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Short Life

by Short Hand

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1.
Baby You and I leave shadows all over the house Baby our eyes get wide and our insides shrink down You with your curves like the curves of a mouth It's a long road in the dark Around the caves of my heart And though, you know me and I know you Here comes the dangerous super future us Though you're a deer and I'm no bear Here comes the dangerous super future us Baby in the pool your legs warm me up again Baby in the night I lay awake and I listen to your skin And through the window I hear a splash The water drips from your lash And though we may be off in the clear Here comes the dangerous super future us All animal, standing tall All family and handily
2.
I dropped from the sky like a dead bird And fell into your arms It was a very lucky spill You held me like a kite holds the wind for a while Then ducks into the sky We grew together The tips of our tongues a special sort of leather A weathering the storm inside A special sort of strife for a special sort of wife and baby, you know I love you that's why I sing your praises in the soft breeze and baby you know I need you That's why I killed the the wasp in the basement Every evening or anytime you need me And baby baby baby baby baby Lean in real close for this There is no back door in the house No trapdoor in the gauze Not pauses in the cause
3.
Grow Wings 04:19
Hanging by a thread The idea of a family that never was And strung up in the sun A panic that time runs and runs and runs And laying down beside here In dreams labeled “Being get a kid” The whole of a lifetime That can never be lived And you know You can't change anything So it goes, so it goes And you know You can't just grow wings So you let it go, you let it go And yesterday disappears behind A forest of regret And in the branches a chorus of birds Fly into the sunset And you know You can't know everything So it goes, so it goes You know you can't fly into the past So you let it go, you let it go
4.
Window Pane 04:07
There is a deep bone in your eye And it's got to change It's got to change There's a cough in your chest And it's got to change Ain't it strange? There's always a face In the window pane Ain't it strange? Open up your hands And feel the wind change Ain't it strange?
5.
When I start thinking of Jake I hardly know what to say He was like a brother, man And he new Ada out in California When I start thinking of Jake I hardly know yesterday I remember Jake in a cloud Like something better from some place else He grew up in a house not much different Than the house that you grew up in He had brothers and a a family and a prom date When I start thinking of Jake I hardly know what to fake He was like a brother, man And he new Ada out in California When I start thinking of Jake I hardly get through the day She knew him when he was young When we rode around in the valley He was like a light in this town with his face Pointed up at the night sky, he was a good guy His whole life, he had it made And for a while in Lexington, Kentucky Jake lived with the guys and partied And woke up late in a bathing suit And made it to work just in time He was always all right When I start thinking of Jake I hardly know what to break He was a brother, man And he new Ada out in California We were so lucky for that trip We took to Washington He rode shotgun the whole time He had this glow There's just some stuff I'm never going to know
6.
BMX Light 04:13
He would throw back his hair in the Indiana air He would throw the air and the dirt into the sky We could ride for days over fields of clay We could roll for hours in the city roads of gold And somewhere brothers don't coast into the wind And somewhere they're holding on and on and on And somewhere all memories don't open from the back And somewhere else all wheels turn to the track And O brother, of the BMX bike, Say "you know, brother, it's going to be all right.” And O brother, of the BMX Light, Say "you know, brother, it's going to be all right. Just hold tight." And we’re going to live to ride and we're going to ride to All the magazines in California say so, too In my heart I die or ride, in my heart I ride or die The wind in the face it just goes and goes and goes.
7.
Bye bye friend, bye bye bye So long friend, bye bye bye See you at the end, bye bye friend We may meet again But who knows when? Who's that in the doorway? Who's that on the couch? Who’s that in the driveway? Who gently backs out? Who can hear the rain Bouncing off a train Inching through the dark Like a scar? Who's that at the window? Who's that through the glass? Who's darting through the back door? Who's living in the past? Who can hear the rain Bouncing off a brain Splashing in the dark Like tiny sparks?
8.
Come on Coming from the darkness Like a bullet from a gun There goes you There goes me Toward the sun
9.
Short Life 05:17
You can wear your Church clothes to every memory from your youth You can sense the hard truth in every memory you cut loose You can wear a white hat or a pink hat or a black cat You can wear a tracksuit and keep an extra tracksuit in your backpack You can go to college, acquiring skills and mental polish You can find a lover and chop down the tree of knowledge You can cut through ice, through fire, through the thickness life accrues You can drive a car through the floor, through the walls and through the roof You can pamper your baby with lotions and fancy baths You can dampen all your dreams before or after you dampen all of that When your thoughts finally clear and you begin to sober up You can syphon all of time into a tiny cup But it's a short life and we’re here a short while It's a short life and we wear a short smile When you see it, you meet it, but it's a short life You can be a prince of men or a princess of a pig You can roll through certain hills or keep your rolling wheels well hid You might find yourself atop a boat or a soon to be sunken ship You might find a whip on your hip in the basement being kissed You can employ a whole team of engineers and democrats And if it lasts, it last long enough to reconfigure shattered facts You can start an outlaw gang and gang up on the rich You might quiver a whole lot or you might quiver just a little bit You can fashion nicknames, making light of birth defects You can ration sickness, making slightly special, special effects You can water the plants and build a future from the past But you better build on stone and you better build it fast

about

This is what happens when your brothers really, really love Iron Maiden but you learned to play guitar from Woody Guthrie. Not only that, but some weirdo is also playing horns sometimes. It’s confusing like that. That’s life, I guess. Sometimes, in, like, 1986, kids on BMX bikes would ride around with the wind in their vaguely New Wave hair. In some cases, deep down, they imagined life was a kind of rollercoaster and they were going to go through it with both arms raised high in the air, their index and pinkie fingers standing straight the fuck up.

credits

released September 6, 2019

All music, vocals, and lyrics by Shorthand P. Davis ©2019
Produced and recorded by Shorthand P. Davis

Mastering and Post-Production by Kyle P. Snyder

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Short Hand Muncie, Indiana

Short Hand figures that it's easier to learn to play an instrument than it is to find someone who can play it. He also figures that it's easier for him to do the writing, recording, mixing, artwork, and anything else that might need to be done. In the end, a set of sounds collect themselves into different shapes one might call "albums." Some sound like this and some sound like that. ... more

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