Ben Harper Album

Written by: Ben Harper

A finger's touch upon my lips
It's a morning yearning
Pull the curtains shut, try to keep it dark
But the sun is burning

The world awakens on the run
And will soon be earning
With hopes of better days to come
It's a morning yearning

Another day, another chance to get it right
Must I still be learning
Baby crying kept us up all night
With her morning yearning

Like a summer rose, I'm a victim of the fall
But am soon returning
Your love's the warmest place the sun ever shines
My morning yearning

Written by: Harper/Ward

I've been waiting for you
Never found anything else to do
But waiting for you

I've been calling your name
Never found anything else the same
Nothing's the same

I keep hearing your name
Nothing else sounds the same
As hearing your name

I've been hoping for you
What else can I do
But keep hoping for you

You can kill a lot of time
If you really put your mind to it
Or leave it all behind
And never go through it

What else can I do

Keep waiting for you

Written by: Harper/Ward/Nelson/Yates/Charles/Mobley

You can sell your soul
But you can't buy it back
I've spent my whole life
Working to give you
Everything you lack

I would gladly trade
All of my sympathy
For sorrow
If I could have you
Here with me tomorrow

So many wasted days
The past is so hard to get out from under
So many words that I wish I could say
The future rattles my bones weak like thunder

I wish you were here
So we could walk and talk
In the soft rain
Now all that's left of us
Is a picture sitting in a frame

Everything I wish for
Is everything I see
I remember when your kisses were for me

Written by: Ben Harper

Like an old man
Sitting alone at a lunch counter
Like a small town girl
A big city devours
Some of us laugh
Even in our darkest hour

Never leave lonely alone

Unspoken rules of solitude
Wound without a trace
A lifetime of dreams roll down your face
All that we can't say
Is all we need to hear
When you close your eyes
Does the world disappear

There's something in everyone
Only they know
It moves in the hidden ways
Of joy and sorrow

Never leave lonely alone

[No lyrics]

Written by: Ben Harper

I can't know the hell you love
But I know you've had enough
Some baptize in water
Some in flames

What has life done to you
All you ever wanted was someone to run to you
There's more to life than what makes you cry

Don't you give me a reason to mourn
Look into my eyes with all your hate and scorn
I'll remove the crown of sorrow which you have been adorned
But don't you give me a reason to mourn

Written by: Harper/Kalb

Goodbye
Hasn't been so good to me
Stepped out into the night
Back against the moon
I saw ten thousand hands with candlelight
We all think that we're right
It's hard to tell
If the night is full of hope or doom

My eyes
Burn with unshed tears
My body is weak
From so many silent years
Too many people say goodbye
Before they say hello
Step into the morning
And disappear

What more than sorry can I say
What more than sorry can I be
Before our love fades away
What more than sorry
Do you want from me

Written by: Ben Harper

Sit there and call me
A liar and a cheat
I just wish you'd pin a rose on me
Now you won't even
Come out and take a bow

Cryin' wont help you now

Now your poets
Have all put down their pens
The only songs to sing
Are those sung again
Lonely just doesn't
Look good on you somehow

Cryin' wont help you now

I just keep on staring
Into the black eyes of the truth
We'll have to learn to live apart somehow

Cryin' wont help you now

Written by: Ben Harper

The morning sunrise spread her wings
While the moon hung in the sky
Held the sea in your hands
And happy everafter in your eyes

Couldn't leave you to go to heaven
I carry you in my smile
For the first time my true reflection I see
Happy everafter in your eyes

Every star in the night
Promises the dawn
I will be there if you fall
To ever so heavily rest upon

All that I can give you
Is forever yours to keep
Wake up every day with a dream
And happyever after in your eyes

Happy everafter is in your eyes

Written by: Ben Harper

I'm a living sunset
Lightning in my bones
Push me to the edge
But my will is stone

Fools will be fools
And wise will be wise
But i will look this world
Straight in the eyes

What good is a man
Who won't take a stand
What good is a cynic
With no better plan

Reality is sharp
It cuts at me like a knife
Everyone i know
Is in the fight of their life

Take your face out of your hands
And clear your eyes
You have a right to your dreams
And don't be denied

Written by: Ben Harper

Living these days is making me nervous
Archaic doctrine no longer serve us
Now we're left as silent witnesses
We don't know quite what this is
Other than a war that can't be won

I feel like I'm crowded, I can't get out
World keeps on filling me up with doubt
When you're trapped you got no voice
Where you're born you got no choice
Other than to go and take you some

