1. |
Astronaut
04:43
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Astronaut. Paul Seeba
Ahh, ah, ah, ah (counterpoint melody)
Under my left breast pocket, despite what you may think
There’s a heart that beats and is as real as the sun is real to me
And under the other pocket is a voice that says it can’t be
Tells me when the things aren’t as they really seem
I didn’t go carefully to that night, I felt just like a broken clock
Thought the candle in your window flickered and went out
And if I was an astronomer I’d find constellations
I could make ‘em up and go down in history
And if I were an astronaut - would have shot the moon to be with you
And if I were an astronaut - would have shot the moon to be with you
Two worlds collide, I guess that’s how it seems
I’ll leave the details for the lawyers to figure all what that means
And I don’t know much religion, I just know what I think
But no preacher would ever let me sink
And if the universe unfolds the way it always should,
well you and I - it’d be understood
And if I was an astronomer I’d find constellations
I could make ‘em up and go down in history
And if I were an astronaut - would have shot the moon to be with you
And if I were an astronaut - would have shot the moon to be with you
Musical break (key change) Euphonium solo
Ahh, ahh, ahh ahh, ah (counterpoint)
If I were an astronaut ah, ahh, ahh
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2. |
Haiku for You
04:34
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Haiku for You Paul Seeba
When the rooster crowed at the moon,
Thought we might be a little out of tune
Heard the wolf howling at the sun,
I knew that day our time had come
I didn’t know what to do
So I wrote haiku for you
When the night was cold and storming,
you were there I was adoring
We stood there under my umbrella,
so many things I couldn’t tell ya
When I knew that we were through,
I wrote a haiku for you
Now I’m gonna cry myself to sleep, with thoughts that I couldn’t keep
A distant memory
Now I’m gonna cry myself to sleep, with promises I couldn’t keep
Just like I’m seventeen
When you left on that lonesome plane,
ticket I found showed you were going to Spain
But you called me up from the Yukon,
you’re all messed and too far gone
So I just sit here feeling blue
And wrote haiku for you
Now I’m gonna cry myself to sleep, with thoughts that I couldn’t keep
A distant memory
Now I’m gonna cry myself to sleep, with promises I couldn’t keep
Just like I’m seventeen
Now I’m gonna cry myself to sleep, with promises I couldn’t keep
Just like I’m seventeen
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3. |
Love & Hate
04:07
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Love and Hate Paul Seeba
Cops eat doughnuts and teachers eat apples
I got a story that neither could grapple
Some adults need a damn good paddle
When they’re all hat, they ain’t got no cattle
Bonnie and Clyde, they don’t fit the story
No one’s going out in a blaze of glory
Just two hearts trying to do what’s right
Do anything to avoid a fight
Rosary beads and switchblades,
Gentle breeze and a hurricane
Firelight and firestorm
And I can’t wait, to learn a little bit more about love and hate
Love and hate, and the yin and the yang
I know they ain’t exactly the same thing
But they hang together every once in awhile
One’s got a frown and the other a smile
They don’t always need to make sense
You don’t believe me just remember this
Oedipus had a thing for his mother
Caine went and took a knife to his brother
White dove and a skull and bones,
olive branch and the nuclear codes
Firelight and firestorm
And I can’t wait, to learn a little bit more about love and hate
Sometimes you’ll want to leave it all alone
When you’re crying out a river over the phone
When you finally find her heart has turned to stone
And you find out that you’re out in that great unknown
Yesterday when the world was so small So small it fits onto a page
When each day becomes a yesterday I’ll take whatever comes my way
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4. |
Johnny Paycheck
03:37
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Johnny Paycheck Paul Seeba
Buckshot on a highway sign, broken glass on the side of the road
Midnight shift came in hard tonight, Small protest from a one man show
When he bust through the door, didn’t know where to start
Like the Tin man of old, he thought he lost his heart
Gonna have it out with the boss, the company’s gain and his loss
Wasn’t a job that most would covet
Americans would say leave it or love it
When he finally just had enough of it
Johnny Paycheck never got to say shove it
So they fired Johnny Paycheck today
Now that everyone’s been globalized, everybody’s been all downsized
He paid his dues, but there wasn’t no union
No one to talk to, they’re off telecommuting
When they said hey we still need ya, just gotta move to Indonesia
Wasn’t a job that most would covet Americans would say leave it or love it
When he finally just had enough of it
Johnny Paycheck never got to say shove it
So they fired Johnny Paycheck today (2x)
You could blame his father, blame his mother
Blame the immigrants, blame the other
But he didn’t go postal or get enraged
He just filled out his card for his backpay
So there’s an unemployment check for Johnny Paycheck
