Released 11 September 2001
Label Manifesto (US) / Poptones (UK/Europe)
Recorded By Mitch Easter
Recorded The Fidelitorium, Kernersville NC; June, July, & September 2000.
Mastering Engineer Rick Fisher at RFICD Mastering
Released internationally with a different cover.
Ken Stringfellow with:
Eric Marshall: drummer
Tony Shanahan: bassist on “Find Yourself Alone,” “The Lover’s Hymn,” “Reveal Love,” “Spanish Waltz,” & “This One’s On You”
Andrew Emmett & Marla Woods: violinists
Melodee Karabin: cellist
Shalini Chatterjee: secret vocalist on “This One’s On You”
Ron Preston: Emmons pedal steel guitarist
Art direction: Bootsy Holler (photos) & Chuck Dong (design & illustration)
01. Down Like Me
02. This One’s On You
03. Find Yourself Alone
04. Sparrow
05. Reveal Love
06. Uniforms
07. One Morning
08. Spanish Waltz
09. Fireflies
10. The Lover’s Hymn
11. Here’s To The Future
—
bonus track on the Japanese release:
12. Airscape
back to Ken Stringfellow albums
Lyrics
Down Like Me
At last I understand the consequences of my love
But how could there be a heaven when they kicked you out
‘Cuz you kicked out your chair from above?
Everybody loves to stick with a winner
But you showed me the line between victory and dying
Couldn’t get much thinner ‘cuz you
You found out how to get down-Down Like Me
When my self-pity became less than full time work
I meditated on the methods and the means
And whether or not it would hurt
Then I got the call they found you swinging out over the earth
So over me you win again
In finishes, forms, in finals and in firsts
You finally had to get down-Down Like Me
“By the time you read this I will no longer be here”
I had to read these words to all your family/friends
Everybody you never held dear
We’ll keep an empty place at dinner forever
And I’ll maintain and empty chair so you can set in
And we’ll never grow old together
You showed ’em how to get down-Down Like Me
This One’s On You
You want to be alone
You’ve seen too much for one life
You’re sickened by what was shown
You’re tired from all the pain
It’s so hard to not complain
But don’t you see love breaks you open so you can heal again?
But this new love might fit you like a glove and
This One’s On You
Say goodbye to the self you knew
You say that you’ve been burned
At least it feels like it’s always your turn
And no surprise won’t come back to bite you
As far as you’re concerned
You’re so much smarter ‘cuz you have seen
How messy love can be
Well we don’t need no education to your kind of scene
But this new love…
Liberate your mind it’s easy now you’ll find
Your heart can really fly
Look down and see those hills and towns
You know they’re all on higher ground
You’re finding what they’ve found
There’s so much you could repair
But you don’t care who you leave behind
In your sad affairs
But this new love…
Find Yourself Alone
Drink up and pay and it’s time to move on
This place is dying and they’ve turned the lights on
Nobody wants to hear the ravings of a bad drunk
They’re afraid he’ll speak their minds and say
That you’ll find yourself alone
No matter who lives in your home
You better find yourself alone
My life’s a car wreck on the side of the road
Say nothing but you can’t turn away
Not a pleasant subject, so I don’t blame you for turning away
It’s the least you could do anyway
Then you find yourself alone
No matter who lives in your home
You better find yourself alone
‘Cause it doesn’t matter–who you are
No it doesn’t matter–what you make
Stand on your own or say goodbye
Goodbye
I watch myself laying on the floor
If there’s pain here I can’t feel it no more
If you’re beautiful, if you’re young
If your talents exceed your faults
Here’s a reason to be selfish
You’ll find yourself alone
No matter who lives in your home
You better find yourself alone
Cause you’ll find yourself alone
No matter who lives in your home
You better find yourself alone
Sparrow
Despite what you have heard
You cannot cage this bird
The sparrow on the wing
Longs to hear you sing
Once you have opened your heart to its church
You find that the sparrow won’t come to its perch
Tears in conceit
Narrow as your caged beliefs
If you must assume the rose may never bloom
Is creation such a fact?
Can it be taken back?
Once you have opened your heart to its church
You find that your heart won’t come home to its perch
Years to complete
Arrow winds in two wounds deep
Once for those who put a size on love
Once for those who only look above for sideways eights
Once you have opened your heart to its church
You find that your heart has come home to its perch
Reveal Love
There’s so much pain
Pain behind us, behind beside us, pain through us
Pain to make us or erase our sense of trust
Pain to bring us close or to undo us
I wanted you
In truth I want you still
But you’re so far away
Unless I play the rules by which you want to play
But then I feel you push me back
As if it’s challenge that you lack
I say lover reveal love, never conceal love
I want you still
Lover be careful before you lose me
I won’t be still
You’re so alone
Do you deserve it I know you think so
Do you know what’s real?
Are you afraid what something real could make you feel?
