1. |
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Every good and perfect gift
Every good and perfect gift
I will stare into its mouth
until its teeth fall out
Every blessing I receive
Every blessing I receive
I will bury in the ground
never lost never found
I will love you till you are destroyed
I will love you till you are destroyed
By the works of my hands or a lack thereof
Every praise that’s poured out unto me
Every praise that’s poured out unto me
Will evaporate from my skin what’s not dried up by the wind
And this crown that you place upon my head
I will wear as a collar instead
Driving its points into my skin as recompense for my sin
I will love you till you are destroyed
I will love you till you are destroyed
By the works of my hands or a lack thereof
I will love you till my poison’s employed
I will love you till you are destroyed
By the excess of my blood or a lack thereof
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2. |
American Dream Life
06:14
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Sometimes I feel like a ceiling fan
Expending all my energy
Expelling all of my particles of dust on the land
Directly below me
And I probably shouldn’t ignore
The more obvious part of this metaphor
About how I’m always spinning around in circles, going nowhere
You’ve heard it before
I’m sure
You know those huge American flags on the the side of the road
That blow in slow motion
Sometimes I get the notion that like one of them I’m floating around without a sound
But I don’t have that metal pole jutting up from the ground to hold me down
I’m just free floating
American dream life
You promised me no more strife
American Dream Life
You promised me no more strife
American dream life
Sometimes it’s so tempting for me to be the man that you want me to be
Even though I probably would genuinely be happy
In all sincerity
It would be beautiful, oh but for heaven’s sake
sometimes wearing a pair of jeans seems so damn fake
American Dream Life xxx
I would’ve asked you to be my wife
American Dream Life xxx
I would’ve asked you to be my wife
American Dream Life
And sometimes it seems
That there are just two ways to be
An ignorant fool or a depressed tool
And there’s no in-between
This and the
American Dream Life
I would’ve asked you to be my wife
American Dream Life
You promised me
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3. |
Prophet's Mouth
05:16
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Listen now to the voice of the damned
Lift up your head and look at who I am
Enter into oblivion
And cleanse your immortal spirit
Look away and you won’t feel it
Build yourself an enormous boat
When water rejoins water will the mountains float
The flaming sword comes out of my throat
Separating lover from lover
All of one
And not of another
Light as a feather
Floating untethered
Here in thrall of life
Wait here for some loving hand
To crack open wide the sky
See the stone that’s hollowed out
Enter when you’re overcome by doubt
Listen until you figure out
The tongue without translation
Unclaimed by any nation
On your way to heaven in a Greyhound Bus
Dwell on the differences that sit between us
I failed to be obsequious
Like Moses I struck the stone
So I will die in the desert alone
Withered and cursed like the old fig tree
How do you quantify eternity
Oh my God why have you forsaken me
I’ve been left out of the chorus
Floating untethered
Tarred and Feathered
Waiting for something true
Signs and wonders
Leave uncovered
All the eyes on you
Unveil every hidden space
Til we can know what’s real
And then just wait here for some loving hand
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4. |
Antichrist Complex
04:14
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39 days in the heat of the desert where the stones became bread
Thank God I am not gluten intolerant
Otherwise I would be staring into the face that every mortal is born to dread
Thank God
With just one night to go I called it off, I didn’t care what the prophet said
I forgave myself for the 491st time
Wiped my hands off in the sand, wandered home and went to bed
I forgave myself, can you forgive me
I dreamt that I was a giant
With my head in the clouds I didn’t have to look down
At my feet trampling everything beneath me
Six hundred and sixty five people stood ahead of me in line
Taking all the good lives
Leaving me to be the antichrist
39 days and 39 nights of insufferable rain
I give you shelter just to drown you later
I did not intend to be so evil in your eyes or cause you pain
I just wanted my own way
I’m not here to serve but to be served, to speak my mind and make it plain
I only take what I deserve to take, am I to blame
For being who I am or for the wiring of my brain
I dreamt that I was portrait that hung in your house, fastened to the
Center wall of the dining hall, presiding over communion
Folks from all over town drop by your house to see
Fascinating evil complexity
But all they witness is banality
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5. |
Matted Grass
04:11
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Grass matted down in the place that we lay
Hear the sound of cars passing trucks on the nearby freeway
Our imprint will pass away as the wind picks up and it starts to rain
Nothing but the memory remains
Oh nothing
Is there a path avoiding regret in the decisions that I make these days
I gain a little something either way, but lose a little something either way
Every night I feel this terrible weight
Clouds are forming ‘round my future days
I have so little but there’s so much at stake
So much
If I take a photograph of the man on the stage
Will I freeze his age
Keep him in limbo right as he tries to play the sage
Keep him stuck between his thoughts and the audience he wants to engage
Which side is the cage
Which side
Why is it so hard to keep the faith
How can something be so alive one minute then totally disintegrate
Living in too many realms
I am becoming a wraith
When everything fades, it’s too late to play it safe
The failing memory foam with the outline of your head
Exhales on the bed
Where microscopic flakes of your skin were shed
Our eyes outlined in red when I think back to the words that you said
Nothing so alive can be dead
Oh nothing
Living in too many realms
I am becoming a wraith
When everything fades
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6. |
Stay Awake
03:53
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Stay awake
I’m sure it can be difficult when you do not know what’s at stake
In this
There’s a scene a comin’ that I’m sure you would not want to miss
The lead character
Finally makes a breakthrough
And becomes relatable
Well that’s debatable
When can I finally stop watching films and become one?
