one song

[Nobody Girl]

I walked down to the ocean

After waking from a nightmare

No moon, no pale reflection

Black mirror, black mirror

 

Shot by a security camera

You can't watch your own image

And also look yourself in the eye

Black mirror, black mirror, black mirror

 

I know a time is coming

All words will lose their meaning

Please show me something that isn't mine

But mine is the only kind that I relate to

Le miroir casse

The mirror casts mon reflet partour

Black mirror, black mirror, black mirror

 

The black mirror knows no reflection

It knows not pride or vanity

It cares not about your dreams

It cares not for your pyramid schemes

Their names are never spoken

The curse is never broken

The curse is never broken

 

Un deux trois! Dis: miroir noir

Black mirror

Un deux trois! Dis: miroir noir

Black mirror

 

Mirror, mirror on the wall

Show me where them bombs will fall

Mirror, mirror on the wall

Show me where them bombs will fall

 

Black mirror, black mirror, black mirror

[Dude]

There's something in the way she eases my mind

And lays me across the bed till I close my eyes

Stirs me in the morning till I can ever be satisfied

I leave Carolina every night in my dreams

Like the girls that try to love me that I only leave

Rock me like a baby doll and hold me to your chest

But I'm always moving too fast

 

If I could find my way back home, where would I go?

When everything about me, I used to be,

Shivers in the sheets and the blankets of snow

Lost out in the woods were you're looking for me

 

When, when will you come back home?

When, when will you come back home?

No one leave the lights on in a house where

Nobody lives anymore.

 

Loaded like the boxes up in the bedroom

Coming off the hinges like the door

The shadows dancing up in the window

They're not who we are but who we were

And I'm not gonna break, but if I do

I'm gonna shatter like the glass I turned your heart into

I'm broken like the windos in the house where I used to live

 

And If I could find my way back home, where would I go?

When everything about me, I used to be,

Shivers in the sheets and the blankets of snow

I'm lost out in the woods looking for you

 

When, when will you come back home?

No one leave the lights on in a house

Where nobody lives anymore

 

Everything about me you liked is already gone

Everything about me you loved is gone

When, when will you come back home?

[Doug]

What the hell's that on my shoe,

some god awful brown stinky goo.

I don't think it looks like gum,

it just came out of that little dog's bum.

 

scoop, scoop doggie do,

scoop scoop, scoop doggie do.

walk like this and pinch your nose

when it goes squish between your toes

now scoop, scoop doggie do.

 

Now since your goin' out the back,

take the gloves and the little brown sack.

Grab that metal shovel too,

and clean up all of that doggie do.

 

scoop, scoop doggie do,

scoop scoop, scoop doggie do.

walk like this and pinch your nose

when it goes squish between your toes

now scoop, scoop doggie do.

 

you posta' you posta'

you posta' keep me happy.

[Sweet Papa Crimbo]

Some prayers never reach the sky

Some wounds never heal

They still say someday the South will rise

Man, I want to see that deal

 

I don't want to grow old gracefully

I don't want to go 'til it's too late I'll

be some old man in the road somewhere

Kneeling down in the dust by the side of the Interstate

 

I am a renegade

I've been a rebel all my days

I am a renegade

I've been a rebel all my days

 

We were hopelessly outnumbered

It was a lost cause all along

But when we heard the bugles call

We swore we'd stand or fall together right or wrong

 

We ain't seen no reconstruction here

Just the scorched earth all around

And the high school band played "Dixieland"

While they tore our tattered flags and banners down

 

I am a renegade

I've been a rebel all my days

I am a renegade

I've been a rebel all my days

 

Some prayers never reach the sky

Some wars never end

Some dreams refuse to die

Next time I would rather break than bend

 

I am a renegade

I've been a rebel all my days

I am a renegade

I've been a rebel all my days

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ain't about my pistol

Ain't about my boots

Ain't about no northern drives

Ain't about my southern roots

Ain't about my guitars, ain't about my big old amps

"It ain't rained in weeks, but the weather sure feels damp"

Ain't about excuses or alibis

Ain't about no cotton fields or cotton picking lies

Ain't about the races, the crying shame

To the fucking rich man all poor people look the same

 

Don't get me wrong It just ain't right

May not look strong, but I ain't afraid to fight

If you want to live another day

Stay out the way of the southern thing

 

Ain't about no hatred better raise a glass

It's a little about some rebels but it ain't about the past

Ain't about no foolish pride, Ain't about no flag

Hate's the only thing that my truck would want to drag

 

You think I'm dumb, maybe not too bright

You wonder how I sleep at night

Proud of the glory, stare down the shame

Duality of the southern thing

 

My Great Great Granddad had a hole in his side

He used to tell the story to the family Christmas night

Got shot at Shiloh, thought he'd die alone

From a Yankee bullet, less than thirty miles from home

Ain't no plantations in my family tree

Did NOT believe in slavery, thought that all men should be free

"But, who are these soldiers marching through my land?"

