1. |
Pale Rider
01:54
|
|||
|
Pale Rider coming down to my lonesome little town
Bleeding pieces of himself
Seeping into the ground
Riding crest of windswept sway
Lives on to plague another day
Back in the village out on the plains
The living die to live again
From my hands bring poison to the air that I breathe
Pale rider don't saddle up no crooked horse
He's on the backs of you and me
Pale Rider gotta name no look of death
No blade of flame
Keeping up with himself
So long as we try to do the same
Never washed my garbage before I threw it away
Curse your life and mine and then turn around to pray
In the deepest dark back city alleyway
The stink of death is just another time of day
From our hands bring poison to the air that we breathe
Pale rider don't saddle up no crooked horse
He's on the backs of you and me
|
||||
2. |
The Fall
03:36
|
|||
|
There is a stiff wind
Rattling the windows on my front door
The sound as it blows
A long and hollow moan
Makes me more frightened than
I've ever been before
There is a cheshire grin
On a politician
His faded face is a-watching from the wall
But just as sure as he ain't runnin' anymore
I know that pride always comes just right before the fall
<chorus>
And the fall comes before the dead of winter sets the score
There ain't no plow gonna come and clear your road
And the Devil clicks his heels
While God's still spinning his wheel
Better bundle up boy you'll die out there in the cold
There is a blood stain on my windowpane
I keep it there to remind me everyday
Whether you go sleeping in your bed or eating your own lead
Yer gonna be food for something or someone anyway
There is a blank page at the end of our age
Our voices cry from scribbles on the wall
But we still linger on
With our novels and our songs
I tip my hat to the ones who didn't survive the fall
<chorus>
|
||||
3. |
Better Off Dead
02:45
|
|||
|
In this world there ain't that much to live for
In this old dead town there ain't that much to do
Been walking around
Down and uptown
Didn't see anyone alive til I found you
And you just stood there a-laughing
Flippin' switches and leaving them on
You got every light bulb a buzzing
Till all of the darkness was gone
Say yes to the hand that is offered
Say yes cause it's the only one around
If you wanna be part of this mess
You can be like all the rest...
Better off dead
Someday we'll be rotten gone and long forgotten
Our lungs will fill with blood our mouths with bile
But for now I'm just a-singin' yer a-sittin' wth your smile
At least we are in love and living for a while
And yes there are ghouls on every side
Their disease a sadness that knows no end
And if this love should ever be found dead
Could it rise and walk again?
I say yes to the love of the living and the dead
I say yes cause it's the only thing we have
And without it we're a mess and we're just like all the rest...
Better off dead
|
||||
4. |
||||
|
Was a storm cutting up and down the coast
Spittin' snow and hail and wind
Was a grandmother cooking up a christmas roast
and A campfire circled by friends
There was a bloody battle halfway round the world
That none of us knew about
There was a chilling cold and an awful sound
The day the lights went out
There was a line that was drawn in the sand
It was an old man who put it there
Another was shouting, "It's a foreign land!"
Like he's tryin' to give us folks a scare
But they had plenty while he had none
They had rain and he had drought
Many had it all while others went without
The day the lights went out
There was some bubblegum on a game show
There was a million dollar prize
There was an expose on some crooked trade
And a family with tired eyes
And a lack of shame on every internet page
A book whose spine would never wear down
But nobody was really reading anyway
The day the lights went out
There was a bloody tooth
There were people on the stoop
An antenna on the roof
Pumpin' us full of truth
Some with and some without
The Whispers turned to shouts
The day the lights went out
And when it got dark upon the land
And every idle hand was left to become eyes
For everyone who went blind
From staring at the lights too long
I dedicate this song...
|
||||
5. |
It Oughta Be
03:20
|
|||
|
Don't open that door
Don't walk down that dark corridor
If someone up there is keeping score
He ain't gonna bet on thee
Don't steal a bite from the fruit of the tree of life
Though it always seemed like
A whole lotta sense to me
There's people who walked along their schemes
There's people who stared at T.V. screens
There's people living out the light and dark of their dreams
And I can't tell if that's the way it was
Or just the way it oughta be
|
||||
6. |
Ain't No Guns!
