more from
Tonic Records
We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

The Infinite & The Autogrill, vol. I

by Bocephus King

/
  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $7 CAD  or more

     

1.
In the hall & down the stairs In a room half filled with empty chairs The other half filled with talking heads Who have never even heard of the Grateful Dead In the hall & down the stairs Singing out his heart but nobody cares Standing on the stage in the light all alone Singing to the faces that are looking at their phones His heart breaks a little when the last song's sung He'll drive a hundred miles before the night is done When he was young he sang in a gravelly voice He had no technique, it wasn't really a choice He sang for money & he sang for free Sang for his supper & his coffee & tea Got drunk & played, got high & played Sometimes the people left, sometimes the people stayed & said One more troubadour Play us a song that can stop a war Play us a song that can save our souls With nothing but the spirit of rock and roll Play one more troubadour Get us all dancing on the barroom floor Get us all singing like a choir tonight Tell us everything is going to be all right All right, well all right In the hall & down the stairs In the Mason jar where you hide your prayers In the teenage room where the music blares The sinking ship shooting off its rescue flares If the car is fast & the road is wide Would you mind if I took it for a little ride? Tonight, well all right In your heart the truth is sown But remembering that truth is like blood from a stone Remembering your soul is a choice you make Remembering enlightenment's a path you take This whole world is a song we sing The Great Spirit in the sky is always listening So sing one more troubadour...
2.
I want to show you something beautiful something wonderful, deep in your soul I want to tell you what you look like when the morning sunlight paints you gold You know the story reveals itself like a moon coming out of the clouds The darkness conceals itself walking silently amongst the crowd It's hard to protect yourself but I'm afraid it's your only option You can't expect yourself to be immune from your emotions To be immune from your emotions & I want to show you something beautiful a kind of miracle you might like to see Yes I want to tell you, you are incredible & there is something beautiful that you do to me Charlatans they don't know the truth but they talk about it all the time The D.A. ain't got no proof but it wants to prosecute you for the crime You broke so many hearts, now you're going to break yours and mine But I'm with you still and I only want to see you shine I only want to see you shine See you shine I want to show you something beautiful something undeniable, that I could show you right now I want to tell you something so beautiful that you'd come back to me, but I don't know how to say something beautiful
3.
Buscadero 05:54
Castle on an island, ship upon a sea corporations getting rich with what they get for free. An ancient road a 'winding, a lighthouse on a cliff, I came here to remind you that every breath’s a gift. Hands to God, eyes on the sparrow 37 bullets in a Buscadero Hands to God, eyes on the sparrow 37 bullets in a Buscadero 37 bullets in a Buscadero Chief Sitting Bull & Buffalo Bill A medicine wheel sitting high upon a hill I’ve seen their transformation from enemies at birth To circus entertainers traveling the earth You live by the sword, you die by the sword well just as many people have died from being bored. Annie Oakley’s aim: straight as an arrow 37 bullets in a Buscadero 37 bullets in a Buscadero Butterflies & flowers painted in a field Up against an enemy you know will never yield Up a lazy river on a Sunday afternoon Analyzing photographs of buildings on the moon Questions never answered, answered questions lost A stagnant pond polluted by all the pennies tossed 7 billion wishes, 7 billion prayers sent with expectations that someone, or something, up there cares Akira Kurosawa had Mifune for a muse he gave the movie business the samurai blues Sergio Leone came, kicking in the door with A Fistful Of Dollars & A Few Dollars more The mountains steep, the pathways narrow 37 bullets in a Buscadero Over the falls in an old wine barrel 37 bullets in a Buscadero 37 bullets in a Buscadero High planes drifter walking half asleep Haunted by the promises that he could never keep Lost his own protection, his reflection and his soul trying to get back what the good times stole I told him straight, but he will never know why the seeds he’s planting are not the seeds that grow: whiskey bottle, Marlboro, drowns himself in a pool of sorrow Drowns himself in a pool of sorrow Castle on an island, ship upon a sea What’s the point in asking ‘to be or not to be ‘? The universe is musical, a holy symphony So why here in this paradise are so few people free? You free your mind, you’ll free your soul Don’t play their game and their heads will roll You cast your spell with the voice of a pharaoh 37 bullets in a Buscadero Hands to God, eyes on the sparrow 37 bullets in a Buscadero 37 bullets in a Buscadero 37 bullets in a Buscadero 37 bullets in a Buscadero
