Star of your Film

Today I said all of my thoughts out loud
Then I lost you perfectly in a crowd
And nobody knew your name
But we went anyway

I stole you records you scratched my mind
You missed your ride just in time
And I knew before morning you would be
Looking for my sympathy

That's when I knew that you forgot to pretend again
Everyone on my head is in
Looking for letters to send again

I don't want to be the star of your film
Or kill a man with a sword so the pretty girls go on home.

Drop

All my intuitions say
There's no real case to stay
And watch the information age
Flooding thoughts onto the stage

Turning off the screen enough
Begin to fill the corners of
Your eyes with more than just the wall
Finally get rid of all
The crowds conversing constantly
About events they didn't see
Aren't always worth the time they need
Let alone the minds they feed

Way past all the words it takes
To advise and satiate
They keep talking 'bout the plans they make
Nothing left they have to rate
And all my intuitions say
There's no real case to stay
And watch the information age
Flooding thoughts onto the stage

A little less loud but it's more of a surprise
Living through the lows riding out the highs
A little more fun and a little more wise
Filling up your ears filling up your eyes
Covering it all line after line
Cover what you can but you can't cover lives
Photo from the top photo from the side
Look at photos all you want but you can't get inside

Words turned upside down
And thoughts that compound
Ideas unfound
Are never going to be taking over
Walking mountain towns
And local pockets of sound
That fill up and surround and surround
But all my intuitions say
There's no real case to stay
And watch the information age
Flooding thoughts onto the stage

So and So

Lady by now you know you don't take the blame when I am off getting lost again
I'll be dragging my feet and earning my pay in pure electricity

Then I won't even know
Your name from so and so
My lady so and so

And lady my friend the volts that I make for just one afternoon's sake
Will run an arcade where the lights flash and sing with some pinball and some fight-scenes

And I'll be lost in the lights
I'll be your so and so
My lady so and so

And nobody knows just how far I got to go
To feel a little more in this here skin

And it's all just for fun the work that I done
It ain't great pay anyway
Far off in the mines and welding all them lines
On the black top I ain't ever gonna stop
Jug whiskey and a pipe for my whiskey wife
Well I'm gonna make it right with this here light
For the arcade day when I'm your whatshisface
And you my such and such
When we touch

My lady so and so
My lady so and so
And I'm your so and so too and you and I just go go go go

Ground

Skyscrapers on the lawn
Tower lighting up the storm
Chopper cutting in the dawn
Siren breaking through the calm
Still there's nothing there that breathes
Nothing dies when they freeze
Nothing heals and nothing bleeds

The best part about the stones
Is where they've cracked and where they've worn
Stumbling down towards the ground
Back to the place where they were found
Shaped and chiseled out to be
But how much shaping do you need
When the streets are all you see

Finally daylight shows a bit
This is it
This is it yeah this is it
How it is not how it was
Not what he did but what he does
She doesn't miss whatever she
Thought she just would have to see

Through the pavement sprouts some grass
Underneath the worms amass
Among the chunks of broken glass
Pigeons rifle through the trash
Bits and pieces trickle down
But without light and too much sound
The world seems carved out of the ground

Out of the city on the tracks
Looking out at what you pass
Just little sheds and little shacks
When they were built they built to last
A little place in which to sleep
But why waste time with more concrete
When you've got mountains at your feet

Paint

On the posters, on the strips
Over-sized, over-red lips
Paint another coat into
Her eyes to make them over blue
When you looked up at the perfect mouth
You thought you heard a bell ring out

Below the sea of creamy skin
On the face of what has never been
Pointing up I know I heard you say
If we don't smile the wrinkles go away
How could anybody think that way?

