Bright Eyes Album

I was cold in a dream
somewhere close to the surface
Between the ice and the stream
there is three inches of air
So I swam towards the light
I let my breath get there first
When I opened my eyes
I saw myself in the mirror
And I knew I would do like my father has done
Yes, we will never break from these chains
Your life is gonna course like a history book
Don't be frightened of turning the page
Cause it's is all the same
It will always be the same

I had girl I knew she grew became a woman
now I think that she teaches at one of the schools downtown,
we used to roll the windows down
and play the music loud
smoking out in her car
Lost in west Omaha,
and we’d get drunk and kiss
our bodies twist like shoe laces.
And we never came untied;
I guess you were just my type.
You know that summer never stopped.
I still pretend I’m there.
Bands in the living room,
neighbors ain’t never cared.
So when I sat behind the drum set.
Your heartbeat’s what I tried to play.
With kick and snares so careless not in time.
So you got ahead of me.
And I guess I’m still dragging behind.

I had a friend who changed his name
but couldn’t change himself.
Never quite figured out
how to do with what life had dealt.
He put a needle in his arm
to calm his handsome hell.
who would have imagined it?
Could’ve worked out so well.
Now he's a shape that moves
like echoes through my empty room.
And there’s a voice that speaks
like someone’s right behind me.
I turned around and found
exactly what you would expect.
Clothes I left on my floor.
The papers piled on my desk.
But where the ink is
where the cause effect what’s meant by it
the story is incomplete.
The pictures’ left unfinished.
So I am writing my own ending.
I’ll let my pen bleed black or blue.
And I will color in the meaning.
It will be gold and green and true.
And I’ll learn to love my new discovered proof.
I’ll be grateful for this day.
I will be grateful for each day to come.

Anchormen spike their blood
Wear masks of mud
Cucumbers cut to fit their eyes
And so no one would know how tired they've grown
Of talking and telling their lies

While your tvs change stations scroll messages
Victims and Christians both drinking blood
And they pray for the destruction of all hatred
More often just those with hate for us

Cause it hurts when you discover one's worse and one's better
To suffer or cause others to
And you can live by your conscience
Now guilt is a concept
You're no longer subscribing to

There's a virgin in my bed
And she's taking off her dress
I don't know what I am gonna do
There's a song stuck in my head
And I can't help singing it
Oh how I hope my singing pleases you
Cause this is not who I've become
But what you made me into

Oh we got no health insurance
No cellular service
No disease they can cure
But we need more money to burn
So each person must learn the dollar amount they are worth

And your pills make me dizzy
Forgetting my body
I watch as it walks away
And I just keep drinking the poison
And smoking the cartons
a pack and a half a day

So when time comes to claim me
My friends and my family will gather around my grave
And they'll believe that they knew me and loved me and missed me
And all call me by my name

So imagine what you want
And then hold on to that thought
Cause that's as close as it will ever come
and believe you're where you are
just keep acting out the part
but at the end of the day the trees all get wheeled away
and you'll be standing alone in a blank blank space

so believe you're who you are
and just stay in character
but at the end of the play the audience walks away
and you'll be shivering cold on a well lit stage.

The drunk kids, the catholics
They’re all about the same
They’re waiting for something
Hoping to be saved
Well I have been happy the past couple days
Just thinking of the women who’ve taken your place
And every night I think I certaintly won't ever sleep sober or alone
And then suddenly it occurs to me
I've slept alone before you
And so I pour myself the stiffest drink my stomach can stand
And convince myself to lay back down again
I’m gonna lay back down, I’m gonna lay back down again
The drunk kids, the catholics
They're all about the same
They’re waiting for something
Hoping to be saved
The drunk kids, the catholics
They're all about the same
They’re waiting for something
Hoping to be saved
The drunk kids, the catholics
They're all about the same
They’re waiting for something
Hoping to be saved
They crawl from the oceans
To paint in the caves
But I’m working all weekend
I need to get paid
They crawl from the oceans
To paint in the caves
But I’m working all weekend
I need to get paid
They crawl from the oceans
To paint in the caves
But I’m working all weekend
I need to get paid
They crawl from the oceans
To paint in the caves
But I’m working all weekend
I need to get paid

