Lyrics - Ragged Choir

Stand Up
Bob Rea © 2010

Prologue
You who walk through the valley alone
Beneath the mansions of the merchants of bones
Lift your head from your pillow of stone
A new day has begun

Was a backstreet prophet in a barbed wire jail
Rowboat to heaven and a rocket ship to hell
Spray-paint warning on a wall of brick
A white flag hanging on a border town fence
Was the last drop of water in a hollow well
Nine-pound hammer and a drop-forged nail
Coal-black belly on a slavers’ ship
And a steam locomotive on a one way trip

Chorus
Stand up
Stand up
Stand up
It’s a long way down—it’s a long way down

Was the blackbirds screamin’ from the telephone lines
Back forty country boys drunk on wine
Congregation waiting for the rapture to come
One hand on the Bible and the other on a gun
It was the almighty dollar and a hole in the sky
Cold hard truth and a little white lie
Long hot summer and a hundred year flood
And the soldiers marched into a sea of black blood

Chorus

Bridge
I often wonder about the stones in the road
I often wonder about the leaves in the trees
I often wonder how we’ll ever get home
If we can’t get off of our knees

Chorus

Drums: Mickey Grimm
Standup Bass: Dave Carroll
Acoustic guitar: Blue Miller
Electric guitar and Slide guitar: George Bradfute
Background vocals: Roxie Dean
Nine pound hammer: Karen Lorsch

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Church Street
Bob Rea © 2010

I’m goin’ up on Church Street
Where I can feel the earth’s heart beat
Looking down on a rich man’s world
With my purty little Church Street girl

Keep rolling like a rock
Cold sleeping on hard sidewalk
Doing the best I can
On the kindness of my fellow man

Chorus
I am one step—one step closer to heaven
I am on step—one step closer to free

Ain’t nothing finer than a Church Street day
All your troubles just fade away
Sitting easy in the warm sunshine
A little rest for a troubled mind

People moving when the signals change
Like a river swelling in the rain
In a hurry to be on their way
From the worry of the working day

Chorus
And they are on step—one step closer to heaven
They’ll be one step—one step closer to free

Bridge
When I lay me down to sleep
If the night’s too dark and the dreams too deep
And I forget to pray my soul to keep
Ain’t no nobody gonna hear me anyway

Those Church Street bells gonna ring
And a ragged choir will sing
And the savior on his throne
Will call his second hand children home

Chorus
I’m goin’ up on Church Street
Where I can hear the earth’s heart beat
Looking down on a rich man’s world

Drums: Mickey Grimm
Standup Bass: Dave Carroll
Acoustic guitar: George Bradfute
Steel guitar: Mike Daley
Background vocals: Britt Savage

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Platinum Dream
©2010 Bob Rea/ Ben Rea

Hollywood Johnny he’s turning up the heat
Ear to the pavement for the word on the street
Up the ladder faster than a cocaine heartbeat
Pledging his allegiance to the party

The president’s in Arlington, papers in his hand
Twelve gun salute and a marching band
Sweeping up the pieces with a fortune-teller’s fan
Pledging his allegiance to the party

Chorus
Somebody oughta tell ‘em that the party’s all over
That the money’s gone south like a homesick soldier
The whores are screamin’ by the side of the road
That the sky is falling
The sky is falling
The sky is falling on your platinum dream

There’s a Wall Street wizard connecting the dots
Across a cyberspace border he won’t be caught
Leaving all us suckers in the dust to rot
Pledging his allegiance to the party

Talk show radio crocodile smile
Selling salvation like it’s going out of style
Had to take the fifth at the congressman’s trial
Pledging his allegiance to the party

Chorus

Bridge
Now there’s a golden umbrella on a billionaire’s back
The trickle-down train jumped off the track
Boardroom bandits dividing up the take
While they tell the working people that they'll have to eat cake

Chorus

Drums: Mickey Grimm
Standup Bass: Dave Carroll
Acoustic guitar: Blue Miller
Electric guitar: George Bradfute
B3 organ: Dennis Wage
Background vocals: Britt Savage

