1. |
Many Long Ago
04:42
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rachel
in a summer dress
many long ago
from detroit
from port aransas
from an island of snow
we sat in the kitchen
and my face it stopped working
and we all sang "papa was a rodeo"
and we smile with our eyes
and we laugh with our eyes
and we know, yes we know, yes we know
wildflowers and cigarettes
and shoes full of sand
bird song and good vines
getting pulled away from the land
and there is a song that's always been sung
but that i can't ever understand
it goes "the man with the lord,
and the lord with the woman,
and the woman and the lord with the man."
and hey you gotta have love
you gotta have a front door to walk through at night
and oh, it don't seem like much
to kiss those bare feet and rest in those eyes
but sometimes that great wall you built
to hold back the flood
only locks those flood waters in tight
then your home is in danger
and your heart is a stranger to your mind
and you drink the salt water
with the fisherman's daughters
and you cry and you cry and you cry
so you drive through the desert now
and you look for a sign
and you smile when you remember
that big yellow house in the sky
where they put money in your hat
they put flowers in your beard
and in your dreams she kisses you slow
rachel
in a summer dress
many long ago
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2. |
Meanie
03:29
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i bang a drum so i don't have to work
i'm a sonuva gun, i'm sort of a jerk
i didn't mean to be such a meanie to you
i just thought you'd understand, cos i thought you knew
that i didn't like the way you'd talk to me
i didn't like the way you'd boss me around so much
i know you loved me but i just can't take that stuff
i wish someone would kindly just explain the whole deal to me
i thought i'd figure it out eventually
why some people gotta drag these heavy chains through the smoke
and everybody else gets a smile and a coke
i stepped out just for a minute, had to look for my faces
i never found my way back into your good graces
but that was tonight, and tomorrow's today
i don't know what i just said and think i like it that way
but i don't like thinking bout the way i was
i'd like put it behind me, i'd like to cover it up
so i jump under the covers and wash away my sins
but those stains are getting thicker and that remedy wears me thin
so i take a blade to my long black hair
and my baby's having nightmares bout girls i ain't never touched
i know she loves me but i just can't take that stuff
i was a prince of the pavement for a year or two
and then the shine shimmied off and the shit shone through
you were riding your bike, you were saying your prayers
we were minding our own business, we were caught unawares
now i'm living out west where there ain't no surprises
still picking out the splinters from between my eyes
got a road for the wheels, a fire for the dark
i got the moon, i got the moon, i got the moon for a heart
i'd do anything you've heard of just to lay it down neat
i'd be your open umbrella, i'd be the back of your beat
but i'm broke and misbegotten and i'm missing some teeth
i'm gumming up what's left of all the things i believed
when i was young and full fire, not just your voodoo doll
oh yeah you pour it on real thick but i'm gonna have to call your bluff
you're just a meanie when you're trying to give me all your love
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3. |
Nearly Numb
05:29
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o spirit roll, come tumble and sing
my faith is hanging by a string
rush river rush, make a flood of this stream
my faith is hanging by a string
been choking on the names i've been known to carry
and don't a body need to breathe?
i was lit up all winter, now i'm hiding from the spring
and i can't feel anything, i can't feel anything
oh mother stop fussing, mother stop your worrying
my faith is hanging by a string
cast out into the dark where it should be shimmering
it's blinking on and off, can you tell me what it means
that our prayers got us nowhere and our hopes are picked clean
still i'm betting on that wedding ring
and the lord he is a mountain in the thick of my dreams
but i can't feel anything, i can't feel anything
my body is turning in the grass
and you're covered in the blood, you're covered in the blood
this rain is falling at last
and we're mixing into mud, we're just mixing into mud
i was a soldier in a war that both sides lost
and now we're counting up the cost, we're counting up the cost
and if you see my grandfather, could you tell him i've been tossed
in the wind and the snow, and i'm covered up in frost
and i'm trying hard to sing but i can't feel anything
it's a dark mind now that winds this road
see it balancing that heavy load
full of dust and promises and visions of a home
oh the spirit has been known to groan
so take me to the rock, make a flood of this stone
i'm so dry, and i'm so all alone
oh father abraham, there ain't no lamb, so c'mon let's make a scene
cos i can't feel anything, i can't feel anything...
