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The Unraveling Man (2013 - 2019)

by Eric Peter Schwartz

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1.
MAYBE I'LL DANCE TONIGHT words and music: Eric Peter Schwartz Friday night my Swatch is heading toward 7 o'clock biggest problem on my mind is whether I should pop my collar or not In the other room Martha Quinn's slinging music videos I'm an '86 Latch-key kid with someplace to go My friend honks his horn I pull my knock-off Jordan's on One last check in the the mirror then I hit the lawn All the way there we're blasting Eddie Money Then we stop and do one of those fire drills 'cause we think we're so funny (CHORUS) And I'm thinking about all the cool things I'll say John Hughes could write and the way her Bonne Belle lipgloss will catch the light I want to talk to that girl with all my might Then maybe I'll dance tonight Everybody is there for everybody to see Julius Seizure and the Roman Candles up on stage singing "Take On Me" Then I see her across the floor and I'm here by the door I could run away then the lights change to match the ballad the band starts to play (CHORUS) (Bridge) I want to sparkle in your eyes I want to be as cool as Peter Venkman or Marty McFly And if I'm lucky, I could be your Ducky too But standing here in this light I don't know if I look right to you I'd love to tell you this song has a movie end truth is I chickened out and spent the night hanging out with my friends that night I told myself I'd get another chance There'd always be another Friday and some other dance (CHORUS 2X)
2.
Hot Liquor 03:14
I feel sorry for you, Sport if you catch her alone she'd probably love you in half she floats on through like a casual ghost like The Devil in a jaunty hat It's 4 AM on a Tuesday night work is just hours away your car is on the other side of town because you just had to play She only drinks hot liquor even when it's hot outside it gets into the blood much quicker that's what she believes it's what she prescribes hot liquor brings the red to her lips hot liquor brings the swing to her hips A bottle of Jameson on the stove next to a percolating coffee pot spot of rum in her cocoa cup hot saki shot when it's not Apple cider over an open fire spiced whisky swirling in Hot sugar water and lemon juice making Tanqueray Toddies with gin She only drinks hot liquor even when it's hot outside it gets into the blood much quicker that's what she believes it's what she prescribes hot liquor brings the red to her lips hot liquor brings the swing to her hips If you see her walk on by Buddy, you'll need her every night hasten your pace, sir don't take your time you'll lose your marbles like I lost mine feel sorry for me, Sport I caugh her alone now she's loved me in half she floated on through like a casual ghost like The Devil in a jaunty hat It's 4 AM on a Tuesday night work is just hours away my car is on the other side of town because I just had to play
3.
Tangerines 03:38
TANGERINES (words and music by E.P. Schwartz) He liked the way she rolled the dice and the way her character always gave his character eyes he was a third level thief but in his heart he couldn't get no relief until there was this Goblin attack and her elf mage took a battle axe to the back an unexpected sudden move he jumped to his feet and stunned the whole room when he said "All my gold, my love all my restless dreams all my paranoia, baby all my tangerines all your high-tech hardware all your sexy screams everything you are tonight" She just sat and held his gaze you could hear a +2 to hit dagger fall in this place until the DM said "What gives? You two didn't even roll for initiative" Then she swept the game to the floor crawled across the table toward him on all fours pulled his face close to hers until he was the only one who could, hear her words when she said "All my gold, my love all my restless dreams all my paranoia, baby all my tangerines all your high-tech hardware all your sexy screams everything you are tonight" The gamers gave them wide berth while they kissed like they were the last two human beings on this Earth and they'll never again be alone because he picked her up and carried her home and they said "All my gold, my love all my restless dreams all my paranoia, baby all my tangerines all your high-tech hardware all your sexy screams everything you are tonight"
4.
