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Indigo Girls
Indigo Girls


Background information
Origin Atlanta, Georgia, United States
Genre(s) Folk-Rock
Years active 1985—present
Label(s) Epic Records
Hollywood Records
Vanguard Records
Associated acts Michael Stipe
Joan Baez
Mary Chapin Carpenter
Ferron
Website Website
Members
Amy Ray
Emily Saliers



Music World  →  Lyrics  →  I  →  Indigo Girls  →  Albums  →  Staring Down the Brilliant Dream

Indigo Girls Album


Staring Down the Brilliant Dream (06/29/2010)
06/29/2010
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. . .


Words and music by Amy Ray

You spent five years saying you'd come my way
That's a little more wait than a heart can take
Yeah now that I know it's just a fantasy
I feel a hard time coming around for me

I said oh
Oh oh
Oh oh
There's a heartache for everyone
Oh oh
Oh oh
There's a heartache for everyone

I spent two years saying give me a chance
Hey I'd give it all up and I'll take your hand
yeah but not forever it was understood
yeah baby just for a while it would do us some good

I said oh
(I'm waiting to restore my life)
Oh oh
Oh oh
There's a heartache for everyone
(I'm waiting to restore my faith)
oh oh
oh oh
There's a heartache for everyone
I'll wait for you until I know
There's a heartache for everyone

Hey valentine I'm just a stumbling around
Who knew that Paris was such a lonely town
I'll meet you at the bridge where we wanted to kiss
Or take the high road and be done with this

Hey valentine I'm just a stumbling around
Who knew that Paris was such a lonely town
I'll meet you at the bridge where we wanted to kiss
Or take the high road and be done with this

I'll give you six more weeks baby just in case
You can change your mind you won't be replaced
Honey looking at a lifetime of regret
(looking at a lifetime of regret)
Oh just one little moment that I'll never forget
(Just one little moment that I'll never forget)

I said oh
(I'm waiting to restore my life)
oh oh
oh oh
There's a heartache for everyone
(I'm waiting to restore my faith)
oh oh
oh oh
There's a heartache for everyone
I'll wait for you until I know
There's a heartache for everyone
I'll wait for you until I know
There's a heartache for everyone

. . .


Words and Music: Emily Saliers

I'm trying to tell you something bout my life
Maybe give me insight between black and white
And the best thing you've ever done for me
Is to help me take my life less seriously
It's only life after all

Now darkness has a hunger that's insatiable
And lightness has a call that's hard to hear
I wrap my fear around me like a blanket
I sailed my ship of safety till I sank it
I'm crawling on your shores

I went to the doctor, I went to the mountains,
I looked to the children, I drank from the fountains
There's more than one answer to these questions pointing me in a crooked line
And the less I seek my source for some definitive
The closer I am to fine
The closer I am to fine

I went to see the doctor of philosophy
With a poster of Rasputin, and a beard down to his knee
He never did marry, or see a b-grade movie
He graded my performance, he said he could see through me
I spent four years prostrate to the higher mind
I got my paper and I was free

I went to the doctor, I went to the mountains,
I looked to the children, I drank from the fountains
There's more than one answer to these questions pointing me in a crooked line
And the less I seek my source for some definitive
The closer I am to fine
The closer I am to fine

*whistle*

I stopped by the bar at 3 am
To seek solace in a bottle, or possibly a friend
And I woke up with a headache like my head against a board
Twice as cloudy as I'd been the night before
I went in seeking clarity

I went to the doctor, I went to the mountain, I looked to the children, I drank
from the fountain
We go to the doctor, we go to the mountains, we look to the children, we drink
from the fountains
We go to the bible, we go through the workout, we read up on revival, we stand
up for the lookout
There's more than one answer to these questions pointing me in a crooked line
The less I seek my source for some definitive
The closer I am to fine
The closer I am to fine
The closer I am to fine

. . .


Words and Music: Amy Ray
Note: This song is a reincarnation of Problem Child

Through the dustbowl through the debt
Grandma was a suffragette
Blacklisted for her publication
Blacklisted for my generation
Go, go, go

Raise your hands, raise your hands high
Don't take a seat don't stand aside
This time don't assume anything
Just go, go, go

So feed the fire and fan the flame
I know the kids can stand the rain
I know the kids are still upsetters
Cause rock is cool but the struggle is better
I said go, go, go

Raise your hands, raise your hands high
Don't take a seat don't stand aside
This time don't assume anything
This time don't assume anything
I said go, go, go

The truth is I was afraid . . .
. . .I felt inferior. . .
. . .I felt I excelled in competing with others
And I knew instantly that these people
Were not competing at all, that they were acting in a
Strange, powerful trance of movement together.
And I was filled with longing to act
With them and with the fear that I could not.

