1. |
The Corner
04:24
|
|||
Down on the corner of what I want
And what I tend to get
Day-drinking and dreaming of you I
Let the ashtray smoke my last cigarette
Once i had a casual acquaintance
With my impending doom
Years ago she promised me "Someday soon"
But how I've moved from room to room
Chorus:
Ain't been transcendin
Much of nothin
I've been down in it
I ain't free
Weren't no experiment
These seven years they went
Like a life
Outta me
Clownin on the corner of almost gone and
Maybe not just yet
There's still a little left to pawn and the bone's aren't set
The cast is slack, the plaster's wet
Steppin up the escalator
Hell I am outta here
Out past the predetermined terminals of tears
The wings are warm, the runway's clear
Chorus
Maybe all the world's a hollow recreation
My desperate brethren
A hallowed blue hallucination we play to win
Put your right foot out, put your right foot in
But it's a useful little illusion
It'll lose you for a song
In the beautiful confusion you've been
Down and counting on
Chorus
Down on the corner of what I want
And what I tend to get
Day-drinking and dreaming of you I
Let the ashtray smoke my last cigarette
|
||||
2. |
Survivor Blues
03:33
|
|||
She warned him once about her luck
Put out a match with a tear
She said I'm bored to death and born to…
Look, you want way the hell away from here?
He said You don't look that tough to me
He leaned and lit her cigarette
How about you wait to see just what you regret
Till we get what we get
They say it makes you stronger
First you gotta survive
What didn't kill you
Make you wish you died
What didn't kill you
Make you wish you died
She struggled to read his knuckle tattoos
Beneath the ring and the scar
But the left said LOVE and the right read TRUE
She said Please say you got a car
It's parked out back, it's pointed out of state
It's a recent acquisition we should probably ditch the plates
It won't get me far enough to ever lose track
But yeah, it's plenty car enough for never coming back
They say it makes you stronger
First you gotta survive
What didn't kill you
Make you wish you died
What didn't kill you
Make you wish you died
Yellow duffel in the seat back yonder
It's a bunch of pretty junk I bought her
Yours if you want
Either to you or the flames
To me it's the same
She said No thanks man my baggage is packed
The name on my ankle, the knife in my back
But I know a place on our way out of town
That's as good as burned down
It's as good as burned down
They say it makes you stronger
First you gotta survive
What didn't kill you
Make you wish you died
What didn't kill you
Make you wish you died
You call that a scar?
A bruise? A tear?
Pillow marks.
Souvenirs
|
||||
3. |
Bad Man
03:54
|
|||
You say you heard the talk
About where I've been
But while I walked that walk
There and back again
I don't remember ever seeing
None of them around
So let me be the first
To curse my name into the ground
Chorus:
They say i'm a bad man, and they're right
I'm a bad man
Baby I think a bad man would do you good
So you broke your heart
For some lonely broken men
But it didn't break your heart
It only broke it in
It takes one to notice when
Someone takes time for noticing
The subtle shift of shape and shade
That made them call a spade a spade and say
Chorus
Let them walk the well lit
Suburbs of their hearts
You ain't afraid of no alleyway
When you are the thing in the dark
So slip off what you don't want ripped off
It's all in my way
Put my mouth over those stupid things
You're taught you ought to say
The sun will rise
Like God's good eye
Soon everyone will know we were never cool
It'll be all over the entire middle school
I mean, you know, the scene
And when they say I'm a bad man
You can say
I bet he makes a better bad man
Than you do good
It's not love that you have for me
It's not love- who said it had to be
It's not love that I have for you
But it'll have to do
|
||||
4. |
Darken My Door
04:14
|
|||
Moon against the window, moonlight on the lawn
Street so bright with the streetlights on
What do they think the night is for?
Darken my door
Stars against the window, starlight on the lawn
Street so bright when them stars come on
What do they think the night is for?
Darken my door
All that light let's lonely shine so clear
Tonight my head's a chandelier
We will toast your past
Just as overcast as mine
A crush of hearts
For the dark red wine
City in the window, search light on the lawn
Street so bright when the search is on
What do they think the night is for?
