One Eye Blind
One eye blind and one that don’t want to see
It’s a case of mistaken symmetry
Newton proved that you’d come back to me
Or have I wandered too far from the tree
I’ve gone down with too many ships
Tasted too many tears on your lips
You were getting by without spending your tips
While I was halfway to a total eclipse
I think I’ll just scrap everything that I’ve done
Make my way back to how it should have begun
When nobody warned me you were the one
Even if I was right I could've let you win
Opened the door so you could come in
I already know how tomorrow begins
Written on the bottom of this bottle of gin
Hanging out on the porch of yesterday
Better get my things I never intended to stay
I might have missed a signal had to run a broken play
Still it takes a fool to let things go on this way
Chorus
In the burning light of the afternoon
Our love looked faded way too soon
Our finest hours had been roughly hewn
You could trace the scars to our meeting in June
You hardly recognized your family ties
Though they shone like diamonds on the apple pies
Your little sister’s eyes got bigger than skies
I think it was your second cousin who said he sympathized
Chorus
I can't believe that God comes to this little church
It's bleak and it's cold and so empty it hurts
I've got to get to you somehow have to widen my search
Stumbling into the shadows of the ends of the earth
In this empty room everything is true
The colours all arranged in a chorus of blues
You watched it all unfold in black and white
Sticking to your guns with all of your might
I think I’ll just scrap everything that I’ve done
Make my way back to how it should have begun
When somebody told me you were the one
Killing Hard Time
Held up at a crossing
Slow moving train
Still the click-clacking wheels can only
Help to ease the pain
Living minute by minute
Not diving too deep
Staying up all night
Dreaming of sleep
I’m just
Killing hard time
Killing hard time
Killing hard time
‘Til you come back
It was cold when we met
And when you went away
I’m frozen in Boise
You moved to LA
Tried a little Lucinda Williams
Therapy
Lost some days in the haze of some drugs but that’s
All the better for me
I’m just
Killing hard time
Killing hard time
Killing hard time
‘Til you come back
Baby with the change of seasons
Come back on a red-eye flight
Come back baby please for any old reason
Come back I’m up all night
Just
Killing hard time
Killing hard time
Killing hard time
Killing hard time
Red Sky At Night
The sights and the sounds are no good anymore
Your senses are smashed they're in pools on the floor
Like the blood of ideas like the guts of your soul
Like a steam engine mind that can't stay off of the coal
The city's in flames but you'd be hard-pressed to tell
If it's a song in your head or smoke that you smell
It's black out in space running laps on the sky
You could duck into Paradise and live on the sly
Another red sky at night
Another red sky at night
I wish I was a sailor all right
The love that we've known can only see in the dark
It's an x-ray of life it's a shower of sparks
Your life and your times put my faith to the test
We're flying on gauges under house arrest
The horizon's all bent it's crippled up in the haze
I want a depth I can feel I need a shower of praise
You're leaving on Sunday on the five o'clock wind
You fumble through your purse for that state you've been in
Another red sky at night
Another red sky at night
I wish I was a sailor all right
Another red sky at night
You're fighting against something with biceps of steel
It's a hard nut to crack it's a tough deal to seal
You murdered the corn boxed it's ears for a joke
You never did learn you can't fix what ain't broke
Your mind broke the law all the judges concur
It's a ward of the state it's sittin' in stir
Seeking pardon for your thoughts and sleep for your dreams
You've seen past the future it's been taken to extremes
Another red sky at night
Another red sky at night
I wish I was a sailor all right
Another red sky at night
An ocean of light
Life is just a shadow dressed in white
There's flooding in the fields, the soil's in dismay
What's floating tomorrow is sinking today
But there's a stillness you can trust and a hope that won't die
There's a mountain up above making love to the sky
Another red sky at night
A sailor's delight
I'm not a sailor but that's alright
Another red sky at night
A beauty alright
I watch another ship sail out of sight
Another red sky at night
A sailor's delight
I'm not a sailor but that's alright
Another red sky at night
A beauty alright
I watch another ship sail out of sight
Too Straight
We kicked around a couple ideas
Settled on settling down
Money never came between us
We had an acre on the outskirts of town
The seams were barely visible
And no one was willing to say
That the stars are only beautiful
From a million miles away
We stayed for the show
Going down slow
Didn’t you know
That we played it too straight
Kept it too clean
Left it too late
If you know what I mean
Three a.m. bloodshot nation
We put it into a cab
An overnight drunken sensation
Left you holding the tab
All your sentimental dreams
Swallowed by the way things are
The trickle that you thought was a stream
Was just selling from the back of his car
The pulse that you seek
Growing so weak
Unable to speak
And we played it too straight
Kept it too clean
Decided to wait
Inside the machine
The trains are just beginning to rumble
Heading out somewhere at dawn
I smile and she mumbles
It seems like it’s been so long
The driver stops to let us out
But we’re already worlds away
There’s things I’d like to talk about
But nothing that I need to say
Just hanging around
On solid ground
Safe and sound
And we played it too straight
Kept it too clean
It’s never too late
To get away clean
And we played it too straight
Kept it too clean
It’s never too late
To get away clean
To get away clean
Katy
