Get all 60 Larry Hirshberg releases available on Bandcamp and save 30%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Trumpet Time, Easy Waters, You're On Your Own, But Stay, When The Barking Stops, And The Night Takes Your Hand, Straight Up Midnight, Intro, No Word Answer, Hit Differently, and 52 more.
1. |
Right From The Start
03:40
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Right from the start
I knew what I was doing
Right from the start
It was wrong
Right from the start
It wasn’t there and I knew it
Right from the start
I was gone
Yellow rose on a lilac
Blue apple in a tree
An acorn falls from an old white pine
Because you say it doesn’t mean it will be
Right from the start
I knew what I was doing
Right from the start
It was wrong
Right from the start
It wasn’t there and I knew it
Right from the start
I was gone
An offer tendered for the future
A chance for that emptiness to fill
Replace that space with a solid rhythm
Because it might doesn’t mean that it will
The obvious is broken
What was clear is now obscure
I took a step in the wrong direction
This time the outcome was assured
Right from the start
I knew what I was doing
Right from the start
It was wrong
Right from the start
It wasn’t there and I knew it
Right from the start
I was gone
Yellow rose on a lilac
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2. |
Time, Keep Away
04:09
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Time, keep away or I’ll kill you,
don’t waste your blessings on me.
Time, keep away or I’ll kill you.
You’re making me squirm can’t you see.
Run out to the highway and into a car,
where some driver’s enjoying his drive.
Stand still in the throat of the singer of rock,
a place where nobody can hide.
Time, keep away or I’ll kill you.
Me and my TV are strong.
Time, keep away or I’ll kill you.
Save yourself – don’t be here long.
Wind down to a bedroom,
wind up in a bed,
embracing two lovers asleep.
Pass into the forest –
or is that where you’re from:
the source of the silent and deep?
Time, keep away or I’ll kill you,
don’t waste your blessings on me.
Time, keep away or I’ll kill you.
You’re making me squirm can’t you see.
If I was a house and you were the wind,
I’d do you a favor and not let you in.
If I was a flag, I would be red.
I’m trying to warn you; stop here and you’re dead…
I held you one summer when I was a boy.
The sun took forever to set.
The song of a thrush was unending, descending,
it may still be twirling down yet…
Time, keep away or I’ll kill you.
Me and my TV are strong.
Time, keep away or I’ll kill you.
Save yourself – don’t be here long.
Time, keep away or I’ll kill you,
don’t waste your blessings on me.
Time, keep away or I’ll kill you.
You’re making me squirm can’t you see.
Time, keep away.
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3. |
Peace Fuck
03:58
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Drifting apart as if we pushed off like we were in space
Our eyes desperate under visors keeping out the sun’s pain
Tension in our space suits smells like
Fear is it fear is it fear that makes us this way?
One foot in my door
And now it won’t close
I can’t push any more
It gets harder and harder and harder
To say no
Next verse: we grit our teeth on the couch the TV is on
Work sucks on our love like disease - it’s a sickness - keeps us apart gives us the blues
One foot in my door
And now it won’t close
I can’t push any more
It gets harder and harder and harder
To say no
Finally she says “peace fuck” I say “peace fuck?” She says “peace fuck” -
We lie down and move on
Chorus:
One foot in my door
And now it won’t close
I can’t push any more
It gets harder and harder and harder and harder
To go
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4. |
Almost Drinking
04:43
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I dream I'm almost drinking
The glass begins to tip
I know I’m only dreaming
Because nothing wets my lips
I smell the whiskey warming
The glass it slowly turns
I know I must be dreaming
Because my throat remains unburned
There is no room around me
Just the glass and what it holds
Somehow the whiskey’s found me
Somehow my mouth stays closed
And when the sun comes shining
Burning down the sky
Beer and gin and tonics
Don’t materialize
And when the band is playing
The blues and other lies
Shots of good tequila
Never cross my mind…
I dream I'm almost drinking
There’s my hand: it holds the glass
I dream the dream is over
And I can have a drink at last
I dream I'm almost drinking
There’s my hand: it holds the glass
Forever is a long time
I just wait for it to pass
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5. |
Mad
04:57
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Why am I so mad?
Why is anger all I ever have?
This world is made of sugar, but it tastes a lot like lead.
A part of me’s gone bad must be why I'm always mad.
Why is nothing ever right?
Different trouble every single night.
This world should be my lover, but instead we always fight.
A part of me’s gone bad must be why I’m always mad.
It’s never enough to just be in love.
