1. |
Palace of Depression
06:06
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PALACE OF DEPRESSION
Jake Mathison
I built this life
Out of mud, out of blood
Out of rubble, and out of sight
I fill my time
Sifting through memories of you
And stacks of old 45s
Sha la la la la
Sha la la la la
I built this life
CHORUS:
But my Palace of Depression
My throne among the stars
Has been replaced by Parkway diners
Jukebox legends on guitar
The vines of time grow roughshod
Over faces, places, names
I will sleep tonight in my new home
A shallow pauper's grave
Li li li li
Oh, li li li li, li li li li, li li li li
I still believe
In your front porch
And my front seat
From Thunder Road
Straight to the sea
It's always been just you and me
Sha la la la la
Sha la la la la
I still believe
CHORUS:
I’ll meet you there
For a new start, with the chrome heart
Of a '57 Chevy Bel Air
And if it all falls apart
We’ll rebuild it somewhere
Our love will burn for a thousand years
Sha la la la la
Sha la la la la
I’ll meet you there
CHORUS:
Li li li li li
Oh, li li li li, li li li li, li li li li
Li li li li li
Oh, li li li li, li li li li, li li li li
Li li li li li
Oh, li li li li, li li li li, li li li li
Li li li li li
Oh, li li li li, li li li li, li li li li
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2. |
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I LEFT MY HEART IN ASBURY
Jake Mathison
I try to turn around
But I know that I’m in it too deep
The tide is rising fast
I offer up a piece of me to keep
The surf is roaring now
And I bury myself on the beach
I’ve made a mess of this
I guess the rest of this life is out of reach
I hear the sounds from the Wonder Bar
I feel the echoes of this place
I see the glow from the Empress sign
And the smile on Tillie’s face
CHORUS:
I left my heart in Asbury Park
It’s buried, I’m bare
And I don’t know if I’ll ever get back
But my soul will always live there
I left my heart in Asbury Park
So many wasted nights
Waiting for my ship to come in
But that old dream’s shipwrecked
Sinking like a brick, and I’m down again
I’m out of luck, I’m stuck
I don’t know when to run or when to dig in
I could spin the roulette wheel a million times
And never win
The phantoms of the funhouse call
As the carousel begins
They all dance at Convention Hall
When the fog starts rolling in
CHORUS:
BRIDGE:
With each passing day
I’m drifting further from the shore
Didn’t think it’d be the end of me
But I was never really sure
Everywhere I go
I just keep weathering the storm
Oh, Madam Marie, can you tell me
Will I be reborn?
CHORUS:
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3. |
Reverence
04:46
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REVERENCE
Jake Mathison
Last night I had a fever dream
That I woke up on Route 18
Stranded
In a life that I’d abandoned
I walked the white lines
To the road sign
That read Shore Towns dead ahead
But it’s your town in my head
Flew to your Mama's house in Long Branch
Where she told me you
Were holed up near Fort Monmouth
With some you guy barely knew
But in the shadow of The Windmill
By the shotgun shacks, where time stands still
You've never left me, baby
And you never will
CHORUS:
‘Cause I’ve got reverence
Running through my veins
For all the remnants
Fragments that remain
Of all the memories
But memories bring the pain
And I can’t sleep at night
I can’t sleep at night
So I’m just another ghost
On the North Jersey Coast Line
Counting miles, counting minutes
Bridges, tunnels, city limits
They all pass me by
Last night I had a vision
I left all my indecision
In the past
And I felt free at last
Along the boardwalk
Where the rain had washed away the chalk
Just like tears
It once read: Love Lives Here
I've been busking at the station
But the conversations ain’t been great
Just frustrations that
The train is always late
And my case ain’t filled with dollar bills
Just Skee-Ball tokens for cheap thrills
I just miss you, baby
And I always will
CHORUS:
So I’m just another ghost
On the North Jersey Coast Line
Counting miles, counting minutes
Bridges, tunnels, city limits
They all pass me by
Counting miles, counting minutes
That's the story of my life
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4. |
Carnival Town
04:27
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CARNIVAL TOWN
Jake Mathison
I was kneeling 'neath your cross
In Wanamassa, in the pouring rain
I'd been underneath your window
Stuck in limbo since the break of day
I was begging baby, please
Down on my knees, I never prayed before
I was searching for a reason
Not believing you were out that door
CHORUS:
Sometimes, I wonder why
I'm still hanging around
Watching the sun set
On this carnival town
'Cause I know that someday
It'll all come tumbling down
As the saltwater rots away
This haunted and holy ground
Well, I booked it up to Cookman
Where I looked to quell the Bond Street blues
Might of shook 'em for a moment
But you know that I was born to lose
I drove down to catch the Clown
That lonely Circus Drive-In sign in Wall
Yeah, he used to see it all
Now, he's just been waiting on the wrecking ball
CHORUS:
BRIDGE:
Vestiges of Tarot Cards
And broken hearts
Wash up on the 7th Street Beach
Mystic memories
Of motel rooms by the hour
Air-conditioned with color TVs
I knew you then
Yeah way back when
You were just a starry-eyed, sparkling pearl
You went through hell
To ditch the shell you wore so well
Now you're ready for the world
CHORUS A:
CHORUS B:
Sometimes, I wonder why
I'm still hanging around
Watching them tear
These seaside thrill rides down
'Cause I know that someday
This'll all be crumbling ground
As the saltwater rots away
This haunted old Carnival Town
As the saltwater rots away
This haunted old Carnival Town
As the saltwater rots away
This haunted old Carnival Town
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5. |
A Little Hope
04:56
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A LITTLE HOPE
Jake Mathison/Danny Gochnour
You say you’re tired
Uninspired
You’re lonely
You’re a weary, traveled soul
Been like a Gypsy
Always eclipsing
The night
Baby, what’re you running for?
