1. |
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SOMETHING ABOUT APARTMENTS
There was something about apartments
There was something about paying rent
You said you’d buy a house someday
But for now your place was just a place to stay
There was something about the cigarettes
There was something about the dive bars you couldn’t forget
There was something about being 21
You knew, eventually, that things wouldn’t be as much fun
There was something about the sex
There was something about the vest
There was something in the way you said you’d explore the Northwest
There was something about being reckless
There’s something in those grand notions
Something about trying to spell out our devotion
Something about the way her lips moved in slow motion,
Something about the place’s view of the ocean
There is something in the black and in the leather
There is something in the string that ties us all together
There is something on Capitol Hill and Queen Anne
There was something about getting older and not taking a stand
There was something in the house
There was something in the blouse
In the drama on the page, that you had to get out
There was something about getting older
There is something about how
The neighborhoods could slip away into the sand
There is something about the poetry
Can’t measures up to the deep cave inside the man
What did we leave in our apartment? Whoa, whoa
There was something about being young
Old folks, we thought we shouldn’t have listened to ‘em
They forgot about what it was like to be us,
And now that time is lost, they were only tryin’ to free us
One day the younger folks are gonna hear us preach
You hear the drone in the throngs of the kids in the street
We’ll have the wisdom from our years
But it will fall on ignorant ears
There was something about the way she said it
Generations have expressed it, but she nailed it
Memories are photos on a dusty shelf
And tonight I’m gonna look inside myself
Memories are photos on a dusty shelf
And tonight I’m gonna look inside myself
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2. |
A Life is a Short Time
03:04
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A LIFE IS A SHORT TIME
The world brought me to this faded street
Where the colors go brown
But all my life is a short time, somehow
Got a degree, it came easy
The sun burnished my black gown
But all my life is a short time, somehow
Got a life, a kid, and a wife
My fortune seemed to be comin’ around
But still my life felt like a short time, somehow
Happiness was bought and sold, baby got old
But she never ceases to astound
Her life will be such a short time, anyhow
The air gets colder
We get older
The lump builds in your throat
It’s seems like there’s less and less to lose
But, above all things, it seems like you can always have hope
I bought a truck, I sold the house
And headed for the Sound
I thought to myself, it’s such a short life, anyhow
I’ve got some questions
And some suggestions
Maybe if I was pope
I could look straight into the sun
And swear, with all my soul, that I should have hope
So come on, child
Live free and wild
And never back down
‘Cause you find some day it was a short time, anyhow
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3. |
September
05:00
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SEPTEMBER
When the steel rims crack and the summer’s slippin away from you
And the mornings glide in on the wings of an autumn dew
Well, it seems that we’ve come apart like an untied bow
You taught me more about lovin’ than I ever wanted to know
But it’s OK when the rain falls on the snow in September
And the white night chills me to my very ember
September
Blowin’ down the halls of the cathedral
Shinin’ light on all that is not evil
Letting me know how to begin
September
Letting me know I’ve got a savior
Autumn lets me know it’s not a sin
To start all over again
I remember rollin’ down the highway like a cannon ball run
I remember the first time I saw Nashville, I don’t think I’ve ever felt so young
Well we can’t escape livin’, no matter how hard we try
But we can shake it off when the August Mustang slips away and dies
But it’s OK
September
Blowin’ down the halls of the cathedral
Shinin’ light on all that is not evil
Letting me know how to begin
September
Givin’ me four weeks for good behavior
Autumn lets me know it’s not a sin
To start all over again
Sail on through those golden days, keep shinin’ like the sun
Your time will be through before your song will be sung
But golden luster is so hard to hold on to
September’s gonna carry me, you now I’m not through
I’m just a different hue
September
Blowin’ down the halls of the cathedral
Shinin’ light on all that is not evil
Letting me know how to begin
September
Givin’ me four weeks for good behavior
Autumn lets me know it’s not a sin
To start all over again
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4. |
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IT WASN’T PART OF THE PLAN
Who was the richest?
Who was the best?
Monsieur Monde
Came and then left
I drove to Austin
Came back a man
It wasn’t part of the plan
It wasn’t part of the plan
Someone with a corset string
Someone with a document
Someone with a magic wand
Waving to the penitent
I lost my friend
When the war began
It wasn’t part of the plan
It wasn’t part of the plan
Can’t meditate on family
The schedule was tight
I flew to Vegas
Landed for a flight
And the cousins were dancing
When I stepped onto the sand
It wasn’t part of the plan
It wasn’t part of the plan
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5. |
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CAUGHT BETWEEN LOVE AND HATE
Make a sacrifice for Lenny
Though we can’t use him anymore
Pile up the photographs a-plenty
The jazz band looms outside your door
And all the black boys sing
And I remember you
How you needed me, too
Caught between love and hate
I guess love is the stranger thing
Breathes fire into imaginings
Then you watch them fall
So in love and all
Did you invest much in your promise?
When you went to get your gun?
