1. |
Different Rub
03:30
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Hot dot on a printed page
Airbrush every sign of age
Going under the surgeon’s knife
Stepdaughter of a Stepford wife
That ain’t what a woman is
That ain’t what a woman is
Take a look at what you did
Granddaddy at the minstrel show
Watch the darkies frail the old banjo
Grandson at the strip club
A little racism with a different rub
It’s the same difference
With a different rub
Grandaddy never owned no slaves
Grandson never committed a rape
Just quiet men in their own time
Keeping quiet is its own kind of crime
It’s the same difference
With a different rub
Bible-banger quoting verse declares
Blacks and women born cursed
Into wedding bands, slave rings
Martin Luther meet Martin Luther King
It’s the same difference
With a different rub
This ain’t about no books that need burning
Less about flame and more about light
Freedom for one at the cost of another
This ain’t about sin, it’s about civil rights
That ain’t what a woman is
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2. |
Skin
01:53
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Who am I
I don’t know
I have no idea
When my friends look at me
I wonder who they think they’re seeing
Search me layer by layer
But inside I’m afraid you’ll find thin air
Yeah yes, guess again
Who we might be underneath this skin
What makes me tick? How should I know
I’ve been trained like a monkey
The bell rings and I start to jones like a junkie
What turns me on?
I wish I knew
Wish I could tell the real thing
My honest desire from my conditioning
Touch me now, now touch me again
I want to feel something real coming through this skin
I’ve been boxing with my shadow
Winded and tagged
I can’t punch my way out of a paper bag
It’s as thick as you think
Thin as the reasoning you bought
I’m a mummy wrapped in a gauze of my own thoughts
And I want to know who I’d be
If I never had bathed
In the static, the snow, and the radio wave
The flickering image, the pandering thought
That’s been passed off and on
To be the blueprint of God
Hey yes, guess again
Who we might be if we could shed this skin
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3. |
Good Sons and Daughters
05:01
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Down through our histories we have been told
That women hold mysteries men cannot know
But boys learn true secrecy, how to hide lies
In cracks in their souls and behind shaded eyes
That filter all light through the sins of their fathers
Shining on down on good sons and daughters
We were true believers that this song of gold
Was a high holy fever that purified the soul
But peace turned to piss-off, equality a laugh
As girls danced a-go-go to our golden calf
We borrowed the tune from the hymns of our fathers
We are not rebels, just good sons and daughters
The revolution came, the revolution went
Not meant for all, just that fifty per cent
That drew the dots from pin-ups from porno to rape
And bought into Hollywood and Hefner’s sly hate
Millions of Marilyns who died for their lovers
Seducing a culture of good sons and daughters
Reading through the paper and I happened to see
A police-artist’s sketch that looked a whole lot like me
So I started dodging questions, lying on top of lies
And I bought what I thought was a good alibi
I never knew your mother, your sister or daughter
I ain’t no killer
I’m a good son
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4. |
Remember Me By
04:20
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On walls of caves, down halls and alleys
I write my name, I leave my sign
A poem of paint and bleak graffiti
Something to remember me by
You are my prisoner of memory
A flashing flood, a cracking dam
Can wash away life’s watercolors
Trap you in my house of sand
I scratch my name into your mirror
I burn my face into your eyes
On walls of caves, down halls and alleys
Something to remember me by
Now you are gone but not forgotten
I am forgotten but not gone
A snapping twig, a sudden motion
It’s only me, I mean no harm
I scratch my name into your mirror
I burn my face into your eyes
On walls of caves, inside your city
Something to remember me by
Our bruises fade, our scars lie hidden
No one can know, just you and I
Under your skin, beneath your surface
Something to remember me by
When empty skies are all above you
When sighs you hear are all your own
Do not despair, don’t feel forsaken
Do not relax, you’re not alone
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5. |
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Come over here
Out of the rain
Before you get
Too wet
Under my umbrella
I promise no regrets
Did you see the lightning
This feels like the right thing
Were you looking for perfection
I’m trying to change your perception
