1. |
Down a dirt road
01:13
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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
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2. |
Creeping Charlie
04:45
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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?
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3. |
Night is falling
03:15
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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...
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4. |
Home fires
03:59
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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...
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5. |
Albert Johnson
07:22
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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
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6. |
Sundogs
03:04
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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!
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7. |
In the atmosphere
05:00
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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
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8. |
In the cellar
03:52
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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
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9. |
Always walk away
04:53
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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
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10. |
Happy trails, sad camper
05:53
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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
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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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