Mary Chapin Carpenter Album

(Mary Chapin Carpenter)

When it's been that kind of day baby
When everything is not what it should be
Everybody's had their say
Let's just say today is history

And keep keeping the faith
Keeping the faith, everyday
We're keeping the faith
Keep keeping the faith, don't give it away

When your head's not making sense baby
When your heart is just a mystery
When you're sitting on the fence
Instead of knowing where you're supposed to be

Well, just keep keeping the faith
Keeping the faith, everyday
Well be keeping the faith
Keep keeping the faith, don't give it away

All the style, all the money, all the power you can buy
Won't do nothing if there's something missing way down deep inside

It's the weary, its the lonesome
It's the forest that we just can't see
Don't forget now, there ain't no one
Who isn't trying to see beyond the trees

So, just keep keeping the faith
Keeping the faith, everyday
Well be keeping the faith
Keep keeping the faith, don't give it away

Keeping the faith
Keeping the faith, everyday
We'll be keeping the faith
Keeping the faith, don't give it away

(Mary Chapin Carpenter)

We were born during the boom times, played house down in the bomb shelter
Suffered through the wonder years, and silence at the dinner hour
But once upon a summertime, out behind the old garage
We were buzzing on midnight, Luckys and Rolling Rock
Thinking we were heroes in our own hometown
Nothing less than heroes in that old hometown

Some married on a day in June, some disappeared without a trace
And some of us are still at large, still searching for a better place
But once upon another time, it didn't matter what they said
Didn't matter if we fell behind, we'd still come out ahead
Cause we believed in heroes in that old hometown
Hey, you could be a hero in your own hometown

Now I'm long away and very far, from gazing at an evening sky
From wishing on a shooting star, from thinking that a heart can't lie
This world is gonna wear you thin, knot you up and spin you round
This world will take it's aim, call you every name, trying to bring you down

Everything seems so clear when you're looking back from such a distance
When the road not taken disappears into the path of least resistance
But once upon a time oh so long ago
Underneath this same old sky every brand new road

Would know that we were heroes in our own hometown
Nothing less than heroes in that old hometown
We still loved a hero in our own hometown
Baby you could be a hero in your own hometown

(Mary Chapin Carpenter)

I can see it now, walking by myself
And suddenly you're there walking with somebody else
I can see it now, what's right up ahead
A scene I've played a thousand times over in my head

I can see it now, it isn't just a dream
Can't shake myself awake, can't fall right back to sleep
Face to face I come right up to the truth
I can see it now, I'm still not over you

I can hear it now, your voice saying my name
It's too late for me to walk the other way
I can hear it now, asking how I've been
Oh and by the way have you met my friend

I can hear it now, a breaking all apart
A strange familiar sound that's coming from my heart
Feeling just as bad as the day that it was new
I can see it now, I'm still not over you

When you're out of sight, baby you're still on my mind
you're much too hard to lose, you're too easy to find
Like a bottle to a drunk, like trouble to a fool
I've only ever seen, just what I've wanted to

I can feel it now, as you walk away
Something left unsaid and the nothing left to say
I can feel it now like weather in my bones
Before it even comes, before I even know

I can feel it now, the empty and the ache
That bitter little pill that I don't want to take
Instead I'd swallow all the pride I ever knew
To crawl back if you asked, all that I would do
I can see it now

(Mary Chapin Carpenter)

I want to be your girlfriend, I want to be your new love
I want to be the one that you can't get enough of
I want to be your girlfriend, nobody else's but yours
I want to be the one who you'll do anything for

Never thought I'd ever wind up in a daze like this
Never thought I'd ever find myself wondering how you kiss
I see you nearly everyday, and everyday I lose my nerve
That I built up the night before, rehearsing every single word

I want to be your girlfriend, I want to be your new love
I want to be the one that you can't get enough of

You used to be just this guy I knew from that same old scene
For all the time that I've known you, just now I'm noticing
That everything there is to feel, feels worse than any teenage crush
And all the times that I've been near you, now I can't get near enough

Oh, I want to be your girlfriend, nobody else's but yours
I want to be the one who you'll do anything for

