Prepubescent Homeless Blues

from West by The Restoration

	/

Streaming + Download

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

Purchasable with gift card

$1 USD or more
Buy the Full Digital Album
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
180-gram audiophile quality record with 11x22" 4-panel lyric map insert.

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

ships out within 3 days

$19 USD or more

lyrics

[Narrator: David, 1947-1953]

Polished shoes in dress blues
My face pressed down in the dirt
They were five, I was younger
Wishing I could say it still hurt
But the nuns kept a distance
And the boys hit harder if you resisted

See, when Joe showed back up
—with us prodigal sons
Ruby looked like she'd seen a ghost
Wasn't long before we kicked off
A joint custody tour of the East coast
New York to Carolina
To Florida, Catholic military primer

We stayed with Joe in the summer
Played pilot in a rusted out plane
Got a kick in the stomach
Every time I saw the leaves change
He’d say, “remember who you are”
—and throw our asses out of the car

“Boys pack your bags again
Summer’s over and it’s time to straighten up again”
Yeah, yeah, pack it up again
Visit’s over and it’s time to fall in line again

You haven’t lived ‘til you’ve been pissed on
By a lieutenant don’t know his ABCs
He got a hundred demerits
And they saved fifty for me
You know it’s hard to be good
—when they’re tellin’ you that nobody could

Got a dishonorable discharge
A month after I turned 10
Joe chewed us out the whole ride home
Where I finally saw Ruby again
There were hugs and innuendo
Then Joe got smaller in the rear window
We had a regular family
With Ruby and some dude from up north
Interrupted occasionally when they
—disappeared to New York
So, off to Uncle Ted’s and
—another couple rotating beds

“Boys pack your bags again
Ruby’s got another audition”
Yeah, yeah, pack it up again
Ruby’s leaving for another lost weekend

I’d lay in bed and think:
I was nine years old with a rock in my hand
Hearing Joe saying “pain makes you a man”
Waiting in the moonlight for that boy to be alone
By the time he came to my boyhood was all gone

“Boys pack your bags again
Ruby’s got another audition”
Yeah, yeah, pack it up again
Ruby’s leaving for another lost weekend

credits

from West, released October 25, 2019

license

about

The Restoration Columbia, South Carolina

We write concept albums about the American South.

Recommendations

contact / help

Contact The Restoration

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this track or account

The Restoration recommends:

Might Nigh
by Alexa Woodward

Alexa's work is nuanced, beautiful, and places great emphasis on character study and sensory detail. Might Nigh also features harmonies by Daniel. The Restoration
go to album
Josh Billings Voyage or, Cosmopolite on the Cotton Road
by Tim Eriksen

Tim's voice has been lauded by the likes of T-Bone Burnett and the BBC—it's a voice largely responsible for getting us into traditional music. Josh Billings Voyage is a concept album w/ great songs. The Restoration
go to album

If you like The Restoration, you may also like:

Suppose You Grow
by Stagbriar

supported by 4 fans who also own “Prepubescent Homeless Blues”
go to album
Máquina de Guerra
by Mohama Saz

The Spanish group's fifth collection of globally inspired psych jams references Anatolian rock, Andean folk, krautrock, flamenco, and more. Bandcamp New & Notable Feb 4, 2024
go to album
Nacre
by Quade

Music that’s woozy and mysterious, like a warped 7-inch, played a speed too slow Bandcamp Album of the Day Nov 14, 2023
go to album
Wild Havana
by Wild Havana

featured on Bandcamp Radio May 22, 2018
go to album