10000 Maniacs

These are days you'll remember.
Never before and never since, I promise,
will the whole world be warm as this.
And as you feel it, you'll know it's true
that you are blessed and lucky.
It's true that you are touched by something
that will grow and bloom in you.

These are days you'll remember.
When May is rushing over
you with desire to be part of the miracles you see in every hour.
You'll know it's true that you are blessed and lucky.
It's true that you are touched by something
that will grow and bloom in you.

These are days.

These are the days you might fill with laughter until you break.
These days you might feel a shaft of light make
its way across your face.
And when you do you'll know how it was meant to be.
See the signs and know their meaning.
It's true, you'll know how it was meant to be.
Hear the signs and know they're speaking to you, to you.

O, Baby blankets and baby shoes,
baby slippers, baby spoons, walls of baby blue.
Dream child in my head is a nightmare born in a borrowed bed.
Now I know lightning strikes again.
It struck me once, then struck me dead.
My folly grows inside of me.
I eat for two, walk for two, breathe for two now.

Well, the egg man fell down off his shelf.
All the good king's men with all their help struggled 'til the end
for a shell they couldn't mend.
You know where this will lead, to hush and rock in the nursery for
the kicking one inside of me.
I eat for two, walk for two, breathe for two now.

When the boy was a boy, the girl was a girl,
they found each other in a wicked world.
Strong in some respects,
but she couldn't stand for the way he begged and gave in.
Pride is for men; young girls should run and hide instead.
Risk the game by taking dares with "yes".
Eat for two, walk for two, breathe for two now.

Walk for two? I'm stumbling.
Breathe for two? I can't breathe.
Five months , how it grows.
Five months now, I begin to show.

If lust and hate is the candy,
if blood and love tastes so sweet,
then we give 'em what they want.
Hey, hey, give 'em what they want.

So their eyes are growing hazy 'cos they wanna turn it on,
so their minds are soft and lazy.
Well, hey, give 'em what they want.

If lust and hate is the candy,
if blood and love tastes so sweet,
then we give 'em what they want.

So their eyes are growing hazy 'cos they wanna turn it on,
so their minds are soft and lazy.
Well... who do you wanna blame?

Hey, hey, give 'em what they want.

If lust and hate is the candy,
if blood and love tastes so sweet,
then we give 'em what they want.

So their eyes are growing hazy 'cos they wanna turn it on,
so their minds are soft and lazy.

Well... who do you wanna blame?

It crawls on his back, won't ever let him be.
Stares at the walls until the cinder blocks can breathe.
His eyes have gone away, escaping over time.
He rules a crowded nation inside his mind.

He knows that night like his hand.
He knows every move he made.
Late shift, the bell that rang, a time card won't fade.
10:05 his truck pulled home.
10:05 he climbed his stair,
about the time he was accused of being there.

But I'm not the man.
He goes free as I wait on the row for the man
to test the rope he'll slip around my throat...
and silence me.

On the day he was tried no witnesses testified.
Nothing but evidence, not hard to falsify.
His own confession was a prosecutor's prize,
made up of fear, of rage and of outright lies.

But I'm not the man.
He goes free as the candle vigil glows, as they burn my clothes.
As the crowd cries, "Hang him slow!"
and I feel my blood go cold, he goes free.

Call out the KKK, they're wild after me.
And with that frenzied look of half-demented zeal,
they'd love to serve me up my final meal.
Who'll read my final rite and hear my last appeal?
Who struck this devil's deal?

Don't talk, I will listen.
Don't talk, you keep your distance
for I'd rather hear some truth tonight than entertain your lies,
so take you poison silently.
Let me be. Let me close my eyes.

Don't talk, I'll believe it.
Don't talk, listen to me instead,
I know that if you think of it, both long enough and hard
the drink you drown your troubles in is the trouble you're in now.

Talk talk talk about it, if you talk as if you care
but when your talk is over tilt that bottle in the air,
tossing back more than your share.

Don't talk, I can guess it.
Don't talk, well now your restless
and you need somewhere to put the blame for how you feel inside.
You'll look for a close and easy mark and you'll see me as fair game.

Talk talk talk about it, talk as if you care
but when your talk is over tilt that bottle in the air
tossing back more than your share.
You talk talk talk about it, you talk as if you care.
I'm marking every word and can tell this time for sure,
your talk is the finest I have heard.

So don't talk, let me go on dreaming.
How your eyes they glow so fiercely I can tell your inspired
by the name you chose for me. Now what was it? O, never mind it.
We will talk talk talk about this when your head is clear.
I'll discuss this in the morning, but until then you may talk but I
won't hear.

Hey Jack Kerouac, I think of your mother
and the tears she cried, she cried for none other
than her little boy lost in our little world that hated
and that dared to drag him down. Her little boy courageous
who chose his words from mouths of babes got lost in the wood.
Hip flask slinging madman, steaming cafe flirts,
they all spoke through you.

Hey Jack, now for the tricky part,
when you were the brightest star who were the shadows?
Of the San Francisco beat boys you were the favorite.
Now they sit and rattle their bones and think of their blood stoned days.
You chose your words from mouths of babes got lost in the wood.
The hip flask slinging madman, steaming cafe flirts,
nights in Chinatown howling at night.

Allen baby, why so jaded?
Have the boys all grown up and their beauty faded?
Billy, what a saint they've made you,
just like Mary down in Mexico on All Souls' Day.

You chose your words from mouths of babes got lost in the wood.
Cool junk booting madmen, street minded girls
in Harlem howling at night.
What a tear stained shock of the world,
you've gone away without saying goodbye.

That young boy without a name I'd know his face.
In this city the kid's my favorite.
I've seen him. I see him every day.
Seen him run outside looking for a place to hide from his father,
the kid half naked and said to myself "O, what's the matter here?"
I'm tired of the excuses everbody uses, he's their kid I stay out of
it,
but who gave you the right to do this?

We live on Morgan Street;
just ten feet between and his mother, I never see her,
but her screams and cussing, I hear them every day.
Threats like: "If you don't mind I will beat on your behind,"
"Slap you, slap you silly."
made me say, "O, what's the matter here?"
I'm tired of the excuses everybody uses,
he's your kid, do as you see fit,
but get this through that I don't approve of
what you did to you own flesh and blood.

"If you don't sit on this chair straight
I'll take this belt from around my waist
and don't think that I won't use it!"

Answer me and take your time,
what could be the awful crime he could do at such young an age?
If I'm the only witness to your madness offer me some words to
balance out what I see and what I hear.
All these cold and rude things
that you do I suppose you do because he belongs to you
and instead of love, the feel of warmth
you've given him these cuts and sores won't heal with time or age.

I want to say "What's the Matter here?"
But I don't dare say.

Follow the typical signs, the hand
-painted lines, down prairie roads.
Pass the lone church spire.
Pass the talking wire from where to who knows?
There's no way to divide the beauty of the sky
from the wild western plains.
Where a man could drift, in legendary myth,
by roaming over spaces.
The land was free and the price was right.

Dakota on the wall is a white
-robed woman, broad yet maidenly.
Such power in her hand as she hails the wagon man's family.
I see Indians that crawl through this mural
that recalls our history.

Who were the homestead wives?
Who were the gold rush brides?
Does anybody know?
Do their works survive their yellow fever lives in the pages they
wrote?
The land was free, yet it cost their lives.

In miner's lust for gold.
A family's house was bought and sold, piece by piece.
A widow staked her claim on a dollar and his name, so painfully.
In letters mailed back home her Eastern sisters they would moan
as they would read accounts of madness, childbirth, loneliness and
grief.

The color of the sky as far as I can see is coal grey.
Lift my head from the pillow and then fall again.
With a shiver in my bones just thinking about the weather.
A quiver in my lips as if I might cry.

Well by the force of will my lungs are filled and so I breathe.
Lately it seems this big bed is where I never leave.
Shiver in my bones just thinking about the weather.
Quiver in my voice as I cry,

"What a cold and rainy day. Where on earth is the sun hid away."

I hear the sound of a noon bell chime.
Now I'm far behind.
You've put in 'bout half a day
while here I lie
with a shiver in my bones just thinking about the weather.
A quiver in my lip as if I might cry,

"What a cold and rainy day. Where on earth is the sun hid away?"

Do I need someone here to scold me
or do I need someone who'll grab and pull me out of this four poster dull torpor pulling downward.
For it is such a long time since my better days.
I say my prayers nightly this will pass away.

The color of the sky is grey as I can see through the blinds.
Lift my head from the pillow and then fall again
with a shiver in my bones just thinking about the weather.
A quiver in my voice as I cry,

"What a cold and rainy day. Where on earth is the sun hid away?"
I shiver, quiver, and try to wake.

Trouble me, disturb me with all your cares and you worries.
Trouble me on the days when you feel spent.
Why let your shoulders bend underneath this burden when my back is sturdy and strong?
Trouble me.

Speak to me, don't mislead me, the calm I feel means a storm is swelling;
there's no telling where it starts or how it ends.
Speak to me, why are you building this thick brick wall to defend me when your silence is my greatest fear?
Why let your shoulders bend underneath this burden when my back is sturdy and strong?
Speak to me.

Let me have a look inside these eyes while I'm learning.
Please don't hide them just because of tears.
Let me send you off to sleep with a "There, there, now stop your turning and tossing."
Let me know where the hurt is and how to heal.

Spare me? Don't spare me anything troubling.
Trouble me, disturb me with all your cares and you worries.
Speak to me and let our words build a shelter from the storm.
Lastly, let me know what I can mend.
There's more, honestly, than my sweet friend, you can see.
Trust is what I'm offering if you trouble me.

To know I was carefully building the mask I was wearing for two years, swearing I'd tear it off.
I've sat in the dark explaining to myself that I'm straining too hard for feelings I ought to find easily.
Called myself Jezebel.
I don't believe.

Before I say that the vows we made weigh like a stone in my heart.
Family is family, don't let this tear us apart.

You lie there, an innocent baby.
I feel like the thief who is raiding your home, entering and breaking and taking in every room.
I know your feelings are tender and that inside you the embers still glow.
But I'm a shadow, I'm only a bed of blackened coal.
Call myself Jezebel for wanting to leave.

I'm not saying I'm replacing love for some other word to describe the sacred tie that bound me to you.
I'm just saying we've mistaken one for thousands of words.
And for that mistake, I've caused you such pain that I damn that word.
I've no more ways to hide that I'm a desolate and empty, hollow place inside.

I'm not saying I'm replacing love for some other word to describe the sacred tie that bound me to you.
I'm not saying love's a plaything.
No, it's a powerful word, inspired by strong desire to bind myself to you.
How I wish that we never had tried to be man and his wife, to weave our lives into a blindfold over both our eyes.

Take me now baby here as I am Pull me close try an understand I work all day out in the hot sun Stay with me now till the mornin' comes Come on now try and understand The way I feel when I'm in your hands Take me now as the sun descends They can't hurt you now They can't hurt you now They can't hurt you now Because the night belongs to lovers Because the night belongs to us Because the night belongs to lovers Because the night belongs to us What I got I have earned What I'm not I have learned Desire and hunger is the fire I breathe Just stay in my bed till the morning comes Come on now try and understand The way I feel when I'm in your hands Take me now as the sun descends They can't hurt you now They can't hurt you now They can't hurt you now Because the night belongs to lovers Because the night belongs to us Because the night belongs to lovers Because the night belongs to us Your love is here and now The vicious circle turns and burns without Though I cannot live forgive me now The time has come to take this moment and They can't hurt you now Because the night belongs to lovers Because the night belongs to us Because the night belongs to lovers Because the night belongs to us Because the night belongs to lovers Because the night belongs to us Because the night belongs to lovers Because the night belongs to us Because the night belongs to lovers Because the night belongs to us

That summer fields grew high with foxglove stalks and ivy.
Wild apple blossoms everywhere.
Emerald green like none I have seen apart from dreams that escape me.
There was no girl as warm as you.

