1. |
California
04:02
|
|||
California
On the Sacramento River
Shasta Lake is almost gone
California you have dried up
I think it’s time that I moved on
You have always had your deserts
Now they run from north to south
You’re not fit for habitation
I think it’s time that I moved out
Chorus:
California, California
With your palm trees and your sun
With your mountains and your deserts
California I must run
I heard on the radio
That it isn’t all gone yet
Someone suggested we just drink her up
‘Til there’s no water we can get
I think I’ve tasted quite enough
Of desert dust in this man’s mouth
I think I’ll go up north to Washington
Now that their fires have all gone out
Chorus
I’ll buy me a little cabin
On the shores of Puget Sound
I will dream of California
I’ll dance when rain is falling down
When the folks who drank her dry all leave
To California I’ll return
For now I simply can’t abide them
Tell me will they ever learn
Chorus
You can’t help the things they’ve done
You can’t help the things they say
You’ve been robbed right from the start
I think it’s time I moved away
In the California deserts
Dreams are waiting out there yet
Like a mirage in her great desert
There are things you’ll never get
Chorus
|
||||
2. |
||||
When You Come to the End of your day
B E
When you come to the end of your day
B F#
When the blues and the golds slowly fade to grey
G#m E
The song of joy you sang in the morning
B F# B
Takes a serious tone like you have better things to say
F# B
You think of fellow humans who are fleeing
F# B
The consequence of climate change though it seems far, far away
E
You take pause, speak kind words for your fellow man
B F# B
Watch the sun dippin’ down at the end of your day
You’ve always thought that you’d live a better life
You’ve believed social justice would surely find a way
But the world turns around like it always has
It seems nothing much has changed at the end of your day
Chorus:
When you come to the end of your day
When the blues and the golds slowly fade to grey
The song of joy you sang in the morning
Takes a serious tone like you have better things to say
You have found yourself lost on life’s highways
You have wandered the forest, thought you’d never find your way
You had faith you’d find light at the end of the journey
Now the future seems dark at the end of your day
You still wander on life’s hidden highways
If you wander the forest, you seldom go alone
Now you still have your faith in the a future
Where folks will wander a forest that no one else has known
Chorus:
When you come to the end of your day
When the blues and the golds slowly fade to grey
The song of joy you sang in the morning
Takes a serious tone like you have better things to say
|
||||
3. |
Eurovision Company Line
03:30
|
|||
Eurovision Company Line
G D Em
I met him on train to nowhere
C D G
I was hopin’ I could waste some time
G D Em
I was runnin’ from Paris to Amsterdam
C D G
On the Eurovision Company Line
He was carrying a little guitar case
I asked him if he knew how to play
He opened the case showed me his guitar
Then he slowly put the guitar away
Bm C
He had a ready smile, a friendly way
D
We snuck ourselves a little smoke
G D Em
We laughed all the way to Belgium
C D G
I listened to his corny jokes
Em C
It was somewhere in the night near Antwerp
D
He began to talk about the guitar
G D Em
He said he could only play it with Sweet Marie
C D G
He said someday he’s gonna make her a star
He started to talk about Sweet Marie
He said I had to hear her sing
He’d met her in a pub in Liverpool
Where he’d been doing his guitar thing
They played from Glasgow to Bournemouth
They started to write some songs
He fell in love with her more or less instantly
They couldn’t do anything wrong
She had long brown hair, pretty blue eyes
When she sang it seemed she cast a spell
She met a concert promoter from Amsterdam
The beginning of my new friend’s hell
They’d been playing in a pub in London
Their contract there was set to renew
In the morning he woke alone in his bed
Soon he had an empty feeling too
We got off the train in Amsterdam
I saw him walk away through the crowd
Right then I was sure I’d never see him again
So young, so tall, and so proud
One day I heard a voice of an angel
Singing on my radio
The DJ just called her Sweet Marie
She was playing with a fellow named Joe
I saw him last week in Seattle
He seemed like he was doing well
He was playing with his band on a very big stage
With a very good story to tell
I met him on train to nowhere
I was hopin’ I could waste some time
I was runnin’ from Paris to Amsterdam
On the Eurovision Company Line
|
||||
4. |
A Piece of Time
02:54
|
|||
A Piece of Time (key of “F”)
He is an old man
We live with three good cats
We feed the sparrows well
He wears an old straw hat
We live in our old wood house
Bought at a better time
Our house could use repair
Our cats bring peace of mind
Chorus:
It’s a piece of life
That’s a piece of time
A piece of one man
By his own design
He had a business once
He worked each day with pride
Built instruments designed
By methods he applied
He is an old man now
Markets aren’t concerned with that
