Get all 9 W.C. Beck releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of First Flight, Waiting for the Dawn, Wandering Into The Open, This Year, Quivira, Sapling, Kansawyer, high hopes and sweet dreams, and 1 more.
1. |
Canoe
05:04
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The days fade like the rain into the sea
The mirror holds my face but I don’t see me
I’m walking up and down these old city streets
side-stepping shadows with my frozen feets
chorus:
oh you don’t have to sail
halfway ‘round the world in your canoe
oh just to get
a different point of view
and oh, mama, won’t you come here quick
‘cause I don’t know what to do
and oh, sweet baby, don’t you tell me maybe
‘cause it’s the thing that I am supposed to do
well these hanging clouds they bore the daylights out of me
stumbling around on worn-out hips and twisted knees
I wanna see my name someday in Caslon type
oh but for now my thoughts in hangars wait and dream of flight
chorus
chorus
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2. |
Captain America
05:21
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Captain America, oh what a mess you’ve got yourself in now
trying to find a way to clean it up somehow
well, you’re looking through me
far far away to another land
trying to tell me you’ll make me a better man
ooh
I woke up on a beach watching a tug of war
between the man in the moon and the lady in the sea
Ain’t that just like my heart
oh the way that I push and pull away
and you push and pull away from me
ooh
chorus:
‘Cause all the world’s a-changing, honey right before your eyes
and all we are is all we know and everything we hate
and all we ever say could never ever change the time
or the ones that we left behind
oh won’t you be the one for me
I’m frozen in time
frozen inside of the person that you wanted me to be
well I’m not him
and I’m listening
and he ain’t me
ooh
chorus
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3. |
Foghorn
01:02
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4. |
Rolling Hills
04:54
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when I was young
the rolling hills I’m from
like sleeping giants lay
under skies that stretched for days
I grew up quick
and filled my mind with all that fit
‘til I felt my skin change
into something strange and slick
for the summer had turned to fall
and my pond had grown too small
and I knew it was time to heed
the wild river’s call
so I swam west
to where the rivers come to rest
at the mouth of a beach
where the sky falls in sheets
and I grew up there
though it felt like growing old
for the current is fast and deep
so the water is always cold
and as autumn reached its end
I felt my scales change to fin
and I learned
oh what it means
to start again
chorus:
and oh the days grow long
as I think about how far I’ve gone
‘cause it’s a morning sky on fire
or a night alone
when that old song
takes me back home
‘cause running around ain’t forever
just make sure that you don’t stay too long
now all that I am
ever was or may become
is a part of those hills
that I swam like hell from
for that’s where my dreams
hung upon the moonbeams
and I suppose I’ll get there someday
but it’s always upstream
and as winter melts away
I see my pond lies just the same
and I know that deep below my skin
something has changed
chorus
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5. |
Dresden
06:45
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On a cold black night
the day before Saint Valentine
my father’s father ripped apart
your mother’s mother’s bleeding heart
more Blanche DuBois than Joan of Arc
more vengeful rage than hero’s art
yeah, we knew what we were doing
that we’d leave ourselves in ruin
and that we’d go
until it all is gone
chorus:
Dresden, baby will you ever learn
oh, that you weren’t a saint yourself when you got burned?
No, you weren’t an open book when you wrote your page
With all that you’ve seen, would you ever act your age?
Or will you go until you’re gone?
The sacred pearl of your empire
that night reduced to a funeral pyre
well that gorgeous horror
lit a thousand fires until there was no night
in your despair you denied your pain
tried to repair, but you built with hate
yeah, we knew there’d be no defense
when burning rage replaces innocence
and that we’d go
until it all is gone
chorus
chorus
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6. |
Gin and Cigarettes
03:44
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You tried to hide the gin and the cigarettes
with chewing gum to disguise your breath but
your excuses had the same sick smell
my ears burned my eyes began to well with
tears of rage ‘cause I can’t win
yeah, I know that you’ve been out
oh with him again
I called you up at a half past twelve
you lied and told me you were by yourself but
I can’t cry if you’re untrue
‘cause I’ve done the same damn thing to you
we both wanna bury this axe and start
over again but why’d you bury
yours so deep in my heart?
