Cook log · Sheet 4 of 4 · Smoke & Ruin Records

Burnt Ends

1999 · Smoke & Ruin Records · 8 tracks

The final album. Recorded in the spring of 1999 on the trailer deck, parked in Reggie Pope's yard, with the smoker lit for every take. The last track ends when the fire goes out.

1. 01Burnt Ends4:59
   Words, as printed on the inner sleeve

   Brisket rests an hour in a cooler
   Wrapped in towels on the trailer floor
   Flat gets sliced the width of a pencil
   Six slices in a box for a judge we never saw
   
   Then we cube the point and sauce it
   And we put it back on for two more hours
   That's the part that never goes to the judges
   That's the part that's ours
   
   Burnt ends
   Off the board in the afternoon light
   Never went in a box, never got a number
   Best thing we cooked all night
   
   Nine years of numbered boxes
   And the judges' letter framed on Reggie's wall
   Now Hollis wants to fix amplifiers
   Reggie's got a route to haul
   
   And me, I'm done cooking for a tent flap
   For a judge I'll never meet
   So we lit it one more spring in Reggie's yard
   And we cooked it all to eat
   
   Burnt ends
   Off the board in the afternoon light
   Never went in a box, never got a number
   Best thing we cooked all night
   
   Every fire goes out
   And Lu writes down the time
   There was a day the joints gave the ends away
   To anybody standing in line
   
   Burnt ends
   Off the board in the afternoon light
   Never went in a box, never got a number
   Best thing we ever made

2. 02Cut From the Point3:33
3. 03Last Fire4:10
4. 04Ashes in the Firebox3:50
5. 05The Long Rest5:12
6. 06225 (Reprise)2:20
7. 07Clean the Pit4:58
8. 08Coals at Dawn6:31

   The band played until the coals went gray. The take is six minutes and thirty-one seconds.