1. |
T-Shirt, Blue Jeans
03:42
|
|||
|
She had Neil Young on the hi-fi
Last Trip to Tulsa
She put on Blood on the Tracks, I wanted to cry
Lord, she made my pulse run
We left her place, went for a ride
Downtown for a couple of beers
The way she smiled, that look in her eye
I had to focus in order to steer
T-Shirt, blue jeans
T-Shirt, blue jeans
T-Shirt, blue jeans
Something special was happening
Something special was happening
We parked the car, walked side by side
“Let’s go some place where we won’t be seen
That joint with tikis, black velvet paintings
Of naked ladies. They got pinball machines.”
She held her beer in long, slender fingers
She held my mind and demolished time
In that moment was the only moment
She told her story and I told her mine
T-Shirt, blue jeans…
Like West Side Story or High Noon
Only courage will tell the tale
I’d blow the ending if I said now I’m sorry
Bumming tobacco in this Tacoma jail
I still remember how she was then
I know she’s fine and still having fun
Her smile was like a bucket of diamonds
I still remember when she gave me one
T-Shirt, blue jeans…
Something special was happening
Something special
|
||||
2. |
Never Girl
05:25
|
|||
|
Never read the letters never sent
Never heard songs never sung
Never saw the places never went
Never heard bells never rung
Never end
Never begin
You’re nowhere never girl
You’re nowhere never girl
You’re nowhere never girl
You’re nowhere never girl
Never dreamed the dream that never was
Never felt the touch upon the skin
Never knew all that love can do
Never played a game that we could win
Never end
Never begin
You’re nowhere never girl…
I walk the streets and I see you everywhere
I turn and you vanish in the air
I look to find you but you’re not there
You’re nowhere never girl
Never was a burden of proof
Never had the lay of the land
Never was a kernel of truth
Never had a ghost of a chance
Never end
Never begin
You’re nowhere never girl…
|
||||
3. |
||||
|
You, with your innocence gated, your true love negated by his
Cruel misuse of words
You, while a wedding dress languishes, your mother still anguishes
No toys on the stairs
You, with your songs that go nowhere that take me along the crooked
Miles of dreaming beach
I hear you in silence and see you in darkness and feel you
So out of reach
Could I ever say no?
Could I ever just go
With your blasts of anger so contemptible?
Doot doot doo doot doo doo
Doot doot doo doot doo doo
Doot doot doo doot doo, doot doot doo doot doo
You, with my head on your platter, your invisible chatter, smiled your
Mona Lisa smile
You, with your hand-painted mirrors, your digital smears, and your downtown
Street urchin style
You, with your fratricide breath, your parasite mouth, and your disdain for
All that’s true
Who, oh, who could have known that when I wandered from home my tale would
Lead straight to you
Could I ever say no?
Even when you asked me to go?
Exit wounds still show
From shots that were so imperceptible
Doot doot doo boot doo doo…
Ahhhh
You, with the sky in your hands and with the sea on your skin and the bottomless
Dark of the night
You, with your sketchbook of fears, your phony careers, can I trust you to
Make these things right
|
||||
4. |
||||
|
That Great Wheel was the damndest deal
And it stared us right in the eye
Man was meant to walk on stone
Like birds were meant to fly
And soaring through the dome of my skull
Was this new idea to me
So, I climbed up on that great big wheel
To see what I could see
Still I cannot repent, I’m the devil
And whatever’s gonna happen to me
I had almost an hour
On a highway known only to me
That Great Wheel just appeared one day
And the ruckus was loud and long
Folks came from many miles around
They knew that something was wrong
And they all stared in such wide wonder
At something so mystifying
It made the men feel like children
And the children all start to cry
Still I cannot repent, I’m the devil…
Curiosity
Now, there’s a logic to commerce
And a logic to policy
But there weren’t no logic to something that round
That whistled like wind through a tree
In the middle was as black as coal
With colored stars that danced to mesmerize
Women hushed up their babies
While the old men lowered their eyes
The sky looks just like the ocean
Our town fathers were without words
When I climbed up on that big ol’ wheel
I heard something I should not have heard
Now my tongue is like a pencil lead
And my brain like a lovers curse
I did not want to end up this way
I knew nothing could be worse
Still I cannot repent, I’m the devil…
|
||||
5. |
In A Talking Dream
04:27
|
|||
|
Out of the Tularosa
In a dusty border town
I saw you at the window
In a blood red satin gown
I curse the day I met you
I curse these broken hands
I curse the modest husband
Buried in the river sands
In a talking dream
I will make the mountains rise
In a talking dream
I will light the darkened skies
In a talking dream
You will see who I really am
In a talking dream
There but for the fortune
There but for the grace
There inside the torture
There upon your face
I don’t need no heroin
I don’t want your curse
I just want your love, babe
Even though it’s sometimes worse
In a talking dream…
|
||||
6. |
||||
|
I wish I was different
Sometimes I wish I was dead
But nothing means nothing
When it’s inside your head
If wishes were raindrops
They’d hide the tears that we shed
The dividing line falls
On your side of the bed
We used to talk all the time
We used to talk until dawn
