Sorrow Field (REMIX)

SORROW FIELD (REMIX)

i went down to sorrow field at the rotary park north main
the sky as blue as the mood i'm in...it's so hard to explain
there where the diamond's laid, fences
waiting silently for the spring
where the players they don't get paid,
hear the ghosts of children sing..hear them sing

the wind whistles through the treetops bare like
trinkets from a late august day
frozen in a pitcher's glare, the good ones always get away
in my mind the count is 2 and 2, a slider backs me off of the plate
i dig in with my rusty brown shoes,
i swing hard but mister it's too late...much too late

i went down to sorrow field at the rotary park north main
the sun as sweet as a sugar cane, it's not so hard to explain
the creek so shallow winding well,
i guess we really could use some rain
you know it's the things we want that seem to cause us pain

SORROW FIELD
WORDS AND MUSIC BY WILLIAM BATES

New Songs

Sorrow Field
Moving Thru Time
Lost (The Warmth of the Sun)

In The Studio

From Whence It Came

Here's the song DAYS I KNEW from 2004.
Days I Knew (Version 2) from 2002

Days I Knew at the Fair

Downtown

Downtown
Fly on Drums. Wm. Bates on everything else.

All I Ever Think About is Maria Video

Instrumentals

Ambition



Matthew Street

All I Think About is Maria

All I Ever Think About is Maria

Tell Her No

William Bates does The Zombies'
Tell Her No

The Reedy River Flows

in my hometown
there is nothing much before around
the northern wind brought it down...brought it down

the reedy river flows
under a $ 4 million bridge everyone knows
while the hungry have no clothes...no clothes

the mayor is so proud
but his honor it is in a shroud
would the millworkers be proud...be proud

the bankers they are thieves
they mortgage our past with no belief
in city view there is no relief...no relief

they put up a statue for our hero
black betsy in the hands of shoeless joe
but who is this man they claim to know?...claim to know

out on woodside avenue
where the factory whistles once blew
and young men went off to world war two....world war two

there is a stillness in the air
something even worse than despair
where the people just dont seem to care...seem to care

as for me i'll remember meadowbrook park
and the home runs sailing into the dark
sometimes a fire can start without a spark...without a spark

the reedy river flows
words and music by w. bates
t21music2009

Hear: The Reedy River Flows

Unforgiven

Having just watched the classic Clint Eastwood western Unforgiven.
I felt moved to write a song based on its story. Here it is...

he rode his mare in the west kansas rain
under the brim of his hat, unspeakable pain
the sky she cried like his soul in the night
why is it so hard for a man to stay right?

we all got it comin
there's no lying about that
we all got it comin
no gettin round that

in the town of big whiskey in 1881
little bill laid down his law for everyone
his boots of hardened leather callous and cruel
beat with savage precision those he cast as fools.

repeat

will and ned and the schofield kid lookin for their reward
in the ruins of a womans face, they were employed
for the wages of a whore and the vengence of the deed
the calm sight of a springfield rifle was all they would need...

repeat

ned took aim but couldn’t bear to kill no more
will took the springfield rifle and avenged the whore
and when the time came for the second killing scene
the schofield kid filled him with lead and felt sickened by what he'd seen..

repeat

so little bill captured ned and tortured him with whip and word
until he passed without a gasp he had fallen on will's sword
they put him out for all to see, his lifeless form a mockery
of all he came to live for so far beyond his history

repeat


and so it was on a stormy night, wills shadow framed the room
his shotgun and his pistols stilled the crazed saloon
with fatal speed little bill fell along with his deputies
will cursed the town as the rain shot down like a steel breeze

repeat

cut to the kansas farmhouse where his wife lies beneath a lonesome tree
silhouetted by the sunset and all he came to be
the past it is alive it seems no matter where we go
and all the rain in the world wont wash it down, but in the end who knows...

repeat

unforgiven
words and music by william bates
t21music 2009

Unforgiven

so many times

...give a guy a video camera and some editing software...put him in a room on an early tuesday afternoon in 2.09 and this is what he comes up with...

Smoke and Mirrors Video

Carnival of Light

Hampton Avenue

old women who look like men, meekly working in their gardens
as the world seeps sadly by in the wink of a weathered eye
out in front of the labor station, like a scene from an alien nation
work today and get your pay, amble off and drink the blues away

it's another day on hampton avenue
where the rich and the poor make do
where life is hard and o so easy
full of sweetness and human misery....forever...

the fine victorian homes, the soft allure of well cut lawns
their world is framed in stained glass, that cuts into a sheltered past
where textile magnates ruled the town now it's lawyers and investment clowns
with perfect wives and perfect senses, engaged, enraged behind their picket fences

repeat

we can be like buildings and be restored, be like vagrants and be ignored
we can care for those a world away but forget those a block away
this place is mad and so well torn of that i know you've all been warned
of cold steel and things unreal, what you see you know you can't conceal

repeat


hampton avenue
words and music by william bates
t21 music 2009

Hampton Avenue (acoustic demo)

Nine Songs

Smoke and Mirrors
Into the Forest
I Love You Too Much
'Til I Remember
When You Were Alive
Leaving on the Light
In Her Garden
I Wanna Be in a Rock and Roll Band
The Devil Is Beating His Wife

"from the coming release "Days I Knew"