LilyVakili—OceansofKansas

Okoboji

Let’s go down to Okoboji

In the reeds and the rushes we’ll play

Sipping love from a jug, okay

Let’s go down to Okoboji

In the reeds and the rushes we’ll play

Sipping love from a jug, okay

Floating splashing making a scene

Watching lovers stealing some kissing

Holding on to each other spinning happy

Just like this, come closer to me

Just like this, Okoboji

Sun is setting like a bouncing ball

And we’re swaying round the fire and all

Back and forth and round and round and round

And round and round

Wild and free just like Okoboji

Let’s go down to Okoboji

Let’s go down

Okoboji, Okoboji, Okoboji, Okoboji

Hold On They Say

Sorrow comes around again

Showing her face like a long-lost friend

The one you met in the park

On the swings after dark

Talking all about how hard it was

To stay and to stay away

Busting out, it don’t come cheap

This town’s a trap for any bird that tries to sing

Yeah, you looked good at the prom in your tux and

High heels on

Being young you thought you won

But who wants a crown when the glory’s gone?

Hold on they say

Hold your dreams close and

Don’t let them slip away

Hold on they say

Hold your dreams close and

Don’t let them slip away

Hold on they say

Hold your dreams close and

Don’t let them slip away

Hold on they say

Hold your dreams close, don’t let them slip away

Don’t let them slip away

Guess you waited far too long

For someone to come around

And right every wrong

Thing is there’s nothing new

And no one to save, save you

But some dreams make it through

Past the doubts

And the hardened hearts

Hold on they say

Hold your dreams close and

Don’t let them slip away

Hold on they say

Hold your dreams close and

Don’t let them slip away

Hold on they say

Hold your dreams close and

Don’t let them slip away

I’ve Been Hiding

I’ve been hiding from the lord

He won’t see the things I did

I’ve been hiding from the lord

He won’t see the things I did

In a hollow, by the stones

By the water running through I come across my lovey dove

Uh uhuh uh uhuh

And come along there was a girl

Who knew my love more than she should

And I just watch as my world

Falls away, falls away

I’ve been hiding from the lord

He won’t see the things I did

I’ve been hiding from the lord

He won’t see the things I did

The color of my love is red

And my love is lying dead

In a hollow, by the stones

By the water running through

I’ve been hiding from the lord

He won’t see the things I did

I’ve been hiding from the lord

He won’t see the things I did

The color of my love is red

And my love is lying dead

In a hollow, by the stones

By the water running through

I’ve been hiding from the lord

I’ve been hiding from you lord

So you won’t see the things I did

Maybe It’s All Over

I waited for you to say you’re sorry

I waited for you to change your ways

Sticks and stones break bones

But it’s the words that harm you

I couldn’t find a way, a way, a way

I couldn’t find a way to make you want me

I couldn’t find a way to make you care

Once bitten twice shy you know

I guess they say

I don’t think love works that way

Maybe it’s all over

Maybe we’re through

Maybe you got better things to do?

Maybe it’s all over

Maybe we’re through

Maybe you got better things to do?

Maybe it’s all over

Maybe we’re through

Maybe you got better things to do?

