A New Morning: It will take another day before it starts sinking in/You can hear the nation burn/St. Stephen in the backroom imitates Napoleon/Maybe he will show some concern/You said you saw me smile, but nothing was showing/It's going to take a little while to get use of a new morning/"Welcome to the funhouse," cried all the barkers/Lying is the one thing that they are good at/The power is out so life seems darker/And a thousand suns cannot fix that/Midnight comes in styles and dies without warning/It's going to take a little while to get use to a new morning/The funeral is taking place late in the afternoon/New Orleans jazz fills the air/Coyotes are lurking among the ruins/Sparrows are the ones who truly care/Integrity was put on trial in the year I was born in/It's going to take a little while to get use to a new morning/There is nothing I can do to make you stay/Or to stop you from saying his name/You said we would meet again on a better day/But I know nothing is going to be the same/You said you'll walk one more mile, but you kept on going/It's going to take a little while to get use to a new morning
Shaky Ground Blues: You keep your troubles underneath your crown/But now you are standing on shaky ground/At midnight I can hear your cries/I see the sadness in your eyes/Like misery loves company/I'm so glad you are here with me/There's too much sorrow for you to hold/I bet you feel like you are about to explode/I work my fingers right down to the bone/Just to make sure you are never alone/There's only so much that I can do/To know the hell you've been going through/There's a diamond inside every coal/Perhaps there's light inside your world
Part of Me: Belated Christmas cards in a sad café/The radio is playing Billie Holiday/The café owner checks his finances/While teenage lovers exchange side-glances/The wintry morning sun peeks through the windowpane/There's a part of me wishing it would rain/Jesus and I one night were in a watering hole/Doing shots of tequila to save us from the cold/We're playing quarters, looking over our shoulders/Talking about you and about our getting older/He went on about misery and said his work's a burden/I continued doing shots 'cause I couldn't get a word in/One last note to you on some paper I borrowed/Maybe I'll finish it tonight or put it off for tomorrow/Billie Holiday turns into static/I'm thinking about you and me sleeping in a downtown attic/I've told you where I've been/I've told you where I'll go/There's a part of me you will never know
Recluse: I hurried on over when you cried wolf/I heard you laughing as I made it to your turf/What looked like distress turned out to be greed/I wanna be a recluse in your time of need/I ran to your side within an instant/You were acting as if our lives were still distant/Is there nothing in this world that would make you bleed?/I wanna be a recluse in your time of need/I know it would take more than a miracle/but I wish I had the power to be invisible/It's time to disconnect the Internet/DSL, fax machines, radios and television sets/I had my fill of soundbites and useless feed/I wanna be a recluse in your time of need/I wanna be J.D. Salinger/I wanna be Georgia O'Keeffe/I wanna be Thomas Pynchon/I wanna be Greta Garbo/I wanna be Phil Spector/I wanna be Captain Beefheart/I wanna be Marlene Dietrich/I wanna be Marlon Brando/I wanna be ol' Basho/I wanna be Johnny Carson/I wanna be Axl Rose/I wanna be Jackson Pollock/I wanna be Howard Hughes/I wanna be Michael Jackson/I wanna be just like you/I wanna be a recluse in your time of need
(You Are the) Wickedest Person (I Have Ever Seen): You hide your precious secrets inside a paper cup/You only let them out when we had enough/You have the right intentions but your ideas are mean/You are the wickedest person I have ever seen/You act like a spoiled child who's under the weather/You are willing to carry out such a big vendetta/Just like Robert Mitchum on the silver screen/You are the wickedest person I have ever seen/You always push me down after setting me up/I'll always be around no matter what/Do you think it's so damn easy to be your boyfriend?/You should come over here and stand on this end/I'm just a sad joker who falls for a queen/And you are the wickedest person I have ever seen
Sailor Moon: Sailor Moon/Running from the mob carrying pitchforks and flags/Stepping into the shadows dressed up in drag/With your sun-beaten passport hanging from your bags/Catching the ship that leaves at noon/Running for your life, Sailor Moon/Sailor Moon/Standing at the crossroads feeling skewered and jaded/With your midnight children so easily persuaded/Do you remember the last time when you were serenaded/By a pauper who almost lost his croon?/Running for your life, Sailor Moon/Pot-bellied pigs said you'll rue the day/You take their advice and toss it away/Sailor Moon/Watching the world as it melts down like plastic/Trying hard not to preach what you had practice/Harboring those young girls with your latest tactic/To take revenge on those who spoke too soon/Running for your life, Sailor Moon/Sailor Moon/Paradise is too precious to be taken in stride/Happiness doesn't keep in formaldehyde/It takes a thousand windstorm to slowly turn the tides/And a thousand more to sing your favorite tune/Running for your life, Sailor Moon/Boys from the Coast Guard cannot protect you/Aurora borealis will not neglect you/Sailor Moon/Tears from your eyes will soon turn to clay/The cops in the riot gear will soon turn away/The devil's gallows will start to decay/You'll be safe sometime in May or June/Running for your life, Sailor Moon
