Test Tones

EXITMUSIC 1008
Written, arranged and produced by
Mikel Rouse
EXITMUSIC RECORDINGS

Test Tones is a collection of song written and recorded in rural Louisiana during Rouse’s three year residency. While in Louisiana, he spent considerable time in the Delta meeting and playing with regional artists, most influential of which were Henry Dorsey and Wayne “Tookie” Cullum. Playing “cane cuttter blues” with Henry and Tookie would influence the multi-media piece Music For Minorities. But with Test Tones, Rouse explores his new studio environment and sets the tone for the next recording. Test Tones is dedicated to Steve Reich and Brian Wilson, once again highlighting Rouse’s interest in classical structure applied to vernacular music.

01. JC Love Field
02. Only You Can Forgive Me
03. This Is The Best
04. Poor God
05. Grace Lynn
06. Pawn And Gun
07. Daddy’s Money
08. Sarah And Erin
09. Sunsations
10. Test Tones
11. Falling Into Grace
12. Before And After
13. America’s Belief

Lyrics

JC LOVE FIELD

Where was your silent night arranged?
Sleeping in towns that never change
Miracle fabric, fattening foods
Liquor and guns and desperate moods

Hunting and fishing jamboree
Didn’t you hear invest in me?
Bringin’ it to the lightning round
Sending it through the underground

If you think you’re on your own or not
Remember baby it’s just alright
You can make it with a love field outa sight
Get yourself together baby it’s just alright
Any other kind of love field’s gonna bite

Something that’s lazy makes you act crazy
Born out of wedlock, that’s when you deadlock
Magical crop yield that’s JC Love Field

When was the moment time ran out?
Left over lives, what’s that about?
Up over head the sky so blue
Somewhere someone is watching you

Huntin’ and fishin’ jamboree
Didn’t you hear invest in me?
Bringin’ it to the lightning round
Sending it through the underground

If may think your on your own or not, remember…

ONLY YOU CAN FORGIVE ME

When I find the words that fail
Is it any wonder thery’re for sale?
Please believe me completely

When I’ve gotten what I gave
Can I have it written on my grave:
Regrets deeply, completely

I didn’t bother to learn
How to sink or to swim

Time can’t forgive me, the sky can’t forgive me
Only you can forgive me
Friends can’t forgive me, the end can’t forgive me
Only you can forgive me

He can’t forgive me or She can’t forgive me
Only you can forgive me

THIS IS THE BEST

This is the best that we can do
This is the best that we can do

Caught up in a world right in front of me
Maybe I go South, meet my destiny
Make believe I drive, kick it into gear
Make a mental note ‘til the coast is clear

No one is to blame, I just don’t agree
Please let me explain my philosophy
Give it to the poor, give it to the rich
Maybe I’m confused as to which is which

This is the best, this is the best
The best we can do

Every now and then everything I do
Mixes me a drink and I think of you
If it’s in the air and it gets around
Might as well believe that it’s homeward bound

No one is to blame, I just can’t agree
Please let me explain my philosophy
I give it to you, you give it to me
No one will complain as long as it is free

This is the best, this is the best
The best we can do

POOR GOD

Look what you have done
I have to start all over
Poor God
Poor God

Now I have to start all over again
Poor God
Poor God

GRACE LYNN

Remember where you’ve been
Remember Grace Lynn

Mystery follows me everywhere I go today
Everywhere I’m in the way
Taking the conference and life underground
She’s too tired of being around

I didn’t wonder ‘cause I didn’t care
But imagining more than the crosses to bare
Is the myth of forever
And the myth of forgetting Grace Lynn

Mystery follows me and with a wave of the hand
Everywhere I’m in demand
Taking the market instead of the sound
I’m too tired of hanging around

I didn’t wonder ‘cause I didn’t care
But imagining more than the crosses to bare
Is the myth of forever
And the myth of forgetting Grace Lynn

Remember where you’ve been
Remember Grace Lynn

Grace Lynn
Grace Lynn

DADDY’S MONEY

In my wealth, in my mind and my faith in my kind
I believe in a town with enough to go ‘round
In the left over light where you stay for the night
There’s a smile and a breeze and a quiet disease

Daddy’s money, daddy’s money
Daddy look down, look down daddy look down

It keeps pace with the times and it welcomes odd rhymes
Call it hope or relief in this state of belief
It makes sense in my head as I’m lying in bed
You don’t ask, you don’t get if you live in regret

Daddy’s money, daddy’s money
Daddy look down, look down daddy look down

SARAH AND ERIN

Sarah and Erin out for a spin
Wearing life able and where have they been?
In focus forever and diving for pearls
Unsettling times for a couple of girls

And what did we leave you?
I’m sorry for that
And what did we leave you?
I’m sorry for that

Sarah and Erin out for a spin
Wearing life able and some kind of kin

SUNSATIONS

If you come around I will be in clover
Even up and over, what I wouldn’t do
If you come around even for a short while
I’ll turn off my mobile just to be with you

If you come around I’ll give up the drinkin’
Even give up thinkin’ what I wouldn’t do
If you come around I’ll stay home on Sunday
I’ll make it the one day just to be with you

If you come around with your summer sound
Memories abound I will be the love you have forever
When the world is done and there’s no more fun
Love is on the run I will be the one to leave you never

Sunsations
Sunsations

TEST TONES

Take my Ruston days
Take my gentle ways
Take my boring pains
Take my rotting veins
Take my Ruston days

BEFORE AND AFTER

Before there was beauty and afterward too
Before there was me, before there was you
Before we were through

Before there was sadness and afterward too
A missing belief still missing for two
And what can you do?

Before and after I looked to the skies
I saw it just as I was closing my eyes
Before and after the tears that I cried
I saw for an instant the soul I denied

Before there was poverty, afterward too
Depends where you look, depends what you do
A room with a view

Before there was sadness and afterward too
A missing belief still missing for two
Well, what can you do?

Before and after I looked to the skies
I saw it just as I was closing my eyes
Before and after the tears that I cried
I saw for an instant the soul I denied

Before and after before
Before and after

AMERICA’S BELIEF

And the sleepy town, what goes up goes down
Everybody wipe your feet
And you’re all alone with your magic phone
Everybody’s got the beat

If it’s sink or swim with your new best friend
Who’s the prophet, who’s the thief?
And the falling stars and the whiskey bars
Of America’s belief

I know I’ll always love you ‘til the end of time
I know I’ll always love you ‘til the end of time

See the magic shoes watch them dance the blues
As they tumble out of sight
And if freedom rings and religion sings
Then I won’t know wrong from right

And the sleepy town, what goes up goes down
Who’s the prophet, who’s the thief?
And the falling stars and the whiskey bars
Of America’s belief

I know I’ll always love you ‘til the end of time
I know I’ll always love you ’til the end of time