Get all 11 David James Allen releases available on Bandcamp and save 30%.
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1. |
For The Times
04:43
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For the times,
When you were alone and feeling weary
When you needed someone
to listen to you come undone
For the times,
When you sang my praise
and I didn’t hear you
Because I was too busy hanging my head
beneath the mud
Elizabeth I’ve been wrong before
I’ve squandered light from inside our doors
Your diamonds shine in the dark of night
And your heart it shines the same.
I don’t deserve your love today.
I don’t deserve.
For the times,
When you needed me to fall unto backwards
When the roads were winding
and you needed a soft place to land
For the times,
When I broke our circle of trust in just a moment
When I was too focused on the song
and worried about the road ahead
Elizabeth I’m not keeping score
I’ve promised and I’ve lied before
Damage is done and I’ve become
A mirror of complaint
I don’t deserve your love today,
I don’t deserve
I don’t deserve your love today,
I don’t deserve
For the times,
When I’ve been done and feeling gruesome
For the times,
When you loved me through the strain
For the times,
I want to marry you and build a family
For the times ahead,
When I can shelter you from rain
For the times ahead,
When I can do for you-
What you have done for me
and be a mirror of good faith
For the times ahead.
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2. |
Bound To The Game
02:29
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I’ve been writing songs about
The places I’ve been,
People I’ve seen,
The people I’ve been.
Up and down all them
Highway tolls, country roads
Zigzagging back and forth.
Papa never told me I was ever
Gonna be a smile on display
Bound to the pavement,
Baby, I’m bound to the game.
I’ve spent time learning the pickin’ songs,
Sing-a-longs and I’ve sang sad, sad songs.
A ballad, a waltz a blues and a honky tonk
Just like Stompin’ Tom,
I keep rollin’ on.
Papa never told me I was ever
Gonna be a smile on display
Bound to the pavement,
Baby, I’m bound to the game.
Mama never told me I was ever
Gonna be a smile on display
Bound to the pain
Baby, I’m bound to the game.
I’ve been workin’ like a dog
Playin’ to club walls
Playin’ for the melody
The echoing’s of modesty
are crushing down on me
I miss my family.
Papa never told me I was ever
Gonna be a smile on display
Bound to the pavement
Baby, I’m bound to the game.
Mama never told me I was ever
Gonna be a smile on display
Bound to the pain,
Baby, I’m bound to the game.
Papa never told me I was ever
Gonna be a smile on display
Bound to the pavement
Baby, I’m bound to the game.
Mama never told me I was ever
Gonna be a smile on display
Bound to the pain,
Baby, I’m bound to the game.
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3. |
Please Let Me In
03:13
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I’ve been drowning in fits of rage
My mental stage was in poor taste.
I’m not holy, let me in, please let me in.
Be my guidance, steer my sin.
Be my shelter from storms within.
I’m not holy, let me in lord, let me in.
Roads of weather in my veins,
A pampered ego just the same.
I’m not holy let, let me in, please let me in.
Tie me up, slash my skin.
Dance around the war cries of man.
I’m not holy, let me in lord, let me in.
My stare won’t falter, my gaze won’t twitch.
I’ll be a rock upon which you can sit.
I’m not holy, let me in, please let me in.
I’m no fighter, but I’ll fight for you.
And all your sorrows, I’ll take them too.
I’m not holy, let me in lord, let me in.
If you’re torn between two swords,
And left your shield at the lines of war...
I’m not holy, let me in please let me in.
The people talking saying I’m good.
They were for hire, paid for their words.
I’m not holy, let me in, please let me in.
I’ve been a liar, I’ve been a thief
But I have gambled with worser seats.
I’m not holy, let me in lord, please let me in.
I’ll take the bad, I’ll take the good,
I’ve spit on others to make me look good.
I’m not holy, let me in lord, please let me in.
Our smiles may have seen some awful things,
But look to the core of our retina rings.
I’m not holy, let me in, please let me in.
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4. |
My Door Is Open
02:28
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The windows; I’ve left wide open.
Sometimes it takes talking
to heal the mind.
I know, from first hand encounters
That the Architect can fog the mind.
Go lift the wool,
Go lift the wool up and off of your eyes.
My door is open.
My door is open.
My door is open.
You’re welcome inside.
I know, from first hand encounters
Sometimes it takes walking to clear the mind.
My door is open.
My door is open.
My door is open.
You’re welcome inside.
My door is open.
My door is open.
My door is open.
You’re welcome inside.
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5. |
Nobody
02:53
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Back from the crusade
Times they have changed
Nobody’s waited for you.
The world has erupted
In screens and keepsakes
and Nobody’s asking for you.
But the wheat keeps time on the fields
And the birds keep eyes on the spinning wheel
Nobody’s out there
Sowing seed
As cities are starving for feed
The world has erupted
with part-time actors
Who sing and say but fail to be
But the worms keep turning the earth
And the trees keep nurturing birth
Nobodies noticing Nobody working hard
Nobodies noticing Nobody doing their part
Back from the crusade
Times they have changed
Nobody’s waited for you
The world has erupted
In screens and keepsakes
and Nobody’s asking for you.
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6. |
The Architect
04:30
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I call the doctor on up,
Tell him I have been stuck,
Caught between this worrying game.
My face melts away in social debates;
I can’t speak without losing faith.
The Doc says sit down;
let your tears run on wild,
has your life boat gone up in flames?
It ain’t quite like that, the fires not set,
It’s these rain clouds that follow me to sleep.
Sometimes I’m scared,
Lost and aware of the childish games we play.
Let the Architect build me a face,
So I can speak loud once again.
