Get all 17 BRAZZAVILLE releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Chaka, Paper Masks, Sheila's Dream, Seventh Andy (Carlo Botto remix), Seventh Andy (Omar Raafat remix), Dream Sea, The Oceans of Ganymede, Morro Bay, and 9 more.
1. |
Peach Tree
02:39
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A thought occurred to me
Lying underneath a peach tree
A moment in the sun
Our funny little lives are so brief
Our frail little bones
We’re here and then we’re gone
Sometimes the lonely days
Turn into the lonely decades
Old ladies on their own
The world they knew has drifted away
Like little puffs of smoke
We’re here and then we’re gone
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2. |
Star Called Sun
03:41
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Near a star called Sun
It was there that my mom came undone
Sounds of a summer parade
90.5 in the shade
She drifted off on the 4th of July
A holiday look in her eyes
Said goodbye to a lifetime of pain
She died in a mid-summer rain
She said
There’s one million stars
For every little grain of sand down there
She floated up like a rocket in space
The misery gone from her face
Flying through comets and stars
Out past the canyons on Mars
She saw the future and she saw the past
She said, don’t worry, it’s not meant to last
Everything’s always OK
Even the worst of your days
There’s one million stars…
So now she’s there when I look at the sky
Or when I drink whisky or wine
Or when I feel frightened at night
Or days when I’m sick of my life
She says, son it’ll all be alright
Everything’s already fine
If only you knew what I’ve seen
You’d never feel frightened again
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3. |
East LA Breeze
03:18
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Winter is fading away
Mockingbirds showed up today
I smell the sea
The East L.A. breeze
The freeways are moving so smoothly
I looked in a coffeehouse door
I couldn’t believe what I saw
No cigarettes
No live instruments
Lonely folks typing on laptops
One more time
Tell me it’s fine
‘Cause when I
When I
Feel this way
Seems like nothin’s
Ever
Been OK
Gone is the city I knew
I’m 21st century blue
It all fades away
Like an old summer’s day
We all drift and settle like salt spray
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4. |
Mr. Suicide
03:19
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What kind of a man
What kind of a son
What kind of a guy
Would just up and run
An ill-fated wind
Turned his good luck around
What kind of a man
Would just leave town
??????????
So after the fall
The cold winter sun
It seems his best days
Have come and gone
The lights of the train
The cold whistle blows
The sound of relief
From the life he chose
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5. |
1983
03:51
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Summer days 15 years old
Rodney’s on the radio
The RTD and a pack of cloves
Oh Oh oo Oh oo Oh Oh Oh
And girls in death rock pantyhose
Junes are cloudy in L.A.
All the city’s shades of gray
The air is warm with ocean spray
Oh Oh oo Oh oo Oh Oh Oh
And morning seems to last all day
And if I should die
In the meantime
Take me home
To those days
When the world
Still really shone
Come on Baby ride with me
We’ll take the bus down to the sea
Go swimming in the morning light
Oh Oh oo Oh oo Oh Oh Oh
And lose the memories of last night
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6. |
Jesse James
03:46
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When he was runnin’ from the cops
He said, “Baby, I’m just 19
I’m as sexy as a ballerina in a magazine
Give me danger and a gun
You know I ain’t afraid of pain
I don’t wanna live your life
I wanna die like Jesse James
I wanna die like Jesse James…
“I grew up in a little trailer
On the edge of town
My daddy used to beat me raw
He used to beat me down
And one thing that I learned
When I was barely 17
Was how to kill a full-grown man
When he was half asleep
‘cause I wanna die like Jesse James…
“So now I’m runnin’ from the cops
And Baby, I’m just 19
I’m as sexy as a ballerina on a TV screen
And I’m happy as a newborn baby
When he sees his mom
And I’m grateful to the bullet
That’s just about to take me home
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7. |
Madalena
03:44
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Walking through the streets of Amsterdam
Half a pack of kreteks in my hand
The rain smells like a woman
That I knew long ago
And I hope she’s happy
Hope she’s doin’ grand
The cyclones never seem to get this far
They die out off the shores of Zanzibar
And at night I watch the storm clouds
Lighting up the sea
And I wonder if she ever thinks of me
Madalena
There’s something in the way you held me
But there’s not much left
To hold onto anymore
I’m older now
My hair is turning gray
A fixture at this crumbling café
And I’m haunted by the memories
Of the man I used to be
‘Cause he took your love
And threw it all away
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8. |
Bosphorus
03:18
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She was married to the Bosphorus
She threw her ring in then she blew a kiss
To the Ottomans and Byzantines
Lying beneath the sea
She wore a pink and yellow summer dress
She kept her hair just like a poetess
She traveled all the way to Germany
The trains and the cold, dark sea
The amber glow of a morning cigarette
On the Istiklal Cadessi
The vapor trails and the tiny minerettes
All the domes in silhouette
Ahhhhh Ahhhh Ahhhh…..
