Get all 14 Curtis Eller releases available on Bandcamp and save 25%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Fusebox Pennies: Collected Singles, Here Comes New Year's Day, This is Christmas Time (1972), Bury the Light, A Poison Melody, 54 Strange Words, Henry Kissinger's Dance Party: Live in the UK, Baudelaire in a Box: Songs of Anguish (EP), and 6 more.
1. |
Radiation Poison
04:21
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Radiation Poison
Radiation poison
That's what you get
Moving in your bloodstream
You just don't feel it yet
Panic in New Mexico
Don't you understand?
Plutonium sickness
That's what I am
You wanna stop the bleeding
You got to meet me where I live
Down by the cooling towers
Red hot!
Don't you know I'm...
Radioactive
Truman left me with the keys
Uranium plutonium
gimme that disease
The war is ending early
That's the secret in my bones
Hallelujah Nagasaki
All the boys are coming home
My heart is falling
It ain't so easy to forgive
Drop down, no warning
Red hot! Radioactive!
I'm radioactive...
Talk about a lethal dose
Radioactive...
Better keep on your toes
When you see me coming
Keep your windows closed
Radioactive...
Everybody been exposed
A Pentecostal fever
To evaporate the seas
9,941
Fahrenheit degrees
Burning through the atmosphere
Hotter than the sun
No cure for this affliction
Nowhere you can run
When did annihilation
Start looking so attractive?
Crawling outa the air raid shelter
Dig it up! Radioactive!
I'm radioactive...
Talk about a lethal dose
Radioactive...
Better keep on your toes
When you see me coming
Keep your windows closed
Radioactive...
Everybody been exposed
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2. |
No Soap Radio
04:23
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Another bullshit story about what happened in ‘63
How come it’s always Texas when there’s a murder on TV?
You know that you’re in Texas
When there’s a murder on the TV screen
Don’t you know
You get that signal everywhere you go
From New York City to Mexico
No soap radio
No soap radio
Another bloodsick maniac out on the campaign trail
Like mercury in the water after the revolution failed
A shadow in the doorway
After the revolution failed
Don’t you know
You get that signal everywhere you go
From New York City to Mexico
No soap radio
No soap radio
No soap...no soap radio
No soap...no soap radio
Etc.
SAXOPHONE SOLO
I know that my days are numbered, I can feel my heart expand
I know the venom is in my blood
By the mark upon my hand
The venom in my blood
The mark upon my hand
The venom in my blood
The mark upon my hand
The venom in my blood
The mark upon my hand
Don’t you know
You get that signal everywhere you go
From Texas to Ontario
No soap radio
Don’t you know
You get that signal everywhere you go
From New York City to Mexico
No soap radio
No soap radio
No soap radio
No soap radio
Etc.
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3. |
Poison Melody
04:40
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Poison Melody
Everybody knows
All about my heart
Where it ends and where it starts
They know all about my heart
There's that song again
Playing just for me
A poison melody
A silver drop of mercury
Like a Berlin ballad
Familiar to my ear
But there's a shadow in the harmony
Confusion and fear
And that sweet refrain
Sweet sugar cane
Is only a poison melody
Playing just for me
Every decent song
Has already been sung
They push your heart around
Like they did when you were young
And that sweet refrain
A ball and chain
Waiting in the chorus for me
Can't you see
That sweet refrain
Sweet sugar cane
Is only a poison melody
Playing just for me
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4. |
Union Hall
04:18
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Union Hall
I got a true heart and I can prove it
Meet me down on 12th street tonight
I'm gonna stand my ground while this place burns down
Officer, you wanna start a fight?
I'm the type of girl that holds a grudge
My heart don't bend, my heart don't budge
I'm gonna trade my Buick for a Pontiac
Faithful to Detroit 'til Jimmy Hoffa comes back
I'm gonna call the police on my neighbors
I'm gonna take my pistol downtown
The Constitution said I can shoot what I want
Everybody get down, get down
That's the governor's voice on the radio
That transistor radio from Tokyo
Tell me mama did you love me at all?
There's a riot breaking out down at the Union hall
I love the USA
I love the USA
I love the USA
Don't you love it?
Don't you feel okay?
Go on and sing hallelujah
Jump up and clap your hands
You better stay cool in this neighborhood
You better not fuck with these Americans
The kids on the streets got nowhere to start
They ain't got no brains, they ain't got no heart
Why don't you answer me when I call?
There's a fire in the basement of the union hall
I love the USA
I love the USA
I love the USA
Don't you love it?
Don't you feel okay?
