Get all 7 Justin Gordon releases available on Bandcamp and save 25%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Backwater, First Ache: a chronology, Home Fires, The Love & The Mystery, Ten Dollar Guitar, Travelers Rest, and Sandrock Hilton.
1. |
Folly Of Youth
03:52
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when i was young and hungry and every sunset was new
i had to taste every bottle and fall asleep in the dew
the hills tumbled on like a river
time fluttered by just like a feather
that floated down to the coast where i saw the curve of the sea
i crossed many great nations, sleeping behind the gas stations
thumb supplicated in patience, i hummed tunes to myself
but i got tired of singing
it seemed the words had no meaning
so i just started running from here to there and back again
i ended up in the mountains where the trees sang in the wind
crouched down by the woodstove just happy having something to tend
i was as dry as boot leather
as resolute as a desert
lonely like a lake loon and happy just to stay that way, goddamn.
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2. |
Cabin Life
02:56
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when you scrunch up your nose just like that
just like you did in the picture of when you were four
with your mickey mouse ears on and your eyes cast down
and to the left side with a little smile turning
the corner of your mouth up just like that
if you had a completely different life
would you still be the same?
someone dropped the needle on lou reed
he was talking about walking on the wild side
i could feel the cold coming in from outside
through the thin window pane
and everybody's laughing in the kitchen
i'm just leaned against the wall
then i heard the floor boards creaking
as you came across the floor
i drove the blue goose two days without stopping
had a hitcher with a long distance girlfriend
i dropped him off in cleveland
and i set out for maine
you were sitting on the stoop when i pulled in
you had such an easy smile
after all those miles it wasn't so hard
to know what to do
the future will never find a way in here
cause i got no electricity
but i'll leave a lamp burning for you my dear
just to find your way home
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3. |
Possibilities
03:14
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the night was your queen when you walked her streets
pitter patter down the alleys in your flip flop feet
you're stepping in time to your own heartbeat
when you were young
and one wrong turn could kill your lifelong dreams
cause the moment's always more decisive than it seems
but the puddles shone to guide you supernaturally
when you were young
gently, sweetly, the wind blows the elm trees
the leaves show their bellies and whisper
possibilities
Frank's Live Bait's just a beacon in the night
giving you the guts to put up one last fight
you're throwing punches in the dark, there's not a soul in sight
when you were young
and the transformer's hum could drive a man insane
but there's a keg party geiger counter in my brain
the night is one half potential and it's one half shame
when you were young
sweetly, softly, the crickets sing to nobody
you stumble home drunkenly and dream of
possibilities
your life is one half glory and it's one half pain
running buck naked through the pouring rain
you don't know quite where you're going, you're just trying to get away
when you were young
cause the night was your queen when you walked her streets
and the city throbs and pulses underneath your feet
but the future was as dizzy as the summer heat
when you were young
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4. |
Simple Man
04:01
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i guess you can say i'm a simple man
i take my pleasures where i can
but you can run there and back again
it's who you got that matters in the end
in the end is just another way of saying
you never stop to think about it when the day ends
the rest of the time most of us are just doing what we can
trying to get up a couple bucks and get us a piece of land
a piece of land, that's where i do my living
i'm gathering up all the things that i was given
i nail them all together and that's where i call home
but home is nothing but a house without someone to love
she was walking in the park, wondering where to go
and the leaves fell all around her, like she was in a snow globe
he walked beside her and he wondered what to do
and his thoughts piled all around him
but that's nothing new
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5. |
Stones
02:06
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walking home through soft beds of needles
you stoop to roll stones into their resting places
all the while, with no human eyes to observe them
they will stay there just as you have laid them
there they lay as young girls grow into women
they remain while nations fall into ruin
they grow mossy beards on their dark faces
or lay in ashes in their resting places
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6. |
Wilderness
03:35
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now i lay me down to sleep just like my mama told me
i pray the lord my soul to keep, hoping darkness overtakes me
if i should die before i wake, would i really even know it?