Did they tell you it was set in stone
And that you would end up alone
Use your years to psych you out
You're too old to care, they're too young to count
Did they tell you you would come undone
If you tried to touch the sun
Undermine the underground
You're too old to care they're too young to count
I said go, go, go

. . .



Dark clouds are comin' like an army
Soon the sky will open up and disarm me
You will go just like you've gone before
One sad soldier off to war, enemies that only you can see.

Dishes stacked, the table cleared
It's always like the scene of the last supper here
You speak so cryptically that's not news to me
The flood is here it will carry you
And I've got work to do.

Come on home, the team you're hitched to has a mind of its own
But it's just the forces of your past you've fought before
Come back here and shut the door
I'm stacking sandbags against the river of your troubles.

There is fire there is lust
Some will trade it all for someone they could trust
There's a bag of silver for a box of nails
It's so simple the betrayal
Though it's known to change the world and what's to come.

Just come on home, the team you're hitched to has a mind of its own
But it's just the forces of your past you've fought before
Don't you recognize them anymore
I'm stacking sandbags against the river of your troubles.

There's the given and the expected
I count my blessings while I eye what I've neglected
Is this for better is this for worse
You're all jammed up and the dam's about to burst.

I hear the owl in the night
I realize that some things never are made right
By some will we string together here
Days to months and months to years
What if everything we have adds up to nothing.

Come on home, the team you're hitched to has a mind of its own
But it's just the forces of your past you've fought before
Come back here and shut the door

. . .


Words and music Amy Ray

I pulled out with the mountain laurel blooming
On a dirt road that is soon to be paved
Down to the site of my original establishment
And the west end family grave 

Cause one day moves into two
(One day moves into two)
And I'm losing
Everything except for you
(Everything except for you)
And I would sing you a song of devotion
(I would sing you a song of devotion)
Yeah that's what I should do
(That's what I should do) 

Blood runs thick and when it rains it pours down
(Blood runs thick)
On the family tree on the fields of war
(The family tree on the fields of war)
I spend my time being broken hearted and grieving bound
(I spend my time being broken hearted and grieving bound)
Yeah I haven't much need to look forward 

I just let a one day move into two 
(One day moves into two)
I'm losing
Everything except for you
(Everything except for you)
I would sing you a song of devotion
(I should sing you a song of devotion) 

Book of days
(Book of days)
The way things lay
(The way things lay)
That's just space and time
(That's just space and time)
I gave it up 
(I gave it up)
All for a love
(All for a love)
That won't be defined
(That won't be defined) 

I've had enough temporary acquisition 
Building fences for no gain
(Building fences for no gain)
Taking dead trees down before the winter freeze
(Taking dead trees down before the winter freeze)
I said let 'em rot and fall where they may 

Just let one day move into two
(One day moves into two) 
I'm losing
Everything except for you
(Everything except for you)
Ah yeah
I would sing you a song of devotion
(I would sing you a song of devotion)
That's what I should do
(I gotta let them fall where they may)
(Cause one day moves into two)
It's the book of days
(I'm losing)
It's the way things lay
(Everything except for you)
Now that's just space and time
(I)
(I would sing you a song)
I gave it up
(Of devotion) 
All for your love
(Yeah)
That's what I should do
(That's what I should do)
That's what I should do
(That's what I should do)
Yeah
That's what I should do
(That's what I should do)

. . .


