Ellis, Paul Filmography

• El bosque del lobo (1970)
• Los flamencos (1968)
• Flor salvaje (1968)
• Oscuros sueños de agosto (1967)
• La busca (1966)
• La Barrera (1966)
• Don Quijote von der Mancha (1965)
• Crimen de doble filo (1965)
• I tre del Colorado (1965)
• La tía Tula (1964)
• El despertador (1964)
• El secreto de Tomy (1963)
• Objetivo: las estrellas (1963)
• Pachín (1961)
• El pequeño coronel (1960)
• El sol sale todos los días (1958)
• El pequeño ruiseñor (1957)
• La Tierra del Fuego se apaga (1955)
• La telaraña (1954)
• El pescador de coplas (1954)
• Rebelión en los llanos (1953)
• Derecho viejo (1951)
• Sacachispas (1950)
• El seductor (1950)
• La senda oscura (1947)
• El precio de una vida (1947)
• Six Lessons from Madame La Zonga (1941)
• They Met in Argentina (1941)
• Too Many Blondes (1941)
• Whistling in the Dark (1941)
• Blood and Sand (1941)
• Blondie Goes Latin (1941)
• Desperate Cargo (1941)
• Arizona Gang Busters (1940)
• Down Argentine Way (1940)
• Di que me quieres (1939)
• El rancho del pinar (1939)
• Nick Carter, Master Detective (1939)
• Ninotchka (1939)
• Papa Soltero (1939)
• Rose of Washington Square (1939)
• Second Fiddle (1939)
• El trovador de la radio (1938)
• The Buccaneer (1938)
• Mis dos amores (1938)
• California Frontier (1938)
• Love Under Fire (1937)
• No matarás (1937)
• Heroes of the Alamo (1937)
• The House of a Thousand Candles (1936)
• Fatal Lady (1936)
• Marihuana (1936)
• Wife vs. Secretary (1936)
• La última cita (1936)
• Murder at Glen Athol (1936)
• Reckless (1935)
• Rumba (1935)
• Twenty Dollars a Week (1935)
• Captured in Chinatown (1935)
• Fighting Caballero (1935)
• Timberesque (1935)
• Never Too Late (1935)
• La veuve joyeuse (1935)
• Women Must Dress (1935)
• Public Opinion (1935)
• Tailspin Tommy in The Great Air Mystery (1935)
• Rip Roaring Riley (1935)
• The Woman Condemned (1934)
• One Night of Love (1934)
• The Merry Widow (1934)
• Tres Amores (1934)
• La buenaventura (1934)
• Laughing at Life (1933)
• Dos noches (1933)
• Secret Sinners (1933)
• Under Secret Orders (1933)
• No Man of Her Own (1932)
• Contrabando (1932)
• Soñadores de gloria (1932)
• Hombres de mi vida (1932)
• Su última noche (1931)
• Monerías (1931)
• El pasado acusa (1931)
• La señorita de Chicago (1931)
• The Common Law (1931)
• Alma de Gaucho (1930)
• Alma de Gaucho (1930)
• La voluntad del muerto (1930)
• Charros, gauchos y manolas (1930)
• The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1929)
• The Younger Generation (1929)
• In Old California (1929)
• Sombras habaneras (1929)
• In Old Madrid (1929)
• Una nueva y gloriosa nación (1928)
• Three Hours (1927)
• Bitter Apples (1927)
• The Dancer of Paris (1926)
• Pretty Ladies (1925)
• The Pace That Thrills (1925)
• The Bandolero (1924)

Paul, Ellis Filmography

• A Modern Mother Goose (1917)
• Do Children Count? (1917)
• The Kingdom of Hope (1917)
• The Saint's Adventure (1917)
• The Season of Childhood (1917)
• Joyce's Strategy (1916)

Ellis, Paul Filmography

• Cleo Bachelor of the Year 2000 (2000)
• Happy Birthday 2 You (2000)
• The Chosen (1998)
• Nobody Rides Forever (1996)
• Shortland Street (1992)

• Conversation with a Ghost - Ellis Paul
• Changing Your Name - Ellis Paul
• New Light on Your Halo - Ellis Paul
• Just the Jester Fool - Ellis Paul
• Translucent Soul - Ellis Paul
• She Loves A Girl - Ellis Paul
• Seven - Ellis Paul
• Live In The Now - Ellis Paul
• I'm The One To Save - Ellis Paul
• I Won't Cry Over You - Ellis Paul
• Did I Ever Know You - Ellis Paul
• Bring Me Backwards - Ellis Paul
• Who Killed John Lennon - Ellis Paul
• River - Ellis Paul
• Looking for my Friends - Ellis Paul
• Last Call - Ellis Paul
• Last at the Table - Ellis Paul
• King of 7th Avenue - Ellis Paul
• Jumpin' a Train - Ellis Paul
• Don't Breathe - Ellis Paul
• Washington DC 5\91 - Ellis Paul
• Thin Man - Ellis Paul
• Say Something - Ellis Paul
• Friday Night - Ellis Paul
• Blizzard - Ellis Paul
• Angel - Ellis Paul
• When We Begin - Ellis Paul
• Tornado GiRL! - Ellis Paul
• The World Ain't Slowin' Down - Ellis Paul
• Take Me Down - Ellis Paul
• Seize The Day - Ellis Paul
• Mrs Jones - Ellis Paul
• Martyr's Lounge - Ellis Paul
• Maria's Beautiful Mess - Ellis Paul
• Love's Too Familiar a Word - Ellis Paul
• Look at the Wind Blow - Ellis Paul
• Here She Is - Ellis Paul
• Autobiography of a Pistol - Ellis Paul
• Angel In Manhattan - Ellis Paul
• All Things being the Same - Ellis Paul
• 3,000 Miles - Ellis Paul
• Weightless - Ellis Paul
• Trolley Car - Ellis Paul
• The Ball is Coming Down - Ellis Paul
• Self Portrait - Ellis Paul
• Paris in a Day - Ellis Paul
• Never Lived at All - Ellis Paul
• Midnight Strikes Too Soon - Ellis Paul
• Lay Your Wager Down - Ellis Paul
• Deliver Me - Ellis Paul
• Change - Ellis Paul
• All My Heroes Were Junkies - Ellis Paul
• Words - Ellis Paul
• Washington D.c. 5-91 - Ellis Paul
• The Speed Of Trees - Ellis Paul
• The Ballad Of Chris Mccandless - Ellis Paul
• The Art Of Distance - Ellis Paul
• If You Break Down - Ellis Paul
• Home - Ellis Paul
• Give In Give Up - Ellis Paul
• Dragonfly - Ellis Paul
• Did Galileo Pray? - Ellis Paul
• Blacktop Train - Ellis Paul
• Annalee - Ellis Paul

I'll respond to you in letters
Sorry so slow, sorry so few
In a nutshell, I'm much better
So far the complaints I hear are few
So how have you been? Have you been to the races? Did you take my mother --
Is your sister in braces? I wish I could've been there to see you through
Hey, are all those things you told me once still true?
Do you remember that time
It was cold in the park
You were running a race, I was there on a lark
Who would've thought that New York could be such a small town
Margaret is tired,
let's let her get some sleep
Bored with these letters,
let her count her sheep
So goodbye love, goodbye love...

I judged the distance
To where you ran your hand through your hair
You were startled for an instant , you said,
";Take me home,"; and I paid the fare.
And you laughed the laugh of the innocent
As the cab cut a path in the street
As the world swept by with it¡¯s violence
I thought of the shelter we'd find in the sheets¡­
In the sheets
Chorus
I never asked you for nothing like changing your name
I believed we had something here, but nothing ever came
Were you thrown by the language, by words that we said
When I told you I loved you
Did it get in the way? Get in the way?
You lit a candle,
Then you poured me a glass of port wine
I pulled the oven handle,
The air felt warm, the scent felt kind
And your kiss could heal like medicine
There ain't nothing that it can¡¯t overcome
But I could not lean on this evidence,
For fear you'd take the cure and run.
You would run...
Chorus
Cause Love won¡¯t stop to
Think about the consequences
Turns a fool to stumbling
Over people¡¯s fences.
And the moon cut a frown over windy town
But you smiled as you pulled down the shade
And we turned a corner onto holy ground
And got lost in the love we made, that we made...
Chorus
Get in the way...

