Indigo Girls Album

Words and music: Emily Saliers

I meet you for coffee
We get together periodically
I got a bad case I can't shake off of me
The fevered walking round wondering how it ought to be
You work in the system
You see possibilities and your glistening
Eyes show the hell you're gonna give 'em
When they back off the mic for once and give it to a woman

I dream like a mad one
Brutal fantasies I catch as catch can
I'm a psychic and a laywoman
I see love and I like to make it happen
What we get from your war walk
Ticker of the nation breaking down like a bad clock
I want the pendulum to swing again
So that all your mighty mandate was just spitting in the wind

It doesn't come by the bullwhip
It's not persuaded with your hands on your hips
Not the company of gunslingers
The epicenter love is the pendulum swinger
She is she is she is

It's fine about the old scroll Sanskrit
Gnostic gospels the da vinci code a smash hit
Aren't we dying just to read it and relate
Too hard just to go by a blind faith
But they left out the sisters
Praying to a father god so long I really missed her
The goddess of benevolence
You should listen to your mama if you have a lick of sense left

Pushed under by the main press, buried under a code of dress
Relegated by the Vatican
But you can't keep a spirit down that wants to get up again

If we're a drop in the bucket
With just enough science to keep from saying fuck it
Until the last drop of sun burns its sweet light
Plenty revolutions left until we get this thing right

Words and music: Amy Ray

Back in the long stretch of loneliness
I have come to call a living,
I'm getting something for all this love's labor,
even when I am forgetting.

Oh we oh oh little perennials
where'd you come from?

Daughter of my father's second cousin,
loyalties, I got em by the dozen.
We share a past, we share a blood relation
and that's as good as an invitation.

Oh we oh oh little perennials
where'd you come from?

I'm in the North Carolina Mountains,
just to the west of where I met my calling.
If you look south to the foothills of these mountains rising,
that's the place where it feels good falling.
That's the place that I know.

I look for words to fill the empty spaces,
all the life revealed in these back stages.
I reach for names like little puzzle pieces;
oh perennial, come to me.

Oh we oh oh little perennials
where'd you come from?

When we tried to rework all of this
Each to her rendition
Painted ourselves in a corner
Lost for ideas blindly fishing
For a compliment or kindness
Just to bring us into view
But you could not interpret me and I could not interpret you

I remember that cold morning when the trees were black with birds
I tried to make out some connection
We were at a loss for words
After all that we've been through
I could not see giving up
Despite the picture of our coffee growing colder in the cups

I want to say that underneath it all you are my friend
And the way that I fell for you I'll never fall that way again
I still believe despite our differences that what we have's enough
And I believe in you and I believe in love

So we went rolling on down through the years
Taking time off we could steal
Until the thief of things unreconciled
Stuck it's stick into the wheel
Now we're tumbling in a freefall
No one's gonna go unscathed
But it's not because you held back and its not how I behaved

I want to say that underneath it all you are my friend
And the way that I fell for you I'll never fall that way again
I still believe despite our differences that what we have's enough
I believe in you and I believe in love

There are avenues and supplements and books stacked on the shelf
Labyrinths of recovery in search of our best self
But most of what will happen now is way out of our hands
So just let it go and see where it lands

I want to say that underneath it all you are my friend
And the way that I fell for you I'll never fall that way again
I still believe despite our differences that what we have's enough
I believe in you and I believe in love
I believe in you and I believe in love

I drive a three county highway
and every one of them town's got a firework show.
It's 4th of July and I'm just now getting home,
on the horizon, I can see 'em all unfold.

It's been a warm winter and a cold spring,
everywhere I've been has felt wrong to me.
Everything I kept, what I never should have thrown away,
I wanted you for all those yesterdays.

I was wishing for you one Sunday morning,
walking down the road of some debtors' town.
From every church a hymn came blending in
and every one of them wanting to be found.

Did you say it took a long time to find
a lot less man and less harm done?
Did you say it took a long time to find
a handsome one to keep you young?

One day I'm gonna make it up to you,
one day we're gonna laugh instead of cry.
One day I'm coming home to stay, it's true,
and baby, that's the last ticket I'm ever gonna buy.

