A Conspiracy

I've felt like talking about another older song again and I realised I hadn't yet talked about A Conspiracy. A Conspiracy is off Amorica and has been played 171 times live, which puts it on the higher side. Crowesbase details that A Conspiracy was"[o]riginally titled "Night Eyes", this song was originally recorded during the Tall sessions and played at a slower tempo. The song was completely rerecorded for Amorica."

In the iTunes originals interview, Chris said:

"A Conspiracy . . .[is] one of those songs about how weirdly isolated we probably felt we were . . . by then . . . half the guys are living in Atlanta, the other half are in L.A. and everybody's kind of growing up a little bit by refusing to ever grow up . . . that song to me is fairly tongue in cheek. A lot of times a rock 'n roll song is a good place to sort of cryptically deal with your distractors and if someone didn't know what it was, we were always glad to confuse them a little more."

What I love about A Conspiracy is its beat -- just the beginning chords sound so, so good to me. I do have a very favourite line in A Conspiracy too-- one of my favourite TBC lyrics ever -- "Tried to stay away from this year's big thing / Ain't as easy as it seems / To find a mutual dream" I love this song -- it's a perfect TBC combination of lyrics and heavy hitting chords . . . I can't believe I haven't talked about it sooner!

Did you ever hear
The one about last year
It was all a lie
Ain't it funny how the time flies
What we gonna do baby
What is left for us to prove
I've never stolen nothing, not a thing
Tried to stay away from this year's
Big thing
Ain't as easy as it seems
To find a mutual dream
Can you tell me wrong from right
Do you know when to freeze or take flight
Can you tell me more or less
I got to know confess

Don't neglect me
Come be my conspiracy
Don't neglect me
Come be my conspiracy

Now you got a question about your answer
Say try your adam's apple
You talk it try it bite it right
So now you want to fight? Ok
Let's step outside
I got tradition it's an addition
My definition it don't hold me back
Well what you think about that
What you don't understand
This is a very old land
Can you tell me wrong from right
Do you know when to freeze or take flight
Can you tell me more or less
I got to know confess

Don't neglect me
Come be my conspiracy
Don't neglect me
Come be my conspiracy

Seeing Things

I felt like pulling something old out tonight and I've developed a severe appreciation for Seeing Things lately. Seeing Things is off TBC's first album, Shake Your Money Maker. Consequently, it's been played 221 times live. This is one of those songs that is amazing live. I've heard Seeing Things on a few different shows lately and it gives me goosebumps, seriously. Crowesbase has a great quote from Chris about Seeing Things:

"Musically, this is our Steve Cropper tribute. A soul ballad that could be on an old Stax record. The kind of song you don't hear much these days. A lovesick blues."

And that is exactly what Seeing Things is to me--a lovesick blues song. My favourite line is "Don't leave a light on for me / 'Cause I ain't comin' home." The sentiment in Chris's voice when he sings this song and particularly that line just chills me. I can't imagine being a singer and singing something you didnt believe or feel...with TBC, I never have to wonder that. Every ounce of heart and of soul comes through in their songs....and Seeing Things is the genesis of it all.

I find it hard to shed a tear
You brought it all on yourself my dear
Wrong, yes I may be
Don't leave a light on for me
'Cause I ain't comin' home
It hurts me baby to be alone
Yes, it hurts me baby

A hundred years will never ease
Hearing things I won't believe
I saw it with my own two eyes
All the pain that I can't hide

And this pain starts in my heart
And this love tears us apart
You won't find me bent down on my knees
Ain't bendin' over backwards baby
Not to please

'Cause I'm seeing things for the first time
I'm seeing things for the first time, oh yeah
I'm seeing things for the first time
In my life, in my life

I used to dream
Of better days that never came
Sorry ain't nothin' to me
I'm gone and that's the way it must be
So please I've done my time
Lovin' you is such a crime
You won't find me down on, on my knees
Won't find me over backwards baby
Just to please

'Cause I'm seeing things for the first time
I"m seeing things for the first time
Seeing things for the first time
Oh I'm seeing things for the first time
Yeah, seeing things for the first time
I'm seeing things for the first time
Yeah, I'm seeing things for the first time
In my life, in my life

Been A Long Time (Waiting on Love)

Been A Long Time (Waiting on Love) is off Before the Frost . . . as well as my new favourite driving song. On the Stuck Inside Utopia tour, so far, it's already been played 38 times live! I think TBC loves playing Been A Long Time live and why not? It's rocking! In fact, I think Been A Long Time has been played at almost every show or at least as much as I Ain't Hiding or Good Morning Captain. I think another reason TBC is loving playing Been A Long Time is its incredible potential for jams...just listening to shows from the tour, the jams are incredible from this song! Chris really really plays a mean harmonica in some of them as you can see in the video below as well as Luther being AMAZING!

