1. |
S.O.L.-S.O.S.
03:50
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"S.O.L.-S.O.S."
Waiting, wanting....
Down in my old neighborhood I'm haunting all the old cantinas and places of worship, back lot cop spots...oh, it's nice to see ya
Pawning, hocking, in my mid-life rocking you say, "I don't know how you do it...all of that rejection...can you see your gray hair in your reflection?"
Twenty-seven to forty-one that's when most people get it done
I was a grasshopper in the sun, living life on wheels....
Now we're here and I must confess I'm S.O.L. you're S.O.S
all tangled up in your party dress lookin' wobbly on those heels
Losing, finding...God, this light is blinding
Usually don't come out this early, was feelin' kinda squirley, now I'm staring at your yellow pearlies....
(rinse and repeat)
-CJC
credits
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2. |
Esteban
02:40
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Esteban is a man full of dreams
He gazes out eating his rice and beans...
Esteban has a plan, this time it has to work
He won't go home till he's worked out the quirks
He says, "It all comes down to this...the memories of the smokey breeze.
I choke up on them...oh, but for those swayin' trees."
Esteban knows all about the world
And from his mouth outpours a string of pearls
Esteban talks about how much he loves his wife
How everyday it's her that saves his life
He says, "every time I get close, she cuts me down and hides the rope.
I love her more than she'll ever know
And one day soon I'll tell her so
But, oh those mighty trees are swayin'...
I'm captive to that breeze, just sayin...."
-CJC
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3. |
7 Train In Vein
05:31
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The 7 Train is in my veins and carries me home through my pain...
and is the place where my thoughts graze....
Cuz these days I'm a monkey in the middle
With a heartache from an ancient Irish fiddle
Feeling hum-drum like that bum out on the sidewalk where he sits, taking big sips, and thumbing his nose at the apocalypse
I am hurting and sometimes flirting with the idea of deserting
Don't fret, I ain't done it yet
Not really the type who takes the gaspipe
Well, perhaps, it's all attached to my money woes, so the feelin' goes, sets my ego en fuego, and away we go...
Follow me I'm the Pied Pauper...we can live like Cyndi Lauper and just have fun
Money, money, money, money, money, money...can't make it, can't keep it, in my pocket i must free it...yeah, yeah
Supposed to go to a place called "Chase"...they rarely see my face
Cuz these days I'm a monkey in the middle
With a heartache from an ancient Irish fiddle
Feelin' hum-drum like that bum out on the sidewalk where he sits, taking big sips, and thumbing his nose at the apocalypse
The 7 Train is in my veins and carries me out to my Mets games...and is the place where my thoughts graze and blaze
On the 7 Train the other day to his friend I heard a young man say, "where did that plane go, bro?" Friend said, "I dunno."
He said, "You know what I think?" Friend said, "No...go."
"I think they on an island somehwere startin' they own shit up." Friend said, "whoa...that's a beautiful thought, yo."
As the train lurched ever slow, though the snow, in the great borough of Queens....
Cuz these days I'm a monkey in the middle
These days I'm a monkey in the middle
These days I'm a monkey in the middle
Feelin' hum-drum like that bum, out on the sidewalk where he sits, takin' big fuck you sips, and thumbing his nose at the apocalypse
The 7 Train is in my veins......
-CJC
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4. |
Heaven Forfend
02:43
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Born by the side of the road
'Twas the morning of our lives
Learned how to speak in code
to shroud our monkeyshines
You know we never knew better
And we never wanted to...
Now we've fallen thru....
Raised on "I don't care"
Makes life an easy go
Dad says, "life's unfair...
and it's better that you know
that there's no free lunches
only heartache and punches
that you get used to...."
Now we've fallen thru
Heaven Forfend
Now we've fallen thru....
While you were out, I was in
By your drowning I could swim
You came up and I was gone
and it all went fuckin' wrong...
Now we've fallen thru
Heaven forfend
Now we've fallen thru...
Rub my chest with broken glass
Just to feel the sting
Of each and every gasp
When I am born again
you know we never knew better
And we never wanted to...
Now we've fallen thru
Heaven forfend
Now we've fallen thru....
-CJC
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5. |
Twilight Wonders
04:00
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We like to smoke out skylight windows
while the party's goin' on
Twilight wonders torn asunder by the luminescent thunder, as we ponder all our yonder days......
We like to stroll through dangerous neighborhoods
People don't dare after dark
Poke 'round corners that they warned us could be something there to harm us....
We start laughing photographing us in the burnt out cars....
Oh, and babe you're just as lovely as you are
Oh, babe you're just as lovely as you are
We like to go to bed in the pale blue twilight
Of the impending dawn
Pull the covers, hug each other, hide like we could be discovered
You get sleepy and fall deeply into my loving arms....
Oh, and babe you're just as lovely as you are
Oh, babe you're just as lovely as you are
Oh, baby, you're just as lovely as you are
And we bathe in that morning star........
C.J. Campion
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6. |
Costume Jewelry
04:01
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Saddled a seahorse
I got nothin' but open water here
Gonna knife right thru these hemispheres
Darlin' please don't try to fool me
I love you in your costume jewelry
Player Pianos...
