1. |
Angel of the Octopus
03:18
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I’m walking in the shadows, shadow of a doubt. I can’t see the light but I’m wishing, hoping for the angel of an octopus to come and give my life what it’s missing. He’ll bring me flowers. We’ll talk for hours. And when he’s finished, I won’t be a coward, oh no. You hear the one about the girl who got lost ‘cuz she couldn’t take it much longer? They broke her up, they broke her down but in the end it only just made her stronger. Poor Tristan! No, she barely missed him. She just dismissed him ‘cuz that’s her system, oh yeah. You hear the one about the girl who got lost ‘cuz she couldn’t take it much longer? She flew away upon the wings of an albatross because she knew she was stronger. Poor Tristan! She just dismissed him. She barely missed him ‘cuz that’s her system, oh yeah.
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2. |
As-Is
03:16
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The days’ demons surround you until you pour another drink. Quitting might be easy if you didn’t have to think. But now you wear your sorrows just like they’re new tattoos, trying to kill the hours without the hours killing you. But no one’s gonna catch you when you fall off the ridge where you hide from all the people in that city where you live. You’ll eventually get stuck there, too afraid to cross the bridge. And no one’s gonna help you if you cannot accept yourself as-is. Now you walk the city, knowing you’ll never get it right. Looking for someone to tie you up in knots tonight ‘cuz you haven’t felt this empty since only god knows when, wondering how on earth you ever botched things up again. But no one’s gonna catch you when you fall off the ridge where you hide from all the people in that city where you live. You’ll eventually get stuck there, too afraid to cross the bridge. And no one’s gonna help you if you cannot accept yourself as-is. It’s no wonder you don’t even bother when you’re burning up and scared of water. We know nobody taught you how but, kid, you got teeth so use them now. ‘Cuz no one’s gonna catch you when you fall off the ridge where you hide from all the people in that city where you live. You’ll eventually get stuck there, too afraid to cross the bridge. And no one’s gonna help you if you cannot accept yourself as-is. And I cannot accept myself as-is. No I’ll never accept myself as-is. I can never accept myself as-is.
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3. |
Bad Blood
03:19
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Your anger is a gift so don’t let me take that away. Please, please don’t make me stop. Let me say what I wanted to say. I know, I know that you think I’m an angel of sweetness and light. You asked if I would have been mad and I think I that I probably might be. You took my hand. I took command and led you out into the woods and pushed you down and threw you out, out to the wolves who bit you and spat out your bad, bad blood, bad blood. So don’t be so fiendishly good! Your anger is a test to see what we both can sustain. Please, please let it all out. I’d prefer if you wouldn’t abstain. I know, I know that you say I’m an angel of sweetness and light. You asked if I would have been mad and I think that I probably might be. You took my hand. I took command and led you out into the caves and pushed you down and threw you out, to the vampire bats, who bit you and drank all your bad, bad blood, bad blood. So don’t be so fiendishly good! You took my hand. I took command and led you out into the caves and pushed you down and threw you out, to the vampire bats, who bit you and spat out your bad, bad blood, bad blood. So don’t be so fiendishly good!
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4. |
Highway 101
02:47
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Don’t ask her where she came from; you’ll see that subject’s getting pretty sore. He said he’d always love her then he didn’t want to see her anymore. She used to be a suffragette, the crown jewel of the San Francisco bay and now she’s just the saddest lonely sucker that the maker ever made, ever made, ever made, they’re estranged. This is not a love song and this is not a hymn. I never thought I’d write one in the state my mind was in. Walking to the station, she told herself there’s nothing she would miss. I don’t know how he did it but Eisenhower built these roads for this! She can’t remember why she went there. In retrospect, she thought it might be fun to be a wayward Greyhound passenger, hiding out on Highway 101, 101, 101, 101. This is not a love song and this is not a hymn. I never thought I’d write one in the state that I was in. 101, 101, 101. This is not a love song and this is not a hymn. I never thought I’d write one in the state of Oregon. 101, 101, 101, 101, 101,101, 101, 101, 1-0.
