1. |
U Do U
03:54
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Well, hell I started out as somebody else
Bulldozed by some bygone dreams and left with just myself
From college onto Carharts to hardly even getting on base
I said, hey I know how to fix this, I’ll take it out on some interstate
As another Gibson-flashing upstart, tinged in some vintage style
Seeding wind from Memphis clear on to the Ego Islands
Till I met the downside upside my head
By the igloo’d hand of an Indiana HVAC man
Well he wopp’d me once across the jaw, he said I said something weird
I don’t recall what it was but I couldn’t shave my beard
For nearly 9 weeks after that, the scar tissue’s still there
He said you better get started thinkin' son or that’s gonna be happening everywhere
How long since you loved somebody?
How long since you loved somebody?
How long since you loved somebody, a little more than U DO U?
Well I fished for premonition off the docks of waking time
A little injured and engendered by some addled battle cry
Belonging to a long-gone buncha hunches of the mind
So aweigh I yanked the anchor, see what else that I could find
Casting nets, deep in debt, down some past forgotten hall
Where the only Chick-Fil-A back in the day was in the mall
Where even where you crash and burn nobody’s there to hear you call
And the only eyes in my own was just my mirror on the wall
How long since you loved somebody?
Love somebody
Love somebody
A little more than U DO U
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2. |
Pistol in the Pillow
03:20
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I been feeling a little anxious as any sane man may
Ripping through these liquid-modern kinda nights and days
Sweatin’ in the Food Lion line and locking every lock up twice
So certainly uncertain that I sought out a little advice
I said, Hello Nurse…is the doctor about?
Not to be terse but I bout flipped out
Sure, I’ll hold, I’ve been holding as long as I can
If you can’t help me, can you tell me who can?
Doctor said, “The way I see you got about two options,
Now the church might say there’s more
But we can set you some appointments up, put that duress to the test galore
Bout one week and waist-size later, anesthetized, in bed by 9
I got a call up from the clinic, they said it turns out that you’re fine
It’s a pistol in the pillow or a pill for in the head
I know the world is cold but you’re too old
To bellyache and make em hold your hand
Keep your liver off that liquor
And the shiver off your bed
It’s a pistol in the pillow or a pill for in the head
I had a little lunch with Hank and Eddy, a little tuna fish and wine
I was listing off my symptoms that’s when Hank said,
“That’s the same as mine”
Well we swapped tales of our ailments and swallers of that wine
Made ourselves a plan, man, to take what we can in time
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3. |
Green, Green Sky
03:48
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Well Lollie cussed up his mama when she said “you can’t move to France”
He went ahead and got mean on a vending machine but he still got them M&Ms
So he traipsed it on down to New Orleans and boxed a big boy in the jaw High-stepped out and outran the crowd and got to bragging down at the bar Green, Green sky this time your trouble is a half-mile wide
Green, Green sky hold your breath and it might blow by
Now he’s a double-clutching weasel a-grinding up all his gears on the Lost Highway
With his wife at home a-pounding out the biscuits for the babies praying
Lord they make it one more day
But he moonlights wagging one finger, gripping his pistol with the other four
Saying “Lady throw the bag down, whatchu doing downtown, ain’t you never seen a movie before?”
Green, Green sky this time your trouble is a half-mile wide
Green, Green sky hold your breath and it might blow by
C’est la vie he made his run for mayor, that little town down the river
Where nobody sees what you get for free or whose hands are feeling down in your jeans
Got his cabinet cocking buck-shot, keep your bead on your enemy
But the tit-for-tat teaspoon’s stirring round the night moon, naw that ain’t no summer breeze
I heard he got himself a new girl, wrapping up the whole world around the high heel of her shoe But the gravy in the gravity is gonna have a field day cashing in the Golden Rule
If you can’t get your way, hey babe what’s the use, blow your fuse and you can take control
Go on ahead and send a rocket through the mailroom, man, you just ask forgiveness in the hole
Green, Green sky this time your trouble is a half-mile wide
Green, Green sky hold your breath and it might blow by
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4. |
Wrong Turn to Tupelo
03:53
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I was heading down to Alabama to see a friend
I was thinkin’ bout all that was and not all that is
I was making pretty good time
Thought I’d stop and cop a cup of joe
When I saw the roadside sign saying welcome to Tupelo
I hit a little bump of speed and hit a speed bump on the Trace They only let you run 55 inside that place
Where the long, clear tail of a golden mare whips sunlight side to side Red-tail hawk squawking high atop a yellow pine
Came up on a spot where a hundred trees were down
A storm came through, I heard em talking bout that in town
About a daddy battening down the hatches but the Natchez hatched another plan
Death, oh death, why can you tell it better than I can
I saw the burying grounds of an early tribe of rambling man
Now that’s the kind of freedom I don’t guess I’ll ever understand Everybody around here knows a lady with that native look to her eye Every time she sees you, man she leaves you something good behind
I pulled off for a spot of 87 down around Cherokee
An old man buying noon booze took a long look at me
I kicked a kid sock by the dumpster, the Norfolk Southern sang a baritone German Shepherd running like water down an access road
I took a left on Alabama and all the rest were right
I pulled my hair flat-back in the mirror till it looked alright
I opened up the front door, he said, “You’re a little bit late, ya know,”
I said I know well I took a wrong turn down to Tupelo
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5. |
The Limit
04:37
