The Hold Steady Album

She said always remember never to trust me. she said that the first night she met me. she said there's gonna be a time when i'm gonna have to go with whoever's gonna get me the highest.

she said i won't be much for conversation if we go and do the rest of this. she said i've never been much for conservation. i kinda dig these awkward silences. she's got those bones brigade videos. she knew them back and forth. she's slept with so many skaters. she had the place to herself. she had a couple hundred bux. and he had nothing but the number.
she said i like the guy who always answers the door. he never asks you what you came to his house for. she said i won't be much for all this humbert humbert stuff. i've never done so much of this. i have to try so hard not to fall in love. i have to concentrate when we kiss. she mouthed the words along to "running up that hill." that song got scratched into her soul. he's never heard the song before. but still he gets the metaphor. he knows some people that switched places before. she said i really like the crowds at the really big shows. people touching people that they don't even know, yo.

i guess the heavy stuff ain't quite at its heaviest by the time it gets out to suburban minneapolis. we were living up at nicollet and 66th. with 3 skaters and some hoodrat chick. drove the wrong way down 169. almost died up by edina high.

They got to the part with the cattle and the creeping things. they said i'm pretty sure we've heard this one before. don't it all end up in some revelation? with 4 guys on horses, and violent red visions famine and death and pestilence and war. i'm pretty sure i heard this one before. you in the corner with a good looking drifter. two cups of coffee and ten packs of sugar. i heard gideon saw you in denver. he said you're contagious. silly rabbit. tripping is for teenagers. murder is for murderers. and hard drugs are for bartenders. i think i might have mentioned that before.

he's got the pages in his pockets that he ripped out of the bible from his bedstand in the motel. he likes the part where the traders get chased out from the temple. i guess i heard about original sin. i heard the dude blamed the chick. i heard the chick blamed the snake. i heard they were naked when they got busted. i heard things ain't been the same since. you on the streets with a tendency to preach to the choir. wired for sound and down with whatever. i heard gideon did you in denver.

she's got a cross around her neck that she ripped off from a schoolgirl in the subway on a visit to the city. she likes how it looks on her chest with three open buttons. she likes the part where one brother kills the other. she has to wonder if the the world ever will recover. because cain and abel seem to still be causing trouble.

she said: i was seeing double for 3 straight days after i got born again it felt strange but it was nice and peaceful. it really pleased me to be around so many people. of course half were just visions but half of them were friend from going thru the program with me. later on we did some sexy things. took a couple photographs and carved them into wood reliefs. but that's enough about me. tell me how you got down here into ybor city.
he said: i got thru the part about the exodus. up to then i only knew it was a movement of the people. but if small town cops are like swarms of flies and if blackened foil is like boils and hail. then i'm pretty sure we've been thru this before. and it seemed like a simple place to score. then some old lady came to the door and said mckenzie phillips doesn't live here anymore.

Your little hoodrat friend makes me sick but after i get sick i just get sad. because it burns being broke and it hurts to be heartbroken but always being both must be a drag. she's been calling me again. she's been calling me again.
yr little hoodrat friend's been calling me again. and i can't stand all the things that she sticks into her skin. like sharpened ballpoint pens. and steel guitar strings. she says it hurts. but it's worth it. tiny little text etched into her neck it said "jesus lived and died for all your sins." she's got blue black ink and it's scratched into her lower back. it said: "damn right i'll rise again." yeah, damn right you'll rise again.

i've been dusted in the dark up in penetration park. i've been plastered. i've been shaking hard and searching in a dirty storefront church. i've been plowed. but i ain't ever been with your little hoodrat friend. what makes you think i'm getting with your little hoodrat friend?

yr little hoodrat friend got me high though. we were 17 and stuck up in osseo. she said it's funny even true love gets troubled by stillwater and washed up in the mississippi river.
her claddagh ring was pointed at the people. she said "st. theresa comes to me in dreams." she said "i ain't gonna do anything sexual with you. i'm kinda saving myself for the scene."

i've been dusted in the dark up in penetration park. i've been plastered. i've been shaking hard and searching in a dirty storefront church. i've been plowed. but i ain't ever been with your little hoodrat friend. what makes you think i'm getting with your little hoodrat friend?
she said: city center used to be the center of the scene. now city center's over. no one really goes there. then we used to drink beneath this railroad bridge. some nites the bus wouldn't even stop. there were just way too many kids.
i was waiting for my ride and i got jumped from behind. i got punctured. i got stopped by the cops. they found it in my sox. and i got probed. but i ain't ever been with your little hoodrat friend. what makes you think i'm getting with your little hoodrat friend?

