1. |
Twenty Rock Bottoms
04:19
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Gerry Mandarin
Wringing all the life from the life he has been
Is there something troubling?
No, just another thought of a future that is flooding, though.
He's washing the blue jean days...
Running fast, running slow, time to stop, time to go
He don’t wanna go down to the down down below
Running fast, running slow, time to stop -
He’s gonna hit
Twenty rock bottoms on the way to the top
Twenty rock bottoms on the way to the top
Twenty rock bottoms on the way to the top, oh
Gerry Mandarin
Owns up to the weights of the nights he has been
Biases and Gods
Are leaving all their things ‘cause their done leading him, oh
He's washing the truth with malaise...
Running fast, running slow, time to stop, time to go
He don’t wanna go down to the down down below
Running fast, running slow, time to stop -
He’s gonna hit
Twenty rock bottoms on the way to the top
Twenty rock bottoms on the way to the top
Twenty rock bottoms on the way to the top, oh
Twenty, twenty times, twenty times
To fall down on his broken knees
Twenty, twenty times, twenty times
To fall down on his broken knees
Running fast, running slow, time to stop, time to go
He don’t wanna go down to the down down below
Running fast, running slow, time to stop -
He’s gonna hit
Twenty rock bottoms on the way to the top
Twenty rock bottoms on the way to the top
Twenty rock bottoms on the way to the top
Twenty rock bottoms, twenty rock bottoms, oh
Twenty, twenty times, twenty times
To fall down on his broken knees
Twenty, twenty times, twenty times
To fall down on his broken knees
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2. |
Pitch in the Wood
03:06
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Burning far, burning fast
I’m the pitch in the wood, try’na make me last
O, tinder and kindling Gods
Share one more spark ‘fore my inspiration drops
Tetris logs, feel my heat
'Cause the one and only person that can light me up is me
Torch the torch
I’m here to explore
All the heart my hands held before
Burn the trails and
ache for something more
But no medication for the long haul
I’d rather feel pain than nothing at all
Burning soft, burning close
I’m the pitch in the wood, tryna make the most
of tinder and kindling piles
'Cause there ain’t another gas station for one hundred miles
Some rusted traffic signs
Telling small town folks to stay inside the lines
Torch the torch
I’m here to explore
Here be dragons, traces of a war
Burn the trails
I ache for something more
But the pitch in the wood lets rise and fall
Like a ten-year tower yields to a wrecking ball
no medication for the long haul
I’d rather feel pain than nothing at all
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3. |
Varicode Veins
03:36
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Head around the back
I’ve got secrets to confide
Though I try not to remind myself
of all the times I spoke
And you turned the other way
There’s more important things today
Than listening to me sing all about my varicode veins
Now you’re heading back
You’ve got secrets to confide
What a wonderful disguise
For all the pain you’re going through
It’s all right to be so blue
You’ve earned a space to come renew
From the love-me-please life-in-need
Buried in those varicode veins
Find all the signs
All the programs in those lines
And the one you left behind
Your heart’s protected by the vines
Of the love-no-more close-the-door
Bound inside those varicode veins
Seems that life’s on track
We’ve got no more place to hide
All our secrets we confide
And yet despite our trying game
We always manage through the pain
Like some warlike ball-and-chain
From a century out at sea
On a slave with varicode veins
Mind all the signs
All the thoughts you can’t unwind
And the journey is defined
By the heart that’s in the vines
Of the love-no-more close-the-door
Bound inside those varicode veins
Shine, redesign
All the pictures in your life
And the faults you left behind
Are faulting over-under lines
Of the always free, heavenly
Love inside those varicode veins
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4. |
Holodreams
04:01
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Street lamps take the place for light of day
Seems these misty mountains are begging to stay
Right in my way
The never-ending calendar marks
Signify all of my effort thus far
To be productive and full
Maybe another punch of the clock
Will buy me more time to win over my heart
And maybe I will stay in holodreams
They’re like my dreams except they can play on a screen
And I can play them for keeps
I can stay inside my painted walls
Watching my painted screen show painted shopping malls
They're so archaic and dull
Maybe another ad-lib fresh start
Will buy me more time to win over my heart
Maybe tonight is a night for the streetcar
I just need more time to win over my heart
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5. |
Ziggy the Troll
04:15
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Leviathan in the hall
Came out of the dungeon
Looking for victims
Pressure for the weak and strong
We drop our books and draw the swords
To red-vein yellow-stained eyes
Always be starving, never be hungry
Targeting the one who cries
He takes a bite to feed the fear inside us
Lies for us
Ziggy the troll is on a roll
He's slipping on the old saliva throne
Depose pose
Breaking tile just to be known
But how long?