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5. |
King of Cowards
02:47
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Can you tell me where that old train station is? ‘Cuz I went there with a friend one time and he taught me how to burn a bridge. Just like an actor in a role he couldn’t play, said “I’m running out of ways my friend to sit around and piss away the days.” And that’s alright. The King of Cowards always leaves the scene before he ever gets things right. And that’s okay. The King of Cowards never makes things right because he always walks away. Ever been confronted by a name you couldn’t place? We passed each other on the street and he couldn’t recognize my face. Saw him later in a bar but there was not much to say, our visions much too clouded up by Johnny Walker Red and Tanqueray. And that’s alright. The King of Cowards always leaves the scene before he ever gets things right. And that’s okay. The King of Cowards never makes things right because he always walks away. Last time you saw me, well, I still had the blues but now I’m just a zodiac of crooked cues and twisted shoes and I still wonder ‘bout the luck that couldn’t been if I hadn’t left you standing there, just wondering if we’d ever meet again. And that’s alright. The King of Cowards always leaves the scene before she ever gets shit right. And that’s okay. The King of Cowards never makes things right because she always walks away. And that’s alright.
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6. |
Modern Major General
03:36
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Sick, sad city I call my own: housing tracts and parking lots trapped under a geodesic dome and I know what tomorrow brings, another day of gritted teeth, no wonder that the swallows leave in spring. I know a secret about you, it came to me within a dream but don’t pretend that doesn’t make it true. Past cause of a future fall, you keep your soldiers in a row you modern major general. But I know you try to do the best you can and I know you try to be an honest man. Your trial came down to the wire. The judges called the court adjourned the minute that the jury’d gotten tired. You’re not hard to figure out, you told me your alibi, forgive me for my reasonable doubt. I know a secret about you but I kept it to myself, covered up like powder on a bruise. Past cause of a future fall. Wonder why I’m saying nothing, boy, you’re really onto something. But I know you try to do the best you can and I know you try to be an honest man. But please don’t make me talk about it ‘cuz when I do I start to doubt it. You keep your soldiers in a row you modern major general. But I know you try to do the best you can and I know you try to be an honest man and I know you tried to do the best you can and I know you tried to be an honest man.
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7. |
Moonlit Stumble
03:07
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8. |
Postcard From the Road
04:03
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Yesterday, I found myself back at that down-and-out nickel arcade. Marched myself out into the street because everybody loves a parade. Spend my days in coffee shops and I’m starting to feel like a jerk. This town could be a wonderland if I could only find any work, if I could only find any work. Someone’s gotta give us work, uh, oh. October spent in a rent-a-van ‘cuz we didn’t have nothing to do. We started out in Idaho and back to secret Santa Cruz. The night we played in Omaha nobody saw the show, at all but I think I fell back in love with life while watching Tilly and the Wall, Tilly and the Wall, Tilly and the Wall, uh, oh. I sat you down in a hotel bar. Said I was tired of “Spotting Ships.” I used to love these punk rock girls but now they’re always giving me lip. Yeah, they’re always giving me lip and I’m thinking of jumping ship, uh, oh. When I got back I realized that you can’t always get what you want. It was the night they turned the Blackbird into an Atkins restaurant. You remind me of someone famous but I can’t quite remember who and one days we could make it big if you could only find something to do, if you could only find something to do, you gotta find something to do, uh, oh. We ended up at a smokey bar at a quarter after ten. We said it all would be okay but I thought I’d never see you again. There’s something that’s been eating me and it feels like a heart attack. Now I’m a postcard from the road with a love letter on the back, with a love letter on the back and I gotta send it soon or I’ll crack, uh, oh.
