Get all 146 Bill White releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of State of the Heart 4, Human Music, radio art -sightlines, Songs for Kelly, Footprints, Brothers and Sisters, BROTHERS, SISTERS, and 138 more.
1. |
Like Children
05:23
|
|||
thunder in the air
where there was no thunder before
lightning covers the city
like a rain covering the moors
catching a grenade in the trench
with no blessing in the end
sometimes one death pays the price for everyone
but this time even the innocent were condemned
everything went bright to white
in the blinking of an eye
there was no last dance for this song
no kisses, no goodbyes
if we awake to a roosters crow again
and find ourselves dressed up in a different skin
when we come out from under cover
i am certain we shall find each other
like children find one another
maybe we will be neighbors
on the same street
or lonely souls in science class
strangers until our eyes meet
like lovers on a field of battle
seperated by the accident of sides
nothing can keep us apart for long
were coming back in like the tide
ill find you in the rivers
rolling down from the hills
ill find you in the flowers
on sombodys window sill
as i loved you in the day time
ill protect you through the night
when dawn pulls down the covers
we will cut through all the clutter
and we will find each other
the way children find one another
we find it then we lose it
then we wonder what it meant
ive seen more depravity
than dante in his descent
we either suffer silently
or else we just go wild
then pass out like a drunkard
and awaken like a child
the right time the right place
we were there
i was picking out a tune on my guitar
you were combing out your ebony hair
now im lying still like dirt
on an abandoned railroad track
and i wont get up till i find the way
to get you back
stars stars burning bright
which is you and which am i
mother father sister brother
like children we will find each other
|
||||
2. |
The Far Side of Nothing
03:31
|
|||
if i could see myself the way you see me
then i might undestand why you left
but i am stuck inside my own opinion of myself
cause its the only thing that makes sense.
each day gets worse and worse and worse
i dont feel anything
and i wake one dismal morninag
on the far side of nothing
im getting to be like w c fields
kicking children, throwing rocks at dogs
wish i could more like jimmy stewat
kids junping all over me like monkeys
while i lay in bed sawing my logs
each day gets worse and worse and worse
i dont feel anything
and i wake one dismal morninag
on the far side of nothing
we used sing the songa from times gone by
and repeat the words the wise men said
now we walk past the graves without a prayer
because every day is the day of the dead
each day gets worse and worse and worse
i dont feel anything
and i wake one dismal morninag
on the far side of nothing
|
||||
3. |
The Light Eternal
02:52
|
|||
there are things you cant imagine
until you see them for yourself
there is plenty of gas in abandoned cars
but nothing in the pumps
we are born imto one world
and die in another
honey i know you did your best
i wish i could say the same
is the light eternal still burning?
is the light eternal still on fire?
i hear the whole world crying in his voice
i know what its like to be lost in the night
those who have recovered are the ones
who dont remember when they died
is the light eternal still burning?
is the light eternal still on fire?
|
||||
4. |
||||
some say the ghost of gypsy rose
still haunts the trampled lawn
in between the wind and trees
a forlorn song is sung
the panes on these old windows
have been shattered by election
and glassless windows cast
the most terrible reflections
as a child i was raised
in this house on haunted hill
renting rooms to killers on parole
who worked at the sawmill
and in our thirteen dusty rooms
lost souls were resurrected
where glassless windows cast
the most terrible reflections
13 faces at the table
13 jailbirds on the wire
13 colonial cables
13 skeletons in the fire
the old house is still standing
but is buried deep in sand
there might have been a landslide
but there was no sliding land
a rain of sand fell from above
with no sense of direction
and glassless windows cast
the most terrible reflections
|
||||
5. |
We Murder Less
04:07
|
|||
im not saying we’re the best
but we are better than the rest
as we impose our will
upon the weaker imbeciles
we murder less we murder less
we are better than the rest
because we murder less
there is a place for you here
if you keep your mouth shut
while you are at it
keep your mind shut too
we are the ones to decide
what is truth and what are lies
your job is to cut and paste
while we cut and run
im not saying we’re the best
but we are better than the rest
as we impose our will
upon the weaker imbeciles
we murder less we murder less
we are better than the rest
because we murder less
you can go far if you play it smart
and walk the higher ground with us
here in the clouds we can drop our bombs
and clean up the worlds dirty face
there are places to go and people to kill
your job is to take picutres
we will write the headlines
im nor saying we’re the best
but we are better than the rest
as we impose our will
upon the weaker imbeciles
we murder less we murder less
we are better than the rest
because we murder less
dont try to talk in signs
we can read your pantomime
everything you think and do
we can see and read and zoom
our eyes are everywhere
and your poor soul is bare
so either come up here
where you belong
or touch your toes and say so long
you have no other choice
you have no other choice
|
||||
6. |
City of Worms
07:07
|
|||
Hurricanes trace the slaveship trails
Assailing the land with hieroglyphs of wind,
Illegible to those illiterate of nature
Who hear only murmuring silks
As tall ships nudge the nascent moon
Before phosphorous tides draw them down
Into deep water of life forming
Around the banished head
Where magic plays wild in bubbling foam.
