1. |
The Old Meridian
03:39
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On these ancient cobble streets - traces of a home
I carry forward to this day, the distant evermore
Evening is a resting stage, an empire in the sky
Draped across the mountains to the corners of my eyes
It’s a dark “hallelujah”
For I know you once were too
I retrace every step and storied move
Shadows all down the street
Cracked and sacred urns
A thousand histories I’ve yet to learn
In the Old Meridian I am as you were
My solemn own trajectory ambles to the fold
Bridging raging rivers which divide the new and old
Even streams and tributaries parched by callous sun
Never cease to spread the poetry from whence we come
A rose in the ashes still pricks the naked hand
A never ending homage to this land
Shadows all down the street
Show me where and when
I never thought I’d see you here again
Infinite histories fade into the earth
And leave behind a single, fateful word
That in the Old Meridian I am as you were
Oh, I welcome you to see why
In the South they sing of coastal seas
Whose redolence still comforts me
Shadows walk down the street
Show me where and when
I never thought I’d see you once again
Infinite histories bleed into the earth
And merge into a single truth interred
If you watch down on me, I’m doing all I can
I really hope to be a better man
That in the Old Meridian you were as I am
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2. |
Foothills & Floorboards
03:55
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In the only town I know
Laced with hills up to its folds
Down the peninsula a grave and final blitz
Save the partisans resist
So we found a cave to stay
And Father locked the girls away
I cased the mountaintops for all that I could hear
But just one time I saw not fear
Please - hide me from the war
I’ll keep you from the darkness
I’ll save you from the storm
In a city far true north
Anna screamed in silence,
Swore
And every breath she risks reverberates the shelves
Of the empty volumes around
As the evil occupies
And iron gates of hate arise
She dreams a cunning boy and a stony edifice
And for once a beat of existence
Please - hide me from the war
I’ll keep you from the darkness
I’ll save you from the storm
She spoke a quiet note into the winds of the storm
It slowly grows from words on a page to the force of our pulse
I know every sign of sleep
Since they have all forsaken me
But when I dream it’s filled with visions of a girl
Who brings hope to this dying world
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3. |
A Second Time
04:26
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Tell it to me girl, have you something more to say?
Why don’t you stick around, at least another day?
Like every glance or late-night call
Was just an afterthought
A means to end it all
Don’t you see the signs - I could be your right of way
Take you by the hand and leave you well Astray
Fear you not for we’re in two
Could you leave it all behind
I think I could for you
And I wonder
how much more that I can take
By my bedside
Handing you my heart to break
Take me to the land where you
Hide a thousand miles away and out of touch
You, my deathless muse
Fare thee well until we meet a second time
Every little world shuffled on repeat
Like a lullaby, caressing me to sleep
I'm a-goin' away for a while
I couldn't find the voice to speak
I left you with a smile
Lest you forget
bled in ink I've jotted down
Every promise
leaving me beyond all doubt
Take me to the land where you
Hide a thousand miles away and out of touch
You, my deathless muse
Fare thee well until we meet a second time
Take me to the land where you
Hide a thousand miles away and out of touch
You, undying muse
Fare thee well until we meet a second time
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4. |
Bangarang!
04:44
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Oh you let me be so bad
Be the vice you never had
Dance away into the night with me
Help me now to sing this song
You only ever hum along
Scream the highs
Moan the lows
And shake
Tell me all those lovely lies
Hesitate and improvise
Your damsel in disguise drunk with delight
Don’t you know it’s all pretend?