i pray the lord my soul to take, at least that's how my mama told it
i'm heading out into the night, far from the city lights
to a place where i can stay
where there's no one around and there's nothing to say
cause when you're talking to yourself, you don't need nobody else
to pick you up or bring you down
what you thought you found was always around
now i'm lying here on the sheet, i bend my ear to the cicada
try like hell just to get some sleep and save everything for later
just head out in to the woods, it'll do your head some good
and leave your history behind
there's something to be said for some peace of mind
when you're living by yourself, you don't need nobody else
to bring you up or bring you down
what you thought you lost was always around
when you're talking to yourself, you don't need nobody else
to pull you up or put you down
what you thought you found was always around
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7. |
88 Corolla
02:25
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she was an 88 corolla with a death wish
born on an unpaved county road
rust ate up her fenders like cancer
she was sacked out and riding low
we'd been playing bar gigs in the southlands
we were washed up with no place to go
so we hung a hard left off of I-10 west
and crossed into old mexico
we had her pedal to the metal across the nueces plains
we held our breath till the sun went down
down in potosi state, we rolled in late
into some little mountain town
well, my mama always said i had no direction
and i just pointed south
as long as we've got something in the gas tank
we'll drive her till the road runs out
she was an 88 corolla with a carburetor
she ran like she had nothing to lose
passing sugar cane trucks on the switchbacks
of the trans sierra madre routes
we parked her up on a clifftop
looking over old pacifico
well, the grass grows round her fenders
she's just waiting for someplace to go
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8. |
Elders
03:41
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the time has come to lay down our guns
and walk with me down to the sea
you can save a few trinkets from the past
but burn your cash, it'll never last
the mayans know, they carved it into stone
the elders say that time has just begun
so walk with me down to the sea
the elders say, the wheel rolls on and on
we walk towards the setting of the sun
hand in hand down to the sea
as the smoke blows over the hill
every blade of grass seems unreal
as you and i, we remember how to feel
after all that noise, we were just two boys
they say the sea, she has no memory
she'll take us in, it's where we need to be
so walk with me down to the sea
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9. |
Quiet Things
03:19
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electricity was a flighty bird
they had tamed for awhile
she's a damn sight tamer than she was
when they pulled her from the sky
they wrote their names in ones and zeroes
stored somewhere in the cloud
they forgot their family histories
and were scared to speak out loud
their heads were bent in concentration
to their little light-up screens
as they gathered more information
stumbling through the streets
they watched actors reinvent their lives
as they smiled with plastic teeth
they were all dressed up for the camera's eye
and the rest they hid beneath
when the grid went down for the final time
it was a blessing in disguise
well, the lights went out and the screens went black
as the pigeons filled the sky
though the shop fronts burned on the boulevard
there was a crispness in the air
as a thousand eyes looked to the skies
finally seeing what was there
the mountains looked down from their stoic peaks
the valley held us in her hands
taking pity on the animals who tried to rule the land
now i watch them out by the tree line
as they search for kindling
it puts me in mind of a simpler time
when we loved the quiet things
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10. |
Riohacha
03:52
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on the warm and rainy coast
we came to search for things we lost
back in that desperate century
now they're washed out in the floods
and they're spattered with the blood
of mosquitoes, needles and disease
on the coast of old New Spain
a bleary light shines through the rain
calling both the sacred and profane
an ancient city built from stone
has breached its walls and its overgrown
with grids of concrete cutting into clay
so that city calls us in
to exploit its carnival of sin
kids and junkies running in the streets
all the while behind our backs
the vines are covering up our tracks
as the jungle sighs and shimmers in the heat
i miss the bougainvillea and the clanging of the iron
old men playing chess down in the park
but there's strange blood in my veins
and i've forgotten all the names
like phantom limbs aching in the dark
engines run on gasoline
two gum tires and a vinyl seat
and a throttle wound up as far as it'll go
we chart asphalt trajectories
we connect unknown points A to B
and we draw the maps on napkins as we go
our passports got all waterlogged
so we left them lying like two stray dogs
on the road from riohacha we got lost
but that's just how it's meant to be
buzzing through a tunnel of mango trees
in the sick sweet smell of rot and burnt exhaust
on the warm and rainy coast
we ply the air like two thin ghosts
in this good night air a man can breathe
the locusts sing our homesick song
and our yamahas hum right along
and for the moment, we are free
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11. |
The Beach
03:39
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out on the beach
feelin the heat
got here last week
gettin sand on my feet
i can't remember a time
when i felt so free
as i did this week
out on the beach
i met some folks
at a bonfire last night
we walked barefoot down the coast
to the next little group of lights
slept in the sand
i woke up with the sun
and i gathered my things
headed back down the beach
back on the beach
and i'm lovin the heat
and i've been here all week
gettin sand on my feet
swim in the sea
when the sun is hangin low
the salt sticks to me
but everything else washes off
i said i was goin to leave
but the bus leaves so damned early
guess i'll spend another night
out on the beach
out on the beach
feelin the heat
got here last week
gettin sand on my feet...
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