1. |
Changing the Channel
02:24
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You start your morning with a cup of Joe
Explore what you already know
Get disappointed if a single thing doesn’t go right
Some good cartoons are a single panel
But don’t you ever think about changing the channel?
It pays to plan ahead, so you get some help
From the hive mind on whatever killed Yelp
If four hundred copycats say it, it’s got to be right
Perhaps the same old flame isn’t worth the candle
Don’t you ever think about changing the channel?
New and shiny is bound to be deep and good
You’d dive straight into the Great Offline
If enough of the Internet would
You prioritize what the top fans do
Behave as you’re expected to
Never a doubt in your mind that five stars is right
This peer pressure’s getting too hard to handle
Don’t you ever think about changing the channel?
Are you ready at last? Well, it’s much too late
Earlier than you would like, you chose your fate
It’s a great big world and a tiny screen
All that matters is all you’ve seen
As of some moment you can read but never will write
The provided fare is blasé and banal
And don’t you ever think about changing the channel
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2. |
Neverknow
02:54
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Where’s the modern-day old West? The new frontier?
Who put a stop to running free? It can’t be found
Why do childhood dreams return to an old man’s heart?
How’d we let it get so bad in so short a time?
One thing’s sure – y’ain’t gonna neverknow
When did liberty start to mean you can shoot to kill?
What will it take to turn things around if it ever will?
Yes, I understand we’re pawns in a bigger game
No, I won’t behave myself
And what it costs y’ain’t gonna neverknow
If you warped to my old school bus
And told me what was going to happen to us
I sure would have thought we’d have put up some fuss
But look around and see
It’s never going to make sense to me
Where are we going to take a walk
When the parks are paved?
When will we get a chance to love
When we work all day?
Who’s going to cut the last tree down
And who’s standing in the way?
Sit there self-absorbed another day
And one thing’s sure: y’ain’t gonna neverknow
Little by little, losing more and more
The short term is all y’all planning for
If it breaks enough hearts, it’s going to start a war
Why not try a better way?
It ain’t never going to make sense to me
So where are we going to take a walk
When the parks are paved?
And when will we get a chance to love
When we work all day?
Who’s going to cut the last tree down
And who’s standing in the way?
Sit there self-absorbed another day
And one thing’s sure: y’ain’t gonna neverknow
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3. |
Watching Over the World
04:39
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Flying over the sea, it’s my destiny
Why live at all if we’re not in harmony
When Greeks were figuring out their ways
Some people say those were the days and I agree
But that’s not how things are today
Sometime soon, the people will pay
But it’s nice to see that we are still
Watching over the world
Watch yourself ’cause you might get impearled
People on the subway staring at their phones
Crowded closer together but even more alone
Paying close attention but not to what counts
Living smaller lives in much greater amounts
That seems to be how it is today
With people slowly drifting away
And it’s sad they believe someone’s
Watching over the world
But we don’t have to believe in what they say
People don’t see anything with their eyes
They’re getting more easy to despise
But some of us still care so we’re grieving
Over people who lived long ago
They had to go through the rain and snow long ago
It doesn’t have to be like it is today
The path is clear, we’ve been shown the way
If you see past yourself
You’re the one watching over the world
If we try hard enough, we can do amazing things
That’s not how things are today
Sometime soon, the people will pay
It’s nice to think that we could be watching over the world
Yes, we could be watching over the world
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4. |
Too Many People
03:25
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A stroll through the garden and under Hadrian’s Arch
Past the McDonald’s the Acropolis loomed so large
I ran through the history in my mind
Standing on marble in a roped-off line
It’d taken 24 centuries but Socrates had come back home
And there were too many people on a holiday
Ignoring the signs and standing in the way
They only came so they can say they’ve been
Taking twelve pictures of themselves again
I stood in ruins at the edge of the crowd
It feels that way most of the time
Such a magical place, full up with too many people
A short week later, relaxing in a double-wide
Trying hard to fathom why anyone goes outside
Taken one at a time, most folks are a joy
Clumped together, they only annoy
After 42 years, I knew why Socrates worked alone
Oh we’ve got too many soloists in the choir
Too many irons in a pointless fire
Too much money stashed out of reach
Not enough patience to learn or teach
Plenty of brains to make a better world
Barely enough precious time
I think about it hard from the edge of the crowd
How we’ve got too many people caught up in themselves
Nothing but blindness toward everyone else
Racing the wrong clock and lowering the bar
Hurrying any place but where they are
What could we do with the power we have?
