The Long March Through the Clubs, Colleges, and Cafés (Live Recordings 1991-1997)
Released 1997
A collection of live recordings which feature Bill Foreman, 1991-1997. Of particular interest as it features a number of selections from the final House Carpenters performance, as well as music from two units which went otherwise unrecorded: Lunchmeat and the Bill & Pete Orchestra. Beautifully packaged using the Jewelboxing system.
Tracks:
Listen using the play button next to the mp3 download links.
Lyrics:
Full Tank of Gas
I got a full tank of gas
Got a full tank of gas
Got a body of metal
Got windows of glass
Got my foot on the pedal
It moves so fast
Take you out of my present
Put you into my past
Goodbye to your streetlights,
Cement and your grass
I'm leaving you, babe,
I got a full tank of gas
I got an engine of flame
Got an engine of flame
Call me a misfit
But don't call me tame
I don't remember this highway
They all look the same
I don't remember your face
I forgot your first name
Goodbye to your causes,
Your books, and your games
I'm leaving you, babe,
I got an engine of flame
I got the wind in my face
Got the wind in my face
I can open the sunroof
And stare into space
I can run myself wild
I can go anyplace
I got all my money
I've packed my suitcase
Goodbye to your earrings,
Your bells, and your lace
I'm leaving you, babe,
I got the wind in my face
I got my head in the sky
Got my head in the sky
You can ask me what happened
But don't ask me why
Tell me you're hurt, girl,
But don't start to cry
I've sprouted my wings
And now I'm going to fly
Goodbye to your movies,
Your dreams, and your lies
I'm leaving you babe,
I got my head in the sky
What Would Ever (Bill Foreman)
I treat her like a princess
You know I treat her kind
Although that's something you might not believe
And I can't understand it
But she's got me by the mind
What would ever make my baby lie to me?
Did I accidentally hurt her
Or be unconsciously cruel
Did I hold her when I should have set her free
Am I only behaving like a paranoid fool
What would ever make my baby lie to me?
It stings and it hurts
I sit and rail and curse
These bitter things can never happen naturally
I'm filled with anger and shame
My heart's been beaten and maimed
What would ever make my baby lie to me?
These things can't be forgotten
These thoughts can't be misplaced
I can't hide it 'cause it's just too plain to see
And all of this will leave me with an unbearable taste
What would ever make my baby lie to me?
Oh baby, what does it mean,
the things I've heard and I've seen?
Is it true my love's no longer a monopoly?
Are we no longer alone
In a sweet place of our own?
And what would ever make you want to lie to me?
A New, Nameless Beach Town
I had a board. I had a red car.
I kept a place inside the neighborhood bar.
But last Tuesday, I took it too far
And I'lll relate it straight away.
Bring to mind a wood floor and blaring baseball games.
Feel the coursing of booze in your blood veins.
Then you'll have sensed my condition of brain
Which stretched out all that long night.
My eyes looked around.
I'd come to inside the strangest of places.
A new, nameless beach town
With a truckload of unfamiliar faces.
Despite calls from the crowd and a bill to pay,
I resolved to call that long night a done day.
I was sure I'd stumble off the right way
While the moon shined behind me.
As I recalled an old dream filled with moss hills
And the scent of the sea reached my nostrils
My feet traveled by their own random will
And my memory went dim.
My eyes looked around.
I'd come to inside the strangest of places.
A new, nameless beach town
With a truckload of unfamiliar faces.
With my five-day old beard and my bare feet
And my skin getting burned in this dry heat,
I've since stopped trying to remember that street
Which I traveled that long night.
Now I'm off to the brush on that hillside.
I'll chase the rabbits and I'll steal their hides.
By the night I'll hear the incoming tide
Which breaks off in the distance.
My eyes looked around.
I'd come to inside the strangest of places.
A new, nameless beach town
With a truckload of unfamiliar faces.
Footsteps
Whose quiet voice do I hear?
Whose footsteps still linger in the hall?
Whose shadow graces the corridor
And leans itself up on the opposite wall?
Is it you calling me from my corner
Who keeps drawing me onward and outward?
Do you call from the in or the outside
Or from some other place of which I've never heard?
Because it's here you must stay
Or be blown by the breeze to some strange circumstances.
You walk on the streets. You use the telephone.
You engage in conversation like everyone.
I'm familiar with all of these rituals.
It's society's hammer that pounds on and on.
I can see that you're not my enemy.
I can convince myself of your good intentions.
But is it really you who calls for me
Or is it just another victim of social conventions?
Don't be driven away.
Don't fall to the piercing of poisonous glances.
Because it's here you must stay
Or be blown by the breeze to some strange circumstances.
It's a very hard balance to maintain.
