Get all 15 Tom Alter releases available on Bandcamp and save 50%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Dispatch from the Lesser Middle, Last Season in the Lesser Middle, Love and All That Comes With It, Chaos in the USA, Poetry and Protest, One Year in the Lesser Middle, Songs For An American Hero, Wading in the Lesser Middle, and 7 more.
1. |
Again
04:48
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I got your call
I got your call
And I will get to you
As fast as I can.
I hear your voice
It's just your voice
Speaking out to me
On message machine.
And just like every time you turn my way
I rush to you with no delay
To bring you back to me.
I hear you cry
I know your cry
And my heart becomes
A melting machine.
And like the times before you called me
I caught the first flight without stalling
And though you're dozen states away
I packed my bags and fly your way
To bring you back to me.
Even on a jet airbus
Cannot reach you fast enough.
This happened many times before.
I'll take a chance with you once more.
Now I'm holding this old polaroid
Imagining it's celluloid
Filled with hidden messages
Waiting for a happy end.
Well I've been down
And I've been out
Out of the circle of love
That you keep around.
But when you fall
And then you call
I'm the ready response
I'm your rebound
And every time you call my name
I rush to you with no delay
To bring you back to me.
Even on a jet airbus
Cannot reach you fast enough.
This happened many times before.
I'll take a chance with you once more.
Now I'm holding this old polaroid
Imagining it's celluloid
Filled with hidden messages
Waiting for a happy end.
Waiting for our happy end.
Waiting for a happy end.
Again.
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2. |
Guns of August
04:20
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How did this all start -
This falling apart?
Laundry just half done.
Dinners cooked for one.
Our guns of August blazing bright.
Late nights staying out,
Planting seeds of doubt.
Turn of all the lights
As a tactical device.
Our guns of August blazing bright.
A war of roses every night, raging.
Uncivil war still escalates.
Come September
This September
Can we have ourselves some peace?
Faces set in stone.
Locked onto our phones.
Nerves all set on edge.
And sneaking peaks at texts.
Here comes the bomb
Sound the alarm.
Cover your head and
Hit the ground.
Passive aggressiveness reigns.
When one gets tired
The other starts it up again.
We're digging our own hole.
We spiral out of control.
Let's stop the abuse.
Can we negotiate a truce?
Our guns of August blazing bright.
A war of roses every night, raging.
Uncivil war still escalates.
Come September
This September
Can we have ourselves some peace?
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3. |
Tell Me Once Again
04:14
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What do you recall
Of your summer days and falls?
Of the mornings you would rise
A whole life before your eyes?
What do you recall?
What was it all like
When stars still shown at night?
When Dillinger was caught
And your father was not lost?
What was it all like?
I've let the decades pass.
If only I had asked
When you could have told me all.
And in this final stand
I'm now ready to listen
To your stories never told.
What do you remember
Of that seventh of December?
Though you were years too shy,
Did you clench your fist to fight?
What do you remember?
What do you remember?
I've been too wrapped up in a tale
Where the protagonist is me.
Where you're in a supporting role,
Where my life would lead.
Why then in this final hour
Do I have this sudden thirst
To get an accounting of your path
Through the better and the worst?
Tell me once again
How you asked a girl to dance.
And one year just passed by
You made that girl your wife.
Tell me once again.
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4. |
Dock
04:27
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Once in San Diego
Thought I had a whole day off.
When my lady showed in the paper
I was due on the mound.
I was medicating
With a dash of LSD.
Threw my first pitch in a haze
To a batter that I could not see.
And despite the junk I'd done,
I started to mow those batters down,
Started to mow those batters down.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Zeroes on the scoreboard.
I hardly even know.
But the rookie second baseman
Says I'm throwing a no-no.
After all nine innings,
I'm in the midst of a mob scene.
Am I still in San Diego?
Or is this some drugged up dream?
And despite the junk I'd done,
I put up all goose eggs on the board,
Put up all goose eggs on the board.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Now you find me on the sidewalk,
And you're coming up to me.
Say you want some memorabilia,
From the dude who pitched on LSD.
And despite all that I've done,
I can't get on the golf course with my dogs,
Can't get on the golf course with my dogs.
No, no, no.
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5. |
"Them"
03:53
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Married a woman whose father was said to be my enemy.
But he was another man just like my brother and me.
Just like me.
Twenty first century, we sit by our TVs, watching war stories drone on.
Faithfully accepting they're guilty criminals, we drop the bombs on.
The girl I married sits in disbelief
Watching her cousins drop to the ground.
All they are guilty of, misfortune being born where they are.
We are supposed to believe and shoulder the weight.
We are to trust in the honor of men.
We are so right to fight for our family.
We are so right to fight, it's us or them
Put quotation marks around them.
I know there's evil in this world and those who must surely be stopped.
Is it asking too much to be sure of the guilt of convicted
Before the bombs drop?
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6. |
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You tell me that the man you love
Tells it like it is.
Tells you what you need for your own good.
And you tell me that it's dog eat dog
In this world we live in.
Build your own fire or end up in the cold.
And if that's what it takes to earn your admiration,
I'm glad to say that I'm a last place man.
I've heard you ask who can say who's heroes and who's sinners?
A loser is just one who doesn't get her way.
And in the end the history books are written by the winners.
The once who's right is the one who wins the day.
Others have their dreams that you don't have to shatter.
Others do not have to fail for you to climb your ladder.
And if that's what it takes to earn your admiration,
I'm glad to say that I'm a last place man.
Fight and scrape and gather up everything you can.
It's often said that nice guys finish last.
And if your lines are blurred because that's benefiting you,
I'm glad to say that I will take a pass.
And if that's what it takes to earn your admiration,
I'm glad to say that I'm a last place man.
But if that's what it takes to earn that reputation,
I'm glad to say that I'm a last place man.
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Tom Alter Detroit, Michigan
Tom Alter is a singer-songwriter based in Detroit. The influences of jazz, folk, pop, and Latin genres are found in his
original compositions. Tom's lyrics mix world events with the affect on his personal ideals. He has released 3 EPs and 2 albums since 2019. His work can be found on digital and streaming music platforms. He is also a member of the duo After Blue.
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