I wish I saved up for rainy days cause they're the hardest to be dry
I got no self control
I'm always begging into telephones
I bought a little from my brother's friend, well, just to get me by
I don't trust his cut
The effect is never as high as the mark-up
I think I'll print it in the personals that I'm looking for a match
Someone to light me up, someone to burn the proof of the things that I've done
Each day there are hours I skip like a stone
I just crawl in a bag
I'm gonna live my life like somebody's shadow

I know I'm lazy with the little things, I mean I never held a door
But I still loved you more than anyone since or before
You are always saying that I owe you one, well, let's consolidate this debt
Get on a payment plan, I'll pay you compliments, you can still treat me bad
But now it's easy, getting easier, to leave you and this town behind
I'll do some traveling
Once I'm gone tell all our friends you got even
I'm held like an object and then set aside
And I'm back on the shelf, I'm locked in the drawer
I'm mint in the box, but you would still sell me for cost, wouldn't you?

I'll be anything... the cord of a parachute... the blanket on top of you...
The window you are looking through... the cord of a parachute

Were you surprised that we never spoke?
Then in the still of the night-when nothing stirs-
I woke and I gathered up some clothes.
I never planned on this but its the way it goes
and now it all seems so familiar like pages turned on calendars
we get the same twelve months to fuck things up-year after year-
and i can't believe how down i am like the well i'm being lowered in,
now water stops, the bucket drops us farther and farther down.
Well i guess that you never knew me, or at least not well enough.
So i fill my gut with dark red wine until my brain shuts off and my eyes go blind.
You won't see me there in that thick black air-yeah.
i'll finally make something disappear.
Because i've been practicing disappearing
and i think that i've got it down but now there is no sun just a cellar.
Nowhere is sky its just that black, black dirt.
Expanding outwards just echoes for answers
not that it matters if its back or its forwards.
Unhappy lovers with baskets of flowers use them as markers-
the place where your bed once stood a time when it still felt good.
But you'll get that feeling back,
you just need sometime to drink
and so i'll fill my gut with that blood red wine
until my insides swim and my veins unwind.
I'll be lying there in that hot white air once
that something is gone it might never reappear.

He always gets so mad things you laugh at.
"Don't get so worked up" you'd say. But on the
back deck you admit that you haven't felt much
like laughing lately anyway. And so I say, "that
could change."

I noticed how you waste no time making your way
across the room. You leave a wake of tongues
still waving after you. And it isn't no coincidence
where you finally choose to stand. I guess soon
you will be leaving your man.

It's a sweet smile and then a denial. Hey, you
are just trying to be nice. But there is a meaning
to every fleeting action you unconsciously
decide. The clocks they chime. Now it's time.

I know you try and play it cool but there are
some thoughts you just can't hide. Only in your
closest friends do you confide. The way you say
you'll be seeing me, oh like it's so offhand. I
guess soon you will be leaving your man.

You stare at me so boldly now. You have no lack
of confidence. It's just those lessons on sublety
you missed. I know you dream of saving me
like I'm some plane that you could land. But
when you fly you'll be leaving your man.

Claire's turning blonde for the summer I guess
the sunlight just soaks into her hair
and she sits next to me on the motorboat
and shyly replies as to which boy she likes at her school.
so I am reminded of things I've forgotten.
the way doors can open and people just walk in.
it's not unexpected, no it's just how you planned it.
I'm beginning to think that it might never happen.
but now it is happening.
there's a show we can see at the base outside of town
where the planes they turn circles in the air.
I watch you stand next to me with your hand over your mouth
and join the crowds heavy gasp.
one for each time they pass overhead.
so we've been selected in this beautiful lottery.
we struggled so long but it ended so easy.
it's starting to surface, all golden and godlike
this feeling we had every day and every night.
it bursts in an energy. a door it is opening.

Well i left my baby for a dream as lovely, for a love that's only in books i read.
and then i hit the cities, spent all my money, i just left my whole life in a taxi cab.
cause it's just a memory, i can't love completely, when you're really with me, i'm indifferent.
but i try to get my head clear, it's too full of ideas that i haven't thought of yet.
and time, clocks keep waving their hands, doing all that they can to get our attention,
but the days fly away down a clean interstate and i'm staring drunk at a map.
so i let hair down for the second time now, for the final time, now i had my fun.
but there's no returning from the places we've been, just repeat our slogan, never again.
so we split, said you had to get out, headed back to the south, where everything is gentle.
and i stayed for a couple weeks more, all the weather reports said it would be snow for sure,
but the storm moved away to a neighboring state. i started the car.

