Get all 18 John Cathal O'Brien releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of boat race, cover is blown - yee and o'brien, Valley EP, All Gonna Blow by Yee & O'Brien, The Message by Yee & O'Brien, Masterpiece by Yee and O'Brien, Raindown, Let It Go, and 10 more.
1. |
carried away
03:50
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CARRIED AWAY
what did you do for that country its so very old did you offer a chair, no i offered it nothing for it is something for which i don't care,
the balance lies with the others and i will never be there, so i gave that country my finger and i took the chair.
how come there's rain in my room rain in my head rain in my boots and how are the walls on fire the hairdryer on and I'm still alive ,i should be counting my blessings i should be counting the flights and the distance there is between me and the people outside.
sedation love of my life mate of my soul take me to Paris, and let me shine like a light, bright as a coal till i go out.then you wake me so angry then you wake me so mad oh sedation you treat me so well but you treat me so bad.
the days the months the weeks giving me grief I've no real belief. but the luminous cross in the distance draws me in and i sit and listen and as i leave for the ferry i notice I'm lighter on shame, were all god bless god for taking some blame.
and i was carried away....
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2. |
all devils
04:18
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ALL DEVILS
don't know what it meant to me end of the century i left someone behind but i didn't know our days were numbered. the slumber you took it was long it was deep and i had the chance to do things in your sleep blunt were the blades and so i failed. the back of the house looks out on the garden i see birds of prey waiting to be pardoned but i dont know what they want from me. were starting to jones for the taste of lifes bones you'll never provide and im so tired and ive not even tried.
(chorus) would all devils go exit me, all devils i don't want to know, all devils leave everyone, well see you when were below
sister your bed is soon to be left I'm unwell when i stay,i've taken a new moon it pulls me away. to worship the living to hell with the spoils enjoy getting burned when it boils over i'm not the crop i am the harvester.
and ill ask me a favour its time to rely on some other thing you mostly deny with such a distance before and behind. if i had to decide between money and time i choose prevention of a need or a love of man made inventions.
(brk)
over state lines away from prying eyes ill sneak by unnoticed ill be so far away and ill be the closest. ill come with my armour ill come my guns blazing it felt so good to feel so crazy to struggle and fight like a thing in a mouth.
(chorus)
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3. |
poison
03:59
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POISON
i will be waiting outside in a city I've seen just through these eyes i will stare at no tress not at the river, the oily vein of disease, which one of these devils is sorting me out which one of ourselves we worried about and if i have nothing then are we without? just rails pale in the morning.
i would say if your like this make it your own let it control let in be known the mountains have called said your at fault if you think that you know, that everything will become the weather will always be warm the rain will never return that the stone will never be born.
i think i know why were heavy we have these stones , these stones in our bellys and when we give birth lord it will hurt but whats worse we just float away, oh i know it is known we keep a poisonous stone have a belief its part of us all and the weight strains
a poisonous stone , a poisonous stone that we swallowed so long ago (x2)
i will be waiting outside in the traffic in the streets in the divide through petrol and metal i will be carried such a wonderful time we'll be having and in the daylight were in need of repair in the darkness no one will stare i will go round in it for an age till we all fade.
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4. |
no trouble
02:48
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NO TROUBLE
i don't want to face no trouble, no i don't want that at all. when you come around saying they're out troubles then i am better off, like a trip away I'll remember you as clear as day if i like.
you come down save me from all trouble you come down save me all dolled up, i was not floating on life's river i was on the bottom i was stuck, luck don't pay me no mind i flipped him off as he rolled on by.
stop me if you've heard this story but i could not get up this morning and when i thought of all trouble and what the newsreel said was awful, how thoughtful you were you got in beside and you said that you were.
gonna be here for all trouble that you and trouble bound to me, i didn't have to face no trouble with a sentiment so sweet. then i fell asleep and dreamed of you as a cover of me.
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5. |
you're high
03:34
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YOU'RE HIGH
i told you once i told you twice you dont treat me very nice and you come around telling me were even. but i did not get my shot in i did not see you on the bottom its too late your already leaving. leaving me with my deceit my lousy year my lousy week and not much to believe in. well i have finally gone insane and if you dont mind andits all the same ill stay here you make those demons pretty
(chorus) and you are high if you think your gonna make it in the city, because i may be a country boy but at least i know what workings for and you just seem to get by on gods pity.
well i said the best to you the horizon up and swallowed you, i looked around saw an empty car space, i saw the ground it looked all dry, saw no clouds in the sky but one it was so out of place. the cattle skulls that i see ask a question one of me well now.... what you gonna do? well i am gonna go insane and if you don't mind if its all the same ill stay here you make these demons pretty.
(chorus)
the ample brains of a can of worms assuring me I'm not alone the sunset never does forget me, i shoot my bullets in the air give the neighbours all a scare and men come and arrest me, but its none to do with you these thoughtless things that i do there is no, no connection, i feel no sun i feel no rain i feel no love i feel no pain and no one sits next to me.
