Bright Eyes Album

So there is this woman and she was on an airplane, and she's flying to meet her
fiancé, sailing high above the largest ocean on planet earth, and she was seated
next to this man, who, you know, she had tried to start conversations, and only,
really the only thing she did heard him say was to order his Bloody Mary. And
she's sitting there, and she's reading this really arduous magazine article
about this third world country, that she couldn't even pronounce the name of,
and she's feeling very bored and very despondent, and then uh, suddenly, there's
this huge mechanical failure and one of the engines gave up, and they started
just falling in thirty thousand feet, and the pilot's on the microphone and he's
saying, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, oh my God, I'm sorry," apologizing and, and she
looks at the man and she says, she says "where are we going?" and he looks at
her, and he says, "we're going to a party, it's a birthday party. It's your
birthday party, happy birthday darling. We love you very, very, very, very,
very, very, VERY much." And then he starts humming this little tune and it kinda
goes like this:
1-2, 1-2-3-4

We must talk in every telephone, get eaten off the web
We must rip out all the epilogues from the books that we have read
And to the face of every criminal strapped firmly in a chair
We must stare, we must stare, we must stare

We must take all of the medicines too expensive now to sell
Set fire to the preacher who is promising us hell
And in the ear of every anarchist, that sleeps but doesn't dream
We must sing, we must sing, we must sing

And it'll go like this:
While my mother waters plants, my father loads his gun
He says, "Death will give us back to God, just like the setting sun
is returned to the lonesome ocean"

And then they splashed into the deep blue sea
It was a wonderful splash

We must blend into the choir, sing a static with the whole
We must memorize nine numbers and deny we have a soul
And to this endless race for property and privilege to be won
We must run, we must run, we must run

We must hang up in the belfry, where the bats in moonlight laugh
We must stare into a crystal ball, and only see the past
And in the caverns of tomorrow with just our flashlights and our love
We must plunge, we must plunge, we must plunge

And then we'll get down there,
Way down to the very bottom of everything
And then we'll see it
Oh we'll see it, we'll see it, we'll see it

Oh my morning's coming back, the whole world's waking up
Oh the city bus is swimming past, I'm happy just because

If you hate the taste of wine
Why do you drink it till you're blind?
And if you swear that there's no truth and who cares
How come you say it like you're right?
Why are you scared to dream of God
When it's salvation that you want?
You see stars that clear have been dead for years
But the idea just lives on...

In our wheels that roll around
As we move over the ground
And all day it seems we've been in between
The past and future town

We are nowhere and it's now
We are nowhere and it's now

And for a ten minute dream in the passenger's seat
While the world was flying by
You haven't been gone very long
But it feels like a life time

I've been sleeping so strange at night
Side effects they don't advertise
I've been sleeping so strange
With a head full of pesticide

I've got no plans in too much time
I feel too restless to unwind
I'm always lost in thought as I walk a block
To my favorite neon sign

Where the waitress looks concerned
But she never says a word
Just turns the juke box on and we hum along
And I smile back at her

And my friend comes after work
When the features start to blur
She says these bars are filled with things that kill
By now you probably should have learned

Did you forget that yellow bird?
How could you forget your yellow bird?
She took a small silver wreath and pinned it onto me
She said this one will bring you love
And I don't know if it's true

Grey like new day leaks through the window
And some old song comes on the alarm clock radio
You walk the forty blocks to the middle
Of the place we heard where everything would be
And there was barracades to keep us off the street
But the crowd kept pushing forward
Until they swallowed the police
Yeah, they went wild, they went wild
They went wild, they went wild

We left before the dust had time to settle
And all the broken glass swept off the avenue
All the way home I held your camera like a bible
Just wishing so bad that it held some kind of truth

And I stood nervous next to you in the dark room
You dropped the paper in the water
And it all begins to bloom

Yeah, they go wild, they go wild
Yeah, they go wild, they go wild

Just when I get so lonesome I can't speak
I see some flowers on a hill side
Like a wall of new TVs

Yeah, they go wild, they go wild

Our love is dead but without limit, like the surface of the moon, or the land
between here and the mountains. Well it is not these hiding places that have
kept us innocent but the way you taught me to just let it all go by. And so
we've learned to be as faithless, stand behind bulletproof glass, exchanging our
affections through a drawer. And it was always horribly convenient and happening
too fast, you should count your change before you're even out the door, yes you
should.
But please return, return to the person that you were and I will do the same.
Cause it's too hard to belong to someone who is gone, my compass spins, the
wilderness remains.