How I've learned to please, to doubt myself in need,
you'll never, you'll never know.

The summer fields grow high.
We made garland crowns in hiding, pulled stems of flowers from my hair.
Blue in the stream like none I have seen apart from dreams that escape me.
There was no girl as bold as you.

How I've learned to please, to doubt myself in need,
you'll never, you'll never know.
You'll never know.

Violet serene like none I have set apart from dreams that escape me.
There was no girl as warm as you.

How I've learned to please, to doubt myself in need.
You'll never, you'll never know.
You'll never know.

That summer fields grow high.
We had wildflower fever.
We had to lay down where they grow.

How I've learned to hide, how I've locked inside, you'd be surprised if shown.
But you'll never, you'll never know.

I never felt cheated.
You were the chosen one, the pure eyes of Noah's dove.
Choir boys and angles stole your lips and your halo.

In your reckless mind, you act as if you've got more lives.
In your reckless eyes, you only have time and your love of danger--to it your no stranger.

In that August breeze of those forgotten trees, your time was set for leaving, come a colder season.
In your reckless eyes, it's never too late for a chance to seize some final breath of freedom.
Very, so very wise.
Don't reveal it.
I'm tired, tired of knowing where it is you're going.

In your reckless mind, you act as if you've got more lives.
In your reckless eyes, you only have time and your love of danger--to it you're no stranger.
In your reckless mind, you act as if you've got more lives.
In your reckless eyes, it's never too late for a chance to seize some final breath of freedom

On bended knee I've looked through every window then.
Touched the bottom, the night a sleepless day instead;
a day when love came, came easy like what's lost now found.
Beneath a blinding light that would surround.
We were without, in doubt,
we were about saving for a rainy day.
I crashed through floors of laughter, then.
In a blind science, no ties would moor us to this room.
A day when love came, came easy like what's lost now found.
And you would save me, and I held you like you were my child.
If I were you, defiant you, alone upon a troubled way.
I would send my heart to you to save it for a rainy day.

The sky was falling, heaven was calling.
When danger crashes, rose from the ashes.
Like two statues hidden inside ancient rock,
we were praying for the secrets to unlock.
And when the sun had turned its back on us,
in the dark our love kept track of us,
pushed together by the lack of love.
We held each other tightly through our hell of dreams.
I still hear the never-endig echo of those screams.
But it's a life not made for reliving,
it's a life that makes your soul forgiving.
We sealed our bond from the beginning.
Aching, affection, vulnerable protection;
falling, captured, crawling, rapture.

Funny how I know it's harder, it's harder now.
Young girl in my young girl days, thinking I could live for always.
But like an ocean tide, I'm drawn back inside and I know.
Seasons pass like sand inside a glass and nothing, nothing returns.
Standing with the friends I've made, I'll race them to the grave.
Well who won, won the extra days?
When you take away the years toll on the waters wide, shallow high and low.
In the autumn sky, happy to know I'm going home.
Even with my eyes closed, funny how I know it's finally, has it finally begun?

Waking on a train dreaming, charmed alone they started speaking.
Captured in his artist way before the memories fade away.
To remember a face, and you're home or want to.
Certain they would meet soon, paint a portrait of a family.
Sigle light on, single way, single light away.
The night fell.
Saw a painting on the stairwell to mourn the passing of a daughter dear.
Her soul upon the train so far so near.
Just close your eyes and you're home.

An Augist day in the hills of Spain,
a pair of children emerged from a cave.
The strangest sight there alone they stood,
with skin of green and words no one had heard.
The girl was stronger, the boy was weak,
with her new mother she learned to speak.
And wove a tale of a dying sun,
they had left darkness, a dark world come undone.
They travelled so far.
Believing they came from a star.
She fell through life, through time, through parallel lives.
The men of science, the men of fame,
the men of letters tried to explain:
Was it parallel worlds or a twist of time
to make her think she'd fallen from the sky?
A whirlwind spun them all alone,
took them from their twilight home.
Believing they came from a star.

You were looking away from me, western skies calling you.
Colors spilling, running dazzling you.
I was looking the other way, voices call from the east,
I saw my roots of the trees there planted at my feet.
It could be I'm searching for a place so small
with room for everything where worlds on worlds revolve.
But how can we wait?
I wouldn't hold you back.
Suppose I was the clever one and words came easy to me.
I could say I was writing a song about you and me.
Maybe that verse is yet to be found, but waits inside of me,
a secret room a tangled web to unweave.
But how can we wait knowing our ways, how can we hold on,
still you know it's not too late.

I could feel at the time
There was no way of knowing
Fallen leaves in the night
Who can say where they're blowing
As free as the wind
And hopefully learning
Why the sea on the tide
Has no way of turning

More than this - you know there is nothing
More than this - tell me one thing
More than this - you know there is nothing

It was fun for a while
There was no way of knowing
Like a dream in the night
Who can say where we're going
No care in the world
Maybe I'm learning
Why the sea on the tide
Has no way of turning

More than this - you know there is nothing
More than this - tell me one thing
More than this - (you know) there is nothing

oooh...

I saw a big star running from me,
a world from a record on my bed.
Turn the tables on me,
what would happen if I fell to the tune of a dreamer,
to the tune of my heart?
A big start running from me,
I saw a world out sunning on my head.
Turn the tables on me now.
I would fall from heaven and ring your bell.
Baby, catch me in the middle of a lie.
The boys are out tonight,
yeah the boys are out tonight.
The big shots singin' from me,
I saw a world out sunning on my head.
Pity my heart signals:
center of a storm inside my head.
Center of my heart,
center of my out of time simple mind.
From the moon out my window a wink and a blink and a nod.
Had a wish on a start but now it's falling.
The boys are out tonight,
big skies above me signal in my horoscope it said:
never heed a caution,
never fought a lover,
never cross a street alone in the middle of a signal red,
middle of a drinker's heart,
middle of a big parade,
a signal in my horoscope.

I'd like to know what makes you stay
while your eyes still search for escape.
You think that I don't feel the cold,
but I wait while confessions unfold.
You'll never make a living from reading minds
or from getting your direction from exit signs.
Look into your heart and you won't find me there.
You won't find me where you hide
and that makes us a matter of time.
Like trees exposed by fall,
time reveals it all.
Tell me you want to do everything
but you're stuck up to your knees.
And I'm less likely pushed forward by ambition than a breeze.
But there's a flame that must be fanned,
and it appears as a beckoning hand.
Don't think 'cause you're not talking you're being kind,
you've been getting your direction from exit signs.
Look into your heart and you won't find me there.

She walks alone on the brick lane,
the breeze is blowing.
A year had changed her forever,
just like her grey home.
He used to live so close here,
we'd look for places I can't remember.
The world was safe when she knew him,
she tried to hold him, hold on forever.
For all that never happens and all that never will be,
a candle burning for the love we seldom keep.
The earth was raw in her fingers,
she overturned it.
Considered planting some flowers,
they wouldn't last long,
no one to tend them.
It's funny how these things go,
you were the answer to all the questions.
The memories made her weary,
she shuddered slowly,
she didn't want to.
As a distant summer he began to whisper,
and threw a smile her way.
She looked into the glass,
liquid surface showing that they were melding,
together present past.
So where can I go from here?
The color fading,
he didn't answer.
She felt him slip from her vision.
She tried to hold him, hold on forever.
So close forever,
in a silent frozen sleep.

Something was pulling me without knowing what was leading me on:
your shining light.
In my darkest hour the only way to bring the dawn was your shining light.
But you're unaware your shining light is even on.
Like with a little glance when you take me by surprise
and I take a chance and see it all through your eyes.
Free me from my history and show me where to draw the line,
by lighting up the mystery,
and you don't even know that it shines.
I'm not worried now about flying too close to the sun.
When December skies are cold,
you know I will always run to your shining light.
I won't abuse it so please just let it glow behind your smile.
Let me use it,
let me feel the warmth like a little child who understands your glance,
though it takes me by surprise.
And I take a chance and I see it all through your eyes.

Well they left then in the morning,
a hundred pairs of wings in the light moved together.
In the colors of the morning
I looked to the clouds in the cirrus sky and they'd gone.
Across the marshes, across the fields below.
I fell through the vines and I hoped they would catch me below.
If only to take me with them there,
tell me the part that shines in your heart on the wind.
And the reeds blew me in the morning.
Take me along to the places you've gone when my eyes looked away.
Tell me the song that you sing in the trees in the dawning.
Tell me the part that shines in your heart
and the rays of love forever, please take me there.

( Robert Buck/Natalie Merchant )



That young boy without a name anywhere I'd know his face.
In this city the kid's my favorite.
I've seen him. I see him every day.
Seen him run outside looking for a place to hide from his father,
the kid half naked and said to myself "O, what's the matter here?"
I'm tired of the excuses everybody uses, he's their kid I stay out of it,
but who gave you the right to do this?

We live on Morgan Street;
just ten feet between and his mother, I never see her,
but her screams and cussing, I hear them every day.
Threats like: "If you don't mind I will beat on your behind,"
"Slap you, slap you silly."
made me say, "O, what's the matter here?"
I'm tired of the excuses everybody uses, he's your kid, do as you see fit,
but get this through that I don't approve of what you did to you own flesh and blood.

"If you don't sit on this chair straight
I'll take this belt from around my waist and don't think that I won't use it!"

Answer me and take your time,
what could be the awful crime he could do at such young an age?
If I'm the only witness to your madness offer me some words to balance out what I see and what I hear.
Oh these cold and lowly things that you do I suppose you do because he belongs to you
and instead of love and the feel of warmth you've given him these cuts and sores don't heal with time or with age.

And I want to say "What's the Matter here?"
But I don't dare say.

( Robert Buck/Natalie Merchant )



Hey Jack Kerouac, I think of your mother
and the tears she cried, they were criedfor none other
than her little boy lost in our little world that hated
and that dared to drag him down, her little boy courageous.
who chose his words from mouths of babes got lost in the wood.
Hip flask slinging madman, steaming cafe flirts.
they all spoke through you.

Hey Jack, now for the tricky part,
when you were the brightest star, who were the shadows?
Of the San Francisco beat boys you were the favorite.
Now they sit and rattle their bones and think of their blood stoned days.
You chose your words from mouths of babes got lost in the wood.
The hip flask slinging madman, steaming cafe flirts,
in Chinatown howling at night.

Allen baby, why so jaded?
Have the boys all grown up and their beauty faded?
Billy, what a saint they've made you,
just like Mary down in Mexico on All Souls' Day.

You chose your words from mouths of babes got lost in the wood.
Cool junk booting madmen, street minded girls
in Harlem, howling at night.
What a tear stained shock of the world,
you've gone away without saying goodbye.

Color of the sky as far as I can see is coal grey.
Lift my head from the pillow and then fall again.
Shiver in my bones, just thinking about the weather.
Quiver in my lip as if I might cry.