Been A Long Time does have good lyrics like all TBC songs but I like it more for its sound -- it just pumps you up and makes you want to get up. If I had to pick, I'd say "Low country blushing bride / Blind to the ways of time" are my favourite lyrics of the song... and I'm sure you can guess why. I just love the imagery because it goes along with this entire "go west" mentality of the last two (er, three...) TBC albums...that whole providence thing. I still can't believe how good BTF/UTF are -- just, wow.

Earthbound wingless dream
Child born to necessity
Tied to crimson velvet wings
She flies

New moon midnight star
Medicine is in the jar
Head full of going far
She flies

Lost out on the dream road
Looking for a key hole
Never try to fight it
Feeling right inside it

Low country blushing bride
Blind to the ways of time
Clear crystal burning mind
She flies

Falling through liquid air
With music everywhere
Stone faces silent stare
She flies

The old guard on the hill
Can feel the chill
Deep into the freeze
Of those who don't believe

Been a long time
Waiting on love
Been a long time
Waiting on love
Been a long time
Waiting on love

Damp with this morning dew
The world is bright and new
Her word is always true
She flies

Step into the new day
Right over the old way
We are the horizon
See our future smiling

Been a long time
Waiting on love
Been a long time
Waiting on love
Been a long time
Waiting on love
Been a long time

Lost out on the dream road
Looking through the key hole
Never try to fight it
Feeling right inside it

Been a long time
Waiting on love
Been a long time
Waiting on love
Been a long time
Waiting on love

Lady Of Avenue A

Lady of Avenue A may be my favourite song off . . . Until the Freeze, although I am still in love with Shine Along. Lady of Avenue A is, in a lot of ways, a sort of ballad, a sort of lullaby and definitely a story. I hope I get to hear it live in at least one of three shows I'm going to this year. Crowesbase details that, so far, it's been played six times live.

In that interview I can't stop raving about, Chris said that:

Well, on the vinyl edition, on Side 3 the character from these songs finds himself in an urban place like New York, where the girls are different and the drugs are faster. 'Make Glad,' 'Lady of Avenue A,' 'Kept My Soul' and 'I Ain't Hiding' are the little foray into the city.

What I love about Lady of Avenue A is that it tells a story but also that it's just so beautiful -- the harmony, the lyrics, the sentiment. My favourite line is from the chorus, "You just can't believe what the city folks say," because I think this is another tenent of TBC-- they really are country folk at heart. And, even now, that they are in the big city more and famous, and everything, that's not where the truth is and that's not where their hearts are -- I think, considering, TBC and especially CR and RR are really just trying to find the truth.

You said goodnight
Wrapped your scarf up tight
And left into
A winter scene
The Lower East Side
Is just a place to hide
A place to
Privately dream

Good times and lost nights on Avenue A
Don't let the bright lights take you away
You just can't believe what the city folks say
My lady of Avenue A

These old downtown streets
Where lovers meet
To sometimes laugh
To sometimes cry
A strange parade
All new things fade
But somehow this place
Stays the same

Good times and lost nights on Avenue A
Don't let the bright lights take you away
You just can't believe what the city folks say
My lady of Avenue A

You fall asleep
I hear you breathe
The snow outside
I make some tea
The cats awake
And plays with string
As I slip into a dream

Good times and lost nights on Avenue A
Don't let the bright lights take you away
You just can't believe what the city folks say
My lady of Avenue A

Appaloosa

Appaloosa is off Before the Frost. . . and definitely already seems like one of TBC's favourites to play live. As Crowesbase details, it's already been nineteen times live on the current tour.

Steve Gorman has an amazing quote about Appaloosa:

'Appaloosa' is my favorite new track. I did a drum interview and I said that and the reaction was, 'Really?' Hey man, that's the best I can do. There's so much understated drumming and ghost strokes, but it's not just my part, it's the whole band. There's a lot going on with 'Appaloosa' and it all fits together nicely. That's a song I will never ever tire of doing. We were all saying it's like a George Harrison tune. I think it's Chris' best vocal take on the record. That's the best song he's ever written, in my opinion. We resisted every urge to make it like nine-minutes long. It's so pretty you want it to be two-minutes.

Appaloosa is definitely one of my favourite tracks off BTF and I couldn't agree with Steve more. It was awesome to hear it live. My favourite lyrics in Appaloosa are: "Just coming home to walk my own floors /
Coming home to the one I adore" because it's just another one of those great storytelling lines. I can imagine Chris coming home from tour, to be in his own home and with his love. It's a lovely image, as usual.

