Adieu, False Heart

by Bill Foreman

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about

Recorded live in studio, guitar and vocal.

credits

released 01 July 2009
Bill Foreman, guitar and vocal.

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tags: alternative acoustic americana folk folk-rock lo-fi rock solo traditional San Diego

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Track Name: Cheap Liquor
You got a lot of nerve to keep serving cheap liquor to me
I got a bad song coming and I’ll sing it from the witness tree
And they’re saying this time I took it too far
I got a set of bloody knuckes and a dented car
You got a lotta nerve to keep serving cheap liquor to me

You got a mean mind to keep running my good name down
When you were robbing me blind and you took off out of town
And when I hear any telephone calling
I’m bawling and shouting your name at the walls
You got a mean mind to keep running my good name down

You got a lot of gall to be bringing up charges on me
When you call up the constable, threatening lock and key
But you can serve up your subpoena papers
I’ll still be be escaping to the street below
You got a lot of gall to be bringing up charges on me

You give a lot of grief when you ’re leaving your letters behind
I can hear the clock ticking and I’m gone out of a healthy mind
I could torch this one-room apartment then watch
The whole block steal away in smoke
You give a lot of grief when you’re leaving your letters behind

You got a lot of nerve to keep serving cheap liquor to me
Tell me who does it serve when we’re dishing up misery
Yes if you’re thinking of drinking two-fisted
You’re sinking down in the same hole I’m in
You got a lotta nerve to keep serving cheap liquor to me
Track Name: South Carolina
When I was in jail that weekend in Kansas City
You came to see me but let me stew those couple days
It was a form of kindness, true, and in its way it got me through
But it’s only now I’m seeing things that way

I can’t believe there’s still a state called South Carolina
Or that when driving through it I’m subject to its laws
I read the Civil War was won but it clearly isn’t done
And it’s giving me a sorely-needed pause

It’s not hard to fall afoul of local ordinances
When they don’t tell you what the law is until you break it
I can’t depend upon the kindness of each stranger that I meet
And there’s just so much I’ll take until I can’t take it

When I hit Pittsburg and I called you from that pay phone
The background noise you heard had nothing to do with me
I was a spectator at best but it still led to my arrest
And for three days and nights they threw away the key

It’s not hard to fall afoul of local ordinances
When they don’t tell you what the law is until you break it
I can’t depend upon the kindness of each stranger that I meet
And there’s just so much I’ll take until I can’t take it

And if you’d take back my truck
My solitude and my bad luck
I swear that I would take you back with me
Track Name: The Rich Part of Town
Every town has a rich part of town
But I sure won’t be living in it
They can slaughter me with a shiv
But I won’t jump up on their bandwagon
And if it seems it’s dragging me down
You’d better check your misapprehension
I don’t need that social tension around me
And burdening my head

If those bastards should beg forgiveness of sin
I’ll deny it with vigor
My heart’s bigger than a basketball
But it’s pumping out venom this afternoon
And as sure as those swirling vultures above
Got their eyes on those stock brokers
Those jokers won’t look me straight in the face
When they discreetly avoid me

Every town has a rich part of town
But I sure won’t be living in it
They can slaughter me with a shiv
But I won’t jump up on their bandwagon
And if it seems it’s dragging me down
You’d better check your misapprehension
I don’t need that social tension around me
And burdening my head

I’ll dispose of those sage opinions
That litter the opinion pages
Burn that kindling into a blaze
Because I’m not biting that bait
My gait’s out of place on those sidewalks
I stroll in intimidation
My presence calls up any number of feelings
That deal indirectly

Every town has a rich part of town
But I sure won’t be living in it
They can slaughter me with a shiv
But I won’t jump up on their bandwagon
And if it seems it’s dragging me down
You’d better check your misapprehension
I don’t need that social tension around me
And burdening my head

I’ve got half a mind to retreat
On some path through some forest flowers
But the hour’s too late and I’d hate it
If I didn’t leave a fresh mark here
But I know when I stroll these gallery streets
Leaving lines and fluorescent colors
When I sign my name it'll stick
In the head of each passing policeman

Every town has a rich part of town
But I sure won’t be living in it
They can slaughter me with a shiv
But I won’t jump up on their bandwagon
And if it seems it’s dragging me down
You’d better check your misapprehension
I don’t need that social tension around me
And burdening my head
Track Name: Needs to Improve
I’m at my best when I keep my mouth shut
And it’s clear every time that I speak
Both behind closed doors
And also out on the floor
I get reminded at least twice a week

I was blessed with a winning smile
In any seminar, I was good as gold
But I drowned in the detail
I had to master working retail
Regardless of the things that I sold

I’d never have guessed
I’d be this dulled and depressed
I’d been told I’d been blessed with a mind
And no benefits can offset
My waking dreams and regret
And how my stomach’s as upset all the time