holly wore a string around her finger. she said it helps her to remember all the nites that we got over. besides, it ties her outfit all together. holly wore a string around her finger. there are strings attached to every single lover but still they can't tether us together. listen to the back of the theater. i think they really love one another. there's strings attached to every little lover.
when they say great white sharks. they mean the kind in big black cars. when they say killer whales. they mean they whaled on him until they killed him up in penetration park.

holly wore a cross to ward them off. she said if they think yr a christian then they won't bring in the dogs. and if they think yr a catholic then they'll wanna meet your boss. holly wore a cross to ward them off. there's camps down by the banks of the river. and it's sketchy in the night but they mostly lay low in the light. hey sweet recovery. c'mon won't you wade into the water with me? there are camps down by the banks of the river.
when they say black and tans. they mean the kind from the cans. we don't got time to mix it all together. i'm a very busy man, man. she says i kinda dig the awkward silences. because i grew up in denial and went to school in massachussetts. he said hi, i like to party on the problem blocks. and i can't stand it when the banging stops.

i saw her at the party pit. she was shaky but still trying to shake it. half naked and three quarters wasted. she was completely alone.
i saw him at the riverbank. he was breaking bread and giving thanks. with crosses made of pipes and planks. leaned up against the nitrous tanks.
he said take a hit. hold your breath and i'll dunk your head. then when you wake up again. you'll be high as hell and born again.

there's strings attached to every single lover.

when he's holding then the streetlights seem an awful lot like spotlites. sometimes charlemagne gets uptight. running numbers between bars. running girls between the cars. and sometimes charlemagne feels all right. all right.
charlemagne had eyes like a lover. but last winter there was weather and his eyes they iced right over. cassanova's in the corner and he's asking for a dance. speedshooters driving round and coming down and tryna hook up with an exit ramp.
tramps like us and we like tramps. charlemagne's got something in his sweatpants.

holly was supposed to be at ccd but she was down on shady streets. she was looking round for something she could take up to a party. and it's not like she's enslaved. it's more like she's enthralled. she don't need it but she likes it. so she always makes that call. first it makes her feel tall then it makes her feel small and it's all a sweet fleeting feeling. they did the "been caught stealing" into "dancing on the ceiling." and you're damn right we danced. charlemagne's got something in his sweatpants.

do you want me to tell it like boy meets girl and the rest is history? or do you want it like a murder mystery? i'm gonna tell it like a comeback story.
'cause we when we left we were defeated and depressed. and when we arrived we were ripping high. we had a gun in the glovebox. we had some sweet stuff tucked into our socks. we had jesus christ in all his glory.

you came into the party with a long black shawl. and the guys from the front lawn were making jokes about the white swan. some nites we just need to get touched and rub right up against something plush. some nites it's just a crush and some nites it's bloodlust. she said we might use you later on. meet me back here right around dawn.

you came into the ER drinking gin from a jam jar. and the nurses making jokes about the ER being like an after bar. you know you're weak and effite and i'm coming up from the streets. you're up in yr loft getting soft and i'm coming up the stairs and i'm coming from the streets. she said i love the guys you cant trust. meet me back here about dusk.

i was half dead. then i got born again. i got lost in all the lights but it was ok in the end. and when we hit the twin cities i didn't know that much about it. i knew mary tyler moore and i knew profane existence. i was keyed up. keys jangled in the stalls. they counted money in the motels. they mostly sold it in the malls. and the carpet at the thunderbird has a burn for every cowboy that got fenced in.

she said you remind me of rod stewart when he was young. you've got passion, you think that you're sexy. and all the punks think that you're dumb. the guys around the lockers got a story about the stomach pump. and the guys behind the theater found a body in the garbage dump.

she got screwed up by religion. she got screwed by soccer players. she got high for the first time in the camps down by the banks of the mississippi river. lord to be seventeen forever. she got confused about the truth. she came to in a confession. she got high for the last time in the camps down by the banks of the river. lord to be 33 forever. she got screwed up by her vision. it was scary when she saw him. she didn't tell a single person about the camps on the banks of the mississippi river. lord to be seventeen forever. she got strung out the scene. she got scared when it got druggy. the way the whispers bit like fangs in the last hour of the parties. lord to be 33 forever.

she drove it like she stole it. she stole it fast and with a multitude of casualties. she said i shipped it out from boulder. packed in coffee grounds and wrapped around in dryer sheets. we spent a few months just wandering the sonoma. high as hell and shivering and smashed. we were hoping for a vision quest. we opened up three buttons. but all we saw was desert trash.