Well Katy I guess you’ve seen the mess I made out of me
I’m not as quick on the trigger as I used to be
All the dreams that I had have been lost or just faded away
I think I’ve been cheated or maybe it’s the price you pay
This town is on its back it’s bleeding from a thousand cuts
The neon just smoulders and grass is growing up in the ruts
The people ain’t changed but you can see they don’t act the same
And Katy I waited too long to walk away from the game
Katy you should have never come back to town last fall
Katy you should have read the writing on the wall
And Katy I hate the way you’re looking at me
I know I’m not the one you came back to see
And Katy you should have never come back here at all
Katy you should have never come back here at all
I had a little row with the guard at your iron gate
I don’t know where you found a guy from eighteen seventy-eight
You stared blank-faced through the window like I’d never been here
Never felt it so cold here I’ve never seen it so clear
The guests were filling up their pockets with silver and food
These small-talking well-wishers really got you into a mood
You said your bitter goodbyes with hardly a trace of contempt
You can never go home and now you see what they meant
Katy you should have never come back to town last fall
Katy you should have read the writing on the wall
And Katy I hate the way you’re looking at me
I know I’m not the one you came back to see
And Katy you should have never come back here at all
Katy you should have never come back here at all
Katy you should have never come back to town last fall
Katy you should have read the writing on the wall
And Katy I hate the way you’re looking at me
I know I’m not the one you came back to see
And Katy you should have never come back here at all
Katy you should have never come back here at all
You're No Angel
I've gotta remember these places
The way they looked in the setting sun
Not the dirty hard light of twelve noon
Or midnight on the run
I steal a look at your picture
With each passing town
I’ve got half a mind to go back there
I hope that someone can talk me down
You're no angel you're no angel
You're no diamond in the rough
You're no angel you're no angel
I know it doesn’t all add up
But you come close, close enough
No need for you to come crawling
Crawling In here on all fours
Empires have fallen faster
Some farther down than yours
You are the stars at midnight
The distant feeling I've always known
And the reflected sunlight
That the moon claims for its own
You're no angel you're no angel
You're no diamond in the rough
You're no angel you're no angel
I know the fight you had to put up
And you come close, close enough
I don't want to talk about it
Just get on board an empty train
Your ruins yeah they're still smoking
You won't even pray for rain
It's cold now on that golden highway
Take a fool's advice
I've been where you're going
And it ain't paradise
You're no angel you're no angel
You're no diamond in the rough
You're no angel you're no angel
And I know that times are tough
And you come close, close enough
Catching Things As They Fall
Now the clock is ticking sideways in my head
And I can't remember everything I said
I can only hope I didn't make my feelings clear
The trouble with the truth is it can suddenly appear
And it might look like I've been building up this wall
But I'm just catching things as they fall
I'm just catching things as they fall
I'm just catching things as they fall
There's still a chalk mark at the scene of the crime
Though all things become funny in their time
A soldier's story echoes down this dusty road
We tiptoe round the hours but the minutes still explode
My lips can force a smile if I pass her in the hall
But I'm just catching things as they fall
I'm just catching things as they fall
I'm just catching things as they fall
Catching things as they fall
Catching things as they fall
And it might look like walking
But it's just learning not to crawl
And I guess it's what they wanted all along
Just to think that I was weak when they were strong
And I can't move the mountain anyway
I'm down here and her love's a bird of prey
You'd think by now that I could rise above it all
But I'm just catching things as they fall
I'm just catching things as they fall
I'm just catching things as they fall
Catching things as they fall
Catching things as they fall
You'd think by now
That I could rise above it all
Catching things as they fall
Catching things as they fall
It might look like walking
But it's just trying not to crawl
Drowning
According to you this time I went too far
According to you I made you smash your car
It's a quarter past two and I'm pulling in
To the emergency room where the doctor said
She lost a lot of blood a couple hairs from her head
And her sense of humour
But I said Doc that's been gone for a while
I'm sure it's there in her file
Can you bring it back maybe even a smile
Cause I've been drowning in your half full cup
I should stay down but you pull me up
But you pull me up but you pull me up
But you pull me up but you pull me up
But you pull me up
Well I guess I'm sorry for the things I said
While you were lying in that hospital bed
I know you think I hoped for something worse
Not a white ambulance but a black hearse
You talked about it last night in your sleep
Just ask your nurse
And I admit that maybe it's real
Peeking out from a curtain of steel
A fact-based story the director's cut
Of how I really feel
chorus
chorus
Spare Room
Flowers on the curtains and the windowsill
Her sister took you in but you can feel the chill
At their kitchen table you don't dare to speak
You know they think you're useless or at least some kind of freak
Cause you're in the spare room
You're in the spare room
You're in the spare room
The little bit she had you spent it fast enough
She married you for love but never called your bluff
Back and forth across the borders of your double life
