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Ghost Broadway

by Johnny Mainstream

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1.
Stage 05:00
we're all dead on stage no one wants to see a folk rock band where the singer can't see straight we all got it wrong no one wants to be your friend when you sing about them in your songs you've never been in love but you've seen it on tv and you can make a killing by pretending on lp the crowd is getting large they're looking at you strange and everybody's staring at you expecting you to change you don't know what they want you don't know what they've heard you've got a lot to say but you only know a couple words the crowd is getting large they're looking at you strange and everybody staring at you assuming you're to blame and you are (you can do what you want, you can say what you please just don't say something if i won't agree you can be what you want but don't bring that on me just don't be someone i don't want you to be)
2.
Passing Bell 03:49
they've been digging a grave up in red hook for me with boxes of records from that old punk rock scene but they won't let me play my own farewell party i wrote all these songs just learn i can't sing they've been planning a murder in new paltz today it's a hit on a band in an art house cafe as my last note rings out the crowd cheers hooray we hate you, you're leaving, we're glad you can't stay there's an empty room in the club down the street where the ghosts play songs that never made it to print and they float through cars down the hudson river line where they pine "these are my friends, this is my time" i've been walking the plank off the hudson valley marching at sword point to the depths of the sea chained down with boxes of my old ep i wrote all these words to ensure i sink deep they've been planning a hanging down in new rochelle where i'll swing like the tongue on the old passing bell and they'll all have a party to divvy up my will i hate you, i'm leaving, i'll see you in hell there's an empty room in the basement underneath a new york house where the choir used to meet and they blow through hymns in double time just to find you are my friends, you are my kind there's a jam-packed room in the bar down the street where they know my songs and they sing them with me but i still miss matt(s) and i miss what i sang when we began "these were my friends, this was my plan" they've been digging a grave in ct for a king with guitars for shovels and drum to lay in and we'll all wait around for his next of kin i wrote all these songs just to prove i'm something
3.
you say you want the real me whatever that means like you'd know if it was something you got my money is on the scenery and costume design that will make us into something we're not I read a book for every nook i tried to fit myself in so concerned with the end i forgot to begin took little pieces of people I'd seen on screen and spliced myself into the scene if you want to be a ghost then be a ghost just don't go hanging around my house moving all my stuff, cause i know where it all goes if you want to be a star then be a star just don't make the mistake that you're not as fake as you are, 'cause lord knows you are you say you want to feel me get into my bones know all the things that i know it must take some kind of genius to dream up those hooks and convince himself he's better alone I wrote a poem for every home that I wrecked on my way she wants me to go now she wants me to stay "i want to know how this all seems so easy for you" but I guess it's all part of the show we're gonna be big stars on ghost broadway
4.
LA X 03:22
come out, come out tonight broadway's burning bright spotlight they love your sound go run and tell your friends that you knew me way way back when, when we were young I hate these l.a. fucking freeways and all these shitty new york clubs way in the back room I can't see your face and not wonder if it's sincere if i've changed come out, come out tonight one night only up in neon lights they love your songs maybe run into some old friend that i have not seen since god knows when, when we were kids i hate these l.a. fucking freeways and all these shitty new york clubs maybe when i get home we can hang some time but you don't have to, i mean, if you don't want to i don't mind
5.
what you got for me juliet? some shit on cable tv and a decent night's rest in my board room, staring at the low moon in dancing shoes tapping on the roof while the stars smoke cigarettes smoke cigarettes how you holding up romeo? you say you lost your true love but some men never know when they caught you trying on those girls shoes in your parents room it's not that hard to find you when you've got no where to go no where to go now chino's got a poison boot he left his gun at home so i guess it'll have to do and maria's mad, i heard it all from her dad on secret track "if no one likes you anyway then what you got to lose?" got to lose where you going miss milky way? I don't know why you want me but you won't hear me complain it's a spit down, down the road from our town liquor house where i can say these stupid things and not have to explain i won't explain what's the problem now juliet you'll be fine tomorrow if you could just get some rest just sleep it off hun, you can find a new love on your own i liked you pretty good but those city girls were the best they were the best i'm drinking whiskey for dinner, beer for dessert i'll love you forever or whatever comes first whiskey for dinner, beer for dessert you think you've got it bad, well i know i've got it worse "i won't wait around forever for you to change your mind i won't waste my time"
