Capo 3rd fret

Standard (EADGBE)

The picture is far too big to look at kid. Your eyes won't open wide enough

and you are constantly surrounded by that swirling stream of what is and what was.

Well, we've all made our predictions but the truth still isn't out.

So if you want to see the future, go stare into a cloud.

And keep trying to find your way out of that maze of memories.

It all sort of looks familiar, but then you get up close and it's different. clearly.

Each time you turn a corner, you are right back to where you were

and your only hope is that forgetting might make a door appear.

Is it your fear of being buried that makes you so afraid to speak?

An avalanche of opinions like the one that feel that I am now underneath

It was my voice that moved the first rock and I would do it all again.

So, I mean, it's cool if you keep quiet, but I like singing.

So I'll be holding my note and stomping and strumming and feeling so very

lucky.

There is nothing I know except that this lifetime is just one moment

and wishing will just leave me empty.

So you can try and live in darkness but you will never shake the light. It will greet

you every morning

and make you more aware with its absence at night,

when you are wrapped up in your blanket baby, that comfortable cocoon.

But I have seen the day of your awakening boy and it's coming soon.

So go ahead and loose yourself in liquor and you can praise the clouded mind

but it isn't what you are thinking it's the course of history, your position in line.

You are just a piece of the puzzle so I think you had better find your place.

And don't go blaming your knowledge on some fruit you ate.

Because there has been a great deal of discussion, yes, about the properties of man.

Animal or angel? You were carved from bone, but your heart it's just sand.

And the wind is going to scatter it and cover everything with love.

So if it makes you happy, keep kneeling Mama, but I am standing up.

Because this veil, it has been lifted yes. My eyes are wet with clarity.

I have been a witness of such wonders. Oh, I have searched for them all across this country

but I think I'll be returning now to the town where I was born.

And I understand you must keep moving friend, but I am heading home.

I'm gonna follow the road and let the scenery sweeping by easily enter my

body.

I'll send you all this message in code, under ground, over mountains,

through forests, deserts and cities.

All across the electric wire, it's a baited line. The hook is in deep boys,

there is no more time. So you can struggle in the water and be too stubborn to die,

-cut off

or you could just let go and be lifted to the sky.

Method Acting:

There's no beginning to the story, a bookshelf sinks into the sand

And a language learned and forgot, in turn, is studied once again

It's a shocking bit of footage viewed from a shitty TV screen

You can squint out into snowy static to make out the meaning

And keep on stretching the antenna hoping that it will come clear

We need some reception, a higher message, just tell us what to fear

'Cause I don't know what tomorrow brings

It's alive with such possibilities

All I know is I feel better when I sing

Burdens are lifted from me

That's my voice rising

So, Michael, please keep the tape rolling, boys keep strumming those guitars

We need a record of our failures, yes, we must document our love

I've sat too long in my silence, I've grown too old in my pain

To shed this skin, be born again, it starts with an ending

So thank you, friends, for the time we shared

My love stays with you like sunlight and air

And though I truly wish I could keep hanging around here

My joy is covering me

Soon, I will disappear

It's not a movie

No private screening

This method acting

Well, I call that living

It's like a fountain

A door has opened

We have a problem

With no solution

But to love and to be loved

So I've made peace with the falling leaves

I see their same fate in my own body

But I won't be frightened when I'm awoken from this dream

And returned to that which

Gave birth to me

Gave birth to me

Gave birth to me

Gave birth to me

And the story goes

And the story goes

And it goes on and on and on and on

It's going on and on and on and on

Make War:

Our love is dead but without limits

like the surface of the moon

and the land between you and the mountains

It is not these hiding places that have kept us innocent

but the way you taught me to just let it all go by

Please return, return

to the person that you were

And I will do the same

'cause it's too hard to belong

to somenone who is gone

my compass spins

the wilderness remains

False Advertising:

On a string I was held. The way that I move, can you tell?

My actions are orchestrated from above. So I swing and I sway.

Wave my hand. Kick my leg. And it is always right with the music.

"Until all that swinging starts to make you sick"

For a song I was bought. Now I lie when I talk with a careful eye on the cue card.

Onto a stage, I was pushed with my sorrow well rehearsed.

So give me all your pity and your money. Now.

"We used to think that sound was something pure"

If I could act like this was my real life and not some cage where I've been

placed, then, I could tell you the truth like I used to and not be afraid of

sounding fake.Now all that anyone is listening for are the mistakes.

