LYRICS

ASUNDER cd

The Way to the Way Back Home

There’s a clap of thunder in the dead of night
Something in the air is not quite right
Through a crack in the window pane
A rapidly accelerating rain
Prods and pokes and pushes it’s way inside

And something going on down below
In the park with the woods and the gazebo
And a train whistle from afar
Is broken by the crunch of a rusty car
And it’s not the best of nights to take a ride

I heard it said and I believe it’s true
A big white bird will descend upon you
Take you on a long and lonesome flight
Drop you far away and out of sight
And no questions will remain in your mind

And you may careen from here to there
You may be concerned or you might not care
You might find yourself staring at the sea
Or in a graveyard pondering eternity
Or the hidden track you just happened to find

So hail the approaching Thunder Cat
Knockin’ on your brain like a baseball bat
Open up and let him come inside
And all the others along for the ride
Cause everybody needs a home
And you best not live alone
Cause if it’s lonely at the top
To the bottom is a perilous drop

White Knuckles

Upon this most exalted cusp
I’ll make a stand most dubious
Alight on a path of comfort, still
Not dulled by complacent swill

And the pounding of some tribal noise
Will stimulate all the girls and boys
Who also sense something concealed
That by and by will be revealed

And a high-flying bird in pain
Somewhere above the fruited plain
Cries out a warning to those below
Who can’t hear for the sound of the bugles blow

And the climate changes by the hour
From sunny skies to thunder showers
Pack up that dying piece of steel
And wrap those white knuckles around the wheel

Railroad Town

To be undercover in your own backyard
Might seem to be but it’s ain’t very hard
The hedgerows hover and the boughs bend down
And you’re hidden in the belly of a railroad town
Hidden in the belly of a railroad town

The dust is blowin up and down your back
Sidewalks beckon you to step on cracks
You don’t have a clue why you’re still hangin round
It’s just a thing to do in a railroad town
Only thing to do in a railroad town

On the track behind the fallen warehouse wall
We put quarters and pebbles and an old golfball
That chuggin monstrosity blew right by
And shot that rock right into Johnny’s eye!

The tin can church wall clanged like a bell
When we whipped some stones and we ran like hell
We were low down dirty and evil as sin
But you’re forgiven when you’re dumb as a pin

The girl two houses away was wierd
Her daddy wore an eyepatch and had a green beard
And Becky and Luann were as sweet as sugar
And little Billy Brenan used to eat his own boogers

And if you think someday you might wanna move away
Forsake this place that you’ve spent all your days
If you ever think you might wanna come back around
There will be no welcome in a railroad town
Be no welcome in a railroad town
Nobody waiting at the station in a railroad town

Careening

We met in the seventeenth year
of the lives of two tormented souls
You were the deep thinker
I was the heavy drinker
We were careening out of control

The very first time we connected
Felt like some kind of surreal circus
Into the deathly grey walls
Through the purgatorial halls
We careened with a newly found purpose

Transfixed and transformed we levitated
Above and beyond space and time
Till out of the blue
One day I happened upon you
Careening with a former friend of mine

It’s true I could just say whatever
You can go your merry way and rot in hell
But I wish you success in your endeavors
You’re careening, so I just might as well
And I can see you’re careening downhill

Gazebo

In that quaint gazebo in the park
You stabbed in the shoulder just for a lark
But I didn’t cry, no I did not ball
I just quietly thanked you for the wake-up call

And I got drunk and stumbled through the nature preserve
I got lost and I got just what I deserved
Everybody’s out just taking a leisurely walk
Me I still know not what it is I stalk

There is a mocking bird perched on the gazebo wall
He knows more about me than I could ever hope to recall
Seen me at my very worst, and he's dying to tell
And if I could only stand up straight, I'd send him straight to hell!

