Tag: california

Cat Links sarsaparilla sessions / sounds / stripped state: laurel canyon / tracks / vid

Clouds Over LA (Sarsaparilla Sessions 20210210)

A song written in 2018 in Laurel Canyon, CA. Performed this year in Lowell, MA (which we affectionately called Lowell Canyon while living there for 8 months in 2021).

LYRICS

time will not release
a missing puzzle piece
or faded memories
of deleted scenes

you can’t watch a sunrise
through someone else’s eyes
if they never see you
in dreams

clouds over LA
dance alone
between skies

distant freeways shimmer
traffic as rivers
red and white ribbons
valley to sky

lost friends reappear
in dusty windshields
as evening light hits
California 5

clouds over LA dance alone between skies

drifting the night
suspended from life
shadows of every last good bye

clouds over LA dance alone between skies

Posted-onBy lineBylinewesty
Cat Links sounds / stripped state: laurel canyon / tracks

[track] The Last Time Up Ahead

this one’s for the ones who stop to think
this one’s for the ones who always knew
this one’s for the ones who see the absurdity

this was a place we lived in peace
a place we lived in silence
a place we lived together in light

the last time
is cloud nine
and you won’t know
you’re dead

but the saddest time
is the first time
you see
the last time
up ahead

how many days can you see through things
how frayed is a soul made of string
how many ways can a memory bring you down

what happened all the power burned out
what happened all that’s certain’s in doubt
what happened all the love turned it back on us

there’s no one around who doesn’t think they know
nowhere you’re left to be, no place left to go

Posted-onBy lineBylinewesty
Cat Links sounds / stripped state: laurel canyon / tracks

[track] Canyon Songbird Dream #7

i believe in my dream
I believe in my dream
in my song, i believe you’ll see
all the lives we are to lead

searching for answers
is a waste of precious time
destiny doesn’t ring the bell,
doesn’t tell you you’ve arrived

songbird on an electric line
only knows he’s incomplete
caught up in a lookout for love
all his faith on endless repeat

may never know magic
of a returned call
but he never sounds tragic
never sounds small

Posted-onBy lineBylinewesty
Cat Links sounds / stripped state: laurel canyon / tracks

[track] Canyon Bees, Birds, and a Chicken (20180509.1)

“A bee, a bird, and a chicken are hanging out in the Hollywood hills…” sounds like the start of a joke, but it’s just a field recording. The bees are pollinating a perpetual-blooming Echium Candicans (“pride of Madeira”) flowering shrub in our Laurel Canyon Garden, while a mockingbird, a scrub jay, a few other birds, and a chicken across the street join in the chorus.…

continued...

Posted-onBy lineBylinewesty
Cat Links sounds / stripped state: laurel canyon / tracks

[track] Every Light Leads (20180426.1)

all you’ve got is a feeling
and what i got won’t show
b/c our visions of love
only intersected long ago

gonna go where every light leads
if it only takes me round the block
i don’t care
at least i’m searching
at least i’m driving
where you’re still aching
to get somewhere

first time i knew luck was
the first time we laughed at the same truth
but there’s only so many lies
you can sell yourself and still pull through

“burning a bridge” burns one ahead,
not one already crossed.…

continued...

Posted-onBy lineBylinewesty
Cat Links sounds / stripped state: laurel canyon / tracks

[track] Quiet Nowhere (20180426.1)

the smarter you are today
the more you live in shadow
never giving up all you know
‘cos it’s

quiet nowhere
la la la la la la la la la
it’s quiet nowhere

to long for someday soon
is to long for days gone by
they’re both parallel paper streets
through a

quiet nowhere

the sound of things falling is the same sound
as things rising into the air
time spent afraid of what you might hear
well, that’s a quiet nowhere

that feel when the world lets you down
that feel when old friends freeze you out
when you’re seen as wrong when everyone’s not right

it’s quiet nowhere

Posted-onBy lineBylinewesty
Cat Links sounds / stripped state: laurel canyon / tracks

[track] Love Your Self Any Way (20180426.1)

we were young
you were younger
never were to be in love
i should’ve known better
every price has a one

you wanted the world to burn
vanish into points of no return
‘cos hardest to learn
you never could say
love your self any way

afraid of truth
living in shadows
is no way to move through life
in the end, in this haunted future
you set yourself alight

saturation turns to gray
where there are only beautiful days

you found only
darkness in sunshine
you saw only one
way out

Posted-onBy lineBylinewesty
Cat Links sounds / stripped state: laurel canyon / tracks

