1. |
Ollie Bronson
04:12
|
|||
"Ollie Bronson"
They said his name was Ollie Bronson,
A hired hand for Orville Longman
And that every day he drove past my house in his shitty Chevy
His wife was gone, his parents dead, his favorite word was “groovy”
I found boot-scuffs in the kitchen
And bullet-holes and broken pictures
And down the hall, outside my room, that's where I found him
He was full of holes, mouth filled with nails, and his eyes were open
More than scared, he just looked lonesome
His open eyes frozen for someone
Hauled him away, in a body bag, they said dead was heavy
The detective shrugged, and the coroner laughed and said, “Now come and help me.”
They said his name was Ollie Bronson
I found his boot-scuffs in the kitchen
More than scared, he just looked lonesome
His open eyes frozen for someone
|
||||
2. |
Won't You Be the Man
05:03
|
|||
"Won't You Be the Man"
You know I’ve got a mean streak
and my knuckles are dripping blood,
I almost killed that boy I think
I’d kill ‘em all for you, for love
Mary, Mary, Mary, Mary.
I had a dream that you were driving my dad’s car
and you leaned to kiss me as you drove us through the park
And I said, “Mary, please won’t you be the man”
If they parole me, I’ll be out by May
You come and find me; I’ll do anything you say
And I’ll say, “Mary, please, won’t you be the man?
Momma broke down when the cops came
And my dad, he broke my nose
I cried like a girl, ashamed
Blood and water soaked my clothes
Mary, Mary, Mary, Mary.
If you love me, then come take me away
We’ll get married when I get out in May
And I’ll say, “Mary, please, won’t you be the man?”
|
||||
3. |
Anna Lee
04:32
|
|||
"Anna Lee"
I don’t need another night to think
I’ve been blindsided, broken down and beat
I twisted a nail into a ring
Now the church bells are ringing but I can’t sing
Mama always said I had a crooked heart
But when you look at me, I fall apart
I sold my favorite pony
And I gave up the drink
Because you drive me crazy, Anna Lee
The fall of man don’t mean nothing to me
I could never pick myself up off the street
But on the west side of Texas I was redeemed
By a daisy in the desert of Abilene
Mama always said I had a crooked heart
But when you look at me, I fall apart
I sold my favorite pony
And I gave up the drink
Because you drive me crazy, Anna Lee
|
||||
4. |
||||
"Her Smiles Were Lightning"
I held on, real tight
To your dress, all night
And we danced, a two-step
And when you left, I wept
Fair is my love, and she’s as cruel as she is fair
She ain’t been back to the barroom; I been looking for her there
Her smiles were lightning, but her pride was despair
She’s a sinner, a tormentor, an acolyte, a chalice bearer
I searched, and you hid
Then you lied; then I did
And you hit me, with your good hand
Then you kissed me, like a coke can
Fair is my love, and she’s as cruel as she is fair
She ain’t been back to the barroom; I been looking for her there
Her smiles were lightning, but her pride was despair
She’s a sinner, a tormentor, an acolyte, a chalice bearer
[Sonnet from "Beauty, Time, and Love" by Samuel Daniel]
"FAIR is my Love and cruel as she's fair;
Her brow-shades frown, although her eyes are sunny.
Her smiles are lightning, though her pride despair,
And her disdains are gall, her favours honey:
A modest maid, deck'd with a blush of honour,
Whose feet do tread green paths of youth and love;
The wonder of all eyes that look upon her,
Sacred on earth, design'd a Saint above.
Chastity and Beauty, which were deadly foes,
Live reconcilèd friends within her brow;
And had she Pity to conjoin with those,
Then who had heard the plaints I utter now?
For had she not been fair, and thus unkind,
My Muse had slept, and none had known my mind."
