The Tragically Hip - 1987

Small Town Bringdown

Small Town Bringdown
Been to Reno
Drives an El Camino
Can you dig that style?

Hip canteen
You always make the scene
You're a crazy child.

It's a sad thing
Bourbons all around
To stop that feeling when you're
living
In a small town

You're long and lean
But things don't get you down
You're a top ten kingpin in the
borders
Of your hometown

Can't get hip
You work the jobs I've quit
Can you dig that style?

Won't admit
You just don't give a shit
You're a crazy child.

It's a sad day
Bourbons all around
To stop that feeling when you're
living in a small town

You're long and lean
But things don't get you down
You're a top ten kingpin in the
borders
Of your hometown

Can't live to die-too easy
Why stick around
I want my live to please me
Not another small town hometown
bringdown

Last American Exit

You know the reasons I can't conceal
You know I'm leaving you obviously know how I feel
You know I'm tired of crawling 'hind my name among
The crowd.

It's not a matter of wrong or right
It ain't much better than drinking and looking to fight
It's not as easy as calling out your name when I'm down.

I'm on the last American exit to the northland
I'm on the last American exit to my homeland
I'm on the last American exit to my last chance
They keep calling out my name - I shout it down

You've made then wonder and know for sure
You've made them hunger at night and then run for the door
You know you'll probably cry like Caesar's son when
You're found.

It's not your place it's another town
Let's face it baby I'm up and then baby I'm down
You'll watch the border offer you fame and watch it drown.

I'm on the last American exit to the northland
I'm on the last American exit to my homeland
I'm on the last American exit to my last chance
They keep calling out my name - I shout it down

Know you neighbours and know they'll take us
Know my city it's just like theirs are
Hope I make it. I know I'm gonna make it somehow
Know my saviour he knows you shakers
Know my pity I'll see you later
I'd like to stay but I know it doesn't make it somehow

I'm on the last American exit to the northland
I'm on the last American exit to my homeland
I'm on the last American exit to my last chance
They keep calling out my name - I shout it down

They keep callin out my name
They keep callin out my name
They keep callin out my name
I shout it down.

Killing Time

I need your confidence
Need to know you're mine
When it gets right down
To the killing time
I know your heart is bad
But it's all I've ever had
We can live you lives
On this righteous crime.

I got kicked when I was down
And a sailor took my girl to town
Then she licked my wounds
With the sea dog's salt
I drank a half a bottle of Jack
Swore I'd never take you back
By the bottle's end
I was on that phone.

What you call compromise
I don't understand
What call compromise
I don't understand.

How do you walk away?
How do you walk away?
How do you walk away?
From a woman
That gone and done you wrong?

Evelyn

Evelyn - Evelyn
Where were you last night?
Evelyn - Evelyn
Where were you last night?

Waited on your front porch 'til the
break of day
But when dawn broke I could no longer
wait for...

Evelyn - Evelyn
Where were you last night?
Evelyn - Evelyn
Where were you last night?

Must have phoned a million times no
answer came
What kind of fool am I to play the
game with...

Evelyn - Evelyn
Where were you last night?
Evelyn - Evelyn
Where were you last night?

This has gone on before
I can't take it no more
I'll even up the score and
Get away from...

Evelyn - Evelyn
Where were you last night?
Evelyn - Evelyn
Where were you last night?

If you must have your way you
won't have me
I won't be pushed around I must
get free from...

Evelyn - Evelyn
Where were you last night?
Evelyn - Evelyn
Where were you last night?

Cemetery Sideroad

I had a heart, but I used to be older
I'm not like I used to be
Had you, but I guess it's all over
You talk, but you're not like me.

You talk and you talk like some weird saint
What do you think that we could taint?
When you're nothing I am and I'm
something you ain't.

Hold me, until the night makes colder
Tell me, how life's made you bad
Kick me when I choke and I smolder
When I'm not what you had.

I'm looking for a cemetery sideroad
I'm screaming like a lighthouse lamp
I'm chasing after what I think that I'm owed
Like a French foreign legion tramp.

You swim in an ocean that's storming
You eat when the wolves all do
You ache like a mother in mourning
When you're left alone with you.

I'm A Werewolf Baby

The moon goes up,
i start to sweat call the doctor,
call the vet my brain goes numb,
my blood gets hot all i need is what you got

i'm a werewolf, baby,
and here i come
i'm a werewolf, baby,
and here i come

i lose control,
i just can't stop you
look so good like a big pork chop
ripped my pants,
ripped my shirt
i'm gonna eat yourmother for dessert

chorus

i can smell your blood,
i can hear you breathe
i'm gonna eat your heart,
right off your sleeve
eat you cooked,
eat you raw i'm
gonna rip you up
like a big chain saw

chorus

Highway Girl

I'm going down to see my highway girl
She just came back from around the world
I'm gonna get me a gun, I'm gonna stand on guard
In a little white booth in her front yard.

Throwing rocks at her window what could she do
If you throw enough rocks one might break through
Well she looked out her window when the police came
To see a big tin man dancing in the rain.

Oh my little highway girl
Oh my little highway girl

She said, Don't you think babe you push a bit too fast
I said, Slowing down don't make it last
And a memory's never gonna set you free
Go out and see that world and bring it home to me.

Oh my little highway girl
Oh my little highway girl
Oh my little highway girl
Oh my little highway girl

All Canadian Surf Club

Well there's a rockin' little spot
Next to the Regent Theatre
And if you wanna make the scene
You'll make it sooner or later
You're really hanging with the crowd
You know the ins and the outs here
All Canadian Surf Club
Denim jackets and long hair

Well we're rocking to the beach
Watch the waves as they roll there
I meant I really dig you baby
Make me wild with your blonde hair
Yeah, when your dancin' next to me
I want to roll and die there
I'll be designing my buggy
While I'm thinking about next year

Walk across the sand
With another friend
My love depends
When summer ends

You really abuse and use the beach
Cause there's things that you need there
I got my guitar, cadillac
Chick and twenty four cold beers
Yeah, when your dancin' next to me
I want to roll and die there
All Canadian Surf Club
Denim jackets and long hair

Walk across the sand
With another friend
My heart depends
When summer ends
Denim jackets and long hair
I want to roll and die there
Make me wild with your blonde hair
Yeah

Up To Here - 1989

Blow at High Dough

They shot a movie once, in my hometown
Everybody was in it, from miles around
Out at the speedway, some kinda Elvis thing
Well I ain't no movie star
But I can get behind anything
Yea I can get behind anything

Get it out, get it all out
Yea stretch that thing
Make it last, make it all last
At least until the supper bell rings
Well the taxi driver likes his rhythm
Never likes the stops
Throes of passion, throes of passion
When something just threw him off

Chorus
Sometimes the faster it gets
The less you need to know
But you gotta remember,
The smarter it gets
The further it's gonna go
When you blow at high dough
When you blow at high dough

Whoa baby I feel fine
I'm pretty sure it's genuine
It makes no sense, no it makes no sense
But I'll take it free any time
Whoever fits her usually gets her
It was the strangest thing
How'd she move so fast, move so fast
Into that wedding ring

Chorus

Out at the speedway, same Elvis thing
Well I can't catch her, but I can get behind anything
Yea I can get behind anything
Well I can get behind anything

Chorus

Out at the speedway, same Elvis thing

I'll Believe in You

Well, it's 7 a.m. and she awoke by the radio
Yea she rolled on over said, "Where did man go?"
She's been a gunslinger's wife all her life
Now she fights when she's able
For the sake of the kids when the knife's at their
necks in the cradle
She screams,

Chorus
I'll believe in you or I'll be leaving you tonight
I will believe in you or I'll be leaving you tonight

Well she's got all the kids and she's got all their uses
But she loves them the same for neglect and abuses
She got a warm spot where they fought
And they made up last night
He said, "Don't read too much into the fact
That I'm leaving."
She screams,

I'll believe in you or I'll be leaving you tonight
I will believe in you or I'll be leaving you tonight
I will believe in you or I'll be leaving you tonight
I will believe in you or I'll be leaving you tonight

How do I explain this
I mean how do I put this into words
It's one thing or another
But it's neither this nor that
Actually, it's a collection of things
She said, "That's it, that's it, get out"

Well her mother said, "Kill him, slow at your leisure"
Ah but desperate times call for desperate measures
So she went to the closet and she pulled the old gun down
"I'll put a bullet through his heart if he ain't home by sundown"
Yea 5:55 he comes walking in the front door smiling
He said, "Don't read too much into what I ain't denying"
She screams...

I'll believe in you or I'll be leaving you tonight
I will believe in you or I'll be leaving you tonight
I will believe in you or I'll be leaving you tonight
I will believe in you or I'll be leaving you tonight
Well I believe in you

New Orleans is Sinking

Bourbon blues on the street, loose and complete
Under skies all smokey blue-green
I can't forsake a dixie dead-shake
So we danced the sidewalk clean
My memory is muddy, what's this river that I'm in?
New Orleans is sinking man and I don't wanna swim

Colonel Tom. What's wrong? What's going on?
You can't tie yourself up for a deal
He said, "Hey north you're south shut your big mouth,
You gotta do what you feel is real"
Ain't got no picture postcards, ain't got no souvenirs
My baby, she don't know me when I'm thinking bout those years

Pale as a light bulb hanging on a wire
Sucking up to someone just to stoke the fire
Picking out the highlights of the scenery
Saw a little cloud that looked a little like me

I had my hands in the river
My feet back up on the banks
Looked up to the lord above
And said, "Hey man thanks"
Sometimes I fell so good, I gotta scream
She said Gordie baby I know exactly what you mean
She said, she said, I swear to god she said...

My memory is muddy what's this river that I'm in?
New Orleans is sinking man and I don't wanna swim

Thirty-Eight Years Old

Twelve men broke loose in Seventy-Three
From Millhaven maximum security
Twelve pictures lined up, across the front page
Seems the Mounties had a summertime war to wage
The Chief told the people they had nothing to fear
Said, "The last thing they wanna do is stick around here"
They mostly came from towns with long French names
But one of the dozen was a hometown shame.

Chorus
Same pattern on the table
Same clock on the wall
Been one seat empty, eighteen years in all
Freezing slow time, away from the world
He's 38 year's old, never kissed a girl

We were sitting round the table, heard the telephone ring
Father said he tell em if he saw anything
Heard the tap on my window in the middle of the night
Held back the curtain for my older brother Mike

See my sister got raped, so a man got killed
Local boy went to prison, man's buried on the hill
Folks went back to normal when they closed the case
But they still stare at their shoes when they pass our place

My mother cried, "The horror has finally ceased!"
He whispered,"Yea for the time being, at least"
Over her shoulder, on the squad car megaphone
Said,"Let's go Michael, son, we're taking you home."

She Didn't Know

Born a queen up on her side, and she felt it too.
There's a lot you can see when there's nothing to do
She got down on her knees and she dug herself out
Slipping to the east side and prancing about.

Learn a language baby, it's that kind of place
Low card is hunger and high card is taste
And trouble is small change when Daddy's around
You know that she learned a lesson when she happened down

Chorus
She didn't know - the barrel was loaded
She didn't know - the barrel was loaded
She didn't know - the barrel was loaded
She didn't know

One eye on the table, one eye on the floor
She got beat for her pride with her back to the door
She be digging the spotlight and called it her own
But you know it's over when everyone's gone

Chorus

Stealing seconds together, the day is
the night
You can fly your own colours as long
as they're right
The trigger invites you and so do the boys
But if there ain't no one listening
there ain't no noise

Chorus

Boots or Hearts

Well I think that there's a problem here
Her voice just don't sound right
But I left myself on her answering machine
Said, "I'm back in town tonight."
I feel I've stepped out of the wilderness
All squint-eyed and confused
But even babies raised by wolves
They know exactly when they've been used

Chorus
See when it starts to fall apart
It really falls apart
Like boots or hearts, Oh when they start
They really fall apart

Fingers and toes, fingers and toes
Forty things we share
Forty-one if you include
The fact that we don't care
Now you've blocked off most of main street
For your faith parade
Everyone in town now, they probably all agree
I'm lying in the bed I made

Chorus

Now you won't even let me talk to you
We got some air to clear
We'd probably only agree on one thing anyway
That's what the hell is happening here?
Fingers and toes, fingers and toes
Forty things we share
Forty-one if you include
The fact that we don't care

Chorus

Everytime You Go

Like anyone I knew a Dave
Drove a Plymouth Shallow Grave
Said, "My girl don't just walk, she unfurls"
With motorcycle language
He stumbled through his slang pledge
Then he dragged the mud for wedding pearls

Chorus
He closed both his eyes and sort of gave her a kiss
Said, "Don't worry baby about what you're gonna miss
There will always be a much much more than this
Everytime you go, you are all I see
Holding out for you and me

Pulled down his birthday suitcase
Brown with dust from no place
Said, "I think it's time we made a start"
They danced the waltz of charity
No car garage, two kids for free
They were pissing bliss and playing parts

Chorus
She closed both her eyes, sorta gave him a kiss
Said, "Don't worry baby what you're gonna miss
There always be much much more than this"
Everytime you go, you are all I see
Holding out for you and me

And the big snake pit
And we danced to the edge of it
And we laugh and we laugh
Cause we ain't seen the half of it

Everytime you go, you are all I see
Holding out for you and me
Everytime you go, you are all I see
Holding out for you and me
Everytime you go, you are all I see
Holding out for you and me
You and me you and me you and me

When The Weight Comes Down

Afternoon, see a guy with rubies on his head
and he's shifting like shifting like he was dead
and he's hearing something, she never said
on his way back home, under his bed

chorus
When the weight comes down
When the weight comes down

In the night there's a girl who doesn't mind her
ragged sleeves
Knowing someone soon is gonna grieve
And a man he tells her a story, she just won't believe
Called "Adam never could do right by Eve"

And the weight comes down
And the weight comes down
And the weight comes down
Down on you, down on me
And a girl walks by the burning bush
She asks "What's going on here man?"
And he smiles, says, "Open wide, wide. Wide"

In my dreams, a candy coated train comes to my door
With a little girl, I can't have anymore
You know a letter washes up to the shore
That I cannot read and I probably should ignore

When the weight comes down
When the weight comes down
When the weight comes down

Trickle Down

Old lion's dying, got left behind
Cut your teeth, lose your meat
And man it's just a matter of time
Key's to the cuffs, you might be king
That's it, that's all, that's everything

Skeletons come here to dance
Where barrooms beat their brothers
Into a bloody trance
What's the deal? What did I do?
Who cops all the cops is all I asked of you

Chorus
Lining up, waiting on the trickle down
Something's up, taking time to get around
Belly up, all the drinks are on the crown
It's just a matter of trickle down

Twenty miles before the crash
That's the style for a while
And man I think it's gonna last
"Hit the breaks" is all you can say
Conductor says we'll save them
For another rainy day

Chorus

Another Midnight

He was a coal miner in the spring
Blinded with its dusty resolutions
Broke his back for higher contributions
Now he'd take anything
Well she was 1970
Burning like a cigarette long season
Heir to all her family's old treasons
She makes love hard like an enemy
Oh Ma he's dying

Chorus
And the river don't sleep
When the water runs cold
And the calandar burns
As the story unfolds
And the valley spans miles
When the mountain stands high
Can't they let us run wild
For another midnight

Perhaps we're an election day
Pumping hands and kissing all the babies
Ain't no time for shadowed doubts or maybes
Is there another way?
Or we're a stolen Cadillac
Racing for a roadblock in the distance
Flashing by a lifetime in an instance
Can we take it back?
Oh Ma he's dying
Oh Ma he's dying

And the river don't sleep
When the water runs cold
And the calendar burns
As the story unfolds
And they valley spans miles
When the mountain stands high
Can't they let us run wild
For another midnight

Can we take it back

And the valley spans miles
When the mountain stands high
Can't they let us run wild
For another midnight

Opiated

He bought two fifths of lead-free gasoline
Said, the bottle is dusty, but my engine is clean
He bought a nice blue suit with the money he could find
If his bride didn't like it, St. Peter wouldn't mind

Chorus
Now I lie here so out-of-breath
And over-opiated
Maybe I couldn't catch up, no but
Maybe he could of wanted

Well the medicine man started seeing red
You think the snake just dreams up the poison in his head
Addicted to approval, addicted to the air
It was see if you like it or see you up there

Chorus

Road Apples - 1991

Little Bones

It gets so sticky down here
Better butter your cue-finger up
It's the start of another new year
Better call the newspaper up
2.50 for a hi-ball
And buck and a half for a beer
Happy hour, happy hour
Happy hour is here

The long days of Shockley are gone
So is football Kennedy style
Famous last words taken all wrong
Wind up on the very same pile
2.50 for a decade
And a buck and a half for a year
Happy hour, happy hour
Happy hour is here

I can cry, beg and whine
T'every Rebel I find
Just to give me a line
I could use to describe

They'd say, "Baby, eat this chicken slow
It's full of all them little bones."

