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Lyrics to Montana Tale
Gone
As Tragic
Labor Day
Will Not Fight
Mama Nashville
28
Easter Sunday
Resurrection Bay
Anna Rose Part IV
All Through Montana
Map of Dallas
Gone
Well I’m driving through Nevada, as fast as I can,
Fresh from Lake Tahoe with a nugget wrapped in a set list
I’m heading south of Boise with campefire in my hair
I’ve been losing all my inhibitions somewhere out here
They say I live the life romantic, I ain’t got a penny to my name
I could come here and leave with nothing and be happy just the same
These people they climb the pulpit they try to convince me to stay
But I don’t stick around long enough to hear what they have to say
Chorus:
I’m gone, gone, gone,
like shadows on your lawn,
like cold wind blowing strong,
I go back down like the sun and I’m always there.
These people ain't got much they just clap and sing along
but thats all a folk singer could ever want
Some of these bosses are saints and some of them ain't
but from Austin to Missoula I just do whatever it takes
And this preacher digs my music but he's worried about my soul
says if I don't playing guitar he reckons I won't die at all
cause I play on this thing more often than I breathe
if you can't kill me in mid-song then you can't kill me
Chorus
This wide eyed local finds me and he throws me to the ground
He says, you look just like Jesus without the blood without the crown
He begs me for salvation, I give him a meager dose
just enough to get him going to the next folk show
And I've been dreaming of the woman who simply lets me want her
with lips as red as Moab, as wet as Gualala
She holds me in her arms, she treats me like a prayer
She says. I won't let you die lest you first promise to live
Chorus
© John Craigie 2009
As Tragic
Your lips taste like American Spirit,
My hands look like it’s been a long tour
Last night’s failure is 400 miles away
But tonight could be alright, if only you’d let me stay
Chorus:
Baby it don’t take that long
Two rights don’t always make a wrong
Darling, listen to me, life doesn’t have to be
As tragic as it is in my songs
This romance is embarrassing it puts your integrity on the line
Kind of like a suicide note without the suicide.
Ranging from the depths of what you choose to see
who you choose to love and what you choose to be
Chorus:
Just like the sassafras that always seems to pass a little bit too soon
It always comes down to who you love and what you're put on earth to do
The mighty kings of England, the mighty kings of Spain
They've all kept there titles but they don't do a thing
Now leaving North Dakota you know I kissed the other side
I have traveled all this way just to look you in the eye.
Chorus
© John Craigie 2009
Labor Day
On Labor Day I quit my job,
I went looking for the head man, I went looking for the boss
I went looking for somebody to tell my story to
I said this is the circus and you are the tattooed lady
You won’t be satisfied until we’re all covered in ink
You won’t be satisfied until we’re all slightly dirtier than you
She said it’s now or never if you ever want to get away
I quit my job on Labor Day
I met an LDS on LSD, he said Jesus and Superman are basically the same thing
And the Bible was the very first comic book
He told me God will answer every prayer you pray
It’s just that he can hear you better than you can hear yourself
He said I love my messiah I just don’t get along with his old man
I said I could listen to you forever but he had nothing more to say
I quit my job on Labor Day
I ran to my lover to tell her what I had done, I said I’ve been molded into something unmoldable
I’m tired of changing the diapers on your inner child
Things are going to go back to just the way they’ve been
I said that’s about as realistic as the tenth commandment
Change rains down from above
Life is like a movie everyone just falls asleep
We wake up credits rolls we applaud at what we did not see
Breakin out, bustin through, I’m lookin for another way
I quit my job on Labor Day
© John Craigie 2009
Will Not Fight
Six AM ain’t no time to write a song
When the moon’s still up but the night is gone
And the muse she is fast asleep.
Where I guess, I oughta be.
Hold back that sunrise just a little bit more
I'm not quite ready to feel its warmth
My love comes to me when I'm cold
Into my heart with all the rest of the ghosts
Chorus:
Go down Moses, shine your light. I will not fight, I will not fight.
Go down Moses, shine your light I will not fight, anymore tonight.
Somewhere down in Bozeman where the bachelors hang
They tell there stories with equal pride and shame
Just like soldiers at the end of a war
Trying to look happy to be out of work
Chorus:
© John Craigie 2009
Mama Nashville
My fans up in Whitefish say I gotta settle down somewhere
This roaming and rambling won’t get me anywhere
Everybody’s screaming Nashville, that’s where the stars are made
So I picked up my guitar and I headed Nashville way
So I went down to Second Ave and got myself a gig
With 37 other singers also on the bill
I tell you all them locals they long since moved away
My crowd was just the other singers waiting to get on stage
Chorus:
Goodbye, I don’t need you, and Lord knows you don’t need me
Goodbye, Mama Nashville, you got too many mouths to feed
They told me not to go down there and sing my originals
They said some Nashville country singer will steal my melodies and my words
If they wanna find some fortune, they better rob somebody else
I barely have the balls to sing these songs myself
Chorus:
So I lit down to Shreveport as fast as I could
I love the way they talk there and them women treat me good
They said reincarnation is happening in that town
The lawyers come back as mosquitoes or is it the other way around
© John Craigie 2009
28
coming soon
© John Craigie 2009
Easter Sunday
JC rose two days later just to show his friends that he could
Almost as if to say the afterlife’s alright but it’s not that good
JC walked through the streets of Jerusalem people stickin their hands into the holes in his side
He said there is life and there is death and the echo of both that survive
But your life lasts so much longer than the time that you spend
Down here kicking
Baton Rouge Easter Sunday, just a bottle of wine and me
The best show I ever had there were twelve people in the audience
But they all knew all the words to my songs
Got three encores and they had to close the coffee shop down
But we all went outside and sang some more
Don’t judge your success my friend on the number of humans
That see you up there doing you thing
Baton Rouge Easter Sunday, just a bottle of wine and me
Down here we got everything, we got the good and the bad
Up there they only got the good
Deep down I think we like the uncertainty, this is the heaven that we all want
And death is nothing more than the moment
For our echo to start
Baton Rouge Easter Sunday, just a bottle of wine and me
© John Craigie 2009
Resurrection Bay
I met her up in Helena, in the state mental hospital
I was put there by a judge, boys, she was put there by the same.
