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1. |
One Lone Bird
01:42
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One lone bird on a telephone wire
Mourning dove above the highway
Can't hear her cooing down here
I'm sure that she is calling
Blue lights behind me shining
going 80 on the highway
officer you've got me all wrong
I've been driving all night long
Just trying to get home
Sure wish I had a home.
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2. |
Company Man
03:37
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Jamie always was a good boy, did what he was told
Never got too hot, never got too cold
Well he went away to college, guess he did okay
Got his paper slip on graduation day
So he writes some applications and he cuts his hair
And he gets himself a job with a desk at a chair
Couple dozen years later, don't you think it's obscene
Jamie's sitting there staring at the same damn screen
He was a company man to the bitter end
if he had a lot of money never had a lot of friends
But he paid his dues, yeah he stayed in line
Til they put him in the ground in a box made of pine
And then Casey was a bus boy at the Oyster Bar
Busted ass for years and bought himself a car
It's an '87 Chevy Nova A to B
Little vinyl seams on the bucket seats
Casey takes the Chevy Nova where there's lots of sky
looking for some more things he can drive it by
Til the engine block drops out the front of the car
Now it's back to waiting tables at the Oyster Bar
He'll prob'ly never get a parade
If we're calling a spade a spade
And then Bobby's what you'd prob'ly call a salty dog
He's got leather skin, tougher than the bark on a log
Keeps a little taste of bourbon in a pocket canteen
He's been driving laps in a Caterpillar machine
At the crack of dawn, look at Bobby hobblin' by
not the type to laugh, he's not the type to cry
well he says he ain't complainin' but I wish he would
Says complainin' never did him any fuckin' good.
He'll be a company man to the bitter end
Never have a lot of money, never have a lot of friends
But he'll pay his dues, yeah he'll stay in line
Til they put him in the ground in a box made of pine
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3. |
Old Time Religion
03:01
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Mad dog on a mission
Straw man begs the question
Just what if you’re disproven and it’s true that all you do will always come right back to you
And as for depression
Don’t blame the recession
When you’ve got this witch hunt tradition, modern day McCarthyism here to thank
Clairvoyant collective
I think your brakes are defective
I know the way you sling your invective makes me question how selective nature is
Abject condescension
Threw a big monkey wrench in
The works, now I shudder at the spectre of the outcome tax collector come to call
High crimes, signs of the times, I’ve got a lot to write home about
You had a hot seat in hell reserved well before the bastards got you down
Oh age of distraction
Of repulsion and attraction
Untie me from your hangman’s lasso, won’t you loosen up your bear trap from my skin
You’ve mixed all your blessings
Well I’ve learned all your lessons
In one breath you’re preachin ressurection and the next it’s Smith & Wesson .45s
The mind bears a schism
Rose tint the bad visions
Of the impending cataclysm since we built the world on Indian sacred grounds
So hell bent on heaven
That you trampled the reverend
And when you say old time religion I hear Spanish Inquisition and the plague
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4. |
Rewind the Tape
03:23
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You said that when you give up you'll become a country singer in the end, oh in the end
You said that when then money's gone the love is surely gone oh no you're wrong, you know you're wrong
Let's rewind the tape, let's do another retake, start again, let's start again
You said that when you kill yourself you'll blow em all to hell all right with you, it's alright with you
You say that they can't speak but we all know what they say, they say 'hey hey hey,' oh hey hey hey
Let's rewind the tape, let's do another retake, start again, let's start again
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5. |
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Hey now don't you fret I'll be home before, before the sky
has turned a paler shade than my left thigh
Now the sun has only just gone down above this town
and as I'm walking the sunset burns the ground
Trash cans in the yards along these roads, along these roads
and you're down at the liquor and lotto store
Houses turned to factories as we drove along these roads, along these roads
with winding mountain streams and country roads
Garbage in the yard says we were here, we were here
In 1844, 1913
No one told me 25 would feel quite like that
I's salt breeze on trees, sand under my toes
I have never sweat the little things quite like this
Cause honey it's the little things I miss
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6. |
Charred Old Glory
04:02
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I started out by the river
Charred old glory Sunday morning
I started out by the river
Charred old glory, yeah
It washed me down to the city
Bright lights beaming, float downstream, it
Washed me down to the city
Bright lights beaming, yeah
I met a sidewalk survivor
Washed in bad blood, saved by hard luck
I met a sidewalk survivor
And this he said to me
He told me God bless the jobless
As their fate flow, so we all go
He told me God bless the jobless
watch their fate flow yeah
Another flooded stream, another stolen dream
Another requiem for the driven snow
Well I was in my place, I was saving face
From sins inflicted on me years ago
I'm gonna bury my hatchet
Silt and soft sand, sawed off marshlands
I'm gonna bury my hatchet
Silt and soft sand, yeah
You'll find me down by the river
Charred old glory Sunday morning
You'll find me down by the river
Charred old glory, yeah
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7. |
Harold
03:45
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It's ordinary things make me afraid
The harsh sunlight on a sharp grass blade
The room got cold as a young man's grave
Such ordinary things make me afraid
Daisy chains on a little red mane
I love you child, but you cause me pain
I love you child, why do you stray?
