Land Locked Blues

I wrote before about one of the two new Bright Eyes albums, I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning. It's an amazing album, sort of an alt country CD that's very lowkey. Conor Oberst takes an acoustic approach on the album, with a heavy focus on storytelling. Surprisingly, the album just debuted at #10 on the Billboard chart, which is amazing for an indie album. It was #1 on Amazon for awhile and has been hanging around in the top 15 since its release.

I linked to some low quality MP3s from the Saddle Creek site when I first wrote about Bright Eyes. However, I have really fallen in love with the song "Land Locked Blues" and I wanted to offer up an MP3 here myself.

The song was actually first released in 2003 on Saddle Creek 50, a compilation of various artists from the Saddle Creek label. The version on Saddle Creek 50 is different, named "One Foot in Front of the Other." I haven't heard that version of the song yet, though I am considering picking up the compilation. It is done differently on Saddle Creek 50, though, and based on the 30 second preview at Amazon, the song is slower and quieter on I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning. It also has Emmylou Harris on backup vocals, which is a touch that I really enjoy on the new version.

The song becomes better the more you listen to it. See what you think.

Bright Eyes - Land Locked Blues (link has been removed - 2/11/05)

I'll take the song down in a few days. If the label has any problems with it being up, email me and I'll take it down immediately.

Here are the lyrics:

If you walk away, I'll walk away
First tell me which road you will take
I don't want to risk our paths crossing someday
So you walk that way, I'll walk this way

And the future hangs over heads
And it moves with each current event
Until it falls all around like a cold, steady rain
Just stay in when it's looking this way

And the moon's laying low in the sky
Forcing everything metal to shine
And the sidewalk holds diamonds like a jewelry store case
They argue, walk this way, no, walk this way

And Laura's asleep in my bed
As I'm leaving, she wakes up and says
I dreamed you were carried away on the crest of a wave
Baby, don't go away, come here

And there's kids playing guns in the street
And one's pointing his tree branch at me
And so I put my hands up, I say enough is enough
If you walk away, I'll walk away

And he shot me dead

I found a liquid cure from my landlocked blues
It would pass the way like a slow parade
It's leaving, but I don't know how soon

And the world's got me dizzy again
You'd think after twenty-two years I'd be used to the spin
And it only feels worse when I stay in one place
So I'm always pacing around or walking away

I keep drinking the ink from my pen
And I'm balancing history books up on my head
But it all boils down to one quotable phrase
If you love something, give it away

A good woman will pick you apart
A box full of suggestions for your possible heart
But you may be offended, and you may be afraid
But don't walk away, don't walk away

We made love on the living room floor
With the noise in the background from a televised war
And in that deafening pleasure, I thought I heard someone say
If we walk away, they'll walk away

But greed is a bottomless pit
And our freedom's a joke, we're just taking a piss
And the whole world must watch the sad, comic display
If you're still free, start running away

Cause we're coming for you

I've grown tired of holding this pose
I feel more like a stranger each time I come home
So I'm making a deal with the devils of fame
Saying, let me walk away, please

You'll be free child once you have died
From the shackles of language and measurable time
And then we can trade places, play musical graves
'Til then walk away, walk away, walk away

So I'm up at dawn
Putting on my shoes
I just want to make a clean escape
I'm leaving, but I dont know where to
I know I'm leaving, but I dont know where to