Favorite Plaid Shirt: You waste your time following a heart that's heading nowhere/I could have told you from the very start but you weren't here/So you move up from your baby carriage to the drunk tank/All this talk about your last marriage seems a little bit frank/Just like every grain of sand, you must have felt like dirt/You wipe the mud from your hands on my favorite plaid shirt/St. Peter opened up the Big Bang as if he were the sun/You wanted to be a member of his gang but you didn't own a gun/Then he ripped up your photographs and ate up your grapes/All you were left to do was laugh because you couldn't escape/So you drank away your sorrow on January first/The day you wanted to borrow my favorite plaid shirt/Well I never meant to do you any harm/You should stop twisting and turning my arm/I too was a simple clown but I was denying it/I dug a hole right in the ground and I ought to go lie in it/I feel my head is in a vice but I won't die in it/I'll go ahead and pay the price but I'm not buying it/So don't talk such trash or be a downtown flirt/Who would steal all my cash and my favorite plaid shirt/Let me get this off my chest/You should know the truth hurts/It's not a bulletproof vest/But my favorite plaid shirt
Menthol Cigarette: Cinderella is nobody's darling/The minute she ditched her Prince Charming/He drives around in this old town, he hasn't found her yet/Cinderella finds herself in a menthol cigarette/The nightclub's full of single guys for her/But no one has the balls to try for her/After Cinderella stabbed the last one she met/When he tried to take a puff from her menthol cigarette/Happy Hour has always been a joke/Passion plays have all gone up in smoke/Her stepsisters come and go in a little red Corvette/And Cinderella is all alone with a menthol cigarette/Cinderella leans over just to say/“Find my slipper or be my ashtray”/I can't tell if she being cruel or playing hard to get/As she tries to burn me with her menthol cigarette
Hands: Bauderlaire lived between the floor and the bathroom sink/He spent his time hiding inside the strongest drinks/I wanted to help him out but I couldn't even think of a good reason to take his head out of the sand/And the world doesn't seem like much in the palms of God's hands/Joan of Arc fell into the murk of the Detroit River/She was pushed over the edge by those who wanted to deliver a message with a warning that gave me the shivers/I think of her and try to understand/How she wiped the blood right off the stigmata on her hands/Last night I dreamt the house was haunted/I heard the voices of my past but wasn't sure what they wanted/The nightclub owner gave me your number and a couple of dirty looks/The cocktail waitress gave me the finger and crossed my name off her books/And your lead guitarist claimed I had stolen one of his hooks/So I disappeared from you, the crowds and the bands/I vanished into thin air with a trick of the hands/Honesty is a hard pill to swallow/When one starts telling lies, the others will follow/But I will speak the truth even though I know you won't listen/I will speak to you even though I know you're still with him/I will speak to you so hopefully I could get this in/That I'm doing my best to meet all your demands/'Cause life wouldn't seem like much if I slip through your hands
Czechoslovakia: She burns the midnight oil, lit by a switch/Watches the black smoke rise into a night so stale/She spits at the samaritan who stands by her ditch/And laughs as she pulls herself up by the nails/She defeats the daylights painting murals/Behind the building of the Federal Bureau/Moaning at the moonlight as it melts into the day/She sings her songs in a high and lonesome way/The November fog arrives to surround her/Through the city lights and downtown cages/She makes her living behind the counter/Pushing beer while flipping through the pages/Of the classified ads and Shakespeare sonnets/Which she keeps beneath her Easter bonnet/A bonnet she wears like a crown of thorns/To remind her of the day she was born/Her light green eyes through her purple locks/Speak in volumes of boredom and passion/She could pass as an angel who stops all the clocks/Or otherwise be a first-rate assassin/She could save you from your latest sin/Or for eight million kill a next-of-kin/Then disappear once the deal is done/And reappear before the morning sun/Lawyers and critics who think they own her/Watch her every move just like vultures/They keep telling stories about some loner/Who would wither away like an old poster/So she buys a one-way ticket straight to Prague/She couldn't wait to get the fuck out of Dodge/Lawyers and critics decked out in furs/Shake their heads and wonder whatever became of her/I pass out your photographs in bars and stations/I call out your name 'til I am numb/so ends another year of investigation/And I'm right back where I have started from/So faded is the image of her face/Like a love letter in the fireplace/So faded is the hum of her song/Like thunder over Czechoslovakia
