Get all 12 Andrew Calhoun releases available on Bandcamp and save 30%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Skeins, Rhymer's Tower: Ballads of the Anglo-Scottish Border, Living Room, Grapevine, Bound to Go, Staring at the Sun (Songs 1973-1981), Shadow of a Wing, Telfer's Cows: Folk Ballads from Scotland, and 4 more.
1. |
Getaway
02:14
|
|||
Make your getaway, darling
Ride the midnight bus
Leave all that struggle and snarling
Come on back to us
I've got a homemade meal in the freezer
Hidden way down in the back
There's one cold beer for a teaser
There's a cup with your name in the rack
Hearts dance like flies in the darkness
Feeling their way to the light
I know you're out there somewhere
Keeping me awake all night
I've grown so scared of loving
How far it all goes wrong
Sometimes it's worth the losing
For a chance to sing the song
|
||||
2. |
I Love You All the Time
02:46
|
|||
For how long now, you drag along
And you can't quite see to name what's wrong
Though sometimes you may hate the war
It's the struggle that I love you for
I love you all the time
I love you all the time
Make a wish, send a note
Downriver on the mailboat
Send it through the heart of space
I can find you anyplace
I love you all the time
I love you all the time
You don't have to make it pay and you don't have to be some way
To make it fast, or make it last
Or try to make up for the past
I love you all the time
I love you all the time
Walk away from that black hole
And the flame that burns the living soul
Sky and sea and earth and sun
The world is born in everyone
I love you all the time
I love you all the time
|
||||
3. |
Glad Old Man
02:14
|
|||
I'm gonna be a glad old man
I'm gonna be a glad old man
Gonna sit on the porch and sing a sad song
And I'm gonna be a glad old man
I'm gonna have two doxen grandkids
Bangin' on the baby grand
But I won't take them to Disneyworld
Nor never to Disneyland
Gonna take 'em out in a rowboat
On a sweet late summer day
Gonna float around and say nothin'
'cause I got nothing better to say
I won't watch no TV
And I won't listen to the news
And I won't go to the doctor
'cause I got better things to do
I'm gonna plant 8 million flowers
Fix supper for the local mutts
I'm gonna sit on the toilet for hours
And drive my old lady nuts
I'll rest on the couch all afternoon
She can tell the guests I'm sick
But if she wants to get right to sleep at night
She'll have to beat me off with a stick
I'll be fond of my old friend
And she'll be fond of me
And I'll love her more at 94
Than I did at 93
|
||||
4. |
The Swimmer
03:47
|
|||
There's a swimmer who's swimming out under the sky,
Who fell from a ship and caught in the eye
Of unseeing nature, he will struggle and try;
It helps him forget about having to die.
A man with a mortgage, a house and a lawn,
Is mowing and working and paying along,
His money is tied up, and his body is bound
To a family and a country, and a hole in the ground.
Good shoes and warm clothes are a comfort to wear,
When the winter winds shriek in an effort to scare
Little children from sleep, to the devil knows where;
Keep walking, keep moving, don't leave yourself there.
This party's a good one, there's hors d'oevres and wine,
Pretty people, witty people, people on and off line;
I want to get married in a purple bow-tie,
To help me forget about having to die.
It's love and it's warfare from rattle to tomb,
And it's both of them calling me back to this room,
Where the curve of your body, and the look in your eye
Make me feel worse and better about having to die.
|
||||
5. |
Veteran
05:18
|
|||
Do you love a gander?
Do you love a goose?
Are you chief commander?
Is your body loose?
Do you love a genie?
Do you love a snake?
Do you and John and Benny
Grab at once, or alternate?
My time is your time
My life is yours to see
Our life is echoed mountains
Our space is memory
See me in your high school yearbook
See me at your senior prom
See me fresh out of the army
See me home from Vietnam
See our house be broken
See our bed spinning round
Our life is leaf and hopes
See little armies shoot them down
Little armies on the sidewalk
Helicopters overhead
Spinning near where you and I talk
Kill the living, wake the dead
See the body in the ocean
See the woman on the quay
Life and love and tender tears
And melancholy ecstasy
See me walking with a placard
See me throw my badge away
See me very truly sorry
See me broken anyway
We are moving westward
We are breaking camp
See our silence fester
See us cold and damp
Skinny Susan, are you happy
Skinny Susan, are you sad
Skinny Susan, do you love me
Are you dead or sick or mad?
