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1. |
Fire and Lightning
02:58
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If I were a wiser man
I'd know the depth of my abyss
and could have caught myself
before I sank so deeply into it.
If I were an honest man
I might see through my own facade
until I find the truths
I've desperately hidden from myself.
If I were a humble man
I wouldn't be so blind
when looking at the light
that I put myself in, because
I was fire and lightning,
I was gonna change the world,
I was a model citizen,
the proud man before his fall.
I'm sorry for everything
that I've done wrong.
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2. |
Classic Car Graveyard
03:47
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There was a car graveyard
on a small town farm in Mississippi
with a couple of old burned out classic cars,
and when I was a kid I would walk on by
and swear that if you just took the time
you could fix one up and drive back to the '50s.
But now it's just an aggregate
of metal frames all rusted shut
and these doors don't open anymore.
It's been a long time since I walked these streets
or breathed this air that tastes so sweet.
It's been a long time since I called my hometown home.
She's a long dirt road and a tuneful breeze
softer than the night, unaccompanied;
that's the melody I remember best.
She's that hard time heartland bluegrass blue note
swimming through the pine tree country,
Dixie-land's pax romana.
But now it's just an aggregate
of metal frames all rusted shut,
a beautiful tribute to herself;
sometimes she's bittersweet,
sometimes a pedal tone
that keeps me on my feet
or nostalgia when I'm breathing deep.
And all the old men line up
at the antique car show 'cuz it's
nice to look back once in a while,
and time has a funny way of
making everything older, but it's
nice to look back once in a while,
and if you see me glancing backwards,
I'm no pillar of salt, it's just
nice to look back once in a while.
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3. |
Olympus Mons
03:44
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If I were the sun,
I would look out at the Earth and all
the other satellites that gravitate
in my direction,
and then I'd fill the void of darkness
with a piercing beam of light
and look out at the highest mountaintops
and I would sing:
"Oh, Olympus Mons,
you are the tallest mountain anywhere,
you command the very face of
the world you sit upon.
Great Olympus Mons,
there is nothing to wear you down,
no tectonic plates, no atmosphere,
no rivers to be found,
yet you are dust,
and to dust you shall return."
God, he became dirt so
he could show us where to put our feet
as they tread for a short while upon
the crust of the earth,
and the tallest man alive,
his stature someday soon shall be cut down
and the penitent man remembers
as he looks to his feet
that we are his
and to him we shall return.
Oh, Olympus Mons
you are the tallest mountain anywhere
you command the very face of
the world you sit upon.
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4. |
Desdemona
04:16
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Hold me now as I try to be a good man,
because I don't even know what that looks like anymore.
My shirt and tie were only austere at best,
and what a flimsy house we've made for ourselves.
Hold me now as I give up all my virtues
because they never really were mine in the first place.
All the books I've read have taught me justice at best,
and what a flimsy world we've made for ourselves.
But you,
you're the first page of Lolita
and I, I'll give my tangled thorns up to you.
Hallelujah, I can't do it alone.
Hold me now as I try to give myself up
because I was never worth believing in to begin with.
My code of honor, oh, I sure tried my best.
But what flimsy gods we make for ourselves.
And you,
you're the first page of Lolita
and I, I'll give my tangled thorns up to you.
Hallelujah, I can't do it alone.
And you,
you're my sweetest Desdemona
and I, I'm in a jealous rage before you.
God help me, I can't do it alone.
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5. |
Rearview Mirror
04:38
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When I catch my face in the rearview mirror
the skin's a little tighter around the eyes:
a face more worn out that still remembers
when rain fell a little softer in the night,
and the moon was a little brighter,
the nights were more clear.
Like a boat that's tethered to a nearby shore
won't you cut me a deal and turn it loose?
Or won't you cut me a deal, put things back like before
when I knew all the people that I knew?
Now that gulf's a little wider,
the waters are less clear.
Sometimes,
you look back and grow wise,
and sometimes
the years still go by and you've just grown older.
Like a painted ship on a shfiting sea
like Sisyphus with my taillights to the dawn,
maybe everything's a cycle; I keep my eyes straight ahead.
In the rearview mirror, it's all the same.
Maybe everything's a cycle,
maybe everything's moving on.
Sometimes,
you look back and grow wise,
and sometimes
the years still go by and you've just grown older.
Maybe everything's a cycle
Maybe everything works out
Maybe everything will stay
where it's supposed to, someday.