Words and Music: Emily Saliers

All of my days have been misspent
Stuffing out the sofa and the antenna's bent
Inside my heart's bursting out at the seams
I work for the impossible American dream

I got a job at the grocery store
Few bucks an hour not much more
The world comes in just to take things away
Eat it all up then they sleep until day

(chorus):
I try not to care I might lose my mind
Running round the same thing time after time
Only two things bound to soothe my soul
Cold beer and remote control

Once upon a time I was nobody's fool
Two jobs and showing up for school
I guess it comes apart so little by little
You don't know you're there until you're stuck in the middle

(chorus)

Sit down
The room is dark
The blurry grafitti on the benches
Across at the public park

The plastic splatter (the plastic splatter)
The haze is blue (the haze is blue)
All I want (want)
Is nothing to do (to do)

Cause it's a long walk to the bus stop
It's a long wait for the turning clock
A too tired car sitting up on the blocks
And things I put aside like that pile of rocks

(chorus)

Emily: Chorus Amy: Repeat first verse 
Cold beer and remote control (I guess it comes apart so little by little)
Cold beer and remote control (I guess it comes apart so little by little)

. . .


Words and music by Amy Ray

Well I guess that I was lonely
That's why I called you on the phone
Cause in a moment of forgiveness
I didn't want to be alone

And I guess that I was willing
More than I ever was before
Cause in a moment of forgiveness
I come a knockin at your door

Baby I woke up crying last night
Just to realize that you were gone
Has it been two long years without you
Tell me now
When are you gonna come home

Guess that I was hoping
That you'd finally understand
And in a moment of forgiveness
You'd reach out and take my hand

Now baby I know
Your not one for baring witness
(Baby I know)
And you told me that
One wrong move is going to sell you out
(One wrong move)
And I see that you kept your word
(See that you kept your word)
And made it harder than it had to be
Wish I could save you the trouble baby
(Oh oh oh)
Give you a little piece of mind

Baby I woke up crying last night
Just to realize that you were gone
It's been two long years without you
When are you gonna come home

Guess that I was hoping
That you'd finally understand
And in a moment of forgiveness
You'd reach out and take my hand

And in a moment of forgiveness
You'd reach out and take my hand

. . .



Won't have you see me as your sad sack
Lost my something and I can't get it back
Or a kill on your trophy rack
I checked my schedule now my train is rolling down a track
Past the sadness of the salt flats
To the prospect of the land fat
Or just a lazy orange house cat
On the sofa where I'll be put up
You've been the hole in my sky, (you're) my shrinking water supply
Before my well runs dry
I'm going round round round the bend
Fill it up again
I'd like to say that it was clear to me
Love triangle geometry
But in the end it's still a mystery
The placement of affection and the dissaray
I gathered up the courage that it took
Made that bed
I took one last look
And you could hear the pages flapping in the wind blown
Book of my days, my days
(refrain)
One tank gone second thoughts are on my mind
What's this trip gonna cost me this time
The devil I know is starting to look awfully kind
But the new road is an old friend
Fill it up again

. . .


All the fur and fin will lose again
Cause our better is their worst reckonin'
And our fine-feathered friends will sing until they bleed
And how will we replace that symphony?

I've got the blackest boots, the whitest skin
Satisfy my sugar tongue again
Bring me love that buys us shoe-shine days
Guilded verses for your ethylene
And sing it to me free and clean

All the kids come home with foreign limbs
from hunting trips abroad they lose again
and we'll teach them how to talk
and whistle while they walk
and do the dirty work of battle hymns

I've got the blackest boots, the whitest skin
Satisfy my sugar tongue again
Sing me love that buys us shoe-shine days
Guilded verses for your ethylene
And sing it to me free and clean

Drinking tea with milk and Janjaweed
Pontificate on genocide or greed
With a spoonful of descent
For the orchestra of need
Is just enough to please this colony

I've got the blackest boots, the whitest skin
Satisfy my sugar tongue again
Bring me lullabies and morphine-dreams
Belladonna with her atropine
And sing it to me free and clean

. . .



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

. . .


Words and Music: Amy Ray

Oh, Ozilline, the moon is almost full
And you don't need a torchlight to see into these woods
Sister, bring the medicine to keep you from decline
But it's the waxing and the waning that's always on your mind

Oh, Ozilline, I feel for you
(Pleasure's what they double)
Oh, Ozilline, I feel for you
(If I could call you mine)

As soon as the corn's in, the deer will come to feed
And when the berry ripens, the bird will come to eat
Build by the river, it's pretty but you'll pay
'Cause the springtime brings the floodplain or your cutbank washes away

Oh, Ozilline, I feel for you
(Pleasure's what they double)
Oh, Ozilline, I feel for you
(If I could call you mine)

I had to put the dog down before I hit the road
I watched that sweet old life become a bag of bones
When your body's broken and your heart wants to give in
And you hear that hoot owl callin' just like she was a friend

Oh, Ozilline, I feel for you
(Pleasure's what they double)
Oh, Ozilline, I feel for you
(If I could call you mine)

I said, "Ozilline, she don't let you cry
When you ask where it hurts"
I said, "Ozilline, she don't let you cry
When you ask where it hurts"
She says, "What a blessed sky"

. . .


