1. |
Way Way Down
04:17
|
|||
|
I wake up every morning
Like a burning flame
Seems like a pale of water
Always has my name
My daybreak optimism
Seems to always meet its match
There's a dose of sorrow
For every ounce of hope I hatch
The strength of my resolve
Does not falter, does not wane
I'm not too broken up about it
But goddamn it's just a shame
Chorus:
On the way, way up
I'm on the way, way down
On the way, way down
I think I lost my bearings
Somehwere on the way way down
I'm not the only fool who
Struggles to get ahead
Hell, half of everyone I know's
Lucky to get out of bed
Moments of recognition
Followed by reprimand
The fruits of my ambition
Always just beyond my oustretched hand
A world of promises
Followed by broken bones
The scent of honeysuckle
And then a broken nose
Chorus
The river is wide and rough
I think we need a new bridge (shout)
I can swim but not strong enough
I think we need a new bridge
Some say they'll throw a rope, but
I think we need a new bridge
Yes, even though I'm full of hope
I still think we need a new bridge
I never got the message
That it's time to pack it in
I've always viewed defeat
As training for the win
This road is no less traveled
Than any other one
I'm no more persecuted
Than any mother's son
Though each small victory
Seems followed by a loss
I must dig in I must begin
To unleash the albatross
Chorus
|
||||
2. |
||||
|
I get drunk on Sundays
Because thinking of Mondays
Brings me so much sorrow
I'd rather just have that one day
Pay the fiddler tomorrow
SOMEBODY POUR ME A DRINK!
Pour it right down my throat
Another day on the job
Is a suicide note
And I can struggle through one shift
If I can just get this one lift
What I need right now is to
Put it all out of my mind
SOMEBODY POUR ME A DRINK!
And pray it goes straight to broke-ass my veins
I’m not exactly unfortunate
I just pissed it away
And I had some chances
To improve my finances
But they were all wasted
Now I just want to waste the day
SOMEBODY POUR ME A DRINK!
Don't water it down
Cause I've worn out my welcome
All over this town
But if they cannot love me
If the world thinks ill of me
Why shouldn't I drink
Til I drink myself into the ground?
SOMEBODY POUR ME A DRINK!
Make it a double
In these final hours
Let's get into some trouble
And in the morning
We'll deal with the morning
If the morning comes
Or if we even live that long
SOMEBODY POUR ME A DRINK!
|
||||
3. |
Thought of a Man
04:14
|
|||
|
Yesterday another battle
Left us both in shock
The stakes always seem so high
Everytime we talk
You can't seem to handle
When I tell you how I feel
I've always been an open book
I thought you knew that was the deal
I never really did my best to see the things you see
Maybe a little, but not enough to notice
I tried to paint a picture with the words you said to me
It was fuzzy, but then came into focus
And I thought of a man
And I was that man
And that man was an asshole
I've always stood behind
Nearly every word I said
Even when I knew
It was lost upon my audience
I know I'm not a saint
And I know I'm not a peach
I've been a victim of
Misinterpretation of free speech
I could not control all the things inside my head
There's nothing I would not have done to do it
I must confess I'm weary of hangovers of regret
Seems like the night before there's always nothing to it
But I thought of a man
And I was that man
And that man was an asshole
Even the monkey on the street
Knows to draw the line
At flinging shit at the spectators
Cause he knows he's on their dime
I've yet to figure out
Which hands I'm not to bite
But come on, people, trust the process
This can't be fixed overnight
And I thought of a man
And I was that man
And that man was an asshole
|
||||
4. |
||||
|
You were sitting in the living room
The black leather version of you
That you figured I would hate to lose
But I saw past. I saw right through
Not that I wasn't torn in two
I just saw it from a different point of view
When a woman is so untrue
What did you honestly expect me to do?
Later, there was talk of olive branches
Therapy and second chances
Retreat followed by advances
I suppose that's how romance is?
I've never been much for these dances
So I chalked it up to circumstances
Cause these winds can trigger avalanches
At least that's what the weatherman says
Just because you broke my heart
Doesn't mean I loved you
I found beauty in you at the start
But now I've seen an ugly side
Like a dove becomes a missile
As it falls into view
Every hydrangea has its cyanide
I never doubted I'd bounce back
Guess I've always had the knack
Of seeing the deck is stacked
Knowing just how to react
Now you're just an artifact
A memory an abstract
Sometimes you add when you subtract
Ain't that the fucking truth?
Just because you broke my heart
Doesn't mean I loved you
I found beauty in you at the start
But now I've seen an ugly side
Like a dove becomes a missile
As it falls into view
Every hydrangea has its cyanide
|
||||
5. |
Cracker War
03:57
|
|||
|
Check it:
You're always pissed off
Every morning
Inside your face
Emotions storming
You can't keep waiting for
Things to get better
You only suffer when you
Let it fester
You got a beef
You need to solve it
Whatchoo gonna do?