His bride could hear the cannons and she worried about her man

 

I heard the story as it was passed down

About guts and glory and Rebel stands

Four generations, a whole lot has changed

Robert E. Lee

Martin Luther King

We've come a long way rising from the flame

Stay out the way of the southern thing

[Elixir Sue]

I'm calling out to ghosts

That are no longer there.

I'm getting hard on myself,

Sitting in my easy chair.

Well there's three people

In the mirror

And I'm wondering

Which one of them I should choose.

But I can't keep from laughing

Spitting out these three hundred m.p.h.

Outpour blues.

 

I'm breaking my teeth off

Trying to bite my lip.

There's all kinds of redheaded women

That I ain't supposed to kiss.

And it's that color which never fails

To turn me blue.

So I just swallow it,

And hold on to it,

And use it

To scare the hell out of you.

 

I have a woman that says

"come and watch me bleed."

And I'm wondering, just how I can do that

And still give her everything that she needs.

There's three people in my head that have the

Answer and

One of them's got to be you.

But you're holding tight to it

The answer

Singing these three hundred m.p.h.

Outpour blues.

 

Put on gloves, a tight scarf

And wrap up warm

On this winter night.

Every time you get defensive

You're just looking for a fight.

It's safe to say somebody out there's

Got a problem with

Almost anything you'll do

Well, next time they stab you

Don't fight back

Just play the victim,

Instead of playing the fool.

 

And the roads are covered with a million

tiny molecules

Of cigarette ashes

And the school floors are covered

With pieces of pencil eraser too.

Sooner or later the ground's gonna be holding all

Of my ashes too.

And I can not help but wonder

if after I'm gone

Will I still have these

300 m.p.h.

finger breaking

No answers

Broken back

Dirty cancer

Bee stung

And busted up

Empty cup

Torrential outpour blues

One thing's for sure in that graveyard

I'm gonna have the shiniest pair of shoes.

[mountain bed]

 

 

Standing on the moon

I got no cobweb on my shoe

Standing on the moon

I'm feeling so alone and blue

I see the Gulf of Mexico

As tiny as a tear

The coast of California

Must be somewhere over here

Over here

 

Standing on the moon

I see the battle rage below

Standing on the moon

I see the soldiers come and go

There's a metal flag beside me

Someone planted long ago

Old Glory standing stiffly

Crimson, white, and indigo

Indigo

 

I see all of Sotheast Asia

I can see El Salvador

I hear the cries of children

And the other songs of war

It's like a mighty melody

That rings down from the sky

Standing here upon the moon

I watch it all roll by

All roll by..

 

Standing on the moon

I see a shadow on the sun

Standing on the moon

The stars go fading one by one

I hear a cry of victory

Another of defeat

A scrap of age-old lullaby

Down some forgotten street

 

Standing on the moon

Where talk is cheap and vision true

Standing on the moon

But I would rather be with you

Somewhere in San Francisco

On a back porch in July

Just looking up at heaven

At this crescent in the sky

In the sky

 

Standing on the moon

With nothing left to do

A lovely view of heaven

But I'd rather be with you

Be with you

[Sweet Papa Crimbo]

I still smell tobacco on my fingers

My breath reeks of pot and wine and sex

My eyes open up like they haven

[Elixir Sue]

If the walls in the room could talk

I wonder to myself would they laugh

It's like some kind of jail

Beams of light

Fall from the curtains onto the bed

I'm all alone now; I can do as I please

I don't feel like doing much of anything

True love ain't that hard to find

Not that you will ever know

Would you lay here for awhile?

Please do not let me go

Please do not let me go

 

You were sweet enough to sing

Oblivious to melody

Red suitcase full of clothes

Washed up on a shore of memories

I'm all alone now and I feel just fine

I don't feel much like doing anything

True love ain't that hard to find

Not that either one of us will ever know

Would you lay here for awhile?