(Bob Dylan cover)

It ain't no use to sit and wonder why, babe
If in you don't know by now
An' it ain't no use to sit and wonder why, babe
It don't matter anyhow

When your rooster crows at the break of dawn
Look out your window and I'll be gone
You're the reason I'm travelin' along
Don't think twice, it's all right

Well, it ain't no use in turnin' on your light, babe
That light I never knowed
An' it ain't no use in turnin' on your light, babe
I'm on the dark side of the road

Still I wish there was somethin' you would do or say
To try and make me change my mind and stay
But we never did too much talkin' anyway
So don't think twice, it's all right

It ain't no use in callin' out my name, babe
Like you never did before
It ain't no use in callin' out my name, babe
I can't hear you any more

I'm a-thinkin' and a-wonderin' walkin' down the road
I once loved a woman, a child I'm told
I give her my heart but she wanted my soul
But don't think twice, it's all right

So I'm walkin' down that long lonesome road, babe
Where I'm bound, I can't tell
But goodbye's too good a word, babe
So I'll just say fare thee well

I ain't sayin' you treated me unkind
You could have done better but I don't mind
You just kinda wasted my precious time
But don't think twice, it's all right

. . .


Words and Music: Amy Ray

Pain from pearls, hey little girl
How much have you grown?
Pain from pearls, hey little girl
Flowers for the ones you've known

Are you on fire from the years
What would you give for your kid fears?

Secret staircase, running high
You had a hiding place
Secret staircase, running low
They all know now you're inside

Are you on fire from the years
What would you give for your kid fears?

Skipping stones, we know the price now
And any sin will do
How much further if you can spin
How much further if you are smooth?

Are you on fire (Are you on fire)
From the years (From the years)
What would you give for your kid fears

What would replace the rent with the stars above
Replace the need with the love
Replace the anger with the tide
Replace the ones the ones the ones that you love

Are you on fire from the years
What would you give for your kid fears
Hey kids
Hold on

. . .


Words and Music: Emily Saliers

Thought I knew my mind like the back of my hand
The gold and the rainbow and nothing panned out as I planned
They say only milk and honey's gonna make your soul satisfied
I better learn how to swim cause the crossing is chilly and wide

Twisted guardrails on the highway broken glass on the cement
The ghost of someone's tragedy how recklessly my time has been spent
And they say that it's never too late but you don't, you don't get any younger
I better learn how to starve the emptiness and feed the hunger

Up on the watershed standing at the fork in the road
You can stand there and agonize till your agony's your heaviest load
You'll never fly as the crow flies get used to a country mile
When you're learning to face the path at your pace every choice is worth your
while

And there's always retrospect to light a clearer path
Every five years or so I look back on my life and I have a good laugh
You start at the top, go full circle round catch a breeze take a spin
But ending up where I started again makes me want to stand still

Up on the watershed standing at the fork in the road
You can stand there and agonize till your agony's your heaviest load
You'll never fly as the crow flies get used to a country mile
When you're learning to face the path at your pace every choice is worth your
while

Stepping on a crack breaking up and looking back
Every tree limb overhead just seems to sit anyway 
Till every step you take becomes a twist of fate

Up on the watershed standing at the fork in the road
You can stand there and agonize till your agony's your heaviest load
You'll never fly as the crow flies so get used to a country mile
When you're learning to face the path at your pace every choice is worth your
while

Up on the watershed standing at the fork in the road
You can stand there and agonize till your agony's your heaviest load
You'll never fly as the crow flies so get used to a country mile
When you're learning to face the path at your pace every choice is worth your
while

. . .