Well by the force of will my lungs are filled and so I breathe.
Lately it seems this big bed is where I never leave.
Shiver in my bones, just thinking about the weather.
A quiver in my voice as I cry,

What a cold and a rainy day.
Where on earth is the sun hid away?

Hear the sound of a noon bell chime.
Well I'm far behind.
You've put in 'bout half a day
while here I lie
With a shiver in my bones just thinking about the weather.
A quiver in my voice as if I might cry,

What a cold and rainy day.
Where on earth is the sun hid away?

Do I need someone here to scold me
or do I need someone who'll grab and pull me out of four poster dull torpor pulling downward.
For it is such a long time since my better days.
I say my prayers nightly this will pass away.

The color of the sky is grey as I can see through the blinds.
Lift my head from the pillow and then fall again
Shiver in my bones just thinking about the weather.
A quiver in my voice as if I might cry,

A cold and a rainy day.
Where on earth is the sun hid away?
A cold and a rainy day I shiver, quiver, and try to wake.

<i>(Robert Buck/Natalie Merchant)
</i>

Over your shoulder, please don't mind me
if my eyes have fallen onto your magazine
Oh I've been watching and wondering
why your face is changing with every line you read.

For all those lines and circles, to me, a mystery.
Eve pull down the apple and give a taste to me.
For if she could it would be wonderful, but my pride is in the way.
I cannot read to save my life, I'm so ashamed to say.

I live in silence, afraid to speak
of my life in darkness because I cannot read.

But all those lines and circles, to me, a mystery.
Eve pull down the apple and give a taste to me.
For if she could it would be wonderful.
Then I wouldn't need someone else's eyes to see what's in front of me.
No one guiding me.

It makes me humble to be so green
at what every kid can do when he learns A to Z,

But all those lines and circles just frighten me
and I fear that I'll be trampled if you don't reach for me.
Before I run I'll have to take a fall.
And then I pick myself up, so slowly
I'll devour every one of those books in the Tower of Knowledge.

( Jerome Augustyniak/Natalie Merchant )



The Painted Desert can wait till summer.
We've played this game of just imagine long enough.
Wait till summer?
When I'm sure the rains have ended, the blooms have gone,
everyone killed by the morning frost.
Is a cactus blooming there in every roadside stand
where the big deal is cowboy gear won in Japan?

The Painted Desert can wait till summer.
We've played this game of just imagine long enough.
Wait till summer?
When I'm sure the rains have ended and the blooms have gone,
everyone killed by the morning frost.
Is a cactus blooming there upon the Northern rim
or in the ruins of the Hopi mesa dens?

You met a new friend in the Canyon, or so you wrote.
On a blanket in the cooling sand you and your friend agreed that
the stars were so many there they seemed to overlap.

The Painted Desert can wait till summer.
We've played this game of just imagine long enough.
Wait till summer?
When I am sure the rain has ended, the blooms have gone,
everyone killed by the morning frost.
Was a cactus blooming there as you watched the Native boy?
In Flagstaff trailer court, you wrote the line:
"He kicked a tumbleweed and his mother called him home where the Arizona moon met the Arizona sun."

I wanted to be there by May at the latest time.
Isn't that the plan we had or have you changed your mind?
I haven't read a word from you since Phoenix or Tucson.
April is over will you tell me how long before I can be there?

( Dennis Drew/Natalie Merchant )



Don't talk, I will listen.
Don't talk, you keep your distance
for I'd rather hear some truth tonight than entertain your lies,
so take you poison silently.
Let me be. Let me close my eyes.

Don't talk, I'll believe it.
Don't talk, listen to me instead,
I know that if you think of it, both long enough and hard
the drink you drown your troubles in is the trouble you're in now.

Talk talk talk about it, if you talk as if you care
but when your talk is over tilt that bottle in the air,
tossing back more than your share.

Don't talk, I can guess it.
Don't talk, well now your restless
and you need somewhere to put the blame for how you feel inside.
You'll look for a close and easy mark and you'll see me as fair game.

Talk talk talk about it, talk as if you care
but when your talk is over tilt that bottle in the air
tossing back more than your share.
You talk talk talk about it, you talk as if you care.
I'm marking every word and can tell this time for sure,
your talk is the finest I have heard.

So don't talk, let me go on dreaming.
How your eyes they glow so fiercely I can tell your inspired
by the name you chose for me. Now what was it? O, never mind it.
We will talk talk talk about this when your head is clear.
I'll discuss this in the morning, but until then you may talk but I won't hear.

I always knew that you would take yourself far from home
as soon as, as far as you could go.
By the 1/4 inch cut of your hair and the Army issue green,
for the past eight weeks I can tell where you've been.
For I knew, I could see, it was all cut and dried to me
there was soldier's blue blood streaming inside your veins.
There is a world outside of this room and when you meet it promise me
you won't meet it with your gun.

So now you are one of the brave few, it's awful sad we need boys like you.
I hope the day never comes for
"Here's your live round son. Stock and barrel, safety, trigger, here's your gun."
Well I knew, I could see, it was all cut and dried to me
there was soldiers blue blood streaming inside your veins.
There is a world outside of this room and when you meet it promise me
you won't meet it with your gun taking aim.
For I don't mean to argue, they've made a decent boy of you
and I don't mean to spoil your home coming,
but baby brother you should expect me to.

"Stock and barrel, safety, trigger, here's your gun."

So now does your heart pitter pat with a patriotic song
when you see the stripes of Old Glory waving?
Well I knew, I could see, it was all cut and dried to me
there was soldier's blue blood streaming inside your veins.
There is a world outside of this room and when you meet it promise me
you won't meet it with your gun taking aim.
I don't mean to argue, they've made a decent boy of you
and I don't mean to spoil your homecoming my baby brother Jude
and I don't mean to hurt you by saying this again,
they're so good at making soldiers but they're not so good at making men.

( Jerome Augustyniak/Natalie Merchant )



Big plans are being made for my sister's wedding day.
We'll have a ball at the Sons of Roma Hall.
Family, friends come one and all.
First the best man makes a toast to Rocky and my sister Rose,
"A life of years free of tears. Bottoms up and lots of luck!"
'
Polka, tango everyone, cha-cha, mambo Rose and Rock alone.
Frankie Rizzo and his Combo play on.

Single girls all hear the call from a crowd at the back wall
and when the bouquet flies each one tries to be the best catch and next years bride.
Uncle Sam and Uncle Joe take their places in the row.
They're standing by side to side for dollar dances with the bride.

Polka, tango everyone, cha-cha, mambo, Rose and Rock alone.
"He's a banker, she'll be well off now."

Sister Rose take your mother's place.
Trade your home and your maiden name.
For a list of vows and a veil of lace made a wife of you today.

Now they cut the five tier cake, "That Colucci, he can bake."
A frosted tower of sugar and flour for the couple of the hour.

Polka, tango everyone, cha-cha, mambo Rose and Rock alone.
She was born to wear that gown.

Sister Rose take your mother's place.
Trade your home and your maiden name.
For a list of vows and a veil of lace made a wife of you today,
but you're my sister Rose the same.

A lie to say, "O my mountain has coal veins and beds to dig.
500 men with axes and they all dig for me."
A lie to say, "O my river where many fish do swim,
half of the catch is mine when you haul your nets in."
Never will he believe that his greed is a blinding ray.
No devil or redeemer will cheat him.
He'll take his gold to where he's lying cold.

A lie to say, "O my mine gave a diamond as big as a fist."
But with every gem in his pocket, the jewels he has missed.
A lie to say, "O my garden is growing taller by the day."
He only eats the best and tosses the rest away.
Never will he be believe that his greed is a blinding ray.
No devil or redeemer can cheat him.
he'll take his gold to where he's lying cold.
Six deep in the grave.

Something is out of reach
something he wanted
something is out of reach
he's being taunted
something is out of reach
that he can' beg or steal nor can he buy

his oldest pain
and fear in life
there'll not be time
his oldest pain
and fear in life
there'll not be time

A lie to say "O my forest has trees that block the sun
and when I cut them down I don't answer to anyone."
No, no, never will he believe that his greed is a blinding ray
no devil or redeemer can cheat him.
He'll take his gold where he's lying cold.

( Robert Buck/Natalie Merchant )



Heaven, is this heaven where we are?
See them walking, if you dare, if you call that walking.
Stumble, stagger, fall and drag themselves along the streets of heaven.

Where is the blessed table to feed all who hunger on earth,
welcomed and seated each one joyfully served?
See them walking, if you dare, if you call that walking.
Stumble, stagger, fall and drag themselves along the streets of heaven.

Where is the halo that should glow 'round your face,
and where are the wings that should grow from your shoulder blades?
Show them to me.
These are sobering sights I've seen in the City of Angels
have all been one rude awakening that was dues to me in heaven.

There would have been heavenly music I was convinced before.
A host of the dearly to meet me with Hosannas sung at the door,
but these are sobering sights I've seen in the City of Angels
have all been one rude awakening that was dues to me in heaven.
In this city of fallen angels.

( Natalie Merchant )


( piano: Don Grolnick/cello: Dennis Karmazyn/viola: Novi/bass: Bob Magnusson/string arrangement: David Campbell )

The man in 119 takes his tea alone.
Mornings we all rise to wireless Verdi cries.
I'm hearing opera through the door.
The souls of men and women, impassioned all.
Their voices climb and fall; battle trumpets call.
I fill the bath and climb inside, singing.

He will not touch their pastry
but every day they bring him more.
Gold from the breakfast tray, I steal them all away
and then go and eat them on the shore.

I draw a jackal-headed woman in the sand,
sing of a lover's fate sealed by jealous hate
then wash my hand in the sea.
With just three days more I'd have just about learned the entire score to Aida.

Holidays must end as you know.
All is memory taken home with me:
the opera, the stolen tea, the sand drawing, the verging sea, all years ago.