So regal and decadent here
Coffin-cheaters dance on their graves
Music, all it's delicate fear
Is the only thing that don't change
2.50 for and eyeball
And a buck and a half for an ear
Happy hour, happy hour
Happy hour is here

Nothing's dead down here, just a little tired
They'd say, "Baby eat this chicken slow
It's full of all them little bones."

Twist My Arm

Thar she blows, Jacques Cousteau
Hear her sing so sweet and low
Lull me overboard, out-cold
Gathered in and and swallowed whole

Do I want to? With all that charm?
Do I want to? Twist my arm

You just hit me where I live
I guess it looked quite primitive
What was that supposed to prove?
Throw the calf or he'll throw you

Sucked in by the victim world
Thirsty as a cultured pearl
Culled and wooed, bitten, chewed
It won't hurt if you don't move

Do I want to? With all that charm?
Do I want to? Twist my arm

Musical chairs, double dares, memorized stairs,
Shootin' off flares, springtime hares and broken-down mares

Coward phones, big soup stones, prideless loans,
Grill-sick crows, motel moans and a big fat Jones

Martyrs don't do much for me
Though I enjoy them vicariously
After you. No! After me
No, I insist! Please, after me.

Do I want to? With all that charm?
Do I want to? Twist my arm

Cordelia

Angst on the planks, spittin' from a bridge
Just to see how far down it really is
Robbing a bank, jumping from a train
Old antiques a man alone can entertain

It takes all your power
To prove that you don't care
I'm not Cordelia, I will not be there

Tin can man, dragging from a car
Just to see how alive you really are
Marrying words, falling in your wake
Just to tell what you can't eliminate

Treading the boards, screaming out Macbeth
Just to see how much bad luck you really get
Jump in the ring with your hidden cape
The bull can't decide what it is that he really hates

Angst on the planks, spittin' from a bridge
Just to see how far down it really is
Robbing a bank, jumping on a train
Old antiques a man alone can entertain

Thief lingers on, on his hands and knees
Must be one more thing here, I really need
Die in your dreams, falling on your knife
A thief blinded on the job, has to steal for life

Born in The Water

Rolling hills all covered in suede
I'm heat-nervous and out of road
Downtown, there's a parade
But I don't think I wanna go
Smart as trees in Sault Ste. Marie
I can speak my mother tongue
Passing laws, just because
And singing songs of the English unsung

How could you do it?
How could you even try?
When you were born in the water
And you were raised up in the sky?

Front seat stamped by the window
No erasees in this game
Arbitrary as the wind blows
It's another way to lay claim
Ain't no cause for bloodthirsting
In a little town so dry
Where the angels dance on a pinhead
Just to make room for you and I

How could you do it?
How could you even try?
When you were born in the water
And you were raised up in the sky

Thoroughbred with their great big heads
Think a mile might be too far
Highway horse laugh, but of course
When they don't know where the hell they are
Smart as trees in Sault Ste. Maire
Victorious mother tounge
Passing laws just because
Singing songs of the English unsung

Well how could you do it?
How could you even try
When you were born in the water
And you were raised up in the sky

Long Time Running

Does your mother tell you things?
Long, long when I'm gone?
Who you talking to?
Is she telling you I'm the one?
It's a grave mistake and I'm wide awake

Drive-In's rained out
Weatherman wet-fingers the sky
He pokes it out, he pulls it in
He don't know why
It's the same mistake

It's been a long time running
It's been a long time coming
It's well worth the wait

We don't go anywhere,
Just on trips
We haven't seen a thing
We still don't know where it is
It's a safe mistake

It's been a long time running
It's been a long time coming

Well, well it's all the same mistake
Dead to rights and wide awake
I'll drop a caribou, I'll tell on you,
I'll tell on you, I'll tell on you.

You've got a boat-load o'nerve
But I would say you've been told
You work me against my friends
And you'll get left out in the cold
It's the same mistake

It's been a long time running
It's been a long time coming
It's been a long, long, long time running
It's well worth the wait

Bring it All Back

I'd been carving you
To see what form you'd take
You were hiding in ivory
I just wanted to free your shape

Bringing me down, it's too quiet to breath
Who wants to hear their heart beat?

It's gotta be here
In your spider-web alphabets
Did I read it all wrong?
Have I just not gotten it yet?

You got what you want. You wanted release.
Can you be appeased? Can you bring it all back to me?
Bring it all back to me.

Bringing me down, the obvious turns out to be true
All that I couldn't see, how it was turning me on
I don't want to pare you down
No, I don't want to wear you down
I don't want any more than what's there
No, I don't want to pare you down

Well you got what you want. You wanted release.
Can you be appeased? Can you bring it all back to me?
Just bring Just bring it all back to me

It's all that I want
It's all that I need
It's all that I want

Bring it all back to me
Bring it, give it, bring it

The Luxury

Zoo Lion sobers up and starts to scream and shout
A little dose of home-fire got him all smoothed out
Melancholy wine-soaked tenderness
She hated it here and she couldn't care less

Prisonyard stares and fleur-de-lis tattoos
Cannibals are saving all their bones for soup
Eating with my fingers and sucking hulls of ships
My parasite don't deserve no better than this

The Golden Rim Motor Inn
Soft water and colour TV
So consumed with the shape I'm in
Can't enjoy the luxury

She says,"Why are you partial to that Playboy con?
When you can see me naked anytime you want?"
If I had loads o' mondy to make me tame and sour
I could pay you to remind of my baby by the hour

Zoo Lion sobers up and starts to scream and shout
A little dose of home-fire got him all smoothed out
If this is where it all starts getting good
Then I'll be here waiting for you, like I said I would

The Golden Rim Motor Inn
Soft water and a colour TV
So consumed with the shape I'm in
Can't enjoy the luxury
The Luxury

Three Pistols

Tom Thompson came paddling past
I'm pretty sure it was him
And he spoke so softly in accordance
To the growing of the dim
He said, "Bring on a brand new renaissance
Cause I think I'm ready
I've been shaking all night long
But my hands are steady."

Three pistols came and three people went, on their way
Three pistols strong and three people spent

Well he found his little, lonely love
His bride of the northern woods
But, she took me to the Opera House
Like he said she would
Then she sighed and she fell from the balcony
Shakespeare's bent to touch
She never had any time for me
Cause I didn't protest enough

Three pistols came and three people went, on their way
Two pistols strong and two people spent

Little girls come on Remembrance Day
Placing flowers on his grave
She waits in the shadows 'til after dark
To sweep them all away

I say, bring on the brand new renaissance
Cause I think I'm ready
I've been shaking all night long
But my hands are steady

Three pistols came and three people went, on their way
Three pistols strong and three people spent
Three pistols came and three people went on their way
One pistol strong and three people spent

Fight

We wake up different, rifle through our dreams
Another placid day, ripples at the seams

Do you think I bow out cause I think you're right?
Or cause I don't wanna fight?
So tangle-minded then so becalmed
It's all so subway-grim and then it's gone

Do you think I bow out cause I think you're right?
Or cause I don't wanna fight?
We get so weary, taking fish off hooks
It's not as effortless as it may look

Do you think I bow out cause I think you're right?
Or cause I don't wanna fight?
We lay down seething, smell our pillows burn
And drift off to the place where you'd think we'd learn

Do you think I bow out cause I think you're right?
Or cause I don't wanna fight?
I said, "I give."

On the Verge

Here we are, now where are we?
It's like nothing I've ever seen
We got horse-throated huckster's whispered gimmicks
Rubbernecking the curious cynics
And headlong-walkers, one born every minute
Do I plug it in? Or do I stick it in it?

I don't know what came over me
I'm too dumb for words
I didn't think I'd like it here at all
But, I swear, I swear I'm on the verge

Here we are, now who are you?
The long lost Queen's of some Hoodoo?
Well we're the last of the big-time penetrators
Playin' dead to fuck the undertaker
The movie'll come out a little bit later
The Men, The Legend, The Goat, The Saytr

I don't know what came over me
I'm too dumb for words
I didn't say I'd like it here at all
But, I swear, I swear I'm on the verge

Here we are, now don't ask how
The time to leave was kinda now
Well don't cry, baby, there's no cause for grief

Deadheading's never gonna kill the Chief
It's an empty road without relief
And I'm a highway romance milking thief

I don't know what came over me
I'm too dumb for words
I didn't think I'd like it here at all
But, I swear, I swear I'm on the verge

Fiddler's Green

September Seventeen
For a girl I know, it's Mother's Day
Her son has gone alee
And that's where he will stay
Wind on the weathervane
Tearing blue eyes sailor-mean
As Falstaff sings a sorrowful refrain
For a boy in Fiddler's Green

His tiny knotted heart
Well I guess it never worked to good
The timber tore apart
And the water gorged the wood
You can hear the whispered prayer
For men at masts that always lean
That the same wind that moves her hair
Moves her boy through Fiddler's Green

He doesn't know a soul
And there's nowhere that he's really been
But he won't travel long alone
No, not in Fiddler's Green
Balloons all filled with rain
As children's eyes turn sleepy-mean
And Falstaff sings a sorrowful refrain
For a boy in Fiddler's Green

The Last of the Unplucked Gems

Violins and tambourines
This is what I think they mean
It's hard to say, it's sad but true
I'm kinda dumb and so are you

When the mystique varies thus
You can send a man to bury us
It's hard to say, it's sad but true
I'm kinda dumb and so are you

The last of the unplucked gems
The last of the unplucked gems
The last of the unplucked gems

Fully Completely - 1992

Looking for a Place to Happen

I've got a job, I explore, I follow every little whiff
And I want my life to smell like this
To find a place, an ancient race
The kind you'd like to gamble with
Where they'd stamp on burning bags of shit.
Looking for a place to happen
making stops along the way

Wayward ho! Away we go,
It's a shame to leave this masterpiece
With its' gallery gods and its' garbage-bag trees
So I'll paint a scene, from memory,
so I'd know who murdered me
It's a vain pursuit, but it helps me to sleep
Looking for a place to happen
making stops along the way

Jacques Cartier, right this way,
I'll put your coat up on the bed
Hey man you've got a real bum's eye for clothes
And come on in, sit right down,
no you're not the first to show
We've all been here since, God, who knows?
Looking for a place to happen,
making stops along the way.

At the Hundredth Meridian

Me debunk an american myth?
And take my life in my hands?
Where the Grat Plains begin
at the hundredth meridian.
At the hundredth meridian,
Where the Great Plains begin

Driving down a corduroy road,
Weeds standing shoulder high
Ferris wheel is rusting off in the distance
At the hundredth meridian where the Great Plains begin

Left alone to get gigantic;
Hard, huge, and haunted
A generation so much dumber than it's parents came
crashing through the window
A raven strains along the line of the road,
carrying a muddy, old skull
The wires whistle their approval,
off down the distance
At the hundredth meridian where the Great Plains begin

I remember, I remember buffalo and I remember Hengelo
It would seem to me I remember every
single bloody, warm, and horrible thing I know

If I die of Vanity, promise me, promise me,
they bury me some place I don't want to be,
you'll dig me up and transport me unceremoniously,
away from the swollen city-breeze, garbage-bag trees,
whispers of disease and acts of enormity
and lower me slowly, sadly, and properly
Get Ry Cooder to sing my eulogy
At the hundredth meridian where the Great Plains begin

Wheat Kings

Sundown in the Paris of the prairies
Wheat kings have all their treasures buried
And all you hear are the rusty breezes
Pushing around the weather vane Jesus

In his Zippo lighter, he sees the killer's face
Maybe it's someone standing in a killer's place
Twenty years for nothing, well that's nothing new,
besides, No one's interested in something you didn't do
Wheat kings and pretty things,
let's just see what the morning brings.

There's a dream he dreams where the high school is dead and stark
It's a museum and we're all locked up in it after dark
Where the walls are lined all yellow, grey and sinister
Hung with pictures of our parents' prime ministers
Wheat Kings and pretty things,
wait and see what tomorrow brings.

Late-breaking story on the CBC,
A nation whispers, "we always knew that he'd go free""
They add, "you can't be fond of living in the past,
cause if you are then there's no way that you're gonna last".
Wheat Kings and pretty things
let's just see what tomorrow brings
Wheat kings and pretty things,
that's what tomorrow brings.

Eldorado

"He's a man-sized Eldorado, Hooved a doo
and who could blame him. Where we going?
What's the ticket? Just the mention of Berlin makes me sexy
and tired of thinking about drinking
for thinking of drinking while thinking
about drinking and thinking about drinking
It's a man-sized inside

Look in here it's all hardwood.
What's that smell? Smells like coffee
If you regret it please say something,
I've got no genius for evil that makes me common
and tired of loving, recovering, loving, recoveringlovingrecovering
lovingrecovering. It's a man-sized inside.

He's a man sized - Eldorado, whoopty-do
if you can't take it. Where he's going?
What's that ticking?
Just the mention of Berlin makes me sexy
and tired of thinkingaboutdrinkingforthinking
ofdrinkingwhilethinkingaboutdrinkingandthinkingaboutdrinking.
Tired of lovingrecoveringlovingrecoveringlovingrecoveringloving
recovering. It's a man-sized inside. It's a man-sized inside. "

We'll Go too

To boldly clap in a room full of nothing
you never know, it could be one of those
poignant evenings.
Museum's locked and it's long since past
closing,
you cannot know, you cannot not know
what you're knowing
what can you do, they're all gone
and we'll go too.

The curtain climbs over me every morning.
I don't know why I'm so immunized
against reforming.
To coldly slap at a face full of nothing,
you never know it could've been one of those
looks of long.
What can you do, they're all gone
And we'll go too.

