Get all 14 The Sam Chase releases available on Bandcamp and save 20%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Ain't Dead Yet, Live From Hopmonk Sebastopol - New Years Eve 2023, You Call This An Album, Tries Harder, Dragula, Almost Done, Lost & Found (Live at the Lost Sierra Hoedown 2019), The Last Rites of Dallas Pistol, and 6 more.
1. |
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SITTING RIGHT HERE
Will I ever leave San Francisco
go out on my own
My sister and my brother are living it up
Jet-setting all over the world
but I’m sitting right here
I’m sitting right here
Will I ever get a good job
That gives me what I need
A great big house
on a bigger hill
in the lap of luxury
while I’m sitting right here
I’m sitting right here
Will I ever have a family
who won’t ever let me leave
Little ones who I take care of
until they can take care of me
but I’m sitting right here
I’m sitting right here
Will I ever take a look back
Be proud of what I’ve done
Make a small dent
in the tiny little spec
that’s floating around the sun
I’m sitting right here
I’m sitting right here
take in the world around me
Right here is where I am
To think to far ahead
turns present into the past
I always celebrate the stillness
Leave every stone unturned
I was never one for setting fires
But if it’s there I’ll watch it burn
am I just waiting for permission
By doing what I’m told
I’m a stubborn old man
with his life in his hands
which isn’t that much left to hold
I’m sitting right here
I’m sitting right here
What’s the point of wishing
If I never make up my mind
Or am i wasting life just wondering
At the moment I’ve got the time
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2. |
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3. |
Cold Night (Live)
05:01
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It's a cold night
And it calls for cigarettes
It calls for whiskey drinks
And it calls for no regrets
It's gonna be a night where all the girls
Don't know who they're up against
And all those rational weekend warriors
have all gone off to bed.
And I need a long night
Like I need a rope around my neck.
I'll be swinging from the rafters
Before it all comes to an end.
Even though I'll count it as a loss
A loss is better than no bet
But I'll always be a betting man
Even when they stack the deck.
It's a cold night
And I should take care of myself
But not until I hit the bottom
Do I worry about my health
I can be burning like a flame
While I am chilled down to the bone.
I'll be soaring high above the rooftops
While I am sinking like a stone
And I need a long night
I need to get this off my chest.
It's not for picking up the pieces
It's for throwing out the rest
Tonight we've got a point to prove
We're not too old for this just yet
And what's the point of being a better man
If you can never be the best
I was a cold night
I thought I's never see the dawn
Now my skin's a suit of iron
To protect a soul that's made of stone.
But my heart still pounds a war drum rhythm
As it rattles in my chest
And I'm standing on the front lines
Watching the sun rise overhead.
And I needed last night
And I may need it again tonight
I'm a solitary warrior
In the solitary fight of his life.
I'll see you in the morning
and I'll have stories to tell
These night may be the stuff of legends
So let's make legends of ourselves.
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4. |
Mayflies (Live)
06:16
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Every solution needs a problem
Every work horse needs to be run
You tell me it’s easier with the wind at your back
But I like it when it blows at my front.
The birds have stopped singing in the garden
As the sun looses the battle to the night
The fox is in the henhouse serving chicken noodle soup
So it looks like were having fox again tonight.
I feel strong
hardened by the years
On the hunt
Even though I grow weary
I know that I can do it, I can.
I know that I can do it, I can.
The air is much sharper in the winter
It blows anyway and anywhere it pleases
It’s not meant for breathing
it’s for chugging and wheezing
As you trudge your way through into the spring
Every day is a lifetime to the mayflies
and our lifetime is just a moment to the mountains
Pound the pavement
Let it fly
release the soil
locked inside
Now that we’re done let’s put it back the way we found it
I feel strong
hardened by the years
On the hunt
Even though I grow weary
I know that I can do it, I can.
I know that I can do it, I can.
My memories can’t remember what’s a dream
What is this life that I’ve been living in my sleep?
Is it that my dreams are just a lie
and as dull as my waking life
Or is my life one most people only see in dreams?
I feel strong
hardened by the years
On the hunt
Even though I grow weary
I know that I can do it, I can.
I know that I can do it, I can.
I know that I can do it, I can.
I know that I can do it, I can.
