HAFAST MUSIC

All lead vocals are by Al Borie, except on “Ouch” and “The Plot” (both by Joseph Nicks)

The Plot (demo)

1. The Plot (demo)

lyrics: Joseph Nicks 2005
music: Al Borie 2005

The Plot

from the first time that I saw you,
couldn’t think of nothin’ else –
how the world can overwhelm your
all-consuming sense of self;
thinking far into the future,
when the one and one are two:
it can’t help but be too long
‘til I’m lyin’ next to you

you know that each time that I see you,
something’s stickin’ in my craw:
that no matter how we struggle,
we’re, none of us, above the law(s) –
there’s just no way to avoid it;
there’s just nothing we can do:
it can’t help but be too long
‘til I’m lyin’ next to you

since that last time that I saw you,
can’t keep my mind on much at all
and even after all this time,
I can’t bring myself to bear the pall –
ah, but all too soon I’m comforted
to realize anew:
it can’t help but be too long
‘til I’m lyin’ next to you

As Long As I Can Run

2. As Long As I Can Run

lyrics: Joseph Nicks 1991
music: Al Borie 2004

As Long As I Can Run

been down on this bike, now
so damned many times
I’m surprised I still ride anymore

but as long as I can run
I fear I may run out of room
though I don’t look for that
to happen soon

been down on these textbooks
so damned many times
I don’t know what I know no more

but as long as I can think
I think I’ll prob’ly think too much
which still somehow seems
nowhere near enough

the new pain
is really the old pain
being felt on a whole ‘nother plane

the new world
is really the old world
with concrete poured over the ground

and I got lost
in the chorus
while everyone else got so found

been down on my fathers
so damned many times
they’ve probably disowned me by now

but as long as I recall
it sets my head and heart to ache
and wishing we’d not make
the same mistakes

been down on these women
so damned many times
you’d think I’d have finally had my fill

but as long as I can dream
I’ll prob’ly never get things done
and why would I just walk
if I could run

the new pain
is really the old pain
being felt on a whole ‘nother plane

the new song’s
the same as the old song,
new voices disguising the sound

and I got lost
in the chorus
while everyone else got so found

A Color Undefined

3. A Color Undefined

lyrics: Joseph Nicks 1989
music: Al Borie 2004

A Color Undefined

I wish I were a color undefined;

a color yet to figure in,

so green and unfamiliar to their eyes

I wish I were a color still untried;

a color with no history,

no wavelength on the spectrum to belie;

a color all-encompassing

and swirling in the blackness and the white,

like melanin unblinded by the light

yes, to break out of the black and white

and join the colored people,

intermingling our pigments

‘til, too many to be labeled,

we can’t begin to think of one invalid,

though unequaled,

embracing every earnest shade –

I wonder if we’re able

I wish I were a color seen anew;

a color with no forefathers

to taint the reputation of my hue;

a color not foreshadowing

nor lending any clue

as to the differences

we’ll find in me and you

yes, to break out of the black and white

and join the colored people,

intermingling our pigments

‘til, too many to be labeled,

we can’t begin to think of one invalid,

though unequaled,

embracing every earnest shade –

I wonder if we’re able

Waiting For The Sky To Fall

4. Waiting For The Sky To Fall

lyrics: Joseph Nicks 2003
music: Al Borie 2004

Waiting For The Sky To Fall

beyond the laughter

of the foolish spring;

the bronzing skin

of pleasured summer:

I’ve watched the days

surpass the years

and felt these feelings

growin’ number

look outside, the clouds have gathered

to do what clouds are bound to do –

another day won’t see me waiting

for the sodden sky to fall all over you

and, come the dry eyes

of the sober fall;

the longed-for lips

of sullen winter:

you’ll see the day

when all my swollen hopes

of you no longer

even glimmer

go inside, the sky has fallen –

now there’s nothing left to be

but half of what we could’ve hoped for

with the paths of two entwining you and me

Ouch

5. Ouch

lyrics: Joseph Nicks 1990
music: Al Borie 1990

Ouch

wherever there’re winners,

there have to be losers –

it’s just how the game is played;

wherever there’s eating,

there have to be eaten –

that’s the way this old world has been made;

as long as we’re living, we’re gonna keep dying

and loss only comes ‘cause there’s gain

as long as you’ve already heard this before,

it’s hardly worth opening my mouth

but as long as it keeps on hurting, my friend,

the people will keep saying ouch

as long as suns come up,

suns have to go down –

I’m not the one writing the rules;

wherever belief is, there had to be doubt;

where warmth radiates, the source cools;

if you’ve finished building

what you hope to last,

you’d better hang on to your tools

as much as we’ve been on this subject again,

you’d think we’d have worn it all out

but as long as it keeps on hurting,

the people will keep saying ouch

as long as there’s sex,

everyone’s got to have it –

as long as they do, there’ll be more;

as long as there’s more,

there’s bound to be less –

less room than the few had before;

