The Unfinished Music of Justin Brock

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I finally had a somewhat successful night of recording. This new ruined hymn sounds somewhat less rough and unpolished than usual. There are a few seconds of nothing at the beginning that I was too lazy to cut out.

Download: O Thou That Hear’st When Sinners Cry

Also, here are the lyrics http://justinbrock.com/music/hymns/ruined-hymn-o-thou-that-hearst-when-sinners-cry. The audio on that post is from a voice message I left myself when I was trying to arrange the hymn. It was the first time I played it or recorded it, so reading that post and this one will give you an idea of the creative process I go through.

I’m really digging this song right now.

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Cling to You

Verse 1 – Trip Lee:
Lord, I’d like to start by saying I can hate where I’m at
When this life is hard and situations take me aback
The fight is hard and I can hardly face it in fact
In life it’s hard to get up like a bar with weights that’s attached
It really seems the situations that I’m facing is wack
I been awakened but now I’m feeling forsaken and trapped
With no hope and I’m broken open for Satan to trap
I been bothered since You Father put this weight on my back
So please erase it’s wack, cause when this pain it attacks
My weakness is at it’s peak and I’m feeling strained and I lack
The trust in You I struggle through the ways that I should come to You
Lord, what am I gonna do? It’s true this pain it distracts
But I see my only hope when my backs on the ropes
Is in You so I read through the facts that You wrote
The pain may fade away, but if that’s my only hope
Then You don’t get the glory alone not even close

Hook:
Lord, it may get better but it may not
So when I pray God, I pray I
Would trust You whether or not the pain stops
So when the the pain falls, coming down like rain drops
I just gotta cling to You

Verse 2 – shai linne:
Heavenly Father, in Your Word You say we can build
Because of Jesus and the blood that He graciously spilled
Lord, I thank You for real, cause my Dad’s always there
I can cast all my cares plus the weight that I feel
My situation is ill, I ain’t asking to be making a mill
But is all my money for paying my bills?
It gets crazier still, my soul’s on dangerous hills
A target for the world, flesh, and Satan aiming to kill
While the wicked who be hating your will
Sit by the lake as they chill, taking in sensational thrills
Lord, Your Son I admire, He’s the one I desire
I’ll run through the fire if You say it’s Your will
But at times it’s hard to hear You, the world doesn’t fear You
Lord, give me a clear view Your face is concealed
Help me to be patient until Your grace is revealed
And in the mean time, between time, be praising You still

Hook

Verse 3 – Trip Lee:
Lord, You know I’m hoping that my situation will switch
That You’ll show me You’re amazing by erasing it quick
But I’ve noticed that my hope was in You changing it quick
Instead of knowing You’re enough Lord I was chasing Your gifts
But then I opened up Your text and looked at David and them
Their situations was grim, but it ain’t change them within
They prayed You’d take it away but sought Your face in the end
And found comfort in Your justice and the grace You extend
So in this life full of strife if my days get grayer
I’m content with the fact that You’ll stay my Savior
No change in my King, man, it ain’t no greater
Comfort than what’s found in You that’s so major
So in this life full of strife if my days get grayer
I’m content with the fact that You’ll stay my Savior
No change in my King, man, it ain’t no greater
Comfort than what’s found in You that’s so major
So in this life full of strife if my days get grayer
I’m content with the fact that You’ll stay my Savior
No change in my King, man, it ain’t no greater
Comfort than what’s found in You that’s so major

Bullfight is my newest song. I wrote it last night over the course of 30 minutes or so. It felt more like discovery or archeology than creativity. Haven’t learned how to play it yet, but I’ll post a rough podcast track once I have one.

Bullfight

i was fine till you let that curtain down
now i’m blind to the beauty in the world around
there’s a fire in my eyes and i’m seeing red
charging in when i should have fled
because you’re lovely

blades and horns in a bloody dance
we pound this ring in a numbing trance
a live embrace – that’s what i want the most
you never give me what i want, you just want me close
because i’m lovely

death never was an unwelcomed guest
no, we draw him in with an opened breast
all his enducements wrapped so fine
we want them even though we know what lies behind
because they’re lovely

jwpb
12/14/09

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“Come Around” is a song I wrote in the fall 1999. I was living in Louisiana at the time and lonelier than anyone should be. Now, ten years later, I hear in it the foolish commitments of infatuation and naive love – the immature, idolatrous me of my youth.

But, you know, I still like the song even if I do have issues with the guy who wrote it.

I’m just playing around with the effects in this track. This song is from my unfinished album – Locust Years.

Come Around

I sing the rhyme of an aging sailor
with hopes as bright as Noah’s raven
I’ve been speaking and stretching and strained in silent nights
with no hope or land in sight
if you could walk the waves to me
or bear peace across the waters . . .
this silence is haunted with the memory of your love
on the evening wings of a dove.

could you come around
and help me hope I’ll be ok
tell me that you wait/ tell me that you’ll stay?
I wonder what I’d say

through the troubled rage of ocean
in the eerie calm behind
I see the ragged rigging, a charred and broken mast
but I’m alive, the storm has passed
then I take time for reflection
with the sea my looking glass
and I’ve been thinking “if only you could see yourself this way
in the depths of this green grace”

till you come around
I will hope that you’re ok
I will pray to find when I catch your eyes
a quiet place inside

there’s no shade out on these waters
and I’m dizzy with the heat
at morning and evening – time’s sacrificial pyres
day wakes and ends in fire
and the sun a scorching suitor
and love a jealous flame
the smoke of this altar will season sweet the wind
till I’m a scent to touch your hair in

Could you come around
in all your flesh and bone
and not fear the pain and embrace the flames
you would surely know my name