1. |
Gravity Is Failing
04:25
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(Words/music by P.Mark)
Have you heard? Gravity is failing
It's in the papers…Don't act so surprised
You think we're all somehow bound to this earth?
Well that's just one of those everyday lies
It's a fact, gravity is failing
Look about…You can't miss the signs
Observe how the fallen now rise with ease!
And how ladders are so much easier to climb
Everybody! Hold fast
Everybody! Hold on here
Tie your desk, your dog, your child, to a tree
Else rue the day when they all levitate and disappear…
Waltz on strangers
To the music of the spheres
Sway towards the heavens
Which way is that from here?
All that's new under the sun
Are ghosts in a hall of mirrors
We live, die, then revive
And waltz the Vale of Tears
It's common knowledge: gravity is failing
It's an idea whose time has arrived
Birds flail about like drunks
Elephants struggle with their trunks
And weighty things float like feathers towards the sky
Everybody! Hold fast
Everybody! Hold on here
You're convinced your feet are well-grounded
But once aloft you and your kin will have other ideas…
Chorus
The matter is settled, Gravity is failing
You'd be a fool to say it's a lie
Schoolboys deny it
But the shrewd, we all buy it!
Oh, don't let science fool you this time…
Chorus
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2. |
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(Words/music by P.Mark)
Cancel the races and call in the favors
Send regrets to any friends left in town
Toss the tin trophies with the tired suitcases
At the terminal lost and found
Forever is the last train leaving the station
It's an orphan's chorus in a boxcar lullaby
Cross my heart and hope to keep
One golden promise before we sleep
Forever is easy after so much rain
Forever is an easy lie
Now it's an abandoned platform
The blind conductor thumbs his bible
Leave too late and you've lost the crowd
Better late than never, broken things nailed back together
I'll grant your wishes
Right out loud
Chorus
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3. |
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(Words/music by P.Mark)
I spin – I spin when you grin
I’m spinning inside – When you flash that smile
I went dizzy, I won't deny
When I first got a load of your style
I'm twirling inside like a carnival ride
Whenever you radiate that smile
I'm over the moon – When you cross the room
I'm a little bit high – When you sit nearby
And I wonder what might happen
If you just once called me “dear”
'Cuz I spin – I spin when you grin
I went dizzy, I won't deny
When I first got a load of your style
Heat’s circulating, a storm’s percolating
Whenever you’re radiating that smile
My heart hits the floor – When you head for the door
Oh there must be a way – Just to get you to stay
And I wonder what might happen
If you just once called me “dear”
'Cuz I spin – I spin when you grin
There's no limit to
What your smile can do
Yeah I spin – I spin when you grin
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4. |
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(Words/music by P.Mark)
Your battered bones say it's time to switch off the light
Promoters claim you owe `em one more fight
The spirit is willing, but you can't left hook a lie
Or dodge that jackhammer jab on Friday night
The boneyard awaits the undercard saints
Who too long fought the good fight
You slip the left, but look out here comes the right
Lord keep me, keep me from the next fight
You shoot for the top
Till ya finally hit bottom
You seek out your better angels
Only to find you got nothing in common
Her parting words are sounding like good advice
She said ya can't always count on people being nice
It’s a luxury when people start calling you crazy
When truth be told you're just acting out, or lazy
I just let her go, doncha know, we could not last one more night
Just 'cuz you win it don't mean you're right
Lord keep me, keep me from the next fight
You take one more blow, for pride or dough
Gotta keep small victories in sight
You slip the left, but look out here comes the right
Lord keep me, keep me from the next fight
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5. |
Coronation
01:14
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(Music by P.Mark)
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6. |
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(Words/music by P.Mark)
Blustering down the boulevard in a fact-free cloud
High-horse red carpet
Tossing nickels to the crowd
Check it mister
The whole planet's lookin' at me
I'm a daddy-made millionaire
On a catch and kill spree
Tin-pot titan spouting snake-oil repartee
Look out mister
I'm a con man VIP
Flimflam fingers four-flushing on the fly
It’s the art of the swindle and the craft of denial
Mirrors all around me, and mister I like what I see
My kids say they all love me but they lie worse than me
Gold medal grifter with a bankruptcy crown
I'd mortgage my own mother if she wasn't in the ground
Check your wallet, son
I'm a con man VIP
Bridge
The devil's directing traffic he won't let you forget
Every mile towards heaven runs up a mountain of debt
Buckle up sucker, this ride's all about me
I'll set ya free
Hey I'm driving
I'm a con man VIP
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7. |
Friend Gone Astray
03:54
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(Words/music by P.Mark)
Closing time in a bar downtown
Me and the boys from the mine
Were still hanging around
Drinking the fog of our little town away
A silhouette crossed the room
Through the dark and din
He saw me just as I saw him
Then a light went on
The friend gone astray
Been a decade or more since we shook hands
He said he's in town for the night, then he's off again
His clothes showed
Just how far a man can get away
We talked small talk about the wife and kids
Not a word about history or the strange things he did
How he’d come to be
My friend gone astray
He caught my arm the parking lot
Shook his head and said how sorry he was
He said, “There were so many times
I wanted to help you out some way”
He said, “If it ain't too late maybe I could lend a hand
To get you back on track, man I'm still your man
I'd do anything
For my friend gone astray”
I hear my wife rustling in the kitchen
I'm at the mirror for the morning shave
She's packing up lunches
It's just one more school day
How do your eyes lose sight of something once so dear?
