Better Son

by Tom Rhodes

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  • Digital Album

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1.
03:35
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2.
03:32
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3.
03:02
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4.
04:05
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5.
02:24
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6.
03:55
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7.
04:46
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8.
04:37
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credits

released 01 January 2011
Tom Rhodes - Guitar, Vocals, Lap Steel, Keys
Mike McGreevy - Drums, Percussion,Vocals, horns
Marcelo - Bass, Vocals
Sean Lynch - Vocals
Jake Phillips - Guitar on My River
Niels Hempel - Accordion

All songs written and produced by Tom Rhodes
Engineered at Bluewater Sound by Niels Hempel

tags

tags: jake phillips rock alt-country americana better better son marcelo mike mcgreevy rhodes rock sean lynch singer songwriter son tom tom rhodes San Francisco

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Track Name: Fist Full of Dollars
Well I was begging for forgiveness in the galley of a ship
out on the great Atlantic Ocean.
I'd left my mother's house off the southern tip of Baltimore
where I was looking for a dream and a way.
I had given up the job of being all my brothers keepers
and I'd left them to the streets to learn their own life lessons
but now here we are, all drowning under life and under water
with our hands raised to the heavens with a fist full of dollars
and I said

Momma Momma, I'm sorry that I left you on your own.

Well that storm it raged and it tossed around the little ketch that I had boarded
You see the mast was badly broken and we were taking water
and the waves they were relentless just like how I had held onto my pride.
Right then and there I realized the err I had commited
I'd gone and left my mom and family at a time when I was needed.
And I'd done done grown to be a man, but I'd been acting like a child
set loose into a market with a fist full of dollars.
and I said

Momma Momma, I'm sorry that I left you on your own.

Well I looked up to the heavens and I swore that if I did survive it
I would just turn back to that island from which I had departed
I'd crawl up to my mothers house and I'd beg her won't you let me lend a hand.
Right then the seas laid down, the sun came out, and skies they parted
and I realized once again that I might see my mom and brothers
I could be the man they needed to keep our heads above these waters
and I'd show up every Sunday with a fist full of dollars
and I said

Momma Momma, I'm sorry that I left you on your own.
Track Name: My River
I got me a river, but Lord knows it's wide
I got me a river, but Lord knows it's wide
But I'm not going back, no, over to the other side.
You know I'm not going back, no, over to the other side.

I got me a boat and painted her blue and white
I got me an old boat and painted her blue and white
I'm gonna take her down to the riverside and take my boat for a ride
Yeah I'm gonna go down to that riverside and take my boat for a ride
and you can come on, come on.

I got me a river, she runs right downtown
I got me a river, she runs right downtown
Gonna jump on in to her muddy water to see if I just don't drown.
I'm gonna throw myself to her muddy water, to see if I just don't drown

Cause I got me a river, Lord knows it's wide
I got me a river, Lord knows it's wide.
But I"m not going back, no, over to the other
I ain't going back no, over to the other,
no I ain't going back over to the other side.
Track Name: Carolina Love
I was standing on a corner
browning out in Carolina
the rain it just kept pouring down
and the sky was black as mud.
I was sure that you were leaving
and headed back down to New Orleans
that you were ready for that old life
I was sure that your new one was done

But then you came around my corner
and you were carrying your smile
and I knew I was mistaken as my knots came undone
I'm just a lost and lonely sailor
and you were my breath as I laid drowning
in that Carolina downpour
I got lost in your Carolina love.
Track Name: Wishing Well
Well hello, do you remember me
it's been years gone by but you look like a photo from my memory.
And goodbye, that's how we let it be.
There was so much to say when you just turned away and you walked from me.
like

Baby don't go, don't leave
Well I know what I did and I was only a kid tugging at your sleeve.
And maybe we can go back to that place
where we knew but we'd never tell
we were hiding in the trees in your old back yard with the wishing well
and oh my baby, now I wish you well.

Let me roll, let me roll down memory lane
We were only two kids and we were trying to play at a grown-ups game.
Let me go, let me go home again.
There was so much to say when we just walked away cause we didn't win

like

Baby don't go, don't leave
Well I know what I did, and I was only a kid playing make believe
And maybe we can go back to that place where we knew but we'd never tell
hiding in the trees in your old back yard with the wishing well.
and oh my baby, now I wish you well.