A-watcha call it?
It's a cracker war
It's a cracker war
I hit the cracker aisle
At the store
I got my weapon
And I got my snack
You better watch your back
Your Ritz don't mean nothing to me
The crumble in my hands they crumble
Beneath my feet
Crumble be neath my feet
Heh.
You probably wonder
What you stepped into
Connect the dots
And grab a tissue
Cause now I got you
Over the barrel
You cut the carbs
At your own peril
I got the big box
The family size
Best get your goggles
Protect your eyes
It's a cracker war
It's a cracker war
My cracker attack
Will leave you on the floor
I got some Cheese-its and I got Saltines
I think you know just what that means
You can run and hide with your Teddy Grahams
A cracker assassin is what I am
And you’ll crumble
Beneath my feet
Crumble be neath my feet
Oh shit.
Now what is this?
I got the triscuits
I got the skills
To split your biscuits
You call your dad
You call your mommy
A little cheese
Some hard salami
Charcuterie
Across your sweater
You brought the swiss but
I brought the cheddar
It's a cracker war
A cracker war
And I cleared the shelves
At the cracker store
Chicken n’ a Biscuit is all you are
I’ll bet you can’t even throw that this far
I think you need to go back to wafer school
But first, I’m a teach you a thing or two
And you’ll crumble
Beneath my feet
Crumble beneath my feet
|
||||
6. |
Raining in Hollywood
04:08
|
|
||
|
The leaves have turned in springtime
As the rodent takes the hawk
Another midnight sunrise
Throws off my internal clock
There's no master equation
I can use to sort it out
A little liquor on occasion
That used to do the trick, but it doesn't now
I cling to things I used to trust
But the most potent deas
Now feel watered down because
It's raining in Hollywood
And there's sunshine on the
Dark side of the moon
And a dissonant calliope
Rattles on inside of me
And I can't find a way to shake the tune
I was raised by a scientist
The smartest man I knew
Never questioned anything he said
Never had a reason to
Mama had a heart to match
The power of his mind, but lately
They been talking shit
I cannot manage to unwind
It's like everything is turned around
Something don't add up
And I can't break it down and now it's
Chorus
I've now spent nearly half my life
Somewhere that wasn't home
Assholes then idiots
Jessie now Jerome
But the world has turned while I stood still
And as I look on from afar
I see people I once recognized
And wonder who they are
It's like they somehow forgot what matters most
And now there's palm trees in the mountains
And snowmen on the coast and it's
Chorus
|
||||
7. |
|
|||
|
Some people's never satisfied
And though that's where they get their drive
Sometimes they don’t know what they got
Lookie here, lookie there
A bigger house, a bigger share
My friend, you are not a "have not"
And after all that you've collected
Will you be any more respected?
Be careful what you wish for
Be careful what you ask
Half the things you want
Gon' bite you in the ass
Every open window
Is not on the first floor
You'll never make it better
If you're only wanting more
The grass ain’t always greener
I think you get my meaning
Be careful what you wish for
You say you dream of a better life
A better car, a better wife
But you got everything a man could need
Don't ya know
Diminishing returns
Is something you will learn
Is something that is real, it's something you will feel, yes...
And after
You put this one last thing upon the pile
Will you be satisfied for even just a little while?
Chorus
Your heart has a hole inside of it
That cannot be filled up with any amount of shit
Chorus
|
||||
8. |
|
|||
|
Seems like I lifetime ago
I ever thought I'd get my due
I'd see distant opportunities
That never quite came through
Feels like my life is nearly over
And I could never make the leap
Weighed down by promises and obligations
That I had to keep
I wish that I could say
I wasn't envious of you
I'd tell you you got lucky
But you already know that's true
I've only managed one or two
Moments when I've shined
I never really got that far
But I've been doing it part-time
I've spent decades planning out each day
For peak efficiency
Hoping to find a few short moments
To use for things like these
But tomorrow becomes next week
Next month, and soon next year
And here I am still waiting
For those moments to appear
Sometimes, I wish that I could say
I gave it all I had
But I'd given so much more
Being a husband and a dad
Still, I lay awake in bed
And it is always on my mind
The dream's never not in my head
But I never have the time
If a tenth of my ideas
Had a fifth more time to grow
I'd have probably made twice the progress
Toward two-thirds of my goals
Yet I won't lament the 10 percent
I've partially actualized
With a quarter of your talent
And only half the time
The clock never stops ticking
And in each second we decide
Which direction we are headed
What we're doing with our time
|
||||
9. |
Grow Old and Die
03:43
|
|||
|
She don't love you like she should
She don't love you like she could
She don't love you like she always said she would
She don't need you anymore
She don't want you anyhow
She just wants what she wants and goddamn she wants it now
You spend every day
Tryin' to turn her on
But the lady just does
What the lady wants
She knows she got you
By a ssssssssssstring
You're like Pavlov’s dog
Did I hear a ding ding?
