LYRICS

SONGS OF MAN

Ties that Bind 

(Russell, Schmidt)
It’s a wisdomless will that stays here, boys.  It’s a wisdomless will that tries.  What would I give for the will of my youth, now that I’ve gone wise?

As steady as I’ve lasted here, I’ve wished I could be gone. But look above in the clear skies no stars to wish upon.  People in the city scrape the darkness from the sky, they crush it in a powder and they take it inside.  If you've got no ties that bind you, boys, be off and on your way!  If you've got no ties that bind you boys, I bid you don't delay!

Now I was lured by asphalt too, young like you and sniffing gold, for my father's fields they faltered and were sold for a penny all told. The first tie was her auburn hair, the strength between her thighs, and the second tie her mortared dreams, now the third in silence lies.  If you've got no ties that bind you, boys, be off and on your way!  If you've got no ties that bind you boys, I bid you don't delay!

Oh what a picture in that yard, our young in sprinklers playing. But just a picture of that yard for in a flat now I’m staying.  How we labored for that brownstone but there was something in the pipes, and the water it ran to tumor, now the tumor it took my wife.  Speak not of philodendron, I know nothing of the wild, but I’ve lived long where there's no grass- it must be greener on the other side. If you got no ties that bind you, boys, be off and on your way!  It's a wisdomless will that stays here boys I bid you, don't delay!


Work 

(Russell, Schmidt)
Four grand short and this I know, we’ve got quite a ways to go, and every morning, I wonder why we spend our lives trying to get by doing work for other people, that they don’t cherish and never will, doing work for other people, until we perish another’s will.  

The baker kneads, the mason breaks, the groundsman bends, the tax man takes, the linesman trips, the mill man dyes, the waiter waits, the escort lies. And they’re doing work for other people that they don’t cherish, and never will. They’re doing work for other people, until they perish another’s will.  

The anchor sits with no good news. He reads it loud at steady cue.  “The bull is shot, the market falls, a crushing weight upon us all.”  And so my friend, we’ll start our day, leaving love for bills to pay, and bend to thieves of pockets gold who likely will foreclose our home.  But they’re doing work, for other people, that they don’t cherish, and never will. They’re doing work for other people, until they perish, another’s will.

Where The Sparrows Drop

(Russell, Schmidt)
Dusk it mimics crisis in seated summer's craze, when 9 to 5 the people work and shun smog's heavy haze. Nature’s varmints duck about in the walls, the pipes, the grates.  But truth be told in the shadows fold at the closing of the day. Dusk is when all creatures come to bask in golden shade and every species acts as starved and feeds as the light fades. Piggish are the worms, piggish are the snakes, fast as jets the sparrows fall to feed all in one place. I sat there where the sparrows dropped that's where I was waiting, calmly, as the sparrows dropped, just as the day was fading.

There, among the birds athirst is where I’d calmly stay and feel as though the outsides matched my insides disarray I knew no beauty but the dusk until that crucial eve, when my beloved poised as I, stood staring back at me. if this town was small enough, they'd call us crazy cursed, but we in random city went ignored, which might be worse. I wooed her there in nature's mess - my only and my first- and like a sparrow she fell for me, my eyes in hers, immersed.  She said, “Meet me where the sparrows drop, that’s where I’ll be waiting, tomorrow, as the sparrows drop, just as the day is fading.”

In my youth I’d made a deal, some lessons for my time, to train my trigger finger and plain faced march in line. Just as I had found my peace my country found its war, I was sent  then overseas to fight, who knows what for.” And in the airport, in the crowd my love she wept for me. She held her hand on my back small, as calm as she could be.  She said: "I love you for your eyes, you know, because they see like mine. With every bomb, just see a sparrow, falling down in time.”  She said, "Meet me where the sparrows drop, that's where I'll be waiting every day till your return, just as the day is fading."