I just keep on hoping that you're gonna see
If I could notice you then you could notice me
Then I'd be more to you, oh, I just wanna be

I want to be your girlfriend, I want to be your new love
I want to be the one that you can't get enough of
I'm gonna be your girlfriend, nobody else's but yours
I want to be the one who you'll do anything for

(Mary Chapin Carpenter)

You're like a cool breeze to a hot spell
You're like a long drink to a dry well
Oh I know by now there's no use thinking
That it's something in that water I've been drinking
Cause I would not need even one more drop if you'd just let me into your heart

you're like a blue sky to a grey day
you're like a new try to an old way
Oh I never needed much convincing 'bout that something in my life that's been
missing
But I think I know where to find that part if you'd just let me into your heart

I got a past baby, now who doesn't
I won't ask you to think that I wasn't
Who I was back then, yes it's true
But that was when I didn't know you

You're like a sweet sight to these tired eyes
You're like the first light after a long night
Oh I never believed in the hands of fate
But to be with you baby, I believe I'd wait
Til the end of time for a chance to start
If you'd just let me into your heart

You're like a sweet smile to these tired eyes
You're like the last mile on a long ride
Oh I never believed in the arms of fate
But to be in yours darling, I believe I'd wait
Til the end of time for a chance to start
If you'd just let me into your heart
Til the end of time, baby I can start
If you'd just let me into your heart

(Mary Chapin Carpenter)

What if we went to Italy
A suitcase of books and one bag a piece for the summer
I don't speak a word of Italian
Except for Campari and soda for two, how much is a Lire
Yes, a villa will do and a breeze, in Tuscany please

What if we spent all of our days, improving our minds, learning new ways to be
lazy
It wouldn't be too much of a strain
Relax after breakfast till lunch comes around
Can't wait for dinner, oh, I need to lie down
And refuel, out by the pool

What if the ancients were lazy like us
Too blissed out to paint, to sketch or to sculpt
Just as relaxed as the tower of Pisa
Not ever missing that old Mona Lisa

What if we never got back on the plane
As summer turned colder and then warmer again
Losing all track of the passing of years
Till it no longer mattered how long we'd been here

What if we went to Italy
Maybe next year, just you and me for the summer
I still can't speak any Italian
But words are replaced under Siennese skies
By nothing so much as a nod, and a sigh, and a wish to be always like this

(Mary Chapin Carpenter)

I'm not made of stone, I'm not made of glass
I've been alone, every one has
I've learned to forgive what I'm not
I just try to live with what I've got
Maybe I've got what you need

If you need something that not only feels right
Something that's based on a real life
One thing that's worth every page of the deal
Not some old line, or rose-colored dream
Not some other time, you know what I mean
When I tell you that this is all that it seems and that's real

How far can I crawl out on this limb
There's so far to fall and here comes the wind
There's so much to lose, but love doesn't wait
So I'll be a fool who found out too late
But I've been a fool for far lesser things

And I want something that not only feels right
Something that's based on a real life
One thing that's worth every page of the deal
Not some old line, or rose-colored dream
Not some other time, you know what I mean
When I tell you that this is all that it seems, and that's real

Not some old line or rose-colored dream
Not some other time, you know what I mean
When I tell you that I'm, I'm all that I seem, and that's real
And that's real
And that's real
And that's real

(Mary Chapin Carpenter)

Today Joseph is sitting alone, with occasional nods to the waitress
She tops off his cup while she's snapping her gum, making her rounds on the
lunch shift
Counting out coins, he leaves them arranged, in neat lines and circles and arcs
She just stares at the tip that spells out her name and ideas are like stars

And yesterday pedaling down 4th Avenue, between the stalls and the bookshops
The sepia tones of a lost afternoon cradled a curio storefront
And inside the air was thick with the past, as the dust settled onto his heart
And here for a moment is every place in the world and ideas are like stars

They fall from the sky, they run round your head
They litter your sleep as they beckon
They'd teach you to fly without wires or thread
They promise if only you'd let them

For the language of longing never had words, so how did you speak from your
heart
Yet here is a box that swears it has heard that ideas are like stars

