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Resplendent "Audibly Live"

by Vigilantes of Love

/
1.
a kiss for the miles to drive a prayer for when it rains one shot of perspective a couple more to kill the pain when all the best metaphors are hitting too close to home when all the best metaphors are bleeding from your bones i'm gonna die a failure but to happiness awake you can go to sleep in hell and wake up at heaven's gate think of all that we miss today that lay right before our eyes think of all that fades away in the hard-pressed compromise and this is dangerous terrain we're attempting to traverse it's a crying shame but it could be a lot worse so you proceed with caution though you're mumbling in the dark and that one shot of perspective has finally hit your heart faith she's a whistling train running hard in the dark and hope is like a thing untamed gonna lay to waste your heart love's a little bit of God there for all to know love's the everlasting arms that never do let go
2.
given what you want given what you need given what you get given what you have to bleed bleed some more and i will not mind and i will not curse and mean it most of the time given all i am Lord kill these grand pretensions falling way too short with all my best intentions moving much too fast with last chance on the line so you learn to lie it gets easier every time innocence there goes an old friend who tries to show herself now and again since you can't take her along sure you'll miss her not for long set the world on fire hope you make a killing set the world on fire or die in burning buildings
3.
Blister Soul 04:02
yeah you got this place you go it's just a trip before the fall way past the fevered pitch just a spit from the wrecking ball said you woke up this morning said you woke up under a curse i've heard the blues are bad but this is something worse and the ambulance driver well he tips his hat and stares and he asks you in a grave voice can i take you anywhere yeah the thing we cannot speak of too painful to behold oh this blister soul there's a smaller place you go where there's hardly any sound where the deals have all gone sour and the house of cards comes down and the damage is costly it's beyond all dollars and sense you can't measure it with graphs and charts or any instruments yeah the thing we cannot speak of the secret we all know oh this blister soul yeah from the trumpet blast i hear the banging drum yeah from once upon a time to the kingdom come and the thing that's yours for free is the thing i need the most oh stifles every boast stifles every boast yeah the thing that's hard to speak of but the secret we all know oh this blister soul
4.
nothing like the rain to bring you down nothing like a train to take you far away leaving here without a sound yeah should have been gone yesterday it was the diamonds i remember yeah right there behind your eyes i'm captured once again and seen through honey your camera never lies nothing like the leaves 'round your front door and the stages and the pages you've been in love before and the things you feel inside these bones and those that won't leave you those that won't leave you those that won't leave you alone you can map the lay of the land yeah you can describe the sad terrain let us survey all the borders yeah but it all still looks the same when you find there's nothing special yeah about that big hole in your heart 'cause everybody's got one with precious little time to talk about it here's another song for brenda yeah another tune for josh and joe another postcard from the highway my God where do these days go
5.
clouds break for a moment when you're coming off desolation and frisco's your appointment you're the way you were before trying to gaze east but with no one to depend on and the blisters on your feet yeah from coming down the mountain your friends won't let you down but friends they're not the refuge you're tearing up the town with a hip flask of red wine scrawling visions buzzed in that five and dime notepad saving them just because angels seemed so sad a ticket from the coat-check girl her words and flesh they're laughing taking down her number on that lipstick-stained napkin sainthood for anyone yeah who knows you lose it to save it a prayer for everyone who's ever been out on the pavement a sound inside of me as i'm falling through the cracks hard luck and heart attack of hard luck yeah and heart attack arms around me if i'm going through the ceiling service stations of the cross yeah the doctors they need healing things clear for a moment when you're coming off desolation between nothing and the atonement it all bleeds behind your cadence
6.
failure she's a new found friend you let her sleep on the floor when you rise to check out well she follows to the door if you listen real close there's the audible sigh if you look real hard you don't question why cloth of life is torn cloth of life is fading so much more yeah it goes without saying yeah it goes without saying goes without saying and all of these distractions and the worship of the buck somewhere i think we gave out at a club called "the outta-luck" and it was deeper than the blackness that all the blacktop holds we're starving for an omen and the spaces they're wide open cloth of life is something yeah where you begin cloth of life is something you can wrap yourself in keep a candle in the window keep a fire on your hearth keep a prayer on your lips and keep some hope in your heart
7.
extreme north of the compass december skies looked gray and joyless the world awaits in barren splendor for someone to stir the embers we are sinking into numbness welcoming it like an old friend and my confidence is crumbling like a house of cards again is that the darkness you inhabit well it's a blanket 'round your shoulders all this vexing of the spirit always wake up feeling colder so colder like a friendship never nurtured like a lover long forsaken like a liar who can no longer tell when he's telling the truth or faking
8.
