Get all 16 John Lyle releases available on Bandcamp and save 50%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of New Songs, Normal at Both Ends, Random Chants, Where the Story Goes, Battle Royal, Joy & Mischief!, Wild Awake, Known Corners, and 8 more.
1. |
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You Know It Won’t Kill You to Die
Black-eyed priests stand around
They can’t make a righteous sound
Open sandals and broken candles
On fire
But they better try to make it
Even if they have to fake it ‘cause
You know it won’t kill you to die
All the plots are insane
Trotted out to thrill the brain
Useless people in empty steeples
Are crying
But they better try to make it
Even if they have to fake it ‘cause
You know it won’t kill you to die
Like a fog coming down
All dressed up to go to town
The dear departed and broken-hearted
Are blind
But they better try to make it
Even if they have to fake it ‘cause
You know it won’t kill you to die
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2. |
Never Going Back
01:44
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Never Going Back
Full moon was over
As he wandered in the dirt
All but unwary with
No button for his shirt
Pictured for the age
Moving without change
No birthright in the
Middle of the night
But the falling of the rain
Once born a shining light
Narrowed down by love
Who fell for nothing but
A different grade of blood
Who wore the mantle
In the puzzle of a dream
All fighting water
Always felt but never seen
Pictured for the age
Moving without change
No birthright in the
Middle of the night
But the falling of the rain
Sting of the horsefly
And the pity and the slack
Strange and compelling
When you’re never going back
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3. |
When Nothing's Right
02:16
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When Nothing’s Right
You can smile on a rainy day
When the clouds are dark and grey
You can laugh at the winds of fate
As they start to blow away
The cause of misery is fading in the light
And you know that nothing’s wrong
When nothing’s right
All the miles on a beaten track
When your heart was ready to race
Passing by like a wounded lie
In a state of fallen grace
The cause of misery is fading in the light
And you know that nothing’s wrong
When nothing’s right
Carry on to the edge of dawn
Where the river meets the sea
All that’s wrong’s already gone
Beyond a shadowed eve
The cause of misery is fading in the light
And you know that nothing’s wrong
When nothing’s right
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4. |
The Arms of Yesterday
03:50
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The Arms of Yesterday
You caught your sleeve on
The hooks that made the day
You were torn beyond
The need to run away
You were up all night
In the arms of yesterday
Rain kept falling like it
Had a mind to stay
Well it’s a hard hard winter
To be living that away
You were up all night
In the arms of yesterday
I tried to call but they
Said you’d gone away
There ain’t no use waiting
For the one who’s gone to stay
You were up all night
In the arms of yesterday
All the leaves were falling
And the dogs of war were growling
And the flowers were shadows of grey
The storms of night were raging
You were never more courageous than
When you gave your heart away
River drifts like it
Must have lost its way
Where it goes don’t matter
At the dead end of the day
You were up all night
In the arms of yesterday
Crow he mocked you and
The raven called your name
I heard all about it
At the closing of the play
You were up all night
In the arms of yesterday
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5. |
All Day Long
02:16
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All Day Long
Down where the raindrops
Start to falling
I hear my pretty little
Daydream calling
You got your best chance
No denyin’
Better spread your wings
And try your hand at flyin’
My life’s a happy song
I sing it all day long
I sing it all day long
All day long, all day long
No better feeling
I’ll be stayin’
Down where the dues
Don’t ever need no payin’
When there’s a rainbow
Shinin’ down
That’s where you always
Find me hangin’ round
My life’s a happy song
I sing it all day long
I sing it all day long
All day long, all day long
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6. |
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The Happenstance of Evening
In the happenstance of evening
When the wolf was at the door
And the manner of your leaving
Left a shadow on the floor
In the happenstance of evening
There were bloodstains everywhere
At the frozen foot of nowhere
And the bottom of the stair
In the happenstance of evening
I am pulled against the grain
No amount of grieving
Will bring you back again
In the happenstance of evening
I am haunted by your name
By the breadth of your misleading
Of the hobbled and the lame
In the happenstance of evening
When the sun’s gone down in flames
That’s the time I always miss you
And the beauty of your game
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7. |
Shades of Grey
03:55
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Shades of Grey
Both his balls were aching
His eyes were growing dim
The road he was taking
Led to where he’d been
All he had created
Was frozen on the ground
Hidden by a shadow
Left without a sound
He said he tried to miss you
But the road was way too long
Too long to measure with a song
Sometimes the borderline
