Bill Callahan.



Bill Callahan (born June 3, 1966 ) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist who has also recorded and performed under the band name Smog. Callahan began working in the lo-fi genre of underground rock, with home-made tape-albums recorded on four track tape recorders. Later he began releasing albums with the label Drag City, to which he remains signed today.
(...)
Smog's songs are often based on simple, repetitive structures, consisting of a simple chord progression repeated for the duration of the entire song. His singing is characterized by his baritone voice. Melodically and lyrically he tends to eschew the verse-chorus approach favoured by many contemporary songwriters, preferring instead a more free-form approach relying less on melodic and lyrical repetition. Themes in Callahan's lyrics include relationships, animals, relocation, nature, and more recently, politics. On the subject of voice in his albums, Callahan has said, "It’s usually one character per record. So, the character appears in all or most of the songs on one record and then is gone. Though it makes me feel weird to talk about. Because I don’t really think in clear terms of characters. My albums as a whole could be seen as one character with many voices."  His generally dispassionate delivery of lyrics and dark irony often obfuscate complex emotional and lyrical twists and turns. Critics have generally characterized his music as depressing and intensely introverted, with one critic describing it as "a peep-show view into an insular world of alienation." 
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After almost 20 years of using the alias Smog for his music, Bill Callahan switched to his given name for his releases after 2005's A River Ain't Too Much to Love. The 2007 EP Diamond Dancer and full-length Woke on a Whaleheart both mixed the intimate, reflective, largely acoustic sound of later Smog albums like Supper and A River with gospel, soul, and pop elements, and boasted arrangements by former Royal Truxmastermind Neil Hagerty. For 2009's Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle, Callahan returned to the more intimate acoustic-based sound of latter-era Smog albums, featuring string and brass arrangements by Brian Beattie. The live album Rough Travel for a Rare Thing arrived in March 2010, and in July Callahan issued his 79-page "epistolary novelette" Letters to Emma Bowlcut, comprised of 62 letters from a nameless protagonist to a woman he saw at a party. Callahan kicked off 2011 with Apocalypse, a more uptempo collection of seven country- and blues-inspired rock tunes that recalled some of his edgier work with Smog. A softer offering, Dream River, was issued in the fall of 2013. The next year Have Fun with God surfaced, remixing the eight tracks of Dream River in more haunted and electronic styles.

(Artist Biography by Heather Phares)

    ΠΑΡΑΠΟΜΠΕΣ-ΠΗΓΕΣ    


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Callahan_discography

 A Window That Isn't There - The Elusive Art of Bill Callahan
Mark Richardson sits down with the 47-year-old journeyman singer-songwriter for a career-spanning interview about his personal history, his music, and the connection between the two:
http://pitchfork.com/features/article/9261-a-window-that-isnt-there-the-elusive-art-of-bill-callahan/


https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Bill+Callahan


 Smog - Beautiful Child  

Beautiful child
You are a beautiful child
And I am a fool once more
You fell in love when I was only ten
The years disappeared
Much has gone by since then
I bite my lip, can you send me away
You touch
I have no choice
I have to stay
I had to stay
Sleepless child
There is so little time
Your eyes say yes
But you dont say yes
I wish that you were mine
You say it will be harder in the morning
I wait for you to say, just go
Your hands, held mine so few hours
And Im not a child anymore
Im not a child anymore
Im tall enough
To reach for the stars
Im old enough
To love you from afar
To trusting... yes?
But then women usually are
Im not a child anymore
No, Im not a child, oh no
Tall enough to reach for the stars
I will do
As Im told
Even if I never hold you again
I never hold you again


 Bill Callahan - Its our anniversary

 Its our anniversary

 I leave it ajar

 And go outside

 To look at the driveway stars

 The crickets are chirping

 They stop at my step

 I stop my step

 And they start up again

 Its our anniversary and the bullfrogs 
And everything that can sing is singing

 its mating song

 The soil is steaming

 Grass is swooning

 Guns or fireworks are popping

 Down in the town

 A woman is running

 A man jumps up and down

 Its our anniversary and youve hidden my keys

 This is one anniversary youre spending with me

 I slide in the front seat 
The drivers side

 To hotwire and hightail crosses my mind

 But still in the driveway

 Fixed like the stars 

 I flip on the headlights

 And go back inside 
The climates controlled

 While the battery dies

 Clipping the wings of your morning flight

 The night will end

 In some form of excess

 Pants around ankles

 Too weak to fully undress

 Its our anniversary

 A celebration of

 And heres to next year

 Maybe youll join me in my car

 We'll drive together

 But not too far

 We are far from flowers

 Cut and dried

 So let us thrive let us thrive

 Let us thrive let us thrive

 Just like the weeds

 We curse sometimes
monsieurvedrine

   Bill Callahan -''Javelin Unlanding''  

