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Dear Life (produced by John Keane & Bill Mallonee) 2004

by Bill Mallonee

/
1.
ya need the songs of forever all those ones about the lost and found ya need a place with some elbow space after all this dust settles down after all this dust settles down after all the towers have fallen and all the presidents have packed up and left town ya need a meal that's the real New Deal after all this dust settles down after all this dust settles down ya need a Woman clothed with the son you're gonna wanna girl to share your crown ya need a lover and a little bit of cover after all this dust settles down after all this dust settles down you cut yourself on dreams it's broken glass ya can't quite escape so you gather up the shards and sprinkle them on magnetic tape here's a way to say thanks for listening while our record goes around you've been such friends and thanks for chipping in after all this dust settles down
2.
i'm so long overdue for me to tell you i love you girl and baby thanks people sure buy a lot of what doesn't make 'em happy but our love is money in the bank too close for most one brick shy of grandiose i'm high yeah i'm high again i'm in love but i'm so lonesome yeah i'm high i'm high again i'm in love but i'm so lonesome you really oughta tidy up those loose ends of your life the ones you keep hangin' on the fence people seem to want substantial periods at the end of my every sentence so be it was all she wrote with a flair for the dramatic and the grandiose there's always someone coming 'round to tell ya' when you're dragging someone wants to fix your wagon but my wheels they've got a trick that they were taught when you get one fixed another falls off thank you for this place to fall honey would you be my all in all
3.
4.
5.
6.
oh these seasons with their reasons known only to them defenses and my senses crumbling saw you in a photograph later face-to-face you're a study in amazing grace if i could you know i would hang the moon for you my darlin' who will you love who will you love oh my darlin' who will you love who will you love oh my darlin' under trance of circumstance always seems so hard what falls from the hand of loving God your eyes were the ocean blue skies all around we're lost beneath the waves without a sound angel tell me what i need to know we're all bathed beneath halogen glow oh these seasons full of treason known only to them burgundy kiss and i'm stumbling
7.
i dunno if the kid's on drugs or life why should that come as a shock life hasn't fallen out just quite in those neat suburban boxes and i wonder about the conversations that you're having you know the ones with yourself where you feel like a failure yeah and you're losing heart and that race has barely gotten started and you wanna ask God about things like cancer but you don't think that you'll get much of an answer i hope you will find and i pray you will see all the joy that your life brings to me and the baggage that we all carry around has this way of dragging you down and there is no map for this growing up it's just a street through a town called weird and you never do feel like you'll arrive with a destination so unclear ah but i met this girl with the Holy Ghost hey she turned me onto the Clash we made love all night long to Love Tractor and Pylon but in the morning we played Johnny Cash and it really shouldn't be so hard to get yourself free but with all these lines in the sand and love with its strings God fear is such a funny thing I dunno if the kid's on drugs or life maybe it's a little of both i know love has this way of holding the day like that girl with the Holy Ghost
8.
you said hold me that way i know you won't forget you were visibly upset and i was the reason i said yeah you're right but i believe in happy end-ings and those million new beginnings that are ours for the asking. in spite of the deed out in the open in spite of the fall in spite of the broken can i hitch my wagon to the star in your sky and can i pin my hope to the light in your eyes that i see oh chameleon me you said how could you go so far astray honey it didn't happen in one day i got worn down oh so worn down i could pre-tend i never ever felt a thing hey when you're bleedin' you just keep singin' and when it gets dark you can tell that you're in trouble girl you were the radiant light at the end of a slow dark tunnel you said hold on you haven't seem anything yet i said yeah i can bet on it some folks just don't know when to quit.
9.
now most of my friends they have bailed out long ago and they've all got their stories for the paths that they have chosen see for some their family's love felt like a boxer's blow now they spend their days feelin' small wherever they do roam but hey there are drugs to help you see God and there are drugs for when depressed and there are drugs that make you harder still for when you get undressed and there's drugs for the guiltiness so you'll feel one with the universe but girl you were the only one to ever break the curse yeah it could have been your eyes but i suspect it was your kiss honey i will never be normal after this now everyone's a junkie and since daylight's such a pain we're all looking for some darkness to stick into our veins for some of us it's lust for others it is power for some of us it's playing songs and drinking after hours yeah you've gone and upped the ante in this game that we all play gotta wake up and believe that love's the better way and people can really be healed there are even some of 'em you can trust but first you gotta take a risk and tell 'em where it hurts what if it's for a purpose what if we used our battered faith they say God He doesn't make junk and Jesus never makes mistakes He has never given up on anything that He has made He will chase you like a lover right through heaven's gate