And everything is so
Confusing
In your eyes
There’s nothing cut and dry
You’d like to settle down
On the outside
But on the inside
You’re too afraid to try
CHORUS:
I’ll give you a little hope
You don’t need much, but you need to know
There’s a chance that you’re not alone
And I might be your home
I’ll give you a little hope
Just a little piece to hold
And a chance that you’re not alone
‘Cause I might be your home
You say you have forgotten
What it’s like
To lead a normal life
And babe, I know you’re right
But you trusted once
You’ll trust again
You’re strong enough
To fight
You wanna watch the sunset
I wanna watch the sunrise
From your bed
Baby, rest your precious head
Maybe come tomorrow
There’ll be nothing left to borrow
From the dead
Maybe we could just dance instead
CHORUS:
BRIDGE:
Seasons change, it’s getting colder
We’re getting older, time moves on
Shake that heartache off your shoulders
I know a place where you and I belong
CHORUS (B):
Give me a little hope
Don’t need much, but I need to know
There’s a chance that I’m not alone
And I might be your home
I’ll give you a little hope
Just a little piece to hold
And a chance that you’re not alone
‘Cause I might be your home
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6. |
Wild Flowers
04:12
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WILD FLOWERS
Jake Mathison
In the panhandle's great wheat fields
That’s where I’ll make my stand
I’ve had enough of my bad luck
And following the plan
This old farm and this old dream
Were never what they seemed
Now the dust is strewn like the night stars
That burn when they convene
CHORUS:
Out where the wild flowers grow
Sometimes I see them and I know
That someday I won’t be alone
Out where the wild flowers grow
In the panhandle's great wheat fields
That’s where I lost my way
I had enough of poisoned stuff
And drinking life away
The reaper’s wraith, the sickle blade
That tore away my faith
He took my wife then my baby girl
She’d be ten today
CHORUS:
What the great wheat barons did to me
I'll never understand
They stole it all just to watch me fall
They're a plague upon this land
They took my life, so I'll take my knife
And cut them where they stand
I'll probably die, but at least I tried
To make a better end
CHORUS:
Out where the wild flowers grow
Out where the wild flowers grow
Out where the wild flowers grow
Out where the wild flowers grow
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7. |
Suicide Hill
03:38
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SUICIDE HILL
Jake Mathison
Please don’t write me, Josephina
I’ve got nothing left to give
This is my last letter
I hope you find the will to live
It was all a bag of lies
Here, I sleep on a bed of stone
This dollar bill is my life savings
It is everything I own
CHORUS:
From the dirt road farms, to the tenement slums
Each night they pray, for the morning to come
Swear you’re not still thinking of me, back home at your window sill
‘Cause tonight I walk, through Suicide Hill
They locked us in again
When the working day was done
I watched a bossman beat a young girl
With the barrel of a gun
And I can’t recall the last time
That I had a piece of bread
Here, I’ve seen people kill for less
It messes with your head
CHORUS:
Now, I think back to Uncle Lachlan
On those misty Irish moors
When salvation or starvation
Was a coin toss to the Lord
Here these gaslights burn like hellfire
The sulfur stings your eyes
The streets have flesh for filament
The blood it never dries
CHORUS:
Tonight I walk, through Suicide Hill
Tonight I walk, through Suicide Hill
Yeah, tonight I walk, through Suicide Hill
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8. |
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ONCE UPON A TIME
Jake Mathison
My Daddy drove a streetcar
He worked all them East End lines
My Mama was a preacher’s daughter
They wed in '49
And bought a little rowhouse
On the edge of Schenley Park
Where they could sit out on the front stoop
Summer evenings after dark
They heard jazz and doo-wop
Drifting from The Hill
And if you listen close enough
You can hear it still
Now, Mama, don’t you cry
It happened Once Upon a Time
In ‘66 we got our kicks
From night games at Forbes Field
But we'd always save a prayer
For all the boys stuck down the Mill
The Buccos had Clemente
And when he stepped up to bat
You held your breath and felt that swing
Then heard a righteous crack
Rounding third, and here he comes
Soon he'll be sliding home
To the sugar fields of Puerto Rico