Maria McKee: Sunday morning I wake up from a bed of nails/I drag myself through the fields of tall tales/Riding through the alleyways in a town called Storyville/The heat rises from the asphalt, looking for something to kill/And all I have are two harps that sound like hell/And a melody that will never sell/Repeating lines from
Mexico City Blues/To a man who couldn't pay his dues/I'm searching for God on a tip of a ball-point pen/I've been singing the same damn songs since I don't know when/Falstaff is tossing words from the top of his head/Prince Hal is on the phone, telling friends that he ain't dead/And all I have are lyrics that go nowhere/And a hope that soon I'll get there/Losing money from the hole in the sky/To a man who wouldn't testify/Bohemia breathes with the help of an iron lung/Poets descend, growing hoarse from the songs they sung/There is no greater singer than Maria McKee/The sky could come crashing down and that wouldn't bother me/And all I have are one hundred half-written songs/And mixed up chords half a mile long
Mystic Garden: Trouble rushing to my brain swimming around in circles/Poison flowing through my veins as my heart turns purple/Every breath of air I take drops in my lungs like lead/Keep pushing until I'm awake or else I will think I'm dead/She said, "I'll be your alibi"/I said, "I beg your pardon"/She said, "I'll see you under the sky in the mystic garden"/Stars tonight are blinking low where the road starts to split/Every nerve is tighter than a bow and my luck is threatening to quit/In my dreams I play the king turning water into wine/I don't know what the morning brings as I travel on down the line/She said, "I'll be your Jesus Christ"/I said, "I beg your pardon"/She said, "I'll meet you after the heist in the mystic garden"/I can't recall when the seeds were planted/I remember touching the ground/The sun feels like it was taken for granted so it never comes around/Love is a double-edge sword and I'm cut into two/Your whiskey voice struck a chord and I'm not sure what I'm going to do/But if you see me in the infirmary with pennies over my eyes/Read me the Book of Deuteronomy until the words replace your cries/She said, "I'll be the girl of your dreams"/I said, "I beg your pardon"/She said, "The truth is not what it seems in the mystic garden"
Ground Zero: The day you left me down in the bunker/I was pleading like a kneeling drunkard/Last night I told your friends what I saw/But in the end I was grasping for straws/I was saying your name into the glass/A voice came back, "This too shall pass"/One of these days I will see you around/Somewhere down ground zero/I can't believe how time flies so fast/Within minutes all the stones were cast/Your look threw me against the fence/All of a sudden everything made sense/The smell of perfume is still in my shirt/Your final words are what really hurt/One of these days I will see you around/Somewhere down ground zero/No use repeating the same old message/I'm well aware of the cause of the wreckage/One more noise and these walls will crumble/There's a calm before the earth starts to rumble/Years ago this town was so quiet/Now everyone's expecting a riot/One of these days I will see you around/Somewhere down ground zero/So pull me out of the ashes if you can/When you do I'll lend you a hand/One of these days I will see you around/Somewhere down ground zero
Nickels: When you turn into a butterfly/You can't return to the cocoon/Just remember when you fly too high/You'll burst apart like a balloon/Or be tossed in the wind and crash in the valley/When your wings have been slashed/And your dreams have been dashed/Will you remember me?/I don't want to open up a secret/I want to file my complaint/Every dog in this world can see it/I'm sick and tired of being the saint/I used to wait incognito but now I wait in vain/Like a nickel on the railroad track/I haven't the nerve to jump back/Before the arrival of a train/When you get your taste of freedom/You swallow it whole like the night/Dreams exist when you first need them/Then disappear into the light/Those who rush ahead never get too far/At the end of a jailbreak/You feel your life is no longer at stake/And home is where you say you are/I don't want to say I'm dying/I just can't seem to get out of bed/Every angel is terrifying/At least that's what the poet said/The reaper took my breath and my dignity/Is that your passport by the door?/Is that your suitcase on the floor?/Are you crying over me?