It's been a warm winter and a cold spring,
everywhere I've been has felt wrong to me.
So put your head on my heart and lay down in the crook of my arm.
Everything's okay, I've been found again, I've been found again

You don't want me calling you up
All melancholy sick from love
You prefer it uncomplicated
Things are tricky now I bet you hate it
Your mind's eye finds the exit sign
And you're off in perfect fashion

And you run, that's all you've ever done
It's all you know to do
I can't hold that against you
And you'll flee cause you're born to be free
And if you go I'll understand
But you better get out while you can

The party's over, we had our fun
Flirting with madness a loaded gun
As much as nothing everything's changed
I'm soaking in it, it falls like rain
You seek the sun to dry off what's been done
You'll heat up every corner of the world

As you run, that's all you've ever done
It's all you know to do
I can't hold that against you
And you'll flee cause you're born to be free
And if you go I'll understand
But you better get out while you can

Can you keep this pace forever
I have never seen it done
Up deep burn all you leave behind you
You are the surface of my sun

I measure to what degree
I can shape up what's been forged in me
The cooper penny hissing in the pool
So much for wishes so much for cooling
Down this fire impossible desire
The further you get the more I'm drawn

And you run, that's all you've ever done
It's all you know to do
I can't hold that against you
And you'll flee cause you're born to be free
And if you go I'll understand
But you better get out while you can

It didn't happen for you,
no one wants to hear the truth,
coming from three political queers.
Plucking the punk rock bloom.

So you break up the band
and leave us all in tow.
Now we gotta figure out
where to go.

I caught it at a rave
Did it give you vaccination?
I saw it on my T.V.
Did it lighten up your load?
And every f**kin D.J.
Did you feel affilliated,
Is telling me I'm free.
like you really had a home?

Free to be a loser
Were the ticket prices too high?
Free to be a trend
Were the lights too bright?
Free to be a backlash over and over again.
Was it all a bunch of hype?

You say, "I'm losing inspiration,
one band at a time.
I gotta know there's someone, somewhere, out there singing for our side."

Where I come up, we share the mortar and the glue.
And what we build together, we share that too.
And the wind may come, and the rain may fall,
but we stand together or we don't stand at all.
Where are you going to now,
now that the goings gone?

So here's to your survival
and swimming up the stream,
crossing over one dam after another
until we get to Rock and Roll Heaven's gate.

I caught it at a rave
Did it give you vaccination?
I saw it on the T.V.
Did it lighten up your load?
And every f**king D.J.
Did you feel affiliated,
Is telling me I'm free.
Like you really had a home?

Free to be a loser
Were the ticket prices too high?
Free to be a trend
Were the lights too bright?
Free to be a backlash over and over
until I get to Rock and Roll Heaven's gate.

Oh the party's kicked up a few notches look at us getting loose
She leans back against the wall and she watches tugging her collar like it might
be a noose.

And everyones tied to their thing
To their past or their drink or the date that they bring
I just get tired all of sudden taking it in.

And I want to lay my head down on you

Because youre the only solid thing in this room

A room full of changes strangers illusion confusion,
I speak from my heart but im not really sure if its true.
I wanna lay my head down on you.

Oh dont waste too much time planning
Or you'll get rug ripped out
And the only way you'll be satisfied
Is learning to live with out.
But some plan for the kingdom of heaven
And some take their chances and bet lucky seven
I don't know what to believe I just show up and breathe anymore.

And I wanna lay my head down on you
Because youre the only solid thing in this room

A room full of dressers, professors, lookers, hookers
If I don't get out I'll do something I don't wanna do.

And I wanna lay my head down on you.

Was it so long ago
That we sat and talked in your car
Your things were all packed
And the place you were headed not really that far
Years later I think
That I would have been much more alive
To have taken you up on your offer and taken that drive

Well everything that's come before us leads us to where we are now
And thats simple, I know so why cant I let go of the feeling
That im lost somehow
I'm just a ghost looking in
Out of my own life just visiting
In search of a body to have and to hold and to keep and to sleep.

I wanna lay my head down on you
Because youre the only solid thing in this room
A room full of missed chance, slow dance, cold fate heartache
I showed up for a party and saw my life story full view

And I wanna lay my head down on you.

So money mad you mean
and that's not how it's suppossed to be.
You're ready to challenge and defend, yeah, but for all the wrong reasons.

How much do we really need? A question if you have to ask
just means what it means - the question that means everything.

Right and left it's all the same conspiracy
Just cause you ask , doesn't make a difference to me.

You could keep it all or give it away
but where did it come from in the first place?
Robbing Peter to pay me, and I'll just be
giving it back to Peter to feel free.

Now you have to fix everything that's broke
cause it'll never leave you alone.
Reinevent the whell, be the butt of the joke,
take the long road to charity.

Right or left it's all the same conspirancy
robbong Peter to pat Paul
or robbing Peter to pay me.

Yeah it's just too hard, oh well, jump in.
Forget about the sharks and swim,
cause now you're one, now you're one.
You can't deny it anymore.