05:14
|
|||
|
Ain't no cans in the kitchen
Ain't no guns upon the rack
Well this family is up and left
And they won't be comin back
The traffic lights been a-flashin
up until the day they went out
But there ain't no more five o' clock traffic
So I think we can go without
Got yer picture in my bible
Between 2 hundred dollar bills
I could buy the world for what yer picture is worth
And this money ain't buyin' no thrills
|
||||
7. |
Easy Chair
03:25
|
|||
|
I see the sky growing darker each and every day
Fire sails on solar winds and ultra violet rays
It's wise to seek and understand but worry doesn't pay
Cause there's a man with one hand that's a-waving from the stands
While the other is beckoning
The reckoning of judgement day
<chorus>
And it feels like I got the time
To get right up and walk out on this state of mind
But this chair is just so easy
Chances are at the end of days
This is where I'll be
And the clouds of in the distance
They're roaring like a wave
Of the future bearing back the past
I see you sittin' waitin' to be saved
And all that talk you made of change
Bet you didn't wanna be this way
The clock's got its hands and they're spinning like a fan
and the bell is a-ringin'
Bring an end to another day
<chorus>
|
||||
8. |
Safe and Sound
04:12
|
|||
|
In a world of bumblin' bodies
Tumblin' to and fro
From the banks of the memories
To the doorsteps of our homes
And the banks ain't giving out
Anymore loans
Tumblin' into the sea and rising with the foam
Like there just ain't enough world to roam
What's to stop them from tumbling your way?
What's to stop the rain from falling on a beautiful day?
I am safe and sound
Locked up in this hole
To be safe and sound
Is to be all alone
In a world of bumblin' bodies
Hunger on the roam
What does it take for a simple man
to abandon his home?
|
||||
9. |
Footsteps
03:07
|
|||
|
Behind the smoke
Behind the mirror
Lurks a terror so horrible they don't want you to hear
Its long and hollow moan
Footsteps outside yer window
Knocking on the back door of your mind
Footsteps in the cold light of dawn
Comes walking in the new age of mankind
Behind the light
Shadow of the night
Like the lids of your eyes pulled tight
And blind to the unknown
Footsteps outside yer window
Knocking on the back door of your mind
Footsteps in the cold light of dawn
|
||||
10. |
We Were Then
02:24
|
|||
|
Along the ground the saplings
Look up to their elders
Who look down as if to say
You can be like me someday
And we pulled em by the roots
Just lookin for somethin to chew
They held our bonnes in cradle arms
While their fingers tickled our lungs
And at night we spun our yarns
Beside primitive crematoriums
And there ain't no why or how
We were then and they are now
Over time the carbon
Holding up my body
And all its memories
Brilliant thoughts and feeble dreams
Get sucked up by the roots
And thrown into the sky so blue
And the teeth upon the saw
Are decayed and they're rotted
And our temples and our time
Have crumbled and spotted
And there ain't no why or how
We were then and they are now
|
||||
11. |
Mt. Nebo
08:15
|
|||
|
Come gather round ghosts for I've found you a soul
You're free to haunt me cause I feel so alone
Though you've found yourself forever to roam
Come into my house and call it your home
And I'll sing to the darkness that sets in my eyes
The tale of the poor broken rabid dog who died
Put down by his best friend the boy let out a cry
And pulled back the trigger with tears in his eyes
There was a great house atop a great hill
O'erlooking pastures of plenty and an empty grain mill
Within sat many men who spoke what they will
The poison dripped from their lips like heads from the still
When our fate left our hands
We paid it no mind
Gave into all demands
Like we didn't want to get left behind
And the power did shift like the flip of a dime
So on it went without reason or rhyme
The men in the high seats wasted most of our time
While the many below gave them their lives
All the terror and the truth and horror of war
Never shot through our windows or broke down our doors
While we sucked through our straws all the milk of the world
The mother gave all she had and still we took more
And the weight of our plague bent the bones of our states
Still no man was willing to admit to his mistakes
Not measured by what he earns but by what he can take
We changed our perception til we felt no more pain
And the road it was broken
But we paid it no mind
Not a word was spoken
As the poison fell from the sky
From the sky
From the sky
From the sky fell the morning star disease and the taint
Of our souls and singularities and all forgotten saints
Fell ashes of a time tossed by the flames of change
The same fire that fueled it would consume our age
And if Hell is underground and Heaven in the sky
Why do we kick the dirt even after we die?
