Hüsker Dü

Now, you look like you just got back from somewhere
Somewhere, yeah, you know that it's true
Together we went nearly to nowhere
Nowhere really worth going to
Standing at the City Center
In the middle of the winter
I was waiting for you
And you were due

When I got back, you said you were leaving
Leaving, you said right away
And coming back for the sake of retrieving
Things you'd forgotten on that day
Still now my eyes are burning
With the sight of your returning
Everywhere I look, I'm finding you
I remember you

Familiar places that we turned into gardens
Somewhere, yeah, you know that it's true
I'm begging you now a thousand pardons
For all of the wastelands we've been through
I remember asking whether
Or where we could be together
You smiled at me, and you said "Soon"

Well, the actual condition of my mind
Is elusive as the answers that I find
I keep going through transition
From doubt to indecision
It's the actual condition of my mind

Well, the actual condition of my soul
Sometimes feels like being sucked into a hole
And I've come to this position
Regardless of religion
It's the actual condition of my soul

The actual condition of my heart
Feels like two hands that are ripping it apart
I keep losing definition
But still I keep on wishin'
It's the actual condition of my heart

I see the sun and I see the calendar
The days go floating by so slowly in a blur
I read the numbers and I discard everyone
I burn my fingers on the pages of the sun

I'll tell you why tomorrow

Moonlight pulling all the water to the beaches
Soaking time into everything that it reaches
Turn it upside down and count the spilling sand
Seize the moment with a minute hand

I'll tell you why tomorrow

Men and animals are floating through the sky
Every month or so a new one passes by
Forming circles 'round the planets in the air
Find a newspaper and it is printed there

I'll tell you why tomorrow

I can walk the bed of nails
I'm not the only one
But some, they cannot walk the jagged line
Callous, concentrating
For nails are sharp as lies
I run the jagged line

From years and years of practice
I know just how to stand
Alone with perfect balance, hand in hand
Prepared with boards and hammers
And several bags of nails
I could build a wall to lean on
Roof above my mind
I can see you've got your own plans
Please don't drive your nails into this heart of mine

I can walk the bed of nails
Grin and bear the pain
But some, they cannot deal with all things
Always sacrificing
For lies are sharp as nails
And all the pain it brings

Sometimes I just pretend that all the lies are true
And I know I might depend on you
But if my concentration breaks
I'm washed away with pain
And then my feet begin to bleed upon my only bed of nails
And I'm stuck here in the middle of a sea of lies
Inside my bed of nails

From years and years of practice
I know just how to stand
Alone with perfect balance, hand in hand
Prepared with boards and hammers
And several bags of nails
I could build a wall to lean on
Roof above my mind
I can see you've got your own plans
Please don't drive your nails into this heart of mine

With her grandmother's face and her father's brown eyes
Her own force of will to her mother's surprise
A whole look about her that says that she may
She lifted her arms and she floated away

She floated away, she floated away
She lifted her arms and she floated away
She don't give a damn what the other girls say
She lifted her arms and she floated away

"Let me talk to you Mother," she tried to confess
"Go ahead, honey, and wear the white dress
Don't let traditions go stand in your way"
She lifted her arms and she floated away

She floated away, she floated away
She lifted her arms and she floated away
She don't give a damn what the other girls say
She lifted her arms and she floated away

Well, a man has two reasons for things that he does
The first one is pride and the second one is love
All understandings must come by this way
She lifted her arms and she floated away

She floated away, she floated away
She lifted her arms and she floated away
She don't give a damn what the other girls say
She lifted her arms and she floated away

Panhandle, pedal faster
Playing card, listen, master
Pointed gun, aim to please
No one talking, no one sees
Take a stand and collect
Images and imageless
Think in rhymes every time
Someone was a friend of mine

Visionary, in a cage, Londonderry
Visionary, foggiest notion, visionary
Visionary
Strip away the silver and the gold

Torn up stories in your cage
Never time to be a sage
So sublime
Growing old before your time

Visionary, in a cage, Londonderry
Visionary, foggiest notion, visionary
Visionary
Strip away the silver and the gold

You never used to care for fancy new obsessions
You never used to have a reason to be bored
Now you indulge yourself with new ways of possession
Now you indulge yourself and your feelings are ignored
And you're coloring your life with too much spice

There was a time, there was a place, there was a reason
There was a situation comfortable for you
You've tasted everything in this here bag of season
But now you're bored and you've run out of things to do
And you're coloring your life with too much spice

You don't see anything, your eyes are so revealing
They're sharply focused on looking for a thrill
You've turned so numb, you never notice any feeling
Your thoughts are dead and you've still got some time to kill
And you're coloring your life with too much spice

Barren lands and barren minds
In another place and time
I feel I've never known myself
Frozen in the sand again