Please, do not let me go

Please, do not let me go

[Analogman]

You're going out tonight

You put your real cool looking clothes on

You're getting uptight

About some little thing I said

 

All that I said

"I couldn't play the game"

It shouldn't make any difference to you

 

Go walking around night

The wind's really blowing

It's too cold to talk

I wonder if she's knowing

 

She should be with me

It could set her free

Come with me

Be with me

A part of me

 

Everything we will see

Everything we will be

We will be

 

A new child is born

The mother is still waiting

Father's over there anticipating

Won't you be with me

It could set you (us) free

Come with me

Be with me

A part of me

[trestle]

When I first come to this country in seventeen-forty-nine,

 

I saw many fair lovers, but never saw mine.

 

I looked all around me, and found I was alone.

 

Me a poor stranger, and a long way from home.

 

Down in some lonesome valley, down in some lonesome place,

 

Where the wild birds do whistle their notes to increase,

 

I think of pretty Saro whose waist is so neat

 

And I know of no better pastime than to be with my sweet.

 

My love she won't have me, so I understand

 

She wants a free-holder, who owns house and land.

 

I cannot maintain her with silver and gold,

 

Nor buy all the fine things that a big house can hold.

 

I wish I was a poet and could write a fine hand.

 

I would send my love a letter that she could understand.

 

And I'd send it by a messenger where the waters do flow.

 

And think of pretty Saro wherever I go.

 

When I first come to this country in seventeen-forty-nine,

 

I saw many fair lovers, but never saw mine.

 

I looked all around me, and found I was alone.

 

Me a poor stranger, and a long way from home.

[embiggen]

You've got the money, I've got the time

you want your freedom, make your freedom mine

'Cause I've got the style it takes

and money is all that it takes

 

You've got connections, I've got the art

you like attention and I like your looks

And I have the style it takes

and you know the people it takes

 

Why don't you sit right over there

we'll do a movie portrait

I'll turn the camera on

And I won't even be there

a portrait that moves, you look great I think

 

I'll put the Empire State Building on your wall

for 24 hours glowing on your wall

Watch the sun rise above it in your room

wallpaper art, a great view

 

I've got a Brillo box and I say it's art

it's the same one you can buy at any supermarket

'Cause I've got the style it takes

and you've got the people it takes

 

This is a rock group called The Velvet Underground

I show movies on them, do you like their sound

'Cause they have a style that grates

and I have art to make

 

Let's do a movie here next week

We don't have sound but you're so great

you don't have to speak

 

You've got the style it takes, kiss

you've got the style it takes, eat

You've got the style it takes, couch

you've got the style it takes, kiss

[Aeglos]

A Tuesday night in Winter, holed up in the city of ravens,

The owls in the hills hoo-hooing and eyeing off the field mice down in the cold grey centre,

Addle Brains lining up with the dead for the soup spoon,

Addle Brains and the legions of the passed for the bread bag,

Ladle the soup, pass the rolls,

Addle Brains and the many not here and loose souls.

 

One might fly off to the blank heavens and the lead high halls,

O the hungry sky aches for blokes without folks and bulges with the bearers of palls.

Addle Brains would drink for four days and no eats,

and sleep in the glens of botanical parks, and on the humped bus shelter seats,

Where it's cold, where it's cold.

 

One morning I woke up in a room in the nation's heart,

and couldn't think for the life of me what I was doing, or where to start,

or what rehearsal was required, I was so sad and tired.

 

What does a bird want with money?

Was he made this way?

Do you have to earn the right to find all of this funny?

Nothing's funny today.

 

Addle Brains mixes his powders with his fateful blues,

and the wide-eyed bubs of the Parliament couldn't give a hoot, or even two.

All it takes, it takes, is a kind look and a word, a word,

Some pretty eyes and skin, from your fine family you were given to win,

and spill it over into the basin of common sin,

just a drop, a drop of the stuff that makes us kin

- Addle Brains perching way out on a limb.

[Dude]

This bed is on fire

With passionate love

The neighbours complain about the noises above

But she only comes when she

[Aeglos]

Suddenly last summer

I started going out of my head

In a tiny hotel room

Lying naked on a bed

I knew what you were doing, and I knew what you'd done

Your life with me was ending, your new life had begun

But I was cursing your name, and I was cursing that room

And I was praying for the strength to stop loving you

 

I started writing you the letter

Which turned into the book

I was gonna reach across the ocean

and force you to look

 

But what kind of man was I?

Who would sacrifice your happiness to satisfy his pride

What kind of man was I?