It's a very fine line that on which you now linger.
It's in each of the cells of your brain
And the tiniest touch of the tip of your finger.
Whose voice echoes 'round the hall?
Whose shadow still draws me and enthralls me completely?
Will that difficult balance not fall
Or is it only beginning its slipping discreetly?
September
Now she's gone
And the summer's ending.
Soon, the leaves will descend
From the sky.
Now she's gone.
There's no pretending.
Sometimes, in our lives
We must all have to fly.
Speak to me,
But speak directly,
For words are so wasted
These days.
Speak to me.
You can't upset me,
For my heart is with her
And with her it is going to stay.
Now she's gone
And my mind is bending.
Yes, heartbreak is all
That remains.
Now she's gone.
There's no pretending.
September is here. Soon the leaves
Will start falling like rain.
Imagine You're Flying
Late at night, when the sun goes down
And the evening spreads its wings,
I'm sitting down upon the shoreline
Just a-changin' my guitar strings.
I play, oh I play to the seagulls
Though they can't know what I say.
It does not begin to bother me.
It doesn't really matter anyway.
I left from the place where I came from
And I settled in the West.
It just happened like an accident.
It ain't the worst and it ain't the best.
The world, oh the world is a wheel
And it spun me 'round and 'round.
When I returned into my senses,
This was the place that I had found.
Back at home, I'm a poor, poor boy
And I play for all the passers by.
When they tossed to me their empty pennies
I didn't stop to even blink an eye.
My heart, oh my heart's now a window,
My mind a hall of crystal mirrors
Because I live among the reeds and rushes
Where the city disappears.
I left from the place where I came from.
I try to tear it from my mind.
Today, nobody tosses me pennies.
It always seemed to me a bit unkind.
My name, oh my name is now useless.
For it is just another sound
Like my hand across my instrument,
Like the rain that falls upon the ground.
Queens
I'm the man who just left the asylum
I've got $24 and a Yankee cap
I've got splinters underneath my fingernails
And the city is stretched out before me
I can't wait for my next greasy meal
Or when I find some receptive company
When I married Maureen, I was green and untutored
And I think I remember what she looked like
The Hare Krishnas have swarmed upon Washington Square
And they asked me to join their singing
In the corner, the chess men are venting their spleen
And the echo of their windpipes is ringing
In my cup, someone tossed me a token
And the wind's rushing up from the tunnel
I'll flee far away from Manhattan
Maybe Queens, where I once raised a family
One of the Lucky Ones
I've been bred to be buried
And that's easy enough to see
By a look at a glance of my eye
Can you feel a similar headache?
Air, bread, and water
Like me that's what you need
But the things that spring up in our minds
They couldn't be less the same
I believe what they tell me
That I'm one of the lucky ones
But sometimes that's just so hard to take
That I'm one of the lucky ones
Your screams and your hollers
Should send shivers down my skin
But though you're cold like the night
It makes no difference to me
And the things that you tell me,
Must you give me all the blame?
I couldn't cause these things to happen
They just happen this way
I believe what they tell me
That I'm one of the lucky ones
But sometimes that's just so hard to take
That I'm one of the lucky ones
They say that I'm lucky
And it's true I can't deny
But ask them about the unlucky ones
And see what they say
They'll say they got hope
But hope's impossible to eat
And their dreams are cheaper than pennies
In a world made of steel
Though they're only the losers
There were times when I had lost
There were times when I was empty
In the pain of defeat
You tell me I'm lucky
But you forget what it's for
I can't be harder than metal
I can't be colder than ice
I believe what they tell me
That I'm one of the lucky ones
But sometimes that's just so hard to take
That I'm one of the lucky ones
For Good Measure
"Let me empty my head"
Were the words that she said
A look of cold dread
Was upon her
"Please sit yourself down.
Let me buy you a brown.
When you're finished you're bound
To be fonder."
I ordered a round
And we swallowed it down.
She smiled as I clowned
For her pleasure.
I offered a toast
"To the love I love most."
And I ordered again
For good measure.
When this one had came
We did nearly the same
But she called my name,
Grabbed my attention
My head felt a rush
As she spoke in a hush:
"There's a thing I've been
Meaning to mention.
I'm filled up with fear."
I said, "You're battered with beer.
You can't see things too clear
And you know it.
Get it all off your chest
And you let your mind rest.
It'll be for the best
So don't blow it."
"The room's grown a blur."
To this I had to concur
And I wasn't so sure
Of her feelings.
Her voice became weak
As if trying to speak
Of a bitter thing
She'd been concealing.
"It's a sham, it's a lie."
All these words she did cry
And I couldn't deny
It had ended
I finished my drink
And though I tried not to think
I lamented the love
We pretended.
