1. |
Bramble
01:42
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In a village by the seaside
Across the drunken bramble
Lay a restless feeling kept awake
From all the mindless chatter
In the pit of every stomach
In fluttered and it festered
And boiled out of the words that spilled
From the cracked and bleeding lips
It was caught in every net that lay
From Sunshine Point to Ratchet Bay
And every bastard worth his salt will say
"You gotta give back all you take"
When the words lay retched up on the floor
In the sawdust and regret
Remember
Who always shoots first.
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2. |
Boilermaker
02:26
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I got a toothache, a side of beef,
White knuckle triumph, and a glass of relief.
It's gonna hurt me more than you
Still gotta face the morning with a heaping of truth.
No amount of cotton the doctors apply
Can stitch up the scars I try to hide inside.
I love the sugar but hate all the sweet
I got a toothache, a cell mate, and a side of beef.
I'm a boilermaker. I got fistfulls of fire,
Just a furnace of feelings of misplaced desire.
I use vinegar and piss to spit in your eye
I pack a punch like a pistol and a railroad tie.
Kicking and screaming, covered in lead,
Hammering out the demons from the side of your head.
Drink it down, sound the alarm
I got an ass or two to kick on this prison farm.
I got a toothache, a side of beef,
White knuckle triumph, and a glass of relief.
I got a toothache, a side of beef,
White knuckle triumph, and a glass of relief.
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3. |
Great Divide
03:06
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I fight for my voice on this sinking canoe
Armed with a pack of smugglers with nothing to lose.
We got booze, and balls, and vigor, and trawls
To fish out all the traitors with their bullshit cigars.
I said hey, boss man!
You eyeballing me?
You best open your mind
So you can see
I said hey, flat foot!
You know what we need?
A change of the guards
'Cause nobody can breathe.
You got a lot of gusto and a lot of nerve
To think I'll fall for your fashionable marketing words.
You see our battle cry all through the countryside
Won't stop until you understand we've tried and died
Won't stop until you see we're all bona fide
Won't stop until we heal this here great divide
I said hey, boss man!
You eyeballing me?
You best open your mind
So you can see
I said hey, flat foot!
You know what we need?
A change of the guards
'Cause nobody can breathe.
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4. |
Another Man on the TV
02:23
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There's a letter man
Who won't carry the mail anymore
There's another man
Gonna walk his route tomorrow
The baggage got too light
Gonna watch somebody else tonight
There's another man in the TV set tonight
Another man gonna walk that route
Gonna wear those shoes 'til they wear out
There's another man on the TV set tonight
There's another man on the TV set
They wrapped a tie around his neck
There's another man on the TV set tonight.
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5. |
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Been a long time coming for doctors to throw dissertations inside my skull.
But as my body turns grey my thoughts stay the same and the days seems like one big lull.
Before I close my eyes to the dying light and the darkness all but settles in,
Borrowing happiness from tomorrow because I know I'll never be unforgiven.
So I cannot stay as the ice dams swell and spill o'er the edge of the sky
like damaged goods that washed ashore.
After all it's just one long goodbye.
Before I close my eyes to the dying light and the darkness all but settles in,
Borrowing happiness from tomorrow because I know I'll only be unforgiven.
Every woman has her secrets
Every man has his pride
If you peel back the sin
and open the soul you'll see
We're all just empty inside
Them bones keep on burning and snapping and rolling as I toil and waste away.
Of all the things that had been, it's everything that has happened again...
While I keep digging my grave.
Before I close my eyes to the dying light and the darkness all but settles in,
Borrowing happiness from tomorrow because I know I will always be unforgiven.
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6. |
10:30 a.m.
03:42
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I'm gonna tear you to pieces
I'm throw you down the stairs
I'm waiting in the darkness
In the pounding of your skull
You thought that we could be friends
But I'm here to prove you wrong
Cuz I'm holding you under water
And I've been here all along
Now you can try to hide under the covers
Where air is stale and warm
But I can wait for you all day yeah
I can wait for you all day
You thought that we could be friends
But I'm here to prove you wrong
Cuz I'm holding you under water
And I've been here all along
I was sneaking up the back stairs
I know all the creaky boards
Floating down the dark hall
Up to your waiting door
You seem unsteady on your feet boy
So unsure what you can eat
Can't kill the taste of copper
Through the narrowed eyes of me
Still looking for some purchase
Why don't you just give in
The hands are weak but constant
And they'll be back again
You thought that we could be friends
But I'm here to prove you wrong
Cuz I'm holding you under water
And I've been here all along
I was sneaking up the back stairs
I know all the creaky boards
Floating down the dark hall
Up to your waiting door
Where I shambled right in
Held the air real tight
And laughed throughout the night.
