1. |
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There will come a reckoning they say
And all this turned to dust
And every soul will answer on that day
The wicked and the just
For now our natures rude and base prevail
And every hope we've sown
Has gone to seed or scattered to the gale
As we our faith disown
While we contemplate the fate of kings
The sparrow spreads its wings
As prophets and philosophers pretend
To know which angry star
Will fall like the descent of their last end
It cares not who they are
While we curse the light and wonder why
The sparrow takes the sky
Each night in fevered dreams I pace the road
And cast my silhouette through every darkened pane
I waken in what seems a place unknown
To find my pillow wet with tears that leave no stain
I fear hard rain is coming soon
Yet I who have no voice but soul to sing
Find grace in that someone
Might count the feathers on this brittle wing
Before the day is done
While we store up treasures great and small
The sparrow will not fall
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2. |
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Here’s my rhyme: once upon a time, thought I’d found a golden dime
Turned out it was just an old brass slug
Like rose-hued dreams are never what they seem, sweet songs on the juke machine
Stop spinning when somebody pulls the plug
But when you swore you’d love me for forever and a day
I thought you knew I trusted you would not lead me astray
Then you left me alone and broke down on the road to Tacoma
Now I’m letting you know, since I found this sweet little home o’ mine, I’ve been strong
While I ain’t had much luck in finding new romance
It still beats being stuck in someone else’s plans, so go on
You take Tacoma, I’ll take my chances
Chelsea days, living in a haze, thinking we knew true love ways
If you were true then no one ever lied
Life was good, did the best we could, so I’ve never understood
How you could say you weren’t satisfied
Then like a fool you went and pulled up stakes and moved out west
Guess I’m one too ‘cause I thought you were different from the rest
Then you left me alone and broke down on the road to Tacoma
Now I’m letting you know, since I found this sweet little home o’ mine, I’ve been strong
While I ain’t had much luck in finding new romance
It still beats being stuck in someone else’s plans, so go on
You take Tacoma, I’ll take my chances
And it’s a long dark road you led me down
I was lost for a time, but now I’ve found some light
I know I’m bound to be all right
Like some damn fool you went and pulled up stakes and moved out west
Guess I’m one too ‘cause I thought you were different from the rest
Then you left me alone and broke down on the road to Tacoma
Now I’m letting you know, since I found this sweet little home o’ mine, I’ve been strong
While I ain’t had much luck in finding new romance
It still beats being stuck in someone else’s plans, so go on
You take Tacoma, I’ll take my chances
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3. |
Gramercy
04:27
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We pulled out of Baton Rouge
With silver dollars in our shoes
And a truckload of shine
Couldn’t find a way to go
Got Jesus on the radio
Can you show us a sign
Remember all is vanity
And love is just insanity
I’m wondering how can it be
We thought it was real
‘Cause we were burned out and busted
And we were flat-out disgusted
And we drank all our wine
And we smoked our last dime
But we were free
In Gramercy
The world is going down in flames
I stand here calling out your name
Releasing all the doubt and shame
That I’ve held inside
So if you’re burned out and busted
And you’re flat-out disgusted
And you drank all your wine
And you smoked your last dime
Come back to me
In Gramercy
Oh just come back to me
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4. |
Right
04:37
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Free me up from your cemetery mind
Baby I won’t help you dig your grave
I’ll drink a cup of the sacred wine
And maybe buy another soul to save
I feel the touch of your tombstone hands
Coming on me like a bolt from the blue
Now is the hour to make our stand
Let me tell you what you got to do
You gotta get right with your father
You gotta get right with your mother
You gotta get right with your sister
You gotta get right with your brother
You gotta get right with your husband
You gotta get right with your wife
You gotta get right with your daughter, your son
All the people in your life
I know your trouble yeah I’m from trouble town
So baby take another shot on me
Make it a double, we’ll shut this down
And maybe find another place to be
I feel the weight of your waxwork wings
You’re counting feathers on a sparrow that flew
Ours is the power to change these things
Baby you know what you got to do
You gotta get right with your teacher
You gotta get right with your school
You gotta get right with the wise one
You gotta get right with the fool
You gotta get right with your enemy
You gotta get right with your friend
You gotta get right with the beginning
Lord you gotta get right with the end
You gotta get right with your father
You gotta get right with your mother
You gotta get right with your sister
You gotta get right with your brother
You gotta get right with your husband
You gotta get right with your wife
You gotta get right with your daughter, your son
All the people in your life
You gotta get right with your teacher
You gotta get right with your school
You gotta get right with the wise one
You gotta get right with the fool
You gotta get right with your enemy
You gotta get right with your friend
You gotta get right with the beginning
Lord you gotta get right with the end
You gotta get right with your neighbor
You gotta get right with your town
You gotta get right with your country
You gotta get right the whole world around
You gotta get right with your cosmos
You gotta get right with your god
You gotta get right with your god
You gotta get right
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5. |
Ghost Train
03:50
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I wake up to the sound of the whistle
Screaming in my ear
I’m about a million miles
From where I call here
I look around at the world outside and see
I look around at the world that cannot be
All the letters and the rhythms and the noises come back to me
Riding on a ghost train
Bought this ticket years gone by
But I can’t say when
Don’t know how or where I’m going
But I wish that it was then
Got a suspicion it’s a dead-end track ‘cause the towns all look the same
All the passengers know my face but not my name
And if I ride any longer I know I’ll go insane
Riding on a ghost train
And the train man calls out “Final destination!”
