Warning: Crystalberting to follow herein
Okay, so, being that women like Alanis Morisette and Tracy Chapman are actually some of my favorite artists, it's no surprise that I'm a fan of Crystal's style. But I went investigating today and found some of her pre-Idol stuff and, omg, she's so good. *_____* It's all amateur demos of just her and her guitar, no production or anything, but her voice has this beautiful clear tone that I love and she's got a LOT of songwriting talent. Aaaaahhhh can I buy her post-Idol album yet? I want it nowwww *grabby hands* (lol idgaf where she places. I just want her to sell me an album)
(Also on the plus side for me personally, because she sings so clearly and knows how to enunciate, when I really concentrate I can actually understand what she's saying. LOL this is a big deal for me, song lyrics are normally just white noise to me. Half the time I couldn't tell you whether they were even in English. So, anyway, I transcribed the lyrics to a few of them as best I could.)
1. Farmer's Daughter <-- If you only listen to one Crystal Bowersox song, PLEASE LISTEN TO THIS ONE
Click to viewThis song guts me. This was the first song I decided to transcribe the lyrics to, and without putting that level of concentration into it I wasn't fully aware of what the song was about, so it was while I was writing them down that the emotional impact fully hit me. Not even gonna lie, by the time I got to "Honor thy mother and father too / But I know there ain't no way in Hell that God mentioned you" in the first verse I was already crying. lol /has issues. ANYWAY.
Farmer's Daughter
Halfway to crazy
Not far from sane
Fuckin sick and tired of all your games
All I ever wanted was you to take care of me
Honor thy mother and father too
But I know there ain't no way in Hell that God mentioned you
All I ever wanted was you to care for me
Now I'm stuck in this hotel room
Your grandson and me
Tomorrow we're gonna find out our destiny
All I ever wanted was you to be there for me
All I ever needed was you to be here for me
This time is the last time you're gonna see us around
This was your last chance to prove you wouldn't let me down
So go on, get gone and get away from here
All alone is how you're gonna spend the rest of your years
No farmer's daughter anymore, Mommy dear
I remember back in high school
My brothers and me
Willy put his hand through the door to find clarity
You'd come home with Bourbon breath
Jack in the air
And when you broke my bones I told the school I fell down the stairs
All I ever wanted was you to be there for me
Oh, and all I ever needed was you to be here for me
This time is the last time you're gonna see us around
Oh, this was your chance to prove you wouldn't let me down
So go on home, get gone and get away from here
All alone is how you're gonna spend the rest of your years
No farmer's daughter anymore, I ain't no farmer's daughter anymore
No farmer's daughter anymore, Mommy dear
2. On the Run, one of my favorites. It's got a kind of quirky Ani DiFranco style guitar that I like. My favorite part is the way on the bridge she's belting those lines of "Well I got my halo and got my gun / Got my guitar and got the sun / If it wasn't for the devil horns on my head / love you boy til I'm dead."
On the Run
Ain't got no plans no place to go
Where I stop nobody knows
Singing something to myself
Wishing I was somewhere else
You got to got to tell me my friend
Because I don't know if I'll be back again
But if you want to wait all day
Come on come on come out and play
But I am on the run
And I'm just lookin to have me some fun
And I don't need nobody
Nobody holdin me down
Gotta get myself away from this town
And I don't want nobody, yeah, holdin me back
So don't you hold me back, boy, no.
And I ain't no superstitious Cajun queen
I ain't trying to be no new James Dean
Ain't lookin for a place lay my head
'cept a beach or bench or flowerbed
Now don't fall in love with me
'Cause I got to I got to be free
But if you want to wait all day
Come on come on come out and play
But I am on the run
And I'm just lookin to have me some fun, yeah
I don't need nobody, don't hold me down
I gotta get myself away from this town
I don't want nobody, yeah, holdin me back
So don't you hold me back, boy, no.
Gonna take it slow
So couldn't I listen to the radio?
All dressed and no place to go
Well I got my halo and got my gun,
Got my guitar and got the sun
If it wasn't for the devil horns on my head
Love you boy til I'm dead, yeah.
I am on the run
And I'm just lookin to have me some fun, yeah
And I, I don't need nobody, don't hold me down
Gotta get myself away from this town
I don't want nobody, yeah, holdin me back
So don't you hold me back, don't you hold me back, baby no,
I said, don't you hold me back, boy, no.
No baby, no.
3. Holy Toledo, another of my favorites, is a kind of plaintive, yearning ballad. I think this is the song that showcases her beautiful vocal tone the best. I love the melody and the imagery when she sings "My dreads are locked / my watch is stopped / my glass half full / my gun is half cocked." The vulnerability of her lyrics is always so gut-wrenching, very INTK/WIA Kris Allen to me.