Somebody stop me
I’m an American man
I love the USA
I love the USA
I love the USA
I love the USA
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5. |
These Birds
02:33
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Everybody knew this was coming
The birds fell out of the skies
An nobody was surprised
The heart was sure to break
Everybody knew
The skies are blank
Although they're blue
I barely remember you
It came as no surprise
When we finally heard
'Cause everybody knew
This would happen to
These birds
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6. |
Pay the Band
05:51
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Pay the Band
If you're looking
For a heart that's true
You come to the right place
I can get one for you
And if you're feeling all alone and blue
I can make that cruel sun
Shine down on you too
But it's blood
That you need
There's just one thing that'll
Make this poor heart bleed
I ain't talkin’ ‘bout love
Although that's nice too
If you think that's all you need, well
You must be confused
The only gun that I know
That can truly kill
Come on sister
Gimme that goddamn
Greenback dollar bill
Well it might sound ugly
And it may seem cruel
Money make the engine turn
When there ain't no fuel
Like morphine on the frontline
It'll nullify the pain
Or that special something Elvis has
That drives the girls insane
The way Brigitte Bardot knocks 'em out
With just a passing glance
If you can pay the band
You can watch the people dance
Don't you know you go to
Pay the band if you wanna watch those losers dance
A guy like me can get loaded
And jump behind the wheel
Everybody loves a wealthy man
In a Cadillac automobile
An intoxicated man
Feeling truly free
Everyday is the fifth of December
1933
All the roads are open
Even the cops let you slide
These American hearts come
Equipped with a smoother ride
You can walk around like Henry Ford
On the banks of the river Rouge
Tell the workers how they're gonna live
And you know that they can't refuse
You can bust the union if you've got
A little bit of money in your pants
If you can pay the band
You can watch the people dance
Like morphine on the frontline
It'll nullify the pain
Or that special something Elvis has
That drives the girls insane
The way Brigitte Bardot knocks 'em out
With just a passing glance
If you can pay the band
You can watch the people dance
Don't you know you got to
Pay the band if you wanna watch those losers dance
Everybody, clap your hands
Hey you losers
We come here to watch you dance
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7. |
Lenny Bruce
05:11
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Lenny Bruce
Have mercy...on this land
Mercy...this is not what we planned
There's a hollow place
Where the heart used to be
The absence left everyone
Broken n misery
What you want from me?
There ain't no heart that could take this bitter stuff
Oh mercy...mercy...
Ain't we had enough?
The angels... left the city
Ain't there just one...who can spare a little sympathy?
The cops turned up again
In San Francisco last night night
The jokes are the same
But something don't feel right
That old familiar light
Shines down but there's nothing here to see
Oh mercy...mercy...
Ain't you got some for me?
I'm fallen...like a bird with no wing
Fallen silent...a phonograph with no spring
They found him passed out
On the bathroom floor
The radio said Lenny Bruce ain't
Coming back no more
The future's such a bore
And there's one thing that would set us all free
Oh mercy...mercy...have mercy...
Mercy on me
Mercy...mercy...
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8. |
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9. |
Before the Riot
00:40
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Before the Riot
The panic out in the streets
Used to trouble my mind
Until the good lord explained it to me
If there's anything standing
After the riot
You can take anything you see
I can do as I please
And the birds in the trees must be
Singing for me 'cause they know...
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10. |
After the Riot
03:34
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After the Riot
Jesus Christ is a white man
Any blind man can see
I know redemption will
Settle upon me eventually
Hallelujah I found out
I got here just in time
The faces on my money tell me Everything will be fine
Look at that black smoke rising
And all the blood in the street
Here come the National Guard
But I ain't losing no sleep
Blackout in the dance hall
Just when I hit the floor
You say you don't love me mama
Well I heard all that before
The world is mine
I am never alone
The iron in my blood
The calcium in my bones
Let the chains of this cruel world
Be melted down and recast
A bell I can ring with my heart
I am free at last
All the slaves in China
All the napalm in Vietnam
A well of misery deeper
Than the Grand Coulee Dam
Every heart full of romance
All the ships out at sea
Sink into the darkness
And you will never be free
The world is mine
My sweet broken home
Won't you take me back?
How can you leave me alone?
Let the chains of this cruel world
Be melted down and recast
A bell I can ring with my heart
I am free at last
The world is mine
I am never alone
The iron in my blood
The calcium in my bones
Let the chains of this cruel world
Be melted down and recast
A bell I can ring with my heart
I am free at last
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11. |
No Words to Choose
04:46
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No Words to Choose
I'm going back
To my old broken home
My old broken home
My old broken home
Everybody knows there's nothing there to hold me
But I'm going back
I'm going back
To my old broken home
My old broken home
My old broken home
Everybody knows there's nothing there to hold me
But I'm going back
Mama...mama...
Don't you love me?
Don't you love me no more?
Mama...mama...
Don't you love me?
Don't you love me no more?
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Curtis Eller Durham, North Carolina
Curtis Eller is a banjo player, songwriter and rock & roll singer who's songs describe a dreamlike vision of American history where all points in time have collapsed into one. A twenty-year show business veteran, Eller has developed a devoted international following with his band, The American Circus. ... more
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