There was never a question
Whose side we was on
You can hope for the better
You can hope all night long
But they don’t call them memories
Until they are gone
The dividing line falls
And there’s nothing to say
They don’t make a broom
That could sweep this away
The hoot owl calls
Nothing more will be said
The dividing line falls
On your side of the bed
The dividing line runs
Right through my head
|
||||
7. |
Belle Starr
04:42
|
|||
|
She’s like a vision locked in the rocks
Like a trade secret hidden in a Chinese box
She dreams of the Old West and hombres who drew faster
Who’d never back down even in the face of disaster
But it’s all a dream in every last detail
Just like her old friend Tommy when the trailer hitch broke
Up and left everything he owned ‘cause he thought it was a joke
She’d throw it all away even her earrings and scarves,
That necklace from Morocco, and her antique Tarot cards
‘Cause it’s all a dream in every last detail
Twenty-first century Wild West outlaw Belle Starr
Stuck in a port town in the Great Northwest
Her smile is broken and no one to give it repair
I reach out my hand and she disappears
She thinks like a poet but she acts like an idiot
She ain’t got no car and she ain’t got no home
She’s got an old guitar and she plays it so well
She’s got some songs to sing and a story to tell
But it’s all a dream in every last detail
Her best friend’s a whiskey and her church could be a barstool
Her visions are tyrants that got her locked in the rocks
She could be a queen covered in garlands and pearls
But a flea market soul keeps on calling her home
And it’s just like a dream in every last detail
Twenty-first century Wild West outlaw Belle Starr
Abandoned and stranded under a northern sky
Her old man don’t love her but she could never leave him
Her dreams left like stains on a wedding gown
Her dreams left like stains on her wedding gown
|
||||
8. |
Slinger
06:11
|
|||
|
The purple hour of dawn paints the white taut face blue
Ice cracks beneath his boots. The cock crow overdue
“Why?” whispers the face of gray, the bank, and the smithy’s fire
“Who?” asks the morning dove.
“Who cares,” says the funeral pyre
The nameless stranger had held the cards for two days in a row
Staring through the mirror, he said, “That gunman’s gotta go”
Standing at the bar ready for one more
Gunslinger was thinking of something else
Not hearing what he’d heard before
Slinger, gunslinger, are you heading for Boot Hill?
Don’t you remember that God once said, Thou Shalt Not Kill
You do just what you’re able, and
You do what you do best
Slinger, gunslinger, are they ever gonna let you rest?
A gold watch on a gold chain, an ancient rosary
Hiding in the pockets of a human mystery
To some he is a hero. His skill is absolute.
Though admired, he kills for hire.
What kind of man would go that route?
Slinger, gunslinger, are you heading for Boot Hill?…
The lizard in his mastery, the cactus along the trail
Bleached bones and wagon wheels tell a silent, thirsty tale
The sun moves toward the West, like a man looking for his home
Gunslinger glances eastward
He knows that he must roam
Slinger, gunslinger, you’re heading for Boot Hill…
|
||||
9. |
Step Up
05:11
|
|||
|
There’s been some misunderstanding
Understanding’s not you’re strong suite
Lately so demanding
And sensitive, to boot
You’re not in love with her
She’s slightly over the moon
You must talk about it
And talk about it soon
Step up
Got a message for you
Step up
Don’t you care?
Yeah, she loves you (now)
But when she needs you
You won’t be there
Her perfect imperfection
Sealed her perfect doom
There was no small correction
That could stop the coming gloom
You saw in an instant
An instant too late
She had plans for you
It was her plans that sealed her fate
Step up…
|
||||
10. |
Hubble
00:29
|
|||
|
None
|
||||
11. |
In the Age of Automation
04:12
|
|||
|
In the age of automation
She is drawn into a fire
As the flames become more obvious
Her confusion rises higher
She tenders her resignation
Every time he speaks
But her fatal independence
Contradicts the thing she seeks
In the age of automation
He begins to read a book
With an effort far beyond his tears
His eyes begin to look
Drifting like a satellite
High above the moon
His dreams begin to turn to her
Like a long-remembered tune
She is caught in a photograph
She is struck by a hologram
She sits and weeps by the heliograph
While he carries a crumpled old telegram
In the age of automation
They are moved to speak in tongues
Drifting like two molecules
Light years from the sun
His hands begin to whisper
Her heart is listening
In the age of automation
As the rain begins to sing
|
||||
Michael Shuler Los Angeles, California
If you like Michael Shuler, you may also like:
New York duo showcase an enigmatic blend of math rock guitars, pop-punk sing-a-longs, emo confessionals, and even rave-ready synths.
go to album
Ex-Summer Twin Justine Brown blends twee, bubblegum, and ye-yé on this finely recorded second outing as Easy Love.
go to album
featured on Bandcamp Radio Mar 28, 2017
go to album
featured on Bandcamp Radio Jul 30, 2013
go to album
featured on Bandcamp Radio Apr 30, 2013
go to album
Forever is a Long Time
by Ian Coss
These sweet, sad indie pop tunes accompany Ian Coss's podcast of the same name, in which he interviews his family about their divorces.
go to album
The gorgeous and gripping new record from Anika Pyle features minimalist folk & pop songs that struggle to make sense of loss.
go to album