To be struck by the arrow of weakness
On the guilded path to forgiveness
To find my way home when the morning comes
To stay your friend when it's all said and done

Simple as lightning starting wild fire
Just down from a trip off my high wire
Just coming home to walk my own floors
Coming home to the one I adore

Appaloosa, appaloosa
Appaloosa, appaloosa
Take me home
Where I can dream my days away

We took your tears back to the river
Knowing all the while there'd be more later
So it goes in a rainy day town
C'mon and won't you let me lay you down

Sometimes the sun makes beggars believers
And sometimes the shrine is built to deceivers
In between let oblivion ring
Oh let me hear all you sad angels sing

Appaloosa, appaloosa
Appaloosa, appaloosa
Take me home
Where I can dream my days away

Appaloosa, appaloosa
Appaloosa, appaloosa
Take me home
Where I can dream my days away

Bring On, Bring On

One of the highlights of the Penn's Peak show for me was TBC playing Bring On, Bring On. Bring On, Bring On is off Three Snakes and One Charm and although not officially, I always consider it to be the companion song of How Much For Your Wings?. According to Crowebase, Bring On, Bring On has been played 93 times live, which isn't a whole lot considering its age. It would be absolutely amazing to hear those two songs together at a show!

But, as for Bring On, Bring On, it is definitely one of those songs I listen to when I'm in the right mood: almost a melancholy mood. Don't get me wrong, I love Bring On, Bring On but it's definitely a bit sad. However, the lyrics are juxtaposed with the chorus which is almost uplifting -- the tone of the song changes to the up beat when CR sings "Bring on this flowering /Bring on, Bring on." Because of this, the chorus is definitely one of my favourite parts of the song. My favourite lyrics, however, are: "It's hard waiting for heaven / May your song keep you alive." It's just like TBC and yet another aphorism for life. Expect more new songs soon!

What could I do different?
It makes one sober to think
In an age of illusion
It's hard to know when to stop
How could I live indifferent
Believing in time and fate
As long as I have a witness
My name is not at stake

Bring on this flowering
Bring on, Bring on
Bring on this flowering
Bring on thou words cannot describe

Would you stop to listen
The words cannot describe
It's hard waiting for heaven
May your song keep you alive

And on the day I said goodbye
My drowning tear catches a light
Like the gift of sight
The baby's eye, darkness into light
I can rest my soul and
walk in the light
I'm positively spring time
The gift of sight
The baby's eye
Darkness into light

Houston Don't Dream About Me

My instant favourite off Before the Frost . . . is Houston Don't Dream About Me. It just touches my soul and it has from the moment I heard it the first time I listened to BTF. Hearing it live at Penn's Peak was incredible!! I love "harder" rock songs by TBC as much as the next fan, but something about the storytelling, slower songs always gets to me. As Crowesbase details, Houston Don't Dream About Me was "[r]ecorded at Levon Helm's home studio, "The Barn" in Woodstock, NY in front of a small audience." It's been played nine times live so far but I'll be interested in seeing how often it's actually played on this long tour.

I feel like this quote is perfect for Houston Don't Dream About Me:

For a writer there's tons of inspiration, not just the world within us. As time moves on, your perception changes. You know a lot more about being in love when you've lost it and been in it and had what you thought was love but didn't, at least as long as you have an active process with your own history and mythology and mental state," Robinson says.

My favourite lyric from Houston Don't Dream About Me is "I ain't never going back / Yes sir that's a fact / As you waved your cowboy hat / And sang 'The Yellow Rose Of Texas'." Again, I just love the imagery and you can picture the story perfectly when you hear the song . . . leaving town in pickup truck with nothing but the open road and the one you love. It's a recurring theme in TBC songs but, to me, Houston Don't Dream About Me is about leaving home and how good that is but how you can never really leave. Sometimes you just have to jump feet first to follow your dreams and you can keep home in your heart, no matter how far you go.

Another week in the drivers seat
With your feet up on the dashboard
Rain it kept a steady beat
As I watched you dream of Houston

I ain't never going back
Yes sir that's a fact
As you waved your cowboy hat
And sang 'The Yellow Rose Of Texas'

Just trying to make high ground
Has kept us on the run
There's no crime in toeing the line
Cause fortune is smiling on us baby
And we're gonna walk in the sun

I might dream about Houston
But Houston don't dream about me
If I could keep this between the lines
Who knows what will be

Loose change days and motel nights
Day old coffee dollar postcards
State trooper's flashing lights
As we listen to the thunder

As we talk about our past
So we see our coming future
You tell me you know love can last
While staring out the window

Just looking for a place to hide
A place to ease our minds
A place away from yesterday
Close to tomorrow away from the sorrows
Of living other people's time

I might dream about Houston
But Houston don't dream about me
If I could keep this between the lines
Who knows what will be

How long how long
Till we feel the change
How long how long
Will the skies be gray
How long how long
Will it be this way
How long how long
Will she stay

I might dream about Houston
But Houston don't dream about me
If I could keep it between the lines
Who knows what will be

I might dream about Houston
But Houston don't dream about me
If I could keep it between the lines
Who knows what
Who knows what
Who knows what will be