Let's go place some money on the order of the horses
Break the ribbon of that famous finish line
And we'll gather up our stash babe
Find a little ranch babe
And buy a lonely little pony to ride
Well I know I was lucky when the needle came and stuck me
This porcupine came and poked my cactus hide
So let me finish what I start babe
Open up your heart babe
I saw a land of milk and honey in your mind
Our flesh and blood has found me in your arms again
See the whisper of the wind has found your hair again
And though my heart said give me refuge in you dignity my dear
All I could do was put a seashell to your ear
Our flesh and blood has found me in your arms again
I see the whisper of the wind has found your hair again
And though my heart said give me refuge in your dignity my dear
All I could do was put a seashell to your ear

No news
that's good news
someone's gonna break
see things change
i've been changing everything
it's peaceful
the pitch black
when the last light on goes out
i'm stranded
in my bed
so i think about
the bad luck
the bad blood
that may have come between
two good souls
that's one heck of an offering
so take these gifts that have been given
and ended up with an alphabet
but some words are too wrong to define
now the whole world is waking up
a ribbon cut for the opening
we all knew that day would arrive
up all night
all upset
the outside's growing light
no breakfast
just not much of an appetite
so be cool
and believe in the things you haven't learned
'cause you lost
and it's gone
but it will return
now it's all laid out in front of you
and that's half murdered the mystery
are you still to shy to describe?
now the whole world is waking up
a ribbon cut for the opening
yes, finally the day has arrived
so seek
and rejoice
fill your hands with something tangible
and fly your love
like a flag
and destroy the desire
for that which is impossible
and accept what you get with a smile

You take your clothes off
Right after school
The tea is on
The flame is blue
And you hope it won't take
All afternoon
The TV's waiting
To talk to you
It's your naked body
On white velour
But there's no feeling
Just weight on you
But you get nauseous now
As he speaks to you
Such proper language
For acts so cruel
He says "we all follow the rules
We can't very well go and break them now can we?
For you, for you, for you..

Your older sisters,
I had them too,
But you're my favorite
You know it's true.
You look like your mother
In that thin disguise
Your parting mouth,
Your shining eyes.
And the way that you hate me
And the length of your hair
It's the reason I make you
It's the bond that we share
Cos you were all trying to endure it
You could easily go and make your own life somewhere
Couldn't you? Couldn't you? Couldn't you, couldn't you, couldn't you, couldn't you, couldn't you?"

With the sun beams bright
You keep your eyes shut
Your alarm clock lies
Get to school on time
But you're a bag of warm fluid
You're the corpse in the class
You walk so near to your locker
You lay so low in the grass
Did you get that coat from the principal?
Did you get that bruise on the bus?
You should wash your hair more
You should look more like us.
But I saw you walking once
Under powder blue skies
You looked cold still
Your collar was high
And I tried to talk to you
But you walked right by
I don't know which I said then,
"Hello" or "Goodbye"
And yet we're all trying to be pure
But it isn't a very easy thing, now is it?
To do, To do, To do, To do, To do, To do
Isn't it, Isn't it, Isn't it, Isn't it, Isn't it, Isn't it, Isn't it, Isn't it?

(feat. Nick Zinner of Yeah Yeah Yeahs)

[Originally by Daniel Johnston]

I was living in a devil town
I didn't know it was a devil town
Oh lord it really brings me down about the devil town

All my friends were vampires
I didn't know they were vampires
It turns out I was a vampire myself in the devil town

I was living in a devil town
I didn't know it was a devil town
Oh lord it really brings me down about the devil town

All my friends were vampires
I didn't know they were vampires
It turns out I was a vampire myself in the devil town

I was living in a devil town
I didn't know it was a devil town
Oh lord it really brings me down about the devil town

About the devil town

I was living in a devil town
I didn't know it was a devil town
Oh lord it really brings me down about the devil town

