2003
Let’s Make the Prequel First
[Download here]
This was the beginning of a project to record (or re-record) old songs from my younger days. I liked doing it so much that I ended up working on a full-length sequel to this (Discount Boy Genius).
- Hand (6:01)
- Unsmoked (1:50)
- Neighborhood of You (3:28)
- Scaredy-Cat (2:59)
Recorded in Frostburg, Md., summer 2003, to four-track cassette recorder and featuring electrical, acoustical, and classical guitars and also some piano. Sorry about the overly clever title.
Hand
And this hand you just touched Eventually will be just dust And the bones underneath Will fossilize while you sleep And our race could be extinct And this city buried deep And some furry three-eyed thing Could dig me up and start to think What this man was Whose this hand was Why it’s shaped in such a way and how these creatures lived this way And could they tell The way it felt And could they guess Who it caressed And if my bones could then be cloned And if they left me all alone To study closely and to see Exactly what a human means I don’t believe, I don’t expect I don’t imagine they could tell How this hand was Who this man was Why I act in such a way and how I ever lived that way.
~ June 2002 
Unsmoked
Lighting up a cigarette just to watch it burn, Looking for a meaning in the ashes. Some kind of metaphor here, but I have too many things to do to sit and analyze. Or am I just too tired for one more drag. Riddle me this: Is there some connection between responsibility and my own inability to leave this basement? I’ll let the smoke fill the air as the haze trickles up the stairs, unsmoked cigarettes tainting all my possessions. They say smoking kills.
~ 1999
Neighborhood of You
Yesterday I walked that way, the first time in so long, and I don’t even know if you still live there But I couldn’t look away, it took me back to the days when we would pull those window shades and I would be there I’d be deep inside your eyes and you’d be deep inside my heart And everything would seem so perfectly believable. I lost everything I had when I lost myself in you and then I lost the chance to add to all my memories of you Cuz everything got so fucked up I guess we’re better off this way I hope some other guy is pulling shut your window shades these days. I didn’t mean to stare but still I kept on standing there If I came back some afternoon maybe I’d see inside your room I recall the posters on your wall and how your bed sank from our weight and the CDs you let me tape, music that nowadays I hardly ever listen to, cuz even though it’s pretty cool, to tell the truth, it makes me think of you. This neighborhood of you I don’t know why I came by this neighborhood of you I can’t say what brought me back, this neighborhood of you And I don’t think that I’ll be back, this neighborhood of you Yesterday I walked that way, the first time in so long, And I don’t even know if you still live there But it doesn’t really matter anymore cuz I’m not angry anymore I guess that means my heart is cured From when you broke it in that room above, behind the window shades of the nice suburban house that I just happend to walk right by yesterday. This neighborhood of you I don’t know why I came by this neighborhood of you I can’t say what brought me back, this neighborhood of you And I don’t think that I’ll be back, this neighborhood of you, No, I don’t think that I’ll be back, this neighborhood of you.
~ 1998
Scaredy-Cat
Everytime you know what’s next And you got the world in front of you Everytime you face a test And your life’s within your power to choose Everytime you get a chance But you know that there might be a risk Everytime you think you can But you know that there might be a risk You turn around and run away, You say you didn’t mean it like that, You’ve got your tail between your legs Just like a fuckin’ scaredy-cat Yesterday I had a choice She was ready to apologize I could hear it in her voice But I couldn’t look her in the eye I turned around and ran away Said I didn’t mean it like that Had my tail between my legs Just like a fuckin’ scaredy-cat I turned around and ran away Said I didn’t mean it like that Had my tail between my legs Just like a stupid scaredy-cat I had a chance I didn’t take I said I didn’t care about that I ran around and turned away Just like a fucking scaredy-cat