Mine is the crying mountain
Mine the deadly blow
Mine the dry fountain
Mine, the din below
Mine, the silver shadow
Mine, the lone machine
Mine, the revolving echo
Poison oak and kerosene
Will you love a killer?
Will you take a chance?
Screwdriver and a chaser
Would you like to dance
Will you forgive a table
Will you forgive a shoe
Do you forgive the rain
For serenading down on you
Do you forgive the sunrise
Coming on a troubled house
Do you forgive the mousetrap
Or the landlord, or the mouse
|
||||
6. |
You Better Get a Lawyer
01:56
|
|||
She wants the kids, the house, the car,
You better get a lawyer
You can keep the dogs and your old guitar,
Better get a lawyer
You don't count, you don't rate
She's gonna move right out of state
You better get a lawyer
You shouldn't get caught running around
You better get a lawyer
Never shoulda put her daddy down
You better get a lawyer
She's got the junk, she's got the facts
You get the trunk and you get the axe
You better get a lawyer
It was so fine, it was so sweet
You better get a lawyer
You're running into debt, 'cause you're dead meat
You better get a lawyer
To tie the knot just takes two
To untie one takes her and you
And you better get a lawyer
Someday you'll say, when all this ends
You better get a lawyer
Maybe you two would've stayed friends
If it wasn't for the lawyers
|
||||
7. |
Balls
03:13
|
|||
I've been in your kitchen, I've been in your halls,
I'll stand in your doorway and sing of my balls;
My balls! My balls!
I'll stand in your doorway and sing of my balls.
Now, I've climbed your tall mountains and crossed your great plains,
I've lassoed your cattle and kicked out their brains,
On the sands of West Texas, where the coyote calls,
I'll stand on your badlands and sing of my balls.
Now, I've swum all your rivers and sailed all your seas,
Picked apples and peaches and harvested peas
In Northern California, where the redwood grow talls,
I'll stand in your hot-tub and sing of my balls.
Now, I've sung at Bar Mitzvahs and other occasions,
On prize-winning floats, and at peace demonstations;
Been compared to Harry Chapin, Lou Reed and Lou Rawls,
I'll stand on your stage and I'll sing of my balls.
Now, I rode with old Hannibal, when he crossed the Alps,
I fought beside Blackhawk, and cut off your scalps;
And with mighty Caesar, who conquered the Gauls,
I'll stand on your windpipe and sing of my balls.
Now, my song is ending, though it's barely begun,
And if I'm not well-heeled, well at least I'm well-hung;
And sometimes in a rainstorm, when the Pontiac stalls,
I'll stand on the roadside and sing of my balls.
|
||||
8. |
Scrapbook
03:26
|
|||
Flying with the starling
Running with the deer
I'm looking for my darling
I thought she would be here
Chorus:
I need more love
Than I can show
I need more love
Than you will ever know
Don't hold me up against it
Don't catch me when I fail
Let me wander through it slowly
Don't call me on detail
Just like that babe in arms, dear
Just like that hungry bear
Just like that leaping lapdog
Wrestler in a wheelchair
And when I lose my focus
Fooled and falsely free
Then I lose my darling
Wishing she were me
And if I speak unkindly
When I am half awake
Let your love be larger then
Than my last mistake
|
||||
9. |
Long Legged Lover
02:49
|
|||
Chorus:
I wanna thank my long legged lover,
And she'd thank me, I suppose;
I wanna thank that long legged lover,
Who sewed me a new suit of clothes.
That old suit was so ill-fitting,
Too thin to keep me warm;
With flaws in the size and the stitching,
To bind a changing form.
(Chorus)
Maybe it was my mother,
Maybe my angry wife;
Who sewed that suit so tight on me,
I couldn't get it off myself.