Seems to get so far away
Behind these many shades of grey
Searching for his image
He started to dissolve
A man without a mission
A field without a ground
Something like a blackboard
Without any chalk
Something like a mouth
Without any talk
He said he tried to miss you
But the road was way too long
Too long to measure with a song
Sometimes the borderline
Seems to get so far away
Behind these many shades of grey
Both his balls were aching
His eyes were growing dim
The road he was taking
Led to where he’d been
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8. |
So Close to Home
02:27
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So Close to Home
When the gods beat down
My noble crown
There’s a song I love to sing
It’s a simple aire no will to care
It makes the mountains ring
Birds can fly amongst the sky
Beauty unexplained
Frozen rest in gilded breast
In love with everything
So close to home
There ain’t no truth in dying
So close to home there ain’t
No reason to explain
So close to home li di di
In the shadow of an eye
You’ll never know what you will find
So close to home
There’s a yearning sound
Moves cross the ground
Fallen stars abide
Loneliness sends no regrets
For acts it knows were blind
So close to home
There ain’t no truth in dying
So close to home there ain’t
No reason to explain
So close to home li di di
In the shadow of an eye
You’ll never know what you will find
So close to home
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9. |
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King Size Mouth In A Queen Size Bed
She had a king size mouth
In a queen size bed
There weren’t no room
For the things she said
I tossed and turned
And cried and bled
She had a king size mouth
In a queen size bed
King size mouth
In a queen size bed
Her pint size thoughts
Explode my head
I tossed and turned
And cried and bled
She had a king size mouth
In a queen size bed
Hearts and diamonds
And baseball on the tube
You’d think that might have
Shut her up but
Her brain’s a Rubik’s cube
She had a king size mouth
In a queen size bed
There weren’t no call
For the things she said
I tossed and turned
And cried and bled
She had a king size mouth
In a queen size bed
There came a time
I couldn’t take it anymore
I took my little blanket
And I moved down to the floor
She had a king size mouth
In a queen size bed
There weren’t no call
For the things she said
I tossed and turned
And cried and bled
She had a king size mouth
In a queen size bed
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10. |
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Don’t Go Down to Shanty Town
Sometimes they live in the city
Sometimes they live in the town
Sometimes they live where
There’s nothin’ to give but
To fall at the feet of the proud
Don’t go down to shanty town
Needles hide in the grass
Don’t go down to shanty town
Where nothing comes to pass
That one is somebody’s brother
That one is bare to the bone
That one’s so damned
By the blood of the lamb she will
Never be blessed with a home
Don’t go down to shanty town
Needles hide in the grass
Don’t go down to shanty town
Where nothing comes to pass
Don’t try to give them your money
Don’t try to tell them you care
They know your heart
Is afraid of the dark they can
Tell by the clothes that you wear
Don’t go down to shanty town
Needles hide in the grass
Don’t go down to shanty town
Where nothing comes to pass
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11. |
The Sun Machine
03:24
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The Sun Machine
Looked down the street for the Sun Machine
I’ve never seen her fail to dry my tears before
She don’t come around anymore
She’ll never let me touch her rose again
Now all the haunted thieves from hidden eaves
Have come to gather around my door
Oh my Sun Machine, where all have you been
Round and round, are you homeward bound
Oh my Sun Machine
I sit and wait for the Sun Machine
But only clouds of sorrow greet my poor old eyes
She don’t come around anymore
I am melting in the pouring rain
While all the spinning wheels and savage eels
Of night have their way again
Oh my Sun Machine, where all have you been
Round and round, are you homeward bound
Oh my Sun Machine
There ain’t nobody like the Sun Machine
With all her crimson whims and might have beens
She breaks all hearts of precious stone
Deep in prayer where not a soul exists
There is an empty space where time’s erased
And darkness bathes a wounded shore
Oh my Sun Machine, where all have you been
Round and round, are you homeward bound
Oh my Sun Machine
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12. |
A Price to Pay
02:56
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A Price to Pay
Dr Pepper on the old silk route
American jeans in a new Beirut
Tobacco sold as kiddie treats
Adidas on all their feet
Corporateworld is here to stay
But remember there’s a price to pay
A price to pay
We pay you to make that stuff
You can buy when you earn enough
We’ll get back what we paid you
And make a tidy profit too
Corporateworld is here to stay
But remember there’s a price to pay
A price to pay
Bullets fly through your backyard
Fired by kids from passing cars
They take what they can’t afford
Especially when you think it’s yours
Corporateworld is here to stay
But remember there’s a price to pay
A price to pay
Freedom is a pointing gun
Where business has invested funds
“You get a vote,” the despot said
“But vote for me or you’ll be dead.”
