1. |
Collector
04:20
|
|
||
It was a night not unlike this one
In the autumn of aught-four I sat there waiting
The smoky pall of burning leaves
Was hanging in the air around the valley
Sitting in a square of pale moonlight
Drinking fire and breathing cigarillos
I was listening for that night train
To come creeping through the hollows of the valley
I was counting each cold droplet
As it rolled on down my back again and again
'Cause when I heard that old train whistle blow
I thought Maybe this way someone wicked comes
To drag me from my hiding place
And take me back to Mad Town once again
A debt collector from my past
Came riding down the country on the night train
He wore a coal black Stetson hat
His eyes alive and hungry ‘neath the brim
He’d warn the old conductor
Not to stop the train until his destination
He would walk up from the station
And his leather hand would pull me back again
I’d almost managed to forget
The wickedness that brought me to this country
Tried to start a new life, bought some land
And took a young wife, a charade . . .
‘Cause your past is always coming to remind you
Dragging like a torn and filthy wedding dress behind you
Until I drank away the days
Just waiting for that stranger to appear
A debt collector from my past
Came riding down the country on the night train
He wore a coal black Stetson hat
His eyes alive and hungry ‘neath the brim
He’d warn the old conductor
Not to stop the train until his destination
He would walk up from the station
And his leather hand would pull me back again
I was thankful on the day
That the collector came to take me back again
|
||||
2. |
Steakhouse
03:39
|
|
||
I woke up on her trailer floor
Head pounding from the night before
What evil brought me to this low down place?
She walked by on the bright midway
She turned and looked into my face
At midnight she returned to me in spades
She showed up with 2 bottles full
She took me to this trailer court
Her mailbox had been marked “Virginia H.”
We did it once, silent and hard
While lonely dogs were howling in her little front yard
And I thought I saw a savage look pass quickly from her face
She’s on the phone she’s talking low
She said ‘I know a place, lets go.
'The steakhouse bar will serve one hour more.'
We entered through a padded door
Cigarette smoke filled the air
A dark jukebox beside a dark dance floor
And the only light hung above the bar
And a line of locals raised their heads to stare
With looks of hate and hunger written clearly on each face
And she gave me over happily . . .
It lights up on the edge of town
While night is falling all around
The Steakhouse
Where you can look around and gaze
The naked truth on every plate
The Steakhouse
They punched me up for all to see
They dragged me back and cowboyed me
In the Steakhouse
The room was billowing with smoke
I heard the door behind me close
As the faces of occupants came clear
Before I knew I should be scared
They slammed me down into a chair
They punched me dumb and shaved off all my hair
And they took their turns, and they laughed and leered
I was gagged and bound with duct tape to a chair
They had their way with me
And the night grew long, as I trembled there
My blood lay in a pool under the chair
And finally I renounced all of my hopes of being saved
And the last thing I remember were their 15 voices singing
|
||||
3. |
West at Las Vegas
03:16
|
|
||
We believed ourselves to be, the world’s last great horsemen
Our gigantic and perfect bodies, our elegant style
We stood our mounts and scanned the land below, the wasted Mojave
All burned and bombed blasted black, under the unblinking sky
Then a flash shot the sky in the west at Las Vegas
Set the whole sky ablaze in a blinding white fire
(We) felt the sting of flying dirt and ash, were temporarily blinded
Forced onto our bellies laying flat, our horse’s eyes wild
The cloud towered high in the west above Vegas
And the seat of this mad country’s soul was on fire
“Captain I’m afraid we’re late for the fight”
(Through the) glasses I could see the howling mass, maybe ten thousand bodies
Spilling out across the desert plane, in a long dusty line
(They were) bail bondsmen, strippers, high rollers and housewives
Riding taxicabs, or black sedans, or four-by-fours, even mini bikes
Some were still dressed for work as card dealers-and-showgirls
(The) hot wind at their hinds
Running east from Las Vegas in a mad race for life
The captain gave the order to mount
Those bastards down there are in our way, he said
We’re going to charge them
We poised our bodies in the saddles
A rictus of terrifying glee on each mouth
Cantering towards that great cloud
The red light from the sky shining in every eye
And soon we were all singing
Our pace gradually increasing
We reached full gallop, charging into the hot wind
Our song a savage and defiant roar
|
||||
4. |
Nuevo Laredo
04:48
|
|
||
To Nuevo Laredo I walked 24 hours
In the terrible sun, or under blankets of stars
And the kindness of people that I met on the road
They kept me going
I walked into town under a red sunset
I slept in the bars, in the alleys and squares
The hours passed slowly and I waited all night
For the first light, for the moment
When I’d rise up and wander in the blistering sun
Toward the new land
All the roads here point north
Here in the land of the gun
Now I’m washed up in Nuevo Laredo’s dirty sun
There’s a place in the desert where no police guns go
And my sister Malena said she meet me there
After two moon-rises and hard luck night
She’d be waiting
But some very bad men brought my sister there
But their blood bandana in her beautiful hair
And her pretty face painted like a clown or a harlot
In the daylight
And that’s when I knew how much my dream of the north
Was gonna cost me
And all the roads here point north
In the land of the gun
And the streets of Nuevo Laredo’s a dirty song
Now sing it
I walked in the heat back to Nuevo Laredo
My dreams of the north burnt away, far far away
I drank my own tears for my sister Malena
I’d never see her quite the same
At home she would steal for me yams and tamales
And bring them at night to my room
For she always shivering and me always hungry
The milk from her breast was so warm . . .
