Before I’m Dead

Packaging the heat, flashing the flash
Nothing is real nothing going to last
Even the winners are looking pretty grim
I tell you brother it’s you or him

I’ve been at rest I’ve been at work
I’ve torn my pants I’ve ripped my shirt
I’ve seen enough to know the score
I’ve seen enough to know there’s more

Too many people over here
Too many people over there
Too many people I hear the news
Too many people like me and you

I’m going to take me a ride somewhere
Where the stars shine and the night is clear
Unload my trunk empty out my head
And try to remember before I’m dead

Blues 4 Lenny

I picked up the pieces
I hitched a ride
Watched the taillights disappear
Into the swollen mystic night
I tuned my guitar
To the lightening to the thunder
I pitched my voice
To the depths where men plunder
I cast my eyes upon the wilderness
Generations grew up around me
I let my thoughts prey
Imagination almost found me
Think not of you or me
Said the space within a space
But remember the rolling herds
The tears upon Geronimo’s face
I watched a truck and then another truck
Like a midnight blue shot of heroin
Roll like craps like dice
Crash on through the horizon
So what now my love?
Where does this insanity end?
I grab my clothes, my bags
I kick the doors of pity open
Let the city in let the city scream
Trains going uptown trains going downtown
I got to see the man now
Before I start to drown
What’s left is already gone
I know you would help me if you could
But now on this corner alone
I see others stand where I once stood
So this is it, this is how it ends
It was just the times nobody could see
Used cars, smiles, show biz
It all got the best of me
Well you can just tell ole Lenny
It all came down to this
I was just another cowboy
Blown away by a kiss

It’s Hard

Dreary mornings, tombstone heads
Water falls on frustrations bed
Dimes and nickels, vigilantes
Deepest well at times prove empty

I know
It’s hard
Kid I know
It’s hard
Honey I know
It’s hard
But tell me what isn’t

Curbstone coffins and social balls
Rubies and diamonds, smiles and all
Famous tease, cameras flash
Boneheads pray for this life to last

Chorus

 I come across a bridge to meet a lover, I stopped half way, I waited until the sun went down, until the stars became familiar, then I watched the sun rise again above old peeling houses surrounded by ancient maple trees, day after day, week after week, until now years have passed and still I stand looking out at the abandoned railroad tracks, muddy waters of a river gone bad, new storefronts singing hymns written by cynics in LA and Nashville, angry men screaming obscenities in traffic, a twelve year old giving her parents the finger behind their backs, cats ripping apart plastic trash bags, an old man sitting alone on the steps of a local union hall….

Laws and justice divided they stand
You see the blood dripping in the sand
Follow the money back to the root
You see the horror you see the truth

Chorus

 I’ve seen a thousand saviors go by, a hundred times as many followers raving about some new kind of inner peace, I’ve seen drunks sleeping in cheap hotel beds waiting to die, young kids in suburbs smashing their Christmas toys, college girls spending daddy’s money on some local loser, I’ve read books seen movies turned my back on capitalism, communism, socialism, fascism, militarism, religion, society, laws, coke commercials, knowledge, wisdom, and freedom and still I stand having sweated inside factories, banged my head against walls of paradise, driven my car around the parking lots of a Dairy Queen…. 

 So the lines are drawn, doors are closed
Crusaders stalk with a hound dog’s nose
Young girls scream, critics rant
While all the fuckers zip up their pants

Chorus

Great Big Lie

Hitch hiking the coast on the Pacific Highway
From San Luis Obispo to San Francisco Bay
Never knew what we were doing just Cisco and me
Singing in some hippie joints trying to make a buck to eat

Hey baby don’t you be so sad
Sometimes the truth is all we have
Hey baby don’t you break down and cry
I know everything is just a great big lie

New York City on a winter’s day
Temperature going down people busy on their way
Walking these streets looking for a warm place to hide
Easy to see Captain it’s so easy to die

Chorus

 Back in the hills of Tennessee
Everybody’s smoking hooch and drinking whiskey
Down through the hollers you can hear the deals go down
Another politician selling out his town

Chorus

 Driving this car down to New Orleans
Through the land of misery through the land of dreams
Gambling boats and churches by the river
Everybody’s praying for sweet Jesus to deliver

Chorus

 Now here we are after all these years
We’ve come so far babe we’ve come so near
Now the hood is up and our truck’s broken down
Looks we’re stuck honey in another one horse town

Chorus

 Revolution

Gypsy morning
Sunday afternoon
Time without warning
Has gone by to soon
I’m a million miles
From anywhere
I’m a million smiles
From when I use to care

Revolution
I said….

