Breakin Away from the City 

Breakin away from the city you find that your mind isn’t so kind ya see traces of a man I tried to be but left behind

Remember when I was young remember feeling very well hung remember feeling so high when I said (boom pa toom ta-pa ta-pa)

Those days crystal clear but somewhat a haze churchyard shooting Js, backdoor trick plays pool hustlin’ payday, home on the subway, conductor gives the news this train is going local hey I’m riding in the last car trying to find my flow though I want the big solo I’m working on the lyrics my masterpiece ain’t complete so I repeat the beat like a textile click-click-click click-click-click click-click like rotary dial, Dream of riches dream of fame change perspective change my name but the game stays the same and I lose grip on my sane

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Living in the city ain’t what it used to be, living alone, ain’t what it’s cracked up to be

I’m gonna find me a place to be and take my woman with me

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Smallscale panic rips my inside I’m trapped up on this jungle isle I try to find the daylight to run west to the sun

Tonight feels like the night I might lose my upright I’m more than uptight my skin’s so crawling my chest’s so pounding so red’s my eyesight. Hop flights, late nights soul fights good or bad right or wrong can't be had just the want in the moment achieve the flow you thought you bought but never was yours to own. The voice inside says do or die stay or fly deer in headlight suicide the rush comes quickly wake up sickly eliminate completely. But it's just the juice that gets you back out on the street looking for the beat orange sunrise Lower East Side the beast side of my brain connects to my chest which tightens and grips me so hard so early in the day and as I cross Broadway I don't even know it but I'm breakin away

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Living in the city ain’t what it used to be, living alone, ain’t what it’s cracked up to be

I’m gonna find me a place to be and take my woman with me

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New York I keep leaving you for more and more days

Kips bay you got new people, and you seem so far away

Bensonhurst I remember gramma but I can’t go back that way

Fashion Ave you took my mom you’re definitely not my fave

Harlem you were a stop along the way just like the Have’

Riverside I like you much but you came too late, I’m breaking away

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Living in the city ain’t what it used to be, living alone, ain’t what it’s cracked up to be

I’m gonna find me a place to be and take my woman with me

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Breakin away from the city you find that your mind isn’t so kind you hear (repeat)

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One-Way Ticket From New York City

Blue jet plane pick up my life, take it away and put it down far from the USA

Rome, Vienna, Barcelona, L.A., any place east or west but not New York City

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One-way train pick up my life, roll me away and let me off far from my home state

Jo-berg, Mexico, Rio, any place north or south and not New York City

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I am fed up with the Jim Crow ways, and people who are cruel and insecure

Who lynch me everyday to feel better about themselves

All my life I’ve lived on this island close to family and friends

I’ll pick it up and carry it away on a one-way ticket from the USA

Gone, gone, gone.

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Green punch buggy pick up my life, put-put it away, riding low on down the highway

Take me to 81, 95 or 70, any old way but not New York City

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Gone, gone, gone

Gone, gone, gone

Gone, gone, gone

Gone, gone, gone

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Lyrics adapted from Langston Hughes' "One-Way Ticket" ©1994 by The Estate of Langston Hughes

Used by permission of Harold Ober Associates Incorporated

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Railway station, New Haven, CT

Railway station, New Haven, Connecticut the place I learned to write

Goin’ up north to Massachusetts gonna see my lady tonight

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Every now and then I lose my grounding and I can’t tell where to go

And when it comes back to this confusion I grab my guitar, and take it to the road

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I can’t help it I’ve been gone too long

I gotta get away, I gotta get away gotta get out the next song

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I’m taking friends up on offers to visit that they haven’t even made

But when I write a tune for their trouble they thank the lord I stayed

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I can’t help it I’ve been home too long

I gotta get away, I gotta get away gotta get out the next song

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Railway station, New Haven, Connecticut the place I learned to write

Goin’ up north to Massachusetts gon see my lady, and it’ll all feel just right

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Easter Sunday New York City the mad pavement makes my feet cry

Saw the girl from my high school getting strung out by some Irish barfly

Headed down Second Avenue not a place on the drag has changed

A scaffold covers the eye-sores everyone slowly goes insane

 

There’s a small town girl from Illinois screaming at the tourist crowds

In 6 weeks she’s become a city girl and she tells you mighty proud

With her torch held high above her head she’ll burn anyone opposed

Stands tall on her little island while her solitude it grows

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New Yorkers changing all the time are the same as we’ve always seemed

All of us looking to get somewhere but we don’t know where we’ve been

Me I’ve been from the Staten Island dumps to the Islands of the Grand Concourse

Stay forever or leave right now I don’t know which is worse

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And my lady stays in Brookline now the river flows past her place

I’m ready to get there so I can read the love upon her face

Now it’s way past time and it’s getting to hot for casual conversation

But my train’s delayed so I’m gonna have time to write more verses in this station

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Louisiana

On my own in New Orleans

Louisiana, you've got funny ways and means

Won't you take me as I came here in my jeans

In my jeans

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I wander here from place to place

Oh New Orleans, you don't even know my face

But you know that I've come down here to leave the race

Leave the race

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Oh, oh Michigan 

I may never see you again

Oh my NYC

These days you mean a little bit less to me

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Back again n - o - l - a

Louisiana you're so prescient in your way

Yeah you know how to make me come and to make me stay

Make me stay

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Oh, oh Michigan 

I may never see you again

Oh my NYC

These days you mean a little bit less to me

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I wrote this tune river-tide

My New Orleans you could never run and hide

You remain here with the whole world by your side

By your side

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Oh, oh Michigan (you take me as I...)

