Jason Isbell - Something More Than Free Album Lyrics

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If It Takes A Lifetime

I've been working here, Monday, it'll be a year
And I can't recall a day when I didn't wanna disappear
But I keep on showing up, hell-bent on growing up
If it takes a lifetime

I'm learning how to be alone, fall asleep with the TV on
And I fight the urge to live inside my telephone
I keep my spirits high, find happiness by and by
If it takes a life time

I got too far from my raising, I forgot where I come from
And the line between right and wrong was so fine
Well I thought the highway loved me
But she beat me like a drum
My day will come, if it takes a lifetime

I don't keep liquor here, never cared for wine or beer
And working for the county keeps me pissing clear
The nights are dry as dust, but I'm letting my eyes adjust
If it takes a lifetime

I got too far from my raising, I forgot where I come from
And the line between right and wrong was so fine
Well I thought the highway loved me
But she beat me like a drum
My day will come, if it takes a lifetime

Man is a product of, all the people that he ever loved
And it don't make a difference how it ended up
If I loved you once my friend, oh, I can do it all again
If it takes a lifetime

We got too far from my raising and we fought 'til we went numb
You were running up a mountain in your own mind
And I thought that I was running too but I was running from
Oh, our day will come, if it takes a lifetime
Our day will come, if it takes a lifetime

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24 Frames

This is how you make yourself vanish into nothing
And this is how you make yourself worthy of the love that she
Gave to you back when you didn't own a beautiful thing

This is how you make yourself call your mother
And this is how you make yourself closer to your brother
And remember him back when he was small enough to help you sing

You thought God was an architect, now you know
He's something like a pipe bomb ready to blow
And everything you built that's all for show goes up in flames
In 24 frames

This is how you see yourself floating on the ceiling
And this is how you help her when her heart stops beating
What happened to the part of you that noticed every changing wind

This is how you talk to her when no one else is listening
And this is how you help her when the muse goes missing
You vanish so she can go drowning in a dream again

You thought God was an architect, now you know
He's something like a pipe bomb ready to blow
And everything you built that's all for show goes up in flames
In 24 frames

You thought God was an architect, now you know
He's sitting in a black car ready to go
You made some new friends after the show
But you'll forget their names
In 24 frames
In 24 frames

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Flagship

There's a few too many years on this hotel
She used to be a beauty you can tell
The lights down in the lobby they don't shine
They just flicker while the elevator winds
And the couple in the corner of the bar
Have traveled light and clearly traveled far
She's got nothing left to learn about his heart
They're sitting there a thousand miles apart

Baby let's not ever get that way
I'll say whatever words I need to say
I'll throw rocks at your window from the street
And we'll call ourselves the flagship of the fleet

There's a lady shining shoes up by the door
and cowboy boots for seven dollars more
And I remember how you loved to see them shine
So I run upstairs and get a pair of mine
And there's a painting on the wall beside the bed
The watercolor sky at Hilton Head
Then I see you in that summer when we met
And that boy you left in tears in his Corvette

Baby let's not ever get that way
I'll drive you to the ocean every day
We'll stay up in the presidential suite
And call ourselves the flagship of the fleet

You gotta try and keep yourself naive
In spite of all the evidence believed
And volunteer to lose touch with the world
And focus on one solitary girl

Baby let's not live to see it fade
I'll cancel all the plans I've ever made
I'll drive and you can ride in the back seat
And we'll call ourselves the flagship of the fleet

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How To Forget

Give her space, give her speed
Give her anything she needs
Get her out of here
Give her weed, give her wine
Give her anything but time
Get her out of here

She won't stop telling stories, and most of them are true
She knew me back before I fell for you
I was strained, I was sad, didn't realize what I had
It was years ago
I was sick, I was scared, I was socially impaired
It was years ago
My past's a scary movie, I watched and fell asleep
Now I'm dreaming up these creatures from the deep

Teach me how to forget, replace the character set
Teach me how to unlearn a lesson
Teach me how to forget, cause I ain't sorry just yet
Teach me how to unlearn a lesson

Have a seat, have a drink, tell the jury what you think
Was I good to you?
Was it hell, was it fun, did you think I was the one
Was I glued to you?
Now that I found someone who makes me wanna live
Does that make my leaving harder to forgive?

Teach me how to forget, replace the character set
Teach me how to unlearn a lesson
Teach me how to forget, cause I ain't sorry just yet
Teach me how to unlearn a lesson

Teach me how to forget, replace the character set
Teach me how to unlearn a lesson
Teach me how to forget, cause I ain't sorry just yet
Teach me how to unlearn a lesson

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Children Of Children

Pictures of the farm before us
Old men in a gospel Sephia
and saddle horses easy on the reins
'81 a motor in your mama's 17 again
She's squinting at the dusty wind
The anger of the plains

You and I were almost nothing
Pray to God that God was bluffing
17 ain't old enough to reason with the pain
How could we expect to stay in love
When neither knew the meaning
of the difference of sacred and profane

I was riding on my mother's hip,
she was shorter than the corn
All the years I took from her,
just by being born.

Didn't mean to break the cycle
At 17 I went by Michael
No one ever called by my own name anyway
Half full generations
Living all these expectations
Giving way to one, late to have a baby on the way

You were riding on your mother's hip,
she was shorter than the corn
All the years you took from her,
just by being born.

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The Life You Chose

Who are you if not the one I met
One July night before the town went wet
Jack and coke in your mama's car
You were reading The Bell Jar

Where are you if you're not on your own
Always lonely, never quite alone
Where's the Jesus that you swore you'd find
After running the last line

Are you living the life you chose
Are you living the life that chose you
Are you taking a grown up dose
Do you live with a man who knows you
Like I thought I did back then
But I guess I never did
Did I kid?

I got lucky when I finished school
Lost three fingers to a faulty tool
Settled out of court, I'm no one's fool
You probably knew

There's plenty left to make a getaway
I've spent enough nights in the bluegrass state
We could go somewhere where people stay up late
Or just somewhere new

Are you living the life you chose
Are you living the life that chose you
Are you taking a grown up dose
Do you live with a man who knows you
Like I thought I did back then
But I guess I never did
Did I kid?

Here I am inviting you to throw your life away
Victim of nostalgia maybe take away
Just tonight I realized that I am still in your backseat
Nothing I've had since has meant a thing to me

Are you living the life you chose
Are you living the life that chose you
Are you taking a grown up dose
Do you live with a man who knows you
Like I thought I did back then
But I guess I never did
Did I kid?

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Something More Than Free

When I get home from work
I'll call up all my friends
And we'll go bust up something beautiful we'll have to build again

When I get home from work
I'll wrestle off my clothes
And leave em right inside the front door
'cause nobody's home to know

You see a hammer finds a nail
And a freight train needs the rails
And I'm doin' what I'm on this earth to do

And I don't think on why I'm here where it hurts
I'm just lucky to have the work
Sunday morning I'm too tired to go to church
But I thank God for the work

When I get my reward my work will all be done
And I will sit back in my chair beside the father and the son
No more holes to fill and no more rocks to break
And no more loading boxes on the trucks for someone else's sake

'Cause a hammer needs a nail
And the poor man's up for sale
Guess I'm doin' what I'm on this earth to do

And I don't think on why I'm here where it hurts
I'm just lucky to have the work
And every night I dream I'm drowning in the dirt
But I thank God for the work

And the day will come when I'll find a reason
And somebody proud to love a man like me
My back is numb, my hands are freezing
What I'm working for is something more than free

And I don't think on why I'm here where it hurts
I'm just lucky to have the work
Sunday morning I'm too tired to go to church
But I thank God for the work

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Speed Trap Town

She said, "It's none of my business but it breaks my heart"
Dropped a dozen cheap roses in my shopping cart
Made it out to the truck without breaking down
Everybody knows you in a speed trap town

Well it's a Thursday night but there's a high school game
Sneak a bottle up the bleachers and forget my name
These 5A bastards run a shallow cross
It's a boy's last dream and a man's first loss

And it never did occur to me to leave 'til tonight
And there's no one left to ask if I'm alright
I'll sleep until I'm straight enough to drive, then decide
If there's anything that can't be left behind

The doctor said Daddy wouldn't make it a year
But the holidays are over and he's still here
How long can they keep you in the ICU?
Veins through the skin like a faded tattoo

Was a tough state trooper 'til a decade back
When that girl who wasn't Mama caused his heart attack
He didn't care about us when he was walking around
Just pulling women over in a speed trap town

But it never did occur to me to leave 'til tonight
When I realized he'll never be alright
Sign my name and say my last goodbye, then decide
That there's nothing here that can't be left behind

The road got blurry when the sun came up
So I slept a couple hours in the pickup truck
Drank a cup of coffee by an Indian mound
A thousand miles away from that speed trap town
A thousand miles away from that speed trap town

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Hudson Commodore

Time between the glory days and the golden years
She did the work of 20 able men
Sent Tommy off to school to be an engineer
And Sarah went to try out all the sins

She took to taking tea out in the Belvedere
Bourbon in the evenings by the fire
As if the Great Depression never made it here
As if she had defeated her desire

She just wanted to ride in a Delahaye 135
She just wanted to ride in a Hudson Commodore
No need to worry anymore

A doctor then a lawyer then a Roosevelt
Tried to take her underneath their wing
She was in her 20's in the Bible Belt
Before she knew she didn't need a thing

She didn't need their pity on a single girl
She didn't need their help to raise the brew
She wouldn't be returning to her daddies world
She didn't want a better attitude

She just wanted to ride in a Delahaye 135
She just wanted to ride in a Hudson Commodore
No need to worry anymore

She just wanted to ride in a Delahaye 135
She just wanted to ride in a Hudson Commodore
No need to worry anymore

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Palmetto Rose

Palmetto rose in the AC vent
Cross stitched pillow where the head rest went
Said his cab was his orneriest friend
Left him jumping like trees in the wind

Thought he had the red lights memorized
Glass in the gravel like the stars in the sky
In that slow motion minute between living and dead
Looked in my eyes and he told me, he said

This war that I wage to get up every day
It's a fiberglass boat, it's azaleas in May
It's the women I love and the law that I hate
Lord let me die in the Iodine State
Lord let me die in the Iodine State

Palmetto rose in the sidewalk mud
Pearly white stem and a big green bud
Catch him coming out of a King Street store
Bullshit story about the Civil War

You can believe what you want to believe
But there ain't no making up a basket weave
Everybody in the tri-county knows
Who makes the best palmetto rose

And it's war that we wage to get up every day
It's a basket of sweet grass, a wedding bouquet
It's the ladies I love and the law that I hate
But Lord let me die in the Iodine State
Lord let me die in the Iodine State

Out on Sullivan's Island, they're swimming
On the beach where the big boats rolled in
With the earliest slaves, women and children
Our first American kin

Here on King Street we're selling our roses
Two for a five dollar bill
And tonight after everything closes
I'll follow my own free will
And I've taken my fill
I've taken my fill

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To A Band That I Loved

Though everyone tried to ignore us
We'd scared them all off by the There you stood looking proud
What was left of the crowd at our show
and I was 22 backwoods years old

You were singing that night by yourself
And I thought I was the only one left
From an old southern town
New ideas bouncing round in my head
And I thought everyone like me was dead

And somehow you put down my fears on a page
When I still had nothing to say
And how I miss you today
May you find what you gave, all that hope
Somewhere down at the end of your rope

Now I know you'll be fine on your own
And your families all need you at home
And the dream was just smoke
At least you all got the joke off the bat
And you were alright with that

And somehow I'm still out here burning my days
Your voice makes the miles melt away
I'll be guarding your place
In the lights on the stage of my heart
I guess we're all still finding our part

And somehow I'm still out here seeing your faces
In likely and unlikely places
Somewhere playing too loud
Or in what's left of the crowd at our show
Hanging out when it's past time to go
Hanging out when it's past time to go