The first week I felt rage
But I can’t turn back this page
It gets easier with age I’m advised
My service needs improving
To keep the economy moving
And to light up my vacant brown eyes

I can take my teeth grinding nightly
And a constant low level feeling ill
Yes I can play this part
And take this beating to heart
I’m going to drink myself over the hill
Track Name: God Help the Passers-By
If I had my druthers
I'd blow a hole in our TV
And for a minute I'd feel free
Until the boredom crept in and got a hold on me
One of these days I'm gonna make my way
Out to the sidewalk and away I'll go
In the paper you'll see my picture
And hear my name on the radio

I'll bring my little old pistol
When I walk down that avenue
And as I whistle this tune about you
I'm gonna earn me a reputation
For too long a time I've had a clouded mind
As daily business gets the best of me
I'll clear out my head and these sidewalks
And I'll shake up these sleepy streets

If you don't hear from me tonight and not tomorrow
Change the locks and change your number on your phone
And if somebody had some money I might borrow
I'd buy a funeral suit and make my way back home

God help the passers-by
Who get a glance at my twinkling eye
They'll spend their lifetimes wondering why
When they're living the answer
And in my face they'll see reflections
Of their friends and their enemies too
Like in your mind you'll see me smiling
And in the cop's face I'll see you

If you don't hear from me tonight and not tomorrow
Change the locks and change your number on your phone
And if somebody had some money I might borrow
I'd buy a funeral suit and make my way back home
And if somebody had some money I might borrow
I'd buy a funeral suit and make my way back home
Track Name: Montgomery Street
I came into this world as if left upon a doorstep
I’ll exit it in turn without record of my stay
On Montgomery Street one midnight I was robbed and I was beaten
I spent six hours in the stairwell until the car took me away

I was stitched and splinted up and spent two days inside the shelter
Then I went to wander out and took my place upon the streets
All along the avenue I shambled and I squatted
Soon my clots would fade away and on my corner I would sleep

Someone took me by my hand as he handed me a meal
By my habit I withdrew mine, and I covered up my eyes
Tonight I’m curled on my corner but I can’t slip into sleeping
I’m looking at my hands with heavy memories in my mind

When I was young I’d take a bottle and I’d fade into etherea
And with my liver giving out I should let that habit die
But when so many faces pass and never look me in my eyeballs
I’ll fade without regard to whether I am doused or dry

I came into this world without a penny in my pocket
And I’ll exit in my time without a penny to my name
Like the one I sleep beside tonight when no-one comes to claim him
And like the businessmen and lawyers who each exit just the same
Track Name: Making Money and Taking Life
Some days
When I look down
I feel a pulling
Draw me toward the ground
I come back
Into the present tense
Take my big tip
To devise a defense
Cutting care and cutting cost
Ensures against a quarterly loss

To shareholder’s meetings
I bring rosy tint
I hide the Devil
In the fine print
In suits unsettled
On claims denied
Smokescreens and ruses
When our witnesses lied
But I feel my weakening seams
In lost moments and fleeting dreams

Of this office
And this town
Let there be no defense
Should riots come down
And I’ll raise
My bloody hands
I’ll stumble outside
Without exit plans
The Law’s a subtle knife
Making money and taking life

I meet each gaze
And send it back
It keeps my accounts
Inside the black
But it seems
A tightening toll
To keep composure
Watching tears roll
But my money’s gone to red from green
When I look clearly at this sickening scene

Of this office
And this town
Let there be no defense
Should riots come down
And I’ll raise
My bloody hands
I’ll stumble outside
Without exit plans
The Law’s a subtle knife
Making money and taking life

Whether I lay
On some flowery deathbed
Or a victim’s pistol
Bursts the back of my head
I’ll give up the ghost
And concede defeat
Then hungrily wander
Upon Grant Street
The Law’s a subtle knife
Making money and taking life

Of this office
And this town
Let there be no defense
Should riots come down
And I’ll raise
My bloody hands
I’ll stumble outside
Without exit plans
The Law’s a subtle knife
Making money and taking life
Track Name: Witness by Proxy
I can feel my bronchia burning
Every time my husband barbeques
And my stomach recommences churning
At the start of the evening news
I close my eyes and those airplanes fly
Through my windows and out my doors
And those towers still burn on my front lawn
After six years and two unfinished wars

An attack on one is an attack on all
And it’s in this that I’m defined
This misery’s a heavy burden
But this misery is mine
I’ll swear on six tons of melted steel
That it’s as if I’d stood at the scene
Between the television, the radio, and the papers
And when my cousin called from Queens

My neighbors’ flag on their car’s gone tattered
But they don’t recognize it’s personal
Their sleep’s not interrupted by pictures
Of Manhattan hospitals
And if some days there’s tears that streak my cheeks
When I’m out in public spaces
It’s gratitude that motivates me
And my still vivid memory of falling faces