Get all 6 The Stephen Stanley Band releases available on Bandcamp and save 25%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Before The Collapse Of The Hive, Here Comes That Rain, Live Static Roots Oberhausen, Germany, Jimmy & the Moon, Too Many Sisters • Non Barking Dog (2020 Extended Version), and That Thin, Wild Mercury.
1. |
Chase That Devil
04:30
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It’s a minute to midnight too late to feel sorry for yourself
And I will drink to the land, to the people but never to your health
Open the gate, let the church flood the state, wag the dog
Now that irony’s dead, damn the eyes of that old demagogue
A sucker is born every minute and we’re up in it to our eyeballs
State TV whistles to the masses out tilting at windmills
Time for your close up and you sweat like a rat caught in the rain
Lights, camera action and you sing that redaction refrain
And it goes like this...
Chase that devil, chase that devil, chase that devil
When the TV camera’s on
Chase that devil, chase that devil, chase that devil
It’s the only place you run
So now you’ve gone all in, straight to the dustbin of history’s remorse
Your duplicitous grin is always filtered through a second-hand source
Bridges or crosses you’ll burn anything to cling to that high
Find yourself a seat as you blink the cortege rolls on by…
Bye, bye, bye, bye...
Chase that devil, chase that devil, chase that devil
When the TV camera’s on
Chase that devil, chase that devil, chase that devil
It’s the only place you run
I breathe a sigh of relief every time that you lose your cool
The crowd’s getting thin as the band strikes up…
Chase that devil, chase that devil, chase that devil
When the TV camera’s roll
Chase that devil, chase that devil, chase that devil
It’s the only place you run
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2. |
The Winnipeg Gun
03:45
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I learned to ride a bike in Winnipeg
I’d tried a couple times back home and failed
On Leighton Avenue I caught the wind, riding on a borrowed Schwinn
Now our moms will have a hell of time getting us to come back in
Every summer on a DC9, I sat next to Barbie Benton one time
In the days when everything was all right,
Before my fear of flying took flight, but I reigned it back in
when I joined a band and found myself in Winnipeg again
The gateway to the Prairies, that was our second home
The girl that my dad married, had not been away too long
In the summer after I turned 12, I learned a lot about myself
When Kenneth pulled up to the curb and introduced me to his friend
and then she climbed into the back seat, now I was sitting by his side
We drove fast through the quiet streets,
the top down in the summer heat
He said, open up the glove box Stephen,
and all I heard was my own breathing
Under the Manitoba sky, there sat a pearl handled Colt 45
He said, don’t be afraid just pick it up
and I fumbled to avoid the trigger and the clip
But now the gun was in my hand, and to this day I’ve never held one again
I asked if it was loaded but he just drove on ahead
Why’d you need a gun in Winnipeg, the answer seemed a little vague
Though he made me swear that I’d forget this fast,
now here I go digging up the past
Why’d you need a gun, why’d you need a gun in Winnipeg
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3. |
Straw Man
06:34
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Oh my ashen glow,
The old moon in the new moon’s arms
I doubt myself, maybe this didn’t happened exactly as I remember it
It’s been a long time gone
But it happened and by that I mean it really happened
Sometimes you have no choice but to doubt your own memory
That’s the way it is, the mind’s eye remembers something
Believes in a pinpoint accuracy
Until somebody else takes that pin and bursts your fever dream
wide open until it spills out right in front of you
A river of half-truths rushing away before you can soak them all back in
I’m incandescent, you burn as you get too close
Sanguine desires, I’ll serve you a lethal dose
One moment strong and the next moment gone
It’s the vein in your neck, you can feel it right there.
Not sure if something is pumping towards your brain, or away from your brain but you know it’s moving,
and you know it’s altering everything you thought to be true
But, see, consciousness begs for something more than just salience
It’s not just what came before but what might be possible,
come what may
The narrative is a beast, and the beast must be constantly fed to survive
But two people, two people can read that same story,
those exacting words
and the end result is two antipodal meanings
that barely resemble each other at all
So yeah, it happened, but that means almost nothing...
I stood unaltered, you measured defeated
Took what you could never got what You needed
I maimed you in the process I named you
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
You sent a straw man
When it wasn’t needed
I was already defeated
I was already singing that tune
And I would have stood by
And watched all that dust fly
My love was the earth-shine
By the sparest sliver of the moon
When you stood up in front of everyone
With what appeared to me to be a Cheshire grin
(which you later refuted)
and out loud, told your story of my life
What else could I do but stand complicitly frozen with what was actually a fake Cheshire grin (which I can’t refute) and a casual nod as though i agreed with every disagreeable word
Was I suffering some sort of frequency illusion, or was I just suffering as I was momentarily rendered much more meager
than I actually must have been
If eleven people look at an elephant from eleven different angles
They’ll each tell a completely different story
Maybe all it takes is one person, to look at that elephant
from all eleven of those angles.
But really, who wants to be so alone...
I stand beside all of the half-truths I told you
With presence of mind, but I still want to hold you
I see past, what just couldn’t last...