Who would delay your destiny to appease his tiny mind

 

Then you came back to me and I went down on one knee

With a glint in my eyes and a rose between my teeth

And I pushed out my tongue for you to see

That I'd been dying of a thirst for your company

Then you quenched my loneliness with your tears

And our clothes fell away as we rolled back the years

But we couldn't deny it because we could not admit it

If our love was too strong to die

Or we were just too weak to kill it

Was our love too strong to die?

Or were we just too weak to kill it?

 

Every moment in that room

I closed my eyes in prayer

Every moment I awoke

I clenched my teeth in prayer

 

What kind of man was I?

Who would sacrifice your happiness to satisfy his pride

What kind of man was I?

Who would delay your destiny to appease his tiny mind

 

Who could delay your destiny to appease his aching swollen pride

Who could delay your destiny to appease his screaming little mind

 

You're mine

[lizish]

Starry Stares - Okkervil River

 

They ask for more;

What do you think this fanclub is for?

I slithered up each rose corridor,

I kept a warm safe place in my core

before I lost it.

They ask for blood;

What do you think this womans made of?

I stuck a small thin pin in my thumb;

They dreamt a low long line to be crossed

and I crossed it.

I'm alive but a different kind of life

Than the way I used to be;

I survive in a grey grain smile to be seen

In an old sad magazine.

And this girls eyes,

Well they were roughly wretched open;

I could see a starry stare up your thigh.

You hid behind your hair, oh, but I saw you smiling

While all these guys, all these curious sets of eyes

sit behind a TV screen.

I let them pry;

Pick apart and hang out to dry

Almost every piece of me.

Oh what a trip,

Oh what a shivering silver ship,

Oh what a hot half-life I half lived

Oh and the stripes and stars

how they stripped off the siding.

When my life ripped, all from the part that raged as a kid

Into the part that plays through your lips

To find a safe warm place then to sit

curl up inside it.

So here's goodbye

From the part that stays behind

To the part that has to leave

To the sublime lips that were never spoiled

by lying to the face inside the being

Who isn't me

Who isn't me

Who isn't me

[lizish]

Savannah Smiles- Okkervil River

 

Midnight late last week

My daughter

[Elixir Sue]

It was Don Delillo, whiskey, neat

And a blinking midnight clock

Speakers on a tv stand, just a turntable to watch

When the smoke came out our mouths

On all those hooded sweatshirt walks

You were a stroke of luck

We were a goldmine and they gutted us

 

And from the sidelines

You see me run

Until I'm out of breath

Living the good life

I left for dead

The sorrowful midwest

Well I did my best

To keep my head

 

It was grass-stained jeans and incompletes

And a girl from class to touch

But you think about yourself too much

And you ruin who you love

Well all these claims at consciousness

My stray dog freedom

Let's have a nice clean cut

Like a bag we buy and divvy up

 

And from the sidelines

I see you run

Until you're out of breath

And all those white lines that sped us up

We hurry to our death

Well I lagged behind

So you got ahead

[willywoody]

Can't send no fourteen year-old boy to no school

The only thing i learned in the years i worked on my daddy's farm was,

"Son, you better get them crops in when it turns cool."

 

In the magazines, I saw the naked women

I heard about the drinkin' and the bars

If my daddy could've caught me, he'd a-killed me

He said, "You might run, boy, but you ain't gonna get far."

 

I hit town or you might say that it hit me

Next mornin' there were things I knew more about

 

The woman who had taken me in said, "Country boy, you're all right."

The same way I turned her on, she turned me out

The first law I broke, right away they got me

I helped them build the country roads for awhile

They fed me two times a day and knocked me down about four

For thirty days I didn't even crack a smile

 

I met a nice girl and she said I was her baby

She let me go and would never tell me why

I learned what it means to be somebody's baby

They let you lie in your bed by yourself and cry

 

The miles were good but the mileage is turnin' my hair gray

I've met some people that knew me and call me friend

Ain't no sense in wantin' my life to live over

I'd find different ways to make those mistakes again

 

So let me say this, I never tried to hurt anybody

Though I guess there's a few that I still couldn't look in the eye

If i've got one wish, I hope it rains at my funeral

For once, I'd like to be the only one dry

[Analogman]

I'm a long way from you,

I'm a long way from home.

And who cares for the feeling

Of being alone?

The notes and the words

They will always unfold

And I'm left with a manuscript

That will grow old

And the secrets all told anyway.

 

So the song it is yours,

And the song it is mine.

And a cold wind it blows

Through good fortunes of time.

The hobo he leaves

When the going is bad

And the music he weaves

Is so gentle and sad.

