1. |
Alexander
03:28
|
|||
|
Alexander
He kept his dagger underneath
The pillow with his Homer when he'd sleep
The spirit of Achilles seemed
To be reborn in the figure of our king
Few of us who followed him
Would ever make the journey home again
At Gaza when we came ashore
The gallant foes came forth and drew their swords
The struggle raged into the night
Black blood flowing in the pale moonlight
Weeping women huddled 'round
And offered us the flesh beneath their gowns
Few among us---young or old---
Could bear the sight when fury gripped his soul
With every mile we moved from Greece
The barbarism in his blood increased
Of many things I'm ashamed to tell
Were carried out when the Asian cities fell
Inside a tent in Babylon
The lonely king was finally undone
Not in battle or by design
He was conquered by a jug of wine
Lysander, rest now
Always remember, child
You were on Greek soil born
|
||||
2. |
Rough Cut
04:41
|
|||
|
Rough Cut
You're rough cut and you're full of fire
A whole lot of juice for a thin little wire
And you run headlong with your blinders into the world
Yeah, I could say "Throw caution to the wind" and
"I'll follow you, baby, to the bitter end"
On a lark...in the deepest dark with you
But it doesn't work that way
We don't ever get close that way
It's lust and force and thrust, of course, that matters
To us now
Read the writing
Smell the coffee
Hear the whistle
Blown on my own damned game
I don't feel so good
What I need
What I've got to have
What I want now
Is to know myself a little better
I come to save you with a card up my sleeve
You bring me inside, you ask me to leave
A dead-end game with the both of us trying to win
But in an unguarded moment while I sang on the stage
Our hearts and smiles and eyes engaged
And we looked deep into one another and liked what we saw
It can sometimes work that way
People even get close that way
It's trust and care and time that's there for you now
|
||||
3. |
Billy Burning
02:50
|
|||
|
Billy Burning:
Beaten twice, now, at this game
I hope I never see his face again
Billy Burning, member of Key Club,
President of the yearbook staff...
Always good for a laugh
I used to do quite well in school
Now I just sit sulking by the swimming pool
All I care to do is listen close to Joni Mitchell
Until bedtime
I love Billy but Billy's out with Suzanne
She can catch him if she can
Nothing but sadness since we split up
No more exploring in his Ford pickup
Billy Burning, track team hero,
Secretary for the Quill and Scroll
And he taught me how to bowl
He told me he loved my eyes
"Watery and deep, they hypnotize!"
These few words will be close to my soul
eternally
I love Billy but Billy loves Suzanne
She can catch him if she can
Boys are such creeps
Mess up my sleep
How do they get by with all they do?
Put them all in a zoo!
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Think I'll go for a bath!
So, while my friends are out having fun
Here I sit planning to become a nun
Billy Burning, how could you leave
A girl who adored you from head to toe?
Why did you have to go?
|
||||
4. |
Booray
05:49
|
|||
|
Booray
Ahh…there she is! Miss Poker Face…
Carryin’ that ole keychain with her canna’ mace.
I love that woman…she’s hard as nails,
With her rattlesnake wit and them damn pony tails.
She just sat over there and nodded…she won’t bug us till we’re through…
Grab lil’ Cindy, tell her to bring her a brew.
She’s had it hard…s’pose I have too---
Are you gonna play that card, or whatcha gonna do?
Now, Bill, I don’t know what you think about me…
But I’ve known you forty years if I’ve known you for three.
Now, I’ma tellya something an’ you keep it to yourself.
Ain’t no need to whisper this to nobody else:
I woke up…let’s see…last Thursday night
An’ she wudn’ in bed and there wudn’ much light,
But I could sorta make her out at the end of the hall…
Sittin’ all bunched up on the floor with her shawl.
Now, she didn’t know that I was awake
An’ I sure’s hell didn’t know what to make
Of them hair-raising sobs that sputtered and tore
From the gut of that woman bunched up on the floor.
Pass me that lighter, there, willya Bill?
Seems I lost track…ain’t it your deal?
Willya look at her sittin’ there…hey, not so fast…
See how she sits like a bronze statue cast,
Starin’ into space within space within space…
Now, who coulda’ chiseled so stony a face?
I ‘spect I best hurry and get to the point…
From the looks of that barkeep, they’re closing the joint.
Well, I pulled down the sheet and put on my slippers…
I looked down at her feet and there I saw scissors.
She’d dug up a photo she kept of her Paw
An’ cut it to pieces…wait, there’s more that I saw:
Somethin’, I guess, must have sorely upset her
Cuz’ she’d tried to Scotch-tape the mess back together…
A hammer that bruised something softer than skin
Drove Little Miss Poker Face deep deep within…
An’ made her squat low in a ball on the floor…
An’ made her tears flow in the hall near the door.
Well, there’s my story…let’s skedaddle from here…
When I get to talkin’ I can rattle an ear.
But just look at her sittin’ there in the chair so straight…
Pain never really never disappears, it just circulates.
|
||||
5. |
Doppelganger
03:17
|
|||
|
Doppelganger
Near the gate where the western wind blows
You drank the sweetness from Browning's cantos
Such nectar draws bees with a sting
Near the sea on the tour of Malta
There in the baptistery of the Knights Templar
It was I who sneered through Christ's
Byzantine eyes
Fortune brings the remote together
No one's permitted such cloudless weather
And so we were married
You, to your blackness
And, I, to my purpose
Green spirit is as pure
As it is unsure
When we met face to face in the mirror
You nearly drowned in a sea of terror
But since then it’s clear to me
You've become a new man
In the cross that was formed between us
When the malefics opposed your Venus
An uneasy communion
The eye with the belly and
The heart with the serpent
Mercurius dance where heaven and hell are one
|
||||
6. |
Kimala (instrumental)
02:52
|
|||
7. |
Marianne
02:39
|
|||
|
Marianne
"Food's comin' off the stove
So clean those hands, get your brothers
And come sit down with us...
