Get all 16 Champion Leader releases available on Bandcamp and save 25%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of When Morrissey Finally Dies (EP), Hurricane, I, Chat Room Days, Terra In Cognita (pre-release single), 4st, 1987, Chrysanthemums, London, and 8 more.
1. |
Terra In Cognita
02:26
|
|||
What is this place?
You woke up on her grave
(a thousand flowers in your hair)
Dress and wash your face,
It's a suit and tie kind of day
(Is this really real? The way my body feels?
I don't wanna feel, the way my body feels)
Nowhere in this world
Terra in Cognita
She's a girl and you're a boy!
What is this place?
You woke up on your grave
(flowers everywhere)
What is this strange taste?
It lingers on your lips
and sets you on edge…
(Is this body real? What is it meant to feel?
Because this body feels like Nobody feels!)
Nowhere in this world
Terra in Cognita
You're a girl and he's a boy:
Rejoice, rejoice, rejoice!
Nowhere in this world
Terra in Cognita
She's a girl and you're a boy:
Rejoice, rejoice, rejoice!
(As the world goes, so the body goes!)
Nowhere in this world
Corpus in Cognita
You're a girl and he's a boy:
Rejoice, rejoice, rejoice!
(As the world goes, so the body goes!)
|
||||
2. |
||||
Some call it a joke
Some refuse to taste
Some love it and leave it
Some think it's a waste
Some yearn for the mystery
It's the history of the Church
No one gets out of here alive
If you want to live, then you must die
Your heart still beats
There's no
light in your eyes
Are you alive? What beats inside?
Some call it a blind
Some scream for a purge
Some gently pray inside
Some poke them in the eyes while they seek and search
for the history of the Church
No one gets out of here alive
If you want to live, then you must die
Your heart still beats [like you are alive]
There's no light in your eyes
[There's a light in your eyes]
but are you alive?
What beats inside?
What beats inside?
|
||||
3. |
||||
When I watch people at airports...
a soft gathering of hellos and goodbyes
there is no one living in between here
but moving on and going on
all this world's mothers and fathers
in a comely dance together
in long halls of gray slanting sunlight
subdued
often broken by a roaring
jet shadow
which gradually lifts in a
slow-growing arc towards
heaven destination
and in these halls
a murmur of voices
a murder of faces
a hurry of motion
side glances returned with
a swift looking-away
no love kindled
only isolate
what will become of these halls
when the empire decays?
the haunted corridors
of a future unknown
where the barbarians who
knock at the gates
have finally come
home
When I watch people at airports...
a soft gathering of hello's and goodbye's
there is no one living in between here
but moving on and going on
all this world's mothers and fathers
in a comely dance together
in long halls of gray slanting sunlight
subdued
and in these halls
a murmur of voices
a murder of faces
a hurry of motion
side glances returned with
a swift looking-away
no love kindled
only isolate
|
||||
4. |
Accidents?
03:08
|
|||
I was covered in your blood
I was covered in your blood
The nurses asked for names and dates
but I was covered in your blood
There was a ledge and I stepped up to jump
There was a bullet and I was looking for a gun
Up in the room
alone
I cried for you and for everyone
What will we become?
What will we become?
Accidents?
The nurses in the waiting room (ALL BUSINESS!)
Did I speak too soon? (SO CASUAL!)
Will he be OK? (SO DISTANT!)
Can I wash this blood away? (IN A MINUTE!)
If there was a ledge I would have jumped
If there was a bullet I would have found a gun
Up in the room alone
I cried for you and for everyone
What will we become?
What will we become?
There was a ledge and I stepped up to jump
There was a bullet and I was looking for a gun
There was a razor edge and I was looking for something to cut
There was the pain, there was the love, there was the heart
Accidents?
|
||||
5. |
American Graffiti
04:57
|
|||
Once I lived
in the Heart of the World
but some people think
that that was a joke
I saw those fantastic lights too bright at night
they block out the real stars, and leave us with fakes
"Are we really free?"
read the graffiti, the city calls
and we laughed when we read it all
Abandoned bags on a park bench...
Walked until our hearts ached...
(heard a) guy singing sermons on Madison and 85th
"Are we really free?"
read the graffiti
on a subway car
and we cried when we read it all
Almost living, almost dead!
