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Refrigerator - High Desert Lows (2018) [Shrimper, SHR194, LP/CD]
WEB ADMIN NOTE. Simon Joyner and his crew were on for this one! A summary:
And more familiar Refrigerator personnel:
A NOTE ABOUT THE LYRICS HERE. They are printed one way in the booklet, but as heard on tape they are different in some places. Trying to strike a good balance of "yeah definitely, I misheard that, glad to have a second source to check" and "no hang on a sec there was an ad lib here" so, these are not a 1:1 from the liner notes but, to the best of my knowledge they are recorded here as sung.
01. High Desert Lows
the past is blocked
the past is lost
getting dusted at the t-bird
it ain't even noon
another empty toast
to the lady of the snows
another angel's kiss
another empty glass
to these high desert lows
the past is blocked
the past is lost
see her smile inside the ashtray
face in every drink
another empty toast
to the lady of the snow
another angel's kiss
another empty glass
to these high desert lows
been here since forever
forever
02. Cardboard Death Elevator
net up your bridges
we are planning to jump
bind up your sorrow
we will eat up all of it
one cup of black coffee and one percoset
upstream in my body
this death gallow doesn't own my soul
not even my grave
i'm not gonna stay
i'm not gonna
a cardboard death elevator
hanger-on vintage tee
none of this is worth not a goddamn thing
when i do go i'm goin' down on the one
with hand claps on the three
hand claps on the three
'cause that is the last thing
you'd expect from me
this death gallow doesn't own my soul
not even my grave
i'm not gonna stay
i'm not gonna
03. Save For Baltimore
secret rhymes and angry tears
this ain't for you no more
save for baltimore
drag my body through the ditch
sing my swan song in perfect pitch
to the ghost of maryland
i'll be breakin' out this graveyard
there'll be no headstone
just an empty coffin
and a neon sign without a home
secret was this run of tears
weren't for you before, save for maryland
seal this regret with a kiss
sing our song in perfect pitch
to the ghost of baltimore
i'll be breakin' out this graveyard
there'll be no headstone
just an empty coffin
and a neon sign without a home
04. World of Warcraft
baby turn your light down
take off your pale blue nightgown
let me pull next to me
all the trouble you haven't unwired safely
cat shit on the carpet
duct tape 'round your feet
weeds in the yardfront beggin' for watering
well you are just the kind
with your strays and underdog pine
to do just the thing
to do just such a thing
i took your last ten out of the bureau
i sold off your costume jewelry
i seldom what i said i would be
how is it when i tell you these things
you're able
to forgive me
i know you're a world of warcraft
trying to land somewhere safely
when you destruct you'll take the right ones
down with you baby
that's why i'm hangin 'round
i was hopin' with you i will go down
take me with you
i don't care where we go
i don't care what we do
take me with you
05. Break Up The Band
i didn't want to break up the band
but break up the band i did anyway
i didn't like the way you played the bass
none of your lyrics
a self-referential past that was barely lived
how could we expect anyone to care about it
caught in amber, steeped in plasticine
reanimated by kids spinning it to death
it is difficult to play guitar
when i am with my left hand penning poison letters
and with my right hand
i am stringin all these excuses together
excuse me if i do in fact end up stayin' with you
maybe that is why
we are born with off-center hearts
easy to enter hard to get out of
you never asked to be some useless walk on
waiting in a home lit by secondhand electrics
but we could barely afford that mortgage
we settled in for cheap lighted light
to keep the dark from acting out
but burglary after burglary
fight after fight
nights i wasn't home
nights when our place was an airless tomb
my sweet little two by two
i keep in my wallet
i imagine lookin' at you
when all the shit around us went down
lead parachutes
moth-riddled flotation devices
once-or-twices
turnin' to divides one with another
one alone for just a summer
maybe that is why
we are born with off-center hearts
easy to enter hard to get out of
they got the publicist on the line
the manager in the bus cryin'
a stretch of dependents setting up the lighting
recall it best
when it was just the four of us
freezing in a basement
dying from dehydration
remember us all carry-ons no tether chests
thought we escaped adulthood
til we landed on unsure footing
