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Gorgeous Tom

by Archipelago

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1.
1000 Clowns 03:10
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
2.
Asleep 03:18
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
3.
Battle Creek 04:28
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
4.
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
5.
(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
6.
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
7.
Under Water 03:30
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
8.
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
9.
Ready 03:20
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
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.
11.
Friend 02:42
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
12.
Skeleton Key 04:03
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.

about

This is the first release from Archipelago, a collective based in Ypsilanti, Michigan. It was recorded, mastered, and mixed at Backstreet Studios and Willis Sound.

credits

released August 14, 2020

produced by Brian Lillie
recorded and mastered by Jim Roll
mixed by Jim Roll and Brian Lillie
all songs composed by Karl Sikkenga

musicians: Abby Alwin, Billy Harrington, Brian diBlassio, Brian Lillie,
Carol Gray, Jeremy Bredfeldt, Jim Roll, Josh Grekin, Karl Sikkenga,
Kristin LeSueur, Merrill Hodnefield, Owl diBlassio, Peter Smith, Sam Vail

album art by Elizabeth Sikkenga
artist photograph by Brian Lillie

the deepest gratitude I have is for Cecilia Hernandez

for Kaeli Rose, Evie, and Roxanne

second album will be released in 2021

debts are owed to William, Sheila, Elizabeth, and Karen Sikkenga;
Thich Nhat Hanh and Pema Chodron; Rickie Lee Jones and Joe Jackson

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about

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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