Must we preserve ourselves and leave no good behind?
Or has mankind just always eaten each other alive?
And all the ghosts sing
Ah-Ee-A-Oo-Oh
Oh-Oo-A-Ee-Ah
|
||||
12. |
Song of the Dead
04:51
|
|||
|
You look like a friend
I haven't seen in a while
Is that my blood
On the tongue hid behind yer smile?
In our simple, friendly bliss
I never thought it would come to this
And all I can do is reminisce...
<chorus>
How can we prevent
What our minds can't comprehend?
And our bodies underwent
Like our souls were never present
You'd think this plague was heaven sent
Did it hurt as bad
As it looked like it did?
Could you still see after
The light went out from behind yer eyelids
Did the innocence of yer song
Give way to an empty moan?
Was it a curse growing inside you
Or just the symptom shown
Of a heart underneath the weight of the world?
<chorus>
As I'm slouching towards the end
And man's shadow starts to bend
This apocalyptic world seems so strange
I'm gonna dance like the dead
And embrace the change
<chorus>
|
||||
13. |
Walkers
03:20
|
|||
|
<chorus>
Walkers, walkers
Nonsense Talkers
Acting like they ain't got a brain
No brain, no pain, it must be insane...
That the brain is the only thing keeping them a-walkin' again
My neighbor John always kept his shoes on
Always had a good head on his shoulders
He was trainin' to run in the marathons
Didn't look like he could get much older
But ol' walkers, walkers
Nonsense talkers
One brief summer night
He was walking by the light
Of the moon shinin' blue on his hundred dollar shoes
When a neighborly bite
Blood spit, and hurled him in a life spent
Walking marathons from here
To the end of the world
<chorus>
Preacher Todd was a man of God
Kept a path in the light of the truth
He had never a word to belay or curse
He spoke wisdom to the minds of the youth
But ol' walkers, walkers
Nonsense talkers
At the end of each week
From the book he would speak of
The end of times, the sun coming out of the sky
From that ancient page
The prophecy did taste of his flesh
That fed the beasts at the end of the world
<Chorus>
|
||||
Ethan Bartman Athens, Ohio
If you like Ethan Bartman, you may also like:
The Late Great Gold Dust
by Gold Dust
The fantastic indie folk songs on the latest from Gold Dust are slathered in gallons of echo, making them feel titanic and 200 feet tall.
go to album
The latest from UK artist MF Tomlinson sets sharp lyrics amidst a backdrop of acoustic guitar, lush keys, and soft percussion.
go to album
The Horizon Just Laughed
by Damien Jurado
featured on Bandcamp Radio May 22, 2018
go to album
Brothers and Sisters of the Eternal Son
by Damien Jurado
featured on Bandcamp Radio Dec 22, 2015
go to album
Visions of Us on the Land
by Damien Jurado
Jurado's upcoming LP completes the trilogy of releases built around a character who has had to disappear from society.
go to album
The Land of Milk and Honey
by Steve Taylor
featured on Bandcamp Radio Jul 14, 2015
go to album
Ship To Shore
by Richard Thompson
The legendary Richard Thompson's new solo album exemplifies his many musical paths, from pop and cabaret to jazz to traditional folk.
go to album