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Loved You Like NY

My my, how time flies watching a bright green sky over highway 5

My my look at your eyes I used to love you like NY, how time flies

But you drifted away in a May daydream

And I forgot about the time that you were my lady

And you forsook the notion that we’re destined to be

So before I forgot about you, you forgot about me

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When we were lovers, inside covers

Westside on a sunny day, my my

What would you say if you saw us at 35?

We’re much smarter now but are we still half alive?

I loved you like NY

With our legs crossed and flowing down like Broadway

You were rough around the edges and I liked you that way

And we used to say true love could never be forgotten or besotten it would be okay

But I lost your way

Now I’m chasing the sky west to Oceanside

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My my, I loved you like NY

My my, I loved you like NY

My my, yeah I loved you like NY

Goodbye, goodbye

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Holy Jesus and Mary

Holy Jesus born in the middle of a storm

Came from mother Mary who’d always been alone

It was a virgin birth, as much as dad was worth

But Mary loved her Jesus as though he were her own

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Jesus came to show that he was a special one

Mary came to suffer though graceful to the bone

She bore the holy kid and pay for that she did

And Jesus held her pain by carrying her cross

 

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Mary mother, came to the garden gate

To witness Holy Jesus surrender to his fate

Though he was just the son the father left him to save everyone

But Jesus couldn’t save mother Mary

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Mother Mary, failing, weeping in the road

Looked up at her Jesus and finally saw his blood

He could save the throngs but couldn’t save his mom

And heaven couldn’t help him put down his heavy load

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Holy Jesus had been the fruit of Mary’s womb

Now he laid her ashes in 29th street’s smallest tomb

He had become a ghost, Heaven’s weeping host

For mother Mary, for the father, and for himself the most

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Still Seeing Ghosts

Wake up on the east side with coffee and toast

Walk out to third avenue and I’m still seeing ghosts

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See me on the 6 train I look so engrossed

Staring at my phone avoiding the ghosts

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Make it downtown Fulton Street station looks like new

The girls look the same all just versions of you

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I still aim to please, still give the New Year’s toast

I ain’t kicked the habit and I’m still seeing ghosts

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(Om now)

 

Same weight to lose, still straddle both coasts

My anchor’s still cut and I’m still seeing ghosts

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Going to the grave so mindful I’m just a

Transfigured man talking to boxes of dust

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It’s the trip out of town that I dread the most

Can’t avoid the Midtown Tunnel which is clogged up with ghosts

 

Still taking life by the day, still making the most

I look in the mirror and I’m looking at ghosts

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Wake up on the east side burnt coffee and toast

Walk out to Third Avenue and I’m still seeing ghosts

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See me on the 6 train I look so engrossed

Staring at my phone avoiding the ghosts

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Some 51st Street Prayer

Lord have mercy on me, give me peace to be

A good man unequivocally on bended knee I shout a prophecy

A spiritual void in me empty like jukebox philosophy

A deep souloscopy reveals the loss of me

My offenses if you knew them would harangue your senses

Runnin’ amock like the biggest perv on the block

I acted mental been wicked since the placental

And my spiritual mind was incidental

 

Hide your face from these indiscretions

I know my transgressions, I don’t need to give no confessions

No twelve-step sessions to tell me why the flesh sins

It’s the mind that brings the body to fall off the cliff into the deepest chasm

A cheap orgasm, a four second spasm is what brought Eve to Adam

I look deep inside me for the truth, and reclaim the edge I had in my youth

I was clean indeed when I cut my first tooth

How you gonna ignore my iniquities, father please

I can tell you’re getting sick and tired of these

Unclean tales of pissing on life’s third rail

Hide your face pretty boy this isn’t what you learned at Yale

 

Oh, forgive me for my wickedness I need your compassion and your kindness

Wash me clean from my sin through and through with your loving

I know all of my transgressions and the evil I have done can be excused to no one

In your eyes I am full callousness and lies and you are justified if you wanna judge me in black and white

 

I laid down on the filthy ground like a dog from the pound

To receive the poison mouth a foul sound of tongue to flesh gone bad

Used to be I thought I was ahead now I’ve forgotten every measure of self-respect I ever had,

Deliver me from the reaper, give me my innocence back I swear I’ll keep her

I’ll sing your praise for bringing me out of my daze for all my days, I’ll preach it in many ways

