Brett Dennen

only wanted to be closer to you
i thought i had something to prove
instead i fled with my superstition
because you are a woman

now i was told since before i could speak
a mans emotions are what make him weak
i come to you more or less a humble man
because you are a woman

and i find most of the time i'm lost inside my own mind
i look all over, all over to find
it dont keep me satisfied

all the conquests that i construe
fail miserably in front of you
have you ever been loved my such a charasmatic fool?
and i'm a sucker for your love

the self-centered strutted crowd the side walk
parade and pose with phones and paper cups
you walk like truth through a world of fiction
because you are a woman

and i find most of the time it's all inside my mind
i look all over, all over to find
it dont keep me satisfied

and i find most of the time i miss the way your body coils around mine
the slope of your shoulders
the curve of your spine
because you are a woman

i change my strings and pack my suitcase
i'm always leaving for some other place
but i return to you again and again
because you are a woman
because you are a woman

Your gonna fall apart
It's gonna break your heart
Your gonna know that you were wrong
Down to the boatyard you'll run
Like you did at your graduation
Your gonna miss her when she's gone

Who you trying to fool?

Your gonna miss her when she's
Your gonna miss her when she's
Your gonna miss her when she's gone

You in your second hand suit
That you wore to the portrait shoot
It was just a dream that you once had
Your gonna lose control
It's gonna take it's toll on you

You'd better let it drive you mad

Who you trying to fool?
What are you trying to prove?

Your gonna miss her when she's
Your gonna miss her when she's
Your gonna miss her when she's gone

These are the wounds that heal you
It's the pain that reveals you

Your gonna miss her when she's
Your gonna miss her when she's
Your gonna miss her when she's gone

I am a dreamer and I'm a lover
I've been let down and I've loved and lost
I've been alone, I've been far from home
Follow your heart, follow your heart
Follow your heart and you won't get lost
I've been a poor man, I've been a rich man
I made a fortune and I've paid the cost
I've had some good friends, they come and go
Follow your heart, follow your heart
Follow your heart and you won't get lost
I've been cheated, I've been defeated
I played the game and I've been double crossed
Every friend of mine has been in hard times
Follow your heart, follow your heart
Follow your heart and you won't get lost
Follow your heart, follow your heart
Follow your heart and you won't get lost

You can put a stick in my spokes
I can be the butt of your jokes
I can be the laughing stock, I can be the hoax
But I ain't gonna lose you
No I ain't gonna lose

They can come and tear my house down
They can run me out of town
They can tie me up, call me a clown
But I ain't gonna lose you
No I ain't gonna lose you

I can't stand
The thought of another man
No I ain't gonna lose you

They can make me turn my back on my friends
Send me away to san quentin
Put me in the hole, a thousand times again
But I ain't gonna lose you
No I ain't gonna lose you

Throw me in a hurricane
Tell the whole world I've gone insane
Run an electric shock to my brain
But I ain't gonna lose you
No I ain't gonna lose you

I can't stand
The thought of another man
No I ain't gonna lose you
No I ain't gonna lose you
Ain't gonna lose X4

I'll sing it from my roof top
I'll sing it from the bus stop
I'll sing it on the street drunk to a cop
But I ain't gonna lose you
No I ain't gonna lose
Ain't gonna lose you
Ain't gonna lose

There ain't no reason things are this way.
It's how they always been and they intend to stay.
I can't explain why we live this way.
We do it every day.

Preachers on the podium speaking of saints.
Prophets on the sidewalk begging for change.
Old ladies laughing from the fire escape,
Cursing my name.

I gotta a basket full of lemons and they all taste the same,
A window and a pigeon with a broken wing,
You can spend your whole life working for something,
Just to have it taken away.

People walk around pushing back their debts,
Wearing paychecks like necklaces and bracelets,
Talking about nothing, not thinking about death,
Every little heartbeat, every little breath.