Darken my door
I know to never advertise a hurt
Tonight my eyes are fireworks
Wear your heavy braids
Made of Shadow, Shade, and Vine
Let em' down
Make the darkness shine
Sunrise through the window, sunlight on the lawn
Your face so bright in the breaking dawn
Must be what the light is for
Open the door
|
||||
5. |
||||
Another night closes your hard little rose
And re-opens the sparkling wound
They'll pick up your sin on the sticky-sweet wind
They'll itch and they'll quicken and sick your sweet skin
And they're next to nothing, face to face,
In daylight, one by one
But that's not how they're coming
That's not the way they come
There, there little heartbreaker
It's only one night alone
Just keep away from the windows
Stay way away from the phone
And whatever you do- Don't do it tonight
A heart is a horrid cocoon
There, there little heartbreaker
It'll be all over soon
Pray that that's rain tapping at that black window
The sudden percussion of blood in your wrist won't quit
Calling the thing, recalling its kiss
To nail you to the night like this
These birds have circled ever since
The center of you fingerprints
You made your bed of flesh and bone
You set the clock in stone
There, there little heartbreaker
Just remember- no windows, no doors
And no mirrors, no mirrors, no mirrors
Mirrors know mirrors know more
Whatever you do- don't do it tonight
A heart is a horrid cocoon
There, there little heartbreaker
It'll be all over soon
|
||||
6. |
The Snowman
03:39
|
|||
It's always beautiful weather on one side of the window
Somewhere warm I could watch from- picture the wind blow
In here nothing could melt me- I swear I never felt these bones become snow
Now I carry that weather wherever I go
I walk on the water
I answer to no man
I am the snowman
Your memory's dead now- leave the sheets in the bedroom
Stop walking through walls dear, lie back down in that red room
No matter how long your hair and your fingernails grow
Your memory's dead now, believe me, i'd know
I broke all the roses
I cut off my own hand
I am the snowman
Out on the hillside the sun rises hissing
You won't find the bodies- everything's missing
The shadows we swallow spill into the hollow below
And we carry this weather wherever we go
We are the ghost
We don't even believe in
We are the snowmen
But there was a time when...
|
||||
7. |
||||
It was undeniably summer
I was certifiably cool
In my acid washed jacket and my stone washed jeans
I rose out of the kiddie pool
You were a walking want ad you had
Summer on your side
Our front yards faced each other
From across the Great Divide
The sunbeams cracked like jumper cables
I was cranking up the Mellencamp
You were dancing barefoot on a picnic table and
Dammit girl truly goddammit girl truly goddammit girl truly goddamn
I still remember every word you said
Like I always said I would
When you walked on the waterbed
Stood right there in my head for good
You kept some honeysuckle
In that special dresser drawer
Now every spring both knees buckle
Both knees buckle and I hit the floor
I hit the floor every spring
At just the hint of a scent of a thought of that thing
I still remember every word you said
Like I always said I would
When you walked on the waterbed
Stood right there in my head for good
The easy way we used to play
When there was no such thing as yesterday
We threw our two hearts high
The first half felt like flying
I still remember every word you said
Like I always said I would
When you walked on the waterbed
Stood right there in my head for good
|
||||
8. |
Karen's Song
03:27
|
|||
It was undeniably summer
I was certifiably cool
In my acid washed jacket and my stone washed jeans
I rose out of the kiddie pool
You were a walking want ad you had
Summer on your side
Our front yards faced each other
From across the Great Divide
The sunbeams cracked like jumper cables
I was cranking up the Mellencamp
You were dancing barefoot on a picnic table and
Dammit girl truly goddammit girl truly goddammit girl truly goddamn
I still remember every word you said
Like I always said I would
When you walked on the waterbed
Stood right there in my head for good
You kept some honeysuckle
In that special dresser drawer
Now every spring both knees buckle
Both knees buckle and I hit the floor
I hit the floor every spring
At just the hint of a scent of a thought of that thing
I still remember every word you said
Like I always said I would
When you walked on the waterbed
Stood right there in my head for good
The easy way we used to play
When there was no such thing as yesterday
We threw our two hearts high
The first half felt like flying
I still remember every word you said
Like I always said I would
When you walked on the waterbed
Stood right there in my head for good
|
||||
9. |
The Freefall
04:12
|
|||
The moon was low enough to put your drinks on
So we ponied up and got our drink on
I was fucked up as my haircut
She was waisting good perfume
It was useless as the truth is
In these ruthless little rooms
Truth be told all that we saw
Was something to hold
Through the freefall
I inhaled the tangled perfume of her summer hair
Strands of motel shampoo, Parliaments, and pear
To be honest, I felt nothing
And said nothing to be fair
I've been drinking with those three chord girls
Everybody knows exactly how they go
I was shaving by moonlight
She was feeling for her dress
We were talking about something
Dull blades make a fucking mess
My eyes turned to face hers
Like mirrors facing mirrors
Truth be told, all that we saw
Was something to hold through the freefall
|
||||
10. |
Jericho
03:57
|
|||
She was looking over my shoulder
Out of the window at the moon
As I watched her there in the silver
Napkin dispenser to my right
Her left, my right
There was no one at the jukebox
When suddenly it turned on
And suddenly there's Motown
And the trumpets blow, towards Jericho, they go-
"No one knows how no one feels,
I wonder why I bother"
But tonight the sky caught flower
It was damn near absurd
A wash of wasp and bob-white,
Moth and mockingbird
In the blinding hind-sight
Of the long-dead starlight stood the
Unconnected dots of history
The patron saints of Luck and Mystery
The unnerving coincidence of reoccurring fingerprints
A white rose in an onion and an ocean in the oxygen
Muhammad, Kali, Buddha, baby Jesus and the gang
The whole slipshod she-bang
Under this perfect awning my pretty girl is yawning
"No one knows how no one feels I wonder why I bother"
She says "Look- the sky is perfectly clear-
Just there-", Where, there? "No, right here"
And when I finally feel I've found it
Each star points to the five around it
And on and on and off and on and on
She was looking over my shoulder
Out of the window at the moon
|
||||
11. |
Hold Me Down
05:22
|
|||
I chase a never-ending picture with a disappearing pen
She said I see the angel with a synthesizer in her hand
What's that supposed to be beside her?