Bad and Good
When you walked in the room last night
Everything grew too intense
All the people talked too quickly
And nothing made any sense
I tried to listen, I tried to understand
But one word piled upon another
And nothing happened like I planned
You made it look easy
But that really wasn't true
It was just another way to please me
With the things that you do
And you know as well as I do
That sometimes it's hard to try
But don't say I didn't care for you
That's one thing you can't deny
Baby, I know that you and me
We both do bad and good
It just comes naturally
We shouldn't take ourselves too seriously
We're only what we are
Not what we're meant to be
Step a little closer
Step a little near
Because I can see your lips move
But you're too far away to hear
It's easy to steal
Just take what you can get
Without a thought of anyone else
Or a moment of regret
What is it you're trying to tell me?
What is it you're trying to say?
Are you dissatisfied with what you get
For the prices that you pay
Don't you know that everything changes
All the people that you know
The times in which we live
And all the places that we go
Baby, I know that you and me
We both do bad and good
It just comes naturally
We shouldn't take ourselves too seriously
We're only what we are
Not what we're meant to be
When you walked in the room last night
Everything grew kind of strange
And though I didn't know it at the time
Something had been changed
And all the people talking,
Let the speak until they're through
Their words are interchangeable:
They've got nothing to do with you
I Know & You Know
I see you walking with Mister So-and-So
And baby, it just breaks my heart
I never thought you'd sink so low
That this would be the way we'd part
We used to talk on the telephone
And all the guys would envy the way you were mine
But these days you pretend you're not at home
And you leave me dangling on that telephone line
There's no way that I can take it
I can't roll on over and try to fake it
I'll make it plain so you can't mistake it
That I know and you know
That you keep yourself looking so very fine
But there's only one place you'll go
And you won't catch me walking that crooked line
It's a flying fluke, a freak of fate
That we ended up opposing factions
But baby, it's grown too late
To blame your life's story on chemical reactions
I used to run around and say
About how it was that you really knew the score
But things are different today, baby
Your old tricks just can't cut it any more
There's no way that I can take it
I won't make like one of your leaves and let you rake it
I'll make it plain so you can't mistake it
That I know and you know
That your kisses are tasting sweet like wine
But there's only one place you'll go
And you won't catch me walking that crooked line
Understand, I got a right to share
All these points I keep pounding into the ground
But how can you compare me, baby,
To all those other boys with whom you run around?
You used to show me your fancy clothes
And the way that they clung to your physique
But these days you just turn up your nose
And you expect me to just sit here and turn my cheek
There's no way that I can take it
I can't roll on over and watch you break it
I'll make it plain so you can't mistake it
That I know and you know
I could invent a reason to keep on trying
But there's only one place you'll go
And you won't catch me walking that crooked line
St. Louis
In January, I shot a stranger
In a routine robbery.
He reached under the register
And my mind flashed white.
His eyes pushed out from his head
And his lips stilled.
My next memory's the highway
And your face at the door.
My mother told me I was crazy,
And I hear the same thing from Marie:
That I could sail to Christchurch
And some joker would chase me.
When you left St. Louis
Did you think you would find me
In that puddle on Sunset
When I shot too much?
When your sister passed on that April
And your father started speaking to God,
Did you think you would marry me
Or marry at all?
My mother told me I was crazy,
And I hear the same thing from Marie:
That I could sail to Christchurch
And some joker would chase me.
If your blood's become tainted,
I won't run to Mexico,
Because I'm not a killer at heart
And I'm yours.
Take my whiskey and drink it.
In a minute I'll join you.
Though I watched a stranger die,
It's not clear I can take this.
My mother told me I was crazy,
And I hear the same thing from Marie:
That I could sail to Christchurch
And some joker would chase me.
I could sail to Christchurch
And some joker would chase me.
The Candlelight Crept through the Air
When we kissed on the docks and the various sea-birds were singing
The vapors rose up from the bay with the silver air ringing.
In the still wind, our cheeks touched in a lingering instance
With the blue of the ice rising up in the thickening distance.
When the moist wind sighed
With the lane-lines streaming
And our hands held.
When the cars cried
In the pale, green gleaming
As the night fell.
In the room with the sheets and the lengths of our limbs intertwining,
The red of the dim and the flush of your face were combining.
In a sleep spin, when the wind in the window was creaking,
We reached with the whole of our hands and our fingers were speaking.
With the wind in your face
And the sky in your glasses
And the skin on your hand.
By the white waves
And the rushing razor grasses
On the cool sand.
Last night I drank wine and I watched the sky set into violet.
The candlelight crept through the air and the trees became silent.
I saw stars tumble down and connect to the glowing, blue blossoms
With a picture of you welling up from the watery macrocosm. |