People walk a tightrope on a razors edge.
Carrying their hurt and hatred and weapons.
It could be a bomb, or a bullet, or a pen,
Or a thought, or a word, or a sentence.

There ain't no reason things are this way.
Its how they've always been and they intend to stay.
I don't know why I say the things I say,
But I say them anyway.

But love will come set me free.
Love will come set me free, I do believe.
Love will come set me free, I know it will.
Love will come set me free, yes.

Prison walls still standing tall.
Some things never change at all.
Keep on building prisons, gonna fill them all.
Keep on building bombs, gonna drop them all.

Working your fingers bare to the bone.
Breaking' your back, make you sell your soul.
Like a lung, it's filled with coal,
Suffocating slow.

The wind blows wild and I may move.
But politicians lie and I am not fooled.
You don't need no reason or a three piece suit,
To argue the truth.

The air on my skin and the world under my toes
Slavery stitched into the fabric of my clothes
Chaos and commotion wherever I go,
Love I try to follow.

Love will come set me free
Love will come set me free, I do believe
Love will come set me free, I know it will
Love will come set me free, yes

There ain't no reason things are this way.
Its how they've always been and they intend to stay.
I can't explain why we live this way.
We do it every day.

When I heard the news,
my heart fell on the floor.
I was on a plane on my way to Baltimore.
In these troubled times it's hard enough as it is.
My soul has a known a better life than this.

I wonder how so many can be in so much pain,
while others don't seem to feel a thing.
Then I curse my whiteness
and I get so damn depressed.
In a world of suffering,
why should I be so blessed?

I heard about a women who lives in Colorado.
She built a monument of sorts behind the garage door,
where everyday she prays for all whom are born
and all whose souls have passed on.
Sometimes my trouble gets so thick,
I can't see how I'm gonna get through it.
But, then I'd rather be stuck up in a tree
then be tied to it.

There is so much more.

I don't feel comfortable with the way my clothes fit.
I cant get used to my body's limits.
I got some fancy shoes to try and kick away these blues.
They cost a lot of money but they aren't worth a thing.
I wanna free my feet from the broken glass and concrete.
I need to get out of this city.
Lay upon the ground stare a hole in the sky,
wondering where I go when I die.
...When I die.

When I arrived in my own set of clothes
I was half a world away from my home
And I was hunted by the wolves and I was heckled by the crows
Darlin' do not fear what you don't really know

Alongside my innocence I laid in bed awake
Conflicted in these chains with the impetus of age
But like a phantom she crept across the floor and out the window
Darlin' do not fear what you don't really know

From this place on the mantle my heart was taken down
Scattered in a thousand little pieces on the ground
And out below the streetlamp like an orphan with a halo
Darlin' do not fear what you don't really know

'Cause it won't last - the worries will pass
All your troubles they don't stand a chance
And sometimes it takes more than a lifetime to know
Darlin' do not fear what you don't really know

The confidence is full with your faith etched in stone
And I let clean comfort you from the wild unknown
So bury your burning hatred like a hatchet in snow
Darlin' do not fear what you don't really know

If you have a broken heart or a battered soul
Find something to hold on to or to let go
To help you through the hard nights like a flask filled with hope
Darlin' do not fear what you don't really know

'Cause it won't last - your worries will pass
All your troubles they don't stand a chance
And it always hurts the worst when it's the ones we love the most
Darlin' do not fear what you don't really know

Sometimes your path is marked in the sky
Sometimes you're forced to fit in between the lines
Sometimes all that you can do is say no
Darlin' do not fear what you don't really know