yeah just where did it start this breaking of your heart yeah and where did it go south you're looking down in the mouth of a ride that had just begun when the lap bar came up yeah and sweetness it was bone dry at the bottom of the cup yeah death she wears this strange perfume when you're traveling the white lines yeah she stumbles in here under a different name almost every night we're all cracked and crumbling just like that old sidewalk and i suppose this must be the place where the walls went up you make your smile a different way to cry when the truth that they've been selling you is just another fine lie yeah the candles on the inside they are flickering out with the things they don't tell you about can you hear the bells can you hear the alarm can you give away your life like a good luck charm this is where it started breaking your heart yeah this is where it started this falling apart
9.
Starry Eyed 05:10
she said with all seriousness "i'll take no more of this this violence runs too deep deeper than these brutal streets" i see it in that back alley heart i see it in those concrete eyes sure i believe in brand new starts but we're so good at telling lies if i could put my finger on it maybe i could show it to the door name or frame or describe it what are we hanging 'round here for and the light keeps pouring down some prayers are made without a sound what does it feel like to be found when you're lost in here and those old places you once knew and the new ones you're running to if you arrive there a bit confused you'll be starry eyed i believe the whistle just blew it's coming into focus coming into view we're princes and paupers we look the same we sally forth in that sad parade my position is all too clear i'm bringing up the strategic rear see the gutter it was once my home but that was when i was all alone there are places you call holy there are places you'll call hell once they start to look the same who could break the spell
10.
all is quiet on the western front there appears to be a lull john and jane doe are sleeping well tonight with the little thoughts inside their skulls salome she's undressed to the nines and although a few pounds fatter she got pavlov's bells on her ankles and wrists she coming at you with a platter so i stole down to the waterfront to escape the desert heat oh what on earth you gotta do around here to try and get yourself a drink heard john the baptist preaching "make way for the King but if you want to recognize Him you gotta tell me all your sins" they are building a new gallows for when You show up on the street polishing the electric chair they're gonna give You a front row seat heard a sneer outside the garden salutation so well heeled "welcome all you suckers to struggleville" i've been trying to negotiate peace with my own existence she got a stockpile full of weaponry she breaking every cease-fire agreement oh the whole thing is full of decay as sure as i'm made of dust and into rust i know the beast is falling they are building a new gallows for when You show up on the street polishing the electric chair they're gonna give You a front row seat heard a sneer outside the garden salutation so well heeled "final stop no points beyond struggleville welcome all you suckers to struggleville"
11.
yeah i remember the dark clouds raining dust for days on end blew all the earth out to california and just left us here with the wind in desperate times you know everybody's part but it's your own lines you're like to forget 'til what you were meets what you've now become grins and says "hey, haven't we met" lost my firstborn that winter and my wife on the first day of spring and so i poured my sweat into the earth yeah to see what that harvest would bring and i remember howling fury just like a plague of locusts egypt's punishment for sins of pride is that now what has come over us how much of this was meant to be how much the work of the devil how far can one man's eyes really see in these days of toil and trouble honey we're all resplendent yeah honey we are all thrift store i'm like a wino with a twenty dollar bill yeah forever and eternally yours i can make you promises if you don't expect too much yes and i will run the distance if you'll please please excuse my crutch how much of this is failing flesh how much the course of retribution my my how loudly we plead our innocence long after we've made our contribution Solar System come in here and have a taste yeah what's one more hopeless case when your short wave dies and there's no one to listen and the stars going cold in your solar system well her lips were red and her hair was brown yeah feeling like the luckiest kids in town she said "i'll follow you boy to the ends of the earth" said "i'm not going that far for what it's worth" and i really love to see you like this the moonlight dripping off your fingertips off your fingertips well put all your love where it hurts the most expect a little visit from the Holy Ghost but when your short wave dies and there's no one to listen the stars going cold in your solar system
12.
Resplendent 05:03

about

recorded by the cutting edge mobile at the axiom in cheltenham august 1999.

credits

released June 1, 2002

Vigilantes of Love is:
Bill Mallonee: guitars, vocals, harmonica
Kenny Hutson: Lead guitar, mandolin
Jake Bradley: bass
Kevin Heuer: drums

all songs by Bill Mallonee
c. BMI 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998

Produced by: Bill Mallonee & Vigilantes of Love
front of house engineer - jeff spencer
mobile engineer - mike simpson
mixed and mastered by mike simpson, harvey jessop and dave pick at fig studios
photography and design concept by jj@astartledchameleon.co.uk
cover montages by chantal@divaarts.i9.co.uk
tray mntage and final design by monty@thehappyhouse.co.uk

deep appreciation and thanks to John Mark Johnson who managed to bring VoL to the fair shores of the UK for many years. Thanks to Bob Harris at bbc radio 2, Gary Price at bbc radio wales, Bob Paterson at ecl, Sue Willliams at Frontier, Dave Pick @ FFG, & Mike Simpson.

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about

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.
... more

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