Shawn Colvin Album

by Shawn Colvin & John Leventhal

Sunny came home to her favorite room
Sunny sat down in the kitchen
She opened a book and a box of tools
Sunny came home with a mission

She says days go by I'm hypnotized
I'm walking on a wire
I close my eyes and fly out of my mind
Into the fire

Sunny came home with a list of names
She didn't believe in transcendence
It's time for a few small repairs she said
Sunny came home with a vengeance

She says days go by I don't know why
I'm walking on a wire
I close my eyes and fly out of my mind
Into the fire

Get the kids and bring a sweater
Dry is good and wind is better
Count the years, you always knew it
Strike a match, go on and do it

Days go by I'm hypnotized
I'm walking on a wire
I close my eyes and fly out of my mind
Into the fire
Light the sky and hold on tight
The world is burning down
She's out there on her own and she's alright
Sunny came home
Sunny came home...

by Shawn Colvin & John Leventhal

Go jump in the lake, go ride up the hill
Get out of this house
It's a house of your making, it's a house of ill will
Get out of this house

Go listen to Buddha, go listen to Joe
Get out of this house
If anyone asks, you tell them you don't know
Get out of this house

I spent eleven long years in a hot house zone
I spent twenty nine more trying to get home
Well I never got home, but I did what I did
And I got myself this house and you can't come in

I'm the queen of my castle, I'm the king of my room
Get out of this house
I got more than I need, more than I ever could use
Get out of this house

I spent seventeen years trying to save my soul
I spent twenty three more down in the hole
Now my soul is alright but I might get found out
I got myself this house now and I can't get out

If I see you again it will be in my head at the end of a cloud
If you see me again it will be in your head telling you to get out

You act like a baby, you talk like a fool
Get out of this house
Go back to your mama, go back to high school
Get out of this house

Go jump in the lake, go jump out the door
Get out of this house
I've had all I can stand and I can't stand no more
Get out of this house
Get out of this house

by Shawn Colvin & John Leventhal

Jimmy is married and he lives down south
His wife lives somewhere colder
He sees another woman in a badlands town
And she cries upon his shoulder

Jimmy thinks that he's a helpless man
He thinks about love in a vacuum
And he won't remember that talk you had
When you were walking into the bedroom

He'll say I don't know why we met
The simple truth is always the best
C'est la vie - what's done is done
And there's somebody for everyone

Jimmy has debts and Jimmy has ties
That he can't get out from under
If you look far enough into his eyes
It'll rock you just like thunder

Jimmy broke locks and Jimmy broke bolts
Just to get himself out from under
When you feel like you're lying in a prison cell
It'll kind of make you wonder

He'll say it's destiny we met
The simple truth is always the best
Don't you see what's done is done
And there's somebody for everyone

I used to get drunk to get my spark
And it used to work just fine
It made me wretched but it gave me heart
I miss Jimmy like I miss my wine

Jimmy as if you didn't know by now
Let me tell you a thing or two
Everybody might have someone
But everyone falls in love with you...

He'll say you get just what you get
The simple truth is always the best
Don't you see what's done is done?
And there's somebody for everyone

by Shawn Colvin & John Leventhal

Hold me down to anything
Anything that you see
I should walk away right now
I'll be there, so never mind
I'll be the one to fall
Waiting for you to look up at me

Oh I love you the most
Always giving up the ghost
In your own private conversation
You're a sweet mystery
There is nothing in between
You and the Mona Lisa

Nothing in particular
And everything in between
This is what you mean to me
Only you and only me
Climbing in the right direction
On the way to everything

We were walking up high
And no one thought to try
But I was the one to blame
And it was just a mirage
So I hid in the garage
'Til somebody called your name

Oh I love you the most
Always giving up the ghost
In your own private conversation
You're a sweet mystery
And there's nothing in between
You and the Mona Lisa

Nothing in particular
Just you and the Mona Lisa...

by Shawn Colvin, John Leventhal & Tom Littlefield

Baby let me set you down
You look so troubled and I think I know
Just when you think you've come around
There you go

Now I know the business of the heart
And it'll get you anyway it can
You need someone to walk with in the dark, well
I'm your man

I go to the trouble like a magnet
That's where I'll be
Trouble is just a place to sing
It's what you need

I swear you look like you're in jail
And all at once you're halfway out the door
One foot dancing, one foot nailed
To the floor

Chasing those circles in the ground
The same old shit is still the same old lie
Just when you think you've got it down
Watch it fly

I go to the trouble like a light
Or like a dare
Trouble is just a friend to me, I know
It'll always be there

It's really hard to make your peace
So give me some credit for the hell I've paid
This world's a blessing and a beast
Everyday

So come on baby let me show you how
The less you know the more I comprehend
You don't have to drag me down
I descend

I go to the trouble and I like it
That's where I'll be
Trouble is just like love, if it's half the way
It's all I can see
And it's just what you need

by Shawn Colvin & John Leventhal

I lost the thread, I lost the map
It's not a feeling, it's a fact
I had it once, I was on track
Why won't it stay? I want it back

I see you there in that magazine
You're looking smart, you sound supreme
You got such lip, you know the street
You been around, you took some heat

You mighta killed, you might be cruel
You might be stupid but we love you
You're in the paper, you're in the air
You're in my head, you're everywhere

I want it back

You're so extreme, you're feast or famine
You got one mission, just like a salmon
You said in life, mistakes are many
How come you never admit to any?

