Get all 5 Benjamin Shepherd releases available on Bandcamp and save 20%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of This Was Supposed to Be Temporary, Never Enough/Halls of Sin b/w Molly, The Minors, and Me, Hold the Line, You Got Caught (demo), and Eleven For The Road.
1. |
Dad
03:09
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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"
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2. |
Franklin/Classon Mile
04:32
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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?
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3. |
Hindsight Waltz
04:53
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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
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4. |
Money Or Time
01:26
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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?
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5. |
Bootsy Billade
03:40
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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
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6. |
You Keep The Muse
04:56
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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
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7. |
Heroin Problem
03:42
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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"
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8. |
Chinabus In Motion
01:31
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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
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9. |
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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
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10. |
Silver Dog
03:09
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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
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11. |
'96 Corolla
04:10
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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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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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