Get all 13 ellen cherry releases available on Bandcamp and save 15%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Recovering Eurydice (A Concert Recording || February 17, 2021), Collage, Home Movies {November 2016}--A Cyber Tour with ellen cherry and Andrew Grimm [TIP JAR], Portraits, The Thread, Whippoorwill Lodge, Live at the Creative Alliance, August 23, 2014, Please Don't Sell The Piano, and 5 more.
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1. |
Maybe
04:04
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Maybe I could spend two years feeling sorry for myself.
Maybe I could shift the blame to someone else.
Maybe I could give my love away. I’d give it all for free.
Maybe I’ll forget again to save some of it for me.
First, I filled my own two hands, with all my lonely tears.
Then, I dug a canyon and filled it up with years.
After all that time, the only thing I learned
Was how to set a love on fire and how to watch it burn.
Close your eyes. Take my hands.
Hear these words. Understand.
It’s no lie: there’s no plan.
Fly like birds, ‘cause we can.
Maybe you were wondering, or maybe you might know,
How hard it was for me to stay; how hard it was to go.
Remember when you said nothing? It came so easily.
Maybe you had changed the locks. Maybe I lost my key.
Close your eyes. Take my hands.
Hear these words. Understand.
It’s no lie: there’s no plan.
Fly like birds, ‘cause we can.
Maybe I could think your thoughts. Then I worry you’d be right.
Maybe I could think all day and straight on through the night.
Maybe I could spend two years, never standing still.
Maybe you’ll forgive me soon. Maybe you never will.
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2. |
Day Old Coffee in a Cup
03:22
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I am as bitter and as weary and as wasted as day old coffee in a cup
I am as close as I can be
Not close enough
As dull as diamond in the rough
As blank as a poker player’s bluff
As drowned as a drop of water in a summer flood
As stretched as a string about to snap
As hard as a hand about to slap
As brittle as a bone about to break
As distant as a dreamer when they wake
I remember when we built that wall
We drew a line from here to there
We made it strong and tall
A year to make it long
A year to make it wide
A year for you to climb to the other side
I remember when we built that wall
As scarred as a tattoo on your skin
As hushed as a secret or a sin
As sharp as a candle when it burns
As lonely as a lesson when it’s learned
As hazy as a memory when it fades
As heavy as the promise that I made
I held my heart out like a stone
As silent as a word we didn’t speak
Now we’re strangers when we meet
These are the things I wish I’d known
I am as bitter and as weary and as wasted as day old coffee in a cup
I am as close as I can be
Not close enough
I am as close as I can be
Not close enough
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3. |
One Spark
01:36
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Pain pain, go away
Come again, no other day.
Same same, it’s all the same
I don’t know no other way.
Flames, flames, it burns down.
All the dreams die in this town.
One word, make your mark.
All you need is just one spark.
One spark
One spark
Find your way out of the dark.
One spark
One spark
Find your way out of the dark.
Tear stain, on my face
You can see I can’t erase.
Hold hands, hold space,
Go I now but for the grace.
Pray, pray keep us here,
Safe inside our atmosphere.
Hey! You, there in the dark:
All you need is just one spark.
One spark
One spark
Find your way out of the dark.
One spark
One spark
Find my way out of the dark.
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4. |
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A tiny spark in a machine
Helps me glide straight towards a dream
See the world before it disappears
A moving part, interlocked
Breaking glass and a ticking clock
A universe grinding at its gears
I wind it back as far as I can
A simple truth, in a worker’s hands
Cradled me in chaos
Saved me from the dark
I may never know you
I love your beating heart.
A golden thread, sewn through time
Made our lives so intertwined
Stardust melted into steel
In ‘45, we dropped our bombs
And now it seems, we get along
Who am I to break that wheel?
It takes so long to find the proof
To wind it back to a simple truth
You cradled me in chaos
saved me from the dark
I may never know you,
I wind it back to understand
A simple truth, in a worker’s hands
Cradled me in chaos
saved me from the dark
I may never know you,
I love your beating heart.
I may never know you,
I love your beating heart.
I may never know you,
I love your beating heart.
