The Promise of Power, by Eric Blowtorch

The Promise of Power

by Eric Blowtorch

supported by

Lisa Savastio Taglialavore Eric has a blowtorch for a pen when he writes his fiery mostly political grooves! He has brains and passion for his own work and for the history of music that shows through in the smarts of the work...Musical workin' man pioneer. Funny too and you'll need that when he hits you with his musical truth. So get ready, cuz you've probably never heard a soul(full) sound this genuine... Favorite track: Too Sweet to Be Lonely.

	/

Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

$5 USD or more
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Solo vocal/guitar album with special guests Matt Norberg (vocal), Dan Flynn (guitar) & Celeste Verhelst (saw).

Includes unlimited streaming of The Promise of Power via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 7 days

$5 USD or more
Full Digital Discography

27

releases

Get all 27 Eric Blowtorch releases available on Bandcamp and save 40%.

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Been So Down, Bluegrass Kas, Too Many Dues, Quality Items, Groping in the Dark, Straight to Hell, Most Dangerous Man, Salt Water, and 19 more. , and , .

Purchasable with gift card

$66 USD or more (40% OFF)

1.	Here I Lay 01:00	lyrics	buy track
Here I lay on Pod 3A Can’t afford no lawyer so I’ve got to pay with my time so I guess I’m- a keep my beefs at bay, stay out of the steak knife’s way with this tome of story and poem and Hey, hey, hey, see what you’ve got to say
2.	Can't Go on Without Me 02:30	lyrics	buy track
Stop the world – I got to get back on I may be down but I ain’t done Life is beautiful, then you’re gone I just can’t stop – I’m not that strong Still got hopes, still got dreams Still got to make many other scenes Still so doggone much to do Can’t do it without me Just can’t go on without me What's your rush, man? You don’t know nan ‘bout me In your tears you will drown ‘cause, my dears, you were wrong to doubt me Don’t pull the plug, my greedy little heirs Gimme a hug, even if I’m unawares Don’t bury me down with the maggots and the worms I want to live forever on my own terms So little time from now back to birth Never know what I might unearth You’ll need help with those rays of the sun’s Let me try it one more once Just can’t go on without me What's your rush, man? You don’t know nan ‘bout me In your tears you will drown ‘cause, my dears, you were wrong to doubt me Can’t go on without me, can you?
3.	Dear Departed 02:53	lyrics	buy track
Your lives were short and merciless You must have seen the worst in us Every day another long quest for food as you tried to provide for the brood In your footsteps we lumber through and so we yet outnumber you From northern latitude we send our gratitude We stare up at the same star Frescoes tall on cave and teepee wall: history and/or tales tall? Hailstorm, hazard, horror, heat exceeding could not best your restless quest for meaning In your footsteps we lumber through and so we yet outnumber you From northern latitude we send our gratitude We owe you everything we are I would, if I could, kiss that bloodied hand of that hairy, scary, muddied man who pushed and prodded us into the present and slam the brakes on our succession I couldn’t, I could not kill me a mouse, much, much, much, much less a grebe or grouse I don’t know how, I don’t know how to dowse If I were you I would’ve never left the house We wish you all could come back and see your freaky, fruitful family tree You could help us, maybe set us free, and tell us how we came to be
4.	The Promise of Power 03:31	lyrics	buy track
Janitor man goes home, stares out the window alone At work studies Stokely in scrupulous stealth This loneliness ain’t good for his health The only life on his street: feral felines in heat He’s breaking his heart every hour waiting for the promise of power He used to belong to the block Now the whole block is living on lock Listens to Malcolm and Marcus, eyes moist So long since he raised his own voice The only life on his street: car alarm repeat and repeat He’s breaking his heart every hour waiting for the promise of power You can’t love your fellow man catching a teletan History gathers dust on bookshelves Everybody’s doing theyselves Save for trivial tribal turf warring, organization looks boring Distributing goose down jackets, we’re actors in the shadow of ruling class rackets The only life on his street: ballers on the bondservant’s beat He’s breaking his heart every hour waiting for the promise of power But still he remains right on long after the gangsters have gone Still steering straight, still steering narrow Tired down to his marrow The only life on his street: lonely crackhead crying for relief He’s breaking his heart every hour waiting for the promise of power
5.	One of Us 01:20	lyrics	buy track