And it ain't shining, it ain't shining, shine, shine, shine...
There's cracks in the walls in the town of Jericho, Sirens blaring out a lifetime never told Rembrandt at the wall his palate's small, his hopes are tall He writes his name, his claim to fame
On red bricks bright white
Hey pretty thing, voices out a window sing A Puerto Rican Peggy Sue of seventeen in yellow shoes
All are out tonight You might say they're looking for some action A dog strays, music plays, kids stay in the streets all day
They see the man in the black coat as a form of satisfaction

(spoken intro)
I get this message on the message machine That she's cooking dinner
tonight So I go out and pick up a bottle of wine And when I get there I'm a little nervous
and I run out of things to say
So I say, ";I, uh, like your wooden floor boards";
She is laying in flannel sheets
The brass bed speaks
Come on lie in me
And there I'm standing naked and meek, stalling She says lovingly...
(chorus)
If I were the queen, and you were just the jester fool I would love you as my king
Just because I do, I do, I do love you
(spoken bridge)
At six am the alarm clock goes off And I realize I'm not used to looking at this particular ceiling She taps me on the shoulder with an empty shoe and says, ";Hey, Cinderella, does this belong to you?";
Morning out on a naked street
Old lady on the corner is staring at me
I guess she ain't ever seen barefoot feet Or heard the words that she sung to me

I get a call from Vance he's an old friend
He's got some you-won't-believe-story to share
He's the place that I go when I need someone who knows me
He brings the smile of a billionaire
And I laugh when he pretends he's a white guy
'Cause he knows how bad I fail playing black
He says, ";If even you could, I don't advise that you should
'Cause once you go there you might not want to turn back";
(chorus)
There isn't a thing
in this God-all-mighty world that I wouldn't do
to help him outta trouble
Seein' as how we're friends and
that goes deeper than skin can go
to a translucent soul
Deeper than color will show
translucent soul
He says, ";Now, you and I, I know we look a little different,
but, I was raised middle class, same as you.
But, let's make it clear even on the way here,
I had to watch for blue lights in the rear view ";
He says, ";Last week, I was visiting L.A.,
walking the streets where the riots went down.
You got black killing black killing black killing black,
while all the whites were sweating bullets across town";
(chorus)
He says, ";In L.A., they're whispering race war,
like it's something that has yet to begin
like they can plug up the cracks
in four hundred years of history
and prove that the melting pot's not broken";
He says, ";In the event of some unlikely disaster,
we find ourselves armed, and face to face ";
I said, ";I'd turn around, I would protect your ground";
He said, ";I'd do the same thing for you at your place";
(chorus)
There isn't a thing
in this God-all-mighty world that he wouldn't do
to help me outta trouble . . .
Embrace what you have in common,
celebrate what sets you apart
It takes more than the color
that you find on a palate
to turn humanity into an art
into the form of an art
translucent soul
translucent soul
soul

You grew up thinking you knew her
Nothing could keep you apart
You remember nothing peculiar
She always spoke from the heart
You took your parents' religion
And you drank it down like a coke
It helped to quench your confusion
Now look who's heart that it broke
(chorus)
She loves a girl
She loves a girl
She loves a girl
What are you gonna do --
If you love her too?
A gold and white invitation
Your parents will not attend
They put a knife to the blood line
When the couple became more than friends
The preacher sang ";Hallelujah";
But it rang more like a curse
One love at the cost of another
Man, that's when love really hurts
(chorus)
So take a seat
In the world of the open minded
And when you speak, tell them
Even love can be blinded
You think more of the future
When change brings your past to an end
Use your love like a suture
That's a good place to begin
(chorus)

Seven times I traced your number
Just one finger to your voice
Seven times I put the receiver down
Seven times I tried to write you
But I cannot make your choice
Your lips they move,
But they make no sound
And what the cost
What the price
I'm the brunt of friends' advice
Don't look up till you feel the ground . . .
I'm letting go 'cause holdin' on is killing me
My timing can be criminally slow
Too little too late
Criminally slow
Seven times I asked forgiveness
Seven times I'll wait you out
Seasons will change before words come round
And in my search for reasons
I will wash away the doubt
That came wrapped inside a wedding gown
And what the price
What the cost
Is this the poetry of loss
The past we build is all torn down?
I'm letting go 'cause holdin' on is killing me
My timing can be criminally slow
Is it never too late?
Criminally slow

I've got a farm house,
It's a big white farmhouse
And forty acres in my head
You got a kitchen,
It's an oak floor kitchen
And a big brass feather bed
And there in the parlor,
An old upright piano
And a precocious blue-eyed kid
Playing the keys
Playing the keys
Live in the now
A room with a view of Cambridge
Live in the now
Traffic, noise, and neighborhood kids
We're sitting in the kitchen
You reach cross the table
And put a finger on my wrinkled brow
You say, ";Live in the now,
Live in the now";
'Cause life is what happens
When you're busy making plans
That's what John Lennon said
Then he quit the phuckin' band
Tell me which part
Is it the castle, or the sand
That you miss when the tide comes along?
I'm alone on a highway
Only silos break the view
A field of sunflowers
A scarecrow paying dues
And I think to myself
";Man, that's not what I'd choose ";
But here I am, and look where I've gone
All for the song
Till the tide comes along
Live in the now
An audience is waiting
Live in the now
Whose day are you creating?
I slip into to the hotel
I put the phone on a pillow
Your voice makes it better somehow
You say, ";Live in the now";
";Live in the now";

He's in an emotional prison
the self-inflicted kind
You're like a nun on a mission
to help that boy unwind
I said, ";Nobody's ever escaped Alcatraz
It's too cold in San Francisco Bay";
You just turned and watched the buildings pass by
and said, ";I wouldn't have him any other way";
I can't believe you didn't save me
when the angels came to watch me drown
And though the pirates behaved quite bravely
they took the treasure when I went down
(chorus>
Hey, Hey
I'm drowning
Hey, Hey
Wave by wave
Hey, Hey
Heart pounding
Hey, Hey
I'm the one to save
I am the one to save
The wind turned cold on the ferry
We were in the shadow of the Golden Gate
I said ";There's a movie at the Castro you might like";
You said, ";I think it's getting kind of late";
Now six months later you'll come and tell me over coffee
that you've turned to someone else's hand
So you're onto another is it the martyr or the mother
that's attracted to a straight jacket man
I couldn't believe you didn't save me
when the angels came to watch me drown
And though the pirates behaved quite bravely
they stole the treasure when I went down
(chorus)
And if I told you
What would it change
What would it change
What would it change

Maggie looks out her window,
Sees a cab in the street
Lets out a point-blank whistle,
It stops with a screech
She picks up the last box,
That sits in the corner
She turns around to take
A mental photograph
She says to herself,
";I think a toast is in order,";
And she holds up
An invisible wine glass
(chorus)
";Here's to the fool I was
Here's to the bride I could never be
I've gotta know what's truth and what's fiction
I gotta feel like my love's got conviction
So tell me truth
'Cause I got me suspicions
And I tell you if it's the last thing I do
I won't cry over you . . . ";
Maggie sits in the kitchen
of Miss Bethany Jones
Whose pouring the coffee
and gathering stones
";You gave him ultimatums
They did not even scare him
He'd walk a plank
before he'd step down the aisle
Take care of yourself, girl
He's the one who's gotta change him
Let him ponder bachelorhood for a long while";
(chorus)
'Cause I'm done with that
I'm done with crying
Seems like it's the only thing
that I've been trying
They're taking it down
to the heart of the matter
Talking the big picture
like it's a little tiny thing
Smaller than a bread box
Thinner than a whisker
They split like an atom
then the telephone rings
He says,
(chorus)
";I just had to call you
I feel like I've been spinning my wheels
I just had to tell you how I feel
I'm not asking you to
If only you'd listen
Don't cry ";

So you found yourself a corner apartment
With a view of the town all your own
All your friends say
The city's gonna kill you or cure you
Five flights of stairs to your home
And even now,
It's changed how you walk in the street
Past cabbies and chimney sweeps
Be careful with strangers you speak to
(chorus)
What has this city done to you?
Has it taken the small town out of you
and turned you into someone I never knew?
When we were kids
In the warmth of a porch light
You'd smuggle out twin cigarettes
We'd blow smoke in the air
With typical hometown flair
Two futures we could not predict
And look at you now,
The dreamer with the back porch plan
For the writer and the music man
Our faces on magazine stands
(chorus)
What has this city done to you?
Has it taken the innocence out of you
and turned you into someone I never knew?
Did I ever know you?
Do you know how you light up these buildings?
You can turn the head of a man whose grown old
You're a candle when the streets grow cold
I can hear a cricket in your fifth floor apartment
It's 3 AM
Back home he'd put me to sleep
But he's fighting to be heard
He can't get in a word
'Cause there's a fool
Laughing outside in the street
Where are you now?
I lost you outside on Montague Street
To the city that never will sleep
Is it the sideshow in you
That it speaks to?
(chorus)
Hey did I ever know you?
Did I ever know you?

