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Anthropology

by Paul Bergman

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1.
Down a dirt road One day as I walked down a dirt road I spied a whale in the sky The first thing my mother taught me was how to say, Goodbye Down a dirt road, down a dirt road down a dirt road, down a dirt road down a dirt road, down a dirt road down a dirt road, I'm bound to go
2.
Creeping Charlie North of North Dakota just across the borderline there lies a little town there which I guess you could call mine It's where I was born it's probably where I'll die I just keep hanging around I don't know why It was all just tall grass a couple centuries ago There were travelling Natives tracking the buffalo My forefathers came here and they broke all this land They made nature do the bidding for modern man They built their houses and their churches and their schools and their sheds and their barns They planted their fields with wheat and oats and corn The soil was fertile and they took all they could They thought they had God's blessing they thought God was good Well, the New World order spread like a prairie fire They hung the telephone poles like clothes from the telephone wires First came the gravel, then the ties then the railroad tracks and then came the highways Now they're starting to crack When it's all creeping Charlie and redroot pigweed and the grass grows back and it all goes to seed and our story's over and we have had our day and all that's left is the wind what will it say?
3.
Night is falling Now this is a hope I can hang my hat on this is the dresser, this is the drawer this is a land I can make my home in a thin, little dwelling 'neath the northern star Well, the high birds of heaven, they shit on the windows on the great architecture of humankind the trailer parks, the banks, the buttressed cathedrals and the houses of parliament and the schools of the blind And the night is falling on me and the night is falling on me and the night is falling, falling, it's falling on me I'm gleaming in the gloaming out on the blank plain impermanent 'neath the firmament, a matter of time I'm slowly learning how to say, Goodbye and the choir inside sings 'This little light of mine' And the night is falling on me and the night is falling on me and the night is falling, falling, it's falling on me just like grace... yeah, just like grace Everywhere, everywhere, everywhere I go in my heart I don't know how else it could be The night is falling on me...
4.
Home fires 03:59
Home fires The nights are coming in fast and they're coming in cool and the leaves are living the Golden Rule as the wild winds bellow and blow keep the home fires burning when I go Now chop that wood and stack it high You live your life learning how to die Don't get your hopes down too low keep the home fires burning when I go Now burn it down, oh, burn it down leave the cellar in the ground Burn it down, oh, burn it down you're just a tourist in this town You're a hotel in a slow spell you know that I wish you well in each cell where I dwell won't you lean on my doorbell? You're in your skin a stranger like you've always been now and then, begin again who cares what you win? Oh, what you win... oh, what you win... You're a hotel in a slow spell you know that I wish you well in each cell where I dwell won't you lean on my doorbell? On my doorbell... on my doorbell...
5.
Albert Johnson You came in from off the water a creature in search of shelter Albert, Albert Johnson You're quiet in a quiet land the wolves are no company for a man Albert, Albert Johnson Someone, someone's always tracking but you, you just keep walking Albert, Albert Johnson They caught you on the river you knew it wouldn't last forever Albert, Albert Johnson Oh, Albert... Johnson
6.
Sundogs 03:04
Sundogs I'm over my toes, I'm under my hat I got eight lives less than a cat that's not all, there's more to it than that but what, I can't say the sundogs have come out to play! I feel like an ice age saying, Farewell I feel like a tale for others to tell I walk on the river with Louis Riel who said he'd love to stay but the sundogs have come out to play! When the waste of winter lies in my heart lights dance in the north in the dark these magnetic movements, a spectral arc that rises and then fades away the sundogs have come out to play! My nose is running, I'm falling behind I got hoarfrost on my mind Yesterday's deaf and tomorrow is blind but that don't matter today the sundogs have come out to play!
7.
