LYRICS
Dimensionally Straddled
Music & Lyrics by Chris Stanton
©2019
“Dimensionally Straddled” describes the pros and cons of living with one foot in the practical, 3D world and the other in the larger, transpersonal dimension so difficult to describe and so easily dismissed.
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah…
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah…
One foot on this side
One foot on the other
When you’re stretched across a roaring creek
There’s lots to discover
Even when you’re rowing up stream
Without a paddle
It usually turns out all right
It’s worth the battle
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah…
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah…
Life runs alongside us all the time
Mostly unseen
While I get along well in this world
I know my way out and what’s in between
Most would see no reason or rhyme
to get close to death’s dark rattle
You’d be surprised by what you find
When the worlds unravel and you dimensionally travel
Facing down a busload of fears
May have shortened my ration of years
Somersaulting through the spectral light
Tempting fate walking on a rope so tight
The tail used to wag this restless dog
I use to scratch every itch
Now I deal with those day to day cares
With one well-placed lick
Staying upright on a runaway mare
Chased by stampeding cattle
I know I’ll land on my feet
If I’m knocked off the saddle, all dimensions I straddle
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah…
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah…
There’s a cost to everything
The learning curve’s been pretty steep
I’ve walked the narrow and straight
But I’ve also learned how to leap
This double life has taken its toll
Perhaps this tale’s a little fragile
I ain’t preaching dharma, I’m just trying to say
It’s been worth the battle to dimensionally straddle
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah…
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah…
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah…
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah…
Picked Up A Feather
Music & Lyrics by Chris Stanton
©2019
“Picked Up A Feather“ is about the angst, alienation and blues of youth and finding one’s way “home” despite all the challenges. This song sprouted wings at a jam session in Ojai with Thor and Isaac.
I wandered ‘round the world, when I was young
Searching for something, blind deaf and numb
How could I ever make anything right
What held me so tight
Every day collapsing, running out of space
Grinded down by always feeling out of place
Couldn’t feel much difference ‘tween pleasure or pain
I was going insane
BRIDGE
Then the spell was broken, I could fly
The clouds suddenly parted, I don’t know why
Somehow I let go and found my way home
The doors of my life were coming off their hinge
Broken-hearted I turned to hash and gin
I fed on my dread like pills from a nurse’s hand
This was my last stand
GUITAR LEAD
An angel of the night, a saint of circumstance
Offered me a light and woke me from my trance
I started gouging those old thorns from my heel
This time the pain was real
Longing for a place of my own in this life
I picked up a feather and let go of the knife
I prayed to the goddess of all my
Failures, and finally cried
REPEAT BRIDGE
The blues keep returning like an uninvited guest
Greet them at the door, let forgiveness do the rest
Exploding Resistance
Music & Lyrics by Chris Stanton
©2019
“Exploding Resistance” is a rocking love song to my sweetheart Lori, though it takes (and took) a while for the love to break through the fields of resistance-- anxiety, skepticism and mistrust.
Sometimes there’s bugs on my windshield
Some days I can’t see my way clear
Sometimes I’m knee deep in rubble… wishing I weren’t here
Some nights the demons assemble
Sometimes I feel like I’m cursed
Somehow the walls never crumble… and the dam never bursts
GUITAR INTERLUDE
Some things are hard to untangle
Sometimes I can’t make it right
Somehow I forget to remember… to turn and face the light
Some days feel like forever
Sometimes I’m cloaked in dark doubt
Somehow I forget to remember… there’s always some way out
GUITAR INTERLUDE
Someone knows what you’re here for
Some things are true if they’re tried
Somehow I learned how to undo… all those knots I tied
Sometimes it’s now or it’s never
Sometimes there’s diamonds in the dust
Somehow I got drunk on your sweetness… and found a way to trust
CHORUS
Aiming a flaming arrow
You shot me all the way through
The sound of exploding resistance
Delicious and sweet and so new
In that moment of grace, in that moment of grace
When you finally exhale and peek through the veil
In that moment of grace
In that moment of grace, in that moment of grace
You finally exhale and slip through the veil
In that moment of grace
GUITAR LEAD
Somewhere I lost my amnesia
Something told me to stay
Somehow I finally remembered… how much I love you every day
Sometimes it’s hard to remember
Somehow we always forget
Someone’s waiting to meet you… when you’re ready to be met
REPEAT CHORUS
GUITAR OUTRO
So Many Ways To Be Fed
Music & Lyrics by Chris Stanton
©2019
“So Many Ways To Be Fed” began as a rap song my old band “The Wild Hairs” would occasionally break out at live gigs back in the 90’s. I know. Hard to visualize me rapping! Now it’s gone country. I borrowed some themes from Doc Childre (HeartMath) as well as some lines from Anne Lamott (“like drinking rat poison…”) and Caroline Casey (“co-operators are standing by”), for which I’m grateful.
