Released 12 July 2004
Label Yep Roc Records
Produced Ken Stringfellow, Kip Beelman & Jorgen Wall. (Additional production consultation by Lucy Suzuki.)
Mixed Ken Stringfellow & Kip Beelman at Soundhouse. (Additional mixing by Scott Colburn on “Don’t Die,” “Dawn Of The Dub Of The Dawn,” “Death Of A City.”)
Engineering Kip Beelman. (Studio 44 sessions engineered by Jorgen Wall; Qrispy Qreme sessions engineered by Dave Shuman.)
Recorded At Seattle (Soundhouse, Ironwood); Stockholm (Studio 44); New York City (Qrispy Qreme).
Ken Stringfellow: vocals, guitar, mandolin, autoharp, piano, keyboards, synthesizer, vibraphone, bass, percussion, programming
Tiffany Wilson: vocals
Sarah Shannon: vocals
Mark Taylor: alto saxophone
Craig Flory: tenor saxophone
Jay Thomas: trumpet
Chris Stover: trombone
Larry Knechtel: piano, organ
Matt Harris: bass
Jorgen Wall: drums, bongos, tambourine
Darius Minwalla: drums
Bill Rieflin: drums
Jill Sobule: drums
Pelle Halvarsson: Theremin
—
credits for the bonus tracks:
John Roderick: acoustic guitar
Matt Harris: drums
Larry Knechtel: electric piano, organ, bass
Bengtson: tambourine
Katherine Bergstrom: giggle
Craig Flory: sax
Jay Thomas: trumpet
Jorgen Wall: drums
Photography & art direction: Bootsy Holler
Nightscape photos by Ken Stringfellow
Graphic design & layout: Erin Leonard
01. You Drew
02. Any Love (Cassandra Et Lune)
03. Known Diamond
04. When U Find Someone
05. Don’t Die
06. Let Me Do
07. For Your Sake
08. Je Vous En Prie
09. You Became The Dawn
10. Dawn Of The Dub Of The Dawn
11. Cyclone Graves
12. Death Of A City
—
bonus tracks on the international release:
13. Never My Love
14. Down To The Wire
15. New Test Leper
16. Knocks Me Off My Feet
back to Ken Stringfellow albums
Lyrics
You Drew
Take the baby’s cane away and hide his little braces
Left to his devices he still wants that rocky road
Feed him all your fables and your periodic tables
Fabulous, a fatalist, is what he wants to be
But you drew the poison from me
Picked me off the bayonet tree
Pulled me like a tooth that kept your nights from finding sleep
Move into a bungalow and disconnect the phone line
Hello, grace, it’s been a while
Your footsteps can go unnoticed
That’s not to say that you weren’t missed
But I guess you weren’t invited
I’ve never lacked for company
It’s for care that I was wanting
But you drew the poison from me
Picked me off the bayonet tree
Pulled me like a snaggled little loose tooth
It’s these late admissions that are driving me from sleep
I admit that I admire admiration’s name
But if you come back to my senses I won’t try to reason with you
Knowledge gained is knowledge used, it never works out different
But you drew the poison from me
Picked me off the bayonet tree
Pulled me like a snaggled little loose tooth
But you drew the poison from me
Picked me off the bayonet tree
Pulled me like a snaggled little loose tooth
Any Love (Cassandra Et Lune)
Cassandra for the sunrise century
Taking the Moon in her bed like a lover
Letting him leave her
Taking no others
Watching the tides as they fill up her eyes
She says she’s not upset
She says that loneliness is worse than regret
We have to wonder
What she meant
When she told us
Any love is good enough
The sun comes to her on the windowsil
She meets him there, he says
“Come ride on my flaming hands,
By tomorrow we’ll be painting the horizons
With the gold streaks of a good goodbye
Why would the Moon suspect?
He only sees the clouds that slither by his head”
We have to wonder
What she meant
When she told us
Any love is good enough
“Could heaven keep the light on so I could keep my eye on you?
You and only you And follow you as far as I can go”
There’s a break in the trees the moon is shining through
She rolls down the window and says “Is it you? Is it you?”
Gravity turned him
Comets had buried him, too
She splashes the river to move his reflection
She says “Could heaven keep the light on
So God could keep his eye on you?
You and only you
And follow you as far as you can go”
We had to wonder
What she meant
When she told us
Any love is good enough
Known Diamond
Hearing the phone ring
Another angel lost it’s wings
Better to save it
For when you really need something
“Is heaven abandoned?”