Certainly more than we will
Oh it’s a beautiful world full up with too many people
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5. |
Isolation
02:27
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6. |
Poor Hardworking Man
03:55
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Well, he hit the ground in 1917
Not Knoxville, not Bristol, but a dirt mound in between
A good spot for a poor hardworking man
Well, he found a job in Wytheville that suited him right
Read packing slips by sunshine
Bert Russell by candlelight
Fine hobby for a poor hardworking man
Barbarossa was the graffiti on the wall
He enlisted in November, before his country’s call
Troubled times for a poor hardworking man
Well, they gave him the standard aptitude test
Among those without rich daddies
Our boy Arch was about the best
So it was night school for the poor hardworking man
Caught up in a river, wide and strong
Nothing he could do but float along
He had a clear-cut sense of what was right and wrong
How was he to know what would come
Of what he was working on?
Once he showed his flair for chemistry
A chap named Lawrence signed his transfer
To Oak Ridge, Tennessee
Dang close to home for a poor hardworking man
Well, he read about Japan in the Daily News
In that moment, he’d never been happier
To be wearing his own two shoes
’Cause nobody asked a poor hardworking man
Many years separated him from his prime
He became a substitute teacher
Still worked from time to time
Still sharp as a tack, that poor hardworking man
Always popular with the staff and kids
Danced a backstep at pep rallies
Never talked about what he did
They thought that was all he was, just a funny man
Once he paid a visit to Bell County High
Told all about the how, left us to figure out the why
What could they do to an old eccentric man?
Caught up in a river, wide and strong
Nothing he could do but float along
He had a clear-cut sense of what was right and wrong
How was he to know that he’d been working on a bomb?
Oh, I wish I could shake his hand once more
Thanks to him, a lot of kids know what to do
If they live to see another war
That’s the legacy of one poor hardworking man
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7. |
This Side of the Rainbow
03:53
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So long Professor; thanks for stopping by my house
We now return to life this side of the rainbow
Recount the chicks, find the missing hog
Is the sheriff still coming for my dog?
So much to keep me busy while I forget
Enough to enjoy this side of the rainbow
Was it a place? It seems to have been more like a dream
A brief diversion from life this side of the rainbow
I try to recall those I left in Oz
I find that I can’t, perhaps because
There’s so much to keep me busy while I admit
To myself I’m trapped this side of the rainbow
Soon, I’ll leave those days behind
Find a corner of my mind
Where they won’t make any trouble
They say I’m still a fool young kid
But I remember what I did
And I had the shoes to prove it
Till I pawned them to make ends meet
This side of the rainbow
Soon, and I hope it won’t be long
The last explorer will prove me wrong
I never did hear back from Mr. Hubble
I’d say “Let’s get back to growing old”
If I only had a soul
But I’m not a living being
Just a storybook girl still stuck this side of the rainbow
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8. |
Falling Apart
04:32
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They built a good strong wall
Then something worth protecting
Sowed the seeds of the Western world
But couldn’t have known that at the time
Just doing the best they could with Attica’s store of marble
Now here we are so much later
And it hasn’t finished falling apart
No one ever made anything expecting it to lie in ruins
3000 years ago, no one knew anything was 3000 years old
What once was the center of daily life
Is now a remote attraction
For most of its time on earth
Their temple has been falling apart
And an adoring public stretches out death
Mostly to have something to make a few dollars with
But partly because a feeling in your heart
Can’t come around to admitting you’re falling apart
I spend a fair piece of my day
Trying to keep this house together
The table looks good as new
What the hell’s wrong with the kitchen sink?
On quite a humbler scale, home is another Parthenon
No judgment, hardly any sorrow; look what’s falling apart
And a few well-situated family and friends
Enjoy the movie until it ends
Shoveling sand is not particularly hard
But the ocean is tireless and the castle is falling apart
No real way to fight decay
As soon as you build a better start, your work is falling apart
I’ve heard it said before: one’s body is a temple
I don’t think this new interpretation was the real intent
Yet when I sit down too fast
And some muscle I never knew I had
Screams in protest, a patient whisper follows:
“You are falling apart”
And an adoring public, scaled dutifully down
Listens as the latest poem makes its rounds
Partly because a feeling in your heart
Can’t come right out and say so, but you’re also falling apart
Stand and gaze in wonder at the ruin of your choice
Speak your mind before you lose your voice
Maybe your life is merely imitating art
How much can you do with that while it is falling apart?
