Category Archives: Lyrics
Don’t Start Dreaming (Again)
This is a song that Robert Alfonso and I wrote many years ago, inspired by the Louvin Brothers. If you are familiar with them, you will probably hear echoes of one or more of Ira and Charlie’s tunes (“When I Stop Dreaming”) in the lyrics and melody, hopefully. I’ve been thinking about it and playing it a lot lately. Been messing with the key and melody a bit, but it mostly sounds like this:
She said that it’s over
don’t try to make her stay
it has to be this way
don’t start dreaming again
look what you’re doing
it’s just a losing game
you’ve got to forget her name
don’t start dreaming again
just as sure as you can’t sleep at night
she will be there every time you close your eyes
she said that it’s over
she won’t come back around
you’d only let her down
don’t start dreaming again
try to be strong, forget about your heart
just tell yourself she was lying from the start
she said that it’s over
don’t try to make her stay
it has to end this way
don’t start dreaming again
don’t start dreaming again
Carry On
hear about it on the radio
see it all over the news
pain keeps coming through in stereo
and it’s nothing you can use
so much trouble
don’t make no sense
really nothing you can do
truth seems to have no consequence
they feed you lies to make it through
so you take a pill to dull the pain
take a drink to wash it down
take two more of each and another then
you’re following the evening down
another morning brings another day
as unlikely as it seems
burn another quart of confidence
chasing someone else’s dreams
but you carry on, that’s the way do it here
we carry on
keep calm and carry on …
mothers, fathers, it’s up to you
no one else will pay the price
’cause there’s no justice in the halls of the just
only politrix and vice
no one up there even knows your name
but they serve the ones that do
who are ready to sell you everything
that you can’t afford to lose
but we carry on, that’s the way do it here
we carry on
keep calm and carry on …
hang my coat up
hang my hat
do my best to shrug it off
somedays it hangs on like the hollow ring
of a dying man’s cancer cough
means so little to say we care a lot
but I really, really do
maybe a little hope is just enough
maybe I’m singing just to you
but I carry on, that’s the way do it here
I carry on
keep calm and carry on …
Pet Rock (Lyrics)
(Rob Russell – Copyright 2011)
whatsammatter with you boy
whatchudoing messing around
pin a medal to your chest
east is east and west is west
this is not your side of town
creeping in, slipped past your boys
girl from church she knows your name
her mother’s out, the coast is clear
a record you just gotta here
turn around and face the strange
what you can’t explain down to me down to me
what you can’t get your head around me
what you can’t explain …
blood on the tracks and let it be
astral weeks and born to run
you’re not a nerd, you’re not a jock
your heart is eaten up by rock
boy, you’re no kinda fun
shoulda listened to your mom, shoulda listened to your dad
… listened to your teachers … listened to your preacher
don’t you know you got it bad
what you can’t explain down to me down to me
what you can’t get your head around me
what you can’t explain …
And all I know about love is all I’ve heard about love
all I’ve heard about love is all I know about love
is what I’ve heard, is what I heard
the greatest pleasures of adulthood are
experienced concomitantly with the additional responsibilities of
career and family, which, while they may lead to
rewards both intrinsic and extrinsic,
greatly reduce one’s ability to …
rock the ____ out ….!!!
whatsamatter with your head
over the hill, still messing ’round
the record skips, the tape it loops
you’re losing sleep, so there’s your proof
forget it, Jake, it’s Chinatown
the truth it lies somewhere between
the grooves that spin inside your head
paint the picture you want to see
write the book you want to read
sing the songs you’ve got to sing
what I can’t explain down to me down to me
what I can’t get my head around me
what I can’t explain …
Skyline (Lyrics)
Photo of Breaks Interstate Park by Chuck Leamon
Skyline
(Josh Reifert – Copyright 2011)
It’s okay when you’re on your own to let the silence ring your head like a big trombone.
You’ll clinch your fists and climb the walls. The guilt will eat you inside out like a starving dog.
(Chorus)
So hold steadfast through the hard times and they will bring forth a good life.
Keep your eyes on the skyline and say your prayers in the meantime.
Well them train tracks rock when them train wheels roll,
and life flies by you while you watch the world turn slow.
So while you wait keep watchful eye and listen for those trumpets sounding rain or shine.
(Chorus)
And hold steadfast through the hard times and they will bring forth a good life.
Keep your eyes on the skyline and say your prayers in the meantime.
Just hold steadfast through the hard times and they will bring forth a good life.
Keep your eyes on the skyline and say your prayers in the meantime,
say your prayers in the meantime,
And keep your eyes on the skyline.
We’re All Gonna Die (Lyrics)
Urban art on closed General Mills Plant in Johnson City, TN - 2011 (Photo Andy Russell)
We’re All Gonna Die
(Rob Russell – Copyright 2011)
maybe you take some pills
maybe you drink some booze
maybe you pray real hard
maybe you got a lot to lose
maybe you go to go to work
maybe you will work all day
or treat it like a 9 to 5
it’s gonna happen anyway
we’re all gonna die
we’re all gonna die
no matter how you try
you ain’t getting out of this world alive
we’re all gonna die
we’re all gonna die
hey buddy can’t you see
the sky’s about to catch fire
the clouds are gray as steel
the sun’s like a burning tire
sister can you hear the sound
can’t you hear the trumpets call
echoing through these hills
from Del Rio to St. Paul?
we’re all gonna die
we’re all gonna die
because that’s the master’s plan
from up in Frog Level down to Lowland
we’re all gonna die
we’re all gonna die
Appalachia’s Rising (lyrics)
Mountain Justice activists – action on May 23, 2009
Appalachia’s Rising
(Rob Russell – copyright 2011)
Twister tore the roof off the Poor Valley Baptist Church
Preacher says it’s a sign we’re not long for this earth
so momma spend your food stamps and don’t bother canning them beans
because Appalachia’s rising
won’t be long before we’re free
the county took my baby when the sherrif raided the farm
we were just trying to make a living, cooking up in the barn
what’s wrong with getting high when there’s nothing left to fear?
Appalachia’s rising
and the Rapture’s drawing near
let’s take up a collection for the time lost in reflection
wishing for what once was, or the change that never comes
i’d just as soon burn this Bible than bet on the revival of a house set against itself
just to spite everybody else
That “Friends of Coal” sticker on your SUV
makes just about as much sense
as selling maps to a tourist trap that’s an industrial accident, cause …
we’ve dammed all the rivers, paved all the valleys, and blasted them mountains to kingdom come
we’ve got nuclear mud, coal ash sludge, and fish that make momma’s babies dumb
we’ve done about all we can do to strip it of its worth
if Appalachia’s rising
it’s ’cause we’ve made it hell right here on earth