(Chorus)
This new suit is so damn pretty,
I can't believe it's mine;
Ain't that temptress a beauty,
And don't the emperor look fine.
|
||||
10. |
She's Like the Autumn
02:17
|
|||
She's like the autumn to me
She's like the autumn to me
Like a well-worn sweater
Like a lost love letter
Apple hanging ripe from a tree
She's coming to visit soon
She's coming to visit soon
Time waiting for a bus
Leaves twirl in front of us
Let's jump up to the moon
She's like the autumn to me
She's like the autumn to me
Light in a window full of song
Laughter scatt'r'ing right and wrong
Living in a mystery
She's like the autumn to me
She's like the autumn to me
Stars shine the stern grace
Seeds falling into place
Steal back your memory
|
||||
11. |
If
03:08
|
|||
If I were the long hand, circling by,
She'd be the hour hand, and she'd ask me why;
If I were a problem, in a big textbook,
She'd be the sister, who'd come and take a look,
Come and take a look.
If she were a mountain, and a mountain valley,
I'd be the water, rolling down her belly.
If she were the heat of an August day,
I'd be the street, where the kids all play,
Where the kids all play.
If she were the shoes on a two-bit hood,
I'd be the shoe-shine boy, and I'd shine 'em up good;
If I were the cast, and she the play,
We'd shock the people, and we'd send 'em all away,
We'd send 'em all away.
If she were the sand on the ocean shore,
I'd build a castle to stand evermore;
If I were the sun, and she were the sea,
I'd smile down at her and she'd smile up at me,
Smile up at me.
|
||||
12. |
Survivor
04:29
|
|||
Cut me a hole in your body
Cut me a hole in your time
Cut me a hole in your freedom
I'll cut a hole in mine
I'll cut a hole in my story
I'll cut a hole in my game
I'll cut a hole in my shadow
Hold me right up to the flame
Hold me right up to the mirror
Hold me right up to the ghost
Where the children were frozen in terror
And all of their honor was lost
Where it turned into, "I don't need this one"
And, "I can do better than you"
And suffering Jesus remembers
Much better than all of you do
Yes, suffering Jesus remembers
Who stole the pitcher of tea
And who gave the beggar refusal
And who stuck a sword into me
As I was the one who was chosen
To pay the high price of sin
On the cold, hot floor of unreason
At the wheel where worlds begin
As God is my mother and father
You have no more of that name
By the power of all I remember
By the freedom that comes with that claim
For here is a girl who's been beaten
But still, she is willing to try
And forced at the altar of falsehood
Still she is unwilling to lie
And what does that say for our silence
And all of the feeling we fake
All of those bleak, wasted moments
All the excuses we make
May you outlive the end of that story
And in harmony's banner of light
May you walk a long morning in glory
Up the hill at the end of the night
May you walk a long morning in glory
Up the hill at the end of the night
|
||||
13. |
Recall
03:48
|
|||
I recall your biscuits and gravy
I recall a very wild sky
I recall a man who walked and said nothing
It was all one long goodbye
I recall your eyelashes and toothpaste
I recall an unhappy dawn
I recall a gate that was often left open
After the guests were gone
I recall your sandpaper midnight
I recall your long, billowing dream
That you let me stand up and lie down in
That you let me in between
I recall your kneecaps and notebook
I recall the still, dead lake
I recall the long seasons of rhyming time
And the front that was not fake
I recall a shower in Memphis
I recall a razor in Maine
I recall a stronger woman who sang
Till the tears fell down like rain
And it's now my tears come falling
And it's here my dreams come true
Here I am lost in my own country
With never a breath of you
With never a breath of your reasons
And never a taste of your salt
Free from that tyrant hunger
Who finds no food but fault
I am off in the wild blue yonder
Out in the prairie so wild
Up where the flowers go crazy with blooming
And dance in the mind of a child
I recall our first failure and triumph
The ceiling and hypnotized cat
I recall great and small and the rise and the fall
From longer ago that that
And it's now my tears come falling
And it's here my dreams come true
Here I am lost in my own country
With never a breath of you
With never a breath of your reasons
And never a taste of your salt
Free from that tyrant hunger
Who finds no food but fault
I am off in the wild blue yonder
Out in the prairie so wild
Up where the flowers go crazy with blooming
And dance in the mind of a child
|
Streaming and Download help
If you like Andrew Calhoun, you may also like:
Bandcamp Daily your guide to the world of Bandcamp