Street corner, cityside lane
People cross borders
When green lights change
And isn't that strange
A face on someone
I almost said your name
Can you blame me?
But I was foiled again
(chorus)
Bring me backwards
I can't fool time
I'm walking in circles
I've committed no crime
Bring on the witness
The truth is divine
You stand there bleeding
But the blood is mine
And you'd say,
";Pain is just a relative thing";
I'd say, ";Thank you, Mr. Einstein";
You go on about space,
This place in time
But that's no way to explain it
Believe me,
When you're mining it
'Cause it's all feel
Not thought
But there I'm caught
Trying to untangle it
(chorus)

Do not mention his name.
The man kills John Lennon, now he's on TV again.
He's blaming Holden Caulfield in the face of the lens.
And each time he does it, he kills him again.
Who killed John Lennon?
A loser with a pistol, a martyr's best friend.
And each time he's televised, he kills him again.
It's the prize that he wanted when he loaded the gun.
And each time he's mentioned, murder is done.
So, who killed John Lennon?
A no one.
He's on TV again.
He's playing the hero.
The networks won't let the story end.
He brings in the ratings for them.
He's playing the hero.
But he's a killer.
He's been convicted.
He's been convicted...
His lawyer must think it's a game.
Though he knows Lennon's songs, both in word and by name.
He cold calls the networks, retrieves all the funds.
Then he scrapes his percentage when the programs are run.
Who killed John Lennon?
A lawyer, an agent.
Big money's best friend.
And each time he's televised, they kill him again.
It's the prize that they wanted when he emptied the gun.
And each time he's mentioned, murder is done.
So who killed John Lennon?
A no one.
A no one.

While Hollywood sleeps,
A young man is dying
On the concrete of a sidewalk downtown.
As his brother weeps,
The sirens come calling
And the medics feed him lines on the ground.
Run, river, run...
The director speaks,
The cameras are rolling.
A boy steps between the backdrop and the lights.
And he's stealing the scene,
With the crew as his witness.
The whole industry will judge him come academy night
Now the tabloids will say what they want to,
And the cameras will re-enact his fall.
His legacy speaks, but no one can hear it,
'Cause his death has made critics of us all.
His legacy speaks
In the canister rooms,
In the archives of great studio halls.
And there it will keep like a secret that's whispered between lovers
And those who never knew him at all.

This time let's not bring up my disasters,
Or put me on some couch like Sigmund Freud.
Your textbooks filled with hypothetical answers.
So summarize, she called it null and void.
What do you want me to tell you?
What do you want me to say?
I've been cut by the rose again.
All the petals have fallen to pieces.
Now I'm left with the thorn and the stem.
I'm out looking for my friends, looking for my friends.
She left the note in the sleeve of my coat, that was not nice --
I called her on the phone, the voice that spoke, it was cold, it was hard as ice.
I tried to speak,
the connection was weak
'cause I was talking to a machine.
She said, ";If this is you, we're totally through,";
and that's the last of her I've seen.
What do you want me to tell you?
I got the message loud and clear --
Now I can't talk, 'cause talk is cheap.
I'm in a no-win situation.
There are no words that I could speak that would mend this broken rose.
So here I am, on the couch of a friend who submits his observations,
He says love just comes and goes...

You said, ";Don't wait up, don't count the minutes.";
So here I am watching paint fade from the walls.
On the TV, planes are dancing to the national anthem,
So the whole world knows it's long past last call.
I sat through Tarzan swinging through the jungle,
And Godzilla crushing buildings and all.
The light from this TV can make it all look so easy.
It makes this room feel incredibly small.
Last call, last call.
Now I've heard it all.
The excuses get weaker as the stories get tall.
You step off with the wrong foot, the drunk fool at the ball.
Well, I'm not up for dancing.
I'm up past last call.
Clock keeps on talkin'.
It says, ";Fool go to bed --
Why waste the words, they've already been said.";
But I can't shut my eyes with this face in my head,
So tonight I plan on clearing my mind.
I could lay my head in the arms of the sofa,
And wait for headlights to roll across these walls.
But when your key finds the door, your feet find the floor,
They'll be greeted by empty rooms and empty halls.

Preacher won't you preach to me,
I need a pint of philosophy.
I'm hurt and thirsty, set me on my way.
Mondays come and Mondays go,
But this one seems to be sort of slow.
Can you tell me sir, when will there come a change?
I'm the one who's last at the table,
I'm the one who never gets the gold.
You're the one who says I'm able,
But you turn your words with lies and fables...
Mothers won't you cry for me,
I'll sell your tears for a token fee
On a street corner where drunk patrons stand laughing.
And they'll stop, they'll stare at me,
Scratch at their heads, ";How can this be?";
I'll say, ";I was born like you, --
"; then I'll startin dancin'...
Hello, Mr. Bureaucrat.
You pick who's thin -- you pick who's fat.
Now what makes you so fit for the shoes you walk in?
In an office space you get a taste
For paper money and paper waste.
Now who gets what depends on who is talking...

King of 7th Avenue I can count all the lights in the city from the ledge on the twenty- seventh floor.
There must be ten thousand window or more.
It's a hobby I can count on, helps me forget about the cold.
And I get to meet the neighbors for as long as the ledge will hold.
In the window across from me, a man is committing a robbery.
It's another form of the New York City lottery.
His ears must be burning, he drops the bag and he stares.
I'm the man out on the building.
Yes, there's no net down there...
And there's a woman below that I see.
Her silhouette is quite beautiful.
It plays tricks on my memory.
Puts a face on the shadows in front of me.
A crowd below is forming, beneath this
window ledge, my throne.
I am the King of Seventh Avenue,
New York City is my home.
I think the sirens have come for me,
Their searchlights reach up to the balcony.
They bathe me in light, blind me so I can't see.
I hear the crowd all ask for jumping,
While the cops all ask for calm.
Even the pigeons think I'm something,
The whole city is in my palms.
My daughter Lisa says to me,
";Dad the world is yours, and it's beautiful.
Don't throw it all away on memories.
You've got to meet new people...";
Yeah, that will be good for me.
Good for me.
Good for me.
So I watch the lovers behind their shades.
I've seen them embrace after their furious fights.
I've watched them mend their fences, make their love all night.
Only to tear them down again,
Change the limits, change the boundaries.
The same beginning, the same end.
Yet the story still astounds me.
The whole world now is watching.
From this window ledge my throne,
I'm the King of Seventh Avenue
And tonight I'm not alone. I'm not alone.

The time, 11:33 on a Saturday, November, 1923
I'm synchronized, it's wise to keep my wits about me
My name is Roy, a one-time choir boy
Now I'm sixteen, man, and I'm nobody's toy
I'm gonna take to the wind and get this town behind me
(chorus)
I'm jumpin' a train leavin' town
Howling whistle sounds
And I'm not looking back -- gonna tie my fate to a train track
Got a whiskey bottle tied in a corn sack
Hold on world, I'm coming, I'm hitching a ride on a north-bound train
Am I alive? Won't somebody tell me
The Mississippi waves, what's it trying to sell me?
Mud in the banks, but no one gets thanks
when it's tracked in through the doorway
I am home grown, sewn into these britches
But I'm not spending my life digging up ditches
Like my Daddy did, and his Daddy did, and his Daddy before

Picture my face at your kitchen table,
We're both fifteen years old.
Your parents are sleeping upstairs in their bedroom,
The house is quiet, but cold.
Did I tell you then?
These are moments whole lifetimes are built on.
You're my best friend,
and if it's tonight will these walls hold our secret?
Don't breathe out loud --
it's like breaking glass,
And the walls must hold the moments fast...
Picture my face in the space of your garage.
We're still fifteen years old.
Naked in blankets,
the angels would thank us
If they knew how the future was told.
Did I tell you then?
These are moments whole lifetimes are built on.
You're my best friend --
and now we're skin to skin
only sweat runs between us.
Don't breathe out loud...
Don't breathe out loud...
Don't breathe...
Hold these pieces, pictures in tatters.
Fade the colors, still a fortune to hold.
Picture my face in frame in a picture
Of when we were fifteen years old.
Fumbling for answers,
two out of step dancers
Content in darkness to hold.
Did I tell you then?
These are moments my whole life is built on.
You're my best friend.
Did I tell you then?
Did I tell you then?
Did I tell you?

Politician and a stewardess
Underneath the monuments and the moon
He talked of national security
She talked of Paris in June
(chorus)
The lucky ones if they're out tonight
Can see cherry blossoms blooming
Or ride white carriages beneath city lights But Lincoln's eyes of stone stare cool
As if bored of the reflecting pool
Or hardened by what's hidden from his sight They're rioting in the capitol tonight...
Now the Joneses from Poughkeepsie
Rest mall-weary legs in the hotel pool
They're soaking up reflections
The kids are glad they're out of school
The museums were overcrowded
White House lines were much too long
But the sights, they were quite beautiful It's good to know where the tax money's gone...
New Light on your Halo
Welcome to the city where we're rich on pride and pity Where a schoolboy, just a fool
boy, gets shot down in daylight A state of shock, a face down on the sidewalk Who's
seeing God and gets the nod to Heaven like a hawk Who keeps the score when the city goes to war -- By guns, by deaths, by money?
A man in a black coat standing in the gun-smoke Sips on white milk and honey...
(chorus)
This can be the playground of the feeble Where the mindless mix the soil of play with evil A child becomes the means because innocence is believable To all, to all, to all, but their mother's eyes New light on your halo
And it ain't shining brightly

I've been avoiding the circus
Afraid the trapeze might fall down
You say the fall will not hurt us
'cause the net stands apart from the ground...
(chorus)
So there you go for the rings
Legs entwined and circling
Height of the backside swing
Arms reaching beckoning me
But I am the thin man
All skin and bones
Am I qualified for the job?
Or better off alone
Sleeping in a bed of leaves
Scarecrow where all the birds are thieves...
Meanwhile, back at the circus
You seeing as the pendulum flies
Watched by ten thousand eyes

Carrie's a cold one, colder than the winter sun
I should warn you, you better dress for it
And I'm not the only one that thinks so
Beauty is skin deep, and yes, she is thick-skinned
But what's that for virtue?
(chorus)
You want her to say some, say something, say anything,
Or say nothing at all...
Say some, say something, say anything,
Or say nothing at all...
She's browsing for postcards, staring back at the covergirls on the magazines
Even the clerk is checking her out
She's unaware that she owns the scene
Though everyone goes out of their way for her
And all her life reads like some fairy tale
But her world is so frail
What did I tell you, she never looks out her window to see the setting sun
You tell her the skies are blue, she'll say the storms will come
Because every day is rain, every day is rain...

