1. |
Wires
03:19
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Wires, nothing but wires
The circuit is open,
The synapse is fired
Frequency strained to the skies,
Circling higher
I am nothing but wires
Mind, nothing but mind
This body was born but I’m not of your kind
I am the ghost of a star
Take out your eyes, come see what you are
Hold them on high,
Bound by your wires, nothing but wires,
Coiling out for infinite miles of
Intricate wires,
Nothing but wires,
Shimmering wires,
I am nothing but wires
Love, deep deadly love
Heart of the mountain, flesh of the dove
Teeth of your ancestors,
Blood of your blood
I am the fire where the temple once stood
I am the fire where the temple once stood
I am the fire,
I am he, we are
Wires, nothing but wires,
Coiling out for infinite miles of
Intricate wires,
Nothing but wires,
Shimmering wires
Oh, nothing but dreams.
I give you your dreams
Scanning your mind to divine what I mean
Behold,
I am man as he’s never been seen
You are the spectator pressed to the screen
We are the screen, nothing between us but
Wires, nothing but wires,
Coiling out for infinite miles of
Intricate wires,
Nothing but wires
Shimmering wires,
I am nothing but wires
Nothing but wires
Coiling cathedrals, elegant spires,
Nothing but wires
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2. |
Everything, Everywhere
03:39
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Bye bye baby, it’s a brand new world
And I can’t be bothered today
I hear a warm white noise, I think it’s your voice
But I can’t make out a word you say
I got a hole in the head where I let in the sky
Everything, everywhere, all of the time
The water is rising but I’m feeling fine
Everything, everywhere, all of the time
Everything, everywhere, all of the time
I said "Love love love", doncha gimme none-a that, no
These stories can't sell themselves without me
There’s war in the air, I'm strainin' to care so just
Stitch your lips to the side of the screen
I'll tune you in any damn hour that I please
How many millions died for me to be free?
Steo one: you hold your tongue, let’s pretend that you’ve won,
You keep the kids, leave infinity to me
I got a hole in the head where I let in the sky
Everything, everywhere, all of the time
The water is rising but I’m feeling fine
Everything, everywhere, all of the time
Everything, everywhere, all of the time
What does it matter if I’m unkind?
I can see my friends every night at the same time
What does it matter if I’m untrue?
What binds me to me? What binds me to you?
It looks like a rose, but the petals are dyin'
Foam at the mouth, singin' praise to the sky
Hold up your palm, watch the hours rolling by
Patent still pending on a broken design
Bullets are sprouting from barbed wire vines
Got a hole in my head and an eight track mind
The numbers are down, but we can still get high
On everything, everywhere, all of the time
Everything, everywhere, all of the time
Everything, everywhere, all of the time
Everything, everywhere, all of the time
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3. |
Desire
04:50
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Desire has come to find me in my quarters
Asks me why we don’t speak no more
And what I’m really here to prove
She smiles at me, I’m smiling too
She lights a cigarette and shuts the door
Desire wakes me long before the coffee,
Lulls me long before the dark red wine
She can’t keep her slender fingers off me
Her eyes insist we can take our time
Oh, the myriad of ways in which I want you
On my arm and on this silver moonlit street
In this song and in my head,
In this photo, dressed in red
In this bed and sighing with me sweet
Desire, be my window onto silence
Drape like silk across my fragile frame
Be the burning presence of her absence
Scour me with my need,
Strip me of my name
Oh, the myriad of ways in which I want you
On my arm and on this silver, moonlit street
In this song and in my head,
In this photo, dressed in red
In this bed and sighing to me sweet
Desire, you can burn my vain resistance
Light a fiery beacon spelling “more, more, more!”
Hold me to the coals of your insistence
This honey is too thick and sweet to pour
Oh, the myriad of ways in which I want you
On my arm, and on this silver, moonlit street
In this song and in my head,
In this photo, dressed in red...
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4. |
The Light Goes Out
04:10
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Some subtle ghost is reaching back for me
Failing now to hide behind my face
Here he is declaiming with my voice
There you glimpse him standing in my place
Before the light goes out
Before the light goes out
Icy fibers knit into my heart,
Beating hard and straining towards the sun
Trembling fingers pull the strands apart,
Light them up like candles one by one
Before the light goes out
Before the light goes out
Before the light goes out
Before the light goes out
We could start over with a different past in mind
Nothing has died here, we can stop time before the light goes out
So let the blood flow back into the wound
Drive the arrow deeper through the tree
Don’t lose your head, bring out your dead, we can make it easy
'Cause I have taken time out of my day
To give the world the finger and be done
And still it seems to go out of its way
To turn each petty curse into song
Before the light goes out
Before the light goes out
Before the light goes out
Before the light goes out
We could start over with a different past in mind…
Do you know where you are?
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5. |
On Your Side
03:16
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Oh man, will you not be healed?
Man, will you not be healed?
What is it, to feel all this pain that you feel
Oh man, will you not be whole?
Man, will you not be whole?
What is it, to know all this hell that you know?
I am on your side
I am on your side
What you wanna die for?
"If I could lay my burden down," he whispers,
"I could build a bridge to thee
But if I lay my burden down," he wonders,
"Who will recognize me? Who will I be?"
Oh man, can you hear my voice?
Man, can you hear my voice?
Don't you leave me now, you still have a choice
Oh man, will you not be healed?
Man, will you not be healed?
Won't you miss the sun, don't you know you're real?
I am on your side
I am on your side
What you wanna die for?
