SILVER DAGGER
Don't sing love songs; you'll wake my mother
She's sleeping here, right by my side
And in her right hand, a silver dagger
She says that I can't be your bride.
All men are false, says my mother
They'll tell you wicked, lovin' lies
The very next evening, they'll court another
Leave you alone to pine and sigh.
My daddy is a handsome devil
He's got a chain five miles long
And on every link a heart does dangle
Of another maid he's loved and wronged.
Go court another tender maiden
And hope that she will be your wife
For I've been warned and I've decided
To sleep alone all of my life.
I Felt the Lightning, Anyway
Well I was trapped in nasty weather
stranded on the road
freezing rain falling down and me without my clothes
like a carnival came into town
I'd lost all sense of time
a wicked wind was at my back where the will'o'whisp was hiding
I'd run out of explanations
a mile or two before
a crisis hung high overhead reason went out the door
and I knew the gods had crumbled
but I still called my magic word
and I felt the lightning anymore even if they hadn't heard
Refrain:
Whoah
Off into the unknown
We stood there in the street
beneath a cracked ceiling sky
its panes were tumbling all around in red and purple dyes
but we stood there anyway
we stood steadfast and tall
we'd lived through the conquest goddamn we'd see the fall
and endless worlds with endless lives crumbled one by one
it had been night for far too long goddamn we'd see the dawn
and whatever would come after that we'd stand through it too
you see the end is not
Refrain
We stood there all together
still breathing somehow
stood in awe all around
of the brand new infant now
so many hundred millions died
gone to better things
but we had found a new world
and we heard the spheres sing
Refrain
Judy Collins Blues
I don't want no other woman
not in the whole wide world
you can send them all come spring or fall
I don't want no other girl
I just want Judy Collins so bad
I just want Judy Collins or else I swear I must go mad
Now lady you might make me happy
and you might make me smile
but all I'm saying is when Judy's playing
you disappear for a little while
and all I hear is Judy Collins and all I see is her blue eyes
all I hear is Judy Collins and I'm as high as a bird up in the sky
Now I know it's getting late
and I might be a bit stoned
but goddamn when she sings "Suzanne"
I thank God you're not at home
and it's just me and blue eyed Judy blue eyed Judy and me
it's just me and blue eyed Judy and I feel naked wild and free
Now you can take all of your records
your Joanie Mitchell's and John Prine's
all I can say is if you move away
let me keep most of mine
my Judy Collins records with their covers in full color
my Judy Collins records oh let me hear her purr
But if Miss Judy won't have me
I'll hold my breath till my face turns blue
but after if I'm alive though I'm dead inside
I'll come crawling back to you
but if Miss Judy takes me I'll be long gone
if Miss Judy takes me we'll be singing our little lovers song.
Stranger Music
It's odd out tonight
there ain't no one around
I'm in my broken coat
I dare not make a sound
and I'm tangled in the strangles off her hair
I hear Stranger Music playing over there
A dirty fog's around
and burned out children's toys
and I hear her cold cold breath
that raspy little noise
she's taken more than I can bare
I hear Stranger Music playing over there
Refrain
I hear stranger sounds in stranger dreams
It's all I want she screams and screams
And I know she's creeping round
dancing through the night
she can probably see me now
the dark don't effect her sight
I'm tied so tight I couldn't care
I hear Stranger Music playing over there
Can you hear the sound of drums
carried on the breeze
the humming summer night
the forest on its knees
I can hear her gliding through the air
I hear Stranger Music Playing over there
Refrain
Can You Hear Her?
I see a light far up ahead
in the distance it looks green
is that her standing under it
I can't see through the sheen
I'll be swallowed in the onyx of her stare
I hear Stranger Music playing over there
And what's in her little mind
that's driving me insane
did you just hear her voice
sounds just like falling rain
no one said this would be painless or fair
I hear Stranger Music playing over there
Refrain
Can You Hear Her?