4.
My inability to control my inner demons has become a little bit dangerous & I know that you didn't sign up for this But no story has a happy ending unless you stop telling it before it's over Unless you stop telling it before the end A desperate venture shared by desperate men on the other side of the wind On the other side of the wind, on the other side of the wind Well there was gypsy jazz and Mariachis at the party playing music for people Who only want to hear themselves talking Someone said "all passengers to the lifeboats" Captain, tell us something we don't know Captain my captain, tell us something we don't know You've got a compulsion to destroy what we've created There ain't too much left of this party as it is & I remember you quoted Hemingway's suicide note While sailing on a boat under Egyptian skies, on a river that feeds off all the lonely tears we cried My inability to control my inner demons has become a little bit dangerous & I know that you didn't sign up for this But no story has a happy ending unless you stop telling it before it's over Unless you stop telling it before the end A desperate venture shared by desperate men on the other side of the wind On the other side of the wind, on the other side of the wind
5.
John Huston 04:57
You can lead a buffalo anywhere it wants to go Look at what a life costs, or you can turn the lights off Or you can sit and stare, see if I care, just see if I’d dare, to sing a holy hustler’s prayer... to sing a holy hustler’s prayer. Born in the middle of a dynasty, grew up like a Gypsy boy With a gaze a little deeper than eternity he understood both pleasure and joy. Followed his daddy into Hollywood, started to climb till he soared The first film he made was a masterpiece & then he brought his camera to the war I was weeping last night about eternity, John Huston & the treasures my beloved one has given to me JH & everything there was & everything there’ll ever be JH One of the most crazy bastards in history JH You can lead a buffalo anywhere it wants to go But do not for a minute doubt, That that beast will gorge your eyes out It’s best you settle down Do not show it any fear For if you get too near: it will kill you right here It will kill you right here He had five wives, they each got younger, Till love was nothing more than want & hunger.. but beauty is transitional, nothing here stays, but in the celluloid temple, everybody prays The lord had mercy, the lord made light, now The Night Of The Iguana is tonight And Albert Finney is drunk down in Mexico The Irish estate is no more There must be a place where the buffalo roam When there’s no more sharp knives in the drawer He went down to Reno with Marilyn Monroe It was she and Clark Gable’s last stand Follow that star, it’ll take us right home Well God laughs when a man makes a plan I was weeping last night about eternity JH & will I ever be free, whatever ‘free’ is to me? JH & all the movies anybody ever saw JH & who took Katherine Hepburn down to Africa? JH who filmed Annie on an oxygen tank? JH Well he smoked & he hunted & he fucked & he drank. JH I was weeping last night about eternity
6.
Back then your tennis shoes were white & blue with heavenly breasts and red lips too and your jacket for the winter. Oh, Marta I still remember you: your sad, little smile & the way your hair moved, like the lake’s precious water. 'Farewell Lugano’ - you were singing... You held my hand, said ‘sing along with me’ and I realized that I was singing about a place that I’d never been. You used to talk about frontiers, contraband & financiers.. I caught fire to your stories. ‘Oh, my father’ you would say, ‘he fought up in these mountains back in his day' and then you’d ask me about my father too... I thought of my home & my father on the beach. Nets in the sand & fishing boats out at sea. I thought about the shells, I thought about the stars and how he cursed...and how he suffered. And, oh, Marta I still remember you: your sad, little smile & the way your hair moved, like the lake’s precious water. 'Farewell Lugano’ you were singing. Holding my hand & singing so true. 'Farewell’ you sang & you believed it and now I’m so far gone that I believe it too. And, oh, Marta I still remember you: your sad, little smile & the way your hair moved, like the lake’s precious water.
7.
Identity 04:10
