1. |
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Westward wagons lighting out
In wretched caravans
Peopled by the wolfish shapes
Of all the pious hooligans
That bleeding sun retreating
In its cowardly recant
A posse there pursuing it
With rifles in their hands
Cadavers seen of man and beast
Reeking putrid in the sand
Their shadows reaching eastward
To a black, bony expanse
What cruelty competes on western seas
Eclipse the scorching on the damned?
The good lord weeps, satan retreats
From the vandal hands of man
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2. |
Wounded Knee
03:10
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I remember last december
when the rain came in sheets
i gimped on my bum leg
all the way to Wounded Knee
I went to school up in Missoula
got a four-year degree
I majored in irrigation
but I spilt all my seeds
Met a mestizo mosquito
named Robert E. Lee
He sipped off my wounds
then he flew off to calgary
O Medusa, o medusa
won't you spare me your eyes
I simply must see my baby
and I can't yet be paralyzed
I remember last december
when the rain came in sheets
i gimped on my bum leg
all the way to Wounded Knee
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3. |
Hornet's Nest
03:32
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In front of god and everyone
I'd hand to you my heart
It's full of tar and bacon fat
And witches' wicked warts
I'm looking so much older now
With whites and grays and tufts
In photographs I'm a crumpling tower
Like Hemingway in love
In the future I'm the one that
got away or that you dumped
In the present I'm a highway bridge
Just beggin you to jump
Lovin you
Is just like cardiac arrest
Losin you
Made my heart a hornet's nest
Invisible the forces that are
Keeping me from you
The hand of god almighty
Or conspiracy of jews
It's hard to say the type of love
Exactly we were in
Playin "Operation"
With a scalpel made of skin
Write it on my headstone,
All the bonehead things I've done
The dumbest thing I ever did
Is lose my only one
Lovin you
Is just like cardiac arrest
Losin you
Made my heart a hornet's nest
In love with you in ways that
Drunken novelists can say
Slurring speech a secret tongue
That eternity replays
I'm headed to the jailhouse
Or The street or loony bin
I'll save an empty spot
In whatever ragged bed I'm in
If there's a grave for me
I'd hope that yours would be so near
So I could warm your bones
when we escape this mortal theater
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4. |
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Throwin rocks on a sunday evening
when the moon strides out to shine
a hunger does strike us common folk
like the devil just turned devine
now the glow off the lunar sphere
shined off her diamond ring
an the hens did chide when the body came near
and we all just started to sing
because it's fried people
it's finger-lickin good
It's fried people
I would, I could and I should
there rode a ham beast
by the name of Rhoda Lynnwood
she fought very hard for her feast
cause it's the fightin that makes it so good
because it's fried people
it's finger-lickin good
It's fried people
I would, I could and I should
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5. |
Hungry Horse
04:27
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Somebody
was killed by bees
and he was carried down the creek
among the frogs
the grass grows long
flowers growing between his teeth
far far away
there's a boy down a wall
he screams and he yells
til the night turns to day
but no one hears him
cold and alone
caught a glipse of the moon
colored by bones
begging please take me home
a dollar short
a hungry horse
went wandering through the snow
and as he died
the northern lights
all the mysteries there were shown
far far away
there's a boy down a wall
he screams and he yells
til the night turns to day
but no one hears him
cold and alone
caught a glipse of the moon
colored by bones
begging please take me home
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6. |
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Johnny never came marching home
O Johnny never came marching home
he lost his mind in vietnam, invested in a cardboard box
but Johnny never came marching home
She never could remove those cowboy boots
she never could remove those cowboy boots
she was fucked among the livestock with the dogs and chickens watching
but she never could remove those cowboy boots
Wind's howling and the rain begins to pour
a fever came and broke a hundred four
hitchhiking with a busted thumb, a one-man wide-eyed conversation
but Johnny never came marching home
She stole a truck in Jasper, Tennessee
the needle on the gas-guage crept to "E"
white-knuckled at the filling station, on her knees for compensation