It’s always going wrong, going on and on and on…
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6. |
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HEADLONG RUSHES TOWARDS YOU
HEADLONG WANTS TO HELP
HEADLONG RUSHES TOWARDS YOU
HE DOESN’T SLOW HIMSELF
THE OPPOSITE OF HALLMARK
GREETING YOU TOO FAST
YOUR BALANCE IS A MEMORY
HEADLONG RUSHES PAST
JOKING LIKE THE CATSKILLS
LOOKING IN YOUR EYES
SHOUTING THROUGH YOUR SILENCE
HEADLONG GETS A RISE
STANDING TALL NEXT TO YOU
YOU TRY TO LOOK AWAY
HEADLONG WANTS TO HELP YOU
ALL YOU CAN DO IS COMPLAIN
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7. |
Not The Way
04:50
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All day the snow turned to water
We lost our blanket in the rain
The ceiling’s dripping in the kitchen
My friend that’s not the way
You’re on some silly little sailboat
High atop a booming wave
Watchin’ the wine bottle rolling
My friend that’s not the way
You’re losing money while you’re sleeping
You lose your friends when you’re awake
You’re getting done by your business
My friend that’s not the way
She left and took all the pepper
The flavor’s in another state
Sugar’s nice but kills you slowly
My friend that’s not the way
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8. |
At The Shipyard
04:19
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15 letters written by Roscoe Butters
My hometown buddy’s yard sale booty
Left in an attic by Butters’ lover
We didn’t know what a lover was…..
Between the wars, at the shipyard
We’d listen for the whistle, race each other to the gate
If his case was open when you got there you were late
On our Schwinns, Water Street was all downhill
Of his guitar, we never heard our fill…..
Between the wars, at the shipyard
Some folks played and sang where the subway stopped
Others on the corners where the ladies always shopped
Roscoe sang his pictures, played his sorry tales
To the empty workers and their tired lunch pails….
Between the wars, at the shipyard
Now when I go home to see my family and friends
I often wonder why things continue and things end
Of course, they haven’t launched a ship since Saigon fell
And Roscoe’s letters, when you read them seem to spell…
Between the wars, at the shipyard
We didn’t know what a lover was.
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9. |
Not So Long Gone
03:31
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Gone is the gutter, away the leaves
Gone are the old folks and the birds that they’d feed
Gone’s the fence broke and mended
And the argument that never ended
Not so long gone
Gone’s the song about the highway
Gone’s the highway and the cup
Gone’s the flavor of confusion
Gone’s the bitter waking up
Not so long gone
Gone’s the blade, gone’s the blood
Gone’s the edge that cut the flood
Gone’s the tongue that tore the words
Gone is the shouting, gone is the urge
Not so long gone
Gone’s the judge and the trial
Gone’s the cake and the aisle
Remember all that high-priced rent
Remember where that shadow went
Not so long gone
Yesterday you drove away
And time began to stretch and yawn
Like a dog I’m waiting here….
You’re coming home, there’s nothing wrong
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10. |
New Friends
04:57
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Old friends, they know
Your trouble comes and goes
Like the guitar and the song
Play and sing it, then it’s gone
But you play and sing it and it'll come again
Then you pass it on to some old friends
Old friends, they help you work it through
New friends can do that too…
So tell me what scares you today
Will a kiss keep those fears at bay?
Show me what you’re running from
Will my hand help to get you home?
Old friends, they know
Your trouble comes and goes
Like the guitar and the song
Play and sing it, then it’s gone
But you play and sing it and it comes again
Then you pass it on to some old friends
Old friends help you work it through
New friends can do that too…
So why did your last lover go?
What in your room makes you love it so?
What’s that growing in your garden there?
What’s that sweet smell all through your hair?
Starting out like children then
What we said and what we meant
You never know much about the end
Starting out with your new friend
So tell me what scares you today
Will a kiss keep those fears at bay?
Show me what you’re running from
Will my hand help to get you home?
Old friends, they know
Your trouble comes and goes
Like the guitar and the song
Play and sing it, then it’s gone
But you play and sing it and it comes again
Then you pass it on to some old friends
Old friends help you work it through
New friends can do that too…
Old friends
New friends
Old friends help you work it through
New friends can do that too…
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11. |
Seven Guys in Wallace
05:42
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12. |
If You Were A Town
07:42
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If you were a town
Would you show me your best face
Before I left
Would I think you’re the best place
Would your river run cool
Would your beach be of sand
Would your signals be green
And would you dance to my band?
As the morning turns gold
There’s a train by the road
Together we roll
Another Sunday unfolds
Night before last
Seems so far in the past
Another summertime bar
I still don’t know who you are…
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13. |
The Bee
02:21
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Larry Hirshberg Missoula, montana
The years reveal what the moments are made to conceal.
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