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5. |
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I lost you
When you wandered off the trail
And I know I tried to find you
and I know I failed
To see the broken branches
And other clues you left
On the path we walked together
In the places that we slept
Now that’s what I regret
There is no cause to worry
No, there is no need to cry
I have told you many stories
Some of them are lies
To sing you something sweetly
That you might not want to hear
And I could burn like wildfire
I could be the smoke that clears
Or I could simply disappear
I will dress in black and grey
I will put my hair in pins
And I will fix all the games
So that everyone will win
All the love that they are seeking
Or the riches that they need
Then I will fill my coat with stones
And wander out to sea
Wouldn’t that feel so free?
To sink to the ocean’s floor
And let the surface go
To have no more of wondering
To be with those who know
To stare up at the star
One last and brilliant time
To use a final breath
To sing a lovely rhyme:
I knew my life was mine.
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6. |
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I have no place for my sadness
It no longer fits in a box
I’m sorry to say, even though it’s been told
It cracked the code and and picked the locks
I have no place for my sadness
It somehow got smarter than me
And the tricks that it learned made it brave and bold
It broke the leash and set itself free
I have no place for my sadness
So my sadness abandoned me.
No way to curb my longing
As slippery as a black snake
It twists and it turns for these hours on end
A fever dream that refuses to wake
No way to curb my longing
A failure of chromosomes
Or a dog at the door again and again
My longing finds its way home
No way to curb my longing
So my longing won’t leave me alone
This is no complaint
I’m praying to the Saints
and Sinners all around
I’m star crossed
Sitting cross-legged on the ground
I haven’t the practice of reason
The reason is silly it seems
I suppose that it’s true, upon further review
I’d dash logic for sake of my dreams.
I haven’t the practice of reason
So! I’m not building a road.
I’m the water that falls in the dam that won’t hold
I’m the river that overflowed.
I haven’t the practice of reason
I already know what I don’t want to know
There is some regret
I have torn my safety net
And ripped my parachute
I am flawed
Perfectly so, possibly just like you
This is no request
No ordinary test
Of strength and character
I’m not lost
I’m on a permanent detour
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7. |
Blue Angel
04:08
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Blue angel in the corner of my room
Will you bring me a sweet dream or just more bad news?
You can see why I’m so confused.
Blue angel, in the corner of my room
New danger when I close my eyes
Will I fall apart or just out of line?
It’s not so bad to be so blind
New danger, when I close my eyes
Sweet stranger
Please don’t lie
Am I you or are you I?
I’ll never know and that’s no surprise
Sweet stranger: please don’t lie
Blue angel, what have you got to lose?
Can we sing a sad song just like we used to do.
It feels so good to feel so used
Blue angel, in the corner of my room
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8. |
Eurydice
03:34
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I’ve been hanging on in the bottom of Hell
By the skin of these pretty white teeth and a fingernail.
Is that a cavern wall, the stairs to heaven, or a wishing well?
If you were looking through these tired eyes, you could hardly tell.
I heard a promise and I made one to myself.
Oh well.
I sang a long sad note with each step down.
Just in case you had the time to follow me around.
I crossed the river, passed the Dog, onto hallowed ground.
When I turned the walls had swallowed all my sounds.
I begged the muse to stay but I see she had flown.
I should have known.
I made a choice to shut my mouth
And send my hopes by first class post to the Underground.
I poisoned roots, sewed the seeds of doubt; I stopped the rain
and sparked a fire that I thought I could keep a flame.
I crushed the bones of lies I’ve told under my feet
but I couldn’t speak
I said it once there is no reason to repeat
I’ve been hanging on in the bottom of Hell
By the skin of these pretty white teeth and a fingernail.
I write it down, you eat it up, we get along
What were we thinking of?
I write it down, you eat it up, we get along
We called it love
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ellen cherry Baltimore, Maryland
I am song & story Alchemist and I want to meet you at the intersection of creativity and recovery. While on tour in Texas, I was struck by an intoxicated driver which resulted in a violent wreck. Through my music and multi-media performances, I explore the pain and joy of recovering one’s body and spirit after extreme trauma. ... more
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