Fly away little bird
Any place in this open mouthed world
Begs to be fed like a bed that beckons you, but you won't rest
Everyone's got a need to go
Most of us stick with our row to hoe
But not you, you're the black crow
With a straight line, and no time
For the birds of prey who wreck your nest
Twice your size steal your best
They set you on this course of your collision

I am a stop along your way
I am the words you'll never say
I crossed the great beyond of fear
I opened my eyes and saw us there, what a view
You went there too

Fly away little bird
Find the song in you that no one's heard
Strenghthen your wings as you sing your solo flight
Through this short life
Everyone's got a deep regret
We try to ground ourselves to forget
But your race to the end is neck and neck
You love them, you love them not
The birds of prey who wreck your nest,
Twice your size steal your best
They set you on this course of your collision

I am a stop along your way
I am the words you'll never say
I crossed the great beyond of fear
Opened my eyes and saw us there, what a view
And you went there too

But all along your chosen path are
Window panes and sheets of glass
That you won't see
You fly too fast
One day it will be over

Fly away little bird
The saddest song I ever heard
Was the one I wrote you in my heart
That never made it to the world

You're looking at foreclosure
And doing time
And it don't sound good this time
And the wife that made your life Hell
All the time you were telling me
You were fine
Silly man
So I got your dog.
How is that?
I made it nice, I wrote a check.
You cut the weeds back on my drive
Cause you're a good guy
Deep down inside.
What makes a boy like you go bad,
What makes a man so lonely and sad,
That he'd poison all he knows
And in one year, just let it go?
And all that time you were telling me
You were fine
Silly man, silly boy
It's been you and me on this frontier
Trying not to be suburban pioneers.
Fighting off the pavers
And the associations
And the covenants against the trailers.
I remember how we used to laugh
At all those rotten men in "camo" drag
With their advantage and their guns
Up the deer stand shooting up a storm
And all the time
You were telling me all those lies
Silly man, I'm just a silly girl
There was a time
We could hibernate like bears
But we finally come up for air
And everything's all marked and cleared,
Survey flags flying everywhere.
Once you said to me
You know, what I'll miss the most
Is just being the only ones
With our dirt and our dead ends
And no one to turn us in.

I wasn't looking ot shift my direction
My eyes straight ahead hands ten and two
The gravity of our first connection
Veering off the road and into you
All the people drive by slowly gawking at the scene
Of the smoldering inevitable spark and gasoline
All the way I met you head on full speed
At the heart the blue flames burns
All the way I took the crash course impact
But have I learned all that I'm supposed to learn
No amount of th playing safe could save me from this day
The head seeking path of my trajectory
Didn't we cooly divest of predestination
Slamming into futures we can't see
I know what can happen when there's more than meets teh eye
But there's no way to avoid it just get in the car and drive
All the way I met you head on full speed
At the heart the blue flame burns
All the way the crash course impact
But have I learned all that I'm supposed to learn
It makes me laugh talking over tea
When I can still smell the smoke on my sleeve
Steaming like gunsmoke the wreckage of our past
The scene of a crime I still can't leave
Oh you and me, we should let well enough be
But each revisitation points to clues
There's the oilslick of uncertainty
And warning signs back there we didn't use
At least we laugh about it now how we escaped alive
It's remarkable the mess we make and what we can survive

They won't have me, but I love this place.
The rural life is broken, the farmlands gone to chaff.
My hands are idle, my mind needs rest,
the toil of the decent and the sleep of the best.

I sit in diners with the old men,
they talk of work cause it's all they ever did.
They gave their hearts to Jesus and got serious
They gave up their drinking and worked for this nothing.

All this love to offer, all this love to waste.
All this love to offer, all this love to waste.

There's a lame dog on the highway
where the old road used to be.
Now you know what divides us
Is just a difference someone made.
Some got tired of trying, some were just too scared to stay.
We gave ourselves to nothing and we let 'em have their day.

Now who's gonna do the planting?
Who's gonna pray for rain?
Who's gonna keep the farmland
from the sub-division man?

All this love to offer, all this love to waste.

These are the last tears I'm gonna cry for you
My cryin's through I'm moving on
I don't regret and won't forget
A single thing that we went through
But there are the last tears I'm gonna cry for you
You take things so much easier than I do
And you could live your life without me if you had to
And you believe that in the end it all works out right
And I might if not for you
And if you ask one which one lives just alone for love
I do
There was a time when all signs pointed to the warm south
The planets all lined up and built a new house
And everything we talked about felt like a prophecy
And when you looked at me they all came true
And if you asked which one wants to go the distance
I do
I'm gonna rack my mind one last time until I cannot think
I'm gonna dip into your memory and take a good stiff drink
And when I'm drunk on the last drop of sadness about how we went wrong
I'm gonna play this song
Make some coffee black and strong
Give thanks for healing time
And finally make up my mind