All the roads here point north
In the land of the gun
I got a mark on my head
I got a chill in my bones
And I wander the streets and the alleys
And always dream of the hills and the valleys
Now I’m the streets of Nuevo Laredo’s dirty son
Now sing it
|
||||
5. |
Interstate
05:32
|
|
||
Steam hanging low on the heather
Burning in a flash sunrise
Speeding o’er the breast of our mother
staring’ in the blinding light
Feeling the hum of the Chevy
Passing with the speed of flight
Fleeing o’er the interstate’s belly
Keeled out on the tail of night
Tonight they’ll be sending up rockets
All up and down the interstate
The towns will be blooming with fireworks
My road on independence day
We used to right the lines all night
And go the way the road would take us
From Omaha to Lake of Salt
To the lights of Fabulous Las Vegas
A shining interstate runs through it
Over our mother country’s breast
Fifty thousand miles of hard conduit
Laid down in hard rock, blood and sweat
See the lone power station
metal palace of a thousand lights
Floating against the sky like a jewel
A beautiful and moving sight
Cool air the crack of the window
Soothing my hot forehead
Smooth like the lips of the lover
Blowing cool breath on my face
Been 10 years since you died out here
The black smoke, your soul’s ascent
Honey I don’t know where you are now
But I’ve been driving ever since
The radio sound at four o clock in the morning
I’m hearing voices that just can’t be there
I heard a country song about an abortion
I heard a preacher say he’s lost his faith
A shining interstate runs through it
Over our mother country’s breast
Fifty thousand miles of hard conduit
Laid down in hard rock, blood and sweat
Someday this road will lead back to you
Drive back to where my heart knows best
Even at the coastline I just keep going, going
Answering the sweet call of the West
|
||||
6. |
Spider Bite
04:13
|
|
||
A spider stung me on my wrist one night
As I slept on the Mohave plain
The hairy villain tried to crawl away
I kicked him in the campfire
Sucked all the poison from my punctured skin
Then fell and went to sleep again
And dreamed a picture of my puzzled face
Framed in the window of a leaving train
I woke up sweating on the burning plain
The sun was high up in the sky again
Blanket soaked with sweat and urine stained
A firestorm raging inside my veins
I looked far out into the desert haze
The whole sky bulged with liquid flames
A slender body seemed to float out there
Swaying and writhing like in ecstasy
That sting hurt all through me
And gave me magic dreams
With colors bright and painful
No one could hear my screams
Her misty ivory skin / and arms stretched out just straight
I stared into here face / but couldn’t find a trace
Of human warmth or pain / written upon that face
But just an insect calm / a cold appraising gaze
Over the chaparral / she floated straight toward me
Soon her fingers reached / and touched my swollen face
And when the venom pain / was softly soothed away
And pulled my eyelids down
|
||||
7. |
Downcountry Blues
04:34
|
|
||
Here we go downcountry moving
At the darkening edges of another wasted day
Our dust will rise behind, in dirty double barrels
You see our taillights fade
When we go downcountry moving
When we go down . . .
You see your mother, well she’s gone son
Swimming in a whiskey bottle oh so many days
She’s been gone so long, I can’t make her love you
So let’s be on our way
Here we go downcountry moving
None but the sound of the radio a playin’ low
Now that our worst fears are proven and we come all this way
We can’t find her in that blank face, not a trace
We wonder why, but the dead don’t lie
Maybe she’ll send us a letter
Maybe she’ll get better, become herself again
Maybe listen to reason, beg our forgiveness
Maybe she wouldn’t send us back
With empty guts and hearts again
But know that I’ll always be here son
Even when the whole world seems against us every day
It’s OK to hold my hand, and sit by me in the pickup
Ain’t nobody’ll know but us
When we go downcountry moving
None but the sound of the radio a playin’ low
Now that our worst fears are proven and we come all this way
We can’t find her in that blank face, not a trace
We wonder why, every last god damn time
But she just won't say
|
||||
8. |
Sadness
03:13
|
|
||
Who’s that looking in the window?