Words and Music: Amy Ray

My friends they wash the windows they shine in the sun
They tell me wake up early in the morning sometimes see what a beautiful job
we've done
I said, "let's put on some tunes, sing along, Doolittle all day"
Go down to the riverside take off our shoes and wash these sins away

The river said, "la la la shame on you"
River said, "la la la" it said "shame on you"

I go down to Chicano City Park cause it makes me feel so fine
And when the weeds go down you can see up close in the dead of the wintertime
But when the summer comes everything's in bloom and you wouldn't know it's there
And the white folks like to pretend it's not but they're music's in the air

You can hear 'em singing la la la shame on you
And you can feel 'em dancing la la la shame on you

My friend Tanner she says, "y'know me and Jesus we're of the same heart
The only thing that keeps us distant is that I keep fuckin' up"
Come on down to Chicano City Park and wash your blues away
And when the beautiful ladies walk right by y'know I never know what to say to
them

And they say ooooh la la la la la la la la la shame on you
And they'll be dancing la la la they say shame on you
Shame on you

Let's go roadblock tripping in the middle of the night up in Gainesville town
There'll be blue lights flashing down the long dirt road when they ask me to
step out
They say, "we're looking for illegal immigrants can we check your car?"
I said, "it's funny I think we were on the same boat back in 1694"

And I said ooooh la la la la la la la la shame on you
and they'll be dancing la la la they say shame on you
And I said ooooh la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la
La la la la la la i said shame on you
And I said, I said, shame on you
They'll be dancing la la la they said shame on you
Shame on you

Roadblock trippin' in the middle of the night in Gainesville town
(Blue lights flashing down the long dirt road)

. . .


Words and Music: Emily Saliers

I'm gonna clear my head
I'm gonna drink that sun

The saddest sight my eyes can see
Is that big ball of orange sinking slyly down the trees
Sitting in a broken circle while you rest upon my knee
This perfect moment will soon be leaving me

Suzanne calls from Boston the coffee's hot the corn is high
And that same sun that warms your heart will suck that good earth dry
With everything its opposite enough to keep you cryin'
Or keep this ol' world spinning with a twinkle in its eye

Get out the map, get out the map and lay your finger anywhere down
We'll leave the figurin' to those we pass on the way out of town
Don't drink the water there seems to be something ailing everyone
I'm gonna clear my head
I'm gonna drink that sun
I'm gonna love you good and strong while our love is good and young

Joni left for South Africa a few years ago
And then Beth she took a job all the way over on the west coast
And me I'm still trying to live half a life on the road
Seems I'm heavier by the year (heavier by the year) and heavier by the load
(heavier by the load)

Why do we hurtle ourselves through every inch of time and space
I must say around some corner I can sense a resting place
With every lesson learned a line upon your beautiful face
We'll amuse ourselves one day with these memories we'll trace

Get out the map, get out the map and lay your finger anywhere down
We'll leave the figurin' to those who pass on the way out of town
Don't drink the water there seems to be something ailing everyone
I'm gonna clear my head (I'm gonna clear my head)
I'm gonna drink that sun (I'm gonna drink that sun)
I'm gonna love you good and strong while our love is good and young
I'm gonna clear my head
I'm gonna drink that sun
I'm gonna love you good and strong while our love is good and young

. . .


Mister pull up a chair
I got time for tears
Tell me all the stories that you never did
Of the salty south
The Seminoles held out
While Geronimo died in a lonely jail

A thousand tides, and
A thousand waves
Takin' it all away

It'll come back in
We'll be gone by then
And it's a miracle we ever learned to live

Drain that land
For a better plan
Sugarcane and the civil man
But now the ringin' dead them pines
Planted in that time
We gonna keep on killin' till they get it right

A thousand tides, and
A thousand waves
Takin' it all away

It'll come back in
We'll be gone by then, oh
And it's a miracle we ever learned to live

I remember the wind
As it was settlin'
And every sun goin' down was a picture then
But we look back at 'em framed
They all look the same
There's no sense of time, no sense of pain

A thousand tides, and
A thousand waves
Takin' it all away

And it'll come back in
We'll be gone by then, oh
And it's a miracle we ever learned to give

. . .


