Official release. Deemed definitive. Abandoned work.

Studio Recording. Second-to-last version, with ideas and flaws

Grizzly Crossing Studio solo recording. Second-to-last version, with ideas and flaws

Cheap/old studio demo. Decent recording

Home demo. Only for hardcore adventurers

album-art

00:00

LYRICS

John, she’s gone,

and probably she won’t return.

You better get used to this silence,

You better get used to be alone.

You know you can’t be so meek,

There’s a lot of girls in the streets waiting for you.

Maybe in loneliness you’ll find

That strength comes around

And you’ll fell able to smile.

Sparrows will fly

though yesterday’s storm.

All the ceremonies

won’t change just for one.

You know you can’t be so meek,

There’s a lot of things you’ve not seen

Waiting for you.

Maybe in loneliness you’ll find

That strength comes around

And you’ll fell able to smile.

No kind of science was born from the ashes

And that’s what you are now,

That’s what you are now,

Being so meek, so meek, so meek.

I look around, it’s an owl’s nest,

Clothes on the floor.

A brothel’s not the best place to sleep

If you don’t like feasts.

I have a dream to follow,

To follow, to follow.

I have a dream to follow,

To follow, to follow.

Somebody stole the letters I

Kept in my desk

Such a strange town, strangers around,

Fears attack me.

But I have a dream to follow,

To follow, to follow.

I have a dream to follow,

To follow, to follow.

Oh, was I wrong when I left

My bed was so warm

But I couldn’t stand being there

Waiting for more.

I have a dream to follow,

To follow, to follow.

I have a dream to follow,

To follow, to follow.

Stay, the wood is still burning,

Bright stars will shine in the sky.

Don’t say that I avoid the future,

Future isn’t written now.

God knows your charms have changed me,

I was an eloquent man.

Stay, like a cloud in the peak of a mountain,

We can forget your lies.

I’m so desirous to be on the road,

I’d sell my death to be strong.

My fingers are useless and feeble

Without a hair to comb.

Stay, and the night will be longer,

I’ll strangle time to stay with you.

I’ve bought new sheets, they are pink,

I’ll lift you in my arms to the room.

No need to say everything is ready,

Waiting for you to say you stay.

May I take you slowly,

And guide you with my hands to a secret place,

Beneath trees and stars,

And all the things two lovers need?

May I dance with you,

Though you know I don’t like to dance?

May I sing for you?

Because you know I love to sing.

May I taste your charms

Like gentlemen do with the wine,

Knowing I’m right,

That’s the bottle that I want.

And a violin plays

Through there are no violins here,

And an electric ray has crossed my eyes

And comes from you.

Light comes from you.

Tonight, light comes from you.

Light comes from you,

Every night light comes from you.

Now the courtroom is empty,

But the judge is still there,

With the gown and the hammer.

His old eyes are reminding

A last picture of the convict,

A young man that won’t see the new year.

It’s been a crowded trial,

Journalists and onlookers,

Eye for eye and tooth for tooth.

The sentence was written

Before the ceremony,

The signature was just a requirement.

And he says: I didn’t make the law,

I’m not going to kill him, I just have a job.

I didn’t make the law,

I’m not going to kill him, I just have a job.

Now the judge is in his office,

A paper on his table,

He’d like to be able to send it.

It’s the system, it’s not me,

It’s history, it’s not me.

A single man can’t change things.

From a long distance,

the beating of an unknown heart

hammering his mind.

And he says: I didn’t make the law,

I’m not going to kill him, I just have a job.

I didn’t make the law,

I’m not going to kill him, I just have a job.

Now the judge folds the paper,

And he tears it in two parts,

And throws it to the bin.

A pair of sleeping pills,

Delegating on time

The weight of oblivion.

(INSTRUMENTAL)

Now the courtroom is empty,

But the judge is still there,

With the gown and the hammer.

His old eyes are reminding

A last picture of the convict,

A young man that won’t see the new year.

It’s been a crowded trial,

Journalists and onlookers,

Eye for eye and tooth for tooth.

The sentence was written

Before the ceremony,

The signature was just a requirement.

And he says: I didn’t make the law,

I’m not going to kill him, I just have a job.

I didn’t make the law,

I’m not going to kill him, I just have a job.

Now the judge is in his office,

A paper on his table,

He’d like to be able to send it.

It’s the system, it’s not me,

It’s history, it’s not me.

A single man can’t change things.

From a long distance,

the beating of an unknown heart

hammering his mind.

And he says: I didn’t make the law,

I’m not going to kill him, I just have a job.

I didn’t make the law,

I’m not going to kill him, I just have a job.

Now the judge folds the paper,

And he tears it in two parts,

And throws it to the bin.

A pair of sleeping pills,

Delegating on time

The weight of oblivion.

Playing cards on the floor, a dirty room and a heartache,

An old dog sleeps on the couch and the sugar cup is broken,

On the unmade bad, the leftovers of a sandwich,

And whisky stain really big in the sheets.

In my bachelor’s house, bachelor’s house,

Bachelor’s house.

The windows don’t let the sun in with red curtains,

The last dishes on the sink, still unwashed

In a corner, a reading lamp behind the armchair,

with a low power light bulb.

In my bachelor’s house, bachelor’s house,

Bachelor’s house.