Once too often I've retreated into the depths of my despair, I built a barricade
to block you on the road. But standing there with all of my possessions piled
higher than a house, I felt closer to you than you ever would have known. So let
these tiny acts of charity be common ground on which to build a monument to
commemorate our time. And though you say you've found another who will surely
speed you on your way, don't let the forest grow over that path you came there
by. But you will.

So hurry up and run to the person that you love and blind him with your kindness
and he'll make war, oh war on who you were before and claim all that has spoiled
in your heart. Now I tell myself I've mended under these patches of blue sky,
there's still a few holes that let in a little rain. So now it's crying on my
shingles, my floorboards moan under my feet, the refrigerator's whining so I got
reason to complain.

But I'm not going to bless you with such compliments, some degrading psalm of
praise like the kind that converted you to me so long ago because the truth is
that gossip's as good as gospel in this town, you can save face but you will
never save your soul. And that's a fact.

So hurry and run to the one that you love and tie him up in your likeness and
he'll become, become the prisoner I was and know all that has spoiled in your
heart. He'll know all that has spoiled in your heart. So hurry up and run to the
one that you love and blind him with your kindness and he'll make war, oh war on
who you were before and claim all that has spoiled in your heart. Yeah he'll

Our love is dead but without limit, like the surface of the moon, or the land
between here and the mountains. Well it is not these hiding places that have
kept us innocent but the way you taught me to just let it all go by. And so
we've learned to be as faithless, stand behind bulletproof glass, exchanging our
affections through a drawer. And it was always horribly convenient and happening
too fast, you should count your change before you're even out the door, yes you
should.
But please return, return to the person that you were and I will do the same.
Cause it's too hard to belong to someone who is gone, my compass spins, the
wilderness remains.

Once too often I've retreated into the depths of my despair, I built a barricade
to block you on the road. But standing there with all of my possessions piled
higher than a house, I felt closer to you than you ever would have known. So let
these tiny acts of charity be common ground on which to build a monument to
commemorate our time. And though you say you've found another who will surely
speed you on your way, don't let the forest grow over that path you came there
by. But you will.

So hurry up and run to the person that you love and blind him with your kindness
and he'll make war, oh war on who you were before and claim all that has spoiled
in your heart. Now I tell myself I've mended under these patches of blue sky,
there's still a few holes that let in a little rain. So now it's crying on my
shingles, my floorboards moan under my feet, the refrigerator's whining so I got
reason to complain.

But I'm not going to bless you with such compliments, some degrading psalm of
praise like the kind that converted you to me so long ago because the truth is
that gossip's as good as gospel in this town, you can save face but you will
never save your soul. And that's a fact.

So hurry and run to the one that you love and tie him up in your likeness and
he'll become, become the prisoner I was and know all that has spoiled in your
heart. He'll know all that has spoiled in your heart. So hurry up and run to the
one that you love and blind him with your kindness and he'll make war, oh war on
who you were before and claim all that has spoiled in your heart. Yeah he'll

Here's a scale, weigh it out, and you'll find easily more than sufficient doubt, that these colors you see were picked in advance by some careful hand, with an absolute concept of beauty. They are smeared and these blurs come in random order, and they'll color the eyes of your former lovers, hers were green like July, except when she cried, they were red.
Now I know a disease that these doctors can't treat, you contract on the day, you accept all you see is a mirror and a mirror is all it can be, a reflection of something we're missing. And language just happened, it was never planned, and it's inadequate to describe where I am, in the room of my house where the light's never been, waiting for this day to end.

And these clocks keep on winding and completely ignore, everything we hate or adore. Once the page of a calendar is turned it's no more, so tell me then what was it for?

(a.k.a. One Foot In Front Of The Other)

If you walk away, I'll walk away
First tell me which road you will take
I don't want to risk our paths crossing someday
So you walk that way, I'll walk this way
The future hangs over our heads
And it moves with each current event
Until it falls all around us like a cold steady rain
Just stay in when it's looking this way

The moon's laying low in the sky
Forcing everything metal to shine
And the sidewalk holds diamonds like a jewelry store case
They argue "Walk this way and I'll walk this way"

And Laura's asleep in my bed
As I'm leaving, she wakes up and says
"I dreamed you were carried away on the crest of a wave
Baby, don't go away, come here"

And there's kids playing guns in the street
And one's pointing his tree branch at me
So I put my hands up, I say "Enough is enough
If you walk away, I'll walk away"

(And then he shot me dead)
I found a liquid cure
For my landlocked blues
It will pass away like a slow parade
It's leaving but I don't know how soon

And the world's got me dizzy again
You'd think after 22 years I'd be used to the spin
And it only feels worse when I stay in one place
So I'm always pacing around or walking away

