Get all 7 Jon Hughes releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Sunshine Remorse, Where I Sleep at Your Door, Roger White, Dead Weight, Nobody's Friend, Voices From a Broken Window, and Physics Says.
1. |
Sleeping With Strangers
04:33
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I'll be down in somber city where sad sad people go
With all the other people I don't know.
Listening to conversations I've already been told—
Talk of how the news is better old.
Sleeping with strangers passing time,
Passing in and out of days,
Hazy in and out of mind.
Sole resistance understood
Will keep the distance as it should
Between your universe and mine.
I could sing the self-evaded persistence of a dream
And loneliness is all that you would see.
We could call a subtle difference a similarity
Until there's nothing left of you and me.
Save for a safe identity,
A sell-a-lie security,
We are colder than our bones.
Someone saw a place and called it home
Somewhere far away from me
With a future of it's own.
Say that one of yours is one of mine,
But it was a name it wasn't me—
It was a better-left-behind.
Sleeping with strangers passing time...
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2. |
Honeysuckle
04:58
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Honeysuckle wants to write the songs that everybody's heard,
No matter how contrived there's no one who remembers all the words.
He'll be another star
I wouldn't listen to
When he's coming through
The satellite.
And his lover shakes tobacco ashes from her honey hair,
And there's a twinkle in her eye and I believe I put it there.
She's just another star
He wouldn't listen to
When she's passing through
The satellite.
Honeysuckle tells his lawyers he'll be buried in the ground,
And in the television fashion photo archives he'll be found.
Like a picture on a kite
Back to me and you
When he's coming through
The satellite.
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3. |
Physics Says
03:21
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Physics Says
Neil's coming through
The transistor tubes
In the corner of the room where he shakes
The vacuum tube
Over by your shoes
To greet you when you wake
From the myriad of nightmares
He must have felt that he put there,
So the air in the room would be
Nothing he'd be putting on you...
And the television turns on.
Now he's taking all
The photos off the wall
And putting them away in the flues
Above your bed
Howling now instead
Of the things he couldn't say
From a body that was still warm,
That was a burden in your arms;
Physics says it's proved there'd be
Nothing he'd be putting on you...
And the television turns off.
Taxi passes through
And everything that moves
Is silenced in the wake;
But above the blues
Of the electric avenue
His face is taking shape,
Like a thundercloud in Phoenix,
Almost had something to believe in;
Head down and holding his face...
And the television turns on...
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4. |
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The Sons of Sunday Headlines
Lady XYZ is walking east to west on
Tuesday for her second in the week;
And the church bell's ringing serotonin
For the others who can comprehend the street;
And her mother stands behind the smoky
Yellow shade of every window that she sees;
And out of all the figures of her spatial
Recognition she's the only memory;
I felt lost for her and now
I'm losing all my nerve.
Naked soldiers eulogised,
"The Sons of Sunday Headlines"
For the fourth day in the week;
And obituaries of the
Dead and dying architects are
Buried underneath;
Now the telephone is ringing--
Bad news on the interstate for given family--
And out of all the brothers and the
Sons of Sunday headlines I'm the
Only it could be;
I felt lost for them and now
I'm head beyond the bend...
I felt lost for them and now
I can't feel anything.
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5. |
Time and Temperature
04:54
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Most of us are waiting for a train to take us where
No one criticizes anyone for not trying to care
About the evening news
And the subterfuge
Of progressive times.
They say in breathing there's a bear in all of us—
Hairy windows with eyes alike to soften them up,
Like a mother cow,
Often serious
In besotting us.
Now, all say what
Everyone, in thinking, is perceiving as such.
They say in reason there are things that make us blue,
And time and temperature lend an infinity of reasons to choose,
For being scared
Or filled up to the teeth
With anxiety.
So take a train via you don't remember where.
Only remember there's no reason for pretending to care
About digressive times
With your knees against the wall,
Standard protocol.
Now all say what
Everyone, in thinking, is perceiving as such.
No one cares less
Than those who tear their hearts out in believing it.
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6. |
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Figures of Speech (The Seasons of Christ)
I was born
Of the breath
Of the dog
I knew best;
His name
Was Me
He learned to hide
He learned to seek;
'Til all
That he sought
Was just less
Of what he thought;
And all
That he knew
Was less of me
And more of you.