They say that time makes your feelings go away.
But somehow I still feel the way that I felt that day.
And I know that I should put my memories to bed
but I'm left living with the echos of those words unsaid
all those words that I never said.

like

Baby don't go, don't leave
Well I know what I did, and I was only a kid tugging at your sleeve
And maybe we can go back to that place where we knew but we'd never tell
we were hiding in the trees in your old back yard with the wishing well.
and oh my baby, now I wish you well.
And maybe we can go back to that place where we knew but we'd never tell
we were hiding in the trees in your old back yard with the wishing well.
and oh my baby, now I wish you well.
Track Name: Friend
If someone were to ask you if you have a friend would you know that the answer is yes?
Someone who'll love you till the bitter end, and be your shoulder when you need a rest.
But I hate to see you go home to a home that you know without me, so I promise to be where you need me to be till you can be back here with me.
And I hate to see you go home to a home that you know without me, so I promise to be where you need me to be, and I promise to be who you need me to be, and I promise to be everything you could want me to be till you can be back here with me.
Track Name: Texas
Well I gotta get out of Texas
cause they won't have me here.
It seems I've made a pretty girl cry over something that wasn't really there.
And her father says he'll kill me,
and I might deserve to die, but I had meant every word that I had said
at the time.

I just such a fine line.
such a fine line.

Now you probably think I'm crazy
in some ways you might be right
but don't let my wild eyes fool you, I keep 'em wide to keep from crying
cause she was one sweet senorita
she had a heart like honey wine
and I swore it was the drinks that made me cheat her, but the fault was mine.

but it's such a fine line
such a fine line

But now I keep my head down
I bow my eyes real low
and I keep wondering just how far my fine lines gonna go.

Cause I know that I've wronged her
and I wanna say I'm sorry.
And God I hope that I can fade from her mind or she can forgive me in time.

it's such a fine line
it's such a fine line
there's such a fine line
there's such a fine line
Track Name: My World
There's a light that I've seen, it's gold and it's green in the sky.
And that's a thought that I've had in the back of my head, but now it's gone.
oh woe. oh woe.

There's millions of dream floating up through the trees every night.
But night turns to day and the sun melts them away every time.
every time.

So I sit in my bed
in my house
on my street
in my town
and this my world.

And don't you try to be slick or sneak into my door cause I know you're out there
and I can hear you breathing.
I see that you came out of the gold and green in my thoughts
down through the trees
and you're gonna burn me all away

But this is my world
it's faded and grey
it's folded and tattered
but this is my world
languid and lost and devoid of all meaning
but this is mine.

Yeah this is my world
faded and grey
folded and tattered, tattered
this is my world
languid and lost and devoid of all meaning
this is my world
this is my world
this is mine.
Track Name: Better Son
Oh now Momma don't you look my way
and close your ears to what I have to say
I've finally met my dying day
my body will hang and my feet will sway.

I was born into this world in the dead of night
and begged from the darkness into the light
told to turn a cheek to a strangers strike
but I guess I never learned that lesson right.

Better son, better son
Lord I wish I'd been a better son
I wish I never did those things I done
Lord I wish I'd been a better son
A better son becomes a better man
but Lord I only am just what I am
And a better man comes from a better son
so Lord I wish I'd been a better son.

Well how I do regret that fateful day
when Sheriff John Browne he learned my name
it come off the lips of his lover who lay beaten and bruised from his angry ways

If I could turn back time, or stop a clock
I never would have gone and fired that shot.
And I know that he earned the things he got
but it's turned my soul to stone and rot.

Better son, better son
Lord I wish I'd been a better son
I wish I never did those things I done
Lord I wish I'd been a better son
A better son becomes a better man
but Lord I only am just what I am
And a better man comes from a better son
so Lord I wish I'd been a better son.

Now as that morning sun rises in the east
I pray the Lord my soul release
and I be born again, but new and young
and Lord I'd be a better son.

A better son, a better son
Lord I wish I'd been a better son
I wish I never did those things I done
Lord I wish I'd been a better son
A better son becomes a better man
but Lord I only am just what I am
And a better man comes from a better son
so Lord I wish I'd been a better son.