We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Replacement Things

by David Newberry

/
1.
You fall out of your dress and ask: what is it good for? You drift asleep but far too fast. what is it good for? You tumble from your chair and laugh. what is it good for? You set your life on fire again. Dreaming: what is it good for? What I found in barren bottles bearing witness to remorse Is no laughing matter but we laughed it off of course We live our Elvis years with lamps smashed on the floor If I was honest I’m not honest anymore Frozen outside the bank again. what is it good for? Sweat melting letters through your hand. what is it good for? As if it’s them that stopped your plans. what is it good for? The water takes what’s made of sand. CHORUS Climb out from under mess and ask: what is it good for? They rang alarms but way too fast what is it good for? Yeah, the brick was barely through the glass. what is it good for? You could fled, you shoulda ran. Dreaming: what is it good for? CHORUS (if we were honest we’re not honest anymore). You find the Courage. And I will be there.
2.
Coyote 04:50
Never was much for regrets. Where is all this coming from? Drove the tent pegs in as deep as they could go, and got a sliver from the hammer’s swing. Took out the map, took out the map, took out the compas, And said 20k that way is the town that we are looking for. There isn’t much left, they say, just an old caretaker. And a couple kids who were born there, couldn’t bring themselves to leave. I gotta know if you’ll be waiting for me. Never was much for settling down. The sound passes from one side of the teeth to the other side of the teeth. Walk silently left in front of right while daylight gets chased off. Can’t turn back, can’t turn back, took out the compas, And said “if we keep going we could make it there by nightfall” Halfway up the ridge we came upon a skeleton, Of what looked like a fox, but it could have been a coyote. I gotta know if you’ll be waiting for me. It could drive a person mad, all this guessing work. Are you drawing maps in there? Or hey, what are you doing? The light’s on. The lights’s on. Someone must be home. The light’s on. Someone else is in there I know. Never was much for shutting up. Dreams of a good night’s rest get shuttered out till morning. Okay, let’s dig for the history here. We’ll find out everything. We’ll make bad guesses, make bad guesses for the future. We’ll put it back. We’ll put it back, take out the compas, Just to find that North is still North, no matter what we do to it. Try to change the answers, by running from the rules. It has never worked before, I don’t know why we try again. I gotta know if you’ll be waiting for me.
3.
We don't go into battle just to give up on the fight. But from the lay of the waterline, it looks like something ain't right. You're gonna need a diamond, if you want a diamond ring. We're just looking for replacements, to replace replacement things. They boarded up the windows, where the river got too mean. Built the gates to keep the families, from the trenches on Main Street. You find safety in the suburbs, where you take your pretty feet. And where you sealed your own fate, with your lips upon my cheek. There will always be a river. It will always rise in spring. We all make our own undoing, with every little thing. Yeah I sang the things I sang. Yeah I said the things I said. I fall in love with all the singers too, but I don't take'em off to bed. All this money that we're digging, digging right out of the sand. It can't be piled high enough, to keep the consequence from land. There will always be a river. It will always rise in spring. We all make our own undoing, with every little thing. The levees just delay our fate. We moved the earth until the weather changed. Footprints we left upon the mud that day. The river rose up and then washed away. There will always be a river. It will always rise in spring. We all make our own undoing, with every little thing. There will always be a river. It will always rise in spring. We're just searching for replacements, to replace replacement things. (x2)
4.
After every circumstance; every love; and every dance; every platitude that's drifted from our painted lips. The ships of these ideas set to sea. For their own eternity. If only we could learn to breathe, surely we would learn something sweet. But I am getting pretty tired of the radio. They're always talking about our twisted dreams. Something has gone sidewise, through a loophole at the gun show, We used to be such tiny pretty things. Place an armed guard at the library. Settle all your debts of the flesh. Ask the walking dead for a dimebag. Ask the walk-in clinic for some Percocet. Remember when we laid our hands upon the alter? To ask for anything that all that wasn't what we had? No one anticipates their fall / attends their own funeral. No one who watches this happen deserves to laugh. I am getting pretty tired of the radio. They're just reporting on all our shiny dreams. Something has gone wrong, come out the front door of a sideshow. We've learned to love such wicked, wicked things. All the mathematics; All the little rhymes; All the learning to assemble (at the sound of bells) in lines; All the schoolyard fisticuffs; All the little crush; Burried by a culture that isn't good enough. All the choir practices; All the memorizing lines; All the dreams of wrigley field; They're just a waste of time. I'm so tired of the radio. They're always talking about our wicked dreams. Something has gone sidewise, through a loophole at the gun show, We used to be such tiny pretty things.
5.