Backstreet Fool: I was left in Birmingham standing in a poor man's door/I'm not some kid from Bethleham or some joker from the Senate floor/You sit high on your pedestal while I'm down here on a stool/I will bear your rugged cross and be a backstreet fool/On the hottest day I enlisted to serve in the Foreign Legion/But life down there was so sick and twisted and I was tossed out for treason/I may not have studied law but I won't follow every rule/I will bear your rugged cross and be your backstreet fool/I'm a pickled clown in a fickle town finally found by you/I have traveled down this dusty road hitching rides from cigarette trucks/I've been carrying a heavy load but I sure ran out of luck/I may not be the brightest man or be enrolled in any school/I will bear your rugged cross and be a backstreet fool/Jesus saves those he loves best and leaves the rest for you/I've seen you in a seedy bar and in front of a Baptist church/And in the backseat of a police car/You didn't say which place was worse/But I have never seen anyone as alive as you/I will bear your rugged cross and be a backstreet fool
Point of No Return: At the point of no return/Reporters are making deadlines/Putting you in the headlines in the morning/There's no time left to burn/The medication's wearing off/You can hear a deadly cough that's forming/Tell me, is she a vision or is lust creeping in?/Am I heading for heaven or committing a sin?/At the point of no return/I crawl through the desert/All my precious treasures are blown away/Trust must be earned/Thieves have filled this room/They are snakes whose souls are doomed to decay/The preacher made it to the mount but he is mumbling/How can I make it for the count if the bridge is crumbling?/At the point of no return/Joey Ramone had been fired/The man who had inspired a thousand bands/But love is my concern/It shifted in different courses/It's been dragged by the horses of the land/I bought myself a telescope for the second coming/Every year brings little hope for the suffering/I reach for the sky above but end up with nothing/Is that the one whom you love, the one that's humming?/If I can break away from the cage, I'll keep on running/If I can make it one more day, that would be something/At the point of no return
Heart Alone: The note you left underneath the phone/Said you will never forget/But you left my heart alone/Down by the bay the circus was postponed/The minute you went and walked away/And left my heart alone/The moon is empty, sinking like a stone/That's the feeling inside me/When you left my heart alone/I was a king and I fell asleep at my throne/You went and stole everything/But left my heart alone/The sound of your name chills me to the bone/Because I know I'm to blame/When you left my heart alone
Drowning: The lightening and the thunder blow away my nest/Storms got me to wonder “Is it the east or the west?”/And I feel like I am stuck in a deep deep well/Loneliness isn't a sin but it makes you feel like hell/I can't tell if the church bells fell or if they never chimed/Soon there'll be nothing for me to hear/I've spent these last few days drowning all the time/Someday I'll be coming up for air/Spirits of the faithful turn away from the door/There's no one here that's grateful or worth searching for/Anger still replaces the tears that bind me/I can't recall the faces of those who can't find me/Moonlight through the broken glass is the only sign I see/That maybe life is almost fair/Pictures of you in my coat lift my misery/Someday I'll be coming up for air/Rain filling up the rest of the cracks inside my mind/Soon there'll be nothing for me to bear/I've spent these last few days drowning all the time/Someday I'll be coming up for air
I Was Wrong: Devils came and devils went/Good luck charms have been spent/Those tall tales I have spoken/Have been broken or badly bent/I was told, seek and ye shall find/Another road to help guide your mind/I was wrong to leave it all behind/Yes I thought I was strong/I was wrong/Every storm has its day/Every home will wash away/Every knock on every door/Will come ashore or fall at bay/I was told, seek and ye shall find/Another road to help guide your mind/I was wrong to leave it all behind/Yes I thought I was strong/I was wrong/My walking blues have taken a life of their own/Nothing on earth is ever set in stone/There's no law except the night/There's no truth except the light/Those young workers are uniting/And fighting for what is right/I was told, seek and ye shall find/Another road to help guide your mind/I was wrong to leave it all behind/Yes I thought I was strong/I was wrong
