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3:51 | 
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from Vienna Teng - Waking Hour (2002)
The one who survives by making the lives
Of others worthwhile She's coming apart Right before my eyes The one who depends on the services she renders To those who come knocking She's seeing too clearly what she can't be What understanding defies She says I need not to need Or else a love with intuition Someone who reaches out to my weakness and won't let go I need not to need I've always been the tower But now I feel like I'm the flower trying to bloom in snow She turns out the light, anticipating night Falling tenderly around her Watches the dusk The words won't come She carries the act so convincingly The fact is sometimes she believes it She can be happy the way things are Be happy with the things she's done And yet I need not to need Or else a love with intuition Someone who reaches out to my weakness and won't let go I need not to need I've always been the tower But now I feel like I'm the flower trying to bloom in snow Reach out, hold back Where is safety Reach out and hold back Where is the one who can change me Where is the one The one Reach out, hold back Where is safety Reach out and hold back Where is the one who can save me Where is the one The one I need not to need Or else a love with intuition Someone who reaches out to my weakness and won't let go I need not to need I've always been the tower But now I feel like I'm the flower trying to bloom in snow I feel like I'm the flower trying to bloom in snow The danger and the power, the friend and the foe |
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5:23 |
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from Vienna Teng - Waking Hour (2002)
Why am I walking barefoot
Upon this road with no one around I close my eyes to this decision The night's like coffee to my tongue Like waking up without a sound I map the words out Maybe you will say them Would you help me rise up Touch my face and watch me try to breathe again Would you let me do this Burn down the final wall Overcome me baby Overcome me baby Overcome me baby Overcome me yeah All I'm asking is to be alive for once Always I am mistaken I look for love, I find a storm Of all the seasons, winter befriends me I come to you in friendship And hold my breath against the snow What are you thinking as I gaze into you Forgive me the confusion Forgive me as I realize my thoughts betrayed You are the answer Cry and smile the same Overcome me, baby Overcome me, baby Overcome me, baby Overcome, yeah All I'm asking is to be All I'm asking is to be alive Overcome me (overcome me baby), baby (x2) Overcome me (overcome me baby), baby (overcome me) (x2) Overcome (x4) All I'm asking is to be alive |
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3:40 |
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from Vienna Teng - Waking Hour (2002)
Hey love
Is that the name you're meant to have For me to call Look love They've given up believing They've turned aside our stories of the gentle fall But don't you believe them Don't you drink their poison too These are the scars that words have carved On me Hey love That's the name we've long held back From the core of truth So don't turn away now I am turning in revolution These are the scars that silence carved On me This is the same place No not the same place This is the same place, love No not the same place we've been before Hey love I am a constant satellite Of your blazing sun My love I obey your law of gravity This is the fate you've carved on me This law of gravity This is the fate you've carved on me On me |
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3:15 |
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from Vienna Teng - Waking Hour (2002)
Well it's you and it's me
Me with a drink in my hand The ice is tinkling like a wind chime And late afternoon settles over the land And you're talking about things Interesting just slightly And things that matter too much To say any way but lightly Did you know you're so beautiful On the edge of summer That years from now I'll cry to remember How very close you were Knowing this will I reach for you Knowing this will I reach for you The way you want me to Well it's time to be wise Wise in the ways of the heart To come out from under the covers This voluntary state of apart From the faces Oasis In this Sahara of sorrow These graces that hold me It's from you that I borrow Did you know you're so beautiful On the edge of summer That years from now I'll cry to remember How very close you were Knowing this will I reach for you Knowing this will I reach for you The way you want me to |
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3:35 |
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from Vienna Teng - Waking Hour (2002)
We are not together here
Though we lie entwined To make room for the other presence We both draw back in our minds I have a prophecy Threatening to spill into words This growing certainty Of Over There once was a time I was sure of the bond When my hands and my tongue and my thoughts were enough We are the same but our lives move along And the third one between replaces what once was love Freedom is being alone I fear liberation But something more alive than silence Swallows conversation No pleasing drama In subtle averted eyes The swelling fermata As the chord dies There once was a time I was sure of the bond When my hands and my tongue and my thoughts were enough We are the same but our lives move along And the third one between replaces what once was love There's no denying we feel the third one We do I'm tired of hiding and so are you There once was a time I was sure of the bond When my hands and my tongue and my thoughts were enough We are the same but our lives move along And the third one between replaces what once was love |
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5:27 |
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from Vienna Teng - Waking Hour (2002)
Everyone agrees it came too soon