Fully Completely

Bring me back in shackles,
hang me long out in the sun,
exonerate me, forget about me
I recommend measures for ending it.
Lover, she simply slammed the door.
She said, "you're gonna miss me."
Wait and you'll see," fully, completely
I ponder the endlessness of the stars,
ignoring said same of my father.
Either it'll move me
or it'll move right through me;
fully, completely

Locked in the Trunk of a Car

Morning broke out the backside of a truck-stop
the end of a line a real, rainbow-likening, luck stop
where you could say I became chronologically "sick and ashamed and happy".
Put ten bucks in just to get the tank topped off.
Then, I found a place it's dark and it's rotted.
It's a cool, sweet kinda-place
where the copters won't spot it
and I destroyed the map, I even thought I forgot it,
however, every-day I'm dumping the body.
It'd be better for us if you don't understand.
It'd be better for me if you don't understand

They don't know how old I am,
they found armour in my belly
from the 16th century, conquistador, I think.
They don't know how old I am,
they found armour in my belly.
Passion out of machine-revving tension, lashing
out at machiine-revving tension, brushing by the
machine-revving tension.

Courage (for Hugh MacLennan)

Watch the band through a bunch of dancers
Quickly, follow the unknown with something more familiar.
Quickly something familiar
Courage, my word it didn't come it doesn't matter

Sleepwalk, so fast asleep in a motel
that has the lay of home and piss on all of your
background and piss on all your surroundings
Courage, my word, it didn't come, it doesn't matter
Courage, it couldn't come at a worse time

So there's no simple explanation
for anything important any of us do
and yea the human tragedy
consists in the necessity
of living with the consequences
under pressure, under pressure.
Courage, my word, it didn't come, it doesn't matter,
Courage, it couldn't come at a worse time.

Fifty-Mission Cap

Bill Barilko disappeared that summer,
he was on a fishing trip.
The last goal he ever scored
won the Leafs the cup
They didn't win another until 1962,
the year he was discovered.
I stole this from a hockey card,
I keeped tucked up under
my fifty mission cap, I worked it in
to look like that

Pigeon Camera

It was handsome at the auction,
oh but when we got it home,
it grew into something we could
no longer contain
Where's our pigeon camera,
by now he could be anywhere
and after all that training.
And after all that training,
something we could no longer contain.
It's boring, I'm embarrassed,
I don't endorse that, I didn't want this

This house it has it politics;
over there that's my room
and that's my sister's.
And that's my sister,
something we could no longer contain
It's boring, I'm embarrassed,
I don't endorse that; I didn't want this,
it's horrific, I'm embarrassed,
I didn't want that, I didn't want this
It's like we burned our boots with no
contingency plan

The Wherewithal

Richard talks too slow
he'd get interrupted long before
I always loved that guy
and he's not on T.V. anymore.
To get out before he had
the wherewithal to get out before
He had the wherewithal

You've got to coax him slow,
that's the only way that he'll confess.
Tell him that the truth will
help him live with less.
To get out before he had the wherewithal
to get out before he had the wherewithal.
That's a breathy body of work
set your sights inward for a leaner look.

Richard died real slow,
He won't get interrupted anymore.
I always loved that guy
and he's not on T.V. anymore.
To get out before he had the
wherewithal to get out before
he had the wherewithal

Lionized

Cold wind blowing over your private parts
I know a lack you've got
and it makes a strong case for art.
Billboard breasts, they don't have a face,
I know that fact you've got,
no girl could ever trace. Lionized,
Smoking just a little too violently
I know that fact I've got
and I know it single-mindedly
Stupid, stoned cause and effect
I know a lack you've got
and you don't even lack it yet.
Lionized, lionize

I can't draw, but I can trace
I know a lack I've got,
an abundance of extra space
Cold wind blowing over your private parts
I know a lack you've got is to make a
strong case for art. Lionized, lionize

Day for Night - 1994

Grace, Too

he said I'm fabulously rich
C'mon just lets go
She kinda bit her lip
Geez, I don't know
But I can guarantee
There'll be no knock on the door
I'm a total pro that's what I'm here for
I come from downtown
Born ready for you
Armed with will and determination
and grace, too

The secret rules of engagement
Are hard to endorse
When the appearance of conflict
Meets the appearance of force
But I can guarantee
There'll be no knock on the door
I'm a total pro
that's what I'm here for
I come from downtown
Born ready of you
Armed with skill and it's frustration
and grace, too

Daredevil

I can't imagine how you feel and this is how you feel
you say your name like your no longer convinced
but now they're strapping you in and closing the lid
and they're dropping you in what's done you did
The bell's picking up speed there's water leaking in
that ol' equilibrium just starts to spin and spin
Do you like to be judged or liked
Do you like it inside a barrel
plunging over the falls
Curious and grim we wrestle at the rim
we wonder all about him and the point of it all

I'll be short and brief
and to the point
the fighting has resumed
In that tone of voice
the plague is exhumed
He said "what I'm going through
is essentially all true
made no less amazing
by the fact that it's see-through"
You like to be judged or liked
And you like it inside a barrel
plunging over the falls
Strong and green and dim it wrestled him like nuthin
out out out
and into the thrill of em all

And the real wonder of the world is that we don't jump too

Greasy Jungle

Greasy jungle metropolis noir
Easy tangles the easiest so far
Ah
I drove down your road
to Hazeldean where I tasted
your funeral home's sandwiches and coffee
I saw your hands melt into one another
I saw you grieve and grow
care a lot about one another
I stood at your sink
and I felt your warm water
I washed your dishes
and I looked out your kitchen window where I
saw a soulful gymnast
melt in the air and shudder
just above the snow
making moves that just weren't there
Ah
Velvet callow with wet hands
I turned out the lights and
breathing shallow hesitated
then went upstairs where
I picked up your housecoat
dried my hands and
touched your hair
and just then you awoke
you could never really barely care
Ah
Greasy jungle metropolis noir

Yawning or snarling

One day in El Paso
The cops go into the crowd
Under a glaring bladder of light
And the music is so loud
And the tourists take their T-shirts off
A busload of kids gives you the finger
Afternoon when the sidewalk's hot
And the shadow's to chilly to linger
Walk past damaged goods and ugly trends
Past a strawman making a purchase
Downtown where the river bends
They're just waiting for you to resurface
Take a look at this photograph
Clearly his teeth were bared
He coulda been yawning or snarling
The story was never clear

One night in El Paso
The cops go into the crowd
Under a throbbing bladder of light
And the music is just so loud
And the tourists turn their T.V.'s off
And a bat sees a bug with the sound of a linger
Night time when the shadows cough
And you're chilled to the tips of your fingers
Walk past damaged goods and ugly trends
Past ol' strawman making a purchase
Downtown where the river bends
They're just waiting for you to resurface

Take a look at this photograph
Clearly his teeth were bared
He coulda been yawning or snarling
He coulda been anywhere

Fire in the Hole

You triumphed over will
You had immunity to kill
You had your dreams fulfilled
And I love you still
But there's a power beyond control
There's a fire in the hole
Ah the nights are getting cold
All your secrets will be told
Turn your lanterns low

As long as you can dig up proof
As cold as water through the roof
Brutal as depicted truth
That kid's a fuckin goof
Turn your lanterns low
But there's a power beyond control
There's a fire in the hole
Yeah the nights are getting cold
All his secrets will be told
Turn your lanterns low
Alright

I'd like to stand up soon and show
I'd like to let some people know
I'd turn my bucket over
I'd turn my lantern low
But there's a power beyond control
There's a fire in the hole
Yeah the nights are getting cold
All my secrets would be told
Turn your lanterns low
Alright Alright

So Hard Done By

Interesting and sophisticated
refusing to be celebrated
it's a monumental big screen kiss
it's so deep it's meaningless
one day you'll just up and quit
and that'll be it
just then the stripper stopped in a coughing fit
she said sorry i can't go on with this

yeah that's awful close
but that's not why
i'm so hard done by

It was true cinema à clef
you should see it before there's nothing left
in an epic too small to be tragic
you'll have to wait a minute
cause it's an instamatic

yeah that's awful close
but that's not why
i'm so hard done by

Just then the room became more dimly lit
as the emcee carried on with it
and now that i got you all strangely compelled
i'm afraid that Candy's not feeling well

close, but that's not why
i'm so hard done by

Nautical Disaster

I had this dream where I relished the fray
and the screaming filled my head all day.
It was as though I'd been spit here, settled
in, into the pocket of a lighthouse on some
rocky socket, off the coast of France, dear.

One afternoon, four thousand men died in
the water here and five hundred more were
thrashing madly, as parasites might in your
blood. Now I was in a lifeboat designed for
ten and ten only, anything that systematic
would get you hated. It's not a deal nor a
test nor a love of something fated. The
selection was quick, the crew picked and
those left in the water got kicked off our
pantleg and we headed for home.

Then the dream ends when the phone rings,
you doing alright he said it's out there most
days and nights, but only a fool would
complain. Anyway Susan, if you like, our
conversation is as faint as a sound in my
memory, as those fingernails scratching on
my hull.

Thugs

everyone's got their breaking point
with me it's spiders and with you it's me
thugs in perpetuity
when we're excited little birds around the feeder
the cat's indifferent or he's just furious
it seems that he's never neither
i do the rolling you do the detail
i do the rolling you do the detail

hairbird plucks a hair from a sleeping dog
to build her nest she said i've looked around
and i like your hair the best
i do the rolling you do the detail
i do the rolling you do the detail

Ruby, honey are you mad at your man?

Inevitability of Death

Puffy lips glistening skin
And everything comes rushing in
We don't go to hell
memories of us do

I get a sense of connectedness
Exclusive tight but nothing dangerous
We don't go to hell memories of us do
And if you go to hell
I'll still remember you

But I thought you beat the death of inevitability
to death just a little bit
I though you beat the inevitability
of death
to death just a little bit

Terry's gift is forever green
It got me up and back on the scene
we don't go to hell
just our memories do

Fantastic gap common space
Open concept in your smiling face
we don't go to hell memories of us do

And if you go to hell I'll still remember you

Scared

I could make you scared
if you want me to
I'm not prepared, but if I have to
He said, I can make you scared,
it's kinda what I do
If you're prepared,
here's what I propose to do
You're in Russia
and more than a million works of art
are whisked out to the woods
So when the Nazis
find the whole place dark
They'd think god's
left the museum for good

I make you scared, if that's what I do
If you're prepared, if I have to
If I make you scared and you pay me to
If that's the deal
now here's what I can do for you

Now there's a focus group
that can prove
this is all nothing
but cold calculation

Tests have shown
that suspicious or hostile
Their lives need not be shortened
truth be told
they can live a long, long while
Tickled to death by their importance

If you make me scared,
if that's what you do
If I'm unclear can I get out of this thing
with me and you
If you feel scared, a bit confused,
I gotta say
this sounds a little beyond
anything I'm used to

Now there's a precious few
that can prove that at the root
This is all nothing but a cold calculation

Clearly entranced,
you're leaning back now
Defanged destroyer limps into the bay
Down at the beach
it's attracting quite a crowd
As kids wade through blood
out to it to play

OK you made me scared,
you did what you set out to do
I'm not prepared, really had me
going there for a minute or two
He said, you made me scared too,
I wasn't sure I was getting through
I gotta go, it's been a pleasure
doing business with you.

An Inch an Hour

I want a book that'll make me drunk
full of freaks and disenfranchised punks.
No amount of hate no load of junk
no bag or words no costume trunk
could make me feel the same way
an inch an hour two feet a day
to move through night
in this most fashionable way.

There's this fuckin band you gotta see
they used to scare the living shit outta me.
No frothing dog no cool insanity
no "rock n' roll" no christianity
makes me feel the same way
an inch an hour two feet a day
to move through night
with very little else to say
but i'm helpless less with the people
than the space

No struggletown no bemused trudeau
no solitary walks through vacant lots
in moonglow

Tonight the winter may have missed its mark
you can see your breath in Springside Park
coffee-coloured ice and peeling birch bark the
sound of rushing water in the dark
makes me feel the same way
an inch an hour two feet a day
to move through life
with very little else to say
but i'm helpless more with the people than the space
I mean I'm helpless less with the people
than the space

You see, I don't know Neil
I don't know Neil

Emergency

I've often dreamt of a conversation
that just keeps coming up again and again.
We're sitting in the Baby Bar bereft
at a shadowy table out past the sentences end.
From until it's no longer fun
to that's no longer relevant.
From until we're no longer one
to the bona-fide embodiment of an endless
emergency without end.
We're an endless emergency without end

We often stop in these conversations,
things we say here stay here forever amen.
When everything seems either funny or lousy,
funny or lousy, that's where it usually ends.

From until it's no longer fun
to that's no longer relevant.
From until we're no longer one
to that's no longer permanent.
From the last survivors of those terms
to the bona-fide embodiment
of an endless emergency
without end.
We're an endless emergency
without end.
We're an endless emergency
without end,

but
your finger starts to wiggle
and
landscapes emerge

Titanic Terrarium

Growin up in a biosphere
with no respect for bad weather
there's still roaches and ants in here
so resourceful and clever.
Her greatgrandfather saw the future
didn't know nothing bout panic,
he certainly probably thought
that it was unthinkable.
There's a trace o mint
wafting in from the north
so we don't fuck with the 401
it's bigger than us or
larger than we bargained
I guess it's just not done.
His greatgrandfather worked for Goodyear
he'd see the blimp on Sundays
wonder what the driver knew
about making rubber tires.
Terrarium, O Terrarium

There's submarines out there under the ice
avoiding and courting collision
an accident's sometimes the only way
to worm our way back to bad decisions,
My greatgrandfather was a welder
he helped to build the Titanic
he didn't certainly think
that is was unsinkable.
Building up to the larger point
with an arrogance not rare or pretty
we don't declare the war on idleness
when outside it's cold and shitty.
We stay inside and try to conjure the fathers of
injured and faking
if there's glory in miracles
it's that they're reversible
Terrarium,
O Terrarium

Impossibilium

I love you even when I don't even know I'm doing it
and dismiss it out of hand cause I don't even know I'm doing it
but your finger starts to wiggle and landscapes emerge
Can you spare some change dear, we've only got three hundred feet to go

Roses are worth more dried than alive
such a thing to say
O how I adore you
when you reinvent a rose cliché
Can you spare some change dear
we've only got three hundred feet to go
and with impossibilium for a payload
we lift the rocket
out of the pocket
nothing can stop it

Roses are difficult everywhere
you must promise me you'll stay
these longstems are freakish if anything
but we can cut em down for the vase
Can you spare some change dear
we've only got three hundred feet to go
and with impossibilium for a payload
we lift the rocket out of the pocket
nothing can stop it
we can only watch it

Trouble at the Henhouse - 1996

Gift Shop

The beautiful lull,
the dangerous tug
we get to feel small
from high up above
and after a glimpse
over the top
the rest of the world
becomes a giftshop

The pendulum swings
for the horse like a man
out over the rim
is ice cream to him
the beautiful lull,
the dangerous tug
we get to feel small
but not out of place at all

We're forced to bed
but we're free to dream
all us human extras,
all us herded beings
and after a glimpse
over the top
the rest of the world
becomes a giftshop

I don't know what to believe,
sometimes I even forget
and if it's a lie,
terrorists made me say it
the beautiful lull,
the dangerous tug
we get to feel small
from high up above

from high up above

Springtime in Vienna

Instructions from the manual
could not have been more plain
the blues are still required
the blues are still required again
past territorial piss-posts
past whispers in the closets
past screamin' from the rooftops
we live to survive our paradoxes