as long as the burgeoning

squeezes the walls,

somebody will reach for the door

as long as new doors are revealed, at length,

there’s some of us walking on out –

‘cause as long as it keeps on hurting the people,

the people will keep saying ouch

You’ll Have To Excuse Him, He Was Accidentally Born

6. You’ll Have To Excuse Him, He Was Accidentally Born

lyrics: Joseph Nicks 1992
music: Al Borie 2004

You’ll Have To Excuse Him,

He Was Accidentally Born

in my yearning adolescence

I could feel my unfelt essence

welling up to swell the chorus

with the silent effervescence

of those churning angstigated signs of life –

first life, like I could ever live

the way I knew we all could live

if life were left

to only lives and living things

in my learned convalescence

I could count the countless lessons –

all the novel things remembered on the way

to healing newfound feelings

that had long since gone astray

in the scratching, twitching, aching,

leaping wonders, heaven wonders

if it really does exist

while the promised land

recumbent at my feet

as their promises lie

helplessly down next to me

and mine – what’s left of mine,

where I’m to whisper

indefinite words

as if to encourage,

endeafen its ears –

collective ears

of a latent public hearing

we had listened for

without a sound of ours

in my early obsolescence

I could see, too soon, senescence

handed down to my descendence

into life-saving forgetfulness

of how this wouldn’t work

and couldn’t –

maybe couldn’t

though I couldn’t cop to that

and that’s exactly how I got here

‘cause I couldn’t cop to that –

in all my disbelieving

I would just as soon be leaving

with the colours and their bleeding

so as not to have to stand around

and watch all my believing

be leaving me behind

Whoa

7. Whoa

lyrics: Joseph Nicks 2003
music: Al Borie 2004

Whoa

whoa is me,

whoa is you,

whoa is when the whole wide world

got nothin’ better to do

than to pull its reins on you

and I’m so full of whoa,

I can’t even giddy-up no mo’

Lord, just a mule and forty acres –

that’s all I ever asked of you;

well, this hard livin’s made me so damned stubborn,

now I ain’t gonna need that mule

‘cause I’m so full of whoa,

I can’t even giddy-up no mo’

now you can put me out to pasture –

you can strap me to the plow;

you can crack your whip across me

and I’ll heave against the ground

but I’m so full of whoa,

I can’t even giddy-up no mo’

everybody say, “hold your horses!”

but I been holdin’ them so long,

I can’t help but feelin’ somehow

that it’s doin’ me some wrong

(if’n you get my meanin’)

yeah,

whoa is me,

whoa is you,

whoa is when the whole wide world

got nothin’ better to do

than to pull its reins on you

and I’m so full of whoa,

I can’t even giddy-up no mo’

Hope On The Horizon

8. Hope On The Horizon

lyrics: Joseph Nicks 1991
music: Al Borie 2004

Hope On The Horizon

and back in the 18:00s;

the sun-weary sixes o’clock,

there wasn’t much left

of the day or the life

to fuel my own flickering light

I lifted my head from my body,

gone leaden the length of the couch;

the shadows had slowly

enswallowed the room;

it seemed a long way to my feet

there’s hope on the horizon

and I’m grasping for the thread;

one minute I’ll be dying

and the next one I’ll be dead

and back in the powder-blue darkness,

my eyes still trespass on the moon;

the same moon that’s shone

on each present exchanged

for the mem’ries of long-greener pasts

I walk the deadly grey morning;

I can see what I’ve already seen,

my head so far above the cold earth,

it seems a long way to my feet

“there’s hope on the horizon”,

said the carrot to the stick,

“a little faster and we’ll be there”,

may just be life’s cruelest trick

“there’s hope on the horizon”,

I was gasping for my breath;

one minute I was dying

and the next one I was dead

As Stupid As I Feel (demo)

9. As Stupid As I Feel (demo)

lyrics: Joseph Nicks 2004
music: Al Borie 2005

As Stupid As I Feel

and on the first day

of my prime,

I set right out

to right the world –

all too sure that

these ideals

weren’t gonna get lost

in the swirl

now years beyond those days have fallen

all across these fallow grounds –

if I was gonna get the calling,

I’d have gotten it by now

and my only consolation

as my images unreel

is that I probably don’t look anywhere near

as stupid as I feel

and on the last day

of the year,

I sat right down

to write the world –

all too swollen

with my problems

and all too long

gone un-girled

now hope can surge half-hearted

for a minute or an hour –

if she wasn’t gonna call me,

I’m quite sure it would’ve been by now

and my only consolation

as the words and page congeal

is that it probably won’t sound anywhere near

as stupid as it feels

‘Til You Go (demo)

10. ‘Til You Go (demo)

lyrics: Joseph Nicks 1990
music: Al Borie 2005

‘Til You Go

I know that it’s all goin’
and I know that this won’t last;
I know that graves roll over
and that friends are fading fast

I know it hurts to think, one day,
our threads will come unsewn
but I, for one, will still refuse
to miss you ‘til you go

I know the generations
leave an aching in our hearts;
I know that our togetherness
too soon becomes apart

I know in our good-bying,
we’ll hear echoes of hello
but I, for one, will still refuse
to miss you ‘til you go

I know we’ve all got ways to go
and things to do and say;
I know the weeks unravel us
and soon will come the day
when we stand chest to chest
before we turn and walk away

I know there’ll be a lot of things
we’ll wish that we had known
but I, for one, will still refuse
to miss you ‘til you go

Previously-Released Titles:

01 Eve Of Detroit (Jun 1988) | tape 1: material from 1982-1988 recorded with AB, KB, BF

02 The Bennett Tapes (Feb 1990) | tape 2: material from 1983-1990 recorded with KB

03 Plumb Out Of Pipe (Mar 1990) | tape 3: material from 1990 recorded with KB

04 Cardiac Musclecar Blues (Apr 1990) | tape 4: material from 1990 recorded with KB, AB et al

05 Forever Endeavors (audio version, Dec 1993) | tape 5: material from 1992-1993 read by various readers recorded by KB

06 The Elusive Living Room (audio version, May 1996) | tape 6: material from 1987-1996 recorded with KB, AB, BF, RC, BB, CL et al

07 Haymarket Revival (Jan 2004) | disc 1: material from 1989-2003 recorded with AB, BC, KB, BB

08 Boomslang (May 2005) | disc 2: material from 1987-2000 recorded with AB, KB, BB

AB = Al Borie

BC = Bill Corey

BB = Brian Bawinkel

BF = Ben Ferrer

RC = Robert Cleaveland

CL = Curt Leber