Words and Music: Emily Saliers

The thin horizon of a plan is almost clear
My friends and I have had a tough time
Bruising our brains hard up against change
All the old dogs and the magician
Now I see we're in the boat in two by twos
Only the heart that we have for a tool we could use
And the very close quarters are hard to get used to
Love weighs the hull down with its weight

But the wood is tired and the wood is old
And we'll make it fine if the weather holds
But if the weather holds we'll have missed the point
That's where I need to go

No way construction of this tricky plan
Was built by other than a greater hand
With a love that passes all out understanding 
Watching closely over the journey
Yeah
But what it takes to cross the great divide
Seems more than all the courage I can muster up inside
Although we get to have some answers when we reach the other side
The prize is always worth the rocky ride

But the wood is tired and the wood is old
And we'll make it fine if the weather holds
But if the weather holds we'll have missed the point
That's where I need to go

Sometimes I ask to sneak a closer look
Skip to the final chapter of the book
And then maybe steer us clear from some of the pain it took
To get us where we are this far, yeah
But the question drowns in it's futility
And even I have got to laugh at me
No one gets to miss the storm of what will be
Just hold on for the ride

But the wood is tired and the wood is old
And we'll make it fine if the weather holds
But if the weather holds we'll have missed the point
That's where I need to go

. . .


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

. . .


Trying to remember the very last time
I felt a simple thing going fast
Was it the day in north Georgia
When you were trying to take a bath?
She sees the day lilies post inside
And the tears spring to her eyes
You turn the car around and your headed back down that track

She’s had a hard time
but the bottle of Jack sits on the counter like the devil she knows
And he beats her up and she fills her cup
with the ambers of a dime fire glow
see how she looked in her school year book
her friends signed ‘imagine’ on the bound (imagines all around?)
But would you stay in touch you know I miss you so much
I hope we get out of this town

Every day that you get up and force your cards
Playing your story in fits and stars
Take your prospects and your pickax and you trudge down to the stream
And you bloody your hands digging for your dream

I went looking for the answers from someone I heard believes that life gets easier
And you learn how to breathe and you learn how to grieve your past
You study the masters and their books
Giving in to the barbs and hooks
Till you accept it with grace that your true love doesn’t last

Every day that you get up and force your cards
Playing your story in fits and stars
Take your prospects and your pickax and you trudge down to the stream
And you bloody your hands digging for your dream

Every day that you get up and force your cards
You’re playing your story in fits and stars
Take your prospects and your pickax and you trudge down to the stream
And you bloody your hands digging for your dream

Take your prospects and your pickax and you trudge down
Take your prospects and your pickax and you trudge down
Take your prospects and your pickax and you trudge down

. . .


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.

. . .



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

. . .


Words and Music: Amy Ray

I'm harboring a fugitive a defector of a kind
And she lives in my soul and drinks of my wine
And I'd give my last breath to keep us alive

Are they coming for us with cameras or guns
We don't know which, but we gotta run
And you say this is not what I bargained for

So hide yourself for me
All for me

We swore to ourselves we'd go to the end of the world
But I got caught up in the whirl and the twirl of it all
A day in the sun dancing alone
Baby, I'm so sorry

Now it's coming to you the lessons I've learned
Won't do you any good cause you've got to get burned
The curse and the blessing they're one and the same
Baby it's all such a treacherous gain

Hide yourself for me
I said hide yourself for me
All for me

I stood without clothes and danced in the sand
I was aching with freedom and kissing the damned
I said remember this as how it should be

Baby, I said, it's all in our hands
Got to learn to respect what we don't understand
We are fortunate ones, fortunate ones, I swear

Hide yourself for me
I will hide myself for you
All for you, all for you (I will hide myself for you)
I will hide myself for you
All for you

I stood without clothes I danced in the sand 
I was aching with freedom I was kissing the damned
I said remember this as how it should
Be

. . .


words and music by Amy Ray

The volunteers come for your prayers
and some souvenirs,
With ivory skin and boycott lessons
Year after year.

Well I'm tracing your face up in the space of the bottom bunk,
Oh Cordova.
Where I cried and I cried,
I knew I was trading on things that I didn't have,
The things that I didn't have.

Now you come to me
With revolution's infidelity,
With blacklisted friends and tupperware kin,
And your big history.

Well I'm tracing your face up in the space of the bottom bunk,
Oh Cordova.
Where I cried and I cried,
I knew I was trading on things that I didn't have,
The things that I didn't have.

I memorize the lullabies
of dwindling lives.
The lay of the land, the touch of each hand
We lose by and by.

I'm tracing your face up in the space of the bottom bunk,
Oh Cordova.
Where I cried and I cried,
I knew I was trading on things that I didn't have,

. . .