Men here of the secret
the pass in upholstered silence
they only exist in crisis
they only exist in silence
past territorial piss-posts
past whispers in the closets
past screamin' from the rooftops
we live to survive our paradoxes
we'll live to survive our paradoxes

Ahead by a Century

First we'd climb a tree
and maybe then we'd talk
or sit silently
and listen to our thoughts
with illusions of someday
casting a golden light
no dresss rehersal,
this is our life

that's where the hornet stung me
and I had a feverish dream
with revenge and doubt
tonight, we smoke them out

You are ahead by a century

Stare in the morning shroud
and then the day began
I tilted your cloud,
you tilted my hand
rain falls in real time
and rain fell through the night
no dress rehearsal, this is our life

That's when the hornet stung me
and I had a serious dream
with revenge and doubt
tonight, we smoked them out

You are ahead by a century
but this is our life
and disappointing you's gettin'
me down

Don't Wake Daddy

Sled dogs after dinner
close their eyes on
the howlin' wastes
kurt cobain, reincarnated,
sighs and licks his face
then they drift past strips
of Serengeti and the gates
of Sleepy Hollow too
you can pause in wonder,
they paused in wonder and
yea, I paused in wonder too
just don't wake daddy

They can lay their heads
on their futon-beds,
so many miles from home
you can teach your children
some fashion sense and they
fashion some of their own
for when the policy-weary
commune on the untamed land
through white sheers
whispers in their ears,
you're damned
and don't wake daddy

You can stuff yer void
with the asteroid
that's hurtlin toward the earth
you can drop the bomb
that restores some calm
then promises rebirth
just don't wake daddy

It's the perfect time now
for an eclectic choice
they're all asleep but us now
it's time to hear your voice

Sing to end all songs
to end all songs

Flamenco

Does it diminish your
super-capacity to love

Walk like a matador,
don't be chicken-shit
and turn breezes into rivulets

flamenco-sweep the air
and weave the sun
and stamp your feet for everyone

Does it exhibit your
natural tendency to hate

Maybe a prostitute
could teach you
how to take a compliment

maybe I'll go to New York,
I'll drag you there
you said, "no one drags me
anywhere"

Does it diminish your
super-capacity to love

700 ft. Ceiling

Lets go to the park,
lets go watch'em floodin'
out there after dark,
don't have to think of nothin'
and I love that for,
for the way I'm feeling
700 foot, 700 foot ceiling

Lets take it to the top
of the tobacco nation
we can aim the dish
for hardcore invitations
and I hate that for,
for the things I'm thinking
when the clouds are low,
700 and sinking

It's part hard, hard to remember
its part hard to say
parts unknown, unknown forever
and those parts fade away
but leanings toward,
toward a full-stop's
all I hear you say

One foot on the stump,
the other's on the pulpit
700 foot,700 foot pulput
and I love that for,
for the way I'm feeling
700 foot, 700 foot ceiling
In our own backyard, we can do
some floodin'
when its cold and dark, don't
have to think or nothin'

Butts Wigglin

The sweet sound of patent approval
comin' down in a not quite fog
The sweet sound of patent approval
comin' down in powdery sparks
The sweet sound of patent approval
comin' down with holiday concern
The sweet sound of patent approval comin'
down in a world of hurt

In my opinion the drug is ready

The warm hand of abject approval
comin' down with its' ropey veins
The warm hand of abject approval
comin' down to the fingerbowl

In my opinion the drug is ready

The cold eye of constant approval
comin' down to freeze the blood
The cold eye of constant approval
comin' down to look real close

In my opinion the drug is ready

Apartment Song

Illuminate the obvious
it's standing right here in front of us
what our apartment does when we're not around
does not concern us

Simulate the obvious
and it's standing, standing right here in front of us
just what our apartment does when we're not around
does not concern us

She's the horrible esthete
and she hates her ugly feet
at a place where her friends all meet
she takes her shoes off and invites everyone to see

Eliminate the obvious
and it's right here, right here in front of us
just what our apartment does when we're not around
does not concern us

She's the horrible esthete
at the place where her friends all meet
while her clock reinforces its' conceit
and her mirror checks out other things
the walls stand a little more at ease
and her books they chat so expertly
and her cups and saucers get some sleep
and things get all together neat
and at the clicking of the key
returns the horrible esthete

Coconut Cream

There's a cannon shooting coconut cream
40 gallons in a steady stream
there's a cannon shooting coconut cream
40 gallons in a steady stream

It's wing music to a happy cat
he likes his butterflies slow and fat
and wing music to a happy cat
he likes his butterflies slow and fat

Us little christians in a circle jerk
til our daddy gets home from work
all us good christians in a circle jerk
til our daddy gets home from work

There's a cannon shooting coconut cream
40 gallons in a steady stream
there's a cannon that shoots coconut cream
40 gallons in a steady stream

Let's Stay Engaged

It might be late but it won't be early
you got me to the gate with time for a coffee
it's getting late sounds like a departure
Until we meet again lets stay engaged
until then lets stay engaged

Lies over time float to the surface
lies over time they equal surface
lies over time though the reasons desert us
lies over time with no apparent purpose
Until we meet again lets stay engaged
until then lets stay engaged

See the dead art and you see your reflection
fear no art and you fear no reflection
but don't look at me I'm not the artist in question
sounds good to me but I'm not the artist in question
Until we meet again lets stay engaged
until then lets stay engaged

Sherpa

Me and the vivid girl in our hammock to the stars
staring into the fire before TV, the remote-control's on Mars

In the dope of the pigment, in a poetic state of mind
in a flood of the country we lay down to kill some time

And we spoke languidly of the Northern Bee
and collecting dewdrops for tea underneath the cannonball tree

We were high, we were sherpa-high,
we conspired against old friends
we said we must be friends or die
and we've died a thousand times since then

And we spoke long, at length of the fight or flee
and of nothing in particularly underneath the cannonball tree

We spoke off-handedly of the new extremes
and of nothing in particularly underneath the cannonball tree

We're at the point where we love or hate it
we can write it down and obliterate it
when we're at the point when we neither love nor hate it
we can lay down and obliterate it

Put it Off

I wrote unfriendly things, truly cruel, on the day that you were born
to prove that words cannot touch beauty but I was torn
I put it off, I put it off, I put it off again

I made degenerate art for the religious right on the day that you were born
I had a passion to experiment but I was torn
I put it off, I put it off, I put it off again

I played Love Tara by Eric's Trip on the day that you were born
I had to find the cuteness in the unadorned but I was torn
I put it off, I put if off, I put it off again
I put it on, I put it on, I put it on again

Live Between Us - 1997

Grace, Too [live]

he said I'm fabulously rich
C'mon just lets go
She kinda bit her lip
Geez, I don't know
But I can guarantee
There'll be no knock on the door
I'm a total pro that's what I'm here for
I come from downtown
Born ready for you
Armed with will and determination
and grace, too

The secret rules of engagement
Are hard to endorse
When the appearance of conflict
Meets the appearance of force
But I can guarantee
There'll be no knock on the door
I'm a total pro
that's what I'm here for
I come from downtown
Born ready of you
Armed with skill and it's frustration
and grace, too

Fully Completely [live]

Bring me back in shackles,
hang me long out in the sun,
exonerate me, forget about me
I recommend measures for ending it.
Lover, she simply slammed the door.
She said, "you're gonna miss me."
Wait and you'll see," fully, completely
I ponder the endlessness of the stars,
ignoring said same of my father.
Either it'll move me
or it'll move right through me;
fully, completely

Springtime in Vienna [live]

Instructions from the manual
could not have been more plain
the blues are still required
the blues are still required again
past territorial piss-posts
past whispers in the closets
past screamin' from the rooftops
we live to survive our paradoxes

Men here of the secret
the pass in upholstered silence
they only exist in crisis
they only exist in silence
past territorial piss-posts
past whispers in the closets
past screamin' from the rooftops
we live to survive our paradoxes
we'll live to survive our paradoxes

Twist My Arm [live]

Thar she blows, Jacques Cousteau
Hear her sing so sweet and low
Lull me overboard, out-cold
Gathered in and and swallowed whole

Do I want to? With all that charm?
Do I want to? Twist my arm

You just hit me where I live
I guess it looked quite primitive
What was that supposed to prove?
Throw the calf or he'll throw you

Sucked in by the victim world
Thirsty as a cultured pearl
Culled and wooed, bitten, chewed
It won't hurt if you don't move

Do I want to? With all that charm?
Do I want to? Twist my arm

Musical chairs, double dares, memorized stairs,
Shootin' off flares, springtime hares and broken-down mares

Coward phones, big soup stones, prideless loans,
Grill-sick crows, motel moans and a big fat Jones

Martyrs don't do much for me
Though I enjoy them vicariously
After you. No! After me
No, I insist! Please, after me.

Do I want to? With all that charm?
Do I want to? Twist my arm

Gift Shop [live]

The beautiful lull,
the dangerous tug
we get to feel small
from high up above
and after a glimpse
over the top
the rest of the world
becomes a giftshop

The pendulum swings
for the horse like a man
out over the rim
is ice cream to him
the beautiful lull,
the dangerous tug
we get to feel small
but not out of place at all

We're forced to bed
but we're free to dream
all us human extras,
all us herded beings
and after a glimpse
over the top
the rest of the world
becomes a giftshop

I don't know what to believe,
sometimes I even forget
and if it's a lie,
terrorists made me say it
the beautiful lull,
the dangerous tug
we get to feel small
from high up above

from high up above

Ahead by a Century [live]

First we'd climb a tree
and maybe then we'd talk
or sit silently
and listen to our thoughts
with illusions of someday
casting a golden light
no dresss rehersal,
this is our life

that's where the hornet stung me
and I had a feverish dream
with revenge and doubt
tonight, we smoke them out

You are ahead by a century

Stare in the morning shroud
and then the day began
I tilted your cloud,
you tilted my hand
rain falls in real time
and rain fell through the night
no dress rehearsal, this is our life

That's when the hornet stung me
and I had a serious dream
with revenge and doubt
tonight, we smoked them out

You are ahead by a century
but this is our life
and disappointing you's gettin'
me down

The Luxury [live]

Zoo Lion sobers up and starts to scream and shout
A little dose of home-fire got him all smoothed out
Melancholy wine-soaked tenderness
She hated it here and she couldn't care less

Prisonyard stares and fleur-de-lis tattoos
Cannibals are saving all their bones for soup
Eating with my fingers and sucking hulls of ships
My parasite don't deserve no better than this

The Golden Rim Motor Inn
Soft water and colour TV
So consumed with the shape I'm in
Can't enjoy the luxury

She says,"Why are you partial to that Playboy con?
When you can see me naked anytime you want?"
If I had loads o' mondy to make me tame and sour
I could pay you to remind of my baby by the hour

Zoo Lion sobers up and starts to scream and shout
A little dose of home-fire got him all smoothed out
If this is where it all starts getting good
Then I'll be here waiting for you, like I said I would

The Golden Rim Motor Inn
Soft water and a colour TV
So consumed with the shape I'm in
Can't enjoy the luxury
The Luxury

Courage [live]

Watch the band through a bunch of dancers
Quickly, follow the unknown with something more familiar.
Quickly something familiar
Courage, my word it didn't come it doesn't matter

Sleepwalk, so fast asleep in a motel
that has the lay of home and piss on all of your
background and piss on all your surroundings
Courage, my word, it didn't come, it doesn't matter
Courage, it couldn't come at a worse time

So there's no simple explanation
for anything important any of us do
and yea the human tragedy
consists in the necessity
of living with the consequences
under pressure, under pressure.
Courage, my word, it didn't come, it doesn't matter,
Courage, it couldn't come at a worse time.

New Orleans is Sinking [live]

Bourbon blues on the street, loose and complete
Under skies all smokey blue-green
I can't forsake a dixie dead-shake
So we danced the sidewalk clean
My memory is muddy, what's this river that I'm in?
New Orleans is sinking man and I don't wanna swim

Colonel Tom. What's wrong? What's going on?
You can't tie yourself up for a deal
He said, "Hey north you're south shut your big mouth,
You gotta do what you feel is real"
Ain't got no picture postcards, ain't got no souvenirs
My baby, she don't know me when I'm thinking bout those years

Pale as a light bulb hanging on a wire
Sucking up to someone just to stoke the fire
Picking out the highlights of the scenery
Saw a little cloud that looked a little like me

I had my hands in the river
My feet back up on the banks
Looked up to the lord above
And said, "Hey man thanks"
Sometimes I fell so good, I gotta scream
She said Gordie baby I know exactly what you mean
She said, she said, I swear to god she said...

My memory is muddy what's this river that I'm in?
New Orleans is sinking man and I don't wanna swim

Don't Wake Daddy [live]

Sled dogs after dinner
close their eyes on
the howlin' wastes
kurt cobain, reincarnated,
sighs and licks his face
then they drift past strips
of Serengeti and the gates
of Sleepy Hollow too
you can pause in wonder,
they paused in wonder and
yea, I paused in wonder too
just don't wake daddy

They can lay their heads
on their futon-beds,
so many miles from home
you can teach your children
some fashion sense and they
fashion some of their own
for when the policy-weary
commune on the untamed land
through white sheers
whispers in their ears,
you're damned
and don't wake daddy

You can stuff yer void
with the asteroid
that's hurtlin toward the earth
you can drop the bomb
that restores some calm
then promises rebirth
just don't wake daddy

It's the perfect time now
for an eclectic choice
they're all asleep but us now
it's time to hear your voice

Sing to end all songs
to end all songs

Scared [live]

I could make you scared
if you want me to
I'm not prepared, but if I have to
He said, I can make you scared,
it's kinda what I do
If you're prepared,
here's what I propose to do
You're in Russia
and more than a million works of art
are whisked out to the woods
So when the Nazis
find the whole place dark
They'd think god's
left the museum for good

I make you scared, if that's what I do
If you're prepared, if I have to
If I make you scared and you pay me to
If that's the deal
now here's what I can do for you

Now there's a focus group
that can prove
this is all nothing
but cold calculation

Tests have shown
that suspicious or hostile
Their lives need not be shortened
truth be told
they can live a long, long while
Tickled to death by their importance

If you make me scared,
if that's what you do
If I'm unclear can I get out of this thing
with me and you
If you feel scared, a bit confused,
I gotta say
this sounds a little beyond
anything I'm used to

Now there's a precious few
that can prove that at the root
This is all nothing but a cold calculation

Clearly entranced,
you're leaning back now
Defanged destroyer limps into the bay
Down at the beach
it's attracting quite a crowd
As kids wade through blood
out to it to play

OK you made me scared,
you did what you set out to do
I'm not prepared, really had me
going there for a minute or two
He said, you made me scared too,
I wasn't sure I was getting through
I gotta go, it's been a pleasure
doing business with you.

Blow at High Dough [live]

They shot a movie once, in my hometown
Everybody was in it, from miles around
Out at the speedway, some kinda Elvis thing
Well I ain't no movie star
But I can get behind anything
Yea I can get behind anything

Get it out, get it all out
Yea stretch that thing
Make it last, make it all last
At least until the supper bell rings
Well the taxi driver likes his rhythm
Never likes the stops
Throes of passion, throes of passion
When something just threw him off

Chorus
Sometimes the faster it gets
The less you need to know
But you gotta remember,
The smarter it gets
The further it's gonna go
When you blow at high dough
When you blow at high dough

Whoa baby I feel fine
I'm pretty sure it's genuine
It makes no sense, no it makes no sense
But I'll take it free any time
Whoever fits her usually gets her
It was the strangest thing
How'd she move so fast, move so fast
Into that wedding ring

Chorus

Out at the speedway, same Elvis thing
Well I can't catch her, but I can get behind anything
Yea I can get behind anything
Well I can get behind anything

Chorus

Out at the speedway, same Elvis thing

Nautical Disaster [live]

I had this dream where I relished the fray
and the screaming filled my head all day.
It was as though I'd been spit here, settled
in, into the pocket of a lighthouse on some
rocky socket, off the coast of France, dear.

