1. |
Down Juan
05:22
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DOWN JUAN
Don’t let me down Juan
I need you tonight
I’ve come seeking pathos ‘neath the halogen lights
Estrella your mistress has cued the machine
Your niece is in from Austin she’s lost to the scene
I, and my party have just settled in
Pray happenstance deliver us inviolate
From this wasteland of dreams
Hammered tin Mexican Jesus
Skeletons playing guitar
Busts of writers and drunkards
Dust fallen mutes the bazaar
There are crosses and candles and swords without handles
Plastic camels bear wise men from afar
Antlers deer parted souls referenced and carded
What are we doing here?
Saints caught in acts sacred and deifying
In Technicolor prints on the wall
Rebels with their moustaches and rifles
Pose solemn for martyrdom’s call
There are buckets with nothing but roses that are dieing
Banners for causes long withered in the trying
While in the windows the stained glass is quietly crying out
What are we doing here?
In a cardigan borrowed from Rimbaud
He clutches the microphone stand
Though his body and mind speak otherwise
His eyes gleam as an eager young child’s
There’s a song on his lips, a mid-century tango
The speakers turn out a recording he’ll sing to
And though nothing here crackles like a thundering review
There’s no disputing the fact that we’re here
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2. |
The Bottoms
04:33
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THE BOTTOMS
Yesterday’s breakfast has gone hard
I’m in my house-coat, I’m out in the yard
Ducks south in a V
Periscope resting on my knee
I’m coming up, up from the bottoms
Birds wouldn’t be flyin’ if I hadn’t shot at ‘em
She wouldn’t have flown if hadn’t a caught on, held on to her troubles
Take me back, take me back, take me back to the bottoms
On the lawn
There’s a trial goin’ on
Hear ye my son, you’ve been found wanting
There’s a plastic watering can someone tipped over
Piston without rings without a motor
Jet stream the only sign of company
Solitudes price watch others fly free
So I’m coming up, up from the bottom
Let buoyancy surface me, not even tryin’
Revelator’s lines still drawin’ me ashore, keepin’ me afloat
On the lawn
There’s a trial goin’ on
Hear ye my son, you’ve been found wanting
Washed up underwear hung out on the line
Soft clap of thunder from time to time
You can measure the distance with a metered out rhyme
I take my peanuts with chili powder and lime
Drifting from meaning to less my crime
On the lawn
There’s a gavel comin’ down
Excuse me daydreamer, you’ve been found wanting.
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3. |
Congress Of Spring
03:56
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CONGRESS OF SPRING
After the lightning, after the rain
After the floorboards have buckled in pain
After the shouting, the hullabaloo
The clouds now receded that covered the moon
The ambulance idles, attendants breath
A measure of calm, a degree of relief
Then peace, peace, peace, Emily
Peace, peace, peace, Emily
And the scent of green apples
The congress of spring
In the rubble he finds her playing cars on the stairs
Her barrettes hang like blossoms in her innocent hair
Fresh to the world, an invocation of sorts
As if this time death had died, no dominion no more
While in Vienna, I remember, a palace behind walls
The colour of butter where the rich make their calls
You try and discern, you try and weigh in
On the past, determine a sentence on events while the violins play for…
Then peace, peace, peace, Emily
Peace, peace, peace, Emily
And the scent of green apples
The congress of spring
They met in the pasture while the lights were surely down
Walked to the hollows and lay on the ground
When it was over well then it’d all begun
A testament to everything hoped for
An epitaph for everything done
Peace, peace, peace, Emily
And the scent of green apples
The congress of spring
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4. |
Slide
03:04
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THE SLIDE
As I sit by my window on a warm November day
Boys on bmx’s wheel their worries all away
On the steps of the tabernacle they’re rolling up a joint
They might not remember what they learned today
but what they learned is what’s the point
Of relying on hope
In this wavering time
Relying on a plastic bag instead
Trading crime for petty crime
With five in your pocket
You can always get by
You can always paint your name on a concrete wall
And let the troubling slide
The water mains lay belly up gaping grave at my feet
Layers of asphalt now reveal a traveling history of my street
That which we don’t want to recognize we slip into the ground
If we bury the troubling deep enough
we can barely hear the sound
Of a whimpering hope
In this wavering time
To be left in the ditch in a plastic bag
Hardly seems an earth shattering crime
With five in your pocket
You can always get by
You can always paint your name on a concrete wall
And let the troubling slide
Now the sun was uncommonly bright today autumn leaves flakes of gold
She pulled one down to reminisce as if she’d suddenly grown old
I’d seen her shine on a high-school stage it was Remembrance Day
She’d made me remember all that glitters real
sunlight on a grinnin’ face
And a flicker of hope
In this wavering time
Believing that the plastic bag we’re speaking of
Bears a lesson to be cashed in rhyme
With five in your pocket
You can always get by
You can always paint your name on a concrete wall
And let the troubling slide
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5. |
Little Wind
05:59
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A LITTLE WIND
Close your eyes, when you’re sittin’ at your window
The leaves, the shapes you see still flutter
though now in coloured shadow
Open ‘em wide, blossoms fallen to the street below
Gutter soft and petal strewn, drift in pink like Miami in a blowin’ snow
All the love I have, is a breeze on your tired face
Nothing more yet nothing less, whispering cool, a whiff of grace
Wherever in the world you go, be it Amman or to Mexico,
A little wind picks up consider me there.
