1. |
Shenandoah
05:21
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O Shenandoah I long to see you
Away you rolling river
O Shenandoah I long to see you
Away, I’m bound away
Across the wide Missouri
O Shenandoah I love your daughter
For her I’d cross even these raging waters
For ten long years I courted Sally
She broke my heart here in this valley
O Shenandoah I’ll not deceive you
O Shenandoah I’m bound to leave you
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2. |
Soft Animal
03:39
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The soft animal of my body wants the soft animal of yours
My despair wants to sit down quiet next to your despair
Oh my heart it wants to quit because it is too tired of wanting
But my hands they want your hair
My shoulder wants to lean in close and be there for your leaning
But my anger wants to run away or turn itself inside
My shadow want to know that you’ll be there to help me hold them
I will not run and hide
It’s your laughter that I want to hear floating through the gathering
It’s your hands I want to know about, your hips, your smile, your tears
What you are and what you would be: that’s what I am asking
From my lips to your ears
What is it that you want?
That’s what I’d like to know
Tell me what you want
Tell it to me slow
My footsteps want to walk beside yours somewhere near the river
Oh my eyes they want your dark eyes looking back at me
My arms, they want to hold you until we are both believers
And I want you to be free
I want to touch your face, I want to kiss you by the river
I want you here with me
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3. |
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Oh my dear
What a little time has done to you
Oh my dear
What a little time has done to you
You’re all worked up; in such a state
Boxing at shadows, staying up late
Oh my dear
What a little time has done to you
Oh my dear
What kind of storm blew through?
Oh my dear
What kind of storm blew through?
The demagogue, the general, the priest
Who need you most but love you least
Oh my dear
What kind of storm?
Oh my dear
How did I let you down?
Oh my dear
How did I let you down?
I couldn’t hear you while I was out in the wind
I traded your life for my original sin
Oh my dear
How did I let you down?
Oh my dear
How will we put this right?
Oh my dear
How will we put this right?
Call the bonesetter, bring the hammer around
Or wait for the rain to wash it all down
Bring on the sage to show the brokers the door
Grandmother’s garden or the killing floor
Mother’s milk or a cleansing fire
Gabriel’s horn or Orpheus’s lyre
Oh my dear
How will we put this right?
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4. |
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Old men drinking Seagram’s
Old women champagne
In the golf course clubhouse
In the sleet and the rain
And there’s only one grocery store
And the cannery’s gone
Nobody keeps a garden
But they got bid wide lawns
High school parking lot spaces
With the engine oil stains
And the bleachers on Friday
Filling up for the game
And they pick on the queer kid
And they pick on the Jew
They’re all about winning
Lord, they’re so afraid to lose
And on the volleyball squad
There’s one who didn’t make the cut
She just wanted to fit in
And they branded her a slut
And lord help the smart kid
The one who’s clearly getting gone
But for now it’s open season
For now it’s on
And the tire swing is empty
Nobody plays outside
Coyote eating french fries
At the park ’n’ ride
And there’s exactly two Black kids
Who ain’t exactly having fun
And three shit-hole bars
When the damn day is done
And the kids go off to college
And then they drift back home
Find someone who did the same thing
So they don’t have to be alone
They buy big shitty houses
And more stuff than they can use
Trampolines and jet skis
And a hundred pair of shoes
They roll over and they do it
And they make a few kids
And they take ‘em to church
Just like their parents did
And in the middle of the town
In the middle of the night
There’s a busted skateboard
Beneath a blinking red light
It’s a mean old town
It’s a mean old town
It’s a mean old town
It’s a mean old town
It’s a mean old town
It’s a mean old town
You will never ever leave
This mean old town
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5. |
You and (Everybody Else)
02:57
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Last night and the night before that
You’re sitting there staring at a screen
Staring at a screen
Tryna figure where it’s at
You and everybody else
Lost child and you want to be found
You’re sitting there swimming in your mind
Swimming in your mind
And you think you’re gonna drown
You and everybody else
They gave you everything that you could want
Now you’re sitting there hungry like a ghost
Hungry like a ghost
Full of nothing that you want
You and everybody else
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6. |
Early Summer of '21
02:59
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Early Summer of ’21
When we felt like it was all clear
I guess we went a little crazy
Hugging everyone
We rode our bikes to the riverbank
Put our bodies in the water
Watched the little ones splashing
Drunk on the warmth of the sun
We took a train to the City
Like we hadn’t done in two years
And we packed into McSorley’s
Just to sit and have a beer
And we waited in a long line
Just to get a taco
And we were licking our fingers
Eyes full of tears
Nobody can tell you
’Til you see it with your eyes
No matter how full up with sorrow
Behind the clouds there was always the sky
There was a singer on the sidewalk
And she had a little crowd there
And she was young and she was soulful
And she was raking it in
And then we stopped into a thrift store
And you tried on a sweater
And I said that you looked pretty
And you gave me a grin
And we walked around the village
Just to see the people
And the day was so perfect
Even though we knew it had to end
And on the last train home
We could still hear that street song
And we were just so happy
To have been in the world again
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7. |
Five Hundred Days
02:35
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We’ll see you in five hundred days
We’ll see you tomorrow
We’ll see you on a day without a name
And you’re gonna love it here
They got dogs here- they got trees they got snow
They got water everywhere
When it’s next to the land they call it the sea
When it falls from the sky it’s called rain
They got bikes here- they got sidewalks and buses
All to take you somewhere
It gets loud here… sometimes it’s lonely
But there are dogs in the city too
They got friends here, they got strangers
Hands to help and hands to hold
Everyone tries to say what they mean
And your heart’s gonna break some days
But your heart’s gonna mend some days
And the heart goes on beating just the same
We’ll see you in five hundred days
We’ll see you tomorrow