Eviction Notice: Telephone is ringing, must be my landlord on the line/Gonna let the machine pick up whatever's on his mind/Beer cans in the hallways, eviction notices in a stack/I hear the construction workers talk behind my back/They are tearing down this building to put up a shopping mall/I hear them outside drilling when I slam my ear against the wall/There is no one in this room here except for me and a couple of moths/I would shoo them away but I must be getting soft/There's a shadow in the alley, I wonder if that's still her/I would ask her for forgiveness but that would probably kill her/There's a knock on my front door, I do believe it's the cops/I'll throw my bed out the window and then I will drop
Sad Geraniums: For twenty-four months you had me going/I can't believe it went this far/How stupid was I for not knowing/That somebody else would play your guitar/As the blue moon rises I get this feeling/Back to my old tricks like before/Sad geraniums are what I'm stealing/From the man who lives next door/My sleeping beauty, you are my desire/Though my friends say it's in my head/I'm sitting in a tree like some bird on a wire/Watching you sleep in the neighbor's bed/For twenty more months I have been grieving/Though I tell my friends that I'm alright/Sad geraniums are what I'm leaving/Underneath your red porch light
Paint Thinner: Feels like I came back from war/Felt this way many times before/The only one I've ever adored/Used my heart to mop the floor/When it comes to losing out/I'm a winner/If love spreads like red paint/I'll buy myself paint thinner/I followed every word she spoke/Every thought she tried to provoke/Then one morning I finally awoke/After falling for one last joke/When it comes to figuring it out/I'm a beginner/If love spreads like red paint/I'll buy myself paint thinner/Lovers aren't made to help you survive/They are made to eat you up alive/I was too late before I arrived/I'm thirty-eight but I feel like I'm ninety-five/When it comes to redeeming my life/I'm a sinner/If love spreads like red paint/I'll buy myself paint thinner
Exile Love: Exile love/Running for hundreds of miles/ Exile love/You won’t be back for a while/Broken hearts leave many scars/Every morning I’m seeing stars/I’m a worried man with a worried mind/Cool relief is hard to find/The atmosphere is getting think/My head is filling up with bricks/Hope flies on the wings of a dove/Exile love/Believing the sea has been parted/Exile love/Not knowing what you have started/Hope’s burning out like a cigar/A person can only run so far/Footprints disappear in the snow/News reports whisper way down low/Your voice still haunts this room/The sound of crickets starts to boom/The road is dark from the clouds above/Exile love/Thinking this world is against you/Exile love/Thinking no one will defend you/You can’t run away from trouble/You ain’t the only one seeing double/Sorrow seeps inside my skin/The walls in here are closing in/That gold ring you’ve given me/I do believe it’s slipping free/Every night all I’m thinking of/Is exile love/Watching your dreams turn to sand/Exile love/There’s only so much you can stand/Exile love/The daylight seems so tragic/Exile love/The sun has lost its magic/Exile love/Verses are still repeating/Exile love/The pulse inside you is beating
Seams: Another shot of bourbon/Early in the morning/It's the perfect pick-me-up/Feel like an old turban/Another false warning/And someone is out to set me up/And it seems like I'm falling/falling apart at the seams/Johnny Dilligner/And Johnny Rotten/They are the only true friends of mine/Another dead ringer/Of someone forgotten/Is all I'm hoping to find/And it seems like I'm falling/Falling apart at the seams/Someday I'm going to write/My own “Stairway to heaven”/But nothing is growing under the sun/Someday I will see the light/And take what's given/And send these demons on the run/And it seems like I'm falling/Falling apart at the seams
Committed to You: Inside you stand behind your windowpane/Outside I stand beneath the heavy rain/Downstairs your folks read your diary through/And burn all the paintings you drew/But I'm still committed to you/Myopic poets have taken your light switches/Bible belters have taken your door hinges/Stale scholars have taken your shoes/Said, “There is not future for you”/But I'm still committed to you/You cannot run, you cannot hide/Lovers return your heart in exchange for your pride/They confiscate your locks to conceal their lies/I won't die for something as lame as a government/I won't die for someone as lame as a president/The preacher made you look like a fool/While his ideas turn blue/But I'm still committed to you
