1. Old Ways Too

   (instrumental)

 

 

2. A Long Way Back Home

 

Six thousand miles ago I was there

Holding her close with my hand in her hair

I never saw anyone who quite looked so fair

It just wasn't right, and I guess it never was

But what can you do when you are so deep in love

But it was someone else that she was thinking of

A long way back home

 

I loved her so much that I wanted her there

But I guess I was never aware

Something was missing, it just wasn't there

A long way back home

 

I gave her everything I thought I could spare

I told her I loved right then and there

but all that she did was just sit and stare

 

So now I've left and she still follows me

Tonight in my dreams she is all that I see

I just can't shake her, she just doesn't leave

When I think of home

 

Six thousand miles ago I was there.

 

 

 

Sometimes it's you, sometimes it's me

Sometimes it's something deep down inside

You don't want to see

I don't know why you do what you do

I just know the problem isn't me, it's all about you

 

My mind is clear

but your mind is not.

I try to see for the both of us

what's real or not

Your feelings - they never come outside

So it's a guessing game which roller coaster

We're all gonna ride

 

So take a break and calm yourself

You get so uneasy and nervous -

It's time for something else

I've got no anger

No deep laid plans

The conspiracy theories are fiction

You don't understand

 

 

4. Crazy Power

 

I burn my bridges now
I will leap before I look
Ignore what I mistook
and dive into the blaze headfirst
It won't get better
It will go from bad to worse
Like evolution in reverse
When all that's left is fear and crazy power

With the Bible in one hand
With a sword we aim to kill
Those we perceive that bear us ill
Until the rest of all mankind looks like us

Where do we go from here?
I think only God knows
Which way this river flows
We need to learn to love and not to hate

 

 

5. Be My Friend

 

everytime i call you're never at home
and when you're at home you know you're never alone
tell me why i have to deal with you
'cause i can't do that if i never see you

why don't you be my friend
say you'll stand by me
say you'll be my friend
until the very end

when i'm alone i don't know what to do
you know i climb the walls if i don't see you
tell me why i have to deal with you
'cause i can't do that if i never see you

 

 

6. Gonna Be Different

 

i thought that you were cool
you know i thought you were okay
thought maybe you were different
but it didn't turn out that way
so you packed your bags and off you went
to where I do not know
never thought i'd be doing handstands
just to watch you go

i don't know...
it's going to be different aroune here

i find i'm not missing you or the company you keep
and now that you have left the scene i see i was in too deep
it takes too much work to care for your selfish needs and pain
when everything about you drives us all insane

they say blood runs deep in family
and i know that it's not true
because just because you're family
does not make me love you
relatives you cannot pick
you know that it's too bad
as blood runs thinner than water here
and I think it's rather sad

 

 

7. Just A Memory

 

Making my way through the meadows

Wondering how good life could be

I was making my way through the ruins

Of a murkey sea

I couldn't quite catch your drift then

You seemed a bit too far awat

I was hoping for something swift then

Not merely passe

 

I was looking for some sort of relief

I was tired of all of the ways

You lived in your proverbial basement

As you passed your days

Just like an Arthuran romance

You passed the days and nights

Why did you always resist me

Why did you fight?

 

Because you and me darling

You were right there

And i never knew

You were so close now

I could not see

You were just out of view

We'd pass the moments away

Sitting counting the days

Until you were nothing more than just a memory

 

Remember how we'd sit in the cornfield

Lisening to the perennial  wind

We thought we had made a beginning

But it was just an end

Last night as I watched the sunset

I thought how I'd thrown you away

I only wanted to touch you

In just different way

 

 

8. Minor Workout

 

(instrumental)

 

 

9.Listen to the New America

 

Listen to me - I'm your friend
I could take you where I want you to go in the end
I'll feed your fear until you can't take anymore
and l'll lead you to the slaughter, walk you right through the door
and keep you dumb and happy and stupid for evermore