You stayed with him
On the losing side, you never gave in
But he’s so far away
And if he didn’t help you then, he won’t today
And you’re afraid to make the leap
But I only play my heart for keeps
I say lover reveal love, never conceal love
I want you still
Lover be careful before you lose me
I won’t be still
I want you still
Or I could wait for you to come
To the realization
And say lover reveal love, never conceal love–I want you still
Lover be careful before you lose me–I won’t be still
Cause I want you still–I want you still
Uniforms
Come all you scions of old-time Berlin
With nights of intolerance soon to begin
Feel the lights dim
After the rally’s done wolf becomes faun
Sharing a cigarette in your salon—he tries your boots on
Despite the times you feel quite liberal
You even prefer negro spirituals over Ophuls
Run for cover, you’ll find your lover there
As a shot splits the air
Tell me what you did there—alone or in pairs
With your body bare
Tell me how long you stared before you said yes
You must show no feelings for him tho’ it’s not fair
But these are the uniforms that we must wear
And you wouldn’t dare to resist the order
The fighting is savage the contest is brief
The bloodshed is localized and yet you feel grief in that sweet relief
Run for cover…
A war’s a human thing and to each man it brings
The ability to walk in straight lines
But these lines, they can and do break
If only just to show there’s only so much loyalty a man can take
Loyal to his beliefs he wears what suits him ‘til
He takes them off and shows, and shows what’s underneath
A man who is most beautiful when he’s free
Run for cover…
Tell me what you did there alone or in pairs
Under a nom de guerre
Tell what you did to stop the nightmare
Tell me what you did there
Did to stop the nightmare?
Fortune prefers one who dares
Tell me what you did there
One Morning
One morning when you wake up all alone—what do you see?
For walls and for your troubles one less friend awakens thee
Just because you would rather wake up alone
Doesn’t mean that another lover’s the worst thing you’ve known
Did no one ever hold you when you cried when you were small?
So now you hold yourself up like a star—outshine us all
Pretty soon pretty face pretty out of touch
The kind of thing when you lose it don’t miss it that much,
Not that much
Can’t compete with you
Guess I’ll be complete without you
One morning when you wake up wonder what
Will you do now
Free from despair you struggle for a cause
To now pursue
Never once did it cross your mind to see
That the author of happiness could be sad as me
Shed the old disguises—try your new luck on for size
One morning when you think you’re all alone
Just wake me up
Spanish Waltz
All I was in front of you was half a face
Eyes held back I let you pass without a trace
But everyone comes to conclusions eventually
That maybe what you didn’t want to show them is what they will see
All used up I let them take what was left
I assumed that my good works had no effect
Buy my way, or beg to play it’s all the same
But everyone comes to conclusions eventually
That maybe what you didn’t think to show them
Is what they should see
Worse that could happen is that you would choose what to turn into
Turn into something that answers this question I offer to you
That’s all that you had to say
Fireflies
In the jar there were fireflies
And when their bodies turned black you cried
Cursing someone who’d take away
The living things that you wanted for your play
On the beach there were pails and sand
A helium balloon tied to your hand
Now from the Hamptons to Hollywood
Your pleasure’s not as free as it should be
In your life there are living dolls
They can’t say no and you want them all
Feeling good as you stretch your claws
And take refreshments that make you pause
The Lover’s Hymn
It’s true—I pray for you
But where it goes nobody knows
I pray for me too and we two
And anything that’s gonna help it grow
Now I don’t think for a minute that I know how these things work
But it don’t matter it doesn’t change
That I believe if God’s a He or a She or a What
That it wants us to feel, feel what it feels
Every flower coming through your skin
Every breeze crossing your face
Every life being born in your arms
That’s what they’re calling love
That’s what they’re calling bliss
That’s what they’re calling joy and ecstasy
In perfect miniature—a world on a grain of sand
Called a woman, called a man
That’s why they call it love that’s why they call it bliss
That’s why they call it joy and ecstasy
And that’s why I pray I want that to come our way
I want to know it every day that’s why I pray
Now I’m not a fool I know bad things can happen
They usually do
But what choice to I have? Give up and give in?
Do all the things that all the broken people do?
If I reach out with my thoughts even if I think there’s no one there
They’re gonna land some time they’re gonna land somewhere
And if they free me from the darkness, that’s all they gotta do
It’s not a service like paying a taxi fare
Are you there? Can you hear me? Are you with me?
Let me know if you’re still listening
‘Cause the best part’s yet to come
‘Cause I’m not giving up—if you do I’ll hold you up
We’re gonna get there if we crawl or if we run
It might be this life or the next or whatever fate thinks best
But there’s something here that just can’t be undone
And that’s why I pray…
Here’s To The Future
Here’s to the future my friends—hope I can see you there
We’ll have a drink together somewhere, somewhere
Here’s to the future darlings—whatever may come to pass
I send you with my good graces and that’s a fact
What have you got to lose? Whichever paths you choose
Keep in mind that the fates are kind if you let them be so
And I know you will
Here’s to the future brothers-raise your cups in the air
Here’s to the future sisters and all the unlikely pairs
What have you…
Keep in mind…
And I tell you no lies
Here’s to the future my friends—and all that it holds in store
I hope that each day from now on holds more…
Airscape
written by Robyn Hitchcock
And in the element of light
The sun reflected from the waves
Inshore it spangles
The child of air is borne upon the wind that blows across the sea
And in the element of summer
The cliffs suspended in the heat
The air in columns
The tiny figures of the world are walking
Underneath your feet
And underneath your hair
Where angels wander
I’ll wander too
Where angels wander — over you
And in the element of darkness
The starlight shimmers on the spray
And falls towards you
Your perfect lover’s never there
And if she was, she wouldn’t be — and neither, though, would you
Save your illusions
For someone else
Save your illusions
For yourself
Element
And in the element of laughter
The quick explosion and the slow
Release of heat, you
The tide recedes upon the bones of something beautiful and drowned
In coral and in jade
Where angels hover
I’ll hover too
Where angels hover — over you
Over you
Over you