The words that you could never write
They called me to send me
Wondering where you are tonight
Like a known diamond, they say you got the light, girl
So take the right to find the fire that fits
Your faded heart
The shadow of diamonds, it keeps you from my sight, girl
Don’t walk away, just say you’ll stay engaged in who you are
What you rejected when the harbor lights went out
When all is uncertain, you can soothe yourself with doubt
You look to the mirror and ask if they make fables there
You know you’re moving fast when your surface is bare
Like a known diamond, they say you got the light, girl
So take the right to find the fire that fits
Your faded heart
The rumor of diamonds can set the dogs to fight, girl
So hear these words of mine that say your shine is genuine
Locked away, to keep the theives from finding out
Remember the sunlight when out in the world you’d walk?
You’d drift like a smoke ring in the shadows of New York
Then you see her picture, and wonder if you ever left – you can
Throw dirt on a memory, but you could never say it’s dead
Like a known diamond, they say you got the light, girl
So take the right to find the fire that fits your faded heart
The illusion of diamonds, it keeps you from my sight, girl
Don’t walk away, just say you’ll stay engaged in who you are
When U Find Someone
On this side a man, his hand on the free world
An army at his command
Driving to the make-out point on the shores
Of the lake of the Damned
And we say “Ain’t love grand?”
When you find someone who loves you like that
You want them back in your life
He calls from his car
He speaks through a speechwriter
Trying to sound less needy
Hoping to hear “I’d love you to lead me Show me your strengths
And I’ll show you what surrender can be”
When you find someone who loves you like that
You want them back in your life
“If I have to burn the world to get your attention
Don’t make it tempting, don’t make it tempting”
“We’ll be together, someday, I know this
I promised it to myself
Playing old records over and over
High
On a mountain somewhere
Breathing in that desert air, somewhere, where
No one can touch us
Sharing a dream as a prisoner screams
Hands on the switch as we throw it-together”
When you find someone who loves you like that
You want them back in your life
Don’t Die
Butterfly you blew it
The bullet made you officially artifical
Destiny has met the dove
The passing drained off all their blood
When did we smile?
I can’t remember it must have been quite a while
Don’t die young, baby, don’t die young
Everybody saw the guns
Don’t die young, baby, don’t die young
Cuz baby you’re too young to die
Don’t suck the sun from the summer sky
Italian torture gave us DaVinci but also Medici
What can it teach me?
Arguments are simplified with all the spears
Piercing my side
What can I say?
Make up my mind make up the kinds of things that make it go away
Don’t die young, baby, don’t die young
The country needs your blood to run
Don’t die young, baby, don’t die young
Nobody knows what had come
Don’t die young, baby, don’t die young
Cuz baby you’re too young to die
Don’t suck the sun from the summer sky
Just hang up your heart and cry, cry
Cry
If you believe in love
If you believe that it’s never enough
But you were wrong it never has been all along
Don’t die now, now, now don’t die
Don’t die young, baby, don’t die young
The country needs your blood to run
Don’t die young, baby, don’t die young
Cold and far from your home
Don’t die young, baby, don’t die young
Baby you’re too young to die
Let Me Do
Roll me over, go shoulder to shoulder
And let one come from two
Me and you
I said I’d see it through, now
Let me do the right things to you
If I said your book’s gone unread and you’re way overdue
Would you let me turn a page or two
And let me see it through? Now baby let me do the right things to do
“Sing that song, boy, all night long and every day”
Love
Love ain’t something we can’t improve
So would you let me do it right, now, baby
Let me be the light you see through
You can hold me to my word til it’s true
I said I’d see you through, now let me do the right things to you
If I said that time’s never ending and we could start life new
Would it do a thing for you? And you let me see it through
Let me do the right things to you
Let me do it cuz I want to see you through it
For Your Sake
If you’re finally wondering
If you’re fully awake
If you fail to recognize
If your fortune is fair
If you feel sympathy
If you find acceptance
If you forget faces
If you finish sentences
If you file a memory
If you face a consequence
If you forgo pleasure
If you fake enjoyment
If you figure it’s worth it
If you fall down
If you fuck up, I’ll come around, I’ll come around
Throw your fate into the highest ring you can
Take a walk and forget everything if for your sake
If you take offense
If you’re tortured
If you tend to go along
If you’ve totaled your posessions
If you tide it over
If you’ve tied one on
If you’ve teased it out
If you turned it on