I’ll play along until the end
And come around if you should call again
Joanna, you said it all and more tonight
Won’t you wipe away your teary eyes
I threw everything on the line
I’ll be fine
You really got a hold on me, yeah
You really got a hold on me, yeah
It’s not my M.O. to let you go
That doesn’t feel right
All that i want is you on top
To stay and sit tight
Oh! You really got a hold on me, yeah
You really got a hold on me, yeah
Open and close i don’t suppose
You care to stay awake
So lay down and dream up gifts to bring
Or things to rob and take
I won’t, I won’t wallow in my doubts
Or rest upon, rest upon my dreams
Come on, come on, tell me all about
The things we could, the things we could achieve
I won’t, I won’t wallow in my doubts
Or rest upon, rest upon my dreams
Come on, come on, tell me all about
What we could, what we’ll never be
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5. |
City Lullabye
03:55
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If I had a way to find
Where it is you call home
I wouldn't lose my voice
Shouting in the wind
Praying somehow you'll hear
Lost in time
So dark so divine
For all the love I control
For all your beauty
So extolled
Dance with grace
Fight in bold
We grow old
A pair of heavy eyes
in the summer hue
of a city avenue
You finally met your match
In this endless game
While the rest, they pray for rain
Staring right into the suns of your eyes
I tried to find a way around
The distance to your soul
Where you burn
Where you're cold
I suppose
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6. |
What Could I Say?
04:27
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It's going on two weeks
Yeah we've lost the will to speak
In a game of give or take that's closely fought
But before this ship does sink
can I have just one more drink?
So not to think all that which could have been
Now has come to naught
Well it's going on a month
That I've longed for your sweet touch
and I'm drawing certain blanks in the between
Like was it ever good? Or have I misunderstood?
Reconstructed fragments faded into silvery daydreams
Oh
For every trip and tumble
Well I've fumbled fifty words
that I meant to say a different way
But nothing would have worked
It's a shame to come to terms
It's going on a year
And it's yet to disappear
The doubt that lingers languidly about
And it burdens me to have to say
That I thought we'd end up okay
But clearly victim to some things
You never can rebound
Oh
For every slip and stumble
Well I fumbled forty-five
Shitty scripted lines
At least I tried to outrun my demise
"At least I tried" is more than you could say
What could I say to fill this blank that separates?
I'd ramble on to your heart's content
What could I do to bring this feeling back to you?
I'm so sorry, this wasn't what I meant
Oh
For every trip and tumble
Well I've fumbled forty verbs
The most egregious being "love"
And yeah, you saw me at my worst
Well that must count for something after all
What could I say to fill this blank that separates?
I'd ramble on to your heart's content
What could I do to bring this feeling back to you?
I'm so sorry, this wasn't what I meant
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7. |
Oh, Emma!
02:33
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If I should yield to one desire
And it weren't you I'd be a liar
Oh, Emma!
Even if you've never known a thought of me
Our fates are sown
Don't question
Your prima facie flash of glee
Is killing all my joie de vivre
Oh, Emma!
She's so green, a furtive state
I need caffeine, I can't relate
I never thought about
The way you bring me down
When I turn my back for good
I know you'll come around
Do you dare concede to me
The fires of your fleeting dreams?
Oh, Emma!
I'd hang upon each syllable
Intoxicating audible enchantments
Pontificate, digress, and slur
Build me up with every word
Oh, Emma!
Comfort me, I'm gone insane
Let me be to pomp and play
I can't stop thinking about
The way you bring me down
When I turn my back for good
I know you'll come around
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8. |
Rising
03:51
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If you want me, you know where I am
My name is Lazarus for I am back and I’m damned
I can’t sleep, try as I might
Do you really want me like you said last night?
A moment in love is worth a lifetime of pain
At least that’s what I thought when you first spoke my name
The storm has passed and I guess we’re fine
Will you really miss me like you said that time?
We are as strong as we fight
But I’ll never be quite as strong as I would like
I’m leaving tomorrow
But I don’t think I’ll get as far as I’d like to go
When in March arrived the Ides
My Emperor breathed his last goodbye
I choked back the tears but they stung my eyes
Did you really love me like you said that time?
We face our demons with vitriol
Well fuck the feelings that come back in full
But answer me this so I can find some respite
Do you really want me like you said last night?
