Get all 40 Ron Pope releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of I'm Not the Devil (Featuring Taylor Bickett), Inside Voices, White Christmas, Dreams (Fleetwood Mac cover), It's Gonna Be a Long Night, Lie, Cheat, & Steal, The Good Old Days, Not As I Do, and 32 more.
1. |
Flesh of My Flesh
01:39
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Flesh of my flesh, blood of my blood,
Only part of me I’ve ever loved.
The ride to get here has been so cold,
I thank God I found my way home.
Everyone who was responsible for me,
Tried to kill themselves before I turned eighteen.
I became so selfish in some ways I can’t forgive,
I did not know to want you, loneliness had been my friend.
See I’ve been poor and I’ve been hungry,
It was hard and it got ugly,
But you won’t walk a single inch of all the desperate roads that haunt me.
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2. |
Habits
02:49
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It hasn’t rained yet, but it’s coming,
The air is New Orleans in the summer.
Been told I shouldn’t say the places and names,
But if you leave out all the details isn’t everything the same?
We’ve all got bad habits, have some damn good times,
Maybe we broke some hearts and wasted some daylight.
We probably should know better by now,
But old habits die hard, we’re still walking around.
Almost nobody cares about what you feel,
Only what you accomplish becomes real.
Still I’ve been crippled by my anxiety,
But I guess it’s better to be wrong in the pursuit of being free.
We’ve all got bad habits, have some damn good times,
Maybe we broke some hearts and wasted some daylight.
We probably should know better by now,
But old habits die hard, we’re still walking around.
I’ve heard the chains of habit are too weak to be felt,
Until they’re too strong to be broken, but I’m not sure how that helps.
We’ve all got bad habits, have some damn good times,
Maybe we broke some hearts and wasted some daylight.
We probably should know better by now,
But old habits die hard, we’re still walking around.
We’ve all got bad habits, have some damn good times,
Maybe we broke some hearts and wasted some daylight.
We probably should know better by now,
But old habits die hard, we’re still walking around.
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3. |
Practice What I Preach
03:00
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I don’t know if I am qualified for this,
No one checked on my credentials ‘fore they asked what your name is.
Counted fingers, counted toes, said, “I cannot place your nose,”
Then against my better judgment we stepped out into the cold.
(And now I) do my best to practice what I preach,
So you don’t have to learn things on the street
Like I did back when I was half my age,
Long before I knew the price I’d have to pay.
My father told me sometimes one and one makes three,
There’s many called but few are chosen, nothing worth a damn is free.
Don’t you take no wooden nickels, in fact don’t get paid in change,
And remember who you are no matter what road that you take.
If you can avoid it don’t you get by on your looks,
When you’re searching for an answer figure someone wrote the book,
And no matter what don’t be afraid to say when you are wrong.
Remember it don’t make you weak to know that you aren’t always strong.
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4. |
San Miguel
02:53
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No one walks from San Miguel
Up to Laredo through the gates of Hell,
Carrying a crying three year old,
Without a good reason to leave home.
Old South, new ideas, like a shopping cart with one bad wheel,
You don’t throw the whole thing away ‘cause some damn fool is facing the wrong way.
I do not care who you love,
Just find you someone who shows up,
‘Cause when those waves come crashing down it’s nice to know there’s still dry ground.
I don’t know if there’s a God,
But I believe in right and wrong.
I don’t trust the President,
But lord I love this land we’re living in.
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5. |
She's Good
03:04
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Leather jacket,
Trip to Colorado, drinking from the bottle,
Don’t wanna waste the glass.
In the morning, I pray she’ll still be with me,
Like the remnants of this whiskey, she’ll keep clouding up my mind.
She wrote letters to the orphanage the year that she aged out,
Came to town to pass the weekend and then never turned around.
I was sixteen and a half years old, did what she said I should.
Yeah, she’s good.
I kept wandering,
Singing ‘bout my mother, trying to call my brother,
Leaving messages at home.
Despite my blessings,
I felt hemmed in by the city, like a bird trapped in a chimney,
Always crashing into walls.
When I got back home to Georgia she was nowhere to be found,
‘Til she sat right down beside me and said I should be the next round.
