1. |
1000 Clowns
03:10
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1000 Clowns
I was bummed
from my shoes to my gums
even the bluest skies
left me demoralized
in an attempt to escape, I went out to my car
something amiss--the door was ajar
inside were colors and faces, horns and balloons
and like a crazy cartoon
a thousand clowns popped out
a thousand clowns popped out
they had those blinking ties
to mesmerize your eyes
with that bizarre surprise
got those enormous shoes
stomping on my blues
with those elephant shoes
I’d been a pitiful pup
wallowing in my supposed bad luck
I could hardly have known
what would clear those clouds
weird voices shout
and a thousand clowns popped out
I was blessed with that bizarre surprise
red noses and polka dots filled my eyes
they just kept jumping through hoops
and handstanding around
you may think I’m crazy to tool around town
with a thousand clowns
so if you’ve got problems
you need a blessed surprise
and it’s one I’ll be more than happy to provide
got my polka dot plaids
I got my neon ties
just throw the door open wide
and take a thousand and one clown ride
a thousand and one clown ride
we got our blinking ties
to mesmerize your eyes
with our bizarre surprise
got my enormous shoes
I’ll pulverize your blues
with my rhinoceros shoes
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2. |
Asleep
03:18
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Asleep
ask me fifteen questions
and I’ll answer fifteen ‘fines’
it isn’t that I’m hiding
I’m not trying to protect what’s mine
the language of my heart
can’t declare itself out loud
can’t be teased into words
no inner voices that I’ve heard
you won’t know I’m asleep until I wake up
you won’t know I’m honest till I deceive
you won’t know I’m here
until I’m on that train to Boston
you won’t know I’m in love until I leave
time was you implored me
you explored me seeking answers
I evaded you like a dancer
till you gave up on those chances
I peer into a day to come
when you’ll take me for granted
no seeds have been planted
I know I seem bitter ground
you won’t know I’m asleep until I wake up
you won’t know I have faith until I don’t believe
you won’t know I’m here
until I’m on that train to Boston
you won’t know I’m in love until I leave
though I don’t say it I do feel it
and it isn’t something I can change
I feel it all though I don’t say it
the spoken soul is so passing strange
you won’t know I’m asleep until I wake up
you won’t know I don’t care until I grieve
you won’t know I’m here
until I’m on that train to Boston
you won’t know I’m in love
you won’t know I’m asleep until I wake up
you won’t know I’m honest till I deceive
you won’t know I’m here
until I’m on that train to Boston
you won’t know I’m in love until I leave
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3. |
Battle Creek
04:28
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Battle Creek
hard skies
hard rain
rolling smoke from the west-side stacks
Battle Creek
I walk
down a street boarded up and older
I love Battle Creek
nineteenth-century industry
twenty-first century loss
an empty elementary school
Battle Creek
cold hands
grey snow swept by a knifing wind
cold times
Battle Creek
break down
break out
there’s prosperity around the corner
Battle Creek
nineteenth-century industry
twenty-first century loss
a crooked maple tree in a downtown park
Battle Creek
plant closed down in spring
part-time shift at Burger King
three hundred graduates from the high school
can decide whether life is really that cruel
make love
make war
make up your face make up your days
hard rain
hard souls
hard to hope, easy to feel
Battle Creek
nineteenth-century industry
twenty-first century loss
smoking at night in the playground
Battle Creek
a farm out past the edge of town
a new coffee shop on Fourth Street
a kid playing her guitar
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4. |
Bought and Sold
04:40
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Bought and Sold
the sun shines bright on the ocean blue
it’s dazzling in your eyes
I think somehow it’s blinded you
you see truth in their lies
here the world is new and bold
but I will love you
when you’ve gone and grown old
you’ve found some friends who see the real you
they love you for your mind
of course those offers will come through
that’s the latest line
the freeways here are paved with gold
and you will own them if you do as you’re told
hear the ocean rise
feel the ocean fall
will it carry you away from me?
the sun has drowned in the ocean blue
I’ve gone beyond the rise
and you’re left wondering what to do
there’s nothing in your eyes
here your life is bought and sold
but I will love you
when you’ve gone and grown old
here your life is bought and sold
but I will love you
when you’ve gone and grown old
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5. |
(When It's) Argentina
03:21
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(When It’s) Argentina
I’ve been loafing on this sofa
so long I look like a loofah
won’t you set fire to my feet?