The moon must know it's Friday, he's been drinking all night
Crooning and swooning,
he says come dance in the half-light
So you whirl out a step, choreographed by wine
And you dance with the moon, the stars, and the stop sign
(chorus)
In my mind, I see a lifetime of tonights
But I'll keep that thought sealed tight
Live for the moment that is tonight
There's no rain in the gutters, the moon's fully bright
Let it shine all it's power,
I may not get another Friday night...
You whirl and a child-like wisdom glows on your face
The moon you have embraced You left him spell-bound, staggered, in his starry, starry place
Round, round, round, he's spinning round you, round you
Dancing, twirling, in a wild lunar chase
Though the moon's all but eclipsed tonight
By curtains and candlelight He's tapping at me through the window pane
In his top hat and cane...

Weather advisory, one for the diaries
Windy and cold so stay off the road
It's bitter outside your windows
Stack your blankets, light your candles
There isn't a phone booth, and ain't it the cold truth
It's a lonely old highway, just me and the plows
Making the most of their payday
Laying salt in the wounds of the roadways
(chorus)
For your bed I'll beat the cold,
With a blizzard in my headlights, or an avalanche in the road
Snow blinds every road sign,
So I'm counting the miles as I'm going
There's a shroud of black ice forming
The radio sends out ample warning...
Up on the next hill, a trailer truck load spilled It spun in a jacknife, and now it's a still life
Framed by the flares and the cruisers, Orange coats and one sore loser...
(chorus)
In hindsight, it's been a long night
And where I was was not so cold
Another sound bite off the dash lights
It's more than a foot or so they're told
Two hundred miles to Chicago, my eyes froze to the road
Mesmerized as the windshield collides with the snow...
Weather advisory, one for the diaries
Windy and cold so stay off the road

Needle in my hand
Got a forearm rubber band
Got a golden liquid in a tube
I'm gonna do a vessel jam
Got lots of money
Got lots and lots and lots of time
I think, I think I might be
I think, I think I am
I think, I think I might be
I think, I think I am
(chorus)
It's like liquid sunshine, fire and rain Marmalade skies, far away eyes
Glazed in a haze of cocaine
Angel's on the corner, he's got ten vials in his hands He sells each one for ten dollars,
like some medicine man Seems to know a lot for a kid just sixteen years old He's a four year veteran of the penal code
He's got trademark shoes, three tattoos
A brass chord necklace and a smoke-stack too He's got...
(chorus)
There's a black wind spinning the cities weathervanes And the eye of the storm is a crystal of cocaine
Can't you hear the wind?
Can't you see the driving rain
Take a break from the storm in the eye of the hurricane...
(chorus)
Eyes in the mirror, not too sure if they're my own
Black-white eyes in the mirror on a face of cold stone
Black-white eyes, riddles and lies
They tell me, tell me, tell me you've got nothing to hide but...

The black strapless dress fits just right
The calendar¡¯s marked 6 Friday night
She puts on a little makeup
First time since the break up
But if she's moving on, she's gonna do it right
Chorus
So tell me the story
of all your past glories
the lovers, the losers, the friends.
Spill all your magic,
the good times, and the tragic
Tonight will this mystery end?
When we begin, when we begin.
His cab driver says, ";Here we are.";
It's pouring outside on the boulevard
But he smiles as he tips him,
though a nervousness grips him
He looks up at the place and pulls the door ajar
Chorus
She takes one last glance in the mirror
He shakes himself off on the stairs
He's fixing up the flowers
She's looking up at the hour
They both make a wish for one goodnight kiss
He's knocking at the door...
Chorus

Sandy has seen a tornado more times than she's seen the Grateful Dead...
She lives in Oklahoma,
where the storms come prairie fed,
And the numbers keep on mounting,
It's been twenty times and counting
that she's been in the path of
splintered trees and twisted lead
That connect the dots between trailer parks
with destruction that's painted blood red
And now she wants to chase them,
with ME, in my Honda Civic,
";We'll keep a SAFE distance.";
I say, ";Give me an instance
where 'safety' is MILEAGE SPECIFIC...";
Okemah is where the last one touched down,
(that's Woody Guthrie's old home town) and,
(as if it would turn me around)
she starts singing ";THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND";
I say, ";OK, You win.....Terrific.";
Now, I've never been to see something
that I wished wasn't even there,
Though I've heard that said of dentists,
and with in'laws, and from victims of the electric chair
But there I was, heading east on 44,
getting pelted by hailstones the size of BARN DOORS
so, of course, NONE of them were missing..
It was as if GOD was keeping score,
and THE HEAVENS were thundering their approval...
Thats when I suggested our hasty removal
Just a mile down the road, this rain of hailstones ceased
and a vaacuum of silence brought a turbulent peace....
The clouds started dAnCiNg, dressed up in taffeta green
and enveloped the sky in a jungle party theme--
There they gave birth to a barbed-wire wind
Sandy was frozen, her face had a maniacal grin,
A funnel cloud came roaring, cast down from the sky
like the knife of the Devil but twenty stories high!
Sandy broke from the car in a mad, desperation run
to touch her sole fixation, this wheel where death was spun,
and I could do but nothing, my heart came so undone
for the host of twenty tornadoes,
who died with twenty-one...

I found you sitting on a suitcase crying
Beneath my feet I feel the rumble of a subway train
And I laugh out loud
ëCause it's the one thing I hadn't been trying
The train came in breathless
The passenger's restless
You say, ";Baby, you'll never change";
(chorus)
You gotta get gone
You gotta get going
Hey, the world ain't slowin' down
For no one
It's a carnival calling out to you
And it sounds like a song
It hits you like scripture
You paint the picture
With colors squeezed from your hand
Weren't you the kid
Who just climbed on a merry-go-round
Hey, look, the world ain't slowin' down
Out on the sidewalk
The pigeons do the moonwalk
I'll be dancing like Fred Astaire
The lampposts are rockin'
The whole town is talking
Like a fool in a barber's chair
And I get the sensation
It's joy and frustration
Like getting caught by a drop of cold rain
Freedom can numb you
When there's no place to run to
It feels just like Novocain
(chorus)
You packed up all your handbags
You're throwing off the sandbags
I let go when you stepped free
I didn't want to lose you
You said, ";You didn't choose to --
It's just how your karma came";
But thanks for the vision,
And the twenty-twenty wisdom
It hit me like a south-bound train
(chorus)

I'm a one man line at the twenty-four hour store
I'm in a town that reminds me of my home town streets
I roamed the aisles a thousand miles from what I was looking for
A familiar face that would smile at me sweetly
(If you)
Take me down
to where I'm whole
Where everybody knows me
deep as a soul can go
If you take me down
I gotta know
Did you really know me,
deeply,
as a soul can go?
We'd drive up the canyon to watch the stars fall down
Watch them turn off the lights on the church down on second street
There's Jack's old man, he's still the only cop in town
He's patrolling the sidewalk on the graveyard beat
And everybody needs a place to call home
A roof over head a bed for dreams of their own
I've never been so lonely as when I told you I was leaving
This time I'm really leaving

She comes to my bed like a whisper
Slips in the sheet like a ghost
Says to my ear ";Hey mister,
You need to take this girl to the coast
I need to kick my feet up in the ocean
Feel the taste of salt sea spray
Baby let's live in the moment
Cause it feels like life is taking the moment away
Let's Seize the day, Seize the day, Seize the day";
In the kitchen in the morning
She poured coffee in my favorite cup
She's been dancing on the linoleum-- bare foot
The squeaking nearly woke me up
She put Tom Jones on the stereo
- Now that I could do without
Ah, but who needs perfection?
I like the tension when there's room for doubt¡­
Seize the day, Seize the day, Seize the day
Seize the day, Seize the day, Seize the day
She brought some pens, a couple of notebooks
A postcard, a blanket, a bottle of Merlot
And the sky provided the sunset
Me - I brought the music of Nat King Cole.
";And I'd come back as a sea-gull,"; I said,
";If in the next life they'd give you the choice...";
";I'd come back with you--we could go flying,";
She said, "; You'd hear me raise my voice, to¡­
Seize the day, Seize the day, Seize the day
Seize the day, Seize the day, Seize the day";