Oh Sister Mary
Please open up your heart
I’m tired and I’m weary
Been traveling in the dark
For everywhere I go
Everywhere I see
With every bomb that explodes
Man’s inhumanity

Chorus

I’m headed north
I’m going home
For my days grow short
I’ve been too long gone
I don’t want to be a man
Who has nothing to say
I don’t want to be a man
Who looked the other way

Chorus

 Tombstone Boys, Graveyard Girls

Man on the run, man on the bus
Man eating dirt, man eating dust
Too much hail, too much rain
Too many nights on this ghost bound train

Tombstone Boys, Graveyard Girls
So much trouble in this world

My bags are packed I’m on the line
I can’t go back I’m out of time
I’ve heard the prayers, I’ve heard the curse
He died of love she died of hurt

Chorus

 I’ve seen the fires, I’ve heard the roar
Of a million deaths of a million wars
How does it start, where does it end
Deep in the hearts of women and men

Chorus

Now the night is dark it’s her disguise
But the moon shines bright it’s in her eyes
I’m standing poor, I’m at the gate
I believe in love, I believe in fate

Chorus

Walking Back To Tupelo

Been traveling both night and day
You know I’ve come a long, long way
I’m standing ‘neath these southern skies
Tears of sweat in my eyes
I got no place left to go
I’m walking back to Tupelo

My momma was a dance hall queen
From Memphis down to New Orleans
My daddy was a rambling man
Was born with a losing hand
I grew up where those red lights glow
I’m walking back to Tupelo

I learned to play this guitar
Until one day I became a star
It took me all around this world
I made some money had my girls
But now my pockets are filled with holes
I’m walking back to Tupelo

So mister don’t you pass me by
You know I sure could use a ride
I know my story’s nothing new
I ain’t the first to sing these blues
I’m just trying to find my soul
I’m walking back to Tupelo

Standing In The Rain

Downtown tonight the bars are crowded
Everybody’s looking for that drinking power
I’m sitting on a stool drunk and stoned
Trying to remember a way back home
Feels like standing in the rain
Standing in the rain
Standing in the rain
In the rain

Everybody wants something they can’t have
I just wanted you and the want was bad
But fate has twisted all around the night
Instead of love I’m just looking for a fight

Chorus

Outside the streets are dark and cold
People passing by with no place to go
In a strangers arms I close my eyes
And let another night slowly die

Chorus

South To Alabam

Going back south to Alabam
Going to see my baby yes I am
She’s going to give me what I need
She’s going to give me a great big feed
Chess pie, cherry pie
She’s the apple of my eye

Been to long away from home
A man gets screwy from being alone
Working hard, traveling far
To many whiskeys, too many bars
Oh my I need a break
Only so much a boy can take

 Been driving a truck for the carnival
Always more towns waiting over the hill
More young girls with their flirting eyes
More young boys trying to be tough guys
I take their money I watch them lose
It’s so easy it just gives me the blues

Momma she died many years ago
I lost my daddy on tobacco road
Billy’s in prison for shooting his boss
‘Sis went to Hollywood and turned up lost
Guess I’m lucky I don’t think too much
Don’t waste my time on things I can’t touch

Meet lots of women along this road
Some say stay and some says go
But I don’t take it personal
We all got troubles we all got ills
Yes sir that’s the way it goes
What folks are thinking ain’t nobody knows

Going back south to Alabam
Going to see my baby yes I am
She’s going to give me what I need
She’s going to give me a great big feed
Chess pie, cherry pie
She’s the apple of my eye

Maria

The moon is shining like a silver star
It shines down on me
But I can’t see I’ve traveled far
I can barely believe
That I’m standing after all these years
Outside your door
Oh Maria, don’t turn away
You know what I’ve come here for

Once there was a rolling river
Once there was a rainbow
Once there stood two young lovers
Who promised never to go
But the times and the winds of change
Blew our dreams apart
Oh Maria, please hear my words
The beating of my heart

I can still see your face that night
As I fought my way through the square
I waited for you until the bells stopped ringing
Until there was no one there
Oh Maria

I know it’s getting late
I don’t have the right
Call it luck baby call it fate
How I found you tonight
What they did to us all those years ago
Could never change what’s true
Oh Maria, dry your eyes
You know I’ll always love you