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5. |
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No one expects the night to come
When the suns still in the sky
No one thinks they’ve won the race
With no finish line in sight
No one writes just half a song
and expects it to be a hit
No one gets over the hump
and then decides to quit
No one ever told you much
without getting to the point
No one sets their sites on NYC
but settles on Des Moines
No one tells a story
without a beginning or an end
It’s the middle that’s forgotten
and never heard of again
Don’t let me die middle aged
don’t let me die middle aged
Im too young to die old and
too old to die young today
Don’t let me die middle aged
don’t let me die middle aged
The sun rises and sets
as we forget about the day
No one climbs up half a mountain
and then decides to stop
If so, you ain’t no mountain climber
You’ve just gone for a walk
You hear “finish what you’ve start”
and Once you start you see it through
You hear “no one likes a quitter”
Even if that’s not always true
You hear “It’s better to die young”
You hear “those stars burn the most bright”
You also hear “A life well lived”
Is to have lived a good long life”
You never hear “the middle years
are the best times to go”
“once you’ve settled with a wife and kids
that’s the time to blow”
Don’t let me die middle aged
don’t let me die middle aged
Im too young to die old and
too old to die young today
Don’t let me die middle aged
don’t let me die middle aged
The sun rises and sets
as we forget about the day
its how a story works
after a beginning is the middle
After the middle is the ending
It really is that simple
But if you rate from best to worst
which of these you most prefer
The middle comes in last
Which is not the way it works
No one thinks the ending comes
in the middle of the book
There are so many more pages
Someday we’ll have a look
What’s read is in the past
What we read is yet to come
but “now” is not as exciting
As what we’ll do
or what we’ve done
Don’t let me die middle aged
don’t let me die middle aged
Im too young to die old and
too old to die young today
Don’t let me die middle aged
don’t let me die middle aged
The sun rises and sets
as we forget about the day
There is just as much to do
and just as much to say
As I’ve already done
and as all that I have said
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6. |
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People wishing for more wishes
Don’t know what they are missing is
Saying “my only real wish”
“Is for more days just like this”
It sounds a little sappy
But I just wish that at least once
I’d cry because I was happy
and not because i wasn’t
These are the thoughts that I have
when I’m not thinking about much
some people shaking heads
some people shaking hands
shaking when they are agreeing
shaking when they just can’t stand it
some shaking up and down
some shaking side to side
we should all agree
that this word
isn’t properly defined.
These are the thoughts that I have
when I’m not thinking about much
I’m just another
white guy with a guitar
It’s hard to really stand out
When I walk into the bar
I see another me
standing up there playing
People say my songs are better
Or at least that’s what I’ve been saying
These are the thoughts that I have
when I’m not thinking about much
It’s only when I’m writing songs
that I’m thinking about dying
But writing about my life
without death feels like denial
The journey is not the destination
the future aint the past
If it actually was
I would have saved a lot on gas
These are the thoughts that I have
when I’m not thinking about much
Thoughts about this and that
these and those
and such and such
Little songs are fragile
but they can pack a punch
They are unbreakable but delicate
You can look but you can’t touch
People say music is medicine
Don’t be so dramatic
I think tylenol is medicine
this music here is magic
These are the thoughts that I have
when I’m not thinking about much
Thoughts about this and that
these and those
and such and such
These are the songs that I sing
You can look but you can’t touch
These are the thoughts that I have
when I’m not thinking about much
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7. |
Cherished Memory (Live)
04:32
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When I think of all
the people I cross
I’m too shy to say
I don’t remember how we met
And I don’t have the faintest
memory of our acquaintance
But that don’t mean
you don’t mean nothin’ to me yet
It’s hard to remember places
and in those places there were faces
and odds are I was wasted
but that is no excuse
I am just no good
No matter how good I think I should be
and If it were a game
I’d always lose
It’s a great big country
of missed opportunities
I’m falling like autumn leaves
Please take me in
Press me in a book
to remember how I look
I’d die happy knowing
I would always be
Your cherished memory
It was not a good break up
But bad break ups come from good love
when that good love ends
it’s hard to stay good friends
When I opened the door
the smile that she wore
Was the smile she always wore when she was sad
I never thought a smile
Could make me feel so terrible
It all felt so disjointed and surreal
I always think I hide well
The way I feel inside
she had a nose for sniffing out just what I feel
It’s a great big country
of missed opportunities
Like a broken butterfly wing
Please take me in
Put me under glass
To commenorate the past
I’d die happy knowing
I would always be
Your cherished memory
the day I die
I hope I goes peacefully
I hope I go with dignity
surrounded by my friends
having no regrets
and owing many debts
to those I hope to someday repay
I hope my songs
will continue to live on
That there are children who are born
long after I am gone
Who will sit up on the rooftops
Drinking beer and singing sad songs
like Rock Bottom Has Never Felt So Good
It’s a great big country
of missed opportunities
Once my life becomes a legacy
Please take me in
Keep me in your thoughts
Without you I am lost
It’s all we should ever wish to be
Is your cherished memory
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8. |
A Lucky One (Live)
04:57
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He kept a diary
until the day he died
He wrote of the dreams he had
and memories that were never built to last
and every page that passed
has outlived the man who was there to give them life.