Steep is the water tower
Painted off-blue to match the sky
Can't ignore the train

Night walks in the valley silent
You could swear the earth just moved
Can't ignore the train

Dust to be kicked up
In the crack-faced idle sinister town

Screen door to the rail station
Devil in her, she ran alongside the wasted tracks
Hem pins darted in her calves
Can't ignore the train

One spoiled girl with the tidiest apology
Somehow wedged inside her throat
Can't ignore the train

Patience their virtue
But I never could abide by that
Dungeon life with electric light
A clean towel and a basin
Mantel figures mind their places
And laughs where they belong

Through adventure
We are not adventuresome

Rage to share with a wardrobe mirror
In a room so beige and cold
Can't ignore the train

Window days saw the children pick their street games on thirty, thirty
Thirty afternoons

Molly, the boys are
Starting in that rhyme again
Teasing more and more the second daughter
How she fell
Young locked in some folks' prison
Made to dwell
Till they're braiding her gray hair
Sitting in the wishing chair
Sitting in the wishing chair
Sitting in the wishing chair

( music: John Lombardo & Robert Buck/lyric: Natalie Merchant )



power
dizzy with it stumble
detail
a chance for us to quarrel
anger
my head is shaken violent

if i could calm or restrain you
for the sake of pity
save the pistol
save the cynics tongue
save the cool white stare
and treat me to an honest face sometime

amaze me now

trust is
the greatest human error
empty
used me as a vessel
ruthless
you're not known for subtlety

if i could calm or restrain you
for the sake of pity
save the pistol
save the cynic's tongue
save the cool white stare
and treat me to an honest face sometime

amaze me now

artful
well there's quite a skill to torture
half smile
was it all you could deliver
token
so hard to be pleasant

if you could calm or restrain it
for the sake of pity
save the pistol
save the cynic's tongue
save the cool white stare
and treat me to an honest face sometime

amaze me now

On one morning
In the month of may
When all the birds
Were singing

I saw a lovely maiden stray
Across the fields at break of day
She softly sung her roundelay

The tide flows in
The tide flows out
Twice every day returning

Her cheeks were red
Her eyes were brown
Her hair in ringlets hanging down
Upon her face to hide the frown

Just as the tide was a flowing
The tide flows in
The tide flows out
Twice everyday returning

A sailor's wife at home must bide
She halted heavily she sighed
"he parted from poor me , a bride
I'm widowed by the sea" she cried

Just as the tide was a flowing

The tide flows in
The tide flows out
Twice every day returning

( music: Robert Buck/lyric: Natalie Merchant )



come as we go far away
from the noise of the street
walk a path so narrow
to a place where we feel at ease

some think it is haunting
to be drawn to the cemetery ground
as we
there's a stillness here
thankful found

child's pose angelic
a stone lamb at her feet
part the matted overgrowth
to read the carven elegy

some think it so haunting
to be drawn to the cemetery ground
as we
there's a stillness here
thankful found

born in New Albion
of Rice family elite
wed to Myron Bilowe
thrice with sons
blessed was she
some think it so haunting
to be drawn to the cemetery ground
as we
God's acre is a fenced in
hollow ground

here soon to rise up
Amelia tender and sweet
her last words spoke
all is well
all is peace

some think it so haunting
to be drawn to the cemetery ground
as we
God's acre is a fenced in
hollow ground

( music: Dennis Drew/lyric: Natalie Merchant )



Jenny

Jenny you don't know the nights I hide
below a second story room
to whistle you down
the man who's let to divvy up
time is a miser
he's got a silver coin
only lets it shine for hours
while you sleep it away

there's one rare and odd style of living
part only known to the everybody Jenny
a comical where's the end parade
of the sort people here would think unusual

Jenny

tonight upon the mock brine of a Luna Sea
far off we sail on to Back O' The Moon

Jenny

Jenny you don't know the days I've tried
telling backyard tales
so to maybe amuse
o your mood is never giddy
if you smile I'm delighted
but you'd rather pout
such a lazy child
you dare fold your arms
tisk and say that I lie

there's one rare and odd style of thinking
part only known to the everybody Jenny
the small step and giant leap takers
got the head start in the race toward it

Jenny

tonight upon the mock brine of a Luna Sea
far off we sail on to the Back O' The Moon

that was a sigh
but not meant to envy you
when your age was mine
some things were sworn true
morning would come

and calendar pages had
new printed seasons on
their opposite sides

Jenny

Jenny you don't know the nights I hide
below a second story room
to whistle you down
o the man who's let to divvy up
time is a miser
he's got a silver coin
lets it shine for hours
while you sleep it away

there's one rare and odd style of living

part only known to the everybody Jenny
out of tin ships jump the bubble head boys
to push their flags into powdered soils and cry
no second placers

no smart looking geese in bonnets
dance with pigs in high button trousers
no milk pail for the farmer's daughter
no merry towns of sweet walled houses

here I've found
Back O' the Moon
not here
I've found
Back O' the Moon

( music: Natalie Merchant/lyric: Natalie Merchant )



the legs of Maddox kitchen tables
my whole life twisted on a lathe
in a foreman's torrent
my first English was
"faster boy if you want your pay"
barking commands
loud and simple
we could all obey

then I was forever pulling silvers
rubbed the sawdust always
deeper in my eye
varnish vapor that could linger
on my skin
it held tight
the whine of spinning blades
still echoes to bother my sleep at night

see that ox
stamped dead center
on the letter head of the company mail
four decades a spitting image
of the animal I portrayed
at Maddox Table a yoke was carved
for my neck

sun through the window oil spattered
and in mason jars
tricked plenty seeds thrive
the standing joke
around the shop was
with my green thumb
anything'd grow
my part was to laugh
show and ornery jig had
cut it at the knuckle bone

see that ox
trade mark burned
into every stick of furniture
from horn to tail
four decades a spitting image
of the animal I portrayed
at Maddox Table a yoke was carved
for my neck

was tailor made

o my Dolly was a weak
not a burdened girl
treat her to a piece of vaudville
a Wintergarden moving picture show
Bemus Point on July Sundays
by trolley we'd go

to your benefit we's strike or bargain
with the waving fist a union man
not just for
smokes spirits candy and cologne
but for
automobile keys
cash in the bank
and the deed
on a place called home

( music: Robert Buck/lyric: Natalie Merchant )



here is the store house of Her Majesty
well guarded by sentry
but looks are free

call this the rayless and benighted age
witches by tallow candles shifted
shifted their shapes
here is the pestle and mortar
that ground the poison seed
a lute, a suit for jousting
and the poems of a balladeer
when all the Latin books were copied off
in golden script
well hoarded away in
a monastery crypt

superstition
superstition beyond belief

over mountain, over dune and over sea
crude map and compass lead the caravan
and lead the fleet
here's the loot and plunder
they bore home
ivory tusk inlaid with precious stone
raw silk and spices by the barrel load
a soft skin drum with mallets
of human bone

a world wide rampage
rampage of greed

so here the tour concludes
The Colonial Wing
the rooms of the most refined
museum property
an early pair of spectacles
a claw footed divan
ornate clocks with birds that strut
on the half hours and quarter hours

hear them chime

( lyrics: Natalie Merchant/music: J.C.Lombardo & Robert Buck )



there was light and atomic fission
swelling wind
rising ash
tide of black rain
cement seared shawdow traces
reminiscent of their last commands

instantly one thousand flames arising
ill scent the burning hides surrounding
a settlement debased entirely
enola gay had made a casual delivery

please build a future, darling
with our bomb
cherish and love it
for the sake of
earth bound kingdom come

the undersides of fallen metal trusses
evil debris of human bodies
each window's glass shards pelted
secure confines
brittle collapse

neighbors lay beside
each other unknowing
faces scorched of all familiar bearing
too few hands
many wounds for closing
marred by
thirsting
anguish
fear lamenting

here we stand
at the door to gold atomic age
don't spoil your face with worry
trust in
earth bound kingdom come

( music: Robert Buck & Dennis Drew/lyric: Natalie Merchant )



dance to the sun
a kiss to the earth
embrace a stone

come the small black book
come the brandy cask
one strange disease
the well worded paper
signed by the drunken
hands of thieves

and suddenly
they were told to leave

as the snake uncoiled on a road
the length was eighty miles
wagons' weary horses
lead the feverish exiles
barefoot in the early snow
on a ridge
where they beheld their home
coarse and barren
not the haven
promised by the Father

Jaksa Chula Harjo
Jaksa Chula Harjo
Jaksa Chula Harjo **

the Red Sticks first and
the Dancing Ghosts were
pierced with arms of fire
and the weeping widows
left could not avenge
so the Western Star manifest its will
drove them clear into the Pacific O

gone the way of flesh
turned pale and died
by your god's decree

for he hated me

** Cherokee name for Andrew Jackson
the 7th president of the U.S.A.

( music: John Lombardo/lyric: Natalie Merchant )



why are some men born
with minds that earn degrees
the loving cups
gilded plaques
grace their study walls
hide the cracks
while their genius is turned
to works of tyranny then
off to market to market
go selling these

with words so fiery and persuasive
they steal cunningly
riches no one can exceed

and why are some men born
with a fate of poverty
one firm bed
for a swollen back
year by year
the bodies wracked while
their obedience is had
with gradual defeat
by the pace by the pace
and the urgency

through a muddled thought
they phrase it
God knows we're deceived
barter for
what they need

and where they go
disdain and jeering
for fools to call
the noble peasantry

o how it puzzles me

I pressed flat the accordion pleats
that had gathered in his cotton sleeves
while he thumbed
yes thumbed I wouldn't say caressed

the final piece
a mountain's crest
soon to reply assuredly

o for man aged ninety years
no words to waste on sermons
he'd be pleased to answer
short and sincere

girl there's a nonsense
in all these heaven measures
it's a heathen creed
so your grandma says
but better to live by...
drink it all in before it's dry

he ended there with a rattle
cough cough
I took away the long gone cold coffee cup
as a trail of Camel ashes fell
on the floor

( music: John Lombardo/lyric: Natalie Merchant )



one time
you made me cry
be proud that I
remember

my chin is sore
the bruise is gone
but the spot is tender

gave my hand a sister coy
to Cotton Alley where
you did enjoy
your wicked games
you curious boy

tied my laces up together
when I fell
you laughed
until your belly was sore

in the brick laid aisle behind
the five and dime store

that's how
I made you blush
but doubt if you
remember

were my tears genuine
or those of a skilled
pretender

nothing precious
plain to see
don't make a fuss over me
not loud
not soft
but somewhere in between
say sorry
let it be
the word you mean

I was a little pest who
never took a hint
could never
take a hint

you pinched my fingers
in a door
tossed my coloring book in a
rusty barrel

pulled spiders from my hair
fingers in the door

my favorite blue blouse
stained on the back
running from a berry war

can you hear me scream
in Cotton Alley
scream in Cotton Alley
in Cotton Alley

( lyrics: Natalie Merchant & J.C. Lombardo/music: J.C. Lombardo )



like a weasel in the clover
you tilt toss pop turn over
sit down!
tremble and weave like a moth
by flame deceived
sit down!
spill with your words caught up
dance in your room
slide like you're buttered up
roll back the tomb
sit down!

bolt scuff jilt chase circle riddle
shake in haste
sit down!

when the thunderclouds sound
ants scatter to high ground

( lyrics: Natalie Merchant & Michael Walsh/music: J.C.Lombardo )



she borders the pavement
flanks avenues
parades pass white glove attended by
my mother the war

she'll raise a shaft
lift a banner
toss a rose
my mother the war

she's made every effort
to salvage the few
bought fourteen liberty bonds
my mother the war

mother the war

she knows every neighbor
chats at their doors
compare econosize electric appliances
my mother the war

share tea and a seat
by my cradle with
my mother the war

mother the war

caressing the globe
touch on his isle
she wrings hands in pensive waiting
my mother the war

haunts her doorway
begs her postman
is there word for
my mother the war

momentos of distant vigil
three years each tour
"hands of god enfold him" prayed
my mother the war

mother the war

in bitter defiance
she's spitting the corps
she's wet a brood short league for combat
my mother the war

well acquainted with sorrow
left millions in grief
my mother the war

fold
laced
carrion
blood
soaked
robes

mother the war

As frail hinges
Pivot on a case's door
Commemorative
Souvenirs from places
Containers change
With each occasion

A cellophane encased
Display of paper
Certificate
To credit years of service
A tool of central enterprises
The early hope
For permanence
The words
The rings
Consistency
The social security
A miracle is high tragedy

Thought mistaken
For a memory
Clear the dust from
Smiles in boxes
Pass a patterned wall
Recall their voices

A local post
Will list your friends
In order of
Disappearance
The lawn scattered

Tins feed birds
A portion baked for
Absent guests
And the mass edition icon
God sent comfort
Your salvation
But who grants absolution
For sins that
Never were committed