10.
i am not long no i am not long i am not long for this world but of all the things the most i'll miss i will miss you girl sunlight in your hair and the cool rush of autumn like a flood cleansing this old world yeah and of all the things the most i'll miss i will miss you girl oh i will not lie i will not lie there are shadows all around me i've never done anything like this before you see all those golden memories way past the counting it's a treasure you gave to the world but of all that i will miss the most here i will miss you girl you were by my side when i got full of lies and lost myself in sin but your love was the light that brought me home again i will not lie no i will not lie i spent too much time out there and it took a toll my how it took a toll on us dear so this is how it closes a little dirty 'round the edges but your heart shown undiminished like a pearl yeah and of all of God's gifts the most i'll miss i will miss you girl and i wonder will i wake up oh to wake up in the arms of Jesus the Lord but of all of God's gifts the most i'll miss yeah of all of God's gifts the most i'll miss but of all of God's gifts the most i'll miss i will miss you girl
11.
yeah i wish that i could change things rearrange the pieces and the bits resistant though they are the ones that fell right through the cracks the stuff left over from exploding stars obvious from the back row to everyone but me it's always sad to see what you become when you're looking after number one yeah i wish that i could change things testify to some deliverance yeah i'd talk show it right into the ground like some salvation experience yeah i wish that i could change things and say some new words for all these feelings that i felt we all wanna change things but can you change yourself i tried to make you like me with some words and a six-string 'cause i wanted you to like me well some folks even spilled some ink and even when it got cold i hardly knew i'd died i guess you go a little numb and then empty on the inside you're rarely remembered or thought well of for when your game was its strongest and words you wish your head didn't say are the ones their hearts will hold onto the longest and the promises you should have kept you're one million versions of a stumbling-12-steps and that never seems to be enough when your flesh and blood keeps screwing up i tried to make you like me with some words and a six-string it was really just a cry of sorts and some fancy conjuring and even when it got cold well i hardly knew i'd died i guess you go a little numb before going empty on the inside in spite of all my ties i was driftin' and now the kids they are full grown and just because you got an address doesn't mean you've got a home they say that it's a cruel world some cite it as a sad fact and they say God He must not give a damn. and God says well I don't know about that. 'cause i keep hearing whispers saying everything's gonna be alright you put some goodness back in and you take your stand and you hold onto to Him for dear life i tried to make you like me with some words and a six-string i was starving for a deeper love my God what shallow reasoning and even when it got cold i hardly knew i'd died i guess you go a little numb 'fore going empty on the inside going empty on the inside

about

Written by Bill Mallonee for CyBrenJoJosh (BMI) ©2004
Honestly?
This album (and it's sister album Dear Life) are severely under-rated, in my opinion. (Dear Life was written & recorded at the same time.)
The original plans were to make it a double CD & possibly a 3 album LP.
The depth of writing, the themes explored and the spirit of the rendering of these songs shines. The production on these by Athens legend John Keane is frosting on the cake, as well.
It is my hope that folks we "re-visit" these; or, if they've never considered the value of these two albums, explore them for the first time. ~ bill

credits

released July 26, 2004

Bill Mallonee: guitars, vocals, harp
Jake Bradley: bass, guitars, stand-up bass
Jon Radford: drums
Patrick "Tigger" Ferguson: drums
John Keane: pedal steel, back ground vocals

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Bill Mallonee

Bill Mallonee is an Americana artist w/ 80 plus albums over a 30 year career. Voted by Paste Music Magazine #65 in their "Top 100 Living Songwriters" poll. He was the
founding member of Vigilantes of Love. He has worked with Mark Heard, Buddy Miller, Emmylou Harris, & Peter Buck from REM.
His most recent work, "Lead On, Kindly Light" is a 23song double Cd released Feb 2020.
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