Winter Roses: I keep my heart in my pocket/I keep my mind in my shoes/I keep my soul in a locket/But I'll give them all up to you/Everyone had tossed me aside/Left me lonely and oh so blind/But I will stand on my feet again/Just to hold your rose next to mine/Downtown poets have their say/About what's right and what's wrong/The city's finest chase them away/To show them what could be done/I've seen too many incidents/By people who were so unkind/But I will rise above all ignorance/Just to hold your rose next to mine/I recall one winter/The land was covered in snow/The moon was so bitter/And all of the stars were so cold/I'd walked nine hundred miles/And I'll continue 'til the end of time/Just to hold off on loneliness/And to hold your rose next to mine
Silver and Gold: The suicide bomber makes his way to the dance floor/The heavy snake charmer cleans his horn to settle a score/The old rusted mixer dishes out one more drink for you/But the strong elixir will stop your heart in a minute or two/I won't be sold by blue-bearded bankers who pull for their own gravity/Silver and gold may rule the world but they will not rule over me/Little Prince betrayed speaks his mind by the way of a gun/The Pied Piper Brigade inherits the rest of the sun/The warlords’ convention sings out “Hail to the Chief”/Rats lose their pensions and steal the shoes of a thief/I won't be sold by drunken dictators who pull for their own gravity/Silver and gold may rule the world but they will not rule over me/The Baker of Zanzibar lines his bed in hundred dollar bills/The Duke from Lone Star lines the ocean with oil drills/All the streetwalkers arrive early for the death of the king/All the sweet-talkers say “Don't worry. you won't feel a thing”/I won't be sold by greedy gravediggers who pull for their own gravity/Silver and gold may rule the world but they will not rule over me
Gasoline: God makes the world in just six days/He sits back and listens to the media's praise/Then man gathers every animal he's seen/And turns them into gasoline/Gasoline/Humanity runs like a well-oiled machine with just enough gasoline/Ricky looks up and burns his eyes/He wants to duplicate God's sunrise/So he buys a lantern and instead of kerosene/He uses gasoline/Gasoline/Humanity runs like a well-oiled machine with just enough gasoline/The king dips his pen and then declares war/The public asks him what's the fighting for?/He says “We're fighting for the love of the queen/And a gallon of gasoline”/Gasoline/Humanity runs like a well-oiled machine with just enough gasoline/Lucy takes a drink and turns out the light/She wants to see how far she can make it through the night/She turns her SUV into a killing machine/Mixing booze with gasoline/Gasoline/Humanity runs like a well-oiled machine with just enough gasoline/Take Junior to the river to get him baptize/Throw Junior in the river and watch him capsize/Take him out of the river and wipe him clean/With a rag and a dab of gasoline/Gasoline/Humanity runs like a well-oiled machine with just enough gasoline
Happy Hours Blues: Time to scatter these ashes/Put this bottle to rest/Jacks did it in/They stripped its skin/And left intoxicatingly blessed/Brother Sam's left the pulpit/I'm here to close for the night/All you lost souls/Crawl out from your holes/And I will lead you into the light/Welcome to the Mass/Take another glass/Tonight you're gonna meet God/I wandered around this world/Worn down my last pair of shoes/Then I came in here/And stayed for years/Preaching these Happy Hours blues/I know everything about you/Before you gave me a look/Don't worry kid/I don't care what you did/I heard every story in the book/Sometimes this place is a nation/Sometimes it's me and the walls/Secrets have been spilt/With the shame and the guilt/But that don't mean nothing at all/Soon you will see/A true epiphany/Behind this alcohol fog/I had my share of sinning/I paid my share of dues/Like fine cocaine/I'll kill the pain/Preaching these Happy Hours blues
One Foot in the Grave: So the road is paved with gold but it's full of potholes/You came riding in from the cold to gather all the lost souls/I am a man who had enough of being a slave/How can I be lifted up with one foot in the grave?/I was told to accept the wind and swallow all bitterness/How can I start all over again when I can't get over this/Fear of being kept in the night lost and depraved?/How can I see the light with one foot in the grave?/One foot in the grave/How the hell can i ever be saved with one foot in the grave?/Now my hands are covered in scars and each scar tells a story/And my eyes are blinded by a star and all of its glory/Don't need a gun pointed at my head and told to be brave/How can I walk by your side with one foot in the grave?/One foot in the grave/How the hell can I ever be saved with one foot in the grave?
