Lyrics
The LAST RESORT (2008)
All In the Name of One You Love
This song came from a winter with a broken heart living in the St.John’s Battery.
i been sweeping the floor but it ain’t dirty
i been dusting the screen of this old t.v
i been looking inside of my cereal box
for the blessing of one whose not yet cursed
cursed by the name of one they love
i been scouring the bottom of a wishing well
looking for somebody who ain’t afraid to tell
what it means when you been living in your head
what it means when you think you’d rather turn up dead
than think on the face of one you love
i been dwelling in places where a man oughtn’t dwell
i been introduced to a dozen new hells
i been milking this cow of a sleepless night
and reaching for lives that i know ain’t right
all in the name of one i love
michael elgo – guitar and vocals
pat mcgonnigle – mandolin and violin
tim buckley- bass and harmonica
jeff - trombone
sherry ryan – vocal
All Ye Dreamers
Out on the water boats are churning
Terns play banshee in the sky
Up on the hillside fences are burning
Only the lighthouse knows why
Run to the shoreline all ye dreamers
it’s time to reap what’s yours
And to the highway away from disbelievers
turn your backs upon their doors
Across the windy fields into the graveyards
Where centuries of ghosts lay cold
Into the text of their generations
Man I swear this place is old
Run to the shoreline all of you dreamers
it’s time to reap what’s yours
And to the highway away from disbelievers,
turn your backs upon their doors
And what’s this feeling, so unforeseen,
gets beneath your soul and you could sigh
Leaves you so tender, leaves you so mean,
leaves you so broken and denied
michael elgo – rhythm guitar and vocal
tim buckley – guitar picking and bass
pat mcgonigle – violin
sherry ryan - vocal
Don’t Rain Down on Me
With an empty jar of pills uninsured and no money
I took to street, to the street where the folks now act funny
To the window of the post -modern -shrink –club but it’s closed
‘Cause it’s valentine’s day I feel blue and over exposed
Singing hey don’t rain down on me
To the shop with the step’s perfect railing and wet paint
Where their selling the cracks in the bricks of the cracked patron saint
To up above where the speckled pigeons defecate
And the sign on the door sys back in ten but they ain’t
I said hey don’t rain down on me
To the bus stop late with no fare but a half-strung guitar
Down to china town in search of an Armenian bizarre
I took some love out on a proud girl she’s walking her yankee car
I said girl friend tell me just once do you know who you are
She said hey don’t rain down on me
Like a lone-horse poised on a hill in the brave autumn light
Like a shooting star that streaks and goes still in the night
Like the blood on the pelt of a mink of a coat they just sold
Like a story all written in tears and it’s taught it’s not told
I said hey don’t rain down on me
Down With the Guard
A song about feeling alienated in the modern world, in the only world you know.
Down your dead end road with your empty load your supply of endless alibys
Through the market place turned inside out disgrace where all the jokers cry
Singing did it have to be so easy, did it have to get so hard
Were you out of touch, out of luck, out of love- down with the guard
Reading twisted signs, hearing endless rhymes, potions and melodies of love
Out to where the well is dry and the clouds drift by and they’re praying for a flood
Singing turn it up if it’s to easy, turn it down if it’s too hard
Where you out of touch, out of luck, out of love- down with the guard
Frantic anecdotes, ladders with rung-less slopes, looking up at jet filled skies
Wading out in crowded seas, where weeds confuse your needs,
Clerics, monks and movie stars collide
Singing did it have to be so easy, did it have to be so hard
Where you out of touch, out of luck, out love- down with the guard
Gypsy Zolky
Well they told me about my freedom after living years of shame
‘cause we rode with Gypsy Zolky, we’ll never ride again
We all knew of Gypsy Zolky, he was a bandit and a king
He wrote our country like an epitaph, and he never took a thing
We heard the soldiers would come to take us, they’d burn our village down
When we heard that Gypsy Zolky was hiding out within our town
He recruited a small army, 99 men and half were kids
So I rode with Gypsy Zolky and I’m proud of what I did
Yes I was a boy of fourteen, but I had freedom in my veins
And every time I saw those soldiers, Christ I took your name in vain
For 14 days we rode on glory and what a tale I might tell
We sang those nights with Gypsy Zolky, with song we burnt their flags in hell
We were surrounded by a mountain that had the face of a man
But we fought a noble battle and not one of us ran
Wont you take us to your leader so we can spit in his face
Gypsy Zolky read our requiem with passion fury and with grace
Well we rode so far for freedom, where we rode nobody knew
But if you laid eyes on Gypsy Zolky, you’d ride with him too
I Had a Dream
I wrote this song about ten years ago and forgot it about nine. It came back to me last summer so I thought I better record it.
I had a dream, long time ago,
and when I woke, I was lonesome so
I called out for you, you took me in,
didn’t know what to do, said where do I begin?
I had a dream, with you next to me,
and when I woke, I was no longer free
So I called out for space, you let me go,
you said, “take your lonesome seeds, have fun while you sow”
I had a dream, when I woke I was scared,
all my seeds were sown my fields were bare
So I ran to the fence, called out “I’ll be true”
You said “boy you better make a choice, will it be me or you?”