See the blank expressions waiting for progression
They're standing still in place and time
And no one's moving, they're only
Standing still in ice cold ice cold ice

All machines and all are one
Catching up on what's been done
Stealing glimpses from the past
These impressions always last

Never penetrating, always contemplating
We sit and count the blessings but we're blessed by icons
No one else could
Trust in ice cold ice cold ice

We'll stay together till the end
Thinking you might be a friend

We sit and pray together that they might change the weather
My love for you will never die
If I sound distant, that's because
You shouldn't see me crying ice cold ice

I hear some news, I read the words
It's different every day
I get my thoughts from a letter that's lost
That someone threw away
It says, "Don't give up, 'cause you can't give away"
The thought's appreciated
Now at the best, you've second guessed
And never should you have waited

(Never changes the things I feel inside
Sit by a lake and cry
Like a shingle on a roof in a windstorm
Should I let loose and fly?)

An overpass, and some corn in a field
Fat birds on the line
Dented guard rail, immaculate bumper
Protecting your design
A broken down shack with a pond in the back
Laundry out to dry
Some of them barren, some of them whole
All of them have no time

(Never changes the things I feel inside
Sit by a lake and cry
Like a shingle on a roof in a windstorm
Should I let loose and fly?)

Come along with me
Come along, come along with me
We'll go to places that we have never seen
And if we're together, we'll have a happy time
'Cause I got no reservations

Looking outside my window
And all I see is grey
I'm watching the clouds roll by every day
And we make a reservation
You say you'll be on time
I say, "I might be a little late"

Well, I pull it together and brush my teeth
And comb my hair
I stop to think and I can see you there
I think of the times you've waited
Just for me to care
I care about you

Checking the clock inside
The room we call our own
I see that I'm late, I should be going
Hop on a local transit
Spending all my change
And I can still hear the telephone

I wanna go back, but I'm halfway to
The place where we will meet
And I'm half dead on my feet
And once I get there, I see
Everything's the same
Here comes the rain
You left me standing

I should have guessed that you'd stand me up
Why did I even go, now
And I guess it goes to show
The snow may well thaw out
But it goes right down the drain
You left me
You left me
You left me
You left me
You left me standing in the rain

She gave her little child a name
A ward of welfare she became
And then one day she met a man
Digging through the trash for cans

Charity, chastity, prudence, and hope

It was his aluminum
That attracted her to him
And quite a day there did unfold
Turning garbage into gold

Charity, chastity, prudence, and hope

She took that money in a trunk
And bought a bunch of worthless junk
And now they're back where they began
Digging through the trash for cans

Charity, chastity, prudence, and hope

Well, you get up every morning
And you see it's still the same
All the floors and all the walls
And all the rest remains
Nothing changes fast enough
The hurry-worry days
It makes you want to give it up
And drift into a haze

Revelations seem to be another way
To make the days go fast anyways

We're all exchanging pleasantries
No matter how we feel
And no one knows the difference
'Cause it all seems so unreal
You'd better grab ahold of something
Simple, but it's true
If you don't stop to smell the roses now
They might end up on you

Expectations only mean you really think you know
What's coming next, and you don't

Yearbooks with their autographs
From friends you might have had
These are your important years
You'd better make them last
Falling in and out of love just like...
These are your important years, your life

Once you've seen the light, you suddenly
Realize it might end up all right
It might end up all right now

Yearbooks with their autographs
From friends you might have had
These are your important years
You'd better make them last
Falling in and out of love just like...
These are your important years, your life

If there's one thing that I can't explain
Is why the world has to have so much pain
With all the ways of communicating
We can't get in touch with who we're hating

So turn on, turn on, turn on the news

I hear it every day on the radio
Somebody shoots a guy he don't even know
Airplanes falling out of the sky
A baby is born and another one dies
Highways fill with refugees
Doctors finding out about disease
With all this uptight pushing and shoving
That keeps us away from who we're loving

So turn on, turn on, turn on the news

Don't give up
Don't let go
Don't give in
Don't let on
In your bed
Late at night
Red hot red
Don't get up

He lives in his imagination with those friends of his very own
He doesn't get along with the outside world, he'd rather be alone
Sometimes when it's late at night he starts to wonder why
(The plans he made can never happen, so all he does is cry)

His parents, they can't understand why their son, he turned out wrong
He runs away from all the pain, and forgets them when he's gone
He'd rather be all by himself, because his plans they seem the best
He finally gets the nerve one day, and now life becomes a test

Whatever you want, whatever you do, wherever you go, whatever you say
Whatever you want, whatever you do, wherever you go, whatever you say
Whatever you want, whatever you do, wherever you go, whatever you say
Whatever you want, whatever you do, wherever you go, whatever you say

Mom and Dad, I'm sorry, Mom and Dad, don't worry
I'm not the son you wanted, but what could you expect?
I've made my world of happiness to combat your neglect