I once was a sailor man
Caught up in a raging storm
The weight of waves came crashing
The angels kept us warm
You think it’s all confusing
I think it’s just amusing
I can put it all behind me
I don’t want to keep losing
Face to face shoulder to shoulder
Under a big sky skin to skin
In my head in my mind
I rehearse it over and over again
This could be the last time
Or this could last a lifetime
We were taken by the moonlight
Washed away in the noon tide
Did you see the lightning
Did you see the lightning
This feels like the right thing
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6. |
Reddleman Coming
04:28
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On the day that I was born
Cross the plain come a red dust storm
First the wind, then the rain
Streaks of blood on the windowpane
Hole in the roof, leak on the bed
Bad baptism on the baby’s head
Mama cried the curse is come
The mark of the reddleman’s on my son
Reddleman coming
He’s coming for me
Reddleman coming
Learn to crawl, learn to eat
Walk and talk that double-speak
Hide my heart and show my hand
Listen in the dark for the reddleman
He come selling that dirt that stain your soul
Saying this don’t hurt anyone at all
Just sink your eyes into little girl lost
But don’t waste your time, it don’t wash off
CHORUS
Late in life I fell in love uptown
With a one-armed woman who’d been around
I said how my love did you lose your hand
She said a pound of flesh for the reddleman
A daughter born, a father sees
There’s red in the thread of the web he weaves
Clean his clothes in the holy font
But the rank of the reddle come back to haunt
CHORUS
Red hawk sits on a telephone pole
Watch to see which way I go
When I fall and when I stand
And tells it all to the reddleman
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7. |
A Million Miles Away
05:47
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There was a man named Jim who walked everywhere he went
Cause he could never quite seem to keep his mind on the road
One day it occurred to Jim that he’d taken a wrong turn
’Cause he was standing in a place he didn’t know
Jim spun on his heels thinking he’d backtrack for awhile
But before he knew it the sun was sinking
And the landscape in the dark
Well, it could have been New Zealand or New York
or New Mexico
So what else is new, Jim was thinking
Because see for a while now Jim felt like things were
changing for him
Like the skin of the earth was stretching or
the continents were adrift
Jim didn’t know if it was so or if it was just him although
He suspected it was a bit of both he was dealing with
And I feel like I’m tripping
And I feel my steps slipping today
Feel the winds of time whipping my coat around my legs
And I feel about a million miles away
Dawn broke, Jim awoke, he’d been sleeping on his feet
It was morning now but a densely foggy day
Jim decided he’d just sit and wait for the fog to lift
But when it didn’t he started up again anyway
Man, this is like the blind leading the blind, Jim thought
About that time down the road came this seeing-eye dog
It was well-fed and had a collar but
no matter how loud Jim hollered
There wasn’t any answer, so he walked on through the fog
Alright I’m lost, Jim said aloud although a bit begrudgingly
Like things might change in light of this confession
He was both amazed and sour that at this late date and hour
He might find himself in this situation
CHORUS
After walking through the haze for another night
and another day
Jim seemed to simply cease to exist
All his panic, hope, and thoughts broke up into small dots
As he gave himself away into the mist
Back in the town where Jim lived, sad to say
he was never missed
And his name was never spoken again, it’s awful but true
Out my window at night I think I see Jim
standing in the half-light
Saying hurry up, suffering’s got a job to do
CHORUS
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8. |
Too Many Twenties
03:40
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There’s too many twenties, too many fives
Too many numbers in front of our eyes
Too many statistics that nobody reads
Numbers don’t lie but numbers don’t bleed
Who’s counting when it’s way past plenty
There’s too many twenties
There’s too much hush money being passed in the joint
Too many bodies hidden behind the decimal point
A number’s got a name, a name’s got a face
And a face should have a future and a place that’s safe
But the chances of that are between slim and skinny
There’s too many twenties
Every second sister’s got a fighting chance
Of getting hurt at home by a lover’s show of hands
And every fourth daughter’s gonna cover up and cry
When she comes home from school saying ‘Mama, Papa why?’
What are you gonna tell them,
just to smile and look pretty and take it? Huh?