All That's Left
I'm not in the mood for balladry or singing sad old songs
who gives a damn that I was right and you were goddamn wrong
everybody knows that we don't have very long
no we don't have very long
I can hear the muses all scream out through broken wheels of rhyme
the sermon's lost conviction and the signs all lost their minds
what if it's all just a massive waist of time
all a waist of time
Refrain
But deep inside don't it feel
that there's no way this whole charade is real
all that's left to lose is all our ways to feel
as I smoke another cigarette I feel a pulse inside
I'll be the rubbish husband to your cheap champagne bride
look at all the bodies here there ain't no place to hide
there ain't no place to hide
your shrieking siren ambulance is running through my head
I'd rather have an aria singing there instead
all of it would go away if you'd just come to bed
if you'd just come to bed
Refrain
have I drank enough to sleep tonight through screaming spheres of blue
to numb up all my dreams, those recurring dreams of you
since you're so put together just tell me what to do
just tell me what to do
Now if I could be a thousand things then I'd be everyone
I'd be the sun, the stars, the sea, I'd be the fucking sun
but I am just a boy, a boy who's just begun
Refrain
Drawings in the Dust
There are spiders on your lips
my hand is on your hips
and I'm swimming in your violet eyes
And the lights are all shot out
the rain is pouring down
I can hear the lonesome thunder as it cries
As it cries in the night
as it cries for the light
as it cries as it cries as it cries
You whisper ghost of words
like the whisper of a bird
I can feel your heart breath on my ear
And there's blood everywhere
and you don't seem to care
there ain't a scrap of mercy round here
No mercy round here
no mercy my dear
not round here not round here not round here
I took a flower from the air
and dyed it with nightmares
until it turned the crimson of the dusk
but I threw it on the ground
till you massacred your gown
saying romance is a side-note to rust
Just a side-note to rust
just a drawing in the dust
in the dust in the dust in the dust
I've no idea what you want
the curse that proves to haunt
my black bones every night until the morn
I can taste your crystal tears
the ringing of your spears
oh darling don't look so forlorn
don't look so forlorn
like a sleepy brewing storm
so forlorn so forlorn so forlorn
Violent Love
Well I wrote you a letter
and I signed it in blood
if I knew where you were hiding
well, I'd mail it with love
with a skull and crossbone stamp
in an anthrax envelope
well you know I love it when
your teeth go right for my throat
Oh violent love, oh violent love
oh who will survive
oh violent love violent love
in the bedroom of our lives
I got sixteen fucking stitches
the last time we made love
you were laughing like a fiend
in a matinee of blood
running your nails up and down
until they were all wet and red
so I grabbed the bedside lamp and
smashed it right on your head
Check the silverware, are the knives still there
I just heard something move upstairs
check the silverware, are the knives still there
in the end do I really care
I learned from mistakes
not to trust your dark eyed charms
I was ready with my knife
when you shot me in the arm
and we danced along the red
on the softly falling snow
and I laughed and spat in your face
how much more blood to go
oh violent love oh violent love
and both our kicks for gore
oh violent love violent love here's a fistful of some more
so how long must I wait
before your next attack
will you fuck me to my face
or stab me in the back
will you rain on me with fire
will you charge at me with steel
will I be ready to fight
or willing to kneel
oh violent love oh violent love
with the hacksaws and the knives
oh violent love violent love
in the bedroom of our lives
but you look so good in red.
Untitled #4
I took my hammer and smashed my clock now I'm free from time
set fire to all my muddled words and now I'm free from rhyme
threw all my food out to the birds and I've just escaped hunger
every day I'm more of a child, every day I'm getting younger
Refrain:
and the bells in her hair ring out everywhere
and echo through all things
and I'm high on the sky and the twirl in her eyes
as the lonely sparrow sings
Well I can't feel time I can't taste space hear the beating of the earth
I hear her voice above around it's filled with winding mirth
and I've loosed the goblins of my mind, loosed the dancing irons
I've dispatched them to corners and to gates, keep your eyes on the horizon
Refrain
I see lights from heaven in spiral columns tumbling to the ground
feel like I've got sixteen senses in an ocean made of sound
and I can hear her breath, hear her breath, hear her whispered call
I can hear her breath, hear her breath, hear them one and all
Refrain
The Flood
Now rain rain rain on my little window pain
that don't bother me at all
now cry cry cry till your eyes run dry
every tear was made to fall
well it's hiding behind the horizon line
hoping no one knows how to swim
better take my advice don't make me say it twice
oh the flood is coming in
now the sky sky sky is gonna loosen its sighs
cast its burden down on the land
and the storm storm storm is gonna drown all the worms
soak the grasslands and the sands
well God's elephants are coming
you can hear their masses drumming
they'll crush everything as they pass
better take my advice, don't make me say it twice
ah the flood is moving fast
all my sins sins sins are carried deep within
they'll sink me down in the murk
they better burn burn burn before the seasons turn
and the water takes over the earth
well there's water round my feet
maybe I'll start to sink
maybe I'll stick right here in the mud
can't you hear the shuddered screams of a thousand dying dreams
ah the flood loves the taste of blood
now the quiet quiet quiet fills my ears like a riot
the rushing water is the only sound
if you can't float float float you might as well slit your throat
only the dead are sinking down
but the air's so nice and fresh
when you float above the rest
even though you know you're bound to starve
there's no truth in the night or a single human light
oh the flood is raging hard.