Love is a Weapon
Take your hand from my shoulder, these feelings aren’t free
And now we’re much older, and bygones must be
I don’t want nothing, nothing from you today
Maybe tomorrow, all of that will have changed
There’s a fire deep inside you, a fire so old
It flames in your mind girl, leaving others so cold
Well I’da put it out, put it out, put it out if I could
By now you must know that, or at least you should
The sky’s turning grey now, I like it that way
It makes me feel happy, I got nothing to say
So tell me the meaning, make sure that it’s plain
And if it ain’t girl, tell it to me again
And paint me a face love, colour it all up with mirth
And draw me a name love, and make me go forth
Love is a weapon, in the wanderer’s eye
A two-sided weapon, with which you’ll collide,
if with which you don’t thrive
Pilgrim
Some call you the pilgrim that just won’t go away
It’s always been an open endless road
To others your the distant man upon whom the holy prey
You got ‘em lined up kneeling for your soul
But there’s a traitor in your closet just waiting for a chance
To turn you in for any sum of gold
and it wasn’t you, it wasn’t him , nor any tempered trance
It wasn’t time or age that set or made you old
Now you just seem to run your train of lies
You’ve always got it half way through some door
And we all know how much you hate to compromise
Tell me poor boy what you living for
Might it be that widow says she wants to be your bride
In you she thinks her husband’s still alive
And it’s too late now to hang your head in pride
You’ve thrown your caution to the birds so they might thrive
Now your window and the break of dawn mean the same thing to you
You’re living with something deeper than what they say
Remember all theose summer days when the whole damn world was blue
Green and black and every single shade of grey
So don’t hold onto nothing lest something clings to you
And you view it through a shattered crystal ball
It’s your open disposition that feeds you to the world
It’s your plea for nothing makes you want to have it all
so let them call you the pilgrim that just won’t go away
It’s always been an open endless road
Let ‘em scorn you as the distant man and let the holy pray
Let ‘em kneel in line and walk out on your soul
Polished Misdemeanour
There’s a man and he crossed the desert
When I asked him how it was he said it wasn’t pleasant
He said I seen things that you’ll never see
and I been places you’ll never be
He said you never get drunk, you never stay sober
You never get young and you never get older
You never loose what you know that you could
You’re never quite getting what you know that you should
Seen a woman she was out on the field
I said aren’t you praying for a better yield
She said “I only sow what I need to sow
And I only ever know what I need to know
She said you never get drunk, you never stay sober
You never get young and you never get older
You never loose what you know that you could
You’re never quite getting what you know that you should
It’s a polished misdemeanour on a felon’s kind of floor
They say that I gone silly so I blame it on the war
I was born in the North when they coined the South
And I ain’t got a clue what their talkin’ about
Except you never get drunk, you never stay sober
You never get young and you never get older
You never loose what you know that you could
You’re never quite getting what you know that you should
The Vagrant’s Plea
Hold me precious, hold me, make firm the morning breeze
Plant the twilight in the dawn and hold me precious hold me
You lent your ears to tales you know of unicorns and tides
Only silver fish with gold entrails could keep your pool alive
Then know me on a mountain whose novelty is lost
In a maze of fjords and lullabies, know me for I’m lost
I’ll know you as a child whose bones revolt with age,
I’ll meet you on a wild horse set free nostalgic rage
Then offer me on a run down wharf whose posts have sailed the seas
Your body and your salty hair let your garments kiss the breeze
Let lowly worms eat apples red may madmen’s rants be heard
Meet me with your subtle glance and drape me in your words
Things Aren’t What They Seem
Something’s tearing at the seam, daily I care less for what they mean
I count endless walls, down in dire halls, founded by futility
But then you snap out of a dream, find yourself staring at some floor
The truest words I ever heard was an old cliché from a liars dirge
Down on the scale of truth he tell me things aren’t what they seem
These cautious games we play are such a bore, so open up and give me more
If you show me light inside, well I’ll know where to hide- In your life and arms forever more
But then, you fall down from a dream, you inch your way to the door
The only thing to which I ever paid heed was the sweet ol’ fruit of a bitter seed
You get it when it falls where things aren’t what they seem
I keep my eyes peeled to this winding crooked road, what I’m looking out for I seldom know
I pray for landmarks there, they come and disappear, I guess it’s true all things that come must go
But then, you wake up from a dream, you double back inch your way to the door
Well I was just looking for an easy thought, I guess it’s true what the wise man taught
But you took it all wrong because things aren’t what they seem
Tuscany
They say the sun sets nice in Tuscany I wouldn’t know I’ve never been there
They say you’d give it all up for one last dance and Oh but what do I care
You see I sit on this bench, I sit on this grass, I sit right here waiting for you
I’m living this life I’m just dreaming about love, it don’t matter if you ever come through
It don’t matter if you ever come through
They say the sun sets nice in Tuscany but the sun sets nice everywhere
They say you’d give it all up for one last dance I’d give it all up if you’d just come here
You see I sit on this bench, I sit on this grass, I sit right here waiting for you
I’m living this life I’m just dreaming about love, it don’t matter if you ever come through
It don’t matter if you ever come through