Maybe it’s all over

Maybe we’re through

Maybe you got better things

Photograph

I hear everyone bank your name

You got it going on in the biggest way

Every look you got is custom made

Cut and finish of the highest grade

I saw you smiling in a photograph

I guess I thought the happy would last

Saw you smiling in a photograph

Making out like a slot machine

Cold and shiny filled

Hollow dreams

Got the swag, you’re the deal

House, the spouse, none look real

Saw you smiling in a photograph

Guess I thought the happy would last

Saw you smiling in a photograph

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah

Sunny days never end, California

Lalalalalalalala

Sunny days

It’s a wonder that things didn’t slip

Faster than they did, your marks got hip

Big watches do a lot of things

Never tell you just what time it is

I saw you smiling in a photograph

I guess I thought the happy would last

Saw you smiling in a photograph

I guess it didn’t last, it didn’t last

Saw you smiling in a photograph

I guess I thought the happy would last

Saw you smiling in a photograph

I guess it didn’t last

Sunny days never end, California

Ahhhhhh, lalalalalalalalala

Lalalalalala, California

Sunny days never end, California

Sunny days

One Human Being

Sometimes I wonder why do anything

I look around and what do I see

Cruelty and hatred, injustice and greed

Entire peoples left with no thing, nothing

Who does this ,why do they do what they do

Is it our fate to ruin the world

How many penitents does it take to compensate

For the things we do, the crimes of me and you

What can one do

Behold the weak, the old and the young

Sun never sets on the evil that’s done

Breaking the hope and spirit of everyone

What can one do when one

Is just one human being

What can one do when one

Is just one human being

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

And one and one and one and one and one and

One leaf, a tree

One star, the universe

One life, the world

One act of kindness is everything when one is

Just one human being

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

One act of kindness is everything when one is

Just one human being

One human being, yeah, yeah, yeah

And one and one and one and one and one and

And one and one and one and one and one

One human being

April Fools

Dear, can it be that one more year

Has come and gone and we’re still here

Still hanging on

Like baby birds, like budding flowers

Like anything that doesn’t know

The way things end

And so it goes

We’re April fools, we’re April fools

Joke’s on us, we don’t care

’Cuz being in love is all

That matters in the end

I suppose it’s true that in this world

We’re meant to lose every precious thing

And so we do, and so we do

But you and I, we just hold on

We just hold on and on and on

And on and on and on and on

So let’s be fools, my April flower

Let’s be fools full of desire

You are my old, you are my new

My everlasting, my everlasting April fool

Rocket

Where were you going to that late afternoon

When I dropped you at the station

With ten bucks in your high top shoes

Did you make it across the Rockies

Or to your cousin’s place upstate

Never knew if you’d aim high or low

Never knew if you’d stay or run

Tell me

Did you make it to the moon?

Did you make it, like a rocket, to the moon?

Hazy, lazy days and sweaty nights

It was easy passing time with you

I would have stayed forever, I thought you knew

And now you’re gone

What I wonder and I wanna know

Tell me

Did you make it to the moon?

Did you make it, like a rocket, to the moon?

Did you make it, did you make it to the moon?

Did you make it, like a rocket, to the moon?

Or did you fly so high and fast

Stardust is all you left?

Always leaving, looking for some meaning

Did you have to lose yourself

Did you have to lose yourself to get found?

Tannersville

On our way to Tannersville

Lost ourselves up in the hills

Riding Bill and Jenny’s coupe de ville

Taking corners, hell on wheels

Smoking ‘rillos and drinkin’ schnaps

Pulling over, missing that truck

Pulling over and climbing down

Naked in the river, class clown

We’re gonna ride wild and free today

We said, we said hey, hey, hey

We’re never punkin’ out no way

We said, we said hey, hey, hey

Hey babe, don’t ever change

World keeps spinning, don’t be afraid

Yeah babe, we’ll stay the same

It’s not so bad, giving up

Taking a job and sucking up

To all the bastards in their chino pants

All the blonde blow outs strings attached

Spend your weekends at the local mall

Talkin bout how you used to blue ball

Talkin big about some yesterday down in Tannersville okay

We’re gonna ride wild and free today

We said, we said hey, hey, hey

We’re never punkin’ out no way

We said, we said hey, hey, hey

Hey babe, don’t ever change

World keeps spinning, don’t be afraid

Yeah babe, we’ll stay the same

Hey babe, don’t ever change, yeah

World keeps spinning, don’t be afraid

We’ll stay the same

Hey babe, let’s stay the same

Come on babe, come on babe, come on babe

Come on babe

Let’s stay the same

Come on babe, we’ll stay the same

Don’t let them slip away

Maybe you got better things

To do?

One and one and one and one and one

And yet I see and yet I see

Nature teaches possibility

One drop, an ocean

Your mind was always on the road

Always looking for that one last thing

That would make it all make sense to you

Yeah, your own personal missing link

All songs by Lily Vakili

Lily Vakili — Vocals

Seth Barden — Bass

Eric Burns — Guitar

David Mann — Flute, Saxophone

Chris St. Hilaire — Piano, Percussion

Reed Turchi — Slide guitar

Joseph Yount — Drums

I am the archivist — the amateur archaeologist — of my own life, and this album is about places etched in my heart, buried in memory, and found on the map of my wanderings.

In Hays, Kansas, there’s a museum of natural history and within its halls are fossils of delicate, flower-like crinoids and the voracious Xiphactinus; excavated remnants, reconstructed evidence of a vast, only partly knowable expanse called the Oceans of Kansas.

2025 Lily Vakili/SoundKlaxon, Inc. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction is a violation of applicable laws. Manufactured in the USA. SIDE A Okoboji Hold On They Say I’ve Been Hiding Maybe It’s All Over Photograph SIDE B One Human Being April Fools Rocket Tannersville All songs by Lily Vakili @ Soundklaxon Inc./ASCAP Recorded, mixed & produced by Reed Turchi at Second Take Sound, NYC Mastered by Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound, Edgewater, NJ Artwork by

Bruce Hanson

Photography by Lara Callahan

Text graphics by Jane Ellis

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