It was only meant to be an intersection You kept fear of death in a a back pocket of your jeans In the palm of your hand affection It came like a sudden gust of wind Leaving them, bewildered, to ask how I recall last time we met you said we'd meet again The irony is only bitter now These days everyone cries, "say uncle" They want to touch your spirit lest it die For this your sons and widow gather with us at the table To form a healing circle for our new demise These days everyone cries, "say uncle" I retrieve the memories quickly as I can Add them to the portrait we all draw in our minds Your body gone, we shall keep the man I close my eyes and hope they do not fade These remnants of a voice and of a smile Images of landscape cloaked in forest green Like your life unfolding mile by mile A fierce embrace, a word of thanks A cheerful whistle and hours in a van Somehow these pieces must bring back the man you were Though the ocean claims your ashes on the sand These days everyone cries, "say uncle" They want to touch your spirit lest it die For this your sons and widow gather with us at the table To form a healing circle for our new demise These days everyone cries, "say uncle" I retrieve the memories quickly as I can Add them to the portrait we all draw in our minds Your body gone, we shall keep the man (x2) |
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4:05 |
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from Vienna Teng - Waking Hour (2002)
Summer move forward and stitch me the fabric of fall
Wrap life in the brilliance of death to humble us all How sweet is the day I'm craving a darkness As I sit tucked away with my back to the wall And the taste of dried-up hopes in my mouth And the landscape of merry and desperate drought How much longer dear angels Let winterlight come And spread your white sheets over my empty house Summer move forward and leave your heat anchored in dust Forgotten him, cheated him, painted illusions of lust Now language escape, fugitive of forgiveness Leaving as trace only circles of rust And the taste of dried-up hopes in my mouth And the landscape of merry and desperate drought How much longer dear angels Come break me with ice Let the water of calm trickle over my doubts Come let me drown Angels no fire no salt on the plow Carry me down Bury me down And the taste of dried-up hopes in my mouth And the landscape of merry and desperate drought Once I knew myself And with knowing came love I would know love again if I had faith enough Too far is next spring and her jubilant shout So angels, inside Is the only way out |
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4:19 |
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from Vienna Teng - Waking Hour (2002)
I'm at your back door
With the earth of a hundred nations in my skin You wouldn't recognize me For the light in my eyes is strange It was years ago, god knows When you strained to tell me your whole truth That you were not mine to save That you could not change Well, would it be enough to go by If we could sail on the wind in the dark Cut those chains in the middle of the night That had you pulled apart Would it be enough to go by If there's moonlight pulling the tide Would it be enough to live on If my love could keep you alive I've built a lot of castles I've built a lot of blazing speed-of-light machines But it doesn't matter, you know They all crumble in the winds of change So I turned back to breathing I learned a few good reasons to cry And I finally called home Praying you weren't out of range Carry the weight I'll carry the weight of you, I swear Carry the weight I'll carry the weight of you Would it be enough to go by If we could sail on the wind in the dark Cut those chains in the middle of the night That had you pulled apart Would it be enough to go by If there's moonlight pulling the tide Would it be enough to live on If my love could keep you alive So will you let me come in The mosquitoes have found me And they're crowding 'round my blood At least offer me a drink Or a breaking of the ice I'm wanting your anger I only want to see if I can shake you out of sleep And bring you out under this flooded sky At any price So carry the weight Carry the weight of me in your heart Carry the weight Carry the weight of me Would it be enough to go by If we could sail on the wind in the dark Cut those chains in the middle of the night That had you pulled apart Would it be enough to go by If there's moonlight pulling the tide Would it be enough to live on If my love could keep you alive If my love could keep you alive |
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3:36 | 
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| from Vienna Teng - Waking Hour (2002) | |||||
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5:08 |
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from Vienna Teng - Waking Hour (2002)
Strange how you know inside me
I measure the time and I stand amazed Strange how I know inside you My hand is outstretched toward the damp of the haze And of course I forgive I've seen how you live Like a phoenix you rise from the ashes You pick up the pieces And the ghosts in the attic They never quite leave And of course I forgive You've seen how I live I've got darkness and fears to appease My voices and analogies Ambitions like ribbons Worn bright on my sleeve Strange how we know each other Strange how I fit into you There's a distance erased with the greatest of ease Strange how you fit into me A gentle warmth filling the deepest of needs And with each passing day The stories we say Draw us tighter into our addiction Confirm our conviction That some kind of miracle Passed on our heads And how I am sure Like never before Of my reasons for defying reason Embracing the seasons We dance through the colors Both followed and led Strange how we fit each other Strange how certain the journey Time unfolds the petals for our eyes to see Strange how this journey's hurting In ways we accept as part of fate's decree So we just hold on fast Acknowledge the past As lessons exquisitely crafted Painstakingly drafted To carve us as instruments That play the music of life For we don't realize Our faith in the prize Unless it's been somehow elusive How swiftly we choose it The sacred simplicity Of you at my side |
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4:38 |
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from Vienna Teng - Waking Hour (2002)