catapult me from this damned seat
wake me when it’s Argentina
where the football’s always meaner
where the pampas seem much greener
where the gauchos ride much leaner
racing on their chestnut horses
wake me for those stylish forces
shake me when it’s Indonesia
I’ll be calm and have no seizures
when the pounding gamelan advances
liquid Ramayana dancers
chance a world that’s ten times older
shake me toward a life that’s bolder
shove me over a waterfall
snow me in at Tierra del Fuego
anywhere outside these four walls
say yes, say now, say out--
and just say go
tell me when it’s Tanzania
Serengeti, where the scene is
buff and bright and red all over
victim, vicious, or in clover
over bones of dusky grey
tell me life may last one day
shove me over a waterfall
snow me in at Tierra del Fuego
anywhere outside these four walls
say yes, say now, say out--
and just say go
wake me when it’s Argentina
wake me when it’s Costa Rica
Vanuatu Venezuela
surely someplace has that certain
je-ne-sais-quoi, that I-don’t-know-what
I don’t know just what I’m missing
wake me on some ground worth kissing
shove me over a waterfall
snow me in at Tierra del Fuego
anywhere outside these four walls
say yes, say now, say out--
and just say go
wake me when it’s Argentina
Texarkana Tanzania
Ypsilanti Indonesia
Pensacola Mandalay and Argentina
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6. |
Anywhere but Here
03:56
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Anywhere But Here
I read some George Orwell
and I reread The Stranger
I packed Nine Inch Nails into my CD changer
Then I turned out the lights
and I watched the nightly news
but it’s no use--
I can’t sustain a case of the blues
you have ethereal eyes
and a brimful of asha
glory and style and a funky sense of fashion
make it hard for a boy
who wants to be morose
to wallow in a melancholic overdose
but if I really want to play depressed
disconsolate and repressed
then I’ll have to be anywhere but here
I picked the filthiest bus
and I rode it for hours
trying to mix the bitter
with the bilious and the sour
but I failed again
I kept remembering you giving me Pez
racking me up with your impression of Desi Arnaz
but if I really want to get depressed
turn my life into a farcical mess
then I’ll have to be anywhere but here
it’s just a goddamned shame
I can’t escape your prison
these are tough times for existentialism
I suppose I’ll have to concede
joy isn’t so bad
so I’ll scotch my plans to join the Peace Corps
and move to Chad
oh, but if I really want to be depressed
sell my tragic downfall to CBS
then I’ll have to be anywhere but here
I guess I’ll have to be anywhere but here
anywhere but here
anywhere but here
oh, yeah
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7. |
Under Water
03:30
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Under Water
you are warm as blood
you are cold as blazing snowfall
in a dead man’s float
my incandescent speech inchoate
you are peace
you are asphyxiaton
I fail to breathe
or I choose not to
and I with you am under water
I with you am under water
I with you am under water
you are separated
you are a private kingdom
the sky a distant almost-white
a half-remembered dream of light
and I with you
I with you
I with you am under water
laughter is lost
absorbed by the weight of oceans of ocean
tears without cost
similarly sated
a magic levelling potion
I am not helpless
I am not acquiescent
but with you I can relinquish
you quiet me
you release me
you drown me
and I with you am under water
I with you am under water
disappearing under water
dissolution under water
under water
under water
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8. |
Six-Foot Zora and Yvonne
03:34
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Six-Foot Zora and Yvonne
six-foot Zora and Yvonne
in a fistfight over Jean
Carla watches, hat pulled low
holding hands with cold Marco
who’d rather be in bed with Quinn
or on the road with Finn to Cincinnati
home of gorgeous Tom
Uli’s friend who lost his mom
and Zora and Yvonne
will put their makeup on
while Tom and Uli
tear their sleeves for mother’s victim
crashed her pickup into Xavier
sent him off to meet his savior
now she’s locked in Hannah’s jail
where Isabella steals her mail
Renata used to bake her cakes
till Sander had his final breakdown
by the bridge on Seventh Street
where Esperanza walks her beat
and Zora and Yvonne
will put their makeup on
while Esperanza
taps at William’s empty door
William dials up Oona’s number
Pasha begged him not to go
to Cumberland, where Anna lived
annoying as a katydid
and Katy did lull men to sleep
except for Ben, who could not keep her
free from harm--no lucky charm--
too recklessly she’d left the farm
where Vernon sits and drinks the gin
that Katy left en route to sin
with Gogo, Lulu, Dee and them
the city girls whose eyes are gems
whose skin is lucent--lives are short--
who wear cold beauty like a fort
to Nandi’s club, where six-foot Zora
holds court over the drunken quora
and Zora and Yvonne
have put their makeup on
and made their vampires’ peace
with streetlamps’ darkish alley light
and Zora and Yvonne
have long forgotten Jean
who hit the road with Katy
as the red sun rose today
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9. |
Ready
03:20
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Ready
a hundred thousand words
have been marshalled and sent out
since four o’clock
a hopeless quest
to make some sense
out of a death
another random condemnation
from a guiltless, drunken god
who with any sense of justice
would have taken someone else
anyone but you
I want you here today
I want you back today
‘cause I’m not ready
I’m not ready
did you even know what took you?