When did that diamond in your eye
Just disappear?
You just wake up and you’re staring back
At the friend gone astray
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8. |
You Can Take It With You
04:40
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(Words/music by P.Mark)
They got E-ZPass in heaven, you just fly right through the gates
The only question Peter asks is, “How come boy you're late?”
All the men there carry golf clubs, poker chips and power tools
The women sport diamond earrings and smart Italian shoes
So I found god's corner office
And tugged on upon his hem
I asked how come heaven's chock full of stuff
Thought I'd never see again?
He said…
'Cuz you can take it with you when you go
You ask me why they do it, I sure as hell don't know
They drag up to high heaven all that garbage from below
‘Cuz you can, yes you can, take it with you when you go
Now you can take it with you when you go
Now on every wall in heaven there's an oversized TV
Everybody wears a Rolex and owns beachfront property
God took me by the halo and walked me round the grounds
I could tell he wasn't too happy about
All the sport trucks driving 'round
God said, “For a while I took the high road
And all earthly goods were banned
But then admissions fell right off the charts
So we had to rethink the plan
Chorus
So how’s about those heavenly virgins
I thought I's supposed to meet?
God said, “That's just a rumor, son – we could never afford their fees”
God looked over the heavenly treasures,
and every item was store-bought
He said, “If this is paradise, son, then I'm an astronaut”
Then he grabbed a large white suitcase
Floated off and waved his hand
He said, “I'm off to get in on the ground floor
Of a start-up promised land
“Because you can take it with you when you go
My old ideas of heaven just won't fly round here no more
I once thought I'd stoop to help 'em
Now I just wanna blow
Cuz you can, yes you can, take it with you when you go
And I can, and I will, take it with me when I go”
Then a choir of angels chimed in…
Chorus
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9. |
OTB
02:05
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(Words/music by P.Mark)
"If like you said lady your dad was reed man
in the Broadway pits for all those years
Then a trip across the divide was just one more sleepwalk
after his morning breakfast
Anyway there he was, patch pockets, horned rims, crushed fedora
We spotted him pretty easy
He wasn't lost, he wasn't fussing, he wasn't bothering nobody
“Just one more bird in a room of slow travelers
Holding on tight to a lottery ticket, three twenties
and a racing form
‘Ya know mister we been searching North Jersey all afternoon for you’
He just stared silent up at the big board,
minding the late handicaps
“A lone heart will rise to meet the strongest river
When tomorrows are all looking like today
He must've caught the Decamp line
And crossed the Hudson to the city
He wasn't alone, looked like he's right at home
Right there on 9th Avenue
Lincoln Tunnel OTB”
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10. |
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(Words/music by Graham Gouldman)
Sick at heart and lonely
Deep in dark despair
Wondering one thought only
Where is she tell me where
And if she says to you
She don't love me
Just give her my message
Tell her of my plea
And I know
That if she had me back again
Well I would never make her sad
I've gotta heart full of soul
She's been gone such a long time
Longer than I can bear
But if she says she wants me
Tell her that I'll be there
And if she says to you
She don't love me
Just give her my message
Tell her of my plea
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11. |
Waiting Round For You
04:43
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(Words/music by P.Mark)
We were supposed to meet this morning
I was gonna take you on a cruise
Now I'm alone on a slow boat
Got nothing better to do
You left me all by myself
Missing you and your fine self
I'm so tired of waiting round for you
Last Sunday was gonna be special
We's supposed to meet by the merry-go-round
Wound up just me on a park bench
Watching the sun go down
Chorus
Every morning down on the corner
That bus never seems to arrive
At night sleep never stops at my bedside
Just like you, nothing's showing up on time
A table for two round the corner
You said you'd be a little late
Ended up just me and Moe the bartender
Closing up the place
Chorus
Bridge
Now here I am on that slow boat
Making new plans (for us) to get away
Arm in arm, you'll be right there with me
Gonna be different than today
Chorus
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12. |
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(Words/music by P.Mark)
The cruelest month is December
Never mind what ole' Tom wrote
For an all-night mail sorter
Down at the P.O.
Keep the freight running, and the lines humming
Tie them bags up with good cheer
Yule greetings off to someplace
A long ways from here
Sleet, snow and zip codes, bulk mail, parcel post
Holidays haunted by Ben Franklin's ghost
Sanitation truck snowplows
Push the memories from the street
With my once-winter's romance
That failed New Year's Eve
It’s another overtime Sunday
It's an 18-hour shift
And a trick knee that blew out
On a Black Friday's lift
And that renaissance-stamp Jesus
It’s a million mercies that are just passing through
We'll drink in the new year
Once this blizzard blows through
Sleet, snow and zip codes, bulk mail, parcel post
Holidays haunted by Ben Franklin's ghost
And the sanitation truck snowplows
Toss the memories from the street
With my once-winter's romance
That failed New Year's Eve
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Paul Mark & The Van Dorens New York, New York
Triple-threat songwriter-musician-producer Paul Mark has been mystifying critics and barflies for decades. With a striking lyrical edge and an encyclopedic facility with American roots music, NYC-based Paul Mark has built a top-drawer original song catalog that tugs on the ears of the literary as well as the liquidated. Mark is principal owner of Radiation Records. ... more
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