Tension makes a tangle
Of each thought
Becomes an inconvenience
Sound as it never penetrates
As servile edges
Break and
Feint

Thought mistaken
For a memory
A dress length
Assassination
A fractured family tie
Another christening

Christening
Christening
Christening

( music: Natalie Merchant/lyric: Natalie Merchant )



wide open falsehood
the clan destine truths
rival till the end
in a series of duels
pardon the drapery language I choose

Waltz in Vienna has taught me to use
every tall room a fiction
leather bound treasure books
up to the ceiling
gold spine upon spine

the guile and the treason
the faith and allegiance

wide open falsehood
the clan destine truths
rival till the end
in a series of duels
pardon the drapery language I choose

the author grew fat to imagine
his lead pen careening
gave voice to the scheming
an Aryan cabale to dethrone

the guile and the treason
the faith and allegiance
to the empire unknown

the baron and his mistress
dine in fine banquet hall
as rebel insurgents plot in
the attic space crawl

wide open falsehood
the clan destine truths
rival till the end
in a series of duels
pardon the drapery language I choose

his small hand did strive
to explain all the
rants and raves of
a people enslaved

by the cant of the shrewdest
capable men

the guile and the treason
the faith and allegiance
now lie in my hand

the guile and the treason
the faith and allegiance
now lie in my hand

( music: Natalie Merchant/words: Natalie Merchant )



O, Baby blankets and baby shoes, baby slippers, baby spoons, walls of baby blue.
Dream child in my head is a nightmare born in a borrowed bed.
Now I know lightning strikes again.
It struck me once, then struck me dead.
My folly grows inside of me.
I eat for two, walk for two, breathe for two now.

Well, the egg man fell down off his shelf.
All the good king's men with all their help struggled 'til the end for a shell they couldn't mend.
You know where this will lead, to hush and rock in the nursery for the kicking one inside of me.
I eat for two, walk for two, breathe for two now.

When the boy was a boy, the girl was a girl, they found each other in a wicked world.
Strong in some respects, but she couldn't stand for the way he begged and gave in.
Pride is for men; young girls should run and hide instead.
Risk the game by taking dares with "yes".
Eat for two, walk for two, breathe for two now.

Walk for two? I'm stumbling.
Breathe for two? I can't breathe.
Five months , how it grows.
Five months now, I begin to show.

"Mercy, mercy," why didn't we hear it?
"Mercy, mercy," why did we read it buried on the last page of our morning
papers?
The plan was drafted, drafted in secret.
Gunboats met the red tide, driven to the rum trade for the army that they
created.
But the bullets were bought by us, it was dollars that paid them.

Please forgive us, we don't know what was done,
Please forgive us, we don't know what was done in our name.

There'll be more trials like this in mercenary heydays.
When they're so apt to wrap themselves up in the stripes and stars and find that
they are able to call themselves heroes and to justify murder by their fighters
for freedom.

Please forgive us, we don't know what was done.
Please forgive us, we didn't know.
Could you ever forgive us? I don't know how you could.

I know this is no consolation.
Please forgive us, we don't know what was done,
Please forgive us, we didn't know.
Could you ever believe that we didn't know?
Please forgive us, we didn't know.
I wouldn't blame you if you never could.
Please forgive us, we didn't know.
I wouldn't blame you if you never could.
Please forgive us, and you never will.

( music: Jerome Augustyniak/words: Natalie Merchant )



Detroit to D.C. night train, Capitol, parts East.
Lone young man takes a seat.
And by the rhythm of the rails, reading all his mother's mail from a city boy in a jungle town postmarked Saigon.
He'll go live his mother's dream, join the slowest parade he'll ever see.
Her weight of sorrows carried long and carried far.
"Take these, Tommy, to The Wall."

Metro line to the Mall site with a tour of Japanese.
He's wandering and lost until a vet in worn fatigues takes him down to where they belong.
Near a soldier, an ex-Marine with a tattooed dagger and eagle trembling, he bites his lip beside a widow breaking down.
She takes her Purple Heart, makes a fist, strikes The Wall.
All come to live a dream, to join the slowest parade they'll ever see.
Their weight of sorrows carried long and carried far, taken to The Wall.

It's 40 paces to the year that he was slain.
His hand's slipping down The Wall for it's slick with rain.
How would life have ever been the same if this wall had carved in it one less name?
But for Christ's sake, he's been dead over 20 years.
He leaves the letters asking, "Who caused my mother's tears, was it Washington or the Viet Cong?"
Slow deliberate steps are involved.
He takes them away from the black granite wall toward the other monuments so white and clean.

O, Potomac, what you've seen.
Abraham had his war too, but an honest war.
Or so it's taught in school.

Trouble me, disturb me with all your cares and your worries.
Trouble me on the days when you feel spent.
Why let your shoulders bend underneath this burden when my back is sturdy and strong?
Trouble me.

Speak to me, don't mislead me, the calm I feel means a storm is swelling;
there's no telling where it starts or how it ends.
Speak to me, why are you building this thick brick wall to defend me when your silence is my greatest fear?
Why let your shoulders bend underneath this burden when my back is sturdy and strong?
Speak to me.

Let me have a look inside these eyes while I'm learning.
Please don't hide them just because of tears.
Let me send you off to sleep with a "There, there, now stop your turning and tossing."
Let me know where the hurt is and how to heal.

Spare me? Don't spare me anything troubling.
Trouble me, disturb me with all your cares and your worries.
Speak to me and let our words build a shelter from the storm.
Lastly, let me know what I can mend.
There's more, honestly, than my sweet friend, you can see.
Trust is what I'm offering if you trouble me.

( music: Robert Buck/words: Natalie Merchant )



How did they teach you to be just a happy puppet dancing on a string?
How did you learn everything that comes along with slavish funnery?
Tell me something, if the world is so insane,
is it making you sane again to let another man tug at the thread that pulls up your nodding head?

How did they teach you to be just a happy puppet dancing on a string?
How do you manage to live inside this tiny stage you can't leave?
Tell me something, if the world is so insane,
is it making you sane again to let another man tug at the thread that pulls up your nodding head?

A dullard strung on the wire.
When the master's gone you hang there with your eyes and your limbs so lifeless.

How did they teach you to be just a happy puppet dancing on a string?
How do you manage to speak, your mouth a frozen grin?

A dullard strung on the wire.
When the master's gone you hang there with your eyes and your limbs so lifeless.

Tell me something, if the world is so insane,
is it making you sane again to let another man tug at the thread that pulls up your empty wooden head?

Your hollow head, your marble eyes, your wooden hands and your metal jaw pins
all wait in limbo for the man who knows how to move you this way.

( music: Natalie Merchant/words: Natalie Merchant )



To your common sense firm arguments
I won't listen to your voice of reason trying to change my mind.
I mind my feelings and not your words.
Didn't you notice I'm so headstrong even when I know I'm wrong?
Take this to your heart and into your head now:
before you waste your time, call a truce and call a draw.

What's the use in mapping your views out in orderly form
when it does nothing but confuse and anger me more?
I mind my feelings and not your words.
Didn't you notice I'm so headstrong.
You're talking to a deaf stone wall.
Take this to your heart and into your head now:
the old wives' tale is true, I'll repeat it.
All is fair in love and war, that's how the famous saying goes.

Open up your eyes, see me for what I am:
cast in iron, I won't break and I won't bend.
Take this to your heart and into your head now:
the old wives' tale is true, I'll repeat it.
All is fair in love and war, that's how the famous saying goes.

If I told you we were out to sea in a bottomless boat,
you'd try anything to save us, you'd try anything to keep us afloat.
And if we were living in a house afire,
I don't believe that you could rush out and escape it and not rescue me.
Take this to your heart and into your head now:
the old wives' tale is true, I'll repeat it.
All is fair in love and war, that's how the famous saying goes.
Listen, I think they were talking to you.

( music: Dennis Drew/words: Natalie Merchant )



Tell me what's gone wrong.
I tilt my head there, under the faucet, but when I turn it on -- dry as paper.
Call the neighbors.
Who's to blame for what's going on?
In the dark without a clue I'm just the same as you.

O, they tell us there's poison in the well,
that someone's been a bit untidy and there's been a small spill.
Not a lot, no, just a drop.
But there you are mistaken, you know you are.
I wonder just how long they knew our well was poisoned but they let us just drink on.

O, they tell us there's poison in the well,
that someone's been a bit untidy and there's been a small spill.
All that it amounts to is a tear in a salted sea.
Someone's been a bit untidy, they'll have it cleaned up in a week.
But the week is over and now it's grown into years since I was told that I should be calm, there's nothing to fear here.
But I drank that water for years, my wife and my children.

Tell me, where to now, if your fight for a bearable life can be fought and lost in you backyard?

O, don't tell us there's poison in the well,
that someone's been a bit untidy, that there's been a small spill.
All that it amounts to is a tear in a salted sea.
Someone's been a bit untidy, they'll have it cleaned up in a week.

I should know to leave them home.
They follow me through the store with these toys I can't afford.
"Kids, take them back, you know better than that."
Dolls that talk, astronauts, T.V. games, airplanes, they don't understand and how can I explain?
I try and try but I can't save.
Pennies, nickels, dollars slip away.
I've tried and tried but I can't save.

My youngest girl has bad fever, sure.
All night with alcohol to cool and rub her down.
Ruby, I'm tired, try and get some sleep.
I'm adding doctor's fees to remedies with the cost of three day's work lost.
I try and try but I can't save.
Pennies, nickels, dollars slip away.
I've tried and tried but I can't save.
The hole in my pocketbook is growing.

There's a new wind blowing they say, it's gonna be a cold, cold one.
So brace yourselves my darlings, it won't bring anything much our way but more dust bowl days.

I played a card in this weeks game.
Took the first and the last letters in three of their names.
This lottery's been building up for weeks.
I could be lucky me with the five million prize, tears of disbelief spilling out of my eyes.
I try and try but I can't save.
Pennies, nickels, dollars slip away.
I've tried and tried but I can't save.
The hole in my pocketbook is growing.

There's a new wind blowing they say, it's gonna be a cold, cold one.
So brace yourselves my darlings, it won't bring anything much our way but more dust bowl days.

( music: Natalie Merchant & Dennis Drew/words: Natalie Merchant )



Can I be unhappy?
Look at what I see: a beast in furs and crowned in luxury.
He's a wealthy man in the poorest land, a self-appointed king,
and there's no complaining while he's reigning.
The lambs are bare of fleece and cold; the lion has stolen that, I'm told.
There must be some creature mighty as you are.
The lambs go hungry (not fair), the biggest portion is the lion's share.
There must be some creature mighty as you are.

Can I be unhappy?
Listen and agree, no words can shame him or tame him.
The lambs are bare of fleece and cold; the lion has stolen that, I'm told.
There must be some creature mighty as you are.
The lambs go hungry (not fair), the biggest portion is the lion's share.
There must be some creature mighty as you are, as you are.

Razor claws in velvet paws, you dunce in your guarded home,
'til a stronger beast will call on you and pounce upon your throne.

Do we pay? Dearly, for the lion takes so greedily
and he knows that what he's taken, it is ours.
That's how the wealth's divided among the lambs and king of the beasts, it is so one-sided.
Until the lamb is king of the beasts we live so one-sided.