So, I’m just the medicine
You take when you’re sick
You get well and that’s it
I’m put back on the shelf in your mirror
And it isn’t exceptional
The course of our fate
So, people love and they hate
And I guess it’s just our turn to hate
Yeah, you were just some song I wrote
A poem on a page
A sculpture I made out of clay
Desire was the flame
But now you’re more of a basketball
Boys just pass you around
They bounce you hard on the ground and dribble
And then we all get high fives
And you think I’m an asshole now
Well, you’re probably right
But at least I’m not blind to the facts
I’ve been wishing were lies
But still I hope you get everything
That you care to possess
And unbelievable sex with him
Or any one of my friends
But just don’t ask about my appetite
I didn’t lose it tonight
No, it’s been gone half my life
It’s just act, I’ve been eating for you

All eyes on the calendar
Another year I claim of total indifference
To here, the days pile up
With decisions to be made, I'm sure all of them were wrong
Into this song I send myself
And with these drinks I plan to collapse
And forget this wasted year, these wasted years
Devoted friends, they disappear
And I'm sorry about the phone call and needing you
Some decisions you don't make
I guess it's just like breathing and not wanting to
There are some things you can't fake
I guess that it's typical
To cling to memories you'll never get back again
And to sort through old photographs
Of a summer long ago or a friend that you used to know
And there below
His frozen face
You wrote the name and that ancient date, that ancient date
And you can't believe that he's really gone
When all that's left is a fucking song and
I'm sorry about the phone call; and waking you.
I know that it is late,
But thank you for talking, because I needed to.
Some things just can't wait.
(Yeah, some things just can't wait)

There is nothing for which I'm responsible.
Just this baggage I keep carrying on,
As if I had someone.

Maybe there's a woman somewhere,
Who's still thinking of me.
A girl with cold black hair,
Who's haunted in her dreams.
But what they've seen, but it wasn't me.
It's just some lie, they slept beside.
Yeah I kept this from them,
But I can't keep this from you.

So will you look for me, in that strange bright place,
Where the statues bloom in the park.
They don't need no brain.
Cause how I ever got to you, I have no idea.
It's like some secret door, well it just appeared.
So, no matter what I do from now on with my time.
You will always stay here, in my mind.
I'm certain of this, and I'm not certain of anything.

So, I wanna get myself attached, to something bolted down.
So these winds of circumstance won't keep blowin' me arround.
From when I land, to when I leave:
Theres not enough time, to sleep and sing.
I keep running around and all I want is to lay motionless.

The air was all dust, and the night so untamed
The ground opened up and swallowed all of the rain
And it swallowed you too, into distance unknown
As they sat down for dinner, they waited for you to get home
Yeah, they set a place for you
So don't believe everything that you read
In that diary of yours

In this nervousness, it isn't all your fault
It's just these shaking hands, won't do what I want them to
And I've tried to guess, what it is you thought
About that act of contrition that rolled off our tongues as you wept

What are you crying for?
Just dust my heart and you will find
There are no fingers printed there
Just the untouched place that lies inside
Of every lonely boy tonight

Now all of this open air has caused me to choke

The indecencies of city streets
The cleaners' sweeping trucks from nine to noon
And the factories make clouds
To keep the sun from being jealous like the moon
While the husband holds his house
He hates his children for being green when he is gray
And his wife, she likes to talk on telephones
But just to people far away
Well, the big surprise was televised
On a crowded couch their eyes grew wide and wet
Oh, was it really such a sad event?
You could capture this with camera clips, but it don't exist
Just light on negatives
Another number on the birthday cake
You should act your age
We were hungry for a holiday
Won't cooperate with the calendar we found
We just scattered snow-like styrofoam
And sang our christmas carols all through town
And the voices soared, the people joined
With silver coins they filled our cupping hands
And we all agreed, the charity was much in need
Yes, a nobel cause at that
And I met a man, a mannequin
Who stood so still I knew he was afraid
And he preferred a place of permanance
To the awful guessing game of choice and change
Well, the big surprise was telelvised
On a crowded couch our eyes grew wide and wet
Oh yes, it's really such a sad event
You can't capture this with camera clips
No, it don't exist
Just light on negatives
Another candle on a birthday cake
And a wish you make
Well, if the costume fits, keep wearing it
But no Halloween could quite account for this
I guess you're getting into character
Or just be yourself, if that would help
Or sink completely into someone else
You dreamt of mountains but sometimes a hole
Is more comfortable

Tomorrow when I wake up I'm finding my brother, and I'm making him take me back
down to the water, that lake where we sailed, and we laughed with our father. I
will not desert him, I will not desert him. No matter how I may wish for a
coffin so clean, or these trees to undress all their leaves onto me, I put my
face in the dirt, and then finally I'll see the sky that has been avoiding me.