did a white light slash across your eyes?
I want so much to think
that you had no idea
or maybe it’s just better to believe
the moments slowed
and you awoke to understanding
that your days were all sewn up
when she said good-bye to you
I want you back today
I want you here today
‘cause I’m not ready
I’m not ready
I want you here today
‘cause I am lost today
and I’m not ready
I’m not ready
I want you watching out
blowing smoke
telling me what time it is
laughing at some stupid joke
folding clothes and spilling coffee
throwing horseshoes in the yard
clearing out behind the couch
following and breaking hearts
making time to tell me why today
I want you alive today
‘cause I’m not ready
I’m not ready
I’m not ready
I’m not ready
I’m not ready
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10. |
||||
Even the Blue Jays Love You
doves alight atop the snow
hawks and falcons soar above you
hummingbirds flit here, then there
and even the blue jays love you
robins dip their spidery wings
ravens call amidst the rainfall
swans will swim across a stream
and even the blue jays love you
oh, they love you
oh, they love you
meadowlarks cry in the field
thrushes weave amongst the trees
cardinals rest proud and still
and even the blue jays love you
mockingbirds sing unknown songs
herons wear ungainly, sweeping grace
martens nest in maple trees
and even the blue jays love you
oh, they love you
oh, they loved you.
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11. |
Friend
02:42
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Friend
lay my soul alongside yours
in laughter long we belong
reassure me when I doubt myself
help me mend
I call you friend
I call you sister call you need
my oxygen my creed
you’re my conscience and my end
I call you friend
I’ll encircle you in warmth
when fears collide you have my pride
I think of you when joys contend
to lift me then
I call you friend
I call you brother call you heart
my ancestor my art
you’re my conscience and my end
I call you friend
staring at a star
hillside cold and sense is too far
from this alien place
but I know calm is in the image of your face
tell me when I’ve gone too far
make me concede a larger need
but tolerate my anger when I rip and rend
I call you sister call you need
my oxygen my creed
you’re my conscience and my end
I call you friend
I call you brother call you heart
my ancestor my art
you’re my conscience and my end
I call you
I call you
pure is pure and sure is sure
love and blood course as a flood
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12. |
Skeleton Key
04:03
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Skeleton Key
keep running scared
keep playing possum
a black cat who will not come down from a tree
you know what you need
but you’re too fearful to blossom
you keep your heart locked with a skeleton key
keep your head down
don’t risk any story
no roller coasters, just biscuits and tea
run for the hills at the first sign of glory
keep your heart locked with a skeleton key
skeleton key, rusted and fragile
disuse makes decay where once you were free
I see you clumsy where once you were agile
you keep your heart locked with a skeleton key
keep tying knots and making excuses
love didn’t ever love judiciously
read a good book about a woman’s abuses
keep your heart locked with a skeleton key
skeleton key, rusted and fragile
disuse makes decay where once you were free
I see you clumsy where once you were agile
you keep your heart locked with a skeleton key
skeleton key, rusted and fragile
disuse makes decay where once you were free
I see you clumsy where once you were agile
you keep your heart locked with a skeleton key
keep telling me that there’s no use in talking
I’ll go on saying what’s righteous to me
as long as I live I’ll watch for you walking
up to the lock with a skeleton key.
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Archipelago Ypsilanti, Michigan
Archipelago is a collective based in Ypsilanti, Michigan. We are purveyors of toothsome music and smart
lyrics.
There are many ways to be humane in this world, and we need every one of them. Our hope is that listening to our dozen endeavors will help.
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