My heart and mind are broken, but I offer them up as a token, while I let my spirit soak in the righteousness

My consciousness is blessed I confess I don’t know this love but I know it hurts less

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Oh, forgive me for my wickedness I need your compassion and your kindness

Wash me clean from my sin through and though with your loving

I know all of my transgressions and the evil I have done can be excused to no one

In your eyes I am full callousness and lies and you are justified if you wanna judge me in black and white

You look within me and with truth you win me purge the evil from my skin the eyes of wisdom secretly divine me

Make me hear the joy cause this broken body’s just a boy, purge me, you urge me you surge me and then we merge we

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Oh my wickedness

Lord forgive me

Lord forgive me oh my wicknedness (repeat and fade)

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Lyrics based on Psalm 51

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You Sleep in the Front Seat

You sleep in the front seat while I drive

We both know that there’s no more road but for my pride

We’ll forget it about it all til we arrive

While you sleep in the front seat and I drive

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You tried hard to love me but I knew your pain

I put you above me but all in vain       

And I think you thought I’d play the part

I’m not sure why

And you’re still fast asleep in the front seat

while I drive

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You’ll leave this car quickly you’re packed so light

And I’ll never forget the dress you wore tonight     

And my beaten heart begins to cool while you cry

And pretend to sleep in the front seat

While I drive

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Summer Fool

Oh, Summer fool, it’s been a while

But I got your note and it made me smile

I dropped in to New York City, just a day or two

I’m sorry that I didn’t call but don’t think that I wasn’t thinking ‘bout you

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Did you think we could work it out from just a summer fling

Me in and out doin my business, you hustlin round town doin your thing

Are you thinking bout sunny times, waiting for another June

Summer fool, summer fool the summer breeze cooled and I did too

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But when I tell you summer fool that I’m still in love with you

Then you’ll know who’s the fool, it’s me

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You were never a smooth one, but I was never Romeo

It wasn’t your fault that it ended I just needed to go

I think I heard your heart breaking even though you played it cool

Summer fool, summer fool getting too close is against my rules

 

But when I tell you summer fool that I’m still in love with you

Then you'll know who's the fool, it's me

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Sorry I didn’t write last fall was a busy time

Then it came to the holidays, and I took some time to unwind

I thought I’d see you in the winter days, but instead I always chose to hibernate

But the grey has melted away, I’ve started to think on you

Oh, summer fool

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But when I tell you summer fool that I’m still in love with you

Then you'll know who's the fool, it's me

Oh summer fool, hey summer fool

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Oh summer fool, I’m in love with you

Summer fool, summer fool

Hey summer fool

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Arc of My Love

Come to my room tell me that secret again

Watch the shape of my love bend, friend,  to you

Do you remember fourteen? You were sooo young, I was so green

Lovers at heart but at bay I biked miles to stroll you to school each day

Don’t let your heart slip away

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By the riverside in our bliss, Dara

I will seal you with a kiss, Dara

And in time you will know this:

The long arc of my love bends to you

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We drove upstate on Seventeen

We were high with our love in between

Our picture on Valentine’s day, I wanted my whole life to be that way

But we were still time away

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When New York became gray

I crossed the Hudson and just kept going that way

And you said, “where’s Michigan?”

I said, "it’s on the way to our life, friend"

Putting your faith in mine we took the trip of a lifetime

Look, the Toledo skyline

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Somewhere on Lakeshore, drinking milk and honey

I said something you thought was quite funny

Chiang Mai was so green, there you told me you’d marry me

Now we’ve found our gravity

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By the riverside in our bliss, Dara

I will seal you with a kiss, Dara

And in time you will know this:

The long arc of my love

The long arc of my love

The long arc of my love bends to you

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Goodbye NY

Never thought I’d be anything but a New York City boy

But the city, boy, it beat it outta me

Never thought I’d go any further west than the Palisades

But this palace ain’t enough for me

So I’m going to the sky

When I spread my wings and fly I’m gonna say goodbye

Goodbye

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Said I’m going out on a one-way trip in a railway car with my guitar on my hip, goodbye

I may end up the fool for leaving but summer’s gone now and I only believe in goodbye

Forgive me Lord my wickedness but this town means just a little bit less, goodbye

I’m tired of seeing my own ghost in every corner bar so I’ll find another coast, goodbye

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There’s something 'bout having traveled many miles and many roads

And coming back to 27th street

But this one time I left LGA west to Michigan

And called it home

So Goodbye, NY

I’ve got life to live before I die, and so I’ll say goodbye

Goodbye

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Hey Dara, those Riverside nights are gone so come and take a chance on a life and a song, and I’ll drive

There’s no one here who’s left worth saving 'cept us so let’s build our own little haven, goodbye

I wanna find a mind that’s a little more kind not carried away to a long ago time, goodbye

And to the girl with the deep gray eyes we missed our connection but I loved you like NY, goodbye

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Goodbye

Goodbye

Goodbye

NY

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All lyrics © Chris Genteel, 2002-2016 

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