1. |
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They can fly, it’s true
That’s not all they can do
We try to identify
Quantify the sky
You might die for kicks
But the high won’t stick
It’s all too beautiful, man
Too beautiful to land
Time hangs hard on our hand
A bird makes no demand
Try to survive
Only the word gets out alive
Try to survive
Only the word gets out alive
Those impossible wings
Messengers that bring
Inexplicable songs
Purple twilight and dawn
Oh, oar on, Penelope!
Sands of mystery
It’s all too beautiful, man
Too beautiful to stand
Time hangs hard on our hand
A bird makes no demand
Try to survive
Only the word gets out alive
Try to survive
Only the word gets out alive
And the bird is still the word
But not for long
If the birds forget the words
We all go wrong
They can fly, it’s true
They’re all better than you
It’s hard not to mention
We are bent by the sun
You can punch the cloud
It won’t make a sound
It’s all too beautiful, man
Too beautiful to plan
Time hangs hard on our hand
A bird makes no demand
Try to survive
Only the word gets out alive
Try to survive
Only the word gets out alive
Try to survive
Only the word gets out alive
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2. |
Death the Bludgeoner
03:04
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Eats like a horse, drinks like a camel
A lying sack of shit on every channel
She swims like a flute, plays it soft and hateful
I swallow her dust, she’s no Marianne or Faithfull
There’s never a break, a pausing for breath
In a big hurry, the Bludgeoner of Death
In a big hurry, the Bludgeoner of Death
She thunders like Zeus, Epiphone or epic
Cudgels and clubfeet, a legendary all-too-septic
Corps of dead corpses, omnipotent wench
Shovels and pitchforks, a lovelier rosy stench
There’s never a break, a pausing for breath
In a big hurry, the Bludgeoner of Death
In a big hurry, the Bludgeoner of Death
She steals like a church, what a sad tormentor
Money and murder, thumbs down for every senator
Sage of the stagecoach, who’s as dumb as a gun
All across the world, we’re still number one
There’s never a break, a pausing for breath
In a big hurry, the Bludgeoner of Death
In a big hurry, the Bludgeoner of Death
In a big hurry, the Bludgeoner of Death
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3. |
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Do I remember anything I said?
In one canal and then I go astray
Every day’s another litany
Moments cave like rocks into the sea
Hey! Let the rope hold, Cassie Lee
Hey! Let the rope hold, Cassie Lee
Hey! Let the rope hold, Cassie Lee
Do you remember days on Hastings Head?
Well, they say it’s gone but I just can’t say
The piles are there, somewhere listening
We’re still beating the hell out of the beach
Hey! Let the rope hold, Cassie Lee
Hey! Let the rope hold, Cassie Lee
Hey! Let the rope hold, Cassie Lee
Do they remember my sweet nothingness?
Ah, time gets fatter on its own decay
A million’s okay, but two’s a bit too many
A million’s okay, but two’s a bit too many
Grab a harpoon and plunge into the breach
Hey! Let the rope hold, Cassie Lee
Hey! Let the rope hold, Cassie Lee
Hey! Let the rope hold, Cassie Lee
Hey! Let the rope hold, Cassie Lee
Hey! Let the rope hold, Cassie Lee
Hey! Let the rope hold, Cassie Lee
Hey! Let the rope hold, Cassie Lee
Hey! Let the rope hold, Cassie Lee
Hey! Let the rope hold, Cassie Lee
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4. |
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I don’t want to hate you anymore
Your greedy candle’s exploding
A fistful of face won’t make me feel better
Let’s bake a cake, keep the oven warm
I don’t want to hate anything
No, I don’t want to shutter the sun
I’m not sure which choir to sing
But I do know what I don’t want
I do know what I don’t want
I don’t want to hate us anymore
We roll in our pigshit together
It’s time to blow away the wind
Share the seeds and plow the pillows
I don’t want to hate anything
No, I don’t want to shutter the sun
I’m not sure which choir to sing
But I do know what I don’t want
I do know what I don’t want
I don’t want to hate anything
No, I don’t want to shutter the sun
I’m not sure which choir to sing
But I do know what I don’t want
I do know what I don’t want
I don’t want to hate me anymore
The piano quit drinking on its own
Still sweetly and sickly out of tune
In the crawlspace of my caverns
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5. |
The Garden of Arden
03:23
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It’s as if you almost willed it to be
From underneath a grasshopper’s tree
Since the invention of eternity
