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1. |
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What’s past is past
I had a dream that this could be true
It didn’t last
All of the past bled right through
Each cell inside me singing back to that very first sea
Will I ever get free?
Why do we want what we want
When it don’t give a damn if we’re safe?
Why do we want what we want
When it spits right back in our face?
Why do we cry when it’s gone
When we know we ought to pray
To be saved
From what we want
I tear it out
Deep as I can, down to the root
It grows right back
Covers me up with its horrible blooms
My mama’s mama’s mama’s mama all just like me
Am I the one to get free?
Why do we want what we want
When it don’t give a damn if we’re safe?
Why do we want what we want
When it spits right back in our face?
Why do we cry when it’s gone
When we know we ought to pray
To be saved
From what we want
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2. |
Emissary
03:46
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Why would you bring me here?
To this place of fire
To this place of tears
When I would travel any star but here?
If this is where I exist
If something tore so deep that it can’t be fixed
Help me find the faith to live with it
We can’t give you what you won’t give yourself no
We can’t give you what you won’t give yourself no
We can’t make you into someone else
I thought my path was clear
I could walk a line through my darkest years
Ah but I was only ever here
If this is where I exist
If something tore so deep that it can’t be fixed
Help me find the faith to live with it
We can’t give you what you won’t give yourself no
We can’t give you what you won’t give yourself no
So let this make you into someone else
Someone else
Let this make you someone else
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3. |
The Gone
04:41
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Down, down down
Down beneath where you thought the bottom ends
Down where there ain’t even one spec of light
Where the weight of the water will give you the bends
They say what if the dark is the cave where we’re born?
What if the dark is the way we transform?
Oh but what if the dark don’t mean nothin’
‘Cept it ain’t the dawn
Why don’t the gone stay gone?
Why don’t the gone stay gone?
Stay gone
Stay gone
I bind your book with twine
Then go to the river like the witches said
I make a sign that means don’t you come back
Then I throw it down off of the ledge
What if I’m cursed? What if I’m blessed?
What if there’s nobody else who comes next?
Oh what if this all don’t mean nothin’
‘Cept there’s nothing left
Why don’t the gone stay gone?
Why don’t the gone stay gone?
Stay gone
Stay gone
If you ain’t gonna fade
Guide my way, guide my way
Oh my ghost of the waves
Am I drowned or am I saved?
Are you my faith?
Why don’t the gone stay gone?
Why don’t the gone stay gone?
Stay gone
Stay gone
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4. |
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Well I know what you dreamed
That love would keep you warm, make you safe
Make you seen
And I know how you feel
That if you’re hurtin’ and alone
It wasn’t real
But baby that ain’t part of the deal
‘Cause people love you the way they love you
Not the way you need to be loved
What they’ve lost
What they’ve been through
I know you think you have a say
But it ain’t true
Now that don’t mean that it’s right
Or that people never change
Well they just might
But I know that their hearts
Ain’t always got the skill it takes
To play their part
Sometimes it just ain’t in the cards
‘Cause people love you the way they love you
Not the way you need to be loved
What they’ve lost
What they’ve been through
Sometimes to walk away is
All that you can do
But oh a greater love
It’s on its way
It’s on its way
It’s nothing like you dreamed of
But it’s on its way
It’s on its way
It’s on its way
‘Cause people love you the way they love you
Not the way you need to be loved
What you’ve lost
What you’ve been through
Sometimes holding on is all that you can do
Sometimes holding on’s the best
That you can do
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5. |
Kol Nidre
04:55
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I’m back here again
Stuck with this heart
That never quite mends
But maybe that’s all that I need in the end
People will come and they’ll go
And you can’t even guess at their pain and their hopes
Oh everything’s broke and we don’t even know
Why do we want what we want?
Does anyone know how to turn this thing off?
Its busted pipes rattling like bones all night long
Why don’t the gone stay gone?
Why do these ghosts keep singing me songs?
If nothing lasts why won’t they let me move on?
All that you vowed
All that you swore
All that you promised
Ain’t promised no more
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Karen & the Sorrows Brooklyn, New York
“Like Gram Parsons, Pittelman peels away the superficiality that much of country music has embraced and looks deep into its soul, its history, and its stories and makes it all her own.”—No Depression
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