There’s an unemployment check for Johnny Paycheck
And the company well they done their part
Like the Tin man of old he finally lost his heart
Like the Tin man of old he finally lost his heart
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5. |
Evil
04:17
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Evil Paul Seeba
I think I know your heart and where it’s been
I think I know all of the myths we spin
Think I know some of this world we’re shown It becomes clear as the evil that I have known The evil I have known
If angels are watching over us
Then why the stories that shocks the conscience
In time, you’ll find Evil that I’ve known
If peace and love ain’t the only motive
Why bother with the candle votives
In time, you’ll find
The evil that I’ve known
In time child, you’ll find wild Evil that I’ve known
And Love, where did it go? (3x) I don’t know, I don’t know.
Think I know my heart and where its been
Think I know all of the myths I spin
Think I know the world I’m shown
It becomes clear as the evil that I’ve known The evil that I’ve known
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6. |
One Horse Town
03:51
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One Horse Town Paul Seeba
You were a comedy, wrapped in a melody
You were the peach that hung upon the lemon tree
But they chased you out and they cut you down
You ran off with the horse from a one horse town
You’re a yellow tulip in an orange vase
The only thing with color in a colorless place
You’re a flower growing out of a stone
Saw shooting stars in the dark all alone
So if you want it you’re in that Shakespeare sonnet now
Leaving that one horse town
At the table you’re part of an Aesop fable now
Leaving that one horse town
Right now, leaving that one horse town
You were the magic trick they couldn’t figure out
The only one that knew what the songs were about
But they chased you out and they cut you down
You ran off with the horse from a one horse town
So if you want it, you’re in that Shakespeare sonnet now
Leaving that one horse town
Sitting at the table, you’re part of an Aesop fable now
Leaving that one horse town
Right now, leaving that one horse town
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7. |
Irish Goodbye
03:34
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Irish Goodbye Paul Seeba
When California, floats off into the sea
And becomes one island nation like the Irish used to be
In Capistrano, when the swallows have returned,
I’ll sit down and figure out just all that I have learned
I ain’t too proud to say that I’m afraid of the sea
So I am gonna find that girl who’ll sit and watch the ocean with me
I’ve flown too close to the sun and seen its raging heat
So I am gonna find that girl who’ll watch the sun go down with me
Yesterday, when you couldn’t look away
The moon was full and yellow, there was stardust in your eyes
You wanted sunrise and you wanted sunset,
But a cloudy dusk to dawn was all you’d ever get
When St. Patrick drove the serpents into the sea
It didn’t change the clock that’s on the wall for you and me I’ve walked the Cliffs of Moher, seen spirits in the sky Before I run out of time here’s my Irish Goodbye
When St. Patrick drove the serpents into the sea
It didn’t change the clock that’s on the wall for you and me I’ve walked the Cliffs of Moher, seen spirits in the sky Before I run out of time here’s my Irish Goodbye
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8. |
Correction Lines
04:06
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Correction Lines Greg Tiburzi
To get there from here, the road ain’t straight
It weaves behind moraines and some pothole lakes
He slows to 25, takes a sharp right
Then he hangs a left, with the pines in his brights
And they’re writing Correction lines again
From the soft narrow shoulder
To the place where they cross over
Into the cattail swamps, where the relationship lies
Poles apart Slowly losing the art of compromise
There’s a dashboard glow, his face turns blue
Heartache in a bag, crumpled up between the two
A silent night, staring straight ahead
Leftover fires, some things never said
And they’re writing Correction lines again
From the soft narrow shoulder
To the place where they cross over
Into the cattail swamps, where the relationship lies
Poles apart Slowly losing the art of compromise
The road to love, is give and take
They lay out their crooked lives their sections make
Picking up the chain and laying it down
Accept the pain again and turn, turn around
And they’re writing Correction lines again
From the soft narrow shoulder
To the place where they cross over
Into the cattail swamps, where the relationship lies
Poles apart Slowly losing the art of compromise
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9. |
Sealegs & Tiny Ships
10:07
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Sealegs Paul Seeba
Traveling through the Macaw Nation
Inside a reservation where the smoked salmon gets in your eyes
I’m standing at the Marina
I wished you could have seen her
Her smile was beaming from eye to eye
She handed me a coffee cup an hour before the sun came up
We paid the skipper and he took us for a ride
Saltwater came a-lashing, the big waves came a-crashing
Into that tiny boat that’s keeping me alive
(Chorus)
Skipper yelling “fish on.”
