Lyrics

Big Livin’
Lyrics: Carol Lee 

Nico caught the last train
Heading into town
Coming back to N'Orleans
No one left around

Where we gonna go? Mama
Tell me where we gonna go?
I don't know, I don't know, 
I don't know

See the children running
Up and down the streets
Aunties and their Mamas
Hanging out the sheets

Nowhere left to go child
Ain't nowhere for us to go
I don't know, I don't know
I don't know

Brick by brick
Row by row
Old folks stay
And young folk go

Ruby's saving up some nickels
Soon she'll turn fifteen
Northbound to Chicago
Where she gonna sing

She's got somewhere to go mama
You know she's gotta go
Gotta go, Gotta go, Gotta go

Where the boys can really swing it
Staying up till dawn
Hear there's some big living
Now this bird has flown

I know  you had to go child,
She sho'nuff had to let you go
I don't know, I don't know
I don't know
Brick by brick
Row by row
Old folks stay
And young folk go
Big livin big livin' 

'Lil Shake
Lyrics: Carol Lee  

Crossroads are timeless
Where there's Spirits
There's bloodlines

Backs broke by the spineless
In the fortunes
In the crimes

Brass cats sound real sweet
Gonna boogie all night
On Frenchman Street           
Baby how do you do?
Shot of Bourbon
Little shake of Voodoo

Straight talkin' street jive
After sunset
‘Fore sunrise

Fine player's got statues
The deep roots
Gonna get deep grooves

Haunted bars  Squares and saints
Uptown street cars, Sugar cane
Crawfish pie, masks and beads
A second line parades the streets
Crossroads are Timeless
Where there's spirits
There's bloodlines

Backs broke by the spineless
In the fortunes
In the crimes

Brass cats sound real sweet
Gonna boogie all night
On Frenchman Street           
Baby how do you do?
Shot of Bourbon
Little shake of Voodoo
   

Cracked open
Lyrics: carol lee
 
Bricks are made of mud
It’s been pouring here all day
House was made of earth
Now there’s nothing left but clay

What we gonna do now
Spin that clay into a bowl
Earth is leanin’ northward
Turning hard rain into snow

How come my heart feels so cracked open
When the love is running deep
Someday we all will cross over
Maybe  right now is all we’ll ever be
           
Frozen up inside now
Blizzards got me bound
Light dead wood with fire
Burned this house down to the ground

Ashes to ashes
No matter the hot air that I blow
Damn twisters gonna uproot me
Leave me pieces of my home

How come my heart feels so cracked open
When the love is running deep
Someday we all will cross over
Maybe  right now is all we’ll ever be

Went to find my mama
But she was dead and gone
Cried myself a river
A childless mother now full grown

Bricks are made of mud
And it’s been raining here all day
House was made of earth
Now there is nothing left but clay

How come my heart feels so cracked open
When the love is running deep
Someday we all will cross over
Maybe  right now is all we’ll ever be
Maybe  right now is all we’ll ever be

Maybe  right now is all we’ll ever be

After the Eclipse
Lyrics: Carol Lee 

After the eclipse
I wondered did I need a new name
Before the eclipse
Each elemental day seemed the same

I woke up from a dream
To lights in the midnight black
Just an endless stream
Collider of futures and pasts

Oh moon, how you know my soul
Sun in the sky, I reach for you to grow

I raised up my half
Into an empty space
I blazed a new path
Although now it is paved

Just like mercury
Things kept turning retrograde
I'm an escapee
Into the dazzling milky way

Oh moon, how you know my soul
Sun in the sky, I reach for you to grow

You wax and wane
Each quarter's turn
You come and go
For me to learn

Oh moon, how you know my soul
Sun in the sky, I reach for you to grow

                              
Left Hand Creek
Lyrics: Carol Lee 

Watching ice melting into left hand creek
Winds whipped around the canyon
Can I still breathe?
Car engines roar, louder than earth
Sky jets leaving cloudy trails
I am believing, somewhere i’m free

Telephone wires, crisscross above me
Yellow-red kite caught up in a tree
Yes I believe
Log cabin chimney, looks like a painting
Some old sagebrush tumbles down our path
Now I am seeing, we are free

I'm just waking up
I think we're all waking up
Living the life we dreamed
Set free inside a love supreme
Knowing we are free

I am free I am free
I am free I am free
We are free we are free

Good Enough
Lyrics: Arthur Lee Land 

Yesterday I watched the videos
From when I was a boy
I have to say, well it took me by surprise
I heard that little boy say
"i don't want people to see how stupid I am"
It made me wonder "who told him all those lies?"

I carry it with me everyday
But it's time to let it go...