When one of us is bummed out When one of us is numbed out When one of us is drummed out none of us happy When one of us is hurting When another’s blood is spurting When one is Dirt McGirting none of us healthy But when one of us is laughing, not just for photographing and keeping out of trafficking all of us can breathe When one of us is bummed out When one of us is numbed out When one of us is dumbed out none of us happy none of us happy none of us
6.	Good Man 02:42	lyrics	buy track
Good man did nothing today Good man did nothing today Him drive to work, come home with no delay, push the papers, stay out of the bossman’s way No time for pleasure, no pay, him just punch in for pay Ask him how him do, him say OK He believe the greatest virtue is to behave To the daily grind him grovel like a slave Ignored the homeless veteran at the Pick ‘n’ Save Tonight a hungry soldier meet an early grave Good man Good man Blood and guts invade his mental space Him feeling less than loving toward the human race He wants to punch the poor passerby right in the face, but good man heart is still a peaceful place Good man Good man Good man Good man
7.	Come to Your Senses 02:25	lyrics	buy track
My countrymen, come to your senses Can’t just keep incurring expenses Cluster bombs on Gardez isn’t self-defense It’s time to come to your senses Imagine yourself in the trenches Wake up and smell carcass stenches Get your behind off history’s benches It’s time to come to your senses Decades of decadence, epochs of opulence, neglecting the best of your friends It’s time to stop and come to your senses Come off it, come to your senses We’re living, not taking a census Who’s the real terrorist, ladies, gents? It’s not who you think, just like Red Ken says
8.	I Don't Wanna Be Kissed 01:46	lyrics	buy track
I’m looking at you looking at me across a smoky room The walls are shaking and the dancers are doing the doom You’re looking at me like the world’s about to end I don’t wanna smile, don’t wanna pretend You’re a sight for sore eyes in your galoshes, miss, and I bet if you got out there’d do a decent twist You hold out your hand and all I see is a fist The gesture’s grand but I don’t wanna be kissed I just don’t wanna be kissed, don’t wanna be missed Don’t wanna disappear with anyone into the mist Don’t feel dogged out, duped, or dismissed, don’t feel dissed I just don’t wanna be kissed, don’t wanna be kissed I just don’t wanna be kissed I just don’t wanna be kissed I just don’t wanna be kissed I just don’t wanna be kissed I don’t wanna be kissed I don’t wanna be kissed I don’t wanna be kissed I don’t wanna be kissed
9.	Forgetting You're Gone 01:09	lyrics	buy track
“Pass it oooo-vah, duh, duhduhduh’ I’m still gassing over that locker room stutterer so I move to get my man on the horn but I keep forgetting you’re gone, forgetting you’re gone, forgetting you’re gone, forgetting you’re gone 28 years – I guess I got used to you ‘cause you were always down for laughter, kicks, and the triple truth You are gone but feels like always around Forgetting you’re gone, forgetting you’re gone, forgetting you’re gone Gone
10.	Too Sweet to Be Lonely 02:31	lyrics	buy track
If I could see the guy who made you cry and cry, I’d laugh right in his face Just another fool who blew his cool Woman, I’m working on your case Everything about you is too beautiful inside to be wasting precious tears every time you cry Ooh, baby, you’re too sweet to be lonely Ooh, baby, you’re too sweet to be lonely The world didn’t come to an end just because you got cheated Let me show you how a queen should be treated The very next time you pass yourself in the looking glass, you better dig it, dig yourself Either you’re blind or you’re losing your mind Woman, you’re something else I can give you a thousand reasons why you shouldn’t have to cry – here’s my shoulder, standing by
11.	The Rose of Battersea 03:13	lyrics	buy track
I had me a dream: I dreamt I could fly. Outlandish it seem, sailing way cross the sky. I dreamt I saw London and rich Venezuelans sang on the one, son. In the Smoke I was sailing. My dream’s leading lady friend - from South London she hailed. Like a rose she was radiant, dark and deeply detailed. I stepped to her sweet-like on the strength of her smile in the train station’s weak light and waited a while. She gave me a bell. We hit the cold Waterloo street like a dream you could smell, so strong and so sweet. Under church chimes, bad weather she drew close to me and, after good times together, went home - Battersea. When I woke at twilight I knew it’s a dream. Life’s never that lifelike, never this off the beam. I promised to write down everything I remembered if I could turn right ‘round to that foul Waterloo weather. I took me a new job that allowed me to scheme, to earn me a few bob, and return to my dream. Of the work I grew weary, slept rarely, no dreams. Pockets empty and eyes bleary, I bunked off the team. My new situation brought me back sleep, alone for the duration, at peace on the cheap. Might miss a few details but the dream comes to me with the finest of females, the Rose of Battersea.
