From the recording Here I Carry
I started writing "Here I Carry" on the 10 Freeway in Los angeles on my way to work. I was a nanny at the time and have no clue if that had anything to do with it but I called my home phone and sang the melody to my answering machine.
I've recorded this song a few times, once with Ed Tree and my band and once with a bluegrass trio, Honey Don't. (Jamie Rounds, Devitt Feely, and myself) Jim Ladd, the DJ on KLOS in LA, has played the version I recorded with Dave Merenda many times over the years, once in between Bruce Sprinsteen and Bob Dylan -that was cool!
Lyrics
Here I Carry © nicole gordon
Here come the troops marching astute
Fighting for their name and their survival beat their rival
with whichever weapons they choose
And at the heart of the recruits the image that was loudest crushed the cowards
Truth was savage and the leading o f their pursuits
CHORUS
I’m surrounded by a lie a lie a lie
Here I carry
Your enemies pretend to be alive
Here I carry
You’re living drugless but your always high
Here I carry
I’m surrounded by a lie a lie a lie
The task is fair you want what’s there
white turns to black you can’t see but you attack and now there is no turning back
When it’s done the smoke is gone
The voices in the night that you thought helped you to fight
But you see that you were alone
CHORUS
You can’t bend the truth
You can’t always make up proof
of disdain
and mistakes
and your pain