Mrs. Jones wakes up, got a lover in her bed
She don't even know the boy's last name
And whatever excuse she makes up
For what happened in the sheets
Lord knows, some things have got to change.
Chorus
Cover Me
With rose petal kisses
Smother me
With wet perfume
Hover over me,
Like you're pulling at the ocean
Tugging at the sand
Oh, sweet Gravity's hands
Fill me like the light fills the moon.
Headlights in the driveway
Somebody's in a car, a door slams
Clip clop your man's come home
There's a tumble, there's a shakeup
A knife falls to the floor
God damn, that turns marrow to bone
Chorus
There's a man inside the parlor
His heartbeat paints the floor
A voice on his shoulder is whisperin' his name
In the heart of a desperate hour
Love knocks down all doors
Knowing too well it's too late to lay blame.
Chorus

Leo's is the bar up in heaven
Where all the martyrs hang out
Gandhi staggers in with John Lennon
They'll start a bar fight, no doubt
Chorus
When you lead, we follow
When you bleed, oh the masses feel your pain
Plant your seed, setting sunflowers
Growing inside our brains...
Now Jesus don't need no introduction
He's got a famous old man
And a party for twelve, I see Cobain, He's well
He's in the Angels that Fell,
A local touring bar band.
Chorus
JFK, Joan of Arc
Sit in the corner, kissing in the dark
Marilyn Monroe, Jacques Cousteau
Talk about the sharks they used to know...
Chorus

She fell to the mattress
with the grace of an actress
You¡¯re falling like a thief from a roof.
She¡¯s asking for proof , ";Are you staying?";
Outside you hear mission bells.
Welcome to Maria¡¯s beautiful mess,
In a cluttered apartment on the West Side.
She pulls the blinds while,
You watch how her dress falls round her .
Chorus
And the world slows, a clock shows
A wrinkle in the flow of time
And she steps close, her eyes glow,
Lips pop open like a bottle of wine
And she loves like it¡¯s thirst
Like she¡¯s never been hurt,
She dances just like nobody¡¯s watching.
Is this love? Is this cursed?
It feels like the first time falling
Nobody¡¯s watching, Nobody¡¯s watching,
Nobody¡¯s watching, watching
Now she puts on some music,
She asks you to choose it
You sang her back a Gershwin line.
Now Ella is singing holy, soulfully
Bringing up better times
And beneath the tunes,
She¡¯s smiling on an unmade bed
She says, ";What¡¯s in the middle that scares you,
Does it dare you
To take a moment and just slow down?";
Chorus
Pull the curtains all down
On the prince or a clown,
She¡¯s smiling like the Mona Lisa.
You could conquer this town.
If your feet touched the ground,
But you¡¯re falling boy
I know, I see you
I see you, I see, I see,
I see you

I stepped into the room late last night
because late is the time I keep
you were sleeping warm as coal
in a pocket of comfort and white sheets
but you don't startle anymore when I step into the room
though the hour is later than midnight
and neither window can place a moon.
";I missed you,"; you say
and it sounds like a promise
when whispered half asleep
your skin still damp with sweat
from thoughts your dreams refused to keep
I follow my memory to a switch on a light
";Shut your eyes"; my voice cut short
when darkness turns bright
";Do you love me?"; you say
but love is too familiar a word
for in this bed 10,000 times a phrase already heard
but, ";Yes, I love you"; speaks my reply
though I know I failed myself and you for not
matching how I feel with words of higher wealth
I know its lonely in the world tonight
because here is more than what's deserved
and the imbalance can't be summed in black and white
cause ";love's"; too familiar a word.

I'm only seventeen, but I want much more Than a small town girl should bargain for
More than standing in one place, waiting for the next James Dean I live in a town that's
gripped in the bible belt Man, I bared my back and I took the welts I only pray to get out of here
Maybe someday I'll find out if the world is green
(chorus) There is nothing to do in this town at night But sit in my car and watch the streetlights
Or stare out the window at the pizza joint What's the point? I wish I could buy my Ford a sail
Hey, hey, look at the wind blow
Now the life of the local beauty queen is tied to the captain of the baseball team
They got a baby on the way At least that's what the kids are saying And the wedding I'm told, well it must take place
To save both families from disgrace But the whole town knows You see, it ain't like she's not showing...
(chorus)
Tommy Bates sits in his car and he waits For his girl down at Lucky's Diner
They're at the end of the loop and he's drinking soup While she puts on more eyeliner
I passed them once, and I'll pass them twice, and I'll pass them back again They bought an old Range Rover from the next town over
And their headlights are my friends, yeah, those headlights are my friends...

If you could paint her, she'd be a Picasso.
She's got a few things out of place.
Like when she smiles, it's slightly out of line.
It's half awkward, yet half grace.
While you're unraveling this mystery
Of where she fits in time and space,
She'll drag you into this lover's tale,
Though she will not give a reason.
And if you fight her tooth and nail,
She won't give up until you lose...
She wants the last word, the last dance.
She thinks it's absurd that you believe in second chances.
You're a lost cause, yet here she is.
And that's the mystery. Here she is...
She's a poem by Ferlinghetti.
She's the angel from a nursery rhyme
She'll set you a place at your table,
Then fill your cup till you're drunk on red wine.
She don't believe in stars or in miracles,
But she reads your horoscope daily.
And if your response is too cynical,
She'll say, ";Who are you to know?";
While you're unraveling this mystery
Of where she fits in time and space,
She'll memorize your history
And decorate your place.

I'm a pistol, a forty-five,
I just shot two men in this hot-house dive.
Now I'm smoking - burning hot barrel of metal.
Believe it or not, I was bought by this guy named Ray,
a card carrying member of the NRA,
But he left me out in his car one day,
And now the finger on my trigger hasn't seen it's sixteenth birthday.
Some things they never tell you when you're riding the assembly line.
Like who'll be the hands to hold you and what's their state of mind - -
Hey, I'm not much bigger than a pointed index finger.
So who am I to lay the blame?
I'm only here to cause some pain...
The sirens --
I can hear them, they're singing ...
They're singing my song,
";When the sun sets, I get upset --
Darkness fills me and I want to light up the world";...
Would you believe I've seen better days?
I starred in westerns and won rave reviews.
Now I sit on a shelf, tagged for judgment day.
I've got to change the jury's point of view.
You see, guns don't kill people, it's the bullets that do.
I said guns don't kill people, bullets do.
Yeah, the bullets do...

Tell the man who repairs the wings for angels
That one has fallen among the mortals on Bleeker Street
I lent a hand, she looked up at the steeples
As if to blame them for the pavement beneath her feet
She said, ";I never much liked flying, but the job requires trying
The hard part's avoiding buildings and concrete";
(chorus)
Spread the news, 'cause there's an angel in Manhattan
Call out the paparazzi and the television crews
Let the people choose
Would a little Faith come to harm them?
Print the headlines up in the New York Daily News
It was just another day
Like any other, other day
A Tuesday afternoon
I hailed a cab, a crowd gathered as it pulled beside us
And somebody tore at her wings, but I helped her safely inside
";I'm much obliged,"; she said, but the driver he looked shaken
He said, ";You're fakin', lady, who's taking who for a ride";
But then we floated up over the traffic, she turned the radio to static,
And she sang to him in Billy Holiday's sweet voice
(chorus)
Spread the news, 'cause there's an angel in Manhattan
Call out the paparazzi and the the television crews
Hey if you choose
Would a little Faith come to harm you?
Print the headlines up in the New York Daily News
It was just another day
What will the mayor say?
";Good afternoon";
We flew down the length of Fifth Avenue
She threw out miracles, it was a hysterical ride
And if the crowd on the sidewalk looked skeptical
She took the blue right out of their cynical eyes
";It's all in what you feel inside";
She shook the mayor's hand, and he declared
That he'd hold a press conference,
The fans and protesters blocked the stairs to city hall
";I'd like to thank you all,"; he said
And when she stepped before the cameras
It felt like a trial, but she smiled as the questions were called,
";What do you say to detractors, who claim you're just some actor?";
She said, ";The question here, is 'Do I believe in you?'";
It was just another day
Like any other, other day
(chorus)
Spread the news, I saw an an angel fly from Manhattan
In front of paparazzi, in front of television crews
And me I choose
I know a little Faith wouldn't harm me
Despite what they print in the New York Daily News
It was just another day
Like any other, other day
Like any day