Then you came back, with your red dress
And a new man, in a cutlass
And you tangoed, on the dance floor
And you watched me, like a trap door
Fair is my love, and she’s as cruel as she is fair
She’s a sinner, a tormentor, an acolyte, a chalice bearer
|
||||
5. |
The Tide Had Come In
04:12
|
|||
"The Tide Had Come In"
We waded out in the shallows; we walked in the sand
Then lay beneath a willow. I had your hair in my hand
We fell asleep to the whistle of a breeze through the leaves
Far from your farm and your Henry Lee
I awoke in a puddle. The tide had come in
You had left me a-sleepin to return to your man
I gazed up to heaven and it stared down on me
And I cursed you and your Henry Lee
On the last day of summer, you stayed the night in my bed
I was sleepless from counting every hair on your head
Fell asleep to the whistle of the wind through the screen
Far from your farm and your Henry Lee
I awoke in a puddle. The tide had come in
I was soaked in your blood and face to face with your man
I gazed out to heaven and it stared down on me
From the rage-ridden eyes of Henry Lee
We waded out in the shallows; we walked in the sand
I kneeled beneath the willow. He had gun in his hand
The night was a whistle of the breeze through the trees
And I cursed you and your Henry Lee
I awoke in a puddle. The tide had come in
I was kickin and screamin. Gun pressed tight to my skin
Held my face in the water. Had my hair in his hand
|
||||
6. |
Like A Coin
04:54
|
|||
"Like A Coin"
Stand before the wishing well
Dream and pray for all you’ve wanted
Light a match and cast the spell
Rhyming in this world is slanted
Dry your eyes
It's only a lie
Fall into the dark again
One more time
Drop a coin into the dark
Listen to the water ripple
Calm yourself and hold your mark
Swallowing a poison apple
Dry your eyes
One more time
Fall into the dark again
It's only a lie
Take your clothes off; don’t be shy
Modesty’s the plague of sinners
Hold your breath and close your eyes
Now, like a coin, into the water
Stand before the wishing well
Living in this world is slanted
|
||||
7. |
When Everything Was Dark
06:28
|
|||
"When Everything Was Dark"
“It’s all darkness,” Jacob said. He swept his upturned palm around in a half-circle, his arm outstretched, as though he were gesturing at something obvious, the way the maestro draws applause for the orchestra he’s just conducted, the orchestra which, more likely than not, would not have missed a note if the man had dropped dead after the first movement. Such a gesture is always an admission. Its meaning always the same: Can’t you see? For all my pains at controlling this, it is, quite literally, beyond me. It is out of my hands. It belongs to you, to them, to the world. It is the world. It’s the gesture of a fallen god.
The boy had asked him a childish question. “Why do the shadows get long when it’s almost night?”
“Look around.” Jacob said. “You’re right, the shadows are getting longer, but, look at the light too. Look at what’s happening even to the light. Shadows are dark—always dark—even when they leak out across the grass into the street. But what’s happening to the light?”
The boy paused and peered out into the distance. He squinted his eyes. Such conversation had become rather commonplace between father and son, and the boy had learned when to feign reflection. Finally he answered, “At lunchtime the light is brighter. The light gets dirtier closer to night.”
Jacob seemed pleased with this. “Yes, yes, the darkness slowly joins itself to the light, so slowly, so calmly and patiently. It winds itself around the center of light, sullies it, soaks it, until it’s permeated the light completely. Until the light is gone. Until the light has become darkness.”
Jacob stood without moving or talking for a long time, gazing into the changing sky. The boy watched, too, as night overcame day, just as his father had said. As he looked up at the man, he saw the sunlight die in the distance on the tree-line behind him. Darkness washed over Jacob’s crumpled pork pie hat, his hairy face, his worn, denim work shirt, and wrinkled black pants. He had become a silhouetted scarecrow or circus clown. Darkness seemed to have overtaken his father, along with the rest of it, almost. There was a brightness in the eyes that was not extinguished with the sun—a brightness that was, for the moment, lost somewhere in the sky in some star-lit reverie. Jacob’s eyes seemed to blink with the same faint sparkle of those stars. It occurred to the boy that he couldn’t quite decide whether his father had merely been describing the dreary play of darkness and light or if he had cast the darkness into the sky with his words. Then the man’s eyes shot down, their light trained on the boy.
Jacob spoke, his tongue darting around, almost unable to keep up with the rambling words he spit into the air. His wide eyes never left the boy’s. “There was a time when everything was dark,” he said. “No sun. No stars, nothing. Just dark. Light has always been the exception, a luxury, a fake. Light and heat are accidents. People talk about balance and harmony—of darkness and light—as if they were equivalent, as if they weren’t out to devour one another. But darkness has its own harmony with cold, with stillness, with peace. Light is a mistake. Its very presence corrupts the dark and cold of space itself. Look up there. It’s darkness that overcomes all. There’s no balance. Our day is a delusion, a lie we tell ourselves ourselves, tell each other, because we fail to face the facts: that we are pathetic accidents of the light, that stupid life is part of what’s wrong with the universe. And worse than that—.”