6.
No Noise 04:22
there's no noise no more nothing coming through just a poor man behind a mic stand and a guitar cable in a noose there's no noise no more nothing on the tube just a dumb kid with a death wish and some time in the studio you woke up with your heart beating so hard that it shook the bed and knocked all of the books off of your tv stand some poems you wrote in tenth grade some bills that you cannot pay what a man of taste no one loves you like i did back then no one loves you like i did when we were kids there's no noise no more nothing really new just a faint glow from a car phone as it disappears down the road now everybody's waiting for you to hang yourself you were so perfect when you started now you're someone else there's nothing else to say you talk yourself a big game it's time to back it up no one loves you quite like they did back then no one loves you quite like they did when this began but now there's no noise no more nothing but the truth you're just a fall guy with a shelf life and an oversized sense of worth running round poughkeepsie getting stoned with your ghost i hear your voice through white noise off the coast i hope i'm not bothering you with problems that you can't solve for yourself
7.
we checked in a ten o'clock, a hotel bar and whiskey shots you told me about your drug habit and the year the fire went out i said "i sing songs about nothing in a chorus line of bathtub gin" and wished that i could be the one who's music could inspire but why are you here all alone on stupid earth? why don't you sing the song if you know all the words? i fell out at twenty one, the year that i gave up on love i still believe that it exists, just not for everyone so i learned to keep myself separate and leave bad thoughts inside my head but never trust a man who says he ain't got no regrets so why am i still here alone on stupid earth? why don't i fix the breach if i know what will work? all my favorite writers were drunks who frequent bars and all my favorite songs start out on old beat up guitars all my favorite nights started with whiskey from a well and i really think you're pretty cool but you're not worth top shelf coming home real late from our last show and i know exactly what a hard right turn will do i was twenty two when i wrote my last lines and everything since then has been a lie i was told i was a poet but the ink has run out i have no words of wisdom of what to do now except: everybody dies an old man full of regrets except: the ones who go young in fiery auto wrecks all my favorite writers were drunks who died too young and all my favorite songs come from all my friends at rock bottom all my favorite nights started with whiskey from a well and i really think you're pretty cool but you're not worth top shelf
8.
Pot of Gold 03:00
walking up slowly on the side of the road with your hair slicked back and your eyes on the coal never ever got to worry about being alone you dress real sharp and look real clean but nobody sees what's underneath the fuel, the despair, the hunger stumble into bars with your weary life in your eyes and on your mind rumble with your fists just to get by never be seen without a drink in hand broken bottles all part of your plan with your eyes on that progress it was a long time ago when you first set your eyes on that pot of gold wandering eyes call for candy it was a long time ago before you left before you got old look in the mirror, can you? now that you're old, now that it's through now that you've left and come back again was it really worth it? did you see what you wanted to see did your eyes widen, stance relax for a minute? now that you're gone, do you think that anyone cares about what you've done? was this for you or for someone?
9.
Scarecrow 05:58
come on in and rest awhile your back must be broken from that desert mile a petrol tomb where the highway ends last known refuge for the living dead go on he's riding towards the break of dawn like some kind of jesus on an iron horse and one day he'll be back for us ever since scarecrow got a brain the every day has seemed mundane and nobody told tin man that you could break a heart and here on every avenue the bands march on to dead men's tunes to battlefields at post-war dawn, when everyone is gone they're gone come on in and rest your legs hide from the demons crowding up your head i know you wander eternally in search of safe haven or serenity go on you're fleeing towards the harvest moon like some kind of devil's chasing after you and one day he will catch up lion was off acting brave when he got himself shot in the head and dorothy can't stand her home now that everyone's moved on and here in every city port the ships sail on to foreign shores to graveyards kept on ocean floors waiting for their lords to rise up they come to hang you out and suck the life right out because wizard found himself some fools so he'll play god to their lonely souls while bones in every halfway home are waiting for their turn to rise up