THE NIGHT BEFORE THANKSGIVING (words and music by E.P. Schwartz) I'm staring at your face across the table once again seems to happen every 3 or 4 years the night before Thanksgiving we all pile into this bar consecrate our memories of youth in holy beer I notice you've doing something different with your hair I notice you're not wearing your wedding ring again this year I'm staring at the mirror in the mens room again like I do every time I'm here Trying to find the words I've been swallowing a lifetime and use paper towels to wipe away years I hope you haven't noticed, when you talk I watch your mouth it'll wreck me 'til Christmas tonight when you walk out But I will sit silently seeing what I always see how it could be my 25 year dream you and me in mt front seat In my dream we never age, we never fumble like new lovers and every single kiss could stop the world And all the passing years aren't regrets they're just chapters of the greatest love story you ever heard I hope you haven't noticed the way I catch my breath handing you my heart scares me to death But I will sit silently seeing what I always see how clear it is to me my 25 year dream you and me in mt front seat And I know that life is short, I've said it a billion times in the dark when I should be asleep God dammit I should just make a pass at you and see where we land The fear is strong and the will is weak You check your phone, "Is that the time?" I try not to linger as you hug me goodbye I will drive silently and see what I always see how clear it is to me my 25 year dream you and me in my front seat I will live silently I will see what I always see how clear it is to me my 25 year dream you and me in my front seat
5.
Don't wanna give in to the cynics don't wanna give in to the critics don't wanna go gently into that night Don't wanna lose my Raisin Bran don't wanna lose my Superman don't wanna lose my choice of dark or light I like this room of mine in the House of Frankenstein Don't wannna get caught with my pants down don't wanna get kissed then kicked around don't wanna count the minutes until my break We can't pretend we control the rules Can't ignore lunatics and fools Can't deny the monsters that we make Just tell me which seat is mine in The House of Frankenstein Keep walking, I'm right behind in the House of Frankenstein Throw the switch Does it live? Does it sin? Does it forgive? Don't wanna give up a good time don't wanna give up my place in line don't wanna see the black behind the blue Don't wanna give in to the cynics don't wanna give in to the critics don't wanna lose myself in you Tell me we'reg onna be fine in the House of Frankenstein I'll just chill here in this room of mine in the House of Frankenstein credits from American Disrepair, released January 2, 2017 words and music by E.P. Schwartz
6.
School Night 03:07
It's funny how you lose delusions of fortune and fame getting paid in cash and pizza Lord, this really is a younger man's game but I'm taking life as it comes giving a dream a chance to fight trying to find fifty folks who'll come out on a school night Crashing on stranger's couches and 6 foot tall basement flats you say I'm living the dream, I am but I didn't dream about that I check my email at a truck stop as I buy a Diet Sprite I'm working to get fifty folks to come out on a school night What's your draw they ask I can't say I haven't got a clue I'm still trying to find the people who like what I do But I don't like to lie and it's not professional to beg but I know if I could play my songs I could turn a few heads Now I've got this kid with a guitar and a dream and I'm trying to show by example what this life will really be but what the hell do I know about doing any of this right I'm still trying to get fifty folks to come out on a school night (Chorus) It's funny how you lose your delusions of fortune and fame when you're sitting in a diner in a town that barely deserves a name drinking coffee and hoping you did everything right and you'll find your fifty folks who'll come out on a school night
7.
STOP. BREATHE. REPEAT. We're flush with: Check loans and ringtones and ice cream cones and value menus and music venues and checkout lines and no smoking signs <br> and city enforced lawn fines Jager bombs and soccer moms and men in traffic seeking alms home owners associations and home invasions tax evasions and playstations Xbox and pop rocks and Botox and construction-displaced red fox paved over wetlands and cover bands and mini vans big macs and panic attacks and achievement plaques and car jacks and commentary tracks crack smack and 2 squad cars for every pulled over black STOP. BREATHE. REPEAT STOP. BREATHE. REPEAT Blue-Tooth and Baby Ruth billions on "reality" not a dime on the truth vets pets and rooms to let DVRs to set and OTBs taking bets Hooters and looters and first person shooters drug stings buffalo wings and automated baby swings blood clots and toys for tots Body shots and wood rot 30-second spots open preschool academy slots and bumper-sticker-deep