You’re an anchor girl, you dig in when the wind blows
You’re an adamant woman, you hold fast to the truths you know
And those that lean on you lean hard, I for one have added
to the strain
A spotted pony gallops on, a galleon moored waits with no shade
All the love I have, is a breeze on your tired face
Nothing more yet nothing less, whispering cool, a whiff of grace
Wherever in the world you go, be it Amman or to Mexico,
A little wind picks up consider me there
The only honest land it’s said, is a desert, I’m tender I wouldn’t know
There nothing pretends little survives what does moves on as it’s blown
Beneath the sheltering sky, you wander lost, attuned to a white and uninvited moon
The only constant hand a wind that carves your few words into ruins
All the love I have, a caravan in the blistering sun
A mystery always on the move, no treasure shared ‘til the
journey’s done
Wherever in the world you go, be it Amman or Mexico
A little wind picks up consider me there.
A station wagon silver blue idles quiet on the street below
Suitcase in your hand you step out flyin’ off to Ontario
All the love I have, you can ride like an aeroplane
An invisible lift, whispering cool a whiff of grace
Wherever in the world you go, be it Amman or Mexico
A little wind picks up consider me there.
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6. |
Stettler II
03:03
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STETTLER II
I believe I’ll ride to Stettler and rest beside your grave
Lay my head by your epitaph, the one your husband had made
Through that long drive from Saskatchewan as you lay in state
I lay on my bedroom floor making plans for being brave
Now I live in Vancouver in an upstairs built for two
On Sundays I play the Dynamo not far from the high school
And I watch the seven herons blue cross the causeway in a line
With 45 minutes ‘til the ferry leaves it seems I have the time
To play Abide With Me, on the jagged rocks
that break the waters crawl
Maybe collect a pebble or two, or driftwood for the wall
There’s nothing about this song to make it work for you
Except for the fact we keep our memories intact
when we put ‘em to a tune
‘Cause all of us we stiffen up when the life in us is gone
But the music that escapes our lips, keeps a travelin’ on
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7. |
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CARRY ON HEATHER
She left home in an overcoat, married in a storm
Laid her first child down, in a bank of drifting snow
Carry on Heather, carry on home,
Carry on wondering why the ties that bind have left you all alone
Well you carry all the drawings you love, ‘til you carry them no more
Settle near a water source lay out your walls and floor
Carry on Heather, carry on home,
Carry on wondering why the ties that bind have left you all alone
Lifted trusses heavenward draw quarter the sky
Foundations stop the easy shift of dirt embrace the lie
Carry on Heather, carry on home,
Carry on wondering why the ties that bind have left you all alone
With every window pane there comes a darkening shutter
With every stray shaft of light a shadow and a mutter
Carry on Heather, carry on home,
Carry on wondering why the ties that bind have left you all alone
These elastic consequences lose their meaning over time
Collapse constrict the heart beat a sort of treason of the mind
At night just to let the blood flow loose the throat and let the wine go…
Down, down, down
Consider now a mantle piece or a transom bearing stone
Cross-member with a heavy load now on a pillar left alone
Carry on Heather, carry on home,
Carry on wondering why the ties that bind have left you all alone
RHAPSODY
She said, “I will build us a home,
In the back of a converted bus
With plenty of windows to let the light in
A mansion of rivets and rust
Gardenias will be our official flower
Whippoorwill our bird
We’ll take as our own the songs of Bob,
and Whitman as our word
As dusk hovers on the hood of our home
We’ll raise it plain to the god of comfort and plenty
And in the tradition of the great aesthetics
Let our rhapsody stand for the many."