I was thinking how long
I’’l be in this sorry state today
Skipper yelling “fish on”
I was thinking how come
I ain’t got no sealegs today
I’m watching the water with my eyes and
Trying to focus on the horizon
That Marina seemed a million miles away
Hoping for the Coastguard, but I’d take any lifeguard
Who’d save me from the big, blue sea
I remembered about the Sloop John
And how the things had gone all wrong
Wondering if my fate was gonna be the same
Trying hard not to panic, I know it ain’t Titanic
But am I gonna wind up in the big, blue sea
Chorus
Tiny Ships Paul Seeba
The Valdez set sail under red skies that night
Prince William Sound was calm
Seagulls were in flight under an Alaskan midnight
All the salty dogs are leaving town
The month was in June after the irises bloom
And Iris stood on the shore
and said I don’t love you anymore
It’s either heartbreak by land or shipwreck by sea
And a sailor’s wife is no life, A sailor's wife it’s no life for me
As she took off her ring he said let me make this right
Give me 26 more days and 27 nights
26 more days and 27 nights
She said oh no, oh no in the darkness of waters the blue waters glow
She said oh no, oh no in the deepest of waters the clear water flows
And who know what’s buried in the waters beneath
Who knows the secrets the deep waters keep
Is it a toxic mess they’re trying to hide
Is it a body they don’t want you to find
So Iris wrote her Dear John letter that night
She wrote just like it was a poem
I hope you find fair winds and safe harbors my love
Wherever it is that you roam
And if Shackleton could escape that frozen Southern ice
I know you’ll find your ocean paradise
But squalls as tall as Niagara Falls couldn't chase away my pain
Couldn’t crush my lonesome pain
A sailor’s wife is no life for me
It’s just tiny ships in a bottle and a message from the sea
She said a sailor’s wife is no life for me
It’s just tiny ships in a bottle and a message from the sea
And who know what’s buried in the waters beneath
Who knows the secrets the deep waters keep
Is it a toxic mess they’re trying to hide
Is it a body they don’t want you to find
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10. |
Underwater Votive
03:11
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Underwater Votive Paul Seeba
When you wish upon a star, in the darkness of the night
That starlight beaming out left during someone else’s life
And I get my wisdom from bumper stickers
And other free advice
So I still don’t the difference between an offering and a sacrifice
But I know if you throw coin into the wishing well
The dream sometimes comes true
And the genie will go back in the bottle
If she really wants to
When there’s fire inside the ocean
Flames under the sea
And underwater votive don’t seem impossible to me
You can pray to your patron saint
For a vow that won’t grow old
You can sell your soul to the devil
For a promise wrapped in gold
But an underwater votive
Is something you might doubt
You just need a little submarine
And birthday candles that won’t blow out
When there’s fire inside the ocean
Flames under the sea
And underwater votive don’t seem impossible to me
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Paul Seeba Minnesota
Paul Seeba's debut album, "Mitchell Yards," was the soundtrack for a PBS documentary that received a regional Emmy. His sound straddles the lines of indie, rock, folk & country. Seeba’s lyrics often reflect the heritage of growing up in the mining town of Hibbing, Minnesota. Despite growing up a few blocks from the boyhood home of Dylan, his first musical heroes came from the UK and Ireland. ... more
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