As I stumble into the station
All the people walking ‘round like the living dead
And the whistle keeps screaming in my head
Pay my fare, buy my passage
For the price of life
Take the train at the end of the track
Maybe this one’s right
Look around at the world outside and see
Look around at the world that cannot be
All the letters and the rhythms and the noises come back to me
Riding on a ghost train
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6. |
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Jamestown highway
Fourth of July
If you come round my way
I can get you high
‘Cause we all belong to the stream
This ain’t a song, this is a dream
This is America
This is goodbye
I turned up to work one Monday
And they put me on the welfare line
I went down to church next Sunday
But the preacher didn’t have the time
I rolled out my ‘56 Ford but the engine she up and died
So I’m going down to the crossroads to flag a ride
On the Jamestown highway
Fourth of July
If you come round my way
I can get you high
‘Cause we all belong to the stream
This ain’t a song, this is a dream
This is America
This is goodbye
Well I’m sending out this call to join me
Out here on the mother road
If you’re burdened I will share the load
Won’t you let me share the load?
…
You gotta get on board
Yeah get behind me
I was blind but now I see
We’re gonna catch a train
Ride it down the line
You ain’t late, you’re right on time
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7. |
Midnight Motion
03:53
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Tell me you want me
I let it haunt me like a holy ghost
Cry for the heartless
Lie in the darkness, artless as a rose
While I’m awake, in fever I’m shaking
For all the sorrows that have brought me low
But when I’m sleeping I can go deep in
Down to the water, child, I will go
Midnight motion on a raging sea
Ride that ocean, let it carry me
Hallelujah, row the boat ashore
Rock my soul, shake me to the core
Shake me to the core
Tell me you need me
I let it bleed me like a rolling stone
Lay me down easy
Wayward you leave me grieving all alone
Follow a new star to where the blues are
Fading to blackness with the dying day
Pilot my steamship out of its dream slip
Baby now watch me while I sail away
Midnight motion on a raging sea
Ride that ocean, let it carry me
Hallelujah, row the boat ashore
Rock my soul and I will praise the Lord
I will praise the Lord
Have mercy on a firstborn daughter
Trying not to lose her mind
What’s got me ain’t a thirst for water
Whiskey, or the sweetest wine
I need the love divine
Midnight motion on a raging sea
Ride that ocean, let it carry me
Hallelujah, row the boat ashore
Rock my soul, shake me to the core
Shake me to the core
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8. |
Devil Take My Heart
05:45
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I wish it didn’t taste like sin
On my lips when I speak his name
And his smile didn’t draw me in
Like a moth to a kerosene flame
Like the moon pulls the tide
Like the galaxies collide
I’ve got no resistance
In the spell of his charms
Dying to be in his arms
This is my existence
I burn, I pine
He can’t be mine
So devil take my heart
‘Cause it’s only good for love
And I ain’t playing no more part in that
Make me mean, make me cruel
I’m done loving like a fool
‘Cause it’s shaking me apart so bad
People think that hearts are grown
Up above, but I know
You make them with your art
So devil take my heart
You started all this way back when
Putting shame into poor Eve’s eyes
You’ve been playing us like pawns since then
Now I’m done with your little game of lies
Like a thief on the run
Like a bullet from a gun
I’ll be gone forever
I’ll escape from your thrall
You ain’t gonna see me fall
Till the twelfth of never
Leave love behind
To hell consigned
So devil take my heart
‘Cause it’s only good for love
And I ain’t playing no more part in that
Make me mean, make me cruel
I’m done loving like a fool
‘Cause it’s shaking me apart so bad
People think that hearts are grown
Up above, but I know
You make them with your art
So devil take my heart
Devil take my heart
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9. |
Cottonwood Run
06:24
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My mama was born beneath a Southern moon
Her mama sang, her granddaddy played a war tune
Right proud of the blood in their veins
And there weren’t nothing more to know
Down at the end of a red dirt drive
A house lies dark-eyed, soulless but still alive
Quite loud rings the echo of chains
Through the white-pillared portico
I spy a ghost in the shadow of a shotgun shack
In the throes of a nightmare I’m going back
To Cottonwood Run, where fates were spun
With a hand on the fortune wheel
At Cottonwood Run, the blood-red sun
Is going down on the Carolina fields
Can’t stop fighting till the battle is done
And freedom is won
Down at Cottonwood Run
An evil was born beneath these Southern skies
Wind in the pines like another mama’s soul sighs
Right now with the time that remains
We can still bring a reckoning
See the smoke like the shadow of a sharp-tongued spire
I’m going back once again and I’m setting fire
To Cottonwood Run, where fates were spun
With a hand on the fortune wheel
At Cottonwood Run, the blood-red sun
Is going down on the Carolina fields
Can’t stop fighting till the battle is done
And freedom is won
Down at Cottonwood Run
See the smoke like the shadow of a sharp-tongued spire
Yes I’m going back and I’m setting fire
To Cottonwood Run, where fates were spun
With a hand on the fortune wheel
At Cottonwood Run, the blood-red sun
Is going down on the Carolina fields
Can’t stop fighting till the battle is done
And freedom is won
Down at Cottonwood Run
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The Stubborn Lovers Portland, Oregon
The Stubborn Lovers play outlaw country and Americana rock.
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