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Eleven For The Road

by Benjamin Shepherd

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1.
Dad 03:09
People make the best of it, you know your time is short The girls you screw could end up being so much more than sport Babies are expensive, you better count your ends Your going up the junction, say goodbye to all your friends Gotta sell the amplifier and stop selling dope Gonna have to man up now, this ain't no time to mope Ain't no time for laying blame, leave poor you alone The choices that you made are all your own "Hey it's Derek calling, been a while, man, how you been?" "Well I work, come home, eat dinner, every night I'm in bed by ten It's excruciating really, if you wanna know the truth It's like I'm trying to throw a punch inside a telephone booth But It's right around the corner, man, she's only three months due And whether or not it's a girl or boy you can go ahead and write me the blues" "Man, you need to get out more, let's go and hit the bars" "Well I would, but Wednesday night is Dancing With The Stars, I don't think I can get away" "God, it must be tough to have to up and change your ways Even though you used to say your life was in a haze A fog without a beacon, a stump without a stem Chasing every whim Seventeen it came and went and eighteen's over, too They say that twenty one's the last real birthday, do you think this is true?" "Well I must admit I did for a few years there But when the baby came along it kind of upended my despair And now it's her birthdays that we look forward to celebrating It's funny I feel lighter now that I'm pulling my own weight" "Hey, that's really great, sounds like you're doing swell Still, I wish you'd come to pick-up games and drinking at The Well I guess the good old days are over" "Nah, they're only changing hands It just means that I've become ok with sittin in the stands Cuz I was done being a kid but didn't yet know it Scared to death and afraid to show it Couldn't help thinking that this is the end But It's the closest that you'll come to starting over again"
2.
Welcome back, kid You've been gone a while They came and made a bid on the Franklin/Classon Mile The cranes come in and then the tenants, faces white as snow Now it's all divided up, Mason/Dixon Style August was as hot it's been since Kemmler got the chair No one said much and there was something hangin in the air Well, you know where I've been And it ain't much to speak of But I could rant for days about the ways a warden treats ya It's good to see the neighborhood ain't trampled in retreat But what's these shifty eyes from windows on my mama's street Isn't home a sense of feeling free in your skin? I'm not talking colors though that's where it seems to land My name is McVeigh and I just bought a house here They say the value's rising every fiscal year And while the enterprise is good This place is awful rough for an urban pioneer I'm lying wide awake in the informercial dim The baby's cryin hungry, it's 3:15 a.m. The store is only down a couple blocks Do this for me and walk with me while I walk Well I've seen many marks in my day But take a look at this one speed walking our way Acting like he's never seen someone with kinky hair But I don't aim to harm him I'm only gonna scare him Shake him for his greenbacks, a residential tax Shake him for his greenbacks, a residential tax I told myself I'd never go back on lock That's why I'm leaving not returning to the block Nobody calls me nigger and walks away from it I sent him to the ground with a blow so swift I'm lyin wide awake in that hospital bed Wondering how that word crept up and out my head Knowing so many folks are full of just the same But you'll never see them shoulder any blame And they say tomorrow's a bright new day But how can I raise a child in a world that acts this way It's hard to say, it's hard to tell If some things acted upon are safer only felt No law in the land will lock you up for evil thoughts But what about the poor misunderstood for whom it boils and rises to the top?
3.
Drunk and lonely sleep together It smells like winter inside my room In between the coming and going We stretched out upon the old grandma couch Remember the one with the puke green cushions We used to huff there it used to be fun I can't fathom or wholly understand The world that existed before I was born And I can't fathom or wholly understand The world that existed before I was born In between the coming and going We stretched out upon the old grandma couch Remember the one with the puke green cushions We used to smoke crack there it used to be fun What I can't fathom or wholly understand The world that existed before I was born My friend Bill, he left the States To find a love he once misplaced He went to France, he went to Spain And every town appeared the same And every girl he took to bed Had lips and hair and eyes of red And after he would sign the check They'd kiss his cheek and wring his neck That sucker found his brand of love Was nothing more than fuck and shrug All in all it's not so bad To give up on the plans we had To see your life going the way Of folks you used to hate Just look to the tree to see who you're going to be No way Drunk and lonely are back together One for better, one for worse The sounds of chaos ring so loud They really just sound like nothing at all If I could, I'd hop on my bike And ride to Kiribati, ok I'd take off my boots and take off my socks And stand at the edge of tomorrow and today But all in all it's not so bad To give up on the plans we had To see your life going the way Of folks you used to hate Just look to the tree to see who you're going to be No way
4.
To be without money or be without time This is the choice of our culture's design Everyone knows you can't live without pay But what is it for at the end of the day? Your time slips away and you can only look back And see what you've missed out on while building your stacks You can't get away there's too much to do Japan's not goin nowhere, but neither are you There was a girl I remember so well Had stars in her eyes and a laugh like a bell I wanted to show her of what I could give But I worked day and night and forgot how to live And that's how it goes with spending your time There's no getting it back once you're nickeled and dimed There's frost in the engine, there's rust on the wheel Such are the losses of this sucker deal Now I'm without money but not without time Here by the choice of our culture's design Everyone knows you can't live without pay But what is it for at the end of the day?
5.
