Get all 11 Carl Thomas Gladstone releases available on Bandcamp and save 55%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Rise Into The Darkness, Days Of Evenings: The Sketches Songbook, MMXVII, Wesley Project - Advent Hymns 3, Matchstick EP, Wesley Project - Advent Hymns 2, The Abolitionist Hymnal, Wesley Project - Advent Hymns, and 3 more.
1. |
If I Had Known You
05:49
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If I'd Known You
If Id known you
as my music teacher in middle school
I'd have caused trouble
to see how far you'd go
but then would've sung a great solo
and called you 10 years down the road
to thank you for what you taught me
If I'd known you
as a hippie singing folk tunes
I'd have bootlegged a concert
on a reel to reel
and sent it to Bruce Cockburn
so he could hear who was the talent
and who was just the tool.
If I'd known you
In Europe with your denim
as a tourist seeing you and friend
I'd have taken your picture
and sent it to the States
to Grandpa and Grandmas house
to make your brother jealous
If I'd known you
in the Cantata choir
I'd have sat behind you next to Dad
pushing him to ask you out
and would have mentioned to you on the sly
the tall dark and handsome tenor
If I'd known you
in college with the cat
I'd have ridden along with Rick
and all your friends
Dreaming what your lives would hold
and taking down their numbers
for reference later
If I'd known you
In another life,
and all my schemes came true
I wouldn't have known better
I couldn't have done better
I wouldn't have known better
than to know you.
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2. |
Apophatic Monsters
04:18
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Apophatic Monsters
When I appear it's not to steal
I walk along not off a plank
When i'm marooned its with you
my boat it settles waves
and skulls and bones are raised!
No I am not a pirate
When I fall in love i don't destroy
When I take a life i give back joy
I sparkle and the heaven's come down
my blood is a new covenant
not Vlad or Bella's ruse
No I am not a vampire
I am not (I am not)
the typical (don't be fooled)
know me by (around the edges of)
the negative.
when I exhale I hail the new
for I am wise and never grousing
I'm beautiful but not to dupe
my craft is stitching bone to bone
and knitting with sinew
No I am not a banshee
When i raise up I'm up for good
I crave the brains but claim the body
I groan for justice not Voodoo
my body is the one consumed
for love of you and to commune
No I am not a zombie
When I come to earth its not to play
like chess, the people as my pieces
Instead like Pa and they my kids
my family's not broken,
my family is you
No I am no Zeus
when i emerge it's not the end
i have no fire breathing heads
no little horn of earthly kings
my breath revives,
and burns with life
No I am not a dragon
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3. |
Talking To Calm
04:18
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Talking To Calm
Your best medicine,
like Aunt Bea, was no pills
no machines,
no poisons on a masquerade.
Best was when the doctor
said, "Take two conversations
and call me when
sitting by the lake with coffee in a copper cup."
But family are fire
and company the kindling
for the blaze that bathes the walls
in light and warmth.
Pain has only partial power
passion keeps it's hounds at bay
joy sometimes obliterates
sadness sweeps its thorns away
and laughter? Only laughter...
laughter ushers us along the way
The real enemy is emptiness
a cave of aches with unknown depths
and danger lurking underneath.
which can echo every anxiousness
and chill us
on our wandering .
Escape routes bound by
our conversations
velvet ropes revelations
guide through confidence and doubt
and memories to sit and rest on.
Plans that keep creating
new ways out.
Then -we stand at the exit
and darkness isn't night but dawn
erie echoes are the morning doves
the damp is nothing but the dew
and the fire isn't torches
no the fire isn't torches, but the sun.
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4. |
Motorboats
03:16
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Motorboats
Sure there is riding bikes
while Dad walks marathons
all around Livonia parks
faster Mom, faster, Mom!
But I, I favor motor boats
the dizzy spinning
circles send
going fast, and going slow
and always embrace at the end.
And yes there are sliding slides
in my green track suit
a thrill with a fast conclusion
in that pricker bush, how rude.
Or Aerostars with broken parts
junk harmonic balancers
lost down forest roads
in that big blue monster.
But what about paddles boats
and all of their Polka Loops
and wild adventure to be sure
Grandma peering at the moon.
And even though we never left
that one same spot in that same lake
I think we found eternity
each time we turned to play that game.
For isn't this the means that we
will reunite all in the end?
You'll circle down with us beneath
As heav'n toward earth shall bend.
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5. |
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Love Shall Rule and Heaven Come Down
What does the lord require of you, you o mortal one
but to do and love the just and kind and walk humbly with your God?
walk humbly with your God, walk humbly with your God
You shall do and love the just and kind and walk humbly with your God.
What is justice then and how shall we, know it when it comes?
the rough places plain, and highways raised, and even mountains moved.
Rough places plain, and highways raised, and even mountains moved.
That is how we'll see God's justice done, and even mountains moved.
Love shall rule and heav'n come down
As for loving kindness, that by faith, we pray to know its rule
feed your neighbor, love your enemy, heal the sick and speak to power
And like children sit at Jesus' feet, with a love for beauty and truth
For your love of kindness will be known in everything you do.
Love shall rule and heav'n come down
To walk humbly in God's grace you see, is a nobler sweeter song
know that you are loved but all the rest of God's children are too.
leave pride behind and boasting, don't pray for others to see
for the humble one returns God's grace in thankfulness and peace.
Love shall rule and heav'n come down
With God we will succeed to bring God's kin-dom to the earth.
then God's justice and God's kindness too shall rule, and heaven come down.
They shall rule and heav'n come down, shall rule and heaven come down.
Then a just and kind and humble reign, shall rule when heav'n come down.
Love shall rule and heav'n come down
rewrite requested by Terry Niles Gladstone
with favorite scripture of Joe Stroud
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Carl Thomas Gladstone Detroit, Michigan
As a music and mischief maker on the prophetic edge Carl writes music as a discipline of justice-seeking and disruptive discipleship. He writes to engage people of faith and of no faith in deep questions and engaging stories that matter for the world.
Carl Thomas Gladstone recommends:
All Things New
by Red Mountain Music
Awesome hymn re-write crew.
go to album
The Age of Adz
by Sufjan Stevens
I mean, c'mon.
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