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4. |
Back Of My Eye
03:50
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it's like a knife in my eye
it's like a knife in my eye
it's like a knife in the back of my eye
and i can't get it out, i can't get it
it's like honey on my chin
it's like honey on my chin
it's like honey runnin' down my chin
and i can't get it off, i can't get it
i can't get it off my mind
it's like a spider in it's web
it's like a spider in it's web
it's like a spider in it's web and it's coming for the bed
that's tucked inside the nest in the middle of my head
it's like a well that won't run dry
it's like a well that won't run dry
it's a poisoned well that won't run dry
it's filling up my cup, my cup runneth over
i can't get it off my mind
it's like a cage with no doors
it's like a cage with no doors
it's like a cage with no doors, there's nothing for it
but to rattle the bars...
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5. |
Youngtown
05:58
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i can't sleep in a young town
i walk the streets with my eyes to the ground
i got no time to hold or be held
so busy keeping my hands to myself
it's all the slaves to the fashion
the slaves to the scene
it's all another missed opportunity
for learning to live with less of me
in the dancehall of the prophets
i met the priestess of apophis
she was a dee-jay hipster mystic
she was mumbling something bout drugs and lipstick
she was a slave to the fashion
a slave to the scene
she was another missed opportunity
for learning to live with less of me
on top the mountain of the ego
i have surround my self with seagulls
their cries drowning out my deception
breaking up the signal, blocking my reception
they're keeping me distracted from learning my lesson
that you gotta have a death if you want a resurrection
keeps me a slave to my fashion
a slave to my scene
keeps keeping me from one more opportunity
for learning to live with less of me
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6. |
A Body For A Breath
05:44
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well you brought me a companion
when i kept asking for death
you gave me a warm body
when all i wanted from you was breath
i asked you for a reason
i begged to understand
so you sat down in the native pose
and drew pictures in the sand
you saw me drifting off
and you pulled me alongside
and said "wait for me my darling dear
beloved and only bride"
but i caught you going out
when you told me not to come
i could turn on you again
i could turn around and run
but i been through this before
and i guess it didn't stick
cos, oh, look who it is
yeah baby don't it just make you sick
how the best of us get stupid
how purposes all bend
yeah i been through this before
guess i'll just go through it again
cos it's late now, in the day
oh it is late and it is dark
and the lamplighter is wandering
through the town, but not the park
where i am lying on a bench
and waiting for a sign
that tells me i can stand and leave
and that everything will be fine
and that i should keep on walking
through the street lights and the grid
keep on walking through the night
where the awful truths are hid
behind every painted face
down every dark stairwell
yeah tell me i should just keep walking
though i can't tell where i'm headed
but that sign has not appeared
and my eyes are getting tired
and my vision is impaired
and my lips are cracked and dry
and my tongue is clicking loudly
and there is a hammering in my head
i could use a drink or twenty
and a stranger's welcome bed
i could use a bottle of easy living
i could use a pound of flesh
to fill this lake of longing
cover up this meaninglessness
i could use a game of you
to help me forget this ain't no game
now listen, is it getting better
or do you feel the shame
oh the pen is moving fast now
but my heart is faster still
and it's turning out the storehouse
where the driver keeps the till
in a maddened quest for currency
for any coin that can be spent
towards the matter, bleak and urgent
that's caught and bleeding on the fence
that borders off the ancient city
from that country lost to man
and keeps him ever sick and longing
for where the water meets the land
in that blazing world of ever
turning, daring him to stand visions
of her naked body twisting
in between two nail pierced hands
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7. |
Selfish Prayers
05:51
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i've been praying selfish prayers
begging mercies from the girl upstairs
don't think she can hear my cry
got bigger things on her mind
i've been living on different streets
walking backwards on my new beat
saving pennies from railroad tracks
painting all my red doors black
stumblin' round on the sides of my feet