Never made it to the Met
but that’s alright: I look at the paintings in color illustrations in books instead!
Are we really free?
Words in graffiti that millions saw
And we were silent, and it said it ALL
|
||||
6. |
||||
All-night drinking party
A priest in a spandex suit
What's so strange here?
I'd like to know
It's just his nature
Some say God-given nature
Oh, but I don't know
Is it shirts or skins at the rectory again?
I say, is it shirts or skins at the rectory, my friends?
These are modern days
And they call for modern ways
You must accept our modern ways...
...with a smile
I'll wear it black as long as I have it...
It's not so bad
When you're in "the habit"
Some seeing it lying there
And they think to grab it
Some put on the Glory
Like it's some old story
Bad habits!
Late night, a party
A priest in a spandex suit
(Now) early morning, saying his prayers
With his lover standing there
I find it hard not to stare
I try so hard not to care
and just smile
No I can't smile....
|
||||
7. |
Pressure, Pressure
01:43
|
|||
Pressure...
|
||||
8. |
||||
He's a hit:
There's a light in his eyes
So real, there's no disguise
You see oceans and blue skies
in your priest’s eyes
He's a hit
NEVER tongue-tied
NEVER at a loss
for the right word at the right time
Can he be real?
Can he be my kind?
Every priest you know
he plays guitar
he drives off in cool cars
he sleeps well every night (he suntans, and on the weekends he sleeps in)
Every priest you know
he smiles a lot
his life's a cherry bowl, son
his life is a golden one
What do you want?
to be gratified?
answer calls late at night
bring you into the world
and bury you right?
To marry your kids
and to wash their souls
and drag them into the light?
to tell you they’ll be alright?
when you are about to de…
should I tell the truth or tell a lie?
Every priest you know
he plays guitar
he drives off in cool cars
he sleeps well every night (he suntans, and on the weekends he sleeps in)
Every priest you know
he smiles a lot
his life's a cherry bowl, son
his life is a golden one
Every priest you know
he has it all
because he TAKES IT ALL, TAKES IT ALL!
and he sleeps like a baby every night
Every priest you know
He dresses to the nines
Because he likes to live the night life!
His life is a golden one
|
||||
9. |
Chat Room Days
06:54
|
|||
I can’t breathe!
I can’t breathe!
The force of life
a weight upon my knees
This bed is cold,
like kissing steel
making wishes for the kisses
that might heal
Like chat room days...
Ferris wheel
Carnival glow
Holding hands
is now a careless “roll”
Needle’s been lost
on the way
come to the endless golden fields of hay
Where did they go
those perfect years?
bookshelves full of Yellow Volumes
listing all my fears
Like chat room days...
|
||||
10. |
||||
Can you sing “Alleluia”?
If you can’t, maybe you’re in hell
They say the fire never scorches you there man,
but who can tell?
(These are the right days)
In Jerusalem the colonnades sing Your Name
(These are the Bright Days)
May Paradise consume us
(again and again and again…)
Hey, what are these scars that I bear?
One from the wreck
and one for taking your dare.
Every hair turns gray when your feel the cares…
Hey why are my hands in the air?
Sursum Corda,
“Upward hearts!”
Gold brocade,
so savoir faire!
Whisper secrets, I promise to keep it, I promise dear!
(These are the right days)
In Jerusalem the colonnades sing Your Name
(These are the Bright Days)
May Paradise consume us
(again and again and again…)
(These are the right days)
Crowns of laurel, the winners of the game
(These are the Bright Days)
Lions for the martyrs
(again and again and again!)
Can you sing “Alleluia”?
If you can’t maybe you’re still in hell
Some say the fire never scorches you there man,
but who can tell?
Try to sing along: Alleluia!
A song can save you: Oh, Alleluia!
But if you don’t know the words
what good will it do you then?
|
Champion Leader Beaufort, South Carolina
J. Bozeman, of Luxury and They Sang As They Slew makes music under the borrowed moniker "Champion Leader", which itself is a name given to Mary the Mother of God.
Streaming and Download help
If you like Champion Leader, you may also like:
Bandcamp Daily your guide to the world of Bandcamp