Whose turn for sayin' grace?
Oh, Dixie phoned...
Wants to go see a movie
Sammie, might I go?"
When memory leads me back there
Everything seemed to fit alright
You taught me how to read a book and be polite
Your world, it broke in two
And each of us tried our very best to make sense of you
And seeing how you changed,
Your husband found no recourse but to let go of you
And when the wind was churning
No one was by your side
And I, I felt so helpless and removed
Mother, I love you so
And I understand what you glimpsed
And couldn't bear inside
Perhaps the world's not nice
Perhaps somehow there's sand got in our eyes
But when the wind is churning
Call for me at once
And know that love survives
In the darkness
|
||||
8. |
Response to Housman
03:37
|
|||
|
Response to Housman (4/2/96)
(Black horses tend, my love, to stray; Pale steeds soar to heaven's gate; Gray stallions tread the noble, middle way.)
When I was one-and-twenty
I heard a wise man say,
Give crowns and pounds and guineas
But not your heart away;
Give pearls away and rubies
But keep your fancy free.'
But I was one-and-twenty,
No use to talk to me.
When I was one-and-twenty
I heard him say again,
'The heart out of the bosom
Was never given in vain;
'Tis paid with sighs a-plenty
And sold for endless rue.'
And I am two-and-twenty,
And oh, 'tis true, 'tis true.
When I was three-and-thirty
I spoke unto my heart:
'A lass who's coy and flirty
Has veiled a wound with art.
The man who's pledged to woo her
From his own heart soon must flee.'
And I am three-and-thirty,
Let no one flirt with me!
Bring an end to your fishing
And cast away all of your traps,
And note with sweet contrition---
(As your dreams approach their collapse)
That love is less a raging fire
Than a gentle, smiling breeze;
For I am three-and-thirty...
And today my heart is at ease.
|
||||
9. |
The Confession
03:00
|
|||
|
The Confession
The train slid into the station
My business cut short by a day
What a strange and possessing sensation
Why, now, must the line be engaged?
She hardly needs to pick me up anyhow
It's an easy walk from here to the house
Yet, I pick up my pace
As my mind starts to race
Let's both have a pleasant surprise
But a beast will gnaw at the heart of a man
When he swallows what he cannot bear
There's a stranger's car in my driveway
And there ain't no lights on in there
Hold onto your head, you goddamned fool
Let this venom pass right through your soul
But I'm a cat from a curious bloodline
I had to see what my fears had foretold
My ear was cocked by the window
When I first thought of using a knife
Something was breaking as I heard the bed shaking
And the rapturous squeals of my wife
"Freeze me" I prayed "like a statue
And don't let me stray from this spot"
But the unchecked spark brought the forest down
I just wish I was someone that I'm not
|
||||
10. |
Orpheo
02:39
|
|||
|
Orpheo (Madrid 1/31/06)
When I was young it was cold out and I never knew quite whom to trust—
I guess we’re never suitably dressed for a wind that can rise in the west
And blow us that one big test that we must fail before we can pass.
Finding my own voice—more a matter of fate than choice—
Me and my guitar—married in a seedy bar—thirty-eight years, so far—
If there’s gods to thank, I thank ‘em.
Nothing left standing after the damning critique…
Then, after years, you reappeared from the ruins,
Less profuse, but more sweet.
To you I owe, Orfeo,
What little I’ve known of life’s staggered glow
After all else vanished beneath the snow.
In a very little room in Madrid—from out of nowhere this little song slid—
I’ll give it a name and a shove, a dash of my rationed love, and beg of the stars above—That it’ll walk on its own feet without me.
|
||||
Paul DeFatta Houston, Texas
I've been writing and performing original songs since I was in my early twenties and this CD, "Little Catches," offers a broad selection from over a twenty-five year span.
If you like Paul DeFatta, you may also like:
I Used To Be Sad & Then I Forgot
by Mr. Alec Bowman_Clarke
Alec Bowman perfectly captures the dark soil under the pastoral world of British folk with this collection of melancholy originals.
go to album
For She Who Hangs The Moon
by David Luximon
Expansive music that has the gentle hush of ambient and the insistent pulse of post-rock; enveloping and absorbing.
go to album
Isasa
by Isasa
Isasa makes contemplative and emotionally rich fingerstyle guitar in the mode of John Fahey and Jack Rose.
go to album
Where Demons Hide
by Deerborn
The Danish band expand upon their self-proclaimed "dark Americana" with smoldering textures and dynamic balladry.
go to album
Duty of Care
by David Luximon
A new single from David Luximon is mesmerizing and atmospheric, soulful vocals alternating with heartfelt spoken word.
go to album
3ingle
by Jason Lytle, Little Wings, Kramies
A trio of songs from indie rock veterans, “3ingle” showcases their songwriting skill with pared-back, acoustic arrangements.
go to album
Celisti
by Chonny and Clyde
Three songs originally slated for Chonny & Clyde’s LP; all proceeds benefit United For Puerto Rico’s efforts to support those affected.
go to album