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A Long Way Up (The Ballad of Ruby Sue and the Kid)
Bob Rea © 2010

The kid was contemplating his next move as he walked around the van
Gave a tire a good hard kick and he wished the damn thing ran
He stole it from the backyard of his last foster home
Now he was out of cash and his stash was low and he had a righteous jones
Ruby Sue she’d took him in back when he was on the dodge
Broke down and crying in the parking lot of her Truckee River lodge
He swore if he ever got to Reno he’d be never coming back
Then he almost lost it when he reached in his pocket and pulled out an empty pack

Chorus
It’s a long way up from the bottom of the hill
And the road gets rough then it just gets rougher still
It’s hard to see all the love in front of you
When your heart is scarred and your soul is blue

Now Ruby she was soft on the kid ‘cause he reminded her of her boy
Who wrote his last letter home from the Hilton in Hanoi
In a war no one remembers for some long-forgotten cause
Through those endless years and bitter tears she’d lost her war with God
To the kid she was just one more who would not give a damn
And would not give one second thought when they found out that he’d ran
Trouble is all you ever give when trouble is all you’ve known
So one moonlit night he stole her ride and lit out on the road.

Chorus

Bridge
The kid staggered through the gas and the glass of the car that he’d just rolled
His hands were shaking and his nose was broke and he just sat down there in the road
He saw Ruby arrived in his stolen van and her voice was soft and low
She said come on boy, let’s go home

Chorus

Drums: Mickey Grimm
Standup Bass: Dave Carroll
Acoustic guitar: George Bradfute
Steel guitar: Mike Daley

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My Getaway
©Bob Rea 2009

I’m going to the rodeo
Now what do you think of that?
I ain’t never growing old
And I ain’t coming back
Got Jesus on the radio
And the devil in my soul
Driving down the center line
All the way to Tupelo

Chorus
And I thank you for your kindness
What more can I say?
Ever since the moment I arrived
I have planned—my getaway

Someday I’m going fishin’
Gonna catch a great big whale
Then again I might dive in
And touch a mermaid’s tail
There’s fire on the mountain boys
Fire in my soul
I just want to have some fun
Before the fire grows cold

Chorus

Bridge
I should have joined the circus
When I was just a kid
Become a lion tamer instead of all that shit I did
Someone’s got to work the fields
No longer will be me
When every fiber of my being is just screaming to be free—free

Chorus

Drums: Mickey Grimm
Standup Bass: Dave Carroll
Acoustic guitar: Blue Miller
Electric guitar: George Bradfute

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Dirty Dzeez
Bob Rea/Ben Rea/Stephen Styles ©2010

No more talk on the birds and the bees
It’s all in the packet on STD’s
A whole generation hooked on a dream
They want to be rap stars and porno queens

Chorus
It’s a dirty dzeez
It’s a dirty dzeez

No more slow dance with Mary Jane
Making snow angels in the pure cocaine
Walk like zombies on a march of death
All jacked up on that crystal meth

Chorus twice

Bridge
Crack whores, war lords, IEDs, HIV
Destruction, corruption, new God, jihad
Genocide, suicide, frontline, end of time
Poverty, refugees, it’s all just a dirty dzeez

Chorus
No more amber waves of grain
Just internet violence and video games
All that’s left is a cancer to feed
All bow down to the Gods of greed
Give me more give me more
Give me more give me more
Give me more give me more
Give me more give me more
Give me more more more more more more more more more---

Chorus

Drums: Mickey Grimm
Standup Bass: Dave Carroll
Acoustic guitar: Blue Miller

Electric guitar: George Bradfute
Slide guitar: Mike Daley
Background vocals: Brill Savage, Roxie Dean, Stephen Styles

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Lights Out
© Bob Rea 2010

There’s meth-heads and Mexicans and more than one drunk
Wife-beaters, drug-dealers, skinheads and punks
Lined up in orange jumpsuits beside their steel bunks
For a standing head count, lights out, in county tonight
The lifers start snoring and the trustees start playin’
A game that makes the newbies start thinking ‘bout praying
Some guy in row five goes mental, starts raving
That someone has stolen his socks
And no one can get him to stop
Till the guards finally come and haul him off for a night in the box