The magic of innumerable loves
Infuses a new sky with roundelays
As bees, in flight
From porous torsos of red wood,
Remember the green ants
Hollowing barracks
Like canoe logs in glyphic tributaries.
Now the hives are abuzz with men
Who complain there is no honey.
And there is no honey.
What kind of bee would live among men
Who kill what cannot be used
Who tolerate not what may be feared
And who despise all that issues
From deep water of life forming
From the innumerable loves
Of the banished god.
Away in the city of worms
The castaways rise vain and secure
Now that the walls have been sealed
And nothing can get in
And not even a mosquito squirms
In the city of worms
Where they grow their own Caligulas and Napoleons
In armies of footsoldiers and fuckheads
Good for nothing but gangraping the obelisk.
In this circle-belt of trivia
Where history is obliterated
Where people are eternal
And news the birdseed for parakeets,
Thought is never the call
And always the response.
Away in the city of Roman and Japanese emperors
Egyptian pharaohs and Farouks
The great the terrible and the holy
Annointed and appointed ones
The witch-hunter and the bewitched Senate
These iniquitous bastards of history and the present day
Ride the barge with Cleopatra
Down the Nile, the Amazon, the Yangtze, and the Mississippi rivers
Killing everything in sight.
Assassins of Allende and Romero and Lorca
Assassins of language, music, and the tangible arts
Assassins of Fred Hampton and the students of Kent State and Tiananmen Square
Assassins of the elephant and the unicorn and 10,000 species of snake
Assassins of the clouds
Who bloody the sky with missiles
And in the city suffer inviolate
While in undersea volcanoes
Where the great spirit is banished
A new Earth rises
But the chickenshits and crybabies
The footsoldiers and fuckheads
Will never see it.
Instead, they leap about
Boasting, “We are apes.
We are apes!”
And the great spirit nods in assent.
“You are right,” he weeps.
“You are indeed apes.
But it wasn’t always so.
It was not always so.”
