Get all 16 Chris Robley releases available on Bandcamp and save 25%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Margarette, Straight White Male, Louise, Louise, Louise, Louise, Let You Go (radio edit), Collapsing Star, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, Irretrievable Beauty, 1+1+1=3, and 8 more.
1. |
Eden
04:52
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If you can imagine a boy
Who imagines a girl
And they both know how to perfectly love
In their imaginary world
Then imagine a man
And pretend that he’s me
Though I know that there’s no perfect love
And that nothing is meant to be
I watched you walk through the gates like it’s fate
Not a minute too see or a minute too late
Expelled for our sins
Now our love can begin
And there’s so many things
I’ve been wanting to say
To the ones that we both left behind in the garden
And the ones God sent away
But they can’t understand
They won’t forgive or agree
With how we both chose in our limited time to believe
In an improbability
But I know that nothing that lasts can be great
Without a couple of flaws and a few bad mistakes
And I’d make them again
So our love can begin
And if this imaginary world
Is like heaven on earth
I think that people would be just as bad to each other
‘cause we wouldn’t know what it’s worth
If it wasn’t so fiercely fought
If it wasn’t so wickedly won
I think that we would forget all the prices we’d paid
And why the battle had even begun
But I know that this love has been worth the wait
We’re both a little bit crooked and a little bit straight
But I’m willing to bend in the end
So our love can begin
Now that we’ve both been set free to create
Some kind of imperfect paradise
With this clean slate
Then please come take my hand
And my love, let’s begin
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2. |
Anonymous
03:05
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I crowded out your better nature
I couldn’t outright break your heart
I couldn’t leave you or forsake you
So I waited till you fell apart
But now that I’m on your side again
Do you think we can still be friends
Now that we’ve made amends
Do you remember when you were mine
Maybe love doesn’t have to end sometimes
I wanna go where I’m anonymous
Where no one that we know will call upon us and
Goodbye and hello are synonymous
Well I wanna go there, I wanna go there
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3. |
1973
03:56
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I knew your mother
She knew me too
We danced in a Brooklyn bar back in 1972
And when the DJ played Ma Belle Amie
I took her home and woke up alone
And you were born in ‘73
But if you were me
Then you would see
Why I just had to let things be
I couldn’t go on singing a song
Knowing the words were wrong
I knew your mother
She knew me too
Not very well as you can probably tell
But that’s the tale of how we made you
We danced in a Brooklyn bar back in 1972
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4. |
Evangeline
04:49
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I count the walls
I’m counting sheep
I’m counting on the pills to get me back to sleep
‘cause that tired voice is on repeat
I hear it speak the vows I spoke but couldn’t keep
And when it’s late I say your name
The old familiar song’s refrain, Evangeline
Could you forgive a man who finally broke you in the places
Where you always seemed to bend
While I’m still awake on my side of the silence we both must endure
And you’re only there when I dream
But I can’t fall asleep anymore
So I leave the TV on at night
It’s nice to hear the voices and I like the light
Oh come what may and come what might
From all that might’ve been and what I can’t rewrite
And on and on with what remains
Of bitter ends but all the same, Evangeline
I’ll always wish the best for you
I hope you know I hope that every wish you make comes true
While I’m still awake on my side of the silence we both must endure
And you’re only there when I dream
But I can’t fall asleep anymore
I can’t sleep at all anymore
The water’s deep but I’m stuck on the shore
Sometimes all my best intentions leave me at my worst
I went and wished upon a star that’s falling in reverse
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5. |
Mission Bells
03:23
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One early Sunday morning we both felt the spark
So we snuck back in the churchyard after dark
There beneath the silent stars
we drank white wine from mason jars
and you told me that you had a hundred ways to break my heart
Well you picked the lock and I opened up the door
And we laid a blanket down upon the floor
It’s not so much that I didn’t choose
when you took what I could not refuse
but how I wanted what you wouldn’t give until I’d hurt some more
Now can you hear the church choir sing
As it’s mixing with the mission bell ringing a long way off
I remember how I miss your touch
I miss your kiss, I miss so much about you
I miss almost everything about you
I lost a little of my innocence to you
So when you took the rest it felt like déjà vu
I thought I could hold fast to faith and grace and hope and chastity
But you wanted every little bit of that last virtue too
Now can you hear the church choir sing
As it’s mixing with the mission bell ringing a long way off
I remember how I miss your touch
I miss your kiss, I miss so much about you
I miss almost everything about you
I thought I knew what love was at the start
But you just knew the lines and played your part
And all the sweet things we’d rehearsed
You memorized them all in reverse
And you proved that you still had a hundred ways to break my heart
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6. |
Lonely People
02:56
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Lonely people don’t ya cry
Lonely people don’t ya cry
‘cause even crippled birds
can teach themselves to fly
lonely people don’t ya cry
Heartsick people, don’t give up
Heartsick people, don’t give up
‘cuase the rain that’s falling now
could fill your empty cup
heartsick people don’t give up
when you finally learn to love the lady
luck has laid beside ya
and you finally promise to be true
you might find in time
that life can still surprise ya
she’s no longer loving you
‘cause you turned and walked away
one too many times
when you thought her love was always hear to stay
so hopeless people, dry your eyes
hopeless people, dry your eyes
‘cause every ending’s a new beginning in disguise
hopeless people dry your eyes
‘cause even crippled birds can teach themselves to fly
lonely people don’t ya cry
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7. |
Fisher King
05:22
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Have you heard the tale of the king
Who was wounded by some betrayal
And how wasting away in the darkness he guards the grail
While everything good seems to fade
Despite all the plans that he’d made
But he won’t let it go or forgive
The one awful thing that he most needs to live
Well, he’s empty and cold
But at least he’s got the cup
And his fisher king wound is the thing he won’t give up
Now I’ve heard it said so much it sounds cliché
That you can’t know true love until you have thrown it away
Now that I’ve broken your heart
Now that I’ve torn us apart
Do I want you back ‘cause you’re gone?
Do I want you back ‘cause you’re moving on?
I thought we were through, but now I feel it too,
How my fisher king wound is the one I gave to you
If you know that inside me there’s doubt and fear and pain
Then I’m guessing for you it’s probably the same
Well, I know we both were betrayed
The moment I first felt afraid that something so strong can’t be true
So to hide from myself and from you I withdrew
Now my fisher king wound’s the kind I can’t conceal
‘cause I feel it cut deeper the more that your heart heals
and I thought we were through but now I feel it too
how my fisher king wound was the one I gave to you
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8. |
Veterans Day
04:35
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The Red & Gray were marching in the Veterans Day parade
And the old guys wore their Stetson hats and the soldiers wore berets
And you wore that blue dress you knew I liked so much
And the color guard were twirling their batons of tasseled gold
The girls doubled up on nylon tights ‘cause the morning air was cold
And you wore that blue dress you knew I liked so much
How better able to love are the faithful and young
“Let there be nothing in the world but light,” we hear them pray every night
till the morning is there again like some kind of answered prayer
and our imaginary friend is there
We danced to Stars & Stripes Forever, the Salvation Army Band
And the snow was melting in the streets as the remembrances began
And you wore that blue dress you knew I like do much
I’ve done things that I can’t undo, said things I can’t unsay
But believe I love you just as much as I did on that day
when you wore that blue dress you knew I liked so much
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9. |
Stained Glass Windows
04:20
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I woke up and the house was rearranged
I woke up from the strangest dream
and everything had changed
What happened to the life that I once knew
What happened to the life that I
Had tried to build with you
I know I threw it all away
but I want you back ‘cause no matter what I do
living without you hurts like a heart attack
Yellow orange red and royal blue
It sounds like every word I’ve said
Is too long overdue
But you know how the light comes through the glass
It has to lose a little strength
Before the light can pass
I know I threw it all away
but I want you back ‘cause no matter what I do
living without you hurts like a heart attack
I called to beg you, baby, come on home
‘cause no one else can teach me how
to learn to live alone
If I could somehow make things up to you
I would find a way to say
A thousand times, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do
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10. |
Silently
03:57
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Now I recall when you would first confide in me
how all of the world was singing its song inside of me
Only three words, and the melody lifts surprisingly
How the blue of your eyes was the same as the clear summer skies
In my mind they conspire
silently
Then came the day I couldn’t recall when first we kissed
It seems the memory’d strayed, but hadn’t we both been quite remiss?
Love went away, I’ll never know what becomes of bliss
How the heat of desire is akin to a warm winter fire that burns bright
Then expires
silently
We’re holding on
To holding on
Too long
But it’s always enough to say
we’ll stay
today
How the things we denied were the same as the things we relied upon
But required
silently
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Chris Robley Lewiston, Maine
"Chris Robley is at the top of his game with his new work." - KCRW
Maine-based
singer/songwriter and award-winning poet Chris Robley (formerly from Portland, Oregon) performs orchestral indie-pop and fractured folk reminiscent of John Lennon, John Vanderslice, Harry Nilsson, and Joe Henry.
His poetry has appeared in POETRY Magazine, Prairie Schooner, and many other journals.
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