No feminine clothes left by someone,

A single fork and three knives, I eat soup from the can.

The broken drawer can’t be closed because it’s too full

With shirts and unpaired socks made of holes.

In my bachelor’s house, bachelor’s house,

Bachelor’s house.

My loyal poorness is my family and my partner

And skipping through failures I have survived.

Never been erudite but not envious at all,

I’ve always loved freedom; I was born to live.

Things have not gone right

If you take the old conventions,

But I’ve seen all the trees

And I’ve been in every town

Helped by the oil lamps,

Jamming with other tramps,

With no place called home.

Through the corpulence of troubles

And the fright of competition,

There’s a bridge over the river

And a path to climb the hill.

Colors in the sky,

I’ve seen them all, I’ve loved them all,

I got a job at a saw-mill,

But I argued with the boss.

I write a lot of songs

That sometimes I forget.

My guitar, my fingers,

That’s all that I need,

I love to live singing

I live to write songs.

My guitar, my fingers,

That’s all that I need,

I love to live singing

I live to write songs.

You’re laying slept in my arms,

Probably dreaming about one of your many things.

I talk to the last stars, like always

And I make them jealous of me.

I have you, but you’re not mine

And the planet seems made for us.

The streets and the avenues,

The prairies and the paths.

You’re sleeping, you’re in peace

And then things acquire their sense,

And night makes it all greater

As sheep jump the fence.

In accordance with the universe,

Where floats your little world,

I feel lucky and grateful,

To be the one that keeps you from the cold.

Quiet lady, you closed eyes

Are trying to wake up,

I kiss them and you drowse.

Quiet lady, slept in my arms.

(INSTRUMENTAL)

When you blamed the world, because you need to blame,

I saw very clear that was the end

I tried to run as fast as I could

And the weather so adverse, it was raining nails.

Your magic revealed to be a bad trick

I saw you growing ugly from day to day

One day in a rush, you knocked on my door,

But I was in bed with someone else.

She was like a storm, there over me,

I saw the birth of love, there over me,

She needed my lips, they were her air,

But my heart was too far, too far from there.

The old sorcerer said: recipe to forget love.

Perhaps I went wrong, or omitted an ingredient,

Her tears like a stream way down her cheeks

Maybe it was a recipe to hurt.

I lingered on your hands, it was my first fault.

I held up a hope, the second one.

I told her love words that were in vain.

Now, it’s the beginning, although it seems the end.

Now, it’s the beginning, although it seems the end.

Lord, my heart is steadfast,

I’ll sing and make music

with all of my soul.

Awake, harp and lyre,

With my voice

I will awaken the dawn.

Oh, Lord, let your glory be all over the world.

And I’ll sing and make music with all of my soul.

Don’t remember me like I was,

Remember me like I am,

Pass the eraser upon the past.

For sure, you know that I’ve been bad,

I’ve broken some glasses and,

Together through life, anybody can err

And I’m not the exception for this rule.

You were the one who built a wall of ice

The one that sent me to the frost,

The one that turn her back on me.

Let me, let me show you how I’ve changed

Now I want to hold your hands,

And dance with the world, stare at the sun

Don’t say stupid words.

All the old dross of yesterday

Have been pushed downstairs,

I eluded the gibbet, now I just need your “yes”

The baptism will be completed.

 

Just when I saw leaves falling

I believed they died

Just I when I saw you laughing I forgot my doubts

And then the lights were darker,

Darker than the last night

And things became too clear.

There’s nothing in this life

To describe with a single word,

We’ve enjoyed the sunlight,

We’ve been in the fog,

I won’t define us with firmness,

But I will tell with firmness

That firmness isn’t good.

When I embraced you tightly

Early in the night,

I saw so clear

That was the meaning of life,

Oh girl, somewhere in me

I am believing

In all those things, still.

Try not to touch the memories,

Keep them like now

Or time will ride on you,

Oh, somehow, let the door open,

Today we are broken

But tomorrow never knows.

Life can be long,

But life seemed so short

When I heated death,

When I was in love

Now it’s like a duel

And I’m not feeling

I’ve got to be fast.

Who’s going to love you

When I’ll be gone,

When the nights be longer,

And you be alone

They say you are a raven

And I tell them: no, boys,

She’s a black dove.

Who’s going to love you

When I’ll be gone,

When the nights be longer,

And you be alone

They say you are a raven

And I tell them: no, boys,

She’s a black dove.

Well, it all has been my fault,

So I’ve decided to go,

I’ll change my name, I’ll change my style,

I’ll go back to my father’s ranch.

We have been strangers,

Though I gave you my map

Where I had marked the places

Where I feel when you touch.

So now, as the sun goes down

I jump to my old horse.

Spurs are moaning

And the desert is my home.

The spikes of corn

are waving with the wind,

the rocks are quite hostile

but I’ll try to sleep there.

Author's Comments

Jason Drylix is a character my friend and I invented years ago: an American singer-songwriter who was Black with naturally blond hair and played blues and folk. References to him had already popped up in some earlier albums (Radio RARO and Haberdashery); here I decided to imagine a full compilation of his “best” songs, arranged chronologically from his beginnings in the 1950s all the way to the 1990s, when he mysteriously disappears.