Holy Toledo
Living life from day to day
And reading books from page to page
I know life is just my stage
And I wish I could I said I would
I know I should do something good
And my God, I fear I'm shedding tears
The colors change from year to year
Around here
And I said, how do I get to Heaven from here?
I want to know how do I get to Heaven from here
Holy Toledo where does the time go
My dreads are locked, my watch is stopped
My glass half full, my gun is half cocked
How do I redeem my sins?
Well I sure hope St. Peter is gonna let me in
Holy Toledo
Now I've said too much, I'm losing touch
Step on the gas and off the clutch
Oh, I'm gonna leave Toledo have no fear
And time goes slow, but I'm shifting gears
And I said, how do I get to Heaven from here?
I want to know how do I get to Heaven from here
Holy Toledo where does the time go
My dreads are locked, my watched is stopped
My glass half full, my gun is half cocked
How do I redeem my sins?
Well I sure hope St. Peter's gonna let me in
Holy Toledo
Said, how do I get to Heaven from here?
I want to know how in the Hell am I gonna get to Heaven from here
Holy Toledo
My dreads are locked, my watch is stopped
My glass half full, my gun is half cocked
How do I redeem my sins?
I sure hope St. Peter is gonna let me in
Said how do I get to Heaven from here
4. Sandman, upbeat, same instrumental style as On the Run. Really like it.
5. Speak Now, LOVE this song. It feels kind of like the emotional prequel to On the Run.
Speak Now
There ain't no reason for me to hang around this town no more
Gonna pack it up and move on out and start searching for the shore
Sell my life as I know it to anyone willing to buy
Cause it ain't worth much to me to stay here and sit around and cry
And if you think you're gonna miss me when I go
Speak now, darling, or you will never know
Well, I don't care if you like it
Cause honey this is not your life
I will never be held prisoner
I will never be your wife
I've learned that friends are overrated and lovers come and go
And if all you do is dream about it then
You've got nothing to show
But if you think you're gonna miss me when I go
Speak now, darling, or you will never know
Cause once that engine starts turnin and the wheels they hit the road
I ain't ever coming back to this town called Chicago
I'm leavin it all behind me
There ain't no place that I call home
Well I'm tearin this heart right offa my sleeve
And I'm turnin it in to stone
Well I think I'm gonna miss you when I'm gone
Oh, so kiss me once, kiss me twice,
Maybe I'll stay for just one more night
And honey say what you feel
Please mean what you say
I want to hold onto you for just one more day
But if you think you're gonna miss me when I go
Speak now, darlin, or you will never know
6. Cry no More, this one's got a more restrained quality than her others. She keeps her voice quiet and her guitar sparse until the very end.
7. Saved by Grace, another of her quiet, sad ballads.
ETA: Chicago Acoustic Underground version, this version has a beautiful violin in it :O I love it. Crystal said she wrote this song about abortion and that once when she was performing this song at a gig she broke down in tears and could barely finish the song. She describes it as "a big Fuck You." Apparently on her own studio version (the one above?) she'd included "a creepy toy piano" on the instrumentals. I'm going to be horribly presumptuous and say I'm not sure she was crying because she herself had undergone an abortion, the lines "If you can't use this, don't you dare abuse it / Save yourself the trouble, just throw it out" make me think this is another song she wrote about her mother.
Saved by Grace
Something new is growing here inside of me
And I'm just trying to figure out
This is quite a life you've laid here in front of me
And I'm just dying to get out
If you can't use it, please don't abuse it
Save yourself the trouble, just throw it out
Because you don't want this and these walls are haunted
There's nothing here but gloom and doubt
There was a time when I thought I had been saved by grace
Was a time, but not this time
I locked the bathroom door and I began to pace
And I watched grace pass me by
If you can't use this, don't you dare abuse it
Save yourself the trouble, just throw it out
If you don't want this and these walls are haunted
There's nothing here but gloom and doubt
There was a time when I thought I had been saved by grace
Was a time, but it's not our time, no no
But who's to say what is something you can not replace
And I watched grace pass me by
There was a time when I thought I had been saved by grace
Was a time, but it's not our time, no no
I locked the bathroom and I began to pace
And I watched grace pass me by
And I said goodbye, I said goodbye
You don't want, you don't want this, no, you don't want this let's just throw it out
You don't need this, oh, you say you don't need this right now
You don't need it, just throw it out
You don't want this oh
You don't want it
You don't want it, just throw it out
Oh, you don't need this, oh, you say you don't need this right now
Well, you can't feed it, just throw it out
Oh, you can't feed it just throw it out
You can't feed it
8. Finally Got It Right, happy and sweet. Reminds me of a Jason Mraz song.
ETA: Chicago Acoustic Underground version, Crystal describes it as "all that cheesy, giddy crap" you feel at the beginning of a new relationship.