There have been times when I love
And time when I hate
And time I think would have been better off saved
But darling I see you like a beacon of hope
Now lead me ashore so I may follow you home
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9. |
Dawn Revisited
05:19
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It’s not like the night to saunter on quiet and still
As I struggled to fight the urge just to get up until
She cried, yes she cried, a feverous wave of dolor
But it died, yes it died, with a whimper
I fell to the porch, traces of dawn crease the sky
The floodlights just mock the whites of her moony eyes
But I’m not all I seem, like the flaws in the code of our past
Revised in a dream - How I bleed!
It’s been months since I’ve heard a mere whisper
And now weeks since I set out from home
Not a day passes by without you on my mind
Not a day passes by without you
Your heartbeat ascends, a face full of feline intrigue
A ghost on the ledge, defying l’appel du vide
And he reads tragedies with parlor tricks thrown in for scale
While the lady in green turns her head
Cut me down now, baby, undress my belief
Siphon my spirit; give my bones some relief
Renounce your sight, we’ll take on the night
I asked for a name
She wrinkled the lines on her face
And surrendered a smile, eloquent in its disdain
Like a brief elegy on a tombstone adorned in his place
There she lay, interweaved, nigh to scream
It’s been months since I’ve heard a mere whisper
And now weeks since I set out from home
Not a day passes by without you on my mind
Not a day, not a day, not a day
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10. |
There's Darkness
03:15
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There's darkness -
I better stay away
And tell myself this love is but a game
These all add up but who keeps count?
I can count on you to bring me down
Did you take me for a fool?
I look around and I face a sea
Trying to see your face among monotony
Beauty's a mask - is there evil underneath?
Maybe I'm blind or can only see skin deep
But
I could never be so cruel to you
No no no
This dance, our last
Inertia in your tracks
Only a retreat from routine misery
And I know I want more
Well all the lonely people
smother all their doubts
And criticize the ones
Whom they couldn't live without
If you ask me it's silly to ignore
That fire in our bellies
It's what we're fighting for
Does it seem a bit too far to grasp?
Let's steal it back
This dance, our last
Inertia in your tracks
Only a retreat from routine misery
And I know I want more
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11. |
So Sweet and Scarred
02:00
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If I couldn’t bleed I would split myself in three
And follow you around without a heart
And what my eyes would see overlooks the irony
Of the sorrow that we breed but can’t impart
Should time flicker out
We never got the chance to speak about
Shut down quickly and stretched too far
I’m wasting as I wait for a restart
My burned out body branded with your mark
Blessed beneath this curse
So sweet and scarred
In my phantom arms I would hold you ‘til the dawn
Your loaded head like a weight on me
Without legs I’d compensate
With my voice equivocate
And spin a web so thick and frail and free
Though I’m far away
I’ll muse about every move you make
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12. |
Hey, Passerby
04:43
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Hey, passerby
Who caught my eye
Do you think of me at all?
Tonight, in this light
Where i’ll never shine
With time tempestuous
So let repress my frozen breath
The fog upon your house of glass
I see those stones you cast
Speeding for the end
Do you think we’re alone?
Do you know we’re on our own?
In short, do you fear
That i may disappear?
So we sit, deliberate
The frailty of a fate
That’s not per se the one that is to be
But perhaps the one we need
Or will you waltz back in my life
To a melody so grand?
To my ears straight from the siren’s lungs
Well i know that i fucked up
Do you think we’re alone?
Do you know we’re on our own?
In short, are you afraid
Of the things we dare not say?
