Standard (EADGBE)
You turn on a spindle
You are so much looser now
But you're not explaining how
You gained such new repose
I touch the clasp of your locket
With its picture held
Some secret you wouldn't tell
But let it choke your neck
So we imagine a darkness
Where all shapes divide
Solids changing into light
With a burst of heat so bright
Well fine
Don't you do what I want you to
Yeah, don't degrade yourself the way that I do
'Cause you don't depend upon all the shit that I use
To make my moods immmmmmprove
And near a sea of pianos
There were waves of chords
That crashed against the shore
In one huge and pointless roar
And there were girls bringing water
Like a dream they came
To cool the fever of my brain
And soothe my burning throat
And they made me a necklace
Hanging beads of sweat
On a string of my regrets
And placed it 'round my neck
And they were singing
Don't you do what you've wanted to
Yeah, don't destroy yourself like those cowards do
And maybe the sun keeps coming up 'cause it's gotten used to you
And your constant need forrrr proof
SONG - A Scale, A Mirror And Those Indifferent Clocks
Here is a scale, weigh it out and you will find easily
More than sufficient doubt that these colors you see
Were picked in advance by some careful hand
With an absolute concept of beauty
They are smeared and these blurs come in random order
To color the eyes of your former lovers
Hers were green like July except when she cried
They were red
Now I know a disease that these doctors can't treat
You contract it the day you accept all you see
Is a mirror and a mirror is all it can be
A reflection of something we're missing
And language just happened, it was never planned
And it's inadequate to describe where I am
In the room of my house where the light has never been
Waiting for this day to end
And these clocks keep unwinding and completely ignore
Everything that we hate or adore
Once the page of a calendar is turned it's no more
So tell me then, what was it for?
Oh tell me, what was it for?
- The Calendar Hung Itself
Does he kiss your eyelids in the morning
when you start to raise your head?
And does he sing to you incessantly
from the place between your bed and wall?
Does he walk around all day at school
with his feet inside your shoes?
Looking down every few steps
to pretend he walks with you?
Does he know that place below your neck
that is your favorite to be touched?
And does he cry through broken sentences
like "I love you far too much"?
Does he lay awake listening to your breath?
Worried that you smoke too many cigarettes?
Is he coughing now on a bathroom floor?
For every speck of tile there are a thousand more
That you won't ever see
But must hold inside yourself eternally
I drug your ghost across the country
and we plotted out my death
In every city, memories would whisper
"Here is where you rest"
I was determined in Chicago
But I dug my teeth into my knees
And I settled for a telephone
Sang into your machine
"You are my sunshine,
My only sunshine.
You are my sunshine
My only sunshine"
I kissed a girl with a broken jaw
That her father gave to her
She had eyes bright enough to burn me
They reminded me of yours
And in a story told she was a little girl
In a red-rouge, sun-bruised field
And there were rows of ripe tomatoes
Where a secret was concealed
And it rose like thunder
Clapped under our hands
And it stretched for centuries
To a diary entry's end where I wrote
"You make me happy (WHAT?)
When the skies are gray
You make me happy (WHAT?)
When skies are gray and gray and gray"
Well the clock's heart it hangs inside its open chest
With hands stretched towards the calendar hanging itself
But I will not weep for those dying days
For all the ones who've left there are a few that stayed
And they found me here and pulled me from the grass
Where I was laid
SONG - Something Vague
intro and main progression:
Now and again it seems worse than it is
But mostly the view is accurate.
You see your breath in the air as you climb up the stairs
to that coffin you call your apartment.
And you sink in your chair
Brush the snow from your hair
And drink the cold away
You are not really sure
What you're doing this for
But you need something to fill up the days
A few more hours
There is a dream in my brain that just won't go away
It's been stuck there since it came a few nights ago
And I'm standing on a bridge in the town where I lived
As a kid with my mom and my brothers
And then the bridge disappears
And I'm standing on air
With nothing holding me
And I hang like a star
Fucking glow in the dark
For all those starving eyes to see
Like the ones we've wished on
But now I'm confused
Is this death really you?
And do these dreams have any meaning?