chorus:
Like a raindrop going back home to the sea
it’s taken me so long to see
that there’s a rainbow above you
and don’t you know that I love you
I’m in pieces because of you
I wish I knew why our love changed
I wish I knew if you’d be back again but
throwing hearts in a wishing well
ain’t gonna change how everything fell apart
that day when you walked away
those years when you slipped so silently away
chorus
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7. |
Black River
04:34
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Well, that Black River rolling
like a thief in the night
yeah, that Black River rolling
like a thief in the night
well you robbed me
and you broke me
yeah, you left me alone
when you took my baby’s life
Well, Black River burning
a deep hole in my heart
yeah, Black River burning
a deep hole in my heart
we went out too far
past the train yard
they never found her
I’ll never be the same no more
Well, Black River won’t you
carry me back home
I said Black River won’t you
carry me back home
‘cause my baby
don’t you know
she’s down below
and I can’t take this pain no more
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8. |
LA
04:14
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Let’s go to LA and buy new bodies for cheap
let’s go to New York and build our dreams out of concrete, baby
let’s go to Vegas and not tell no one we came
let’s go back home and see how much we’ve changed
Let’s build up an empire and tell the whole world how to live
Or write a book of prayers and poems and teach the world to forgive
Let’s pray to God that our side wins
let’s forget what we learned and do it all over again
chorus:
Well I pray that your dreams come true
and oh, how I wish I could make this easier for you
well I say all these things and I mean well
oh, honey baby, only time will tell
Let’s turn a film about the cruelest century
let’s listen and watch as people talk
about how they’d never do those things
let’s promise the moon and stars to ourselves
let’s screw up big and blame it on someone else
chorus
Let’s go to LA and buy new bodies for cheap
let’s go to New York and build our dreams out of concrete, baby
let’s go to Vegas and not tell no one we came
let’s go back home and see how much we’ve changed
oh, baby
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9. |
Blood Harmony
03:20
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10. |
As I Remember
03:47
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I hear your voice tell me things that are caught up in the past
they mean nothing to me now, just the flash of a synapse
when I hear a different name, I see a different face
I don’t remember the time, I’ve nearly forgotten the place
and I work these memories in my hands like clay
but time has made them sag and break
and everything has changed
and I smile, smile, smile
as I remember the things that used to matter so much
I walked alone across this town carrying a heavy heart
but I realized after a while that I’m lucky as I are
with a bag of books and poems all assembled into to rows
and I spend half the night crossing out the ones I chose
I write by the sreetlight ‘cause the winter sun is set
and I turn these filling pages while the ink still is wet
and I cry, cry, cry
as I remember the things that used to hurt so much
And now all these images descend into a dream
as I put myself to bed tired, wired and wondering
what tomorrow might bring, ideas as big as you can think
the colors start to bloom as dreams develop in the sink
the focus grows soft and the edges start to fade
as I push off this shore, deeper waters yet to wade
and I dream, dream, dream
about the things that will always matter so much
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11. |
Ticking Clocks
05:14
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Oh, the saplings will grow back
from the deep black
of this forest fire
and the songbirds will return
once this slow burn
has died
oh and baby, don’t you weep
‘cause what we lost wasn’t ours to keep
and everything we own
is all on loan
until wer’re gone
and then just like us it’ll find out
where it is to go
‘cause every ticking clock
will tock
until it runs out of time
and every beating heart
will stop and start
‘til it runs out of life
and as for when things come and go
that ain’t for me or you to ever know
oh and in between
well, that’s the thing
to hold on to
oh, ‘cause every last one of us
is only passing through
now, I’m sweeping the floors
and locking the doors
on this place
for there’s a song in my heart
and the horizon is light
for a change
and as things shift and turn
won’t you look back, baby, and learn
that it ain’t what you know
it’s what you sow
and see what grows
and after a while you’ll find yourself
in that place you’d hope to go
yeah, after a while you’ll find yourself
in that place you’d hoped to go
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12. |
Highway
05:11
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I ain’t the man you thought I was
‘cause baby, your potential
is the only thing ‘bout you I loved
I know there’s things we’ll never say
but oh, how I wish there’d been another way
I ain’t the boy you used to know
‘cause mama, I’ve seen a thousand worlds
since I first left home
I could change the whole damn world, baby
Oh, if I could just get outta my way
Chorus:
Oh, mama would you come around?
Oh, ‘cause I can’t pick myself up off the ground
Yeah, baby would you let me in?
Oh, ‘cause death ain’t big enough to be the end
Oh, and life ain’t nothing but a dream
Nothing but a dream
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13. |
All Night Call
04:47
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I waited all night for your call
and when finally it came
there was nothing at all
on the other line
why do I waste my time
with these foolish games?
I toil in the wind and the cold
'til the work and the rain
seep down to my soul
but they can't touch my mind
no, my thoughts are only mine
so I dream the whole day through
lost dreams have cost me again
struck down but luck found me like a friend
the sky rains and the dirt stains
but I know that it
someday will bring good
I waited all night for your call
and when finally it came
there was nothing at all
on the other line
why do I waste my time
with these foolish games?
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W.C. Beck New York
W.C. Beck is an itinerant singer/songwriter from KS who now calls New York home after long stints in Portland, OR and Paris, France. Beck’s songs span from indie folk to classic country and tell of the American heartland and a forgotten epoch. With catchy melodies and sophisticated compositions, most songs find their depth in the personal, moving narrative. ... more
W.C. Beck recommends:
This Town Is Only Going To Break Your Heart
by Jason Myles Goss
Jason is a great songwriter who writes story songs that stop you in your tracks. I've had this album in heavy rotation since its release. Give his tunes a listen and catch him live when you can!
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featured on Bandcamp Radio Jun 10, 2014
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From Cork, Ireland, Lewis Barfoot writes mystic, majestic songs derived from regional folk, with an ambient music aura.
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The latest from the UK’s Chris Brain is a gorgeously wrought album of tender acoustic folk music.
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