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The Life We Were In

by Ben Olson

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1.
Cresco, Iowa 03:35
I don’t know if it comes that much a surprise to you that I’ve fallen on my face But the last whole year has been the death of me as life crashes at my feet The last time I could even think straight I was on I-80 out running a hurricane And I left that man in Cresco, Iowa on the Sir family farm I know it’s no more It feels like I never had it before Where’s the life that I’ve known Cause nothing has ever felt the same since I came home And I know you left to make your life your own and then you wouldn’t need me But I didn’t know it would be our last good bye as you walked into those gates So I found myself out here in the winter cold wondering when you were coming home Thinking about the last thing you said to me, “This maybe the end I don’t know”
2.
Let You Down 03:34
A surprise to me I never realized The truth about intersecting lives All the friends you thought you had To pick you up off the fallen track Are neither lost or neither found They’re like an empty chair when they’re around They fill the space enough to see But in the end it’s still empty Would you believe the one’s you need would let you down You need a place to sleep tonight You need a place to store your life You need to a hand to move it all You need to know that you can call But you find the ones you thought Would be there have all gone And there you stand in wonderment Wondering where they all went So where were the ones you counted on All those ties you thought so strong The ones who swore so lovingly That they’d be there when you need I guess the truth ain’t hard to read In the end they don’t want to see All the problems of real life They’d rather just live the lie
3.
Empty Nights 04:18
I had trouble just holding back the tears When you said that you were leaving me and you’d never come back here I maybe dumb but I understand The world I knew will never be the same again I only came home yesterday Just to find that my world was empty and betrayed I know what I said before I left But I thought you’d know that I really didn’t mean it Cause now it just doesn’t feel right When all we’ve got are these lonely empty nights Empty nights I’m coming home across the bridge alone I’m stumbling back even though I don’t wanna go My house is no longer my home The only thing I can feel there is this conflict that we own And now I’m trying to sleep at home alone Waiting for the the moment when you walk thought that door I’ll cry myself to sleep tonight again As I wonder if this will ever truly mend I can’t believe this is how it’s gonna end It just doesn’t seem to fit with the life we had lived
4.
All I’m feeling in the empty hollow wind Is the kiss of the air And all I’m thinking in this moment of caress It’s not a bad way to end My life did not flash right before my eyes It wasn’t that clear at all Speeding out the frame now twists away As my head hits the ground One quick second took it all away The last of anything I had All I notice laying on the road The sun is hot but the wind is cold As I sit up I look straight to my left To see the pieces of this mess It’s just one lesson that everybody learns Soon enough it’s your turn To all my Brothers with wheels on the road Let em’ ride let em’ roll
5.
Kiddo 03:05
There’s something said for best laid plans And everyone they understand But if we knew how this would end Would we have started when it began It's one more time we wonder about the answer It’s one more time the question has no answer I was never suppose to see you sad, Saw the worst you've ever had I talked you down and brought you in Never thinking about what that meant Sometimes you don't realize the problem This time I realized I am the problem And I know I’ll never play that record again The one that’s say's all the things about the life we were in One day I’ll be a memory A hazy thought of what has been So when you’re on the hood of a car I wonder will you think of me at all Laying on your back remembering the rhythm Staring at the sky thinking about the rhythm. And when the fall turns it's head And winter make it's ugly bed Will you think in the cold cold snow, About the last time ya heard "kiddo" Someday for some one just another story Someday I’ll be just another story
6.
I see her eye’s they connect with mine And I know exactly what’s on her mind I’ll take this girl home tonight But tomorrow morning you’re on my mind She comes on over nice and soft and slow Say’s she just came by to say hello In that little black dress she looks real fine But tomorrow morning you’re on my mind She takes me up the stairs into her room Undresses slowly by light of moon I fuck her in her bed that’s right But tomorrow morning you’re on my mind In the light of day I walk home alone I call myself a cab to take me home There’s no one there waiting for me And today you’re the only one I see
7.
Jim 03:43
The first time that I ever saw your face was when I brought you home on a snowy day Almost didn’t make it all the way back home the blizzard was fierce the road was long You found yourself in my arms that night trying to sleep trying not to cry The last time that I ever saw your face you were lying down on a hospital bed I stayed with you for 14 hours trying to talk to you to see you through The look in your eye’s was enough to know that you knew I was there and I wasn’t gonna go I’d never go Now that your gone the worlds an emptier place without your smile it’s not the same I find myself just sitting down looking at your things wishing you were around I don’t believe in heaven or those fairy tales but I know that your with me I can feel you in the wind
8.
Three chords and the truth is what I grew up to believe but was it a lie It spent my money spilled my blood it took my love and used my time I found myself with my back to the wall but did I find myself just what I want Cause all my heroes all my life where always the same the losing kind Me and Nichols and the losing kind Just another pretty face was never gonna save my soul So I put my stock in everything from the sound out here All I thought Would make me whole An angry young kid in an angrier town trying to lash out to burn it all down So did the fight find me or did I find it I never knew I guess I never will But I put my money in my mouth cause in that town you can’t back down So in double time I defied it all but in double time you’re screaming at a wall Just like Ian screaming at a wall
9.
Scars 04:47
There once was a time when morals where fine now they seem so abstract I went through my youth with the better part of truth thinking I was a pretty good man But the years have been told and these scars on my soul have the truth of that lie exposed As I walk past the house that use to be our home I wonder who’s in there now I heard someone say what is lost can’t be saved And now I know it’s the truth I heard that old tune that time heals wounds But the scars will always remain The time that has past ain’t ever coming back just a memory you chase all your life Like the storms that I’ve known in your eyes and your soul when I told you I was forever yours Now all I see in your eyes as you weep is the emptiness your left with inside It's broken my will and my souls empty still since the day you said good-bye
10.
Just Like Me 03:49
I’m a liar I’m a thief I’m a god I’m a saint I’m a boy I’m a man I am no one today Yet some how I’m still everyone And I’m a hypocrite but so are you and so are we all Just because you’re right doesn’t mean that you’re not wrong No one gets to live life free of that So don’t worry at all your just like me I’m a killer I’m a beggar I’m a king I’m a vote Control my own destiny I’m a cosmic joke No one here seems to get it Yet everyone does So tell the truth tell a lie it makes no difference to me Everyone’s being who they want you to see And I’m no different no no no I’m a lover I’m a hater I’m a prude I’m a whore I’m a one-man army a starving mass of the poor I’m every one of you And your all me A heart on your sleeve or mask on your face Live your life loud or live it with out a trace Everyone here has the same destiny

about

I am very proud of this record. But I'm ready to let it go. It's not an I like it or an I hate it record, it's an I get it or I don't get it record. And so I'm giving it to anyone that may find comfort in the fact that they indeed do get it.

-Ben Olson

credits

released June 14, 2015

Ben Olson-Vocals/Guitar
Liam Copeland-Background Vocals/Keys/Percussion
Cayley Thomas-Vocals (on Empty Nights)
Jenna Clarahan-Cello (on Jim)

Produced by Liam Harvey Oswald and Ben Olson

Recorded, Mixed and Mastered by Liam Harvey Oswald at ES&D studios and Acoustic Loft studios

All Songs by: Ben Olson (socan)
Cover photo by: Neil Volk
Publishing : Ben Olson Music

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Ben Olson Edmonton, Alberta

ThePunkSite.com has likened Olson’s trademark voice as that of a “gravel gargling honky-tonk angel.” Now" releasing his second album "The Life We Were In, ( on Edmonton label Manatees and Jack-O-Lanterns,) Olson will continue to expand into new genres, and more importantly, new parts of the country and continent that he’s never seen before. ... more

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