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SAYS POP

by Roman Candle

/
1.
hey child it's a quarter to four you know it took a little time with my head on the floor before i understood why i needed to find the door. Summer's here to rattle ceiling fans a lot of people leaning up against the moving vans - you know there's pollen on the bottles laying in the garbage cans. Well the wind is hot and all the leaves are green and now i'm reading what you say on the computer screen, but i knew that this was coming back when we were seventeen I don't want anybody saying don't look back i'm not going to go to pieces when i ride around this town. the things you've done have made me what i am and that's catching the bus and half singing the tears of a clown. so we can walk around and we can laugh all night it's hard to fit a lot of years in a friday night    cause there always seems to be something left to say well we got a little money and we took a drive we broke down flat on the M25 after freshman year, they say you're lucky to be alive well you can be asured that we were not the first to look across that parking lot and put a curse on any space and time that brings and end to May. Try to fall in love, try to get control you try to find a little bit of that in rock and roll and that's almost enough when there's nothing that you know to say. I don't want anybody saying don't look back i'm not going to go to pieces when i ride around this town. the things you've done have made me what i am and that's catching the bus and half singing the tears of a clown. so we can walk around and we can laugh all night it's hard to fit a lot of years in a friday night cause there always seems to be something left to say.
2.
Three men in a bank turn to locking up the doors - blocked off by the police in the road. They don't know trouble like i do in being twenty-two and knowing you. The only difference between me and them is they've got somewhere to go. Sorry if i'm talking too much, it's been a busy time of year and you look like somebody that might understand. Well I've been seeing all the things that people like to forget with a brandy glass and a cigarette. it takes a toll on the body if you can't find a helping hand. Well I know you'd understand if you would Help me if you can, because i'm looking out for a baby and i just might try to make a baby out of you. Some people fall in love and some people go to jail and some folks sit alone listening to Blood on the Tracks. I punched a man this morning with a badge in his hand selling candy bars for the Civitan, so some folks are going to have to stop knocking on your door before ten. Please apologize to him if you can Help me if you can, because i'm looking out for a baby, and i just might try to make a baby out of you. Now won't you let me be an honest man and let me talk to you like a lady, and we just might find ourselves putting on some traveling shoes.
3.
As the night comes in, I watch the buildings out the window start to fade. There's people down by the street that knew this neighborhood before the bricks were laid. If they couldn't get away in a car, I guess they walked to the bar, and ordered up a rum and lemonade. It gets me thinking about just passing time and trying to get by, leaning out the window just to listen to the sirens go by. You don't belong to this world so many people are coming on strong I won't belong to this world, not if I belong to you. Some kid is playing guitar down by the subway while i'm waiting for your train he cocks his eyes round about and rolls a toothpick in his mouth and sings out "you don't have to stand in the rain," then a noise from down the tracks turns my distractions to verbs and as the cars come to a stop i watch you step to the curb. You don't belong to this world so many people are coming on strong we don't belong to this world, now that I belong to you.
4.
When you see a roadside bar or an old button down with a cigarette scar think of me babe, cause i'll be thinking of you. It's not that you'll know where i'm at, i won't be calling up your house or nothing like that, i'm an old man now, and thinkings what I do. i took my car this morning, going to get new shocks, i saw a woman out watering her winodw box and a couple of kids, i thought could have been you and me. Something sparked up in my brain to tell you the truth, i bought a box of raisins and a baby ruth and sat down on the curb - twelve o'clock turned into three. I can't explain your touch by saying "baby's got it in the genes," well girl that don't amount to much, but it sells a lot of magazines. Living without you, well it ain't so bad i got a memory of you i didn't know i had, and it's rattling around, being called back out of the deep. I'll be the first one to tell you not much can last, but i knew that full well before you came and past so why are you on my mind, tonight, when i'm trying to sleep? Cause I can't explain your touch by saying "baby's got it in the genes," well girl that don't account for much, but it sells a lot of magazines. So if you sit down heavy with your pen and ink or you're talking to yourself while your scrubbing the sink, well then talk to me girl, cause that's when i'm talking to you.
5.
WINTERLIGHT 03:51
Monday evening sun is shining, stripes of light come through the blinds across the floor Walking down the sidewalk, Christmas wreathes are hanging out from the liqour store. Pretty soon, that old muddy snow out on the way is going to turn into June, and folks will start thinking about their wedding day. Those holly leaves on the doorway girl, are just as green at Christmas as they are in June and it might be a little rough to the touch, but that's the kind of loving i want to give to you. So where do we go when we're feeling like we're leaving all the places that we miss so much? When we're looking for a summer and a steering wheel that's too hot to touch? cover up tight. you've got a winterlight. There's something about those bare-limbed months that get me thinking about promises that i can't forget. Flowers then are hard to find, the winter limbs like wires behind a busted tv set will teach you things about absence and passing away. The robin sings, but doesn't start until the middle of May. So where do we go when we're feeling like we're leaving all the places that we miss so much? When we're looking for a summer and a steering wheel that's too hot to touch? cover up tight. we've got a winterlight.
6.
SOOKIE 05:21