political thought STOP. BREATHE. REPEAT STOP. BREATHE. REPEAT book clubs and hot tubs and pay stubs and Caribbean jerk chicken rubs YouTube and JiffyLube augemented boobs and flamed noobs Cubicles Musicals and chewed-down cuticles FEMA edema and short term financial schema white sales and white males and predatory eyes on the bike trails Khaki shorts park district sports USB ports chair and blanket forts jam packed circuit courts NASCAR and Pinot Noir C-section scars and smoke free strip bars psychological baggage and stuffed cabbage a cultural bandage and a stimulus package Plumbers Hummers and world wide bummers a challenge to all-comers STOP. BREATHE. REPEAT podcasts and spinning class and shade grass peak bone mass and "Nice turn signal, Jackass!" Sunday drivers and olympic divers social ladder climbers two coats of primer and make-up covered shiners Shriners Whiners and egg timers Downloads pincodes frontage roads and the subtle way every trend explodes Terry stops and album drops and Dow drops cream wrap tops and mall-cops Soul mates and divorce rates speed dates and wine crates genetic traits and jail bait bit rate Hate Fate and checks from the State and the wait and the wait and the wait please wait why yes... we're flush with the suburban bourbon of a billion choices drunk and bedazzled by the pointless noises and no matter how we all felt we chipped away at the green belt we've sold ourselves as traffic slaves but we're blessed because Jesus Paves
8.
Regretville 04:18
Hop in my whiskey ride and I'm drivin' down Highway 45 blow all the lights on the way to Regretville I hear they've got a bar there open all night Julie's waiting in the dark for me to kiss her a little green house on a little green street conniving and undermining directors Best laid plans kept me drunk in her back seat Hop in my whiskey ride and I'm drivin' down Highway 45 blow all the lights on the way to Regretville I hear they've got a bar there open all night That night she didn't want me to take the high road backfire makes the baby cry Too afraid to speak so I ghosted I wasn't strong enough to watch him lose his mind Hop in my whiskey ride and I'm drivin' down Highway 45 blow all the lights on the way to Regretville I hear they've got a bar there open all night Walk it off dial it back talk it down Make it work lay it out kick it around Walk it off dial it back talk it down Make it work lay it out kick it around The man just wanted to buy me a beer They were too kind and carried the load I attacked him in a battle I had no stake in And I'm pretty sure there's plenty more up the road Hop in my whiskey ride and I'm drivin' down Highway 45 blow all the lights on the way to Regretville I hear they've got a bar there open all night
9.
Bill Bixby 03:22
When I was a boy maybe nine or ten I felt the pull to walk away from the cities of men like Bill Bixby I'd walk the land like Bill Bixby I'd change my name and wash dishes I'd kiss the girls and see beautiful vistas I'd see it all fill and quiet my mind like Bill Bixby What I've seen of this world I feel I've seen through glass like my feet left the Earth and never really touch land and then cancer, cancer took the man Cancer took Bill Bixby Eleven Michigan miles from the cabin to the dam I found two feathers and got a lay of the land I felt like Bill Bixby As my body aged I grew accustom to wheels I kept out of the sun and grass never touched my heels I lost the thread but in the back of my mind I kept Bill Bixby It's far too late for these kinds of dreams I work at eight and life stretches its seams Silly boy leave this man alone Bill Bixby was just an actor who called California home Late last night I felt the pull again to take some time away from the cities of men to step off the wheels and feel the land find my Bill Bixby Why did I wait until my body had to fight the truth of life gravity is stronger than the mind I will do everything I can to find you Bill Bixby I will find you Bill Bixby
10.
They can break love they can break hope they can break the things you see and the things you know Under the spreading chestnut tree they broke you they broke me Don't do it to me do it to Julia Don't do it to me do it to Julie They can make love they can make hope because they make the things you see and the things you know They made me they made you and they made us love Him until the bullet goes through Don't do it to me do it to Julia Don't do it to me do it to Julie I love you I love you I love you as the bullet goes through I love you as the bullet goes through Julia I love you as the bullet goes through Julia
11.