I can tell you of the fury or the wild eyed hateful man, I can tell you that I sit here now because I cannot stand. Now I know nothing but the night, the sluggishness of time in the trenches with the rest, who've lost their limbs and minds. And I can't see the detail now but memory I know, with every sound explosion feel the warmth around me glow. I clutch my rifle tightly, rapid fire skyward bound, hope to hit a sparrow feel it fall onto the ground.  She said, "Meet me where the sparrows drop that's where I'll be waiting every day till your return, just as the day is fading." I sit and watch the sparrows drop, calmly as I’m waiting, everyday for my return just as the day is fading.
 

Brother Song
(Mortimer, Schmidt)
I prefer you not tell her, if you must then you may.  What she knows of kissing, she won't see it our way.  But there's something romantic between every friend. You're some kind of lover but you're more like a brother in the end.

Your shoulders have broadened since I first knew your name. Your hands they have roughened, but they touch me the same. And to still hold you tightly, I must have some gall. You're some kind of lover but you're more like a brother after all.

When the sun comes up but the guilt don't rise you'll be happy with what I’ve been saying. When the tears you cry ain't been brought by me I’ll be better, be better, be better, to wipe them away.

There's a winning in losing. There's a loss to be cut.  One day we'll break even-
you can not leave it to luck.  So I speak to the darkness: may the Gods give me might. You're some kind of lover, but you're more like a bother, that's alright.


Waiting On Another 

(Mortimer, Schmidt)
I don’t intend to be your morning dove, be the apple of your eye, the only one you love.  And I know she got your heart -that much is clear, but baby love me now while she ain’t here. The little lies they don’t mean that much. Love me while you’re waiting on another, love me a while. Time moves quicker with a softer touch, love me while you’re waiting on another, love me a while.

I know that look, I’ve worn it before you got glass eyes looking to the shadows at the door, hoping she'll come back - you know she might come back. But you can’t let ‘em hold you, all those could-have-beens, cuz they ain’t right now, so it ain’t no sin- Baby love me a while, just for a while.

You know the little lies they don’t mean that much. Love Me while you’re waiting on another, just love me a while. Time moves quicker with a softer touch, love me while you’re waiting on another, love me a while
There’s no pretending, no there’s no need. What we got here, you know it don’t compete. Run your fingers through my hair, don’t let your heart’s hope be your hand’s despair. The little lies they don’t mean that much. Love me while you’re waiting on another, love me a while. Time moves quicker with a softer touch, love me while you’re waiting on another, love me a while.



Fires of Regret 

(Schmidt)
Let the rumours rest with all the best, with the bones of St. Joe, the shale and the roots of them trees.  It's been 50 years, and I guess it's clear how the matter gets watered to bring a boy to be.  Your mother was a flame of mine, gave meaning to the word.  And I a lonely woodchopper, seeking out what I could as I would with time to burn.

For every time you thought that I did not love you, for every time you thought that I did not care, well I handled my axe, made my way through the forest, cleaved a tree toward the kindling for the fires of regret.

So I made my home with the lesser knowns, I was a whistle punk, calling trees from high to low.  And the traveling life it makes no man for a wife, you fell a tree for the road and a woman's but a stop, you know? Did you picture me a business man, a captain lost at sea?  You can take it from me that when a dead beat dreams he’s got a vision of a million better men than what he's come to be. 

For every time you thought that I did not love you, for every time you thought that I did not care, well I handled my axe, made my way through the forest,  cleaved a tree toward the kindling for the fires of regret.
 

I was 17, I was headed East, when the word of your birth from your mother well, it came downstream.  And I'd like to lie, but in my reply I said “I’m good for nobody and nobody's been good for me.”  May my smoke fill the horizon, fill the lungs of everyone.   Might they choke on my life’s lessons, cough up their hearts, slow their feet and their hands, and mind their tongues.

For every time you thought that I did not love you, for every time you thought that I did not care, well I handled my axe, made my way through the forest,  cleaved a tree toward the kindling for the fires of regret.


