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Hail Bohemia

by John Shakespear

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1.
Hail Bohemia 04:25
2.
Sound Museum 03:55
Summer came along like a kick in the teeth Janey’s busted Camry took us all to the beach For twenty-one years I’d been learning to speak Suddenly I found that I couldn’t stop singing. I used to think I was a hopeless case Barely a member of the human race But when we met up down at Tommy’s place It lit me up like a church bell ringing. We were laughing on the rocky coast With a mason jar of whiskey and a city of ghosts behind us It wasn’t much but we were making the most It wasn’t much but I’ll remember it forever Oh, take me to the Sound Museum Where the furniture is dirty but the feeling is clean Oh, we could go until the morning Wake up in the afternoon and do it again I used to feel like I was wasting my life away Working at the Lizard Lounge just trying to get paid There was something that I needed to say But I didn’t know the words, yeah I just couldn’t name it So I kept it like a secret inside, Until the fire that was burning there had practically died But Janey’s voice on the other line Pulled me right out of my misery and into the night Oh, take me to the Sound Museum Where the furniture is dirty but the feeling is clean Oh, we could go until the morning Wake up in the afternoon and do it again. Oh, it’s not easy but we’re trying, I wonder if we’re busy being born or if we’re dying. No, I didn’t write that line, but I heard it on the radio a long, long time ago (2x) and sang it to myself until I felt at home.
3.
Janey and I 05:11
Janey left a lit cigarette in the sink In the morning when she headed out to work I called her on my lunch break and I said “Janey, what the hell?” She said, “I’m sorry I can be such a stupid jerk.” But Janey knew that I’d forgive her anything she did After all, we’d known each other since we were kids And I’d always been a little bit in love with her I guess I never told her, but she knew it anyway Which was just one of the many ways in which my life back then was a cliché. I still believed it was true That someday we’d see this thing through. Janey says you only get a couple of chances A few slow dances, a couple days in June So you better not fuck this up You know it’s over too soon But Janey’s not in love with me, She’s in love with you Janey and I, we’ve been living together For just about seven months Or maybe it was eight, I wasn’t counting Wasn’t the best idea that either of us had ever had But then again it was exactly what I wanted We lived in this big house up on the hill and all our friends thought it was haunted oooooooooooh So when Janey came home late one night with Tommy on her arm, I nearly threw up in my coffee cup and pulled the fire alarm, But I just swallowed up my pride and I said hey, how was your night And Janey laughed and she said wonderful, and Tommy caught my eye And he said “man, you’re my two best friends and I hope this never ends” Even then I believed it was true That someday we’d see this thing through Janey says we only get a couple of chances A few slow dances, a couple days in June So you better not fuck this up You know it’s over too soon But Janey’s not in love with me, She’s in love with you Janey’s not in love with me So what can I do
4.
In the dream that I had that night Janey hatched a plan If we drive all through the night Fast as we can We could be in Montreal before they understand How far from home these birds have flown From their master’s hand The neon lights, another life The cherry trees in bloom I’ll see you there by the subway stairs Not a day too soon Not a day too soon
5.
Borderline 03:50
Friday night at the Firelight Janey says it’s been a while. Do you ever think about the time we drove out to the borderline If I said I thought I about it, would you mind? And I said, I don’t mind if you don’t mind The air gets thin near the borderline Changed my mind so many times that I don’t know if it’s mine no more I don’t mind if you don’t mind The air gets thin near the borderline I almost called a million times I almost called a million times but now Janey sighs, she says “it’s just not right, Tommy’s sleeping in my bed tonight. I’m the one he thinks he loves And honey, you’re his only friend.” “But do you ever think about the light that weekend on the borderline?” “Janey I still think about it all the time.” And I said, I don’t mind if you don’t mind The air gets thin near the borderline Changed my mind so many times that I don’t know if it’s mine no more I don’t mind if you don’t mind The air gets thin near the borderline When Janey put her hand in mine, I took a breath and closed my eyes If someone told you could have it all, the only thing you ever wanted, what would you say, would you throw it away? If someone said I know a place where we could go between the mountains and the oceans, and we could be alone there? If someone told you could have it all, the only thing you ever wanted, what would you say, would you throw it away? would you throw it away, would you throw it I don’t mind if you don’t mind The air gets thin near the borderline Changed my mind so many times that I don’t care if it’s mine no more I don’t mind if you don’t mind The air gets thin near the borderline When Janey put her hand in mine I took a breath and I closed my eyes
6.
INFP 03:11
7.
Hey! 03:30
After work, when Tommy calls I’m waiting on the subway car. Say Tommy, how you doing? Is there anything you’re getting into? Tommy says it’s been a day, and he’s wondering if there’s any way a body could just float away tonight. And I say, Tommy, I can think of one or two, and I’ll be at your place in 5. So Tommy calls up Janey too and Janey calls up Cindy Xu and Cindy’s older brother buys us liquor from the corner store. Soon the snow is falling and we’re all in Tom’s apartment And the world is a distant place that we don’t have to go today Tommy’s singing “oh, hey hey, my my Better to burn out, then to fade my my dear friends” Must have been past two or three when Tom had his epiphany “You know there’s nothing that we need except the ones we love” And Janey laughed and she said Tom, you’re really on to something man Well you should probably write a book, but Tom just laughed it off and started singing “oh, hey hey, my my, oh I’ve got nothing to do today but smile” Everybody fell asleep after dawn, Tommy’s head on my knees, Janey’s head on my shoulder I was thinking about the snow on the lawn, I was thinking about the songs we used to sing “Hey, you’ve to hide your love away Hey, you’ve got to hide your…”