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8. |
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Little one in a car seat in the back of a Honda
That your mother is fueling at the pump next to mine
While the screens on each pump chatter at the grownups
American consumers in an orderly line
On the eve of the inaugural snow is falling
And the mind as they say is amazed at its fall
And my left hand is freezing and your face is so perfect
And I see in your eyes our history’s call
And I smile in the way that we hominids do
When we see a little baby hominid like you
And you smile back with a look of joy or indigestion
And I shiver straight down to my bones
Little one, may I remind you that you and I live
In the eightieth straight decade of a steady decline
In violence, which used to be the curse of our species
And so things probably should (and yet they don’t) feel just fine
‘Cause on the eve of the inaugural there’s a look
Of pure nervousness on every face that I see
I mean, I know: things rise and things fall, but like
Everyone else I never thought that that applied to you and me
And I smile in the way that we hominids do
When we see a little baby hominid like you
And you smile back with a look of joy or indigestion
And I shiver straight down to my bones
Little one I bequeath you this hurtling rock
With its rainforest lung and its molten iron heart
It’s tattered oceans and weary flora and fauna
Among whom we hominids have made a tentative start
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9. |
Pray for Rain
03:21
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When your weary tale is too cold to tell
And every stranger’s glance turns you away
When the mask you wear is a worn-out shell
And your guiding lights refuse to say
When the pages in your secret book
Are torn and stained
Oh my child, oh my child
Close your eyes and pray for rain
Now the better angels have fled the field
And the people sway to a devil’s song
Every bitter seed has come to fruit
And common mercy deserts the throng
The eyes and the hands of the city on the hill
Are hard as stone
Oh my friends, oh my friends
Close your eyes; you’re not alone
Who needs to know when the knowing is easy?
You can go, but going is gone
Who’s gonna hold you when you’re alone
And traveling on?
Every face you keep in your tender heart
They must make their way in the heedless wind
And although you’ve worked all of your life
There is nothing you can keep; you can only begin
But I’ll be just around the curve of the river and the road
Where they reach the sea
Oh my love, oh my love
Close your eyes and reach for me
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10. |
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Now that we are all as lonely
As the lonely always were
I am just like you: a face behind a screen
A voice at the end of a line
And I’m so scared
‘Cause I don’t get to know
If I’m gonna see you on the other side
Does it help to know that this was always true?
Because it was
And so then what were you saying
When you said I love you? What does that mean?
Now that you don’t get to know
If you’re gonna see me on the other side
Days will go by one by one by many
And we’ll go on
And we’ll forget and we’ll remember
And we’ll say I love you
And we don’t get to know
But I’m gonna see you on the other side
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11. |
February Too
03:11
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All the way from Anchorage
To Tuscon, Arizona
You were rubbing the sore muscles of my mind
Tumbling through the jet stream
Pitch and roll and yaw
With fifty-seven dollars
And a mood best left behind
I’ll remember you if you’ll remember me
When we’re gone and there’s nothing to remember
I’ll remember you if you’ll remember me
July, June, October and September
February too
We were married on a winter day
And on a summer afternoon
We’ll get married any time we want to
Now we’re moving to the city
Where they living’s free and easy
You can go, but the destination haunts you
I’ll remember you if you’ll remember me
When we’re gone and there’s nothing to remember
I’ll remember you if you’ll remember me
July, June, October and September
February too when there’s nothing left to do
But shine on
Now it’s goodbye to the money
Goodbye to peace of mind
Goodbye to languid morning loving
Hand in hand off the diving board
In all our finery
With a Hail Mary to the endless sky above
I’ll remember you if you’ll remember me
When we’re gone and there’s nothing to remember
I’ll remember you if you’ll remember me
July, June, October and September
February too when there’s nothing left to do
But shine on
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12. |
Song for Michael Brown
03:02
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I’m asking you to have some compassion
For young dead Michael Brown
And for his family
And for his city
And for the man who shot him down
And for all of the marchers
And for the cops and the soldiers
And for the angry white men on TV
And for the mothers, and the hopeful
And the fearful, and the hateful
And the righteous
And you and me
And for our friends
And for our families
And for our neighbors one and all
And most especially for the next child
For the next child we know will fall
I know God loves us
I know God loves us
I know God loves us
I don’t know how
But I’m asking you to have some compassion
For young dead Michael Brown
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13. |
Love Is the Only Thing
04:20
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All you true believers
All you wide receivers
Anyone who calls this world your home
When the war is over
I’ll still be your brother
Maybe we can sort the right from the wrong
Who will put it back the way that it was?
Who will turn the lights on just because?
Love is a hurting thing
Oh but love is the only thing
Anymore
All you American dreamers
All you Gay Deceivers
Who will cross your heart and hope to die
Bring your X-ray vision
From the bedroom to the kitchen
I’ve seen it all; you don’t have to be shy
Let me put it back the way that it was
Let me turn the lights on just because
Love is a hurting thing
Oh but love is the only thing
Anymore
All you happy hookers
All you nightclub bookers
Anyone who’s fallen from their throne
There’s a rainbow in the gutter
There’s dewdrops on the shutter
I’m out here in the garden and I’m all alone
Love is a hurting thing
Oh but love is the only thing
Anymore
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Peter Mulvey Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Over the past 20 years, Peter Mulvey has pursued a restless, eclectic path as a writer and musician immersing himself in Tin Pan Alley jazz, modern acoustic, poetry, narrative, and Americana stylings. Relentlessly touring as a headliner his attitude is, “When you love what you do, you can work all the time.” ... more
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