We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Tar Baby

from You Are A Citizen by tudors

/

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $1 USD  or more

     

  • Buy the Full Digital Album

lyrics

17 years spent with nightmares of patricide.
Blood boiled, a bull-rushed father falls in charred spoons
while son is red faced, red eyed
can’t get the image of a crack pipe out of his head—
stains that chip father’s lips
make kisses burn the forehead,
make hugs from dad hurt so bad.

17 years turned to cancer from Bonzo’s war—
battering rams stifle good nights and lullabies
while son was red faced, red eyed
can’t get the image of a criminal out of the mirror
“Your future is a .45 that hold your hands in the air”
and the silence is normal with zip ties on the wrist and no last kiss.

17 years sober; still hides the blood in the veins.
Says it’s, “weighed down by tar, the sirens told me so.”
Father was red faced, red eyed
can’t get the image of a black man out of his head—
a cacophony of badges screaming in his ears,
pressing his cheek to a hood and holds fire to his lips,

but son breaks the spoons.
Picks dad up, dust him off over and over and over again
“Mom will see you with sunsets as you both get older
and older and older and older.”
Lighters are smashed, washed chalk lines, keeps father
sober. Sober. Sober. Sober.

Son broke the spoons,
washed off the chalk lines.

You don’t deserve this.
No cop boots on your neck.
No thorns to cut away at your skin.
They wanted you to fail.

“57 years and you are still breathing.
No bruises, just embraces that feel so good.
It feels so good

Please break out of your casket
Please, no need for sorries
when they tried to roast you, drown you
hang you—but they had no string handy.
Please hold me over your head
like the stars you wished upon
when you pushed me on the swings
wanting it to last forever.

You are not your demons.

You are a good man
You are a good man
You are a good man
You are a great dad,
and don’t let them call us tar babies;
we’re not stains on their white concrete.
Don’t let them call us tar babies;
We’re not stains on their white concrete.”

credits

from You Are A Citizen, released December 13, 2019
Lyrics by M. Clayton

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

tudors image

tudors Long Beach, California

P.O.C. fronted Noise Punk from the Los Angeles area. Always lower case the "t."

contact / help

Contact tudors

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this track or account

If you like tudors, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Seafood Sam joins the show to discuss his newest album, " Standing On Giant Shoulders".
listen now