In the atmosphere Look at this body, these kilograms of clay this odd architecture, this frame fading away this is the climate and these are my clothes when they're all worn through, lay them out for the crows and watch them, watch them disappear in the atmosphere Now I walk through your fields, I walk by your farms I walk along the river in the river's long arms I walk in the water and I walk in the wind I feel like a squatter in this thin skin but I'm trying to learn to like it here in the atmosphere Now come on, rise up! Rise up! Rise up... like the hail I play house under heaven, I conjure patterns of home I'm more than when I was born 'neath a billowy dome There's a cricket in the hearth and a spider on the floor and an ancient line of mummers marching out the door with courage and good cheer... So shine on this little life and my neighbour's too while earth and sky conspire to distil the dew Kindness can't keep me on this side of the ground on the side of the world where I'm sliding down with the wind whistling in my ear in the atmosphere Now come on, rise up! Rise up! Rise up... come on... like the hail just like the hail... in the atmosphere
8.
In the cellar I heard the weatherman calling for a tornado I open up the door then and down I go in the cellar, in the cellar in the cellar with the pickles and the jam, that's where I am Well, there's garlic on a nail and apples in a box carrots in a pail, cucumbers in the crocks in the cellar, in the cellar in the cellar with the pickles and the jam, that's where I am Well, the garden grows cabbage, I make sauerkraut small potatoes are the first to sprout in the cellar, in the cellar in the cellar with the pickles and the jam, that's where I am I'm a self-ordained monk in self-imposed exile I get no sympathy here 'cept from the weeping tile in the cellar, in the cellar in the cellar with the pickles and the jam, that's where I am No, it just won't keep, the seal won't hold the fruit will spoil under the mould but the seeds are where it's sweetest and it is sweetest at the centre you wait for them to ripen so you can store them against the winter against the winter... Oh, I try to hear you talking but all I get is static I'm down here in the cellar, you're up there in the attic in the cellar, in the cellar in the cellar with the pickles and the jam, that's where I am
9.
Always walk away It doesn't matter where you are you can always walk away you're never in that far you can always walk away You want to make amends with your family and your friends but everything depends on how it bends, it bends, it bends while the moon shines down from the deepest black on the weedy ditch and the long dirt track on your sad landscape and your solitary back you can't make up for all you lack Every step is a second mile and you tell yourself it's ok if you don't want to reconcile you can always walk away It's a blessing you can prepare you compel yourself to care nothing is too much to bear there's nothing even there, there's nothing there but an incoherent heart where dark winds blow through your dreams of flowers and your dreams of snow in your stagnant town where resentments grow but you just can't bring yourself to go Oooooh, oh, oh you can always walk away oooooh, oh, oh you can always walk away There's nothing there, there's nothing you can always walk away there's nothing there, there's nothing there but you can always walk away alone, alone, alone, alone
10.
Happy trails, sad camper You're going down the road feeling bad you left your brother, your sister, your mom, and your dad Nothing adds up to much 'cause you can't add you're just going down the road feeling bad Happy trails, sad camper, happy trails happy trails, happy trails You got all your things in a couple ice cream pails happy trails, sad camper, happy trails You're in the human race you lost your faith, now you're losing face and just like that you lose your place but you're in the human race Happy trails, sad camper, happy trails happy trails, happy trails You got all your things in a couple ice cream pails happy trails, sad camper, happy trails Walk with me in the wind the wind we're always in We won't meet again walk with me in the wind Happy trails, sad camper, happy trails happy trails, happy trails You got all your things in a couple ice cream pails happy trails, sad camper, happy trails

credits

released December 31, 2015

songs by Paul Bergman • recorded, produced, and mixed by Paul Bergman & John Paul Peters • additional recording and production by Michael P Falk & Matt Peters • mastered by John Paul Peters • counsel provided by Susie Fisher & Amy Loewen • lyrical counsel provided by Siriol Troup & Andrew Vaisius • musical counsel provided by Andrew Braun • photography by Susie Fisher • layout by Joel Rempel

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Paul Bergman Manitoba

I was born in a half-hour, and I've done little since with even approximately that much haste.

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