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Number One

from Richer Soil by Derek Nelson

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lyrics

He walked to the lighthouse to call his own name
Couldn’t hear a thing in the sideways rain
Waited ’till morning, when no echo came
That’s when he started humming.

“My love is not wrong.
My hope is not gone.
The bastards can’t take it from me.”

They say you cannot give when you’ve had enough
You cannot pour from that empty cup.
Look outside at the rising sun
Then take a hard look at number one.

So he’ll post the words from some book he don’t know
The one in his head says “this is all for show.”
We push it all down, when we’re falling below
we just want to have it made.
Or at least, to look that way.

But he’s got bags for eyes, got a hitch in his step
got a hole in his heart that his father left.
got a basement with boxes where dreams are kept
and plans are made.
he’s hearing them say:

You cannot give when you’ve had enough
You cannot pour from that empty cup.
Look outside at the rising sun
Then take a hard look at number one.

We’ve got blood in our veins, kept like secrets within
Some things we can do if we just don’t give in
A mark we can make if we stop waiting for when
The time is right

With a shake of the trees and a song in his chest
And that stubborn thing of “no, I won’t take less”
He knows to take care of him is to take care of them
But the time’s never right

“My love is not wrong.
My hope is not gone.
Those bastards can’t take it from me.”

They say you cannot give when you’ve had enough
You cannot pour from that empty cup.
Look outside at the rising sun
Then take a hard look at number one.

They say you cannot give when you’ve had enough
You cannot pour, not from that empty cup.
Look outside, they’re all singing, son
Then take a hard look at number one.

credits

from Richer Soil, released October 10, 2019

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Derek Nelson Chicago

“Derek Nelson has been one of Chicago’s finest songwriters for about a decade now … [He] delivers a few lines of shocking honesty and vulnerability and continues to roll on so easily you have to go back and listen again to make sure you heard it right.” - Music Defined ... more

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