One afternoon, four thousand men died in
the water here and five hundred more were
thrashing madly, as parasites might in your
blood. Now I was in a lifeboat designed for
ten and ten only, anything that systematic
would get you hated. It's not a deal nor a
test nor a love of something fated. The
selection was quick, the crew picked and
those left in the water got kicked off our
pantleg and we headed for home.

Then the dream ends when the phone rings,
you doing alright he said it's out there most
days and nights, but only a fool would
complain. Anyway Susan, if you like, our
conversation is as faint as a sound in my
memory, as those fingernails scratching on
my hull.

The Wherewithal [live]

Richard talks too slow
he'd get interrupted long before
I always loved that guy
and he's not on T.V. anymore.
To get out before he had
the wherewithal to get out before
He had the wherewithal

You've got to coax him slow,
that's the only way that he'll confess.
Tell him that the truth will
help him live with less.
To get out before he had the wherewithal
to get out before he had the wherewithal.
That's a breathy body of work
set your sights inward for a leaner look.

Richard died real slow,
He won't get interrupted anymore.
I always loved that guy
and he's not on T.V. anymore.
To get out before he had the
wherewithal to get out before
he had the wherewithal

Phantom Power - 1998

Poets

Spring starts when a heartbeat's pounding
when the birds can be heard above the reckoning carts doing some final accounting
lava flowing in Superfarmer's direction
he's been getting reprieve from the heat in the frozen-food section

don't tell me what the poets are doing
don't tell me that they're talking tough
don't tell me that they're anti-social
somehow not anti-social enough

and porn speaks to its splintered legions
to the pink amid the withered cornstalks in them winter regions
while aiming at the archetypal father
he says with such broad and tentative swipes why do you even bother

Don't tell me what the poets are doing
those Himalayas of the mind
Don't tell me what the poets are doin
in the long grasses over-time.

Don't tell me what the poets are doing
on the street and the epitome of vague
don't tell me how the universe is altered
when you find out how he gets paid

if there's nothing more that you need now
lawn cut by bare-breasted women
beaches bleached, towels within reach for the women gotta make it
that'll make it by swimming

Something On

Your imagination's having puppies
it could be a video for new recruits
just stare into the camera
and pretend that you got the flu
or dream of impossible vacations
and get all teary from the wind
look as though you're standing at the station
long after the train came in

and see how the space tautens
like there's something on
and you're never more hot than
when you've got something on

Picture a century of water
bury the pipeline guy right here

kill the dream of impossible vacations
with the sweep of a mapping pioneer
outside there's hectic action
the ice is covering the trees
and one of em's interconnecting
with my chevrolet caprice

Black out to phantom power
and like there's nothing on
and hammering the tower
and now there's nothing on

we'll ride the monorail
rocking gently home on the trail
you wanna show me the moon

I know you're standing at the station
I know there's nothing on
I know that alienation
I know the train's long gone
I can see how your face tautens
like you've got something on
It makes me feel just rotten
but you've got something on

Save The Planet

The man 'cross the street he don't move a muscle
though he's all covered in dust
when constitutions of granite can't save the planet
what's to become of us
with a painted restraint I don't move a muscle
though a turbine roars
if the bathwater's clear and my ear's underwater
it's a tolerant hum from the core

sleep's beckoning from the depths
from the cracks and from the crevices
join the army of ghosts
the murmurs in the mist

That's when the powers of observation
come to the periphery town
and we carry their water
we don't make a sound
and after gaining our resignation
they come through the chainlink fence
your only enemy's panic
your only chance is to start making sense

Sleep plunging into deeper debt
into bunkers and black minarets
on geyser of ink
a morning voice faint and yet

and it sounds heroincredible
sound that makes the headphones edible
awake affiliated and indelible

The man 'cross the street he don't move a muscle
though he's all covered in dust
says constitutions of granite can't save the planet
what's left to captivate us
what's left to captivate us
what's left to captivate us
what's to become of us

Bobcaygeon

I left your house this morning about a quarter after nine
coulda been the Willie Nelson coulda been the wine
when I left your house this morning
it was a little after nine
it was in Bobcaygeon I saw the constellations
reveal themselves one star at a time

Drove back to town this morning with working on my mind
I thought of maybe quitting
thought of leaving it behind
went back to bed this morning
and as I'm pulling down the blind
the sky was dull and hypothetical
and falling one cloud at a time

That night in Toronto with its checkerboard floors
riding on horseback and keeping order restored
til the men they couldn't hang
stepped to the mic and sang
and their voices rang with that Aryan twang

I got to your house this morning just a little after nine
in the middle of that riot
couldn't get you off my mind
so I'm at your house this morning
just a little after nine
cause it was in Bobcaygeon where I saw the constellations
reveal themselves one star at a time

Thompson Girl

Thompson Girl, I'm stranded at the Unique Motel
Thompson Girl winterfighter's shot on the car as well
looks like Christmas at 55 degrees
this latitude weakens my knees, Thompson Girl

Grunt work somewhere between dream and duty
poking through with all them shoots of beauty

Thompson Girl walking form Churchill
across the icy world with polar bears it's mostly uphill
but when she saw that nickel stack
she whistled hard and I whistled back, Thompson Girl

Grunt work time between dream state and duty
poking through with all them shoots of beauty
grunt work somewhere between dream and duty
poking through with all them shoots of beauty

Thompson Girl we're down at the deadhouse plants
Thompson Girl we've jettisoned everything we can
she says springtime's coming
wait til you see
it poking through with them shoots of beauty
it's the end of rent-a-movie weather
it's time we end this siege together, Thompson Girl
Thompson Girl
Thompson Girl
Thompson Girl

Membership

Whether laying down yourself beside it
or slipping into its cool and rushing effects
or drifting on it to where it broadens
your admiration for its more elusive aspects

Being draw along by it
carried under carried away
by its long-term membership

By the time the ice-huts hit the bottom
we were already home in bed
the most worthy men and the fiercest architects
couldn't fight the current they couldn't save, they couldn't save the sheds

being drawn along by it
carried under carried away
by its long-term membership

Bring on the springtime bring on the houseflies
bring on the butterscotch river, overspilling its banks
if you got you some withering power to amuse
you'll find its greatest frustration has its entertaining value

Being drawn along by it
carried under carried away
by its long-term membership

river wide
river wonder us

Fireworks

If there's a goal that everyone remembers, it was back in ol' 72
we all squeezed the stick and we all pulled the trigger
and all I remember is sitting beside you
you said you didn't give a fuck about hockey
and I never saw someone say that before
you held my hand and we walked home the long way
you were loosening my grip on Bobby Orr

Isn't it amazing anything's accomplished
when the little sensation gets in your way
not one ambition whisperin' over your shoulder
Isn't it amazing you can do anything

We hung out together every single moment
cause that's what we thought married people do
Complete with the grip of artificial chaos
and believe in the country of me and you
crisis of faith and crisis in the Kremlin
and yeah, we'd heard all that before
it's wintertime, the house is solitude with options
and loosening the grip on a fake cold war

Isn't it amazing anything's accomplished
when you don't let the nation get in your way
no ambition whisperin' over your shoulder
Isn't it amazing you can do anything

next to your comrades in the national fitness program
caught in some eternal flexed arm hang
droppin' to the mat in a fit of laughter
showed no patience, tolerance or restraint

Fireworks exploding in the distance
temporary towers soar
fireworks emulatin' heaven
til there are no stars anymore
Fireworks aiming straight at heaven
temporary towers soar
til there are no stars shining up in heaven
til there are no stars anymore

Isn't it amazing what you can accomplish
when the little sensation gets in your way
no ambition whisperin' over your shoulder
Isn't it amazing what you can accomplish, eh

this one thing probably never goes away
I think this one thing is always supposed to stay
This one thing doesn?t have to go away

Vapour Trails

Titillations been replaced by Interstate brickface and Coffee-Mate
and by a list of phone calls you'll like to make
where you could sit on the edge of your bed
and you could stare into your own shoes
and in the pools of light there
go wherever you choose

just rig up a complication and if it derails
you can throw away the rudder and float away like vapour trails

There's nothing funnier than pride in an utterly confident stride
so I pulled the car on over to give you a ride
Damn this sleepy weather he said
as he marched in sopping wet shoes
through rainpools evaporating
says in this sign I'll conquer you

I pulled the car on over to give you a ride
but there's nothing uglier than a man hitting his stride
(now the morning's over light wind blows)
past Mexicans all dressed in beige shirts
leaning over their hoes
now the morning's over
it's time to let them sprinklers hose

past hills of chambermaids' dark bare arms
and fields of muscles quilted to the bone
right now I'm flying over
yea right now I'm flying home
where I can sit on the end of my bed
and I can stare into my own shoes
and in the pools of light years
go wherever I choose

and throw away the rudder float away on vapour trails
I rigged up a complication totally derailed
so I throw away the rudder float away like vapour trails
I pulled the car on over
(it's time to let them sprinklers hose)

throw away the rudder
float away on a vapour trail

The Rules

Legs scream at bikes and bikes scream at trucks
and motorists curse their lousy luck
Crossing Guard's not doing his job
and traffic's not about to stop for the first casualty of thought
it's the rules
it's the rules

Superfarmer's bent on the cover of Time
the Moralists scream he's all mine
so the Bard isn't doing her job
the vacuum night the darkest rites
the small quarantined thoughts
it's the rules
it's the rules

Salesman said this vacuum's guaranteed
it could suck an ancient virus from the sea
it could put the dog out of a job
could make traffic stop so little thoughts
can safely get across
it's the rules
it's the rules
guaranteed or not
it's the rules

Chagrin Falls

By design by neglect
for a fact or just for effect
when they met where they connect
at the confluence of travel and sex
more a trip than a quest
plunged into the deeply freckled breast
where to now? If I had to guess
I'm afraid to say Antarctica's next

or Chagrin Falls, Ohio
where the unknown won't even go
to Chagrin Falls, Ohio
where the unknown don't even go

Home's solitude with options
artificial chaos isn't one of em
return there crestfallen
chagrin fell out of her apron
no profound sound no special effects
the continent tipped and she just quietly left
chagrin falls on our heads
not in a gush but in maddening droplets

Chagrin falls ( in Chagrin Falls Ohio )
Chagrin Falls ( where the unknown don't even go )
Chagrin falls ( in Chagrin Falls Ohio )
so falls Chagrin Falls ( where the unknown don't even go )
so falls chagrin falls
so falls chagrin falls

Escape Is At Hand For The Travellin' Man

It was our third time in New York
it was your fourth time in New York
we were fifth and sixth on the bill
we talk a little about our bands talk a little of our future plans
it's not like we were best friends

that number scheme comes back to me
in times beyond our heartbeat

We hung around til the final band
called "Escape is at Hand for the Travellin' Man"
you yelled in my ear this music speaks to me
they launched into "Lonely From Rock 'n Roll"
followed by "They Checked Out an Hour Ago"
closing with "All Desires Turn Concrete"

those melodies come back to me
at times beyond our heartbeat

I guess I'm too slow yes I'm too, yes I'm too slow
but you said anytime of the day was fine
you said anytime of the night was also fine

I walked through your revolving door
got no answer on the seventh floor
elevator gave a low moan
the pigeons sagged the wire with their weight
listening to the singing chambermaid
she sang "They Checked Out an Hour Ago"

Those melodies come back to me
in times beyond our heartbeat

I guess I'm too slow, yes I'm too, yes I'm too slow
but ou said anytime of the day was fine
you said anytime of the night was also fine
our heartbeat, our heartbeat our hearbeat

long conversation idle chit-chat
maybe dive in or maybe hang back
Idle conversation or idle chit-chat
Maybe dive in or maybe hang back

Emperor Penguin

I like the tone of your trumpet
c'mon let's spill some paint
let's raise a glass of milk to the end of another day
and to the kiss that's still intangible
the kids are alright just unmanageable
they won't do a damn thing you say

Your voice is all detached on a radio-wave breeze
we have another caller with a bachelor degree
talkin alien invasion as the only chance for unity
well sorry to interrupt you caller
but that's a physical impossibility

You'd be tossed up or wash up
the narrator relates
in a spartan antarctican walk for many days
meet with Emperor Penguin devotion to the egg
and their women are swimming from half an ocean away

Don't sound so detached this is you and me
just give me your opinion before you turn to leave
but your crust is just incredible
the radio was edible
when you said don't wipe your asses with your sleeves
you're a physical impossibility

Music @ Work - 2000

My Music At Work

Everything is bleak.
It's the middle of the night.
You're all alone and
the dummies might be right.
You feel like a jerk.
My music at work.
My music at work.

Avoid trends and cliches.
Don't try to be up to date.
And when the sunlight hits the olive-oil,
don't hesitate.
The night's so long it hurts
My music at work.

In a symbol too far
or the anatomy of a stain;
to determine where you are,
in a sink full of Ganges, I'd remain -
No matter what you heard
in my music at work.
My music at work.
My music at work.

I call it, 'Olga Waits;
The Cloud That Entertains
The Dim Possibility of
Showing Some Restraint.'
The rain came down berserk.
My music at work.
My music at work.

On a star beyond the chart
or the dark side of a drop of rain.
determining where you are,
in a sink full of Ganges, I remain -
No matter what you heard.
My music at work.
My music at work.
My music at work.

La-la-la-la-la-la.
La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la.
La-la-la-la-la-la.
La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la.

Everythng is bleak.
It's the middle of the night.
You're all alone and
the dummies might be right.
Outside, the darkness lurks.
My music at work.
My music at work.

Hey fallen hummingbird,
my music at work.
From the middle of the earth,
my music at work.
Bound for bed without dessert,
my music at work.
My music at work.
My music at work."

Tiger the Lion

This is Tiger the Lion
gimme the Knuckles of Frisco
- If there's danger in the language,
gentlemen,
I suggest no further use of
the two-way radio.

'John Cage had come to feel
that art in our time
was far less important
than our daily lives,
to which so many'd become
more or less inclined.
The purpose of it's not unique.
Not to build masterpieces
for a delectative elite
but simply to wake to your life.'

You'll be serving the song
when you find out you won't change
serving the song
walking the range.

'John Cage had come to feel
art in our time
was much less important
than our daily life
If there's a perpetual plan
for discovery days
where everyone can take part
in what he called

purposeless play
and there's a sign of life in this play
not to get order from chaos
tell you how to create
but simply to wake to your life.'

You'll be serving the song
when we find out you won't change
serving the song
bombing the range

This is Tiger the Lion
get me Into the Pillows
- If you're painted by radar, gentlemen,
there'll be no further use of
the two-way radio

Lake Fever

We can take a bit of a breather.
We can skip to the practical part.
We can skip to the Time of Neither,
when we're together and even
when we're apart.
I'll tell you a story about the Lake Fever or
we can skip to the coital fury.
You didn't say yes or no, neither.
You whispered, hurry.

