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Reverie

by David Wilcox

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1.
It’s the end of the world again Got the tickets early and we’re standing in line It’s the end of the world again Everybody’s certain of it one more time Tell me all about the calendar the Mayans figured out Before they all disappeared in mystery They didn’t have a future, but we all have no doubt They knew the punch line of our history It’s the end of the world again Got the tickets early and we’re standing in line It’s the end of the world again Everybody’s certain of it one more time Accurate predictions all indicate our doom Things that eluded our detection An age of truth and beauty, or else it goes kabloom Fourty five days past the election After the warning Here comes the morning Just a life of earthly bliss Sun keeps burning World keeps turning We just can’t go on like this All that evolution since we crawled out of the slime Indebted to everything that made me If this is as high as we are ever gonna climb We can just sit back and be lazy It’s the end of the world again Got the tickets early and we’re standing in line It’s the end of the world again Everybody’s certain of it one more time
2.
Shark Man 03:03
If you look peaceful inside - I’ll shake your cage I’ll pull the strings of your pride - I’ll make you rage I love to start a good fight I told you so I’ve got the bait for your bite You can’t let go Got you wiggle where I want You love to let me taunt You think I’m gonna change - NO I draw you in with my smile, big toothy grin We haven’t fought for a while, I’m back again Poke what you wish to be true, your tender place Joke is I’m fishing for you You take the bait Reel you up into my spin You have to enter in You think you’re gonna win - NO I smell the blood of your pain - The shark arrives My job is to entertain - Eat you alive Then when your wound is exposed - the water’s red I love the way that it goes - straight to my head When you struggle to defend You fall for it again You think it’s gonna end - NO Miss you. It’s not about the issue It’s more about the tissue The shark is gonna rend - So... I find where you’re sure that you’re right, and disagree I lie when the truth is in sight Rewrite history I still love to start a good fight I told you so I’ve got the bait for your bite You can’t let go
3.
Cast Off 02:56
Your cast was taped over with plastic bags ‘Cause you wanted to wade in the waves You held your arm high but the water got in And it itched like hell the next day The strength that you need, you doubted The cast was getting rotten inside But what would it feel like without it Weakness needs a place to hide Doc said the cast is gonna have to come off Try to get by with a brace You opened your fingers so slowly at first With a terrified look on your face I knew what that look on your face meant Though you didn’t have courage to speak You wished they would cast a replacement You felt broken like you’re way too weak But the doctor explained what would happen You atrophy the longer it stays If you wear an old cast like it’s fashion What’s beneath will just wither away Have mercy for lives that are shattered Cast with hard doctrine and creed If it’s only the idols that mattered Plaster would be all they need
4.
He plants the charges on the river on the ice, on the ice, He'll break the silence of the winter, for a price, for a price When you hear the sound from far enough away, even dynamite can purr, hand in hand along the memory of the way they were, they were, They were walking on the ice of all the things he'll never say to her. They can drive out on the water like its land, like its land He takes the detonator wires in his hands, in his hands When you hear the sound from far enough away, even dynamite can purr, hand in hand along the memory of the way they were, they were They were walking on the ice of all the things he'll never say to her. Acres of snow Long as that all ice stays hard So they made their home Safe within their lovely yard She's got her ear against his heartbeat in their bed, in their bed, Somehow the things he's never spoken have been said, have been said When she hears the sound from far enough away, even dynamite can purr, Hand in hand along the memory of the way they were, they were, They were walking on the ice of all the things he'll never say to her.
5.
There’s a bridge on a river Woven strands that reach from this cliff to you But the canyon is deep, the connection is new. I can’t stand here forever Feel my heart just aching to follow through Maybe that’s all my heart can do So this is the chance I have to take Maybe this bridge is bound to break I’m tired of waiting here in doubt Then I hear you shout: Just got one way to find out We got swept in the current In that rush and tumble of love below Afraid to hang on, afraid to let go. When we wrapped ‘round each other I was moved to see where these waves may flow Oceans of love our hearts could know. Maybe we’ll drown just past the falls Or maybe we’ll make it after all I’m tired of waiting here in doubt Then I hear you shout: Just got one way to find out
6.
Little Fish 02:40
