Get all 5 Christopher Atkins releases available on Bandcamp.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Another Year, Keep Trying, Don't Mind The Cold, On The Turn Again, and Sea Corners.
1. |
Wasting Your Time
03:08
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Boy won't you listen
you've gotta make up your mind
You just keep going around to trim all the flowers
you know the soil is dry
I'll tell ya my patience is thin
I'm just scraping by
Stop just staring through the kitchen window
There's still no light outside
Oh my my my, quit
Wasting your time
I think it'd be nice if you could realize
When would the right come
have you thought of that
You could sit and dream or scream in the shower
it still wont bring it all back
I know it hurts when you breathe
sometimes its hard to stand up
and all the folks will start to think that your lazy
why don't you just grow up
Oh my my my, quit
Wasting your time
I think it'd be nice if you would realize
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2. |
My Light
03:44
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Tried to sail out to an old friend
Found the wind had come to blow the day away
Left a kiss for lives behind me
May as well have parked the car for the valet
Thought I lost my sight in Reno
I realized I just refused to wake up
Learned I lied in recent photographs
and my apologies are just not enough
Give me just one more chance to see
Might've made you grow sick of my silent sighs
Please let my heart speak
Before I lose my only love,
My light.
Made it back to cold beginnings
But every night I'm trapped in memories of a dream
I'll be on the turn again
But for now I stretch my hand across the sheet
Give me just one more chance to breathe
I think I might've kicked the cuff with my sideways lies
Please let my heart speak
Before I lose my only love,
My Light.
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3. |
Ferry Ride Car Crash
00:26
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4. |
So Long
02:35
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It seems the lonelier I get
can't keep my mind from thinking of her
sometimes I wish I'd forget
I'd die if I didn't remember
It's so hard when you're just outside
should I just come over and say hi
I guess I'm sleeping in the garden tonight
and oh
I hope that's fine
I've heard that love can be bred
and two lives can become others
they told me that god is dead
and that I couldn't care forever
So long to the lines in a life
I had to just come over and say bye
I guess we'll leave it for the dogs to decide
and oh
I hope they're right
Now like burnt stars and roulette
my life has become lethal
Still I wish you the best
I swear to god I'm not evil
It's so hard when you're just outside
should I just come over and say hi
I guess I'm eating with the dogs every night
and oh
that's just mine.
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5. |
Winter Rain
04:36
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I'll be on my best behavior
You know I've always tried
I hope you understand dear,
I never meant to make you cry.
I think of times we'd drive together
The snow and the things we'd play
Beyond the cracking speakers swinging,
Memories I can't seem to replace.
And as I'm getting older,
I can't recall the things you'd say.
The winters kissed with new beginnings,
As we remained each other's warmth
We taped our nights of candle laughter
Now I don't know you anywhere.
Those fuzzy nights in deep December
We used to sing in lovely range
Now the nights are getting colder
My songs have turned to cheap refrain.
Now I can see it clearly,
You were the thing that kept me sane.
But now I feel so much older,
I'm holding onto yesterday.
I find I walk along the drainpipes
And wonder where you've been placed
Picture books of old I love you's
Will long survive the winter rain.
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6. |
Advice From a Stranger
02:33
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Little did your broken heart know that I was waiting for you here
I heard the things that that guy had said back there
I'm sorry about all that I heard, I doubt he meant it
But I guess that you should take him seriously since he said it
And I could see your hazel eyes melting in the heat
I thought that you might need some time to complete
your thoughts of split dreams that were to meet you on your wedding day
And those types of memories that don't stay with you anyway
Life don't mean a thing until it's already gone
I'm sorry if I don't have very good advice
I never really had much of a good handle on life
But enough of me I bet you're sad and feeling lonely
I felt that way once before and someone told me
Life don't mean a thing until it's already gone
Life don't mean a thing until it's already gone
I really hope that soon you will learn to swim again
I've heard the water gets warmer the longer you're in
Life don't mean a thing until it's already gone
Life don't mean a thing I guess it keeps moving on.
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7. |
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Wake up in the light
put on some clothes
and go to bed
You already said goodbye
Now I'm tryna catch you smiling
but you're already high
Tried asking a card priest
said leave it alone,
brew some herbal tea
And you said we'll see
Well I'm looking around now
What the hell do you mean?