I would cry but I think first things first, I’ll probably knock on wood.
Yeah, she’s good.
She don’t wanna need, anything like me.
Now she’s laughing,
Saying I’m so simple. My fingers trace a dimple on the right side of her spine.
Her Christian kindness, ran out of gas in Memphis,
But her wanderlust is endless,
So she kept on down the road.
I don’t think that either one of us is ever going home,
And I know enough about her to be sure there’s things I’ll never know.
I can’t tell you how this ends, but bet you that she could.
Yeah, she’s good. It’s true. She’s good.
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6. |
Bone Structure
04:15
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Playing scratch offs with the pull tab of a tallboy on your front steps.
Helicopters dancing over us, retreat inside.
Then we both got sick from the window of a taxi,
The driver didn’t mind, so we laughed in the backseat.
In the morning you asked if I took you to bed,
I said, “When I do, you’ll remember it.”
Your bone structure was more striking to me than all your lack of empathy.
Your bone structure made it so I couldn’t see you were indifferent to me.
This coffee’s too strong, I am shaking,
I guess that’s why I still come here.
You are day drunk, my salvation, whistling “I’m On Fire.”
Your bone structure was more striking to me than all your lack of empathy.
Your bone structure made it so I couldn’t see you were indifferent to me.
We share a twelve dollar bottle of brandy in the parking lot
Behind a dumpster so everybody else can
Pretend that they don’t notice and we all can eat our breakfast in peace.
You spit champagne through your front teeth, slap my face and laugh like a lunatic in a movie. You cut right through me, come out on the other side.
Your bone structure was more striking to me than all your lack of empathy.
Your bone structure made it so I couldn’t see you were indifferent to me.
Your bone structure was more striking to me than all your lack of empathy.
Your bone structure made it so I couldn’t see you were indifferent to me.
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7. |
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Working girls cursing teenaged Marines, ‘til the TJ police came and broke up the scene.
Damn, the stars they seem brighter down here,
Haven’t looked up in years since I left where I’m from.
Remembering St. Augustine, wasn’t quite twenty three,
With a bag full of secrets in a maze of concrete,
And a busted lip I came by honestly. What will become of me?
I guess we’ll just wait and see.
Headed south, Ensenada again, carried slow by the wind, broke as I’ve ever been.
Buried deep all the beauty I keep, drank tequila so cheap that they should’ve paid me.
Then I woke up alone with my hand on the phone
And nobody to call who’d invite me back home.
Was I chased all this way by my chemistry? What will become of me?
I guess we’ll just wait and see.
I’ll come down off the cross, sometimes we all get lost.
I’m so sick of myself, can’t afford what it costs,
To be drowned in a sea of my memory.
What will become of me?
I guess we’ll just wait and see.
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8. |
Ducky Groove
02:40
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9. |
Dodge Aries Wagon
03:17
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Money gets spent, children grow old,
Summer's too hot, love runs cold.
It's a bitter pill to swallow, trust me I know,
I've been almost everywhere you're gonna go.
Drove a nineteen eighty three Dodge Aries wagon with no A/C,
Down that old new york thruway on our way back to the Garden State.
Baby brother not old enough to shave,
But he was rolling up a joint as Springsteen played.
Takes one to know one and I know you,
So don't do anything that I would do.
Don't play dumb to comfort fools,
Prove it to yourself, that's all you gotta do.
Ride your own train of thought to the end of the line,
What's the point of being loved if you've gotta live a lie?
Why follow the leader? Best to lead yourself.
It's an eye for an eye, but a cold day in Hell,
When you're not better off turning the other cheek.
Don't bring a knife to a dogfight, ‘cause then everybody bleeds.
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10. |
My Wildest Dreams
03:11
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I find that now I'm always listening, god knows I used to talk so much.
The ocean doesn't need the sailor, the sky was there before the doves.
I spoke in riddles and in rhymes,
But my time with you has taught me to simplify.
You're not quite what I pictured you would be,
You're better than my wildest dreams.
I won't leave you when you're sleeping, I will be here when you awake.
I've got ghosts and I’ve got demons, but they will not chase me away.
I've been waiting all my life,
For some reason that I never could describe.
