Get all 15 Old Joy releases available on Bandcamp and save 20%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Too Sick For School, Go Away Evil, Feelin Far, Say When, Trash Your Life, Hook, Line & Sinking, Monks Aflame, Baby Below You, and 7 more.
1. |
The First Thing To Go
02:47
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I’m just an old man writing a song
Dredging up dreams a long time gone
I’m just an old man with a pen in my hand
I Got nothing to say but I’m making a stand.
I’d show you what I’ve seen
Maybe talk about places I’ve been
Workin’ hard to remember the show
If only memory was the first thing to go.
Got some lost days and lost ways in the back of my mind
Dusty letters in a trunk I keep meaning to find
I’ll burn them all if they come back to me
I think that’s what they call setting yourself free.
I’d show you what I’ve seen
Maybe talk about places I’ve been
Workin’ hard to remember the show
If only memory was the first thing to go
(BR)
If only memory was the first thing to go
Then I wouldn’t know the things that I know
I’ve known some loves and known some fears
The last thing I’ll know is when my ride gets here
Down at Dom Polski’s they’re cooking a rat
And I always wondered why anyone would do that
Fifty years later and I’ve still got no clue
Why the hell it is we do what we do.
I’d show you what I’ve seen
Maybe talk about places I’ve been
Workin’ hard to remember the show
If only memory was the first thing to go.
I’ve got to catch a train, my ride’ll be here soon
The sun’s always highest right at noon
And Leaving is easiest after you’re gone
That final Night’s like a shadow dark and long.
I’d show you what I’ve seen
Maybe talk about places I’ve been
Workin’ hard to remember the show
If only memory was the first thing to go.
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2. |
Summer Passing
03:43
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On a warm summer night in ‘76, sweetened by country air.
We sat on the porch 3 a.m. our senses dulled from drinking beer.
The conversation hit a lag and we heard a distant siren wail.
That lonesome sound when you surely know
Somebody’s soul has just set sail.
We drank a toast to their memory
Though we didn’t know who it was.
In those immortal years you just can’t think
That time will turn you into dust.
The next day we learned that a friend had turned the keys in on his life.
And so it goes, those moments flow
Until your time is right.
(BR) I’m sitting here in my grey hair
And I hear that siren cry
I know that all those great years
Are time that’s gone by
I don’t worry about the past
The future’s too short to cry.
If I can hold this moment ‘till the next one
I’ll be doing fine.
I can see that porch but not the faces there
The memory of that simple night
Is like a lost breath of sweet and country air.
Or a kiss from an old lover in the moonlight.
All that’s gone between then and now
A life that’s fading with the evening glow.
Still through it all I hear that siren call
As the summer passes into fall.
Every day I know a secret
And that is that I know nothing at all.
Memories come and memories go
Drifting like ghosts they come to call.
They don’t mean that much and don’t last too long.
They’re just like this song.
But I know them like I knew those friends
Younger then, wiser now and all of us moved on.
When that siren finally plays for me
I wonder who will hear.
Maybe Some drunk kids on a summer porch just sitting drinking beer.
Wonder if they’ll say poor soul just left today.
Or if they’ll even know at all.
That country air so sweet and fair
Means summer’s passing into fall.
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3. |
Blow Away
04:07
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Woke up this morning, combed my hair
Then I realized I wasn't going anywhere
So I come to the front porch and I sat in this chair
Now it's me and that fence post locked in a stare
I suppose it's lonely but that fly keeps buzzin' back
Wonder what he hasn’t got that the thinks he don’t have
A pack of fuzzy memories getting dimmer every day
And a map of a circle leadin' right here every way
Well I think about Marge we were married a long, long timeg
But she's been gone a long, long time
And the kids I lost track of some while back
Think Sue is a stripper and John we lost to the crack
Well Old Frank came by a week or a month ago
And We sat here drinkin' beer until our chins were hanging low
A couple words passed then he stumbled off
These days when he goes he could be gone or lost.
Well now nice folks bring smiles and them meals on wheels
TV said the president wants to Kill
Now Rich men always know what's good and well
But he can kiss my ass and go to straight hell
Well Korea wasn't my war of choice
Just another time that I had no voice
So I Fought and froze and then I came home
Sixty years of livin' I'm back in a foxhole on my own.
And I'm gettin kind of old and I'm getting kind of gray
Well I Guess it's all right, no one remembers me anyway
Gonna sit here on this porch till I turn to stone,
talkin' to myself so I don't feel so all alone.
Talkin’ to myself like I’m not alone
Talkin’ to myself like I’m not alone
Well there Ain't no shame in getting old so they say
But they are all young and having their day
When they're old and decrepit baby what about then?
Well will they wish they could blow away with the wind?
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4. |
Test Pattern
04:04
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You can cry for your youth but that skin’s been shed
And you can take back all the words that you regret
You can shout out your sins for heaven to hear
But when you wake up from dreaming you’ll be standing here
You can peer into the future with a crystal ball
Forecast your great victories, be shocked by your fall
You can chase fools gold with a crowd at your heels
But you’ll be naked in your new suit before they make you kneel
You can burn down the dreams of your family
Rebuild your world from the ashes you sweep
You lead yourself through those open doors
But it’s your soul that matters when you settle your scores.
BR
And it’s late in the night When the stars aren’t your friends
And you think maybe you have reached your end
But it’s the fate of us all to wonder why
We were put here to live just so we die.
I went walking the other day in a foreign land
Same city and country but only me and black men
Not the place they said where both of us live
Just a graveyard of dreams and history’s sins
My sister she’s not my next of kin
But I know her and love her ‘Cause she wears human skin
She’s got power in her eyes and strength in her soul
But in this whitewashed man’s world she just plays a role
The fools in the throne room are beyond contempt
And no mirror we can face says we’re exempt
For misunderstanding the nature of fate
Not likely we’ll wake up before it’s too late
And it’s late in the night When the stars aren’t your friends
And you think maybe you have reached your end
But it’s the fate of us all to wonder why
We were put here to live just so we die.
So go ahead and cry for your youth’s end
And take back all the words that you regret
Shout out your sins for heaven to hear
When you wake up from dreaming I’ll be waiting here.
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5. |
The Hurt We Know
03:52
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Cut another thread to the ties that bind
The fabric of our life is frayed
Darkness is the light to the blind
And a heart in pain must feel its way
All I wanted was to say good bye
To wrap you in my arms one more time
Was it Pain or pride, I can’t decide
Who built the wall and turned the tide
We don’t know the seeds we sow
We don’t know each other’s souls
We just know the hurt we know
And how to cry if we can’t let it go
A father’s pain is no mother’s gain
And sons and daughters don’t cry as one
Tears all fall down just the same
When we want love and there is none
Wind is rattling through my window broken
Blowing to a silent destiny
All the words that we have spoken
That didn’t save us or me
Dreams die easy when we fail to speak
Love to those we hold close
It’s a cold wind stings the other cheek
If hearts don’t share what they know
We don’t know the seeds we sow
We don’t know each other’s souls
We just know the hurt we know
And we cry if we can’t let it go
And we cry if we can’t let it go
Can we let it go?
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Old Joy Austin, Texas
Scum Pop/Power Trash from Chicago IL
Now located in Austin TX
Booking/press: onesockman@gmail.com
IG: @oldjoychicago
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