Maybe I will have an answer when this one is done.
Oh great!
I’ve seen this all played out before
It must be a remake
But with a little less grace
I question whether a true artist would ever trace
And still stake the claim
But consistency is nice
And familiarity can be wonderful
That’s why
I get by
With Kody and Kyle and Roscoe and Tones
In the smoke room
Life hasn’t been so easy since my mother’s womb
Stay up late
Nothing will be figured out now
Even if you concentrate
Wait for the day
Practice til you learn all of the lines
For the part you play
Form your character
Anticipate the emotion
Then disown your audience
As if you had an audience
When can I finally learn something new from all this dialogue
Maybe the payoff is waiting for the monologue
Art house flick gonna make me sick
I’d rather get a splinter from this popsicle stick
Gimme something that I can feel real quick
Before opinions drown the feelings out
Why does everybody listen to me when I speak
It doesn’t take much to get through my beak
Wisdom is for the little pip squeaks
Well they can just deal with their little petty doubts
Gonna hate hate hate hate hate myself
Gonna hate myself, till I’m someone else
Everybody everywhere was me one time
But then everybody seems to be themselves now
Rock it sober
Rock rock rock it so-so sober
Rock it sober
Until this overrated movie is over
When can I finally stop watching this film and watch another one
Do I really have to wait until this one is done?
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7. |
Agnostic
04:06
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As always I am
Crippled by indecision
All i ask for is a little bit of that old time conviction
Conviction equal in strength
To the religious fanatics
Bombers of abortion clinics
Now don’t worry I do not condone such behavior
I just envy such a call
Can’t some spiritual being appear to me
And give me a point to it all
I feel a warmth
Like a fire being lit
Almost like some physical presence
But I dare not name it
If it is possible for a plant
To undergo photosynthesis
Under a darkened sky
Shaded by a cumulonimbus
Then can a diffused light still shine
Deep in the dark
If you can’t see the source of the spark
Hark
I’ve felt it in a sunset field
And in the accumulating snow
And backstage during a sing-along song
At a sold-out stadium show
Love incarnates itself
Through the touch of a hand
Pulls me back to itself wherever I am
Like a reacting rubber band
I want to follow this light
To the ends of the earth
I want rebirth
Two abrasive cells
To erase themselves
Do embrace themselves
On a foggy night
With that distant light
It’s dynamite
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8. |
Vacant Spaces
04:36
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How vacant the spaces
That graced us as strangers
While we were still young
How distant that instant
That tainted existence
And sent me away
Long, long ago
You feast upon the fat of animals
That I raised up from birth
I thought I’d sit with kings in their kingdoms
But here I sit on my seat of earth
How joyless the toil for riches and spoils
Of moral decay
How tasteless the faces that stare at you naked
And don’t look away
Long have I been gone
Far, far from home
What can spare my feet?
What can reconcile my journey?
What can make it worth the heavy debt that I have paid?
