Troubled Sleep, CD by Cormac McCarthy

Lyrics
Liner Notes
Discography
Press

Troubled Sleep

Walking on the beach with my unborn children
Skipping stones to keep the moonlight awake
Like the wind dancing through the shadows
Not a soul did I wake

You have your dead, you have your dreams
Your pride will pull you through
As you walk along the cliffs at night
Cling to what you know is true

If every star were a wish come true
Every smile a counted sheep
I’d be there with you in your dreams
And save you from your troubled sleep

There are carloads of sleeping men out on the highway
They cross the country looking for jobs
They don’t care whose head sleeps upon their shoulder
While their dreams are being robbed

You carry your memories like a sack of old stones
Though some are lighter than air
Sleep is the place where the bones can rest
Unless the world follows you there

If every star were a wish come true
Every smile a counted sheep
I’d be there with you in your dreams
And save you from your troubled sleep

At night we pass down through the mirror
Pass ourselves in endless falling
The last thing I heard was the back door slam
I head my mother calling

Startled confessions, whet on our lips
We stop to stare
To see what the shadows carry in their arms
To see what’s finally there

If every star were a wish come true
Every smile a counted sheep
I’d be there with you in your dreams
And save you from your troubled sleep

Nobody But You

Excerpt

I’d rather see the sunshine than the rain
I’d rather see you back on your feet again
I want to help you up, over, and through
Cause nobody loves me like you do

Nobody loves me like you do
Nobody thrills me like you
Nobody scares me as much as you
Nobody but you

mp3

Nobody But You

When My Boat Is Built Again

Excerpt

When my boat is built again
We will ride upon the ocean
When my boat is built again
We will ride the waves together

Sometimes at night, when I cannot sleep
I drift with my boat into the Milky Way
And as I rock my way towards the north Atlantic
I’m always asleep before I reach the bay.

Cows

In Australia they’ve got kangaroos
In Scotland they’ve got sheep
The Amazon has got piranha
Da Bronx have got birds that say CHEEP, CHEEP, CHEEP!
CHICKADEE DEE DEE!

In all of these foreign countries
The fauna does abound
Of all the noble animals,
I’ll take mine by the pound.

Cows, Cows,
Cows are big and sweet,
Cows are great to eat,
Cows have big brown eyes,
Cows have tasty thighs,
Cows just graze all day,
Cows are cheap they run on hay,
Cows, Cows, Cows, Cows,
Cows, Cows, Cows

She’s a blushing bovine Venus
She’s a statue in the field
Not only is she gorgeous
This winter she will feed us

Cows are pasteurized
Cows are homogenized
Cows have bedroom eyes…

Ground beef and T-bone
It’s good for your teeth and your muscle tone

Cows, Cows, Cows, Cows,
Cows, Cows, Cows

You know a cow makes a gracious host,
Eye, face, rump roast
Cows, Cows, Cows

In India Cows are sacred,

Cows, Cows, Cows, Cows…

Waltz with the Captain’s Daughter

Excerpt

…with nothing in common but a bad attitude
We went out beneath the cynical moon.

..I wondered who had taken who
But, I was thankful all the same

Then I looked, looked for love in her eyes
I saw that there wasn’t a chance
And I knew I’d better think some more
About this business, business of romance.

Oh, a waltz with the Captain’s daughter
A look on the other side…

Dreams

I’ve been having the strangest dreams
Complete with cold sweat and screams
Crawling through the jungle with an empty clip
Standing on the deck of a sinking ship

Oh, then I dream of you
I wake up and know that it’s true
I’m doing the best that I can
When I dream
When I dream of you

Well, the Martians came through the ceiling last night
And fried my amp and guitar
The whole city looked like a hologram
The sky was a flaming star
Standing alone in the street
The world’s not yours anymore
A force that’s bigger than a Rockefeller
Has hammered down your door

Oh, then I dream of you
I wake up and know it’s true
I’m doing the best that I can
When I dream
When I dream of you

You can give my wet dreams to Sigmund Freud
Give my labyrinths to Carl Jung
Give my broken dreams to the banker
Give my pipe dreams to the very young
Alarm clock wakes you in morning
Dreams get you out of bed
Half of everything it seems
Is all inside your head

Oh, then I dream of you
I wake up and know it’s true
I’m doing the best that I can
When I dream
When I dream of you.

mp3

Dreams

Liner Notes

The liner notes for Troubled Sleep contain the full lyrics for all songs on the CD. Only a selection of lyrics are provided online. The liner also includes the credits for the CD production. Major credits are included here in the discography.

Discography

Troubled Sleep

Cormac McCarthy vocals, guitar.
Bob Thompson: guitars
Edward Gerhard: acoustic slide guitar.
Bruce Derr: pedal steel guitar.
Johnny Cunningham:violin
Chuck Chaplin: piano.
Michael McInnes: keyboard.
Rick Watson
bass, rhythm guitar.
Marty Ballou, Teg Glendon: bass.
Steve Johnson, Ray Brunelle: drums.
Peter Gallway percussion,
back up vocals:
Rick Watson,
Sammie Haynes,
Linda Schrade,
Tom Blackwell ,
Devon Square: Tom Dean,
Alana McDonald, Herb Ludwig.

Press

When Troubled Sleep appeared, reviewers responded:

Best New Albums: Troubled Sleep,
The Hartford Herald

Boston Music Awards, Nominations: Outstanding FolK/Acoustic Album: and Outstanding Folk Act

Boston Globe Ten Best Folk Concerts: "...and Cormac McCarthy at the Sanders Theater.

Cormac McCarthy "a brilliant New Hampshire singer-songwriter whose songs are stories detailing wicked romances gone astray. " --Louis Black,
The Austin Chronicle

Cormac McCarthy "carves lyrical sketches of tired lives in the sleepy towns of New Hampshire and Maine… With a poet’s empathy and a storyteller’s eye for detail, ... while making fine, compelling music is songwriting of the first order."

Scott Alarik
The Boston Globe