We're sounding as the tide was rollin' in...
We were stealing someone's tires for the rims...
The halos that we ring tossed rung around that dream we lost
And darlin' please don't try to fool me I love you in your costume jewelry
Big day tomorrow
Going on the faint possibility
of trying to find a wicket in the weeds
It's all I got, good or bad, still want what I never had
I lost a wing but I'm still flyin' I'll make it there or die tryin'....
And darlin' you will always rule me, Im a sucker for your costume jewelry
-CJC
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7. |
Ex Post Facto
04:53
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You say you wanna chip out?
Your eyes are telling me that you are done
The dye's been cast and you didn't think you'd last even this long
Regret has you lappin' up that soul-soothing salve
And you want some answers to questions that you don't even have
You can't go back to find where you went wrong
It's ex post facto you're right where you belong,
My friend
Cause it doesn't matter now and it didn't matter then...
Your spirit's broken
You are hopin' it comes back
I say you're okay just by virtue of that
You want the results before you even take footstep one
You oughta know by now that's no way to ever get things done
You can't go back to find where you went wrong
It's ex post facto you're right where you belong,
My friend
Cause it doesn't matter now and it didn't matter then....
-CJC
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8. |
Crazy River
04:47
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Crazy river, I drink of your cup
I once tried to wrangle you and you smashed me up
Oh, but now I ride by some well placed scars
To know you is to comprehend the stars...
These caverns where I croon, we're a perfect fit
The serpentines they swoon, hey we all got shit
I caterwaul like a moonlit wolf
Launching his song from a shingled roof
That echoes down the crazy river....
Crazy river, I drink of your blood
Through a darkened wilderness we go with God
I don't second guess your path to the sea
My broken-ness already salvaged me
And left me to the crazy river....
-CJC
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9. |
Stolen Winter
04:21
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I can't waste my time no more
On the case of stolen winter
I'll embrace the lonely hours
All to rewind me to your love
The water lights reflect the waves
And in my sight can see the glory
And the shame of every story
That climbs the blue-light ladder through the night sky....
At the pylons we rolled in the sand
My nose pressed to your golden strands
The clouds linked up to spell our names
And trailed off together in a vapor frame....
I walk a mile on one drunk foot
As I drag the other with me
Like a mad nag loose in the city
Unbridled, unhitched, and unsung....
CJC
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10. |
Second Sunrise
05:13
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I am now pursuant to a dream
I bust out of the suburbs with a scream
Gladly lost my innocence, the clapboards of that picket fence thrown on the fire
Cause life is lived to lay it on the line
Anything short of that's just dyin'
I'll go real fast 'round hairpin turns, crash and burn and never learn, I want it all
So just gimme the ball
I am now resplendent with a vision
Independent of any indecision
I chose my lane it's rock-n-roll, the off ramp to my nourished soul is in that choice
I am now beholden to a cause
No longer in a state of pregnant pause
I'll break my neck just to be heard, every word a holy purge, a second sunrise
A fresh pair of eyes
I'm not here to speculate or coerce the hands of fate, well it's too late
Like Sysyphus up that hill I'll push that rock until i just can't feel the weight
There may come a time I might find myself wanting to give up
In this I will redeem
In this I will redeem.....
That I am now pursuant to a dream
Truant to a course reality
I'll break my neck just to be heard, every word a holy purge, a second sunrise
A fresh pair of eyes
-CJC
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11. |
Beanbag Chair
05:10
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Beanbag Chair
It looks like my winnin' ways just have seen better days
cause, man I'm feelin' so expired
And here comes superman with his racing form and his millionaire tan
His act's really gettin' tired
But me I domino the days.....
And I regret the fact that you're worlds away....
Worlds away
My mind is full of reflections of missed connections and screwed up directions...
Seems I'm travelin' thru the haze
And look at them girls over there doing clandestine twirls thru their self-permed hair...
When hop-scotch doesn't cut it anymore
But me I domino the days
And I regret the fact that you're worlds away
At the flickering screen I stare
eatin' TV dinners in a beanbag chair
Beanbag chair.....
Looks like my winnin' ways just have seen better days
Cause man I'm feelin' so expired
And here comes superman with his racing form and his millionaire tan
His act is really gettin' tired
But me I domino the days
And I regret the fact that you're worlds away
So at the flickering screen I stare.....
With a TV Guide in a beanbag chair.....
Beanbag chair
The Love Boat soon will be making another run and
Welcome to Fantasy Island
The Love boat soon will be making another run and
Welcome to Fantasy Island
Boss, the plane.
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Christopher John Campion New York, New York
Christopher John Campion is a singer-songwriter/author known for his rollicking off-Broadway music-monologue-piece, Escape From Bellevue and the acclaimed memoir that followed on Penguin Books. In recent years he has toured and opened shows for M.Ward, Rhett Miller, and Violent Femmes and his songs have been featured in movies and on the CBS shows Instinct and NCIS:Los Angeles. ... more
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