Thought you could make it work until your girlfriend met your wife
Now you're in the spare room
You're in the spare room
You're in the spare room
You feel like such a jerk for complaining
It's not like you're sleeping rough and it's raining
You're credit's maxed you stuck in Boston
Your kingdom for a hole to get lost in
You're saving for the Greyhound bus
But until then
You're in the spare room
In the spare room spare room
You're in the spare room
Spare room spare room
You're in the spare room
You're in the spare room
Flowers on the curtains and the windowsills
In the spare room you can fell the chill
And you're in the spare room
Spare room spare room
You're in the spare room
Spare room spare room
You're in the spare room
The Great Divide
This time on my hands I can't understand
Used to be I couldn't meet their demands
Trying to find a line to knock 'em dead
Say too much of anything
They put a price on your head
And I've been up on the great divide
Nothing down here's that cut and dried
I think I'm gonna need another minute to decide
I received last rites again last night
I'm still waiting 'round for that angel in white
I kept a simple faith in the great beyond
But these men of God could be putting me on
chorus
She's on the road to ruin I won't tell her twice
She's got no reason to take my advice
Fading in and out of these border towns
They'd bring her in but she's just never around
chorus
Eco Warrior
Nothing moving in this swamp
No one whispering in my ear
About the last thing that I'd want
Is the newborn ghost to smell my fear
He greased the palms that passed the laws
Sold the earth out on the sly
He didn't seem to feel anything at all
Blow the top of a mountain for no reason why
And when the earth strikes back you know
She can't tell friend from foe
She don't know she don't know
She don't know she don't know
They'll say we took things way too far
Though I politely disagree
When he said boys that's the way things are
He made a monster out of me
In the midnight hour we set things right
We tried to talk but it ain't no use
They'll drag the bottom through the night
It's a waste of time to tell the truth
And when the earth strikes back you know
She can't tell friend from foe
She don't know she don't know
She don't know she don't know
Now this blood upon my hands
Now these wounds to make me whole
You left your scars upon the land
Time will come along and take its toll
And when the earth strikes back you know
She can't tell friend from foe
She don't know she don't know
She don't know she don't know
This Time
A couple of things that stuck in my mind
Are the way you let your fingers unwind
And a perfume from the perfect past
I know I'm thinking way too fast
You always slept with your bedroom window open
Left a couple words unspoken
I think you really mean it this time
Cause this time the planets all waited in line
There's gold in them hills and I know that it’s mine
And I've still got my heart set on you after all of this time
I don't remember counting the cost
When tempers flared and days got lost
Your whispered wish still owns me
The dust in your voice still stones me
We kept our fingers crossed every time we said goodbye
You catch tomorrow on the fly
I think you really mean it this time
Cause this time the planets all waited in line
There's gold in them hills and I know that it’s mine
And I've still got my heart set on you after all of this time
You're scattered and drifted and hardly uplifted
And the highway begs for more
If you need to sit down take my favourite chair
There's a chill in the wind that you can't ignore
Cause this time the planets all waited in line
There's gold in them hills and I know that it’s mine
And I've still got my heart set on you after all of this
Still got my heart set on you after all of this
Still got my heart set on you after all of this time
Crawling Back
Breeze in my hair I've got Dylan in the buds
By the time I get to Canning I know my name is mud
I can read between the lines I can show you what's written in blood
Moonlight fields of forever turning on
And the shadows so distinct at midnight on the lawn
I can already see where my heart belongs
The rain that begins is like a salve on my skin
I can almost begin to forgive my own sins
And don't you dare come around here and try to wipe off this grin
Well I chose the road less travelled
But I just keep crawling back
All my plans came unraveled
And I'm trading my blue skies for black
I stopped for a while to watch the moonlight on the bay
By the time I get back it's like I've never been away
I deserve a little peace of mind at the end of the day
Streetlights shatter my obscurity
The stonecutters flashing their grins at me
They know I'd break my flaws are there for all to see
I'm gonna take the low road and see where it leads
Start cutting some corners and see if they bleed
I'm going to take a long hard look at what I really need
chorus
Revolution's breaking out all over town
It's the kind of thing that happens when you let your guard down
And I can't tell which one of these jokers had been wearing the crown
And now I'm up on Tightrope Street without a net
The smiles of the clowns I'd rather forget
And every hand I shake feels like something I'm gonna regret
I've been breaking in and out of jail these days
Looking for a life of crime that pays
It's times like these I miss my solitary ways
chorus
And I'm trading my blue skies for black
My mind keeps drifting back to open fields
Using Old Man River as a human shield
I never got the chance to find out what the earth might yield
I'm going to have to leave these streets here to squirm
It's going to take a hand that's gentle but firm
It's best to talk talk to your demons on their own terms
I could have taken you but I'm going alone
Something you said had cut me to the bone
You wear your velvet gloves over hands of stone
chorus
Beautiful Lies
3 a.m.
