Brooklyn boy, born and raised in shopping lines hey hey, it's my birthday it's a toy I torched, a tarpit flame, a lockjaw night hey hey, it's my birthday
friends that make your stomach shake while your hissing head barrels down that blackened lane alone at last to figure how you got this way alone at last to figure how you got this way
charcoal clouds spot and spray, they kill the sun hey hey, hear its back break so I can never tell night from day or right from wrong, hey hey, you're my headache
silver tongue it masks your hungry hate while your haggard heart whispers through its cracking cage you still can change, you have to know, you still can change I know, I know, for now I wanna be this way
A reporter in a jailroom, whispering her source to a dying bulb While the prince is in a fable, peaceful in his cradle, convinced of the impossible: All those wicked words I used to build my wild Western truth! I was just following the rules. Yeah, I did what I had to do. So now its later than it needs to be And in the dulcet tones of dream The prince atop his chariot, Heaven bound & glory be.
A mother in a market chases after children that she barely knows While the father on the barstool, dropped off by his carpool, is playing a familiar role: I used to be a conquering king. I watched the slow stars shoot & swing. When I'd wake, the world would sing. Now, I can't hear anything. So now its later than it needs to be And while his stranger family sleeps The king looks for his castle, Heaven bound & glory be.
There's a myth we must've made One we're spreading every day In every dying dream we grieve The humming hole we fight & feed It's the loving lives we long for Heaven bound & glory be
A man in a hotel room, tangled to his teeth by the telephone He's waiting on a woman, wondering what she's doing, And pacing so his pulse won't slow. He drums his legs and pulls his hair; he carves her dimples in the air. The raging world has spooked him scared, and he don't want her lost out there. So now it's later than it needs to be And though his aching eyes want sleep Against all rationality Against everything he believes He prays for her protection, Heaven bound & glory be. I pray for your protection, Heaven bound & glory be.
Less yesterday and more today I gotta get my head on straight The tree trunks rot and people get caught Buying bullshit we don't need or want
Well full forests turn to desert's hot dried dirt The animals dig ditches, they hide and watch our backs get burned
And less yesterday, and more today Yea I gotta start livin' that way And less yesterday, and more today Yea I gotta get my head on straight
The ground shrinks fast and the spot-lit strips of houses They look like christmas lights she'd hang in her apartment So I turn my head, I try to watch the screen instead But my eyes go fuzzy and start painting shapes all over the movie I'm watching And they mix and match my present with my past But the colors are crisp and I press to hard so ink soaks straight through the back
And less yesterday, and more today Yea I gotta start to live, to live that way So less yesterday, and more today Yea I gotta get my head on straight
Cause I keep ending up exactly where I start A roller rink I stumble through waiting for the songs to stop And I used to drown it out with empty space I found But I turned my back and my life got too crowded so it's really hard to do that now
And less yesterday, and more today Yea I gotta start livin that way And less yesterday, and more today Yea I gotta get my head on straight
The sputtering blink of the streetlamp Makes you taller, then shrinks you, then splits you in half, So you're trailing yourself on your walk to the payphone- Your pockets weighted down with quarters and the hope that no-one's home. You spraypaint cinnamon on vines and key the cars you pass by. Your ears burn and your voice don't sound right.
So you spend the next week playing weakened, Rolling three men alone in the dark of your kitchen. Your apartment can't talk so it's safe for your secrets, All the stories you've invested with a massochist, menacing meaning, Those tired tricks that you play to graph the life to your name And you know it's not yours but for now it's okay.
You wake and cut your initals in cheap glass To mark a space for yourself when your time here has passed When you're drifted and done(,) trading danger for distance. All those rocks that rope your neck are finally nameless and weightless and faceless And you strip the sting from the stains that bleed the life from your face. Your cheeks will burn red on a pure perfect day
I found my fickle friend out in the alley way He said, You don't look so good. I said, Hey doc, that's great. You started practicing? I never got the note. So let's shake and trade and be on our way. Let's go, go, go.
So here we are again, inside your neon shrine, sharing a chopping block beneath embarrassed light that tries to hide from us it tucks itself away. So we both grab hold and say no you don't. Just stay, just stay.
The morning's hot and harsh, my notebook fills itself. The words come thick with sweat, it feels like someone else is writing all of this, someone I just can't believe. when I mop my brow, set my pen back down, it's still me, still me.
And I'm grabbing at a feeling now that I can't ever name. Some sign post to remind me how I wanted things this way.
And she said, it's pretty but you hate yourself, I can hear it clear as day. And I say, I sing like this, it sounds worse than it is. I'm okay, okay. I'm okay, okay. I'm okay, okay. I'm okay, okay. So just stay, just stay. Just stay, just stay. I'm okay, okay. So just stay, just stay, just stay, just stay.
Tonight I'm posed and popping like a peacock. I'm pressing flesh. I'm smiling big. My spinning head sings "stop, just stop." 'cause what used to calm me down just rips my life to ribbons now. So I keep smiling. I find my window and quick cut out.
These days my hangman's hunger makes my gut kick. My sleeping mind could map it blind: a flask, a key, a bag, a fifth. I try to will myself away while shouting habits plead their case. So when the sun seers through my eyes, a beggar's brain can't compromise. I splash cold water. I draw the curtains. I stay inside.
And I can't say that it's a sickness, more like a stranger I ask in and later realize was a strangler slipping nooses in my den. But I was lonely, so I asked him, "could you tie that one on me?" It wasn't his fault. I was eager and I was weak.
So as I inched towards resolution, yeah, I'm not sure which life feels right. The narrow noose or the wading water the hanging head, sore open eyes. I know my brother, he went one way and at the fork I heard him say, "Don't you follow. don't go making my mistakes." And I realized what he meant: don't kill yourself to raise the dead. It never works. You'll only end up joining them. It never works. You'll only end up joining them.
I found you grieving in the grass the sky bled watercolor blue you seemed so simple, sure, and sad so I sat down to grieve with you
you raised your hand to shield your eyes I shifted left to block the sun you crossed your legs and cleared your throat I waited for your words to come
but they slept soundly in your chest they never made it past your tongue so we sat silently and still and thought about the things we'd done
and all the people that we'd loved and all the people that we'd wronged I watched the years flash through your face and I locked my anger in my lungs
so every breath stung more and more a wave of whips across my spine a billion bees trapped in my chest nails on chalkboard every time
'til I watched your fingers sneak towards mine I heard your breath go thin and short I tucked your hair behind your ears and watched your eyes dart back and forth
And I sucked your lip and bit your neck the trees were shaking at their roots my angry arms felt cool and calm and my cotton mouth was wet with you
so we lay glowing in the grass to watch the sun swap with the moon to trade our future for our past the present tense was all we knew
Trouble tracks me down, It's been dragging me around Since my feet first touched the ground. And I'm kicking like a kid, Cause I can't get rid of it. And it's never going nowhere now.
I duck dodge to my left, I slide step to my right, But it nails me everytime. And I'm finished pulling fits, Yeah, I've learned to live with it. Marching steady, straight and by my side.
Trouble makes no scene, She sweeps in surgical and clean, Leaves me begging on my hands and knees. And she's always on the clock, But she doesn't own a watch Cause she wrecks me straight into my sleep.
Well drift into a dream And I'm sailing on some sea, Shooting whiskey with my Irish bride, Till Amy Goodman wakes me up. I'm alone in brooklyn, broke as fuck, With a splitting headache And sore bloodshot eyes.
And I've known trouble all my life And I'm sick of asking why. It's like screaming at a set of dice. They're gonna role the way they role And then you're never gonna know. So getting crazy's just a waste of time.
I've just seen trouble track me down, It keeps pulling me around, Till I'm deep inside the ground. And then I'll smile in my sleep, Cause in that box I'm finally free. And ain't no trouble gonna find me now. Ain't no trouble gonna find me now. Ain't no trouble gonna find me now.
I saw your freckles on the shoulders Of a stranger today And my heart leapt, my heart leapt I saw the sickle of your dimple Slice the side of her face And my heart leapt, my heart leapt But then she faced me while we wrestled For our place on the train
Kabuki makeup, a labret ring I kept out of her way You're not that actress playing dress-up On the subway today So my heart keeps leapin' on
I tried to catch you in a couplet On my 4-track today But my tongue tied, my tongue tied I couldn't figure how to fit you On the spin and the tape See, my tongue tied, my tongue tied
The words are small and insignificant, Confused and cliche I saw my promise and potential Through my guilt and my shame I couldn't catch that in a couplet On my best goddamn day My tied tongue tumbles on
Shake and shiver And laugh like cursing kids And all our fitful failures Fit everytime we kiss So cross your fingers, place your bets And hold that glow in your face Let my big mouth ramble on
Shake and shiver And laugh like cursing kids And all our fitful failures Fit everytime we kiss So cross your fingers, place your bets And hold that girl in your face Let my big mouth ramble on
The moralist on the mountaintop The cap gun cowboy caught playing dress up Patrols his cartoon beat with his costume clothes The damn fool with his ten-top chip His bourgeois blues and his heartbreak habit Slings his lightening bolts, his arrows & stones
Well, you could do it forever It won't make it better Cause you won't find your mark You could use a mirror To see your target clearer, All the bad blood that hijacked your heart But you got what you asked for, so don't even start: You were never a victim. So own what you did, son, admit what you are.
Dead weight in a tightrope trance The pain pill preacher astray in his wasteland Clenched teeth and a canyon he can't close But there's me racing right along The jukebox jester, stuck on the same song A mouthful of lies, a head full of holes
Until I got worried And saw the life I could lead If I backed up off that rope And let the ground come to me Steady under my knees I let my anger burn into hope I asked for perspective, and it untied my hands I see the role I played. I chose my own way. I can't blame you for that.
So when you're sorry And one day you will be I wish you all the best And hope that you drop softly And it don't end too badly And your raging head can finally rest And you can be honest and rescue yourself But I'll walk my own road. I'll go where you won't go. You won't put me through hell. Cause now I see through you. Believe what you need to. Go haunt someone else.
