Get all 29 Walter Ehresman releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of That's How A Fable Starts (single), Cassandra, Cursed, My Back Pages, Revisited (With No Blonde), Songs From the Crux, Global Search Party, South of the Wall, The Best of.....Songs of Possibilities, The Best of..........the Weird Ones, and 21 more.
1. |
Blue-Eyed Devils
06:33
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Blue-Eyed Devils
(© 2014 Walter Ehresman)
My eyes, they multiply across the firmament
--the better to see you, again;
My ways, they permeate the color of your skin
--you'll no longer be "you," my friend.
Constant exposure across the aether waves
brings saturation to a culture you can't save;
Your friction just delays you doing things our way (with a flash of light).
[chorus]
Blue-eyed devils proudly kicking down the door;
Blue-eyed devils with a force you can't ignore;
Your family cowers as you wait for the encore (with a flash of light).
My hands, they slip beneath the blouse of privacy
--the better to feel you, again;
My greed, it eats away every wall of sovereignty
--the better to use you, my friend.
You've seen the way we treat the masses of our own—
that should tell you something 'bout the hand that holds the stone;
Your needs are swallowed by the reach of the blast zone (with a flash of light).
[chorus]
[chorus#2]
Blue-eyed devils sing their hymns pitched at a roar;
Blue-eyed devils calculate the final score;
Your family cowers as you wait for the encore (with a flash of light).
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2. |
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A Big Day For the Lizards
(© 1989 Walter Ehresman)
It was a big day for the lizards,
as he crawled to his place on the throne.
He slithered past the honor guard;
Benediction with a long forked-tongue.
The front row is the donor list–
smiling only if a reptile could smile;
Puff adders in the owner’s box,
and spitting cobras riding big crocodiles.
Komodos in the limo
(those seats, you know we’ll never get clean);
Gila monsters down on K Street,
making deals to feed on you and on me.
The carnage getting thicker now,
the bodies piling up to our knees;
It’s feeding time all the time [repeat]
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3. |
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When You Turn (One Foot in the Elephant Dung)
(© 2011 Walter Ehresman)
I didn’t see the coming of the train;
I didn’t see the filter in your brain;
You put me on the outs–
with the scowl, the frowns, the pouts–
and I’ll never see your brighter side again.
It’s like there is a switch inside your head
that breaks off when you go from green to red;
I was too transfixed to go,
so I stayed and watched the show,
now I’m dented by the cruelty you said.
[chorus]
When you turn
–Everything I say is wrong;
When you turn
–You won’t listen to my song;
You done put me in the box,
with no chance to pick the locks;
Ripped my heart up with the hammer and the tongs.
I didn’t see the changing of the guard;
I didn’t know the girl could be so hard;
Must have been there from the start–
just another fickle heart–
the X-ray specs you sat on, now in shards.
Now I sit here, ruminatin’ on the day
when your bucketful of love just went away;
And I wouldn’t want it back–
now I’ve climbed down off your rack–
and there really isn’t fuck-all more to say.
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4. |
Now What?
05:40
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Now What?
(© 2013 Walter Ehresman)
If a little knowledge is a dangerous thing,
then what happens when you peek behind the curtain?
If all your questions about The Hand of Man
are now answered, are you glad to be certain?
It tore me apart from the time I was small—
wonderin’ why people do what they do;
But with dots all connected and motives sussed out,
I feel prisoned in the face of what’s true.
[chorus]
Now what do we do when our hope bows and bends like the camel with that last piece of straw?
When a lifetime of seein’ how the pieces all fit to form a picture of tooth and of claw?
I just want to be happy, but I don’t want to be blind;
It’s so hard to dance forward with this weight on my mind.
Well, you see them old movies with detectives that drink,
and right now I know just how they feel;
‘cause when look under stones and you dig up old graves,
you best be ready when the scenes get too real.
It tore me apart from the time I was small—
wonderin’ why people do what they do;
But with dots all connected and motives sussed out,
I feel prisoned in the face of what’s true.