[track] Wonderland (20180418.1)

Mattie was the kinda girl
who saw the end of the world
every time she opened her eyes
Roger was the kinda guy
never turned down a ride
figured “the end of days is just down the line.”

the price you pay
counting on judgment day for love
is to waste the light away
wide awake
wishing on the dark
(in Wonderland)

they found an acre and a half
halfway up Wonderland
in September 1973
they spent a few years
thinking the end was near
and cut down none of their trees

their earth gave way on a red flag day
right around 1982
they held on fast
against a backdraft
into the black they flew

they always thought of each other
as first time lovers
in an endless secret rendezvous
but sometimes living a life of desire
leaves you dreaming of fire
in a state of always almost coming true

Posted-onBy lineBylinewesty
Cat Links sounds / stripped state: laurel canyon / tracks

[track] It (20180412.1a)

I wanna blow the doors off of everything
just because I can
I got no direction
I don’t care much for a plan
I’m gonna do it just because I can

I wanna call the world out for what it is
just because it can’t
I got a few ideas
that I know that it can’t stand
I wanna do it just because it can’t

I wanna make this life as simple as you say
just because it’s free
I got a few years left
and they’re still ahead of me
I’m gonna do it
just because

Posted-onBy lineBylinewesty
Cat Links sounds / stripped state: laurel canyon / tracks

[track] Clouds Over LA (20180412.7)

time will not release
a missing puzzle piece
faded memories
don’t know what you mean

you can’t watch a sunrise
through someone else’s eyes
if they never see you
in dreams

clouds over LA dance alone between skies

distant freeways shimmer
traffic as rivers
red and white ribbons
valley to sky

lost friends reappear
in dusty windshields
as evening light hits
California 5

clouds over LA dance alone between skies

drifting the night
suspended from life
shadows of every last good bye

clouds over LA dance alone between skies

Posted-onBy lineBylinewesty
Cat Links sounds / stripped state: laurel canyon / tracks

[track] Counting (20180310.3)

What if we could ride all the waves
What if the world was safe
for everything we are
What if we could exchange
Every turn we’ll ever take
For one true North Star

Counting on lightning
Counting on dreaming
Counting on sleeping sometime soon
Counting on one plan
Counting on another hand
(and I’m still) Counting on counting on you

What if we could live on a cloud
above the rain
where stars are the only lights
But you need stable ground
your wings need a break
You carry me through the sky

Sometimes the faster you hold on
To each other
The faster you drift apart
Together

Posted-onBy lineBylinewesty
Cat Links sounds / stripped state: laurel canyon / tracks

Into Endless Blue [20180308.8a]

1/2 way up the hill
is a long way down
to extend your horizon
to wave away clouds

Into the great unknown
Into endless blue
1/2 way up the hill
was the best we could do

where calm clear sky
is the everyday
no wonder the sun
yearns to steal away

into the great unknown
into endless blue
1/2 way up the hill
was the best we could do

echoes of times
when we were strong
swirled into good bye
after so longs

what keeps you alive
is not the same
as what makes you live
or what flies away

Posted-onBy lineBylinewesty
Cat Links sounds / stripped state: laurel canyon / tracks

Need To Be (20180307.3b)

Picture a house with no mirrors,
where you never need to see
your self as a reflection,
you just need to be.

There’s no such thing as slowing down
speed is only how far
you feel you are in time

There’s no such thing is getting old
age is only how long
you think you are in time

There’s no such thing as living alone
bonds are just as strong
you know we are in time

some pain is not a window, but a wall
you build so no one can see you
and you can’t see out at all

There’s no such thing as giving up
life is just as long as
you don’t think in time

Posted-onBy lineBylinewesty
Cat Links sounds / stripped state: laurel canyon / tracks

[track] this canyon drive (20180307.3a)

well I’m climbing up this Canyon drive
high enough to see across time
to the days where you and I
had nothing to leave behind
up here, on this Canyon drive

a thousand feet up in the sky
on a one-lane two-way graded switchback ride
we opened up and saw ourselves from outside
and knew we wanted no other life
up here, on this Canyon drive

down in the Valley a relentless pursuit of dreams
in every shadow a sorrow and a scheme
a world designed to keep us from coming alive
far away from all the light that shines
up here, on this Canyon drive

what price wouldn’t you pay
to let nothing get in your soul’s way
to quiet dark echoes of unlived lives
at least up here there’s hope you’ll find
peace on this Canyon drive

Posted-onBy lineBylinewesty