I guess they threw him out
With just an old straw hat
Chorus 2:
The rain still falls
The sun won’t shine
I no longer hope
For a better time
We’ve got nothing to show
No reason you should care
Abut a man in a straw hat
Nobody said the world was fair
I’m sure no one said that
Surely there’s no reason to
Expect the world that’s here
To give a good man what he’s due\
|
||||
5. |
Dark Days
05:58
|
|||
In These Dark Days
In these dark days
In these days when the winter grows chill
The banker asks you for another few dollars
You don’t have a dollar in your till
You’re doing all you can to keep yourself going
But you’re not sure if you will
In these dark days
In these dark days
In these dark days
There are days when you see the sun shine
With the clouds all missing the thermometer drops
Til it almost hits the zero line
It feels like hope was sucked out with the heat
Til you think that now is the time
For these dark days
In these dark days
Chorus:
I thought I heard someone whisper revolution
It seems like a good day to die
I thought I heard footsteps runnin’ to the street
I thought I heard a baby cry
In these dark days
In these dark days
In these dark days
The poor are poor as they’ve ever been
The rich get richer like they always have done
It doesn’t seem like that’s gonna end
If speech is money, and they’ve got the money
You can’t even get in a word
In these dark days
They sure are dark days
In these dark days
All the bourgeoisie can pretend
That life is pretty good cause life is pretty good
If your part of the stick isn’t sharpened
If you don’t care about the rest of your tribe
Can you expect them to care about you?
In these dark days
In these dark days
Chorus:
In these dark days
I’ve never been to this place before
It seems like a place I read about in a book
It was a place I just couldn’t ignore
There were kings, there were people
Bein’ pushed by the kings until the people couldn’t take it anymore
Those were dark days
Like these dark days
In these dark days
I’ve been waking in the night from bad dreams
Of guillotines and heads that are rollin’ in the streets
I hear the echoes of desperate screams
If you don’t care about your fellow man
Can you expect them to care about you?
In these dark days
In these dark days
Chorus:
I thought I heard someone whisper revolution
It seems like a good day to die
I thought I heard footsteps runnin’ to the street
I thought I heard a baby cry
I heard someone say let them have a little cake
They didn’t think anybody would hear
Now they’re staring at the ground beneath a guillotine blade
Their body drenched in sweat from their fear
Tell me who’s going to light that match
Who’s going to watch it burn
No more standing with your hands in your pockets
Baby maybe now it’s your turn
In these dark days
In these dark days
In these dark days
In these dark days
In these dark days
In these dark days
In these dark days
In these dark days X 2
|
||||
6. |
||||
Everybody Needs a Little Love
Chorus:
Everybody needs a little comfort now and then.
Everybody needs a little love.
Everybody needs to feel alright with things.
It doesn’t always happen,
Doesn’t always go easy,
Sometimes it goes sideways down a long dirt road.
Still everybody needs a little help now and then,
Everybody needs a little love.
You can feel alright,
You’ve got a pretty good hand
You don’t what the dealers gonna throw.
One day you’re sitting pretty
And the money’s rolling in.
You think you’ve got the cards but you don’t know.
Instrumental
Chorus
You can see other people,
Those people see you.
You don’t know what those other people know.
They don’t know you from Adam,
You don’t know them,
You’ll get to know them if you take it slow.
Instrumental
Chorus
It’s a very nice spring.
The planting's going well.
You’re hoping everything you planted grows.
There could be a tornado,
Or the river might flood,
Still you planted through the things that you can’t know.
Instrumental
Chorus
Repeat: Everybody needs a little comfort now and then
Everybody needs a little love
Instrumental and out
|
||||
7. |
|
|||
Initiation Rites
You say it’s something that I called you.
The only thing I’ve called you is my friend.
The war is longtime over.
It’s only in your mind you kill again.
The heroes are forgotten.
The use for them was only in their time.
Let us drink to fallen comrades;
Things have happened in our lives much worse than dying.
Was it that kid you killed near Cu Chi
When you thought a toy he had was a grenade?
Or that old man out of Tay Nihn,
There wasn’t anybody’s life for you to save.
Was it your friend from New York City?
He finally killed the pain of this life’s hell.
You can’t help it but remember,
And there’s noone here to understand or tell.
Chorus:
Initiation rites!
We turned twenty-one in Vietnam.
Initiation rites!
Some of us survived to come back home.
Some of us are left to wander
Through our lives and through this world all alone.
Was it the dreams you had of dying
In a river of the blood you thought you’d spilled?
You can’t forget you were a killer,
No matter how you tried to hide your thoughts with pills.
Is it the whiskey or the heroin
To kill the pain nobody understands?