12.	The Affair 02:19	lyrics	buy track
The affair in the Summer of ‘79 The affair makes me blush still when I think of her in those skinny arms of mine In the Summer of ’79 a boy went down below the Mason-Dixon line In the Fall, when he returned, scorched and slightly burned, he wasn’t a boy anymore Oh, that affair in the Summer of ‘79 The affair that let a young boy know that he might be the loving kind There were times I swore, blamed you for my tears and much more Knocked down by a kiss from you, so little I could do Woman, I loved you true
13.	Earth Bites Back 01:28	lyrics	buy track
Big, light, and white The snowflakes tonight, unlike any fallen – that’s right, twinkle in the moonlight Only two weeks before, temperature soar up to Fahrenheit 60 That ain’t how it should be, it’s shifty But now we’re on the right track Mighty Earth bites back Mighty, Mighty, make my heart soar Give me zero F, give me lower Big, light, and white The snowflakes tonight, unlike any fallen – that’s right, twinkle in the moonlight
14.	Guess Who's Next 02:57	lyrics	buy track
They used you for years ‘gainst the blacks and the queers Poorly paid musketeers, open your eyes and ears Too feeble to flex, they called all hands on decks Troops trained in their TECs on their own, the rednecks Hey, National Guardsman, I’m talking to you, working dude to working dude Think about who’s employing us and you won’t beat us, you’ll be joining us Join us, join us, join us for a jamboree Help us turn back to the 21st century Join us, join us, soldier and deputy Look to Egypt, not these eejits, and set yourself free When the governor calls, spazzin’ out like Wally Sprawls, grow yourself some balls, tell him find other gun molls Hey, Mr. Policeman, I’m talking to you, working dude to working dude Think about who’s employing us and you won’t beat us, you’ll be joining us Join us, join us, join us for a jamboree Help us turn back to the 21st century Join us, join us, soldier and deputy This ain’t Libya – don’t be an idiot, and set yourself free because guess who’s next, guess who’s next with nooses ‘round necks Guess who’s next, guess who’s next facing down TECs Guess who’s next, guess who’s next – that’s you, you rednecks
15.	Miss USA 02:15	lyrics	buy track
Miss USA was my neighbor Just a boy, I still sought her favor Athletic, attractive, in the community active She didn’t mind good, honest labor She’d visit old folks and shut-ins, with sick boys and girls sit and hold hands She barely got paid, her own clothe she handmade, sang for free at the summer bandstand A light to the lost, a helping hand to the hurt, pretty outside and inside, hearty laughing, hard-working, never dealing in dirt When she moved away we all cried So easy to lose something so dear You wake up, your own life – you missed it When she was ‘round here we’d nothing to fear Sometimes I wonder if she really existed A light to the lost, a helping hand to the hurt, pretty outside and inside, hearty laughing, hard-working, never dealing in dirt When she moved away we all cried Miss USA was my neighbor Just a boy, I still sought her favor Gladhearted and kind, generously inclined Wherever she is, may G_d save her
16.	Another Walk with Thee 02:37	lyrics	buy track
If the Maker moved Her mighty fingernail and drew us in the dirt or raised us up from snail, I should hope She’s a heavenly host saving two place settings for this friendly ghost I don’t need no mansion upstairs, just a stinky, sooty cellar with some cinder-block chairs You and I could drink bug juice and beer and remember how we dug our time down here If Heaven’s up there I don’t rightly know but I want it to be, how I want it to be I know, I know, I know I gotta go, gotta go but I just got to take another walk with thee Your face is hazy, meds coursing in, our time together short, but then it’s always been Summon all your strength and squeeze my shaking hand and lead me to that sweet, unpromised land If Heaven’s up there I don’t rightly know but I want it to be, how I want it to be I know, I know, I know you gotta go, gotta go but I just got to take another walk with thee
17.	Get What You Give 01:52	lyrics	buy track
I could curse the town I’m in for messing up my name I could search for greener pastures and try to pass the blame I could swim the ocean I could cross the sea I could go to the ends of the Earth but I still gotta deal with me I live the life I love I love the life I live Everywhere it’s all the same: Get what you give Now I’m no Casanova but I’ve kissed one or two Mr. Valentino, got a message here for you: I could really get around I could play the field I could go from town to town but I’d never be fulfilled I live the life I love I love the life I live Everywhere it’s all the same: Get what you give Get what you give, get what you give Get what you give, get what you give