(chorusx2)
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6. |
warm ones
03:30
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WARM ONES
since the bone got stuck, I've trucked alone from a bay of boats to a beach of stone. since i replied theres no correspondence from these empty rooms of which I'm fondest.
but wake a fool with different fears how long i slept for it felt like years, but whats unfollowed will disappear and so i go that way i fear.
(chorus) where the warm ones wake me softly where the cold ones leave me be.
i am dreaming of a body of water, trembling i dream of the sea.
in dusty times i prayed for coastlines, in lions den i let them decide. by light of day i lost my way, in the dark of night i found the light.
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7. |
world ends
04:18
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WORLD ENDS
bridges were burned but not crossed, they're just a bunch of old liars i can see the battle for good has been lost i can see by the light of the fires. you had a notion its always been broke down and that's why your not concerned don't mind those fires on the hill over there everything was already burned.
i was relieved by a package received finally bullets for the gun, mission accomplished we got what we wanted and joined in the world being undone.
after a failed attack on the capital you rose to your knees, we called on the angels and whats left of the hospital, i have a heart and it bleeds.
(chorus) you said you saw the signs, it was coming all this time and when the world ends I'm not gonna miss it.
you said your final wish was to go out and drink like a fish and if your still planning this i wouldn't miss it.
still in my bleeding i was not mislead i took out my gun and used it to scratch my head an half of wishing i stayed in bed watching it all through no windows. the city finally fell in the morning a ravenous crater revealed spat out the nuns and the priests and the Mormons and all the rest who believed. there was applause but here was no owner no newspaper man on the corner , you wenty and checked with your kin with the coroner but he was asleep in the cold room. changing our minds for one last time and i still cant decide, we were fats asleep we were slowly believing your teeth were all black from your wine.
(chorus)
theres an overexposed look to the sky Ive never seen before, half eaten dinners and half scratched scratch cards and red paint on the doors. you said it kind of reminds you of the time you were sent off to war and while that was the worst thing you ever seen this was the best thing by far.
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8. |
as i went down
04:30
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AS I WENT DOWN
there's my body in the water, there's my body in the sea, a useless thing that i don't need to bring floating gently in the swim. and did you notice by chance, was it hopelessly romantic, or was i scared and gasping for air, just a fool in the Atlantic.
(chorus) as i went down.....
and i was cast with you don't pretend to understand you, not the way you may me. just a boat man of you ocean always knowing you'd come for me. and though i vowed to regret nothing i would have liked to have a clear blue sky as i take my final bow, and i still don't get it now.
(brk)
has it been hours or seconds hard to notice if it moved. gradual gentle and oh so still and no sound was coming through.
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9. |
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LETS GET THIS PARTY STOPPED IN HERE
coax, coax me out. with a camera and a whiskey shot, i would do nothing but laugh until i split sides.
(chorus)when festivities over will still have a shoulder on to lean and i asked you as if you knew.
gross me out pulled your eye from its eye socket i showed you my missing bits, read them of of a list.
it was so nauseating and the cocaine isn't helping i could tell you were unwell
wrong turn in a hallway it all fell out from under me and i coward and i reeled at the lights of the city beneath.
were all in somebodies company you were swaying there right in front of me and i tasted lead i saw your eyes roll in your head.
(chorus)
dose yourself with whatever was peeling off the shelf you love blue paint and i am just saying that we love to faint and fall down or lie down face down like dogs in a hall as if we had no problems at all.
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10. |
nancy
03:20
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NANCY
Nancy paints me a painting its one that i look at alot, Nancy paints me a painting of a burial lot. but Nancy i wont be buried in a place I've already seen its bad look and its scary to us its way beyond mean. you never have your lights on the cottage never is warm and theres bedbugs on the bed where we perform. the chains that chain me are complex the abuse is close to destroying and Nancy sometimes i wonder if your mind is going.
(chorus) but Nancy since I've known you Nancy you must know by now. if you are the falls I'm the water and i must go down.
Nancy drew me a bath said i needed some heat and Nancy started to laugh when i was underneath. Nancy washing my skull Nancy shaving my beard and me as nervous as fuck cuz Nancy's so weird. Nancy whats in your pocket , Nancy careful that blade Nancy you got to stop it they'll take you away. no future i see that is mine no i just see her face in the beauty of er eyes the prison walls rise.
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11. |
come back, die here
02:59
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12. |
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John Cathal O'Brien Brooklyn, New York
"Even in New York, O’Brien brings the melodies and lyricism of his birthplace, Dublin, Ireland, to the ears of those lucky
enough to stumble into his path (or those nudged in his direction, as was the case this time)."
~ Lisa Regula Meyer , Ear To The Ground Music.
... more
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