bubbling like a bitch in heat
at every ghost i meet
i've been sleeping in my shoes
digging up my dangling roots
sniffing out meaning in the songs i sing
open up my veins for the fat lady
glue her feathers to my face
walk over her empty grave
and then i take it out on faith
i've been praying selfish prayers
heresies and put-on-aires
making out in empty tombs
fertile goddess buds in bloom
swimming out from those minor keys
gonna ask my question of that wounded king
till i belong to everything
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8. |
Suicide Honey
04:52
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i've been thinking too much
in a world where my fingers can touch
the rocks that the river has made smooth as your face
on it's way through the canyon
i've been drinking my tea
with the honey from a dead man's bees
who themselves all died in the freeze
we had around christmas
you never could hold in your hands
what in your heart kept you lonely and driven
you were running before you could stand
but you just couldn't see what you were missing
i've been walking your dogs down the path
that divides up the east from the west
listening for the sounds of my own breath
which just proves that i'm breathing
well i hung onto every word
every lesson, every blessing, every curse
course the message we both missed
is that a word ain't a thing worth believin'
and you believed with all of your might
changed your name to explain your new living
but you still slept alone every night
you just couldn't see what you were missing
did you just want some kind of relief
from the weight you'd kept buried and hidden
did you never learn how to say what you need
we'd all have come running just to listen
oh this suicide honey's too sweet
now my tears are unhinged but forgiving
still your rosy's on her hands and her knees
as she watches your ashes go drifting
and your sisters and brother are weeping and kissing
while the monks sing a hymn for the living
and the wind gives their robes a good whipping
and takes our voices and sends them up, lifting
high over the cliffs where you'd spent your life sifting
for some kernel of truth in your fields of misgiving
and my brother i hope you can see what you're missing
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9. |
The Mean Spirit
03:33
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10. |
Word Vs. World
05:11
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washing my hands, washing my feet in the sea
i can't stand, the waves beat-beating out
a steady command to bring me kicking and screaming
now i'm burried in sand but the wound is still bleeding
did you strike up the band and then get to retreating?
am i part of the plan or part of the scenery?
i was done with the world
i was done with the world
long ago
yessir my friend, i'm a pretty good heater
but the word would not bend, the world didn't treat her
like you wanna pretend a girl should be treated
so she's out at the end of the wits-end pier
she's throwing in cans of last year's fear
laying on hands, raising the dead,
turning wine into water, turning gold to bread
i'm letting go of the words
i'm letting go of the words
that i know
i was done with the world
i was done with the world
long ago
leaves on the trees, leaves in the gutter
blessed my knees, blessed my brothers
bless my soul ima golden summer for you
but once upon a time in a breakfast joint
we were fickle and fine and without a point
and the point ain't believing, the point ain't in leaving
the point is just breathing in truth, and in truth
i am born with the word
i am born with the word
in my soul
and i'm done with the words
i'm done with the words
that i know
i'm letting go of the world
i'm letting go of the world
i'm letting go
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11. |
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free me
free me from the words
free me from the words
the words that are a cage
the words that are a cave
a cave without a light
a light without a source
of you
free me
free me from the self
free me from the self
the self that is cave
the self that is a lie
a lie that is belief
a belief without the truth
of you
free me
free me from the world
free me from the world
the world that is a lie
the world that is a stone
a stone that is a path
a path that is the grave
of you
what is
what is
show to me what is
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The Whiskey Priest Albuquerque, New Mexico
The Whiskey Priest is song-writer Seth Woods. He sings about horses, oceans, trains, mountains, deities, hands, science fiction, sex, vegetation, drinking games, deserts, depression, party people, seagulls, death, monks, memory, autumn, driving, and breakfast. He has never met a drum machine he didn't like. ... more
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