1. |
when it started
02:15
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a rhythm is growing & drips from my head
as the ghosts seem to gather 'round the foot of my bed
below i hear chanting, beneath there is song
as the soil sings softly what we thought to be gone
when it started things were quiet, things were wet and sweet and silent
then the water started moving & the lights were so consuming
then it happen
i was light then i was color, sent to find a soul to smother
so i stood an old pine tree, all among the burning leaves
then i lived among the worms, there to dig and crawl and squirm
straight below the ocean floor, an octopi forevermore
till i came to be a toucan, flying free, i swear i still can
to the running of the horse, half of me or maybe more
next a potawatomi, slain among the brave & free
so a pioneer must roam from the land that once was home
& the hobo wanders blindly, hoping someone come to find me
& the hippie smiles sweetly, knowing love is all completely
and finally i came to be a human.
like a baby to a boy, threw away my old chew toys
then you come to find the wagen, roaring engine burning dragon
in the land you once did roam, in the cliffs you called your home,
i'm going home
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2. |
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when i was just a juvenile, i gathered every piece of faith
i piled up all my wishes then i bet it all birthday cake
i’d blow the candles one by one, seal the deal & bite the tongue
& wish that i could find a way that maybe i could try&stay
forever young
& so the baby boy remained without a single growing pain
without a sign of facial hair, he was just lost in self despair
but this is what i hoped for, how we manifest our fate,
& now i wish for wrinkled skin, so hurry up & wait
it’s funny when it’s winter, how we long for summer’s heat
then july it comes again repeat & we up the a/c
so i’m just a baby boy, an inch or two over my teens
but i've thought it long & hard & now nothing's what it seems
i see the angels in the atmosphere, secrets in the stars
i find the spirits in myself, i hear them playing this guitar
in the rhythm of the minutes, in the symphony of years
but i have heard all i can take, i am cutting off my ear
i see your starry swirling grain through all these knots of hickory
i think i've found a couple doors but i am scrambling for a key
so i stamp & seal & ship myself, i'll send away to old saint-paul
there is shelter from the lightning, there is safety in those walls
i am pressing through the pads & i am pressing through the roof
i have gathered all my marbles, gonna find me some truth
so i'm counting all my minutes, i am squeezing all my strength
i am searching for some justice in a world that measures length
so i set my sights for saturn, for that sickle in the sky
but i get there, he devours me, he tells me i'm his child
so i journey through digestive tracts of cosmic gods, no looking back
digested in the strangest birth & now i am back on earth
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3. |
forest preserve
04:00
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in the forest preserve
sanctuare from suburb
in the woods i would hide
from the paved city lines
concrete getting to me
distant strange, almost free
struggling towards unity
of the boy & the head
& the mountains ahead
gabriel, when do you speak?
angel whispered to me
at the age of sixteen
but the roar of the plane
& i missed, what’d she say?
& the cars rattled on
firefly neon lights
in the warm city nights
& we’d swim through the air
humidity more than fair
& the children would sweat
& the trains they would run
till the rise of the sun
& the rails we ride
& watch the world pass us by
& the years just the same
but the day then it came
when they all went away
left me there with a plan
so i packed up the van
frontier standing clear
suburbia is no place for a stranger
& stranger feelings now i can recall
when you find your world is made of ticky tacky
& you’re living beneath the bubbles & behind the walls
now i ride wagen trains
sweaty grip on the reins
rapid shift through the miles
& it brings me a smile
& it brings me a tear
& it brings me away
through the desert & clay
to the valley & hills
to the land of the mills
& the land of the firs
to the oldest of growth
all the dancing white oaks
to the valley of rogues
& the angels of snow
& the mountain they roamed
i ripped off all my clothes
didn’t care if i froze
never take me alive
in the woods now i hide
in the woods now i laugh
an instinctual urge
to roll in the dirt
the rub of the mud
i was a flowering bud
& i think i’m alive
& i think of the past
all the perfect cut grass
all the four sided squares
& the planes in the air
in the woods now i laugh
suburbia is no place for a stranger
& better feelings now i can recall
your world no longer made of ticky tacky
& you’re living breaking bubbles behind the walls
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4. |
burlap
04:22
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the crackle & the pop of old tapes, the next room over
ghost gather in the spaces as they wait upon your shoulder
notes of burlap burn your ears like an arrow from the past
as you listen to the music, you were tumbling in the hourglass
your cannon balls, cabin walls rumble in the midnight
& your eyes are pried awake by the pale farmhouse green light
through the alley, through the city, to the jungle & the glow
through the herd of all the people, all the civic buffalo
where these arrows all shot short while the bullets bursted straight