8.
Summer Thing 04:24
At the end of the day, we were walking on the outer bank Down at Pickerel Lake, where the water looks like glass You told me a story about this boy you used to know He wanted to be an astronaut, well we all know how that goes The last time you saw him, he was waiting in line at the Interpol show Waving from the bleachers, the beauty of his features faded away in the spotlight’s glow It was only a summer thing, cinnamon and kerosene We don’t have to make a scene It’s only the beach You could meet me down at Tommy’s place watching The Amazing Race Honey, who’s your favorite team? It don’t really have to mean a thing At the bend in the path, I was thinking maybe we should turn back When you pulled me down into the grass, well the sky overhead was the color of glass And the hem of her dress and my Catholic urge to confess Fell into the water, god I never thought we’d swim out quite as far as this It was only a summer thing cinnamon and kerosene We don’t have to make a scene It’s only the beach You could meet me down at Tommy’s place watching The Amazing Race Honey, who’s your favorite team? It don’t really have to mean a thing And the silver covered everything, we were sleeping ‘neath the skylight I almost dared to dream that we were kin we were twinned there in the night And the sun coming up over that hill every morning I never saw the warning I should’ve seen the warning when she said It was only a summer thing, cinnamon and kerosene strike the match and watch the dream burn up into blue
9.
Tommy and I moving slow through the American night Weaving back and forth under endless streetlights Summertime sticks to our American skin When I think about it man, I don’t know where to begin A cigarette lit in his left hand tracing Float like a firefly down to the station Cop a couple seats on the midnight train Ride it to the edge of the American plains Oh we used to think that we could live forever Sipping on the gold in the American weather But the gold it was stolen from the sacred earth And no-one really knows what the hell it’s worth Oh even if we ride all night We’ll still be living on American time Tommy and I we got a rock ‘n’ roll band But I don’t think we’re ever gonna understand The blood underneath all of these swimming pools Or the pills Tommy takes for his whitewashed blues But I can still remember back when we were young The radio told us maybe we could run Outrun our demons, outrun our myths 30 miles high on that American bliss Oh we used to think that we could live forever Sipping on the gold in the American weather But the gold it was stolen from the sacred earth And no-one really knows what the hell it’s worth Oh even if we ride all night We’ll still be living on American time But there’s heroes in the cracks And lovers in the basement And everyone I love is in the backroom getting wasted Tommy’s in the back screaming hail bohemia I swear it almost made me a true believer Early in the summer of our great decline Well the ship was sinking but the ship was mine Janey met us down at the local place And just for a second, we all felt safe
10.
Halloween 03:47
I remember Halloween Drinking on the roof at Tommy’s mother’s house He was Kurt Cobain and I was figuring it out It’s so strange to see it now I remember seventeen separate times at his apartment when he smoked me out And got the fire started while the radio played loud And there was nothing for us to worry about I remember happiness, salty on our skin Early in the morning, the sunlight coming in And in that far-off season, for a million reasons It was everywhere I looked In the traffic, in the skyline, in the covers of the books we didn’t read But on the evening when the cops came around I was at another party on the other side of town I was dancing in a stranger’s arms, I was not thinking of you at all I’m sorry, all those years, I didn’t call— I remember once you said If we stick together we’re unstoppable They’ll never, ever, ever make us bend to their will And we’ll stay good, and we’ll stay kind, and we’ll stay free, you and me But on the evening when they took you away I was in another city, I was waiting on a train Now I don’t know exactly what to say, But lately I’ve been listening to all those old songs And I’ve been thinking you were right all along
11.
Splinter 05:03
Driving back from the wake I took the backroads out to the Cape Don’t know why, it was late guess I needed to think for a second or two In the last of the light, I was watching the birds and the fireflies fly through the tangerine sky I felt like a guy in a movie that I wouldn’t like and you wouldn’t trust too sentimental, a little too much Tommy, slow walker tough talker you showed me something that used to seem true but that was a long, long time I tried to bottle it up so it would stay mine through the long, long winter take the splinter out of my hand call me your friend At the fork in the road by the dog racing track and the marigolds it all hit me at once, somehow I almost forgot the way we lived when we were younger the alibis and the breathless hunger We made a chapel of each other just us three inside the thunder but that was a long, long time, I tried to bottle it up so it would stay mine through the long, long winter, take the splinter out of my hand call me your friend
12.
Another Life 04:17
All the zen dads of Cambridge And the acid aunts of Somerville And the boy I should’ve stayed with He was living out in Winter Hill Oh, at the end of the day, I saw them From the west and the east they came Riding the train down to TT the Bear’s Where nobody cares what you do on your own time Singing hail, hail bohemia Hail, hail bohemia, what the Sure enough, I see you in the morning, love I see you in the dark above, simple sickle moon Oh at last, even on the overpass I see you in the broken glass every afternoon Oh, don’t worry, the mystery’s alive The dove is on the balcony still, and time is on our side Oh, don’t hurry, I’ll see you on the other side We’ll go walking in another life, we’ll go walking in another life Oh, don’t worry, the mystery’s alive The dove is on the balcony still, and time is on our side Oh, don’t hurry, I’ll see you on the other side We’ll go walking in another life we’ll go walking in another life we’ll go walking