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6. |
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Remember when
We were walking through the woods?
Talking like it would only be
The first night like this we'd be together
Did you know that I would love you?
When you told me about
Your favorite jokes and favorite colors
And we laughed at one another's
Awkward attempts at playing it cool
Did you know that I would love you?
Did you know that I would love you
When the rain started falling down
And we ran back to the car
Holding hands without a sound
Holding hands for the very first time?
We drove all over town
Looking for an umbrella
Something to give us shelter
'Cuz we didn't want to part.
Oh no, not just yet.
Did you know that I would love you?
The rain it started coming on
That soggy Monday night
But you, you were a sight
You did your hair a little
Bit different way back then.
Did you know that I would love you?
Did you know that I would love you
When all the stores were closed?
And I wanted to keep your company
Though our clothes were getting soaked?
But then we found what we were looking for.
And I held on to your hand though that umbrella fell apart,
And a lot of things were easier, back then, at the start.
That storm, it's kept a-brewing and it's brewing to this day;
That storm, it's kept a-brewing, no, it's never gone away.
Remember the night
We were laying on the hill
Electric glow on the horizon
Not a star out in the sky
That dirty old ditch
Felt like a peaceful river
When I gave you your first kiss.
Did you know that I would love you
The first night I said I did?
I still do, & I still plan on doing so.
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7. |
Rothko Chapel
03:35
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What is the measure of honesty;
it seems to me
like a yellow leaf that's falling
into a sallow sea of green
but perhaps a breeze
might help it linger for a moment.
Do you wonder
if we're looking for truth in all the wrong places?
Are there curtains
that shelter the tenderest parts of yourself?
I'm going to Rothko Chapel,
where colors bleed into their silky pools.
I've learned enough to grow arrogant,
just a little bit
about a great many things,
but the longer I study my own self
the more I see
an artificial complexity
Where I have been right and you have been right
and somehow we still disagree.
What can be said then of earnest simplicity?
So I'm going to Rothko Chapel,
where colors bleed into their dusky pools.
And I am the shifting sand I built my house upon.
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8. |
Mountaintops
04:55
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In the mire, in the rankest mires of woe,
you found me there
with a map, but no light to read it by
and nowhere to go.
There's a glimmer on the horizon;
the mountaintop's ablaze.
I learned to curse the day I learned to speak
for I found no relief.
I was dead, I was truly dead.
There's a glimmer on the horizon;
the mountaintop's ablaze.
Then you came and you picked me up.
You taught my darkened eyes to see.
You gave me life, life I never knew I didn't have;
I was chained but now I'm free.
I had looked in the mirror to find
a king without a kingdom -
I was a cripple without a crutch.
But you broke your way through
all of my illusions
and healed my broken bones with love.
There's a glimmer on the horizon;
the mountaintop's ablaze.
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9. |
Ruins of Time
04:16
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You stood over the ruin of time
and showed me the road
the road leading out,
while I thought back to
paths I didn't take
so long ago, so long ago.
I buried myself in the past
like a balm for the onset of age
could be found there,
but then I found you.
You stood by as buildings tumbled down
that once stood tall
taller than me.
And any child could have known you from afar
two eyes and a mouth
like the man in the moon.
And all of the faces and names
that I've known have begun
to disperse like the sawdust
that sits in the cracks of the corners
where lives intersect for a time.
When the faces and names
that I've known fade away
and my tower has crumbled
and fallen,
my life is hidden away
and it won't be found
around that colossal wreck
of the past.
Don't look there, don't look there
don't look there, it's an empty tomb.
Hallelujah, everything
will someday be wiped clean.
Don't look there, don't look there
don't look there, it's all gone.
Hallelujah, everything
will someday be wiped clean.
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10. |
Winter Song
04:22
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The moon, it shines brightly
across the melting snow,
and I have been so bold as to think
the world could stand transfixed.
I've seen love grow stale,
felt it choke in my throat.
When I came to your bedside,
you were halfway gone.
It could be a painting,
it could be a poem,
people crossing themselves
as they leave the hospital.
Like your frosty breath
on these winter nights,
there's things you hardly notice
until they've left you.
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11. |
Peace
02:17
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There is a flag that flies for peace
waving somewhere in the heavens.
There is a year of jubilee
when all our debts will be forgiven.
There is a man who speaks his words
like the poets sing for their lovers
There is a feast prepared for us
where once again we will be brothers.
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