You looked like worldwide Armageddon / While you slept
You looked so peaceful it scared me
Don't die just yet / And leave me
Alone alone alone
On this journey / Round the sun

 Oh, Javelin!
Oh, Javelin!
Unlanding

 Sometimes it's hard to know when / To call it an evening
See as much as we can stand / Stand 'til we stagger
Laying all twisted together and exposed
Like roots on a river bank

 Bam bam bam! / The earth off its axis
The first drafts in ashes / And smeared on our faces

 Oh, Javelin!
Oh, Javelin!
Unlanding
Drag City


 Bill Callahan -''The Sing ''

Drinking
While sleeping
Strangers unknowingly keep me company
In the hotel bar
Looking out a window
That isn't there
Looking at the carpet
And the chairs
The only words I've said today are "beer" and "thank you"
Beer...
Thank youBeer...
Thank you
Beer...
Giving praise in a quiet way
Like a church
Like a church
Like a church
That's far away
I've got limitations
Like Marvin Gaye
Mortal joy is that way
Outside a train sings its whale song
To a long, long train
Long long gone
Then silence comes back alone
High as scaffolding
Until the wind finds something to ping
Or the pinging thing finds the wind
We're all looking for a body
Or a means to make one sing


 Bill Callahan - Small Plane  

Listen while you read!
You used to take me up / I watched and learned
How to fly

 No navigation system / Beyond our eyes
Watching

 I always went wrong in the same place
Where the river splits towards the sea
That couldn’t possibly be
You and me

 Sometimes you sleep while I take us home
That’s when I know / We really have a home

 I never like to land
Getting back up seems impossibly grand

 We do it with ease

 Danger I never think of danger
I really am a lucky man
Flying this small plane

 I like it when I take the controls from you
And when you take the controls from me

 I really am a lucky man
Flying this small plane

 Eyes scan the path ahead and all around
baanzibonzi

 Bill Callahan - Seagull Lyrics 

Listen while you read!
A barroom may entice / A seagull like me
Right off the sea / Right off the sea

 And into the barroom
The barroom the barroom
Barroom Barroom

 And let go / Yeah let go of the trapeze
And melt the snow of dream river

 I wonder if I’ll ever wake up
I mean really wake up
Wake up and wake you too
First thing I will do
I will wake you too

 How long have I been gone

 How long have I been traveling
How tired have I been and
How far have I got
In circling

 Circling

 With all the tolls we pay
We’ll own the highway someday
With all the tolls we pay
We’ll own the highway someday

 And the weight of the world slips away

And the seagull falls back on the sea
baanzibonzi

  Bill Callahan - Winter Road

 The road is dangerous 
And pretty and white 
Tired of spinning on snow 
World spinning heavy and slow 
And I’m headed home 

 Time itself means nothing
But time spent with you

 A Donald Sutherland interview comes on the truck radio
And he apologises to all he’s loved and scythed
A long shot of my face

 Oh I have learnt when things are beautiful to just keep on
Just keep on, oh
When things are beautiful
Just keep on

 The blinding lights of the kingdom can make you weep
Oh I have learned
When things are beautiful to just keep on
Just keep on

 Oh, when things are beautiful
Just keep on
baanzibonzi

  Bill Callahan-''All Thoughts Are Prey to Some Beast'' 

The leafless tree looked like a brain
The birds within were all the thoughts and desires within me
Hoppin' around from branch to branch
Or snug in their nests listenin' in
An eagle came over the horizon
And shook the branches with its sight
The softer thoughts: starlings, finches, and wrens
The softer thoughts, they all took flight
The eagle looked clear through the brain tree
Empty he thought, save for me
Maybe I'll make this one my home
Consolidate the nests of the tiny
Raise a family of might like me
Then something struck him, wings of bone
Sweet desires and soft thoughts were all gone
The eagle shrieked, "I'm alone"
Well it was time to flee the tree
The eagle snuck up on the wind
One talon at a time
Being sky king of the sky
What did he have to fear
All thoughts are prey to some beast (Χ6) 
Sweet desire and soft thoughts, return to me  (Χ8) 

Ante CRO

  Bill Callahan:''Eid Ma Clack Shaw''