Is it the standing on the outside
Where you cannot see a brotherhood of man.
Chorus
Now it’s early morning
We throw our bottles hard against the wall.
With the broken glass comes tears,
Tears so long you’ve not allowed to fall.
How can one year turn to forty,
Still those memories will not leave you alone.
Our lives are like those shattered bottles
And there’s noplace on this earth we can call home.
Chorus & repeat
Some of us are left to wander
Through our lives and through this world all alone.
|
||||
8. |
|
|||
FIRE & Ice
I haven’t seen the mountains for three summers;
I never thought those summer times could end.
There were memories that lined
Every sentence in your letter
And this city here's been taking,
And I'm beginning to wonder how much longer I can give.
CHORUS
Oh, the giving, she's my duty
And the taking's just the price.
I can feel the winds of freedom blowing
Between the cracks in the fire and the ice.
I don't know how I survive without the laughter.
Oh, there's laughter now and then; it's not the same.
My business has not changed.
Perhaps I'll never learn the games,
And this business keeps on taking,
And I'm beginning to wonder how much longer I can give.
CHORUS
There's a cold wind speaks to me of apprehension.
The warm wind's optimistic as your smile.
Thanks for the memories that lined
Every sentence in your letter,
And this feeling that's been taking,
Is beginning to give me room so I can smile.
CHORUS
|
||||
9. |
Night of Glass
04:11
|
|||
Night of Glass
He was starved for affection
And too far from heaven to see.
Young sailors alone, a long way from home
Have a way of finding their own misery.
She was a wild one, not much more than a child.
He had no way of knowing where she had come from
And no way of caring, as the night closed around him
And the night put this sailor on trial.
The night of glass shattered around them.
They rolled in it’s slivers and bled in the dark.
The night of glass made up this story.
The night of glass shattered their lives and broke everyone’s heart.
She was a runaway,
Too far from heaven to see.
She and her boyfriend whom she had just met
Were looking for money that they’d get for free.
The two had a gun and cocaine for sale was their bait.
A young girl running wild through the cold city lights
Lit the young sailor’s mind, so this lonely young sailor
Would not even put up a fight.
Chorus— Night of glass etc.
Blood becomes meaningless
After it’s spilled on the ground.
The young sailor bled alone in the dark.
In the gray dawn of morning his body was found.
The police found her and her boyfriend not far from this place.
At their trial the judge, when he heard their story,
Slammed the door of their cells
Until no one out side knows their face.
Their night of glass shattered around them.
They rolled in it’s slivers, and bled in the dark.
Their night of glass made up this story.
Their night of glass shattered their lives and broke everyone’s heart.
(REPEAT CHORUS AND LAST LINE)
|
||||
10. |
Red Flashing Lights
04:36
|
|||
Red Flashing Lights
Chorus:
We used to race, see how fast we could go;
See how close to the edge we could get.
Drive the wrong way on the freeway just to see the red lights flash,
Not hoping, still not caring if we’d crash.
I’m still tearing up a freeway – guess I missed my exit sign,
To me it doesn’t seem it’s been that long a time.
It was 3 in the morning on the ninth floor of a building
In a night filled up with wine and LSD,
Talkin’ to the gods – holding communion with the night;
I hardly ever since that night have felt that free.
Do you remember what I told you
About the spirits in the night?
How they would talk to you if only you would listen.
The dreams we tried to put to flight dissipated with the night.
I’d be talkin’ - then I’d realize that you weren’t listenin’.
Chorus: (Last line) I'm still stumblin' down a runway, just hopin' that she'll fly
We drove one hundred miles an hour racing with a drunken stranger,
Laughin’ about how wasted he was drivin’.
We were flyin' in the corners, nearly lost it at that speed.
I hardly ever since that night have felt so free.
I wonder where that stranger went after we lost him in the night
That the spirits cried too loud for us to listen.
I’d be talkin’ about the ride – and how the wind felt in my hair;
I’d be talkin’ in the night 'cause you weren’t listenin’.
Chorus: (Last line) I'm still tumblin' down a spillway with the stars stuck in my eyes.
It was somewhere near Gakona – I guess it’s been ten years or so,
I was at least 2000 feet above the valley.
It was a long Alaskan night - one where the sun just won’t go down,
Well, you know I’ve always had a yen for freedom.
There was something about the river -
And the way it makes you talk above it,
There were the guns and just the slightest smell of danger.
I thought about those dreams dissipated with the night,
How I’d be talkin’ to the night ‘cause you weren’t listening.
Chorus: I'm still stumblin' down a runway just hopin' that she'll fly.