[chorus]
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5. |
10 Cent Patriots
03:42
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10 Cent Patriots
(© 2014 Walter Ehresman)
He screams to “Save the Babies!”, but he’s brutal with his kids;
He hangs those teabags from his hat, and tightens up his fists;
And he doesn’t think of details, when his eyes roll back to red
--and his life is fits of rage.
She proudly walks two steps behind, just like the pastor said;
She pulls the lever to the right; lies passive in the bed;
And she wave the flag-stained package deal, with all the family
--and her life is fields unsown.
[chorus]
Won’t you tell me what all this means to you,
when you strip away the volume and the sneer?
Are there words there in your Bible about “love your fellow man”?
Are there words down in your logic about corporate greed and fear?
Are there notions in your pride about you being such a sucker
for those think tank boys downtown?
Please turn around.
[break]
One-stop hateful “isms” are so easy to digest, with all the
kids home soon from practice, and the house in such a mess;
and with the herd all going one way out there in the neighborhood,
and when every force upon your life just wants you to be good
--if by “good” you mean “the same.”
They’ve fallen in there way too deep to ask these questions now;
They’ll ride this string out to the end and then they’ll wonder how
they’ve ended up out on the street for all the world to see
--with no net to catch their fall.
[chorus #2]
Won’t you tell me what all this means to you,
when you strip away the volume and the sneer?
Are there words there in your Bible about “love your fellow man”?
Are there words down in your logic about corporate greed and fear?
Are there notions in your pride about you being such a sucker
for those think tank boys downtown?
for those PR flacks downtown?
Please turn around.
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6. |
Holding Pattern
03:30
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Holding Pattern
(© 2012 Walter Ehresman)
Circling, tenuous;
Failing to progress;
My dreams are a loop,
sleeping under the medicine ball;
And I crawl..........learning to walk again.
Uncharted mapspace,
I don’t know this place,
“Here be monsters” they say,
with a fanciful artifice.
I’ll make my way–
piercing this spider-silk wall;
I’ll be ok–
southward from Tammany Hall.
Waiting and garrulous,
I must confess that
the call of tomorrow
can surely bewitch and enthrall;
And I crawl..........learning to walk again.
Update the mandate
and slow down the pace;
Try that social reset,
and a new point of view, and then
I’ll make my way–
piercing this spider-silk wall;
I’ll be ok–
southward from Tammany Hall.
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7. |
Reduction
07:26
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Reduction
(© 2013 Walter Ehresman)
Draw lines, one more time,
through faraway
ghosts of friendships fallen through a crack in time;
Goodbye,
Goodbye.
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8. |
A Ghost of Myself
06:42
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A Ghost of Myself
(©2012 Walter Ehresman)
I am a ghost of myself; the guest unuprooted whose grasp of the uptake has gotten too slow.
An echo of someone who once thought of chances; a flicker of something that left long ago.
The grains in the glass spin the wheel one more turn;
The answers are paid for with silence to burn.
My gravity heavy, like planets more massive;
My skin won’t cool down, and I feel lost in transit.
The edges gone grey, and they lack definition;
And old pleasures now patterns of rote repetition.
–stare the night
–as I’m haunting myself;
–you can see it, my friend
–as you greet someone else;
–and I know that my time is fading
–or already gone;
–but the song, and the music, play on.
So I turn out the lights, and I listen to Sandy–
her voice from the place where no one can find me;
My eyelids feel heavy, but sleep doesn’t live here;
The weight bears me down, and I fall through the aether.
Ain’t it strange how the imprints from youth won’t extinguish;
The cold psychic toll lingers on to the finish.
–stare the night
–as I’m haunting myself;
–you can see it, my friend
–as you greet someone else;
–and I know that my time is fading
–or already gone;
–but the song, and the music, play on.
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9. |
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Wayne's Lengthy Ablutions
(©2014 Walter Ehresman)
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Walter Ehresman San Miguel De Allende, Mexico
Called "the quintessential Austin DIY artist" by famed local disc jockey Charlie Martin , Walter Ehresman was an eccentric presence in the Austin music scene from the '80s until his 2015 move to Mexico. A prolific songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and recording artist...and a restless musical spirit, always looking for something new, expressed with fearlessly honest, socially-conscious lyrics. ... more
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