Chorus
And he’ll be counting the moments that drag into hours
That finally add up to a day
While some sleepy young guard plays games on his laptop
Unaware of the price that he pays
Lights out, lights out, lights out

Six-o-clock wake-up and it’s time to rise
Stagger into the day room with sleep in your eyes
Shining like pumpkins in the fluorescent lights
While an adequate breakfast is served to start us off right
And the short-timers line up against a brick wall
Waiting their turn for a 900 call
Stopping just short of losing it all
When their three minutes comes to an end
And the mind-numbing boredom sets in
The TV comes on and a new day in county begins

Bridge
If there were a saint for the misunderstood
He would dust off our sins and crown us with good
Stand us up straight to face all our fears
And return us our years
And not leave us here

Chorus
Drums: Mickey Grimm
Standup Bass: Dave Carroll
Acoustic guitar: George Bradfute
Steel guitar: Mike Daley
Flugelhorn: Steve Hermann

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Dead River Blues
Bob Rea © 2009

Lately I’ve been just about to lose my mind
Walking down the edge of that thin white line
Oh darling, I got those Dead River blues
Mister politician done stole my dime
Sold me out and left me in the welfare line
Oh darling I got those Dead River blues

Chorus
Just leave the dishes on the table, leave the key there in the door
Come walk with me down that dry river bank
You know we can’t go back there anymore, can’t go back there
Just let me see you smile one last time
Turn away and block me from your mind
Oh darling, I got those Dead River blues

Bridge
Gonna send you back to Arkansas, leave you with your ma and pa
Now I’ll be laying low up in the hills
If somebody asks for me just tell them I’m in Tennessee
Don’t let nobody make no deal
Put your little hand in mine
We’ll walk together at the end of time
Oh darling, I got those Dead River blues

Now who’d have thought that it would end like this
Nor even time for one last kiss
Oh darling, I got those Dead River blues
One step ahead of Johnny Law
Under the shadow of the lion’s paw
Oh darling I got those Dead River blues

Chorus

Acoustic guitar: Bob Rea
Harmonica: Jelly Roll Johnson

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Coure d’Alene
Bob Rea © 2009

Chorus
Coure d’Alene here I come
Idaho I got to go
Just thirty miles from Washington
Coure d’Alene here I come

I did some things I might regret
Someday feel sorry but I don’t yet
Push come to shove you place your bets
It’s time to hit the road and give ‘em all my best

Chorus
There are those who say I’ve sinned
And if that’s so I will again
First chance I get I’ll wade right in
Now I’m going to Idaho and live again

Chorus

Bridge
Sometimes love that seemed so true
Will turn a cold cold back on you
Man is only flesh and bone
It’s time to find a new place you can call your home

Chorus

Drums: Mickey Grimm
Standup Bass: Dave Carroll
Acoustic guitar: George Bradfute, Bob Rea
Dobro: Mike Daley
Fiddle: Tim Lorsch

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Wretched Soul
Bob Rea/ Stephen Styles © 2010

Rain filled up the crimson sky
Dark come soon better get inside
Clouds rise black as a flock of crows
Dance boy dance to the Cotton-Eyed Joe

Chorus
The Devil sat down by a sycamore tree
Three-string banjo on his knee
Calling all his children to come on home
Preacher’s in the willows cryin’
Save my wretched soul

Lightning split the silver moon
Snow fall down on the third of June
Mamas don’t take your babies down
There’s snakes in the cellar make a hissing sound

Chorus

Bridge
Stain glass breaking, tombstones quaking
The blessed virgin’s knees are shaking
Choir’s swaying, deacon’s praying
Nobody heard what the dirt was saying
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust
Your soul’s gonna come right back to us
Now nobody’s home in the empty grave
Hallelujah we all been saved

Chorus

Drums: Mickey Grimm
Standup Bass: Dave Carroll
Acoustic guitar: Blue Miller
Electric guitar: George Bradfute

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The Careful Song
Bob Rea © 2010

