1. |
Rebels in the Rubble
02:51
|
|||
|
Mid-September, Friday night, warm under the red glow of rye.
Been a weird summer, hard on the heart,
Notions of forever falling apart.
We’re in your apartment where it all went down.
By 2AM had to get out of the house.
Pulled into the stairwell by the harvest moon,
Met each other in the mirror as we put on our boots.
Went into the streets, where the lovers meet,
Looking for a rooftop for to dangle our feet.
Up and down the same streets of the same seaside town,
Looking for a corner that we hadn’t yet found.
And a burned down office near the harbour’s mouth
Offered a burned-out-cracked-concrete playground.
We were rebels in the rubble, singing our trouble,
Sending songs to Babylon, sending hymns to Bethlehem.
Courting the moon, singing a lonesome tune,
Singing the rain
Will come soon.
Down to the basement, where the pigeons are,
Into the backroom, into the dark.
Felt more like we stood in the basement of our minds
Saw an old safe, well, we had to look inside.
Say, if we really are in the basement of our minds,
Should not the content of the safe glow and shine?
When we realized there was nothing to be found,
You looked at me pretend profound,
Said, “There’s two kinds of people in any old town,
Those who know that they’re empty
And the ones who have yet to find out.”
We were rebels in the rubble, singing our trouble,
Sending songs to Babylon, sending hymns to Bethlehem.
Courting the moon, singing a lonesome tune,
Singing the rain
Will come soon.
Leaves will be let loose.
Snow will follow suit.
We will be taken too.
|
||||
2. |
||||
|
Well, the kid couldn’t find a calling,
Didn’t know what to do.
Wanted to write a novel,
Then wanted to sing the blues.
The paradox of choice
And a privileged overthinking
Became their ruin.
Didn't want to start a family,
Though pushing 31.
Romanticized the rambling
And the being on the run.
And all that overthinking
About an exploitative system
Made them question
Why they'd give them
Another back to burden,
With the constant concern of climate uncertainty,
The inevitable collapse of fiat currency.
The death of the oceans is not prophecy,
It’s happening.
Walking in a first world nightmare,
Their light they began to lose.
Stopped their smoking reefer,
And stopped their drinking booze.
Could then perceive more clearly
The consolidation of power,
And the vampires in gold towers
Drink your blood up by the hour.
They are confused so few people seem to understand
How they’re being pushed around
By some invisible hand,
Singing, “I’m doing all I can
I'm only a man
With an honest plan,
Doing all I can.”
There's still time
To turn the arrow of your will,
From the darkness up into the light!
Is it better to sanguine and off-target
Than to be cynical and right?
If I could only decide what to do with my life,
If I could only decide what to do with my life,
If I could only decide what to do with my life,
I’d be alright.
Idle hands are the devil’s playground,
It’s been often said
That one without a purpose
Will wish themselves for dead.
There’s still time
To turn the arrow of your will,
From the darkness up into the light!
Is it better to sanguine and off-target
Than to be cynical and right?
If I could only decide what to do with my life
|
||||
3. |
Highlight Reel
03:16
|
|||
|
You’re honest, you told me
About the man that you dreamed of holding.
He’s older, there’s history
A dark and youthful mystery.
Long long long lost lust,
Lurking in your guts.
I get it, it happens.
The heart is a restless captain.
It takes me to a season
Where she left for the same damn reason.
Long long long lost love,
Sinking in my guts.
I see you in a highlight reel,
On a homemade videotape.
Still remember how it feels,
In love to run away.
Every scene in the basement apartment.
Every scene in the living room.
Every scene running through my mind
On 8 millimeter film.
If I’m honest, I’ll tell you
I’ve felt the same as you do.
But I hide it and I fight it.
But why deny the night’s excitement?
If you want to live that way we can,
But it will never be the same again
I see you in a highlight reel,
On a homemade videotape.
Still remember how it feels,
In love to run away.
Every scene in the basement apartment.
Every scene in the living room.
Every scene running through my mind
On 8 millimeter film.
Every scene in the basement apartment.
Every scene in the living room.
Every scene running through my mind
On 8 millimeter film.
|
||||
4. |
||||
|
Well you’re leaving for England in an hour,
And your hair is wet,
You just got a shower.
Here, I made you sandwich,
And I’ll make you a promise.
While you're gone,
I'll continue my carrying on.
