It was sometime early September 2005. I had recently accepted the fact that I had lost everything in my apartment to the flood waters, including all of my CDs, albums and porn.
The first thing I wanted to do (after buying a pair of shoes) was buy music. I walked into Sam Goody in some forgettable shopping center in Montgomery, Alabama and bought something safe and something new: Queen’s A Night at the Opera and Bright Eyes, I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning. I don’t know why I bought Bright Eyes, I had heard good things about him but had no idea which of his many albums to get. I liked the name of this one.
I forced Carlos to play pieces of it in the car on the way back to the ‘refugee camp.’ It was OK, but I don’t think I listened to it again until May 2006 or so. This time I was washing dishes in the kitchen while iTunes randomly selected tracks from my mp3 library. Suddenly this song was playing that I had never heard before. I stopped washing dishes, walked into the living room, sat down on the bed and cried.
A few of the songs on the soundtrack helped free myself from myself from time to time. This is one of them.
Lyrics are after this link, but I don’t think you’ll need them.
Landlocked Blues (feat. Emmylou Harris)
If you walk away I’ll walk away
Just tell me which road you will take
I don’t want to risk our paths crossing someday
So you walk that way, I’ll walk this wayThe future hangs over our heads
And it moves with each current event
Until it falls all around like a cold steady rain
Just stay in when it’s looking this wayAnd the moon’s laying low in the sky
Forcing everything metal to shine
And the sidewalk holds diamonds like a jewelry store case
They argue walk this way, now walk this wayLaura’s asleep in my bed
As I’m leaving she wakes up and says
I dreamed you were carried away on the crest of a wave
Baby, don’t go away, come hereThere’s kids playing guns in the street
One’s pointing his tree branch at me
So I put my hands up, said Enough is Enough
If you walk away, I’ll walk away
Then he shot me deadI found a liquid cure
For my landlocked blues
It will pass away, like a slow parade
It’s leaving, but I don’t know how soonAnd the world’s got me dizzy again
You’d think after 22 years I’d be used to the spin
But it only feels worse when I stay in one place
So I’m always pacing around or walking awayI’m drinking the ink from my pen
And I’m balancing history books up on my head
And it all boils down to one quotable phrase:
If you love something, give it awayA good woman will pick you apart
A box full of suggestions for a possible heart
And you may be offended, and you may be afraid
But don’t walk away, don’t walk awayWe made love on the living room floor
With the noise in the background from a televised war
And in that deafening pleasure I thought I heard someone say
If we walk away, they’ll walk awayBut greed is a bottomless pit
And all freedom’s a joke, we’re just taking a piss
And the whole world must watch the sad comic display
If you’re still free, start running away
Cos we’re coming for youI’ve grown tired of holding this pose
I feel more like a stranger each time I come home
So I’m making a deal with the devils of fame
Saying “Let me walk away, please”You’ll be free, child, once you have died
From the shackles of language in measurable time
And then we can trade places, play musical graves
Tell them walk away, walk away, walk awaySo I’m up at dawn
Putting on my shoes
I just want to make a clean escape
I’m leaving, but I don’t know where to
Yeah, I’m leaving, but I don’t know where to