Standing Still: A river of fire stretched on like a thread/It smothers the roses on the concrete hill/You let the dead bury the dead/And the flames are left standing still/King of the Jungle kept those cops at bay/in the sand he wrote his plans to kill/But he stopped and listened to what you had to say/Now all his plans are left standing still/The headhunter tied ol' Destiny down/He seemed to master the soldier's skill/He ran into you before he left town/And his dreams are left standing still/I heard about the way you flew like the air/I heard about the day you had to fill/But I'm not there and you're not here/And time is left standing still/Every mixed emotion/Every runaway notion/Is tossed in the ocean/As the rain kissed the midnight chill/And my heart is left standing still
The Party’s Over: I thought I was flying/Then the sky came crashing down/I thought I was crying/But I could not make a sound/So I am left here counting each crack/And peeking through holes/I came close to breaking my back/While walking over coals/In the morning when the party’s over/That’s when the killing starts/Nothing’s going to change that now/In the morning if the fire’s still burning/Somewhere near our hearts/We’ll make it through somehow/I thought I was moving/But my feet were full of lead/Thought I was improving/But I could not leave the bed/So love comes in from a needle prick/There’s a vein underneath these clothes/The air in here is getting thick/Why that is, God only knows/I thought I was alone/But I was out with the lemmings/I thought I was on my own/But wasn’t sure where I was heading/Now the warm evening has come undone/And the lines are on the glass/We suffer from the light of the sun/Hoping this year will pass/I thought I was getting high/But I was buried in the ground/I thought I was getting by/But the path was never found/Hand me that bottle for it’s getting late/As the fog comes in many layers/Find a cool place to hibernate/Hang your head and say your prayers
Flight (For Lt. Ehren Watada): So they left me here to die/My weary heart like a well runs dry/And Father Time goes walking by/Down below/Last time I took that ride/They hung me up and they hit me on the side/I looked up and the clouds opened wide/Now I know/There are pains inside my bones/The garden is full of castaway stones/So I’ve been left here on my own/After the flood/I press my hand against the wall/I wait day and night for your call/Nothing has been the same since the fall/But I taste blood/I must keep myself awake/I curse these ancient fears I cannot shake/Now I am sober and forsaken/But I’m wiser/I drop my bottle to the floor/I lose my chains and I open up the door/I tell myself I must stop the war/For I’m tired/Now’s the time to tell my tale/That every footprint vanished in the trail/And every goddam plan has failed/Like every night/They are many and I am one/I fought my battles and now I’m done/They will march on and I’ll be gone/I’m taking flight
Santa Fe: I haven't seen the light in the darkness/I haven't heard the voice of the land/I'm not saying I'm a blind contender/I'm not saying I'm the chosen man/I can't seem to lift a finger/Without getting a spit in the face/And every time I turn a corner/I always feel a bit out of place/Now here I am in Santa Fe/Where I've been after being released/I was condemned for helping another/I was condemned for disturbing the peace/Every moment of my existence/I'm always haunted by the past/I would have faith in my future/If I knew how long it would last/Now I spend my waking hour/On the streets all by myself/Without a lover or a friend to count on/Without depending on somebody else/So if you see me in the dark night/And I don't make it by the break of day/Toss my body right into the ocean/And take my soul out of Santa Fe
Last Chance for Redemption: I wrote you a letter today/But I threw it away and claimed it never existed/I started all over again/And I added the pain and the life it was missing/Every since you found out I lied/when I grinned and said I almost died/Now there's no place left to hide/From the last chance for redemption/The nurses place me among/Those speaking in tongues and hiding in phone booths/Suddenly you came along/You wouldn't hear my song 'til I told the whole truth/And give up the life of a pretender/Now my heart is rammed inside a blender/The second I had to surrender/To the last chance for redemption/Don't talk about dignity/Because that ain't me but some jerk in a hurricane/I can't wait 'til the day is done/When darkness comes so maybe I can sleep again/Back into the night of protection/Away from the light of reflection/But now I'm trapped in this direction/To the last chance for redemption
