From the recording High Tea for Poets/Father Time (2CD-Pak)
Jeff Cannon: Vocals and acoustic guitar
David Dick: Banjo
Alex Weiss Hills: Accordion
Susan Anderson: Fiddle
Ron Kadish: Upright Bass
Recorded 2019, Jake Belser/Primary Sound, Bloomington, IN;Lorne Entress/Harmony Street, Tolland, CT.
JDC: Big Switch is about the human drive forward, how even with the end in sight humans continually reach for one more day. I think that drive is at the heart of what we are and what we do.
Lyrics
Big Switch
Big switch on my back as I lie here awake,
Ah, look out, the trade winds are blowing,
My days here are numbered,
So now is the place,
It’s last call, soon I’ll be going,
Chorus:
Well I may go west
But I’m stealing time
‘Cause there’s so much to say,
And it might be in vain,
But I’m writing, writing away,
If I’m gonna’ die,
Just give me one more day.
Big switch on my back, it’s a lightning parade,
Haunting the last days of summer,
This fear at the heart, it’s a loaded grenade,
Soon you’ll be sifting the rubble.
Well I may go west
But I’m stealing time
‘Cause there’s so much to say,
And it might be in vain,
But I’m writing, writing away,
If I’m gonna’ die,
Just give me one more day.
I am the captain, that’s what they say,
But still I’m a dead man walking,
Ain’t that always the way, every living day?
I know where I've been 'cause I've been here a while,
Stoking these fires from the embers,
My last wish tonight is to leave you a sign,
It's something you might not remember,
That we all go west
And we're stealing time
‘Cause there’s so much to say,
And it might be in vain,
But I’m writing, writing away,
If I’m gonna’ die,
Just give me one more day.
Yes, I'm 'gonna die,
I just need one more day.