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1. |
Shine for Gold
05:09
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He left home in ’49 and headed West in hopes to find
The gold he was told hides in the hills
His pockets filled with nuggets and thrills
He brought along a recipe for shine
A poor boy from Mississippi found a new way in the West
He knew about corn whiskey and the secrets to make it best
He found wealth untold
Shine for gold
In California, he built a still and a store to pay the bills
He never had to pan the streams
Money rolled in from shattered dreams
They entered empty and he gave them their fill
Every morning they’d line up at the door
Drinking him dry, craving more for ore
He’d pour as their poor guts spilled out on the floor
They cleaned out the store
He shut down in ’65, a letter from home arrived
One night a fight in the town, cold-hearted Yankees burned it down
He headed back with passion divine
As he headed back to Mississippi, loaded up all of his wealth
And he packed up his corn whiskey
To boost morale and health
But his luck didn’t hold
On his tombstone they wrote
Shine for gold
Shine on…
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2. |
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From the mezzanine
Burning hot, cancerous like Hydrazine
Keep your conscience clean
The thoughts in your head that you didn’t mean
The person in your stead acting pristine
The HAZMAT suit that saves you from this scene
And the winter coat you grow
In hopes to never let it show
The balcony’s falling
The victims are flailing
The opera has finished for the night
A sideways glance, a dance
To lather but never rinse
And murder the nightly ghost
It's alive where a treacherous vibe tries to hide
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3. |
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Maybe she was a dancer, I didn't have an answer why I
Took her home that night
Maybe to hear her cry until the sunlight bled
In through the blinds
And crept across her red eyes, like the box of wine
We emptied with pride
We wound up in the kitchen, I sat and listened and sighed
And placed my head on her thigh
And thought about how I don't want her... And she said
I know it's easy to have me
It's much harder to love me
When I've developed this touch
I don't even know myself
I've asked for help, as of yet
It doesn't account for much
Sometimes she feels like dying, she's done trying to smile
Through the glitter and light
Feeding the skeezy smiles, on random guys, plastered on
An overconfident drone
The cage on the stage is calling, Autumn is falling to spring
As the beat lingers on
She doesn't bother to speak of her father, while I try to find
My way inside
To think about why I don't love her... And she says
It's odd that our life's so uneven, if I could believe in a God
That wasn't so flawed
And all but caused these afflictions, fighting addictions
These frictionous fictions now stalled
In light of these little breaths, signals and nods that catch
To fool myself in time
Push dissolves into shove, growing so sick of
Secret love that stays confined
And I wish there was a way I could love her...
I tripped and fell
Did I fall...
I don't want to feel
Can't help but feel it now
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4. |
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Hey, Stede, how about married life?
And how is that nag of a wife?
She’s still a bee in a Bonnet
The first wave out, I jumped on it
Because gentlemen don’t play that way
I found a few ships for sell
Gathered up some men and paid them well
Wearing my finest clothes
I worked my way up the coast
With a gentlemen’s smile all the way
The shore on the Carolina Beach
I tagged up with Mr. Teach
Took captive Mr. Wragg
Traded for indigo, drugs, and money bags
This gentlemen preyed to get paid
Through the inlet of Cape Fear
Colonel Rhett, he knew how to steer
We replaced the heart and dagger
With a white flag, without swagger
And then the gentleman was taken in
Could this be the end of a gentleman’s Revenge
Wells bled through the cells of the Provost dungeon
Allies and eyes on the outside helped me to get free again
But I’ll be damned if ole William didn’t find me on Sullivan
After rejecting my pleas
More than thirty of us hanged at the Battery
Left there to gently sway
As a warning, they watched us decay
And then the Gentleman was tossed in the marsh
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5. |
Hard Pressed
02:21
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If I could find all my white lies, I’d pile them high to climb inside and wait for you
In this bed I made with hearts I’ve slayed, the life I gave, the light that fades
As fates come unglued
And you could find comfort in the quilt of complacence
All wrapped up in yourself
Hard pressed for heartfelt
In these shrinking walls, these shallow halls, this shadowed call to bear the palls
And leave a vapor to drift
As we hide inside, as lightning strikes, chalk white outlines a million times
Before the graveyard shift
It’s a cavalcade, a stalled parade, a graveside procession
A confession that memories made
As our session slowly degrades
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6. |
Notions
04:06
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Meet me at noon down at the station
See, I’ve got a notion or two
I’ll have some flowers, go down to the ocean
Maybe get a room with a view
Let go…
Move on…
Jump in overhead and we’ll float along
Together, get lost
If there are choppy seas, or the engine derails
I’m a lifeline to the calm and clear
Running on empty and no wind in the sails
We’ll chase our on Hesperides here
It’s the heart that beats in your wall
The time that dies as you stall
Believe in dreams, nightmares and all