Corporateworld is here to stay
But remember there’s a price to pay
A price to pay
Bankers, wankers every one,
Pull the trigger, fire the gun
Don’t care how many lives they take
Wars are good for profit’s sake
Corporateworld is here to stay
But remember there’s a price to pay
A price to pay
We own the gene, we own the rice—
You must buy food at any price
We changed it, now it’s extra good
For those who can afford our food
Corporateworld is here to stay
But remember there’s a price to pay
A price to pay
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13. |
Foggy
03:28
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Foggy
I haven’t got the foggiest idea
Of what it is you’ve been saying to me
You got a mealy mouth and I can’t sit and listen
Even though your words promise to be
Clear concise and sweet as proverbial spice
I know they won’t mean anything to me
You enunciate like a Stratford-on-Avon fella
If you were a man you’d a natural Hamlet be
Your vowels are soft and round like a big marshmallow
And your diction’s good, that’s easy to see
But your mouth don’t mean a thing
It’s your nose and that proverbial ring
That show me just how easy it could be
To lead you down the path you think you’re going
To where the fog’s so low it can’t seen
Where words you speak are like an ill wind blowing
Deep inside the heart of all you’ve been
Your mouth don’t mean a thing
It’s your nose and that proverbial ring
That show me just how easy it could be
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14. |
You Woke Up Dreaming
04:13
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You Woke Up Dreaming
How many times must the cow bell ring
Before the penny drops in your hand
How many songs do you have to sing
Before what’s inside understands
There is a fog in the city
And a soldier made of light
You woke up dreaming
In the cold dark shadow of night
You wanted a steam boat whistle
When the stock you owned took a dive
You were swimming in mortal lava
All at once too late to arrive
You were all but forbidden
The sickness of your rights
You woke up dreaming
In the cold dark shadow of night
You tried to hustle the next train coming
But you froze like a deer in the tracks
You had a mouthful you had to swallow
When you got up the nerve to go back
Like a poem on a mission
Or a birth at the end of sight
You woke up dreaming
In the cold dark shadow of night
You avoided a full blown trauma
When you told them you were up tight
You resembled the Dalai Lama
With the clear blue rays of your light
Nothin’ wrong with the message
A ruthless purge won’t right
You woke up dreaming
In the cold dark shadow of night
You remembered the screen door slamming
When the colour drained from your eye
You remembered what never happened
Was all revealed as a lie
How many moons as a present
Have forged these evening ties
You woke up dreaming
In the cold dark shadow of night
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15. |
Wings Beyond Rio
04:52
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Wings Beyond Rio
Wings Beyond Rio, Johnny try to take the time
To come out of Colix County yes and subjugate your mind
You been into out too far too long to ever be the same
Won’t you read a dozen pages, you might recognize your name
They bought that book at a fire sale in 1953
When Uncle X suggested they save it just for me
You’ll be old enough to read it when you’re old enough to read
To understand the tender meanings, Uncle X explained to me
I loved you when I was young, you were young when I was young
And here we are together by and by`
Wings Beyond Rio, yes, I cried my eyes and wept
Like the saddest fool in the smallest pool in the saddest circle yet
I said I saw right through the cards and dealt the night away
While falling shadows whispered and priests went down to pray
It‘s a far out book with far out words and far out distant lands
Full of far out fucking smugglers and their far out contraband
And It struck me something kind of like the back of someone’s hand
When they hit me for a reason I will never understand
I loved you when I was young, you were young when I was young
And here we are together by and by
Wild blue yonder came a sucker with a carpet bag of words
With a mouth full of ideas, every sleeve full lined with birds
With an ace in every wrist and a gun in every eye
He many never come together when he dies up to the sky
They have put me so uptight I might never be the same
I might spend the rest years of my life overlooking my name
I might fly the wind on a broken string along some river bed
Until some happy hippy comes and loves me til I’m dead
I loved you when I was young, you were young when I was young
And here we are together by and by
Wings beyond Rio, John, you just ain’t heard a word
You’re a loser and a dreamer and you’re simply too absurd
For words that really mean something to mean something to you
Think I’ll split and quit and say goodbye, just what else can I do
Wings Beyond Rio, Johnny try to take the time
To come out of Colix County yes and subjugate your mind
You been into out too far too long to ever be the same
Won’t you read a dozen pages, you might recognize your name
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John Lyle Sechelt, British Columbia
The lyrics for most of the songs appearing in these albums are available in book form: "The Kindest Lies: the Lyrics of John Lyle", published by Leaky Boot Press (June 28, 2013).
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