Laura Veirs Album

Oh I can see your tracks
But I won't follow them
I'll just hope for rain
Or some kind of crazy wind
To erase them
And chase them into oblivion

Oh I can smell the smoke
From your fire, babe
But I'll leave you alone
And sleep in this lonely cave
And pray for
A storm to scrub this dirt away

Oh I can hear the snakes
Creeping cross the scene
I'm quaking in my boots
But you won't hear me scream
You're half way
Down to New Orleans
You're half way
Down to New Orleans

July flame
Fiery kite
Will o the wisp
Lead me through the night

July flame
Sweet summer peach
High up in the branch
Just out of my reach

Can I call you mine?
Can I call you mine?

July flame
I'm seeing fireworks
They're so beautiful
Tell me why it hurts

July flame
Ashes of a secret heart
Falling in my lemonade
Unslakeable thirsting in the back yard

Can I call you mine?
Can I call you mine?

Even the most shimmering rain
Empties out the sky and comes to an end
We all know that the sun is king
There's no messing with our orbiting

So why is he standing in his own backyard
Crying at his fallen down house of cards?

Did you see the ice in his eye?
Did you see the dagger caught in his smile?
Innocent as a summer flower
With a serpent coiled under his collar

So why is he standing in his own backyard
Crying at his fallen down house of cards?

You tangled up in the gnarled tree
You do as you damn well please
You torn and faded by the elements
Staring straight through me
You in suspended animation
You green-gone firefly
That storm brewing at your temple
Never seems to die

Oh where you driving son
To meet another one
Where you driving dear
To meet some other year

Your briny eyes a hall of mirrors
Your mouth a Rose Parade clown
Must be a trick of the light
I'm spinning all around
Through clouds of dandelion
Seeds sailing out on the wind
Hoping you'll be the one to
Plant yourself on in

Oh where you driving son…

Life is good when you dance all night
And the world transmits electric power
The messages you sent to Mars
Came from your crown of flowers

Have you danced away the hours?
Have you danced away the hours?

Life is good when the band is smoking hot
The drummer drums like it's the last chance that he got
Boats light up the river like a string of flame
Life is good

When you know he feels the same thing
When you know he feels the same thing

Going soft like the dawn
And tender green
Like the shoots of spring
Unfurling on the lawn
Over dell over dale
Over sea swell over sea swale
You never play the devil's pawn

Cuz you know he'd do the same thing
Cuz you know he'd do the same thing…

Dreaming of a silver silo
Burning in the light
Venus de Milo
Soldered in the side
Thought I caught her smile

Am I going
Am I going
Up in smoke?

Dreaming of
Birds of prey at battle
On a burning saddle
A rider lost in flames
What of all the games she
Played with beauty and love?
Have I gone up in smoke?

Have I gone up
Have I gone up
Up in smoke?

Venus de Milo calls
Venus de Milo falls

It sure is hard
To dance across
The room when you've got
One foot on the floor
And one foot outside the door

I want nothing more
Than to dance with you

The peace I've known
Floating along
The deep green river
With you and a song
Is something like
The peace I hope
To make with you
My whole life long

I want nothing more
Than to float with you

Paddling through the hail storm
Clothes ravaged, the leaves all torn
A part of me was born

Why care about
Yesterday's haze
When the stars above
Are all ablaze?
Why care about
The coming dawn
When the moon pours now
Searchlight strong?

I want nothing more
Than to dance with you
I want nothing more
Than to float with you

Honey wax
Melt it down
Make your heart
Molten somehow
Turn the fields of stone
To magma

Swinging out
On the breeze
I hear you singing
You're coming home
I can see you now

Summer is the champion
Let's get busy in the grass
Thank you for melting down your
Honey wax

Thought I needed
Rodent teeth
Tough iron filings
Diamonds cut
Bright steely shining
All the trouble that I've seen
Came on their wings
I threw them away
To rust in the rain
(Don't search ‘em out)

Summer is the champion…

Since you lay my burdens
Since you lay my burdens
Since you lay my burdens down
All the troubles I been
Dragging down this trail
Seep into the thirsty ground

Since you turned your light
Upon my darkened dale
The pollinators flex their wings
And take into the air
Spin their emeraldine
Webs across the swales and prairies

And my stampeding buffalo
Stops in her tracks and watches the snow
Falling through the old oak tree
When you give your heart to me

This is my song of love
Gathered from stuff above
The wires, feathers and the clouds
This is a song for you
A spring comes bubbling through
The place whenever you're around

And my stampeding buffalo…

(adapted from "The Sleeper in the Valley" by Arthur Rimbaud)

In a green hollow
Where a river sings
Tiny valley
Where the blue bells ring
There's a young soldier
Under the clouds
His mouth is open
And the light rains down

And the light rains down
And the crows come round
To the two red holes in his right side
In his right side
In his right side, oh

Sleeping in the sun
His hand on his breast
Nape of his neck
In the blue watercress
He's just a kid
And he never knew
He would be
The sleeper in the valley so soon

So soon so soon
And the crows they swoon
At the two red holes
In his right side, oh…

Down among the dead
The wide-eyed
And the legless
Only half a head
Half a mouth to
Laugh in the porthole
With the mold and
Faded epitaphs

Will you evermore tie
Up my hair with velvet bows?
Will you evermore pull
Out the splinters from my toes?
I don't think so

Out in the hornet rain
The swarming stingers pumping
Poison through my veins
Lying on the
Star-crossed lover's map
Take the beating
Lash, lash for lash

Will we evermore kiss
On the boardwalk's fading rail?
In the light of the waves
And the comet's waning tail?
I don't think so

No more looking back
Faded epitaphs…

She can really play it
She can really lay it down
"Smile" "Good Vibrations"
"Help Me Rhonda" "Homeward Bound"
It would be so cool to
Be like Carol, Carol Kaye
Maybe I can meet her
Maybe shake her hand one day

"Songs of Innocence"
"Natural Man" "Feelin' Alright"
"I'm a Believer"
"Come Together" "In the Heat of the Night"
"Mission Impossible" oh she's "Out of this World"
Ten thousand sessions from an
Everett, Washington girl

Not a household name but
She's been in your head all day
It would be so cool to
Be like Carol, Carol Kaye

I wanted to make something sweet
The blood inside the maple tree
The sunlight trapped inside the wood
Make something good

I wanted to make something strong
An organ pipe in a cathedralw
That stays in tune through a thousand blooms
Make something good

It's gonna take a long, long time
But we're gonna make something so fine

I wanted to make something pure
An emerald field from steer manure
A wild-eyed child in a moonlit room
Make something good

I wanted to make something built to last
A bottled ship with a golden mast
And through the squall the course stays true
Make something good
Make something good

It's gonna take a long, long time
But we're gonna make something so fine...