1. |
Port Of Call
01:29
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Boats list gently in the harbor
Touched by gentle waves
Predawn grays of white washed homes
This whole town whispers stay
But my ship is almost leaving
You're the last face here I know
If I could live in one moment forever
It's that counting of seconds 'fore I go
That's a bell i hear, start of the day
The sky bleeds red with sunrise rays
I look back to see a fading gaze
Too far
away, away, away...
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2. |
Ocean Beach Love Song #3
03:07
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Do you remember the words you said
By the great highway when the sky turned red
Do you remember how I turned away
As I was losing the last reason to stay
You can call me home
Under the vapor lights
Call me home
On those foggy nights
Call me home
I heard your song but it's not
Home
I'm too far gone
The ocean is wide
The current is strong
But it's gonna take me where I belong
The ocean is wide
The current is strong
But it's gonna take me where I belong
Waves that break, and so do we
A stormy, hazy, salty sea
Memories of golden sails
And the parts of me I left back there
You can call me home
Under moonlit sky
Call me home
From the Berkeley heights
Call me home
A dream of skin against skin but
There's no home
Just the place I'm in
The ocean is wide
The current is strong
But it's gonna take me where I belong
The ocean is wide
The current is strong
But it's gonna take me where I belong
Oh come someday
Let this love free
Across the quiet ocean breeze
Oh wake tomorrow wide and see
The sun that rises over the beach
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3. |
Reciprocity Failure
02:22
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New York City never sleeps
Texas cowboys never cry
And when I see the sunset
It's through Oklahoma eyes
All the stills out in Kentucky
Never helped me much it's true
But when you leave California
It never misses you
Got a friend out in Chicago
Says the winter's mighty cold
Blizzard follows blizzard
Till the city's white with snow
Warm liquor melts December
Till April's bright and clear
But the snow don't come to California
It's always summer here
Highway one fades in the distance
As I make my way back East
Let go the little bars in Frisco
That had been so good to me
There's already someone in my place
'Cause the line's outside the door
I got kissed by California
Now I don't live here anymore
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4. |
Plastic City
02:22
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Why don't we move to a plastic city
Where the styrofoam trees are perpetually pretty
Where we slide down chutes to get to work
And the faces of the people are set in smirks
When it's sunny, things start to melt
When it rains, nobody gets wet
Why don't we move to a plastic city
Where everyone attaches a bit too quickly
Where the parties last until somebody snaps
And a replacements picked out of a box in the back
When it's sunny, we'll get back together
Keep your fingers crossed for a change in the weather
Honey I just can't live in a plastic city
The sunset through cellophane's pale yellow and sickly
My bones always break it smells hospital clean
Like I'm stuck in the belly of a well oiled machine
When it's sunny we'll pack up and move away
But today
Seems like the rain's here to stay
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5. |
Sunset Progression
01:02
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Give me rusting doorknobs
Microwaves and stoves
Collapsing folding tables serving
Every not quite friend I know
Give me water slowly dripping
The fridge's lonely moan
It's crumpled chore list magnets weak
Life in someone else's home
All the roots dry up when the water don't come
And you curse the cold from the late setting sun
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6. |
Thunderstorm Warnings
02:18
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Hey
We're not made for this place
With your semi-sweet smile
And my glossed-over face
Hey
I'll take a chance
And ask you to follow
The rhythm of my dance
So
Let us laugh
Between lightning strikes
Let's only leave
When the music's just right
And the sounds get sadder
By the end of the night
And if you say we're leaving
Well then
I won't put up a fight
Hey
Watch the thunderheads roll in
Sky gets darker with
Each sly smile and small sin
Hey
I feel rain on my shoulders
And the humid warm love on the
Air's boiling over
So
Let us laugh
Between lightning strikes
Let's only leave
When the music's just right
And the sound gets louder
At the end of the night
And if you say we're leaving
I won't put up a fight
Hey are we leaving
Hey are we leaving
Maybe we're leaving
Maybe I'm leaving
But
Let us laugh
Between lightning strikes
Let's only leave
When the music's just right
And the crowd thins out
By the end of the night
And I see you're leaving
Guess that's alright
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7. |
Rambles
01:53
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When you're gone you're gone there's no halfway in between
Halfway in between, all my homesick dreams
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8. |
Paper Moon
02:47
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In a whirlwind through Vienna
Nighteen thirty two
Three weeks on the continent
Spent two of them with you
Held hands between the streetcars
Hummed operatic tunes
We kissed behind the ferris wheel
Under crescent paper moon
Paper moon paper moon
Photographed with you
Camera flash left starry eyed
But I had to leave too soon
Remember me, indefinitely
By that paper moon
In a letter to San Francisco
Nineteen thirty eight
Dark sky gone red and black
Been dreaming of escape
But the doorways west were closing
And you had to get out soon
So you made your way to Prague by night
By the light of a paper moon
Paper moon paper moon
A photograph of two
Torn edges in a canvas bag
All the fire around you
Remember me, indefinitely
By that paper moon
In a camp by the border
Nineteen forty five