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
You sent a straw man
When it wasn’t needed
I was already defeated
I was already singing that tune
And I would have stood by
And watched all that dust fly
My love was the earth-shine
By the sparest sliver of the moon
By the sparest sliver of the moon
Philistines, demons at odds with the seven
The weight and the gravity, hell was no heaven
Digging for traces cloaked chapter eleven
And I know there’s no getting over...
You should have known it was over...
You sent a straw man
When it wasn’t needed
I was already defeated
I was already singing that tune
And I would have stood by
And watched all that particle dust fly
My love was the earth-shine
By the sparest sliver of the moon
The sparest sliver of the moon
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4. |
You're No Exception
03:35
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Hey, send in the clowns
Looks like they’re already here
Torches light up the town screaming tyranny and I need to cut my hair
And love is a flower trampled under all your dime store jackboots
And I wonder by the hour how did this
self-righteous anger take root anyhow, spurious sacred cow
Mama don’t raise no losers
But somehow now, you’re everybody’s fool
Collective will, will roll this bolder up that hill
You’re no exception to this rule.
Hey, the camera caught you screaming
It’s the only game in town
What colour do you dream in, a few subtle shades of brown
But every hill that you’ll die on is the slightest change in elevation
Instinct you rely on by a gaslit state-run tv station coup d’etat,
open carry baseball bat
Mama don’t raise no losers
But somehow now, you’re everybody’s fool
Collective will, will roll this bolder up that hill
You’re no exception to this rule.
Walks in everyday life now. Evangelic a-la-carte
The preacher’s taken a wife now and inveigled her body, mind and...
Mama don’t raise no losers
But somehow now, you’re everybody’s fool
Collective will, will roll this bolder up that hill
You’re no exception to this rule.
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5. |
Here Comes That Rain
04:26
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I’ve been baptized, circumvented, moralized, infantilized and schooled
Gaslit and dog-whistled, overheated, melted down and cooled
I’ve been stood up, worked over, demagogued
and dropped on my head
But if my story’s almost written, yours is still yet to be said
Here comes that rain, you’ve got my eyes
Push past this pain, into the light of sunrise
Here comes that rain
I was pleased by the progress, spun in time to see the bubble burst
Woke up the watch dog, just too late to recognize the worst
I’ve seen daylight and darkest hours with real tears
right before the dawn
Beaten down by populists so take back the hill that you’ll live on
Here comes that rain, you’ve got my eyes
Push past this pain, into the light of sunrise
Here comes that rain
The water keeps rising and no one seems to pay it any mind
The water keeps rising and your body’s turning it to wine
Beat an unbeaten path, stomp your own grapes of wrath
And cut the time it takes to make some sense of all this pain in half
I’ve had your eyes locked on mine
and I couldn’t hide the plot that we lost
So rage against or die by and rewrite this poem at all cost…
Here comes that rain, you’ve got my eyes
Push past this pain, into the light of sunrise
Here comes that rain, rain, rain, rain
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6. |
The Owl
04:54
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An owl appeared, the day after you were gone
Up by the bridge on Woodbine avenue
Hanging on a branch that could hardly support its own weight
A flock of mynah birds singing…
Hey, when you gonna go away
As I carried on, its old eyes followed my steps
And I couldn’t catch my own breath
And that damn little voice in my head
Saying did this have to be that day, did this have to be that day?
And it spoke to me, as it jammed my reception
There ain’t gonna be no resurrection
And it carried on, with just a hint of inflection
Everything worth knowing is hidden in your record collection
Everything worth knowing is hidden in your record collection
And the major key, is a minor affliction of the heart
So tell me how did it start
When you transplanted all of your things
And taught a city how to sing
Singing, we’re gonna change everything, we’re gotta change everything
We’re gonna love everything
And it spoke to me, as it jammed my reception
There ain’t gonna be no resurrection
And it carried on, with just a hint of inflection
Everything worth knowing is hidden in your record collection
Everything worth knowing is hidden in your record collection
At least they know your story, as they cast lots, the small & the great
In a blaze of glory, they spoke of you for forty nights and forty days
I don’t know how to answer, when you ask, how was your day
Sadness like a cancer spreads so far, let the music play
Everything worth knowing is hidden in your record collection
Everything worth knowing is hidden in your record collection
Everything worth knowing is hidden in your record collection
Everything worth knowing is hidden in your record collection
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7. |
The Ballad of Lou Room
04:34
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David brought an angel to the doorway of our flat
But I mistook her for a lover and said we ain’t got no room here for that
If I’d have looked him in the eye I would have understood the truth
Hell resides much deeper than the London Tube.
When I first met Lou Room I said well she’ll never hear this song
But now I’m not so sure of anything
but I could swear I hear her singing along
In the pouring rain and feigned disdain
just dripping from the tooth
Sometimes the sky drops a lullaby and here is your proof
And he said you’re my saviour
And she said you’re my favourite
Whisper caught up in the corners of every room
And he said I feel broken
And she said I’m just hoping
That the last 20 minutes doesn’t change what you came here to do
Is anybody falling for..., Is everybody falling for Lou Room
Is anybody falling for..., Is everybody falling for Lou Room
Is anybody falling for..., Is everybody falling for Lou Room
Is anybody falling for..., Is everybody falling for Lou
In a green room deep in Camden Town, on the cusp of a mercurial night
We were struck with fear the night before,
but somehow something this time just seemed right
When the doorway by the stairs pushed open,
he smiled, guess what I lost a bet.
