This song comes from hearing stories from frontline workers and minimum wage workers, being astounded at the trials they face, their generosity, and their resilience.
One thing I’ll say it’s been a day
I think I finally lost my faith
I try to give whatever I can
Only to have it slapped out of my hand
I spend all day caring for folks
that treat me like some kind of joke
I’m always doin for someone else
When do I get to do for myself?
Sugarcoat my love
Let me be with my sweet girl
Sugarcoat my love
Take away the bitter taste of this world
I’ve got a beat-up Chevrolet
I’ve got a payment I can’t barely pay
I’m driving deliveries and cleaning homes
Getting treated like some robot ghost
And now my heart feels like a fist
Getting tighter every-time I’m dismissed
I’m feelin crazy and bad tonight
I’m ragin in my cage ready to fight
Sugarcoat my love
Let me be with my sweet girl
Sugarcoat my love
Take away the bitter taste of this world
The bitter taste
of endless days
a nothing wage
of bills unpaid
of time apart
an aching heart
and for my pain
I get disdain
I’m doing better than before
I’m sorry that I walked out the door
I needed some time alone
But now I need to come back home
Please forgive my wild ways
I do what I do to make it through the day
What would I do without you
And your sweet love to pull me through
I’m gonna sugarcoat my love
Show you how I love my girl
Sugarcoat my love
And take away the bitter taste of this world
Here’s an experimental ode to the deep of night, when the world stops and I can be alone in the luxurious late-night obscurity of the studio to howl into the dark and follow the echoes.
This one gets a little trippy as I play with layers of vocal delay and feedback on the minimalist poetry over vocal Aaaahs. I tried to follow those echoes into an extended late-night feeling. I also try something here that I don’t often do: make the chorus out of an instrumental guitar line. It’s got a good beat, so if you’re inclined, dance along like everyone else is asleep.
I wrote a song last week about some of the big, confusing, often exasperating mysteries of life, personal and global. Am feeling even more so after this week’s exposed vulnerabilities here in Austin where we spent three freezing days without power and are now waiting for safe drinking water to return.
What Do I Know?
Where do we come from and where do we go?
What am I doing here? What do I know?
When will I become who I want to be?
I can’t ignore all the shit I see.
Why cannot humans cooperate?
To kill the cancers of war and hate?
Why do we think ourselves as separate?
We’re killing ourselves with the planet.
What do I know?
No guarantees
What can I say?
It’s a mystery to me
Is it wrong that I touch myself?
Is it wrong that I think of you?
Locked inside a wooden box up in the tower
Over the falls, overwhelmed and overpowered
We come together then we shoot apart
We call it love then we make it art
Every day is just another wave
A shadow on the wall inside the cave
What do I know?
Boredom and ecstasy
What can I say?
It’s a mystery to me
What do I know?
Boredom and ecstasy
What can I say?
It’s a mystery to me
First they appeal to our identity
And make the other a nonentity
Then you ignore their humanity
And get real angry like Sean Hannity
Where do you go if you got no home?
What do you do if you get real sick?
Which of these Christians watches out for you
When you’re a refugee?
What do I know?
Sorry, I disagree
What can I say?
It’s a mystery to me
What do I know?
People not property
What can I say?
It’s a mystery to me
a fuckin mystery
when, at the end of a crazy day
I’ve got the nightmare on replay
god, what did I say?
forgive my sins
I need a gin
and to begin again
when, at the end of a disastrous year
we all see the thing we fear
loud and clear
can I extend a hand?
manage to mend
and begin again
when, at the end of a life cut short
and I’m trying to protect my heart
and then a song come on
reminds me who’s gone
and I cannot comprehend
how to begin again
why’s it so hard to let go? (I’ll never forget)
how can I ever un-know? (what they’ve done to my head)
how can I move past the pain?
I am afraid
to begin again
when, at the end of a life so long
I’ve written my thousand songs
and they put me in the ground
still diggin my sounds
amen
I’m zen
begin again