it's a funny bit of chemistry. how a cool car makes a guy seem that much cooler. it's worth noting throughout history. kids come around corners to a multitude of casualties. we spent a few hours circling the city. like a hawk out on the highways. we were looking around for something that just died. we heard the deacon's hopeful eulogy. at least in dying you don't have to deal with new wave for a second time.
after your party we got off the grid. we just couldn't get with all those clever kids. now we forage on the frontage roads. we drive at nites i guess it just feels somewhat safer. we scrounge around for sustinence. we mostly eat it in the back half of the theaters. we spent a few years nodding off in matinees. high as hell and shivering and smashed. we were hoping for an action adventure. something loud that we could feel thru all the feminax. and after the movie we got off the ground. got in yr car and crawled around in lowertown.

while she was at the citadel. he was getting high as hell. when she came to in the matinee. she was asking round for someplace else to stay. while he was down in lowertown. she was feeling out the 530 folk mass. and the nite that she got born again. he was getting with her little hoodrat friend.
they did wade in the water into one tin soldier. she started to cry. youth services always find a way to get their bloody cross into your druggy little messed up teenage life.

he said what about los angeles. she said we never really made it that far west. we scored big in denver and we thought it might be best. to go hang around in the upper midwest.
he said what about new orleans. she said i don't think you understand what that means. all those hangers on. the girls lifting up their shirts when the cameras come on. we were tryna stay away from those kind of scenes.
we didn't go to dallas. 'cause jackie onassis said that it ain't safe for catholics yet. think about what they pulled on kennedy. and then think about his security. then think about what they might try to pull on you and me.

saint barbara i'm calling your name. don't let me blow up. we'll hook it all up. i guess there's fields of speed where there's fields of grain.
saint barbara don't let me explode. i can feel the whole scene starting to corrode when we're fooling around on the frontage roads.

he asked what happened to charlemagne. she just smiled all polite-like and said something vague. she said charlemagne got caught up in some complicated things. she wiped at her nose and she winked.

nelson algren came to paddy at some party at the dead end alley. he told him what to celebrate.
and i met william butler yeats. sunday nite dance party summer 1988. at first i thought it might be william blake.

we mix our own mythologies. we push them out through pa systems. we dictate our doxologies and try to get sleeping kids to sit up and listen. i'm not saying we could save you. but we could put you in a place where you could save yrself. if you don't get born again at least you'll get high as hell.

sweet saint paul. that must be the hardest luck saint of them all. we met him in some suburban saint paul mall.
when st. theresa came to holly. i wasn't even at that party. i'd already moved out to new york city. when judas went up and kissed him. i almost got sick. i guess i knew what was coming. i guess i knew it was coming.

we gather our gospels from gossip and bar talk then declare them the truth. we salvage our sermons from message boards and scene reports. we come on to the youth. we try out new testements on the guys sitting next to us in the bars with the bars in their windows. even if you don't get converted tonite you must admit that the band's pretty tight.

they did she's got legs into ain't 2 proud 2 beg into something by the dixie dregs. they faked their way thru fairytale of new york. when the band stopped playing we howled out for more.
hey nelson algren. chicago seemed tired last nite. they had cigarettes where there were supposed to be eyes. hey william butler yeats. the irish seemed wired last nite. they tried to separate our girls from our guys. they had cigarettes where there were supposed to be eyes.

halleluiah came to in a confession booth. infested with infections. smiling on an abcessed tooth. running hard on residue. crashing thru the vestibule. the crucifixion cruise. she climbed the cross and found she liked the view. sat reflecting on the resurrection. talking loud over lousy connections. she put her mouth around a difficult question. she said lord what do you recommend? to a real sweet girl who's made some not sweet friends. lord what would you prescribe? to a real soft girl who's having real hard times.

her parents named her halleluiah, the kids all called her holly. if she scared you then she's sorry. she's been stranded at these parties. these parties they start lovely but they get druggy and they get ugly and they get bloody.
the priest just kinda laughed. the deacon caught a draft. she crashed into the easter mass with her hair done up in broken glass. she was limping left on broken heels. when she said father can i tell yr congregation how a resurrection really feels?

holly was a hoodrat. now you finally know that. she's been disappeared for years. today she finally came back. she said: st. louis had enslaved me. i guess santa ana saved me. st. peter had me on the queue. the st. paul saints they waved me thru.
i was all wrapped up in some video booth. when i heard her say i love you too.

she said i've laid beneath my lovers but i've never gotten laid. some nites she felt protected. some nites she felt afraid. she spent half last winter justa trying to get paid. from some guy she'd originally thought to be her saviour. they wrote her name in magic marks. on stopsigns and subway cars. they got a mural up on e.13th. that said halleluiah rest in peace. halleluiah was a hoodrat. and now you finally know that. she's been disappeared for years. today she finally came back.

walk on back. walk on back. she said don't turn me on again. i'd probably just go and get myself all gone again. holly was a sexy mess. she looked strung out but experienced. so we all got kind of curious.