|
||||
7. |
||||
a superhero for every woman
a hound dog for every man
a chef to do the cooking
and a maid to wash the pans
black paint for the windows
on what used to be a store
a nurse to put you under
when you cant stand it any more
but i remember a time
when you could hop on a train
and go anywhere with anyone
and do anything you liked
no more breakin broncos
no more cattle drives
big sam the coffin builder
was the last one seen alive
ill ride through fields of thyme
across the putple heather
then throw my saddle in the river
because nobody can be a cowboy forever
you cant follow the science if you flunk your physics exams
you cant form an alliance
if youre looking for someone to scrub your back
high speed tains will get you nowhere fast
every river ends at the coast
we are living in a spiral dream
of suicides and ghosts
but i remember a time
when you could hop on a train
and go anywhere with anyone
and do anything you liked
no more breakin broncos
no more cattle drives
big sam the coffin builder
was the last one seen alive
ill ride through fields of thyme
across the putple heather
then throw my saddle in the river
because nobody can be a cowboy forever
|
||||
8. |
John Ford
03:45
|
|||
that desert oasis
was an venus fly trap
we fell right into
the enemys lap
the doc was a drunkard
the sheriff was quiet
some called him earp
but to his friends he was wyatt
you can search for a meaning
on the enlightenment ward
but ill take my chances
out here with john ford
we never meant to kill lincoln
it was a kidnapping plot
the ransom was freedom
for the rebels they had caught
but at the last minute
a decision was made
to shoot the man dead
and to hell with the trade
so take your fistful of dollars
and those morricone chords
ill throw in my lot
out here with john ford
three years ethan wandered
alone on the plain
taking the scalps
of the injuns he'd slain
with a hatred so fierce
he would kill his own kin
had it not been for the love
he had stifled within
there is a depot called hell
where the grapes are stored
the stagecoach aint stopping
because it carrying john ford
after the lights
came up on red river
john said to howard
you made a damn good picture
its no fort apache
but im a little jealous. im fact
i never even suspected
that big dumb bastard could act
its a long voyage home
for the damned and adored
expendible sailors
going down with john ford
from the myths and the movies
and the cheap paper backs
you learn more history
than from history hacks
we were born in the rubble
of an uncivil war
and johnny's not welcome
in his brothers house any more
and when justice prevails
and our sanity restored
ill stand with the indians
along side john ford
|
||||
9. |
A Spooky Mirror
02:21
|
|||
she made me believe love could be eternal
lasting through many lifetimes
we travel through the stars
theres a sucker born every minute
you never know it till youre in it
then you forget who you are
how can something so soft be so hard?
i threw everything i owned on the table
set my eyes upon a fixed star
she was like my second skin
so i played the game to win
and lost it all on the turning of a card
how can something so soft be so hard?
i hear these jokers singing all their love songs
some are blazing with emotion
others weak with tears
i am feeling numb in the trainyard with the bums
waiting for my life to disappear
everything i loved inside a spooky mirror
|
||||
10. |
I Don't Remember You
05:28
|
|||
Lyrics:
i remember the times we had together
but i dont remember you
i remember the things we did
but i dont remember you
making love by the fountain
before the donovan show
getting picked up by the police
as runaways long ago
i remember your fathers face
when he cussed me out
but i dont remember you
the grateful dead at golden gardens
smoking perfumed cigarettes
meeting each other in the middle of the night
making love without regrets
i remember the all day bus pass
and all the places we would go to
i remember every kiss we shared
but i dont remember you
i met her in ravenna
listening to the music of the magic fern
and i left her in a fairy tale
but it was very real to her
i was following my horoscope
it was the stupidest thing i ever did
some peole go sliding out
me i only slid
i still think about you
but i cant picture your face
you were always right beside me
but i was in some other place
we shared a bottle of gin on the ferry
the night we almost ran away
and sometimes when i wake up in the morning
it still feels like yesterday
|
||||
11. |
DC-10 (Reprise)
02:55
|
|||
goin back home on a dc 10
aint never comin back again
gonna figure out where it all went wrong
put all the answers into a song
im gettin on a dc 10
gonna be gone with the motherfuckin wind
take me back to where ive been
get these damn tattoos off my skin
im breakin clean on a dc10
im standin in the ticket line
triple feature for a dime
a silver dollar in my hand
coca cola at a hot dog stand
just another sick delinquent teen
flyin high on a dc 10
back on lsd again
everything melting in my head
comin down on a dc 10
i hear some screamin in the early dawn
but i dont really know whats goin on
im gettin thrown into the back seat of a car
got no idea where my parents are
no sense of time in a dc 10
lost all my sense of where and when
pieces of light as we slowly descend
then turn around and around to the end
all alone on a dc 10
|
||||
12. |
In And Out of Time
02:55
|
|||
We enter time
we exit time
all must meet
the end of time
they say some will not taste death
this does not mean they wont die
they just might be the ones
who find the highway in the sky that leads
to their home on high
without falling
it is not the end of the world
it is the end of a generation
everything happens to everyone
everything happens to everyone
we enter time
we exit time
all must meet
the end of time
it is not the end of the world
it is the end of a generation
everything happens to everyone
everything happens to everyone
|
Streaming and Download help
If you like Bill White, you may also like:
Bandcamp Daily your guide to the world of Bandcamp