1. |
Seasick
01:45
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a seaman on cocaine’s
got names and trains
and fairy tales to tell
the fin of a blue whale
is no less fragile than candy cane
(it is my warship --- )
~
babe I’m seasick
don’t you come on home with me
sweetheart I’m seasick
come on home with me
~
baby swing me
like a dinghy
on the open sea
do you like swimming
or do you like going down the drain
(you sure are a cherry pick --- )
your dead weight
is what keeps
our boat afloat
we are shipwrecked
stranded and we’ll go under
(long before we sink --- )
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2. |
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I know a magic trick, do you know one too?
I was seventeen, how old were you?
I give in a lot, do you think this will do?
could we please all fall in love?
kept losing my face as my beard started growing
you’d make a mean wife and god bless you don’t love me
how many more cherries and how fucking old are we?
could we please all fall in love?
tell me stories of losers
no glory no ink
it’s true you don’t know me
but you can talk my eyes pink
a real punk’s only scared of whiners and wimps
you ripped out my lashes, hi-jacked our luck
I keep getting lost as I keep my head up
could we please all fall in love?
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3. |
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rig it bell boy!
(as long as the ship is cracking)
dig it bell boy!
(as long as it’s cracking it holds)
ring it loud bell boy!
(her ivory legs weigh heavy)
bang it bell boy!
(as long as it’s heavy it’s real)
~
but she ain’t nothing but a sailor’s mouth
a merry miss captain and her heart washed out
~
as soon as I hit land
(my old mind shakes to think)
as soon as I hit land
(who again was moby dick?)
as soon as I hit land
(I’ll suck scars until they’re wound)
as soon as I hit land
(am I scared, or am I proud?)
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4. |
One Song
02:42
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hey little girl
what's the pretty tune
can you teach me
how to whistle songs like you
reverend john
teach me a gospel song
something even I
can sing along
I bet he's on your side
cause I ain't seen him in a while
the lord and I
we don't get along sometime
~
don't you be laughing at me
cause I can only sing one song
that I sing off key
~
is it true I cursed santa
when I swore in church
nana hears me holler, she says
don't cry before you're hurt
it's bachelor weather and
you can't lose what you ain't got
can't get away with a bruise
from a hazy day's gun shot
old saint
what makes you clap your hands?
why don't you give applause
to my one man blues band?
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5. |
DC Souvenirs
03:23
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never mind your manners batman
as long as you can pay with your good looks
have you grown out of your bruises wayne
and dealt vicki vale for a babe in the woods?
robin’s got to climb a tree to see
the scale of your imaginary vow
a joker paints the meadows green
for you to see where you can’t go
~
you must be hot like an oven
to make the girls’ hearts melt
how long can it take you to count
three old notches on your belt?
and when you start living
once and forever
please send me souvenirs
the more the better
I never thought you could ---
I’ve always hoped you would ---
I never ever should ---
have skipped to the last page
~
below the floorboards the ladies lie waiting
watching the bottom of your paper boots
you rip off a kiss for a penny worth a pound
way too vain for a guy in a pencil suit
spotlight against your fear of the dark
dear you're caught in a head fight
your cardboard muscles suit you
like they’d fit a cut-out knight
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6. |
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the one time we kissed was a kiss of farewell
she said, let me take care of this revolver
dying ain’t much of a living, boy
why fall in love on the first day of war
(and not on the first day of spring --- )
when the others are fighting their battles
I’m barely done fighting my fear
I’m with bonnie, jesus, and billy the kid
our kites sinking ever so near
(on the first day of spring --- )
I am far from being the unluckiest man
I am far from being a man
say, how should I make war with a country
I’ve never made love to a girl
(on the first day of spring --- )
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7. |
Frank
01:15
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frank says
~
there ain’t no good woman
worth the love of my man
so there ain’t no good woman
--- but does frank wish me well?