( music: Natalie Merchant/words: Natalie Merchant )



In the dark night a giant slumbered untouched for centuries
'til awakened by a white man's cry: "This is the Eden I was to find."
There were lands to be charted and to be claimed for a crown,
when a hero was made by the length he could stay in this dangerous land of hateful hate.

Curiosity filled the heads of these, there was an upper room they had to see.
Curiosity killed the best of these for a hero's hometown welcoming.
Still they moved on and on.

Who came building missions?
Unswerving men of the cloth who gave their lives in numbers untold so that black sheep entered the fold.
Captured like human livestock, destined for slavery.
Naked, walked to the shore where great ships moored for the hellbound journies.
Bought and sold with a hateful hate.

Curiosity filled the breasts of these with some strange ecstasy.
Curiosity killed the best of these by robbing their lives of dignity.
Still they moved on and on.

Calling men of adventure for a jungle bush safari.
Come conquer the, his claws and teeth.
See death in his eyes to know you're alive.
European homesteads grew up in the colonies with civilized plans for wild hinterlands, their guns and God willing.
Such a hateful hate.

Curiosity spilled the blood of these for their spotted skins and ivory.
Curiosity filled the heads of these madmen with the lies of destiny.
Curiosity spilled the blood of these, then blotted their lives from history.
Curiosity filled the heads of these, one man claimed all that he could see.
Curiosity still entices these madmen with a lusting and a greed.
Their legacy, legacy, legacy...

He fills the flower vases
Trims the candle bases
Takes small change from the poor box
Tyler has the key
He takes nail and hammer
To tack up the banner of felt scraps glued together reading,
"Jesus Lives in Me"
Alone in the night he mocks the words of the preacher:
"God is feeling your every pain"
Repair the Christmas stable
Restore the plaster angel
Her lips begin to crumble and her robes begin to peel
For Bible study in the church basement
Hear children Gospel citing Matthew 17:15
Alone in the night he mocks the arms of the preacher raised to the ceiling
"Tell God your pain"

To him the world's defiled
In Lot he sees a likeness there
He swears this Sodom will burn down.
Near Sacred Blood there's a dance hall
Where Tyler Glen saw a black girl and a white boy kissing shamelessly
Black hands on white shoulders
White hands on black shoulders
Dancing, and you know what's more
He's God's mad disciple,
A righteous title for the Word he heard
He so misunderstood
Though simple-minded, a crippled man, to know this man's to fear this man
To shake when he comes
Wasn't it God that let Puritans in Salem
Do what they did to the unfaithful?

Boys at the Jubilee
Slowly sink into brown-bag whiskey drinking
And reeling on their feet
Girls at the Jubilee
In low-cut dresses yield to the caresses and the man-handling
Black hands on white shoulders
White hands on black shoulders
Dancing, and you know what's more

Through the tall blades of grass he
Heads for the Jubilee
With a bucket in his right hand
Full of rags soaked in gasoline
He lifts the shingles in the dark and slips the rags there underneath
He strikes a matchstick on the box side and watches the rags ignite
He climbs the bell tower of the Sacred Blood to watch the flames
Rising higher toward the trees
Sirens wailing now toward the scene

You won a prize for that,
for telling lies like that
So well that I believed it.
And I never felt cheated.
You were the chosen one,
the pure eyes of Noah's dove.
Choir boys and angels
stole your lips and your halo.
In your reckless mind,
you act as if you've got more lives.
In your reckless eyes, you only have time and your love of danger
to it you're no stranger.
In that August breeze
of those forgotten trees,
your time was set for leaving,
come a colder season.
In your reckless mind,
you act as if you抳e got more lives
In your reckless eyes,
it's never too late for a chance to seize some final breath of freedom.
Very, so very wise.

Don't reveal it. I'm tired, tired of knowing
where it is you're going.
In your reckless mind,
you act as if you've got more lives.
In your reckless eyes,
it's never too late for your love of danger
to it you're no stranger.
In your reckless mind,
you act as if you've got more lives.
In your reckless eyes, it's never too late
for a chance to seize some
final breath of freedom

These Are Days


These are
These are days you’ll remember
Never before and never since, I promise
Will the whole world be warm as this
And as you feel it,
You’ll know it’s true
That you &#8211; you are blessed and lucky
It’s true &#8211; that you
Are touched by something
That will grow and bloom in you

These are days you’ll remember
When May is rushing over you
With desire to be part of the miracles
You see in every hour
You’ll know it’s true
That you are blessed and lucky
It’s true that you are touched
By something that will grow and bloom in you

These are days &#8211;
These are the days you might fill
With laughter until you break
These days you might feel
A shaft of light
Make its way across your face
And when you do
You’ll know how it was meant to be
See the signs and know their meaning
You’ll know how it was meant to be
Hear the signs and know they’re speaking
To you, to you

Eden

we are the roses in the garden
beauty with thorns among our leaves
to pick a rose you ask your hands to bleed

but what is the reason for having roses
when your blood is shed carelessly?
it must be for something more than vanity

believe me, the truth is we're not honest
not the people that we dream
we're not as close as we could be

willing to grow but rains are shallow
barren and wind-scattered seed
on stone and dry land, we will be
waiting for the light arisen to flood inside the prison

and in that time
kind words alone will teach us
no bitterness will reach us
reason will be guided in another way

all in time...
but the clock is another demon
that devours our time in Eden
in our paradise

is there still time?

Few and Far Between


times are far between, and few I bet
we can look upon our lives without regret

of all the things I have done
you think I'm proud of everyone without exception?

'til you make your peace with yesterday
you'll never build a future
I swear by what I say

whatever penance you'll do
decide what it's worth to you
and then respect it
however long it will take
to weather your mistakes
why not accept it?

my hands, for now, are tied
I'm a body frozen
I'm a will that's paralyzed

when will you ever set aside
your pain and misery?
no matter how I beg
no matter how I wish or plead

you'll never be more than alive
you'll never do more than survive
until you expect it
do you want to build a world with our lives?
you better soon decide
or you can forget it.

my hands, for now, are tied
I'm a body frozen
I'm a will that's paralyzed
'til you drop that heavy baggage
you're dragging behind
there won't be room for us
to both go this ride

Stockton Gala Days


that summer fields grew high
with foxglove stalks and ivy
wild apple blossoms everywhere
emerald green like none I have seen
apart from dreams that escape me
there was no girl as warm as you

how I've learned to please
to doubt myself in need
you'll never, you'll never know

that summer fields grow high
we made garland crowns in hiding
pulled stems of flowers from my hair
blue in the stream like none I have seen
apart from dreams that escape me
there was no girl as bold as you

how I've learned to please
to doubt myself in need
you'll never, you'll never know
you'll never know...

violet serene like none I have seen
apart from dreams that escape me
there was no girl as warm as you
how I've learned to please
to doubt myself in need
you'll never, you'll never know
you'll never know...

that summer fields grow high
we had wildflower fever
we had to lay down where they grow
how I've learned to hide, how I've locked inside
you'd be surprised if shown
but you'll never, you'll never know

Gold Rush Brides


Follow the typical signs, the hand-painted lines,
down prairie roads.
Pass the lone church spire.
Pass the talking wire from where to who knows?
There's no way to divide the beauty of the sky from the wild western plains.
Where a man could drift, in legendary myth,
by roaming over spaces.
The land was free and the price was right.

Dakota on the wall is a white-robed woman,
broad yet maidenly.
Such power in her hand as she hails the wagon man's family.
I see indians that crawl through this mural that recalls our history.

Who were the homestead wives?
Who were the gold rush brides?
Does anybody know?
Do their works survive their yellow fever lives in the pages they wrote?
The land was free, yet it cost their lives.

In miner's lust for gold.
A family's house was bought and sold, piece by piece.
A widow staked her claim on a dollar and his name,
so painfully.
In letters mailed back home her eastern sisters they would moan
As they would read accounts of madness,
childbirth, loneliness and grief.

Jezebel


to think of my task is chilling
to know I was carefully building the mask I was wearing
for two years, swearing I'd tear it off

I've sat in the dark explaining to myself
that I'm straining too hard
for feelings I ought to find easily
called myself Jezebel
I don't believe

before I say that the vows we've made
weigh like a stone in my heart
family is family, don't let this tear us apart

you lie there, an innocent baby
I feel like the thief who is raiding your home
entering and breaking and taking in every room

I know your feelings are tender
inside you the embers still glow
but I'm a shadow, I'm only a bed of blackened coal
call myself Jezebel for wanting to leave

I'm not saying I'm replacing love for some other word
to describe the sacred tie that bound me to you
I'm just saying we've mistaken one for thousands of words
and for that mistake
I've caused you such pain
that I damn that word!

I've no more ways to hide
that I'm a desolate and hollow place inside

I'm not saying I'm replacing love for some other word
to describe the sacred tie that bound me to you
I'm not saying love's a plaything
no, it's a powerful word
inspired by strong desire to bind myself to you

how I wish that we never had tried
to be man and his wife
to weave our lives into a blindfold
over both our eyes

"My, how you've grown."
I remember that phrase from my childhood days too
"Just wait and see."
I remember those words and how they chided me, when patient was the hardest thing to be.
Because we can't make up for the time that we've lost, I must let these memories provide.
No little girl can stop her world to wait for me.

I should have known.
At your age, in a string of days the year is gone.
But in that space of time, it takes so long.
Because we can't make up for the time that we've lost, I must let those memories provide.
No little girl can stop her world to wait for me.

Every time we say goodbye you're frozen in my mind as the child that you never will be, you never will be again.
I'll never be more to you than a stranger could be.

Every time we say goodbye you're frozen in my mind as a child that you never will be, will be again.

Candy Everybody Wants


if lust and hate is the candy
if blood and love tastes so sweet
then we give 'em what they want

hey, hey, give 'em what they want

so their eyes are growing hazy
'cos they wanna turn it on
so their minds are soft and lazy
well, hey, give 'em what they want

if lust and hate is the candy
if blood and love tastes so sweet
then we give 'em what they want

so their eyes are growing hazy
'cos they wanna turn it on
so their minds are soft and lazy
well... who do you want to blame?

hey, hey, give 'em what they want

if lust and hate is the candy
if blood and love tastes so sweet
then we give 'em what they want

so their eyes are growing hazy
'cos they wanna turn it on
so their minds are soft and lazy

eell... who do you want to blame?

Tolerance

The still and silence is torn with violence
A loud breaking sound in the night is made
Hear it grow, hear it fade.
The sound you're hearing, the sound you're fearing
is the hate that parades up and down our streets coming within bounds and within reach

Now, inside the place we hide away
we hear it near and hope it turns away
Turn away ...

There's something seething in the air we're breathing
We learn slash and burn is the method to use
Set a flame, burn it new
We're overpowered
We kneel, we cower, we cover our heads
Feel the threat of blows that will come and the damage that will be done in its wake

Now, inside this place we hide away
We hear it near although it's miles away
We hear it near and hope it turns away
Turn away ...

This house divided, we live inside it
Hate's dwelling place is behind our door in fitful nights
Hear it walk the floor and hear it rave as it moans and drags along its ball and chain
as it moves through this house it can't escape

Now inside this place we hide away
We hear it near and hope it turns away
Turn away ....