Broke down walls, apocalypse
You were somehow still alive
We scrounged up food where we could find it
Scrap paper, a half bombed out room
You came back to life under West German skies
Woke up to a paper moon
Paper moon paper moon
Paper moon paper moon
Remember me, indefinitely
By that paper moon
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9. |
[in-transit]
02:35
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10. |
||||
There is a building overseas
With all the heartbreak you'd ever need
Kept in boxes, neat plaques above them all
One night the sun set on that town
And nobody was left around
A little light shone from its windows through its walls
And the spark that lit the fire
Was from my heart's desire
A bit of sunshine to wash away the dark
And the heat that fanned the flames
Was memories of the names
Written on the kindling and tinder in our hearts
When the sunlight came with dawn
All the shattered dreams were gone
Now turned to ashes and embers, rising heat
Still the tourists all went by
Tossed love letters in the pile
The fire raging as they lined up down the street
And the spark that lit the fire
Was a gift from my heart's desire
A bit of sunshine to wash away the dark
And the heat that fanned the flames
Was the memories of the names
Written on the kindling and tinder in our hearts
To all the broken hearted types
With half dried tears still in their eyes
To the all the ones who have yet to move along
There's a fire burning bright
Underneath the city lights
Where you burn through everyone and everything did you wrong
Just toss it all into the pyre
Let the smoke rise ever higher
Walk much lighter and brighter with love gone
And the spark that lit the fire
Was a gift from my heart's desire
A bit of sunshine to wash away the dark
And the heat that fanned the flames
Was the memories of the names
Written on the kindling and tinder in our hearts
And the spark we feel again
Is that sunshine creeping in
With more letters and the promise of new starts
And the only ones we need
Are the ones who still believe
In the memories of the kindling in our hearts
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11. |
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Specter specter of the eastern bloc
Please don't force my luggage lock
Apparition just let me be
And I'll let you roll off that ecstasy
Spirits round every corner
In the bathroom stalls
The tortured wails of teenagers'
3am phone calls
We are the ghosts! The ghosts! The travel guide warned you about!
Late night parties after hours clubs in the underground
Shiftless drifters listless kissers lonely in the common room
When you wake up around noon
When you see them in the day
It's cigarettes and thick malaise
Slowly now they start wake
Raise the tempo, hide the shakes
Vodka tonic parties
Dance like it's a chore
A waste of wasted figures
Sprawled out on the floor
We are the ghosts! The ghosts! The travel guide warned you about!
Late night parties after hours clubs in the underground
Shiftless drifters listless kissers lonely in the common room
When you wake up around noon
It's hardly an average weekend
My knees are getting weak
My lover joined the spirit world
And I got up to leave
They are the ghosts! The ghosts! The travel guide warned you about!
Late night parties after hours clubs in the underground
Shiftless drifters listless kissers lonely in the common room
When checkout's around noon
And I know I'll see you soon
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12. |
An Atlas Of Exits
02:57
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Count the last coins in my pocket
Enough for one more beer
Look for meteors crossing winter skies
Their trails round out the year
But it's no geminids this December
My twin does not exist
So I make my New Years resolutions
Cross 'sentimental' off the list
This is a song you see when it's sung
Mist hangs in holiday air
This is a prayer to say when you're done
With trying to disappear
Count the months that I've felt rootless
Enough to fly away
A million starlings swinging
A breeze in black and gray
But there's no flock to keep me company
The birds they come and go
So I catch the breeze best I can
Taste the spring air as I float
This is a song for forgotten crossings
For the border guards' disquieting stare
This is a prayer to say when you're fading
As you manage to disappear
If you manage your cameo on satellite TV
Call my name out through the streets
When it echoes down cobblestones I know
I know someone's still thinking of me
This is a song for highway off ramps
It'll rattle the truckers who hear
These are words to say when you've forgotten
How to disappear
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13. |
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(Pray for) Domesticity while you're drowning
(Pray for) sleep when you're lying wide awake
(Pray for) the technicolor tones to start receding
For the purples and reds at the dying of the day
I lit a candle, I watched the wax drip slowly down the stem
I hid behind the alter, I thought the doctrine was changing again
Behind the pews, by votives' flame
I took a penknife and carved your name
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14. |
I Feel Like Going Home
03:03
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It calls me to the ocean
Takes me wandering through the street
A restless imagination
But for now I move my feet on the ground
'Cause I feel like going home
I can float above the ceiling
I like drifting through the air
I tend to lose my concentration
But right now the clouds don't appeal too much
I feel like going home
Sometimes late at night while running from the rain
Running from the voices filling up my brain
Now I wish they'd leave me alone
And let me be, to go off on my own
Let me be to go home
I feel like going home
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Cara Esten (and the Rusty Sunsets) Oakland, California
just a girl, standing in front of a tape recorder with an acoustic guitar, a melodica, and a synthesizer, asking the motor to please not burn out this time
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