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Listener's Choice - Best of 2020

by Bill White

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1.
2.
wasnt the reddest apple on the tree. I was too old to be anything but me. You knew all along I was a catastrophy. So why did you pluck me? I was hanging tough from a tender branch. I couldnt take the slaughter at your family ranch. Why couldnt you just have let me be? Why did you pluck me? You say you know what I like And you like doing it But you are going to lose If you keep on pursuing it There was no reason for me to be gagged and bound Soon enough I would have fallen to the ground. You could have waited until I fell out of my tree. Why did you pluck me? I wasnt the reddest apple on the tree. I was too old to be anything but me. You knew all along I was a catastrophy. So why did you pluck me?
3.
For Peace 05:53
The judge is a lion The prosecutor is a big bad wolf Twelve jurors make a coven There is a sniper on the roof Broken concrete for a staircase Leading pst him to the tower Innocence is never innocent And the rose is not a flower Isnt anybody praying for peace any more? Isnt anybody singing for peace any more? Isnt anybody marching for peace any more? No...everybodys praying, everybodys singing Everybodys marching back to war Testimonies well rehearsed To support the prosecution Cross examinations struck out As harrassment elocution Every article is faulty Just a premise in the rear Assumptions and presumptions In and out of deafened ears Isnt anybody praying for peace any more? Isnt anybody singing for peace any more? Isnt anybody marching for peace any more? No, no no...everybodys singing, everybodys praying Everybodys marching off to war Give the infantry its guns Give the navy back their ships The sun gets hotter every day What we need is an eclipse Down with the word! Down with the flesh! If you try to stop us now We will wipe your memory clean If you try to stop us now We will wipe you out We’ll wipe you out! Gonna wipe you Out!
4.
What happened to my ride? What happened to my dough? The party is over Ive no place to go All of times markings have disappeared Will somebody show me the way out of here? You cant take the high road because of the fog You could follow the river were it not for the dogs The best route to take is the pathway concealed But dont shut your eys when crossing the field Oh lord, if a cloud be your window Oh lord, if youre watching over me Please send some rest. Im so weary But dont let me fall to sleep My homeland lies beyond the bend If I sleep, my journey ends And Ill never make it home I lift my face up from the grass And try to join the crowds that pass But I am passing into stone Oh if a cloud be your window If youre watching over me Just send a little rest to the weary But dont let me fall to sleep What happened to my friend who promised to return? Did he fall asleep in the courtyard Where the winter flames still burn? What happened to the music? Why did the lights go out? Who stole the water from the river And set their face against this house? Oh lord, Oh lord , Oh lord Listen to my prayer If a cloud be your window If youre watching over me Send a little rest for the weary But dont let me fall to sleep
5.
In the sparkless rays of starlight The sun is breaking through Nothing ever gets older Because nothing is ever new Still I can hear you calling Sensing your wicked grin But Im not coming out, my friend Because I never came in The moon doesnt seem so far away When it is reflected at the top of the ceiling When you break through the top of the tent It is an entirely different feeling In the sparkless glory Of an embered star We see but cant remember Who we were, who we are Will there be another flesh Arraying you and me? Or are we just broken glades of phosphorous Dissolving in the sea? The bridge was under water When I made my midnight run I crossed the Hudson River with a geiger counter and a gun In the sparkling rays of sunlight The sun is coming through Nothing ever gets older Because there is never anything new Still I can hear them calling Sensing their wicked grins Im not coming out, my friend Because I never came in
6.
ve had days in prison Worse than this Such days were few I had a bad haircut Clothes didnt fit But the friends I had were true So down with Freedom, Death to the French Im parking my ass on this parking bench Up With People, Coca Cola too We got a package war to lay on you Its a little bit of worry And a whole lot of rock and roll Dont fuck with me Argentina Or Ill bounce a bonus arrow Off the bullets in your rotten soul Do your time Stay in line Dont pay attention to them If you stay, you are dead If you leave, condemned Forever condemned Its a little bit of worry And a whole lot of rock and roll Dont fuck with me Argentina Or Ill bounce a bonus arrow Off the bullets of your rotten soul White smoke Rises from the mausoleum The people close and lock their shutters Assassins dance in Vatican robes And all the nuns want to be mothers Its a little bit of worry And a whole lot of rock and roll Dont fuck with me Argentina Or Ill bounce another bonus arrow Off the bullets in your rotten souDn't
7.
2020 Vision 03:02
I came from you but I cant come to you I can fall down but I cant fall up If I had 20/20 Vision Id put the butter back into the buttercup You say you come from Spain I know its Mexico But we are both in Louisiana now And thats all they need to know I dont care where you came from Or how you pronounce your name We all grew up with Elvis And that makes us pretty much all the same I came from you but I cant come to you I can fall down but I cant fall up If I had 20/20 Vision Id put the butter back into the buttercup You are Charlie McCarthy I am Knucklehead Smiff We both got a slice of the same pie But its not the same smell that we sniff There are two dead people In the swimming pool Which one is Joey O Leary? And which one is Leroy Cool? I came from you but I cant come to you I can fall down but I cant fall up If I had 20/20 Vision Id put the butter back into the buttercup If I had 20/20 vision.........
8.