Circle Dream


I dreamed of a circle
I dreamed of a circle round
and in that circle I had made
were all the worlds unformed and unborn yet
a volume, a sphere
that was the earth
that was the moon
that did revolve around my room

I dreamed of a circle
I dreamed of a circle round
and in that circle was a maze
a terrible spiral to be lost in
blind in my fear
I was escaping just by feel
but at every turn
my way was sealed

I dreamed of a circle
I dreamed of a circle round
and in that circle was a face
her eyes looked upon me with fondness
her warmth coming near
calling me "sweetness"
calling me "dear"
but I whispered, "no, I can't rest here"

I dreamed of a circle
I dreamed of a circle round

If You Intend


if you intend to live again
open your eyes and don't pretend you're feeling
there's nothing worth believing

if you persist you'll die like this
and wither in the midst of your first season
cut down with no reason

how can you be so near and not see everything?

if you intend to live again
take the outstretched hand of the one that needs you
it's been so long, we've missed you

why do you intend to speed your end
lye in the dark and let your limbs grow weaker
sinking low then deeper?

how can you be so near and not see everything?

feel what might be
see what I see
again and again and again say you don't
you say you don't, but you will

( Merchant )


( bassoons: Kim Laskowski & Atsuko Sato )

It crawls on his back, won't ever let him be.
Stares at the walls until the cinder blocks can breathe.
His eyes have gone away, escaping over time.
He rules a crowded nation inside his mind.

He knows that night like his hand.
He knows every move he made.
Late shift, the bell that rang, a time card won't fade.
10:05 his truck pulled home.
10:05 he climbed his stair, about the time he was accused of being there.

But I'm not the man.
He goes free as I wait on the row for the man to test the rope he'll slip around my throat...
and silence me.

On the day he was tried no witnesses testified.
Nothing but evidence, not hard to falsify.
His own confession was a prosecutor's prize,
made up of fear, of rage and of outright lies.

But I'm not the man.
He goes free as the candle vigil glows, as they burn my clothes.
As the crowd cries, "Hang him slow!" and I feel my blood go cold, he goes free.

Call out the KKK, they're wild after me.
And with that frenzied look of half-demented zeal,
they'd love to serve me up my final meal.
Who'll read my final rite and hear my last appeal?
Who struck this devil's deal?

( music: Dennis Drew/lyric: Natalie Merchant )



science
is truth for life
watch religion fall obsolete
science
will be truth for life
technology as nature
science
truth for life
in fortran tongue the
answer

with wealth and prominence
man so near perfection
possession
it's an absence of interim
secure no demurrer
defense against divine
defense against his true
image
human conflict number five
discovery
dissolved all illusion
mystery
destroyed with conclusion
and illusion never restored

any modern man can see
that religion is
obsolete

piety
obsolete
ritual
obsolete
martyrdom
obsolete
prophetic vision
obsolete
mysticism
obsolete
commitment
obsolete
sacrament
obsolete
revelation
obsolete

( lyrics: Natalie Merchant & Michael Walsh/music: J.C.Lombardo )



she borders the pavement
flanks avenues
parades pass white glove attended by
my mother the war

she'll raise a shaft
lift a banner
toss a rose
my mother the war

she's made every effort
to salvage the few
bought fourteen liberty bonds
my mother the war

mother the war

she knows every neighbor
chats at their doors
compare econosize electric appliances
my mother the war

share tea and a seat
by my cradle with
my mother the war

mother the war

caressing the globe
touch on his isle
she wrings hands in pensive waiting
my mother the war

haunts her doorway
begs her postman
is there word for
my mother the war

momentos of distant vigil
three years each tour
"hands of god enfold him" prayed
my mother the war

mother the war

in bitter defiance
she's spitting the corps
she's wet a brood short league for combat
my mother the war

well acquainted with sorrow
left millions in grief
my mother the war

fold
laced
carrion
blood
soaked
robes

mother the war

frail hinges pivot
on a cases door
commemorative
souvenirs from places
containers change
with each occasion

cellophane encased
displaying paper
certificate
credit years of service
a tool of
central enterprises

the early hope
for permanence the
words the rings
consistency
and social security the
miracles high tragedy


a thought mistaken
for a memory
dress lenghts
assassinations
fractured family ties
christenings

local posts they
list your friends
in order of
disappearance
lawn scattered tins
feed birds the
portion baked for
absent guests

mass edition icon
god sent comfort is
your salvation
but who grants
absolution for sins
that never were committed

tension
makes a tangle
of each thought becomes
inconvenience
sound never penetrate
as servile edges
break and faint

a thought mistaken
for a memory
clear the dust from
smiles in boxes
cross a patterned floor
recall the voices

( music: John Lombardo & Robert Buck/lyric: Natalie Merchant )



power
dizzy with it stumble
detail
a chance for us to quarrel
anger
my head is shaken violent

if i could calm or restrain you
for the sake of pity
save the pistol
save the cynics tongue
save the cool white stare
and treat me to an honest face sometime

amaze me now

trust is
the greatest human error
empty
used me as a vessel
ruthless
you're not known for subtlety

if i could calm or restrain you
for the sake of pity
save the pistol
save the cynic's tongue
save the cool white stare
and treat me to an honest face sometime

amaze me now

artful
well there's quite a skill to torture
half smile
was it all you could deliver
token
so hard to be pleasant

if you could calm or restrain it
for the sake of pity
save the pistol
save the cynic's tongue
save the cool white stare
and treat me to an honest face sometime

amaze me now

Color of the sky as far as I can see is coal grey.
Lift my head from the pillow and then fall again.
Shiver in my bones, just thinking about the weather.
Quiver in my lip as if I might cry.

Well by the force of will my lungs are filled and so I breathe.
Lately it seems this big bed is where I never leave.
Shiver in my bones, just thinking about the weather.
A quiver in my voice as I cry,

What a cold and a rainy day.
Where on earth is the sun hid away?

Hear the sound of a noon bell chime.
Well I'm far behind.
You've put in 'bout half a day
while here I lie
With a shiver in my bones just thinking about the weather.
A quiver in my voice as if I might cry,

What a cold and rainy day.
Where on earth is the sun hid away?

Do I need someone here to scold me
or do I need someone who'll grab and pull me out of four poster dull torpor pulling downward.
For it is such a long time since my better days.
I say my prayers nightly this will pass away.

The color of the sky is grey as I can see through the blinds.
Lift my head from the pillow and then fall again
Shiver in my bones just thinking about the weather.
A quiver in my voice as if I might cry,

A cold and a rainy day.
Where on earth is the sun hid away?
A cold and a rainy day I shiver, quiver, and try to wake.

( Dennis Drew/Natalie Merchant )



Don't talk, I will listen.
Don't talk, you keep your distance
for I'd rather hear some truth tonight than entertain your lies,
so take you poison silently.
Let me be. Let me close my eyes.

Don't talk, I'll believe it.
Don't talk, listen to me instead,
I know that if you think of it, both long enough and hard
the drink you drown your troubles in is the trouble you're in now.

Talk talk talk about it, if you talk as if you care
but when your talk is over tilt that bottle in the air,
tossing back more than your share.

Don't talk, I can guess it.
Don't talk, well now your restless
and you need somewhere to put the blame for how you feel inside.
You'll look for a close and easy mark and you'll see me as fair game.

Talk talk talk about it, talk as if you care
but when your talk is over tilt that bottle in the air
tossing back more than your share.
You talk talk talk about it, you talk as if you care.
I'm marking every word and can tell this time for sure,
your talk is the finest I have heard.

So don't talk, let me go on dreaming.
How your eyes they glow so fiercely I can tell your inspired
by the name you chose for me. Now what was it? O, never mind it.
We will talk talk talk about this when your head is clear.
I'll discuss this in the morning, but until then you may talk but I won't hear.

( Robert Buck/Natalie Merchant )



That young boy without a name anywhere I'd know his face.
In this city the kid's my favorite.
I've seen him. I see him every day.
Seen him run outside looking for a place to hide from his father,
the kid half naked and said to myself "O, what's the matter here?"
I'm tired of the excuses everybody uses, he's their kid I stay out of it,
but who gave you the right to do this?

We live on Morgan Street;
just ten feet between and his mother, I never see her,
but her screams and cussing, I hear them every day.
Threats like: "If you don't mind I will beat on your behind,"
"Slap you, slap you silly."
made me say, "O, what's the matter here?"
I'm tired of the excuses everybody uses, he's your kid, do as you see fit,
but get this through that I don't approve of what you did to you own flesh and blood.

"If you don't sit on this chair straight
I'll take this belt from around my waist and don't think that I won't use it!"

Answer me and take your time,
what could be the awful crime he could do at such young an age?
If I'm the only witness to your madness offer me some words to balance out what I see and what I hear.
Oh these cold and lowly things that you do I suppose you do because he belongs to you
and instead of love and the feel of warmth you've given him these cuts and sores don't heal with time or with age.

And I want to say "What's the Matter here?"
But I don't dare say.

( Robert Buck/Natalie Merchant )



Hey Jack Kerouac, I think of your mother
and the tears she cried, they were criedfor none other
than her little boy lost in our little world that hated
and that dared to drag him down, her little boy courageous.
who chose his words from mouths of babes got lost in the wood.
Hip flask slinging madman, steaming cafe flirts.
they all spoke through you.

Hey Jack, now for the tricky part,
when you were the brightest star, who were the shadows?
Of the San Francisco beat boys you were the favorite.
Now they sit and rattle their bones and think of their blood stoned days.
You chose your words from mouths of babes got lost in the wood.
The hip flask slinging madman, steaming cafe flirts,
in Chinatown howling at night.

Allen baby, why so jaded?
Have the boys all grown up and their beauty faded?
Billy, what a saint they've made you,
just like Mary down in Mexico on All Souls' Day.

You chose your words from mouths of babes got lost in the wood.
Cool junk booting madmen, street minded girls
in Harlem, howling at night.
What a tear stained shock of the world,
you've gone away without saying goodbye.

( Natalie Merchant )


( piano: Don Grolnick/cello: Dennis Karmazyn/viola: Novi/bass: Bob Magnusson/string arrangement: David Campbell )

The man in 119 takes his tea alone.
Mornings we all rise to wireless Verdi cries.
I'm hearing opera through the door.
The souls of men and women, impassioned all.
Their voices climb and fall; battle trumpets call.
I fill the bath and climb inside, singing.

He will not touch their pastry
but every day they bring him more.
Gold from the breakfast tray, I steal them all away
and then go and eat them on the shore.

I draw a jackal-headed woman in the sand,
sing of a lover's fate sealed by jealous hate
then wash my hand in the sea.
With just three days more I'd have just about learned the entire score to Aida.

Holidays must end as you know.
All is memory taken home with me:
the opera, the stolen tea, the sand drawing, the verging sea, all years ago.

Trouble me, disturb me with all your cares and your worries.
Trouble me on the days when you feel spent.
Why let your shoulders bend underneath this burden when my back is sturdy and strong?
Trouble me.

Speak to me, don't mislead me, the calm I feel means a storm is swelling;
there's no telling where it starts or how it ends.
Speak to me, why are you building this thick brick wall to defend me when your silence is my greatest fear?
Why let your shoulders bend underneath this burden when my back is sturdy and strong?
Speak to me.

Let me have a look inside these eyes while I'm learning.
Please don't hide them just because of tears.
Let me send you off to sleep with a "There, there, now stop your turning and tossing."
Let me know where the hurt is and how to heal.