Now the pictures are pains,
Are corporeal stains,
Like the seasons of Christ,
Never wrong and never right
For what we believe
Is collectively perceived
For those who agree
Upon a common way to see;
And only for shame
Is the body he became
Out of mind.
There's a spot
On the wall
That we don't know
What to call;
There's a corpse
Of a ball
That's not spherical at all;
There's a way about the stars
That reminds me of car
Headlights in the dark
When they twinkle from afar;
There's looks that you don,
Unwittingly put on,
Like silver on a pond,
Just there, then gone;
But the mind is less
Of a well than a nest,
A blessing professed
By those who handled it best;
And only for shame
Is the notion it became
Out of mind.
Is it weird
Or is it strange
To be a number
And a name
On a page
That you claim
To reserve
For those who came
And stayed for a while
To keep you warm, to keep you high
To keep you beside
Yourself in your pride?
There's spaces in my teeth
When there's nothing in between
Where animals breathe
In figures of speech.
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7. |
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Our Lady of Guadalupe (Will Come)
Fire sparks in sandalwood tear jerks
So our lady of Guadalupe will come
And kiss my hands
They're cracked and broken
From being in places
They shouldn't have been.
And Sister Mary Cellar just smiles off
As we collectively thumb
Through magazine stock
Of apple-skinned pages
Of things we didn't
And wished we had done.
Candle smoke for candlestick walls dear
'Til our lady of Guadalupe comes
And cleans our hearts
Of residual horrors
From being in places
We shouldn't have been.
Cause all that's in an echo is noise here
Under the clerestory sun
Where light rays span
To look like glory
But flicker too often
For fooling anyone.
I'll be in and out of my head, dear—
Myself and another at once—
A waggly eye,
For one to look after,
Or for what it shakes off,
Off with a shudder
When the looking is done.
And you shall see what is murder
When our lady of Guadalupe comes
And kisses my hands,
They've cracked and broken
The things they were after
And shouldn't have been.
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8. |
My Own Setting Sun
06:02
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Lazy plays.
She plays upon the moon,
To a dark and dreadful tune.
She relates
How the preacher of the day
Said the end is coming soon,
And all the audience can see
Is that the audience is me—
Wide cavity-eyed and tame,
And pretending just the same.
Hot light plays.
It plays upon the walls
To a dusty windowsill.
A waitress strays
From the coins left on the bill,
And the tune is humming still.
And inattention is theme
Of the play she's giving me—
Obvious and strange,
It continues just the same.
I forgot
All the things she said she thought
In a diner parking lot.
She was tea
And easy on the cream
And I was playing what I'm not.
Cause when all the audience is me,
I'm all the audience can see—
Wide cavity-eyed and lame
And pretending just the same.
When this day's complete,
I'll be any day of the week;
And when that day is done,
Then I'll be my own setting sun.
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9. |
Old Friends
03:55
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Old Friends
Old friends of dead men are plying my salary
And I would kiss their swollen feet;
But most of them are nothing more than a salary
Of a larger sum than what I'd be.
And all my friends would say that I lost all my dignity
If they were making more than me;
So happenstance has made us all into enemies,
At least in what we've happened to come to believe.
Old loves unconsciously have made us all afraid
Of being more than what we see.
Now we'll never stop selling all our aspirations off
For what we think we really need.
The better end of pink pills were making me feel again
Like more than what I paid for them.
And no consent to whom I was done away with them,
Who was more of what he made that week.
'Til settled scenes of supple comfort ability
Were more than I could afford to be.
And time spent in scratch and sniff curiosity
Was given to behavioral qualities.
Oh well, I'll be resting easy as the second to my last priority when old friends come along to see me and we breathe into the spaces inbetween.
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10. |
I Wouldn't Dance For You
03:02
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I Wouldn't Dance For You
I couldn't dance on cue
Or any of the other things you want me to do,
And everything I say to you is never getting through,
So I'll just stop bothering you.
If the only thing that I've ever known
Is wanting to write a happy song and call it my own,
Some days it seems like everyone is handing you a bone
And no one is calling you home.
I couldn't climb up the walls,
Or make myself seem interested with alcohol.