Working through death's pain
Last night I swear I felt your touch
Gentle and warm
The hair stood on my arms
How?
How?
How?
Oh show me the way, show me the way, show me the way
To shake a memory
Show me the way, show me the way, show me the way
To shake a memory
I flipped my forelock, I twitched my withers, I reared and bucked
I could not put my rider aground
All these fine memories are fuckin' me down
I dreamed it was a dream that you were gone
I woke up feeling so ripped by reality
Yeah, love is the king of the beasts
And when it gets hungry it must kill to eat
Yeah, love is the king of the beasts
A lion walking down city streets
I fell back asleep some time later on
And I dreamed the perfect song
It held all the answers, like hands laid on
I woke halfway and scribbled it down
And in the morning what I wrote I read
It was hard to read at first but here's what it said
Eid ma clack shaw
Zupoven del ba
Mertepy ven seinur
Cofally ragdah
Eid ma clack shaw
Zupoven del ba
Mertepy ven seinur
Cofally ragdah
Oh show me the way, show me the way, show me the way
To shake a memory
Show me the way, show me the way, show me the way
To shake a memory
Eid ma clack shaw
Zupoven del ba
Mertepy ven seinur
Cofally ragdah
Oh show me the way, show me the way, show me the way
To shake a memory
Show me the way, show me the way, show me the way
To shake a memory



 Bill Callahan-Jim Cain  

 I started out in search of ordinary things
How much of a tree bends in the wind
I started telling the story without knowing the end

 I used to be darker, then I got lighter, then I got dark again
Something too big to be seen was passing over and over me
Well it seemed like the routine case at first
With the death of the shadow came a lightness of verse
But the darkest of nights, in truth, still dazzles
And I woke myself until I'm frazzled

 I ended up in search of ordinary things
Like how can a wave possibly be?
I started running, and the concrete turned to sand
I started running, and things didn't pan out as planned

 In case things go poorly and I not return
Remember the good things I've done
In case things go poorly and I not return
Remember the good things I've done
Done me in


Ante CRO

 Bill Callahan - The Wind And The Dove

  Somewhere between the wind and the dove
Lies all I sought in you
And when the wind just dies, when the wind just dies
And the dove won't rise
From your window sill

 Well I cannot tell you
Which way it would be
If it was this way too
For the wind and the dove
For the wind and the dove

 And I am a child of linger on
I peer through the window gone
I am a child of linger on
I peer through the window gone 

 Lies all I lost in you
And when the wind just dies, when the wind just dies
And the dove won't rise
From your window sill

 Well I cannot tell you
Which way it would be
If it was not this way too
For the wind and the dove
For the wind and the dove

 And I am a child of linger on
I peer through the window gone
I am a child of linger on
I peer through the window gone
Abel Cruz

 Smog-Bathysphere 

When I was seven
I asked my mother
To trip me to the bay
And put me on a ship
And lower me down
Lower me out of here

 Because when I was seven
I wanted to live in a bathysphere

 Between coral
Silent eel
Silver swordfish
I can't really feel or dream down here

 And if the water should cut my line (*2)
Set me free
And if the water should cut my line
Set me free, I don't mind
I'll be the lost sailor, my home is the sea

 When I was seven
My father said to me
'But you can't swim'
And I've never dreamed of the sea again
Ante CRO

 Smog - Teenage Spaceship

 Flying around
The houses at night
Flying alone

 A teenage spaceship
I was a teenage spaceship
Landing at night

 I was beautiful with all my lights
Loomed so large on the horizon
So large, people thought my windows were stars

 So large on the horizon
People thought my windows were stars
A teenage spaceship, a teenage spaceship


 Victor Victor


 Bill Callahan - Radio Sessions

 1. Sycamore 
2. Diamond Dancer 
3. Night 
4. Cold Discovery
5. Day 
6. Jim Cain 
7. Rococo Zephyr
8. Too Many Birds
9. Nothing Rises To Meet Me 

 Bill Callahan - ''Apocalypse'',2010. 


 00:00 1. Drover
05:20 2. Baby's Breath 5:20
10:49 3. America! 
16:24 4. Universal Applicant 
22:14 5. Riding For The Feeling 
28:20 6. Free's 
31:33 7. One Fine Morning


  noHiPSTER8
 Smog - A River Ain't too Much To Love 

➊ Palimpsest 00:00
➋ Say Valley maker 02:50
➌ The Well 07:56
➍ Rock Bottom Riser 14:50
➎ I Feel Like The Mother Of The World 20:33
➏ In The Pines 23:38
➐ Drinking At The Dam 28:48
➑ Running the Loping 32:52
➒ I'm New Here 39:47
➓ Let Me See The Colts 43:40


lifeonastrings

 SMOG - Chosen One (Peel Sessions)

 Well you're a wild horse
On a collision course
With the sun 
I wanted to ride that wild horse
Into the sun
But I no longer think that I'm your chosen one
Oh no, I no longer think that I'm your chosen one
Oh whoa 
Maybe it's best for you to ride
Ride into the sun 
Because I no longer think that
I'm your chosen one
Oh no, I no longer think that
I'm your chosen one
Oh whoa
Hamsa oua Hamsine

 Smog - Peel Session

  00.00 - Cold Discovery
05.48 - Dirty Pants
11.06 - Beautiful Child (Fleetwood Mac cover)
18.01 - Jesus (Velvet Underground cover)


verbalrocket


 Smog - Driving

  And the rain washes the price off of our windshield...