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Elemental

from Shaker Chair by Rob Siegel

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about

Recorded at the Passim open mike the first time I'd ever played the song out live. How that it's-only-this-fresh-once vibe can appear and be captured is one of life's wonderful mysteries. One of two tracks that received airplay on WUMB (the other was Sense of History). I still regard this as one of the best things I've ever written.

lyrics

freight trains once ran down my street
noisy gods of iron and heat
rain and steam and sound and speed
all moving
possibilities
now the tracks are overgrown
the trains don’t roll past here no more
endings should be sharp
and clear
I hope some kid waved to
the engineer

in a world where trains don’t matter
and changes push things faster
or rip ‘em from the ground
because they move too slow

you’re elemental
like a woman
you’re essential
like the sea
you’re delectable
like an avocado
and I’m insatiable
that’s me

the buildings drift in through the fog
ancient horses drag the log
I tell myself it’s just the job
but it’s
real life
the accident can happen then
the wreckage that becomes the man
the movie screens inside my head
I hope I sleep well when I’m dead
in a life thrown out of balance
with screeching noise and silence
time plays the joker
when only time will do

a nation built on excess buys
glaciers melt but stocks still rise
weapons fire people die
and it’s only Monday
politicians puff their chests
dominant males take what’s best
men in white coats raise the bar
Einstein’s brain is in some jar
I don’t know how he could’ve figured
time gets small but space gets bigger
‘cause years are whipping past me
like days used to do

freight trains once ran down my street
now the tracks are clogged with weeds
soon they’ll pour ‘em with concrete
noisy gods are obsolete

credits

from Shaker Chair, released June 1, 1999

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Rob Siegel Boston, Massachusetts

Rob Siegel is well-known in Boston folk music circles as an innovative songwriter who draws from his idyllic yet stressed- out middle-class suburban existence and produces memorable, intelligent, well-crafted songs.

His first new CD in 14 years, "A Landscape of Ghosts," will be out in April, with a CD release show at Club Passim on Monday April 30th. ... more

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