Blasphemous tongue and broken jaw
For eternities between last calls
And the summer days that always end in fall
If cosmos wilt or the shoreline recedes
We’ll groove up a calamitous dance
We’ll laugh at guilt, we’ll shun all our needs
And live in this cathartic trance
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7. |
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A sleepless night in a long month after about nine
You look as sweet in her arms as you do in mine
Enjoy this time, those red eyes and toothless smiles
Sharing this bed on the pallet blanket pile
Because it won’t be long until you start
Repeating sounds, running around, and growing smart
Make sure your bed is made, I’ll drive you down to the arcade
And we’ll sing and laugh and talk along the way
And you’ll be driving soon
Sweet sixteen and prom night moon
And I’ll be at a loss for what to say
Worried at night, it was yesterday you cried when I put you down
Now you’re wondering what to wear with your cap and gown
We’ll drink tea, just you and me, and talk about the past
I’m a wreck, could you hug my neck and make it last?
Because it won’t be long before you start
Stealing breaths, turning heads, and breaking hearts
You pull away from me and pick up a degree
Spending Spring Break with your friends
And your Summers all with him
Your career is on the climb and we talk sometimes at night
On holidays, we will toast holding stems
Wearing white in a chapel named after a saint
You’re beautiful though your face is smothered in paint
A bouquet, something blue, you’re soon walking down the aisle
You look as strong in his arms as you do in mine
Because it won’t be long before you start
Updating us with the most precious Christmas card
One last dance, holding hands
Not posed for the pictures, but you deliver
A quick kiss, tear-stained wrists, and you’ll be leaving soon
Just remember that I’m always here for you
And it won’t be long before you’re setting out
So go have fun, go be strong, go make me proud
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8. |
Tonight's Beau
03:24
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On the house on the hill, screams come from the sill of the window
He fell from nearly thirty years back
When a note came from the Biscayne saying his one and true flame
Is getting hitched to a rich man she met on the tracks
Aww, can’t you hear the wind blow
Aww, can’t you feel the lonesome touch of his voice
Aww, can’t you see the sins roll
And finally one day, we’ll be drifting away
And he’ll be watching us from the joist
Set out heading west, on the day he came to rest
Sending word to his old flame and her new man
Maybe we should meet, take them out, his treat
Give them a gift made with his whiskey stained hands
They walked along the bridge with more than a smidge
Of the devil’s juice laced on their breaths
With a pat on their back, he watched as they flapped
Into the cool watery arms of death
Pulled into the drive, lipstick on his smile
From a harlot he picked up on the side of the road
She waited for the cash then she heard the crash
And looked up to be cut by the shards
And crushed by tonight’s beau
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9. |
Springtime in DC
03:11
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Fighting the crowds, suits like shrouds
Wandering down 14th
I got my name on a cubical
While you’re writing ours on the beach
The Potomac flows to the Atlantic
So my thoughts float to your reach
Sometimes, I swear, this salty air
Is all I need to breathe
I wish I had my feet in high tide
And that I was there with you
The snow don’t feel like sand on my toes
And there’s far too much to do
Please send me a postcard
Dabbed with your perfume
Tonight at 9:00, we’ll look at the sky
And share the same bright moon
It’s your smile and relaxed style
That makes the Capital lowercase
It’s your small-town home, and how you’re grown
That puts that color in your face
It’s easy to wish, and hard to resist
Like the lighthouse from the Cape
With folks all around, faces to the ground
This lonesome finds its place
Cherry blossoms, I’d toss ‘em all in the reflection pool
Museums, I’ve seen ‘em, they can’t hold a candle to you
I’m writing this letter because I was better off down there
Got a one-way ticket on the song of a cricket and it’s carrying me through the air
So, please send me a postcard dabbed with your perfume
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10. |
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If e’er a heart were bound to break
Let it shatter for something true
And not a life of love regret for things we didn’t do
Take my hand and fall from grace
All our plans have been erased
We can move at whatever pace
And on to something new
We could talk a million years by never talking through
Meander down our stream of thoughts with the map all skewed
If e’er a heart were bound to break
Let it shatter for something real
And not for all the hearts unknown I never chanced to steal
I’ll take your hand and walk beside
The stars and you in eternal night
Your air will glow in the vacuous light so warm that I can feel
We could walk a million years with goals unrevealed
Destinations of nowhere in love’s protective field
No, we won’t worry about the time
No, we won’t hurry, we’ve got nowhere in mind
Take a path no one has known
We can take a stand and fight this whole world alone
If e’er a heart were bound to break
Let it shatter while we smile
No matter what the consequence
We’ll be laughing all the while
If we end up on Hell’s dark shore
Ne’er to see the Earth no more
At least we were never bored
Yeah, we’d go down in style
We could mock a million tears
Lost in your sweet conniving guile
Aimless in the throes of love together in exile
Looking at the sky with him, did you think of us?