SOME DAYS ARE DRAGONS (words and music by E.P. Schwartz) Some days are dragons some days are flies some days I work real hard to avoid your eyes I give you lip you throw me shade but we climb to higher ground some days Old Noah was late building that ark he said "I can only build in the day not after dark" The Lord said, "Noah, buddy, find a way or you won't make it to higher ground no way" Back and forth is the law of the land what starts out on the ocean winds up on the sand don't leave me hanging no not today I want to find some higher ground some way they spurned the Magdalene called her a whore she'd been dead so long what'd they do that for Now these old, robed men are hanging tough but we all know their higher ground isn't high enough Back and forth is the law of the land what starts out on the ocean winds up on the sand don't leave me hanging no not today I want to find some higher ground some way Some days are dragons some days are pie we can all get burned or all get a slice and if we're quiet and enjoy our pie we could all make it to higher ground would't that be nice OH! we could all make it to higher ground wouldn't that be nice.
12.
Why'd you come down here I was feeling alright why'd you come down here where there is no light I was just putting this damn thing back together who do you think you are? And tell me why... why you love me now? I was burning cold but I was picking up steam I was tired of drinking myself into dreams So why'd you come down here and kick me back down Who do you think you are? And tell me why why you love me now? BRIDGE I don't have more money than I had before did I lose weight since you kicked me out the door did you have a change of heart and see things more clear is that what brought you back round here? Tell me Why you love me now? Why'd you come down here and break my flow why'd you come down here when my resistance is low If I'm the hero you're the Kraken at the gate So you can go unless you let me know Why you love me now?
13.
HEAVEN IN DISREPAIR (words & music by E.P. Schwartz) Angel tumbles from orbit skipping sparks across the night blazing brilliant across a desert sunset flaming out in electric yellow light children making wishes on the angel's burning body wishes for money, luck and a full heart the angel folds herself up as she rockets to oblivion casting off her grace in the flare of her arc ashes of angels in the air Heaven in disrepair she carries the hopes of all that see her they fuel the glow that lights the land below then they drift up into the navigation of the ancients spinning forever while the stars burn slow she blesses the air that ignites all around her she blesses the quickly approaching ground she blesses the things that first carried her skyward she blesses the row her crashing body will plow embers of angels in the air Heaven in disrepair Aztecs and angels nanotech and nephilim halo and stone blessing and bone collide and then subside The angel closes her eyes and thinks back to Heaven her taste of the light before her fate was sealed On impact her divinity blasts outward and falls like snow on her debris field Memories of angels in the air Heaven in disrepair
14.
Another Wednesday cubicle feels the same and third cup of coffee’s going down He feels no movement now his life with no direction and it’s all the same for miles around he keeps rage in tiny places doesn’t know how he got like this he keeps rage ... he keeps rage in tiny places his hands ache to make a fist He hears the chatter like a constant itching causing a pain behind the eyes He had a dream once about light and music now it’s fighting to survive and he keeps rage in tiny places Doesn't see any way out of this he keeps rage.. he keeps rage in tiny places because he's owned and they insist But it’s all right he drinks it up on Saturday night and he tells his friends I don’t know how much more I can bend one day I just might… And then on Monday… Rage in tiny places working poor and walking dead he keeps rage... he keeps rage in tiny places drinks to quiet the voices in his head The working day ends and he's cramped and buzzing like a wasp inside a jar He can see the movie now his life with a European ending a slow crane shot up from his car
15.
