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Welcome to Struggleville (1994)

by Vigilantes of Love

/
1.
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"
2.
Aftermath 02:25
oil turns to rainbows on rain slick city streets young paper boys and bourbon cabbies stand in sharp relief salvation army brass band strikes up by the bank that's now empty of all currency who am i to thank palm readers and politicians make promises galore hollywood spreads her legs like a two bit whore offering numbness to the masses who fear the market crash well out there in the stable something coming down fast well churches they're empty and the businessmen curse their luck there's a little bit of truth left out there but it may not be enough to save a world where everyone's demons are their best friends if you cannot cast them out you learn to live with them oil turns to rainbows it's my last will and testament been casting out my skeletons scraping off the excrement salvation army brass band strikes up by the bank that's now empty of all currency who am i to thank
3.
Resume 03:37
teddy please don't make me go up that hill rough rider like to get himself killed now it sure don't look like a vacation spot all got malaria the weather's too hot the white house is calling i'm sure we're gonna charge today yeah looking good on my resume mister hoover i come to collect my dough the kids are starving and the bank foreclosed i would sell my purple heart if i got a good offer the steel saber rattle of douglas macarther now the union man come up here to organize make the rich man hear my cry mr getty and carnegie and vanderbilt if i talk to much my blood will get spilt
4.
Babylon 03:58
well sweetness i love it when you wrap me up i'm a drowning man down the third time twenty-one gun salute in your flag of mercy preparing my body for burial at sea so put your tongue in my ear through this veil of tears whisper what's gone wrong the world she's a babylon coming in from the coast it's a bad northeaster waves banging rocks with migraine vengeance building up the tower unlocking all the secrets the pride of man is so contentious see here this is no pleasure cruise in the south pacific i'm bailing ice water up to my neck titanic's captain said that God couldn't sink her you might say he learned a healthy respect
5.
said God is my hope and God is my strength a very present help in trouble we will not fear though the earth may shake and the mountains reduce to rubble i could have told you you was on the wrong track i could have told you about the knife your back i could have told you about the people you see all of those friends were just your enemies honey i've never seen you look like that before you all messed up no where to go got the venom of asps right under your lips and a curse on everyone's head you got the death rattle twitch and a rattlesnake's bite spit a secret right off the tip of your tongue said love is my reason and love is my strength a very present help in trouble so take the true and the real and the false and the fake and the mountains reduce to rubble
6.
standing in front of the black wall with lots of names carved in trying to make a little bit of sense of it all where do i begin most of us shared so much never ever having met it's too much to remember how could i forget past is always present present is no friend afraid of what lies underneath scratch below my skin taking inventory at the surplus store lines up in the cross hairs outside my front door ah take me down saigon river ah take me down to the china sea put myself unreservedly in the stars and stripes forever i got a little cauterized brain and a heart shot off at the knees if you got a good home to go to it's cool i guess i'll say homeward bound and we touched down there at the jfk i'd liked to forget that moment there's the curse of video tape screaming and all the clenched fists spit rolling down my face late at night tv's on the kids are off to bed under the haze of the cathode ray step out of the cargo bay women and children take them out first the whole thing feels so hopeless smile or a handshake and lookout baby here comes the plastic explosive
7.
everybody got a secret that they've been sitting on the candid among you say their's feels like an atom bomb these things i know are delicate could do you some harm got to have some friends working on the bomb squad i said i know his passion and the suffering and pain oh if you give me a honest minute and i'll explain everything now everybody got some stuff they've been trying to cover up pressed for conviction it'd be more than enough doctor is in surgery is free use no anesthetics but it's all guaranteed well come a little closer to the cross i'm nailed upon God's Son's dying next to me other guy's got a bad tongue something broke down one hour ago soldiers throw the dice treachery explodes
8.
hear the whistle blowing train pretty close to leaving deal with your ghosts got to deal with your demons going down to the freight-yard going down in the pouring rain gonna play some sad guitar stand out in the hurricane i will grab a runaway train grab a runaway train only two tracks take you out of here baby now one will make you crazy one will make you sane i'm going down to the five and dime gonna trade my merchandise in broken dreams all my money-making schemes romantic notions my might-a-beens going down to the graveyard with a pick ax in my hand gonna dig down in that georgia red clay dig down into the promised land
9.
Sympathy 05:26
you could live in the shadows you could call them your friends but then all they'll allow you is a scantily-clad skeleton i anticipate your deep concern believe me all my bridges burned long ago i reveled in that loathsome deed so from upper rooms and empty tombs love's fallen down on me so you see i do not need your sympathy got a tongue like a serpent and you speak with a hiss and you lie through your gold teeth and your friends they're pathetic saw you out among the patients when they took you all out for a walk you tried to grab me through the chain link but my dad says i really shouldn't talk
10.
Cold Ground 03:43
well headlights kick the darkness of some back road of alabama this time there'll be no news team no ap or upi cameras well car door opens he's kicked to the ground no one's gonna hear those hideous sounds it's a long time waiting 'til the justice kicks in i wanna work for my wife and pray for my kids leave this world a little better than i found in the cold ground yes legislature won't change hell's march in the human heart it's been such a long time since i've seen the Spirit moving around these parts up from the blood of abel under the earth crying to the Lord every drop screaming worth there's a man in a field with a bullhorn and a sixth grade education and he's feeding us all his twisted ideas of some kind of race relations he's got his finger on the trigger he's been known to use it got his boot in my gut Lord i'm sweating bullets
11.
Last To Know 03:20
i don't know what was going down in the dark recesses of my soul if you see something amicable darling i would be the last to know outside a train station in birmingham let the rain wash my boots caked with coal well i heard you needed me back in athens town ah but darling i would be the last to know i heard your daddy he don't like me much 'cause i come from the wrong side of your moat if he could i know he would steal my crutch but then darling i would be the last to know
12.
some are painting on the canvas to show the way they feel some are filling up notebooks to tell the same ordeal i could walk through the door but the truth gets in the way and your's is a bitter price to pay some are talking on the radio or from a satellite dish beaming to my front lawn every dream and wish i put a bullet through my tv at the point blank range and your's is a bitter price to pay now i know i'm a bad man without a leg to stand on laying down my alibis laying down my guns got blood on my hands and oh by the way your's is a bitter price to pay i been taking out the trash of my twisted little heart it was long overdue but i was coming apart you're the life of the party got nothing to say but your's is a bitter price to pay
13.
only heard a few stories really only seen a few works tractor paints on plywood covered with verse you see so much see not much at all but we're treading down serpents and we're breaking the fall if a picture's worth a thousand words what i've seen is what i've heard the image writhes flickers on the screen distance grows wide between the glory and the dream you may be out there on the river with your bridges all burned cannot swim a stroke 'cause you never learn never learn sure some wear it like a badge or a noose around their neck but call me home early Lord i swear there's nothing to protect

about

The album that broke us nationally! Big sound, huge.I was humbled & honored to have GREAT playing by Newt Carter, David Labreye and Travis McNabb-one of the finest VoL bands that ever existed! Incomparable!

produced by Jim Scott

credits

released May 16, 1994

Bill Mallonee: acoustics guitars, vocals, harmonica
Newton Carter: Electric guitars, vocals
David Labreye: bass, vocals
Travis McNabb: drums, percussion
Joey Huffman: keys

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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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