9. Kiss Ya, this is her most Ani DiFranco song for me. It's also my least favorite of her demos, there's some "aaaaah ahhhhh oooooooh" going on in the background that I'm not fond of, and her voice isn't the best on this one either.
Also, the internet is taunting me because there are four other songs of hers that USE to be up on various music websites for streaming, but I guess all of her accounts got purged as part of the Idol scrub. >:| I wanttttt theeeeem. /whining
LOL so, uh, if you ever happen to see an mp3 of Crystal singing her song Hellbent, let me know, okay?
ETA: People found more songs! \o/ Still no sign of Hellbent yet though. :(
So Crystal did a podcast with the Chicago Acoustic Underground, on which she performed 5 songs, only two of which I already have. :D You can listen to it or download it at their website, though I've ripped her songs and included any interesting song-related banter in this post.
10. Put Your Guitar Down, a song Crystal wrote while dating somebody who plays guitar, about feeling jealousy when your SO pays more attention to their musical instrument than you. LOL it's got this slinky maraca in the background which I think is kinda cool.
11. Grey-haired Rockstar, a song she wrote for the local legends that took her under their wing when she younger, showed her how to deal with bar owners, lol. Old-timers called the Dry Bones Revival who would play for 4 hours never complaining, just for love of the music.
12. Mama, understandably, she didn't do a big intro for this song other than to say "me and Mama didn't always get along." It feels like she wrote it about that same emotion/moment-in-time that inspired Farmer's Daughter, only this song is slow and regretful where Farmer's Daughter has more anger in it.
Let me know if any other songs turn up :DDDD
ETA 2: \o/ I knew I could have faith in AI fandom's ability to instantaneously rip shit 19 doesn't want on the internet before it gets yanked. People found and uploaded Crystal's four other songs!
13. Hellbent \o/ \o/ \o/ OMG it's just as awesome as the title led me to believe it would be. It's a dark and angry political song, featuring soundbites of Bush and Condoleezza Rice (I think) talking about the terrorists who "pray to a false god." I love the backup vocals on this track, they lend it this dark, ominous tone. "You must be happy now you're doing God's work / Women and children laying cold in the dirt."
Hellbent
Bush: I don't get to decide who goes to heaven, the almighty God decides who goes to Heaven. I think they pray to a false God.
You must be happy now you're doing God's work
Women and children laying cold in the dirt
Mothers and fathers putting seeds in the earth
You must be something now you're speaking these words
In every language but Lord
This is what He would have wanted, you claim to know
A hunt and the hunted
Your sights are hellbent on Hell below
Condi: The only option for them is to become a suicide bomber
The kingdom is coming like a runaway train
Words of the prophets melt like mud in the rain
Such a small price, just a little more pain
Now victory is coming like a cold winter's day
It's white like the ashes of the Lord
Condi: Terrorists who are hellbent on destroying our nation
Bush: I think they pray to a false God
This is what He wanted
Don't you know
We hunt and the hunted
Your sights are hellbent on Hell below
This is what He wanted, oh
You swear you know
And if anyone else thinks they know better than He
Then by God, my God, I'll pray for your soul
My God, my God, I'll pray for your soul
Bush: I don't get to decide who goes to heaven, the almighty God decides who goes to Heaven.
Bush: And I pray they will be comforted by a power greater than any of us, spoken through the ages in Psalm 23: Even though I walk through the valley in the shadow of death I fear no evil for you are with.
Bush: We go forward to defend freedom and all that is good and just in our world. Thank you,
good night and God bless America.
14. Patience, a song about chasing after someone, begging them to love you.
15. Sunflower Sunshine, lol this song has, like, a clap track or something, kind of like Alli's Beat Me Up. Only on this song I find it kind annoying. As the title would imply, it's an upbeat happy love song about being head over heels for somebody, along the lines of her other song Finally Got It Right.
16. Just Want to Love Ya Before I Leave, lol omg, Crystal stop making me cry when I listen to your songs. At the beginning her own voice has this quaver like she's on the edge of tears herself, which doesn't help me. It's a song to a loved one from the point of view of someone who is dying. Knowing the battle she has with her diabetes, picturing her singing this to her little son, I just, I can't even. GAH. "The doctor says I'm gonna go / I'm losing this fight / But not done yet, no, not tonight."
THE UPDATED UPDATED ZIP FILE WITH 16 BOWERSOX ORIGINALS
.....I think that's everything out there that she wrote herself. I'd be happy to be proven wrong though. :D