Hits hard like a boxer
You've studied her game
But you can't outfox her
You see her climbing in and out of those big black cars
But up in her heavens you're the brightest falling star
And she's saving all her beautiful lies for you
Waving all her tender goodbyes to you
Saving all her beautiful lies for you
She touches down
With a broken wing
Brought to heal
You walk away with the sting
You've been invited to join her on the ark
But you don't dare ask about those voices you hear in the dark
And she's saving all her beautiful lies for you
Waving all her tender goodbyes to you
Saving all her beautiful lies for you
And she's saving all her beautiful lies for you
Waving all her tender goodbyes to you
Saving all her beautiful lies for you
Saving all her beautiful lies for you
Waving all her tender goodbyes to you
Saving all her beautiful lies for you
Nobody But You
The river banks are nothing but mud
Waiting for the tide to pull through
The water's getting high for this time of year
I'll be sitting on my roof in a week or two
And I don't have to think of nobody
Nobody but you
I went down to the takeout stand
It shut down when the highway went through
It was the first place I ever held your hand
I've been told to get a grip but I don't know what to do
And I don't have to think of nobody
Nobody but you
I take in all the work that I can
There's not much fishing to do
The wind's howling back at me down at the beach
The tide's way out must be a mile or two
And I don't have to think of nobody
Nobody but you
I'm thinking of pulling up stakes
I've still got a connection or two
You're the only thing that's been keeping me here
I'm still a long way from accepting the truth
And I don't have to think of nobody
Nobody but you
I sold off everything that I owned
Though my possessions were few
I'd burn my house and spread poison on my land
If it would drive out your ghost with its eyes of blue
And I don't have to think of nobody
Nobody but you
The river's lapping up at my door
It's an offer I can hardly refuse
The ice is piling up as the boats go by
They've been calling my name every hour or two
And I don't have to think of nobody
Nobody but you
YDHIFM
In the third degree afterburn of midnight oil
Exposed to the truth we tried so hard to avoid
Now she's seen the many sides of me
All portrayed by actors with such subtlety
Digging into love's like stripping bark from a tree
But you didn't hear that from me
I dropped her love off at the lost and found
Nobody recognized it when I asked around
I've got a plague of locusts in the fields of my mind
She was coming through the corn but I was skillfully blind
I went back for her half-heartedly
But you didn't hear that from me
This freeway traffic's really taking its toll
You know I'm tired of the talk I'm sick of rock and roll
Enlisted in the armies of the enemies
Getting played like fools by democracy
The lines of power are nothing you can see
But you didn't hear that from me
You didn't hear it from me
You didn't hear it from me
You didn't hear it from me
You didn't hear it from me
I took my chances in a tough part of town
You know I like the way the hookers look me up and down
The lows and the highs nobody tries to disguise
Not living like us behind a curtain of lies
Hiding in a shell's not all its cracked up to be
But you didn't hear that from me
There's no one I can talk to like the village priest
It's a solitary crowd in here to say the least
Beaten to a pulp by the odds again
After all this time we don't know where to begin
I'll go down again on wounded knee
But you didn't hear that from me
You didn't hear it from me
You didn't hear it from me
You didn't hear it from me
You didn't hear it from me
From me
From me
Eye Of The Hurricane
I see my pieces scattered on the lawn
The rooks and pawns all move the same
Since you've been gone
Skies disguised as skies
Jet-black sunrise
Nothing I recognize
You could have turned the other way
How could I have anything left to say
And the eye of the hurricane is here with me
These Carolina dawns have no sympathy
Mirror calm waiting to explode
Nothing moving all along this road
Mirror calm waiting to explode
It's not the hand I hold but the way it's dealt
And these southern gamblers never asked me
How I felt
Walls under walls
Soft southern drawls
Making sense of it all
I tried to be a model of decency
But you threw everything you had at me
chorus
Up among the pines the air was sweet
Up among the pines you looked so sweet
You were cool like earth beneath my feet
'Til you scorched the earth beneath my feet
The eye of the hurricane is here with me
The eye of the hurricane is here with me
The eye of the hurricane is here with me
Shattered picture frame lying against a wall
A portrait of the king looking so
Broken and all
Passed from hand to hand
My heart was under-manned
No place I can land
You should have taken everything
Left the steeples here so bells could ring
chorus