Ever Stokes
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The Weekly Song

The Weekly Song was a creative project of 2017 where I wrote, recorded, and released a song and video every week. On indefinite hiatus for now, but preserved for posterity below.

Burning the Boats (week 15)

4/30/2017

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For week 15, I'm returning to my habit of releasing old songs written in the Spring. This one isn't that old-- I wrote it last year. Still, much like Ordinary Magic, it came after a long dry spell, and I felt so relieved to have written it. 
It's a poppy little tune, probably the peppiest thing I've ever written, but I won't hold that against it ;) 
Lately I've been reading Charles Bukowski, one of those writers who everyone seems to quote but no one seems to read. One of my favorite Bukowski quotes about drinking (and there are many) is the following:
"Drinking is an emotional thing. It joggles you out of the standardism of everyday life, out of everything being the same. It yanks you out of your body and your mind and throws you against the wall. I have the feeling that drinking is a form of suicide where you're allowed to return to life and begin all over the next day. It's like killing yourself, and then you're reborn. I guess I've lived about ten or fifteen thousand lives now."
This song wasn't directly inspired by this quote (not that I recall, anyway), but I'm sure that the notions of self-destruction and resurrection mentioned in the lyrics were first suggested to me by these lines.
The footage comes from the public domain archives at Pond5. As many of you know, I grew up in the suburbs of D.C. and the Tidal Basin cherry blossoms are the epitome of Springtime to me. 
Thanks for listening!

Executive Patrons (thankyouthankyouthankyou)
Alan Bargar and Karen Schantz

​LYRICS

Time is a table game, I beat the house with a winning hand
and then the sun rolled up drunk with the taste of summer on his breath 
so I went out walking with no intention of ever coming back
the sweet suspicion that I might never be heard from again

I'm coming in for a landing and then I'm burning the boats
Where I was I will not go, I will not go

Unencumbered and unaccounted for I'm no good
a well worn pattern, mistakes that fit just like a glove
I have my reasons for all the cautious time I take
but tis the season to give my decency a little break
I'm coming in for a landing and then I'm burning the boats
who I was you will not know, you will not

This bar is a Hopper Scene, you be the girl that's dressed in red
and we can play make believe and say the things we'll wish we never said
a self-destruction and resurrection of the finest kind
an introduction to my pathetic state of mind

I'm coming in for a landing and then I'm burning the boats
where I was I will not go, I will not
I'm coming in for a landing and then I'm burning the boats
who I was you will not know, you will not know

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