She is searching for some form of salvation
In the corner of a bar down the street,
But the gin controls whole conversations
And plays magic tricks with her feet...
She gets up, falls down, breaks even,
Gets caught by the wrong mister right --
Hey, it's a hard town.
I wouldn't want to live in it --
But I wouldn't want to give up in it,
All things being the same...
Back home she's got these pictures on her mirror,
They frame her when she looks back at her face.
They tell her where she's been --
I'll tell you where she's going,
She's got her name on a stool down at Eddie Owen's place...
She drinks when romance brings her down.
Like the sight of blood is a wedding gown.
Bright lights and smoke fill up this space.
It's a crowded room, but still a lonely old place...
All her friends are nothing more than strangers,
Whose names are just words on a face .
If they bumped into her out on a sidewalk on some Sunday,
They wouldn't recognize her outside of the place

My name is Robert Wilson,
I'm from Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
I've been living out of a
suitcase now for fourteen days...
I walked the boulevard in Hollywood,
I caught a Vegas show that was no good --
Met a dancer there that starred in a broadway play.
But it's a lonely world from this Greyhound,
Believe me, I've been here fourteen days.
Three thousand miles,
I've been here fourteen days,
Three thousand miles...
Now twenty-one is as good a guess as any age that I'd confess to,
Let's just say I'm old enough to get away.
Back in school, I found the only written truth
On bathroom stalls and telephone booths.
I studied awhile, but college got in my way.
I've learned much more from the back of this Greyhound,
Believe me, I've been here fourteen days.
Three thousand miles,
I've come a long, long way,
Three thousand miles...
Have you seen?
The world outside is turning --
And it's yours --
we were put here for the learning.
People talk to themselves on Greyhounds,
Even the driver strains to hear
They tell the same forgotten story --
Will it fall on forgetful ears?
Down in Houston on comes this woman
With two kids and a bottle of booze,
And she cracked them both like match heads
Whenever they ventured too close to her fuse.
And I sat with a girl from Boston,
Playing cards for cigarettes.
I lost her name with the poker game,
But her name I will never forget --
You never forget the view from these windows,
Believe me, I've been here fourteen days...
Three thousand miles,
I've come a long, long way,
Three thousand miles...

She's trying to define her faith
like it's some role that she's playing
I tell her, ";You remind me of someone else...";
But who it is I'm not saying ";Hear me out,"; she says,
";I'm getting older, I don't need to justify
myself to you. Do you hear me?";
chorus:
When she walks in a room
it's like she's walking on water
or stepping across the moon
like she's gravity's only daughter
She's weightless
weightless
and I say, ";You're just confused
because you talk too much to angels
and they faithfully refuse
to answer questions that are painful...";
";But Faith has no weight,"; she says,
";Now, Doubt, now, there's the burden...
You're completely right to think you're grounded -
Do you hear me?";
chorus

It's a snowy night, the cops shut down the freeway
big men in plows are out carving up the streets
Below them, jammed on a subway,
I'm with two hundred over-dressed strangers
brushing snow off coats and shoulders
kicking snow off dress shoe feet
chorus:
You live six miles down this trolley car's trail
up above the red line, where the street musicians wail
Where Baby, we used to chase down coffee
on the sidewalk take in tunes
We'd drink in the waning hours
till we polished off the moon
Who knew the moon would fail
above the trolley car trail
";Park Street, next station";
says a voice with an accent I've heard
and I see shoppers on the platform
where green and red lines diverge
I fight my way through the packages and the bows
to a pay phone, the operator knows
she says to me, ";Your nervousness shows";
I say, ";'Nervous' is too kind a word";
bridge:
I think snowfall should be measured
By how much it takes a city by surprise
By how far back old timers go to remember
the last time a blizzard stung their eyes
Last time I rode a subway
you had summer in your eyes
you did
Your phone rings, but it only brings your voice
on a message machine, ";I'm not here, the tape is clear";
me, I'm off the hook it seems
";I called,"; I say, ";to say `hello'
to coax you out where the snowmen grow
but you're not home, and hey, I gotta go,
it was good to hear your voice.";

In the city by the river
a man is standing on a bridge
his eyes to Heaven to the Forgiver
who flips the coins on who should live
a naked lightbulb in the corner
naked Mary's in an unmade bed
spilling champagne on her lover
forgot his name
";What had he said?";
chorus: It's New Year's Eve
tonight in the city
they're tearing the chandeliers down
boys and girls
all dressed up pretty
the bartenders buying the round
you count your blessings,
you say your prayers
kiss an acquaintance
the ball is coming down
the ball is coming down
Sadie Hawkins
she left the ballroom
mascara running
from a fight
she slaps the doorman's face
in the lobby
He'd only asked her,
";Are you all right?";
Charlie Jenkins
makes resolutions like
";Do not drink,"; and
";Do not fight";
his conscience needs absolution
it keeps him up when it's late at night
chorus

I tried to frame my own self portrait
into a three-minute one-act play
But I'm a carnival of voices
it's hard to pin me down that way
without my subconscious saying
";I'm not in love with you,
but I'd be willing to make a change.
It's these profound fits of sunshine
that bring on subsequently rain.";
";If I could make a suggestion -";
I say, `Oh, this should be nice'
";The middle ground is partly sunny,
Now take my good advice,
nobody's out here throwing rice yet
But me and the voices inside of your head
all agree...";
and I say, `Since we're all here talking -
You think I'm afraid of you?
Well, I'm afraid I think you're right...
I've never been good at crowd control
Your voices keep me up all night' `Now, I'm no psychiatrist
though I'm known for Freudian slips
I'd like to thank my Id and Ego
for the roller coaster trip
and if my memory will permit me
I'd like to remember to keep you voices
out of my head...'

We were drunk fools in Paris, stumbling on the sidewalk
that runs along the Seine, and on the Cathedral
all the gargoyles watched us laughing,
";Two stupid Americans...";
We were at the mercy of this passionate waiter
who pulled the corks at the Osterasis Cafe
he kept serving us wine we hadn't ordered
then he blamed us for the weather,
it was cold and rainy -
but we raised a glass up to him anyway
We did Paris in a day,
what would Marie Antionette say?
We made a vow on the Champs Elysees
that nothing would come between us
The Mona Lisa, I said, ";She smiles just like she knows me";
you said, ";She's a woman with nothing to lose -
She gathers a crowd around her, then she
flirts with perfect strangers, but she'll
never take a lover in the Louvre -
she will never take a lover in the Louvre...";
We did Paris in a Day
what would Quasimodo say?
Would he stand on top of Notre Dame
and throw down tourists to us?
a thousand stairs up the Pompadou
we were gasping at the view
if we tried for Jim Morrison's gravesite too
we'd probably have to find a tour bus
and man, how do we find a tour bus
without finding another day
We took the M across the Seine
and headed for the Eiffel tower
and there the street merchants
called us out by name
";Cool shades here for the Americans";
They said in their finest hipster English
and then they told us, ";Every Yankee looks the same";
I said, ";Is it the camera case, or our American grace?";
They said,
";You all just look the same...";
We lit a candle for a ghost in the Notre Dame Cathedral
We got lost on the Left Bank looking for a place in which to stay
when we told the waiter there what we had done, he said,
";Only an American would attempt Paris in a day...
Only an American would do Paris in a day...";
We did Paris in a day
what would Marcel Marceau say?
We put up our feet at the Fountain Cafe
and toasted the bond between us
We drank sherry with an Englishman
we caught up like long lost friends
under the Arc we watched the sunset end
and laughed at the miles that had passed beneath us
the miles that passed beneath us
You said, ";That's kilometres, baby";
but I wouldn't let it come between us
nothing will come between us
nothing will come between us...

Becky's playing a piece by Gershwin on her old piano
She's been playing since her childhood, ";Too long to recall...";
but the chords that fall from her fingertips, are the same
she played when she could barely sit still, back in `69,
when the keys made her hands look small
And she built her dream around symphonies and concertos
around traveling the country, and playing the music halls
four kids later the dreams been reduced to ";what-if"; scenarios
but hey, to never dream is to have never lived at all
Never lived at all
Dave's a corporate lawyer in the city of Chicago
and for fifteen years, he's had his nose to the old grindstone
poured his money in the bank to feed the beast called portfolio
Well, if time is money then success is a life alone
You can look out at the skyline for some forgiveness
When you invest in love, the same will be returned
He has prided himself on a lifetime of spoken directness
It took him forty years to hear the lesson learned
Has he never lived at all?
Never lived at all...
Never lived at all
The great American novel sits on top of Peter's kitchen table
300 pages on a town he built inside of his head
He signs the cover page, uncorks the bottle with the dusty label
pours his wife a glass, she says ";Baby, bring the bottle to bed";
At 6 AM he's out fighting the cars on the freeway
and fighting his manuscript, has he written his own downfall?
But he'll embrace rejection, he'll kiss the seal of each envelope
Better to live in hope than to never have lived at all
To never live at all
Never live at all

