Ben Folds Album

The old bastard left his ties and his suit
A brown box, mothballs and bowling shoes
and his opinion so you'd never have to choose
Pretty soon, you'll be an old bastard too
You get smaller while the world gets big
The more you know you know you don't know shit
The whiz man'll never fit you like the whiz kid did

So why you gotta act like you know when you don't know?
It's okay if you don't know everything
Why you gotta act like you know when you don't know?
It's okay if you don't know everything

Close your eyes close your ears young man
You've seen and heard all an old man can
Spread the facts on the floor like a fan
throw away the ones that make you feel bad

Kids today gettin' old too fast
they can't wait to grow up so they can get some ass
They get nostalgic about the last ten years
before the last ten years have passed

why you gotta act like you know when you don't know?
It's okay if you don't know everything
Why you gotta act like you know when you don't know?
It's okay if you don't know everything

Tears land on a hand on the chest
The old bastard had a paradigm arrest

You got smaller and the world got big
The more you knew we knew we didn't know shit
The whiz man never fit him the whiz kid did

Why you gotta act like you know when you don't know?
cause It's okay if you don't know everything
Why you gotta act like you know when you don't know?

By the time the buzz was wearing off
we were standing out on the sidewalk
with our tattoos that looked like rings
in the hot Nevada sun

Kids piled high, our moms and dads shook hands
in a party of Polaroid friends
rented a pool and hired a band
Maybe they knew more then we knew
cause they danced and drank
while we jumped off the deep end

Oh I've got you to thank
for this

Christmas came around
yeah and everything was going to crap
and our moms and dads not a clue to be had
Yeah we put on a pretty good act
and they seemed to all need to believe it
so we danced and smiled and paddled hard beneath it

Oh I've got you to thank
for this

You can't say you've never had a doubt
and smoked it down but really wanted out

By the time the buzz was wearing off
we were standing out on the sidewalk
with our tattoos that looked like rings
in the hot Nevada sun
and they won't fade

Take a walk
out the gate you go and never stop
past all the stores and wig shops
quarter in a cup for every block
and watch the buildings grow
smaller as you go

Down the tracks
beautiful McMansions on a hill
that overlook a highway
with riverboat casinos and you still
have yet to see a soul

Jesusland
Jesusland

Town to town
broadcast to each house, they drop your name
but no one knows your face
Billboards quoting things you'd never say
you hang your head and pray

for Jesusland
Jesusland

Miles and miles
and the sun goin' down
Pulses glow
from their homes
You're not alone
Lights come on
as you lay your weary head on their lawn

Parking lots
cracked and growing grass you see it all
from offices to farms
crosses flying high above the malls
A longer walk

through Jesusland

We'd hit the bottom,
I thought it was my fault
And in a way I guess it was
I'm just now finding out
What it was all about

Moved to the west coast away from everyone
She never told me that you called
Back when I was still, I was still in love

Till I opened my eyes and walked out the door
And the clouds came tumbling down
And it's bye-bye, goodbye, I tried
And I twisted it wrong just to make it right
Had to leave myself behind
I've been flying high all night
So come pick me up...I've landed

The daily dramas she made from nothing
So nothing ever made them right
She liked to push me and talk me back down
Until I believed I was the crazy one,
and in a way
I guess I was...

But I opened my eyes and walked out the door
And the clouds came tumbling down
And it's bye-bye, goodbye I tried
Treading a sea of a troubled mind
Had to leave myself behind
Singing bye-bye, goodbye I tried

If you wrote me off I'd understand it
Because I've been on some other planet
So come pick me up...
I've landed

And you will be so
happy to know
I've come alone,
it's over

But I opened my eyes and walked out the door
And the clouds came tumbling down
And it's by my goodbye I tried
Down comes the reign of the telephone czar
It's OK to call
Now I'll answer for myself

Come pick me up,

You can't fool me, I saw you when you came out
You got your momma's taste but you got my mouth
And you will always have a part of me
Nobody else is ever going to see
Gracie girl

With your cards to your chest walking on your toes
What you got in the box only Gracie knows
And I would never try to make you be
Anything you didn't really want to be
Gracie girl

Life flies by in seconds
You're not a baby Gracie, you're my friend
You'll be a lady soon but until then
You gotta do what I say

You nodded off in my arms watching TV
I won't move you an inch even thought my arm's asleep

One day you're gonna want to go
I hope we taught you everything you need to know
Gracie girl

And there will always be a part of me
Nobody else is ever gonna see but you and me
My little girl

It's funny I know
But I'm disappointed in you
I thought you could read my mind
But I came home early
And saw that a drawer'd been opened
Looks like you've been reading my diary instead

How does it feel to realize
You're all alone behind your eyes?
It seems to me if you can't trust
You can't be trusted

Caught in a dream
Picking up astral signals
Some of them psychic, you better watch what you think
Happens to be that everybody else's dreams are Freudian clues
You better watch what you dream

You wanna see the other side
What's going on behind the eyes
Still it seems if you can't trust
You can't be trusted

Didn't you know we're as close as we can be?