Tell him to come in and have a drink
Stand him up and bless him
Wash his hands in the sink
The moon is your soldier
The sun has your gold
I could speak to ya, ya know
Last one burned harder
My eyes moved to the door
Singer sing slowly
Don’t want to hear that song anymore
The moon is your hunter
And the sun had to go
His eyes tell a story of long ago
I walk the streets that I never have seen
Pass through this world without ever being seen
So mama don’t carry on
Because I’m already gone
My old friend the sadness has come
|
||||
9. |
The Judge
04:04
|
|
||
The Judge sits peering into the fire
His massive body is pink and pale
Completely nude and devoid of hair
He placed his palms on the rocky ground
This is my claim he said
What else could I call mine?
Yet everywhere there is free-borne life
Alive in pockets upon the earth
Hey says whatever exists exists
Without my knowledge and my consent
This is my claim he said
What else could I call mine?
This is the Judge’s book
And this is his writing hand
Any creature not writ there
Is living on borrowed land
For only nature enslaves a man
And only when each and all of them
Is dragged to daylight and made to stand
In judgment naked beneath the sun
Only then can he be
Properly suzerain
This is the Judge’s book
And this is his writing hand
Any creature not writ there
Is living on borrowed land
And here come the baddest days
Chaos rides upon the land
The day you made his acquaintance
Something was took from you
This is my claim he said
What else could I call mine?
See him dance on tiny feet
Head back and laughing deep
He says he’ll never stop dancing
He says that he never sleeps
This is the Judge’s night
His great dome aglare in light
He says he’ll never stop dancing
He says he will never die
|
||||
10. |
Heavenly Light
05:17
|
|
||
Six days will I ever get out of here?
Slow drip, sheets too white
Fake sleep and the howls from the next room
Still can’t escape that sight
The night I rolled with the 60 La Phantom
Face aglow in the dashboard's pale light
Searched for my bearings in the binnacle mirror
The hot breathe of American midnight
I saw myself in a heavenly light
I saw myself in a heavenly light
I took to driving on the runways at Westerly
My pupils narrowing in the sodium lights
Felt the Le Phantom start to gather its powers
Flights of pylons blurring past on both sides
But something moved out there in the headlamps
A shadow shaping at the boundary of light
My cruel fate was assembling out there
Right before my bloodshot eyes
At once a coyote dived
Born from the dead of night
Then just stood waiting there
In the rush of headlights!
The beast came headfirst in the windshield
Then tearing metal and howl of tyres
The air charged with the thrill of the impact
My body tingles as the car starts fire
The earth crashed down like a hammer
Screams swallowed in the night’s great maw
My face a-trembling in the binnacle mirror
And in the mirror this is what I saw
I saw myself in a heavenly light
By freak of fortune I was still alive!
There in the mirror was a stunning sight
I saw myself in a heavenly, heavenly . . .
And now I know His name is alive!
I've heard the voices calling from the sky
He tore my flesh to open up my eyes
I saw myself in a heavenly, heavenly light
I came to twenty-six hours later
Six tubes plugging in my veins
My thigh pierced by a stab of a handbrake
And missing some of my best teeth
“Le Phantom” steering wheel brand on my chest wall
Traction bed and white-hot pain
The TV gurgling the National Anthem
I was screaming my own name!
Has anybody seen
A boy who looks like me
Out by the ice machines
Or wandering the runways
Or can you hear my calls?
Float through hospital halls?
Or am I smiling in at you from your window?
I saw myself in a heavenly light
By freak of fortune I was still alive!
There in the mirror was a stunning sight
I saw myself in a heavenly, heavenly . . .
And now I know His name is alive!
I've heard the voices calling from the sky
He tore my flesh to open up my eyes
I saw myself in a heavenly, heavenly light
I saw myself in a heavenly light
I saw myself in a heavenly light
|
||||
11. |
Sleepers
04:46
|
|
Steakhouse San Francisco, California
Steakhouse is a rock group from San Francisco, California. They play post-punk with bits of country/ western thrown in at all the wrong times. They've headlined big clubs in San Francisco but have yet to play a single rodeo.
Streaming and Download help
If you like Steakhouse, you may also like:
Bandcamp Daily your guide to the world of Bandcamp