secret knowledge of backroads

SECRET KNOWLEDGE OF BACKROADS 10/20/2023

"Finally, Tom made an album that's somewhat loud." - Pat Swanson

Everything by Tom Oeffling except skit at end of track seven by Jack Retzer

Dedicated to Mom + Dad

frank’s theme (0:48)

(instrumental)

lovesong ‘23 (2:03)

Kiss me goodnight

Turn your head from mine

I draw you in closer

Over your shoulder

Turn out the light

And we’ll waste all our time

I wanna be your afterthought

I wanna be your understatement

Say what you’ll say

Run me through your day

I’ll be the one to get it

When no one else will listen

When no one else believes you

Let you know I need to

wharton’s jorts (3:46)

You set down your pocket bible softly in the bin

And joshed about the cross to make your mother wince

Wait out your coughing fits and cover up my head

‘Cause I’d rather wake up tired than sleep alone instead

Our lives can’t intertwine enough these days, it seems

We walk and talk and waste the days until we sleep

You can’t come close to doing wrong across my eyes

Cut off the excess, try to make new family ties

After it all, I’ll be at fault

open for locals (2:01)

Catatonic

Ginning the tonic

Making messes to meet the sun

Feeling arrested

I’ve attested to what I’ve done

Feeling fed up

Trying to catch up

Like a penthouse firestorm fault

Throw out your poetry

Get a job or go take a walk

Not getting pent up

Loving the hedge fund

Frustration, exhaustion prevails

Watching you tense up

Plot holes in the holy grail

Crashing the hoedown

Seems you’re my home now

And home is where I wanna be

Pick me up, turn me around

Lift up your wings

President’s got a call girl

And alcohol withdrawal

Giuliani in the back of the bar

Fever dreaming the friendship

You could rent it or buy it out

Right on red me

B-team wanna bench me

And my henchman is Henry G

Getting Greek to me now

Pick your pockets and let me see

Let me see

the athlete (2:24)

Denial, what you’ve known is that I’ve got none to show now

It could grow, but the pains stay close to my hometown

And it seems that I can’t catch up to the home team

Let me see where you’ve been all night now, athlete

Run home alone, but together with someone else now

If we weren’t so goddamn circumstantial

It’ll pass if you stop your taking handouts

It could slide if I didn’t want my peace

Let me see where you’ve been all night now, athlete

Run home alone, but together with someone else now

Run home alone

melatonin (2:34)

Pills pray the time they’re stealing

At least will ease the feelings down

You’d prefer an astronaut

Somewhere in outer space

Where lies will avoid your time face down

Until you hit the break of dawn

It’s sounding the alarms

It’s scratching at my arms

It takes it too far

I can’t breathe alone anymore

I can’t sleep alone anymore

Hey, give it all you’ve got

With dark circles, pupils shot far down

You’d prefer an astronaut

So gone, you’d prefer an astronaut

I’ve been down, you’d prefer an astronaut

It’s sounding the alarms

It’s scratching at my arms

It takes it too far

I can’t sleep alone anymore

brownstone (for c. dohr) (3:26 on streaming/CD)

Spoke with your father for a little while

Ceiling tiles stained from a waning smile

To your brownstone’s light, I climb three flights

So sick and tired of defending me

Sending me amphetamines for energy

Under neon signs, I try to make things right

Drove down Dayfire Avenue

Catholic school pulling on your aptitude

And recollect the times

Of strangers sharing lights

On the sectional at night

Alone with you inside

Make you dilate your eyes

Blowing up in tie-dye

When we’re fighting for our rights

Like a funeral’s flight

Like a litterbug’s laugh

In a social status climb

Get the past to try to last

lights (3:52)

Went out on Thursday night

Rows of houses ‘round Sunnyside

Let my head float around, I was thinking ‘bout you

The lights flashed up and down the street

The red lights on the towers glow incomplete

Your eyes fluttered back and forth, I’m in love with you

I can’t believe

I found words but can’t find a rhyme

I still dream about you all the time

With my head under the covers and my headphones on

During long walks after class

I bumped into the people as they walked past

And I can’t believe it turned out this way

I can’t believe

We can walk loop-de-loop downtown

Hold the side, make a lost hand found

20/20, but I can’t see nothing past you

I want to be with you all the time

I see the colors in your bleary eyes

Watch them flutter back and forth, I’m in love with you

I can’t believe

amy verbatim (3:26)

You are not well-liked around these parts

You don’t know when to stop

But I will wait it out there when you start

Shut up and do my job

Thrown in the backseat of your mind

We barely spend some time

But we tend to intertwine

For better or for worse

Forcing out the words

Dreams of silver screens you roam upon

All in your favorite song

Seems that wishful thinking struck you down

I couldn’t care to fawn

Thrown in the backseat of your mind

Breaking off the line

Attachments we unbind

For better or for worse

Forcing out the words

Thrown in the backseat of your mind

We barely spend some time

But we tend to intertwine

For better or for worse

Forcing out the words

Thrown in the backseat of your mind

Breaking off the line

Attachments we unbind

For better or for worse

Forcing out the words

richard nixon (2:56)

Split your arms, the war on drugs will get you

And the fact of the matter will do what it can to forget you

It’s a lonesome life, it’s a wholesome time in your venue

It’s a warm embrace, it’s a humble taste of the ways that I get to

Your drum

Short haircuts at the bar I frequent to see you

And the cordial buzz that they wear to sequence to meet you

It’s a cardstock cut of a martyred love that you see through

To the times you downed back in your hometown when you tossed your sinkhole

Been too long

It’s a hometown bar where it’s see-through

And it’s been too long since I’ve done all I can just to meet you

And the beams still gleam in a poor attempt just to be you

A poor attempt just to be you

business casual (1:55)

Throwing my time with true love

Shoving down a busy street

Said you won’t ever hold a hand like mine

Candid, but catching a true smile

It’s a gut punch to sleep at night

You can carry me off on your chamomile dime

As your arms change the season in secret

Reaching out to comb the lines

You took the winter in your arms and made it warm again

Like a campaign covering the town

Like a buzzcut breaking me down

We could take another day, find a thing to say

Put it off ‘til we’re the only people around

fresh to death (2:24)

Chew me out again, and then

Bearing bad news to your bed

At the Dollar General, left on read

He’s off somewhere stoned instead

Wraps a visor ‘round his head

Keeps the sunshine’s chimes misled

And the lies made the times feel dead

Between the fields, South Solon drive

Buckle up my knees, Caiden’s Mazda rides

And all I do is wait to talk to you

I can’t put you into song

Being righteous feels so wrong

To the culvert ditches where I’ve dwelled so long

When I sacrificed my pawns

Started waking up for dawn

And I pushed into the throng

In a few months, I’ll be gone

I wanna make a pass, I wanna write new jokes

Man, I wanna start fresh and get to know your folks

And if you turn another page

I’ll live your doled-out catastrophes and listen close

you (2:13)

Love, brainstorms try to curb you

And the dosage tries to hurt you

My love, I’ll push if you shove

‘Cause there’s something about you that’s so far gone from words

Breathe in and lock your doors for curfew

I’d die before I would desert you

What did I ever do to deserve you?

You’re something that I can’t put into words

Hoist you up when the hands reach out

And the choice is yours if my plans seem dumb

Well, there’s something about you, but saying what it is ain’t sure

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