Jason Molina

Magnolia Electric Co. - Magnolia Electric Co.

The Farewell Transmission
The whole place is dark
Every light on this side of the town
Suddenly it all went down
Now we’ll all be brothers of the fossil fire of the sun
Now we will all be sisters of the fossil blood of the moon
Someone must have set us up
Now they’ll be working in the cold grey rock, in the hot mill steam… in the concrete
In the sirens and the silences now all the great set up hearts - all at once start to beat
After tonight if you don’t want us to be a secret out of the past
I will resurrect it, I’ll have a good go at it
I’ll streak his blood across my beak and dust my feathers with his ashes
I can feel his ghost breathing down my back
I will try and know whatever I try, I will be gone but not forever
The real truth about it is no one gets it right
The real truth about it is we’re all supposed to try
There ain’t no end to the sands I’ve been trying to cross
The real truth about it is my kind of life’s no better off
If I’ve got the maps or if I’m lost
The real truth about it is there ain’t no end to the desert I’ll cross
I’ve really known that all along
Mama here comes midnight with the dead moon in its jaws
Must be the big star about to fall
Long dark blues
Will o the wisp
The big star is falling
Through the static and distance
A farewell transmission
Listen

I’ve Been Riding With The Ghost
While you was gone you must have done a lot of favors
You’ve got a whole lot of things I don’t think
That you could ever have paid for
While you’ve been busy crying
About my past mistakes
I’ve been busy trying to make a change
I made a change
I’ve been riding with the ghost
I’ve been doing whatever he told me
I’ve been looking door to door to see
if there was someone who’d hold me
I never met a single one who didn’t see through me
None of them could love me if they thought they might lose me
Unless I made a change
See I ain’t getting better. I am only getting behind
I am standing on a crossroad trying to make up my mind
I’m trying to remember how it got so late
Why every night pain comes from a different place
Now something’s got to change
I put my foot to the floor
To make up for the miles I’ve been losing
See I’m running out of things
I didn’t even know I was using
And while you’ve been busy
Learning how to complain
I’ve been busy learning
How to make a change
I made it (almost) (again)

Just Be Simple
You never hear me talk about one day getting out
Why put a new address on the same old loneliness
Everybody knows where that is
We built that house of his
And when he’s not home
Someone else you know always is
If Heaven’s really coming back
I hope it has a heart attack
When they see how dangerous it is for guys like that
The night has always known when it’s time to get going
When it’s really been so long that it starts showing
It’s always had that ghost who always almost
Tells me the Secret
How there’s really no difference in who he was once
And who he’s become
Everything you hated me for… Honey there was so much more
I just didn’t get busted.
But I’m not looking for an easy way out
This whole life it’s been about
Try and try and try
And try and try and try
To be simple again

Almost Was Good Enough (Once)
It’s been hard doing anything
winter stuck around so long
I kept trying anyhow and I’m still trying now
just to keep working just to keep working
I remember when it didn’t use to be so hard
this used to be impossible
A new season has to begin
I can feel it leaning in whispering “Nothing’s lonely now”
Nothing anymore in pain
A tall shadow dressed how secrets always dress
when they want everyone to know that they ‘re around
leaning in whispering “my friend over there
don’t know what he’s talking about”
Did you really believe
that everyone makes it out?
Almost no one makes it out
I’m going to use that street to hide
from that human doubt
to hide from what was shining
and has finally burned us out
But if no one makes it out
How come you’re talking to one right now
for once almost was good enough

The Old Black Hen
Old Black Hen is that you again
singing the Bad Luck Lullaby
Come right on in , it’s midnight again
Time for the Bad Luck Lullaby
You know the one it’s the same one you sung
when you wrote down the Revelations
Now sing it over the cradle of the child who’s born next
Leave all the truth in so they know what comes next
leave in the true love that they’ll never find
Show how we’re looking for it all of our lives
When I saw the Banner hanging over my door
I already knew who the party was for
All of my pain found a partner in that room
and the devil’s tail swayed with the tune
Make that Black Record
Roll the tapes all night long
Make that Black Record
And we’ll all sing along
Look down the long street
and see who’s that crying
Tell them that every day I lived
I was trying to sing the Blues
the way I find them

Peoria Lunchbox Blues
Gwendolyn I wonder what you’d’ve called them
I think a name you might choose is Nobody’s Blues
You see when you are just a kid
They think you won’t remember what they did
they think you won’t remember…But you did
Then you learned how to say “Everything you love
Tries to get away
Everything you love finally does
“Its finally looking good up there our skyline
See how if fits right in there with heaven
The constellations and Comiskey’s lights
Two old friends in the night
Who always knew they would if they could
Meet one last time in the old neighborhood
Hey wait a minute things ain’t looking that good
Its getting quiet and the light’s getting dim
This ain’t like no place I’ve ever been
What kind of trouble am I in?
Oh Gwen, here they come again
It’s nobody’s Blues
Here they come again

John Henry Split My Heart
I stood on the 66 Hwy
Wysteria, Magnolia beside the green line track
Said “Don’t Come Back”
I found myself standing on the mountain
Beneath my full moon heart
John Henry split this heart split this full moon heart
Swing the heaviest hammer you got
Hit this one out of the park
He says boy what you going to do
With your heart in two
If its good enough
But only if its good enough
Half I’m going to use
To pay this band
Half I’m saving because I’m going to owe them

Hold On Magnolia
Hold on Magnolia to that great highway moon
No one has to be that strong
But if you’re stubborn like me
I know what you’re trying to be
Hold on Magnolia, I hear that station bell ring
You might be holding the last light I see
Before the dark finally gets a hold of me
Hold on Magnolia, I know what a true friend you’ve been
In my life I have had my doubts
But tonight I think I’ve worked it out with all of them
Hold on Magnolia to the thunder and the rain
To the lightning that has just signed my name to the bottom line
Hold on Magnolia, I hear that lonesome whistle whine
Hold on Magnolia
I think its almost time

The Big Game Is Every Night (Japanese CD Bonus Track)
It’ll get so quiet when this record ends
You can hear the first hour of the world
You can hear the willow branches touch the wave
Write our names beside our Darlings’ heart
Write our names besides no one’s heart
Rise moon on the shores of the seas
Shine on the distance between me and the last thing I see
Let it be me helping
Let it be me honestly
Let it be me working
On being a better me
Rise moon on the shores of the seas
Shine on the distance between me and the last thing I see
Now light the field for the big game tonight
Mark twain to Thomas Jefferson strike
Luke the Drifter to Zimmerman line drive
(to keep the team alive)
Unitas to Berry… scarry
Everything against you sweetness…
You bring the first down again
See it’s ones like this you can always trust
Not to disappoint us
Moon shine that white lightning light
Down on the Possums’ stage tonight
Maybe on the Man in Black
You could hold a little something back
Let his eyes adjust to the light
Rise Moon Rise above me
Show an American if really I am the snake they’re all saying
If they look up here do they see just my black tail swaying?
If I’m all fangs and all lies and all poison
If I’m really what they’re saying
I don’t want to disappoint them.