Hiss Golden Messenger - Sanctuary Lyrics

Hiss Golden Messenger Lyrics

"Sanctuary"

Feeling bad, feeling blue
Can't get out of my own mind
I know how to sing about it
Ring of bone, a little lonely
I better hit the road, child
We can cry into the phone a while

Jubilee, find me
Steady with your hope now
That little light's gotta last a while
Like an arrow to the marrow
I know it feels like hell now
Till we make it to the other side

Want good news, you want sanctuary
When you try to get real
Oh, they break you in one week
You wanna move, you want sanctuary
That's all that I can offer to you
From the bottom to the bone, to the bone

Get used to the bad news
It's all part of the show, child
Handsome Johnny had to go, child
What did you feel, brother, bad dreams?
Well, there's something you should know now
There's little things that'll cut you down

Ragged people, hard times
And the lightning strikes the poorhouse
Rich man cries like a crocodile
Salvation, despair
But the game that they taught me
Sometimes it feels like it just ain't fair

You want good news, you want sanctuary
When you try to get real
Oh, they break you in one week
You wanna move, you want sanctuary
That's all that I can offer to you
From the bottom to the bone, to the bone

Yeah, to the bone
Oh, to the bone
Yeah, to the bone
Oh, to the bone
Yeah, to the bone
Oh, to the bone

Feeling bad, feeling blue
Can't get out of my own mind
I know how to sing about it

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Writer(s): Taylor Sorensen

The line "Handsome Johnny had to go, child" is a reference to John Prine. M.C. Taylor of Hiss Golden Messenger explained, "'Handsome Johnny' is the name that songwriter John Prine gave to his favorite cocktail, which consists of one to two ounces of Red Smirnoff vodka topped off with diet ginger ale. In the summer, he garnished the drink with lemon; in the winter, with lime." He also added, "Over the past year, I've been thinking a lot about how we care for ourselves and each other, and how hard it is to live truthfully in a world that is so tangled. 'We sell the world to buy fire, our way lighted by burning men,' says the poet Wendell Berry. The song 'Sanctuary' is one small piece of my own personal reckoning with what it feels like to search for some kind of shelter in the storm. Fare thee well, John Prine, AKA Handsome Johnny, a speaker of truth if ever there was one."

album: "Quietly Blowing It" (2021)

Hiss Golden Messenger - Quietly Blowing It album cover

Way Back In The Way Back

If It Comes In The Morning

Glory Strums (Loneliness Of The Long-Distance Runner)

Painting Houses

Angels In The Headlights

Sanctuary

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"Sanctuary" lyrics

Hiss Golden Messenger Lyrics