No, no, I think it is more like a ghost
That's been following us both
Something vague that we're not seein
Something more like a feeling
SONG - The Movement Of A Hand
You follow the footsteps
Echoes leading down a hall
To a room, there's music playing
Tiny bells with moving parts
Here the shadows make things ugly
An effect quite undesirable
The bold and yellow daylight
Grows like ivy across the wall
And bounces off of the painted porcelain
Tiny dancing doll
Her body spins as she pirouettes again
The world suddenly seems small
On an off-white subtle morning
You stretch your legs in the front seat
The road has made a vacuum
Where our voices used to be
And you lay your head onto my shoulder
Pour like water over me
So if I just exist for the next ten minutes of this
Drive that would be fine
And all the trees that line this curb would be
Rejoicing and alive
Soon all the joy that pours from everything makes
Fountains of your eyes
Because you finally understand the movement of a
Hand waving you goodbye
SONG - Arienette
The fragile keep secrets gathered in pockets
And they will sell them for nothing, a cheap watch or locket
That kind of gold washes off
And the sad act like lepers, they stick to the shadows
They long to ring bells of warning to tell of their coming
So that the pure can shut their doors
And the angry are animals, senseless and savage
They act without order in logical lapses
They stain their mouths with blood
So take my hand, this barren land is alive tonight
Oh, the corn has grown stalks that form a wall to hide
The wind carries sounds that I can't see from beyond that line
Then the stalks begin to sway
Oh, stay with me, Arienette
Until the wolves are away
YUP
Well the wicked are vultures, they bake in the canyons
They circle in sunlight and wait for their victims
To collapse and call to them
And the desperate are water, they'll run down forever
As they soak into silence and end up together
In a dark and distant, dark and distant place
So don't leave me here with only mirrors watching me
This house, it holds nothing but the memories
And the moon, it leaves silver but never sleep
And then the silver turns to gray
So stay with me, Arienette
Until the wolves are away
SONG - When the Curious Girl Realizes She Is Under Glass
Tomorrow when I wake up I'm finding my brother
And making him take me back down to the water
That lake where we sailed and we laughed with our father
I will not desert him, I will not desert him
No matter how I may wish for a coffin so clean
Or these trees to undress all their leaves onto me
I put my face in the dirt and then finally I see
The sky that has been avoiding me
I started this letter, I'm gonna send it to Ruba
It will be blessed by her eyes on the gulf coast of Florida
With her feet in the sand and one hand on her swimsuit
She will recite the prayer of my pen
Saying, time take us forward, relief from this longing
They can land that plane on my heart. I don't care
Just give me November, the warmth of a whisper
In the freezing darkness of my room
But no matter what I would do in an attempt to replace
All these pills that I take trying to balance my brain
Seen the curious girl with that look on her face
So surprised she stares out from her display case
SONG - Haligh, Haligh, A Lie, Haligh
The phone slips from a loose grip
Words were missed, then some apology
I didn't want to tell you this
No, it's just some guy she's been hanging out with
I don't know, the past couple weeks, I guess
Thank you and hang up the phone
Let the funeral start, hear the casket close
Let's pin split-black ribbon to your overcoat
The laughter pours from under doors in this house
I don't understand that sound no more
Seems artificial like a TV set
Well Haligh Haligh Haligh Haligh
This weight, it must be satisfied
You offer only one reply
You know not what you do
But you tear and tear your hair from roots
From that same head you have twice removed
Now a lock of hair you said would prove
Our love would never die, well hahaha
I remember everything
The words we spoke on freezing South Street
And all those mornings watching you get ready for school
You combed your hair inside that mirror
The one you painted blue and glued with jewelry tears
Something about those bright colors would always make you feel better
But now we speak with ruined tongues
And the words we say aren't meant for anyone
It's just a mumbled sentence to a passing acquaintance but there was once you
You said you hate my suffering
And you understood and you'd take care of me
You'd would always be there, well where are you now?
Haligh, Haligh, Haligh, Haligh
The plans were never finalized
But left to hang like yarn and twine
Dangling before my eyes
As you tear and tear your hair from roots
From that same head that you have twice removed
Now a lock of hair you said would prove
Our love would never die
And I sing and sing of awful things
The pleasure that my sadness brings
And my fingers press onto the strings
Yet another clumsy chord
Haligh, Haligh, an awful lie
This weight will now be satisfied
I'm gonna give you only one reply
I know not who I am
But I talk in the mirror
To the stranger that appears
Our conversations are circles
Always one sided
Nothing is clear
Except we keep coming back
To this meaning that I lack
He says the choices were given
Now you must live them
Or just not live
But do you want that?