Where’s the chorus, where’s the verse? Where’s the driver of the double-parked hearse? Where’s the forest through all these trees? Where’s the border of identity? When you going to stand up straight? When you going to see that it’s way past late? When you going to come running back to me? When will you miss your identity? Who are you fooling except for yourself? Who left those photos in the book on my shelf? Who are you now, who will you be? Who will assume your identity? Oooooo, your identity. Where’s the chorus, where’s the verse? Where’s the phone that I left in your purse? Where’s your proof? Can I see your degree? Maybe your thesis on identity? Oh a rich kid born on a pile of gold, a poor kid born in a room full of mould.. & what decides what their fate will be? It all comes down to their identity We’re all born naked, free of definition, then comes judgement, rules & superstition, but I can be you & you can be me, we can change our identities. Oooooo, our identities Where’s the chorus, where’s the verse? Who’s got a garage that we can rehearse in? Who’s got a room I can use for free, while I forge my new identity? Where’s the saint amongst these boozers? It’s easy to be lucky in a town full of losers. It’s easy to just hit the road & be free... & set fire to your identity. Read the Gnostic Gospels or a magazine..make yourself half man half machine. It doesn’t matter now, can’t you see? It’s just a brief identity. Oooooo, just a brief identity.
8.
Creuza de Ma 04:40
Shadows of these faces, faces of the sea.. wherever do you come from, where soon will you be? In a land where the moon dances all the night naked & with a knife sharp and sacred, brings us all to our knees. Riding the mule now only God is left The devil is in heaven where he's built a nest We leave the sea for Andrea's where we'll dry out our bones.. near the stone house & the fountain, that is Andrea's home Wayundye In Andrea's kitchen, who will we know? A sailor from a voyage many years ago? & at the people of Lugano the pickpocket grins, he thinks the best part of the sea bass is the tail & the fin & girls from good families, they smell like coffee and spring... without fear of disease, you can hear them all sing Wayundye What should we give to these starving souls? To fill their glasses & to fill their bowls? A plate of fried fish & Portofino wine...& maybe lamb's brain cooked in that very same wine. Lasagne from the kitchen, about four layers deep... roof rabbit cooked in sauce: both sour and sweet. Wayundye In the drunken boat we'll navigate the rocks, nails in our eyes & we don't use the clocks Harvest the morning when it's good & time, & down the crooked narrow stairs we wind You know, this old rotten rope can guide you & me, we can follow it down this path to the sea This old rotten rope, with its wind-blown scars, we can follow it down this Crêuzä de Ma
9.
Life is sweet Let it sweep you off your feet Kiss everyone you meet Take a train on a starry night Oh, Let your delight be your guide Don't let your head decide Let your heart say what's right Let the melody & the beat remind you that life is sweet Life's not bad Though I'll admit I do get sad At times I feel like I've been had But it's nothing compared to joy Oh, don't destroy what we've built Or be swayed by fear & guilt This world could be your toy You've got to learn from your defeat & remember... life is sweet Life is sweet Life is short From when your ship pulls into port 'til they contest your will in court it can be measured in weeks & days Oh... there are so many ways to dance This song could be your very last chance It could decide which way the judge's decision sways So pray she lets you back out on the street So you can testify that life is sweet!

about

‘Giacomo Leopardi, perhaps the best-known Italian poet, wrote L'Infinito while looking out at the vast and green landscape. Francesco Guccini wrote the song Autogrill about the chain of highway restaurants the cover all of Italy. The two pieces seem to perfectly illustrate the diversity in my experiences in Italy over recent years. I liked the sounds of the titles together and the images it conjures. The record was made in Vancouver at Capsule Studios with Jane Aurora and in Meda, Italy with Matteo Tovaglieri. The musicians are some of the most sought after in Italy including Mario Arcari who played with the legendary Fabrizio de Andre for many years.’
- Bocephus King

credits

released April 16, 2021

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Bocephus King Vancouver, British Columbia

Known for his worldly folk sound, Bocephus King (James Perry) has played music for crowds around the globe as well as collaborated with master musicians from all over the world.

His collaborative nature, cross-cultural style and authentic storytelling make his performances ones that make you feel as though you’ve left the room or field you arrived to hear him in for another place altogether.
... more

contact / help

Contact Bocephus King

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Bocephus King, you may also like: