Get all 25 John Lee Sanders releases available on Bandcamp and save 50%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Second Line Strut, The Crossroads of Jazz & Blues, A Musical Journey, Nuts be a'Crackin', Christ is Simple, I Believe In Christmas, John Lee Sanders, A Musical Journey, sample chapter 1, Songs Have A Life Of Their Own, Stylish Tramp, and 17 more.
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2. |
Sundown Town
05:25
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Sundown town
Words and Music by John Lee Sanders.
©Swampmeister Music
I was Washing grandpa’s Cadillac, Tricked out 1948
Like a dream machine all chrome and jet black
To the license plate on the back
It read land of Lincoln and that got me thinking
The Irony in that very state
Four score and too many years too late
Some folks getting mighty tried to wait
People here got a wary eye
baked into grandma’s cherry pie
Dylan sang times were changing fast
But here they’re sleepwalking through the past
In a sundown town.
Where black and brown ain’t allowed
In a sundown town
Ain't it a shame how it got the name
Of a sundown town
I saw a run-down street where I was born,
Beale street mama I be torn
And ghosts from the past don’t get no sleep
til Saint Gabriel blows that horn
might be a long way till the judgement day,
Sorry papa, but I’ can’t stay
Seems like another life not mine, not so far back in time
Another one-horse town fallen in decay
mercy on its soul I pray
Remember this moment, remember the past
When November shadows fall too fast
Chorus
Have you ever walked in someone else’s shoes
And the blues they night be living in?
Can’t Nobody get to choose
shades and Pigments of our skin
for sins going way back when,
Is it too late to make amends?
Time and places of our birth.
All God’s children living on this earth
Been many years since I headed west
And grandpa long since laid to rest
And aftertaste may be bittersweet
When shadows fall on main street
A history lesson might be a confession
To pump our pride or hide our shame
In this complicit and complicated past
Where some folks still ain't free at last
Chorus
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3. |
Elephant in the Room
05:29
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Elephant in the Room -
I done heard it from the horse’s mouth
Told me who let the cat out of the bag
Yellow belly canary flown south
Won’t sing a thing, bound and gagged
The snitch put a hit on the rat
When his tail started to wag
Won’t be blowing the whistle
Anytime soon in a pine box, draped in a flag
Won’t be no second line to the tomb
At the bottom of a black lagoon
‘cuz nobody risk the fallout, to call out
The Elephant …Elephant in the room.
Too big to hide it, too small to saddle up and ride it Elephant in the room.
Like the little boy who called out
The emperor’s brand new threads
The only one who had the balls out
No matter what big mama said
You see the kang wasn’t wearin’ a thing
Not even tighty whitey fruit of the loom
That story still rings true I could name a few
That the emperor has no clue
You may be high and mighty,
no one is immune
Nobody wanna risk the fallout, to call out
the elephant in the room.
If we don't talk about it
What we don't know want hurt us
somehow we allowed it
but there's no going back to the circus
just trying to stay afloat and grab a rope
when there's a two ten hippopotamus under the boat
Just lurking beneath the surface
But nobody wanna tell of it
The Elephant in the room
It’s a come to Jesus moment,
when he’s got his knees upon us,
and so We wait for a superhero with a cape
but he ain’t coming anytime soon.
So we tiptoe on broken glass,
when what really we need is a broom
and we gaslight, that’s right
till the whole thang goes kaboom,
Cover up the smell of it, with some cheap perfume
Sign it with a nom-de-plume
Cuz nobody wanna call out
the-elephant in the room
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4. |
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She got a 6.7 inch Toy
Her Fix of a heavenly joy
Instagram camera posing more pretty
Every swingin hot spot in the city
She need a thousand more likes to fit in
A hundred more when she show some skin
Fingers start scrollin, nasty girls trollin
Baby I just can’t win
A slave to your social media
Every rabbit hole it leads ya
And you crave pretty little lies they feed ya
Baby I’m the one who needs ya.
Put down your phone and talke to me
Put down your phone and dance with me
Put down your phone and make love with me
I need you in the here and now.
She’ll never find her Don juan Quixote
Sending Red valentine emojis
Maybe a Sugar daddy, just a trophy
She on the prowl like a wild Coyote.
Algorithms done cracked the code
Information superhighway overload
Before that dopamine drug explode
I got to get back to airplane mode
To a simpler time,
When we met the moment at hand
Wish we could rewind,
Before my love went to La La Land.
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5. |
Preaching To The Choir
06:34
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Preaching to the choir, Feb 27 2021
Somebody done mixed the the koolaid
In the holy/ wine.
Devil preachin a fools game,
And the battle for the soul is mine
It’s a dangerous concoction
A war on the truth.
The shamefulness is rotten from the vine to the root
You can open your heart without closing your minds
Where the blind keep leading the blind \
Ain’t Never gonna change nobody
Preachin to the choir
Invoking the Name of lord almighty,
Throwing fuel on the fire.
Ain’t Never find the truth from a long tongue liar
Never needed proof , love lift us up higher,
Never gonna change nobody preaching to the choir
I had my demons, my own Armageddon
Where angels feet dare to be treading
Couldn't sleep at night, I longed to be whole
Sunday school boy, seemed so simple
Golden rule boy, be kind be gentle
but it shook my faith, caused me to tremble
Laid to waste for thieves in the temple
Chorus
Maybe somebody been misleading
Maybe the preacher to the choir is me
All religions, their prayers and their pleading
Are looking through a glass darkly
While false prophets lying deceiving
I’m still believing in a God of love
I can’t conceive it, like the air I’m breathing
In my soul deep down to the bottom of
Chorus
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6. |
The Last Tear To Fall
05:09
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Rovers search for life on /Mars
Far from/ Stars and strife whitewash the scars
play the anthem, Pay the ransom /,
to some Cyber ninja phantom,
or the system trickles down to a crawl,
like a house of cards way too tall
Simpler/ time in my younger years,
in my prime, without a fear
We never learn from the past at all
But the world gonna turn till last tear gonna /fall
Takes a village, for a world, to grow and thrive
We the privileged, the weak and the marginalized
some would pillage, flames they would fan it
clear the brown haze over the planet
Or wait for the savior to arrive.
Or shoot a rocket, on a joy ride
Grapes of wrath begin to ripen when
Best laid path, of mice and men
Or ride out the storm
til the last tear gonna fall.
Bridge
Search for Justice, never sleep
Seems we’ve grown accustomed to the belly of the beast
when a hurricane rain crack your window pane
lose true north on your weathervane,
we throw a few crumbs and a crust of bread,
for body and soul must be fed
For silent tears we never shed.
Sooner or later soon or later, gonna fall
Is it our God that swings the wrecking ball?
When the façade hides the cracks deep in the wall
Some be sniffin out good trouble,
with the dogs. Among the rubble
Search for life or sadly none at all,
In that number someday we’re called
And those tears of a crocodile
May hide your fears for a little while
It’s a long way down for the last tear to fall
And no safety net big enough to catch them ALL
Surely won’t be the last tear to fall
I hope there be Tears of Joy, be the last tears to fall
,
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7. |
John Lee Sanders Palos De La Frontera, Spain
Multi-instrumentalist, Composer, Saxophone, Guitar, Piano, vocalist, and Emmy nominated composer, he has evolved a complex musical gumbo, with the flavors of Americana, Rock, Gospel, Pop, Jazz, R&B, Soul, Country, classical, with a deep love of the traditions, and culture of New Orleans. ... more
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