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Retreat From Certainty

by John Christian

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1.
In the corner of the classroom In the big world join the butchery In the hollow stir up the fire Remember your life in the hatchery In your exile under the clouds you Reject the morals of the family And in your mind you turn back the clock and Enjoy the good life in the hatchery In the order of disorder They regulate entangled uniformity And in the backwoods way of thinking Move ever closer to the hatchery
2.
Floating 04:09
I look to the sun And when I do it turns my way But I’m still on the run And when I stop all will fade away I look into the night From the murky dusk to the glowing dawn And when I awake I realize the sky’s not gone I look to the sun And when I do it turns my way But I’m still on the run And when I stop all will fade away And when I stop all will fade away And when I stop all will fade away And when I stop all will fade away And when I stop……………
3.
Come To Me 05:11
A thousand angry bombs they fall Upon a thousand foreign shores A thousand bunkered generals plot The gravestones of a thousand more Come to me my darling one We'll build our castle in the sun By the shade of the maple tree I know one day that you will come to me One hundred men do barely sleep They march through paddies six feet deep An unknown schedule to keep As death claims all around their feet Come to me my lovely one Leave not what's been left undone By the willows near the sea That day is soon that you will come to me Ten soldiers walk a jungle track One hundred pounds upon their back Their eyes show more than they can tell They lived their lives on earth in hell Come to me my only one The time is near; it has begun By the way you look at me You're telling me that you will come to me A lonely mother cries in vain Another life expires in pain A single soldier cries to sleep And prays the Lord his soul to keep Come to me my lonely one And we'll find pleasure in the sun By this winding road we'll see One day you will come to me Come to me my darling one We'll build our castle in the sun By the shade of that maple tree I know one day that you will come to me
4.
There are oceans in my mind Seas of thought come ride my waters Sail on my waves Fish deep out of my depths They are not infinite But to know me will take a lifetime I have a lifetime
5.
Just when you gaze into the far behind All the pain comes raging through Lingering around like a broken cloud The urge is then to start anew But imagine you are on a silent sea The sky is blue; the air is calm When waves of happiness swell inside of you The raft of pretence is all gone Though you’re fighting it There’s no hiding it These memories are following you home You call for help but you Realize that the reinforcements are never all that strong Now awakened you feel that you must take in The information to your mind But there’s a blockage that stops it from sinking in And you begin to be unkind So consider love as all that has to be It’s really simple if you try Strip away the layers and so you will be real Then you’ll know you never die As you hurry back to where the truth is now This is all you’ll ever need Capturing the feeling that you are alive And no prerequisite to bleed In the conscious mind illusion has its fall Sets the witness in the clear Then you see your life and all that you are Or at least that’s what I hear
6.
Misery 05:24
I would do anything not to be this way Take you for a ride in the month of May Take you by the hand through the holy land For a thousand years wipe away your tears I would say anything to be on your side Then you can never tell when hero’s in hell So prepare to see the chosen destiny A lock without a key – this is misery I can’t no longer wait; want to no longer hate In the left behind I am in my mind Now you realize you are in disguise Hope the lesson learned teach us all how to burn In the month of June beneath the stormy moon The secret’s then revealed high upon the hill There for all to see what is meant to be A ship without a sea – this is misery You find a way on in You take it while you can Following a ‘why’ You walk the sky Then you set aside The what you look inside It’s all the factory – this is misery I would do anything not to be this way Trip you for a ride in the month of May Drag you by the hand through the promise land For a million years reduce you to tears I would say anything to see the other side And you can always tell when you’re in hell As we prepare to see our only destiny A cold cup of tea – this is misery
7.
What am I here for? Imagine that it's come to this What are you here for? Prophesying your last kiss How did it get to be so cold? How did it get to be so cold? How did it get to be so mixed up....again? What's the use of growing old? Giving in to each own story told You can take the show so far in your mind Live out each sentence in perfect rhyme How did it get this far? How did it get this far? I can't keep living on this line Must be a simpler way of killing time How does it feel to be so secure? And living blind to social cures So secure in prime and sit in your favourite thought Take Five Stay Alive I can't dream much anymore How did it get to be this way? How did it get to be this way? How did it get to be this way? I'm so alone How did it get to be this way? How did it get to be this way? How did it get to be this way? You can ask but they never will answer you They refuse to know you They abuse you Staying alive for a hundred years You're staying alive for a thousand years Staying alive for one million years
8.
Naked beauty befuddled mine sight I’m awakened Common interrupted solitude lost in his face Disfigured and demented languished by the silence All relations are recalled; dependent on death What virtue is this when it is emulsified by pity After the madness Caligula dies Leaving behind, tired, one hand is clapping Ageless are the marks on the wall; is this creation? Founded on sin which this empire is built on Stops at nothing for without has become within Gluttonous whore, inbred, cast to the demons After the madness Caligula dies
9.
The throb of the engine dies The man leans over the rail The cabin carries no lamp The black negation of life Is that a flicker of light? A pale apparition of late Flying out of the dark And echoed by a virgin flow The throb of the engine swells The man falls into the cloud The vessel begins to move Into a glowing magic sea Then pass straight through the wave A passage of showering sparks In a blaze of the glimmering sea Fled the man from certainty
10.
The most familiar object in the night sky Revealing shades of a brighter light that the sun hides Moving in and out as if it were a tide This lesser light contemplative passion Will it kiss again forlorn and forgotten Unable to imagine with a dark eye A source of Aurora throwing stones to hasten time A pale Nocturne in dark arenas frowns and smiles The greater rule the day the lesser rules the night This lesser light contemplative passion Will it kiss again forlorn and forgotten Unable to imagine with a dark eye The lone path is sweeping through the night sky Because the law is stoking fear should we all die – remember that The greater rule the day the lesser rules the night This lesser light contemplative passion Will it kiss again forlorn and forgotten Unable to imagine with a dark eye

about

Recorded May 2016. The songs contained here are deep and thoughtful and they include topics like strife, love, pain and bliss.

credits

released May 29, 2016

John Christian - acoustic guitar, electric guitar, harmonica, vocals, bass, sound effects, piano, organ, piano, organ, Wurlitzer electric piano, Oberheim OBX, Arp Odyssey, Roland TR 808, zither, drums, percussion, glockenspiel, tabla, bayan, conga, timbale, bongos, and dhantal.

Steve Brown - bass on "In The Hatchery" and "Caligula Dies"

Theodore - barking on "Caligula Dies"

Written, arranged and produced by John Christian

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John Christian Windsor, Nova Scotia

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