soft middle age, soft middle aged
i didn't want to break up the band
but break up the band i did anyway
it all happened slowly, out of control see
like a strobelit accident
half the cels are missing
there's so much i'm forgetting
so much i'm forgetting to say
as you pack up your things
maybe that is why
we are born with off-center hearts
easy to enter hard to get out of
06. Twice As Less
there's a pile of your things
staacked in the corner
of this lifeless livin room
cleaned up this mess
best as i could
if you don't look too close
you won't see the stains
just like you
i've got
twice as less
twice as less as i used to
gimme a time
i'll leave it all outside
probably best if i'm not around
doin' alright
hope you're doin' alright too
don't look so hurt
don't be so hurt
just like you
i've got
twice as less
twice as less as i used to
07. Mission & Garey
i can forgive most everything
i can make allowances
for the achingest of stings
i forgave judas, jesus and mary
in this naugahyde booth
at a dive off of mission and garey
in this piss thrift store where i used to write
a lot of ridiculous things
i know all the hoops they laid before you
they seemed real at the time
built to amuse but they only confused your compass
and i know what i have to say
like blinding weather
in newsprint grays
will be easy to shrug off
and persuaded to go home
to another painted corner
another patient lover
to another another and another
take me away you used to say
from the red burned blue
from the red burned blue
of mission and garey
08. Only You Will Do
i loved you at the forefront
when you had bad teeth
dressed in satin curtains
you were out of sight
a capsule containing nothing
they all want to attain
your state of nothing
don't bring in the bassist of
humble pie
he doesn't know how
it's supposed to go
catches none of your references
to godard and garbo
well you were always talking
about anything
about everything
going into hiding
these ages before us
they can't understand
much at all
so how then genet?
crackers and soup
vicks vapor rub on your chest
i can't stand it
all this product placement
supposed to make me feel as
though i needed it
when only you, you, yeah
when only you, you, yeah
will do
09. The Maid
every morning i leave
next to my bedside
i leave a note for hte maid
please don't make the bed
or touch up the trash
please just take it easy on yourself
relax on my bed for 10 minutes
tell your manager
the promoted concierge,
that your work is done here
here's a fifty
buy him off for the day
my mother was a police dispatcher
and my father worked in a postal cage
neither liked their work much
but they approached it full of grace
found gold where others
only maudlin lame
strength where others'
weakness decayed
as their youngest son i'd leave you
their entire estate
but it's worth nothing today
i walked all the way across your city
bought you some closeout jewelry
thems your initials i had engraved
tucked in a manilla envelope
address mascared by the rain
today
quietly i fold my clothes
tip toe while making some tea
i try not to wake you
i am forever trying
i wrote you a poem this morning
wrote it on the crossword page
i had dreamt about my parents
in my dream they whispered to me
something about brass rings
something about eternity
imagine if we could
afford such things
afford such things
10. Bonnie Pointer
when that instantaire bought your folks home
well i felt for you
pulled up the carpeting
and skated your dining room
i felt for you as you told me
6'2", six foot two
and the guy retires at 16
we too wish he had expired instead
in a busted barcalounger
with a decoupaged print
doing nothing but dying
all the day, all the day long
he discovered your copyrights
tucking them into his every opening
"go on and laugh
you laugh so easily
go ahead and sing"
he's lucky he can even speak
it was over when he claimed
your home
threw out the kitchen table
then the bathtub
i ain't eating or cleaning
i am only here for fun,
fun?
you know what would be fun
watching you die all the day long
11. The Shelter Of Your Arms
when i was absent
you held the reins
and when it rained
i searched (in bed) (and begged)
pursuing the shelther
the shelter of your arms
i need them now
the shelter of your arms
we could be happy
i mean for all time
if by happy
i mean you were mine
on a stretch of chairs
with winter coats as cover
for we've no bed of our own
we've only each other
maybe i'm dreaming
maybe you're not
i was in the shelter
the shelter of your arms
i was in the shelter
the shelter of your arms
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