i know this time i really got us into a problem and i know the times that you were only trying to help me out if i could find you alone you know i don't even know what i could say to you but that don't stop me from wanting you to hear me out you'd be surprised you know i'm sleeping out on the sidewalk and i've been kicked out of every church in town i'd ask where to find you but these days i'm trying not to talk cause it won't be long before your mama's going to hunt me down i know i've got some work to do i've never walked this far before i hitch a ride from town to town just hoping i might end up at your door when i think of or room, i hardly feel my blisters i feel my pulse start up when the horizon is turning pink believe it or not, i even sometimes miss my sisters when i'm on the needle or i've had too much to drink ain't nobody want to talk to you here unless you say your name is lady-o Lord knows i've even wished i had a little shelter there my preacher friend told me there's an APB out on the radio... looks like tonight i'm going to sleep out under the air i know there's going to be work to do i've never walked this far before i'm under some bridge right now just hoping i might end up one night at your door 
7.
I wish i was in NY this morning sitting all alone the sun on central park in my eyes and the pigeons on a savings and loan. I wish in was in NY this morning drinking from a paper cup. robusta beans and fashion magazines and people everytime you look up. I'd go right out tonight. I'd probably take the bus right down to St. Patricks Cathedral  and light a candle for us. Well i never thought we'd build our love of rags and bones and nails, i know sometimes my words come out like empty shotgun shells. But i shave my face step over the laundry in the stairs. it's that time of year, for watching comets in the air. I wish i was in NY this morning sitting all by myself in the land where father and son relations just deepen like a coastal shelf. I'd go right out tonight. I'd probably take the bus right down to St. Patricks Cathedral and light a candle for us. I know everybody's looking for something. a piston's holding out for a spark. but i'm not waiting on nothing if i'm walking the sidewalks after dark. I wish i was in NY this morning sitting all alone the sun on central park in my eyes and the pigeons on a savings and loan.
8.
Looking through the windshield, everything is lightening Ash colored two lane in tow, highway lines are heightening But i've been driving all night, wondering what to do cause i've got miles of county lines before i'm through the fog on the offramps is thin, exit signs are turning green Empty cup off coffee in the floorboard, i can feel it in my bloodstream a transfer truck is moving lanes way up ahead red tail-lights blink i start to think i'm going to find a bed. the sun comes and goes through the trees like notes making a minor chord Defrost almost animates the dust across the dashboard the sun reflected light projected all i see is flashing like a filmstrip right in front of me.
9.
I walked down Myrtle avenue to meet my sister for some company. and she said she heard my other half had escaped from penitentiary. Well i got home about nine a.m. and somebody had changed the locks. i walked outside and spent three months sleeping in a buick that was up on blocks. maybe there's nothing left to do, i've tried to kill myself, i've tried to sing about you, they say the only way to win a mama's girl is with praise... well maybe not today cause it's another summer not having you here to hold me it's another sunset not knowing where you're at and i know better baby than to say nobody told me, so if you're lying down next to another, then girl i tip my hat. I walked down to my sister's house and told her my true love was gone. She told me she was going to walk up in the hills and get a mountain girl all her own. well she left town that afternoon and put her house keys on the shelf. nobody knows but i followed her trail and pushed her off a cliff myself. maybe there's nothing left to say, it could've been a little much to treat family that way they say the only way to win a mama's girl is with style... well i can try it for a while cause its another summer not having you here to hold me. it's a another sunset not knowing where you're at and i know better baby than to say nobody told me, so if you're lying down next to another, then girl i tip my hat.
10.
11.
MERCIFUL MAN 03:41
I guess i might start walking back past the fenced in pontiacs like a lover waiting to be reconciled there's a couple up ahead above a laugh the woman said "nothing lasts like the memory of a child" But oh i hear the footsteps below a girl with a soldier late walking home If only my eyes know the truth then i have seen better days then youth maybe this time moves in horizontal lines. Cause i'm a passenger in the van maybe i can be a merciful man i feel the hot air sound of tongues and i've got London in my lungs and i'm feeling like a sketch of a roller coaster car with the vinyl foam and tar waiting uphill for the chain to catch. And oh i hear footsteps below a bottle across the pavement and the quiet voices go
12.
Up here, the cities patterned like the flights are quiet blazing clusters now at rest; Streets of parked cars, curtains pulled, little nests of potential goings on reduced to lights. The city manufactured golds and whites that substitute for color faded west limit eyes beneath them to see at best only a star or two on moonless nights. The scattered towns burning up and down like a candle and sleepy heads put out like a wet cigarette - my own sleepy head is more than i can handle, but those tangled grids of light are more than i can forget. Well the sky to the ground, it almost looks like a mirror. "almost" i say, cause it ain't hard to tell which is which: one's measured when a black hole / pole star bends light nearer to itself one's measured when a body is looking up from a ditch. There's a feeling in my mind that's either fire or fire forever for now and I can tell you friend, the only home i've known is consuming desiring and always burning out somehow in a bed of stars half charted here below*** I've got the turn signal clicking with the highhat on the radio, there's an antique voice fixing to sing to me soft and low it's like Dante and subways and words left in the air, you've got to go underground if you want to get anywhere.

about

This is the original album given a limited release in 2002 by outlook music company, recorded, arranged and mixed by roman candle in their Wilkesboro, NC basement over 3 weeks in 2001.

credits

released May 22, 2002

All songs written, arranged and produced by Skip, Logan and Timshel Matheny. Engineered, recorded, and mixed by roman candle and Mike Matheny at Triple Cove Studios (Wilkesboro, NC).

"Merciful Man" recorded by Nate Snell and roman candle at NE Monroe (Portland, OR) with additional guitars by Keegan Dewitt and Nate Snell.

Mastered by Andy Vandette at Masterdisk in New York, NY

Artwork: Timshel Matheny

originally released on outlook records (may 2002)

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