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9. |
Second Skin
02:56
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You are a creature of the night. You’re a wounded soldier who has lost his fight. You are the student who learned too late and I think of you when I tempt my fate. Crimson and clover and over and over and under and over and through. Crimson and clover, red river, red rover the river that runs over you. But I got a second skin. One day, I will peel this off and when you see me I’ll look new again. Got a second wind. One day I will shed this off and then you’ll see I’ve got a second skin. The white cliffs of Dover, the green fields of clover, we’ll finally make it one day. So bring her on over. We’ll drive on the shoulder and then we can motor away. We’ll drive to a lake when we’re tired of faking and then we can go for a swim. And you’ll say you won’t make it I’ll tell you you’ll take it and if you can’t I’ll pull you in. ‘Cuz I got a second skin. One day I will peel this off and when you see me I’ll look new again. Got a second wind. One day I will peel this off and then you’ll see I’ve got a second skin. But you are the monkey on my back. Throw you over my shoulder like a hobo’s sack ‘cuz they build you up like a teenage dream, an invincible star of stage and screen. With god as my witness, I’ll never admit this ‘til I’ve had a cocktail or three but rejecting the turmoil for quiet and normal is not so appealing to me. Crimson and clover and over and over and under and over and through. Crimson and clover, red river, red rover. The flowers now grow over you.
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10. |
St. Viviana
02:52
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Please, St. Viviana. Don’t you walk away from me. I don’t wanna face today but I have to when you leave. Looking for an answer where I know I shouldn’t ask. Hiding disappointment at the bottom of a glass. But don’t let anyone tell me you’re the cure ‘cuz if they did I would think it’s true, I’m sure. But I just can’t make you mine. What a happy waste of time! Wasted all of the time. I don’t wanna hold you to the barrel of a gun. Wish I knew you better still I know how fast you’d run. They turn us out into the street at half past two a.m. but they’ll see us tomorrow night, when we end up here again. But don’t let anyone tell me you’re the cure ‘cuz if they did it would break me down I’m sure. ‘Cuz I just can’t make you mine. What a happy waste of time. Wasted all of the time. So, just forget that I ever said it. Take it back before I regret it. Don’t look back if you pass me on the street. ‘Cuz there’s a book and I never read it. Out of print before I could get it: “A Layman’s Guide to Standing on Two Feet.” And now I write the ending and it’s such a sorry scene, where I kiss the bottle with a lot more left for me and when I make the sequel, yeah, I know who I will cas, two pathetic strangers with no future and no past.
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11. |
Texas Rose
03:01
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“Texas Rose, what’s your game?” That’s what they say when they forget your name. You’re larger than the Alamo and when they laugh, breathe and and let it go. Hi-High and far away. Hi-high and run away. Hi-high and fast asleep. Ha ha, your love is cheap. High, high. Texas Rose, a shooting star. I saw you in the back of someone’s car. You kissed the boys and made them cry then you got home, sat down and wondered why. Hi-High and far away. Hi-high and run away. You’re hi-high and fast asleep. Ha ha, your love is cheap. High, high. Thought you had the answers to everything worked out. The only thing it got you was a head full of doubt and you can say you’re happy when you are far from home but you lie to yourself when you’re alone. Texas Rose, a shooting star. I saw you in the back of someone’s car. You kissed the boys and made them cry then you got home, you sat down and wondered why. Hi-High and far away. Hi-high and run away. You’re hi-high and fast asleep. Ha ha, your love is cheap. High, high. Texas Rose.
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12. |
The Glass Coffin
03:44
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Well, I traveled for miles just to get to this awful place, the dark, silver sea where I can finally see my face. Because in the dark it will become such a perfect world for midnight confessions from a foolish party girl. Vanishing for months on end, oh well, that’s no way to treat a friend. So, engrave my yellow crown to say that I’m the king of walking away, away, away. Well, I crossed a bridge and I decided to burn it then. You were like a dead twin I lost never to find again. But when I return, I’ll surely be in declining heath so save all your pity for a girl who destroyed herself. And let’s do the greatest dance around, where I say, “hello” and turn around to the slow dirge that I always find playing over and over in my mind, in my mind, my mind. Well, now let’s move in for the kill, that I’ll swallow like a bitter pill which will time release a brutal truth about the indiscreet mistakes of youth. And in my fever state of honesty, I’ll call the janitor of lunacy to take this crazy mess I’ve made and throw it in a shallow grave. And when I die, won’t you be sure that you bury me in a glass coffin by the banks of the silver sea? Then at the funeral you can hear the procession wail a terrible eulogy that’s a cautionary tale. A mind consumed by chasing dragons and a youth of falling off the wagon, they conceal the truth laid at my feet, the only thing I am is incomplete, incomplete, incomplete, incomplete, incomplete, incomplete.
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13. |
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Outside Cheyenne, we popped a tire. That’s when I set myself on fire. A little further up the road, she told me, “This is all you’ll ever get, older still and deeper in debt. This is all that ever pass, three days late and out of gas.” I shuffled slowly into town, ordered a drink to get the fire down, the diner waitress said to me, she told me, “Tell it to St. Christopher, patron saint of truck drivers, epileptic indie kids and world-weary travelers.” Say it isn’t true! Can’t be, I won’t live my life like you. And if that’s just the way it has to be, let them build a highway over me. I made my peace with Father Time and carried on my life of crime. And on my chair day, I’ll retire, saying, “This is all she ever wrote, halfway mad and halfway broke. This is all there was to see and this is all there was for me.” Say it isn’t so. If it is I wouldn’t wanna know. And if that’s just the way it has to be, let them name this highway after me.
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14. |
Wade into the Water
02:38
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As I sit in this old house and slowly drink myself to death, I’m picking up the pieces of a life. Is that I have left? On the night that I moved in, I met an old man at the door. He said, “Baby, I have got a gun so what do you need money for. What do you need sanity for?” I’m sitting in the attic on an endless string of lonely nights and all I have for company is a friendly group of poltergeists. So, come upstairs. We’ll share a drink and you say you’ll always be a friend but I’ve made that mistake before and I’ll never trust those words again. I’ll never trust a man again. Until I, wade into the water, wade into the water where I’ll drown. Wade into the water. Wade into the water where I found there’s something missing and it’s never coming back and there’s just no point in chasing it as I watch it slowly slipping through the cracks. Every day when I wake up it’s just an hour after dawn and, as I’m bussing tables, I just let my mind escape in song. Looking for the meaning in the old folk singer’s somber tune about a girl who had it all and watched it slip away so soon and tumbled like a rolling stone. Until she’d, wade into the water, wade into the water where she’d drown. Wade into the water. Wade into the water where she found there’s something missing and it’s never coming back and there’s just no sense in chasing it as she watched it slowly slipping through the cracks. And I find there’s something missing and it’s never coming back and there’s just no point in chasing it as we watch it slowly slipping through the cracks.
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15. |
Wolf in Sheep's Clothing
02:33
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It’s the dullest story ever told, repeated since 16 years old. I let him take me for a ride and heard about a girl he lied to. “It’s okay ‘cuz she’ll never find out and it’s been fun but now I’m out.” It matter that it makes me sick to be a weapon in this dirty trick? “And you can always trust me,” said the sheepdog as he spoke onto the hen. But, Charlie, did you see my face when I told you you had done it once again? You should see it if you ever can, the dark side of an honest man. He doesn’t show it socially but he’ll make a big exception for me, “It’s okay ‘cuz she’ll never find out.” Well, of course she won’t ‘cuz you’ve worn me out. You’ve worn me out and you’ve broken me down and I just can’t wait ‘til she moves to town. Your face shows no expression but I’d like to think this haunts you when you sleep and you may think that I’m a loser but she’s the one who’s marrying a creep. “And you can always trust me,” said the wolf as he smiled with shining teeth. And you may think that I’m a fool but she’s the one that thinks that you’re s sheep.
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Pleasure Holiday Tacoma, Washington
Julia Fernández is a proudly obscure musician creating earworms for over 25 years. Known for catchy hooks and lyrical enjambment, her songwriting might be the bastard child of outsider music and that top 40 hit you can’t stop humming.
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