Get all 6 Al Duvall releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of TWITCHER Life Is Cheep, I Learned How To Sing (in Sing Sing), Insomnibus, Squirt, Rubber Heart, Recluses Unite!, and Coroner & Knives.
1. |
Bareknuckle Ballerina
03:06
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She plays a game where love means nothing, I do believe they call it tennis
She serves in court and has a racket not unlike a public menace
But this song's about her sister I met her at the greyhound track
She's fetching but she won't roll over and I'm not sure I want her back
I get such a tender feeling she's a thorny little rosebud
Down before her I am kneeling and I'm mopping up my nose blood
I know there must be some honey in that hive of angry bees
She's an emerald I'd love to swallow and smuggle overseas
It's like she's dancing on air sir when she dances with her fan sir
But while you wait for her to care sir you should smoke 'em if you can sir I've got to visit the organ grinder and get some monkey glands
I've got a bare knuckle ballerina on my hands
I'd loiter 'round the old gymnasium glimpsing my Olympic nymph
You came down off your pedestal and cracked my head against the plinth In the clinch I took advantage my swollen lip said "You are swell"
You held me tight inside a bandage and told the cops I tripped and fell When you kiss me with your knuckle it's a custom I am new to
When you belt me and I buckle a one-two punch in your tutu
Oh I still cherish that night in Paris when you were in St. Paul
And when the barkeep says "Name your poison" it's your name I call
Oh you give my heart a beating you take the tree out of the country
And I wonder why I'm greeting the grunting brunt of your effrontery
But then it hits me- I can't be happy without the misery
My little bare knuckle ballerina golly gee!
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2. |
O Anomia
03:13
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Oh once I was reclusive once I was a shut-in
I'd sit in total darkness so my shadow wouldn't butt in
Oh misery loves company yes I could sure see why
But lately I'm so sociable I hang my head and cry
Oh once I was a flogger I made those prisoners scream
I wound up in a bakery beating eggs and whipping cream
I worked as a contortionist just trying to make ends meet
I'm the white sheep of the family I failed them as a cheat
O! Anomia why don't you care for me?
I've come home from Antietam with a stump below my knee
My gal's wrapped round my finger 'cause my hand is in her purse
Her folks say when I bring her home at least she can't do worse
She bought a fancy frock and met some menfolk from Manhattan
The top half of the frock was felt the bottom half was satin
A lawyer came a' courting, and thirteen kids he give her
But thirteen is unlucky so she drowned one in the river
She goes into the grove and at the little grave she grieves
And seeing how it's Arbor Day she packs her trunk and leaves
The granger grins and grinds his grains as he's done all his life
But stranger sins his mind restrains until he's found a wife
Then one day through his stockyards there ripped a big tornado
The next day it rained rounds of beef away down in Laredo
I'm rolling down the road now with my neck upon the track
I sold my soul and now the devil wants his money back
Two wrongs don't make a right sir it might take eight or nine
At least that's what they tell the doughboys falling by the Rhine
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3. |
Slick Hamtree
03:19
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4. |
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Boys I made the circuit as a pest from the Yukon down to Key West
'Til I faced the guns of the Pinkertons and to them my capers I confessed They pinned some jobs on me I didn't do but a hobo's alibis are few
I was held by Sarge on a groundless charge in the 'lectric chair at San Berdoo
He said Handsome Pete come and cool your feet hop up on the barbecue stool
When they strapped me down to it I cried I can hold down any bumpy ride But when the switch was thrown I felt every bone get all dislocated up inside
I hadn't held a job since '89 now I'm the main conductor on the line
She's a cannonball but I made her stall when I blew the fuse with my spine They said Don't you fret we'll just get reset and you'll soon be gettin' where you're gwine
So they let this prisoner re-volt and that rattler took off with a jolt
Thought I beat the odds but when I rode those rods 'twas like I hopped a lightning bolt
They doubled up the juice but the straps burned loose and I ran round like a branded colt
Well by this time I was plenty sore and I started crawling for the door