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9. |
Ugly Babylon
03:04
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The oil wells and the call girls
Work all night long
Down in the ugly Babylon
Gone are the grandmas, poets
And baker’s sons
Down in the ugly Babylon
The lights of the city wash out
The stars and suns
Down in the ugly Babylon
Gone are the grandmas, poets
And baker’s sons
Down in the ugly Babylon
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10. |
Taksim
03:07
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Lay down next to me
We’ll stare out at the sea
And make believe
That nothing bad ever happens
To normal folks like you and me
Tell me ‘bout your life
Did you ever have a wife
Did she make you feel
Like somebody kind of special
When you wandered in at night
Love’s a funny game
It can make you half insane
But guys like us
Will sit through the winter showers
Just to feel that summer rain
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11. |
Blue Candles
03:29
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Blue candles
At noon
Burn with a light
That makes me think of you
You went away too soon
The evening
We met
The peculiar way
You held your cigarette
I knew we would be friends
Lonely
Summer afternoons
Smoking in a turquoise furnished room
Oh Oh
We smoked some
Balloons
Abandoned the world
Outside your little room
Two candles in the gloom
The hair on
Your legs
It don’t really turn me on
But that’s OK
‘Cause I like you anyway
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12. |
Morning Light
04:21
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I’m afraid of you
You make life seem brand new
We stay up late at night
Forget the world outside
And it’s been a long time
It’s been a long time
Since I’ve seen the morning light
It’s been a long time
It’s been a long time
And that’s alright (2x)
You read you poetry
And pour me cups of tea
And in the candle light
I’m lost inside your eyes
And it’s been a long time…..
Sometimes I feel all alone
With millions of folks around me
But I know that I’ve got a home
Beyond the dark clouds above me
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13. |
Lena
03:46
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Lena’s a beauty queen
From far away in Moldova
She reads fashion magazines
Of movie stars in Europa
The men are so handsome
With smiles sweet as tangerines
She answered a wanted ad
For waitresses maids and au pairs
She felt just a little sad
When it came time to leave her village
But she packed up her suitcase
And hugged her family at the door
Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh
Oh those summer days
Those bicycle trips in the rain
The local boys
The cheap champagne
To be back there again
She’d give just about anything
And she’d never leave her town again
Now she works 13 hours a day
In a room with a dirty mattress
She’d take all the pain away
But she can’t seem to find the courage
And the mornings are the hardest
The sunlight on the concrete floor
Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh
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14. |
Lazy Boy
02:27
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Lazy boy
You’re funny in the head
A loser born
A loser when you’re dead
You’ve fooled them now
But soon they’ll see the froth you’re made of
It’s 4 AM
You lay awake in bed
Your palms are cold
Your stomach’s full of dread
The mockingbirds
And freeway in the distance calm you
Lazy boy
I see the state you’re in
The morning rain
Will wash away your sin
The summer breeze
Smells like a loaf of cotton candy
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BRAZZAVILLE Barcelona, Spain
Born in the Summer of Love to a Jewish mother and a Canadian father, David's attraction to exotic climes was nurtured at an
impressionable age by his father, a trucker, with whom David rode shotgun while he hauled shipping containers from the ports of San Pedro to the Southern Pacific train yards.
(read more on FB or our website brazzavilleband.com
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