The Philosopher

The philosopher sits by the seaside
He ponders thoughts of life and death and loss
He throws a skipping stone across the water
And decapitates a diving albatross

Spirit of the Dead of the Night

I walk through the concrete jungle in the hours between the last gasp of the festive scene
and the groaning of the next go-round

Too totally wired to take a rest, too positively tired to move too fast
too paralized to make a sound

Thought I saw you peeking out from somewhere
You did not belong there, but still seemed to fit right in

And I might have heard you calling out my name
Or was it just a voice that came from somewhere deep within

You’re a million miles away
I’ve got you in my sights
Side by side we are pursuing the spirit of the dead of the night

I expect to encounter trouble before the night’s end
As well as some forgotten foes and friends and all the variations too

And if you ask me where or what it is I’m headed for
I don’t know what to answer anymore
It has to do with your point of view

Galaxies and light years away
I hope you’re feeling alright
I think it’s safe to say you can be found amidst the spirit of the dead of the night

My New Friend

My new friend tells me some unbelievable things
But I take it all with a chunk of salt and some pondering

And your road was cluttered with adolescent trash
Till you told the movers and the shakers and the quakers they could kiss your ass
And to the monkey suits you gave a fine salute
And the mechanical fools, you left em holding their tools

And my new friend told me on a very dark day
About another friend who liked to pretend and got carried away
And this led to that, and he never came back
Now come and meet me at 8, down by the cemetary gate

So now it comes to pass again
All good things must end
You need to find some other idiot and I need to find a new friend.

Ivor's Demise

Deep in the frozen ground sits Ivor
Still, becalmed, still burning bright
Not merely a magical tour bus driver
In the luminous gloom, a shining light

In a sitting room somewhere in Glasgow
On a piano with seven stolen keys
Half-missing songs his mother plays now
While the children sing “look it's a wooden tree”

Father snores with his head on the table
The girl by the window with a broken nose
To stifle her laughter she is unable
At Grandpa in the field in his underclothes

And out in the world of insideous reality
Under black and white skies in the English air
Amongst much proof of distressing humanity
Like a shell-less crab he languished there

Now a woman waits by the bush at the road’s end
She alone has the power to let you pass
A menacing machette in her eager hands
Is there not some way to save your self

Alas the demise of poor Ivor
We watch the sun set on his vest
Not just a tour bus driver or guider or rider
But an aimless dawnrunner at his best
Walking to a farm on a noiseless quest
The weariest human ever cursed to exist
With a hole in his toe and a daffodil head
In love with a girl who’s veins are red
And “the best thing about being dead” he said
“ is you never have to say ‘I wish I was dead’ ”

Asunder

You can catch me before I go under
But don’t try to put me asunder
You can rob me blind, steal my thunder
Just don’t attempt to put me asunder

Once I stood and I stared at you in wonder
That was before you put me asunder
Now I’ve come to realize my blunder
Never again will I be put asunder

I've been out in the wind and the rain and the rolling thunder
On a sinking ship full of bitter from down under
Hell-bent and ready to rob, pillage and plunder
And no one dares to put me asunder

Cause I stood and I stared at you in wonder
Long before the day you put me asunder
And I've learned a thing or three from my own blunder
And never again will I be put asunder
No never again will I be put asunder
Asunder
Asunder

The Bonus and the Hidden Track

Oh what a precious path we pave
From deep down under in the darkest cave
Up through the waking world without love
And ascending through clouds and the stratosphere above

What started as a lofty high ideal
Evolved and slowly came to reveal
All fears confirmed everything gone wrong
Though it was something we knew all along

Slow it down, slow it down
Until the needle stops spinning around
All your debts, it’s time to pay em
And if you’ve got any prayers, this is the time to say 'em

The moon is a flaming ball my dear
It’s raging above us all my dear
The planets all have plans of their own
Won’t you reel us in and take us home

Take what you need before it goes away
Don’t give a thought to another day
You may change your mind and give it back
When you discover the bonus and the hidden track

© 2007 Chris McGorey