The Garden of Arden
She colorizes all of my dreams
A golden voice from a silver machine
The queen of jokers in a sea of green
The Garden of Arden
The Garden of Arden
I can hear you
I can see you
When I want to
I know how to frame your face
I can hear you
I can feel you
When I’m see-through
You can put me back in my place
You can put me back in my place
She’s the apple of my red eyes
Never let her name be trivialized
In the eve where the sundown cries
The Garden of Arden
Eve of the day that never arrives
In any Eden that might not die
I go wherever she reclines
The Garden of Arden
The Garden of Arden
I can hear you
I can see you
When I want to
I know how to frame your face
I can hear you
I can feel you
When I’m see-through
You can put me back in my place
You can put me back in my place
The Garden of Arden
She colorizes all of my dreams
A golden voice from a silver machine
The queen of hearts in a sea of green
The Garden of Arden
The Garden of Arden
The Garden of Arden
The Garden of Arden
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6. |
Last Hotel
03:51
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In the realm of sinking ferries (Here we are, here we are)
There is where you often find me (Here we are, here we are)
Down the road apothecaries (Here we are, here we are)
Do the twist around the quay (Here we are, here we are)
A county of the innocents
Pitching backward in the bog
Ravens at the Rave’n’Go tents
A Christmas Sears catalog
Stretched as if from mast to map (There we go, there we go)
A line of current wire can’t cross (There we go, there we go)
Lath and plaster oozing sap (There we go, there we go)
Sailors strapped with yards of floss (There we go, there we go)
A country of dead slow descendants
Clutching bag full, down the caste
Petrified like wounded penguins
When Dallas says: “You’re here at last”
Now you dig just what I’m hearing (Here at last)
Everyday’s a sweet refrain (Here at last, here at last)
Angels sing and jangle earrings (Here at last, here at last)
Lovecoats clatter through the frame (Here at last, here at last)
A gospel of the residents
Spin the Bible and kiss yourself
A dwelling for all occupants
Deliverance, our last hotel
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7. |
Bison Queen
03:47
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Hers desire verses, stockings well forthcoming
Bonfires canyonize argentite canoes
Rapids of my pulse, time tunnel slumming
All along the riverbank, thirsty for a snooze
Once the Colorado ran red for hand painters
Arizona took one look at Beefheart
Martyr coat of arrows, would-be woodcut sainters
Piled high like bodies in future burro cart
Lousy limousine, shout out to the maimed
Deadman call her pilot, his bay is unclaimed
Roll the Hopper buckskin, bulbs flash at bear
Here come the Bison Queen
A gift she never needed, damn a broken-down Hoover
Rambling ‘round Leadbelly and Associates
Diving like duck drunk, sad furniture movers
Union song for leaving, cry boat drag women Soviets
Lousy limousine, shout out to the maimed
Deadman call her pilot, his bay is unclaimed
All across Dakotas, when Deadwood wasn’t there
Here come the Bison Queen
Lousy limousine, shout out to the maimed
Deadman call her pilot, his bay is unclaimed
Lay me down or suit me up, she dares to give us health care
Here come the Bison Queen
Here come the Bison Queen
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8. |
Falling Like Jets
03:11
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Staining the world
Hints for Heloise
What if they work
But still don’t please
High over cattle
Mist and dead moon
Frying in spittle
Fist like a spoon
There went our feet
Head over under
Read from old spleen
Empty of wonder
All things are stolen
Or borrowed at best
Nothing is broken
Nothing is broken
Just falling like jets
Fight like a Croat
Drive like a Serb
Smile like a post
Smell like a curve
Yell from the well
Pass the old bread
You lie to yourself
Lie down to forget
All things are stolen
Or borrowed at best
Nothing is broken
Nothing is broken
Just falling like jets
Falling like jets
Falling like jets
Falling like jets
Open close hands
Rinse then repeat
Acid for romance
Gas for the least
Staining the world
Melting like sky
You were stargirled
But still gotta try
All things are stolen
Or borrowed at best
Nothing is broken
Nothing is broken
All things are stolen
Or borrowed at best
Nothing is broken
Nothing is broken
Just falling like jets
Falling like jets
Falling like jets
Falling like jets
Falling like jets
Falling like jets
Falling like jets
Falling like jets
Falling like jets
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9. |
Burgundy Suit
01:55
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I’m gonna take a stroll
Eat a piece of fruit
Believe in rock ‘n’ roll
Buy a burgundy suit
Burgundy suit
I been down, so down
Like totally depressed
Can’t get out of bed now
I’d rather be possessed
Rather be possessed
Too much information
Mostly bad or plain wrong
I can’t change the station
I wanna hear The Great Beyond
Hear The Great Beyond
Burgundy suit, ah ah
Burgundy suit
Burgundy suit, ah ah
Burgundy suit
Thanks for ayahuasca
Mushroom microdoses
Ketamine therapy
A hopeful diagnosis
Hopeful diagnoses
The world is sucking hard
Our future looking grim
My feathers may be tarred
I’ll still be your Sunny Jim
Your Sunny Jim, him
Burgundy suit, ah ah
Burgundy suit
Burgundy suit, ah ah
Burgundy suit
Burgundy suit, ah ah
Burgundy suit
Burgundy suit, ah ah
Burgundy suit
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10. |
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When the bell says no one’s coming (Blow in my bag)
If your cup keeps over-running (Blow in my bag)
Go steam yourself, flat fork relay
Napoleon rowboat, back and forth across the bay
Yeah it’s pretty hard to breathe (Blow in my bag)
Just another dynasty smother (Blow in my bag)
Going nitrous without a rudder (Blow in my bag)
Slogging the edge, Iliad tattoo
Quality Belfast, suicide trades are taboo
Yeah it’s pretty hard to breathe (Blow in my bag)
Come to me beyond the sea
We shall fall upon your knee
All for us, the air is free
We embrace insanity
Here she comes, the Saxophone Gibson (Blow in my bag)
Horizon hot and white as gypsum (Blow in my bag)
Urbanite sours, Cutty Sark towers
Dial-a-song drunkard, morphing around, chomping all flowers
Yeah it’s pretty hard to breathe (Blow in my bag)
Come to me beyond the sea
We shall fall upon your knee
All for us, the air is free
We embrace insanity
Yeah it’s pretty hard to breathe (Blow in my bag)
Yeah it’s pretty hard to breathe (Blow in my bag)
Blow in my bag (Blow in my bag)
Blow in my bag (Blow in my bag)
Yeah it’s pretty hard to breathe (Blow in my bag)
It’s pretty hard to breathe (Blow in my bag)
Blow in my bag (Blow in my bag)
Blow in my bag (Blow in my bag)
My bag (Blow in my bag)
Oh, my bag (Blow in my bag)
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11. |
Sharktooth
02:46
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There was a cosmos
There was a sea
It took a piece of your heart
A little piece of me
Out of the desert
Down from the stars
The truth
Sharktooth
Hang it on a string, man
Circle round your neck
The mesa of Shiprock
God’s discotek
Out of the desert
Down from the stars
The truth
Sharktooth
They ran across red plains
Swam through the sand
The hourglass was shattered
Just like the band
Down to the nightclub
And dressing room stars
The truth
Sharktooth
It’s a very small world
With a very big sign
Where a neon message
Says “It’s time to dine”
Out of the darkness
Route 51
The truth, the truth, the truth
Sharktooth
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12. |
We Shall Not Be Released
03:18
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The days of future pastel
They were not invited here
Leave them in the roadway
Like a twisted deer
There’s a cloud inside me
When it rains it pours
Water hasn’t failed yet
To run back to the source
I am not becoming
Disciple, wolf or priest
A failure to know no one
We shall not be released
We will not be released
We will not, no never be released
Who needs to know so much
Vacuum jar the artifacts
Grind them into parables
Splayed across the wax
I will not be latered
Embittered or coerced
The first take is the best one
And cannot be reversed
I am not becoming
Disciple, wolf or priest
A failure to know no one
We shall not be released
We will not be released
We will not, no never be released
Flung and far to Chelsea
Southwest Hangover Square
Face plant on the Steinway
Tone cluster extraordinaire
I am not becoming
Disciple, wolf or priest
A failure to know no one
We shall not be released
We will not be released
We will not, no never be released
We will not be released
We shall not
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The Minus 5 Portland, Oregon
The Minus 5 is a rock/folk/pop collective captained by Scott McCaughey (see: "Scott McCaughey" c/o "The Internet", for further reliable information), with Peter Buck often aboard as communications officer. Collaborators regularly feature friends from Wilco, Decemberists, Posies, and literally hundreds of other recalcitrant comrade combos. Everyone gives their all, and no one can be counted on. ... more
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