Tonight Joseph stood out in the yard, as Debussy played from the kitchen
Celestial companions `til mornings first lark, shone overhead and he listened
And who was that shadow there by the gate, who was that there standing guard
It was only loneliness, and loneliness waits, and ideas are like stars
Ideas are like stars

(Mary Chapin Carpenter)

Been walking these streets, been deciding what's true
Been hands in my pockets, coat collar up, thinking `bout you
I've been talking to myself, giving fate the third degree
I've been eyes on the pavement admitting my part to strangers passing me
And I know it isn't fair, but nothing's ever been
Hey when you look at me baby, my god how I feel so good again
I don't know where I went wrong, but it isn't right to lie
Hey when you look at me baby, my hearts wide open, naked to the eye

Now some lovers are apart, but they're never far away
I can see her in your eyes, hear her in your voice and I have to turn away
Oh what covet is to ache, is what aching is to me
For the arms of a man who knows who I am and where I need to be
And if I know what I know, then the lonely can't pretend
When you look at me baby, my god how I feel so whole again
Is there heaven after all, or just this empty space
That no amount of time, nor comfort in it's hands can ever help me face
Which is worse is yet to come, your rebuff or my resign
Hey when you look at me baby, I'm helpless as a child, naked to the eye

It's like a fever and a spell, unbroken by a sigh
Oh when you look at me baby I'm going nowhere, just naked to the eye
Yeah when you look at me baby, everythings there, naked to the eye
Hey when you look at me baby, I haven't got a prayer, naked to the eye

(Mary Chapin Carpenter)

Some people need to know what to expect
Need to keep control, need to keep one step
Ahead of every chance, as if chance decides
Who it's gonna pass, who it will reward
They don't understand, chances don't keep score
They just find us when we're there to find

And so this has to be, a sudden gift of fate
you're nothing less to me than a sudden gift of fate
It's not as if it comes down to your turn that someone somewhere feels you've
earned
You just learn to wait for sudden gifts of fate

Some people have never been the lonely kind
Never called a friend in the middle of the night
Just to hear a voice say it's okay
And now I hear you speak each and every word
That I didn't think lonely people heard
You took a long night and turned it into day

And so this has to be, a sudden gift of fate
you're nothing less to me than a sudden gift of fate
Its not as if it comes down to your turn that someone somewhere feels you've
earned
You just learn to wait for sudden gifts of fate

You can celebrate, gifts are never late
You just learn to wait for sudden gifts of fate

(Mary Chapin Carpenter)

Every heart has got a story
About love holding out a lure
Baby, when you've been that lonely
You just want a cure

Fool you once, you are forgiven
Fool you twice, you're just a fool
You fear the futures all been written
By the past, and what didn't last

All the better to dream of you
The better to be this side of heaven
Believing again when a dream comes true
The better to dream of you

Every story's got a chapter
That chapter will be defined
By what's before and what comes after
This one is mine
Everything that came before us
Wore me out and weighed me down
You raised me up like a gospel chorus
Rock steady on solid ground

The better to dream of you
The better to be this side of heaven
Believing again when some dreams come true
The better to dream of you

Like an old time tent revival I felt my heart come back alive
No preacher baby, no bible, just this love to testify

Oh, the better to dream of you
The better to be this side of heaven
Believing again some dreams come true
The better to dream of you

The better to dream of you
Yeah, stranger things they might have happened
Believing again that dreams come true
The better to dream of you

The better to dream of you
The better to be this side of heaven
Believing again some dreams come true
The better to dream of you

(Mary Chapin Carpenter)

What I'm looking for, after all this time
Keeps me moving forward, trying to find it
Since I learned to walk all I've done is run
Ready, on my mark, doesn't everyone
Need a place in the world

Could be right before your very eyes
Just beyond a door that's open wide
Could be far away or in your own backyard
There are those who say, you can look too hard
For your place in the world

Takes some of us a little longer
A few false starts gonna make you stronger
When I'm sure I've finally found it
Gonna wrap these arms all around it

Could be one more mile, or just one step back
In a lovers smile, down a darkened path
Friends will take our side, enemies will curse us
But to be alive is to know your purpose
It's your place in the world
Your place in the world
Your place in the world