about

Over two days in November 2011, Eric Blowtorch recorded 17 songs in his bedroom at the Buckingham Apartments in Milwaukee, assisted by guest vocalist Matt Norberg (Highball Holiday, Blue Tips, Elevators, Kings Go Forth), guitarist Dan Flynn (Codebreaker, Skandals, Dan Flynn and the Inflammables, Kings Go Forth), and musical saw player Celeste Verhelst (Thistle and the Thorns). In one day E. B. and engineer Shane Olivo reamped the songs at Bobby Peru’s Power Plant in Milwaukee, and in another mixed the album at Peru’s.

“Here I Lay” opens with the album with E.B. singing from the perspective of one of his erstwhile clients at the Milwaukee County Jail musing on whether or not to take advantage of the Jail Library (closed by Sheriff David Clarke in 2009). “Can’t Go on Without Me” is an upbeat declaration of unwillingness to die, with additional guitar by Dan Flynn. “Dear Departed” is a chuggin’ love letter to all human beings gone before. The title song is a minor-key paean to the enduring spirit of Black Power.

“One of Us,” the punkiest selection on The Promise of Power, sees E. B. return to manic mode in a punk-rock nod to Kelis’s “Millionaire.” In the Les Paul-inspired “Good Man,” E. B. looks at the moral implications of Edmund Burke’s famous quote about the triumph of evil. On “Come to Your Senses” E. B. refutes Afghanistan War fever over a Tin Pan Alley-type fox trot. “I Don’t Wanna Be Kissed,” cowritten with Alisha Hardeman Porter, and featuring wild guitar by Dan Flynn, is a rockabilly song about the end of the world.

“Forgetting You’re Gone” is a brief, moody meditation on the conspicuous absence of a good friend. Matt Norberg assists with sky-high backup vocals on a stripped-down cover version of the Internationals’ “Too Sweet to Be Lonely,” featured on the late Cosmo Cruz’s five-volume set of essential soul shots from 1965, the year Cosmo turned 17. “The Rose of Battersea” is a wall-of-sound waltz. Celeste Verhelst ornaments E. B.’s cover of Brother to Brother’s coming-of-age ballad “The Affair” with spooky musical saw.

On “Earth Bites Back,” E. B. gives thanks for cold weather in the age of accelerated global warming. “Guess Who’s Next,” first heard as a major-key Internet-only release, “Join Us,” is a solo ska challenge to law enforcement officers to disobey Scott Walker’s attempts to manipulate them against their fellow working people. Another waltz, “Miss USA,” tells the story of an imaginary good neighbor. “Another Walk with Thee” is E. B.’s fond see-you-soon to a dying friend. The finale, a drastic rearrangement of the Thousandaires’ “Get What You Give,” is a love song to life…and all the ladies.

The Promise of Power is available on CD at Bullseye Records, 1627 E. Irving Pl., just west of Farwell Avenue, and online via most digital music vendors. There are no acoustic guitars on this album. All vocal and rhythm guitar parts were recorded standing up.

credits

released December 25, 2011

Dan Flynn: Guitar on 2 & 8
Shane Olivo: Guitar on 4
Matt Norberg: Vocal on 10
Celeste Verhelst: Saw on 12

license

about

Eric Blowtorch Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Singer/guitarist/songwriter Eric Blowtorch sings, plays, and writes reggae, ska, rocksteady, soul, rock 'n' roll, funk, Latin, disco, hip-hop, Anglo-Afropop, and jazz songs with rhythm, melody, passion, and original comic timing. E. B. plays solo, in small combos, and with a band, Eric Blowtorch and the Bodyguards. ... more

contact / help

Contact Eric Blowtorch

Streaming and
Download help

Report this album or account

If you like Eric Blowtorch, you may also like:

Love And Hope / Summer Child
by Lisa Decker & SaturnVybz / Lisa Decker & Nautilus

Lisa Decker’s latest single arrives via Oonops Drops, and gets flipped by producers SaturnVybz and Nautilus. Bandcamp New & Notable Jan 15, 2023
go to album
Archer
by Suzanna Choffel

Hailing from Austin, Texas, Choffel lays her jazz-tinged, blue-eyed, smokey n'soulful vocals over pop leaning gems. Bandcamp New & Notable Jul 8, 2014
go to album
Éxito
by Keren Abreu

This debut EP from the Bronx's Keren Abreu is a breezy, light-filled folk-rock celebration of Afro-Latinidad, queerness, and love. Bandcamp New & Notable Jul 28, 2020
go to album
'80s
by 80s

featured on Bandcamp Radio Jun 20, 2017
go to album
いちまいめ (ichimaime)
by Aya Nakano and the Bremen

Take a trip around the world with the album of sophisticated acoustic pop from Aya Nakano and a changing line-up of musicians. Bandcamp New & Notable May 4, 2023
go to album
Life Without Evening
by NNMIE

featured on Bandcamp Radio Mar 28, 2023
go to album
TU
by Tulipa Ruiz

featured on Bandcamp Radio Nov 3, 2020
go to album