There's a soul on every curve of the letters in each word
and in every line I hear just what he meant.
All those times I could have died
Were all the times that I was alive
I am a lucky one (a lucky one)
and I won't throw it all away
just to live another day
someday that day will come. (that day will come)
I'll catch that ghost train out of town.
and I'll look back and take a bow
and I'll know just where I've been and where I'll go.
But for now I don't know
Long before I was born he wrote a line
of a love some would feel if they'd lived a fortunate life
"You should have seen my smile on my face that I had with her that one immortal night."
"I cursed at the moon for not being bright enough to shed more light"
"lucky for me my fingers don't need eyes to see. "
"and they showed me the light."
All those times I could have died
Were all the times that I was alive
I am a lucky one (a lucky one)
and I won't throw it all away
just to live another day
someday that day will come. (that day will come)
I'll catch that ghost train out of town.
and I'll look back and take a bow
and I'll know just where I've been and where I'll go.
But for now I don't know
The day he left this world
his story ended and his last page turned
and when I saw all that was lost from the man who such thoughts
I felt as empty as the paper
and I yearned for one more day
and so I picked up his pen
It felt so heavy in my shaky right hand
I thought I guess it's up to me
To extend his legacy
To show the love and life he left for me weren't lived in vain
All those times I could have died
Were all the times that I was alive
I am a lucky one (a lucky one)
and I won't throw it all away
just to live another day
someday that day will come. (that day will come)
I'll catch that ghost train out of town.
and I'll look back and take a bow
and I'll know just where I've been and where I'll go.
But for now I don't know
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9. |
Blood Flow (Live)
05:41
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10. |
Almost Done (Live)
05:25
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Take all the weapons and take all the prisons
take all the factories tear them all down
put all the metals back into the mountain
put all the oil back into the ground
take all the criminals and take all the leaders
take all these sinners and take all these saints
take all the people who litter these landscapes
someday she will put us back into our place
Don’t worry about tomorrow
There is time before the dawn
and I won’t take long.
Take all our fears and take all our dreams
take all that we laugh at and for all that we scream
take the world we’ve created not the one that were born on
how selfish that we need a reason to breathe
take all the strong armed bully pulpit preachers
take the millions of followers who head towards the call
and take those who sit quietly on the fringes
and take the ones who will say nothing at all.
Don’t worry about tomorrow
There is time before the dawn
and I won’t take long.
the ground that we’ve covered s riddled with bodies
the earth that we’ve torched will soon lay by their side
I know deep down we are a people who just want to be happy
we are seven billion people who don’t want to die
But don’t worry about tomorrow
There’s still time before the dawn
and I won’t take long
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11. |
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We've all got our problems
We all have pockets to fill
We've got our grocery lists
and things we've missed to pay our cellphone bills
But I spend my night on the bar scene
Where my friends bartend
so I drink for free
Until the world starts spiraling
and I am poured into the street.
and I can see it all go down from the lights of this town
It is lighting my decent
and all the times that I have spent misunderstood
Rock bottom's never felt so good
Maybe I should try this over
Maybe start doing it sober
I sweat tonight will be the night
that I do not wake up hungover
But all of a sudden the sun is rising
and it's not very surprising
that I'm lying on the roof
drinking Jack and railing lines
and I can see it all go down from the lights of this town
It is lighting my decent
and all the times that I have spent misunderstood
Rock bottom's never felt so good
Rock bottom's never felt so good
They say you can't do this forever
I don't intend to prove them wrong
but you know even the longest lives don't really last for very long
So I'll live it while I've got it
and what I've got, I'm living fine.
But when you tell your kids your stories
you know they'd all rather hear mine
Because I've seen the sunrise from a million different pairs of eyes
I have smoked many a cheap cigar
and drank many more, cheaper wine
Oh, you don't seem so impressed
at least as far as I can tell
But you know I can play guitar and sing
and I can do it pretty well.
But I owe every lyric,
every riff,
and every song
to all the things that I have done
even when most of them were wrong
But you know that is just my life
where nothing ever is enough
you can tell me what you will about my ways
and I'll politely tell you to "fuck off."
I can see it all go down from the lights of this town
It is lighting my decent
and all the times that I have spent misunderstood
Rock bottom's never felt so good
Rock bottom's never felt so good
Rock bottom's never felt so good
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12. |
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