Cathy's hailing a cab like she's hailing a storm
unto the streets of New York City
ONce we're inside, it's a carnival ride
that brings a white knuckle kind of dizzy
She takes me up on her rooftop,
framed by a backdrop of watertanks and chimneys
she's wrapped round a cigarette,
lecturing etiquette, while I look in the windows
beneath me
We took in Saturday and it was medicine
and when nighttime came the skyline just swallowed
the moon
Cathy lays the blame on Thomas Alva Edison
and 60 million lightbulbs telling New York that
it's noon
Ah, midnight strikes too soon
Midnight strikes too soon
She says, ";in New York City, They throw their
wishes into wells
'cause you can't see a star, unless one hit you when
it fell -- ";
";And if even you caught one,"; I say, ";Who
could you tell in this whole damn town who'd
believe you?";
She smiled like a cat would to a pigeon on the roof
She says, ";I look into windows for universal truths";
and we drank in the moment like whiskey hundred
proof
";But if Orion fell,"; she said, ";I'd tell you";
The view from her roof could make your head
just spin
it was like holding up the world in a tablespoon
and we drank it down,m every light in town
like the sweetest, kindest medicine
I made my wish on a satellite dish
but still midnight strikes too soon
Midnight strikes too soon
Cathy never seems to slow down
she's a hurricane working a skyscraper town
she laughs at me, says I'm suburban bound
but the truth is I live on a highway
I come to this city for the solace of her roof
Every window tells a story in cold hard truth
as the world spins beneath me, I ask it for proof
That I'm living my life in my own way
or will time just have its own say
Midnight strikes too soon
Midnight strikes too soon
Midnight strikes too soon
Midnight strikes too soon

You're my flesh and blood
But we're not the same
a common name
and now
a common distance
I looked up to you
in your plush armchair
respect or fear
I couldn't see the difference
Lay your wager down
Who'll be king in Tinsel Town?
`Cause all the prophets and the gypsies
on the strip in Venice Beach
Have looked me in the eye
and said, ";Your dreams still lie in reach";
and who am I to doubt them
and who are you
to write these speeches?
Is it my poverty
That brings a blush to you?
Or the honesty
that speaks the mind
that comes with it
Were you once a man
with younger eyes
a hungry pride
that would not feel
resistance?
Lay your wager down
They're crowning the king in Tinsel Town
There are strangers, there are lovers
out on Fairfax in a line
They look me in the eye
and say ";Our thoughts are intertwined";
and who am I to doubt them?
And who are you to tear down
these signs?

She can turn a room round on a dime
part a crowd like the Red Sea
she's Moses
and stranger's eyes
all fall and rise
on her length
like they're sizing up roses
Delivery? she could deliver me
she broke her own commandment
thou shall not steal from me
my breath is gone
that's burglary
never trust a prophet
in a party dress
I'm here waiting on a train
there are things that I can't explain
like how I got tied to the tracks
and why love goes down
like some robbery
Deliver me
Deliver me
There's a punchline on the sidewalk
but the joke seems kind of cruel
It's the ones your friends aren't telling
that makes you look the fool
So you step out into traffic
cause it's safer on the street
you react to perfect strangers
as if the world's complete
It's when you are anonymous
you can pull the wool over all of us
but when you lean
don't fall on us
broken more or less
Have you ever been ashamed
Have you ever been defeated
crying, calling out her name
like love can never be repeated
the whole worlds bringing you down
for a million different reasons
it's just the end of one more season
where love came to run you down

change, change, change
change, change, change
If I were your brother
could I spill your blood on me
We, who share a mother
would we spite the sons
she sees?
Walls are crumbling
cities are burning
the presidents on tv
bombs are falling
the fire is rain
as walls close in on me
change, change, change
change, change, change
If Fate brought out a leader
would you kill him for your cause
Though he be your sole salvation
pull the trigger without pause
Faith is crumbling
cities are burning
the war's on cable tv
Hope is falling
the fire is rain as
walls come down on me
change, change, change
change, change, change
If there's one solution
there could be one for every man
who cries for constitution
finds belief inside of ";can";
The clouds are lifting
The houses, the homes
The soaps are on tv
and me, asleep somewhere
in this country
basking in the dream
change, change, change
I'm basking in the dream

In 1968, he did shots with the Doors at the Whiskey-a-Go-Go
It was on one of those hot Hollywood summer nights
He says, ";Jimmy came in tight leather slacks, it was hot as hell
But we were drinking Jack, his eyes were like quarters
Round, and black when he stepped under the stage lights...";
";And you know me,"; he says, ";I had pawned my only camera
I had no way to record these fleeting Kodak moments
That sprung to life each and every Saturday night
I was too far gone back then to have known it...";
chorus:
He says, ";All my heroes were junkies,
Now all my heroes are dead
I say, ";Hey Tony, consider yourself lucky
To be a junkie in a hospital bed";
He says, ";You know Judy Garland never showed up When I took my walk in the Land of Oz
Though a cop did on a purple horse one morning
He asked me why I was staggering
I said, `because - because, because, because
The wizard never gave me no surgeon general's warning";
chorus
bridge:
";Who rolled the joint when Bob Dylan
Got high with the Beatles?"; He says,
";Who put my world on pins and needles?";
He tells the nurses they should do something
With the ceiling in the rehab ward
Like paint a fresco to the late-great Betty Ford
They come in and make their jokes about
Pulling out all his power chords
He tells them, ";Could you come up with
Something I didn't already know?";
chorus

Words are better when they're written down
They fall to the page with no sound
And if you let them sit awhile,
Give them time and distance.
She won't hear the rattle in your voice
That gives a fool away with no choice
Time is all you have tonight
Take the time and get this right
Your eyes make me humble,
I fall down at your feet.
Pick me up if I stumble
Over words I can not speak.
I can't speak…
And so I'm fighting an empty page
For the words I've got to say
The sun brings another day and here I am still reaching
I hear the sound of a morning train
I watch it waking you up again
These things I can't explain
But here I am still speaking…
Your eyes make me humble,
See, I fall down at your feet.
Pick me up if I stumble
Over words I can not speak.
I just can't speak…
And you say if you doubted me,
You would take all that was yours and just go
So take what you've given me,
If these words don't voice what a heart just knows…
Your eyes make me humble,
See, I fall down at your feet.
Pick me up if I stumble
Over words I can not speak.
I just can't speak…

Politician and a stewardess
Underneath the monuments and the moon
He talked of national security
She talked of Paris in June
(chorus)
The lucky ones if they're out tonight
Can see cherry blossoms blooming
Or ride white carriages beneath city lights But Lincoln's eyes of stone stare cool
As if bored of the reflecting pool
Or hardened by what's hidden from his sight They're rioting in the capitol tonight...
Now the Joneses from Poughkeepsie
Rest mall-weary legs in the hotel pool
They're soaking up reflections
The kids are glad they're out of school
The museums were overcrowded
White House lines were much too long
But the sights, they were quite beautiful It's good to know where the tax money's gone...
New Light on your Halo
Welcome to the city where we're rich on pride and pity Where a schoolboy, just a fool
boy, gets shot down in daylight A state of shock, a face down on the sidewalk Who's
seeing God and gets the nod to Heaven like a hawk Who keeps the score when the city goes to war -- By guns, by deaths, by money?
A man in a black coat standing in the gun-smoke Sips on white milk and honey...
(chorus)
This can be the playground of the feeble Where the mindless mix the soil of play with evil A child becomes the means because innocence is believable To all, to all, to all, but their mother's eyes New light on your halo

Sometimes in the dead of the night,
I’m dreaming that I'm flying at the speed of light,
And in two seconds I'm brushing past the face of the moon,
Eight seconds flat on the surface of mars,
I'm kicking up the red dust,
I'm drinking in bars,
I lean back and raise a toast to the stars tonight,
When I'm dreaming at the speed of light,
Some days I just settle for the speed of sound,
I step off this porch and blow a kiss to this whole damn town,
I let off one of them sonic booms,
And break all the windows in 11 rows,
I’d blow off the hats of the boys at the old fair ground,
For laughing at the speed of sound,
Need to say go,
Why don’t you go there?
If you want to go why don’t you decide?
pick a row,
Just decide,
Is it a train or a plane or a bride?
Decide, decide, decide, decide,
You’re love makes me move at the speed of trees,
Lay down some roots, I've grown a head full of make believe,
It weren’t for that face or yours,
I’d be riding in the windows, blowing out doors,
Look at me here I'm planning square down on my knees,
On my knees on my knees,
I'm asking for the speed of trees,