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I been living in the limit so long
If I had a rod I couldn’t bait it and I probably couldn’t even crank a chainsaw
You know, I saw some old buzzard and I thought it was a red-tail hawk Been living in the limit too long
I set my headin’s on hacking up the heavens in the Air Force
But my dream got shattered when I shattered my shoulder on the ball court
I put up a picket fence and ever since I did something’s felt wrong
I been living in the limit too long
I been living in the limit too long
I been living in the limit so long
Saw an old buzzard and I thought it was a red-tailed hawk
I been living in the limit too long
Oh all that I been given living in the little limit this long
Is just a 6-pack a day, pay the state to haul my garbage off Little street-lamps clicking, every single little starlight gone
Feel like I’m sinning living in the limit this long
I been up on the down train, down on the upside too
Short on my long-gaze, deep into my data-use
So long since i heard the clopping on the road of an old horseshoe
My time to leave my living in the limit’s long overdue
If everybody takes an acre when they’re taking up a few square feet Man, they’ll cram you all together till the roads are called a city street
Readin’ the Bha-ga-vad Gita, eatin’ Abita by the 12 oz. can
I been living in the limit longer than I oughta been
Might just up and move where Uber in a million years would never go Where the oak tree sheds and Black & Decker machines don’t blow em
In the shade by the river, every little glint mine alone
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6. |
Long, Cool Finger
03:39
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Longmire smoking at the edge of the street, rolling up his flag and drawin’ that hard bead on me
Like “Go get a job, kid you’re whittlin’ it all away,
I don’t even see the reason you’re breathin’ anyway”
I said I don’t believe you met my lady, she’s workin today
I’m just a part-time painter but I clean up the place
Ever since last winter when the work ran out
She’s been steady shaking, making uncle Sammy so proud
To have a good busy woman in these trying times
Like you stumble on a quarter when you’re looking for a dime
She likes her low-cal soda, a little bit shook
Takes her morning devotion in her coupon book
My daddy built some houses down around Tennessee
But it didn’t take me long to learn that wasn’t for me
With all these good, busy women all over this land
All you 16 pennies stay outta my hand
Ooh Ooh Ooh Mona Lisa she’s on your heels
With them long, cool fingers on that church bus wheel
I’m rehearsing my sonatas, I don’t go to work
To keep my head above the water since I moved in with her
I’m reciting all my sonnets
All night into the morning
While she hustle, bustle, cuss me if I toot my own horn
Ooh Mona Lisa she’s on your heels
With them long, cool fingers on that church bus wheel
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7. |
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I don't like the way you talk with other men
Or when you walk by other guys in restaurant lines
Anymore it seems to me that we can't even disagree Without fighting and inciting signs of World War III
You say I don’t hear you when you speak
Until you’re in the bathroom weeping
And even then I’m still trying to get even
Maybe I've been livin’ all my life being scared of all that I can’t do...
But if we hold what we got I believe we might find a little breakthrough
We’re like two strangers on the street
Whose eyes are near and never meet
I’m not saying I was right
I’m not saying I was right
I’m not saying I was right
To get jealous on your Instagram
The other night, got all jealous again
And then I took it out on you
Like you wasn’t even my friend
We don’t spill our guts to us
But to him who we call therapist
He probably tells his wife at night that we’re both a couple of nuts
Cause I don’t like to fight...
And you don’t like to fight...
But we fight every night…
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8. |
She's Seeing Somebody
04:32
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Everybody’s telling me what I don’t want to hear
Everywhere I go someone whispers in my ear
Even them that ain’t around, it’s like they set some message on the air She’s seeing somebody
Well you’d think I knew a million folks by the way they all brought me the news
Yeah I know he’s rich and handsome and he’s good with the kids, I get the paper too While I’m laid up in these neon lights, bridled by these idle afternoons
She’s seeing somebody
Well the kids are whizzing by on bikes and by and by I’m trying to make it through If I can keep my mind from drifting in the past and too far forward too
These changes going in and out of life, might be I been overdue
She’s seeing somebody
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9. |
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Near the corner of Route 1 and Nakimi Avenue
A woman and her little dog dance around the living room
But not because they put up that Gap right in beside the Five Guys
But a 7-minute drive to Van Dyne and they can be kite-high
At the Super Marijuana Wal-Mart
The town hall meeting was heated but the motion passed
Then out come the picket signs said Keep off the grass!
Well, we hearken to the jargon of the market every chance we can
But how could we imagine that we’d be the first to get
A Super Marijuana Wal-Mart
Of the insidious cities you could've asked
You just wanna pick on little guys again
And then the manager manned the mic with pride and he said:
Hello folks my name is Hal and here’s just some of the deals that we have
The best pot pie for miles around and almond butter utterly a Xanax tab
Lashes, sashes, succotash and ashtrays the shape of Johnny Cash
Hammocks of hemp, all hemmed and hewn by exotic hands and bristle brooms
And oils and foils and a leash for your dog, backpacks and paper for school in the fall
Drops and pops and beauty creams for face and all the in-betweens
Candles and sandals and sprays for stings, sheets for a California King
And low-sweat socks and shocks for cars, and buddy if that don’t beat the tires
Just think, it all came from the ground and so long it’s just been sittin’ around Super-Marijuana Wal-Mart
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