Let the architect build me a stage,
So I can solve the puzzle that sings.
Sometimes I’m scared,
Lost and aware of the childish games we play.
Let the Architect build me a face,
So I can speak loud once again.
Let the architect build me a stage,
So I can solve the puzzle that sings.
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7. |
Unsatisfied
03:59
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Goodbye Darkness, my old friend
We’ll meet again on this dusty road of dreams
and bends, I’m on the mend
Building up my self-esteem.
Hello Silence, glad you called
I’ve felt so small among the halls of memory
Where we used to speak
And trade tales of treachery
My old friends say I’m weak
Unsatisfied by me,
Too busy chasing away my old shadows.
What they don’t know or see
Is that I’m free
No shackles or chains binding me
To a preconceived notion of a life that I’ve been told to lead.
They don’t see I’m working hard on me.
Hello Sunlight, my old friend
You shine again on this gilded spectral plane’s
Lands’ end, let’s transcend!
Moving past the points of pain.
Hello Uproar, glad you called
I’m feeling tall in this monumental change
In flames, I can’t explain!
I’m moving past the points of shame.
My old friends say I’m weak
Unsatisfied by me.
Too busy chasing away my sad old ways
What they don’t know or see is that I’m free
No shackles or chains binding me
to the preconceived notion of a man that I’m supposed to be.
They don’t see I’ve broken myself free
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8. |
White Water Jack
03:21
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Just beyond the pine
And the soft county line
In the sunset of a hard hot day
There’s a burning in the heart
of the Mississippi mud
and the weeping of a western dream.
In the palest of white,
Big moonshine light
There’s a howling for a freedom song.
And a man dark as night
Travels and fights
All the whispers of the hating kind.
They’ve called him Jack
Jack’s a friend of mine.
Way beyond the mind
In the heart of space and time
There’s an order for a good days work
A swirling spectral sign
Dancing in waltz time
Singing freedom songs to that Mississippi mud
A woman dark as night
With a mountain lions pride
Travels stardust with a love for life
Won’t be beaten and abused by
Men, she didn’t choose.
She’ll be marching and that change is gonna come.
They’ve called her Jack
Jack’s a friend of mine
White water Jack
He’s got family on his back
Wading through the river all day long
Trying to get away from all their troubles and their pains
Put on them by the country and the state
White water Jack
She’s got family on her back
Crossing through that river all night long
Trying to get away
From all the debt that they can’t pay
Put on them by the country they’ve called home.
They’ve got what’s wrong with this world’
Tattooed on their brow
They’re sweating for the wealthy and through the rain.
When it rains it pours and Jackie’s main support
Lost funding from the G.O.V.E.R.N.M.E.N.T.
They’ve been working hard days long
For a lousy promise of equal wrongs
And when the sun goes down
M.I.S.E.R.Y. is taking reign.
Just beyond the pine and the soft county line
There’s a weeping of a western dream
Well beyond the mind in the heart of space and time
Jackie and I will be equals, you wait and see.
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9. |
Wendy
03:27
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The cabin fevers sweat out
Windows are open wide
The welcoming scents of springtime
and the ocean’s changing tide
The fear was growing thick
at the bottom of my throat
My mind was playing tricks on me
Painting pictures of my broken memory
Painting pictures of my broken memory
Wendy’s knitting scarves
To keep me warm from winter storms
As the ghosts are working backhoes
Digging holes for me to roam.
In the evening moonlight,
She turns the kitchen floors
Into glassy ice and in figure skates
She’s twirling up through my storms
She’s twirling up through my storms
When that levee broke
and our baby took the fall
Wendy held the burden
as close as a mothers hug
She retreated inward
She felt she were to blame
There was nothing I could do for her
To help and ease her pain
Wendy played piano
Like a child who couldn’t see
Every song rang beautiful,
Notes ugly as could be.
Note ugly as could be.
Wendy sang songs of laughter
with her weary Swedish eyes
I leave the front door open
Walk into quite noise
Everything is vibrant
I can almost feel her striding
I can almost feel her striding
I can almost feel her striding next to me.
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10. |
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Oh the message is clear,
All you dandy boys go home’
On the whirring backs of savage beasts
And the leaders golden thrones
Oh the message is clear,
‘We don’t want you hanging round’ here no more’
Those angry fools have beat their drums
With war cries that ain’t human born.
And the rains coming down and its flooding out the streets
The rats in the sewers are at full speed now
Joining marches in a 4/4 beat
Every living being; no matter how small or proud
Must rise up to their feet and turn to the ones who’ve tossed you aside
And sing with compassion and heat.
Share on, share on
I won’t quit my mind in times to speak.
Oh the message is clear,
The working class have a war to wage,
On the whirring winds of a cordial sneeze
And heroes drunk on age
I’ve got more than you and you’ve got more than me
Can’t we call it an even score?
There are comedians out there spilling guts on to floors
I’m just trying to find my cellar door.
The pioneers are buried by the sentiments
And the history of ‘the way she goes’
The muses are screaming in a coral static
But the audience is going home
Me? I’m listening with all my twenty-eight ears
Writing songs for them henchmen to fear
When the politicians call a radio silence
I’ll be playing my songs for you here.
Goes like…
Share on, share on
I won’t quit my mind in times to speak.
Share on, share on
I won’t lay my body down for sleep.
Share on, share on
Silent tongues who’ve hid to weep.
Share on, share on
Silent tongues who’ve hid to weep.
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David James Allen Prince Edward, Ontario
David James Allen is a producer, graphic artist, and maker of folk and country songs including those on his new album By The Summertime. He lives in Prince Edward County, Ontario, Canada.
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