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My Trick Ear

from Mary's At The Library! by Alex Whelan

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about

Thanks to John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats for inspiring me to release this album. Few rock stars of his stature (in my pantheon that is) would have given my question the time of day.

lyrics

My trick ear lets me hear the sounds
That you don’t:
The urban waste, the starving strays
That’s why I’m still awake.
In silence the fan blades glide.
And mimic the noise in my mind.
Church bells aren’t as beautiful
Without the sound
Of Sunday morning dockings,
But you are so stunning.

When we last met you asked me
What I’d read since I’d stayed here
I’m watching films,
But you’re more learned
In Roman Catholic verse.
The first time we dropped the phone;
A New York matinee where we could kiss and tell alone.
I complained the characters don’t change enough
You said all films just end the same:
A single empty frame.

I’m sorry that I made you cry; so did I but the scene elides that.
My trick ear it makes me hear, and I hear you’re half-deaf yourself so I’m not alone.

But if you’re thinking that it’s funny, well ha-ha-ha who’s laughing?
And if you’re thinking that it’s fun and games, well please just go away.
But if you hear the bells (they’re ringing!), smells like spring the future’s bringing,
A reputation’s all I got to lose.

Because it’s a black and white world, and that’s a fact girl.

Words fly by me like balloons
As the townfolk are talking from their rooms:
They look perfect as they’re flying along
Until they end up on some other person’s lawn.

credits

from Mary's At The Library!, released December 22, 2012

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tags

about

Alex Whelan Tucson, Arizona

Mary's At the Library / Hip Don't Dance / Miser Amicus / Arthur Barnes is Dead / The Sadie Hawks / The Lamps / Noir Party / Trochee Trochee

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