Madeleine Peyroux Album

Instead of feeling bad
Be glad you got somewhere to go
Instead of feeling sad
Be happy you're not all alone
Instead of feeling low
Get high on everything you love
Instead of wastin' time
Feel good 'bout what you are dreaming of

Instead of trying to win something you never understood
Just play the game you know eventually you will you both look good

It's silly to pretend to have something you don't own
Just let her be a woman and you'll be her man

Instead of feelin' broke
Buck up and get yourself in the black
Instead of losing hope
Touch up the things that feel out of whack
Instead of being old
Be young because you know you are
Instead of feeling cold
Let sunshine into your heart

Instead of acting crazy chasing things that make you mad
Keep your heart ahead, it'll lead you back to what you have
With every step you are closer to the place you need to be
It's up to you to let her love you sweetly

Instead of acting crazy chasing things that make you mad
Just keep your heart ahead, it'll lead you back to what you have
With every step you are closer to the place you need to be
But it's up to you to let her love you sweetly

Instead of feeling bad
Be glad you got someone to love
Instead of feeling sad
Be happy there's a god above
Instead of feeling 'lone
Remember you are never on your own
Instead of feeling sad
Be happy that she's there at home
She's waitin' for by the phone
So be glad she all your own

Get happy...
Watin' for you by the telephone...

Don't get...

Back home...

(Songwriters: Becker, Walter Carl; Klein, Lawrence; Peyroux, Madeleine)

I remember what my daddy taught me
'Bout how one risky is in a cold ditch
And one more thing about good and evil
You can't tell which is which

Well, if the rest is lost and history
Or maybe wasted on a fool like me
And that these bare bones
Would leave me something after all

Old Hamlet's done now, dead and gone
And there's no ghost who walks
Poor [Incomprehensible] tells you everything he knows
With no tongue to talk

It seems the truth is hidden where the sun don't shine
And I'm never certain if it's their's or mine
It's just the bare bones
They give you that much after all

They preached the gospel down in [Incomprehensible]
They preached it in school
It never made much sense to me
Wonder if it was supposed to

You go on down a millionaires road
Watch a while, tell me what do you see
The truth itself, nothing but a gamble
It might or might not set you free

I guess, my old man was hard to read
And I don't really know what I believed
But in these bare bones
There's something lovely after all

My heart is like a hand me down
Made soft by older brothers
My body is like my father's house
The sin of generations

Damn the circumstances
Life is hard enough
Damn the bones that rattle
Faith is good enough

You shook the ground beneath my feet
My hopes turned into water
The house came crashing down on me
In the early morning hours

Damn the circumstances
Life is hard enough
Damn the bones that rattle
Faith is good enough

Now the lines are drawn
and we sleep in rags at dust
where all good will is gone
and the dreams we had went bust

Damn the circumstances
Life is hard enough
Damn the bones that rattle
Faith is good enough

Stop all this talk, turn off the telephone
Open up another bottle, send those people home
Let it get real quiet, turn that lamp way down low
I'm gonna float down this river of tears

I remember how we spoke on the days he was dry
Even now that he's gone he can make a woman cry
But he saw through me deaf dumb and blind
He knew his way down this river of tears

"Dashed hopes and best intentions" people say
He could sit and drink the way a monk could pray
So grab that silver flask, pour yourself another glass and
Watch me rage down this river of tears

Turn out the stars now, darken every one
Watch the clouds over that big yellow moon
Close the blinds, mute the sun
There's nowhere left to run

Picked up that old decanter that he used to drink from
Turned on his stereo just to hear it hum
Daddy I'm gonna wrap myself in blankets and listen to you sing
And I'm gonna float down this river of tears

You can’t do me, you can’t do me, you can’t do me the way you did before −
You can’t do me, you can’t do me, you can’t do me the way you did before −
’Cause when you do, and when you do, ’cause when you do, you know I get so blue!
When you do, and when you do, ’cause when you do, you know I get so blue and I go
Down like a deep sea diver, out like a Coltrane tenor-man,
Lost like a Chinese war baby − gone, gone, gone!
Blewed like a Mississippi sharecropper, screwed like a high-school cheerleader,
Tattooed like a popeyed sailorman − gone, gone, gone!

I should have been, I should have been, I should have been a pair of ragged claws.
I should have been, I should have been, I should have been a pair of ragged claws.
And for a while, for just a while, for a good long while you’d see me smile, smile, smile
I’d crawl the seas on my bony knees, no apologies for my brave new style. I wouldn’t go
Bust like an internet millionaire, boom like a Lebanese belly-dancer,
Bang like a new year’s firecracker − gone, gone, gone! I wouldn’t get
Bent like a rattan rockin’ chair, blanked like a last place also ran,
Burned like an Arkansas griddlecake − gone, gone, gone!

I should have been, I should have been, I should have been a pair of ragged claws.
And if I was, if I was, if I was then I’d complain no more.
And for a while, for just a while, for a good long while you’d see me smile, smile, smile.
I’d crawl the seas, on my bony knees, no apologies for my brave new style.
I wouldn’t get −

Wrecked like a rebel on a racetrack, jacked like a ’51 Cadillac,
Macked like a bunny in a mansion − gone, gone, gone!
Spitooned like an Alabama ’backy wad, harpooned in a Melville sailor yard,
Cartooned like a Charlie Brown Christmas card − gone, gone, gone!

Schooled like a milk money bully whip, sued like a teenage downloader,
Unglued like a bull in a china shop − gone, gone, gone!
Cranked like a speed freak high-roller, yanked like a little league ball swatter,
Spanked like a fly on a bar counter − gone, gone, gone!