We can take it a little bit further.
We can stick to the after-effects part.
'Not trying to make you a believer,
don't wanna a lil' piece of your heart.
Just telling you a story about the Lake fever
or we can skip to a neutral fury.
You didn't say yes or no neither.
You whispered, hurry.

want to be a nobody without peer.
want to be a thought that's never done
want to shake your faith in human nature
want to break the hearts of everyone.
want to be your wheezing screen door.
want to be your stars of Algonquin.
want to be your roaring floorboard.
want to break the hearts of everyone.
and cause discontent until They,
ceasing their investigation,
bring back the days events,
good citezins and time well spent,
til we're talking in whispers again.

Until we're talking in whispers again

Putting Down

Held a bird's egg between her breasts
there's reasons for the road, I guess
to document the indigenous,
to paint and sketch
paint and sketch
I'm starting to fail to be impressed.

United state of ricochet
from the boardwalk to the Appian way
the diamond files, the corporate raves
you'd practically kill
not to be afraid
and I'm starting to choke on the things I say.

Putting down.I'm putting down.
I'm putting down.
I'm putting down.I'm putting down.
I'm putting down.
I'm putting down.I'm putting down.I'm
putting down.

Browbeaten out from underneath your dress
the documented indigenous civilization
flipped its desk
you know the rest, there is no rest
and I'm starting to fail to know what's best.

Putting down.I'm putting down.
I'm putting down.
I'm putting down.I'm putting down.
I'm putting down.
I'm putting down.I'm putting down.
I'm putting down.

Stay

You did the best that you could do.
You were a great crew,
who tried to nurture and preserve your
faith in you.
And with the bureau chiefs
and the shrugging spies
You could stay, but why.

You see a light and then another
and everything you fought for
naught's uncovered.
You're not a fighter, you're a lover.
You got no business in here, brother
so... stay.
Stay.

Is it the worst that you could do?
You were a great you,
who tried to nurture and preserve your
faith in you
and with the bureau chiefs
and the shrugging spies
you could stay and why.
Cause you see a light and then another.
Everything you thought you
sought's uncovered.
You're a fighter and a lover
and there's no one up above her
so ...stay.
Stay.

All things being balanced,
it's balanced and called balancing
somewhere beyond everything it's being
balanced not for the
sake of balance but balancing between
the throes of learning
and the entire thing
entirely
balancing.

The Bastard

If you ask me how I knew, I saw you.
I had a bird's-eye view of a bird's-eye
view when I saw you.
I saw you not as you think,
simply just as you. I saw you
And all of this augers well
even though it’s presaging pell-mell.
All of it augers well.
the bastard of it being, having to choose
Then you turned all Billy Sunday, shoutin'
"Philadelphia for Christ and Christ for
Philadelphia,"
as the sun groomed the plane with
crepuscular rays. When I saw you
And all of this augers well.
Even so, it’s presaging pell-mell.
And all of it augers well.
the bastard being, having to choose
between a flickering fuse and power
beyond what you use
Never mind us purple italians,
never mind that pool in the mountains
Victory came and went
on winged elephants. I saw you.
And all of this augers well
even though, even so it’s
presaging pell-mell.
All of it augers well
this is the bastard
the bastard of it being: having to choose

The Completists

You lured me with your diamond flower
you lured me with talk of still more talk
you lured me with caramelizing power
you lured me a lot
Clearly lifeless barefeet
and dogs just trained to sniff
you saw him struggle
then you saw him cease his struggling
you said, we're halfway come and meet us
we're the completists

You lured me with your bad intentions
you lured me with your mexican pot
you lured me with desert dimensions
you lured me a lot.
You loaded up your gear so well
you can pack so tight
but I can still hear your tambourine
demeaning you through the night
don't wanna sound defeatist
but we're the 'complete-est'.

Intimate, inaccurate, a family, in a way,
made the trip to Vulnerable and back
on the same day.
don' t wanna sound defeated.

You lured me into repetition
you lured me to wanna go to sleep
you lured me into open spaces
you lure me
clearly lifeless barefeet
and dogs just trained to sniff
You showed him struggle
then you showed him cease his struggling
you said, we're halfway, come, and meet us
we're the completists.
halfway come and meet us
the 'complete-est'

Freak Turbulence

You're older, you're haunted,
you're ahead of your time.
In corners of acres of blocks of
straight lines.
Blurringly, hourly we cross some
great divides
some heritage moments and some
melodious minds...
a voice above the engine and the
jet stream combined
'it's time..sir...The time sir...
Do you have the time?'
As the moon groomed the airplane in a
benevolent way
Again with the myth that's neither here,
neither there
Again with the myth from up
up high in the air
Above it all, i love you all
Oh how could this be the end
Satan backhands our nose and our chin
the wings tell the tailfins
'it's freak turbulence' -

Just then the Captain assures us
we will land
'I'll have you on the ground
in 25 minutes or less."
'or less', did he say 'less'? Unless what?
We're not on time?
Or less he said 'or less Jet stream
and engine combine
Unless he said 'Or less' as if a joke might
just keep us flying
As the moon groomed the airplane in a
benevolent way

As the moon groomed the airplane with its'
benevolent rays

Sharks

Sharks don't attack the Irish,
it's mostly Australians.
There's nothing accomplished
by these splashing citizens.
from the Moon down to the surface
of the Mariana's Trench
I won't send you in a cab when
I can take you there myself then steal a look
over your shoulder at
the distant lights of your firmament.

When the sharks finished the Irish
and those people from Berlin.
We left our look of the landed
with one of rescue's imminent
From the Moon down to the surface
of the Mariana's Trench
I won't send you in a cab when
I can take you there myself then steal a look
over your shoulder at
the chandeliers of your firmament.
it's your firmament, baby.

Toronto #4

Did you know you were the rock plug for
all of us
did you know in the conduit of Vesuvius
You were far more unifying than you know
I'm not a judge of suitable
but, you almost had it all.
now you'll have to tell me when
tell me when it's imminent
so you won't have to rise and fall alone
or endure the wonder of survival
the wipe-out loss
the elation of free fall
the rock bottom
the sweet betrayal
alone.
alone
alone
alone
hello

Wild Mountain Honey

I don't wanna put another thought
in my head.

The hummingbird is cleared for
maintenance,
evacuating long after it made no sense.
It's not so much a load and stay any more
as a gotta-get-down-the-road-before-the-
temperature-soars.

I don't wanna put a little thought
in your head.

Diplomacy goes even better with drinks
(until the big city trees began to shrink.)
it's not so much a load out and stay
anymore
it's gotta get down the road before the
snarling traffic roars.

I don't wanna ask you,
'What you got in your head?'
I'm not gonna ask you
a whole bunch of questions.

OK, we agree to disagree....
Giving up....Giving Up the Embassy
is a whole lot better than,
The Embassy's Surrendering.

Flying home under the approval of the stars,
I couldn't be more at home with the way
things are so hard.
It's not so much a load-out
and stay anymore
its a gotta get down the road before
the confetti cannon blows
with litigious force.

I don't wanna ask you,
'What you got in your head?'
I don't wanna ask you,
'Whatcha been thinking?'

I don't wanna put another
thought in my head.

I don't wanna put another
thought in my head.

Train Overnight

I loaded the variables like masterpieces
from under the germ-led advance.
I saw your compass on a sea of frayed cable
and aspects of vision afloat
in a glance.
and outside the train overnight floodlights
on inexorable sights.

You loaded the variables like acquisitions
from under the noses entranced
you heard some trumpets you thought were
turntables and inklings to listen
dispersed
in a glance.
outside the train overnight contrite the
whistle wails goodnight apologizing like
an ol' dictator might.

Of course we're now travelling by plane
if it's not a Canada of a pain
we'll entertain the idea of train
outside the train overnight bloodlines
wheel-burnished in moonlight a great
candescent white skeleton of flight.

The Bear

I was first attracted by your scent
Your heart must be a caramelized onion
By the time I saw your flame
it was all over for you and whashisname.

I think it was Algonquin Park
It was so cold and winter-dark
A promised hibernation high
took me across the great black plate of ice.

Now I'm the Islander.

I found a place to call my den
and dreamt of the Ferry and
the Enormous Man
Huge as were his children
following around after him

I'm the Islander
woke up in the furtive Spring
more capable of anything

I waited for more men to come
They docked their boats and cocked their guns
The time for truth and reconciliation's gone
But with my belly full I intended to get
something done

I'm the Islander
woke up in the dead of spring
more hungry than anything
Islander

As I Wind Down The Pines

As I wind down the pines
it's the lines on your face
playing on your face

Without thinking so much
as abandoning thought
I went through open country
over water meadows streams
lakes and wires and roosts in reeds
to a nest in the hole of
this dead
tree.

To play without stopping or pause
not for silence not for applause
not without thinking
and thinking's abandoning thought

As I wind down the pines
it's the lines on your face
playing on your face

In Violet Light - 2002

Are You Ready

Hear the ol' whistle blowin'
they're pulling the plug
we got to get goin'
they got our hole dug
are you ready? are you ready, are you ready to love?
And are you ready? ready, are you ready to love?

the Devils in the Blues
smoke it to the stub
never accept
then accept with a shrug
are you ready? are you ready, are you ready to love?
And are you ready? ready, are you ready to love?

to love
to love
to love
to love
they got safety fifth
and they take the world straight
whatever it is
they'll just have to wait
to get pretend back
who wants to be tough
to be permanent
permanent enough
are you ready? are you ready, are you ready to love?
and are you ready? are you ready, are you ready to love?
and are you ready? ready, are you ready to love?
and are you ready? ready, are you ready to love?
to love
to love
to love
to love
to love

Use It Up

Use it up
use it all up
don't save a thing for later
if there's music out there laying in wait
to pounce and drain every ounce if you
wait or hesitate
and music that'll help you be tough
and come together on more than Springsteen
though most days it's been enough
then there's music that can take you away
away
away
away

so use it up
use it all up
don't save a thing for later
use it up
use it all up
don't save a thing for later

if there's music out there staying away
to cry and drain every eye until
hatred's eliminated
and music that can help you feel great
and come together in 'the fictive dream'
with a kinda Randy Newman take
there's music that can take you away
away
away
away
Where we can jump to our feet, agape
cause nothing is cruel

and even if it is or way
indefeasibly cruel
we don't care because....
yer a fool
I'm a fool
yer a fool
and I'm a fool...
for music that can take you away
for music that can take you away
for music that can take you away
music that can take you away

so use it up
use it all up
don't save a thing for later

The Darkest One

Come in, come in, come in, come in
from under these darling skies come in
it's warm and it's safe here and almost harkening
off to a time and place now lost in our imagination

where you don't complain - but you still do
and you don't explain - but you still want to - explain
where you believe what you say without shame, 'I just do'
to say what you mean you don't mean what you say
- or you do

where the wild are strong
and the strong are the darkest ones
and you're the darkest one

Come in, come in, come in, come in
from thin and wicked prarie winds, come in
it's warm and it's safe here and almost heartening
here in a time and place not lost in our imagination

where you don't explain - but you still do
and you can complain - if you want to - complain
where you're real instrumental or supple
or sexy as hell
where you say 'I believe' or say without shame
'I can't tell'

where the wild are strong
and the strong are the darkest ones
and you're the darkest one
O' and you're the darkest one
and if that's what you want
O' then you're the darkest one

It's A Good Life If You Don't Weaken

When the colour of the night
and all the smoke for one life
gives way to shaky movements,
improvisational skills,
a forest of whispering speakers
let's swear that we will
get with the times,
in a current health to stay
let's get friendship right
get life day-to-day
in the forget-yer-skates dream
full of countervailing woes
in diverse-as-ever scenes
proceeding on a need-to-know
in a face so full of meaning
as to almost make it glow

O' for a good life, we just might have to weaken
and find somewhere to go
go somewhere we're needed
find somewhere to grow
grow somewhere we're needed.

when the color of the night
and all the smoke in one life
gives way to shaky movements,
improvisational skills
in the forest of whispering speakers
let's swear that we will
get with the times
in a current health to stay
and let's get friendship right
get life day-to-day
in the forget-yer-skates dream
full of countervailing woes
in diverse-as-ever scenes
proceeding on a need-to-know
in a face so full of meaning
as to almost make it glow

O' for a good life, we just might have to weaken
and find somewhere to go

and find somewhere to go
go somewhere we're needed
find some where to grow
grow somewhere we're needed
find somewhere to go
let's go somewhere we're needed
find somewhere to grow
We row where we are needed

Silver Jet

There's a still in the night
a tuneless moonlight
just the I-need-you-and-here's-whys of
snoring Gords and Cheryls
there's a heron outside
inviolate light
there's an urge to go, a shadow
a heightened air of peril
your heart jumps to
and my heart jumps too
I think, to myself "I don't really know my heart"
and as you whisper 'me too'
a silver jet roars overhead
rocks the nocturne all everglade
n' grey sheers
silver jet, so far off already
ya fought the hot spurs off all the way
to Cape Spear

it's quiet again
when a car like Big Ben
it's radio dopplerin' '...'and for all you Gregory Peck fans...
- Let Us Now Praise Famous Men -
to take some pressure off all the wonderous
to fight' and
your heart jumps to
and my heart jumps too
as if the Wolves of Northhumberland themselves
were rumoured to be en route
silver jet, way overhead
yer an archipelago, a satllite,
a green star
silver jet, so far off already
with your I-need-you-and-here's-why
flying to the next part

your heart jumps to
and my heart jumps too
I'm thinking, to myself, 'packing, is a secret heart'
and as you whisper, 'me too'
siler jet roars overhead
silver jet flying to the next part
silver jet so far off already
silver jet, a satellite, a green star
silver jet way overhead
silver jet evergladed grey sheers
silver jet, so far off already
silver jet Clayqout sound to Cape Spear

Throwing Off Glass

'Why is the world so creepy?' she asked
after a car full of haircuts drove past
a backseat full of 'the boys'

I told her that 'It isn't...
that...that it's exquisite
but like love, it has it's barbarous threats

still in spite of the cads
and the stoop-shouldered teens
I know I'm losing you
I know what that means, yea

I told her that it isn't
that it's real exquisite
but like love, it can have it's
stubbed-toe effects

and juts like after she heard
the word 'iridescent'
and everything was iridescent for awhile,
it wasn't long
before she exhalted out of nowhere,
'Isn't this exquisite?'

Once you've said 'mmm' in unison
and 'oh' in double surprise
and shared relief with a mutual 'phew'
and a look in each others' eyes

I tell her that is isn't
insisted that it isn't
because like love
it has too-cunning effects
I told her that it isn't
that it's just exquisite
because like love it has
it's barbarous threats

'Why is the world so creepy?' she asked
after a car full of haircuts drove past
a backseat full of the boys
breaking glass
throwing off glass.