Soon, love, soon
Soon, love, soon Soon, love, soon There'll be a fire burning in the temple of our peace Soon, love, soon There'll be a soaring voice for our silent pleas Soon, love, soon We will hold our broken circle and begin to pray Soon, love, soon We will find a black and white in the gray And we will be as one god And we will be as one people (x3) Soon, love, soon We will find illumination in unnatural light Soon, love, soon You will travel a thousand miles without leaving my sight Soon, love, soon We will find we never knew hatred ran so deep Soon, love, soon Such a wide, wide chasm of faith to leap But we will be as one god And we will be as one people (x3) Soon, love, soon There will be an evolution of the human soul Soon, love, soon We will know that be a part is to be truly whole Soon, love, soon We will know the pattern of centuries rise and fall Soon, love, soon We will know that the fate of one is the fate of all And we will be as one god And we will be as one people (x7) |
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3:53 |
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| from Vienna Teng - Waking Hour (2002) | |||||
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4:59 |
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from Vienna Teng - Waking Hour (2002)
Once when I was thirty-one
I woke in the dead of night And heard the vastness of the snowfall outside Slipped downstairs in my bare feet Soon forgotten freezing And poured a milk glass full To wait out the tide Been a decade and one Been a decade and one my friends A decade and one Since I... As the white went down I thought of the child upstairs I thought of the God upstairs That I couldn't believe I thought of the chosen man Asleep on his side of the bed How green becomes wood In a family tree Been a decade and one Been a decade and one so soon A decade and one Since I stood So proud And so unsure Ebony glowing by the window there As always Fingers kissed the keys oh so tenderly Cool ivory returned in kind I thought of anger and adulation And the taste of dreams realized And the waste dreams realized leave behind A decade and one A decade and one I said out loud A decade and one And I am here And I am here still standing |
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from Vienna Teng - Dreaming Through The Noise (2006)
Blue, blue caravan, winding down to the valley of lights
My true love is a man who would hold me for ten thousand nights In the wild, wild wailing of wind, he's a house 'neath a soft yellow moon So blue, blue caravan, won't you carry me down to him soon? Blue, blue caravan, won't you drive away all of these tears? For my true love is a man that I haven't seen in years He said, "Go where you have to, for I belong to you until my dying day" So like a fool, blue caravan, I believed him and I walked away Oh, my blue, blue caravan, oh the highway is my great wall For my true love is a man who never existed at all Oh, he was a beautiful fiction I invented to keep out the cold But now, my blue, blue caravan, I can feel my heart growing old Oh, my blue, blue caravan, I can feel my heart growing old |
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from Vienna Teng - Dreaming Through The Noise (2006)
He's a company man, your right hand
Thirteen years and counting No detectable ambition A model of efficiency Far as you can see He knows every loophole The art of fine print Massages the numbers 'til they fit And every time you ask him for another vanishing act He half-smiles as if to say: Whatever you want Whatever you want Whatever you want is fine by me Oh Whatever you want Whatever you want Whatever you want is fine by me Never a real moment together but she understands: You're an important man Another late night Don't know if you're coming home or when She's alone again But she goes on curating your domestic museum She disappears in her loyalty She is a dress wearing a face in the doorway Opening her arms out to you Whatever you want Whatever you want Whatever you want is fine by me Oh Whatever you want Whatever you want Whatever you want is fine by me No one would dare to question you Oh no No one would dare to stand up In the night she leaves the papers in a tidy pile Evidence for her reasons And in the night he takes the main accounts and pulls the files Detailing every treason I am the last one you'd ever suspect of setting the fire Of setting the fire But as you switch on your TV tomorrow morning You'll hear me saying quietly: Whatever you want Whatever you want Whatever you want is fine by me Oh Whatever you want Whatever you want Whatever you want is fine by me Oh, whatever you say Oh, whatever you say I'll do what you ask me I'll do what you ask me Whatever you say Oh, whatever you say But do you know who's listening? Oh, whatever you say Oh, whatever you say You know it's over |
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from Vienna Teng - Dreaming Through The Noise (2006)
She's holding a secret that she'll never tell,
She's holding a secret that she'll never tell, Because the myth is not supposed to retire We'd rather it lit itself on fire, Or overdosed in a 4-star hotel. She's holding a truth that she'll never reveal, She's holding a truth that she'll never reveal, Because truth this time is an ugly child, And mother and daughter may reconcile but their faces will never heal. "Don't go," she says, but he's sleeping? She says it to herself: "Don't go." She sees herself rising, Packing a suitcase with all of her shoes. But something keeps you faithful When all else in you turns and runs. Love turns 40. The morning comes. She's holding a secret that she'll never tell, She's holding a secret that she'll never tell, Because we were once cinema gods in the night, And now all we've got is lunch-hour light Where nothing photographs well. "Don't go," she says, but he's sleeping? She says it to the dark: "Don't go." She sees herself rising, Dressing in silence for nothing to lose. But something keeps you faithful When all else in you turns and runs. Love turns 40. The morning comes. |
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from Vienna Teng - Dreaming Through The Noise (2006)
I don't feel so well.