The little fish Beside our bumper stickers Are schooling side by side We drive like this To stop the freeway speeders They need our moral guide We take the lead We claim the territory We make them all slow down The legal speed We made it mandatory They’ve got no way around I like the part where they Despise us for our righteousness Let’s jam the culture’s gears There’ll come a day when every head Will bow in fear I say the day is here It’s up to us To fix democracy We have to clean this mess In God we trust We want theocracy ‘Till every tongue confess It’ll take some pain To break a willful fighter To make him change his ways In Jesus’ name We twist the harness tighter Until they must obey CHORUS We want the truth We want creationism In every public school So all the youth can get what we were given The golden iron rule And every faith That dares to cross the border From any foreign land Will be erased So we can keep the order The way that god has planned
7.
Ireland 04:25
Someday I’ll sing in Ireland. I’ve dreamed it for so long The motherland of balladeers and home to orphan songs Where someone who loves music can feel like they belong I’ll see those ways before these days are gone When I was a kid in Cleveland, music got me through I sang my songs to give me hope, and now it’s what I do Some have called me a troubadour, as if the word was new A thousand years of history breaking through From far across the ocean, on that midwestern plain My ballads and my story songs long for whence they came It feels like finding family, though I have no Irish name My heart is here in ways I can’t explain The man who made my old guitar formed it on these shores From trees that whispered in the wind two hundred years before There’s stories that the forest knows, and places to explore I’ll bring that wood back home to there once more I’ll find the pubs where people sing, I’ll listen to the bands I’ll walk those busy city streets, and see it all first hand Guitar case on the sidewalk where the singers make their stand I’ll sing my songs on their own family land ‘Course I know so much has changed. The future’s come to stay Show me life the way it is, not some Paddy’s day cliché I’ll offer up my songs to you, and we’ll see the way they play My orphan children may get turned away But still I’ll show them where they’re from. It’s not just history I’ll speak the words of poets gone: my music’s ancestry We’ll hear the voice of Ireland in the wind beside the sea In waves of music far as I can see The voice of every poet singing free: Singing bring your orphan children home - to me
8.
Reverie 02:03
Walk to the place where the road runs into the reverie Taking me back To the green in the leaves high over the reverie Follow the stream To the sound where the creek pours over the reverie follow me down I only wanna stay - here Here is where I want to be Here is where I’m gonna be When the fire from the war Sends the smoke down over the reverie I will abide In the strength of the tall trees under the canopy Wherever I am I’ll return to the deep peace here in my memory All of our homes That we built with our own hands, shatter so easily All of the dreams That we dared to dream, now they will never be So I need to stand With my back to the great grandfather red wood tree I need to know There’s a seed that can grow - into the mystery into the majesty into the reverie into the reverie
9.
Buster 02:54
Nice suit. How do you do? I guess I need your help, sir, what with all I’ve been through Come in. Man, that barking is a din You hush now Buster, This man is our friend Sit down. I’m glad you came around. It appears your credentials are perfectly sound Smart face. You open your case A contract to sign on the line with the date Buster keeps growling but not for the moon You say I just have to make my mind up soon Should have more to go on To know what’s to do But my dog Buster don’t trust you This home. I live here alone Except for old Buster now everyone’s gone This land. All that I am It’s been in my family since my great grand dad CHORUS Don’t bite. Sir, something ain’t right I’ll sleep on it and call you in the morning light Good thing. It was a criminal ring. I slipped out of the trap you was trying to spring
10.
Sultan Suleiman restacked the walls again Malik-al-Muattam had destroyed Before him was Saladin who captured Jerusalem From the Crusaders who won it in war But before the Crusaders, the stones had been made into Mosques that were made from old stones Those stones were Queen Helena’s picked up from Hadrian Long after Herod was gone. This building before you is not what I am This building is something I do I stand like a wave in a fast moving river I stand for the story that’s moving through Building is a verb, even more than a noun Stacking us up; Tearing us down Cut from the quarrys in sacred ground We are the stones of this town King David and Solomon give way to Babylon That falls to the Persians ‘till the Greeks take control Then come the Maccabees who rule in Jerusalem ‘Till general Pompey takes it for Rome. Herod and Pilate, and Titus and Hadrian Helena, Constantine, Persians and Byzantines, Muslims, Crusaders, Kurds under Saladin, Then Mamluk Sultans from Egypt come They rule here for centurys up to the Ottomans Whose empire remains until world war one This building before you is not what I am This building is something I do I stand like a wave in a fast moving river I stand for the story that’s moving through Building is a verb, even more than a noun Stacking us up; Tearing us down Cut from the quarrys in sacred ground We are the stones of this town