All Tore up

we were a blow-out of wicked proportions
an accidental company
if we said, 'We're gonna go out
and get all tore-up tonight
then we did
we got a little happenin'

play yer Tonight's-The-Nights right
and don't clear the place
sweep up a little on your way out
we might make it

with Dottie, the bluegrass singer
baring her local breast
singing, "You want an open concept!?
- I'll give ya open concepts!"

ya play yer Fuck-Off-Nows right
and don't cleary the place
wreak some havoc on the way out
you might make it

"drink up folks it's getting' on time to close"

they said, "we don't even like you."
'I'm with you,' I said,
but perhaps you think the road
is a means to have an end
where it's a living in the end,
the living end
the living image of the end

play yer Tonight's The Nights right
don't clear the place
sweep up a little on your way out
you might make it
if yer Tonight's The Nights right
ya don't clear the place
sweep up a little on your way out
you might make it

tonight's the night
tonight's the night, tonight
tonight the night
tonight
tonight tonight tonight
tonight's the night
tonight
tonight tonight tonight
tonight's the night
tonight

tonight tonight tonight

Leave

'Do you mean the attack is routine?'
a bird asked of a bird
'In this context, a concave nest,
how do we learn to hurt?'

'do you mean there's no variation?'
watching a dog charge a flock
of birds exploding in congregation
Why plan; when we stop?" '

I dunno....but why suppose it's not the way it should be?
when you can fly above the great waiting list,
as the grow inplies; we won't be missed, we can
leave
we can
leave
we can
leave.

It's a routine flight for this bird tonight
there's more worms than earth
in the Afterlife
where the blind feed the blind,
whispering things like;
'On the money' and 'Bullseye'
she picks up the little leaves
where human wrecks are left to seed
left to repaint their deities
and plaster away at their villainies
where there's love
there's hope

'and do you hope those earthbound poets
could learn to sing as good as us?
so we can sit back and enjoy our illusions
and our quietus?'

'Well I don't know....but why suppose it's not the way it should be?
when you can squawk and wait for word from above
and change yourself into something you love
when you
leave
you
leave
you
leave.?

A Beautiful Thing

In the ulcerating silence
perspective comes
the way it always does - for it's ransom
so randomly...somebody calls...
the phone rings and it brings Niagara Falls
and 3 o'clock in the morning
'You'd better be dyin'- and you were
- So we talked about time
and where it went,
unremarkable events,
and how one day took two days
and they got spent.
how you'd continue, carefull, in degrees
trying to do one true beautiful thing

and your beautiful thing
it'd be
a beautiful thing
to see
that beautiful thing
continuing

'I don't live there, I just commute'
secretly cradling a joint and I might puke.
a-fumble with the keys, under duress
the point is, this is, practise duress
at 3 o'clock in the morning -
'you'd better be dying'- and you were
-so we talked about things and where they went
big remarkable events
and how each day's a new day
and they get spent
how you'd continue, artfully, like the breeze
trying to do one true beautiful thing

your beautiful thing
it'd be
a beautiful thing
to see
that beautiful thing
continuing
your beautiful thing
continuing

your beautiful thing
will be

a beautiful thing
to me

that beautiful thing
continuing.

your beautiful thing
continuing

The Dire Wolf

in that September off
Isle aux Morts
the desultory sea
grew more so through the night

and made one think of
tawny ports,
as aspen tremblin'
in tomorrow's thorough light

and of Tallulah Bankhead
and Canada Lee
somewhere far-off, peaceful, sleeping
and done with acting

past the Dire Wolf's lair
on a Newfoundland's paws
close to nowhere
and halfway across

but never more 'here'
expanse getting broader
though bigger boats been
done by less water
tho better boats been done by this water
tho better boats been done by less water

in that september off
Isle aux Morts
colourable seas
grew more to through the night

And made one think of
yawnin' shores
Gambier-bleached
in tomorrow's thorough light

and the Tallulah Bankhead
and Canada Lee
somewhere far-off, peaceful, sleeping
they learned to love sleep

at the Dire Wolf's crest
the Newfoundland paused
desolate's best
was gotten across

we were never more 'here'
expanse getting broader
when better boats been
done by this water

at the Dire Wolf's best
the Newfoundland paused
so desperate as
to be a lost cause

you were never more hear
expanse getting broader
when better boats been
done by this water
where bigger boats been done by less water
and better boats been done by this water
when bigger boats been done by less water
and better boats been done by this water

The Dark Canuck

This one is for you
and it goes on and on and on
when nothing seems to do
for when the doubtless and the wrong
ask; 'can I help you?'
in that way that says, 'I can't'
or claim we're all the same
just inconsistant
or pretend all understanding
turned out to be pretense
then pretend the pretense of understanding
How long does it take depends

You can cast your doubts
Turn em inside-out
Hang em upside-down
Til their art falls out - the short answer's; forty-eight hours
Let your heart all out - the short answer's; forty-eight hours
Til your art falls out - the short answer's; forty-eight hours
Let your heart all out
Summon up your power

If you need a good connection for drugs
or a strong tolerance for alcohol
Too little religious education
Some pain threshold
If from the outside
There's no deman for what you do
And inside there's an army waiting
For their marching orders for you
Come sit on my swing-seat
Come sit on my porch
After Ten at night, smoke your cigarettes if you like, of course

You can cast your doubts
Turn em inside-out
Hang em upside-down
Til their art falls out - the short answer's; forty-eight hours
let your heart all out - the short answer's; forty-eight hours
Til their art falls out - the short answer's; forty-eight hours
Let your heart all out
Summon up all your power

And it does on and on and on

If we ever get home
let's don't compare
let's relinquish all our holidays
and Drive-In Premieres

if we ever get home
gonna have me three children
Apple, Zippo, and Metronome
that's what I'm gonna name them

and get celebrity skin
the illusion of tough
I'm gonna talk about nothing
til nothing's enough

if we ever get home
and the subject comes up
this War isn't for children
War is nothing's enough

O' in the clouds of blood at the end of JAWS
in the misted cars honking their applause
at the Drive-In Double Feature
at the heart of dark enough
O' it's JAWS and The Dark Canuck
should we stay for The Dark Canuck?
yea. Everyone, hands up!?
Who's for 'The Dark Canuck'?

I think we relinquished enough
and it's still dark enough
and it goes on and on and on

In Between Evolution - 2004

Heaven is a Better Place Today

Here's a glue guy performance god
a makeshift shrine newly lain sod
hardly even trying gives the nod
I sure hope I'm not the type to dwell
hope I'm a fast healer fast as hell
heaven is a better place today because of this
but the world is just not the same
if and when we get into the endzone
act like you've been there a thousand times before
don't blame don't say people lose people all the time anymore.

A toonie to the busker and a husky 'keep it comin' under my breath
but then said, 'though, if you wouldn't mind,
less crying and more trying more trying and less crying'
I'm not the type to dwell
I'm a fast healer fast as hell
heaven is a better place today because of this
but the world is just not the same
oh if and - if and when you get into the endzone
act like you've been there a thousand times before
don't blame don't say people lose people all the time anymore.

If and when you get into the endzone
act like you've been there a thousand times before
don't change don't say people lose people all the time anymore.

It's just not the same because of this
it's not the same

For Dan Snyder

Summer's Killing Us

Does summer exist in it's praises?
Does summer exist in it's praises?
Summer lives here in it's praises.

Come on up here, we've got something to show ya
wanna show you everything we know
wanna show you we've can vanish before ya
wanna show you we've got our blind roads

and does your family know your wishes?
'cause this chorus'll do you like the dishes

Summer's killing us!
It's just sing sing sing all day
It's as if summer existed in it's praises

Come on over, I've got something to play ya
record sunshine its the the Shadow Band
we can have strictly cactus relations
telling the waves to stop cra-sh-ing

and does everybody know your wishes?
cause this tune will do you like the dishes

Summer's killing us!
It's just sing, sing, sing all day
It's as if summer just exists in her praises

It's a time for more to happen sooner
a time to be a person you still know
to float a while on your shore power
til you say
'Canada lost. Go home'

Where summer's killing us!
Where wey sing sing sing all day
It's as if summer just exists in her praises

Summer exists in a doorway
Summer exists at the fair
Summer is forever changes
Summer's taking me unawares

Gus: The Polar Bear from Central Park

What's troubling Gus you sound demented
is it because someone talked and she told me
he no longer thinks anything that moves and
everything he sees is something to kill and eat?
What's troubling Gus is it nothing goes quiet?
the whip-poor-will at dusk...

What's troubling Gus overhearing conversations
that it's because you're too either them or me
when it's either them or it's us anything that moves and
everything you see is something to kill and eat
What's troubling Gus? Is it nothing goes quiet?
Is that what's troubling ya Gus the mere mention of the name
used to be enough to make every bird stop singing?
Is that what's troubling ya Gus? No is afraid enough?

What's troubling Gus is it nothing goes quiet?
Is that what's troubling ya Gus? The mere mention of the name
used to be enough to make every bird stop singing
the whip-poor-will at dusk tells you no one is afraid

no one is afraid enough
is it afraid
or is it afraid enough?
it's troubling Gus

Vaccination Scar

So the chemistry's set,
and I'm not the saddest cheerleader
to forget the american word
for the gang in the head
that dwindles 'til no members when
The mystery's met,
the sky looks threatened
heading home in the dust,
singing 'Life Is Forgettin
good enough for the frivilous'

There's one thing I remember is
this tear on your bare shoulder this
little silver boulder
this slowly falling star
rolling, so what
never getting older
where the moon-shocked curtains part
The start of enough
a tear dropped in a vaccination scar

I'll tell ya if I'm able that is
I'll tell ya like it is
He went down like a bad card table, like
the Tacoma Narrows Bridge
like the Tacoma Narrows Bridge

Swimming on a bit
stop you're treading water as the sun assimilated the words
For lighthouse fire
burning down to embers' end
The mystery met
the sky just reddened,
heading home under dusk
Is life just forgetting
another word for frivilous?
or little silver boulder
silence from Mars
For the heart of enough
or a teardrop in a Vaccination Scar?

Wherever you are, scar

It Can't Be Nashville Every Night

He said, 'fuck this' and 'fuck that'
and this guy's the diplomat
stares into the blur of the tuner lights
It can't be Nashville every night

He said, 'we are what we lack'
and this guy's the autodidact
stares into the glare of them TV lights
It can't be Nashville every night

with it's la la oh oh ohs,
whoa-ohs and yeahs.
la las,
whoa-ohs and
yeahs

He sang, I'll die before I quit'
and this guy's the limit
stares into the queer of the firefight
It can't be Nashville every night

with it's la la oh oh ohs
whoa-ohs and yeahs
la las,
whoa-ohs and
yeahs.

If New Orleans is Beat

Your smile is fading a bit so I ration it
don't think about it
here where the Mississippi quits
where its still got a bit of Minnesota in it

No one will give you a thing these days
they'd rather kill it or throw it away
you don't 'do' dark American streets so
if New Orleans is beat
if New Orleans is beat
if New Orleans is beat
if New Orleans is beat
if New Orleans is beat
where's that leave you and me?

The river takes takes takes and takes
it doesn't change and only changes
see it there in a picture with me
there's a caption beneath,
"New Orleans is beat"
and if New Orleans is beat
if New Orleans is beat
if New Orleans is beat
if New Orleans is beat
where's that leave you and me?
where's that leave you and me?
where's that leave you and me?

your smile is fading a bit so I ration it
try not to think about it

You're Everywhere

You are everywhere, within and without
where it don't matter what we used to do now
where I feed my people when I get behind the plow
when I write the tiger hanging on by his eyebrows
somehow where the gang in me
is being all that it can be
somehow part hope is a plan
and part vigilante streak

When I reel my irish in
when I sleep on the train
in straight lines through shadows you're there
where the future lies
under no moon at night
at the ballroom hanging you're there

You are there when I stop writing things down
and when I forget about who I am now
forget about who's kissing her who's behind my plow
now it's time to drown all of that poetry out
somehow where democracy
is how we all learn to sleep
with ourselves drawing to ourselves
everything we can carry

When I reel my irish in
when I sleep in the rain
in straight lines through shadows you're there
where the future lies
under no moon at night
at the ballroom hanging you're there

There's no escaping this dream
We're dancing with no distractions

When I reel my irish in
when I sleep on the plane
in straight lines through shadows you're there
where the future lies
under no moon at night
at a ballroom hanging you're there
you're everywhere

You're there
you're everywhere
You're there
you're everywhere

As Makeshift As We Are

You do the combat math, I'm the war artist
You can't take your shots back, I have to watch them miss
The basketball rim shook like a tambourine
not an unlikely event in a game that means nothing
in a game that means nothing
Makeshift we are
lead never leaves your system no matter who you are
Makeshift we are
as makeshift as we are

You're a complex dune, I'm a cloud of octopus ink
You're an elusive tune, I'm more ice sculpture than I think
You're the neutral tribe and I got the wrong openness
Here's where I slowly close my eyes and say, "I'm too drunk for this."
Yea I'm too drunk for this
Makeshift we are
"Weakling Make Trouble" you played on your guitar
Makeshift we are
as makeshift as we are

we are. we are. we are.

the lonliest buoys on dolphin property
you're as quiet as a fish, I only sing for the whole sea
From memory metal tension springs we were gunsmoke and the truth
let's shake some snow off of his shoulders let's shake some snow off of the roof
Let's shake some snow off of the roof
Makeshift we are
occurring to each other under the setup of the stars
Makeshift we are
we imagine us here and here we are
Makeshift we are
through half-squinted eyes becoming a mirage
Makeshift we are

Mean Streak

Is it a mean streak
you'd swear you'd swear
we never seen a stranger around here
is it the way the dust clings to the air
but You'd swear you'd swear

Is it a mean streak
a desolation sound
a copy of bizarro but nothing's that far down
a mean streak on a western swing
on TV saying the damnedest thing

Meanstreak
you'd swear you'd swear
we've never seen a stranger around here
it's the way the dust clings to the air
after a strangers been there
you'd swear you'd swear

Is it a mean streak
to a certain degree
come whistling down the crookedest street
a mean streak in the ghost state
between the certain and the hesitating
a meanstreak
you'd swear you'd swear
we've never seen a stranger around here
it's the way the dust clings to the air
after the strangers been here
you'd swear you'd swear

was that you there?
that was you there
was that you there?
that was you there

The sssh sound in the bottoms of their boots
on the tops of the grass
as the haywagon
rolled past
and I'd swear I'd swear
the way the dust clings to the air
after the stranger's been there
I'd swear I'd swear
that that was you there

The Heart of the Melt

There's me then there's you
and I could dance with the puck
in a telephone booth
you said,
"I don't give a fuck
besides enough about you
and your 'evil's banal'
cause as soon as Joni says 'blue'
you're somewhere else"

there's me then there's you
and I could not hear it yet
from a telephone booth
I do my hungover best
and say,
"Enough about you
and your representative hell
I jump in when you do
like there's nowhere else
and then
of course
there's the dorsal fin
closing in that you can't outswim"

"It's not him that I gotta outswim" you said,
"just you"
you said,
"just you"

and there's the heart of the melt

there's the narrowest flume
there's the somewhere else
when I'm with you
there's nowhere else
there's me and there's you
there's me and there's you
you could not say enough
if there were several yous
that would not be enough
there's me and there's you
you're a beautiful you
a beautiful you
are beautiful you
could not say enough
if there were several truths
it would not be enough
we're a beautiful
two

One Night in Copenhagen

When the drugs hit you
tingly begins
conviction + tone = hope
Under the threat of separation
yhe nadir's fluorescent
yhe shriek of a gull
suspended in air
the sound of the sea
Anywhere! Anywhere!

When the drugs quit you
as loyal as a fruit fly you'll mutter to yourself,
'you talentless fuck, good fucking luck
Good fucking luck'
a delicatessen
shriek of a horn
suspended in air
the sound of the town
Anywhere! Anywhere!