I listen for the music playing
But all I hear are birds
I sent my prayers to go on before me
But they fell short and none were heard
In bitter abundance you bid for the burning
Of all left behind
But know that as it was back in the beginning
It will be again
I’m coming home
I’m coming home
We’ll feast upon the fruit so bountiful and celebrate this place
What once was vacant has been filled again
And joy returns with dance and praise
I’ll dance beneath the trees with my friends and with my family
And great will be the feast when I return on that blessed day
So raise your banner high and celebrate all life
For a time will come when everything on Earth
Will be made new
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9. |
Age to Age
03:58
|
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Age to age I feel the same
Like a beast that everyone’s trying to tame
Though every day will leave its mark
I return to true form after dark
Where everything’s in twilight
I did not reserve my name
Is the author or the reader to blame
For pages turned yet left unread
To preserve the space within my head
That ever-present twilight
Oh Lord
Why am I here
Living year to year
Waiting to be restored
I’m getting bored
My life in a biography
Would avoid the honest monotony
Expounding on the precious few
Moments ending all too soon
Now written to define me
Biography to biopic
Something there just wouldn’t click
The acting or cinematography
Or a lack of iconography
Not worth a second viewing
I was born
At a point in time
So confined by time
From beginning to end
And what is eternity?
Is it like a circle
Or more like infinite rays
With linear days
Stretching out infinite ways
The vast expanse of all our lives
Is more eloquent when summarized
Than stretched out over history
One unexciting mystery
I just don’t believe the climax
Oh Lord
Can someone rewrite us
And redesign us
From beginning to end
Unless we are
Some inspired work of art
And set apart
To be restored
Created to be restored
When will we be restored
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10. |
Fade Away Everything
05:48
|
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Waste
Every moment that I have today
Making revisions on things that have already been made
My head feels like an echo chamber
From which my thoughts will never escape
And they just bounce around
And they will never get out
Until they dissipate
This sucks
I just want to be distracted now
Get out of this house
And get the hell out of this town
I saw you on that downtown billboard
Advertising Burger King
But I know you don’t eat there
They just use your face and hair
To make a profit from your looks
But you don’t seem to care
Everything’s distraction
Everything is sentiment
Everything’s destruction
And destruction is so permanent
You told me “Nothing lasts forever
And everything must have an end”
But what has been as been
And what will be will be
We’re useless now
Useless back then
And useless for eternity
Laid out
Storing all this unused energy
Waiting for my time to come at last
When you will finally look at me
I saw you on the back of the New Yorker
Dressed up in your finest threads
Meanwhile my life is a mess
In my pajama pants
Greasy hair from night sweats
Oh God I don’t stand a chance
Everything’s distraction
Everything is sentiment
Everything is satire
And satire is so transient
You told me this would last forever
You told me this would last all night
And then it fades away
And yet it fades away
And fades away and fades away
And fades away
And fades away
Why would you forget my name
When you just had a little taste of fame
Now you’re filling up the vacant seats
Everybody holds their breath when you sneeze
And I’m walkin’ with a severed brain
So I can feel a bit less pain
My feet have never felt so loose
While the rest of you sit there so obtuse
And my feet have never felt so loose
My feet have never felt so loose
I will never come back home until things go my way
Staying out all night until I finally break the day
You told me you would leave the light on
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11. |
Blasphemy
04:49
|
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Breeze hits me like a hot breath
Through the stains of my ivories
Feeling medicated
Like a cancer patient’s hope for recovery
Iron sharpens skin
Letting foreign bodies in
Guard my soul with tiny sheets of skin
Oh man, I feel like machinery
Spinning like a cog
Til I burn my body in the refinery
It’s hot as hell
But the sun is fading out of my memory
All the lights that shine
All the god forsaken time
Are as natural as the air I breathe
Oh God, this must be blasphemy
All the rich kids
With their dolled-up mistresses
Will blast into the great unknown
While we get down at home
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12. |
Follow That Focus
05:56
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If only I could replace the fool
Sitting in that comfy little director’s stool
I can only imagine all the things I would create
If I were not so far under you
But you are there
And I am not
Resigned to do the best I can with the little I’ve got
Does anybody ever wonder how you got to where you are?
What did you have to do?
You say to me
“Follow that focus
It’s as simple as that
Follow that focus
If you want to be where I am at”
If only I could simply believe
But not just anybody can ask then receive
For some of us it doesn’t come that easy anymore
Maybe just for a privileged few
Follow that focus
More like hocus pocus to me
Follow that focus
What does it take to believe
What does it take?
See the foreground get soft
Pull to infinity as you walk off
I’m wide open because this place is too dark
Cursing you as you step way past your mark
No monitor tells me if I’m getting by
But I trust these fingers and I trust these eyes
Follow that focus
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Joe Baughman South Bend, Indiana
JB+RF is a variety show folk rock ensemble of musician-friends led by singer-songwriter and filmmaker Joe Baughman. Equally influenced by the sacred and profane, JB+RF's music takes color from daily Middle American existence, personal sadsackery, religious imagery and deconstructionism, and Joe's experience as a freelance artist. ... more
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