I said, when I arrived in my own set of clothes
I was half a world away from my home
And I was hunted by the wolves and I was heckled by the crows
Darlin' do not fear what you don't really know
I said, Darlin' do not fear what you don't really know
We said, Darlin' do not fear

crows ravaging a field of wheat
stars jealous of the moon
scarecrows know their own defeat
envy and the heart that it consumes

today i walked without you
like an empty bottle drifting out to sea
i would change it if i knew how to
but it don't come that easily

if my heart wasn't such a jungle
maybe you wouldn't feel so all alone
and if your heart wasn't such an ocean
i wouldn't sink like a stone

if you weren't so far from me
i could you hold you while you're sleepin
and hear ya breathin softly
and be there when you wake
phone calls cannot complete us
letters cannot replace
the miles and miles and miles between us

another time another place

if my heart wasn't such a jungle
maybe you wouldn't feel so all alone
and if your heart wasn't such an ocean
i wouldn't sink like a stone

i have yet to meet another
who burns bright as you
i'm not looking for any other
i only want you.

if my heart wasn't such a jungle
maybe you wouldn't feel so all alone
and if your heart wasn't such an ocean
i wouldn't sink like a stone
i wouldn't sink like a stone
i wouldn't sink like a stone.

well the witches stare with their limbs akimbo
silhouettes of statues up in the window
call me to come here with a crooked crescendo
but i don't

devotees dance among the pantomime on the promenade
into a tabernacle on the lawn
but i don't follow

because she's mine, she's mine, she's mine, all mine
yeah she's mine, mine, mine, mmm

midnight moved across the people's park
and i fled the fire like a spinning spark
up onto a porch in the dark
she was waiting right there for me

she knows that my hands are empty
as i go past the mothers of envy
and i don't have to fumble in the dark for my keys

i believe she's mine, she's mine, she's mine, all mine
yeah she's mine, mine, mine, mmm

the pupils gather in the yard
around the pulpit made of cards
and waited for their leader's words
but his words didn't make much sense

his mouth spat out a fist of daggers
and his tongue swirled in a southern swagger
and i looked at all the people gathered
but they were all in a trance

and she's mine, she's mine, she's mine, all mine
yeah she's mine, mine, mine, mmm

i was thrown before the court of canes
tossed my soul to the furnace flames
where all my heros had been slain, exiled, or put in prison

because they rose above the mess
and because their power posed a threat
and because they spoke of something else
when everybody else didn't

the music fills the space between
the deities and the prophecies
of our bodies pressed seamlessly
silent in the shade

she looks at me so fearlessly
and i take it all too seriously
but it all becomes so clear to me
and makes me understand

that she's mine, she's mine, she's mine, all mine
yeah she's mine, mine, mine, mmm

yeah she's mine, all mine, all mine, all mine
yeah she's mine, mine, mine, mmm

yeah she's mine, mine, mine, mmm
yeah she's mine

well i dreamed i went out a wanderin'
i heard promises become fables forgotten
i saw bridges stretchin' out across the water
and towers pushing taller

i knew my reality was clearly defined
by the fences put up around my mind
i watched them thicken into walls over time
taller than any boarder line
i saw civilizations deemed insignificant
i saw people's history tatooed on their skin
i saw families taken from their land
dynasties shattered and stolen

and i asked when... is a revolution
i asked when... is a revolution

in all the burdens of centuries accrue
that get passed along to every generation's youth
and all the allegories told in lieu of truth
i watched them grow wild and spread like the flu

i saw the rise of an untamed industry
i watched machines paint a paper economy
i saw my own self stand right in front of me
and i didn't do a thing

i saw poisons pushed in the street
and prescription pills mingling in the mezzanine
with a whole host of wealth of doctors and pharmaceutical companies
still poor people were dying from disease

and i asked when... is a revolution
i asked when... is a revolution
i asked when... is a revolution
i asked when... is a revolution

and i broke down at the break of dawn
I saw new meaning in the clouds above the Pentagon
as real as the hollocaust as stong as the Parthanon
visions of Sudan Iraq and Vietnam

i stood silent upon a flooded levy
and stared at the ruins of a merchant city
and the president who came to dine with the noble elite
he didnt do a thing

i saw three ships come sailing in
through the passage of the CARIBBEAN
i saw children coming home in coffins
millions marching on washington

and i asked when... is a revolution
i asked when... is a revolution
i asked when, when... is a revolution
i asked when... is a revolution

Momma got to worrying because her boy left home in a hurry again
Her photographs are fading, she keeps a box in the closet full of negatives
Well, I left a note on the floor in my room
I've always been stubborn and late to bloom
I had to lay down my load, my burdens are my own
It's a coming of age when you feel it you know

When you feel it you know
When you feel it you know
and I know, I know

I was longing on a short summer night when I had the urge to leave
I went out to find my muse with a eight in my pocket and a craving for some cajun blues
I was following my follies when I saw her aboard the river queen
I was courting my frail lady all the way to New Orleans
But I was swoon by a luminous tomb so I climbed the roof and gave that woman my croon
I had to tell her all I know, my business is my own
It's a coming of age when you feel it you know

When you feel it you know
When you feel it you know
And I know, I know

When you feel
When you feel it you know
When you feel
When you feel it you know
When you feel
When you feel it you know
When you feel
When you feel it

Well, mamma got to worrying she said "Now boy, I stay up late wondering where you been!
Oh, soon your gonna have to give in no you can't live forever the way that you been."
Oh, mamma I'm not trying to do not wrong I had to learn this is the way I get along
It's a life that I chose, my reasons are my own
It's a coming of age when you feel it you know

When you feel it you know
When you feel it you know
When you feel it you know
When you feel it you know
When you feel it you know
When you feel it you know
I know, I know
When you feel it you know
When you feel it you know
When you feel it you know

So Long, my misery
I don't need you
you've only caused me grief
forgive me if I fall asleep
I haven't slept in centuries

Daylight lives like a burden for me
so I escape
sent it strewn about the street
beyond the ruins of my ancestry
far past the pages of my disbelief
I rose from my moat
like a ghost from a grave
sunken in the salty eyes of the wandering displaced
I was heading through the mist across the golden gate
all of my rebellions fall into the fog of fate

So long my misery
I don't need you
you've only caused me grief
forgive me if I fall asleep
I haven't slept in centuries

Spring time came again
and Icarus fell
I flew past the numb lipped nuns who'll never tell
the secrets of the sailors and their 7 year spell
I will not fall, nor will my wings ever melt
if I could I would wash all these wounds away
I would surround your room with a sense of mental grace
I would paint your portrait over everything mundane
more colorful than Easter Sunday

so long my misery
I don't need you
you've only caused me grief
forgive me if I fall asleep
I haven't slept in centuries

put me on a boat
leave my inhibitions at bay
my mind is spilling
but I haven't much to say
I was running through the canyons
pulse the echoes of your name
you were laughing at me like
the sun laughs at a flame
put me on a page in a book of beginnings
let me scroll me through old volumes of ancient teachings
let me reveal in all of these forgotten feelings
lay me with the wretched in the arms of my queen

so long sweet misery
I don't need you
you've only caused me grief
forgive me if I fall asleep
I haven't slept in centuries
(x2)
no I haven't slept in centuries
I haven't slept in centuries

Yeah
In the womb of winter, summer seems a myth
In my desperation I throw my faith into the wind
Born to a world where it is a fight just to fit in
From the cradle to the grave, it never ends

Someday, someday in a cloud of gray
I will, I'll make my great escape

So many ways to walk upon the earth
I trace my footsteps to the place of my birth
So what do you do with all your precious time
So many ways in which to reach for the sky

Someday, someday in a cloud of gray
I will, I'll make my great escape
Someday, someday in a cloud of gray
I will, I'll make my great escape

Say, little bit by little bit, someday

I may be weary but I am not weak
I can sing a song of suffering
Maybe a song unsung is dancing on the tip of your tongue
My salvation's ahead of me
I can feel it calling me
I know that I, I know that I will be ready

Someday, someday in a cloud of gray
I will, I'll make my great escape
Someday, someday in a cloud of gray
I will, I'll make my great escape