Everybody Wins 

(Russell, Schmidt)
I walk the streets where the deer don’t go but the hunter still stalks now don’t you know? He prays for the prey before he lays us low, that we might dodge the shots and find a better home.  Make way for the princes around the block, make way for the clubs with their thrones on lock: Everybody wins, except for the losers.

Over in the park by the railroad track on a sunny day you could just relax, and nobody gave a damn if your mind was bent, it could curve with the lake till after sunset. Now they're tearing up the benches where we used to go, they’re dragging us out like logs along a skid road.  Everybody wins, except for the losers.

Who gets by and who gets broke?  Who dances on the pieces? If you've come here for the show you’ll be gone tomorrow.   The scaffold and the 'for sale' sign agree, it’ll be the last year around here for me. Everybody wins, except for the losers.

 

Powdered Confessions  
(Russell, Schmidt)
Time dries up quick as rubbing alcohol.  It don't disinfect, it’s six months since I called.  You read me wrong, throughout and all along. I wheeze away and break the quiet threads, your fiction's binding. These powdered confessions keep me right and here with you. And I feel that much better when I write in prose to you. I feel that much better when I’m right, in prose to you. These powdered confessions keep me right and here with you.

And I’ve got proofs, my copy maid she read the truth.  Helped me revise, to twist the plot and turn me loose.  She cut some lines, and shaped them to my spine- a dedication to the one I loved, the path unwinding.  These powdered confessions keep me right keep and here with you. I feel that much better when I write in prose to you. I feel that much better when I’m right in prose to you. These powdered confessions keep me right and here with you.


Aaron’s Song 

(Schmidt)
Months before I was expected, I rushed the floor from mama's womb.  Faint of heart I was collected, faint of heart but never doomed.  There were many complications with my body mind and speech, and though they said I was non-speaking, oh what words I had to speak. I’d point them out, I got eyes for a mouth and a friend that’ll try, and I always got by by my wits.  

Well I’ve been held and I’ve been handled by heavy hands that claim to feed. And though directed, I resisted, the heavy hand it don't plan for me.I’d point that out, I got eyes for a mouth and a friend that’ll try, and I always got by by my wits.

As for women I’ve loved many (more than most if truth be told). This song was writ by one who loved me, she lent me words, I lent her soul.

My yarn it is a tangled one of common threads, a complex clear - The weakest one, he fights much harder, he winds up stronger than he might appear. I’d point that out, I got eyes for a mouth and a friend that’ll try, and I always got by my wits.


Black Gold 

(Russell, Schmidt)
We flock and pump our pennies in the sick VLT glow, with our feathers slick with oil there ain't nowhere we can go but the twenty brand new barrooms that they built just for our kind.  Yeah, we're dirty and ugly and hard to refine as the sands that we dig three hours from closing time. And I'd not been one to gamble till the day I reached the Fort - Pipelines run through my pockets, my desires they distort. There's a voice in my head tellin’ me I should fold, but the ring around my finger is made of black gold.

Teresa sets the standard, long legs clothed in shear black hose.  She can charge 300 higher and her business never slows. In our arms she bluffs the lovin' of our wives left out of sight, cuz us workin' men need workin' girls to work us through the night. There's a voice on the line I keep putting on hold, she says my spitting image is spitting up he's getting on, he's getting old. And a voice in my head tellin’ me I should fold, but the ring around my finger is made of black gold

It's 2 gallons burned for every one that we earn but the smoke in the sky I'd renege. You’ve got to play to win, I bid myself, my next of kin.  Over all the game is rigged. There's a voice in my head tellin’ me I should fold, but the ring around my finger is made of black gold. And there's no going back, long the highway's been sold and the rings round our fingers are made of black gold.   
It’s two gallons burned for every one that we earn. It’s two gallons burned for everyone.


All songs (C) One Hundred Dollars, 2011