1. |
Rust
05:05
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The prairie moon is almost spent
I told my Ma you just act like I never went
And you’ll see
Nothing’s ever gonna change
My love seduced by city lights
The giddy swirl and the flash of a million lives
To be
I lost my girl to New Orleans
As I walk
I fade away
As I walk
I fade away
I sent her my box of memories
And headed down to Mexico to find me a wife
That sings
Them dark haired girls always sing
But brilliant dreams are fickle things
The promised land a vision flickering in the desert heat
It flees
Death the only certainty
As I walk
I fade away
As I walk
I fade away
And my skin shrinks and turns to rust
My skin shrinks and turns to rust
The stars are flakes of molten dust
As I fade away
I turn to earth
And earth gives birth to molten steel
Cities arise
The shadows are lit
Man is made to think and feel
Like my kin
Before me
I have laughed and cried and screamed
If darkness comes
To take me in
I’ll be stronger than I dreamed
I am stronger than I dreamed
I am stronger than I dreamed
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2. |
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I catch the train
The Amtrak’s nearly empty
Winter rain
I hug my coat close to me
Watch the passing gray
The tired lapse of day
33rd Street
It is a swirl of bodies
I push to the East
Wonder if he’s beside you
Then I’m at your door
A champagne bottle soon uncorked
We are a breath
A spark of life
In a city of lights
So you and I should run tonight
Let’s run tonight
Let’s run tonight
Let’s run tonight
Let’s run tonight
You say his name
A flash of black and scarlet
Silent flames
We are awash in violet
Overexposed film
The unsaid words the withdrawn limbs
You touch my cheek
The spark so hot it stings me
Before I speak
Your legs are wrapped around me
A roaring in my ears
A sudden drop of years and years
We are a breath
A spark of life
In a city of lights
So you and I should run tonight
Let’s run tonight
Let’s run tonight
Let’s run tonight
Let’s run tonight
The sky is a fluting virgin
Your thighs are the moon emerging
Earth is awake with quaking voyeur’s glee
The darkness is always passing
The darkness is always passing
The Earth will turn its face back toward the light
The light
Let’s run tonight
Let’s run tonight
Let’s run tonight
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3. |
Coffee and Blues
04:47
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You sing me the blues until the cows come in
You sing me the blues until I’m done in
If I could hold you tight through the crush of night
Would it be goodnight? would it still be goodbye?
It’s a long way down
From this damn ghost town
And I ain’t going nowhere just yet
The morning light steams
In the frost of my bed sheets
Bones of whiskey dreams
The coffee and booze
And the birds sing the blues
And I, I sing them too
Through gray oak trees with worn out knees
Through gray oak trees I hear you sing
And if the morning came would it be the same?
Only me to blame for your echoing name?
The morning light steams
In the frost of my bed sheets
Bones of whiskey dreams
The coffee and booze
And the birds sing the blues
And I, I sing them too
This crumbling floor
And windswept room
Still taste of you
I’ll never leave
I’ll grow like the trees
Weathered and true
This crumbling floor
And windswept room
Still taste of you
I’ll never leave
I’ll grow like the trees
Waiting for you
Waiting for you
Waiting for you
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4. |
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Your lips draw back a curve to the corners
Of your mouth when the world gets you talking passionate
Of corporate schemes, get rich philosophy
The world’s on crack
I watch you from the corner of the room
On the edge of my seat in the shadow of the mantel place
Tussling embers, a pop from the fireplace
Our world is calm
Through the slow nights and cold days
Through the strangeness of our ways
Through the straight lines of the maze
Always for you
Through the twists of fate
Always for you
Through the twists of fate
Always for you
Always for you
Your eyes never once shift toward mine
I’m drawn in close, through the slowing tick of time
I know you’re here with me across the room
But it’s more than that
As your hands search for pearls in your hair
I watch you watch the world from above
With a child’s bright eyes as blue as the sky
How still the night
Through the slow nights and cold days
Through the strangeness of our ways
Through the straight lines of the maze
Always for you
Through the twists of fate
Always for you
Through the twists of fate
Always for you
Always for you
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5. |
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I treated freedom like a dubious lover
When we’ve already fucked and sobered up
I was searching for the center
Of this misbegotten sinner’s heart
But all I found was blood and rust
An evangelist that watched me full of lust
And some lilies that were trampled in the dust
Oh why
I’ve seen lights
Lights that blind your eyes
I’ve said things
That made my mouth go dry
I’ve seen kings
Howling at the sky
And now
I’m an untamed weather vane
I was heading down to Austin
Hitched a ride with a trucker
But he stole my dreams as I slept
I came across a strip joint
It tasted like a cigarette
Inside Ophelia of the stage
Was naked as they floated her away
Her lily eyes begged for me to stay
And wait
I’ve seen lights
Lights that blind your eyes
I’ve said things
That made my mouth go dry
I’ve seen kings
Howling at the sky
And now
I’m an untamed weather vane
The tourniquet years
The finding out all I am able
It’s them tourniquet years
The ocean is meant as a fable
I’ve seen lights
Lights that blind your eyes
I’ve said things
That made my mouth go dry
I’ve seen kings
Howling at the sky
And now
I’m an untamed weather vane
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6. |
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After a bottle or two I pull out my wallet
Pull the lips back, a bullet in, and cock it
The air smells of nectarines, gasoline, and a faraway sea