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8. |
Wanderlust
03:28
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WANDERLUST
Well I want you and I don’t know why
It took these fifteen hundred miles just to keep me alive
There’s a crack in the windshield the shape of your smile
A hole in the cover of your seat that sits idle
And I want you
Oh wandering eye
I want you all covered in dust
It swirls in the car from the toll of the road and the rust
Covered in water wash the streaks from your face
In smoke as it goes in each crevice a trace
And I want you
Oh wandering eye
I want you on a long narrow flight
With a door at the end when opens emits divine light
There’s a band in the corner all tremolo and ire
When Ellen leans over holy echo the choir
And I want you
Oh wandering eye
Well I want you in my mirror, waving goodbye
It turns out the ground that I covered just to get here’s
Left me satisfied
I’m not saying you didn’t seem fine
But the record’ll show I was redeemed by the drive
I want you
Oh wandering eye
Tail lights, street lights have all disappeared
Just the moon to guide me out here
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9. |
Lone Mare
01:38
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LONE MARE (lyrics by rc)
Lone mare, grey to white
Drive a wagon through the heart of the night
Cold glare, black and ice
Mistakes are taken in the space between lines
And the poles they pull me
Rolling hills they hold me
And the coal it warms me
As we catch the other, on the other side
Why the shoulders mold me
Take and console me
Break and unfold me
Leave me by the river to find my own way home (shine my own light)
Ripe space, grace that saves
Smoulderin’ embers in the proper place
Sweetest sin lost not found
Pulling down towers on unsteady ground
And the poles they pull me
Rolling hills they hold me
The coal it warms me
As we catch the other, on the other side
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10. |
Bentley To Clive
03:20
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BENTLEY TO CLIVE (lyrics by rc)
Now we toured around here, from Bentley to Clive
I fell asleep during that slow autumn drive
I watch all the passing around this honeycomb
I’m getting too far from my tiny little home
Go to the East and go to the West
Get a hold of the love and the harvest
Be kind to the land, and take good care
That’s what a friend wrote to me over there
Now let me ride, but not too long
I wanna keep close to my hometown song
Go to the East and go to the West
Get a hold of the love and the harvest
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11. |
Red Amber Amulet
05:03
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RED AMBER AMULET
The red amber amulet was made to grace her breastbone
The moment he spotted it he knew it
He said, I’ll pawn my many instruments, a guitar for every sentiment
and revel in the joy of the gift
La di da di da
The red amber amulet will never be yours
Take comfort in certainty the blanket of the poor
There’s a cracklin’ amplifier and a lopsided moon
You get your Mexican Christmas after all
Well Rachel the Younger made off with all the idols
Between camel and saddle the many gods travel
She said, it’s my woman time, I’m in no shape for movin’
The whole order was verging on shifting
And the Kandahar woman dangles life from her wrist
There’s power in celebrating your limits
But when she runs she feels ebullient in knowing her secret
Is a well guarded emotion
La di da di da
The red amber amulet will never be yours
Take comfort in certainty the blanket of the poor
There’s a cracklin’ amplifier and a lopsided moon
You get your Mexican Christmas after all
So he buys her a sturdy ring two sizes too big
Worn often and dubious in origin
While the wafer of silver he saves and delivers
In the shape of a slender aeroplane
He sings, “Happiness my darlin’ is a lopsided thing
That bounces between heaven and trouble
And necessity moves us and scarcity pulls
It’s a wonder we catch hold of happiness at all
La di da di da
The red amber amulet will never be yours
Take comfort in certainty the blanket of the poor
There’s a cracklin’ amplifier and a lopsided moon
You get your Mexican Christmas after all
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12. |
All These Marias
04:52
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ALL THESE MARIAS
All these Marias
With their laser-brown eyes
Elliptical overtures
To the tempted and tried
If lust be the answer
Let all saviors die
In the arms of Maria
As hosannas rise
Now let us speak of survival
Of ways and of means
Streets littered in children
With their incidental needs
Like Zola’s coal miners
Like rabbits and worms
We meet in the pasture
Rise from the dirt
All these Marias
With their laser-brown eyes
Elliptical overtures
To the tempted and tried
If lust be the answer
Let all saviors die
In the arms of Maria
As hosannas rise
Pleasure principle paramount
In the cafes at night
While in the daylight we’re tossing lots
O’er the right to survive
And who am I to judge
As hungers collide
Just go on pickin’ up victims
Send ‘em back in the night
Vignettes of wreckage
Have followed me today
Pursued by the infirm
The halt and the lame
Though I am no savior
Though lust be a lie
In the arms of Maria
I bivouac tonight
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Roger Dean Young & the Tin Sea Victoria, British Columbia
Roger Dean Young is a singer-songwriter sprung from the foothills of Alberta and deposited on the West Coast of British Columbia.
Roger Dean Young & the Tin Sea recommends:
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