Get all 9 Aaron Smith releases available on Bandcamp and save 30%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of The Dove That Flew Away, Home, Another Gun Song, Monsters, Lines in the Dirt, Almost Forever, Sand in the Hourglass, The Gun Song, and 1 more.
1. |
Start the Clock
03:40
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This is how it begins
A very long story
The universe in
All its glory
The forces of nature
Come together
At the start of a tale
That goes on forever
First a big bang
A knock on the door
It starts out tiny
And becomes so much more
None of the gods
Were invented yet
So gravity and friends
Are the heroes we get
A string of events
So the theory goes
Sometimes it got hot
Sometimes it froze
Everything expands
And so do our chances
It’s evolution time
As the universe dances
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2. |
Dinosaurs
02:59
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3. |
The Ancestor
06:16
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I shiver and grunt
I am awake
To leave this cave
and see what I can take
From this vast
uncharted land
With just a spear
And two bare hands
Your future lives
depend on mine
From a point
Way back in time
I’ve got by far
the greatest brain
That’s made its way
Up the food chain
Let’s give credit
where it’s is due
If not for me
you wouldn’t be you
Think of me here
in the dangerous past
While you’re in the future
on your lazy ass
Red is the color of emergency
Green are the secrets of the trees
I dodge death every day and night
To learn what this life means
I am the first scientist
I am the first priest
I am the first philosopher
I’m more than just a beast
My grandsons will
invent the first gods
Do you still believe?
I find that odd
Don’t thank the lord
When you should thank me
For the path that led
to your luxuries
I crawled in the mud
So you could be clean
I took your world’s
Virginity
If I eat this berry
and survive
Someday you’ll bake it
Into a pie
What doesn’t kill me
Makes you stronger
Someday your lives
will be much longer
Than my very brief
and brutal time
Freshly risen from
Primordial slime
Red is the color of emergency
Green are the secrets of the trees
I dodge death every day and night
To learn what this life means
I am the first scientist
I am the first priest
I am the first philosopher
I’m more than just a beast
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4. |
The Stars Were Mine
04:20
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Iron Maiden T-shirts
Terrified me
I was six years old
In 1983
Had a tape measure
for a lightsaber
Pressed Silly Putty
on the newspaper
Ate Play-Doh
to see if I would live
An experiment like
my ancestors did
The Millennium Falcon
Landed on Christmas
I lived in a world
Of magic and wishes
When I was young and the stars were mine
In my world of wonder, everything was fine
At the heart of every aging man
Is a little boy who still thinks he can
Sometimes I was Batman
Or maybe Godzilla
Had an Uncle Andy
and an Aunt Priscilla
Every cartoon had
A lesson to learn
I waited in suspense
for the Jedi to return
My dad taught me
to love the game
I knew the numbers
I knew the names
Don Mattingly
stood at the plate
The thunder from
his bat was great
When I was young and the stars were mine
In my world of wonder, everything was fine
At the heart of every aging man
Is a little boy who still thinks he can
I went to school
And tried to fit in
Mom dragged me to church
So I wouldn’t sin
Grandpa’s war stories
Made me feel braver
And summer was longer
A lifetime to savor
There was a red-haired girl
So cute she left me
Shakin’ in my
Velcro sneakers
So I wrote her name
In the secret chambers
Of my trusty
Trapper Keeper
When I was young and the stars were mine
In my world of wonder, everything was fine
At the heart of every aging man
Is a little boy who still thinks he can
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5. |
Code of Conduct
04:54
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At 3:15 in the afternoon
I was about to meet certain doom
We were all just seventh grade fools
Playing by our seventh grade rules
It started with some trivial slight
So playground logic said we had to fight
It would have been trouble to brawl at school
So a place was chosen for the duel
We gathered at the appointed lawn
I had a brain, but he had brawn
He was shorter but thicker, dumber but stronger
I didn’t think I would live much longer
I thought he’d beat me senseless, but
He stood there like a statue of a crane
And I knew that Daniel-san of a bitch
Had watched The Karate Kid again
So I gathered up my courage
And I punched him in the head
He stumbled and looked kind of dazed
So I swung again and made another dent
Now he toppled to the ground
And whimpered something about his mama
And the judge decreed that the fight should cease
And that was the end of the terrible drama
A jury of my peers declared me the winner
But I just felt like some kind of sinner
I hopped on my bike and flew back home
Where I could hardly face my dinner
The next day I was a seventh grade hero
But the parade would only last a day
But deep inside I felt like slime
I’d learned that violence is a terrible way
Tell me, where’s the sense in fighting?
Has there ever been a valid reason?