Gold flows free when I open my mouth to speak
You’re like a statue of a gypsy in a British square
The thunder rattles my teeth, shakes orange leaves from your hair
Actors gesture to a crowd of excavated bones
Pause in turn to roll dice of polished stones
And then, a shell explodes in flame
It’s all happening again
And then you take the money like a child
It’s all written out
You put it in a patterned purse
You never had a chance anyway
Up the stairs in the back of the abandoned bar
Down the hall to the room of the publicist and Tsar
A field of flagellants kneels before a rusted truck
You hand me an apple and I bless my good luck
But the juice tastes like raspberries and gin
I ask your name and you say, “Some call me Sin
But I’ve got nipples like Georgia and a voice like France
And if you pick some Flamenco I’ll teach you to dance”
I said, “you teach me to dance, and I’ll teach you to lie”
And then you take the money like a child
It’s all written out
You put it in a patterned purse
You never had a chance anyway
Your hand is small in mine
A child’s smile, it shines
And I write your life, I write your life in lines
Our golden arms, our golden arms entwine
And you shine, you shine
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7. |
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If I lose you, hell, sometimes life’s cruel
But life ain’t what you lose, it’s what you do
So I will try to always do
Exactly what my conscience tells me is true
In this world without night
Where billboards mark the way
When it’s hard to know what’s wrong and what’s right
Have patience, life is change
There is light and there is dark
And I will try my best to always choose the first
But if at times I get lost
You should know that I’ll find my way home
If I build you a home
Would you fill it with light?
If I say terrible things, my love,
Would you show me what’s right?
There is light and there is dark
And I will try my best to always choose the first
But if at times I get lost
You should know that I’ll find my way home
I’m taking my chances
I’m seeing this through
I’m taking my time
I’ll make my own truth
I’m taking my chances
I’m seeing this through
I’m taking my time
We’ll make our own truth
There is light and there is dark
And I will try my best to always choose the first
But if at times I get lost
You should know that I’ll find my way home
You should know that I’ll find my way home
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8. |
Goodnight My Dear
04:02
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Waiting, always waiting
With roses and a smile just for you
But now my smile is petrified
And the roses wilt as their thorns rip my sides
You and I, we said we’d find our ways back home
But lotus lights divide and I find myself alone
Goodnight, my dear, goodnight
Soon I’m floating
There’s no use looking back
Revolving
Goodnight, my dear
Goodnight, my dear
Baby, what are you thinking
As I spin my tales of a world torn apart?
Baiting, I’m always baiting
With poisoned lance I ache for a charge
You and I, we said we’d find our ways back home
But lotus lights divide and I find my way alone
Goodnight, my dear, goodnight
Soon I’m floating
There’s no use looking back
Revolving
Goodnight, my dear
Goodnight
You, you said that I was the one
You, you said that I was the one
You, you said that I was the one
You, you said that I was the one
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9. |
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Virginia’s coming home
She’s gonna wipe away my sins
Cause she’s tired of being alone
And I’ll be born again
I’ll cast aside my worn out skin
Shine darker than a polished stone
Am I the master or the hound?
You see the ecstasy abounds
But there’s breaking all around
Words without sound
Will I hold my head down low?
If I can?
If we fight, if we fight I’ll lose my cool
My soul, my soul says no
My soul says no
It’s not the time
Last night I had a dream
I was pulling out my teeth
Sold them in the streets on a string
This morning I awoke
With a bullet in my throat
It dangled from a note
That told me not to choke
Said you just hold your ground
Let the ecstasy abound
Though there’s breaking all around
Don’t you make not a sound
Will I hold my head down low?
If I can?
If we fight, if we fight I’ll lose my cool
My soul, my soul says no
My soul says no
It’s not the time
If I don’t hear your voice again
If I don’t hear your voice again
If I don’t hear your voice again
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10. |
The Tourniquet Years
04:06
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Grandpa was a healer
His medicine his words
He was only 5’5”
But what he lacked in size
He made up for with elephant eyes
The day that Grandpa died
Was the day I first opened my eyes
And now they turn to me
As the trunk of the tree
But I worry it just ain’t in me
So I’m sounding the well and I’m listening for bells
I’d believe if I knew what that means
I’m searching the gutters and removing shutters
I see through most everything
The tourniquet years
The finding of all I am able
The tourniquet years
The ocean is meant as a fable
It’s true I’ve loved some women
And lost them along the way
But I give what I take
And they do the same
I can’t say I feel any shame
I’ve walked from coast to coast
And I’ve learned how it hurts to boast
And just like my brother
I’d fight before smother
We’ll roll through the world just like thunder
So I’m sounding the well and I’m listening for bells
I’d believe if I knew what that means
I’m searching the gutters and removing shutters
I see through most everything
The tourniquet years
The finding of all I am able
The tourniquet years
The ocean is meant as a fable
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Justin Bailey Nashville, Tennessee
Justin was born and raised in Nashville, TN, where he unsuccessfully attempted to master the guitar, thwarted, he would say, by the rare elegance of his fingers and his preference for writing sad bastard lyrics. He currently resides in Nashville, TN, where he is hoping to form a band. ... more
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