Here’s an invitation to transformation
Call it a blessing disguised
Are we butterflies dreamin’ we’re human
Or humans dreamin’ we’re butterflies?
In science it’s metamorphic
Magic has to hide in between
If it’s true we’re all merely dreamin’
Who says we can’t change this dream?
BRIDGE
It’s not so strange that it’s hard to change
When we’re angry and wonderin’ why
Judgment’s like drinkin’ rat poison
And waiting for the rats to die
What’s your excuse, unhitch your caboose
From this train running out of time
Follow the scent of remembrance
Through the crack in the old paradigm
The journey’s complete when sky meets street
Is your skin finally ready to shed
Shake off the old definitions
There’s so many ways to be fed
CHORUS
There’s so many ways to be fed
So many ways to be fed
Love comes in all sorts of marvelous ways
There’s so many ways to be fed
It’s all a new game, get ready, take aim
Your attention is all that’s required
Each moment of ease allows you to seize
What you’ve always desired
Learn to be smart in the art of the heart
Who’s life are you really trying to save
When you turn to face spirit’s embrace
Love comes in wave after wave after wave after wave after wave after wave
Everything starts when you open your heart
And unpeel the onion that’s you
That ineffable thing that knows how to sing
Your essence knows what to do
Intelligence starts when you live from your heart
And unpeel the real one that’s you
That ineffable thing that just has to sing
You know just what to do
CHORUS
There’s so many ways to be fed
There’s so many ways to be fed
So many ways to be fed
Love comes in wave after wave after wave
There’s so many ways to be fed
So many ways to be fed
Co-operators are standing by
There’s so many ways, there’s so many ways
There’s so many ways, so many ways… to be fed
Cooking My Anxiety
Music & Lyrics by Chris Stanton
©2019
“Cooking My Anxiety” is another tune that grew out of the Ojai jam sessions. Obviously, anxiety is a dominant theme on this album. As is the work and purposefulness it takes to operate at a higher pitch than my normal inherited and edgy frequencies.
Turn on the gas, crank up the flame
Pull out that recipe, disaster’s the name
Put the pot on the stove, turn down the lights
Cooking my anxiety, trying to get it right
Chop up those worries, dice up some dread
boil that uncertainty, until it’s flaming red
Season with needles and pins, add a pinch of fright
Cooking my anxiety, trying to get it right
CHORUS
This I know… you gotta cook it slow
I used to let it grow… should have cooked it years ago
There’s a long way to go
This I know, this I know… you gotta cook it slow
Stir up that stew, spice it with stress
Goosebumps and butterflies and more edginess
Stir in some calamity, a dash of fight or flight
Cooking my anxiety, trying to get it right
Cooking my anxiety, I’ll be working it all night
REPEAT CHORUS
Cook it slow…
Cook it slow…
Cook it slow…
Cook it slow…
Cook it slow…
Cook it slow…
Cook it slow…
…
Cooking my anxiety, working all night
Cooking my anxiety, trying to get it right
Oh Daughter Of Mine
Music & Lyrics by Chris Stanton
©2019
“Oh Daughter Of Mine” is a wedding gift to my recently married daughter Charlotte Wilder Stanton. An ode to her courage and beauty and the wild ride of father/daughterhood. Loudon Wainwright III’s song “Your Mother and I” inspired my version..
Oh daughter of mine, we’ve been through a lot
We’ve tugged every loose end and tightened the knot
That binds us together, though you didn’t always see
That daughters and fathers are hard things to be
Oh daughter so kind, there’s been lots of storms
Somewhere, somehow, something got torn
Lives are like prayer beads strung with mistakes
You stitched things together, you took what it takes
GUITAR INTERLUDE
CHORUS
Oh daughter of mine, you’ve always been yours
We put “wild” in your name, dangerous for sure
It led us to swallow some bitter pills
But so many more sweet ones, worth all the thrills
Oh daughter divine, I’m so happy for you
I love who you are and all that you do
We’ve had our moments, our hugs and our fights
I never doubted you’d turn out so right
Oh daughter of mine