In a house, by myself, I hear the ice start to melt and watch rooftops weep

for the sunlight.

And I know what must change. Fuck my face. Fuck my name.

They are brief and false advertisements for a soul I don't have.

Something true I have lacked and spent my whole life trying to make up for.

But I found in a song and in the people I love. They will lift me up out of

darkness.

Now my door stands open. I am inviting everyone in.

We will laugh we're gonna drink until the morning comes. That is what we are going to do.

come on come on

You Will You Will? You? Will?:

You say that I treat you like a book on a shelf. I don't take you out that

often because I know that I completed you and that is why you are here.

That is the reason why you stay here. How awful you must feel.

You said you would be my dream. I could have you every night and if, by

morning, I had forgotten you, well, no big deal, it would be all right

because you are the reoccurring kind. You are the reoccurring kind. You

never leave my mind. are you the love of my lifetime? Because there have

been times I have had my doubts.

We were just kids when I first kissed you in the attic of my parents house,

and I wish we were there now. It took so long to figure out what this book

has been about.

Now I write when I'm away letters that you never read. You said go to

explore those other women,

the geography of their bodies but there is just one map you'll need. You are

boomerang.

You see. You will return to me.

You will. You? Will. You? Will. You? Will. You? Will. You? Will. You? Will

You? Will. You? Will. You? Will. You? Will. You? Will. You? Will. You? Will.

'Cause if you don't, then this book's all lies

If you don't, then my plans would all be ruined

If you don't, I'll start drinking like the way I drank before

Well then I just wont have a future anymore

Lover I Dont Have to Love:

I picked you out

Of a crowd to talk to you

Said I liked your shoes

You said thanks can I follow you?

So it's up the stairs

And out of view No prying eyes

I poured some wine

I asked your name you asked the time

Now it's two o'clock,

the club is closed we're up the block

Your hands on me

Pressing hard against your jeans

Your tongue in my mouth

Trying to keep the words from coming out

You didn't care to know

Who else may have been you before

I want a lover I don't have to love

I want a girl who's to sad to give a fuck

Where's the kid with the chemicals?

I thought he said to meet me here but I'm not sure

I got the money if you got the time

You said it feels good I said I'll give it a try

Then my mind went dark

We both forgot where your car was parked

Let's just take the train

I'll meet up with the band in the morning

Bad actors with bad habits

Some sad singers

They just play tragic

And the phone's ringing

And the van's leaving

Let's just keep touching

Let's just keep keep singing

I want a lover I don't have to love

I want a boy who's so drunk he doesn't talk

Where's the kid with the chemicals

I got a hunger and I can't seem to get full

>

I need some meaning I can memorize

The kind I have always seems to slip my mind

But you but you

You write such pretty words

But life's no story book

Love is an excuse to get hurt

And to hurt

"Do you like to hurt?"

"I do! I do!"

"Then hurt me."

Bowl of Oranges:

The rain it started tappin'

On the window near my bed

There was a loophole in my dreamin'

So I got out of it

And to my surprise my eyes were wide and already open

Just my nightstand and my dresser

Where those nightmares had just been

So I dressed myself and left then

Out into the gray streets

But everything seemed different

And completely new to me

The sky the trees, houses, buildings, even my own body

And each person I encountered

I couldn't wait to meet

And I came upon a doctor

Who appeared in quite poor health

I said there's nothing I can do for you that you can't do for yourself

He said oh yes you can, just hold my hand, so I sat with him awhile

Then I asked him how he felt

He said I think I'm cured

No, in fact, I'm sure of it

Thank you, stranger

For your therapeutic smile

So that's how I learned the lesson

That everyone's alone

And your eyes must do some raining

If you're ever gonna grow

And when crying don't help

You can't compose yourself

It's best to compose a poem

An honest verse of longing

Or a simple song of hope

That's why I'm singing baby don't worry

'Cause now I got your back

And every time you feel like crying

I'm gonna try and make you laugh

And if I can't

If it just hurts too bad

Then we'll wait for it to pass

And I will keep you company for those days so long and black

And we'll keep working on the problem

We know we'll never solve

Our love's un-even remainders

Our lives are fractions of a whole

But if the world could remain within a frame

Like a painting on a wall

Then I think we'd see the beauty then

We'd stand staring in awe

At our still lives posed

Like a bowl of oranges

Like a story told

By the fault-lines in the soil

Don't Know When But Days Gonna Come

Verse 1

Verse 2

Orchestra Part 2

The future has got me worried, such awful thoughts.