But freedom he has anyway.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And you know its time to go

Through the sleet and driving snow

Across the fields of mourning

Light in the distance

 

And you hunger for the time

Time to heal, desire, time

And your earth moves beneath

Your own dream landscape

 

Oh, oh, oh...

On borderland we run...

 

Ill be there

Ill be there...

Tonight

A high road

A high road out from here

 

The city walls are all come down

The dust, a smoke screen all around

See faces ploughed like fields that once

Gave no resistance

 

And we live by the side of the road

On the side of a hill

As the valley explode

Dislocated, suffocated

The land grows weary of its own

 

Oh, oh, oh...on borderland we run...

And still we run

We run and don't look back

Ill be there

Ill be there

Tonight

Tonight

 

Ill be there tonight...i believe

Ill be there...somehow

Ill be there...tonight

Tonight

 

The wind will crack in winter time

This bomb-blast lightning waltz

No spoken words, just a scream...

 

Tonight well build a bridge

Across the sea and land

See the sky, the burning rain

She will die and live again

Tonight

 

And your heart beats so slow

Through the rain and fallen snow

Across the fields of mourning

Lights in the distance

 

Oh don't sorrow, no don't weep

For tonight, at last

I am coming home

I am coming home

[tkleist]

She said to me, over the phone

She wanted to see other people

I thought, "well then, look around, they're everywhere"

Said that she was confused...

I thought, "darling, join the club"

24 years old, mid-life crisis

Nowadays hits you when you're young

I hung up, she called back, i hung up again

The process had already started

At least it happened quick

I swear, i died inside that night

My friend, he called

I didn't mention a thing

The last thing he said was, "be sound"

Sound...

 

I contemplated an awful thing, i hate to admit

I just thought those would be such appropriate last words

But i'm still here

And small

So small.. how could this struggle seem so big?

So big...

 

While the palms in the breeze still blow green

And the waves in the sea still absolute blue

But the horror

Every single thing i see is a reminder of her

Never thought i'd curse the day i met her

And since she's gone and wouldn't hear

Who would care? what good would that do?

But i'm still here

 

So i imagine in a month...or 12

I'l be somewhere having a drink

Laughing at a stupid joke

Or just another stupid thing

And i can see myself stopping short

Drifting out of the present

Sucked by the undertow and pulled out deep

And there i am, standing

Wet grass and white headstones all in rows

And in the distance there's one, off on its own

So i stop, kneel

My new home...

 

And i picture a sober awakening, a re-entry into this little bar scene

Sip my drink till the ice hits my lip

Order another round

And that's it for now

Sorry

Never been too good at happy endings...

[What Light?]

When you can't find the light,

That got you through the cloudy days,

When the stars ain't shinin' bright,

You feel like you've lost you're way,

When those candle lights of home,

Burn so very far away,

Well you got to let your soul shine,

Just like my daddy used to say.

 

 

He used to say soulshine,

It's better than sunshine,

It's better than moonshine,

Damn sure better than rain.

Hey now people don't mind,

We all get this way sometime,

Got to let your soul shine, shine till the break of day.

 

I grew up thinkin' that i had it made,

Gonna make it on my own.

Life can take the strongest man,

Make him feel so alone.

Now and then i feel a cold wind,

Blowin' through my achin' bones,

I think back to what my daddy said,

He said "boy, in the darkness before the dawn:"

 

 

Let your soul shine,

It's better than sunshine,

It's better than moonshine,

Damn sure better than rain.

Yeah now people don't mind,

We all get this way sometimes,

Gotta let your soul shine, shine till the break of day.

 

Sometimes a man can feel this emptiness,

Like a woman has robbed him of his very soul.

A woman too, god knows, she can feel like this.

And when your world seems cold, you got to let your spirit take control.

 

 

Let your soul shine,

It's better than sunshine,

It's better than moonshine,

Damn sure better than rain.

Lord now people don't mind,

We all get this way sometimes,

Gotta let your soul shine, shine till the break of day.

 

Oh, it's better than sunshine,

It's better than moonshine,

Damn sure better than rain.

Yeah now people don't mind,

We all get this way sometimes,

Gotta let your soul shine, shine till the break of day.

[Elixir Sue]

Make me sanguine

Help me genuinely

Kill the doubt that strangles my self worth

Paint the picture that I swore I heard

 

Spiritless and mean

The ghost that comes between

I will keep my wits about myself

Disregard directions sent from hell

 

When it brings the gleam

Longer lasting than me

Oh my love but we are bound to die

My heart is broke but you won't hear me cry

Oh my love but we are bound to die

My heart is broke but you won't see me.