For everything you say, well, I could say nothing at all,
But I couldn't climb down from this wall.
And if you really want to know the truth,
I'd be more than happy to forget about you.
You'll never see any of things that I could do,
Cause I couldn't dance for you.
You've confused me with someone who has something to prove, someone who'd dance for you.
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11. |
Cold and Blue
05:39
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Cold and Blue
In these harbors
The water seems much too blue
And I can't help but see you
In the reflection;
Cheeks all a stipple,
Eyes open to a ripple
Pull me down
Into you--
And open boat parties
Remind me that I'm here and
Talking to
My reflection--
Calculates the years that
Pass between these whispering
Souls I forgot,
And now they're
Sold,
Sold or bought,
Old or used.
Titletown
Was built here to break your
Heart in every littered
Parking lot
And park,
Open every season,
Open for the,
"Please miss Me's
When you leave."
Joe Elmer's in the back seat,
Driving down
Pedestrian streets.
He calculates the years that
Pass between these glass-eyed
Souls I forgot,
And now they're
Sold,
Sold or bought,
Old or used.
I recall
This used to be the place where
The girl with the blond haired
Face sang
The willow songs
Up against the chainlink,
Good for letting air pass
Through
The neighbors yard
Where dead and floating sturgeon
Are gaping at the surface,
Death was chlor-
ine induced;
And the water comprehends the
Sky when they're screaming for the
Souls I forgot;
And now I am as,
As they say,
Cold and blue.
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12. |
Spin Away
06:10
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Spin Away
She carries numbers and she drops names.
She draws pictures but they're all so predictable and plain,
Of stick white houses where she might live
With some CEO who knows and sees what she could give to him.
My tongue was twisted, numb from Hennessy,
But darling you're not coming home with me;
Cause there is nothing here as obvious as it might seem.
She got married on Aesop's plain
Where it seems like things are happening but things don't ever change.
They took pictures before they came,
So when things get out of focus the cameraman's to blame.
Her tongue was twisted, tight around the seams,
But there is nothing else she says to me
But "I'm not quite so obvious as I might seem."
Spin resistance or spin away.
Now she's sold herself for love and she'll be okay.
If you're spinning a Sunday dream,
So predictable and obvious as it might seem,
Drop you're name and your number to someone like me.
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13. |
Venus is Cold
03:52
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Venus is Cold
I can't stand on these thin soup legs again.
Hache is frio and what she says I am I am.
Hache is frio and what she says I am I am.
And she wants to give her love away to a thin moustachioed man, but everything she says to him is on the other hand. She makes it seem like everything's so hard to understand, cause hache is frio and what she says I am I am.
I can't stand on these thin soup legs, man.
To their appeal on my knees and hands I stand.
To their appeal on my knees and hands I stand.
And the pincers are the best part of her big pistachio plan, but those that fall from Venus, we can leave them where they land. The space there in the corner, save it for the asteroid band. To my lady prostrate, on my broken hands I stand.
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14. |
Heard
02:58
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Heard
I'll probably get myself murdered before I get myself heard,
And I don't think I'd mind.
I'm gonna get myself murdered before I get myself heard.
I'm not gonna get myself a Mercedes.
I'm not gonna get myself a car,
Because I don't think I'd drive.
I'm not gonna get myself a Mercedes,
I'm gonna get myself a bird.
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15. |
Anything You Please
03:22
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Anything You Please
Stars are staring dogged-eyed and dead upon the hill
When they greet you at your windowsill;
And if you haven't seen those eyes before you know you never will.
Someone on the other side is waking from a dream
Of being someone whom he's never seen;
Something even simple as a whisper in the breeze,
Or just anything you please.
Everything is changing on this crowded carousel—
Call it a revolution so it sells.
Say it's a necessity and I'll say it's just as well.
Call it a disaster and I'm calling it a swell—
Call it a revolution so it sells.
Call it anything you'd like and I'll call it something else
Just to call it something else.
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Jon Hughes Ireland
American songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Jon Hughes, has been based in Ireland since 2005. He has shared a stage with
Damien Jurado, She Keeps Bees, and the legendary singer-songwriter, Buddy Mondlock.
Hughes' latest collection of songs, "Sunshine Remorse", was released in January of 2019.
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