Oh this life's not so bad
when you're not drowning in a life you had
Oh this life feels no pain
when you ain't cleaning up a mess you made
Once I grew my hair long
Listened to elevator music
Took pictures of frogs
Never asked you what's wrong
Well I've been living in blinded lies
Took advice from dump dogs
Was too scared to apologize
Got you flowers for your birthday,
everything would be fine
You can't forgive what's gone and died
My hair is shorter now,
can't you see I'm still alive
Oh this life's not so bad
when you're not drowning in a life you had
Oh this life feels no pain
when you ain't cleaning up a mess you made
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8. |
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Have you ever been in love?
I swear I've seen you 'round these old parts before
but I have seen better days come
I don't see them no more
Do you remember when I
apologized for sixteen things I ignored?
And you just looked me in my blue eyes
said "You're about sixteen short."
Don't look at the time,
it seems so hard to admit
when you're down in my mind
but you can't get up
And oh no no!
Is that the time that it is?
I don't know why we stayed
just to give it up.
Woke up to see the sunrise
and found that it was half-past noon again
And I said "Let's settle on the moonlight."
and you said "Where've you been?"
"Oh I don't know,
am I really that late again?
Can I say what I mean
or just pretend?"
And oh no no!
You said "Now dear that depends,
you seem to let yourself move out
each time I'm moving in."
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9. |
Don't Forget the Spring
04:56
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All still awhile the pictures
come like whispers of your breath with mine,
I'm struck cold under the street light
once so frozen up in time.
Loving scoffs,
pensive coughs,
all twisted in the rain,
And I'm sorry about Christmas,
please don't forget the spring.
Finding handmade earrings
at the old preschool by the bay
Took the long and empty bus ride,
Watched the blossoms on Cherry Lane
When I couldn't pay the driver,
you just told him we were insane.
We were housesitting for the Duchess,
cooking breakfast for the King.
Felt the earth move beneath us,
Touched clouds near frosted glow.
Felt freedom on tiny islands,
Met liberty under a sandy moon
Met dogs who loved us for living,
fought an army of geese one time.
Now whenever I smell the snowmelt,
it's like tears shed from the sunshine.
Loving scoffs,
pensive coughs,
all twisted in the rain,
And I'm sorry about Christmas,
please don't forget the spring.
Felt the earth move beneath us,
Touched clouds near frosted glow.
Felt freedom on tiny islands,
Met liberty under a sandy moon
Met dogs who loved us for living,
fought an army of geese one time.
Now whenever I smell the snowmelt,
it's like tears shed from the sunshine.
Loving scoffs,
pensive coughs,
all twisted in the rain,
And I'm sorry about Christmas,
please don't forget the spring.
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10. |
Going Gone
06:35
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To find another kind of life was on my mind
my love
now I'm frustrated
one of these days I'll find a reason
to keep falling apart 'cause then again
another day is just around the corner
they tell me
but I'm sick of saying sorry all the time.
My mind is bending around the ring on her finger
her voice still lingers as my eyes close every night
and once a day I'll pass away
and watch my funeral from a box atop
an airplane
the jet fuel burns a frozen city
and I learned it young:
the way a clock can strike a minute
faster than the turnstile
well it's just not your turn boy quit cutting line.
Am I giving up or am I just a little tired of all this intuition?
Thoughts never brought up to fruition,
for when I try I only find
the knocking of two nickels
or a dime
and a penny'd be worth the fine while I'm elated
by the chance to make her smile
a shot to mend her heart
back to happiness
fix the cracks I chipped and
kiss goodbye
to the past
oh my life's moving fast and I'm going
yes, I'm going
Yes, I'm going gone.
Yet another day, I'll take away
another thought to bring myself back
into mourning
stop smelling all the roses when you wake up
I fell in a hole and when I climbed
I only felt the lip of her doorway
was painted red beneath my fingertips again
and next year I hope that I won't faint from one single sip of beer
I think that I have had enough
of this life
oh my my well I could die but I'm too jaded
I hate it
It seems too much sunshine makes you blind
and just like time the reason why
I'll fade away
is similar to all the things that you have read
to children to bring them
happiness is just a lie
they tell you when you turn thirty seconds
then your five
and the decades screaming by and I am dying.
Oh how the minutes can make
for the rest of your life to break
Oh how I dream of yesterday
I've been living my life reframed
from being
the kind of guy I dreamed.
Oh my life's down the drain
just get a little lost in it
Oh how I long to feel this way
just get a little lost in it again
and maybe you'll see the guy I am.
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Christopher Atkins British Columbia
Vernon / Victoria BC
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