Today my mind is drawing a blank
I canvas you to color this in
There's no gas left in the tank
You've always got your engines running

You've got no whip when the beast lays down
And feeds upon the rest has finally found

What are you like?
My open door revolver
What are you like?
My go to problem solver
You shine a light in the darkest corners of my mind
What are you like?
You're that kind

I cover mirrors with the clocks (cover mirrors with the clocks)
I'm getting superstitious lately (you don't ever brush it off)
But you don't ever brush it off (you won't cover me to safety)
You won't cover me to safety

While I'm sitting on this couch
You're up and figuring it out

What are you like?
My open door revolver
What are you like?
My go to problem solver
You shine a light in the darkest corners of my mind
What are you like?

The Greek chorus of our little play
You'll explain me when I act this way
And as we go along
The unwritten song breaks through
And it's all about you

What are you like? (You're an open door)
What are you like? (You're the best and more)
What are you like? (You're a sacred text)
What are you like? (You're what's coming next)
What are you like? (You're my open door (X3))

. . .


Second time around you know its
Really got me down
Sister don't you judge it
Keep it to yourself now
If ya ain't got nothing good to say
Don't say nothin' at all

Got bitten by the bitter bug and I
Just can't get enough
Ill will and my own conceding
Weary of the world it seems
I'm weary of the world
Weary of the world it seems

Sort of always come my way
I'm just a little bit off these days
Like the hard knocks all my life
Like I'm a bible belt wife
Like I didn't see it coming
Like I didn't walk in willingly

See I never want to sing again
La la la like a butterfly
Without my wits about me
Without my heart in line
Third times a charm
This is mine

[Harmonica feature]

You said you just heard Loretta sing
And you felt the loneliness seeping in
Cowboys made you uneasy
You're a God-fearing lesbian
So you learn not to yearn
And you take it on the chin again

Here's what I find about compromise
Don't do it if it hurts inside
Cause either way you're screwed
And eventually you'll find
That you may as well feel good
You may as well have some pride

[Interlude]

Come August we'll go to Cherokee and
Hear Loretta do her thing
Pack it into the Indian casino and
Make the hillbilly scene
Kick up our heels
And join in

Are you my ally or my enemy?
Do you have self-loathing or empathy?
Can you keep me in your prayers, sister?
Can you keep me in there somewhere?
And sister, if you ain't go nothin' good to say
Don't say nothin' at all

. . .


I opened my hands up to see what I've got.
My days slip like coins into a slot.
They are gone, the shadows lie long.

I've been banking on a broken machine.
Left unattended, like most of my dreams.
Rusted components of an unmarked song

We've been staring down a brilliant dream
The sun burns our eyes.
We've been fighting for the love of our lives

All around us things come apart.
Broken pieces. broken hearts,
Fix me, oil me, match me with the next best thing.

Person to person, nation to nation
Heels dug in no communication.
While the time speaks of weathering

We've been wanting to be helped by binding ties
We've been fighting for the love of our lives

And when it breaks down, I beg you don't go.
A sinking ship, I'm ready to blow.
I try to out think you with an army of words,
I strategize.
I am fighting for the love of my life.

Iron and water, oxygen
Scotch and soda, or any combination
Starts the reaction.

Is there no mastermind of modern day
Who can blueprint a plan to make love stay
steady and weatherproof usher in a new revolution?

At the drawing board, the hopeful ones still try.
How can we help it
When we're fighting for the love of our live?

(Drawing board) The hopeful ones still try.
How can we help it
When we're fighting for the love of our lives?

. . .


Words and music by Amy Ray

I heard you sing a rebel song
Sung it loud and all alone
We can't afford the things you say
We can't afford the warranty

Well I see you walking in the glare
Down the county road we share
Our southern blood my heresy
Damn that old confederacy

It took a long time to become the thing
I am to you
And you won't tear it apart
Without a fight
Without a heart

I'm sorry for what you've learned (learned)
When you feel the tables turned
To run so hard in your race (race)
Now you found who set the pace

The landed aristocracy
Exploiting all your enmity
All your daddy's fought in vain
Leave you with the mark of cain

It took a long time to become the thing
I am to you and you won't tear it apart
Without a fight
Without a heart

It took a long time to become you
Become you

The center holds so they say
(It never held too well for me)
It never held too well for me
(The center holds so they say)
I won't stop short of common ground
(That vilifies the trodden down)
That vilifies the trodden down
(I won't stop)

The center held the bonded slave
For the sake of industry (ah)
The center held the bloody hand of the execution man (ah)

It took a long time to become the thing
I am to you and you won't tear it apart
Without a fight
Without a heart

It took a long time to become you
Become you

It took a long time to become you
Become you

. . .