Duked like a pistol whipped card swapper, rebuked like a Bible Belt border crosser
Juked like a payola chart topper − gone, gone, gone

I put on my gloves tonight, pull onto the road to San Berdu
They remind me of hustlers, confidence men, and you
My hands are warm beneath them, and easy on the wheel
Without your love and treachery the calm is all I feel

I shiver in the mirror, pull my belt across my hips
The leather's hard in bending as your fingers to my lips
I wrap it tightly in defense as if your arms were near
But for your love and treachery there's nothing left to fear

I'll take a glass of wine and recall the words you spoke
From the bottom of your cup, coveredin spit and smoke
But in your voice I'll hear my own and recognize the crime
That all your love and treachery has ended up as mine

I see you in the rearview with just a passing glance
How your eyes shine, as if through mine, you'd see and understand
As if we'd played each other but never knew the score
And all was love and treachery but isn't anymore
That all was love and treachery but isn't anymore.

Can I buy you something, can I stroke your hair,
Can I hold your hand and take you somewhere?
You're a young nobody, you're a perfect soul,
You're an empty altar that can make me whole.
Can I take you somewhere, can I wipe your tears,
Can I fill your pockets or befriend you here?
You're the final offer for the men who call,
My highest hiding place - Our lady of Pigalle.

Will you be. ascending in this midnight heat
On a flying buttress with stony feet?
In the revolutions we tear down your walls and then
Redeem you, reclaim you - Our Lady of Pigalle.

You're a young nobody, I'm a passing glance
In the mad injustice of eternal romance;
Beloved, broken into and caressed,
You will bridge the waters and I'll give you rest.
In the early hours when the streetlights fade,
For my inquisition and my last crusade,
You'll be savior, a reason for it all
And I'll be blessed and favored - Our Lady of Pigalle.

Will you be ascending in this midnight
On a flying buttress with stony feet?
In the revolutions we tear down your
Redeem you, reclaim you - Our Lady of Pigalle

I sit here content- my thoughts and my feelings
Remembering who I used to be
The life I have now is much more appealing
No hurries no worries for me

A bench by the shore a coat for my pillow
A future with no guarantee
The world was a rat race and I had my fill oh
No hurries no worries for me

Homeless Happiness
My castle's the stars and the sea
Homeless Happiness
If this door is freedom then I've found the key

The house and the car, those people around us
Were really for you not for me
We worked for the dream, alas all that bound us
Were hurries and worries you see

Homeless Happiness
My castle's the stars and the sea
Homeless Happiness
If this door is freedom then I've found the key

I'm keeping my word I'm right where we parted
My story is simple enough
Since I left behind all the plans that we charted
No hurries no worries my love

A quiet room is what you get, an empty glass, an unmade bed,
A picture window with a view, and all I think about is you
To feel so bad, to feel so good, to let it be misunderstood,
Now I long to lose my senses to love you all over again.

The shouted words, the tired sighs, the traded kiss of sad goodbyes,
The living off of our desires, then putting out a thousand fires
To feel so bad, to feel so good, to let it be misunderstood,
Now I'd tear down my defenses to love you all over again.

To know a place without regret, you make believe you paid your debt
But in that clean and quiet room you can't believe it's over yet.

Out on a lark, at home asleep, the endings play, the bands retreat
But in that dumb luck of the few, the consolation comes to you
To feel so bad, to feel so good, the verdict's in - it's understood
I will be tried for my offenses and love you all over again.

Lose your keys under the house, lose the button from your blouse,
Lose the plastic diamond ring from the parade-
Lose the color in your lips, lose the swingin' in your hips,
But if you lose me in your grips I must be saved,

Lose the harmonies we learned, lose the taste of bread you earned,
Lose the stash you always kept but never craved-
Lose your rhythm, lose your lines, lose your sense of passing time,
But if you lose me in your mind I must be saved,

And if you find your conscience plagued by some misplaced or righteous rage.
Then lose yourself instead till you remember to forget.

Lose your passion and your hope, lose the knotting in your rope,
Lose your armor in the struggles that you brave-
Lose, the children that you bore, lose the battle, lose the war,
But if you lose me in your core I must be saved,

Lose your reverence for winners, your patience with forgiveness,
You don't have to be a master or a slave-
Lose your senses, lose your mind, lose your faith in human kind,
But if you lose me down the line I must be saved,

And if you find your conscience plagued by some misplaced or righteous rage
Then lose-yourself instead till you remember to forget.

Lose perfection for a start, lose the dream you kept apart,
Lose the chance to find another who'd behave,
And then if you haven't yet, 'lose your loser's last regret
For if you lose me in your net I must be saved

Lose the vows we never spoke, lose the punch-line to the joke,
Lose your innocence as if willingly you gave-
Lose the kettle on the pot, you can lose the best you've got
But if you lose me in your heart. I must be saved

Wide awake
Breath taken
I'm shaken by my sight
Couldn't sleep
Couldn't keep
Quiet secrets on the wind I hear

There's somethin' grand coming
Cool lumming
Through my empty city
On a night breeze so free lovers must collide
And the morning sun must rise

All is forgiven

Cool your heads
Highway men
Come what name in
Who run and fight
Here's your drink
Time to think
Soon you'll wandering away your fears

There's somethin' grand coming
Cool strumming
Through my empty city
'Til the morning breaks
and the weary eyes are clear
Let the dreams of sleep take troubles far away from me

There's somethin' grand coming
Cool strumming
Through my empty city
'Til the new day breaks
and weary eyes are clear
Dream of sleep take troubles far away from me

All is forgiven