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9. |
Only One Can Go
04:06
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We got on a plane and crossed the sea
We’d never been where we were going to be
On a big adventure as a family and I tell you what:
It really was a good time
Hurry up and wait was the standing rule
I felt like a prisoner, then a fool
Once we hit our new base, everything was cool
They had their space, I had mine
Now let the memories begin
We went out and came back in
Wishing every night could end a little bit later
Still, there’s a place you surely know where only one can go
And with every high and low
A part of me ached to travel there
I smiled when I saw who shared my walk
Cherishing every quiet talk
Looking down on the city like a lazy hawk
And I tell you what: I’m glad we were together
Making good use of each precious day
I wouldn’t have it any other way
The future is blank yet come what may
They have their minds; I have mine
Now that the sight’s no longer new
And there’s nothing left to do
They reflect upon it too, ’cause we’ll be leaving on Sunday
Still there’s a place you surely know where only one can go
And when I wish for time to slow
A part of me gets to stay right there
It’s been long enough since we split the team
The whole adventure is a fading dream
A brand new pen rubs the old slate clean
And with each replay it’s harder to remember
On the ride home I freely wept
But I climbed Lycabettus right before we left
I kept one experience to myself
We all do that and it’s fine
Now we have got this world to share
And the portions aren’t fair
So you find the hearts who care and want a little bit longer
Yes, there’s a place within, you know, where only one can go
And you balance your heavy load
With the power that comes from being there
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10. |
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11. |
Unplugged
02:24
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Cast adrift for refusing to compare
But it ain’t dark or stormy – au contraire
A golden disc and human shouting fill the skies
And the waves are clickbait, ads, mistakes, and lies
As the restless wren flits from tree to tree
So exists an old soul on a reboot sea
A life far from the race is what suits me:
Unplanned, unpromoted, unplugged
The offense, as far as I can tell, was to
Ignore potential set by the likes of you
The sentence: burial in the sands of time
For once, the punishment aptly fit the crime
Once the closed minds stoned those who thought differently
Once the cool kids shunned an incognitOG
If I’d played along these very words would be
Unheeded, unwritten, unsung
As a streamer has no use for a quaint CD
A deep diver can’t find work in a shallow sea
You’re throwing away a few million, not just me
Self-guided, ready, willing, unplugged
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12. |
Look in the Middle
02:49
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If you want to understand the showbusiness raffle
An artist’s early years will teach you, indeed
That meeting some rich dude and ignoring the limelight
Are the only two ways to succeed
Or you can look in the middle; that’s where the work is
No waiting for good luck or chasing new trends
To be there beside them, see their face in the mirror
Look in the middle; clip off the ends
And if you study their twilight, you’ll visit packed houses
Filled with diehards impatient for their favorite song
’Cause jumping on some wagon or pumping out the oldies
Are the only two ways to hang on
Or you can look in the middle; that’s where the work is
No struggling in still water or backstabbing friends
To be there beside them, see their face in the mirror
Look in the middle; clip off the ends
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13. |
Understand and Overreach
03:50
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When the last of the mighty glaciers
Bowed to an even higher power and then took its leave
And the living things returned to barren rocks
Where, after centuries, the earth could breathe
A thought occurred to an ex-cave-dwelling man
A hoe and plow took shape within his hand
He and his friends were some of the first
To both understand and overreach
When the first of the mighty cities
Made it known that, henceforth, laws were part of being free
Precious knowledge passed to a precious few
Whose writing made it clear to all those who could read
It sounded like a most progressive plan
And yet violence never vanished from the land
Another half-lit group who did both
Understand and overreach
Admit it or deny it
Still, it seems that when a new idea takes control
The benefits are obvious
More sinister the means by which it takes its toll
To long-term damage, pioneers are blind
But see how far we now can look behind
And the same thing happens every single time
Understand and overreach
Not all change is progress
New may look like better to imperfect eyes
For sure we’ve made a difference
A shiny plastic hindrance to becoming wise
The game is played by strange, unchosen rules
Nothing’s really changed except the tools
Have I learned or merely joined the list of fools
Who understand and overreach?
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14. |
Edge of Nowhere
01:44
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I’ve spent most of my life out in the country
And I slogged out a decade in the big city too
So when some rube extolls a life he never chose
Or a whiteneck pulls a muscle looking down his nose
I think and maybe shout what I’m about to sing to you
If you tell me that I picked a bad location
It won’t do you any harm, I truly pledge
But keeping away from busybodies does a body good
And I might die in the middle of nowhere
But I’m living on the edge
In the deep woods, almost everyone’s a nice man
Amidst the concrete shadows
You might want to think twice, man
Here it’s hard to find a subway
Perks are few and far between
But the rent won’t starve most kids to death
And the air is halfway clean
More trouble, less disaster, lousy wifi
And a chance to follow your dream
If you think I’m wasting time by keeping distance
It won’t do you any harm, I truly pledge
Since I don’t care what you believe, I do believe I’ll carry on
And I might die in the middle of nowhere
But I’m living on the edge
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Fextonia Hawesville, Kentucky
Founded in 1996 amid the hills of southeastern Kentucky, Fextonia quickly evolved from a high school jam band into a songwriters' convention and continues to record original albums.
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