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Revelations No​.​34

from The Big Show by Stephen Simmons

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about

In October of 2007 I stepped off a plane by myself back in the USA after 3 weeks on tour in Europe. The following few days this song started tumbling out of me...and on the drive up to and back from Cape Girardeau, MO the following weekend for a show, I continued to have it pour out.

lyrics

REVELATIONS No.34
 

There’s a million senseless reasons
Why these stores on Main are closing down
As a million changing seasons leave their mark
On these people and these buildings downtown
 
A billion vulgar dealings
Left these institutions bankrupt of soul
And a billion greedy minions took great harvest
A harvest they never laboured or sowed
 
With a hundred faceless coins in your pockets
And a hundred unmarked bills in useless wallets
 
Thought she had the answers to our ails
In her big and blue Star Spangled eyes
Took the milk from her breast, then looked West
And marched on towards a blood red sky
 
Self-worship was the only flowing fountain
As other well’s soon ran dry
Vanity’s once proud, majestic mountains
Timber stripped and her stones long since mined
 
Fasten these brass buttons on this thin worn out coat
Step into these sole-less boots and into the New World’s cold
 
There’s a pile of dried out bones upon that hill
Underneath the maple’s Autumn turning leaves
Driving by with my family, five years old
Not sure if it’s a dream, a ghost, or an implanted memory
 
There’s a pile of faded letters in foreign languages
Up to the threshold high
And though I cannot read them they call out to me
In the middle of this all revealing night
 
Confusing what’s not real and what’s certain to the eyes
And confusing what can’t change and what could If I’d just learn how to try
 
The cosmos swung open and mankind
Did clumsily appear
And chaos was the order, but so was feared,
And so hated as entropy was revered
 
And so we turned our love to Destiny and Fate
As we struggled to take control of these quiet, desperate lives
But Chaos never blinked he knew that Order
Was Divine and really always on his side
 
Copycat calamity and original sin
But don’t you get too close there boy this property’s condemned
 
Help wanted sign in the window of the Diner
As you enter and take your seat within
Old man in his corner wicker rocker
Chastens you with a toothless grin
 
His stories from the old days make you long
For simpler and easier times
And the sweet nostalgic candy pulls you in
As it’s cavity’s dig deep into your mind
 
He’s quoting Revelations and George Wallace
And every empty suit and false prophet who dares to call us
 
We all stood at the alter vowing charity
In an innocent time
We took our bride with promises of love
And honor and obedient lives
 
And the fruits of our love bore us children
Named malcontent, apathy and denial
But when the mother of our children shows her age we break our vows
And leave her with these kids that just won’t mind
 
Ah but Stawberries will never taste so sweet to the lips touch
And the thighs of all the women, they have surely lost their clutch
   
At the bottom of an eternal abyss
Where once truth did lie
We scratch around with the Veils of Maya
Pulled back o’er our eyes
 
The thoughts in our head
Can’t seem to find their way to our tongue
Blood in vein can’t find the heart
And the air can’t find our lungs
 
The artist’s of our time void of expression
Collective petty thoughts of false conviction
 
We ride upon a great horse that does not trust us
Command a mighty army that will not obey us
 
We bear children upon children who do not love us
As we seek to prove that free will does not suite us
 
 
 

 
 
 
Words and music by Stephen Simmons
Copyright secured all rights reserved
Shiny Geode Music, SESAC
 
 

credits

from The Big Show, released July 19, 2011
Stephen Simmons: vocals, acoustic guitar, harp
Paul Griffith: drums, percussion
Dave Jacques: bass
Eric Fritsch: b-3, electric guitar

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Stephen Simmons Nashville, Tennessee

Stephen Simmons was raised in the small town of Woodbury, Tennessee. As a songwriter and Ten years as a Road Dog, Stephen’s vision has grown to entail more than just reflections of rural America. Stephen’s records (which were compared to everyone from Johnny Cash to Ryan Adams) combine virtuosic songcraft and musicianship with unparalleled artistic honesty. ... more

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