If you’ve told a lie or not told a lie
I’ll come around
Throw your fate into the highest ring you can
Take a walk and forget everything if for your sake
Spend eternity waiting to come into view
Of who already sees you as you
If you grab at nothing
If you go deep in the dark
If you get too twitchy
If you grow weary
If you gasp at the price
If you grimly go ahead
If you gaze with longing
If you grip the crumbling edge
If you gallop toward horizons
If you gawk at the spectacular
If you gauge your success
If you gorge yourself
If you’re greedy all the time
If you gain no new ground
If you’re grinding to a halt
If you’re grinding to a halt
Throw your fate into the highest ring you can
Take a walk and forget everything if for your sake
Spend eternity waiting to come into view
Of who already sees you as you
If you’ve had enough
If you heed warnings
If you have heard different
If you hate mornings
If you’re heading somewhere
If your head starts to pound
If you’re grinding to a halt
If you just hang on
If you’re grinding to a halt
I’ll come around
Throw your fate into the highest ring you can
Take a walk and forget everything if for your sake
Spend eternity waiting to come into view
Of who already sees you for you
If you’ve had enough
If you heed warnings
If you have heard different
If you hate mornings
If you’re heading somewhere
If your head starts to pound
If you can just hang on
I’ll come around
Je Vous En Prie
It’s so unfair
The stars they just hang there
They never say nothing to me
Dominique
If you were here
The things I would tell you
All that time alone
How often I pictured your face
While the winter was freezing me
The desert kept moving me
And there’s oceans between us tonight
Cherie, cherie
Je vous en prie
Take me like a cigarette
Put me to your lips
Breathe me in deep
I pray my soul you’ll keep
Take me to your bed when you sleep
Cherie, je vous en prie
All religion can sound like weeping
Cries for a mother that’s drawn in the sky
On our knees we beg for a lullaby
If no one comes running we lose our beliefs
Oh baby this won’t happen to me
I will always believe in your lips
On your kiss I subsit
Cherie, cherie
Je vous en prie
Take me like a cigarette
Put me to your lips
Breathe me in deep
I pray my soul you’ll keep
Take me to your bed when you sleep
Let me touch one of your dreams
Boy you’ve been running somewhere
Do you know where home is, has it been too long to care?
Boy, you’ve been running so long
Does anyone remember you’re gone?
Better sing your lover this song
Cherie, cherie
Je vous en prie
Take me like a cigarette
Put me to your lips
Breathe me in deep
I pray my soul you’ll keep
Take me to your bed when you sleep
Cherie, cherie
Set fire to me
Let me drift towards your fingers while I’m burning
Put me to your lips
I pray my soul you’ll keep
Take me to your bed when you sleep
Cherie
Cherie
Je vous en prie
You Became The Dawn
Nothing to mourn, we die and die until
Until we’re born, recast as forms
So pleasing to the soul
I never miss anyone, to me they’re never gone
If that makes you uncomfortable, baby
Don’t be too long
And now you’re wondering if that song was the song you just heard
When the form was just the word and the world was golden
And the only way to pray was to be cast as the dawn
Backwards within time, the rhyme within you was another child
Wanting to strive, but this time, not required
Wanting to try, but not to the size of the role intended
You think it’s ended, but it begins with each choice
And now you’re wondering if that song was the song you just heard
When the form was just the word and the world was golden
And the only way to pray was to be sung as the dawn
Kingdoms and criminals, all under the same light
As dawn shall follow night
As fall shall follow flight
Sing yourself awake, call the winds into blowing
It’s a wise child who finds this advice
First among many many lives
And now you’re wondering if that song was the song you just heard
Has called your form in from the world
And the world is golden
You’ve become the dawn
Dawn Of The Dub Of The Dawn
(instrumental)
Cyclone Graves
You can’t run away
You were born it’s all the same game
Tear off the roof of your life
And start your searching again
You came on the day the clouds went away
To their cyclone graves
Where they stay-as sure as I say, that
I hope you never go blind
I hope that you’re more than just kind
Oh, to yourself
You talk to the wind
And you hope that it will listen in
Blow you back where you can begin
To resemble your weakest sin
You came on the day the winds blew away
To their cyclone graves
Where they stay-as sure as I say, that
I hope you never go blind
I hope that you’re more than just kind
Better find it, never fight it, never regret your loves
Your love makes you less than useless, oh to yourself
There’s something about the way you hide
The strength to engage an alibi
Under the scrutiny of love
What will it take to raise you above yourself?
Divine or profane?
Drink the wine or linger in the rain?