Go downtown dance for the ladies
Yank my chain like a dog with rabies
Fall down drunk sleep like a baby
Be careful what you dream

I bent my will on an iron anvil
Dropped my soul in boomtown landfill
Whole damn life just came to a standstill
You know what I mean

Chorus
But if I had a nickel for every dumb shit thing I did
I’d send all of them nickels to some Nicaraguan kid
And he could roll them in the gutters, or buy a big fat lid
And I would send a message with them said be careful what you did—kid

I’m goin’ where the sun don’t shiver
Plant my ass by the lazy river
Promise made that I can’t deliver
Be careful what you know

Lost my shine on a cathouse rat run
Jubilee with a cutdown shotgun
Sin for a buck but I ain't got one
Ain’t that just the way it goes

Chorus

Bridge
Life goes by just like a dream
And it’s over before you start
You stand alone on judgment day
Behind you battered heart

Repeat first verse

Bass: Dave Francis
Acoustic guitar: Blue Miller
Harmonica: Jelly Roll Johnson
Violin Pizzacato: Tim Lorsch

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On a Trailways Bus
Bob Rea/ Ed Skibbe © 2001

On a Trailways Bus, I wake up
To a reflection in the window I barely recognize at all
Too much land and too much sky
Too much empty in my eyes
There’s more space than I recall

Three-thousand twenty-seven days
Inside those cold gray walls
Now I’m free and would you believe
That all I feel is small

Chorus
The longest ride you’ll ever take
Is the one that starts with your first mistake
It’ll sweep you away so fast
And leave you reaching for the past
Then it ends with you all alone
On a Trailways bus, goin’ home

In a few more miles they’ll drop me off
At a crossroads on the highway and I’ll walk on into town
Too much wind and too much dust
Too many good lives all gone bust
No one I know is left around

Three-thousand twenty-seven nights
I dreamed of yesterday
But it’s today and every dream I dreamed
Has blown away

Chorus
The longest ride you’ll ever take
Is the one that starts with your first mistake
It’ll sweep you away so fast
Leave you reaching for the past

Bridge
Hard time ain’t your time
It’s just the price you pay
Till one day you’ll find
Your life just slipped away

Chorus The longest ride you’ll ever take
Is the one that starts with your first mistake

Drums: Mickey Grimm
Standup Bass: Dave Carroll
Acoustic guitar: George Bradfute
Steel guitar: Mike Daley

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Someday’s Gone
© Bob Rea/ Steven Styles

You were always justifying fences that you never could mend
Certain that your paradise was waitin’ just around the next bend
Someday you would strike a match stand back and watch those bridges burn
When the time was right you’d pack your bags say goodbye never to return
Now what are you waiting on?
Someday’s gone

You built a wall so high around you you’re not sure what’s on the other side
But redemption and the anchor of inertia are about to collide
Look inside the mirror and tell me is that really who you want to see
Every moment that you hesitate is a moment closer to eternity
Now what are you waiting on?
Someday’s gone
Someday’s gone

Bridge
Don’t you let another sun go down
Get on that bus get out of town
The world is moving on
And someday gone

Chorus

Drums: Mickey Grimm
Bass: Dave Francis
Acoustic guitar: Blue Miller
Electric guitar: George Bradfute
Lowboy steel guitar: Mike Daley
Banjo: Chris Joslin

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I Will
Bob Rea ©2010

Go to sleep my little darling
Dream about your secret garden
Don’t you worry I’ll be able
To put that food upon our table
Disregard the evening news
I will buy our babies shoes
Come it hell or high water
I will keep us from the slaughter

Chorus
And I—I will
I—I will

Be not restless in your slumber
Heed not the sound of distant thunder
I will be your faithful sentry
And I’ll allow no evil’s entry
And if our fortunes start to change
And I am stripped clean of my wage
I will kill and I will rob
And spit right in the face of God

Chorus

I will do just what it takes
To keep my family warm and safe
While others falter my resolve remains
Hard as steel
And I will

Acoustic guitar: Bob Rea
Cello: Tim Lorsch