about

Hail Bohemia is an album that tells the story of three friends. In a perfect world, it's meant to be listened to from start to finish.

Picture the city at night, lit by mist and streetlights. Land of stale smoke and a light snowfall, of day-old pizza and two perfect chords. Sweet mantra-land where you walk, wrapped in a worn coat, through the storm to the diner with your closest friends. Homeland of lost intuition, where the right feeling comes back and back and back to you again.

It's night, and the puddles catch the neon, and up on the roof of the Sound Museum, all the old ghosts are starting a band. Down by the harbor, one by one, they're gathering driftwood. They're building a boat to row away from loneliness. They're singing—hail, hail bohemia.

www.johnshakespear.com

credits

released May 17, 2023

Music & words by John Shakespear

Produced by John Shakespear & Devon Dawson
Mixed by Devon Dawson at Beartone Studios
Mastered by Jeff Lipton and Maria Rice at Peerless Studios

All string arrangements by Rita Pfeiffer.

Hannah Dorfman - cello, all "Janey" vocals except (5)
Rita Pfeiffer - violin, viola, and background vocals (1, 6, 11)
Greg Hum - drums and percussion
Alex LaRue - electric bass
Tim Hall - saxophone (8, 12)
Eric Seligman - trumpet (8, 11, 12)
Gabriel Rothman - trombone (1)
Sam Wilson - electric guitar (3)
Daniel Seymour - upright bass (10)
John Shakespear - lead vocals, guitars, synths, drum machines, piano

Drums and most vocals tracked at Beartone Studio.
Grand piano tracked at Pink Noise Studios.

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John Shakespear Brooklyn, New York

John Shakespear writes albums that tell a story from start to finish. The next one, 'Hail Bohemia,' comes out on May 17.

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