Maybe you don’t have to choose
And fortune’s smiling on everyone
And I think it’s smiling on you
You came on the day the clouds blew away
To their cyclone graves
Where they stay-as sure as I say, that
I hope you never go blind
I hope that you’re more than just kind
Better find it, never fight it, never regret your love
Your love makes you less than useless
Love-makes you humble
Pulls you forward-Never fight it, never regret your love
Your love makes you less than useless
Oh to yourself
Death Of A City
Did Ray really survive the death of a city that once was alive?
Still wears bespoke suits, he feels fireproof, maybe religion still
Offers him proof
And he walks thru you and I now making his usual
Rounds
Oh you’re over and done with now
You’ve broken my heart in
But that’s not important – a minor misfortune
Now you’re over and done with now
The death of a city
And nobody really cared
Back streets, somebody weeps, closed circuit cameras and making
The sweep and they look down on grass turning brown cuz nothing is able to live in this town so you go out, late, and look for the stars
All you see is orange on the clouds
Oh you’re over and done with now
You’ve broken my heart in
But that’s not important – a minor misfortune
Now you’re over and done with now
The death of a city
And nobody really cared
Are we able to see what somebody was dreaming in stone and in
Stone?
Streets laid workers were paid and the skyline was something that
Everyone owned
And you know sometimes that’s all you get to
Now you’re not going now not when we’re still enough to hear
Our own sounds like
When we breathe through each other’s mouths, the broken out window
Gives view to the south
Now was it just a trick of the light, or did I see movement attracting
My sight is it somebody waiting word to pull the curtain down?
Oh you’re over and done with now
You’ve broken my heart in
But that’s not important – a minor misfortune
Now you’re over and done with now
The death of a city
And nobody really cared
But don’t cry – don’t cry
Cuz it’s over and done with
Over and done with now
Never My Love
written by The Association
You ask me if there’ll come a time
When I grow tired of you
Never my love
Never my love
You wonder if this heart of mine
Will lose its desire for you
Never my love
Never my love
What makes you think love will end
When you know that my whole life depends
On you (on you)
Never my love
Never my love
You say you fear I’ll change my mind
And I won’t require you
Never my love
Never my love
How can you think love will end
When I’ve asked you to spend your whole life
With me (with me, with me)
Down To The Wire
written by Neil Young
Every time you touch her sets your hands on fire,
And every thing you’ve got is all that she requires.
And you hang on, hang on, hang on to the words of a liar.
You can feel it getting down to the wire.
All the hurt you thought was gone has now returned,
And every thing she’s laughing at is all you learned.
And you let go, let go, let go, ’cause you know you’re getting tired.
Can you feel it getting down to the wire?
Take the time to close your eyes and look around,
‘Cause anyone who helped you out can let you down.
And look out, look out, look out, the voice is now the choir.
Can you feel it getting down to the wire?
New Test Leper
written by R.E.M.
I can’t say that I love Jesus
that would be a hollow claim.
He did make some observations
and I’m quoting them today.
“Judge not lest ye be judged.”
what a beautiful refrain.
The studio audience disagrees.
Have his lambs all gone astray?
Call me a leper
Call me a leper
Call me a leper
“You are lost and disillusioned!”
what an awful thing to say.
I know this show doesn’t flatter.
It means nothing to me.
I thought I might help them understand
but what an ugly thing to see.
“I am not an animal”
subtitled under the screen.
Call me a leper
Call me a leper
Call me a leper
When I tried to tell my story
They cut me off to take a break.
I sat silent 5 commercials
I had nothing left to say
The talk show host was index-carded
All organized and blank
The other guests were scared and hardened
What a sad parade.
What a sad parade
Call me a leper
Call me a leper
Call me a leper
Knocks Me Off My Feet
written by Stevie Wonder
I see us in the park strolling the summer
days of imaginings
in my head
and words from my heart told only to the wind
felt even without being said
I dont want to bore you with my troubles
but there’s something about your love
that makes me weak and knocks me off my feet
knocks me off my feet
i dont wanna bore you with it
oh but i love you, i love you, i love you
i dont wanna bore you with it
oh but i love you, i love you, i love you
more and more
we lay beneath the stars under a lovers tree
that seems through the eyes of the mind
i reach out for the part of me that lives in you
that only our two hearts can find
I dont want to bore you with my troubles
but there’s something about your love
that makes me weak and knocks me off my feet
knocks me off my feet
i dont wanna bore you with it
oh but i love you, i love you, i love you
i dont wanna bore you with it
oh but i love you, i love you, i love you
more and more