The sun's coming up
She's pulled all the blankets over
Curled in a ball
Like she's hiding from me and
That's when I know
She's gonna be pissed when she wakes up
For terrible things I did to her in her dreams

You wanna see the other side
What's going on behind the eyes
Still it seems if you can't trust
You can't be trusted

Didn't you know we're as close as we can be?

Judy
Could anyone be loved anymore
than I love you
does it hurt you too?
But Judy
I've been feeling small too long
I love you so
but something's wrong

and I come running when you want me here
and when you want me to, I disappear

Give Judy my notice

I knew if I made it easy for you
you'd settle for me, yeah eventually
but Judy
I won't be your bitch anymore
and follow you 'round
and hold the door

and I can't do this any longer
the vacuum left is so much stronger

Give Judy my notice
Give Judy my notice

Judy you know I'm not mad anymore
at least most of the time
but that could take a while
I've been living just to see you smile
every once in a while

Tears fall
but that don't mean nothing at all
It's just cause I said it first
yeah, that's why it hurts

And I'm not sorry if you're not sorry
And you're not sorry until I make you

Give Judy my notice
Give Judy my notice
Give Judy my notice
Give Judy my notice

Under some dirty words on a dirty wall
Eating takeout by myself
I played the shows
Got back in the van and put the Walkman on
And you were playing

In some other dive a thousand miles away
I played a thousand times before
And like pathetic stars, the truck stops and the rock club walls
I always knew
You saw them too
But you never will again

It's too late
Don't you know
It's been too late
For a long time

Elliott, man, you played a fine guitar
And some dirty basketball
The songs you wrote
Got me through a lot
Just wanna tell you that

But it's too late
It's too late
No, don't you know
it's been too late
for a long time

Oh no
Things were looking up
Least that's what I heard
Oh no
Someone came and washed away your hard-earned
Peace of mind

When desperate static beats the silence up
A quiet truth to calm you down
The songs you wrote
Got me through a lot
Just wanna tell you that

But it's too late
It's too late
No, don't you know
It's been too late
For a long time
It's too late
It's too late
No, don't you know
It's been too late

There's a moment in my mind
I scribbled and erased a thousand times
Like a letter never written or sent
These conversations with the dead
I used to be a sentimental guy
Now I'm haunted by the left unsaid

I never thought so much could change

Little things you said or did
are part of me, come out from time to time
Probably no one I know now would notice

But I never thought so much could change

You drifted far away
Far away it seems
Time has stopped, the clock keeps going

People talkin' and I'm watching
As flashes of their faces go black and white
And fade to yellow in a box in an attic
But I never thought so much
Could change, now I don't miss anyone
I don't miss anything

Think of me
Anyway you want
I can be
The problem if that's easier
In your head
Move the pieces around
Things I've said
Turn the memory upside down

And it makes it better I know
But sometimes it's hard to swallow

In time I will fade away
In time I won't hear what you say
In time, but time takes time you know

Tell your friends
The things they wanna hear and see
Start the drums
Band against the enemy

And in time I will fade away
In time I won't care what you say
In time, but time takes time you know

In your head
Move the pieces round
Things I've said
Turn the memory upside down

It might make it better, I know
But sometimes it's hard to swallow

In time I will fade away
In time I won't care what you say
In time, but time takes time you know

You walked the earth
Talked and never spoke a word
She wonders who'll be the first to go

I said you know,
the biggest things we gotta face alone
Don't wanna waste time and go

Alone
Alone again
Alone
Alone again

A trace of me, it floats in my periphery
And every time I turn to see it goes

Alone
Alone again
Alone
Alone again
Alone
Alone again

Floating by like a satellite
To pass the time, you'll float by again
And I can tell you about the little things
So you don't think about the big things for a while

You walked the earth
Talked and never spoke a word
She wonder who will be the first to go

Alone
Alone again
Alone
Alone again
Alone
Alone again
Alone
Alone again