I'm drinking the ink from my pen
And I'm balancing history books up on my head
And it all boils down to one quotable phrase
"If you love something, give it away"

A good woman would pick you apart
A box full of suggestions for a possible heart
And you may be offended and you may be afraid
But don't walk away, don't walk away

We made love on the living room floor
With the noise in the background from a televised war
And in that deafening pleasure I thought I heard someone say
"If we walk away, they'll walk away"

But greed is a bottomless pit
And our freedom's a joke, we're just taking a piss
And the whole world must watch the sad comic display
If you're still free, start running away

I've grown tired of holding this pose
I feel more like a stranger each time I come home
So I'm making a deal with the devils of fame
Saying "Let me walk away, please"

You'll be free, child, once you have died
From the shackles of language in measurable time
And then we can trade places, play musical graves
Tell them "Walk away, walk away, walk away"

So I'm up at dawn
Putting on my shoes
I just want to make a clean escape
I'm leaving but I don't know where to
I'm leaving but I don't know where to

There is no beginning to the story
A bookshelf sinks into the sand
And a language learned and forgot in turn
Is studied once again
It's a shocking bit of footage
Viewed from a shitty TV screen
You can squint out at just snowy static
To make out the meaning

And keep on stretching the antenna
Hoping that it will come clear
We need some reception, a higher message
Just tell us what to fear

Because I don't know what tomorrow brings
It's alive with such possibilities
All I know is I feel better when I sing
Burdens are lifted from me
That's my voice rising...

So Michael, please keep the tape rolling
Boys keep strumming those guitars
We need a record of our failures
Yes we must document our love

I have sat too long in my silence
I have grown too old in my pain
To shed this skin, be born again
It starts with an ending

So thank you friends for the time we shared
My love stays with you like sunlight and air
You know I truly wish I could keep hanging around here
My joy is covering me
Soon I will disappear...

It's not a movie
No private screening
This method acting
Well I call it living
It's like a fountain
A door that's open
We have a problem
With no solution but to love
And to be loved

So I've made peace with all the falling leaves
I see their same fate in my own body
But I won't be frightened when I am awoken from this dream
And returned that which
Gave birth to me...

And the story goes
And the story goes

You were born inside of a raindrop
I watched you falling to your death
And the sun, well, it could not save you
From falling down to the streets all wet
Body of water, toxic and timeless
Atlantic Ocean, New York skyline
I always get lost when I leave the village
So I couldn't come meet you in Brooklyn last night

But I sing glory from my lowest
And I will say peace to the people I meet
While the world waits for an explosion
That instant of light that wipes the slate clean

So don't be fooled, so don't be lied to
Love was always cruel
And don't act strange, don't be a stranger
It happened to me, now it's happening to you
But if you take that train underwater
Then we could talk it through

Well, if I could tame all of my desires
Wait out the weather that howls in my brain
Because it seems that it's always changing
The winds indecision, the sorrowful rain

I was a postcard, I was a record
I was a camera until I went blind
Now I'm riding all over this island
Looking for something to open my eyes

We will sing glory from a high rise
And I will say thanks if you're pouring my drinks
While the world waits for an explosion
That moment in time when we are set free

So don't stay mad, just let some time pass
And in the morning you awake feeling new
And if I don't come back
I mean, if I get sidetracked
It's only cause I wanted to

When the president talks to God
Are the conversations brief or long?
Does he ask to rape our womens' rights
Or to send poor farm kids off to die?
Will the president recommend an oil hike
When the president talks to God?
When the president talks to God
Are the words he chooses hard or soft?
Does he resolute all down the line?
Is every issue black or white?
Does what God say ever change his mind
When the president talks to God?

When the president talks to God
Does he fake that drawl or merely nod?
Agree which convicts should be killed?
Where the prison's built and filled?
Which voter fraud must be concealed
When the president talks to God?

When the president talks to God
I wonder which one plays the better cop
We should find some jobs, the ghetto's broke
No, they're lazy, George, I say we don't
Just give 'em more liquor stores and dirty coke
That's what God recommends

When the president talks to God
Do they drink near beer and go play golf
When they pick which country should we invade
And which Muslim souls still can be saved?
Yeah I guess God just calls a spade a spade
When the president talks to God

When the president talks to God
Does he ever think that maybe he's not?
That that voice is just inside his head
When he kneels down in the presidential bed
Does he ever smell his own bullshit
When the president talks to God?