I know that I am good enough
I wish that you could understand
The price that I have paid to be a man

It could have been my big brother
Cuz I was just a pain in his ass
But maybe my mom, cuz to her I could never do things right
My cheating dad went along with it
To keep the peace in the house
Now I'm left with this burden and stage-fright

I was a champion of nothing
During my school career
Hyperactive, I was a guinea pig for the little white pills
"super bright, but he doesn't apply himself" 
Is what my teachers said
They wrote me off, another kid lost to the social ills

I carry it with me everyday
But it's time to let it go

I know that I am good enough
I wish that you could understand
The price that I have paid to be a man

I don't have to prove myself
Or justify my worth
What I am is only who I am
It's who I am
Only who I am

A part of me was stolen by my cousins,
When I was only 10
Threw me face down on the bed,
I didn't know what was happening
These scars are like a magnet
They attract more and more shame
But I ain't gonna play the victim, I got no one to blame

The voices inside my head
Well they almost took me down
But I found the sound of silence
That led me to forgiveness

I know that I am good enough
I wish that you could understand
The price that I have paid to be a man
 
I don't have to prove myself
Or justify my worth
What I am is only who I am
It's who I am
Only who I am
It's who I am
Only who I am
I am who I am
I'm fine the way I am
  
Do you ever think of me?
Lyrics: carol lee 

You're probably doing well             
You know it's hard to tell
When you didn't return my calls
I figured it's just as well
We had something don't you agree?
Hey, do you ever think of me?

We had our place near the beach
The stars then within our reach
We made plans and we dreamed
Thought we'd play for the same team

I still see your face when I smell cloves
We had some laughs but something broke

I'm still testing this open heart
Trying to keep it safe and clean
Use it for a light
When there's no light to be seen
We can shimmer it in darkness
And help warm this cold, cold ground
Though it seems nothing’s left
There's still something to be found 

Hey how's your kid, do you have a new wife?
I wonder if you’re satisfied
I still wish you'd come around
We could pull this barbed wire down

I'm pretty busy now and we're less broke
I've grown up a lot since we last spoke 

I'm still testing this open heart
Trying to keep it safe and clean
Use it for a light
When there's no light to be seen
We can shimmer it in darkness
And help warm this cold, cold ground
Though it seems nothing’s left
There's still something to be found 

You're probably doing well
You know it's hard to tell
Didn't answer my emails
I figured it's just as well
We had something don't you agree?
Hey, do you ever think of me?

Into the Waters
Lyrics: Carol Lee 

Remember when we were kids                   
We would run until we dropped
Forging trails like indians                            
On the shores of michigan
We hung from trees and cliffs
Ran past the sandy dunes                              
Fish skeletons and rocks...
Into the waters

When water's temp was 59
We would gather in a line
Count to 10 and run right in
Our heads would ache with pain
Lips were blue bodies frozen
Then we'd do it once again
Fall winter spring and then...
Into the waters

Then when we were teens                         
We would ride our bikes for miles
In the sand played truth or dare        
Partied reckless had no fears
Of who we’d be when we grew up
If we could find out what we love        
18, 21 and then...                  
Into the waters

When waters temp was 63
Weekdays summers we were free
Climbing old piers scaffolding
Sweat pouring, sun burning
4 inch wide rusty iron
15 feet high up we would cling
Count to 3 with eyes closing...
Into the waters
                                 
Now that we all are grown              
Laptops and texting on our phones
American dreams we keep on buying
Making it hard to find down time
We hang like trees on cliffs
Watching how quick the sands can shift
One by one we all will drift...
Into the waters

When waters temp turns 68                             
By the seashore we will wade
Dip our feet and then our knees                           
We avoid the sudden freeze
Covered bodies with sunscreen                           
Recalling lazy summer scenes
Just keep following the breeze...                                                                               
Into the waters
  

Undertow
Lyrics: Carol Lee 

Hey ground control
I’ve slipped down into the undertow
Composting into earth heart and soul
I am black as dirt yet white as snow

So now you know
Understudied for the leading role
And my holy self was left half cloaked
Rich as hell and still i’m left flat broke
                                                                 
Truth be told
I underestimate words I spoke
Lost my voice I could not be consoled
Lost my legs and now my wings unfold
I’m still young and I am old
I’m still young and I am old
  

Hawthorne tree               
Lyrics: Carol Lee 

My love tripped and fell down a holy well
I listen and it’s echoing is haunting me for days
And I want to reach down               
And dip the fabrics of my ancestors
Until they bleed together                         
And tie them to a hawthorne tree

And I find myself smaller than a grain of sand
And I find myself more open then the sky himself