1. |
Turning My Back
03:42
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Your treaty didn’t convince me,
So I chased a fast train
To the all-night picture house I know
Smiled like Houdini
But then without thinking
I traced your name on the window
My breath held so long in the air
I could’ve penned a novel there
As I thought of all the reasons I had for
Turning my back on you
Turning my back
Turning my back on you
I canonized convincing parallels
Our love was like a carousel
Up and down and going nowhere
But halfway through Eternal Sunshine
I was wishing that I could rewind
I missed the point, I know
So I told myself the reasons I had for
Turning my back on you
Turning my back
Turning my back on you
You’re such a stubborn secret
You’ve got Victorian vaults
Where you hide your defects
Like it’s a sin to have faults
But if you can’t live with yourself
Then you can’t love someone else
And it drove me back to the reasons I had for
Turning my back on you
Turning my back
Turning my back on you
And by the end of my picture show
The sun was smiling on infant snow
In the quiet I let you go
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2. |
When the Bad Words Flow
02:52
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From the night on night of endless fighting through the wall
To the week on week of making meek and shrinking small
When the bad words flow
I wonder where my memories go –
Down a big black hole?
Somewhere the walls are thick enough
To gird for every blow?
Beneath the empty promises there’s subtext in the eye:
“Drop a hint of that sass boy, and I’ll beat you till you die”
When the bad words flow
I wonder where my memories go –
Down a big black hole?
Somewhere the walls are thick enough
To gird for every blow?
Just a step away from heaven if you notice me
Just a step away from heaven if you notice me
Just a step away
When the bad words flow
I wonder where my memories go –
Down a big black hole?
Somewhere the walls are thick enough,
Are high enough,
Are old enough to survive every blow?
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3. |
Perfect House
04:53
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I found the perfect house for you
Two sinks in the kitchen where the light runs down the hall
No shadows there at all
And the mugs hang line in sentry on the flour-faded rack
To wait the morning ritual
And the earth is solid oak
And the oak is set in stone
And it’s fair to say this house could be your one forever home
And the earth is solid oak
And the oak is set in stone
Though I can’t make this house a home for you no more
That don’t mean you should lock your hope behind its door
I ain’t saying that you have to forget about me
All the same I think you could use the company
There’s more than one for you
I know I am dying in the back of a crumpled car
I’ll bleed forever more
On the way home you will find me and you’ll cradle my poor head
Upon your lap until I’m dead
Tell your grandkids so they know
That the knowing sets you free
Then live together in the house I found so happily
Where the earth is made of oak
And the oak is set in stone
Though I can’t make this house a home for you no more
That don’t mean you should lock your heart behind its door
I ain’t sayin that you have to forget about me
All the same I think you could use the company
I beg you darling please, move on for me
Well I beg you darling, please
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4. |
Slide Away
04:50
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Do you think you could forgive me
For the lead of my mistakes?
Vespers on my knees knees knees
About as long as I can take
I’m so far east I can’t see the Garden
Blinded by doubt and nothing could be worse
Don’t let me slide away
Say you’d kiss new life into me
After I’ve been eating dirt
Lord I have been begging begging begging
You’ve been silent and inert
I’m so far east I can’t see the Garden
My fingernails till a wasteland
Of fallow earth
Don’t let me slide away
We’ve all been hurt
We are still hurtin
Haven’t we suffered long enough?
Now keep your word
and come back to Earth
Please don’t let us slide away
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5. |
All My Demons
05:17
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I navigate by moonshine
Get blinded by the sun
And take an oath to walk the line
Until my days are done
This old heart was torn and tough
The flame burned without heating
This callous tongue raw and rough
Till bitterness sweetened
When too much faith in tuneless time
Sold me up the flow
Good love graced my fading mind
Goodness why who knows?
All my demons burn through
I accept that fate
‘Cause it never concerns you
You shake that old cross off
You share the weight
I dreamed a world of breathless height
Where the penniless were preaching
That anyone who braved a fight
For doing right would reach them
But my dream became a seamless night
Lit by fiery rain
Dark enveloping the lightning
Till no flash remained
And that’s when you came
All my demons...
In thirty years we’ll reminisce
Wedged up on the sofa
This tattered pic of our first kiss
Snapped in Barcelona
If only all that’s left of time
Lay along our row,
I could say how right the way
Gratitude will show:
I love you more than you’ll ever know
All my demons...
A man who walks by moonshine
Is blinded at the dawn
And takes an oath to travel light
Until the light is gone
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6. |
Little Dreamer
04:27
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Tuck in tight little dreamer
Don’t worry about the world beyond your bed
I know your mind is all full up
With dreams that haunt
The things you must become when you get older than you want
Little dreamer
Be still inside little dreamer
Don’t worry about the world yet to come
You’ll have time to figure out
And streets to run
And friends to help you hold a steady hand up to the sun
Little dreamer
Is this our mistake:
Holding on to crumbs of light
When darkness fills our plate?
But I am a dreamer
Lord knows,
I am a dreamer
Don’t be frightened little dreamer
What’s under-lit is only unknown
Don’t you stop to watch the woods
Fill with snow
The spring is coming though you’ve many miles and miles to go
Little dreamer
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