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1. |
Youngest Son - Derek
02:21
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Boy
Who are you?
I see you
Boy
Who am I?
I want you
When I see you, boy
What I see is static
Broken lines
When I hear your voice
All I hear is feedback
Squeal and whine
I want to feel you near
but boy we’re nowhere
Boy
What is this?
And who in the hell am I?
And who in the hell are you?
And who in the hell left us alone?
I don't know where I am now
Or where I'm gonna go
Whoever brought me here will have to take me home
When I see your face
All my saints adore you
Casting down
All their shining crowns
to the glassy sea before you
I came, I saw, I wanted
I wanted, I saw, I came
I came, I saw, I wanted
I wanted, I saw, I came
I came, I saw, I wanted
I wanted, I saw, I came
© 2011 Steve Slagg
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2. |
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I drove with you through Craters of the Moon
We fought about the air conditioning
We didn’t know your time was comin’ soon
If we had we might have acted differently
Well anyway, we had the windows down
And the lava rocks were sharp against the sky
I couldn’t tell pahoehoe from a’a
Looking back on that I can’t imagine why
All the while
The ground itself had bubbled
Beneath our feet
A hundred miles down
Eight hundred thousand years ago
Its molten heat
Had burned a steady pilgrimage to Yellowstone
Having lifted up the Cascades and melted Idaho
Where you and I, we fought about the radio
At Craters of the Moon
I knew I’d have to tell this to you soon
I still tell you things, even though you’re gone
It's Spring, I'm driving back across the moon
As I make my way without you to Oregon
I think how we were never close nor really far
Though I was sitting right beside you in the car
Yeah, I was horny, lost and self-effacing
You just stared, slack-jawed at God's creation
We didn’t know
--Lord, how could we have known?
That death was bubbling up from underneath your skin
And we didn’t know
--Lord, how could we have known?
That love could make me a stranger to my own blood kin
No, like everybody else, we drove to Yellowstone
To see the sleeping giant for five minutes and go home
And then you went home to North Dakota
And so did I, was sittin' right beside you
And now I drive West to Portland, Oregon
Cos there are things you just beat up until they're gone
Like how you went home to Heaven without me
And how I'm driving in a car that is empty
© 2011 Steve Slagg
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3. |
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Don't tell me I've got it all wrong now
Cos I'm a complicated lady
I still know the names of the friends I lost
When I crossed over the Tiber
I used to write lesbian bookworm erotica
and no one bothered me then
in fact, I got 500 hits a day
marched in the Annapolis Pride Parade
where we handed out rosaries
(It was a joke, I swear)
I had this scene on my dresser when I was little
Little figurines--like animals and soldiers
My own little community
There was always one on the outskirts
Facing out over the edge of the dresser
With his back to the others
A little exiled soldier
His crime changed from week to week
‘Til they voted him back
When he confessed to the others
That's when they voted him back
So please believe me
When I tell you what happened
Cos I
Barely believed it
Myself
When I joined the Catholic church
Looked kinda funny
I was spectacularly butch
And Christ says, "This is my body.
This is my blood.
Put your fingers in the holes in my hands
And move them around.
Wash my feet with your tears and your hair.
Don't save the good perfume.
See, I am showing you
Beauty."
So now I walk
On the Feast of Corpus Christi
With my head held low
Get off my back, I can't explain it
I'm still a dyke, don't dare forget it
But I've seen beauty in the body
Just like the beauty I saw in high school
In the library
She had auburn hair
And a generous smile
and she was miraculous to me
So now I live the Corpus Christi
with the saints and widows
And that means I pray and keep my legs closed
Cos I think beauty is sequential
One points to another:
a little exiled soldier
and a young woman's laughter
two nail holes in plaster
ten women walk together
tenth week after Easter
one following another
All the way to the altar
And the confessions we make
We make them together
And when our bodies change
We're all changed together
To the body of Christ
The body of Christ
The body of Christ
The body of Christ
© 2011 Steve Slagg
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4. |
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5. |
Youngest Son - Hands
02:59
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Love, lay your hands on me
Do not leave me alone
Love, lay your hands on me
Do not leave me alone
I need to feel you near
Do not leave me alone
I need to feel you near
Do not leave me alone
Come, Holy Spirit, come
Press your words into me
Come, Holy Spirit, come
Press your warmth into me
I’ve got such thick skin
Press your warmth into me
I’ve got such thick skin
Press your words into me
Friends, lift me up so I
So that I can see light
Church, lift me up so I
So that I can see light
It gets so dark in here
Lift me up in the light
It gets so dark in here
Lift me up in the light
© 2011 Steve Slagg
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6. |
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Brother, I miss you tonight
I remember nights in the city
We walked with Jeff
Through Boystown to iO
You read a sonnet about Kant on the mainstage
Del Close’s ashes laughed the loudest
You solved the problem of evil the next morning at breakfast
And nobody noticed
Well, brother, we need you tonight!
I remember you comin’ in from the fields
Covered in pigshit and glowing
Jody was pregnant, it was weird
You still looked twelve
And Jody looked maybe fifteen and a half
But her belly could’ve passed for 20
Dan made the joke
But you made it funny
Stephen, I need you tonight
No one else thought this place was as crazy
We lay with Jeff on the floor on your birthday
All night
Lay for hours and talked about
How things would never be
All right
Lay for hours and talked about
How we would never be the same
Then we talked about a man
Who kneeled down in front of a train
The month we were born
It made us angry
Why would you do that? We said.
He had the same name as us. That’s weird.
Birthday balloons were sinking softly all around us
It was 6AM, Jeff got up and made breakfast
Christopher
We miss you tonight
Every relative here looks just like you
Dakota does too
He’s almost two
Jody still looks fifteen and a half
She’s still pretty and smiling
She’s smiling, I promise
In fact
Everybody here is smiling, look at us
Dan just made a joke
That wasn’t very funny
Well, brothers
Brothers, we miss you tonight
© 2011 Steve Slagg
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7. |
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We knew it wouldn't last forever
We knew it all along
We said that it would last forever
When we started
But we knew that we were wrong
It didn't take long
Twenty years
Eyes shut tight
Fingers in our ears
And they were beautiful years:
Cause you and i
We were different
Yeah, you and I
We were strong
And you and I
We were different
Yeah, you and I
We were strong
We were sittin' in church
Our tiny Liberal Methodist Chicago church
With the rainbow on the door
Holding hands
Like always
Leaning in close
Like always
Andrea made fun of us at the passing of the peace
Like always
And every single one of us had a smile on our face
Like always
We sang, "In Christ there Is No East or West"
Then Pastor Denise
With her purple sweater vest
Said, "Please get to your feet
for the reading of the Word."
The reading of the Word
That's when we heard
But you and I
We were different
Yeah, you and I
We were strong
And you and I
We were different
Yeah, you and I
We were strong
And our bodies floated
Like a ribbon
Like single ribbon
In the air
And our bodies floated
Like a ribbon
Like a fine, silk ribbon
In the air
And it didn't take long
Twenty years
Strange gifts
A faithfulness brings
And they never told us
Not for twenty years
That God
Would give and take so many things
Would give and take so many things
Would give and take so many things
Like the green from the trees
Or a sparrow's broken wing
When we put silver on our ring
That's when we heard the voice sing
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Steve Slagg Chicago, Illinois
God-haunted, queer Midwest Americana singer-songwriter
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I played pianos on this tempest-toss't album about true love and the end of the world.
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I Only Answer To My Name Now
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I also played keys on a couple tracks on this. It's the best Americana singer-songwriter album you've never heard
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