All you fathers looking in your little daughter’s eyes
Know that your worst nightmare finds one out of five
Don’t worry about cancer, aids, or nothing else
Just worry about the fact there’s a man in the house
Till death do us part, man, it do part plenty
There’s too many twenties
Tick tock tick tock tick tock
Tick tock tick tock tick tock ten
Somewhere another woman just took it on the chin
Tick tock tick talk is tough
Your sister just had her dignity snuffed
Every second counts, minutes equal many
There’s too many twenties
Sound and information are reduced to bites
And the voice of opposition to a stereotype
The numbers are numbing, they’re hard to believe
They’re blurred by the blood on the balance sheet
Stack the bodies in neat little piles of ten
And hit me
There’s too many twenties
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9. |
Hunger Moon
04:07
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Hunger moon shining on a field of snow
There’s ice above but a fire down below
Out of the north a cold wind moans
And I’m empty oh so empty
Now there’s a fat sacrifice on the altar tonight
A pile of money and an alibi so tight
White-haired regrets a little child’s dreams
All lost in the snow on a big TV screen
Never too young too rich or never too thin
Never too hopeless the state I’m in
Lost like the billions too dry to cry
Caught by the camera in history’s eye
Hunger moon shining on a field of snow
Ice up above and a fire down below
I want to leave but I just don’t know
I’m so empty oh so empty
Down in the dark we rattle our cages
Moldy basement the book’s rotting pages
We’re free to go but we can’t see the stars
Blinded by the scars where Venus crossed Mars
Can you feel it it’s in the cold wind
Like an ocean that we all swim in
It’s frightening and new it seems so strange
You can taste it it feels like change
Hunger moon shining on a field of snow
Cracks in the ice let the light show
She says I’ll die if I don’t grow
But I’m empty I’m still empty
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10. |
Siamese Twins
02:51
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This is the story of siamese twins
Where one fellow stops and another one begins
Joined at the head and the finger and the toe
With two completely separate vascular-cardio
Systems going on underneath one skin
This is the story of siamese twins
This is the story of siamese twins
How a man can be two places at once
When he’s home with his lover he’s away
Viewing through a two-way mirror
Everything’s skewing into distorted visions
Of women-for-men
Coke-bottle lenses for the siamese twins
This is the story of the double-life
How you can take one love
Make her your wife
Yet hold onto this image of a fantasy world
Where every woman looks like a teenage girl
And thin is to die for, age is sin
Hate yourself suggested the siamese twins
This is the story of the two-headed coin
With a flip-flop double-drop triple-goocher going
Try matching wits with yourself someday
Stare yourself down without looking away
Rock-paper-scissors, take it on the chins
Siamese twins
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11. |
Tattoo
04:31
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Tattoo tattoo
Some things fade some never do
Like the names of me and you
In my skin indigo blue
Tattoo tattoo
Waving boys in navy blue
Whalers sailing home to you
Scratched in scrimshaw tusk and tooth
Tattoo tattoo
Some things fade some never do
These lines of love to you
Tattoo tattoo
The verse of life is blank I think
We fill in in invisible ink
It comes to sight, it surfaces
When held up to the light of love
Tattoo tattoo
Carney girls in summer suits
Local boys in leather boots
Diagrams of derring-do
Tattoo tattoo
Tattoo tattoo
Some things fade some never do
Like these lines of love to you
Tattoo tattoo
Like the names of me and you
In my skin indigo blue
Tattoo tattoo
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12. |
Eclipse Has Begun
04:32
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Looking out my window, the eclipse has begun
I grab your hand, we run outside and dance in the dimming sun
Light through the leaves casts a zillion crescents on the ground
And you say hold me tight
Alright
Peeking through a pinhole, the eclipse has begun
The shadow tag of sun and moon washes over us and everyone
Lives that overlap without ever seeing that it’s so
And you say hold me close
Don’t let me go
High noon and midnight we’re standing in the path
Where shadows beget shadows and
every step has an aftermath
Leaving tiptoe ripples of a skipping stone
Nobody walks alone
Things are set in motion, sounds clash and harmonize
The fire of a moment becomes the light in my baby’s eyes
We plant by the moon, by chance and by design
And I know this is mine
This is mine all the time
There’s a butterfly in China and a Kansas thunderstorm
A man laying down a dollar and a young girl’s clothes being torn
Actions and reactions, echoes only dogs can hear
And I say what’s that sound?
Spinning me round and around and round
And I’m looking at the sky, I see the eclipse at an end
I am but an arm’s length from my lover and my friend
And from every other soul that I may know or never will
Under the shining sun
Life goes on and on and on
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13. |
To the Hum
03:32
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I want to grow old with her
To have our children come
And find us face down on the hill
Listening to the hum
I want to grow wise with her
Truth pounded into bone
The sound of lies dies like white noise
Listen to the hum
I want to grow gardens with her
In soil of sand and stone
My desert blooms with wild perfumes
Listen to the hum
I want to grow up with her
To change in slow motion
From laughter simple to lovers that tremble
Listen to the hum
I want to be born with her
Where cell and soul become
Aligned and tuned to something new
Listen to the hum
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Rainmakers Kansas City, Missouri
The Rainmakers have released eight full length albums of original material since 1986, plus various live and best-of releases, and continue to play in the US and Europe. If you missed out the first time around, here is your chance to catch up on some of the finest in heartland rock'n'roll. ... more
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