Pile Of Bones

Lyrics From The Euro Tour

I have been working on a novel entitled DOG PEOPLE. A lot of it is set in Europe. I was able to get some emotional and sensory work done while on the recent tour. I also wrote three sets of lyrics, or three new songs. I went to turn one of them into an actual song today and then just started writing a brand new tune. The Dog People characters were fresh on my mind from this morning’s pre-dawn jet lag work. Such is the dilemma of the attention deficit disorder creative types.

I know that I need an editor, because even these short Substack entries can get a bit messy. I try to correct the grammar and spelling errors the best I can by putting the entry into an email which has correction software in it, but I should probably get a human being or two to read this novel—and I will—to make sure that there is somewhat of a traceable path to the plot.

Anyway, here’s a fun lyric I wrote while waiting for a Spanish train, and then some on the train itself. I just typed this into the notes on my phone. Written by thumbs and a coffee fueled morning just observing things and going back in time to remember some moments of the tour. I really enjoyed my visit to Rennes Le Chateau which is a small church in the South of France that has a lot of mystery and mystic and conspiracies and such attached to it. I saw a skull and crossbones there, which you do not often see in a church, plus a devil figurine inside the church, which is of course extremely controversial. You can read about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rennes-le-Château

I wrote these lyrics a few days after visiting the church. We shall see what kind of song comes out of it. The Spanish press asked me if my songs were about running away from or towards death. The answer is a simple yes to both.

Got out of the rain in Barcelona just to hop a fast train to Zaragoza If you take a lot in you can spit a lot back out it doesn’t matter too much unless you’ve been pushing too hard and I saw the boys in Madrid with their rock & roll bands wearing camo hoodies with tattoos on their hands playing Stephanie Says with a Thin Lizzie tan they were just messing around but it took me back down to the basement in Ohio where the microphones sound like the dust in the gutter of the miracle mile all alone but you’re never alone if you can open your mind and take a look some more you will find a helping soul down every road and if you look them deep in the eye, you can see the shadows of the bones at the finish line.

I had to ramble but I’m coming back strong it’s just a gamble and a grift but you knew all along when you cross the road at midnight you can trade your licks for another day of watching the world playing tricks on the ones that stick to the worn out path from safety of cradle to the cubicle grave She wore black leather boots with the zippers down on another sunrise in another town cut off corduroy with a stripe up the back, sunglasses and a handmade bag with a rollie in her hand she was just walking with her headphones on & I wanted to ask her for the name of the song but she smiled so I knew it was the special one that made you feel like nobody could take you down she was alone but she was never alone she opened her eyes and took a good look around at all the spikes and the arrows all pointing down to the same pile of bones at the finish line.

There’s a church in the town of Sant Feliu de Guixols where the priests and the pirates stashed their money in a hole now the M6 boys got a couple of lights and a ‘58 with the ‘verb just right oh baby I want you to see what I see so I wrote it all down under the three branch tree they’re gonna take your time if you just give it away so you better get moving ‘fore they make you stay just to watch ‘em lose their mind, sweeping up another fresh pile of bones at the finish line.

What are we doing? What do we know? You can stay put here and be an angry soul I’ve got to roll on but it’s not unkind we can find each other where the rivers wind. We’re opposites but exactly the same we like to take a lot of chances then get out of the rain there’s been a lot of miles and a million poems that will be never be read under the blinking red light by the pile of bones by the side of the finish line.

It’s a million years since nineteen eighty four and I guess we didn’t want to read anymore about our old Uncle Sam and his stolen bases with his bullshit lines and his twenty faces but I’m not gonna let the bastards get me down I’ve got two hundred miles to another town I’m gonna love strong and give what I can give then go back to Kodiak where the Silvers live until they cash it all in time and join the bones at the end of the finish line. I don’t just want to glide into oblivion as we burn it all down and start up again but I can’t keep watching you bang your head so I’m gonna sit down by the river instead it’s an easy way to settle my nerves when the voices calm down I can hear all the birds and they’re always right in time singing sweet sounds, drifting over the big pile of bones by the finish line