WHITE GYPSUM & JOHN WAYNE'S GHOST (words and music by E.P. Schwartz) They called her Evangeline she smelled like strawberries and gasoline she drove with the top down across the desert on mescaline she left college on the day she turned nineteen she wasn't gonna wait around for someone else to tell her what to be They called her Rhonda Grey he knocked her around so she blew him away she was arraigned and walked it was self defense they say she looked west for a fresh start and a brand new day threw a dart at a map and then she hit the interstate in the dusty New Mexico borderlands they stopped in Lordsburg to fill their rides their eyes met in the truck stop light and that's where their stories collide Rhonda grabbed her bags hopped into Evangeline's car she took a deep breath abandoned her van behind some bar they drove to White Sands arms in the air, desert wind in their hands grabbing all they could grab brand new life from this dead land The stars never shone as bright as they did on the hood of the car that night outside Alamogordo where the desert starts to turn white Evie turned the engine off poured a drink and proposed a toast to coyotes white gypsum and John Wayne's ghost That night in the Tularosa Basin where Kokopelli plays his pipe the opened their mind to the trickster god and watched the thing ignite But that was years ago the desert breeze can erode the rocks but as you know the songs say love is stronger than stone outside Mescalero near the Otero County line there's a 28 foot Streamline Empress with a convertible parked outside
16.
Foolish Moon 03:02
Crazy crazy motion made me love sick on a quiet ocean I danced under lights for the blind I opened my mouth without consulting my mind but what would any romantic do when you’re kissed underneath a foolish moon All the pain in the world seemed to rest itself on my head they never forgot my mistake she never forgot all the words I said I could never change my tune cause I played it underneath a foolish moon Crazy crazy lover don’t your heart rumble like thunder shake you and make you pretend it’s not that easy to start again And I could never blame you it was just me and my foolish moon Crazy crazy way our features change in the harsh light of day and the funny way we open our eyes to reflections we don’t recognize And the way the light flooded my room I guess I’ll spend tonight with my foolish moon
17.
THE WEIGHT OF THE GIRL (words and music by E.P. Schwartz) He's not sleeping well this winter he can't make it through the night he's got the weight of the world and the weight of the girl pushing in 'cause she left him now he loves her and now it's twisting him The boy is blind to the baggage it's about proximity and the weight of the girl on his worth is hard to believe and he's moving like a vapor through his own story Like a heavy, dead animal that's the weight of the girl like a dense, dying star that's the weight of the girl he's collapsing into himself from the weight of the girl will he ever get over, I wonder from having been under the weight of the girl Sysyphus in a t-shirt the Ancient Mariner in jeans it's a force of will to just sit and chill while his head and heart explode the cure for what's always ailed him is letting go Like a heavy, dead animal that's the weight of the girl like a dense, dying star that's the weight of the girl he's collapsing into himself from the weight of the girl will he ever get over, I wonder from having been under the weight of the girl Second guessing every moment regret's a terrible place to live believe me I know I've got the scars to show so far be it from me we all want tabla rasa but you've got to kick it clean Like a heavy, dead animal that's the weight of the girl like a dense, dying star that's the weight of the girl he's collapsing into himself from the weight of the girl will he ever get over, I wonder from having been under
18.
CHEESY LOVE SONG Edam it all to hell I think I love you and I gouda get you out of my head I can't find a cheddar way to tell you how I'm feeling maybe you colby my friend I camembert to hear how you love him jealousy could make a munster out of me I could just say "baby, swiss me goodbye" then turn around and just let it brie Wish I could build a Roquefort around my heart and tell everyone to leave me provolone this love affair seems to drag parmesan and on and that's a mozzerell' of a long way to go you keep me running in the wheel take this wedge from my heart so long baby, it's been a slice

about

A collection of songs, all live favorites, from my previous albums and E.P.s. Two new recordings, "Maybe I'll Dance Tonight" and "Heaven in Disrepair" round out the album.

credits

released October 18, 2019

Kathleen Dooley (piano and vocals)
JJay WIlls (vocals)
Kevin Blight (guitar)
Manolis Paschalidis (guitar and vocals)
Al Wills, James Abud, Eric Stafford Dinse, Gary Lent, Eric Stevenson, Megan Rebecca Tompkins, Megan Galici, Sammy Taylor, Millie Collins-Schwartz and Daniel "The Yellow Dart" Schwartz (backing vocals)

2019 Eric Peter Schwartz
Crapping Badger Records

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Eric Peter Schwartz Aurora, Illinois

Acoustic rock and some instrumental rock. Where heart and quirk collide.

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