Pieces: On the eleventh hour your day was shattered/It took a chisel to chip away what didn’t matter/You ran into the basement with a new replacement/Which one of you were carved into pieces?/The card dealer really put a spell on you/Every chance taken must have been hell on you/Then your love had hit a snag/You were left holding the bag/A bag full of dreams in a thousand pieces/You wanted your whole world to be complete/You wanted your whole world to be discreet/Then you cried out for immunity/When nothing was in unity/As the blue sky fell apart into pieces/Why must you keep yourself in hiding/Since I’m on the same bus line you’re riding?/The butcher took a part of me and left the rest as history/Since then my whole life was shot to pieces/I’m not trying to act like I was your twin/I just know the same mess you are standing in/It takes more than a dustpan/And a broom in the hand/Of every man and his children/And a nation of a million/To pick up each one of these pieces
Helen of Troy: Helen, my sweet Helen, why do you treat me this way?/You came to me on Easter and left by Christmas Day/We said we’d get married right after your trip/It’s been ten years and I’m still looking for your ship/Helen of Troy, you make me cry/Helen of Troy you make me sigh/I don’t know why I want to die for you/Your mother hates me and your father gave me a curse/Now my guitar’s out of tune and my voice keeps getting worse/I hate to criticize but you got a lot of nerve/The way you shoot me down is something I don’t deserve/Soon I’ll find another girl with a mind like yours/One who closes her heart but opens up her doors/Helen of Troy, you make me cry/Helen of Troy, you make me sigh/I don’t know why I want to die for you
Compassion: Red Head tosses in bed struggles with the pain in her heart/Full moon enters her room and tears her dream world apart/Sunrise with the bloodshot eyes can only show her the way/Last night somebody wrote “Compassion can’t make it today”/Lone Wolf looks at his foot in thirty-six points of view/He says “Lad, don’t be mad. I feel more anger than you”/The Good Lord in a fucked up Ford covers a billion of stars/Last night somebody wrote “Compassion can’t hide all the scars”/Flyboys enter your room through the hole in the roof/Taking everything they needed except for the proof/Goth girl drops her world in a Mississippi field/Three days it’s been blown away three years it will be revealed/Lost boy was overjoyed so the pill will keep him down/Last night somebody wrote “Compassion was chased outta town”/Aunt May starts her day with a song and a little prayer/Night comes she screams to the one who swore he would be there/Dreams stay then they fade away to remind her that she’s still alive/Last night somebody wrote “Compassion can’t help you survive”/King Lear keeps his kids near by tying them up by the knees/His Fool loses his cool and says “Business is just a disease”/The raincoats blow up the boats and cover any sign of the crime/Last night somebody wrote “Compassion is a waste of time”/Vampires in the Bible Belt say their words are sacred/They give you wine and diamond mines, then they strip you naked/Fat man in a rock-and-roll band keeps his disciples under his thumb/White snow drags him low and keeps him cold and numb/Black sky hangs him high and laughs at the time he falls/Last night somebody wrote “Compassion is the cause of it all”/Doc Boggs with his dogs seeks advice from Ida Red/D. Boon with his croon recites the book of the dead/St. John with a white coat on whistles from a watery grave/Last night somebody wrote “Compassion harms those God can’t save”/James Joyce and His Texas Playboys study the rings of the mind/Big Bird follows their words and takes what he could find/Angel whose life was hell learns how to make it alone/Last night somebody wrote “Compassion provokes the unknown”/Hank Williams and Lester Bangs wander through the land/Looking for the Atlantic Ocean and a line in the sand/Last breath another death caused by hearts made of coal/Keeping score of civil wars and faith will be swallowed up whole/You found that you were drowning and no one expects you to live/Last night somebody wrote “Compassion is what I can give”
Copyright © 2010 Mark Nishimura
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