Get all 6 Boxer John releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of The Vintage Underground Sessions Vol. 1, Fifteen Furlongs from the Farm to the Frontier, Blighty and Beyond, Delirium Tremens, The Great Folk Heist, and Realms of Reassuring Reality.
1. |
Maya
03:48
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Maya
The first sign was the shimmering line and crack in the flow
The light that frayed the edges and the sky hanging low
The voice that hollered dark and clear
The distant visions drawing near
The spark in the mind
The rays through the blinds
You shook the shackles fine and burned the fetters away
Your rigid rooted stance became an elegant sway
You roared with gusto, spoke in rhyme
And broke the bonds of fear and time
Nothing like this
Could cease to exist
Maya, Maya, Maya
Now and then I can see
And now you've grown accustomed to the growling inside
The split between reality, the thorn in your side
And that which finds its way unseen
Into the spaces in between
The fragments that fit
And those that just won't do it
Maya, Maya, Maya
Now and then I can see
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2. |
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Icarus And The Setting Sun
Mellow magic on a morning train
The myth of morning in a broken brain
Coming fast
Rage and ruin on a straight line track
Hours and seconds come clickety clack
Rolling past
In my mind the dream
Was somewhere in between
Where I was and where I should have been
And now I'm going home
And now I'm going home
There's something I've forgotten that I ought to see
A waving banner on a windy beach
Hails a traveller the world can't keep
From looking back
Open arms for the wayward one
Icarus and the setting sun
No looking back
In my mind the dream
Was somewhere in between
Where I was and where I should have been
And now I'm going home
And now I'm going home
There's something I've forgotten that I ought to see
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3. |
Time
03:14
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Time
Here's the sun that breaks through the window
And here's the shadow we think that we shun
And here's the curtain that blocks out a memory
And here's the road we get on to run
Time
Time
Oh time
You never knew me so why do you run
(Tick tock, tick tock)
Run through the morning
(Tick tock, tick tock)
Run through the dark
(Tick tock, tick tock)
Lifting the awning
Gather my people and run to the ark
Yeah, oh yeah?
I'm not a number
I'm a free man
I'm not a number
(But who's number one?)
Time
Is it time?
Is it time now?
If it ain't time it must be someone
(Tick tock, tick tock)
Run through the morning
(Tick tock, tick tock)
Run through the dark
(Tick tock, tick tock)
Lifting the awning
Gather my people and run to the ark
Yeah, oh yeah
I'm a living soul
I'm a river going to the sea
I'm a living soul
So let me be
Time
Oh time
Oh time
Is my worst enemy
(You are my worst enemy)
And here's the shadow that breaks through the window
And here's the shadow we think that we shun
And here's the curtain that blocks out a memory
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4. |
The Big Old Hazy
04:28
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The Big Old Hazy
The duke and duchess on the lawn speak heretics with God at dawn
Businessmen don't understand how little they have to command
David Icke knows presidents and kings and queens are lizard men
Alan Watts might fry your brain and make you all feel good again
Now I'm gonna take the morning train out to the edges once again
Of the hazy, the big old hazy
Ride the seesaw up and down and spin the wheel of fortune round
In the hazy, the big old hazy
Don't take your tips and pony tricks from journalists or politics
Cool Hand Luke and Papillon show how a man should carry on
Not much else could do you good like Ray Materick's Sidestreets would
Those radio tramps won't set you free like Sister Tharpe or Melanie
Now I'm gonna take the first bus out, back to the shadow of certain doubt
In the hazy, the big old hazy
Break it all down and start anew and get myself a room with a view
In the hazy, the big old hazy
Where there is no word of lie
No cream-puff chicken-chested pride
And not one sneak nor single snide could ever take you for a ride
Oh, oh, oh the big old hazy
Now quasars, quarks and elements mess with the mind of mortal men
While those in search of the trinity have gained invisibility
I'd rather live in a land of ghosts than offer my soul to bogus hosts
Psychopaths in pinstripe grey and automatons in the hit-parade
Now I'm gonna take a last chance ride through the long and winding dark insides
Of the hazy, the big old hazy
Take my head down the twisting lanes and try to find the truth again
In the hazy, the big old hazy
And if I don't come up for air
You'll know that I've found it down there
Don't you worry, don't despair
I'll have more than enough to share
Oh, oh, oh the big old hazy
Oh, oh, oh the big old hazy
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5. |
Huckleberry, Me and Jim
03:29
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Huckleberry, Me and Jim
Yesterday we found
Another little town where people let us in
Some folks ain't so bad and kindness makes you glad