verse 1....everybody has a special place they'll remember till the end of days a place they came to find themselves where true frendships were born its all about the moments that were spent outside of time leaving traces of ourselves in lovely places chorus....this is now an express train if you are not going to pork chop hill get off at the next stop if you dont want to be roasted like a fully-dressed pheasant this is the last exit verse 2 no pictures, no recordings, what happens here remains here it is ours for a moment and then it disappears the end of tradition, the birth of innovation the last exit of escape from a suicided nation verse 3 .....eve and her coven of cowboys, sit at the table round the click of the chess board timer the metronome of the underground on monday the sign ups start early for singers to sing their three songs on wednesday the poets are hoping to find a place where they feel they belong bridge ...tor de kon plays the sunlight sonata on the spinet out by the back stairs charles manson is eating some hot apple pie while irv eyeballs the hips and the squares pill popping, table hopping, kilo copping kids i cant believe we got away with all the things that we did verse 3.....we started out as fugitives and ended as refugees writing songs of revolution all thats left is elegys now at each re-union we sing the songbook for the missing and we'll keep on singing till the last of us is gone
9.
communityedit navigation bar Greenpoint, Brooklyn from Lovely Places by Bill White Share / Embed Wishlist Edit Delete Bulk Edit 00:00 / 03:15 Digital Track Streaming + Download Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. Buy Digital Track $1 USD or more Send as Gift Buy the Full Digital Album Full Digital Discography Edit 95 releases Get all 95 Bill White releases available on Bandcamp and save 60%. Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Let's Pretend It Is Christmas, Busker 3 Out-Takes, Mermaid Ballerina, Busker 2 - Dead Reckoning, Busker, Lovely Places, Our Souls Have Always... Have always Been Known, Trampolines, and 87 more. Buy Digital Discography $63.60 USD or more (60% OFF) Send as Gift lyrics as long as youve got another butt in the pack rolled up in in the sleeve of your t shirt then youve got a friend in greenpoint as long as youve got cold beers in the icebox youve got a party going on but when youve got nothing for your dirtbag neighbors then youve got no friends in greenpoint and if youre stuck in the ghetto of greenpoint with no money for the subway fare then youre stuck by yourself in greenpoint you might die in the park on a hot friday night and you might lie there dead until sunday unless youve got a friend who discovers you there and calls the police to remove you from there and maybe even a doctor will make a quick check and a good guess as to what caused you to die on that hot friday night in greenpoint but if youve got the cash to pick up the beer tab then you might get a a girlfriend in greenpoint if you dont mind that shes a stripper who accepts flowers from men you might even have a wedding in greenpoint but me i have chosen to go without friends they are too costly and most of them are finks and they will follow you for pizza on two for one day leaving you only one pizza to eat and they show up at your house in the morning for coffee and dont leave til they have smoked your last cigarette and if you are lucky and have a job they will wait til youve left in the morning then come over and take what they want whlle your gone yeah, life is a con in greenpoint if your taking the train from manhattan this is where all the white folks get off
10.
Shakespearem He said it all before The Bible said it too But they were talking to someone else This is me talking to you There is a high wind rising It blows from east to west Blowing all the birds Back into their nests Now mama bird said to papa bird I swear I heard a snake Papa bird searches every branch Using his beak like a rake He combs through each leaf most carefully No snake can be found found But down below there is a man in the back of a truck Singing “Alabama Bound” “Alabama Bound” “Alabama Bound” I swear I heard Leadbelly singing, “Alabama Bound” On the streets of Burmingham The scene is so much worse A woman was walking through a no-cop zone When a pelican stole her purse The mayor believes that dogs can talk And elephants can fly But he doesnt belueve it s such a big deal When a million honey bees die Taking a walk to the grocery store Takes an iron will What goes up doesnt always go down Just ask the ghosts on Pork Chop Hill Some old whore tries to get me to touch her She is all infected and dirty She wants us to talk about the good old days When she was exceptionally pretty Trying to get to the Carolinas Driving with Texas plates But the highway patrol blocking the border Wouldnt let me into the state So instead I headed for Florida Thunking Id slice a little sand But the beaches were lined with refrigerated trucks Taking the dead to a better land The love birds and the hate birds Are learning new songs every day All the songs they used to sing Are being thrown away Two ears can pick it up in stereo One ear listens to mono And the birds that flew out of Frisco Never made it to Capistrano Im “Alabama Bound” “Alabama Bound” Im looking down And I swear I heard Leadbelly singing, “Alabama Bound
11.
I was reading a book on the fire side When I remembered I left something on the stove I made a beeline to the kitchen You said I moved like a bee From one place to another Noticing nothing in between You never liked the way that I did things But Im just like you and you are just like me Im just like you and you are just like me We just grew up differently You said I never showed you anything I never pointed out constellations I never taught you the names of flowers That were planted in your fish house You didnt know fettuccini from lasagna Or a salmon from a trout But you never hung around long enough for me to figure that out And Im just like you and you are just like me Yeah Im just like you and you are just like me But we just grew up differently I saw you racing down the highway With your new boyfriend smiling He was like a crazy baboon who thought he invented the wheel I never had the money to change all four tires in one day But I bought a new one every month and none of them tire fell off And Im just like you and you are just like me Im just like you and you are just like me But we grew up differently