If you wanted we could both erase
Every story scribbled on this page
My sonnet cannot transform love to rage
As another day’s born from this dying sky
Let us go now, you and I
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13. |
Quit Breaking Me Down
04:33
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I know the darkness
Felt the fright
And watched as innocence
Insidiously tries
To wield its heavy hand
We fill our lungs
Just to suffocate
And live a better life
by dying every day
In fury we became
As lighting we’ll remain
I’m not breaking
I’m smiling
And i climb up the mountain
on the foot trails of death
And i can still hear your voice
And i still taste your breath
And though all things will change
I know that you’ll stay the same
Quit breaking me down
Lay me down
And initiate
The steady arrhythmia
That pulses through my veins
In silent symphonies
And pray for strength to
Diminish not
As we labor on
Despite the heavy thoughts
Of which we do not speak
For silence brings reprieve
I’m not wading
I’m sinking
Morals will drown
In resentiment
Lossless for love
But reductive dissent
And a torrent of hate
To measure the mark of a man
Quit breaking me down
Don’t break me down
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14. |
Woe is Me/U
03:50
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Up on trial, this conversation will betray denial,
Incipient but gaining
Come to prey on those who cannot speak the truth
Between the lines, all the words that I can’t seem to write -
My secret masterpiece
Cuz I can’t make you love me how I want you to
The more I drift, the resounding din of loneliness desecrates my spirit
I can’t face all this any more than you
A veil sits, draped across the face of happiness
I swear it could be ours
But I can’t make you love me how I want you
You came to me an aura in the gloom
Fluttered through me, footprints in my room
Backdated sentiments suddenly manifest in droves
The roaming silhouettes
Retreat and acquiesce to hope
The more i try to say, the less I seem to prove
Falling short of substance from this conquest I recuse
You’ll never be what I wanted you
Was it worth it? Are you certain?
I’ll never find another you
Are you hurting Like i’m hurting?
You’ll never be what I wanted you
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15. |
Wheredurlovgo?
03:36
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Hey there where did your love go?
Did you chew it up and spit it out at me?
Was it washed away by the riptide?
Sucked in and dragged on out to sea
Baby, where did your love go?
Is it locked inside the dungeons of your soul
And you hid the key under the doormat
Out of sight until it beckons once more
Well the night grew so dim
But we found as way to see
And what a sight to behold
We are free and uncontrolled
I can't go on - how could this be?
I found the one who found a way
To set me free
Hey there, where did your love go?
I think it's lying dormant in the sand
Are you too afraid to dig it out or
do the winds of logic sway your fickle hand?
Well she cried out, "did your love die?"
"Try to see beyonds the notions misconceived"
Shall we beat on until we flatline?
Even at the last I will believe
We may be young, sort of dumb
But our story's getting old
My rhythmic blues of solitude
Is a sorry substitute
I can't go on - how could this be?
I found the one who found a way
To set me free
I'll carry on in spite of me
And in rejoice I will destroy my sorrows clean
I'll carry on
Hopelessly
I found the one who found a way
To set me free
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16. |
Be Brave, Son
04:03
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“Be brave, son, be brave
Everything will be okay”
A clever line i can’t afford to lose
“For tomorrow you’ll seed
The roots of victory
And battle hymns
for centuries of use”
“Bullshit” I say
all with one foot in the grave
As they scoff and crown
their failings as an art
With a glowing grin that gleams
And a tongue built to demean
Their offered words
Are nothing but a farce
There’s murder in the trees
And wonder in the eaves
I’m sat sending out messages on keys
Cuz my sister went insane
My brother died in vain
And me, i lost my faith
Be sane men be sane
Let them writhe now in their pain
While the merchants post their flyers on your door
It’s wonderful, you’ll see
As they gargle with their greed
The infallible fathers we adore
Their profession is their sin
Going all out for the win
And they poison us
With all that they espouse
And keep us fat and fed
On circuses and bread
While their bullets spray
Inside the slaughterhouse
The vested virgins weep
Mars drifts off to sleep
At the heels of Lady Liberty
While my sisters go insane
My brothers die in vain
And me, losing all my faith
Be brave, son, be brave
Disregard what they may say
The disillusioned fascist’s run amok
He’s painting pictures on the walls
In his denim coveralls
While the shepherd’s tending blindly
To her flock
Awake, son, awake
And now see the dream we’ve made
Another Sodom toppled like a brick
‘Neath the ramparts we have honed
Temples that we droned
Human Gods too sacrosanct to kick
The taxman is your king
The mayor runs a ring
While i’m sat inside in search of some meaning
Cuz my sister went insane
My brother died in vain
And me, i lost my faith
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17. |
Angels
05:21
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Big Caesar Nashville, Tennessee
Big Caesar is an independent music project, with all songs written and recorded by James Viega.
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