Arise hell, it's yesterday Again and again and again Arise hell, and meet me in the park so we can people watch The very first time I met Bootsy Billade He asked me if I had any cocaine I could sell I said, "I don't really do it but thank you the same" He nicknamed me Norman Rockwell The two of us would sit and talk All about everything that's wrong in the world I liked a lot of music that he did not And when we shared a silence it was comfortable He said, "Norman I consider you a friend I'll tell you something if you tell no one else I'm married and I know you didn't know this before But it ain't all flowers when you're sharing yourself Now I'm gonna tell you bout my daughter Francine She was so pretty that my heart would swell My wife said, 'I ain't happy since the baby's been born' I took her life and made it look like she fell" Arise hell, it's yesterday again and again and again Arise hell and meet me in the park so we can people watch I said, "Bootsy, that's ok" but I was visibly shaken "But tell me which it was your wife or your girl?" He said, "They're both in better places" We sat there listening to the sound of the room The very last time I saw Bootsy Billade He was spitting off of the bridge on my street I waved and he shot me the coldest stare So I walked away and pretended we never did meet You really never know about the people you know You really never think about the people you don't
6.
Where is my tooth? Where is my wit? Where is the shirt I wore in the movie 'Spit?' You keep the muse around Where is the loveboat? Where is the ice? Where is old Red? What was his price To keep the muse around? Where is the moon? Where are the rain? Where art thou, mama And where is the pain? You keep the muse around In the middle of September of 1989 Me and Jay Salato and a third friend of mine Made a pact by the swings to sneak out that night And in the third friend's hallway the devil we'd fight I couldn't sleep a wink, I saw it all in my head And when the house was quiet I crept out of bed And down to the side door and out to the street When it dawned on me that my friends had all gone to sleep So back down the driveway and in through the side There stood my father with fire in his eyes And a bat in his hands, it seems that he thought I was somebody after the things he had bought He looked real concerned as I lied to no avail I'd only stepped out to check on the mail You ain't back home now This isn't grade school We all gotta work in the morning Good neighbors play by the rules And keep the music down
7.
What do we do about the heroin problem? What do we do, what do we do? What do you do when your friend won't listen And it's taking it's toll on you? Do you take him out back and slap him around Or bottle it up and not say peep? Or tell yourself it could be worse And then one day the slope's too steep For him to turn around again? What do we do about these pale wasters Hanging around the living room? Your girl's hurt by it cuz her friend just died Of all the pain pills he consumed And you know she's right but you can't accept Not being the one that lets things slide And you set such a precedent With all the other things you tried You wait for him to get back home You pace and chew your fingernails A belt lies there cinched extra tight Like a snake that ate most of its tail And you're worked up and you're pissed off Because he's acting selfishly But when that door opens You have to muster some new bravery Can't look at him straight ahead Cuz tears are filling up your eyes And you say, "Listen man, I know This probably comes a surprise, But if you keep this bullshit up I can't live with you anymore Cuz you are way too smart to not see Twenty two and many more"
8.
Chinabus in motion Chinabus in motion When it stops will she get off and show me true devotion? Unexpected detour Unexpected detour She didn't want to go that way and of this I am sure Now she doesn't call, she doesn't write She doesn't call and she doesn't write But I can't wait day in, day out for somebody to spend the night with
9.
That was fun last night Thought I'd gone crazy waking up in your bed But it rushed back to me How we walked here and how your lippes loop fucked with my head Now it's time for you to get to work And me to New York I can't stay long but I can't stay gone They talk the hitcher's dream They're singing of it to a musical score But when my heart caught fire My navigator nodded off at the door The chorus is down to it's knees The spirit's so hard to please It won't stay long but it won't stay gone The moon was on the wane I had been at it for a month and some days I'd found the land of blues And left confused at not being amazed That was fun last night Thought I'd gone crazy waking up in your bed But it rushed back to me How we walked here and how your lippes loop fucked with my head Now it's time for you to get to work And me to New York I can't stay long but I can't stay gone
10.
Silver Dog 03:09
Track you down the dell You won't see me coming The sun has gone behind the trees where the wind is softly humming Leaves all decomposing in the dampness of the ground I slip as I stop short and watch you sniffing all around Ooooh, silver dog, silver dog Ooooh, silver dog, silver dog It seems you stumbled on My dirty awful secret I take your collar off and put it in my coat to keep it Walking back along the road You seem willing to come Your eyes tell me you're young enough to forget where you're from Ooooh, silver dog, silver dog Ooooh, silver dog, silver dog It's funny how you think to bring me gifts of dead raccoons It's funny but I wonder if you're growing up too soon I haven't seen a single soul Since it began snowing And your dumb little eyes are all that really keep me going Remembering to you the pious comfort of my youth And how it could have led me here leaves this old man bemused Your howls now shake the barn, raccoons turn into neighbor's hogs Nothing in this world will stop you from disappearing in the fog Ooooh, silver dog, silver dog
11.
'96 Corolla 04:10
In the green And the sweetness of the spring My heart began to sing Once and every year Riding 'round Past the cotton, windows down And the boundless Southern sounds Fill the afternoon They told me I'd prevail In the snowstorms and the hail But unlike us the trail Becomes more clear the more it's beaten Someone broke in last night And ripped all my posters off the wall Staid On the ending of a blade I feel it start to fade And cease to be forevermore

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Recorded live in one take at Montrose Studios in Richmond, VA on January 5, 2014

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released July 3, 2014

Produced by Charlie Glenn
Engineered by Adrian Olsen

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Benjamin Shepherd Richmond, Virginia

Southern antifolk with a lyrical focus.

ALBUM RELEASE SHOW SATURDAY APRIL 8TH AT GALLERY 5 IN RICHMOND

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