12.
Its raining in the mountains There is fire on the plains Aint no place safe any more And there is no one left to blame No more buses leaving I cant even take a train Its raining in the mountains and I cant go home again Down into the Maple Valley To where the Cedar River flows We used to swing across it Hanging from a piece of rope It wasnt hard to catch a salmon Using both of your hands with the morning sun a rising Feet planted deep in the sand I found water in the deset Where there was none to be found I found love in the asylum Now its buried in the ground Its raining in the mountains There are fires on the plain Aint no place safe anymore And I cant go home again
13.
I left my wife and kids in the house of the rising sun Found a dead man in the swamp his pockets were full of junk Jumped a riverboat to Memphis then caught a bus heading west At a rest stop in El Paso I got sloppy drunk A copper found me in an alley Shook my shoulders good He said boy whats your story? I told him I was on my way from hell to hollywood He put me back on the greyhound where I passed out on Seagrams 7 Came to in a desert town 200 miles east of heaven When I said I came from Memphis, my seatbelt beat me senseless Said we both got on in Texas and I couldnt argue with that He told me he was from Durango born in a whorehouse parlor Married a luckless cinderella who never lost her shoes He stuck around to help her out like a good husband should But he got fed up and hit the road from hell to hollywood When we pulled into the final station a bunch of cops were waiting They cuffed my buddy then they chained him and dragged him by the hair Seems he escaped from a Juarez prison Swam across the rio grande Caught a bus out of E Paso headed west to the promised land Me I found a flophouse in a rundown neighborhood I was also on the run from hell to hollywood Why hollywood? you ask whats so special about that place? Because a man can go unrecognuzed unless he has a famous face People on the highway dont usually last too long Running from the law or just the shame of doing wrong Everones up to something Mosty its no good We all keep a running from hell to hollywood
14.
I left my wife and kids in the house of the rising sun Found a dead man in the swamp his pockets were full of junk Jumped a riverboat to Memphis then caught a bus heading west At a rest stop in El Paso I got sloppy drunk A copper found me in an alley Shook my shoulders good He said boy whats your story? I told him I was on my way from hell to hollywood He put me back on the greyhound where I passed out on Seagrams 7 Came to in a desert town 200 miles east of heaven When I said I came from Memphis, my seatbelt beat me senseless Said we both got on in Texas and I couldnt argue with that He told me he was from Durango born in a whorehouse parlor Married a luckless cinderella who never lost her shoes He stuck around to help her out like a good husband should But he got fed up and hit the road from hell to hollywood When we pulled into the final station a bunch of cops were waiting They cuffed my buddy then they chained him and dragged him by the hair Seems he escaped from a Juarez prison Swam across the rio grande Caught a bus out of E Paso headed west to the promised land Me I found a flophouse in a rundown neighborhood I was also on the run from hell to hollywood Why hollywood? you ask whats so special about that place? Because a man can go unrecognuzed unless he has a famous face People on the highway dont usually last too long Running from the law or just the shame of doing wrong Everones up to something Mosty its no good We all keep a running from hell to hollywood
15.
I used to dream of giving you A red shoes tickle and a judo chop kiss I used to dream that I could fly In formation with the people I missed I used to dream of a time when getting stoned Meant living in a world of laughter The colors were brighter, the air was always lighter And the cold was just a draft I used to dream I was in love With people I never knew But I woke up from those dreams When I fell in love with you Today I walked beneath a rainbow The rainbow said, “Hi there” But I kept on walking Because I didnt care I never thought songs would be out of date I thought people would always be singing Even when armies tore down the houses of the gods I expected the bells to keep ringing I used to dream of evil And the christening of doom Every time I woke up I felt the devil in the room Still I dream of a time When everyone agrees That no one has the right To take another persons life
16.
You are my friend We do not agree I am in accord With the enemy Looks can be deceiving But if seeing is believing Then everybodys plane s leavng Except mine Danger in the land You think its about to pass But your freedoms are done The worst is yet to come You put a man in power You think he rules alone But the shadows that surround him Used to work for Al Capone You have been cheated You have been lied to You get what you have got You havent had a decent leader since Kennedy was shot

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This is a free compilation of the songs that received the most plays in 2020. They come from the seven solo albums made by Bill White in 2020-. This year, Blue Tower Records also released two albums pf collaboration between Bill White and other artists.. three albums of covers by bill white, and the second album by carmen del estrella. A total of 1.269 songs on billwhite.bandcamp.com received 4,242 plays this year. Thank you everyone who has listened..

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released January 8, 2021

all songs written and performed by Bill White copywrite 2020

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Bill White Lima, Peru

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