Going on a journey. Going by foot.
Looking at the rye grass and small pieces of wood.
Bugs blend together like a fingerprint smudge.
Kicking at an oak stump. Damn thing won’t budge.
Hey, hey. Look what I’ve found. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen.
I’m feeling sharp as the little edge of nothing.
How are you going to let this poor boy be?
I step off the dirt road, right back onto the street.
A big, black Cadillac car nearly ran over my feet.
Driver says, “Terribly sorry.”
And I say, “Everything’s fine.”
But I say, “Hey, where’s the fire anyway?”
He says, “It’s here in my mind.”
Hey, hey. Look what I’ve found. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen.
I’m feeling sharp as the little edge of nothing.
How are you going to let this poor boy be?
He says, “I’ve worked like the devil
for my whole life through and through, and still I’m unhappy.”
I said, “Hey, I’m like that too.”
He says, “Which way you going?”
I said, “I’ll follow this road.”
He said, “Goodbye then.” In a cloud of blue smoke.
Metal on metal. Puncturing tires.
The guardrail exploded. He was laughing through fire.
Hey, hey. Look what I’ve found. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen.
I’m feeling sharp as the little edge of nothing.
How are you going to let this poor boy be?
This poor boy be...
credits
from JVA - JEROAN VAN AICHEN: Floorboards,
released October 31, 1998
Craig Carothers - Bass, Vocals
Tim Ellis - Acoustic guitar
JVA - Drums, Percussion, Vocals, Wurlitzer
The Oakland singer's latest album imagines the power struggle between man and nature as a slow, steady tempest of dark folk. Bandcamp New & Notable Nov 20, 2019