I'm gonna tear you to pieces
I'm throw you down the stairs
I'm waiting in the darkness
In the pounding of your skull
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7. |
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Fell hard and broke
To the dreaming of the night
It's all I can do
To watch it all run by
And I cheer them along
With a pocket of regrets
Just keep me guessing
I'm sure that I won't guess right
Morning has come, I tried looking away
Rise with the sun, I gave a wink and a nod and I'm
Digging with my dinner plate, the dirt's good down here
The wind never scolds me, and the dogs don't bite
Well I know that ditch is welcoming
It's comfortable and deep
Wraps its arms to hold on real tight
Some blurred-eye recollection
From insomnia and gin
Pulls me down, down, down
Morning has come, I tried looking away
Rise with the sun, I gave a wink and a nod and I'm
Digging with my dinner plate, the dirt's good down here
The wind never scolds me, and the dogs don't bite
There's something to be said about earth in the nails
It's tried and it's true
Through the clatter of indifference
So I'll be the first to call you with this
Knock back all of your footfalls
And dig through the night
Morning has come, I tried looking away
Rise with the sun, I gave a wink and a nod and I'm
Digging with my dinner plate, the dirt's good down here
The wind never scolds me, and the dogs don't bite
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8. |
Shadow's Fall
04:57
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Turning stones on open graves
Black birds watch it all with heavy heads
And you're haunted by the words you couldn't say
Now they're etched for good, in Shadow's Fall
Catching dreams in fever songs
Cool earth resonates in dissonance
Then a gust can catch you in your unawares
Breathing cautiously, in Shadow's Fall
Drummer's last tattoo is calling out from the gnarled woods
Casting columns of light you find yourself so still
And a chill creeps up to stand right on your chest
Selling all the rest, in Shadow's Fall
Whispering boughs bring eyes to tear and they tangle underfoot
Full day's weight takes hold and drops you to a knee
But the closer you get the dimmer lights intrude
There's only one way in, in Shadow's Fall
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9. |
Tricky Fingers
03:00
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You dug that hole until the handle broke
which you buried next to the trampled soul
With shoulders slumped and nary a pause
you held the blade with bloodied hands
Now, now, now deeper and deeper the days fell away
then the rust stood tall on your sunken chest
Dirt in the lungs, blood in the eyes
And the only way home is straight down
Can't dig it up, won't ever stop
You'll dig that hold back to the top
The business in the right hand and blood on my left
I wade through the river in my best double breast
Salty goggles toward the sky will show
that I'm torn with regret but you'll never know
Can't dig it up, won't ever stop
You'll dig that hold back to the top
Can't dig it up, won't ever stop
The splinter's grabbed hold tight
Walking through town with one foot nailed down
monkey's on my back got a ladder so he gets up high
Now you buried that hole until your shoulders broke
Couldn't handle the weight of the rusted soul
Carved in deep a last confession
Tricky fingers finger sticky sinners
Can't dig it up, won't ever stop
You'll dig that hold back to the top
Dirt in the lungs, blood in the eyes
And the only way home is deeper down
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10. |
Crow's Nest
03:18
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Scratching down Gunnel to turn up Cleat
Waking up the alley cats
A one-seven-five steel cab take its toll
Hoisted by the best intent
Washed up and broken like a shipwrecked boom, weather-beaten hide to boot
Rum soaked bones, sand etched throat
Holding on to everything the wake upon your back and then you're
Falling down from the crow's nest
You lost your look of life and that's a shame
There are times that you should know best
Glassing the depths of yesterday... and you piss it down the drain
You gotta chimney up the side of the Bowling Hall
Just to catch a glimpse of the sun
The water tower dribbles like "Old Man" Wiggers
And you'll never get to sleep from the bugs
It's like a slow madness filling up the cracks in the planks of a musty row boat
Peeling off the paint of a bad idea
That will wash itself down the gutter soon enough and there it leaves you
Falling down from the crow's nest
You lost your look of life and that's a shame
There are times that you should know best
Glassing the depths of yesterday... and you piss it down the drain
Digging out the fog at the Last Ditch Pond
Carving every notion clean
Wade through the mire with a freshening gust
Run ashore to snap the keel
You gotta pull back the curtain, kick over the chair, knock a little sense in the room
Ring a couple bells, crashing through the swells
The long nines will keep you singing all the way down you're reeling
Falling down from the crow's nest
You lost your look of life and that's a shame
There are times that you should know best
Glassing the depths of yesterday... and you piss it down the drain
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11. |
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Alone and buried in a drink of night
Window casts a twisted face I've seen all my life
But I see through it, from indifferent thoughts
So now the water's warm enough to hold my breath
Confused and battered in self-indulgent mire
To chew on something rotten shut behind a door
And you know it should taste good until it's all been drained
Hammering out a pain, hammered up again
Dimly conscious yet so all aware
Heart holds out a sharp reminder
Questions falling leave an unmistakable stain
Have to get up soon, get up soon to be the
To be the one you want to wake up next to
To be the one you want to hold up to the sky
To be the one you want to drag back down
To the ground that never gives up its name
To the ground that never gives up its name
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12. |
Sonuvabitch
04:41
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I saw a man being true to himself
Funny sight in the middle of the city
He walked with pride, he walked with a big stride
Kept his eyes all around
He fell asleep behind the wheel
(Of a large automobile)
Of a large automobile
And on his vest he wrote the words
(The things that I like best)
The things that I like best
I found this man to be most interesting
(A friendly man, a friendly man)
He'd give you the shirt off his back the time of day
Can't say why they want to run him away
Just a little side note while I have the chance
He had a tattoo on his arm that he could make dance
And in his boot he carried a knife
(I saw it once it looked sharp)
Then one day he headed out
Then one day he headed out
I found this man to be most interesting
(A friendly man, a friendly man)
He'd give you the shirt off his back the time of day
Can't say why they want to run him away
With a tube sock filled with doorknobs
I'm gonna knock some sense into your thick skull
(Son of a bitch! I'll be your son of a bitch!)
Panty hose filled with oranges
I'm gonna tune that bruise til the learning sticks
(Son of a bitch! I'll be your son of a bitch!)
I'm gonna take that board of education upside your head and knock some stupid teeth out
(Son of a bitch! I'll be your son of a bitch!)
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13. |
Awake
01:59
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Don't you ever leave before me
Little innocent hands rescued me
From the void, up to the surface
passed all regrets tarnished by salt and sea.
And I wonder where they're going now
Is anybody looking out for me?
Will I ever sleep in the warmth of a blanket
From someone who cares?
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14. |
Smoke & Gasoline
05:41
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A dark shape came crawling out of the drain
And whispered a tune that no one should know
A sharp stare sang the refrain from an empty chair across the room
I feel into a glass through clenched teeth
I held my tongue wroth watered eyes
The stove pipe hissed and the faucet leaked a beat to rattle the bones
The wind shook a chorus down from the trees that rained on the roof through the night
And I skipped like a record to change my gait
(May you always be shelter from the storm)
You couldn't breakdown if you tried
At long last held up to the sky
And with the wake left to the shoal
It held you down into the dark
Covered in smoke and gasoline
I less than three your time with me
I never thought we'd love again
but there you are inside my head
like a canoe filled with hammers being dragged down an alley
I will carve a place in your heart with a rusty hook
into the deep dark, deep dark
(May you always be shelter from the storm)
You couldn't breakdown if you tried
At long last held up to the sky
And with the wake left to the shoal
It held you down into the dark
There was dream that I kept in a lamp oil jar
buried in the yard by the swing set post
written on the face of a jack of clubs
that i carried until I was ten
(May you always be shelter from the storm)
I know it still waits for a shovel's embrace
or a washout rain to see the sky again
but everything that matters will find you sooner or later
and the rest just swallow the dirt
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The Old Smugglers Saint Paul, Minnesota
Scotch and coffee, smelling like smoke and grandpa, truckload of soup cans falling from the sky, Americana shanty sounds of regret and revelation.
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