He was out on the highway smiling
A mystic in torn blue jeans
The kid left his trust fund to come out walking.
He hitched across this country
backpack and a head full of dreams
Could’ve sworn he heard the earth a talking….talking
Sometimes, he said, don’t it feel like the concrete’s closing in?
We’re putting bricks on the horizon
Was he chasing fool’s gold…or a holy man walking a dirt road to the end?
I hitched a ride with Chris McCandless
Stepped in the wild of a dream
The horizon in South Dakota
Is an ocean of harvest grain
In a dusty silo we found work for the taking
We’d hitched up from California
But he never told me his real name
Never told me what past he was out here shaking
We're all shaking something...
Sometimes, he said, don’t it feel like technology’s closing in?
We’re raising towers on the horizon
Was he chasing fool’s gold…or a holy man walking a dirt road to the end?
I hitched a ride with Chris McCandless
Stepped in the wild of a dream
A stone….a path…a river of glass
The night sky…can you see stars from wherever you are?....wherever you are....
In a broken school bus they found him
In the heart of the Alaska range
The journey ends when the heart stops beating…time is fleeting
Was he chasing fool’s gold,
Or a holy man walking a dirt road to the end?
I hitched a ride with Chris McCandless
Stepped in the wild with Chris McCandless
And I felt alive with Chris McCandless

You get the call on the message machine.
It’s 2 am—it better be important.
Her power’s out, it’s a sleep-walk ‘cross town.
Rain’s coming down, she’s got candlelight and blankets.
Is this an act between friends?
One step forward, two steps back again.
If you knew the art of distance,
Would youlay in your bed
Or take a cab across town?
You know it’s raining right now.
You crave her skin, well,
You crave its resistance.
When you wake up in the morning
And she’s asking for time,
You give in.
She’s the queen of light and candles.
You give in, you always were a sucker
For a scandal.
You ring her bell,
She buzzes you in.
Brush off the rain,
You give her the umbrella
When she comes to you,
Wrapped in her sheets.
Is she beautiful?
How you gonna tell her?
When the touch begins,
You cradle her face.

So you've come to a day
where you wish the clocks
went backwards
in the cover of night
you're asking the stars to stay
asking satellites
to stop and help you to remember
how to picture the world
before everything had changed
If you break down
I'm at your shoulder
Take me at my word
You can break down
I will tell you over and over
A reliable sound is coming around
If you break down
If fear comes without invitation
and lays its head
in the green of your tired eyes
if it's paralyzing
I will wake you
We will walk a thousand paces
walk away, walk away
till you are walking on your own
And if you break down
I'm at your shoulder
Take me at my word
You can break down
I will tell you over and over
A reliable sound is coming around
If you break down
A reliable sound,
I'm coming round
If you break down
If you break down,
Look no further
Take me at my word
You can break down
I will tell you over and over
A reliable sound is coming around
A reliable sound is coming around
If you break down
Take my word

That night the walls were speaking
the pipes inside them, creaking,
told the secret that was rising in the halls
And you lay beside me sleeping
with the dreams that you were keeping
the smoke was in the stairwell outside the wall
We had moved in just November
the first night, remember,
we lit a candle
laid a mattress on the floor
and we toasted to our savings,
to adulthood,
to behaving,
to this house with drafty windows
creaking doors
(chorus)
Home
is the woman across the table
Home
is dreaming in my sheets
Home
Home
This house is just an address
You're my home
So we stood like statues staring
while the sirens came in blaring
the Johnsons brought us coffee
for the cold
And somewhere I heard some singing
it was my radio alarm clock ringing
with a wakeup call singing to my soul
(chorus)
I can't believe I'm thanking Jesus
as I watch my roof come down
but I can put back all the pieces
as long as you're around

If I fell down on my knees
If it came to pleading
Would you take me as I am
Your touch is all I'm needing
Bring me courage, bring me change
Show me oxygen rain
Build a shelter in these arms
If this love should come to harm
Do you know who I am?
Put a little faith in me
If you need some space on a shoulder
Why?
Why?
Why do we fall so fast�
Are you afraid that you'll shatter?
Your heart's made of glass.
Give in
Give up
You can't get ready for it.
Give in
Give up
Just get ready for it�
Cause I am whispering your name
It colors in the rain
Bells are ringing in this town
The women walk in wedding gowns
And if you fear your bones may break
If it comes to heart aching
The dance comes down to this
Every love will bring a risk
The colors we choose
Are yellows and blues
Let�s paint the sky over and over
Why?
Why?
Why do we fall so fast�
Are you afraid that you'll shatter?
Your heart's made of glass.
Just give in
Give up
You can't get ready for it.
Give in
Give up
Just get ready for it
Oh, get ready.
Do you know who I am?
Put a little faith in me
If you need some space on a shoulder
Why?
Why?
Why do we fall so fast
Are you afraid that you'll shatter?
Your heart's made of glass.
Give in
Give up
You can't get ready for it.
Give in
Give up
Just get ready for it
Oh, get ready
Get ready for me
Get ready
Ready for me.
Get ready

Who let the dragonfly into my bedroom
Was it you?
'cause it's buzzing 'round my head like a hurricane
Was it you?
Moonlight on my window sill
Did it fly from the cornfield or up over the hill?
'cause it's buzzing round my head
And got me spinning here.
Was it you?
I don't know why you
I don't know why you
I don't know why you
Came to me
Red dress on my doorstep
Honeysuckle blooming
Through the front porch screen
Perfume on my pillowcase
Empty bed in an empty room
There's a dragonfly flying

When he looked
Into a starry sky upon Jupiter,
With it's cold moons
Making their weary rounds.
Did he know that the Pope
Would claim that he ran with Lucifer
And a prison cell
Would be where he?d lay his head down?
Was he wearing a thorny crown?
When he plotted the motion of planets,
Was Mercury in retrograde?
But he found the truth when a lie was what was demanded.
When the judges asked him pointedly
He was a' trembling that day.
Chorus
Did Galileo pray?
Did Galileo pray?
Did Galileo pray?
Did Galileo pray?
And he said,
"Tell Ptolemy, tell Copernicus,
That the Sun is at the core of us
The Church, the Pope
Can't deny the Milky Way
And every flower that follows the sun,
Has known all along
What God had done
They whisper truth
As the seasons each give way.
Don't shoot the messenger,
The postman delivers Truth today.
And Truth will march in Birmingham
It will block the tanks in Tiananmen.
Put the judges on the witness stand
Let's see what they all say.
Chorus
In the heavens you'll see it
As God has conceived it.
Oh, believe it.
Oh, what have you got to do to believe?
Don't shoot the messenger,
When the postman brings you truth today.
Because truth will march in Birmingham
It will block the tanks in Tiananmen
Put the judges on the witness stand,
Let's see what they all say.
Chorus

(chorus)
ooo-ooo On a blacktop train, they're rolling like the thunder in a midwest rain
ooo-ooo On a blacktop train, every revolution rides the wheels of change
They poured blacktop two-lane right through the cornfields
Laid a stripe right across my back
The wheels came spinning with the wide-eyed crusaders,
out on a quest for the trail of Jack Kerouac
Silos, scarecrows, American machine,
rev up your engines you're as fast as a train
Oh my Lord, look how the weather has changed
cyclones, dust storms, blacktop trains
cyclones, dust storms, blacktop trains
(chorus)
They're gonna write a new song they blow on by
Start a revolution and blow on by
It ain't ever gonna be the same
They come east coast, west coast, Chryslers and Oldsmobiles
smoke rolling, chrome on the plains
Musicians pull over looking over their shoulders
at Hank Williams, Buddy Holly lighting the flame
Motels, oilwells, truckstop, marines
going to California with their pin-up dreams
Roll down your window, brother, shout out my name
You're on route 66, on a blacktop train
route 66, on a blacktop train

Skipping stones at the edge of the dock
The fog comes rolling in quiet like a hawk
The river so smooth it could shatter with a rock
It felt like I was walking on water
Then the doctors daughter came and dove right in
Lord Almighty she’s nothing but skin
I could turn my head, but she may never come again
She’s filling the sky with her laughter
[Chorus]
Anna Lee, Anna Lee
You’re shaking the timbers, your rattling the leaves
There’s a full moon rising in front of me
Come on stake your claim in my memory
Anna Lee, Anna Lee
Did the good Lord send you down to deliver me?
Come stake your claim in my memory
I’m here and I’m yours for the taking
Well along around midnight on a river boat ride
I’m a mandolin jukebox and Annie at my side
One bottle empty, one waiting like a bride
She’s dancing like light on the water
We’ve got six weeks ‘til college, six weeks until we’re gone
Oh life is like a river and the river flowing on
Come on Annie, your lips are like brandy (or you taste like brandy)
Will you kiss me awake come morning?
[Chorus]
Anna Lee, Anna Lee
You’re shaking the timbers, your rattling the leaves
There’s a full moon rising in front of me
Come on stake your claim in my memory
Anna Lee, Anna Lee
Did the good Lord send you down to deliver me?
Come lay your head in a bed of leaves
I’m here and I’m yours for the taking.
[Bridge]
I can’t promise a life time of tomorrows
What tomorrow brings God only knows
I know this about tomorrow
They’re filling it with sorrow
If we let tonight just go
Anna Lee, Anna Lee
You’re shaking the timbers, your rattling the leaves
There’s a full moon rising in front of me
Come on stake your claim in my memory
Anna Lee, Anna Lee
Did the good Lord send you down to deliver me?
Come lay your head in a bed of leaves
I’m here and I’m yours for the taking.