How long?
For how long?
How long?
A hunch-back wiry frame
Looking to brave the defensible monster
Armors for the toxic shame
He takes the word and drops his name
For something he can’t recall
Expletive this or inadequate that
The newly anointed thrall
Runs through the hallways feeding fear inside us
Lies for us
Ziggy the troll is on a roll
He's slipping on the old saliva throne
Depose pose
Breaking tile just to be known
For how long?
How long?
How long?
How long?
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6. |
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I heard it in the histrionica
A narcissistic melodramatica
All the little boys and girls love themselves
A little too much
A little too much
It says so in the lexiconica
That humans will implode fantastica
Give it a few more years before
The sticks and stones
Turn to flying drones
"Look inside
To see what’s reflected on the outside"
I don’t like the inside
Let’s go outside
Occupy
All your precious minutes with my time
So I don’t have to look me in the eye
Let’s go outside
And play with shiny things
Let’s find some guy
To tell us what the future brings
I heard it in the histrionica
A conformist non-conformist replica
All the little boys and girls are test tubes
Of programming code
For their tell and show
It says so in the lexiconica
That the secrets are beyond scholastica
But the armchair shines with dollar signs
Eat the bait-and-switch
and puke the gnosis pitch
"Look inside
To see what’s reflected on the outside"
I don’t like the inside
Let’s go outside
Occupy
All your precious minutes with my time
So I don’t have to look me in the eye
Let’s go outside
And play with shiny things
Let’s find some guy
To tell us what the future brings
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7. |
Toboggan Tom
03:23
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Toboggan Tom
Amidst the winter now
The world’s on his shoulders while dragging those snowballs uphill
Toboggan Tom
He’s like an atom bomb
Ticking the days midst the haze that he finds himself in
The polar scare
Clawing his way from here to there
Striking a match but not a flare
Freezing his spine till his heart has gone blind
But Tom can’t leave toboggan behind
Toboggan Tom
Wearing his feather down
Yet feeling so heavy in snow that’s not ready to melt
Toboggan Tom
Hearing the distant sound
Of murmuring voices from choices he wished he could make
The polar scare
Clawing his way from here to there
Striking a match but not a flare
Freezing his spine till his heart has gone blind
But Tom can’t leave toboggan behind
Tom can't leave toboggan behind...
The truth or dare
Showing the way from here to there
Striking a match but not a flare
Twisting his spine till his dreams won’t unwind
But Tom can’t leave toboggan behind
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8. |
Fairytale
03:47
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I look at my hands to remind myself
Of a beautiful fairytale thought in a fairytale world
And all of the magic that holds it in place
Remains a mystery
A mystery in the sparks
I look at those fields growing crops so tall
Raising fairytale children in fairytale soil
The silent setting sun wishes them a goodnight
And our cars tuck them in
Tuck them in with dust
We're floating on our magic carpet
Through our beautiful fairytale world
Rapunzel had her haircut in the sky
The big bad wolf has come to say goodbye
And the hum
The hum of the engine is our reply
I feel like I've lived this moment before
This beautiful fairytale moment in a fairytale world
Rolling down the iron rails retracing my path
Or maybe just circling there
Circling there and back
We're floating on our magic carpet
Through our beautiful fairytale world
Rapunzel had her haircut in the sky
The big bad wolf has come to say goodbye
And the hum
The hum of the engine is our reply
We're floating on our magic carpet
Through our beautiful fairytale world
And all those hands and hills and precious moments
Are magic tricks
A mystery in the sparks
Rapunzel had her haircut in the sky
And the big bad wolf has come to say goodbye
And the hum
The hum of the engine is our reply
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9. |
Throes
03:16
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We came from wounded
Birds in the nighttime
They broke our wings as
Ones did before them
We fly unsteady
Wonder what is missing
Cored all our anger
In rings of the tree
Carefully
Treading lightly
We came from wounded
Birds in the unknown
No map for their kind
Vines overgrown
Cartographers, we
Map all their ruins
Building on soft stone
Tracks for our freight trains
Two lanes:
Sane or insane
Soon
We’ll come to know
Silence
Soon