Spare me? Don't spare me anything troubling.
Trouble me, disturb me with all your cares and your worries.
Speak to me and let our words build a shelter from the storm.
Lastly, let me know what I can mend.
There's more, honestly, than my sweet friend, you can see.
Trust is what I'm offering if you trouble me.

( music: Dennis Drew/words: Natalie Merchant )



Tell me what's gone wrong.
I tilt my head there, under the faucet, but when I turn it on -- dry as paper.
Call the neighbors.
Who's to blame for what's going on?
In the dark without a clue I'm just the same as you.

O, they tell us there's poison in the well,
that someone's been a bit untidy and there's been a small spill.
Not a lot, no, just a drop.
But there you are mistaken, you know you are.
I wonder just how long they knew our well was poisoned but they let us just drink on.

O, they tell us there's poison in the well,
that someone's been a bit untidy and there's been a small spill.
All that it amounts to is a tear in a salted sea.
Someone's been a bit untidy, they'll have it cleaned up in a week.
But the week is over and now it's grown into years since I was told that I should be calm, there's nothing to fear here.
But I drank that water for years, my wife and my children.

Tell me, where to now, if your fight for a bearable life can be fought and lost in you backyard?

O, don't tell us there's poison in the well,
that someone's been a bit untidy, that there's been a small spill.
All that it amounts to is a tear in a salted sea.
Someone's been a bit untidy, they'll have it cleaned up in a week.

( music: Robert Buck/words: Natalie Merchant )



How did they teach you to be just a happy puppet dancing on a string?
How did you learn everything that comes along with slavish funnery?
Tell me something, if the world is so insane,
is it making you sane again to let another man tug at the thread that pulls up your nodding head?

How did they teach you to be just a happy puppet dancing on a string?
How do you manage to live inside this tiny stage you can't leave?
Tell me something, if the world is so insane,
is it making you sane again to let another man tug at the thread that pulls up your nodding head?

A dullard strung on the wire.
When the master's gone you hang there with your eyes and your limbs so lifeless.

How did they teach you to be just a happy puppet dancing on a string?
How do you manage to speak, your mouth a frozen grin?

A dullard strung on the wire.
When the master's gone you hang there with your eyes and your limbs so lifeless.

Tell me something, if the world is so insane,
is it making you sane again to let another man tug at the thread that pulls up your empty wooden head?

Your hollow head, your marble eyes, your wooden hands and your metal jaw pins
all wait in limbo for the man who knows how to move you this way.

( music: Natalie Merchant/words: Natalie Merchant )



O, Baby blankets and baby shoes, baby slippers, baby spoons, walls of baby blue.
Dream child in my head is a nightmare born in a borrowed bed.
Now I know lightning strikes again.
It struck me once, then struck me dead.
My folly grows inside of me.
I eat for two, walk for two, breathe for two now.

Well, the egg man fell down off his shelf.
All the good king's men with all their help struggled 'til the end for a shell they couldn't mend.
You know where this will lead, to hush and rock in the nursery for the kicking one inside of me.
I eat for two, walk for two, breathe for two now.

When the boy was a boy, the girl was a girl, they found each other in a wicked world.
Strong in some respects, but she couldn't stand for the way he begged and gave in.
Pride is for men; young girls should run and hide instead.
Risk the game by taking dares with "yes".
Eat for two, walk for two, breathe for two now.

Walk for two? I'm stumbling.
Breathe for two? I can't breathe.
Five months , how it grows.
Five months now, I begin to show.

Stockton Gala Days


that summer fields grew high
with foxglove stalks and ivy
wild apple blossoms everywhere
emerald green like none I have seen
apart from dreams that escape me
there was no girl as warm as you

how I've learned to please
to doubt myself in need
you'll never, you'll never know

that summer fields grow high
we made garland crowns in hiding
pulled stems of flowers from my hair
blue in the stream like none I have seen
apart from dreams that escape me
there was no girl as bold as you

how I've learned to please
to doubt myself in need
you'll never, you'll never know
you'll never know...

violet serene like none I have seen
apart from dreams that escape me
there was no girl as warm as you
how I've learned to please
to doubt myself in need
you'll never, you'll never know
you'll never know...

that summer fields grow high
we had wildflower fever
we had to lay down where they grow
how I've learned to hide, how I've locked inside
you'd be surprised if shown
but you'll never, you'll never know

Candy Everybody Wants


if lust and hate is the candy
if blood and love tastes so sweet
then we give 'em what they want

hey, hey, give 'em what they want

so their eyes are growing hazy
'cos they wanna turn it on
so their minds are soft and lazy
well, hey, give 'em what they want

if lust and hate is the candy
if blood and love tastes so sweet
then we give 'em what they want

so their eyes are growing hazy
'cos they wanna turn it on
so their minds are soft and lazy
well... who do you want to blame?

hey, hey, give 'em what they want

if lust and hate is the candy
if blood and love tastes so sweet
then we give 'em what they want

so their eyes are growing hazy
'cos they wanna turn it on
so their minds are soft and lazy

eell... who do you want to blame?

These Are Days


These are
These are days you’ll remember
Never before and never since, I promise
Will the whole world be warm as this
And as you feel it,
You’ll know it’s true
That you &#8211; you are blessed and lucky
It’s true &#8211; that you
Are touched by something
That will grow and bloom in you

These are days you’ll remember
When May is rushing over you
With desire to be part of the miracles
You see in every hour
You’ll know it’s true
That you are blessed and lucky
It’s true that you are touched
By something that will grow and bloom in you

These are days &#8211;
These are the days you might fill
With laughter until you break
These days you might feel
A shaft of light
Make its way across your face
And when you do
You’ll know how it was meant to be
See the signs and know their meaning
You’ll know how it was meant to be
Hear the signs and know they’re speaking
To you, to you

Steep is the water tower
Painted off-blue to match the sky
Can't ignore the train

Night walks in the valley silent
You could swear the earth just moved
Can't ignore the train

Dust to be kicked up
In the crack-faced idle sinister town

Screen door to the rail station
Devil in her, she ran alongside the wasted tracks
Hem pins darted in her calves
Can't ignore the train

One spoiled girl with the tidiest apology
Somehow wedged inside her throat
Can't ignore the train

Patience their virtue
But I never could abide by that
Dungeon life with electric light
A clean towel and a basin
Mantel figures mind their places
And laughs where they belong

Through adventure
We are not adventuresome

Rage to share with a wardrobe mirror
In a room so beige and cold
Can't ignore the train

Window days saw the children pick their street games on thirty, thirty
Thirty afternoons

Molly, the boys are
Starting in that rhyme again
Teasing more and more the second daughter
How she fell
Young locked in some folks' prison
Made to dwell
Till they're braiding her gray hair
Sitting in the wishing chair
Sitting in the wishing chair
Sitting in the wishing chair

Now I've been happy lately, thinking about the good things to come
And I believe it could be, something good has begun

I've been smiling lately, dreaming about the world as one
And I believe it could be, something good is bound to come

For out on the edge of darkness, there rides a peace train
Peace train take this country, come take me home again

Peace train sounding louder
Ride on the peace train
Come on the peace train
Peace train is a holy roller
Everyone jump upon the peace train
This is the peace train

Get your bags together, come bring your good friends too
Because it's getting nearer, soon it will be with you

Come and join the living, it's not so far from you
And it's getting nearer, soon it will all be true

Peace train sounding louder
Ride on the peace train
Come on the peace train

I've been crying lately, thinking about the world as it is
Why must we go on hating, why can't we live in bliss

For out on the edge of darkness, there rides a peace train
Peace train take this country, come take me home again

Peace train sounding louder
Ride on the peace train
Come on the peace train
Peace train is a holy roller
Everyone jump upon the peace train
This is the peace train
Come on the peace train
Come on come on, come on
the peace train

i will twine with your mingles of raven black hair
with the roses so red and the lilies so fair
with myrtle as bright as the emerald dew
the pale and the lyd-er and eyes of light blue

oh he promised to love me; he promised to love
and to cherish me always all others above.
i woke from my dream and my idol was clay
my passion for loving had vanished away.

oh he taught me to love him; he called me his flower
a blossom to cheer him through life's weary hour
but now he is gone and left me alone
the wild flowers to weep and the wild birds to mourn.

i will dance and i'll sing and my life shall be gay
i will charm every heart and each crown I shall sway
though my heart now is breaking he never shall know
how his name makes me tremble, my pale cheeks to glow.

i will dance and i'll sing and my heart will be gay
i'll banish this weeping, drive troubles away.
i'll live yet to see him regret this dark hour
when we won and neglected this frail wildwood flower.

( John Prine )

We had an apartment in the city
Me and Loretta liked living there
It'd been years since the kids had grown
A life of their own
Left us alone
John and Linda live in Omaha
Joe is somewhere on the road
We lost Davey in the Korean War
And I still don't know what for
dont matter anymore

Chorus:
You know that old trees grow stronger
and old rivers grow wilder everyday
old people, just grow lonesome
waiting for someone to say Hello in There
hello

Me and Loretta we don't talk much more
She sits and stares through the back door screen
And all the news just repeats itself
like some forgotten dream
that we've both seen
Someday I'll go and call up Rudy
We worked together at the factory
But what could I say if he asks "what's new?"
"nothin what's with you?"
nothin much to do

Chorus

So if you walking down the street some time
And spot some hollow ancient eyes
Please don't just pass em by and stare
as if you didnt care
Say hello in there
hello

(original version by Lulu)

Those schoolgirl days of telling tales and biting nails are gone
But in my mind I know they will still live on and on
But how do you thank someone who has taken you from crayons to
perfume?
It isn't easy but I'll try

If you wanted the sky I would write across the sky
In letters that would soar a thousand feet high
To Sir, With Love

The time has come for closing books and long last looks must end
And as I leave, I know that I am leaving my best friend
A friend who taught me right from wrong and weak from strong
That's a lot to learn - what can I give you in return?
If you wanted the moon I would try to make a start
But I would rather you let me give my heart
To Sir, With Love

Those awkward years have hurried by - why do they fly away?
Why is it, sir, that children grow up to be people one day?
What takes the place of climbing trees and dirty knees in the world
outside?
What is there for you I can buy?

If you wanted the world I'd surround it with a wall
I'd scrawl in words with letters ten feet tall
To Sir, With Love

Trudging slowly over wet sand
Back to the bench where your clothes were stolen
This is a seaside town
That they forgot to close down
Armageddon - come armageddon come armageddon come
Everyday is like Sunday
Everyday is silent and grey
Hide on a promenade
Etch on a post card:
How I dearly wish I was not here
In the coastal town
That they forgot to bomb
Come, come nuclear bomb!
Everyday is like Sunday
Everyday is silent and grey
Trudging back over pebbles and sand
And a strange dust lands on your hands
(And on your face)
Everyday is like Sunday
"Win yourself a cheap tray"
Share some grease tea with me
Everyday is silent and grey

I've been out walking
I don't do too much talking these days
these days, these days I seem to think a lot
about the things that I forgot to do for you
and all the times I had the chance to

I had a lover
well I don't think I'll risk another these days
these days if I seem to be afraid to live the life
that I had made in song
well it's just, it's just that I've been losing so long

looong...well....

I stop my dreaming
I won't do too much scheming these days
these days, these days I sit on cornerstones
and count the time quarter to's 'til ten, my friend
please don't confront me with my failures
I have not forgotten them