Did you find a new constellation?
Did it have tusks?
You could stalk a million fears
And never conquer your denial
Together in the uncouth love, forever in exile
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11. |
Bouncers and Crashers
02:22
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You only come here to wait
Some things never take shape
No matter the effort you take
A flickering of a far-fetched hope floating beyond the stanchion rope
The remainder after long division
What’s falling down, what has risen?
Heaven says I have to leave now
I snuck in but they kicked me out
Peter asks to see my hands, but I can’t…
You always come around too late
As of yet nothing has changed
Something that you can’t shake
You’re shoulders loaded down with freight
So much trouble not to frustrate
But only when you’re awake
Heaven says I have to leave now
I snuck in but they kicked me out
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12. |
Gen Y Trophy Wife
04:51
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You hit the snooze, 6:22, he needs some time to come around
He’s on the edge of the bed, slipped on shoes
Trying to make his way out
Isn’t that the shirt you wore last night all covered with scuzz and neon light?
Hey, I know you’ve done this kind of thing before
He’s trying to glide, not letting his feet touch the floor
His afterglow of pride, I guess he ignored your bedside knife
And your notched up headboard
You’ve got your daddy’s eyes and car, his money, and his loose sense of ethics
You live rent-free inside his house, if it’s love, then it’s not pathetic
Between the coffee houses and bars, the pharmacies and missed phone calls
Between the clubhouse and bars, he still thinks that you’ll go far
Hey, I know you’ve done this kind of thing before
He’s trying to guide, however much he can afford
He beams with pride, but I guess he ignored
Your ditzy smile and your notched up headboard
The only thing you’re teasing is your hair
Those damaged goods wouldn’t even fly at the county fair
You win awards now gathering dust on a shelf
Basically, what you saw all for yourself
You could have more than your sweet bedroom eyes
But you’ve become what you built up as a disguise
Frustrated, she just wants to be appreciated
Emaciated, can’t survive emancipated
Hey, I know you’ve done this kind of thing before
You’d like to fly, but it’s just too much work
You pose to the side and like every night before
You roam the night to notch up your headboard
Let’s keep it cool and collected
Let’s keep you calm and copacetic
Let’s try to be level-headed
All this hectic had to be just what you expected
Hey, I know you’ve done this kind of thing before
Your mastered shameful slither down an anonymous corridor
You caused a scene on the mezzanine and can’t go back anymore
Another victim, suitors lining up at your door
And pining for your cure of lonesome and bored
Think you’re clever but it’s a two-edged sword
Your bough breaks and you crumble on the floor
Don’t recover underneath your worn headboard
Isn’t that the shirt you wore last night all covered with scuzz and neon light?
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13. |
Notions (Demo)
01:15
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Meet me at noon down at the station
See, I’ve got a notion or two
I’ll have some flowers, go down to the ocean
Maybe get a room with a view
Let go…
Move on…
Jump in overhead and we’ll float along
Together, get lost
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4 Star View Cape Canaveral, Florida
Originally from Northeast Mississippi and living in Cape Canaveral, FL, 4 Star View is a cathartic songwriter who swings among genres to create emotionally laden soundscapes. He is the poet laureate for the city of Cape Canaveral. Every album is unique in sound and themes. Most songs are single take, single track to produce a raw sound. Mistakes are not fixed because flaws are part of the art. ... more
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