It’s been against my code of conduct
Ever since that seventh grade season
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6. |
Those Who Wait
05:08
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Something changed in the air
In between here and there
When you built your personal prison
And the mask that you wore
When I knocked on your door
Was a deep, dark sign of division
And the coffee wouldn’t flow
So I went home
I went home
And I threw my yearbook across the room
The letters stopped coming
The phone ceased its humming
As you fell under his cruel, cold spell
I was shaken to the core
I didn’t matter any more
Still your name called like a distant bell
And the coffee wouldn’t flow
So I went home
I went home
And I threw my yearbook across the room
Don’t let your bright places fall into shadow
It may take forever to find them again
For twenty years, you were a ghost in my conscience
Until the haunting stopped and a new day began
Something changes again
Like a shift in the wind
With history’s latest revision
I smile at what’s in store
As I see there’s still more
And we meet in life’s new edition
And this time the coffee flows
And I go home
I go home
With a piece of me risen from the tomb
Some people break, some people bend
Sometimes we stall and start again
And you haven’t aged a day, my friend
You haven’t aged a day, my friend
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7. |
You Ask Us Why
04:06
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They told us the battle was over
Our teachers, our parents, TV
But take a good look at the real world
You’ll be shocked by the horror you see
They only talked about it in February
Or on the day we recalled Dr. King
So we learned to ignore the terrible war
That some people must fight every day
You ask why the people are still marching
And you swear there’s no shadow over the land
But too many mothers are sitting home crying
And still you insist that you don’t understand
They stuck it between math and gym
So it didn’t quite seem real
Just another page of history
As if it was no big deal
They told us the world was colorblind
And that the Klan was dead
But if you find the time to read between the lines
You’ll soon be seeing red
You ask why the people are still marching
And you swear there’s no shadow over the land
But the shackles of the past are still binding
And we all should be free on American land
They spoke of the light of equality
How we’re all free to follow our dreams
And they denied that the noise in the background
Was the echo of slavery chains
They told us the battle was over
And that it had long since been won
But take a look at the streets, the blood and the tears
You see, we have a long way to run
You ask why the people are still marching
And you swear there’s no shadow over the land
But the dragons of the past are still breathing fire
Now get out of the way if you won’t lend a hand
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8. |
Throw Me a Guitar
06:47
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I’m tired of morons wielding weapons
And the politicians who don’t care what happens
They just want to sit and watch the world burn
While the rest of us wait for the tide to turn
I’m tired of people voting monsters in
And I’m tired of judgment by the color of skin
I’m tired of schoolchildren being murdered
And of cops choking men who never hurt us
Come on, people, won’t you make a stand
And maybe we can fix this broken promised land
Somebody throw me a guitar
This world is pushing me too far
I want to scream at everything
I know the words but I can’t sing
I’m tired of war in the name of made-up gods
And I’m tired of working so hard to beat the odds
I’m tired of bombs bursting on Christmas
And I’m tired of constant manmade disasters
I’m tired of your refusal to just wear a mask
And I really want to know why that’s too much to ask
And I’m tired of hearing about your liberty
While all it does is add to others’ misery
Come on, people, won’t you make a stand
I’m tired of living in a permanent plagueland
Somebody throw me a guitar
This world is pushing me too far
I want to scream at everything
I know the words but I can’t sing
David Bowie passed his test
And walked away into the west
Not you too now, Leonard Cohen
Where, good man, do you think you’re goin’?
What a dreadful exodus
We’re losing all our decent friends
They’ve left us here among the rest
With an orange tyrant and his vipers’ nest
Here I am already in my forties
I feel surrounded by the zombie majority
Already twenty years into the century
What the hell happened to the days between
I’m tired of a senate that won’t cry for the dead
And I’m tired of a world split between blue and red
I’m tired of devils who hide behind Bibles
And I’m tired of conmen, lies, and libel
I’m tired of racists claiming to have morals
And I’m tired of watching this parade of horrors
I’m tired of sliding down the zombie hill
And just watching the news and paying the bills
Always rushing to work with no time to play
Scratching and clawing just to get through the day
Somebody throw me a guitar
This world is pushing me too far
I want to scream at everything
I know the words but I can’t sing
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9. |
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People often said she was a very strange child
When she thought about the fifties, her emotions went wild
Something about that era appealed to her senses
In the modern world she hid behind walls and defenses
A young man dreamed he’d stormed Omaha Beach
But the Captain America lifestyle was out of his reach
He could have been a hero, like Grandpa so strong
But when he came into this world, the timing was wrong
We are the sons and the daughters of time
Sand in the hourglass
Dreams on our minds
Weaving our way through a new-fangled world
Looking so young
Feeling so old
They met at the crossroads of time and space
And something inside of him remembered her face
A smile, a touch, and fireworks flew
And everything changed, as if the ancient gods knew
That maybe they’d embraced on the banks of the Nile
Back when civilization was only a child
And perhaps they’d met many times in past ages
Sometimes in freedom, or as slaves in cruel cages
We are the sons and the daughters of time
Sand in the hourglass
Dreams on our minds
Weaving our way through this new-fangled world
Looking so young
Feeling so old
Images and sounds trigger strange emotions
If time is not an arrow, maybe it’s an ocean
Bodies grow older, while minds cling to youth
It sounds like science fiction, but maybe it’s truth
For people like us, time is the sea
Not swept away by rivers, we swim leisurely
Present and past both wait on the shores
As our memories echo down eternity’s halls
We are the sons and the daughters of time
Sand in the hourglass
Dreams on our minds
Weaving our way through a new-fangled world
Looking so young
Feeling so old
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10. |
Seasons
04:28
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How did this happen?
We were just kids yesterday
It’s late September now
But it still feels like May
Where has it gone?
All the years ran away
I still remember things
I’ve long wanted to say
The years go by
With such velocity
I see you now, I’m swept
Away by memory
From your kindness
I made mythology
I was a coward then
But I found my bravery
I took my time
Finding my own way
I lived in silence then
Now I know how to sing
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Aaron Smith Ringwood, New Jersey
At the age of 39, Aaron Smith took his old guitar out of the closet after 15 years, turned the skills he'd learned as a novelist toward lyric writing, learned to sing, and wrote and recorded his first EP, "Red Wolf Mist" over the course of the years 2016 to 2019. His second album, "Sand in the Hourglass" was released in August of 2021. ... more
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