& the herd it tumbles forward, it is lost within it’s fate
& i am dragging weary, i am pushing through the tide
‘neath dawn’s shattered dream, through day’s great divide
locomotive launches loudly in the stillness of the starlight
slamming you to sleep where all these dreams can only ignite
you were wheezing in the steam sliding slow into your lungs
as you’re ramming through the l& in a race against the sun
do you count the passing miles or do the miles tally you
do you climb the roaring pines or do they fall into your room
where the drainpipes all did fill with the last fallen rain
& swept out where i stood but my feet they still remained
took ravaged to the nightfall, i was carried to the still
i was lost within the memory of these sad distant hills
& now i pray for morning, i am grasping this bedside
till dawn’s shattered dream, through day’s great divide
our sad sopping bodies through the screaming of the mountains
we were climbing up the river just to drink into the fountain
all these stallions of gasoline, they will cradle through the gears
while the flicker of the headlights makes the skyline seem so clear
the sky it now is falling & the stars are falling too
the sun it burns the night so next we fall the moon
i was propped beneath the sun, drenched below the heat
i was sprawled across the asphalt & then ripped out from the street
but these power lines must fill, they will ripple, they will fall
send night unto this city, feed the power to us all
now morning light is bleeding though day it cannot hide
from dawn’s shattered dream, through day’s great divide
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5. |
wet rain boy
04:46
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i awoke before the sun, before the fishing had begun
i throw a line into the summer dew
& though the catch was bittersweet
of all these words i do repeat
all i find just fishing in the figment
all i show by painting with the pigment
was it all in prophecy?
in all the books i came to read
all the stories bleed into my days
single shack by the waterside,
starving bus below the pines,
starving artist swirling in the grain
CHORUS
you're just a wet rain boy
standing sadly by the sea,
just a gear out of line
hoping only for the grease
just a pilot gone pirate
once you get above the trees
and then you'll see
when you’re really free
there is no key
he was born a baby boy,
into the dirty illinois
into polluted waters in the stream
and in suburban city streets
he stumble blindly through the heat
he stumbled from a path i don't remember
he stumbled blindly from a cold december
commuter trains will carry kids
away from all the city grids
away into country of the corn
these children sit in attic heat,
the spinning world below their feet
spin into the future from the day
spin into & send me on my way
CHORUS
now i’ve drifted from the shore
propelled into the tidal bore
propelled into an age i can’t conceive
and though the faces do repeat
the rhythm of the memory
persistence of the people i recall
persistence in the passing of it all
& so i peel away the flesh,
to press it into something fresh
stretch across the frame of future canvas
i will feed upon the heart
i will try & come apart
these rusty hearts & fleshy parts remains
grease & color running through my veins
CHORUS
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6. |
drips of drift
02:17
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rotted wood & window pane
eraser smudge won't go away
cobwebs clutter cross the door
feet still sinking in the floor
words don't match, lines don't meet
minutes piling through the heat
daylight bubbling in the stew,
these boiling pots of afternoon
my summer blooms
plywood porch, lightbulb string
swaying softly back to spring
snails that slide through summer rain
plunk the shell & ease the pain
diamond dusk in glimmer tree,
hits the hay, it sparks the leaves
the ants slow march across the day
through the knotted grass &
words are tripping out &
drip into the grain
it's all the same & all for real
nothing like they said it'd feel
nothing like the life we're told
just moving colored picture shows
these drips of drift just come & go
nothing more if nothing's showed
i'm muddy brained & overflowed
dancing with the hour hand
to and fro
oh, oh, oh . . .
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7. |
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with pack & a back, broken & blistered
long crooked miles, silent & twisted
through galaxy of gravel, taillights & turnpikes
winding river roads, everything explodes
& dawn will awake, a horizon to remake
a needle & a globe, spinning on it's own
& everything we've lost, everything been taught
it all falls apart, put together in the dark
i found myself stumbling, fumbling,
following the fenceline
i was lost beneath the treeline
ran & saw myself
crossing passes not possible
but maybe so, i know i know so-
break forth brutally, realize it's raw
realize it's nothing but what you brought along
now we splashdown like skipping stones
travelling by trampoline
galloping to grace
screaming into space . . .
the grounds we found
the calming sound
of no one, no one else around
the pounds of hounds
inside the town
were so far from our bounds
fall away
falling fast & slow
feed us your kerosene dreams
all your kidney beans
all your neon lights
'n your harbor nights
all your copper stills
all your empty bills
all your happy pills
all your broken will
days are longer than night is dark
the woods extend so far beyond the park
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