I started this letter, I'm gonna send it to Ruba, it will be blessed by her eyes
on the Gulf Coast of Florida. With her feet in the sand and one hand on her
swimsuit, she will recite the prayer of my pen. Saying time take us forward,
relief from this longing, they can land that plane on my heart, I don't care.
Just give me November, the warmth of a whisper in the freezing darkness of my
room.

No matter what I would do in an attempt to replace all these pills that I take
trying to balance my brain, I've seen the curious girl with that look on her

Last saturday i stood in your entry way
that place where we used to wait
for cars to carry us away
like once in this storm, they drove me and justin home
the music was just being born
it was all i was longing for

now im on a plane
off singin my songs again, oh please dont think ill of it
cause its the reason i exists
but you, youre the crutch of a cripple
you're the calm of a conscience
you're the peace that i have found
when all these voices talk too loud you are quietly reassuring me
With the hands of a healer
And the tongue of a teacher
its your voice that I have known
To be the first one on the phone
Yeah, you ran all the lights to the hospital

So don't you say to me
That life's a trap
The future is nothing but a tragedy
'Cos I'll be out of that window
Yeah, I'll start wishing to die again
Just say we're not walking backwards, kid
And show me to the door
And I'll walk behind
Out into the hot sunlight
Where the world's very much alive
Even when I close my eyes

Well, should I admit
That my promise is counterfeit
That I'm careless and childish
And that's all I can hope to be
And would you concede
That I think only of myself
I refuse everybody's help
Who has been reaching out for me
Well, you reach with the soul of a sailor
And the swing of a miner
You have cleared the rock away
Leaving gold there in its place
And it is more than anyone could claim
Oh, with the sense of a banker
And with the touch of a tailor
You saved this life for me
And you have sown it to beauty
And I am grateful now and I will always be

So would you sing with me
The song is all I know
Some truths are told now only in a melody
So I've been writing a new one
Yeah, I've been taking my time with it
It's gonna be so perfect
It's gonna hold all of us inside of it
You will see
If you just add your harmony
I think it would be complete
And be worthy of singing
Becomes a symphony

Yeah, you're the cool of the water
You're the start of the summer
Keep me still like a anchor
In a storm you're the cellar
When I'm heavy with worry make me light as a feather
When I'm deafened by anger you're the song I remember
With the grace of a dancer and the strength of a pillar
When I'm starving to suffer you just fill me with laughter
You're a poet
And a saint
You are the only one I choose to imitate
Oh, like the love of a father through the eye of a camera
It's this picture I have seen
We're on a sloping hill of green
And you are walking there beside me

Yeah, you still kiss me, but it's just on the cheek.
Yeah, you still kiss me, now it's just on the cheek.
Yeah you still kiss me sometimes, but it's just on the cheek.
You pull away so easily. And I still call you but I get your machine.
Yeah, I still call you but I get your machine.
If I'm lucky, I guess, it's your roommate answering but you're at the bar or at
Gene's.
Now we go to dinner but you won't hold my hand.
We sit at the same table but we don't play with our feet.
Yeah we still go to dinner sometimes but we don't sneak a kiss when the waitress
turns around.
And we still watch movies but we don't share the couch.
Yeah, we still rent movies but we don't share the couch.
Yeah we still watch movies sometimes, but you don't lay in my lap.
The plot is slow, take a nap.

And you even stay over but we stay in our clothes.
Yeah you'll even sleep over but now we stay in our clothes.
Yeah you even sleep over sometimes but we stay in our clothes.
I'm only there so you're not alone.
And you say that I hurt you in a voice like a prayer.
Yeah, you say that I hurt you and your voice is like a prayer.
Yeah, well maybe I hurt you some, let's contrast and compare.
Lift up your shirt, the wound isn't there.

I guess that your truth is just the ghost of your lies.
I guess your kind of truth is just the ghost of your lies.
Yeah, your kind of truth, darlin', is just the ghost of your lies.
I see through them all the time.
So I'm pouring some whiskey, I'm gonna get drunk.
Yeah, I'm pouring myself some whiskey,
I'm gonna get real fucking drunk.
I'm pouring some whiskey right now,
I'm gonna get so so drunk that I pass out and forget your face by the time I