One dimensional fool
In a three dimensional world

Politics, it's a drag
They put one foot in the grave
And the other on the flag
Systems rotten to the core
Young and old deserve much more
Than struggling every day until you're done

Tension
Too much to mention
Living on both sides of the gun

Written by: Ben Harper

I wish I was a thought
I'd run all through your mind
And come out being everything
You ever tried to find

Life's the longest picture
You're ever gonna take
Love's the longest promise
That you're ever gonna break

I wish I could yell sorry
Louder than I screamed
All of those other things
I said but didn't mean

Some days I'm the lord's servant
Some days I'm satan's pawn
Some days I just wish
The voices in my head were gone

The sun's a moon that warms you
The moon's a sun with no heat
The sky above is to remind you
What's under your feet

This life's not big enough
To fit our love inside
'cause I remember you from heaven
The last time I died

It's an engraved invitation
To leave all this time we've been wasting

Written by: Harper/Yates

You left them swimming for their lives
Down in new orleans
Can't afford a gallon of gasoline
With your useless degrees and contrary statistics
This government business is straight up sadistic

Now you don't fight for us
But expect us to die for you
You have no sympathy for us
But still i cry for you
Now you may kill the revolutionary
But the revolution you can never bury

Don't speak to us like we work for you
Selling false hope like some new dope we're addicted to
I'm not a desperate man but these are desperate times at hand
This generation is beyond your command

And it won't be long
'til the people flood the streets
To take you down
One and all

Written by: Ben Harper

You're too young to know
That you're too young to go
There's no freedom to be found
Lying face up in the ground

Ashes from an unfinished life
Are all that's left
In a tear-drop-shaped locket
Hanging from his mother's chest

You whip the back of freedom
'till it bleeds an oil stream
Then you sail down upon it
In your killing machine

Old men who send children
Off to die in vain
They will hear death's constant whisper
Call remember my name

Gather 'round the stone

Written by: Ben Harper

You're the first one to get there
And always the last one to leave
You're the first one to chuckle
But the last one to grieve
I know all too well the world takes a daily beating

Please don't talk about murder while I'm eating

You walk into the temple
And call it a church
I try to keep things simple
But you always need the works
Your life is marked by numbers and symbols
Excessive drinking from out of golden thimbles
Just a moment of silence I'm needing

So let's not talk about murder while I'm eating

You get all hot and bothered
At the strangest times and places
But don't notice the looks on all the other faces
You're dressed for summer in the middle of December
What you've all but forgotten
I painfully remember
I don't care in the least what you're reading

Please don't talk about murder while I'm eating

Written by: Ben Harper

Throw your hands up to the sky
And scream out loud I'm free
'cause wrong is the new right
So we can cut loose tonight
It costs a lot to look this cheap

Fire makes it burn and water makes it turn
We must still be here living on earth
They keep telling me jesus walked on water
He shoulda surfed

In 1918 the great bambino
Kicked a piano into willis pond
But johnny damon swung a bat
Grand slam that was that
An 86 year curse is gone

Throw your hands up to the sky
And scream I'm not alone
Is it irony or fate
Don't become what you hate
We've all got stardust in our bones

Get it like you like it

Written by: Ben Harper

The more I smoke, the more I drink
The more I talk, the less I think
The less I think, the more I feel
Folks don't change
They just reveal

My mind is broke, my last nerve is shot
What you want from me, I ain't got
Two plus two will never be twenty-two
So please don't tell me twice what I need to do

There's no rules to lust
Only passion, and it can be so unjust
If we don't speak, we'll get along just fine
Don't ask me how I'm doing
'cause I don't feel like lying

Take me as I am
Or leave me the way you found me

Written by: Ben Harper

Battles over which direction to kneel
People reaching out to touch
But forgetting to feel
Daily breath shouldn't be a daily penance
Is that what you believe
Or just a life sentence

I look into the mirror
And I see someone there I used to know
They all want you to serve them
But the only one you got to serve
Is your soul

So much time
And at such a cost
We spend looking for what we've lost
Now that you know
You can't find it from him
You're gonna have to find it within

I look into the mirror
And I see that life has taken its toll
They'll all want you to serve them
But the only one you got to serve
Is your soul

Listen to the wind it won't lie to you
If you love it let it go
And watch it fly to you
Every setting sun gently weeps
You can always hear it
'cause trust never sleeps