1. |
Start the Life Cycle
01:58
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[spoken]
What is left?
What is left?
What is left behind,
Are the bereaved.
We did not ask to carry on.
And what they promised of a heaven
Is a child's song
Long gone.
It's only a life cycle that ends
One wash, then spins,
Round another way round.
What's left?
What's left?
What is left
But those who pick up and carry on?
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2. |
Steady Machine
03:20
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Find the vessel, displace the blood.
Out the jugular, harden that mug.
Oh, it doesn't matter what you think of what I do
I'm a steady machine, I got much work to do.
A steady machine.
Unrest of the civil kind.
They start a war just to have us toe the line.
Bodies fall on either side, well,
Somebody's gotta pick 'em up
And I'm your guy
I'm a steady machine.
[You're all alone.
You're the only one left to pick it all up.
You're the only one left to carry on the legacy.
You're the only one to keep it all together.
You're the only one who can do anything.
You're the only one.
You're the only one.
It's all on you.
Every thing.
Keep going.
Keep going.
You have to keep going.]
Suspended in honey like past generations do.
I keep them from rotting 'til they hit their tomb.
I sown up their stitches, put nickels on their eyes,
Three pence on the mouth, a cake for Cerberus
I'm a steady machine.
[Well, isn't that something.
Okay, well....]
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3. |
Alone
03:59
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Alone
I'm never alone
With the wheels spinning round and round
In my dome.
Alone
I'm never alone
With the wheels spinning round and round
In my dome.
Will I ever sleep so sound at night?
Will I ever sleep so sound at night?
Could I ever sleep so sound at night with no sound,
When I go home?
Home
What's left of my old home?
Some unpromising prospects, un-ringing phone.
I didn't go just to come back home.
I was dead set on being dead before this was done.
Will I ever sleep so sound at night?
Could I ever sleep so sound at night?
Will I ever sleep so sound at night with no sound,
When I go home?
Cause I've grown used to the desolate.
And I've grown used to the dissonance.
And I've grown used to the solace.
And I've grown so used to this perfect silence.
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4. |
Only Heros
04:04
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You're going home
Subtract some parts they might have known
As who you used to be
But not who you were.
You go back
Beside you, a plaque.
The only hope is it says "hero"
Or something good like that
Would it be good to be a hero.
Oh, bring home the heroes, ah.
Oh.
Are you Lesselle?
Did you wrestle off all the demons
Or did you succumb to the worthlessness of your mortal clothe?
And are you Peter did you meet her?
Shake her hand, the hand of death.
Oh yes, she conquered you.
Now you go home for the feast of the worms.
Oh, bring home the heroes, ah.
Oh, only heroes.
Dredge it up, dredge it up.
Dredge it up, dredge it up.
Dredge it up, dredge it up.
Amir, what did you hold dear?
I can only guess
Cause words fail you as you lose your breath.
Oh death,
It's our only constant in this stint.
Dredge it up, dredge it up.
[continues under singing]
[spoken word from Start the Life Cycle continued under singing]
Is it up to me to bring back all they used to be?
Is it up to me to bring back all they used to be?
If it's part of the past, why's it feel like it has to last?
If it's part of the past, why'd you feel like it has to last?
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5. |
Ted
03:27
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Star gazing with my best friend, Ted.
Just in case you didn't know; Ted's dead.
I found him floating face down in a lake
And since then it's been hard for us to separate.
Star gazing with my best friend, Ted.
Star gazing with my best friend, Ted.
Star gazing with my best friend, Ted.
Star gazing with friend.
He's not much for conversation,
But oh, under the constellations,
Me and Ted, we get so much done.
Solving the world's problems until the sun comes up.
Star gazing with my best friend, Ted.
Star gazing with my best friend, Ted.
Star gazing with my best friend, Ted.
Star gazing with friend.
I said, "Ted, it's just an illusion,
That what stuck to our ribs was this confusion.
A sin, not outgrown;
Cause in the end we're just all bones."
Star gazing with my best friend, Ted.
Star gazing with my best friend, Ted.
Star gazing with my best friend, Ted.
Star gazing with friend.
Ted, is it all an illusion?
I can't see through this confusion.
Ted, is it all an illusion?
I can't see through this confusion.
Ted, I can't see through this confusion.
Ted, what does it all mean?
Ooff
"Keep it lite" is what Ted says,
"Try not to live with this existential dread".
Wouldn't it be nice if it could just be
that I looked at the stars and accept what I see?
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6. |
Piss and Vinegar
02:26
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She was a hot-shot, giga-bot, bottom-of-the-river-liver.
She had her hair up, tangled back, woulda-been-aristocrat.
She wasn't long for this world.
She wasn't long for this world.
She wasn't long for this world.
If you'd seen her, then you'd seen her.
She had her eyes wide open shut, civilian, maybe a chameleon.
She had her heart set, wanna bet? Good or bad, that's all you guess?
She wasn't long for this world.
And I wasn't long for this world.
Yes oh, we were not long for this world.
And if you'd seen her, then you'd seen her.
Let's go girl.
And it you'd seen her, then you'd seen her.
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7. |
Always Alone (A Reprise)
01:42
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Will I ever see your face again?
Will I ever see a face again?
Will I ever see a face again that's not gone?
Plucked from Styx in a sad effort to get home.
No I'm never alone.
I know I'm never alone.
You know I tell myself I'm never alone.
So why do I feel so god damn alone?
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8. |
Flower Shop
06:36
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[Anyway, give me a call.
Okay, give me a call.
Okay, bye bye.
I'll just have to keep talking,
I don't know what else...
I hear the sound of feet approaching....]
My dear love, it's dark here.
The days don't let go of the nights here.
And it's easy to pretend it's the sun going in and out of clouds,
but I know
I know
I know the sun won't come around.
We coulda been anything.
One drop of a word from you
Would maybe ease my mind.
And I get how you'd forget,
All these miles, all this time.
But I'd take
I'd take
I'd take any notice from you.
We coulda been anything
Anything
Anything
Could have owned a flower shop,
Opened up just down the block.
Why'd I think my only shot was far away?
Now I got so much work to do.
These letters are my only tether to you.
And no response has me feeling we're through,
But I don't blame you.
Why'd I think hard work
Was all that made me who I am?
Did I think that it made me such a man?
Oh, such a man.
Now I'll work past all the hours
They tell me to
To forget about you.
We coulda been anything
Anything
Anything
Could have owned a flower shop,
Opened up just down the block.
With azaleas, peonies, daffodils too.
I don't know much about plants,
Neither do you, but,
I think we coulda made our due,
Me and you.
Coulda been anything.
We could have owned a flower shop.
[well, isn't that something?]
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9. |
Life Cycle Outro
01:00
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[spoken]
What's left?
What's left, my sad, lonely friend?
It's only a cycle to start over
and over and over again.
And heaven isn't the answer,
My sad, lonely friend.
They live on with you as legacies do;
under your fingernails.
It's all as you do.
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Samie Jo Portland, Oregon
New concept album, "The Life Cycle" will be coming out on July 12th, 2022
Kansas born, now Portland local. All songs are original as well as all artwork. Thanks much!
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