We forget the mess we're in
Huckleberry, me and Jim
Huck went off to take a swim
Jim's seeing what the morning brings
And I'm playing this melody
Can't you see
Can't you see
Lord I'm playing this melody
Some people act like kings
You must fetch and bring everything they ask
But look behind their eyes, closer, deep inside
Ain't nothing but a mask
Huckleberry, Jim and me
Floating down the Mississippi
Huck's in drag and Jim is free
And I'm playing this melody
Can't you see
Can't you see
Lord I'm playing this melody
When riches come our way
The first ones we will pay are those who bared their souls
I love you one and all though sometimes I may fall
Some ways from the fold
Me and Jim and Huckleberry
Huck's gone wild and making merry
Jim has jumped the morning ferry
And I'm playing this melody
Can't you see
Can't you see
Lord I'm playing this melody
Can't you see
Can't you see
Lord I'm playing this melody
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6. |
There's a Darkness
04:02
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There's a Darkness
There's a darkness deep inside me
And a thirst that no drink could ever quell
God knows if I'm bound for glory
God know's if I'm bound for hell
But for all of my misgivings
There's a story my heart must tell
When I left the shores of England
With no money to take me back again
I had time for my misfortune
I had time enough to spend
But with age comes plenty reason
To look back and make amends
Well the more of the road I travel
Seems the less of this world I tend to see
Chasing phantoms down blind alleys
Following visions out at sea
Yet somehow these apparitions
Might just be a part of me
Seems each heart ache let's the mind wake
From its slumber and drives you on again
To another destination
To another journeys end
And when something calls you homeward
You forget where you came in
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7. |
In a Right Mind
04:43
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In A Right Mind
In a right mind
Talk is of time
Cheap and pleasant days spent in the park
I have never changed the weather
The sun still spits its last rays before dark
Did you love me like I loved you
Was my mind new
Enough for us to see it all go through
The change that lasted for a lifetime
Morning sunshine your son is here
Don't let him disappear
In time
Is it right for us to shine?
A fin for Harlequin
And a tail for Columbine
She was mine
In a right mind
Talk is of time
Cheap and pleasant days spent in the park
I have never changed the weather
The sun still spits its last rays before dark
When I found you, you were sleeping
Night was fleeting
It came and went, cold and magnificent
Though it faltered for a moment
Don't think it meant to be unclear
On whether you were here
Or there, out there
Praying to God for light to come
In here there is no fear
Only shadows from which to run
Will this caravan go with me
With you near me to love
Onward travelling
Light unravelling
Below as it is above
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8. |
Like a Dog a Bone
02:52
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Like A Dog A Bone
These are
The daily unrun races
The disenchanted faces
Of which we are a part
There stands
Someone seeking glory
In someone elses story
Loading up the heart
Give him the skeleton man
Riding the caravan
Into the unknown
Give him good and evil
Give him the boll weevil
To chew up his home
And give him what he needs to not feel alone
Sometimes I think
These are not my people
But this thought's too simple
To ever bring me home
And so I'll help you
Build your house this morning
Bury you for mourning
Like a dog a bone
And I'll write the poetry
Carve the mythology into stone
And give you what you need to not feel alone
Like a dog a bone
Like a dog a bone
Like a dog a bone
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9. |
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The Longtime Overdue Awakening
It seems these words have found their way from some old Sunday matinee
Deep into my head where something died
And now I speak in shrieks and squeals, I know I am but seldom feel
That anything is going on inside
I speak with God to raise the dead
The movie stars we all spoonfed
With our childhoods and our starstruck eyes
The orchestra will swell with pride when our heroes ride the skies
And disappear into the by-and-by
And disappear into the by-and-by
The records play the way I think, the peaks and troughs, the sinks and swims
The crackles you can see upon my brow
The spiral takes me to the core of who I was in lives before
With fleeting glimpses of who I am now
And when the side has run its course
The needle bumps and I must pause
Before I turn my hand back to the plough
The land of Oz which sleeps and dwells in gatefold sleeves upon the shelf
Will still be there when I'm back anyhow
Will still be there when I'm back anyhow
I can't recall in recent times being busted flat and blind
By souls that have no space inside their skin
So I remain in landlocked plains of space and time and feel the pain
Of generations waiting to begin
To understand the way it feels
To droop and drop and beg and kneel
Then explode into balls of lightning
Not much comes as a surprise