My head is a carousèl of pictures.

The spinning never stops.

I just want someone to walk in front and I'll follow the

leader

Continue until chorus

I know I should be brave but I'm just too afraid

Of all this change

So when i'm lost in a crowd, i hope that you'll pick me out.

Oh, How I long to be found.

The grass grew high. I lay down.

Now, I wait for a hand to lift me up, help me stand.

I have been laying so low. don't want to lay here no more

Waste of Paint"

I have a friend, he is made mostly of paint.

He wakes up, drives to work, and then straight back home again.

He once cut one of my nightmares out of paper.

I thought it was beautiful, I put it on a record cover.

And I tried to tell him he had a sense of color and composition so magnificent.

And he said "Thank you, please but your flattery is truly not becoming me.

Your eyes are poor. You are blind. You see, no beauty could have come from

me.

I am a waste of breath, of space, of time."

etc....

From A Balance Beam:

There is a man holding a megaphone, so he must have been the voice of God.

The bystanders claimed they saw angels flying up and down the block.

Well, they must have been attached to wires. I saw one laying in

the lawn with a broken arm,

so I called 911. So that is one less founded opinion. One more cause for a dispute.

So the street filled, like a basin, up with cameras and their crews

and they washed away the rumors leaving just the concrete truth. It was a spectacle.

No, I mean a miracle. So then I fell like that girl from a balance beam.

A gymnasium of eyes were all holding on to me. I lifted one foot to cross the other

and I felt myself slipping. It was a small mistake. Sometimes that is all it takes.

Now I'm staring at my wrist, hoping that the timing is right. When the

planes will align.

There will be no planets to align. Just the carcass of the sun

and those little painted marbles spinning endless through an endless black sky.

It was in a foreign hotel's bathtub I baptized myself in change.

And one by one I drowned all of the people I had been.

I emerged to find the parallels were fewer. I was cleansed. I looked in the mirror

and someone new was there. Still, I was as helpless as a chess piece

when I was lifted up by someone's hand and delivered from the corner my

enemies had got me in.

But in all of my salvation I still felt imprisoned inside that holding cell

that is myself.

So I wait for the day when I'll hear the key as it turns in the lock

and the guard will say to me, "Oh my patient prisoner you have waited for

this day

and finally you are free! You are free! You are freezing."

Now I'm staring at the sun, waiting for it to explode. Because a day is

gonna come,

don't know when but it will come and then we will finally know the way out of here.

And I will throw away this wrinkled map and my chart of stars and compass, cracked.

And I'll climb out that tree all wet with sap to avoid the hungry beasts below.

I'll cut out my love's tongue and sing of a graveyard gray and a garden green and

then we won't have to worry no more. No we won't ever worry again abouthow this song

or story ends about how this song and story will end.

Laura Laurent:

Laura are you still livin' there on your estate of sorrows?

You used to leave it occasionally but now you don't even bother

to ride the commuter train west to Chicago

to stroll through the greenery in the park past the statues

how her eyes seemed to follow you, like a hated addiction

their beauty carved out of absolutes you could never claim

or even envision

Laura you were the saddest song in the shape of a woman

yeah I thought you were beautiful but I wept with your movements

but I hope that you're laughing now from that place on the carpet

where we shared a sleeping bag in your sister's apartment

oh how she would worry so, you know I was just a stranger

but she asked me to care for you, yes she did

and I went and betrayed her

But do you know we're in high demand, Laura, us, people who suffer?

because we don't take to arguing and we're quick to surrender.

Well I think I would call tonight if I still had your number

your thoughts have always laid close to mine, and we're both skipping supper.

But you should never be embarrassed by your trouble with living

'Cause it's the ones with the sorest throats, Laura,

who have done the most singing

LAlalalalalalLalalALalAlala

Lets Not Shit Ourselves (To love and too be loved)

The animals laugh from the dark of the wilderness. A baby cried hard in an

apartment complex,

as I pass a car buried under the influence. The city is driving me out of my

mind.

I have seen a child is caught in the sad trap of gravity.

He falls from the lowest branch of the apple tree and lands in the grass and

weeps for his dignity.

Next time he will not aim so high. Yeah, next time, neither will I.