I speak in code so the racism is okay
I can make the hate sound reasonable in every way
I tell you it's a big tent but in fact it's really small
'cause angry and white is gonna fill it all
so as proud Americans we'll make the least among us pay

Listen to the new America

I'll tell you who to hate and who is to blame
Any straw man will do as long as we are not the same
You can blame the Liberals, the brown and the black
As we pile on the hate with lying and attacks
You earn the right to be a serf to all our kings

I am the face of fascist America
Give you bread and circuses when all is said and done
You can serve the corporations that we all adore
and if you don't like it we'll shove your ass right out the door
and you can die out in the streets as corporations soar

 

 

 

you read them every day
small town lives soon passed away
history limited to but a few lines
forgotten only after a day

devoted mother born in russia
came to america in '25
known for her laughter and love of god
survived by grandchildren, children, and her husband

born on a farm near New Gluckenstall
lived in North Dakota his whole life
from his father came the farm
never married, with his parents he now lies

she loved to cook and she loved her church
and for many years she was the teacher
taught school in town for many years
as the town died she moved to other things

places, names, and people and things
fade slowly to the past
little lives still do large things
remembered by the land and the prairie sky

I got some of these ideas reading small town obituaries, which read like little novels and give you more info than you can possibly use. Recorded in my room at the Walkinshaw Bed and Breakfast in Manitoba

 

 

I don't want to stand here in the rain

I don't want to feel each other's pain

I don't want to know what makes you tick

I don't want to know a bit of it

Just leave me here by myself

I don't need you much less anyone else

I don't want you to break my fall

I never needed you at all

 

I don't see the point of you

You say one and one makes one

But it always makes two

And that'll have to do

 

I try to think through all the wine

It finally occurred to me this time

You know my friends  here have got it wrong

Pain has never made me strong

If I could end your world of hurt

You know it's more than you deserve

You know I'm tired of all your woes

I've got my own problems here, God knows

 

I don't see the point of you

You know one and one does not make one

It makes two

And that'll have to do

 

 

 

I will try and do my best
And I won't worry about the rest
Though I stumble and always fall
In the end you were there through it all

And though life changes in fits and starts
All that matters is what's in our hearts
Though sometimes life moves too fast
Only good things are made to last

Life begins and life ends
We gain others and lose friends
As a mortal living in fragility
Once a savior, won't you please save me

 

 

13. The Older I Get

 

Don't know what I miss the most

Now that you're not here

And why I did the things I did

To this day remains unclear

Used to be I could call you up

And with you my heart I'd share

I guess the thing I miss the most

Is the fact that you're not there

 

The older I get the less I do

The more I take for granted too

 

The should have's and the might have beens

Cling firmly to my mind

Guilt compounds with the sorrow

Because I never took the time

 

The older I get the less I do

The more I take for granted too

Don't know what I miss the most

As the loss hangs in the air

I guess the thing I miss the most

Is the fact that you're not there.

 

 

14. Let Yourself Grow

 

She sat outside herself

A victim of her dreams

To fail at love and life

Or so it seems

She so easily watched that idiot go

What to do now, she did not know

Mmm

 

With him gone

She gained some sort of release

Time to put the broken back

Into one piece

Innocence gone now for a second time

If she never needed anyone again, that would ge find

 

Love isn't everything

But sometimes it seems it should be

You think you need someone and

You find it need not be

So take some time

Let yourself grow

It's okay

It's gonna be okay

 

Should have trusted you

But I thought it was insane

When you fell in love again

Didn't want it to be the same

But your heart is amazing

And your soul is so true

That our sorrow deepens now

That we've lost you.

 

I never knew how much I loved you...

 

 

15. Industrial Bop

 

 

16. Without A Care

 

Interesting story to this one - a friend of mine at work wanted to sing to her soon to be husband at their wedding, and she asked if I could write music, etc. This was the first tune I wrote, but the words she wrote were more than the melody would hold, so it became this instrumental and I wrote a variation on this for her lyrics with longer phrases.