Get all 10 C Alexander releases available on Bandcamp and save 20%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Sometimes Quickly, Sometimes Slowly, Untitled, Unfinished, Unwritten, Unconceived, Girlfriend is Better - Forty Years of Life in America, Side B, Forty Years of Life in America Side A, 3 Old Songs, The Meaning of Feeling Good, The Final Recordings, An Overhaul, and 2 more.
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My eyes have seen the glory of the coming of a war
With battle flags and banners waving out of every door
A grand parade
A ceremony still
The eyes of children grateful for their fill
The army's on a hillside with their tanks and boning knives
The daggers warped and ancient, ammunition: new and live
A flag unfurls
A sanguinary star
A fist of smoke thick with the stench of tar
Take it down, wrap it up, bag it up, do what you have to do
Heads are piked along a nameless castle's rotting door
The hymnals of the innocent lie moldering before
An oil like shroud
A reddish milky haze
Behind the eyes of every living face
My eyes have seen the bloody slush of fingers in the snow
My eyes have seen the children lining cemetery row
My eyes have seen enough
It's time to let them go
If someone can do better, I don't know
If you're a warrior, clap your hands
You'll have your fill of fallow lands
If you're millennial, wait your turn
You'll get to see your cities burn
If there is love why is there always such a darkness in the way?
If there is love, why is the sum of life still predator and pray?
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2. |
Dead Ringers
06:21
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Open the door, come in the room, come in disguise
You have a quick and devious look in your eyes
Was it something I said? Something you wore?
Something you wanted? Something more?
Well give it a name, give it a voice, give it a ride
Undo the clasp around your neck, kill the alarm
You've got a secret underneath, you came in armed
Was it something I said? Something you wore?
Something you wanted? Something more?
Well let there be blood, let there be skin, let there be harm
Come in the bed, leave on your clothes, wait for the dark
You've got a look, you've got a move, you've got a mark
Was it something I said? Something you wore?
Something you wanted? Something more?
Well let there be fire, let there be smoke, let there be sparks
Wouldn't it be nice if we were older?
Then we wouldn't have to smile at all.
Did your heart go boom when you crossed that room?
Or was the fuse lit when you entered the hall?
Oh mommy's all right, and daddy's just fine
They're both just a little eager to leave it behind
Put on your clothes, turn on the light, holster the gun
You've got a think, you start to say, you've got to run
Was it something I said? Something you wore?
Something you wanted? Something more?
Well let yourself, leave me alone, let it be done
The deed follows you through the door
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3. |
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You know you need somebody else's feeling just to have one of your own
You know you need a room full of new people who have never heard your jokes
You wake up in a soaking bed again, the blood in halos 'round your head
And stay up with no place to go, all day with no place to go
(And doesn't that embarrass you? It should.)
What's another word for something that you can't ignore anymore?
You stare at shining screens so much, you'd think by now you might have seen the light
You have ideas, but not a plan except to run from everyone you know
You lay down with a heavy head, it's full of shit from every book you've read
And stay down with no place to go, all night with no place to go
Spiders in the bath
Not too wet to lay their tracks
Lick their chops and then attack
And once they're full, they never come back
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4. |
For You
06:47
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Would you like to spend the night at home?
I can always spend the night at home with you
Or would you like to spend the night alone?
Would you like to have the night at home for you?
Would you like to spend the day in bed?
I can always spend the day in bed with you
Or would you like it to yourself instead?
Would you like to have the day in bed for you?
Go and take a drive through the middle of town
Takes a minute to walk, takes an hour to park
Take a spill on the ground
Go and find a doctor who takes all your cars
Took an hour to wait, takes a minute to see
Put your weight on my arm
Would you like to have another name?
Should we try to find some other name for you?
Or would you like to keep it all the same?