I used to think Harry was an ordinary name
Who's that stalking, why don't you flee?
Who are you talking to in your sleep?
Baby be good, don't run away
Til Harry come to get you you're here to stay
Thought I saw a shadow in the yard today
A crimson stain on a white bouquet
Baby's not afraid but I can't say the same
Since I first heard her speak that ordinary name
Baby's first day off school and my nerves are raw
Can't explain away what I think I saw
Tryin' to find the truth for my blood to thaw
A rod iron gate like a broken jaw
Lunatic woman says she sees the dead
She sees Harry sitting by the white rose bed
I try to run away but my legs are like lead
And everything around me just fades to red
Who's that stalking, why don't you flee?
Who are you talking to in your sleep?
Baby be good, don't run away
Til Harry come to get you you're here to stay
Thought I saw a shadow in the yard today
A crimson stain on a white bouquet
Baby's not afraid but I can't say the same
Since I first heard her speak that ordinary name
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8. |
Shrink Wrapped Heart
02:46
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I found a reason just for breathing sweet and fleeting at the foot of the steps
I tied a string around my finger to remind me not to hold my breath
The way the light hit the leaves and the dandelion seeds
And the water was a whisper through the river reeds
It was more than just a dream between the ether and what’s after death
You were a daffodil climbin for the sun thru the cigarette butts
I guess i put you in my pocket just to spite all the budget cuts
If my words were a thread made of silk worm spit
I bet they’d make a fine noose for to hang me with
If my thoughts had a number i don’t guess that they could ever add up
Honey don’t you shrink wrap your heart, it’ll be alright
Set it on the line, let it out and wait for the right one to bite
A bald black strip of rubber keeps me rolling on an open road
A thin line from my mind to the pages with the words I wrote
You can look for the truth in a grain of sand
Or the hunger in the eyes of a homeless man
I've been wearing out my engine, I've been looking for an antidote
Honey don’t you shrink wrap your heart, it’ll be alright
Set it on the line, let it out and wait for the right one to bite
You’ve got a lot on your mind, you should take your sweet time
If it hurts, you should know it wasn’t by design
And I’ll be waiting right here for your purple heart valentine
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9. |
Use Once and Destroy
02:52
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Mama don't you cry no more and mama don't you sob no more,
know it's not your fault, you're not to blame
Walk the streets of West L.A. a thousand lives before you fade
A thousand little stings before you die
Bronze baby boots in a lion's den
Baby stays away for days he won't say where he's been
It's heroin
Doctor's on the phone again to say he's got your medicine
it's methadone would you pick up the phone to call
Lighters burn your silver spoons as Ivory League the crescent moons
Think that it's a thousand little scars
Orderlies fill up the halls, make bad jokes on pay phone calls
We waited back east to see you home, you know.
I think that you're looking thin
And I think that it's heroin to blame
Bronze baby boots in a lion's den
Baby stays away for days and won't say where he's been
It's heroin
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10. |
River Ran Away
05:12
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I dried out in a drunk nun's habit
A cloak like the night I woke in your faucet
Bus stop tree tops shimmered like a pageant
I [lit your smoke] with the foot of a rabbit
Days come and go like nails on my fingers
I bite my tongue, taste the blood, take a number
Wounds fade away but the scar tissue lingers
Like the light in the west at the end of the summer
The river ran away down to the sea,
Crested in a moment's levity
Pennies on the dollars I withdrew
Might be enough to see me through
Lead me astray with some misquoted scripture
Sheep skin and bone when you put me to pasture
Blood from a stone in a statuary fixture
Spilled from my cup, but I lived past the rapture
The river ran away down to the sea
That'll be the dust that's left of me
Spanning channels rusted and renewed
Might be enough to see me through
...
times across the board are better than they were before
times across the board are better than they were
[day light, day light, high tide, high tide]
I fall into the ember of your cigarette
you flick me to the garden, honey, you know I get wet
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The Proud Flesh New Haven, Connecticut
"There is a vast world in this LP (...) "Home" is as endearing as it is experimental." -
CTindie.com
"The Proud Flesh’s music is so organic it's almost tangible, just waiting to be plucked from the night air and placed in your hand" - NHMusic.org
... more
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A beautiful and heart-rending masterpiece. Absent Brown Bird's influence we would assuredly have been a different and lesser band.
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