It quits you in situ
and here it begins
quits you at a payphone in the snow
one night in Copenhagen
One night in Copenhagen
And ya know
the nadir's fluorescent
the shriek of a gull
suspended in air
the sound of the town
Anywhere! Anywhere!

Are We Family

It's only human to want to inhabit every feeling you've got
and more often than not let's take it to the Nth degree
here he goes,
'gimmie ten bucks and a head start'
heres where he goes,
'the puzzle's pullin apart'
and here's the scene:
you're yellin calmly down the street,
'are we family'
or what?

From happy-go-lucky to surly-go-crazy the lot
and more often than not admission to the battles is free
here he goes,
'gimmie ten bucks and a head start'
heres where he goes,
pulling the puzzle apart
and here's the scene
where you whisper down the crookedest street,
'are we family'
or what?

are we family when its only if not when
sisters brothers wolf wolf lover
and the boy who stamped too many ants?
are we family?

Its only human to want to inherit every feeling you've got
and like it or not let's take it to the Nth degree
here we go
give us ten bucks and a head start
here's where we go
the puzzle's pulling apart
and here's the scene:
your horse is going the wrong way up the street
are we family?
or what

Are we family when its not if but when
taking care of eachother one bullet to another
when its all 'if a song can't save us then nothing can'
are we family?
or what

to one another?
the lost to the recovered ?
the new caledonian crow to the chimpanzee?
the tribal jury to the pakistani teen?
ill-starred evenings to champion mystique?
sick as a writer writing to be lighter than the uncanny
when the invasion of Antarctica's complete
are we family?

Goodnight Josephine

I remember a girl on her cellphone
surrounded by her friends
eyes flickering she's trying
to smother her smile in her hands
Is it someone for us
someone more worry-free
someone who can say'
"leave the worrying about him to me Josephine"?

I remember you there in the last rays
of light at diplomacy's end
eyes flickering you're crying,
"but , isnt this when the crimes begin?"
when the people you want to don't
and the people who do
you don't believe
do you Josephine?

I remember you there at the table
surrounded by all the days plans
eyes flickering you're trying
to let a coffee cup warm your hands
maybe we're born lost
born to perserve
but honey I'd walk into your painting
until I reappeared
as a speck of comet-tail dust
a blue-green northern light
flickering just
in your eyes' deepest ravines
goodnight goodnight Josephine

Yer Favourites - 2005

1 It's A Good Life If You Don't Weaken

2 38 Years Old

3 Ahead By A Century

4 Blow at High Dough

5 Cordelia

6 Escape Is At Hand For The Travellin' Man

7 Fiddler's Green

8 Fifty-Mission Cap

9 Gift Shop

10 Grace, Too

11 Looking for a Place to Happen

12 My Music At Work

13 New Orleans is Sinking

14 No Threat

15 So Hard Done By

16 Three Pistols

17 Vaccination Scar

18 Wheat Kings

19 At the Hundredth Meridian

20 Bobcaygeon

21 Boots or Hearts

22 Courage

23 Fireworks

24 Fully Completely

25 Gus: The Polar Bear from Central Park

26 Highway Girl

27 Lake Fever

28 Little Bones

29 Locked In The Trunk Of A Car

30 Long Time Running

31 Nautical Disaster

32 Poets

33 Scared

34 Something On

35 The Darkest One

36 The New Maybe

37 Twist My Arm

World Container - 2006

Pretend

If I ask you a question
are you going to lie to me?
Is that your question?
Because that one is easy

It’s gripping the city
and hitting the town
and no one on earth is
doing this now

If you can pretend
and I can pretend
pretending won’t end
and then and well then…

If you take the chances
I’ll take the bows
saying ‘no one on earth is
doing this now’

But if I ask you a question
are you gonna lie to me?
Is that your question?
Because that one is easy

If you don’t pretend
and I don’t pretend
pretending might end
but pretend can pretend to end

You can’t pretend
Yes I can. Yes I can. Yes I can.
You can’t pretend
Yes I can. Yes I can. Yes I can.

You can’t pretend
Yes I can. Yes I can. Yes I can.

You can’t pretend
Yes I can. Yes I can. Yes I can.

The Lonely End of the Rink

I looked up and you were there
just sitting there all alone
holding your fist in the air
like, if you need me you’re on your own

You drove me home through a snowy tomb
I fell asleep in my seat
I had the dream of having no room
you were there just staring at me

At the lonely end of the rink, you and me
At the lonely end of the rink, you and me

Oh to join the rush
as the season builds

I hear your voice ‘cross a frozen lake
a voice from the end of a leaf
saying, ‘you won’t die of a thousand fakes
or be beaten by the sweetest of dekes’

At the lonely end of the rink, you and me
At the lonely end of the rink, you and me
At the lonely end of the rink, you and me
At the lonely end of the rink, the lonely end of the rink

Oh to join the rush
as the season builds
Jump into the rush
as the seasons build

You drove me home through a snowy gloom
and I fell asleep in my seat
then I had the dream of having no room
you were there just staring at me

At the lonely end of the rink, you and me
At the lonely end of the rink, you and me
At the lonely end of the rink, you and me
At the lonely end of the rink, the lonely end of the rink.

The Drop-Off

When the summer is young
and nobody has their prices
No one is no one
and nobody in a crisis
There’s no swimming past the drop-off
or feeling sorry for yourself
Ya don’t go swimming past the drop-off
or else

Yer a pistol, yer a gun
and suddenly I have no prices
I’m like a friend of Dylan’s
our shovels meeting in some crisis
But there’s no swimming past the drop-off
Yea we don’t replace ourselves
Ya don’t go swimming past the drop-off
or else

The fates are amok and spun, measured and cut and the past is meant to please us
Yer a comet from earth in a Kiss Alive shirt saying, ‘holy fuck, it’s jesus!?’
The surface is green and the dark interweaves in a lonely iridescence
It’s terribly deep and the cold is complete and it only lacks a presence
and nothing else.

When the summer is done
and nobody sympathizes
Yer no friend of Dylan’s
Yea, you won’t see another crisis
There’s no swimming past the drop-off
or feeling sorry for ourselves
Ya don’t go swimming past the drop-off
or else

Personal stakes will get raised and get raised til your story gets compelling
If you lacked the sense or were willfully dense is forever in the telling
The surface is green and the dark interweaves in a lonely iridescence
It’s terribly deep and the cold is complete and it only lacks your presence
and nothing else
nothing else
nothing else
and no one else

Fly

Seventy days to cross the ocean
Seventy nights where no one’s gonna hear me fall
Freddie Mercury, “I’ve sometimes wished
I’d never been born at all”

I remain unphotographed yea
I don’t exaggerate my intelligence
I might turn a broom into a tree
But I’ll never be one of them

I fly, cause there’s no why in getting beaten up by
a guy who cries before he fights

I don’t want em to see me like this
The way they like to kick people when their down
You said, ‘please stop worrying bout this
They stop kicking once you’re down’

There’s Mistaken Point, Newfoundland
There’s Moonbeam, Ontari-ari-o
There are places I’ve never been
and always wanted to go

I fly, cause woe betide a guy who just lives to fight
Fly, love is to try and die trying

Fly, yea, that’s right
Fly, yea, that’s right
Try, love is to try and die trying

Coastline rising out of the ocean
Coastline rises like a pair of glowing thighs
Theres something down deep inside me says,
‘Where ya been all my life.’

Fly, turn your back, get your face in the sky
Fly, love is to try and die trying
Try, left and right, across your mind
Try, love is to try and die trying

Yer Not the Ocean

Again, I’m talking to the lake
I’m standing on the rocks
Yer not the ocean
I’m better to watch
Britney invisible
or the stranger in myself
than a wall of water just hitting the shelf

Yer not the ocean
You’re up to my toes
Yer not the ocean
You’re not even close

Though you’re so real
and you’ve more youth everyday
and you can think and feel
and get out of your own way
and though I’m nothing
you are just a lake
made to take it
and take and take and take

Yer not the ocean
I’m standing on my toes
Yer not the ocean
You’re not even close
Yer not the ocean
You’re up to my chin
Yer not the ocean
You’re not coming in

You’re not coming in
You’re not coming in
You’re not coming in

Yer not the ocean
You’re up to my chin
Yer not the ocean
You’re not coming in

You’re not coming in
You’re not coming in
You’re not coming in

In View

I love you. You know I do
Yea, it’s perfect…well, it isn’t and it is

And I’ve been meaning to call you
I’ve been meaning to call you
Then I do
I’ve been meaning to call you
I’ve been meaning to call you
Then I do

Phone rings once
Phone rings twice
Phone rings three times

I am of you
You are in everything I do
I do

I trust you, that makes you true
I don’t care if it isn’t the way it is

I’ve been meaning to call you
I’ve been meaning to call you
Then I do

Phone rings once
Phone rings twice
Phone rings three times

I am of you
You are always in view
Yea, I am my will
But you are in everything I do
I do. I do. I do

In the Day Eraser’s dark of night
In the Excited States, gone in plain sight
Under the wave or by cavelight
I lose, things change, but never in your eyes

I am of you
You are always in view
I am my will
You are in everything I do

Luv (sic)

There are words I carry in my heart
Words I carry in my heart
Clung to
Glad of
Uncommonly held
Peculiarly interlaced
Remembered and felt
Am I lovesick?
It’s as if love’s the only virtue there is
Am I lovesick?

The plot thins, emotions get frayed
Attractions move through the shade
Done for
Delight in
And forever held
Influence
Given life
Remembered and felt
Am I lovesick?
It’s not as if love’s the only virtue there is
Am I lovesick?

It’s nothing to hate
Who can’t hate can
Got nothing ‘gainst hate
It’s all the planning
It gets hard to remember
We’re best when we’re tender

There are words I carry in my heart
Words I carry in my heart
Words I carry in my heart
Clung to
Glad of
Uncommonly held
Peculiarly interlaced
Remembered and felt
Am I lovesick?
Maybe love is the only virtue there is
Am I lovesick?
Lovesick, lovesick
‘Love is the only virtue there is’ (Northrop Frye)
Am I lovesick?

The Kids Don't Get It

You said, ‘If I ask you a question,
are you gonna lie to me?’
I said, ‘honey, is that your question?
cuz honey, that one’s easy’
cuz half the truth is, just how much there is
The kids don’t get it
No. The kids don’t get it

I’m gonna be an expert stranger,
better than the giant squid
I’m gonna leave the stranger experts
scratching their heads, saying, ‘how’d he do it?!’
When half the truth is, just how hard it is
But the kids don’t get it
No. The kids won’t get it

I’ll be the antlers and I’ll be the elk
I’ll be the right whale and I’ll be parallel
The kids don’t get it
That’s right, kids don’t get it

I’ll feel more than human when the work’s hitting home
I’ll be aped by my ancestors. I’ll state the plan as my own
I’ll be gripping the city, I’ll be hitting the town
You’ll say. ‘I’d be hurt if you didn’t, when I come around’
That’s right, kids don’t get it

I’ll be as careless as you are certain.
I’ll get outta my own way
I’ll stop to cry into the curtains
and like the greats, before me, go on stage
And if half-true its, good enough for this
cuz the kids don’t get it
No. The kids don’t get it
If I ask you a question,
ya gonna lie to me?
Ah honey is that your question?
cuz that one’s easy

Kids don’t get it
Just how hard it is
Kids don’t get it
Just how much there is

Last Night I Dreamed You Didn't Love Me

you kissed my fingers and made me love you

Last night when we went to hell
When the blood-starred curtain fell
Men were turning on their machines, making everything mean
Fires burned, cold values clashed
Good and evil were all dry grass
No child-ghost, no singing bird, no last laugh, no last word
oh
Last night I dreamed, last night I dreamed darkly nurtured dreams
None of them were quite as frightening
oh
Canada emptied, there was me, featureless and freezing
Last night I dreamed you didn’t love me

you kissed my fingers and made me love you

Last night you left me derelict
and disappeared for ages
You just said ‘honey save those tears of yours for the show,
oh
Last night I dreamed, last night I dreamed darkly nurtured dreams
none of them were half as frightening
oh
Canada emptied there was me, beside you, featureless and freezing
Last night I dreamed you didn’t love me.
You didn’t love me.
What’s happening to you?
Why don’t you love me like you used to?
When you kissed my fingers and you made me love you
When you kissed my fingers and you made me love you

Last night I dreamed, last night I dreamed darkly nurtured dreams
None of them, none as frightening,
oh
Awake empty and out of sleep, you were beside me gently breathing
Last night I dreamed you didn’t love me
You didn’t love me
You didn’t love me
Why don’t you love me like you used to?
When you kissed my fingers and you made me love you

When you kissed my fingers and you made me love you

Family Band

I can’t smell a rat when it’s all rat
I can’t find one in an elevator
My mind doesn’t work so bad
But I am a poor exterminator
that’s right

I can’t destroy entirely
Or annihilate a little later
I can’t see the entire city
But I’m not a bad exterminator
I’m just a shade shy of true wickedness
I’m a shade shy of truly loving it, yea
There are other things I’d rather be doing
Even nothing
Even nothing
Even nothing with you

One day I’ll make some honest rock n roll
Full of handclaps and gang vocals
I’m gonna get all the children involved
We’re gonna get lost on all you locals
We’ll be a shade shy of true wickedness
We’ll be a shade shy of truly loving this, yea
There are other things we’ll rather be doing, sure
Even nothing
Even nothing
Even nothing with you

We’ll load out through the snow
Through small groups of people smoking
Hey! Get that kick drum loaded!
Into the backseat folded down!
We’ll go virtually unnoticed
What’s gripping the city ain’t hitting the town

We’ll be a shade shy of true wickedness
We’ll be a shade shy of truly loving it, yea
There are other things that we’ll surely miss
We’ll load out through the snow
Through small groups of people smoking
Hey! get that kick drum loaded!
Into the backseat folded down!
We’ll go perfectly unnoticed
What’s gripping the city ain’t hitting the town

World Container

There’s a world container with your name on it
and a billion ways to go berserk
when the country quits on you
it must be dinner
and the Himmler on this one is, there’s no dessert
(he’s the one who couldn’t imagine
all the people living life in peace, yoo hoo oo oo oo)
Good news! You get to vanish
go to Cleveland, be an indie smash
the good news is now you’re smaller
the bad news is you can be smaller than that
Go suck some souls, be a reader, get used
laugh at a funeral or two
laugh and laugh til all the chameleons turn black
laugh and laugh til you’re told, ‘Please don’t come back’
then fake incredulous, say, ‘I just can’t believe!
How’d it get this late so early?’
say, ‘Ain’t life a grand’ and ‘I’m in awe of y’all’
then drop into your haunted bunk
go to your touchless times
out where the water’s drying
go past the ‘No Attractions Past This Point’ sign
what you’ll find there are all flaws in progress
where all songs are one song and that song is, Don’t Forget
yea, all songs are one song and that song is, Don’t Forget

Yea, I‘ve faked incredulous, said, ‘I just can’t believe.
How’d it get this late so early’
said, ‘Ain’t life a grand’ and ‘I’m in awe of y’all’
I’ve dropped into my haunted bunk
been to the touchless times,
out where the water’s drying
been past the ‘No Attractions Past This Point’ sign
what we have here are all flaws in progress
where all songs are one song and that song is, Don’t Forget
where all songs are one song and that song is, Don’t Forget
where all songs are one song and that song is, Don’t Forget