They said Ease your head you'll be back on schedule just sit tight a little more
Well the third time always is a charm smoke was puffing out my head and arm
Boys that train was fast my whole life flew past on that third-rail express away from harm
Time to hop that one-man boxcar down a hole out by the prison farm
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5. |
Dark Inside
02:49
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Some men drink to their sweethearts some men drink to your health
Me I drink to excess and I often toast myself
I came home drunk this morning the wife began to shout
We fought beside the window and we had a falling out
'Twas April Forty-Second a day I still forget
The storms were on the ocean and the fish were getting wet
I pulled them up to safety and strung them on a line
I dried them in a skillet now those fish are doing fine
I gambled my last dollar got thrown out in the street
Took off my Eton collar- there was nothing left to eat
I broke out of the poorhouse and through the woods I went
The bloodhounds never found me for I did not have a cent
My baby has no manners my baby has no charm
And God was pouring in her brains when someone knocked his arm
She's pretty as a picture that wasn't painted good
I gaze at her for hours when she's outside chopping wood
Into a vat of chili there fell a factory man
His partner said Well so long pal I'll see you when I can
The preacher loved a schoolgirl harassed her on the phone
And followed her while whistling "You'll Never Walk Alone"
That funeral director that guy's an awful flirt
His comfort and consoling's just to grab a piece of skirt
He's felt a lot of widows' bosoms heaving as they grieved
And all his pretty orphans must be seen to be bereaved
My school was the burlesque my teacher had no clothes
I climbed up to her rescue and her fescue struck my nose
Sometimes I find a nickel sometimes I find a dime
And once I found a quarter boy! we had a swell old time
"Oh doctor save my buddy" the wounded soldier said
"His arms and legs and body's gone and I can't find his head"
The world is cold and evil there's no place left to hide
Their skins are many colors but all men are dark inside
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6. |
Me, Myself & You
02:40
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Oh, some say that vanity is a man-eating manatee in the pond just below one's reflection
A murmuring mermaid a siren whose serenade avenges such selfish affection
Tell Narcissus who drowned in his pool
That's what mirrors were made for you fool
Oh my self-centered love has been healthy and true
Now I feel that I'm losing myself to you
Oh you make me jealous so when you and I go out
When I come home late there isn't any doubt
That I've been out with you- I reek of your perfume
I don't talk to myself I just go up to my room
My heart once beat as two what happened to that spark
when I went out together and petted in the park?
I was my whole world and now there's someone new
now it's me myself and you
I love you my dear to leave you I am loath
But could there be room in my heart for us both?
I know you must see me in the window in the night
Watching while you and I hold each other tight
I miss my touch I miss my little laugh
Since you came between me to tempt my better half
And now I'm caught up in this strange menage a two
with me myself and you
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7. |
Welfare Island
02:59
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Manhattan's made me madder than a hatter
The clang and clatter's caused my mind to shatter
But I've heard about a paradise where everything is free
Where I can chase my dreams and they won't be chasing me
I'll sail away to live on Welfare Island
'Neath palms held out for alms at the asylum
Our ship will skip the ripples like a ferry
To rest across the eastern estuary
The natives will insist I stay a while and
I'll emulate Napoleon's exile and
In my little granite shack I'll smile and
I'll never bid farewell to Welfare Island
Where maidens in their uniforms beguile and
Where time is only arrows on a dial and
I'm free from all the cares upon the dry land
I'll never bid farewell to Welfare Island
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8. |
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Pray remember the General Slocum
That death trap of lead paint and oakum
As she burned to a cinder the fraulein and kinder
Leapt into the lifeboats and broke 'em
In those days New York City was thriving
And industrious folk kept arriving
It was beer halls and Germans and Lutheran sermons
that prevented the market from diving
An excursion was held every summer
For the kin of the cobbler and plumber
Everybody was dressed in their picnicking best
But the glamour was soon to be glummer
For in 1904 in those dark days of yore
on the throne sat the big corporation
From greedy directors to corrupted inspectors
an octopus strangled the nation
And the cost- cutting plan of the sweatshopper man
was the model for business and profit
Thus our ill- fated ship was unfit for the trip
and nobody could even get off it
So a flame set by someone unthinking
As the cowardly crew set to drinking
Went to spread without check from the hold to the deck
And the choice came to burning or sinking
For true connoisseurs of disaster
No ferryboat ever surpassed her
Though consumed by the fire And though land beckoned by her
The captain kept pushing her faster
One thousand did die in the wink of an eye
at the hands of a corporate miser
Grieving fathers returned for their families had burned
and they plotted revenge with the Kaiser
All those barons of humbug and hokum
I hope that the anarchists choke 'em
When they're lost in the slum that Kleindeutschland's become
Since the wreck of the General Slocum
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9. |
I Married a Milliner
02:24
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Though many adore me I married a milliner
She's breezy she's stormy I cherish the chill in her
For although I'm forty she breathes and I feel eighteen
She stands in her stall she's a poor kid with tortured feet
She smiles through it all she's the orchid of Orchard Street
I spotted her plumage through the window of my limousine
On top of the world the air's rather thin alone I sat gasping and pale
But the tenement basement apartment she's in is warm as a Mexican jail But business got tougher for my little milliner
The work made her suffer the mercury was killin' her
She'd faint on the sofa and arouse my chivalry
So I reached in my pocket and pulled out a dime and ring
I put back the dime and I gave her the other thing
And laid down a hanky and fell upon my knee
I heard from an old society flame
the milliner weighed on her head
A millionaire ought to be smart said the dame
and she coaxed me to wed her instead
But I didn't carry a torch like an arsonist
I went to McSorley's 'cause that's where the parson is
To ask him to marry the milliner and me
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10. |
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Bee's knees, jeepers creepers, bread lines and Wall Street leapers
We're the marathon dance band
Palookas drag their slappers, chained onto fainting flappers
We're the marathon dance band
For twenty days now we've been going steady
playing the Charleston Lindy baby and the Sacco-Vanzetti
Longer faster louder keep up or take a powder
We're the marathon dance band
Exhausted underfed it's nice work if you can get it
We're the marathon dance band
We take a crippled nation and stir up a big sensation
We're the marathon dance band
Don't stand in line for handouts out in the snowstorm
Stay a while and fake a smile and dance dance your toes warm
You've got to try by golly or foxtrot beneath a trolley
We're the marathon dance band
Nowadays gold diggers have to use sifters
Shake and wiggle those busted gigolos four-flushers and grifters
Good times or great depression your fun is our profession
We're the marathon dance band
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11. |
The Busker
02:33
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I'm only the busker of the town my calling's inconsequential
I'm just a buffoon a fool a clown the opposite of essential
I fill the square with glee and mirth to cheer your day a little
And then to show me what I'm worth you spatter my hat with spittle
Spittle you spatter my hat with spittle
The policeman earns his daily crust from evidence he's collected
The sculptor likewise makes a bust and likewise he is respected
The athlete bravely kicks a ball the vicar waxes holy
Compared to them I don't work at all no wonder my station's lowly
Lowly no wonder my station's lowly
I'm only the busker of the town a prostitute once I fancied
She eyed me up on the eiderdown and kicked me upon my pants seat
She said Get up and quit my door it hurts my reputation
To take your business what with your disreputable vocation
Your disreputable vocation
So spare some change as you pass by oh you can come up with tuppence Don't take my songs for free or I will orchestrate your comeuppance
My tunes will keep you up all night I'll mock you in my verses
And next time you pass by I might just serenade you with curses
Curses I'll serenade you with curses
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