Words and Music: Emily Saliers

My place is of the sun and this place is of the dark
I do not feel the romance, I do not catch the spark
My place is of the sun and this place is of the dark
I do not feel the romance, I do not catch the spark

I don't know when I noticed life was life at my expense
The words of my heart lined up like prisoners on a fence
The dreams came in like needy children, tugging at my sleeve
I said I have no way of feeding you, so leave
There was a time I asked my father for a dollar
And he gave me a ten dollar raise
I needed my mother and I called her
And she stayed with me for days

Now someone's on the telephone, desperate in his pain
Someone's on the bathroom floor, doing her cocaine
Someone's got his finger on the button in some room
No one can convince me we aren't gluttons for our doom
But I tried to make this place my place 
I asked for Providence to smile upon me, with his sweet face
But I'll tell you

My place is of the sun and this place is of the dark
I do not feel the romance, I do not catch the spark
My place is of the sun and this place is of the dark (By grace my sight grows
stronger)
And I will not be a pawn (I will not be) for the prince of darkness any longer

Maybe there's no haven in this world for tender age
My heart beat like the wings of wild birds in a cage
My greatest hope my greatest cause to grieve
And my heart flew from it's cage, and it bled upon my sleeve
The cries of passion were like wounds that needed heeling
I couldn't hear them for the thunder
I was half the naked distance between hell and heaven's ceiling
And it almost pulled me under

Now someone's on the telephone, desperate in his pain
Someone's on the bathroom floor, doing her cocaine
Someone's got his finger on the button in some room
No one can convince me, we aren't gluttons for our doom
But I tried to make this place my place
I ask for Providence to smile upon me, with his sweet face
But I tell you

My place is of the sun and this place is of the dark
I do not feel the romance, I do not catch the spark
My place is of the sun and this place is of the dark (By grace my sight grows
stronger)
I do not feel the romance, I do not catch the spark (I can feel it growing
stronger)
My place is of the sun and this place is of the dark (By grace my sight grows
stronger)
And I will not be a pawn (I will not be) for the prince of darkness any longer

. . .



Whatever it was, is wasn't manumission
To spill the blood, to pull the weed
You can bury the past, but it's a mausoleum
With the ghost of a fist that won't let us be
Can we bring it together,
Can we call from the mountain to the valley below?
Can we make it better,
Do we tether the hawk, do we tether the dove?
I kicked up the dirt, and I said to my neighbor
"We keep making it worse, we keep getting it wrong"
He tucked in his shirt, he stood a little bit straighter,
He said "We need a few less words dear, we need a few more guns."
But will it bring us together,
Can we call from the mountain to the valley below?
Can we make it better,
Do we tether the hawk, do we tether the dove?
Enduring love
Why so much and so strong, beyond this short existence?
So don't be still
You say there's a long line behind you
And it's hardly worth the mentioning
But I will
Cause we may flicker and fade,
But we never will be through with this
I see this world battered but not broken
There's a fallow heart, it's waiting on a sowing hand
You can grow what you want, But one day it's gonna rise up
So plant what you need to make a better stand
And we'll bring it together
And we'll call from the mountain to the valley below.
And we'll make it better
Let go of the hawk, we let go of the dove.
I sing to you, all you true believers
With the strength to see this and not be still.
I'm telling you now, find the hope that feeds you,

. . .


(The Rolling Stones cover)

Childhood living is easy to do
The things you wanted, I bought them for you
Graceless lady, you know who I am
You know I can't let you slide through my hands

Wild horses couldn't drag me away
Wild, wild horses, couldn't drag me away

I watched you suffer a dull aching pain
Now you decided to show me the same
No sweeping exits or offstage lines
Could make me feel bitter or treat you unkind

Wild horses couldn't drag me away
Wild, wild horses, couldn't drag me away

I know I've dreamed you, a sin and a lie
I have my freedom but I don't have much time
Faith has been broken, tears must be cried
Let's do some living, after we die

Wild horses couldn't drag me away
Wild, wild horses, we'll ride them some day
Wild horses couldn't drag me away
Wild, wild horses, we'll ride them some day

. . .


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