I’ve been thinking
Staying up too late
Driving round in circles
Bang, bang, banging at the gate

I’m just a walking wreck
Of things I never knew
Behind a wall of good intentions
What’s a man to do?

If I could read your mind
Follow your design
Never need reminding
To fall in line

If I could read your mind
With all answers I could find
I’d be exactly what you needed
Every time

Honey, lately
It’s like I’m in a dream
The signs are all around me
But I don’t know what they mean

So I retrace my steps
To see where I went wrong
Everything that has been missing
May have been there all along

-music & lyrics by Christopher Gatsby 07/25/2013

Original songs on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=christopher+gatsby

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Read Your Mind

*featuring Jake on box

Everything's for sale
In person or by mail
Got candlesticks and pillows and a radio
Help yourself to souvenirs galore
Take the keys to my front door
Time is short and everything must go

I'm disinclined to be confined
I want nothing that 
I couldn't leave behind

Everything you see is buy one get one free
Got silverware and pictures and a rocking chair
Won't you help a man lowly dispose
of these smartly tailored clothes
I can't believe all this was in my care

I'm disinclined to be confined
I want nothing that 
I couldn't leave behind

I've got boxes full of treasures
I'll sell them by the pound
You'll a team of men
Just to get them off the ground

How on earth did so much 
nonsense find it's way to me?
50 for the records
All the rest is free

I'm disinclined to be confined
I want nothing that 
I couldn't leave behind

As long as I’ve got shoes
And a briefcase full of blues
I want nothing that 
I couldn’t leave behind

-music & lyrics by Christopher Gatsby 07/27/2011, recorded 09/10/2013

Original songs on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=christopher+gatsby

+Like Christopher Gatsby on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Christopher.Gatsby

Yard Sale [ft Jake]

Originally written years ago; now in it's third [and final] rewrite

Sometimes I wake up early in the morning
and sometimes I stay in bed
Sometimes I sit and stare at the walls
Singing my songs to the dead

Sometimes I take the dawn as a warning
and sometimes I stay out late
Getting drunker than sin on bathtub gin
Tipping my hat to the waitresses

REFRAIN:
I don't think it's hard to see
What everyone else can
I belong to sometime else
I'm a Century Man

I try to keep a dollar in my pocket
and one eye on the time
I stick to the plan the best that I can
But ain't got a watch or a dime

I try to keep a-roaring like the stock
but always both feet on the ground
Armed and ready to run like a Thompson gun
Don't look back till I'm rounding third

‘Cuz I’ve heard it before
And I thought I was sure
To be cornered and lost like a pawn
But it’s check and mate
Now I own the estate
To a kingdom that’s already gone

REFRAIN

I don't have to play if I don't wanna
And I don't think that I will
All dressed up for a date generations too late
Still get stuck with the bill

I can only see in black and white
Only speak in Delta Blues
Every rhythm and rhyme takes me back in time
Grasp on reality loosening

REFRAIN

-music & lyrics by Christopher Gatsby 10/21/2009, first rewrite 09/15/2010, final rewrite 05/15/2013

Original songs on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=christopher+gatsby

+Like Christopher Gatsby on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Christopher.Gatsby

Century Man V3

Late one night some years ago
I came into some extra dough
On 21st September I recall
Piled my friends into the car
And headed out to Shooter's Bar
With nothing on my mind but alcohol

Then I laid my eyes upon
the girl that I would one day wed
I turned to ask her name
and she was gone

Now every night lo all these years
I lay my songs on thirsty ears
Just lookin' for, lookin' for that girl

   Hey you, are you the girl
   I saw that night so long ago
   Have you ever been to Shooter's Bar?
   I still have yet to find the love
   that I learned was alive
   September 21st, 2005

I know that date like my own name
That night's been burned into my brain
When my whole life
came briefly into view
I won't stop these watchful eyes
Until her face I recognize
I'll know it from a hundred yards away

Since that night I've wondered
how I lived so many years before
The moment I learned
she's somewhere out there

Now I'm roaming near and far
Just passing time with my guitar
And lookin' for, lookin' for that girl

----------

I've been searching high and low
Since that one night six years ago
And I will search until I lose my sight
Mind you I am well aware
That she could be most anywhere
But still there is a chance
she's here tonight

When I find her I will marry her
and take her far away
Together we will live
as king and queen

Until that day I'll be around
Singing songs from town to town
Just lookin' for, lookin' for that girl

-music & lyrics by Christopher Gatsby 03/16/2011

Original songs on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=christopher+gatsby

+Like Christopher Gatsby on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Christopher.Gatsby

Shooter's Bar [ft Spencer Elliott]

Never known a cowboy not to give his heart away
Still it seemed a foolish thing to do
Yesterday I had the greatest love from Texas to Japan
Now here I am, The World’s Most Broken-Hearted Man

You could say she had a way about her by and by
Bring the Earth and Heaven to its knees
My oh my, to think that her and I did once walk hand in hand
Before I was The World’s Most Broken-Hearted Man

Please don’t cry for me
But if you do, I would understand

If you can believe it I was famous for a while
Even got my picture on TV
Had a pile of opened letters from every corner of the land
Written to The World’s Most Broken-Hearted Man

Never in a million years could I have ever dreamed
The world would turn its lonely eyes to me
Teams of poets and philosophers have strived to understand
The story of The World’s Most Broken-Hearted Man

Please don’t cry for me
But if you do, I would understand

If it makes a difference, now I guess I’m doing fine
So if you see the carnival in town 
Get in line to ride the ferris wheel
Don’t miss the marching band
And say hello to The World’s Most Broken-Hearted Man
Here I am, the one and only World’s Most Broken-Hearted Man

-music & lyrics by Christopher Gatsby 10/09/2013

Original songs on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=christopher+gatsby

+Like Christopher Gatsby on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Christopher.Gatsby

The World's Most Broken-Hearted Man

You’re an inspiration, baby
I could never change you
Even if I could I wouldn’t dare
Chronic complication
I will never let them break you
I still hear your footsteps
Every day and everywhere

    REFRAIN:
    I’ve been known to run, baby
    I’ve been known to hide
    But never had a one
    That ain’t been satisfied

    Now that it’s begun
    Maybe there will come a time
    That you and I will fetch the setting sun

Stop and count your blessings
Baby’s got a bitter feeling
Consequence of mental overload
Heaven hold me back
Return attack increasingly appealing
Driving up the highway
On the wrong side of the road

    REFRAIN

It’s easy not to see what is
Right before your eyes crystallize
Not a day goes by
Without you on my mind
We’re designed to assume
We’re two of a kind
Kindred hearts predefined

You’re an inspiration, baby
Don’t you ever doubt it
Cant’ you see the things
You’ve done to me
Perfect imitation
Too distraught to care about it
Nothing can be done
So it’s best to let it be

    REFRAIN

-music & lyrics by Christopher Gatsby 10/30/2013

Original songs on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=christopher+gatsby

+Like Christopher Gatsby on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Christopher.Gatsby

Untitled #6

She wakes up when the rain comes down
Just to fall back asleep to its sound
And I say, hey, that’s my baby

Sometimes she cries when she feels just fine
She takes her pills with a glass of wine
And I say, when they ask me
That’s my baby

She keeps me impressed and fed
When I’m undressed in bed
She holds me close
Her nightlys keep her comatose
But heaven knows the Earth
Stops when she wakes me
That’s my baby

She takes in strays and the prey they catch
She paints her nails but they never match
And I say, hey, that’s my baby

No matter what they say
When we pass by
I take her hand in mine
And hold it high

Forgets the words to her favorite song
She makes them up as she sings along
And I say, when I hear her
That’s my baby

She keeps me impressed and fed
When I’m undressed in bed
She holds me close
Her nightlys keep her comatose
But heaven knows the Earth
Stops when she wakes me
That’s my baby

-music & lyrics by Christopher Gatsby 06/19/2012

Original songs on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=christopher+gatsby

+Like Christopher Gatsby on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Christopher.Gatsby

That's My Baby

It's Christmas Eve and I believe
Just like the boy long ago
When I gaze outside
And candles shine
through milk cartons out in the snow

Though I'm quite a bit larger
The magic's the same
Still can recite all the
reindeer by name

As we feast on childhood sweets
Though nog now tastes better with rum
Late at night I'm bundled up tight
Though I try, old or young
Sleep just won't come


The streets are still
The rooftops spill
their smoke into the night
The frost rolls in
The trees go dim
And soon does the last bedroom light

Though it feels so much smaller
The house looks the same
Santas and snowflakes I
made in third grade

All these scenes
come flickering back
like colorful lights on a tree
And grow year by year
Increasingly dear
Still I can't wait to see
Those yet to be

-music & lyrics by Christopher Gatsby 11/30/2012

Original songs on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=christopher+gatsby

+Like Christopher Gatsby on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Christopher.Gatsby

Longest Night Of The Year [ft Jake]

It’s so pretty how you wake up next to me
And the sun is shining
And even how when I step outside
On a winters night I’m grounded

REFRAIN:
It kinda makes me think
If life is just a blink
Let me see your eyes
When I rise and again when I fall
If life is just a blink then I can see it all

Summer days don’t feel the same
When orchards have run dry
The winds of change like Kansas rains
Make me want to cry

REFRAIN

You’re the only one who makes this life living
Without you the world is so unforgiving
I need you

The walls will stay from the house we’ll make
And the skies will open wide
For a ride we’ll take on a new place
And we’ll call it paradise

-music & lyrics by Ray Ayton Jones 2013-12-21 with Christopher Gatsby

Ray and Gatsby on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ray+ayton+christopher+gatsby

Ray Ayton Jones w/ Christopher Gatsby - Just A Blink

Got a steel tongue drum for Christmas! Composed this 10 minutes later by the fire with my glass of bourbon. Happy holidays!

Fireside [Instrumental - Steel Tongue Drum]

Close our eyes and imagine the stars
Bitter cold outside but it’s warm in your arms
In and out, every breath
Seems to carry me farther away

Time holds still like the frost
On the glass of the window pane
Just above the shadow you cast
When you raise your head
To hear me say

REFRAIN:
If you still want me
By the time that summer comes
I’ll take you at your word
If you still want me
By the time that summer comes
My heart will be yours

Love and greed share a room in my head
I put one in my pocket and the other to bed
Long before the time you came this way

Now you’re here and you’re leaving
Promises lie in the night
Like the whisper of snow from the sky
‘Till the sun starts to thaw any reason to stay

REFRAIN

Two winds crossed in the wake of a storm
Out to sea they were swept with immaculate form
By the cold winter air
And for a time did stay
With summer come what may

-music & lyrics by Christopher Gatsby 01/16/2014

Original songs on YouTube: www.youtube.com/results?search_qu…hristopher+gatsby

+Like Christopher Gatsby on Facebook: www.facebook.com/Christopher.Gatsby

Two Winds

LEGEND: "x & y" = co-written song; "X with Y" = ideas mostly from X with creative input from Y; "X featuring Y" = composed by X, guest Y on backup/lead.

Ray Ayton Jones w/ Christopher Gatsby - Just A Blink

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