Bus Exhaust
Abraham Cloud with Johnny G on bass, John Garwood on lead guitar and Johnny Pop on Drums at the release party for "Voyage To Afghanistan." it was definately a wild party and there are all those rumors about what and who can be heard in the background.
BUS EXHAUST
The fortune-teller told me a lie,
said I'd have to live 'til the day I die.
It's been five long years in this living hell,
there's a hive of bees sleeping right next to my head.
GIMME-A-HIT OF BUS EXHAUST
'cause I'm feeling lonely and I'm feeling lost.
I had a wife and a reason to be stable,
had the best things in life laid right on my table.
Then a strange disease sent me cryin' to the doctor
who took me to the cleaners at ninety bucks an aspirin.
GIMME-A-HIT OF BUS EXHAUST
'cause I'm feeling lonely and I'm feeling lost.
Make it a side of PESTICIDE 'cause I
feel like a cockroach that got caught in the light.
The police, prostitutes and dealers all avoid me,
this government official stamped a giant void right on me.
Passing like a ghost through the land of fake emotion,
got a fortune here in wisdom and some land under the ocean,
GIMME-A-HIT OF BUS EXHAUST
'cause I'm feeling lonely and I'm feeling lost
make it a side of PESTICIDE 'cause I
ain't got nobody standin' here by my side.
oh that feeling, feels like comin' home, back home….GIMME-A-HIT
Company of Strangers
This song is real in every sense of the word. The working environment has always been strange and ominous to me. I always had to take part time jobs to support my Musical aspirations. These jobs usually revolved around one mans dream to get rich by employing a bunch of dispossessed dreamers to sell his garbage to someone. The lines were always pretty clearly drawn between the winners and the losers. The winners were always vacationing and the losers were doing all the work to buy the umbrella drinks for the bosses. An environment that by its very nature spawns truck-loads of resentment anger and ruined lives. I was always astounded how little I had in common with my co-workers, and even how little they had in common with each other. It was almost always as if we were all wandering through the desert looking for scraps of food and we happened upon an air-conditioned office with free snacks. The song is positive though. It calls for a joining together of the underdogs . Why don't we start our own company ? but unfortunately it realizes that this probably wouldn't work either , because it would have to be called , "The Company of Strangers," If you'd like to hear the original Symphonic version that appeared on "Another Successful Breakfast" click here . Below you'll find a live acoustic version.
Abe with Rory on guitar filmed by Randy Morgan. One of the most classic Cloud tunes , deep shades of Bowie and Pink Floyd with a haunting Lennon-esqe type theme
Company of Strangers
hi, how are you ?
how was your weekend ?
and what are we going to do. today ?
No. I'm OK. It's just that this office is starting to feel like a cage.
in the distance, it shines like a beakon. offering shelter to the lost and the weakened.
but here. in this room. I've whiled away hours and planted the flowers of doom, in my life.
smiles, like they say, can wipe away saddness, but this little game's here to stay.
FOR AN INSTANT I thought I knew you. That day you broke down and smashed up the cooler.
crystal cool water drencend all the carpet. wild nervous laughter filled out department.
as you screamed out,
" Hey what you say ? Why don't we start our own company, and we'll call it the Company of Strangers."
for twenty-five years I have sat by your side typing letters and memos for people who hide behind doorways with titles in hallways of horrible crime. we never had time for the things that we wanted to do when we saved up enough to be happy. it's true in the end all you have is a moment or two.
but, "Hey what you say ? Why don't we start our own company, and we'll call it the Company of Strangers."
Another Train
This is Abraham Cloud's first version of "Another Train" called at the time "Its all the same" . Performed on solo acoustic at the Break-a-way (legendary LA club that burnt to the ground) in fact its rumored both Lucinda Williams and Tom Waits may have attended this show
Let’s Make Love on the floor of the liquor store
Here's a live acoustic version of that huge 90's College radio hit "Let's Make Love on the floor of the Liquor Store."
It seems to have a new life as a folk song. What better protest than to simply ignore all rules of common decency and go at it on the floor of the Liquor Store . Or is this possibly the most clever af all anti-alcohol songs. Perhaps the real meaning is Why get drunk to loosen inhibitions ? Let's save our cash and just do it on the floor , in front of the cash register, Lotto Machine and curious customers.
Abraham Cloud is joined by Rory on guitar with Lesa Mac Ewan and Stuart Pearson on background vocals, check out the tribute to Rod Stewart in the breakdown
Poverty and Art
Another Train is pretty much about trying to work on a song while the world is falling apart all around you. When you grow up poor, Art is insane. It's wonderful and magical, but it's created by magical "others" who live in a world where they are free to create, instead of worrying about rent and bills. I now understand how freaked out my mother was by my need to persue music as a career. She knew the odds, and she also knew how wonderfully free a decent salary can make your life. She longed for the freedom to have food on the table and a little dignity at the end of the day. She spent her tortured life in agony about the basics falling apart and her and her son on the street. All the while I was dreaming of being the Beatles. How strange.
It got stranger as I met and worked with many musicans. Mostly, Art to them was a product of the freedom of their oppulant lives. No trips to the cabin this week we need to rehearse , Still I didn't really get it. Some people just have to create, no matter what the circumstances. Its very heroic in a way. Its a lot against nature. It is an attempt to feel the power of God. Let's make something new and totally unnecessary out of what we have on the table and see how that feels.
All my mother's angry pacing nights never paid a bill or improved her life. But I think it helped me define want was really important in life and that is "to create".
ANOTHER TRAIN
A mother tries to tell her son,
where she’s been and what she’s done,
She never can reveal a thing
and hates herself for makin such a scene.
The wild enchanted world awaits,
he’s itching so, to cr'ash the gate,
Through all the long and sleepless nights,
she pictures him in senseless bloody fights.
IF ITS ALL THE SAME TO YOU
I’LL JUST TAKE ANOTHER TRAIN
His father who’s been far away,
shows up inside his head one day,
His questions pierce her very soul,
truth is one thing no one can control.
She makes him toast and irons his clothes,
he learns there’s things he’ll never know,
He goes to bed with doubts so deep,
dreams of vengeance, one day they’ll all see.
IF ITS ALL THE SAME TO YOU
I’LL JUST TAKE ANOTHER TRAIN
years fall down like dying leaves,
they never fill a hole this deep,
the need for someone never seen ,
consumes his heart and burns relentlessly………..
Bar to bar and bed to bed,
a child is born the dream is dead,
He never can reveal a thing
and hates himself for creating such a scene.
IF ITS ALL THE SAME TO YOU
I’LL JUST TAKE ANOTHER TRAIN,