Is that supposed to be a man?
Look, I did the best I can
Chorus:
Hold me down, hold me still
Love me like you always will
Kiss me like you've solved it
It starts raining on the ocean every time you send your best
It feels like someone forcing open an umbrella in my chest
There really ain't no use to talk anymore
It's raining on the ocean
It's raining on the shore
Chorus
A lovely explosion-
Unfolds its tiny wings
In a tiny box on a giant screen T.V.
Above the busy bar
I clutch my coat and
Clench my hardened heart to know that
I was younger yesterday than I ever guessed before
Climbing out of hell on a ponytail to kicked in your back door and then
I slept under our statue, the one in Mercy Park
That I said looks just like you- even more so when it's dark
Still you refused to yield
Your useless sword and shield
I woke up in the garden, I woke up in the sun
I woke up like a bullet wakes up from a gun
Too late to turn around
All hammered down and done
I'm done, I'm done, goddamn i'm through
Evangaline i'll never mean another dream of you just
Hold me down the cast will come
Hold me still off the sky
Love me like rest and ride
You always will the world awhile
|
||||
12. |
Lily
05:30
|
|||
We were just a phase of flowers
The happy days, the happy hours
When the rain streamed down
The fatal windows
And her eyes seemed far away
Up close
When all the things you meant to mean
And all the awful in between
Gets tired
Well, Lilly, I guess the best trick
Is to see the magic
Once you've seen the wires
My pulse held still for her to pass
And my heart beat again
At last
Now the roof is sitting on the floor
Her past is fitting in a drawer
Where all the lonely papers play
Like we were only made of make-believe
And fire
Well, Lilly, I guess the best trick
Is to see the magic
Once you've seen the wires
Against the grain
Of a breeze
Carves my girl in dark perfume
Her doors open all
The night skies make room
My doors are facing
The night skies just racing
In bloom
Go on home, your little tin
With what's left of a heart
Like the bark
Of a ghost
Of a dog
That's still chasing his car
Cause I'm south and of now
South enough to rest
The birds are singin'
Sweet and meaningless
Well, Lilly, I guess the best trick
Is to see the magic
Once you've seen the wires
|
||||
13. |
||||
She wondered once about her luck
Put out her match with a tear
She said I'm bored to death and born to,
Look, you want way the hell away from here?
He said you don't look that tough to me
Leaned and lit a cigarette
How 'bout you wait and see just what you regret
Until we get what we get
They say it makes you stonger
But first you gotta survive
What didn't kill you will make you wish you died
What didn't kill you will make you wish you died
She struggled to read his knuckle tattoos
Beneath the ring and the scar
But the left said love and the right read true
She said please say you got a car
It's parked out back
It's pointed out of state
It's a recent acquisition we should probably ditch the plates
And it won't get you far enough to ever lose track
But yeah it's plenty car enough for never coming back
They say it makes it stronger
But first you gotta survive
What didn't kill you will make you wish you died
What didn't kill you will make you wish you died
Yellow duffel in the seat back yonder
Bunch of pretty junk I bought her
It's yours if you want
I believe in the flame
But to me it's the same
She said no thanks man my baggage is packed
This name on my ankle with this knife in my back
I know a place on the way out of town
It's as good as burned down
It's as good as burned down
They say it makes it stonger
But first you gotta survive
What didn't kill you will make you wish you died
What didn't kill you will make you wish you died
You call that a scar
A bruise, a tear
Pillowmarks
Souvenirs
|
Cory Branan Nashville, Tennessee
Throughout his decade-and-a-half-long career, Cory Branan has been too punk for country, too country for punk, too Memphis for Nashville, and probably a little too Cory Branan for anyone’s damn good.
Streaming and Download help
If you like Cory Branan, you may also like:
Bandcamp Daily your guide to the world of Bandcamp