The Given

Naked

You might say I’m wastin’
My time is going, gone
I’m only hesitating between the bouts of holding on
But I am warm in the places that used to be cold
I kept all the things the others sold
Going naked again

You might say I’m fadin’
The grace notes of a song
A tune that’s going nowhere but where the other tunes have gone
But I am strong in the places that used to be weak
Strong enough to cry and know the reason
Going naked again

I see that I’m changing
Another time has come
A prisoner of the past but only if I turn and run
’cause I can sing the places that others only dream
And I can dream the faces never seen
Going naked again

Blondes

If you don’t know when or where
Any road will take you there
But won’t bring you back again.
It was a long road to the top
But a short one to the drop
I do what I can

It’s what Jack and Jackie knew
Brigitte and Marilyn too
When blondes ruled the earth

Back in nineteen forty five it was just good to be alive
Though we followed skinny shadows in the dirt
What did I do in the war?
Shaking life a leaf in fall
A player looking for a vote
Love came with a ransom note
Or worse

Another innocence was through with “good luck charm” and “love me do”
and we were never the same again

And that Jimi got to play
In ‘Nam the choppers got to rain
It was like Jack and Jackie knew
Brigitte and Marilyn too
When blondes ruled the earth

Blondes rule the earth

Chapter and Verse

I saw you standing by the 101 holding out your sign
Saying if you want me you’ll be mine
Even when I’m gone you’ll still hear my lonely song and you’ll want me back
I stared in the rear view mirror and slowed and pulled on over to the side of the road
Here you come humming walking up to me, a smile on your face that I can’t read
And then laying across the hood of my car you say;
You look lonely as a star

Try living as a box-car gypsy, try sleeping in the dirt
Wake thinking that you can’t stand up straight
Spend a lifetime thinking you’re cursed
Try living with the low rent crazies, dealing with the worst
And then you’re dancing for the dust bowl hobos
Start drinking somebody gets hurt
You write the prayer book chapter and verse

And I start blinking as we drive towards the sun
Looking at your face and wondering what you’ve done that brought you to this place
And what’s inside that I can’t see would make me want you back???

Black hair hanging down to your waist
Not a single line on an ancient face
A look in her eyes I could fall right through
And she asks me; what and why do you??
“You’re not sitting in a car, that’s not who you are”!
and then she slapped my face

Breathing Underwater

It’s the silence makes you crazy
Find the action, mine the thrill
I know you will
Amusing smiles, familiar faces
The perfect fiction the easy pill
I know you will
I know you;

Each tick of your heartbeat takes you further
from the point you make it easy on yourself
Life could be so wonderful like loving in the everafter, breathing underwater
Life should be so wonderful
Like moving in the up and outward
Breathing underwater

And you live your time as strangers
To yourselves, your aching souls, the empty holes
Drink to forget you just remember
You have debts no honest man could ever get

John Lee Scared

Have you met my girl, the heart of my world?
Now the part that’s gone and I’m missing her some
We count the cost (but) we pay and pay
Spend our whole lives trying for just one thing we’re not afraid to say

If someone’s watching, nobody cares
Those who care don’t watch ’cause it’s always there
Where the shadows run; says your time has come
And I’m john lee scared
I can’t sit still and I don’t want to
If I can’t have you, anyone will do

The things I thought could always be bought
Had a price too high for the guessing of why
You trashed my car and you broke my nose
No, you can’t make love if you’ve got no soul!

If someone’s watching nobody cares
Those who care don’t watch ’cause it’s always there
Where the shadows run; says your time has come
And you’re john lee scared

Excuse me while I disappear
Anything means nothing but what you’re making it mean
I can’t sit still and I don’t want to
If I can’t have you?? anyone will do

Beneath The Radar

Beneath the radar
The sun, moon and stars
I am breathing?waiting not only to inhale
I am a form forgotten
The reaching out and touching, the duetting
To harmonise with stars as I am breathing, seeking
Not only to inhale

Breathing
I will scorch the heaving clamour with a stillness
Of breathing
Driven by the beauty or its’ lacking
There’s no going back here

Beneath the radar
I am stronger than I seemed as I lay reeling
Waiting not only to exhale??..
One wild guess

Breathing
I will scorch the heaving clamour with the stillness of breathing
Driven by the beauty of its’ lacking
No going back here

No Second Chances

Open my heart,
I open my heart
Take what my eyes can see
Here are my hands
Here are my bags

Saddle up girl
Saddle up girl
Saddle up girl for me
The craziest things?they say the craziest things!

But oh no?
If you go you go for good
When you can you stay away
There’s no excuse, no second chances
And I?
I do what I have to

The rivers run dry
The plains are as wide and high as the eye can see
The strangest things?I see the strangest things

If you go you go for good
When you can?you stay away
There’s no excuse no second chances

Misbegotten Child

Ah wish me back where I am from
She was as pretty as a picture
And she laughed and held my hand and kicked my toe
And she spoke about you
I would have been nowhere but where we were
And it didn’t seem to matter to me if she cared
So though my heart was flipping, going; do! do! do!
She spoke about you

Misbegotten child did you throw it all away
Now you try to hide your tears in the pouring rain?
I want to hear those violins, feel those bumps and bells, know
The devils groan in hell ’cause they can’t have you

Ah wish me back where I am from
And take your hands off of my collar!
What you’re going through’s not what you’re supposed to
She spoke about YOU;
She threw her head back and she sang out your name
And I wondered what to do
And if I wanted to
So though my heart was flipping going; do! do! do! do!
She spoke about you

Repeat chorus

Wish me back where I came from
She was as pretty as a picture
And she laughed and held my hand and kicked my toe
And she still said “no”

Repeat chorus x 2