We're all crying angel anyway

Overtop

They'll come from all around and stay
Until the herds get back for the day
Crouched over a table
And they'll start talking faith
In the ordinary way
Like there's no shades of grey
Between the odd and even

But I still see
Overtop of all the trees
Like I got seconds left to breathe
In the autumn they perceive
To be falling down on me

And they'll say the time has passed
When border guards could laugh
And we'll never know the difference
But they all missed the train
Now they're stuck out on the plains
Hoping remnants still remain
Of the hour they had in essence

When they could see
Overtop of all the trees
Like they had seconds left to breathe
In the autumn that would be
Falling all over the scene

But I still have the dream I had so long ago before we let up
To sit back on a guarantee and wait it out complacently

And I still see the morning we stepped into that big red machine

And I always thought that we'd be
Going out in flames
Nailing colours to the mast
Singing like the season's not gonna last
Through the night we sit here talking
About the times under the moon
When we walked along the beaches
But got sand stuck in our shoes

Lift

In my fridge there's not too much
Put my face to the ground had a worm for lunch
Oh no what's that sound Michael Moore is bringing me down
Caught me on film with my hands in the ground
Didn't know he lived in my town so I biked all through the night
I woke up in the middle of the desert with all the little lizards overdue videos and a rocking Gene Simmons
So I ran just as fast as I can to the band in a jam so I know my way

And it's all right to get out of here

1-2-3-4 drummer calls from the back of floor
Camera takes film TV takes eyes and man eat beef with burgers and fries
And all I need is the way to get out on of here

So I walked alone in the sun and I walked till the wars were done
And I walked till my feet were numb and I walked till my brain was dumb
I fell down to my knees
Then my face to the earth
Buffalo Springfield can figure what ever this song is worth

Our St. Drum

She plays them drums on Sunday nights
She plays them drums and the troops come home for a while
She drums for us and our tired feet that could walk us back home too

When it fell it was war
flooding on the plain like a June star
dimpling midnight
above us

She cried that night on the edge of a bed
Saw his naked self, his big naked head
That was shouldering all of our dreams
When he left to fight with rain

Under the bomb-proof halo of growing city towers,
Like rural routes to God's front door,
We walked, he fought, on a rail, from a cart
On this: our great and only spinning ball

Now he won't say what he's given,
Or what he let pass, when we come to ask
Where them drums have been on these past few Sunday nights

Faceless

Borrowed dimes parking fines cymbals ring and the girls sing
Van Halen's wise in my hung over eyes but there's nothing there there's no surprise
And the coffee's cold and there's no payphone to call on home but don't you know
She's on all fours so shut the door get the guys and drink some more

I don't even recognize your face anymore
I don't know what you did that for
But it never really mattered to me anyway

Time will tell so stop the clocks look ahead for the falling rocks and
Thunder Bay is on the way so take another solo Trey
Carpet burn is on your knees from begging please to the seven seas
To take you away but not today there's been something wrong all along

Drawn in Chalk

I used to walk but now I run
I miss the faces and the sun
Thinking a lot about the coast back when I used to make the most

Of the importance of having fun
I had a song for everyone
But now I fear those days are done
We got jobs that bite our tongues
Shade the trees and block the sun
Out of fluorescent lighted rooms
I never felt so out of tune

All along the sidewalk
Pretty pictures drawn in chalk
Go unseen beneath my feet
'Cause now I'm walking to the beat
Of all the songs I thought were wrong
To be singing on and on
'Cause they're not pretty they're not fun
They're just a way to get things done

There were times I couldn't see myself be anything but free

I saw a crowd outside a church
Asking questions about the hurt
They said they walked but now they run
We got jobs that bite our tongues
Shade the trees and block the sun
Out of fluorescent-lighted rooms
I never felt so out of tune

As when I started up my car
Drove to work inside the dark
And didn't look up for the sun
I had a song for everyone
But I'm not locked up looking back
No I'm not stuck here in the past
And I'll find music in the sound
Of anything that brought me down
We got jobs that bite our tongues
Shade the trees and block the sun
Out of fluorescent-lighted rooms
I never felt so out of tune
We got jobs that bite our tongues
Shade the trees and block the sun
But I'll find music in the sound
Of anything that brought me down