It’s easy to make a commitment
When you’ve only just begun
And all the black boys sing
And I remember you
How you needed me, too
Caught between love and hate
I guess love is the stranger thing
Breathes fire into imaginings
Then you watch them fall
Walk the line with you want
The repels you like its aim is to taunt
You know exactly what hate is
But love is a stranger
Full of so much danger
Love hears your best-dressed confessions
You guess what the silhouetted stranger brings
Then you watch it fall
So in love and all
Caught between love and hate
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6. |
Stronger Than Alcohol
02:40
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STRONGER THAN ALCOHOL
She had the nerve to say the things
That she wrote in her journal at night
That monumental verve that springs
From such a lucid personal insight
Your ravenous, back-alley ways
Proactive, like a devil on the make
Set her drifting from her ideals
Into an azure hovel where secrets bake
Stronger than alcohol
Your love is vast and it is tall
Stronger than any words in a song
My candle’s burning bright
But it will not last the night
So let’s bath in the light
It casts on the waters of blue
You’ve met your Waterloo
You stumbled in like a trucker
Who needed a brew
But you made a miscalculation
When you shamelessly tried to woo
This girl with delirious sass
And a pile of anguish and bitterness
She grabbed the cane tipped with shiny brass
As you walked out to the grass
Stronger than alcohol
Your love is vast and it is tall
Stronger than any words in a song
My candle’s burning bright
But it will not last the night
So let’s bath in the light
It casts on the waters of blue
You’ve met your Waterloo
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7. |
There Will Be Time
03:59
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THERE WILL BE TIME
Gone without warning on Sunday morning
Gone without vengeance or blame
All just moments to be rearranged
So lovely and strange
Blond and like beauty she just can’t stay
Gone like the last ten years slipped away
Maria, she cries, “There’s nothing here for me here, anyway
And, afterall, it’s Independence Day”
I hear the women say
That tomorrow we will run faster
We will climb higher
There will be time
Time to discover and to define
There will be time
In a full circle, in a broken line
Oh, there will be time
Chart your course and don’t ever stray
Never forget it’s meant to be that way
You can hear voices, in a crescendo they say,
“Never wander away”
I hear the mermaids say
That tomorrow we will run faster
We will climb higher
There will be time
Time to discover and to define
There will be time
In a full circle, in a broken line
Oh, in a second’s time
Oh, in a second’s time
Oh, in a moment’s time
There will be time
Time to tear it up, time to really shine
Time to shake the shack, make the moment mine
Time to re-discover, time to re-define
We could die tonight and that would be just fine
With your hand in mine
After all, it’s only time
After all, what is time?
I won’t wear a watch and we’ll get on just fine
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8. |
Every Morning
02:52
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EVERY MORNING
I am driving in a pretty nice car
I am riding by a beautiful beach
In the morning I jump up
And make sure
To be clear
To tell myself
Today is a great day to do what I gotta do
Don’t think those terrible things
We can be civil, we can be kind
Honesty is in the way you say it
I think you can feel fine
If you say what you need to say
And don’t worry about what you don’t have
You’re living in a pretty nice home
You’re walking down a pretty nice street
In the morning I jump up
And make sure
To be clear
To tell myself
Today is a great day to do what I gotta do
Nice clothes
Nice stores
Neon signs, cars and lines
News images start to blind
Big business, shoe polish
Is this not the American dream?
I think it’s more about the idea
Then the patina or the sheen
You’re living in a pretty big world
You’ve had a pretty good ride
In the morning I jump up
And make sure
To be clear
To tell myself
Today is a great day to do what I gotta do
What did we consume?
Who are these people in this room?
What is our tax and our expense?
I think we can get on just fine
The air is full of light
The breath we take is full of life
Do we need any more?
It is a big, big basketball gym
And the game has to end
But who is gonna lose
And who is gonna win?
Does it matter?
Turn off the T.V. and tune out the chatter
In the morning I jump up
And make sure
To be clear
To tell myself
Today is a great day to do what I gotta do
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9. |
Girl Like You
02:27
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A GIRL LIKE YOU
Well, I was a little boy
Just outside De La Croix
You were young and we would sing
I’d push you in your parents’ swing
Baby doll, I know that our reward in heaven will be great
Don’t forget your privileges are twisting in the swirling winds of fate
Oh, God, who knew?
I’d find a girl like you
Those words don’t mean to me what they do to you
Was it me who put you there?
Was it me who held your share?
You were down, I thought you knew
I was down; you seemed down, too
Oh, God, who knew?
I’d find a girl like you
I’m sorry I didn’t believe you
Every word you spoke was so true
Those words don’t mean to me what they do to you
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10. |
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OH DAISY, DON’T YOU KNOW?
There’s the reticent woman
With her reminiscent man
Recalling the vague, beautiful images
Of being drunken on the sand
And in the clubs and the cafes
La Belle Vie! Vite, Vite my man
Consumed in the mystique of the dotted nighttime
And the water’s soothing hand
Oh Daisy, don’t you know the hour is near?
When we’ve got to pack up our bags and get out of here
How she looks like an angel
‘Neath the brown leaves a fallin’
She smells like the outdoors comin’ inside
Off a deep, autumn wind
She’s bundled up tight
‘Neath the smoggy New York lights
And she says,
“Hey, do you remember those delightful, drunken nights?”
Oh Daisy, don’t you know the hour is near?
When we’ve got to pack up our bags and get out of here
She’s stumblin’ on the avenue
Envisioning that wide, foreign sea
She’s lost in the pizzicato strings
That played such a spare melody
He says, “It was splendid back then
The wretched charm of this place is wearing thin
Let’s get on with this
Let’s be expatriates again”
Oh Daisy, don’t you know our departing hour is near?
Those days when we were young and bold are so far away from here
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Ben Mish Seattle, Washington
Ben Mish writes songs and performs them frequently.
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