But still I wait with opened eyes
For the longtime overdue awakening
For the longtime overdue awakening
For the longtime overdue awakening
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10. |
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This One Ain't Listening To None
I remember when we were monkeys baby
swinging in the trees
I needed something to get us someplace
So I made a wheel
And rolled it until
It wouldn't stop spinning
Oh if looks could but kill
Then you plucked a bone
And carved out a phone
And from that day on wouldn't leave me alone
Oh, oh
The strange and absurd are the ones you ain't heard
Oh, oh
Talk to the sun
This one ain't listening to none
Oh it's been a month of Sundays baby
Got gospel in my ears
I needed something to get us someplace
So I made a harp
From beard-hair and bark
And wouldn't stop plucking til we turned into larks
Then high in the trees
With the creepy-crawlies
You bent my earhole for eternity
Oh,oh
The proudest and free are the ones who can see
Oh,oh
Talk to the sun
This one ain't listening to none
This one ain't listening to none
This one ain't listening to none
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11. |
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Sing For The Sorrow Of All
Pack up your bags and be gone for the song of the wild
Life from oblivion raises an untainted child
Sing for your song will be short though its threads will remain
Holding together the fractured and the fragmented brain
Don't be afraid of this dark
The booms and the bellows and barks
Those lurkers are nothing but larks
Sing for the sorrow of all and the sorrow is slain
Think of the songs you have lost and the ones you will gain
The rushing of rhyme and the lift from the verse to refrain
Whistling in ruins and rain
The rhythm of going in circles and doing it over again
Over again
Sing for the sorrow of all and the sorrow is slain
Sing for the sorrow of all and the sorrow is slain
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12. |
The Shimmering Lines
03:24
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The Shimmering Lines
There's a mountain that's some way away
In the far reach of space does its peak sway
There the father of time has his deep dark lair
When I went up to strike him down
I looked all around but he wasn't there
I guess it just goes to show
How much I really know
I sat for decades beneath the same tree
Expecting wisdom to pass into me
One day it flew like an arrow above my head
It woke me up from the slumbering deep
I looked round to see that the forest was dead
It seems that while I'd been gone
Life had been carrying on
There's a home that someday I might find
Play my guitar on the shimmering lines
Of the shores that separate here and there
I'll be so caught up in the now
The tethers will fade of my worries and cares
Until one bright sunny day
They won't even be there
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13. |
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The Ghost Of Passing Time
The ghost of passing time is on the wind my friends
Blowing through the splintered cracks of now and then
I remember hallowed halls of history
Where the ancients gathered in their gallery
Eternal breezes blew
The dust of me, the dust of you
Upon the bones of past
The flesh of future grew
Now's the time to fathom through the depths my friends
Where we once collided with the unknown ends
Of the stories woven in the tapestry
The myth of grand illusion and clairvoyancy
In this room tonight
Flickering in the candlelight
We are time and time has come
To make things right
We are time and time has come
To make things right
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14. |
Glory
04:08
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Glory
Glory, glory, glory
Feels like everyone should know
Glory, glory, glory
Feels like everyone should know
You can walk in darkness and light
Feel the tug of a high flying kite
Pulling you in all directions
Blame the wind for the state that you're in
Or pack it up and start beginning
To rectify the situation
Glory, glory, glory
Feels like everyone should know
Glory, glory, glory
Feels like everyone should know
You can take the path you know
Or start wandering those dusty backroads
To find an unexplored oblivion
Familiarity breeds contempt
And from yourself you're not exempt
It might be high time you were leaving
Glory, glory, glory
Feels like everyone should know
Glory, glory, glory
Feels like everyone should know
You need nothing to cling onto
So what's stopping you from starting anew
Abandoning the written story
You never know what you might find
Living life with an open mind
The witness to a newfound glory
Glory, glory, glory
Feels like everyone should know
Glory, glory, glory
Feels like everyone should know
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Boxer John Bournemouth, UK
Born: England, Currently lives: Vienna
"In order to write songs about life, you must live your
life. Songwriting is often an unshakable imperative; the words and the melodies flow from you because they have no where else to go. You write because you must, not simply because you can".
... more
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