with stitching coming off those cowboy boots
Johnny lost a finger in a fight
he was blinded by a blast of police lights
he was beaten, maced, and bit by dogs, his finger left in a cigarette box
but Johnny never came marching home
her body was recovered from a stream
no one could confirm her identity
her face had sloughed off in the crick, her torso slit up to the neck
all they knew, she wore those cowboy boots
Johnny got a dixie cup of pills
he paced the painted corridors until
the walls turns into jungle swamps, surrounded by the Viet Cong
and johnny never came marching home
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7. |
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8. |
Come to the Window
02:34
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Come to the window
Hear how the wind blows
Rain, sleet and thunder
Sways the flowers sleeping in their beds
Meek and so peaceful
It's warm 'neath the steeple
Stained glass depicts all
The dreams of yesteryear that came to be
So sleep sweet my darling
I shan't be parting
All through the night time
I'll be here to drift you through a dream
Come to the window
Hear how the wind blows
Rain, sleet and thunder
Sways the flowers sleeping in their beds
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9. |
Bad, Bad Boy
03:50
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I been a bad, bad boy
I been in shackles and chains
A few times I went crazy
Straight out of Scorsese
Put all my bridges up in flames
I been a bad, bad boy
I been drinkin on the job
My mouth was all lispy
Stinkin like whiskey
Thumbin my nose at the law
Someday I’ll get my act together
My relations with low-lives I shall sever
Til then, discord I’m gonna sew
Confess my sins before I croak
I been a bad, bad boy
Heartbroken lovers in my wake
Sweet nothin’s I whispered
I slept with your sister
I got warrants in every state
I been a bad, bad boy
I got some bloodstains on my teeth
Killed a bus fulla nuns
On a hit and run
Helluva story for ol st pete
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10. |
Those Days
03:16
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One day we went driving
cross the US of A
road sodas in coozies
I remember those days
I had 500 dollars
no debt to my name
starin out past the ocean
hopin you felt the same
I was 40 pounds lighter
just starting to gray
my face hurt from laughing
I remember those days
17 miles a gallon
a single suitcase
knockin boots in the guest room
in our secretive ways
singin bad karaoke
singin happy birthday
slow dancin in silence
i remember those days
i can't keep from smiling
when i remember those days
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11. |
Montgomery
01:16
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12. |
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Standin in the tall grass in a dead man’s pair of pants
Boots above the coffins where the cedars once did stan d
Clay burnt to dust
Tools lost to rust
Black clouds in the sky
Like an ink stain spreadin wide
Sunday morning paper where they spelt his last name wrong
Survived by bums and bachelors drivin drunk and gettin caught
Shivering with pain
Like livestock in the rain
Estate lost to drink
Boats born to sink
Upon his cooling death bed, there my momma laid and wept
Inside that broken heart a thousand secrets there were kept
Richer turned to poor
Dogshit on the floor
He bent her to his will
Like a twenty dollar bill
The chaplain’s name was Charlie and the humor wasn’t lost
Jokin with a man of God bout the real estate he’d plot
Bibles at Goodwill
The fathers Jesus kills
Bibles at Goodwill
The fathers Jesus kills
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13. |
Candy Store Foreclosure
04:36
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the candy store is goin outta business
and so's the toothbrush factory and all the dentists
now the children are all lickin the machines
and the workers goin home say ain't it sweet
they boarded up the windows at the church
they sold the crucifix for what it's worth
now the shadows goin down upon the priests
sayin finally o lord some privacy
so welcome to the bottom of the well
there's bones of those before you who have fell
you better duck for cover down the pit
throwin pennies down every time they make a wish
every time I walk into the room
the trumpet band starts playing the blues
and every time I pick me up a shovel
I dig a hole and then I dig another
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14. |
Epilogue
01:58
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Tim Mechling Washington
Tim Mechling is a Washington-based psych-folk/rock artist. He's been home recording and producing commercially unviable music since 2006.
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