I'm still tearing up a freeway, guess I missed my exit sign.
|
||||
11. |
Refugees
03:56
|
|||
Refugees
He keeps moving forward.
There is no back.
His home has been destroyed,
And all of his past.
There’s no comfort there that can be found
As he finds himself alone
On this new, foreign ground
Where he’s just a refugee.
Chorus:
They are refugees.
They are running from
Being refugees.
Still they are refugees,
No matter where they go,
They will be refugees.
His wife is crying.
They’ve seen bullets fly.
One child is traveling with them.
One child of theirs has died.
There’s no future.
That’s their situation,
As the police drive them back
From the railway station.
Chorus
Won’t you feel their pain
As they reach another border.
To be turned away again
As refugees.
Fleeing certain death,
Find it in your heart
To give them refuge
At your home and hearth.
Chorus
2nd Chorus:
They have traveled long,
They have crossed the sea.
They find themselves alone
In a crowded room
Now they have no home
For they are refugees.
repeat 1st chorus
I
|
||||
12. |
Summer One More Time
03:14
|
|||
Summer One More Time
I wouldn’t want to be a caveman
With the winter comin’ on.
When the weather gets too cold
He’s got no house to keep him warm.
I don’t want to think about
The times to precede fire.
When the weather got too cold
Even the warm lost their desire.
Chorus:
I just want to see summer one more time.
Fall and spring are alright with me;
Summer’s really on my mind.
I just want to see summer one more time.
Chorus
Winter never came easy;
I can read everybody’s mind.
You’re all wondering if you can go
Around just one more time.
The snow’s sure to be too heavy,
The rain’s sure to be too cold,
Someone’s always dyin’,
While the rest are getting old.
Chorus
Fall the leaves kept fallin’
‘Til the maples all were bare.
The squirrels have no place to hide
With the leaves no longer there.
The days are getting shorter,
Now the shortest one’s arrived.
Tomorrow will be longer;
Aren’t you glad that you survived?
Chorus
Last summers' sun's remembered;
It's warmth upon my skin.
We're looking through the seasons
'til summer comes again.
Spring will bring new flowers,
Will bring a warmer rain.
Spring will pull the pages back
Where summer's here again.
|
||||
13. |
They Have Harmony
02:25
|
|||
They Have Harmony
Somewhere out on the road,
He bought a motto ring.
It said laugh, love,
It said dance, and sing.
He sent it out in a box,
With a note that read.
Someday I’ll be home
Keep that thought in your head.
Chorus:
We’ll have harmony.
We’ll have love.
We’ll have harmony.
We’ll have harmony.
And we’ll have love.
He was in San Francisco.
He found another ring.
It was gold with a diamond,
A pretty little thing.
He sent it out in a box,
With a note that said.
Put this ring on your finger
So you will remember.
Chorus
Now she’s out on the road,
With her diamond ring.
They play guitars
And both of sing.
Chorus: X2
|
||||
14. |
Wayfaring Stranger
04:11
|
|||
15. |
Wire to the World
03:55
|
|||
Wire to the World
(chorus):
I’ve got a wire to the world.
I’ve got a wire to the world, lads.
I’ve got a wire to the world, lads.
I’ve got a wire to the world.
I’ve got a wire to the world,
I send songs wherever I please.
I put my love in the wind,
Hear your songs blowing in the breeze.
It’s an internet connection,
You can hear the power crackle on the line.
You can send me down a message
Or talk on the telephone line.
CHORUS
It’s been quiet round here.
You can hear the rain fallin’ on the roof.
Durham county listens to me,
Kickin’ out the local music muse.
There’s music comin’ to me;
I can hear it on the telephone line.
Songs are comin’ down from Scotland;
London’s callin’ me all of the time.
CHORUS
I've got friends up in Russia
I know singers from the USA
We've got a good thing goin'
At least that's what I hear them all say.
There's a lady down in Texas
She listens to me all of the time
I get messages from Saigon
Hear them runnin' through my telephone line
I’ve got a wire to the world.
I’ve got a wire to the world, lads.
I’ve got a wire to the world, lads.
I’ve got a wire to the world.
I've got a wire to the world.
I've got a wire to the world.
I've got a wire to the world.
|
Steve and Kristi Nebel Tacoma, Washington
Steve and Kristi Nebel bring passion, finesse, and beauty with their songs of social justice, knife edge observations, and pure, simple love. They have traveled extensively having done nine tours in UK folk clubs and festivals. They have recorded more than ten CDs, mostly of their own songs. ... more
Contact Steve and Kristi Nebel
Streaming and Download help
If you like Steve and Kristi Nebel, you may also like:
Bandcamp Daily your guide to the world of Bandcamp