Counting the time shadows fell on that wall Notching the post each time I come to call Shutting the curtains when daylight would fall Drawing on fragments instead of it all I’m reminded of all the ways you unravelled While the world watched the pieces fall in How the rest of my days I’ll remain in your shadow Stuck contemplating the original sin Oh I used to believe in the process. I’d say “It’ll work out in the end.” I’ve lined up to vote. Yeah I’ve lost every time. And I don’t want to be your friend. I didn’t invent this - this serpentine thing. And I did not dream this - this secular dream. And if I’ve idealized, I’m not sure I realized. The edge where the flawless becomes the obscene So good riddance to all of these bare winter trees They were dead when I got, they’ll be dead when I flee And when summertimes brings nights that don’t close out so fast. You’ll be landlocked. And ______. And living in the past. CHORUS I want to hold on to the notion that I invented the way you look me in the eye But I know, that these moments belie, the manners bedsides on which we rely. I grew up in basements on sundays, With folks telling stories about love and I want to to have faith in them. I try to hold on. You keep proving me wrong. You keep kicking me out of those sheets that you’re sleeping in. And wake up, and get out, and act like there’s hope. Like defeat is just one other way we can cope. But you can’t tell me how and you won’t tell me why. And you ask me to leave. Then invite me inside. CHORUS
6.
Lost in the content, or slipped from its grasp? I came here looking for an audience, Now I’m hiding from anyone who asks. Up above the hotel As if no one there could see you You follow in my footsteps, And echo “take me to a bed” They bought up the river that they sold us down More of a joke I think then a scam. Thought you were safe Thought you were strong Thought you were righteous You thought wrong You would keep it in your sight Till you thought it right… to not. In the shadows of the campfire As if no one there could see you As if there’s any secrets It this lit up pit of song That terrifying night when I learned you live your life Like a riddle you never want to solve.
7.
Aftermath 04:37
You've got an old heart, and it's heavy on the aftermath. It is your favourite part, it is your Cadillac. You think everybody suffers, because everybody asks The wrong kind of questions, about the aftermath. You've got a secret, hidden in the bottom of your tool box. You'll tell the undertaker about it in your contract talks. You think everybody always thinks everybody's wrong. We offered you some choices, and you walked. You can make it more than an allegory. But the pen that's on the page is the one that writes the story. Oh you got a little older, and there ain't that much to say. And if you had all of the answers, you must have given them all away. Is it coming through? Or is it all just nonsense? All the memories are true, they're just out of context. This afternoon, when you were digging through your closets, Was it after you, or were you after it? When the car crashed, I guess something had to give. They said it was the morphine drip that made you want to live. There is an easy way out of every situation we just can't know where it leads. There was a forest out there somewhere, but you couldn't see it for the fallen trees. You're made of old parts, and they're heavy on the aftermath. If you got one regret I bet it was dying from a heart attack. You think everybody wonders, but, no, everybody knows. We all make choices, and it shows. Chorus
8.
Observer 05:19
You are all around me (haunting through these halls). Come in. Come in. Come in. (quit knocking 'round my walls). I wanna backslide with you. You're a chameleon. You could be anything. The Nausea is from the booze, but the fear is from the sobering. You're putting bars up in your windows (I'm putting bars up in my windows too). And while you're paying off your dealer, I'm dropping food into the pens of the lions at the zoo. There is a rabbit inside of my hat (it was a magic trick), what did you think of that? I never should have come back. It was an after thought. It was a heart attack. It just took a little time to figure out. That the voice was coming from inside of my mouth. And in the aftershocks of earthquakes in which feet come through the door: I don't want to be an observer anymore. You're after something (that maybe I can live without). Come in, I want you here (I need you for my doubts). But even tourists can get the blues, and even body parts can make the afternoon news. I want to run! I want to lose! I want the courage that it takes to break the rules! CHORUS I woke up on the side of the road. You are in my dreams. I am in your gold. I hope you like me in your home. Because the locks won't keep the doors closed. No matter what you are, this difference bears your name. No matter what you do, regrets are on their way. You're a deadman once you are free. You are a metaphor for everything. I want what you're offering. (It is meaningless? It is certainty?) CHORUS
9.
I swear I just saw Freddie Mercury. Oh but these days I’ve seen a lot of things. I thought that I might never see. Like that Unicorn on St. Denis. We begged the landlord for another shot. Either we’ll work it out or we will not. Now I’m making phone calls when you’re fast asleep. Borrowing money from your family. CHORUS Like out in front of that hotel down on St. Dennis. Sometimes you think you know your friends. You think they’ll be there for you where the sidewalk ends. But no, they just wanna peel you to your underpants. And then complain about their wedding plans. CHORUS Like in that bedroom up on eighteen street. We’re all born into a world. It makes so little sense. It’s like we’re begging for a attention from a razor wire fence. I begged the liar for a magazine. He dug one out it had a shot of me doing something I should not have been. But I just had to try that on the trampoline. CHORUS Like you tucking in close to me.

credits

released September 11, 2015

Produced by Jesse Gander and David Newberry
Photography and layout by Elizabeth Laing

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

David Newberry Toronto, Ontario

David Newberry sings folk music with rock sensibilities. Or is it the other way around? His increasingly noisy songs provide insights into the complex contemporary social world.

His new record 'No One Will Remember You' Was released March 6th, 2012 on Northern Electric Records.

His first album 'When We Learn The Things We Need To Learn' was released in 2010 & earned critical praise.
... more

contact / help

Contact David Newberry

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

David Newberry recommends:

If you like David Newberry, you may also like: