There is No Calamity – A new release from Peter Himmelman

245th PEACE SONG
MEMORIES IN THIS HEART OF MINE
SMOKE AND FLAMES
FEAR IS OUR UNDOING
RIBBON OF HIGHWAY
RICH MEN RUN THE WORLD
SACRIFICIAL
LOVE IS WHAT CARRIES US AWAY
THE DEPTH OF YOU
BURNING THROUGH THE DAYS
I PITY YOU POOR SPIRITS
ROPES AND WINGS

Produced by Steve Berlin
Bass—Matt Thompson
Drums—Chuck Lacy
Guitar—Scott Tipping
Guitar, Piano, Vocals—Peter Himmelman
Backing vocals—Kristin Mooney, Claire Holley, and Willie Aron

Additional musicians:
Hammond organ, Mellotron, Celest—Mitchell Froom
Hammond organ (245th Peace Song)—Jeff Victor
Percussion—Jimi Englund

Horns and strings arranged by Anthony Meade
Horns: Trumpet—Paul Chandler • Trombone—Anthony Meade
Strings: Viola—Jean Mastaler • Cello—Skip Von Kuske

Engineered and mixed by Jeff Stuart Saltzman
Recorded at B-Side Studio Portland, Oregon

Additional engineering by John Paterno
Mastered by Adam Gonsalves at Telegraph Mastering
Photography and Design—Jim Hershleder
Layout and typography—Steve Stanley

All songs written by Peter Himmelman ASCAP, 2017 ©&P Himmasongs/administered by Primary Wave

“To Donna —for the woman with a strength of 10,000 men, you will always be the mission of my soul – from Jeff”
“Dedicating this album in loving memory to my parents, Daniel and Sandra, and my brother Robert” – Ellen J. Berman

LYRICS

245th Peace Song

The holes in people’s lives need to be filled
I get that. I understand that.
But you’ve got to be careful what you fill them with
Do you get that? Understand that?

The scars in people’s lives need to be healed
I get that. I understand that.
But you’ve got to be careful what you heal them with.
Do you get that? Understand that?

Scapegoating, killing, hating on the other
Isn’t it time that we finally discover
Everyone you see could be your sister and your brother
Did you forget that in your pain? Has weakness made you insane?
Stop the hate. Stop the hate.

The need in people’s lives has to be erased
I get that. I understand that.
But you’ve got to be careful what you erase it with
Do you get that? Understand that?

The anger in people’s hearts needs to be cooled.
I get that. I understand that.
But you’ve got to be careful what you cool it with.
Do you get that? Understand that?

Taking out your anger on another race
It has no purpose, it has no place
it makes no sense, it’s evil and wrong
it don’t make you wise, it don’t make you strong

Anger’s gonna crush you under its own weight
stop the hate, stop the hate, stop the hate…

Memories In this Heart of Mine

The dog’s asleep at my feet again
The clock reads twenty to nine
I’m feeling incomplete again
Like there’s a hole in the span of my mind

The fog is slowly thickening
There’s a chill runnin’ down my spine
There are far fewer stars in the sky tonight
Then memories in this heart of mine

You ask me what I’m thinking”
There’s much I can’t make a dent
There’s the sound of distant thunder breaking,
the green sky and its calming scent

The storm is blowing full force now
and it intoxicates like wine
But there are far fewer drops of rain comin down
Than memories in this heart of mine

The old house it still vibrates
Even though the past has gone
There are phantom traces echoing
Like a reverb set too long

Words play and slowly fade
Emotions still get stirred
Images of us from long ago
Are not the least obscured

My Feelings are intact, not a one out of place,
Such an intricate design,
There are far fewer particles of light in the sun
Than memories in this heart of mine

Smoke and Flames

Hours ticking off minutes melting down
The ground is scorched, the sky is muddy brown
My mind’s like helium floating in my skull
My heart is roaring ‘neath my ribs
With a pain I can’t dull

Migdalia in smoke and Flames
Can’t stand the torture I’m naming names
You withdraw your weapon, you smile and you aim
Migdalia you leave me in smoke and flames

The river is electric, your face lights up my brain
Your body’s on my fingertips, my control is on the wane
The headlights from the street, projected on my wall
A tomcat cries like a baby, as a hundred black stars fall

Migdalia in smoke and Flames
Can’t stand the torture I’m naming names
You withdraw your weapon, you smile and you aim
Migdalia you leave me in smoke and flames

Oh you gotta let me down
There’s no oxygen to breath at this altitude
I need you more than water, blood, or food
I can’t resist you…

Can’t take the heat of you
Can’t take the sweat of you
Can’t take the darkness

But I don’t want to get away
Don’t want to break away

There’s a wire between us now
Pulled so impossibly tight
All the world is darkness – all the world is light
You engulf me with your dreams- suck the air straight from my lungs
Every word that can be spoken must now be spoken in tongues

Migdalia in smoke and Flames
Can’t stand the torture I’m naming names
You withdraw your weapon, you smile and you aim
Migdalia you leave me in smoke and flames

Fear Is Our Undoing

Fear is our undoing
We unravel in its wake
Our good sense is destroyed
And our foundation starts shake

I said fear is our undoing
We must not run away
The only choice that’s left to us
Is the one that has us stay

Said you gotta be brave
Gotta look alive
It takes a lot of will just to survive
This fear down here
This fear down here
Said you gotta be brave
Gotta look alive
It takes a lot of will just to survive
This fear down here
This fear down here

Fear is our undoing
Only love can carry us in flight
The answers we’re pursuing
Are only found in heat and light

Together we’re so strong
We can catch each other if one of us should fall
I said fear is undoing
Apart we are nothing at all

Fear is our undoing
We come apart like strands of rope
Only in togetherness is there strength
Only in motion is there ever hope

Ribbon of Highway

Flatlined supine 
Just another enzyme 
Fort hood
Hollywood
Nothing heard or understood
Last leap trash heap
Dozin in a half sleep 
last gasp losin grasp
Stepping on a poison asp

I’ll keep movin if you keep movin
That is if you still agree 
To keep on talkin and keep on walkin
Down this ribbon of highway with me

Bellyflop
start and stop 
Feed the pigs their morning slop
Spine straight contemplate 
The bones upon your dinner plate
Last laugh bad gaffe 
Every dream’s been cut in half
Hard rain novacaine 
Chatter playin in my brain

I’ll keep movin if you keep movin
That is if you still agree 
To keep on talkin and keep on walkin
Down this ribbon of highway with me

When I’m with you 
I go straight through 
To the other side 
We’ve been together
Most of forever 
We’re gonna take that ride

I’ll keep movin if you keep movin
That is if you still agree 
To keep on talkin and keep on walkin
Down this ribbon of highway with me

Rich Men Run The World

The sun tucks itself just behind the hills
The light is compressed and yet out it spills
The boats keep on coming, carrying nanobots and coal
It’s all about rhythm it’s all about control

Lord knows that river’s got a mind if its own
Prospects and estimates, all overblown
The water rolls black, the current rolls so hard
Almost two thousand pounds in a single cubic yard

Rich men run the world from here
It don’t run on mercy it runs on fear
And what money buys is what every man craves
As if we could carry it down to our graves – Rich men run the world

Our minds are too focused on steel and on stone
As if all else – were already known
Harvest time is coming, dig your hands into the earth
Only two things are real, and their names are: death and birth

Rich men run the world from here
It don’t run on mercy it runs on fear
And what money buys is what every man craves
As if we could carry it down to our graves – Rich men run the world

The unrepentant are the masters of the game
They walk this earth without pity or shame
Down at the water you can wash away the mud
You can feel something birthing in the cells of your blood

Rich men run the world from here
It don’t run on mercy it runs on fear
And what money buys is what every man craves
As if we could carry it down to our graves – Rich men run the world

Sacrificial

How much is too much, how long is too long,
How do you know anything when the light is way too strong
How little is too little, how heavy is too much too bear
How do you call out for help, when no one’s ever there

Sacrificial, do you feel sacrificial, like you can’t keep the vultures at bay
Sacrificial, do you feel sacrificial, like you’re giving yourself away,
like you’re giving yourself away

How hot is too hot, how cold is too cold
How do you know anything when you’re squeezed into a mold
How free is too free, how chained is too chained
How do you cry for revolution, when it all seems pre-ordained

Sacrificial, do you feel sacrificial, like you can’t keep the vultures at bay
Sacrificial, do you feel sacrificial, like you’re giving yourself away,
like you’re giving yourself away

Up on the alter, up on the pyre
Bound to your predilections, attached to your desire
Like a lamb to the slaughter, like Abraham’s first born
Better to bear your burden in silence, then to bear it all with scorn

How real is too real, how faux is to faux
How do you know anything when the light burns way too low
How angry is too angry, how sweet is just too sweet
How do you call out for love when love feels like defeat?

Sacrificial, do you feel sacrificial, like you can’t keep the vultures at bay
Sacrificial, do you feel sacrificial, like you’re giving yourself away,
like you’re giving yourself away

Love Is What Carries Us Away

Love is a desert flower
Tender petals ‘neath a copper sun
I miss you more with each hour
I’ll be with you when the day is done

Love is what carries us away
Love is what carries us away

There is no face like your face
No lips as sweet as yours
I’m moving and I’m getting nearer
I’m riding shore to shore

Love is what carries us away
Love is what carries us away

No distance is too far when
You’ve got a heart that needs a heart
No fear and no resistance
All you’ve got to do is start

Love is what carries us away
Love is what carries us away

You and I we’re gonna make, a life together
You and I we’re gonna live, a life together

Love is what carries us away

The Depth of You

Pacific on my left
Clapboard shacks to my right
Spent all of yesterday straining
with all my might

You fill me up in places
I didn’t even know exist
You make me long for something
I didn’t realize I’d missed

Halfway home reluctant
Not a clue what I’m gonna find
I only know I’ve got the depth of you
Seared into my mind

So many words get spoken
The hard ones and the kind
girl I’ve got the depth of you
Seared into my mind

The bridges and overpasses
Cast shadows on the rails
My body moves in rhythm
As a lonesome whistle wails

The trucks are fully loaded
And they’re bound for who knows where
I never cease to be surprised
to feel how much I care

I’m rolling straight, unstoppable
But I feel like I’m falling behind
baby I’ve got the depth of you
Seared into my mind

So many dreams envisioned
So few stars aligned
Baby I’ve got the depth of you
Seared into my mind

The clouds are thin and smoky
Barely hanging on to the sky
Sometimes I dream I’m drowning
Sometimes I dream I can fly

Tonight it’ll be a relief
To have a dream of any kind
Girl I got the depth of you
You been seared into my mind

So many words get spoken
To illuminate or leave you blind
Oh girl I’ve got the depth of you
Seared into my mind

Burning Through the Days

There are a million ways in
But I’m afraid to enter
I stand outside the gate
Always off my center

There are a million ways in
But I sit back and wait
The moon lifts up in space
the hour has gotten late

There are a million ways out
But I’m afraid to leave
I’ve been holed up here so long
I’ve forgotten how to breathe

There are a million ways out
And they each lead somewhere new
I used up all my hopes
Of ever coming back to you

Burning through the days
Hours up in flames
People without faces
Faces without names
Nothing waits for long, nothing ever stays
Here I am again – burning through the days

There are a million ways through
and yet I can’t choose one
I’ll rest a little longer
Let more be left undone

There a million ways through
But each is filled with pain
But deciding to avoid it
Is a decision made in vain

Burning through the days
Hours up in flames
People without faces
Faces without names
Nothing waits for long, nothing ever stays
And here I am again – burning through the days

Paper, twigs, cloth, straw and gasoline – a ball of fire burning, scorching the highest beams

Now I see the ashes, now I feel the shame. As always I’ve got nothing more than fear to blame

Burning through the days
Hours up in flames
People without faces
Faces without names
Nothing waits for long, nothing ever stays
And here I am again – burning through the days

I Pity You Poor Spirits

She was born rich and beautiful
Now she stops to rest
The dirty boys out on the 101
Agree that she’d been blessed

But the world grew tight and dark
Like her very last hours were near
She dreamed that she was falling
Dreamed that she could disappear

I pity you pity you who have it all figured out
Who never raise a finger, who never dare to shout
There is no calamity no reason to rejoice.
I pity you poor spirits who cannot make one earthly choice

She flew away from the expectations
The smoke and the shuddering waves
She longed for something primitive
Something no mortal ever craves

She put a feather to her nostrils
Watched it flutter with her breath
She fought off a desire to laugh
Fought off a desire for death

I pity you pity you who have it all figured out
Who never raise a finger, who never dare to shout
There is no calamity no reason to rejoice.
I pity you poor spirits who cannot make one earthly choice

The pale girls dressed in white
Come to play by the edge of the lake
They make so much racket
That the ground begins to shake

Mothers leave their bedrooms
Fathers follow not far behind
Some have lost their money
Some have lost their minds

I pity you pity you who have it all figured out
Who never raise a finger, who never dare to shout
There is no calamity no reason to rejoice.
I pity you poor spirits who cannot make one earthly choice

Her belly was warm and full
Her hair like shafts of light
She made her way to the river
As the sky turned from blue to white

The rain it started slowly
Picked up in an hour or so
When the wheat fields had finally flooded
She knew it was time to go

I pity you pity you who have it all figured out
Who never raise a finger, who never dare to shout
There is no calamity no reason to rejoice.
I pity you poor spirits who cannot make one earthly choice

Ropes Or Wings

I know you know that bitterness is there for the choosing
We’ve always got the option to go ‘round neglecting and abusing
You can inflict all types of sorrow if that’s your thing
You can get so skilled at delivering pain that your very touch becomes a sting

Ropes or wings, these are the deepest choices of the human mind
Whether it’s ropes or wings, the one we pick is how we’ll be defined
With ropes we stay tied up, and with wings we can leave this troubled world aligned

I know you know that tenderness is there within our grip
You can lift souls with just a smile, catch the fallen if they slip
You can bathe the world in love, if that’s your choice
You can get so skilled at kindness you can heal with just your voice

Well I know you know that hatefulness, is ours to dish on out
Along with confusion, anger, fear and doubt
You can inflict all manner of sorrow, if that’s what you’ve become
You can get so skilled at darkness that your own heart and mind grow numb

Well I know you know that mercy, is always ours to give away
We can use the strength of our minds to bring light to the darkest day
You can promote all manner of concern, if that what you’ve become
You can get so skilled at choosing love that every other option will just seem dumb

Ropes or wings, these are the deepest choices of the human mind
Whether it’s ropes or wings, the one we pick is how we’ll be defined
With ropes we stay tied up, and with wings we can make this troubled world aligned