You toe the company line
You drink the company wine
You've got to trim the fat
You've got to streaaaaamline
You will not be celebrated
You are not appreciated
All the years that you have waited
Only got you violated
And so you do
What you can to hang on
While the boss man does
What the boss man wants
He can't empathize
He'll never know your pain
And when the sun come up tomorrow
You know he'll do it again
Until you grow old and then you die
Until you grow old and then you die
There ain't no point in dreams kids
This is all we have, this all there is
Until you grow old and then you die
Trying to get a handle
Trying to get ahead
One step and then they take you
Out to the woodshed
Give a penny, take a penny
Take a penny, take a dollar
Take a dollar, take it all
Until you got JACK SHIT
You climb that hill
You try to move things along
But the government does
What the government wants
They live their lives
To fill their cups
And when the sun comes up tomorrow
Why should you even get up?
Until you grow old and then you die
Until you grow old and then you die
There ain't no point in dreams kids
This is all we have, this all there is
Until you grow old and then you die
|
||||
10. |
Death Song
03:17
|
|||
|
My sister got a raw deal
Knocked up by a horse's ass
It was a bad situation
And despite what you heard
All things do not pass
Wish I could tell you he drank too much
Wish I could say he lost control
But that ain't the truth
That's just how he was
From his skin straight down to his soul
But, you know, I'm a man of reason
Of books and intellect
And at times academics fall short
And you still must protect
The things you protect
So one day late last September
I went to check on Caroline
She kept her head low
So that I wouldn't see
The black and blue of her eyes
From that moment, my memory is hazy
But one thing's always been clear
There's no measure so drastic
I wouldn't enact it
For the safety of those I hold dear
And it's a
Complicated existence
It's a hell of dance
Trying to forget
The haunting vignette
Of another man's life in your hands
Judge if you must. I have made peace.
And I think my sister has too
I've always been the one
Who could get the job done
That nobody wanted to do
And it's a
Complicated existence
It's a hell of dance
Trying to forget
The haunting vignette
Of another man's life in your hands
We all have our burden to carry
We all have our crosses to bear
Sooner or later we're all at that crossroads
I wish you the best
When you find yourself there
|
||||
11. |
||||
|
Wouldn't things be easier
If we told each other what we want to hear
Don't you think that maybe
We might be better off that way
No more senseless acts of retribution
Ringing in our ears
We got enough on our minds
Already keeping us awake, babe
Oooh babe let's just pretend
We've muddled through the mud before
We've wandered through the forest
We hit the valley
And we opened the champagne
We've bested every girl and boy
That took this on before us
But even if there is no
Yearly celebration of our names, babe
Oooh babe let's just pretend
Let's just pretend that we know what we're doing
Let's just pretend we got it all figured out
Let's just pretend somebody didn't cut the brake lines
Let's just pretend that we can still turn things around
We have to find a way to make this work
A way to work it out
We've so much history
Seems it deserves our full attention
And what about the children
How would they view us now
If we just buckle, fall apart
At the presence of a little tension, babe
Oooh babe let's just pretend
Let's just pretend that we don't see what stands before us
It's too late for us to stare our demons down
Let's just pretend. Strike up the harp and join the chorus
Let's just pretend everything will all workout
Oooh babe
Oooh babe
Let’s just pretend
|
||||
Chris Ferguson California
If you like Chris Ferguson, you may also like:
Nippon Acid Folk 1970-1980
by Time Capsule
The experimental spirit permeating this collection of Japanese acid folk foreshadowed the arrivals of city pop, the psych revival, and folktronica.
go to album
Would the Light Hold Me
by Oceanique
Celtic-inspired instrumentation, delicate harmonies, and reflective lyrics abound on the sisterly indie-folk duo's debut album.
go to album
Introspective pop songs with transcendent melodies offer a joyful meditation on staying present in a world that often moves too fast.
go to album
Beautifully played and full of moving vocal performances, the Bay Area singer/songwriter's latest is a stellar work of art.
go to album
Feel The Ground You Walk Upon
by Lewis McLaughlin
Old-fashioned fiddles harmonize with rippling synths on the Scottish singer-songwriter's latest collection of original folk songs.
go to album
A new record from Danish outfit SUNDAYS is replete with melodic hooks and punchy vocals.
go to album
Phototherapy EP
by Fahim Rahman
A collection of twinkling bedroom folk-pop demos from Fahim Rahman that arcs from hushed intimacy to sweeping cinematic emotionality.
go to album