Back in San Anton
Now, Mama, don't you cry
It happened Once Upon a Time
'72, I sent a letter
Back to my Old Man
From the US Army Base
In Quang Tri Province Vietnam
I asked him 'bout that
Franco Harris kid the Steelers had
And how that ball just seemed to fall
Down into his hands
That night I dreamt I'd been there
With my friends to rush the field
But I woke up to reality
Those friends had all been killed
But I won't forget that week
'Cause it crushed me deep inside
When it came across the wire
That the Great One, had died
Now, it's been 49 years to the day
Of always looking back
I'm not sure if I'm still here
'Cause I've been living in the past
I've still got that little rowhouse
On the edge of Schenley Park
And I sit out on the front stoop
Summer evenings after dark
Somewhere out there in the ether
21's still at the plate
Please send me home, Roberto
I'll be waiting at the gates
Now Mama, don't you cry
Wipe the tear from your eye
Now Mama, don’t you cry
It happened Once Upon a Time
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9. |
The Miners’ Ball
04:38
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THE MINERS’ BALL
Jake Mathison
My first kiss
Happened at the Union Hall
After mass down at St. Patrick's
Right before The Miners’ Ball
Lisa Spinola
She really put me to the test
She tasted just like Pepsi Cola
The dance floor smelled like cigarettes
She strung those lights
Like constellations in the sky
And when I found the Little Dipper
It was right there in her eyes
CHORUS A:
Yeah, I know I
I will never leave this town
I'll shoulder years of strikes and picket lines
Layoffs and shutdowns
I'll bide my time
But I will always stick around
I’ll take the heartache and the hardship
‘Til I’m six feet in the ground
When you grow up here
The world is just an open pit
With angry veins of iron ore
That's our lifeblood that runs through it
I turned 18
And got my USW card
And a job loading them Jennies
Bound for taconite shipyards
At quitting time, you'll find us
Drinking at Slovenski Dom
Under the flags of every country
That our families came here from
CHORUS A:
From down St. Patrick's
I can hear the wedding bells
They're throwing rice at the forsaken
As they're wishing them farewell
And I'm thinking 'bout sweet Lisa
I can't say where she is today
I wonder if she still remembers
Or if she'd recognize this place
It's Chisholm, Minnesota
It's Aliquippa in PA
Just like Matewan, West Virginia
Where our stories fade away
CHORUS B:
My whole life
They've said the writing's on the wall
There's nothing left but rust and trouble
For us at this Union Hall
But in my mind
I'm still at The Miners' Ball
Where the punch is spiked with lightning
Paradise before The Fall
I know that it was worth it all
I’ll meet you at the Miners’ Ball
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10. |
Remember When
04:36
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REMEMBER WHEN
Jake Mathison
Things around here have gotten oh so bad
The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting had
It’s a bummer when your summers
Leave you nothing but feeling sad
CHORUS:
Remember when it was: Cheerwine, Moon Pies, moonshine, getting by
Back porch fireflies buzzin’ round your honeypie
Chillin’ by the river with a glimmer of hope in your eyes
Remember when
Remember when
Remember when we we used to have a little bit of money
Now we’ve got two kids with an aching in their tummy
For something they ain’t never gonna have
A decent job or a piece of land
It’s all gone, those days are gone
Remember when
We're drowning in debt, yeah we never got ahead
We’re bleeding from places that we never knew bled
And we're praying that we're staying
But they're laying off, the Union Rep said
CHORUS:
These days I spend a lot of time by the railroad tracks
Waiting on a train that ain’t never coming back
It’s a killer when you fill her up
With nothing but watered down gas
Well, I don’t really know what’s gonna come of all of this
It’s not the kind of thing that you can fix with just a kiss
You know it’s tragic when the magic
You’re imagining is just to exist
CHORUS:
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Jake Mathison Minnesota
Jake Mathison is a Singer-Songwriter from Minnesota with roots in Asbury Park, New Jersey and the Jersey Shore
Sound.
His debut album, CARNIVAL TOWN, was recorded at Studio Joe in Monaca, PA, and was produced by Joe Munroe & Danny Gochnour.
... more
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