Champagne and Cigarettes
Well it's champagne and cigarettes and all the things you are
and it's yelling fits and don't forgets while your eyes are on the stars
can't hear that midnight bell
ringing from here right on down to hell
I've been losing sleep I've tried to keep a secret from everyone
and my trembling heart starts my body feeling swallowed in the sun
is it me or has the world gone wrong
every beat seems a beat too long
let's have another smoke
pour another glass
this drink my friends
may be our last
I've had visions I've heard voices from the stars up in the sky
my mistakes and my choices carry me 'till the day I day
I can't believe anything I've seen
Is it all some fever dream
now there's a knocking from the attic door where the little children sleep
I hear a sound like voices under waters still and deep
did you hear those sunken whispers
did you hear whose lips they were
let's have another smoke
pour another glass
this drink my friends
may be our last
Because for all we know
it's all one big fucking joke
let's have another round
let's light up one more smoke.
Shadow of Your Name
There wasn't a lot of soul then
it was mainly flesh and blood
I wasn't in control then
I'd only known careless love
I hear a raven by my window
singing memories in the rain
and I woke up just wanting you
huddled in the shadow of your name
Yeah I lost a lot of sleep then
I lost a lot of weight
I almost forgot how to speak then
Hell I'd stay awake for days
and of course you were no help
when the nights would bend
you might as well have been cast in stone
on an altar in the shadow of your name
Those were the days when I found cigarettes
God bless you for that gift
those were the days when I found solitude
Hell I learned a trick or two from it
and your laughter rained like bullets
upon my window pane
and I reached out to touch your hair
then retreated to the shadow of your name
There was so much going wrong then
there was too much to control
you kept singing all those songs then
the ones that shot me full of holesto think of all those bygone times
in this garotted malkuthian domain
I crawled my way out inch by inch
from the prison of the shadow of your name
How long did I stay awake for you
waiting for something to hold on to
a lock of your hair a picture in a frame
you know it's awfully fucking cold in the shadow of your name.
How Come
I hear thunder rolling on
and my heart beats like a drum
over valleys, hills, and dales
while my mind just hurts like hell
are you listening
to all this whispering
well across the midnight sands
a moonlit lady stands
but maybe she's just a mirage
some kind of cruel facade
I don't remember now
it's lost in the clouds
someday we'll fly in the air on a silver plane
with the dragons all around us to ward off the rain
and my body is aching I know yours is too
how come everyone else is making love with you?
my sleeps all broken up
guess I'm running out of luck
but I'm sure you're doing fine
in whoever's arms you're lying
oh it's cold here
there's no one near
I hear broken cameras flashing
in the distance a lady's laughing
when I'm driving down the road
past your gate getting old
I walked through it once
I guess not well enough
Well the sky is on fire
angels all fall down
I've been losing my mind since you came around
now don't bullshit me, this time it won't do
how come everyone else is making love with you?
Stranded in E
Stumbling on my run
through the city sun
caught up in the day
the desert's on the way
the desert's full of glass
kind that cuts to last
and I'm bleeding in the bright sunlight
bleeding in the darkest night
my mind's all full of noise
the sounds of broken toys
the whispering sound of hair
the rustling gust of air
all spinning round
all up and down
and I'm deafend in the bright sunlight
deafend in the brightest night
Refrain
I'm losing all sense of all of this
losing all sense from a cut to a kiss
losing all sense of time and space
losing all feeling inside of the flame
Broken chords of breath
move from my mouth to my chest
the air round me is cold
so run down and old
suck down gulps of smoke
to numb the taste in my throat
and I'm drowning.....
all my recent dreams
made of crimson steam
spilling down the line
towards the deep divine
a boat upon the sea
is where I long to be
but I'm stranded....
Refrain
I want to laugh aloud
I want to scream and shout
but my voice is gone
even my breath sounds wrong
a locust's rain of hail
is tumbling down my trail
and I'm hiding....
falling through the dance
through violet romance
in the evening's sift
I've begun to drift
falling sheets of rain
calling out my name
and I'm laughing....
Refrain
Where Did They Go
There once was a girl and there once was a boy
they knew each other long ago
and they fell out of love and they got into drugs
oh where where did they go
well she went out west and he went down south
both running from the rain and the cold
they forgot for a while and the drugs made them smile
oh where where did they go
well she went off to school and so did she
and they both got bored with getting old
and theyre thoughts would spin as the nights grew dim
oh where where did they go
well they went for many months without speaking at all
she turned to smoke and he turned to snow
and they floated along singing theyre own little songs
oh where where did they go
well they went into the night and they both say alone
and in the darkness almost reached out and spoke
but they went back to their homes and they just got stoned
oh where where did they go
Well maybe perchance their paths will cross again
after all we all know they both hope
maybe they'll fall back in love when we kill all the doves
oh where, where did they go.
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