Get all 9 Bob Hillman releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Downtown in the Rain, More Songs About Birds & Trees, Bob Hillman & Spooky Ghost, Inside & Terrified, Some of Us Are Free, Some of Us Are Lost, Lost Soul, If You Lived Here, You'd Be Home, Welcome To My Century, and 1 more.
1. |
Welcome To My Century
02:47
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Welcome to my century
I'll tell you how to make it
Dish it out, twist and shout
But 'never, ever take it
I can dish it pretty good
House arrest for seven months but it was worth it.
Welcome to my century
You are ancient history
Damn my father's drinking
I should leave him sad and lonely
That's a dream cuz I can't seem
To do without his money
He will never draw the line
I storm out and he caves in my best wishes.
Welcome to my century
You are ancient history
I'm an actor, baby, can you dig it?
Maybe you will see my face on television.
Sunday down at the country club
With the evil face-lift mothers
They hate me triumphantly
Their children don't make trouble
I might never go away
Eighteen holes, I know exactly what I'm doing
Welcome to my century
You are ancient history
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2. |
Valentine's Day
03:45
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3. |
Games
03:07
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4. |
Greenland
02:35
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5. |
The Latenight
03:39
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6. |
Movie Star
02:42
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There's a famous movie star
In the restaurant we are
So close and yet so far away from meeting
Close enough to stare at her
Like a chainsaw murderer
Though I'd prefer to touch and go to heaven
Try to understand:
I'm her biggest fan
Not smoe also-ran or crazy villain
Do you see the movie star?
Do you see the movie star?
Do you see the movie star?
Movie Star
Look at Mr. Olive Skin
Leather trousers, lucky him
Shit-eating grin and eating with perfection
How an Oscar winner can
Patronize this younger man
I'll never understand and I don't wish to
Does she notice me
Waiting patiently?
Maybe she'll agree to sign my menu
Do you see the movie star?
Do you see the movie star?
Do you see the movie star?
Movie Star
They are getting up and leaving
Me an ordinary evening
Ordinary conversation
Talking about my generation
Do you see the movie star?
Do you see the movie star?
Do you see the movie star?
Movie Star
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7. |
I Need You
04:08
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8. |
Anywhere
02:43
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Fighting for her life in Iowa
With the future legends typing club
They were reading Faulkner but it was not hard enough
They were thinking carefully and writing down their thoughts to please us
She can go anywhere she wants to
Anywhere she wants to
She wants to be here
She looks out on fifty miles of corn
In the city clothes she’s always worn
With the falling leaves the stalks turn ugly, old, and brown
Anyone might think it was neglect or never meant for harvest
She can go anywhere she wants to
Anywhere she wants to
She wants to be here
Over thinking, under-drinking, no one’s chasing skirt
Only waiting, calculating, how much time til they hit pay dirt
There’s a holy circle and a fire
Celebrating poetry for hire
Someone cried Virginia Woolf and finally she broke down
She was almost sure the wolf was big and bad and in sheep’s clothing
She can go anywhere she wants to
Anywhere she wants to
She wants to be here
She wants to be here
She wants to be here
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9. |
Las Vegas
04:25
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In the morning
When the cards are asleep
You can’t read but you weep anyway
There’s a hard luck case
With a strip poker face who will say:
Rotgut tequila all around
Two more cards and I’ll take you to bed
In the car like I said
I can’t quit, I’m ahead
But I’ll try
Morning is a lie in Las Vegas
In the morning
When the rumors begin
Of the day stealing into the sky
Did the night finally fall?
Fairy tales, don’t believe them at all
Take one good look around
Don’t be surprised if the windows insist
That the doors don’t exist
And the walls take the fifth
No reply
Morning is a lie in Las Vegas
In the morning
There’s an Oklahoma man
Playing two dollar hands with his wife
And the Keno brigade meets the lowlifes who played through the night
Is this the end of the world?
Don’t tell me the American way
Is a breakfast buffet
And a buck on the bay
Tell me why
Morning is a lie in Las Vegas
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10. |
Too Bad For You
02:58
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11. |
Tolstoy
02:34
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Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy knew everything there is to know about you
Emotional makeup, political views
Everything there is to know about you
Down to the quivering lip and the look in your eye
When your father died
And you couldn’t quite say what you wanted to say
But you touched his hand and he knew you were there
Like epic poetry, old folk songs
Gargantuan themes, impossibly long
War and peace and right and wrong
Gargantuan themes, impossibly long
Anna Karenina the ill-starred lover speaks to me
She draws a breath and whispers my name
I’m exactly the same as a Russian count in 1823
And he’s exactly like me
Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy knows everything about last night I suppose
The open hearts and the words we chose
Everything about last night I suppose
First five years of circumstances loosen their grip
Foreign words on your lips
My lips on your words
Definitions blur and we’re something else
Maybe destined to be
We were destined to be
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12. |
Bolted Down
02:39
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Yes, I live in New York City
Do you have a problem, man?
We use drugs and beat our children
These and other evil plans
Who the hell are you and
What gives you the right to speak to me?
I had better run upstairs and
Report the conspiracy
I don’t care how you’re doing out there
I don’t care how you’re doing out there
I am safe in my apartment
Where my things are bolted down
Not just paintings and computers
Everything is bolted down
Ask me how I drink my coffee
When the mug is bolted down
It’s a special apparatus
I will sell you one right now
I don’t care how you’re doing out there
I don’t care how you’re doing out there
Maybe I should move to Cleveland
Give the country folk a scare
Find a way to take advantage
Of the friendly people there
I could never move to Cleveland
All my things are bolted down
I will stay in New York City
Baby, it’s my kind of town
I don’t care how you’re doing out there
I don’t care how you’re doing out there
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13. |
Secret Masterpieces
03:22
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Bob Hillman San Francisco, California
Bob Hillman is navigating the second act of a career that began in the late 90s, flourished in the early 00s, survived ten years of “real jobs,” and resumed in 2016 with the Peter Case- produced Lost Soul.
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