We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Mountain Songs

by falling off a building

/
  • Streaming + Download

    Includes high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. Paying supporters also get unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app.
    Purchasable with gift card

      name your price

     

1.
this is an old spiritual. i learned it in middle school chorus. if religion was a thing that money could buy, the rich would live and the poor would die. all my trials, lord, soon be over. oh hush little baby don't you cry. you know that man was born to die. all my trials lord, soon be over. too late, my brothers. too late but never mind. all my trials soon be over.
2.
i love you, and i don't know why, so i won't try to explain it or contain it. all of you is all of my hope on this planet. you're my world, and i've gotta hand it to you. the doctors say you're gonna die and there ain't a thing they can do, no matter how they try, but darlin, i don't believe their lies. you're gonna be fine. i'm gonna see to it. there's some way to save you, cos I know how brave you are. you're a shining star in the dark night sky. yeah, you got a light in your eyes that will shine for a million years or more. yeah, you're gonna stay right here with me. i don't care what those bastards say. we'll beat this the way we beat homelessness and poverty and unemployment. so they can all go get bent, cos we're gonna win, yeah, you're gonna win. there's some way to heal you, cos i just don't feel that you are what they say you are, a hopeless body with no future in this world. i love you, and your son saw me crying last night, but he don't know what i know, no, no one does. you're a buzzing tornado. your body is strong, with your eyes full of life and your heart full of song. they say you can't make it, we'll show them how wrong they are. time can do what he likes.i know he's on our side. time will pass us by. you'll grow old by my side. i won't take no for an answer. i won't take no for an answer. and i don't claim to know what God's plans are, but i ain't takin no for no answer. no no no.
3.
i'm a little lost without you. that may be an understatement. still i hope i haven't paid the cost to let a day go on by and not call on you. cos i'm so busy so busy thinkin about kissing you and how i wanna do that without entertaining another thought. down on the ocean's surf, i pull myself together. it's harder now cos i'm not on my turf. just me and me and those big old waves rollin in CHORUS
4.
my guilt cannot be measured by any means i know, cos you say it's me that you treasure but i've seen it isn't so. there is some other harlot on which your filthy mind dwells. so i'm leaving you in this parking lot, i care not what you do with yourself. you got a lot to answer for, you got a lot to answer for. i know what your dirty hands are good for, and that's nothing to me no more. so don't start with your lies and quick fixin. i'm finally fed up and through. you got me hung over from hurtin and the hair of the dog just won't do. why do you keep pretending you want me when it's clear to us both that you don't? well i swear by the sky above me, that you'll get what you deserve and want.
5.
i put my hands in my pockets, sat down at this table to pray, "Lord, take my arms out of their sockets, "and let things remain that way." I put my mouth to the bottle And lift her ass into the air so now the alcohol is racing full throttle to drive away the last of my cares. five points is swarming with assholes tonight. i think that i'm one of them. still, we make fun of them "i bet his name's Jonathan" well i said what i said and you know what i say, so go to bed or just go away. we pile on smiles to cover our dismay and pull the covers back over our faces. sez you. i guess we been makin more money. it's gettin harder to act poor. but i find it to be rather funny that i still ain't fixed my broke car door. i worked real hard and i studied to get that there college degree so when i'm hittin the sauce with my buddies we're comparing out literacy. harden st is pockmarked with potholes these days the damn government should do something with all the tax on the gas i been pumpin cos i'm startin to feel like a chump, man well i said what i said and you know what i say, so go to bed or just go away we pile on smiles to cover our dismay and pull the covers back over our faces sez you sez you sez you "oh wel "oh well "oh well "oh well. i took my money to market but now it's all dried up and gone so when the bus breaks down we'll just park it and find some other way to carry on cos my friends took me to the cleaners but my suit just got wrinkled again wasn't i dressed to impress? but now there's nothing left, i mean, i guess i should find some new friends. making a living in music and art is a really hard road to hoe down so i better get the hell out of town before i wind up in the ground. cos i said what i said and you know what i say, so go to bed or just go away. we pile on the smiles til they cover our dismay and pull the covers back over our faces. sez you.
6.