The sun came up with no conclusions
Flowers sleeping in their beds
The city's cemetery's humming
I'm wide awake, it's morning
And I have my drugs, I have my woman
They keep away my loneliness
My parents, they have their religion
But sleep in separate houses

I read the body count out of the paper
And now it's written all over my face
And no one ever plans to sleep out in the gutter
But sometimes that's just the most comfortable place

So I'm singing, drinking, breathing, writing
Everyday I'm on the clock
My mind races with all my longings
But can't keep up with what I got

So I hope I don't sound too ungrateful
What history gave modern men
A telephone to talk to strangers
Machine guns and a camera lens

So when you're asked to fight a war that's over nothing
You know it's best to join the side that's gonna win
And no one's sure how all of this got started
But we're gonna make 'em God damn certain how it's gonna end

Well I could have been a famous singer
If I had someone else's voice
But failures always sounded better
Let's fuck it up, boys, make some noise

The sun came up with no conclusions
Flowers sleeping in their beds
The city's cemetery's humming

(Feist Cover)

Helping the kids out of their coats
But wait the babies haven't been born
Unpacking the bags and setting up
And planting lilacs and buttercups

But in the meantime I've got it hard
Second floor living without a yard
It may be years until the day
My dreams will match up with my pay

Old dirt road
Knee deep snow
Watching the fire as we grow old

I got a man to stick it out
And make a home from a rented house
And we'll collect the moments one by one
I guess that's how the future's done

How many acres how much light
Tucked in the woods and out of sight
Talk to the neighbours and tip my cap
On a little road barely on the map

Old dirt road
Knee deep snow
Watching the fire as we grow old
Old dirt road
Rambling rose

I am a blueblood, I will admit that
I dance in blue shoes and wear a blue hat
Live in a blue house on a blue street
In a blue town by a blue creek
I write my blue songs with my blue pen
I sing the blue notes to my blue friends
Now I don't know that much about you
But I like you, because you're true blue

I had a blue dream about a blue star
In it I drove there in my blue car
And when I got there, I met a blue dog
With a blue tongue, we had some real fun

We bounced a blue ball, it broke a blue glass
We banged on blue drums and called it bluegrass
Guess the thing I'm trying to tell you that
It is best, kid, if you're true blue

Once I had gangrene, I had it real bad
And so the Doc came with his black bag
I said, "You know Doc, I don't feel swell
If you had a blue bag, I think I'd get well"

So he came right back with a blue sack
He said, "will this do?"
I said, "why not, yeah"
That is how I am here today to tell you
That it is best man, to be true blue

Out on a blue sea, I sailed a blue ship
I had a first mate, always had blue lips
His name was bluebeard, he had a weird twitch
We flew a blue flag up on a big stick

And we ate bluegill, and we ate blue chips
Oh, I felt real blue, eating that blue fish
Because there ain't much, that I won't do
Unless it keeps me from being true blue

Once in a blue moon there is a blue sky
I wear my blue jeans and fly my blue kite
It hangs like a bluebird until the wind dies
And then the tears pour out of my blue eyes

If it is your birthday, we'll bake a blue cake
And the we'll eat it off these blue plates
Because kid, I don't know much about you
But I like you because you're true blue

Yeah I don't know much about you

Well, the song you sung spiraled and hung round like echoes or ripples on a
pond. So you circled the globe, spent a year on the road without ever going
home. More than a couple of days then you leave right away, run to a girl you
barely know. But you like how she sings, and you can't help but think, that
there's something that she knows and could teach you.
Well, you're sleeping in that southern state where the bars are filled with
people you can't hate. But try as you try, you still can't relate to them. You
drink that whiskey down as they ask you are you who you say you are? Are you who
you who you say that you are? The fact that we can't tell makes us like you even
more.

So now you're trying again or just visiting friends, one had just had his heart
broke. For the first time in his life he realized there are times when you can't
make it alone. But now you're giving advice as if you had the right to use a
word like love. No, no, it's a negotiable term, what gets said is not what's
heard so it's different then for everyone.

But you've been hanging around that college town with your new life, your new
lover you found and you're keeping her up at night, bringing her down. She'll
watch you drink yourself to death but won't ask you is this really what you
want. Is this really what you want? Are you just sticking with it now, cause
it's all you got? Yes, I think you're sticking with me now, cause I'm all you

(Elliott Smith Cover)

I'm waiting for the train
The subway that only goes one way
The stupid thing that will come to pull us apart
And make everybody late
You spent everything you had
Wanted everything to stop that bad
And now I'm a crushed credit card registered to Smith
Not the name that you call me with

You turned white like a Saint
I'm tired of dancing on a pot of gold flake paint
Oh we're so very precious, you and I
And everything that you do makes me want to die

Oh I just told the biggest lie
I just told the biggest lie