I know will I will always feel the same for you
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5. |
Who I Am
04:37
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There's another thing that I never got to tell you
It's about my former life
But the bill is laid in front of you
Naming you the ower
So I guess by now there's no surprise
I fear everyone is, each of us leading someone else in
To an early, shallow grave
Maybe I'm the everyone that I'm
Always disavowing
Maybe I'm the thing I hate
Do your best, intentional(ly)
My friends all like to say we were absent on the day they gave
Instructions out for life
How to be honest with others and
Repay all your debtors
And a host of things we didn't like
Well the poison's left my system but lately I've been dreaming
That I can't get off my phone
I don't want to live a life like I'm
Red ink come alive
I don't want to die alone
There's a friendly face in front of the door
There's another voice you trust more than yours
There is someone else alone at the dance
There's a twenty second chance
This is who I am
There's a crack in the ice with no one around
There's a plane in the air, its nose to the ground
There's a pistol that has its snub shaven down
There's a small and desperate sound
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6. |
Best Thing
03:48
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Come in alone, come right along
You're the best thing I've ever had
Walk in the park, or wait til it's dark
You're the best thing I've ever had
Look you right in the eye
Poke your tongue out and I
Think it's all just the best
Stick a pin in my chest
Never see you in jeans, don't know what that means
You're the best thing I've ever had
Nobody sticks around when you walk in
They look at you and they get to talking
But nobody makes a sound anymore
Sleep until eight, the cat was up late
You're the best thing I've ever had
Poke out your tongue, "puncha your buns"
You're the best thing I've ever had
When the world will collapse
And there's no turning back
We did all that we could
I'll at least be with someone good
One two three
Na na na
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7. |
A: Blame Yourself
06:31
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I remember sitting
In a car no bigger than my bed
The shoulder belt lay flat behind my head
And a scent that I would come to love
As something like fermented pine
Was thick across my father's easy smile
I have always tried to trace the scars to him
But the more I look, there's only country teeth and skin
Please protect me from myself
Can you help me or turn me into someone else?
I will always be the one to hurt myself
I will always be the one to hurt you. "Blame yourself."
I remember driving
In a car no bigger than my bed
The windshield turning purple, blue and red
And I thought I felt the presence
Of a power loving and divine
I thought I heard it tell me to keep driving
You can circle around the world in search of truth
You can run forever when you know it's not in you
I remember hearing the beginning chords of "A Hard Day's Night"
It sounded like a blueprint for a life
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8. |
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In school I thought the worst would be the ruler-happy nuns
Now I know it's just the promise of a wise, impartial judge
What if we had killed the kid as Solomon suggested?
What if I kept on pretending, and never was suspected?
And thank you for the detailed map where "X" marks every wound
Just one more unwanted gift to pile into my mother's room
Have you ever tried to love someone who can see themselves in 20,000 faces?
Have you ever tried to love someone who can shatter glass from several hundred paces?
Did you want to die in my arms every night, like you heard in that insipid song?
I was dying every night looking at you sleep knowing everything you dreamed was wrong
And I'm sorry, but no one can be this sorry.
But once all of the rage and bitterness had burned away
You stood in front of millions and you found you'd nothing left to say
But time and money should have healed - who am I to you anymore?
But here you come again, still looking sheepish, darkening my door
And thank you for the phone call warning me you would be here
If only I could leave you twice. If only you would disappear.
Have you ever tried to love someone who can go for years and never say a word?
Have you ever tried to love someone who can live this way and still expect the world?
Did you want your hand in my hand every night so the world could see that I was yours?
I had my life on my hands; what we had was nice, but I wanted less and you did more.
And I'm sorry, but no one can be this sorry.
So what is it you want today?
Don't you have sins of your own?
Don't you know you cannot draw another drop of blood
When you've cut right to the bone?
Yes, it's true that I have sinned.
Guilty on all counts.
But you've already had your pound of flesh:
You won't get another ounce.
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9. |
D: Let My People Go
01:00
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Oh Lord Jesus, do you think I've done my time
The eight legs of the devil now are crawling up and down my spine
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10. |
Three Chord Loser
03:50
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THREE CHORD LOSER (or, A Genius Meets His Public)
Once I get this figured out
You all will be amazed
Until I do, yr stuck in here with me
Well, no one's really stuck here
There's an open door
For someone to walk in and love my chords
I saw my girlfriend's band the other night,
They're so unprofessional
One day I'll get my chance
You all will weep through all my confessionals
Songs can rhyme with singalongs
Songs can rhyme with long
All the ones I do seem to rhyme wrong
But once I get the phrasing
You'll all stand and applaud
Well, no one's really here, and that's too bad
I heard some Royal Headache just before,
They're so unoriginal.
Is it so wrong to do it just like them?
Is that so despicable?
I came up with these chords to kill some time
They're so unexceptional
But if I play them right
I'll have you think they're all three intentional
Anyone can do it,
So why the hell can't I?
I think I'll get the answer when I die.
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