Sometimes you settle for nothing, sometimes you settle for nothing
Sometimes you settle for nothing and end up with the best…
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8. |
No Love Lost
03:32
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And we’ve drawn a line, chosen teams and stood on opposite sides
No love lost, just lost love
And it cracks and it hums, clutching straws, opposable thumbs…
No love lost, just lost love
Swing low, the hanging fruit without the time to grow
Fool’s pride, on the wrong side of the Mason Dixon Line
No love lost, just lost love. No love lost, just lost love.
No love lost, just lost love.
And the bang, and the drum, how you been
and where exactly are you from
No love lost, just lost love
And the thought that a prayer could blow acrid nitro out to other air
No love lost, just lost love
Anodyne, the poison fruit’s left dying on the vine
Anode, Stanley clings to the Napoleonic code
No love lost, just lost love. No love lost, just lost love.
No love lost, just lost love.
The myth of brotherhood is encoded when the weather’s good
in a slight of hand
But I found out too soon as it trips you once in a blue moon,
there’s no lions, there’s no lambs
How deeply do you breathe, when you’re fast asleep,
I pray your soul to keep
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9. |
Hornets
03:16
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Two of us on a forest path, one of us shook the tree
One of us saw the nest come down
and turned to wonder where his friend could be
And three hours later when the news came on the phone
John was in the hospital, he never did quite make it home
And I wondered how those hornets missed me
How they knew I was a bystander when they went after Johnny
Hornets threaten no person, unless they’re provoked
Harmony dies a sorry death on a predatory slippery slope
John Wayne at the Alamo – a hero’s last stand
John Wayne in a magazine
– said they selfishly tried to hang onto their land
The apologist’s prayer is conceived after the smoke has long cleared
Nearer my God to me in this godless frontier
Oh mother say it’s okay, it gets worse every day, it’s a stone’s throw away
Oh let it live in the trees, let it hum in the breeze in a world on its knees
If you get stung in late September it’s just a last gasp to survive
Remember the good ‘ole days before the collapse of the hive
And drunk on the power of this still born bitter fruit
The news cycle hour won’t reveal where they buried the loot
And I still don’t know how those hornets missed me
Trying to remember the way I thought it was going to be
I’m trying to remember the way I thought...
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10. |
Hey Darlene
02:37
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Hey Darlene, I’d like a word with you
You’ve been thinking out loud and none of that is true
When you talk through your hat, well no one wants to hear that
Hey Darlene
Oh the return of the prodigal son
Happens every day when your work is done
Let’s not get caught up in deception
But you’ve earned his affection
Hey Darlene, Hey Darlene
Oh light a fuse and let it burn
There’s a lesson to be learned
Hurling missives dripping wet in gasoline
I guess the deepest blood connection
Can somehow lead to an infection
Of the body, mind and fully vented spleen
Hey Darlene, Hey Darlene
Hey Darlene, I’m flattered just the same
You talk a lot about me
But take it all in vain
When you whisper in the night
Does your left hand know the right
Hey Darlene, Hey Darlene, Her Darlene
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11. |
Holding Back on Someday
05:23
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I think you started something that could never be reversed
The conversation ended and it sped from bad to worst
The saddest of reminders that sometimes good guys finish first
I think you started something that could never be reversed
I wish I’d listened closer when you talked about those plans
But I thought that we were speaking of a future
that was so far out of hand
I wish I’d gave you bad advice, instead of no advice at all
I wish I’d listened closer and answered every call
I thought we were walking through a door that wouldn’t close
I know now that’s not how this story goes
Brace yourself, because every twist resides
In the forefront of your mind
And the ones who tried...
Holding back on someday and trying to change the plan
Let’s go back to yesterday and catch this before it lands
I don’t think that I can breathe, I don’t think that I can stand
Walking into someday, with nothing in my hands
I think you would have liked those early days of June
But me I was still dealing with the feeling that this was over way too soon
I should have known something was wrong, when you told me to stay
Positive I’d never heard you talk of life that way
We raged for hours against the killing of the light
I should have known that when you changed your tone
something wasn’t right
Brace yourself, because every twist resides
In the forefront of your mind
And the ones who tried...
Holding back on someday and trying to change the plan
Let’s go back to yesterday and catch this before it lands
I don’t think that I can breathe, I don’t think that I can stand
Walking into someday, with nothing in my hands
Walking into someday, with nothing in my hands
I don’t think that I can stand, walking into someday
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The Stephen Stanley Band Toronto, Ontario
The Stephen Stanley Band announce their new album, Before The Collapse Of The
Hive (Wolfe Island Records) will be
released on November 10, 2023. It's an album
brimming with raw, unflinching urgency, steadfast observation and soul-searching storytelling
that highlights Stephen's immediate world: those he loves, and those he's lost.
Photos by Russell Styles
... more
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Love the new CD Chris!
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After all these years, John still has it.
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