the name she gave was caroline, daughter of a miner. her ways were free and it seemed to be the sunshine walked beside her. she come from spencer, across the hill, said her pa had sent her,cos coal was low and soon the snow would turn the skies to winter. she said she'd come to look for work, she was not seeking favors. for a dime a day and a place to stay, she'd put them pretty hands to labor. but times were hard and jobs were few, all through tecumseh valley, but she asked around and a job she found tending bar at gypsy sally's. she'd saved enough to get back home when spring replaced the winter. but her dreams were denied. her pa had died. the word come down from spencer. so she took to whorin out on the street with all the hate inside her. it was many a man returned again to lay himself beside her. they found her down beneath the stairs that lead to Gypsy Sally's. and in her hand when she died was a note that cried, "fare the well, tecumseh valley." the name she gave was caroline, daughter of a miner. her ways were free and it seemed to me the sunshine walked beside her.
7.
up above the chandler field breyond the cedar church lived and died one stafford hartley and he never did much like to work. so he made trinkets and did odd jobs anything to get himself by made funny lookin cars out of old spare parts turning heads when he went by now folks said he was peculiar. they say so to this day one thing about old stafford hartley, he always did things his own way. now everybody's building their houses in the valley he put his up on top of the ridge he'd set out at night and light up his pipe and gaze over those blue, blue mountains. now he built a giant radio tower he'd broadcast every evening. from miles around, no matter where you turned your dial all you'd hear was stafford singing CHORUS the self-proclaimed mayor of Bailey's Camp i never heard no tell of an election. he married erlene, the only girl to be seen who didn't ask too many questions. now stafford got old, he got to hurtin he'd walk out in the yard pull a shotgun out from under his arm put it up to his chiin and fired. CHORUS one thing about old stafford hartley is he always did things his own way.
8.
i dreamed a dream in time gone by, when hope was high and life worth living i dreamed that love would never die i dreamed that God would be forgiving then, i was young and unafraid and dreams were made and used and wasted there was no ransom to be paid, no song unsung, no wine untasted but the tigers come at night, with their voices soft as thunder and they tear your hope apart. and they turn your dream to shame. he slept a summer by my side he filled my days with endless wonder he took my childhood in his stride but he was gone when autumn came and still i dream he'll come to me and we will live the years together but there are dreams which cannot be and there are storms we cannot weather i had a dream my life would be so different from this hell i'm living so different now from what it seemed. now life has killed the dream i dreamed.
9.
you've come just like the dawn and in your voice i heard a song that i been singing all my life long and never knew where it came from you say that you love me oh but how could that be? cos you're too good to be true and i ain't good enough for you so i'll kill you and then you'll be dead and you won't haunt me anymore. you say you wanna stay but i know you'll be gone someday and i cannot live w/o you i will not live without you. i can't handle these emotions and now such a crazy notion has revealed herself to me and i can't just let it be so i'll kill you and then you'll be dead and you won't haunt me anymore no, kill me and then i'll be dead and you won't haunt me anymore here's a gun, well-oiled and loaded, put a bullet in my throat, darlin, it's your only hope i can't believe what my heart says and i can't believe what you say either i know i should just take a breather and calm down, calm down, calm down but you're too good to be true and i ain't good enough for you i'm so scared, i'm so scared, i'm so scared of what i might do i'll kill you and then you'll be dead and you won't haunt me anymore how could you love someone like me? how could you love a monster like me? could you really love someone like me? but you're too good to be true and i ain't good enough for you, i'm so scared of what i'm so scared, i'm so scared of what i might do i could hurt you, i could scare you, i could leave you, i could lose you, i could ruin your pretty trusting smile but i love you and i can't escape or die so if you love me, then please take my hand and help me put these demons to rest lover, oh please, take my hand and help me put these demons to rest.
10.
Five Months 04:45
i couldn't believe what the doctor said i buried my head in my hospital bed my days are numbered, you can count the months on one hand i couldn't believe but now i can't deny in just five short months i must bid you goodbye my days are numbered, i'm slipping out of your hands darlin, it won. it's over and done. soon i am gonna leave this sad world. no more questions, except for one, do you still wanna be this boy's girl? i'll understand if you don't think you can stay here with me and keep holding my hand cos each passing day, i'll fade away a little more and then the day will arrive when i'll feel my life slip from my body and into the sky and you will be there, watching and waving goodbye darlin it won. it's over and done. soon i am gonna leave this sad world no more questions, except for one, do you still wanna be this boy's girl? go turn and run, scream at the sun tell him he's gone way too far this time or bury your head into my chest maybe the best we can do is cry.
