Asclepius
When the time comes don’t forget, please pay
When they come to lay the coins across my eyes
There’ll be no one left to watch what I say
From my lonely bedroom spire
I can see the smoke from fires
Lit from pages of my book of days
Stretching out past Riker’s Island
Fingers reaching for the sky and
Blanketing the sun with haze
Do what you will, you libertine
The law of man will find its way
In stripes and bars or in quicklime laid
The silence finds you either way
So you summon elementals
In your bedroom, in your temple
New fires for the space between the sheets
Beasts you bore in wild abandon
Secret words of love and passion
A new bible for two hearts unleashed
But those sad words
Of tongue and pen
Erased and changed
Then changed again
The pages frayed
The marriage spent
But Babalon
Will rise again
Little Egypt in a see through shirt
Blowing kisses to the men in back
Little Brooklyn on the workhouse floor
Stripped naked showing welts all down her back
From the jury box they listened
To the same words they’d imprisoned
In a jail made of paper leaves and glue
Tearing down the bonds of wedlock
Giving her the choice of hemlock
Or chains that she could not break through
Do what you will, you libertine
The law of man will find its way
In stripes and bars or in quicklime laid
The silence finds you either way
The silence finds you either way
In the air the angels hover
Whisper names of spirit lovers
That wait just on the other side
Bonds of pleasure, not creation
Words of love and liberation
For the phantom and his silent bride
But those sad words
Of tongue and pen
Erased and changed
Then changed again
The pages frayed
The marriage spent
But Babalon
Will rise again
We owe a rooster to Asclepius
When the time comes don’t forget, please pay
Blood draining down from his beak to the altar
Where the record of my last words lay
In the body sung electric
A new truthful dialectic
There’s no bars across the golden doors
No stitches running down the hemline
Where our lips and songs are untied
I can’t tell if they are mine or yours
But those sad words
Of tongue and pen
Erased and changed
Then changed again
The pages frayed
The marriage spent
Let’s never say
What might have been
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9. |
Row
03:31
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I wanted to ask you
How the sea rose and fell
When the sirens awoke you
Were you under their spell?
Did they flash out a warning?
Did they sing you to sleep?
With your friends at the bottom
In the deepest of deeps
Row, row
Row til there’s nothing but
Oh, oh
Ocean behind you and
Go, go
There’s gold yet beneath the sky
Then the pictures of women
That you loved in your time
Drift by like a slow dance
In three-quarter time
Were they one in a million?
Were they one with your heart?
Did the troubles come later?
Were they there from the start?
Row, row
Row til there’s nothing but
Oh, oh
Ocean behind you and
Go, go
There’s gold yet beneath the sky
And no, no
There’s no time or reason
We roll, roll
Change with the seasons
And go, go
Grow shadows and touch the night
There’s nothing you can’t fix
With patience and twine
If the rod turns to splinters
Don’t throw out your line
No, you just row, row
Row til there’s nothing but
Oh, oh
Ocean behind you and
Go, go
There’s gold yet beneath the sky
And no, no
There’s no time or reason
We roll, roll
Change with the seasons
And go, go
Grow shadows and touch the night
I wanted to ask you
How the sea rose and fell
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10. |
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i’m going to tell the whole story this time
i’m going to lay all my troubles out
along the dotted line
i won’t waste the things i’m given
i won’t waste whatever’s mine
or any more of your time
the kindness that you will extend to me
the mercy of your wings conceals the
bones that you can’t see
did you say that there was room for me
in the stories of your dreams
in the songs you sing to me?
I was running
you were crying
“there’s nothing left for us to do but part”
we were talking
you were singing
a song about the space between our hearts
There’s a bird that nests between the crooked parts
two beating wings that flutter fast and sharp
a song about the space between our hearts
There is time that was and time will be
there are words that i have written
In the spaces you can’t see
i have nothing more to offer
than a reason to believe
no more that i can be
there are things i’ve said and said again
you can trace them down the lines
back to the mouths where they begin
did you mean to open up the door
and invite me safely in
into your heart again?
I was running
you were crying
“there’s nothing left for us to do but part”
we were talking
you were singing
a song about the space between our hearts
There’s a bird that nests between the crooked parts
two beating wings that flutter fast and sharp
a song about the space between our hearts
i’m going to tell the whole story this time
from the earliest beginnings
to the last undotted line
i won’t waste a single word
i won’t waste whatever’s mine
i won’t make those mistakes
this time
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William Wallace Austin, Texas
Probably the only songwriter in Austin with a song about Helena Blavatsky AND Ida Craddock, but hey, who’s
counting?
Waltzes about ghosts 'n things. Stay tuned for the new record, "Lighthouse Keeper", available Summer 2023.
... more
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