I'm not sure what I could give you, whatever's mine is yours to take.
I have never been a teacher, but let's both learn from my mistakes.
‘Cause it has taken me so long,
To surrender what I hoped no one could see.
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11. |
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I get home and it's already dark,
Kick my shoes off leave them in the hall.
It's been freezing in this house since the day that you flew south,
Now I'm shivering just trying to sweat you out.
As cliché as it seems, I'm strung out on a dream.
It's taking all my strength to keep me clean.
Take the edge off, take the edge off,
I just need a little taste to get me through the night.
Take the edge off, take the edge off,
Lord knows what I'd give away to feel you one more time.
I know by now for certain you've moved on,
Maybe you were someone else's all along.
Slippin' off your dress, lay your head against his chest,
While I'm left here in the arms of my regret.
The ceiling spins and shakes and still I cannot escape,
There's only one thing that can dull this pain.
I'm passing days watching cars,
The sun goes down, their headlights flicker on.
Then in the dark, counting stars I wish upon.
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12. |
Stuck on the Moon
03:35
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Chewing my elbows and pacing, calling my cousin collect,
If you wanna run with hyenas, might find yourself bit on the neck.
I’ve touched some impossible beauty and woke up alone with the shakes,
I know I don’t wanna die young, but growing old don’t seem so great.
I’ve got a friend we call Michael, he wears uncomfortable shoes,
Visits us all the way uptown, ‘cause that’s what a good friend’ll do.
Dominican girls float by laughin’, trailin’ perfume and Vidal Sassoon.
I took a shot to end up with the stars and found myself stuck on the moon.
Piled up dirty dishes in bedrooms, all those cigarettes we put out quick,
Up on one hundred and forty ninth street, it’s been raining in starts and in fits.
I think I might go fishing with Charlie, come down like broken elevator shoes,
You might think I’m an abomination, but I could say the same thing about you
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13. |
Back Together Again
03:32
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So if we're keeping score, how much does this count?
And if I can't afford, is there a discount?
Let's skip the darkest clouds, land on the bright side,
Like when the morning came, and you opened your eyes.
And I'd fix breakfast as you laid in bed,
Sometimes I made you scream but most you'd laugh.
Since we decided this will never end,
We're always falling apart then back together again.
This is a witch's brew, yeah it's a pipe dream,
You learned from sunny days, I learned from TV.
It's hard enough to fly, up in the angry sky.
So quit your howling like the northern wind,
Sometimes it's easier to break than bend.
This is for real, it's never been pretend.
We're always falling apart then back together again.
I love the way that you can make me cry,
I never cared enough before to try.
Yeah it ain't perfect but what else has been,
We're always falling apart then back together again.
Always falling apart then back together again.
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14. |
Legacy Of Sadness
05:55
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Wildflowers grow along the fence line,
In this “better keep the meter running" life.
Beautiful and purple in the sunlight,
Trying to put down roots ‘cause it's their right.
I know some may say they're weeds but I'm not bothered,
Nothing delicate like that lasts very long.
Just ‘cause you were not invited to the party,
Don't mean you can't dance when they put on your song.
It's been a great lake summer,
Busted taillights out on fifty-five.
Windows open, headed south to Pontiac all night.
This legacy of sadness that's in my people,
Reservations like the color of my eyes.
Yeah it's harder to pretend, but we survive.
Inheritance don’t have to be a treasure,
Cruelty in the bathroom mirror light.
Misery you carry like an anchor,
That was meant to keep you from drifting with the tides.
Irrational as it may seem, I guess I'm sorry,
Even though I know that none of it's my fault.
It is easier for me to count my blessings,
Than to cry for every single thing we've lost.
I ran to Baltimore, I could run to Rome.
I have run most everywhere, but nothing ever feels like home.
When I get to California, I will kiss her poison lips,
And reach the logical conclusion, then I’ll turn and run again.
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Ron Pope Nashville, Tennessee
Platinum recording independent artist, Ron Pope, made a name for himself in the early days of music streaming with the viral success of his song, “A Drop in the Ocean” - which has now been streamed over 1 billion times going platinum in the US and double platinum in Sweden. ... more
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