11.
Who, Else? 03:11
there's this picture i can't draw but i see it all-too-clearly in my brain a boy with all his weapons drawn, and though he knows he's wrong, he fights on all the same with determination on his face i scribble and erase but never seem to get it right. i don't know if you'll ever know but this was all for you. i dont' know if you really care but i really hope you do, cos i do. there are words i'll never write trying as i might, they won't fall into place. there's so much left to say, but we'll never say it til it's too late anyway. i don't know if you'll ever know, but this was all for you. i don't know if you really care, but i really hope you do, cos i do i do. i do. hey well maybe, come some sunny day, we'll wake up in some bright place where we can be safe and we won't have to apologise no more, maybe we can understand each other.
12.
the blue sky cafe on hiway 25 is where we met today to say our last goodbyes the clouds were rolling past the sun was shining bright and i just had to laugh your hands didn't move and neither did mine there's nothing left to prove there's nowhere to left to lie the words stuck in my throat the tears stood in your eyes and we just nodded silently when i remember this, all i'll have to say is "this boy's made of bliss, "the one that got away" and "don't eat the last bite."
13.
Shenandoah 01:57
oh shenandoah, i long to see you away you rolling river oh shenandoah, i long to be you away, i'm bound away 'cross the wide missouri oh shenandoah, i love your daughter away you rolling river for her i'd cross your roaring water away, i'm bound away 'cross the wide missouri oh shenandoah, i still believe you away, you rolling river oh shenandoah, i'll not decieve you away, i'm bound away 'cross the wide missouri
14.
from the darkest lonely room to the brightest peaceful sky we'll shed away our fears and watch them fly all the way back home, picked you flowers by the road, and the pockets of my raincoat became their hope. in the past few months i've learnt so much about rain i don't want this anymore i will cast it all aside place it in my secret drawer where it can hide just so that you know i will throw those wants away if it means our friendship is at stake in the past few months i've learnt so much about rain i seen it come on w/o warning in the middle of the night and right on thru till morning just to vanish with the daylight i was walkin in the sunshine and things just seemed alright then out of nowhere i got caught in it i'm still caught in it from the darkest lonely room to the brightest peaceful sky, we'll shed away our fears and watch them fly from the brightest painful sky to the darkest lovely room, i will shed away my lies, leaving just the truth. in the past few months i've learnt so much about rain in the past few months i've learnt so much about grace. you might get wet, but soon you will be drying you might fall down, but you will get back up again. and i don't want this anymore, this lying i'm cold and wet, but i'll be warm and dry when i get home and the sun comes out we will dance and shout and smile and clap and laugh and sing the sunlight's covering everything don't be surprised by all the green the lily decked out like a king in the past few months i've learnt so much about rain in the past few months i've learnt so much about grace.
15.
i looked up the lyrics on songmeanings.net but now that's all messed up freight train, freight train, goin so fast, freight train, freight train, goin so fast. please don't tell 'em which train I'm on so they won't know where I've gone. freight train, freight train comin round the bend freight train, freight train, gone again one of these days, turn that train around go back to my hometown one more place i'd like to be one more place i'd like to see to watch those old blue ridge mountains climb as i ride old number nine when i die, please bury me deep down at the end of old Bleeker street so i can hear old number nine as he goes rollin by

about

Recorded on Tuesday, March 11, 2008 by Brandon Locher's ears.

credits

released March 25, 2008

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

falling off a building Columbia, South Carolina

this act began in 2004 and just turned fourteen years old. it's been surviving on the fringes of interest since the day it was first conceived. it's worth doing. it's that thing of realising you are your own best friend and you need to take as good of care of yourself as you possibly can and in so doing you learn to take care of everyone else. ... more

contact / help

Contact falling off a building

Streaming and
Download help

Report this album or account

falling off a building recommends:

If you like falling off a building, you may also like: