I Will Sing You Songs

[colleen]

just in case that wasn't clear, they were stolen FROM me. realized it might have sounded like i was in possession of stolen cds.  

[megisnotreal]

massive amounts of love to replacements and paul westerberg fans!

 ;D

[Chills]

realized it might have sounded like i was in possession of stolen cds.  

It didn't sound that way at all. Not to me at least  :)

[colleen]

Since there's a lotta lonely folks out there (self included), thought I should fire up this song that always makes me happy. It's a lot funnier if you can hear it.

Honk If You're Lonely by the Silver Jews

Radio's on, feeling all right
Cruising the strip on a Saturday night.
I smile and I wave and I hide all my pain
but the sign on my bumper gives me away:

Chorus:

    Honk if you're lonely tonight
    If you need a friend to get through the night
    A toot on your horn, a flash of your brights
    Honk if you're lonely tonight.

I know a honky-tonk where we can go.
A booth in the back with the lights way down low.
The jukebox is playing a sad melody
for heart-broken lovers just like you and me.

We'll laugh and we'll flirt and we'll dance every dance
and before the night's over we'll make romance.
The morning will find us with a smile on our face
and we'll be together in a lover's embrace.

(chorus)

I know it seems sad to be so damn blue
but there's always the chance that you'll meet someone new.
I know that somewhere waiting for me
is a sad lonely lover with a bumper that reads:

(chorus)

[FarmerYoda]

AH! oh god. wait. wait. no no. wait
SILVER JEWS?  ? ? ?

[colleen]

yep. silver jews. i shouldn't have announced it in the title though- oops. i love david berman's writing (songs and poems).

[FarmerYoda]

yep. silver jews. i shouldn't have announced it in the title though- oops. i love david berman's writing (songs and poems).

hahahahaha

i didn't even notice that you said who it was.
i strained my brain for like fifteen minutes trying to remember.
hahha
stoooopid

[megisnotreal]

yes,
us people are just poems
we're 90% metaphor
with a leanness of meaning
approaching hyper-distillation
and once upon a time
we were moonshine
rushing down the throat of a giraffe
yes, rushing down the long hallway
despite what the p.a. announcement says
yes, rushing down the long stairs
with the whiskey of eternity
fermented and distilled
to eighteen minutes
burning down our throats
down the hall
down the stairs
in a building so tall
that it will always be there
yes, it's part of a pair
there on the bow of noah's ark
the most prestigious couple
just kickin back parked
against a perfectly blue sky
on a morning beatific
in its indian summer breeze
on the day that america
fell to its knees
after strutting around for a century
without saying thank you
or please

and the shock was subsonic
and the smoke was deafening
between the setup and the punch line
cuz we were all on time for work that day
we all boarded that plane for to fly
and then while the fires were raging
we all climbed up on the windowsill
and then we all held hands
and jumped into the sky

and every borough looked up when it heard the first blast
and then every dumb action movie was summarily surpassed
and the exodus uptown by foot and motorcar
looked more like war than anything i've seen so far
so far
so far
so fierce and ingenious
a poetic specter so far gone
that every jackass newscaster was struck dumb and stumbling
over 'oh my god' and 'this is unbelievable' and on and on
and i'll tell you what, while we're at it
you can keep the pentagon
keep the propaganda
keep each and every tv
that's been trying to convince me
to participate
in some prep school punk's plan to perpetuate retribution
perpetuate retribution
even as the blue toxic smoke of our lesson in retribution
is still hanging in the air
and there's ash on our shoes
and there's ash in our hair
and there's a fine silt on every mantle
from hell's kitchen to brooklyn
and the streets are full of stories
sudden twists and near misses
and soon every open bar is crammed to the rafters
with tales of narrowly averted disasters
and the whiskey is flowin
like never before
as all over the country
folks just shake their heads
and pour

so here's a toast to all the folks who live in palestine
afghanistan
iraq

el salvador

here's a toast to the folks living on the pine ridge reservation
under the stone cold gaze of mt. rushmore

here's a toast to all those nurses and doctors
who daily provide women with a choice
who stand down a threat the size of oklahoma city
just to listen to a young woman's voice

here's a toast to all the folks on death row right now
awaiting the executioner's guillotine
who are shackled there with dread and can only escape into their heads
to find peace in the form of a dream

cuz take away our playstations
and we are a third world nation
under the thumb of some blue blood royal son
who stole the oval office and that phony election
i mean
it don't take a weatherman
to look around and see the weather
jeb said he'd deliver florida, folks
and boy did he ever

and we hold these truths to be self evident:
#1 george w. bush is not president
#2 america is not a true democracy
#3 the media is not fooling me
cuz i am a poem heeding hyper-distillation
i've got no room for a lie so verbose
i'm looking out over my whole human family
and i'm raising my glass in a toast

here's to our last drink of fossil fuels
let us vow to get off of this sauce
shoo away the swarms of commuter planes
and find that train ticket we lost
cuz once upon a time the line followed the river
and peeked into all the backyards
and the laundry was waving
the graffiti was teasing us
from brick walls and bridges
we were rolling over ridges
through valleys
under stars
i dream of touring like duke ellington
in my own railroad car
i dream of waiting on the tall blonde wooden benches
in a grand station aglow with grace
and then standing out on the platform
and feeling the air on my face

give back the night its distant whistle
give the darkness back its soul
give the big oil companies the finger finally
and relearn how to rock-n-roll
yes, the lessons are all around us and a change is waiting there
so it's time to pick through the rubble, clean the streets
and clear the air
get our government to pull its big dick out of the sand
of someone else's desert
put it back in its pants
and quit the hypocritical chants of
freedom forever

cuz when one lone phone rang
in two thousand and one
at ten after nine
on nine one one
which is the number we all called
when that lone phone rang right off the wall
right off our desk and down the long hall
down the long stairs
in a building so tall
that the whole world turned
just to watch it fall



and while we're at it
remember the first time around?
the bomb?
the ryder truck?
the parking garage?
the princess that didn't even feel the pea?
remember joking around in our apartment on avenue D?

can you imagine how many paper coffee cups would have to change their design
following a fantastical reversal of the new york skyline?!

it was a joke, of course
it was a joke
at the time
and that was just a few years ago
so let the record show
that the FBI was all over that case
that the plot was obvious and in everybody's face
and scoping that scene
religiously
the CIA
or is it KGB?
committing countless crimes against humanity
with this kind of eventuality
as its excuse
for abuse after expensive abuse
and it didn't have a clue
look, another window to see through
way up here
on the 104th floor
look
another key
another door
10% literal
90% metaphor
3000 some poems disguised as people
on an almost too perfect day
should be more than pawns
in some asshole's passion play
so now it's your job
and it's my job
to make it that way
to make sure they didn't die in vain
sshhhhhh....
baby listen
hear the train?

[aMD]

I will sing you two by Leonard Cohen:

Well my friends are gone and my hair is grey
I ache in the places where I used to play
And Im crazy for love but Im not coming on
Im just paying my rent every day
Oh in the tower of song

I said to hank williams: how lonely does it get?
Hank williams hasnt answered yet
But I hear him coughing all night long
A hundred floors above me
In the tower of song

I was born like this, I had no choice
I was born with the gift of a golden voice
And twenty-seven angels from the great beyond
They tied me to this table right here
In the tower of song

So you can stick your little pins in that voodoo doll
Im very sorry, baby, doesnt look like me at all
Im standing by the window where the light is strong
Ah they dont let a woman kill you
Not in the tower of song

Now you can say that Ive grown bitter but of this you may be sure
The rich have got their channels in the bedrooms of the poor
And theres a mighty judgement coming, but I may be wrong
You see, you hear these funny voices
In the tower of song

I see you standing on the other side
I dont know how the river got so wide
I loved you baby, way back when
And all the bridges are burning that we might have crossed
But I feel so close to everything that we lost
Well never have to lose it again

Now I bid you farewell, I dont know when Ill be back
There moving us tomorrow to that tower down the track
But youll be hearing from me baby, long after Im gone
Ill be speaking to you sweetly
From a window in the tower of song
Yeah my friends are gone and my hair is grey
I ache in the places where I used to play
And Im crazy for love but Im not coming on
Im just paying my rent every day
Oh in the tower of song

[aMD]

I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel,
you were talking so brave and so sweet,
giving me head on the unmade bed,
while the limousines wait in the street.
Those were the reasons and that was New York,
we were running for the money and the flesh.
And that was called love for the workers in song
probably still is for those of them left.

Ah but you got away, didn't you babe,
you just turned your back on the crowd,
you got away, I never once heard you say,
I need you, I don't need you,
I need you, I don't need you
and all of that jiving around.

I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel
you were famous, your heart was a legend.
You told me again you preferred handsome men
but for me you would make an exception.
And clenching your fist for the ones like us
who are oppressed by the figures of beauty,
you fixed yourself, you said, "Well never mind,
we are ugly but we have the music."

And then you got away, didn't you babe...

I don't mean to suggest that I loved you the best,
I can't keep track of each fallen robin.
I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel,
that's all, I don't even think of you that often.

[MMJ_fanatic]

Well you look fantastic in your gassed-up casket
At least the thing still runs
This 9 to 5 bullshit dont let you forget
Whose suicide you're on.
I'm the one you trust in
And the world owes you nothing
You really, really want it that bad
You gotta come get it
It's your life, go live it
Round the corner, give it some gas

If you want it that bad
Be a world class fad
Remember leave a trail of crumbs
If you want it that bad
Your'e a world class fad
Remember where you started from
Dont be sad
You're a world class fad

You wax poetic about things pathetic
As long as you look so cute
Believe these hills are starting to roll
Believe these stars are starting to shoot

If you want it that bad
Be a world class fad
Remember leave a trail of crumbs
If you want it that bad
You're a world class fad
Remember where you started from
Dont be sad
You're a world class fad

And the pressures gonna build yeah
Higher and higher
Somethings gotta move here
Ain't knocking on wood
You're foxin the cove? oh yeah.

Dont be sad youre a world class fad

Well you look fantastic in your gassed-up casket
At least the thing still flies
I believe this road is starting to wind
And where we're going, starting to hide

If you want it that bad
You're a world class fad
Remember leave a trail of crumbs
You want it that bad
Be a world class fad
Remember where you started from

If you want it that bad
A world class fad
If you want it that bad
You're a world class fad
Don't be sad
You're a world class fad
Don't be sad
You're a world class fad
Don't be sad
That you're a world class fad


My favorite line:  "Whose suicide you're on."  Classic Westerberg... 8)

[megisnotreal]

Up in a sterilized room
Where they let you be lazy
Knowing your attitude's all wrong
And you got to change
And that's not easy
Dragon shining with all values known
Dazzling you-keeping you from your own
Where is the lion in you to defy him
When you're this weak
And this spacey

So what are you going to do about it
You can't live life and you can't leave it
Advice and religion you can't take it
You can't seem to believe it
The peacock is afraid to parade
You're under the thumb of the maid
You really can't give love in this condition
Still you know how you need it

They open and close you
Then they talk like they know you
They don't know you
They're friends and they're foes too
Trouble child
Breaking like the waves at Malibu

So why does it come as such a shock
To know you really have no one
Only a river of changing faces
Looking for an ocean
They trickle through your leaky plans
Another dream over the dam
And you're lying in some room
Feeling like your right to be human
Is going over too
Well some are going to knock you
And some'll try to clock you
You know it's really hard
To talk sense to you
Trouble child
Breaking like the waves at Malibu

[Chills]

He just finished eating dinner
and stepped outside the cave to smoke
A cigarette he'd made from rolled up photo paper
They were pictures of things back on earth
He looked out on the greyish white expanse of
Uninhabited terrain he now called home

He'd seen plenty of mirages and imaginary visitors up until then
So he wasn't sure what to think when he saw swans
And they were wading on the shores of a pale white lake
That he'd never seen there before
And it was quite beautiful and it was far away
Cause everything beautiful is far away

He knew he was as good as gone
But gone was somewhere he really didn't mind going to
Since the shuttle had crashed many years had passed
And the pictures of his loved ones
That the drew on the walls of the cave had finally faded
He put out his smoke and proceeded toward the lake
Repeating to himself everything beautiful is far away.

[aMD]

this thread has gone too long without some Dylan.  Here we go:

Oh, I'm sailin' away my own true love,
I'm sailin' away in the morning.
Is there something I can send you from across the sea,
From the place that I'll be landing?

No, there's nothin' you can send me, my own true love,
There's nothin' I wish to be ownin'.
Just carry yourself back to me unspoiled,
From across that lonesome ocean.

Oh, but I just thought you might want something fine
Made of silver or of golden,
Either from the mountains of Madrid
Or from the coast of Barcelona.

Oh, but if I had the stars from the darkest night
And the diamonds from the deepest ocean,
I'd forsake them all for your sweet kiss,
For that's all I'm wishin' to be ownin'.

That I might be gone a long time
And it's only that I'm askin',
Is there something I can send you to remember me by,
To make your time more easy passin'.

Oh, how can, how can you ask me again,
It only brings me sorrow.
The same thing I want from you today,
I would want again tomorrow.

I got a letter on a lonesome day,
It was from her ship a-sailin',
Saying I don't know when I'll be comin' back again,
It depends on how I'm a-feelin'.

Well, if you, my love, must think that-a-way,
I'm sure your mind is roamin'.
I'm sure your heart is not with me,
But with the country to where you're goin'.

So take heed, take heed of the western wind,
Take heed of the stormy weather.
And yes, there's something you can send back to me,
Spanish boots of Spanish leather.

[Chills]

Fitting for this time of year...


If we make it through December
Everythings gonna be all right I know
It's the coldest time of winter
And I shivver when I see the fallin snow

If we make it through December
I got plans of bein in a warmer town come summer time
Maybe even California
If we make it through December we'll be fine

I got laid off down at the factory
And their timin' is not the greatest in the world
Heaven knows I been workin' hard
I wanted Christmas to be right for daddy's girl
Now I don't mean to hate December
It's meant to be the happy time of year
And  my little girl don't understand
Why daddy can't afford no Christmas tree

If we make it through December
Everythings gonna be alright I know
It's the coldest time of winter
And I shivver when I see the fallin' snow

If we make it through December
I got plans of bein' in a warmer town come summer time
Maybe even California
If we make it through December we'll be fine

[FarmerYoda]

Aren't you going to come along?
Aren't you going to fight?
Aren't you going to hold your hands up to the light?
If you feel an emptiness, if you want to hide
Think about the blood that's pumping keeping you alive
We've got it all worked If we believe in the fight then we're all saved
It's gonna hurt for a while but it would anyway
Let us stand resolute with our voices raised
We have a right to insist to be free and brave
If that should cease to exist i'd throw my heart away
It's a long long way to the promised land
So try where you are, do what you can
You belong to what you understand
So teach yourself how to demand the monument that you deserve
For rising up in a beaten down world
Aren't you going to come along?
Aren't you going to fight?
Aren't you going to hold your hands up to the light?
If you feel an emptiness, if you want to hide
Think about the blood that's pumping keeping you alive

[colleen]

I saddled up my pony right
And rode into the ghostly night
It was wide, wide open, wide, wide open

I left the only home I knew
I stayed alive and I found you
Now I take you where the water's deep
And make the air you breathe so sweet

But is it not enough to be complete? Please?
Let me give you everything you need, please?

We found a way, we found a street
Directions sweat under the sheets
And I let you have it, let you have it

But it can be a lonely place
Desire comes, desire fades
There's a bright one caught your fancy eye
It's okay so long as you stay mine

And I'm so number one that it's a shame, a shame
That you let other numbers in the game

Now I suffer for your hungry eye
Oh why must it see more than mine?
It's a light you're after, 'cause light moves faster

But when I ride again into the night
My torch will shoot flames strong and bright
And my absence will remind you of
How tough it is to be in love

And it's not what I think it's what you say, hey
And it works great for you to have your way, hey

But if the west can be a desperate place
You search all day for just a taste
Of the cold, cold water, cold, cold water

And if you think i've gone too long
Listen the sky will sing this song
As it burns up all the memories
That flow like water out of me

[ratsprayer]

Lord
Show me a sign
That you're still there
That you still care
That you're still with me
That you still know me
Before I resign
Show me a sign

I can't laugh
I can't weep
Five nights in a row now
Not a second of sleep
Is there something
You want me to know
Well I wish you'd tell me what
Give me some kind of show

How 'bout a meteor
Or a shooting star
Or even a drunk
Getting thrown out of the bar
I'm getting impatient
And hope is expensive
And I'm running low on
Everything these days

The waters are rising
And the world is on fire
We're all just gasoline
For the funeral pyre
In the palaces morons
In the hospitals ghouls
Murderers in the towns
Rats in the schools

Armies of zombies
And the generals fishing
And baby Jesus
On a suicide mission
And little Mohammed
Lifeless and brown
And drowning faceless scarecrows
Wearing the crown

Ten thousand whistlers
Off-track and off-tune
Sixteen drummers
Wearing some kind of rune
Some kind of amulet
Some pre-Christian cross
And one man's lucky roll
Is another man's loss

Lord, you should have been there
Last Saturday night
I broke a couple barstools
And I broke up a fight
I broke three fingers
They looked kind of Egyptian
And the doctor wouldn't see me
Without a prescription

If this is how
It's all gonna go
I might as well pile up
Frequent flier miles and lay low
I might as well buy up
Some spiritual trinkets
Line the walls with paint
And start to drink it

It's hard to believe
It's goin' down so fast
When Einstein died
He thought you built it to last
But they threw him in a hole
And they stole his brain
And three days later  
It washed up again in the rain

Lord, I'll make you a bargain
I'll cut you a deal
They can cut off my eyelids
And I won't squeal
I won't spill your secrets
My soul's locked tight
Just please let me
Get a little sleep tonight

Fifty thousand horses
Ten thousand sheep
I'd trade 'em all
For just a second of sleep
The kind with dreams though
You gotta have dreams
I've heard about what happens
At the other extreme

Yeah without them dreams
You go insane
It's like having mayonnaise
Shot into your brain
But maybe I'm the exception
Every dog has its day
Maybe I'm a brand new species
What do you say

So look out the window
Might be something out there
Maybe something to read
Here's a Vanity Fair
Winter is coming
That's a relief
And I'm willing to go on faith
But I'm past belief

[megisnotreal]

how about some bright eyes?

Well, the animals laugh from the dark of the wilderness.
A baby cries hard in an apartment complex,
as I pass in a car buried under the influence.
The city's driving me out of my mind.
I've seen a child is caught in the sad trap of gravity.
He falls from the lowest branch of the apple tree
and lands in the grass and weeps for his dignity.
Next time he will not aim so high.
Yeah, next time, neither will I.
Now a mother takes loans out, sends her kids off to colleges.
Her family's reduced to names on a shopping list.
While, a coroner kneels beneath a great, wooden crucifix.
He knows there's worse things than being alone.
And so I've learned to retreat at the first sign of danger.
I mean, why wait around, if it's just to surrender?
An ambition, I've found, can lead only to failure.
I do not read the reviews.
No, I am not singing for you.
Well I stood dropping a coin into the pit of a well.
And I would throw my whole billfold if I thought it would help.
With all these wishes I make,
I should buy something real, at least a telephone call home.
Well, my teachers, they built this retaining wall of memory,
all those multiple choices I answered so quickly.
And got my grades back and forgot just as easily,
but as least I got an A.
And so I don't have them to blame.
Well I should stop pointing fingers;
reserve my judgment of all those public action figures,
the cowboy presidents.
So loud behind the bullhorn, so proud they can't admit
when they've made a mistake.
While poison ink spews from a speechwriter's pen,
he knows he don't have to say it,
so it, it don't bother him.
"Honesty", "Accuracy" is just "Popular Opinion."
And the approval rating's high,
and so someone's gonna die.
Well ABC, NBC, CBS: Bullshit.
They give us fact or fiction? I guess an even split.
And each new act of war is tonight's entertainment.
We're still the pawns in their game.
As they take eye for an eye until no one can see,
we must stumble blindly forward, repeating history.
Well, I guess we all fit into your slogan
on the fast food marquee:
Red blooded, White skinned oh and the Blues.
Oh and the Blues, I got the Blues! That's me! That's me!
Well, I awoke in relief.
My sheets and tubes were all tangled weak from whiskey and pills,
in a Chicago hospital.
And my father was there, in a chair, by the window, staring so far away.
I tried talking, just whispered, "...so sorry...so selfish..."
He stopped me and said, "Child I love you regardless
and there's nothing you could do that would ever change this.
I'm not angry. It happens. But you just can't do it again."
So now I try to keep up, I've been exchanging my currency.
While a million objects pass through my periphery.
Now I'm rubbing my eyes 'cause they're starting to bother me.
I've been staring too long at the screen.
But where was it when I first heard a sweet sound of humility?
It came to my ears in the goddamn loveliest melody.
How grateful I was then to be part of the mystery,
to love and to be loved. Let's just hope that is enough.

[Mr. T.]

Rats, what's that song? I love the lyrics!