Carrying debt and carousing ‘till dawn,
While I wait on the word on
Which trade I should lay
My hands upon.
You calmed my recovery
From the jungian discovery
Than every human being
Has a shadow
And a persona they show.
I was bleeding into a memory
Of an evening most clumsy,
But a new day is coming
And it’s time to move on.
So I’ll be leaving
For the cabin in the dark,
All alone,
In an unlicensed car.
With the stars and the highway,
And the snow in my headlights,
It’ll look like
Deep space hyperdrive.
Since my recovery from the
Self-imposed othering,
I am a lighter human being
With a shadow
Halfway under control.
So I would really like to thank you
For setting an example
Of getting over oneself
And on top of the ball,
All winter, spring, summer and fall.
|
||||
5. |
||||
|
There’s a certain kind of sadness
That really is just selfishness.
You can find me in the kitchen
Dancing, doing dishes.
There’s a kind of ambition
That kept me moving, kept me wishing
That I could travel on my own terms,
Bring along my favourite girl.
Is it too late for that?
Is it a race or a contest?
If you took me out of context,
Could I survive on my content?
There’s a certain kind of conflict
I’ve avoided though I’ve needed it.
I keep quiet in the kitchen
And Let you do all the talking.
I’m a young man walking
Though I know I should be running,
Just gunnin’ for that finish line
Where I’m the master of my own time.
And is it too late for that?
If it’s a race not a contest
Should I abandon all my conquests
And articulate my regrets?
And stay at home, where I can enjoy my love?
I am alive and well. Can’t you tell?
And if you’re not sure which door to open next,
You can come on by for a chat.
You can learn from my mistakes
So you don’t waste your time.
|
||||
6. |
Sorry to Say
02:30
|
|||
|
Simple songs,
Simple chords,
It's all I wanna hear.
Families singing,
Sunshine shining,
The highest time of the year.
I want to know it,
How lonely the road gets
For the old balladeer.
But I can’t show it,
Something's not flowing,
I feel like I've disappeared.
And I'm so sorry to say
I'll be going away
Someday soon.
This is not on you;
You've been straight and true
I do not look for another.
It’s just that there’s
A forward path,
Formed by faces,
I feel fated to take.
Friends and lovers
Strangers and others,
The lane of the Rubes and the Rakes.
Somehow I know
I need to go it alone
And carve out my own way!
And I'm so sorry to say
I'll be going away
Someday soon.
This is not on you;
You've been straight and true
I do not look for another.
It's just that I'm bound
For the unknown waters,
Where I will drown my sorrows deep.
I will get down to the soul of the matter
And mend it while I sleep.
(I need)
Simple songs,
Simple chords,
With spirit in the air;
Carrying on and singing along
With the one red rose in her hair.
We're drunks in the choir
For bird on a wire
And the fiddle's on fire again!
To live is to fly
So live and let die;
We can deal with time tomorrow.
And I'm so sorry to say
I'll be going away
Someday soon.
|
||||
7. |
||||
|
It was a brand new year,
It was the seventh of January.
I packed up my gear,
That was the last they would hear from me.
And we had just met,
Just like that we’re moving in;
Getting on like little kids.
So I drove alone all night,
And the radio played Roy Orbison.
Two lonely headlights
In the oncoming cars in the snowy wind.
It took me twice the time
Going half the speed limit,
Making sure I was making it:
It's love, I'm out here chasing it.
By noon I’m at your door
And you’re laughing on the floor,
And I’m singing Roy Orbison, still.
You’re shaking with surprise
And your face is wet with crying.
The birthday of your life had come.
You said the birthday of your life had come
And then two years in,
I’m living in a wilderness.
It’s your only night off
So you drive out the highway to visit me.
We’re a party of two,
Making moves in the window light,
And in from that sunset fire
A current of life coming up our spines.
Then we’re spinning ‘round,
In a blur of light and sound,
There is something touching down from somewhere.
It’s ancient and it’s wild
And we’re singing it alive
And we’re seeing by the light of the song.
Could this go on forever?
Is this the door to heaven?
Blue angels are letting us in.
Here now take my hand and spin!
|
||||
8. |
One Way to Go is West
03:23
|
|||
|
Well, one way to go is west;
To stop in each town for a few nights rest,
Find everyone you know
And a show and then go.