Just one look into her green eyes, Catalina she was all mine
She told me of her paradise, called it Resurrection Bay.
We both knew we were cured, no matter about the judges word
On that first day of summer, we made our escape
Running through that June night, with them stars as our only light
She said that every star that falls lands in Resurrection Bay
So me and Catalina, we hitchhiked to Alaska
All through them drunken forests, up that Alcan Highway
Made it down to the Kenai, on the 4th of July
Made love under the exploding sky of Resurrection Bay
But Catalina was a strange girl, not long for this world
Why they'd put her up in Helena, she would not say
She was in love with that water, like a mother to a daughter
I watched her smiling face go under, from the shores of Resurrection Bay
Now I ain't nothing but a stranger moving south through your country
've been eating from your orange groves I've been sleeping through your days
At night I watch the black sky, see them stars go shooting by
I know that every star that falls lands in Resurrection Bay
© John Craigie 2009
Anna Rose Part IV
Everytime I come to town you know you look so sad
But when the show is over you are happy again
You say your boss don’t respect you and neither does your man
But this time around girl I’ve got a plan
Chorus:
Quit your job, sell your car
Tell that fool that you live with, you don’t live here anymore
Bring your banjo I’ll teach you how to play
You know its ne------ver too late
You say your life's been hard, you've been abused and mangled
but i tell you an angel with a messed up past is still an angel
All these people just push you aside
you got this chance to leave 'em all behind
You'll watch less and sing more, it'll be easy to quit that stuff when you can't afford
Nothing but the bare necessities. You won't be a millionaire but at least you'll be free
Chorus:
So pack your bags, my wheels are rolling
you won't need them fancy clothes where we're going
Tell your father not to shout and scream
He can write it off as one of your crazy dreams
Cause I know you got the music deep down inside
and I'll bet we'll sound good when we harmonize
You're way too perfect for a town like this
I need the whole damn planet to know you exist
Chorus:
© John Craigie 2009
All Through Montana
My tires swell, the road seems lonely,
The road seem lonely, my life seems great
The sun rises slow, over the hills
As I drive east towards a western state,
I listen to Greg Brown, all through Montana, and all through Montana I look for your soul
It just seems like the place that you would’ve settled down, that is if you ever even settled down at all
You’d be so proud if you could see me now, I got my own record and another on the way
Just play my guitar from town to town, but I know it all began on that warm spring day
I cut class with you for no other reason than to welcome in the season and let the wind kiss your neck
You took me to that meadow and I played you that song, the one about how some planet’s star lies
right between your breasts
I guess I was stupid I guess I was naïve to think that I could have kept it a secret somehow
I would have written you so many more songs if I had known the muse then like I know the muse now
So I stare north now into what must be Canada, with tears in my eyes as the wind rocks my brain
A man can only not know so much before he realizes he doesn’t know one goddamn thing
I listen to Greg Brown, all through Montana, and Montana is so much bigger than you think
In my wildest dreams I picture you roamin around, makin folks smile and maybe keepin an eye out for me
© John Craigie 2009
Map of Dallas
I got me a map of Dallas, and I’m sitting in Kalispell
About a thousand miles from Texas but I guess it’s just as well
I got my past in my dust got my future over the hill
And I don’t need nobody to cast my spells
I got dreams and things and songs for times of war
I got a life that lays itself, you know it don’t get bored
I got my local crowd waiting for me down at the local bar
And I’m going to sing to them till my throat gets sore
Cause it only happens once, life will not wait, and it won’t throw it back to you
There ain’t enough time to do something right, but plenty of time to do something new
Come on please give me your blessing
And sing my songs when I’m gone
Take me down to the river wash my little soul clean
From the dust of your highways to the smut of your dreams
You can take my guitar and my harmonicas, throw them all into the sea
I swear the tide will bring them all back to me
And if I don’t make it home don’t’ cry none
Don’t let lit keep you in
We all come back, baby , slow or fast,
Back to where we began
Come on please give me your blessing
And sing my songs when I’m gone
I got me a map of Dallas
And I’m sitting in Kalispell
Bout a thousand miles from Texas but I guess it’s just as well
I got Springsteen on my radio cranking it loud as hell
I just love this song I don’t care what my neighbors yell
Cause it picks me up my life gets stuck my wheels don’t seem to roll
Baby take my advice, hold on tight, never let go
Come on please give me your blessing
And sing my songs when I’m gone