10.
dc 03:56
it's five fifteen, i sit impatiently awaiting the winter sun to hit the snow and i never really had a reason i was working but now i know i work for you the air blows cold, my heart beat roars just like the engine flew across seventy two it's always class or work diverting my attention but now i'm coming home to you and you grabbed my arm and told me the stars were just headstones for the gods and i pulled you close and asked which one was yours and if we would burn as brightly when it's our turn to go it's twelve oh one, i lay, i listen to you breathing the subtle way the mattress moves and i never really had a reason to miss sleeping till i was sleeping next you and i held you close and whispered all my dreams and you painted them so bright and brilliantly you laid them out and asked "which one is me" you are the light that hits my eye encompassing everything you've got me believing that i can be seeing this way for the rest of my life the good days and bad days are all just the gravy i'll have till the day that i die forever for you like the key to the root, like blueness belongs in the sky you love me for reasons that i can believe in and now i can be someone i i've always wanted to be it's six fifteen, i slide the car out of the driveway the sun peaks its head out of the snow i know this now that i had nothing to come home to till i was coming home to you
11.
Whiteboard 03:23
don't you fret my weathered friend, i don't know what it means but these autumn winds seem very thin and i'm not breathing clean your auburn town it's all burned down, the smoke circles the beach and ever since the storms rolled in there ain't that much to see i wrote you a poem on the whiteboard outside my dorm till someone wiped it out with a wet paper towel now i'm not sure if it even said anything at all don't you cry, my jilted bride, i didn't mean to be so cruel i left you there by those chapel stairs looking like a fool with all your plans to start again, halfway across the world just a fairy tale for your friends in jail, dreaming of parole i carved you from stone in the courtyard outside my home till war came around and the bombs leveled the town now i'm not sure if you ever were there at all
12.
part i: el gato i never really had the youth that kids in old rock songs all do i never was the gunslinger or had no muscle car just a tape player, pause+record the radio and a no name electric guitar autumn: i went driving spinning tires on the road i always kind of knew i'd die alone winter: was no different, don't know why i thought it'd be it was too damn cold and i just wanted to sleep in all the songs and books i've read, in friends who drank themselves to death trying to be someone worth telling tales about i will not lay down, become another hopeless case or some ghost that keeps hanging around spring: we were on fire, i never felt so free the words just flowed and they came so naturally summer: i got tired, i don't know what you want from me it's not the end that sucks, just when you have to wait (wait till the weight of the world brings you down down, down, down to the ground) part ii: andrea doria oh darling, i miss you so you've been away about a year by now i hope you're well because i've been depressed as hell and i don't think i'll get used to getting old oh darling, i'll see you soon we've got a show in the city next week another bar, i see you swing low like a star pouring your light down on me part iii: felo de se well what can you say, you promised that you wouldn't change but you caved all the same for the chance on the stage and the fame and what can you do, it's another sold out show and you hate all the songs, but the kids sing along and love you but you're still alone how's your life in the border lands? how's the outside looking in? your yellow brick road has brought you nothing but gold and that distance between you and all your friends part iv: trompe l'‪œ‬il honey say hello to the kids, tell them daddy's on his way he'll be home by next may every night i meet the best friends of my life and every day by dawn they're gone some will say it's just the toll i've gotta pay but that don't help me sleep at night
13.
I submit this to you for Grammy consideration, my mind, my body and my soul I submit this to you for your evaluation, bare naked and alone I don't want to be a ghost on the stage, preaching bullshit from my grave I don't want any part of this slow march parade, come to take my bones away It wasn't all, all your fault, you can blame everything on me

credits

released March 12, 2013

Matthew Maynes: Vocals, Guitar
Dan Garaffa: Bass, Vocals
Laura Sabourin: Vocals, Percussion
Brendan Donnelly: Drums
Michael James Anderson: Electric Guitar, Vocals

written and recorded by Johnny Mainstream
produced by Ed Sabourin & Johnny Mainstream
recorded and mixed by Ed Sabourin at Let It Roll Studios
mastered by Jonathan J. Abarca at JJA Studios
all keyboard by Tim Braun
artwork and layout by Christine Garaffa
all songs by Johnny Mainstream c 2013
www.johnnymainstream.com

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Johnny Mainstream Central Manchester, Connecticut

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