Are you for real or are you bluffing?
You really get me, famous for nothing
And every morning you got a name
In a world where people all look the same

I want it back

I can't give love, I don't know how
I write in code so you won't know
I was on drugs, I took a nap
I didn't mean it, I want it back

I dreamed again of paradise
I floated steady, it felt so nice
to sell your soul, just think of that
I'm halfway there, I want it back

I want it back

by Shawn Colvin

All the happy couples on their way to New Orleans
Reminding me of when we got along
They're only renting time and space to fill up with their dreams
And dreams are what they'll have when they have gone

How could it be that I was born without a clue to carry on
And still it is the same now I am older
Armed with just a will and then this love for singing songs
And minding less and less if I am colder

But I have this funny ache and it's burning in my chest
And it spreads just like a fire inside my body
Is it something God left out in my spirit or my flesh
Would I be saved if I were brave and had a baby

It was never clear what would come but that's the risk and that's the test
And you were the only one so far to follow
And no one talks about when one might stop and need to rest
Or how long you sit alone before you stop looking back
It's like you're waiting for Godot
And then you pick your sorry ass up off the street and
Go...

And what the hell is this? Who made this bloody mess?
And someone always answers like a martyr
Is it something you should know, did you never do your best
Would you be saved if you were brave and just tried harder

So now I ride the ought one thirtyfive to New Orleans
I float a mile above life's toil and trouble
A thousand lonely lifetimes I still wait and then go on
A clown to entertain the happy couples

by Shawn Colvin & John Leventhal
Down at the train they go to Independence everyday
But anywhere else now seems like a million miles away
And I must have been high to believe that I would ever leave
Now I'm just a flat fine line like the Wichita skyline

I rode on the airstream across the great lonesome afternoon
I wished hard enough to hurt, drove fast enough to catch the moon
But I must have been dreaming again 'cause there's nothing around the bend
Except for that flat fine line, the Wichita skyline

As far as Salina I can get that good station from LaRue
I'm searching the dial while I'm scanning the sky for a patch of blue
And I watch the black clouds roll in chasing me back again
Back to the flat fine line, the Wichita skyline

by Shawn Colvin & John Leventhal

Good love
bad love
good love
yeah
My time
your time
my time
yeah

84,000 different delusions
Take a ride in the car
84,000 different delusions

Good times
bad times
good times
yeah
Our world
their world
our world
yeah

84,000 different delusions
Meet me down at the bar
84,000 different delusions

Go look at the lake, please
Go look at the sky
Go look at a baby
We're all gonna die

84,000 different delusions
We don't know who we are
84,000 different delusions
We don't get very far
84,000 different delusions
Everyone is a star
84,000 different delusions...

by Shawn Colvin & John Leventhal

Wait for me by the banshee tree
Let me be your wailing companion
Pass 'em on by, don't look 'em in the eye
Suicide Alley is callin'

You thought you were dreaming
You could wake up dead
And you'll never know what's real
All this damage is runnin' loose in your head
And it really matters to me

Oh, no, baby don't go
Walkin' down Suicide Alley

Downtown baby it's a million to one
You might as well name your poison
And stand in line by the exit sign
Suicide Alley is waiting

You're a loose cannonball on a sinking ship
From the belly of the beast, shot from the hip
But you don't have to be going down the dark hall
You're not tied to the chair, you're not nailed to the wall

Oh, no, baby don't go
Walkin' down Suicide Alley

Sitting naked by the window in the middle of the night
I can see you wearing your halo
If only in the daybreak of the dirty street light
I know baby wasn't born to follow

You know I wasn't born I was spat out at a wall
And nobody even knew my name
The sun hatched me out, cradle and all
On the corner of First and Insane

For the souls of the departed and the renegades of love
You and me we gotta be all we dreamed of
In the ruins of mischief through the ravages of time
You got a place in this world of mine

Oh, no, baby don't go
Walkin' down Suicide Alley

by Shawn Colvin

This is your new thing now
Naked as a rose
Everything exposed
But not quite
This is your new thing now
Cards out on the table
A genius with no label
But not quite, not quite

God, I swear it's good to be back home
Waiting for the newest Rolling Stone
All the other girls are still at war
The best and worst of 1994
Sometimes I see the half and not the whole
Sometimes I see the face and not the soul
Sometimes I think this place has no part
For anyone who ever had a heart

This is your new thing now
And it looks so good in print
Just a poet and her pimps
But not quite
This is your new thing now
A prom dress and a sneer
The woman of the year
But not quite, not quite

Gee, it's good to see a dream come true
People smile and bless all over you
Mixing up those latest junkie-isms
With all the pretty terms of religion
And don't you love the leader of the band
Equal parts Butthead and Peter Pan
All the other kids are sad again
A legend's not a legend 'til it ends

This is your new thing now
And it makes the whole world spin
It's as least as old as sin
But not quite
This is your new thing now
And now you're turning grinning
But maybe no one's listening
And you might lose it all my darling, yes you might

This is your new thing now
And it feels so good to doubt you
I could almost live without you
But not quite

by Shawn Colvin & John Leventhal

Well I don't tell jokes
And I don't take notes
You been sayin there ain't much hope
You got nothin on me

I got friends uptown
And they don't talk down
They been keepin me safe and sound
We got somethin to be

So in case you hadn't noticed
I'm alright
Not like I was before
Things used to be so hopeless
But not tonight
Tonight I'm walkin out that door

I'm not gonna cry
I'm wavin goodbye
And I know this time
You got nothin on me

Well it ain't that tough
Just more of the usual stuff
One heartache is more than enough
There ain't nothin to see

I got friends uptown
And they still come 'round
They been keepin me safe and sound
We got somethin to be

So don't you try to save me
With your advice
Or turn me into somebody else
Cuz I'm not crazy and you're not nice
Baby keep it to yourself

I'm not gonna cry
And I'm wavin goodbye
And I know this time
You got nothin on me