So lay down your arms and blunt your swords,
Do you even know what you heart beats for?
Whether you lose or win your war, you leave me
Don't leave
Won't you miss the sun, don't you know you're real?
I am on your side
I am on your side
I am on your side
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6. |
Mother of Death
03:14
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Listen, she’s coming
Up the furrows where the tanks drove
Past the ruins, past the graveyard
In the raiment of a widow
Listen, she’s coming
Like a flash-flood without warning
To wash those shallow roots away
And swell the banks by morning
Yeah, she’s comin,
Put your pistol down
Listen, she’s closer,
She’s rattling the windows
With her wake spread wide behind her
Just as blackened as the meadow
Oh listen, don’t fight it,
Y’know she only wants to hold you
You can mock her name, but don’t dare
Say she never warned you
Yes, she’s comin,
Better light a candle
She come back to dance atop the temple,
Feed you a little piece of your shadow,
Colorin’ daylight black,
Welcome, daughter of night,
Welcome, nothing is left,
Welcome, bringer of light,
Welcome, Mother of Death
I know you know it’s time,
I know you know it’s right,
Make straight the way, don’t be left behind
Listen, she’s here now
She’s oh, so pleased to see you
Don’t you get no big ideas, boy
You’re just a lung for her to breathe through
Oh, listen, she’s comin’,
She’s doin’ what she pleases
She may wrap you in her arms
Or tear you into pieces
Yes, she’s comin,
Better light a candle
She come back to dance atop the temple,
Callin' all bullets back to the barrel,
Colorin’ the daylight black,
Welcome, daughter of night,
Welcome, nothing is left,
Welcome, bringer of light,
Welcome, Mother of Death
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7. |
Lazarus, Come Forth!
04:07
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“Oh distant father, ancient father,
Why have you forsaken me?
I can't see my jailer's faces,
Would someone turn the lights on…:
She wears these prayers like ashes
Like her only children,
And says "Be still,
They’re only sleeping"
But when she sleeps,
She dreams she hears some ancient voice cry
“Lazarus, come forth!”
And in this dream she feels her shaky fingers
Tear her bones up from the earth
there is a light that shines in darkness,
a plea from the infirmary
the nurses hide their faces
they’ve got a brand new skin on
you gotta get it out past the wall
the truth ain’t safe from the law
but out where the desert flower grows,
the child is waking
But when she sleeps,
She dreams she hears some ancient voice cry
“Lazarus, come forth!”
And in this dream she feels her shaky fingers
Tear her bones up from the earth
They say “Kill the queen, the queen is dead,
Long live the king, long live the king!”
Perhaps the child is waking, perhaps the child is sleeping,
Perhaps the child is crying
Perhaps the child is waking,
Perhaps the child is sleeping,
Perhaps the child is dying
But when she sleeps,
She dreams she hears some ancient voice cry
“Lazarus, come forth!”
And in this dream she feels her shaky fingers
Tear her bones up from the earth
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8. |
Silas
04:52
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Silas
Silas made the history books today
Silas found a way to make ‘em pay
He was born in a capsule
Miles from the schoolyard
When his mama died they say he never grieved
Wouldn’t steal from his employers but he’d lie right to a child
“For their own good,” he solemnly believed
He got mostly passing grades, the occasional raise,
Neither handsome nor too tough on the eyes
He was rather well-behaved,
Not noticeably brave,
Nothing that would warrant a disguise
But Silas made the history books today
Silas found a way to make ‘em pay
Simple pleasures, sleight of hand,
Middling height, the anti-man
Made the history books today
Where he came from the only rule was “never say you’re sorry.
Don't own up to a fault unless it pays”.
When the hurricane came heavy
He put money on the levy,
Drank a whisky while he watched it wash away
They found him at the embassy, took him into custody
He didn't have a damn word to say
But "There's a curious kind of honor
In the algebra of slaughter,
We're equal in the waters of decay"
And Silas made the history books today
Silas found a way to make ‘em pay
Simple pleasures, sleight of hand,
Middling height, the anti-man
Made the history books today
So the newsmen filled the blanks in
The generals moved the tanks
Across a border no one even knew was there
And the door swung open to a cell
That fit the warden very well
The fingerprints rose into the air
The last man’s name is Legion,
We all are of his body,
Cut the head off and another will arise
Covered in his father’s ashes,
Followed by his laughter,
Cut the head off but the laughter never dies
The laughter never dies
Silas made the history books today
Silas found a way to make ‘em pay
Simple pleasures, sleight of hand,
Middling height, the antiman
Made the history books today,
Go to sleep, now!
Silas made the history books today
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9. |
Brilliant Light
03:33
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The theater is closing again and the lights burn low
On two hearts suspended in time in the center row
Behind the curtain is a stage,
And behind that stage is a brilliant light
Tell me your improbable stories,
And let me tell my own
Tell me the one about those rebel hearts who found their way back home
By the glowing of a coal lit by unknown hands in an unsung life
Behind the curtain is a stage,
And behind that stage is a brilliant light
Come and wipe the blood from my face,
I'm just glad you're home
Come and carve your tale next to mine in the margins of my bones
And I tell you, we will make them true
When we learn how to tell them right
Behind the veil is a face,
And behind that face is a brilliant light
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Oliver Franklin Boulder, Colorado
Oliver Franklin is a songwriter, composer and performer from the Pacific Northwest who now lives in Colorado. His raw but literate songwriting is a consistent through line as his musical explorations wind through ambitious electronic settings, gritty folk noir and lush psychedelia. ... more
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