I got some friends in the north end,
And I met a mermaid on the island of sand,
And I don’t mind Edmundston;
There’s a good gig at Pub Le Deck.
Then you’re bound for Montreal, Quebec,
It seemed like the center of it all, way back when.
I’d still like someone to show me Leonard Cohen’s house
Before I head south.
I used to live in Toronto
When I was 21;
So lucky to be lifted
By a song from home.
I got some family in Seattle,
An old roommate out on the Pacific coast.
I know a girl in California,
We used to play in a band.
Like them, I’ll leave Newfoundland
To see the cities that I can,
And live hand to mouth
Between car and couch,
And to the season’s whims surrender.
Well, my best friend in grade five,
Well, he lives in Yellowknife
With his dog and his wife,
He has a good life.
Tyrone left Newfoundland
To build the best life that he can,
To not live hand to mouth,
Singing of getting out,
And leaving your crowd
In a memory.
|
||||
9. |
Out of View
02:47
|
|||
|
There was one drunken night
In another life:
I tore a strip off a guy,
Really twisted the knife,
Tried to make it hurt.
Of course over time,
The wound became mine;
It poisoned my mind,
I grew paranoid,
And I took to hiding.
So, please welcome me!
Your love’s what I need.
I couldn’t bear to be seen
As the devil I’d been,
The devil I need.
And there was a heart
That I left in the dark:
She was a star
And I was the scar
That shaped her pain.
I was ashamed
Of my own name,
So I hid my face
Well out of view,
Looked for something new.
Said I’d give up on the dream
And try to get what I need.
I couldn’t bear to be seen
As the devil I’d been,
The devil I need.
I have atoned:
Spent enough time alone
And I’m sick of staying home
Out of fear
Of seeing someone I know.
So please welcome me!
Your love’s what I need.
I couldn’t bear to be seen
As the devil I’d been,
The devil I need.
I have atoned:
Spent enough time alone
And I’m sick of staying home
Out of fear
Of seeing someone I know
(Yeah I made some mistakes.)
|
||||
10. |
(When the Shadow Falls)
03:02
|
|||
|
When the shadow falls,
And I am invisible and quiet,
I can’t hear your songs
Through the wind
At my window.
I was just trying
To get at something real,
Write it down,
Sing it out.
Now my mouth
Is a corner of the broken night;
I shift my shape.
Lie.
Shirk the light.
Afraid of being rightly tried
As a coward who goes inward
To avoid the noise
Of the earthy violence
Of survival.
I've been putting things in their places,
I tidy as I go.
In the spring I’ll remove the plastic
From the windows.
I've let myself
Become a body
Without a consistent guiding story.
I told myself
I’d get in touch
On the other side.
On the other side.
On the other side
When the shadow falls,
Well, I don’t resist at all,
Anymore.
|
||||
Len O'Neill St. John'S, Newfoundland and Labrador
Len O'Neill is a songwriter and musician from St. John's, most well known for his past work with local indie rock outfit Green & Gold. His songs are personal in scope and poetic in style. Len is currently working on a collection of solo material, tentatively called Out Of View, which is slated for release in 2023. ... more
If you like Len O'Neill, you may also like:
Write The Soil Lighter
by Mother Juniper
“Write The Soil Lighter” is full of beguilingly mysterious folk-adjacent music, shrouded in shadow and atmospherics.
go to album
The Same Mistakes
by Hot Left Pole
Soft-as-a-whisper folk music, with spiderwebs of guitar and vocal melodies as comforting as a lullaby.
go to album
Whispery indie folk from the UK, “Hard Work” cradles soft and gentle vocal melodies in a nest of acoustic guitars.
go to album
Feel The Ground You Walk Upon
by Lewis McLaughlin
Old-fashioned fiddles harmonize with rippling synths on the Scottish singer-songwriter's latest collection of original folk songs.
go to album
LIFE ON EARTH
by Hurray For The Riff Raff
The latest from Hurray for the Riff Raff expands their sound into rock & psychedelia while offering trenchant, politically charged lyrics.
go to album
Singer-songwriter Henry Parker puts his own spin on the classic sounds of '60s and '70s British folk on this wilderness-inspired new LP.
go to album
From Knoxville, TN, Cereus Bright delivers an album of plaintive ambient folk and indie pop, with gauzy atmospheres & stirring melodies.
go to album