~
teddy, when did you stop loving what you knew the best
a man found his hiding behind my boy chest
didn’t you hear a word that I said
I can’t talk of love if you call me mad
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8. |
Saints at Suzanne's
04:16
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on the outskirts of the city
cherry lane’s turned tonight
into a black oil river that sweeps away
veterans and teens like the tide
like a wave that carries and buries
them in bars named after saints
where only men with bellies and pain
like in labour stay lone and awake
~
spiders’ legs are soaked in brandy
three things you won’t do but you might
kittens sing like it was monday
the saints stay up all night
~
and rain hangs silver curtains
into that window of suzanne’s
a half moon shaped counter
waits for town’s most sensitive men
one mourns for his lover
who fell prey to a thug
another drinks to his old man
behind bars since he shot
we sure weren’t strangers
but we never had been friends
a moment of kindness
for the saints at suzanne’s
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9. |
Miles
02:45
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you make me the most wanted man
(cause there’s no other man for miles)
you kiss the forehead of a fool
(but there’s no other goddamn fool within miles)
I keep standing in your way
(cause there’s just one way to walk for miles)
you say god’s gonna bring me low
(but there’s no god if there’s not a single soul in miles)
~
I wanna sing for you
but I just shout you down
now I scream for you
and I just shout you down
I wanna shelter you
but I only crush your spine
~
mom says, I'm tougher than goddamn john wayne
(there's no one to deny it for miles)
aunt cathy says, don't take his name in vain
(no one to dare so for miles)
love's resigned to the worst cologne
(there’s no other smell for miles)
when you left I cried like a young wolf
(no one to hear me for miles)
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10. |
Hurricane
03:01
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my name is MARTHA
my name is ISABEL
my name is WILMA
I keep the love and give the pain
hi I’m CARLA
we are RITA and ELAINE
I am KATRINA
living the fast lovers’ lane
~
I am a hurricane
I’m on you as fast
as I am off again
~
my name is EDITH
we’re TRUDY and IRENE
my name is SANDY
they name storms after me
hi, I am ZELDA
we are DONNA and MARIE
my name is JUDY
I’m footloose and fancy free
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11. |
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if you set a bridge on fire
don't blame it on the flames
(not this time)
I’m trying to stay clean
from wet cheeks for a while
(just for a while)
we fly our paper kites
that blow up as they crash
(like that one time)
martyrs dagger dragons
but they leave their ghosts to me
we are shaking hands demurely
that have shaken other things before
(how many times)
and we gave each other head starts
always on the rebound
real heroes stab all kinds of monsters
is it so hard to dagger me?
and when the monster stops growing
is it doomed to die?
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12. |
Astronaut
03:07
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can you teach me
to be weightless and fancy
how to make love naively
on the planets you have seen
I'm done waiting
and light years are covering
my face in star dust
from gazing at the sky
~
dear madame, please
--- shoot me to the moon
like a canon ball
and hear me fall
two hundred thousand miles from home
and you, you will
catch me out in space
daddy loves an astronaut
daddy's gone for good
~
I fiercely await you
my kisses, they could pierce you
like comets leave craters
on the surface of your skin
and in our bed room
the big bang still echoes
the windows are shaking
from many moons ago
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13. |
Mermaid & Moonface
02:45
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you said,
there’s a mermaid in my attic
she came with sailors that were stranded
first afloat and then ashore
do you dare to shut the door?
and she smiles at dusty postcards
sent from places we don’t know
sent from islands gone under water
some thirty years ago
~
and we traded all our secrets
(you told me all, I told you none)
about the ghosts in the machines ---
about the ducklings that can sing ---
before the banks became cathedrals ---
about the penguins in the northern sky ---
~
and I said,
every morning after sunrise
there comes a moon faced vagabond
riding a sickle in bright yellow
into my mind and well beyond
he hides in my sister’s closet
is it the man from the moon?
come on stay for a story
and see our tales bloom
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MARTA Vienna, Austria
MARTA is a bluespunk band based in Vienna, Austria. We write lovesongs for losers and sing shanties for seasick sailors.
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