Racine

t’s no use anymore
To undo all I’ve done before
I’ve tried and I’ve tried so many times, but baby you know
I could just never make up my mind
The hardest way always the easiest to find
No matter what I say no matter what I do, no matter where I go
Now I’m sitting here watching the gloriest sun go down
Another stranger in somebody else’s bosses town
And I got nothing left to say
I’m just letting it all kind of drift away

Memories come hurtling back
Wind blown faces on a beaten track
They haunt me they move me like they did so many times before
But so much has gone so much has changed
You’re left with what you are and all that remains
Until you just can’t deny the truth anymore
Now I’m taking a drink in some rock and roll bar
Where the boys are already wasted even the local stars
And you know I understand
I know about those odds they’re up against

Now the night is closing in
Last call on all those things that might have been
As I find myself back out on the street one more time
And I can still see you standing babe
In the shadows beside that bed we made
I can still hear your voice calling to me down the line
Now I’m staring at the bottom of some old coffee cup
Waiting for a waitress who’s an angel to come and fill it back up
I guess there’s nothing left to do
But just keep on singing these blues

Before I’m Dead  3:13

Blues For Lenny  2:56

It’s Hard  6:02

Great Big Lie  4:17

Revolution  5:48

Tombstone Boys, Graveyard Girls  4:54

Walking Back To Tupelo  4:16

Standing In The Rain   3:48

South To Alabam   3:58

Maria   3:44

Racine   5:24

Details:

 Before I’m Dead

Tom Ovans – Vocal, acoustic & electric guitar

Robert McEntee – Electric guitar

Mark Andes – Bass

Mark Hallman – Drums, maracas, backing vocal

Lou Ann Bardash – Backing vocal

Blues 4 Lenny

Tom Ovans – Vocal, acoustic and electric guitar

Robert McEntee – Electric guitar, piano

Mark Andes - Bass

Mark Hallman – Maracas, bongos

Lou Ann Bardash – Vocal

It’s Hard

Tom Ovans – Vocal, acoustic & electric guitar

Robert McEntee – Electric guitar

Bass – Mark Andes

Mark Hallman – Drums

Lou Ann Bardash – Backing vocal

Great Big Lie

Tom Ovans – Vocal, acoustic & electric guitar, mandolin

Robert McEntee – Electric guitar, backing vocal

Mark Andes – Bass

Mark Hallman – Drums, tambourine, B3

Lou Ann Bardash – Backing vocal

Revolution

Tom Ovans – Vocal, acoustic & electric guitar, harmonica

Robert McEntee – Electric guitar

Mark Andes – Bass

Mark Hallman – Drums, bongos, maracas, backing vocal

Lou Ann Bardash – Backing vocal

Tombstone Boys, Graveyard Girls

Tom Ovans – Vocal, acoustic & electric guitar, harmonica

Robert McEntee – Electric guitar

Mark Andes – Bass

Mark Hallman – Drums, tambourine

Walking Back to Tupelo

Tom Ovans – Vocal, acoustic & electric guitar

Robert McEntee – Electric Guitar

Mark Andes – Bass

Mark Hallman – Tambo drums, B3

Standing In The Rain

Tom Ovans – Vocal, acoustic & electric guitar, harmonica

Robert McEntee – Electric guitar

Mark Andes – Bass

Mark Hallman – Tambo drums

South To Alabam

Tom Ovans – Vocal, acoustic & electric guitar, harmonica

Robert McEntee – Electric guitar

Mark Andes – Bass

Mark Hallman – Drums

Maria

Tom Ovans – Vocal, acoustic guitar, harmonica

Robert McEntee – Electric Guitar

Mark Andes – Bass

Mark Hallman – Bongos, accordion

Racine

Tom Ovans – Vocal, acoustic & electric guitar, harmonica

Robert McEntee – Electric guitar

Mark Andes – Bass

Mark Hallman – Percussion, tambourine

All songs written by Tom Ovans

C & P Tom Ovans

Administered in Europe by Bug Music

BMI

Produced by Tom Ovans & Mark Hallman

Executive Producer: Lou Ann Bardash

Recorded at The Congress House

Engineers – Mark Hallman, Ned Stewart

Assistant Engineer – Jean LeJeune

Mixed & Mastered by Mark Hallman

R.I.P. Henry and Llittle Walter

C & P  Tom Ovans/Bug Music

BMI

return to the tombstone boys, graveyard girls main page