1. |
Rancho Cristo
03:50
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Where the sprawl meets the suburbs
Subdivisions meet the farms
Build a hacienda
In the style of Escobar
In the business early
Moving bales from Mexico
Medellin eventually
Pack figurines with blow
Launder in the Caymans
Through Geneva, Panama
Retire after scrapes with death
His partners and the law
Late night TV preacher
Revelation touches him
Reject the past
Retain the cash
The sinner’s born again
RANCHO CRISTO
SILOS HIGH
CHAPTER, VERSES
PAINTED ON THE SIDE
RANCHO CRISTO
STABLES , POOLS
REVERENT REVEREND
DIVINE TOOL
Call the flock to worship every
Sunday in the barn
Build a congregation as
Donations fill the jar
Land across the highway
Start construction day and night
Less a church, more a city
Touchdown Jesus
Neon lights
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2. |
Wrecking Ball
03:49
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So your high school smile has fallen
Down below your knees
Coke lines you did don’t
have much significance
HEY MRS GALANTRO DID THEY
TREAT YOU LIKE A MYSTERY GIRL
ALL YOUR DIAMONDS AND PEARLS
IN YOUR TRAILER PARK WORLD
I CAN SEE THE WRECKING BALL
Spinning lightly to confuse
Now there’s nothing left to use
Except your
Tired, weathered hands
Jan Vincent’s on the tube
Longball and retro glow
And the canyon facial cream
Is running down in the extreme
HEY MRS GALANTRO DID THEY
TREAT YOU LIKE A
MYSTERY GIRL
ALL YOUR DIAMONDS AND PEARLS
IN YOUR PAPERBACK WORLD
I CAN SEE THE WRECKING BALL
Spinning lightly to confuse
Now there’s nothing left
to use
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3. |
Long Arm
03:09
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Should have thought it through
Before they left it up to you
Last best hope
retrograde reality
Shanghai commandeer
Exploit anger and our fear
Pretext of convenience
Self-ordained divinity
EXTEND THE LONG ARM
OF THE LAW
CAN’T REACH AS FAR AS WE WOULD FALL
WRITING’S ON THE WALL
Rile up the rabble with more
patriotic prattle
Platform any indecency
Vilify objection for the
sake of our protection
Shout down dissension to
ensure democracy
EXTEND THE LONG ARM OF THE LAW
CAN’T REACH AS FAR AS WE WOULD FALL
GUNBOAT CONVERSE DIPLOMACY
AND IT ALL SEEMED LIKE A BAD DREAM
Should have thought it through
Before they left it up to you
Last gasp for morality
|
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4. |
Disgruntled
03:36
|
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For the second time, in as many days
light shone
Through the walls of my place
They’re beaming rays
They control me
through the phone
So I step to the window
In Sheepskin chaps
a beard of bees
Guns drawn
And a bone to pick with you
NEVER WAS ONE TO GO
OVERLOOKED, UNSEEN
THEY’LL FIND A LETTER IN MY POCKET
EXPLAINING EVERYTHING
For the seventh time in as many hours
I drove
Round the place where you work
Counting beans
and deciding who stays on
Then I burst through the doorway
with hair ablaze
and a live hand grenade
And a bone to pick with you.
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5. |
Smiley
03:46
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Smiley’s got a scar
From his earlobe to his lip
Recalls exactly how he slipped
But Eleanor likes it
Makes him look so tough
Lucky for her you know
It always gets her off
HE LIKES IT ROUGH
SMILEY
And he’s got a stump
Where a finger used to be
Working the press too carelessly
But, she doesn’t mind it
Says he’s man enough for her
Lucky for both, you know
They know what gets them off
SHE LIKES IT ROUGH
SMILEY
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6. |
Very Necessary
02:58
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It’s come and you’re gone
Final machinations of an
overhaul
And it breaks
our hearts
A utopia these years and now it
falls apart
YOU’RE SO VERY
NECESSARY
NOW
It’s here
the worst
Amid your speculations on
who exits first
And who
could believe
You would be the ones to leave
the rest aggrieved
All the while—the while you run—to leave
You rationalize
Some pastoral existence on the
Other side
And we’ll hope the best
But we both know some things never get confessed
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7. |
Marathon
03:12
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He always felt a little awkward asking
to check the oil
A little meek about his price
Plug a tire for you
A Dodge Dart pulls in around lunchtime on a
Sunday afternoon
He nods, hey how you doing
And what can I do for you?
THEN HIS OWN VOICE
ANSWERS BACK
FILL IT UP, IF YOU PLEASE
HEY—SON OF A BITCH
ARE YOU MAKING FUN OF ME?
It’s harelip versus harelip
Down at the Marathon
He’d wipe his wounds and wonder
If he had judged him wrong
|
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8. |
Real America
03:30
|
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Radio Caller will
show the host
He’s learned the most
A loyal devotee
He doesn’t falter
each word echoes
Prior shows
in faithful mimicry
DERIDE
CONTRIVE
THIS
REAL AMERICA
Radio pundit
so smugly boasts
he’s coast to coast
brand enlightening
He only does it
so public knows
They’re in the throes
of such vast conspiracies
DERIDE
CONTRIVE
DIVIDE
THIS
REAL AMERICA
Radio caller wants
the host to know
They’re simpatico
Patriotically
|
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9. |
Steamship Moselle
03:55
|
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The latest modern marvel
Conveyed by fire—steam
Swiftest new example
Makes port in Queen City
Eager Captain crowing
Come about— turn upstream
Call more black coal for stoking
Boiler swollen at the seam
Retiring to his stateroom
Commotion beckons to the deck
Stroll topside witness landfall
Well-worn bible at his breast
Port of Cincinnati
Stands starboard in repose
Reverend offers blessings as
Colossal boiler blows
GOD BLESS THIS SHIP
LAST WORDS TO LEAVE HIS MOUTH
MOSELLE EXPLODES
ELIJAH NORTH GOES FORTH
VAULTED, CATAPULTED, DUE SOUTH
Among the decking, planks, debris
strewn over Southbank sand
Remains discovered
Unscathed bible in his hand
|
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10. |
Little Carmel
03:08
|
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Try to trace the roots along
Melungeon family tree
Each branch divides in triad
Settler, slave, Cherokee
Outcast, exiled miles behind
Some seaside colony
Legend holds in manifold
Dash Turk or Portuguese
LITTLE ENGLISH LITTLE DUTCH
LITTLE COLORED – JUST A TOUCH
LITTLE GIBSON – LITTLE GOINS
LITTLE CARMEL IN THE LOINS
Carmel, as scripture tells
Or confections, just misspelled
The name belies implicit lines
Lines of ancestry
An encampment still, just as before
One flashing light- Old general store
They say the Musics up and left
Left and gone away
WASHBURNS MOUNTAIN
ROCKY FORK CREEK
LAND PROVIDING
BOUNTIFULLY
HOMESTEAD HERE TO
LIVE IN PEACE
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11. |
Glow
04:33
|
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Gig was academy’s formal
Introductions made
Eyes drawn, like moth to candle
If he may be clichéd
THE FIRST TIME EVER SAW HER
KNEW LIKE HE’D NEVER KNOWN
FIRST TIME HE EVER SAW HER
HE WOULD SAY SHE GLOWS
Come fall , awaited orbit
Gel now underway
Strikes then he could grow to adore
On come the accolades
Eclipse, Dark star obscures
Momentary fade to grey
In time all would emerge
Enhanced by those
Beautiful babies
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