We’ll feel the throes
Trying, fighting
Hiding, pining
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10. |
Closet Heart
03:59
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Mold and mildew coat the edge of the paint-cracked windowpane
of a half-vacant apartment amidst the phone poles and parking lots
He holds the scent of a thousand-year-old Cuban spray-on cologne
Attracting ancient girls and their ancient emotional ways
He always invites them to stay
Open wide, his front door
For such a closet heart
For such a closet heart
Secrets under his floor
They have no mercy to part
They have no mercy to part
The lost and lonely lady friend finds her way into his embrace
Another thousand years of holographic surprise for their wonderful lives
They watch the steam from another lifeless fling lift its way to the vent
Where it turns into drinking water for some old poor soul in Spain
Who also has a paint-cracked windowpane
Open wide, his front door
For such a closet heart
For such a closet heart
Secrets under his floor
They have no mercy to part
They have no mercy to part
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11. |
Fish in Water
04:26
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Funny how it is
Record our grievances inside
Persephone, we're calling
In love, in love, in love you hide
Trails of leaflets turned
Our minds won't resign
Ceiling made of glass
Iconoclasp
Drenched our clothes dry
We will always be fish in water
Inside our lofty bowls
We fear what's inside our
Heart of hearts made of stone
Money, now it is
Excuse the fears we have inside
Imaginary burdens
In love, in love, in love they hide
Countercept the voice
That tells us "no"
Or grind the heels
With even keel
Nowhere, then, to go
We will always be fish in water
Inside our lofty bowls
We fear what's inside our
Heart of hearts made of stone
We will always be storm in calm lands
Resistance is our silo
Drown out the stillness
In a downpour of woe
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12. |
Lonely as Hell
05:00
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And there I lie
Sleeping on the floor at night
Silence likes piercing the heartache
She’s staking her claim on some prime real estate
And there I wake
Lonely as hell, in need of an “o”
Dust mites gone rogue in the bedroom
Fighting for the past with the skin cell platoon
There’s no room for someone to hold me
The spot next to me is reserved
For the screen of three wishes
And the unlovable kid inside
Is afraid of the love he can take
Even masters can make mistakes
Well, I’m not a master, but at least I’m a fool
Exploring the chronoillogical cesspool
While mining through bedrock of sadness
Like a slap in the face
That’s gone straight to the chest
And so I find
Nobody in my room tonight
The floor feels like work on a Monday
Welcome to life, just a batch of clichés
And love is one
To avoid like the plague from long long ago
Like a mansion with four hundred butlers
Or a haunted house of mirrors with no key to the lock
Will I find someone to hold me
Or will I become Crazy Cat Man
With two dozen felines
And scratch marks on my shoulders?
Keep a light on and reframe the fate
Even masters can make mistakes
Well, I’m not a master, but at least I’m a fool
Exploring the chronoillogical cesspool
While filming my cats pulling leg hairs
Seems the moral of the story is who really cares?
I'll just keep a light on
Keep a light on
Just keep a light on...
Just keep a light, keep a light, keep a light...
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13. |
That Slow Dance Song
03:40
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The night's grown young
Bougie forks for everyone
But everyone has left us here
To dine with faith and all our fears
Then let us slow dance on granite tile
Our anxious hearts will take awhile
You and me are wrapped in cellophane
Taking care to trim the preordained
The tines broke through
Seems those forks were overused
Their every bite to be the best
Left us here at their behest
So let us hold chairs and drink their wine
Like couples do when they're out of lies
You and me are dressed in pricey thoughts
Of a future that was already bought
The light's grown strong
Daytime waves to everyone
But everyone is sleeping still
Wake-up time is unfulfilled
But we can slow dance to the morning news
The wisdom came, and then it grew
Like two seedlings in a barren field
Love is here to sow but ours to heal
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Brett Winters Wisconsin
Brett Winters is an indie-folk singer-songwriter from the Northwoods of Wisconsin who crafts introspective songs about healing, connection, and dignity.
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