SONG - The Center Of The World
At the center of the world there's a statue of a girl
She is standing near a well with a bucket bare and dry
I went and looked her in the eyes and she turned me into sand
This clumsy form that I despise, it scattered easy in her hand
It came to rest upon a beach with a million others there
We sat and waited for the sea to stretch out so that we could disappear
Into the endlessness of blue into the horror of the truth
See, we are far less than we knew, yeah, we are far less than we knew
But we knew what we could taste
Girls found honey to drench our hands
The men cut marble to mark our graves
Said we'll need something to remind us of
All the sweetness that has passed through us
The priests dressed children for a choir
But found no joy in what was sung
The funeral had begun
In the middle of the day when you drive home to your place
From that job that makes you sleep back to the thoughts that keep you awake
Long after night has come to claim any light that still remains
In the corner of the frame that you put around her face
Two pills just weren't enough
The alarm clock's going off but you're not waking up
This isnt happening happening happening happening happening
It is
SONG - Sunrise, Sunset
? - XX6555
Sunrise, sunset
Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly go the days
Sunrise, sunset
You wake up, then you undress
It always is the same
A sunrise and the sun sets
You are lying while you confess
Keep trying to explain
A sunrise and the sun sets
You realize, then you forget
What you have been trying to retain
But everybody knows
It's all about the things
That get stuck inside of your head
Like the songs your roommate sings
Or a vision of her body
As she stretches out on your bed
And she raised her hands in the air
Asked you, when was the last time you looked in the mirror?
'Cause you have changed
Yeah, you've changed
Sunrise, the sun sets
You are hopeful and then you regret
The circle never breaks
With a sunrise and sunset
There's a change of heart or address
Is there nothing that remains?
For a sunrise or a sunset
You're manic or you're depressed
Will you ever feel okay?
For a sunrise or a sunset
Your lover is an actress
Did you really think she'd stay?
For a sunrise or a sunset
You're either coming or you just left
But you're always on the way
Towards a sunrise or a sunset
A scribble or a sonnet
They are really just the same
To the sunrise or a sunset
The master and his servant
Have exactly the same fate
It's a sunrise and a sunset
From a cradle to a casket
There is no way to escape
The sunrise and the sunset
Hold your sadness like a puppet
Keep putting on the play
But everything you do
Is leading to the point
Where you just won't know what to do
And at that moment you may laugh
But there is someone there
Who will be laughing louder than you
So it's true
The trick is complete
You've become everything you said you never would be
You're a fool
You're a fool
Sunrise, sunset
Sunrise, sunset
The sunrise and the sun sets
Sunrise, sunset
Sunrise, the sun sets
The sunrise, the sun sets
Sunrise, sunset
Go home to your apartment
Put the cassette in the tape deck
And let that fever play
Sunrise, sunset
Where are you Arienette?
Where are you Arienette?
SONG - An Attempt To Tip The Scales
Intro
Did you expect it all to stop at the wave of your hand?
Like the sun is just gonna drop if it's night you demand?
Well, in the dark we are just air so the house might dissolve
Once we're gone, who's gonna care if we were ever here at all?
Well, summer's gonna come, it's gonna cloud our eyes again
No need to focus when there's nothing that's worth seeing
So we trade liquor for blood in an attempt to tip the scales
I think you lost what you loved in that mess of details
They seemed so important at the time but now you can't even recall
Any of the names, faces, or lines, it's more the feeling of it all
Well, winter's gonna end, it's gonna clean these veins again
So close to dying that I finally can start living
(repeat) end on
SONG - A Song To Pass The Time
Start with fingerpicking E
There is a middle-aged woman, she's dragging her feet
She carries baskets of clothes to a laundromat
While the Mexican children kick rocks into the street
And they laugh in a language I don't understand
But I love them... why do I love them?
So the neighborhood's dimming, I smoke on the porch
Watch the people as they pass enclosed inside their cars
And on their faces just anger or disappointment
I start wishing there was something I could offer them
A consolation... what could I offer them?
And they are sad in their suburbs, robots water the lawn
And everything they touch gets dusted spotless
And so they start to believe they've not touched anything at all
And the cars in the driveway only multiply
They are lost in their houses, I've heard them sing in the shower
Making speeches to their sister on the telephone
Saying you come home, you come here, don't stay so far away from me
This weather has me wanting love more tangible
Something I can hold... it's getting cold
I say hold up our fists to a flame in the sky
To block out the light that's reaching for our eyes
'Cause it... 'cause it would blind us, yeah it will blind us
Well I've locked my actions in the grooves of routine
So I may never be free of this apathy
But I wait for a letter that's coming to me
She sends me pictures of the ocean in an envelope
So there still is hope, yes, I can be healed
There is someone looking for what I've concealed
In my secret drawer, in my pockets deep
You will find the reasons that I can't sleep
And you will still want me... but will you still want me?
Will you still want me?
Well, I say come for the week, you can sleep in my bed
And pass through my life like a dream through my head
It will... it will be easy, I'll make it easy
But all I have for the moment is a song to pass the time
A melody to keep me from worrying
Some simple progression to keep my fingers busy
And words that are sure to come back to me
And they'll be laughing... and they'll be laughing
My mediocrity
My mediocrity