11.
Piece of Me 02:22
You’ve never seen a rumble Like the fight tonight We got the Christians on the left We got the Christians on the right See ‘em coming at each other Got the bloody truth in their teeth They’re fightin’ like the devil For the prince of peace You want a piece of me Take it out back. Get a piece of me, Snip and you snap to cut a piece of me What you lack is just the - peace of me Step right up / See ‘em face their death Back in the Roman coliseum We used to see ‘em all confess Yeah, it used to be the lions Had the pointy teeth Now we throw ‘em to the Christians For a little comic relief CHORUS There’s only one message That’s gettin across As they’re all screaming at each other That their souls are lost Yeah, the lights go dim, and the fight gets grim We see the body of Christ Torn limb from limb
12.
You don’t deserve to be citizens now You’re serving the opposite side It’s treason to slander our nation And damage our pride How could you protest the torture we’ve done As if our great land should be weak You’re not worth the freedom we won That allows you to speak We’ll throw ‘em in prison And that’s where we’ll leave ‘em There’s no harm in torturing Devils and demons Watch who you pity or else you might be one (We’ll starve ‘em and drown ‘em and Strip ‘em and beat ‘em) They call it torture. We call it freedom Don’t call it justice to ask for a trial Of those whose suspicion is clear If you are with us, then You should have nothing to fear Watch what you say about the land of the free We’re listening all of the time Remember there’s room down in Gitmo And treason’s a crime CHORUS So now WHAT gives you the right To say that America’s wrong We will SHINE like a beacon of light But first we must fight to be strong
13.
If the surface of the ocean Is this time that we’re alive Then this rising wave in motion Is this moment that we ride If you don’t move when it’s moving Then your life leaves you behind If you can’t see what it’s doing Trust the wave more than your mind When the wave is all around me I got no other plans I just balance through the changes And let the wave say who I am From a thousand miles of water From the wind beyond belief Every wave roars out its power As it rises on the reef And the high blue wall can break you You can never fight the sea You just learn to let it take you To the place you want to be Now the wave is all around me I got no other plans Keep my balance through the changes Let the wave say who I am
14.
Angeline 04:51
I had the entrance codes - I was your man Sirens and pistol shots - Cancel the plan Run for the loading dock - Back to the van Wait for me - All I see The cop say freeze - I’m on my knees I’m falling Angeline YOU MAKE ME FEEL SO FREE Down in the holding cell - Questions got rough Nothing could make me tell - What happened with us Angeline - You’re all I need I can feel no harm - When I’m in your arms It’s easy Angeline Inside the razor wire - Always for you I’d burn like a house on fire - thinking you knew All along - These walls are strong It would make me free - If I could be Your hero Angeline Dig my way back to you - Under the Earth Most of us never see - All that we’re worth Down deep - Memories I can make my way - Through the stone and clay I’m crawling Angeline So lovely in angel wings - See through my eyes Don’t change a single thing - Keep the disguise Halloween - All a dream I may never leave - But I make believe We’re flying Angeline

about

On Reverie, this veteran singer/songwriter tackles subjects both lofty and commonplace with the melodic grace and fine-honed lyric sense that have long typified his work. In this live setting, Wilcox gives himself no room to hide — fortunately he’s ready to expose his thoughts and emotions without fear of disfavor. The playful “End of the World (again)” and the philosophical “Let the Wave Say” look at planetary change with a sagacious eye. More stinging are “Little Fish” (a sly commentary on the smugly religious) and “We Call It Freedom” (a warning against American xenophobia). Character sketches like “Shark Man” and “Angeline” are a touch unsettling. For the most part, Wilcox keeps his tone positive (if a bit melancholy) in songs like “Ireland” and the title tune. As usual, his acoustic guitar work is impeccable, with “One Way to Find Out” featuring some especially fine playing. Wilcox is a master at prodding the listener to think while surrounding him with a mellow aural atmosphere. Reverie ranks among his best efforts along these lines.

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released November 23, 2010

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David Wilcox Asheville, North Carolina

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