Then he seemed to remember himself and broke his gaze away from the boy’s, shaking himself as one shakes off the cold. “Never mind,” he said blankly. “Let’s head home.” Jacob took a few steps. The boy didn’t follow. When he noticed what looked like a tear shimmering down the boy’s nose, Jacob softened a little and gestured somewhat obscurely toward him, as if to say, come along or I don’t know or maybe even I’m sorry. But, whatever it was intended to convey, it was the maestro’s gesture.
The sun had gone down now. It was night.
|
||||
8. |
Another Mariachi
04:37
|
|||
"Another Mariachi"
For every note she ever wrote
And every sour song I sang
For every string I ever rang
And every sullen wave goodbye
Every Bird is a scavenger
Run when they come around
Leave you here for another mariachi
To come back and finish your song
For every lie she ever tried
And every yarn I spun
And every eye she ever turned
And every frozen one
Every Bird is a scavenger
Run when they come around
Leave you here for another mariachi
To come back and finish your song
For every word she ever heard
And every time I spoke
For every curve and broken nerve
And every cloud of smoke
Every Bird is a scavenger
Run when they come around
Leave you here for another mariachi
To come back and finish your song
For every cloud she ever split
And every frozen bough
For every pit she fell in
There was a cold blue wind
|
||||
9. |
Dark of the Center Line
04:45
|
|||
“Dark of the Center Line”
I was driving through Kentucky
On that old, familiar line
That marries Tennessee to Illinois
Like they was ribs on a concrete spine.
I was mirrored in the windows,
So I was smeared on every tree.
And across the sky and every billboard sign
There was a faint, blurry picture of me.
Can you tell me, and even tell a lie?
It ain’t written in no book that I can find.
Can you tell me, and can you tell me true?
Does the dark of the center-line lead somewhere too?
I headed west to see the mountains,
To feel the desert baking dry,
All the way to the Pacific coast
To see the sun set on the other side.
When I was staring into a canyon,
The desert sands, or out to sea,
All I could see was something wasn’t there,
Like something missing inside of me.
Can you tell me, and even tell a lie?
It ain’t written in no book that I can find.
Can you tell me, and can you tell me true?
Does the dark of the center-line lead somewhere?
Can you tell me, and even tell a lie?
It ain’t written in no book that I can find.
Can you tell me, and can you tell me true?
Does the dark of the center-line lead somewhere too?
|
||||
10. |
Far Side of the Mountain
04:05
|
|||
"Far Side of the Mountain"
He’s been staying the far side of the mountain
They say that Lois left him, but no one’s seen her living
The yard is full of cars and women’s clothes that he don’t own
Heard they tried the phone, then they called the law, but he ain’t home
Nothing in the daylight, a fence around the hillside,
Jangling of wood chimes, noises in the nighttime
The yard is full of cans with bullet holes from guns that he don’t own
Heard they tapped his phone, when they called the law, and he ain’t alone
A Pit Bull and a Mastiff tore into the sheriff
Someone saw a smoke whiff rising in the sunset
You can hear ‘em in the moonlight howlin like a dog fight
High on meth and Bud Light, suckin on a glass pipe
Heard a woman screeching, hollering, and screaming
Ringing through a hard rain from the far side of the mountain
Just shadows in a downpour leavin in a four-door
Out along the lakeshore, packed in like a clown car
Off onto the highway covered me in road-spray
Someone jumped a freight train, vanished in the tall grain
|
Manzanita Bones
Music. Melodies. Mystery. Mankind. Malice. Machines. Melancholia. Mothers. Martyrs. Malaise. Masks. Manifestoes. Moxie. Marriage. Malignancy. Maps. Manure. Manners. Mares. Manipulation. Mercenaries. Maniacs. Manacles. Mountains. Murder. Malady. Madness. ... more
Streaming and Download help
Manzanita Bones recommends:
If you like Manzanita Bones, you may also like:
Bandcamp Daily your guide to the world of Bandcamp