I thought that you should know I thought that you should know That I don't feel so well I thought that you should know Before you fall I don't call them back I thought that you should know I thought that you should know That I don't call them back I thought that you should know Before you fall I saw it begin to dawn on us both And somehow it wasn't surprising And so you're preparing to swear every oath But all the while I'm realizing I can't love you there I thought that you should know I thought that you should know That I can't love you there I thought that you should know Before you fall (instrumental) I saw it begin to dawn on us both And somehow it wasn't surprising And so you're preparing to swear every oath But all the while I'm realizing I can't love you there I thought that you should know I thought that you should know That I can't love you there I thought that you should know Before you fall |
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from Vienna Teng - Dreaming Through The Noise (2006)
Me and my baby on a February holiday
'Cause we got the news Yeah, we got the news 500 miles and we're gonna make it all the way We got nothing to lose We got nothing to lose Been ten years waiting, but it's better late than the never, we've been told before We can't wait one minute more Ohh, me and my baby driving down To a hilly seaside town in the rainfall Ohh, me and my baby stand in line You never seen a sight so fine As the love that's gonna shine at City Hall Me and my baby been through a lot of good and bad Learned to kiss the sky Made our mamas cry Seen a lot of friends, after giving it all they had Lay down and die Lay down and die Ten years into it, here's our window at the Vegas drive-thru chapel Ain't too much for 'em all to handle Ohh, me and my baby driving down To a hilly seaside town in the rainfall Ohh, me and my baby stand in line You never seen a sight so fine As the love that's gonna shine at City Hall Outside they're handing out donuts and pizza pies For the folks in pairs In their folding chairs My baby's looking so damn pretty with those anxious eyes Rain-speckled hair And my ring to wear Ten years waiting for this moment of fate when we say the words and sign our names If they take it away again someday, this beautiful thing won't change So ohh, me and my baby driving down To a hilly seaside town in the rainfall Ohh, me and my baby stand in line You never seen a sight so fine As the love that's gonna shine... Ohh, me and my baby driving down To a hilly seaside town in the rainfall Ohh, me and my baby stand in line You never seen a sight so fine As the love that's gonna shine at City Hall |
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from Vienna Teng - Dreaming Through The Noise (2006)
It's the quiet night that breaks me
I cannot stand the sight of this familiar place It's the quiet night that breaks me Like a dozen papercuts that only I can trace All my books are lying useless now All my maps will only show me how to lose my way Oh call my name You know my name And in that sound Everything will change Tell me it won't always be this hard I am nothing without you But I don't know who you are It's the crowded room that breaks me Everybody looks so luminous, and strangely young It's the crowded room that's never heard No one here can say a word of my native tongue I can't be among them anymore I fold myself away before it burns me numb Oh call my name You know my name And in your love Everything will change Tell me it won't always be this hard I am nothing without you But I don't know who you are |
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| from Vienna Teng - Dreaming Through The Noise (2006) | |||||
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from Vienna Teng - Dreaming Through The Noise (2006)
1 bedroom 1 bath
Hardwood floors with view of trees 1 bedroom 1 bath Parking space for extra fee My little flock of boxes and I surrounded by a painted-white unknown Soon as this wall in my heart comes down, I'm gonna make it feel like home 1 bedroom 1 bath A/C was fine 'til yesterday 1 bedroom 1 bath: 89 degrees today My upstairs neighbors are making sounds that I never want to hear. I hope they're just moving furniture around And really liking their ideas 1 bedroom 1 bath Hardwood floors with view of trees 1 bedroom 1 bath Parking space for extra fee My little flock of boxes and I surrounded by a painted-white unknown Soon as this wall in my heart comes down, I'm gonna make it feel like home Gonna make it feel like home (repeatedly) |
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from Vienna Teng - Dreaming Through The Noise (2006)
City fast asleep
Clouds up on the hill So quiet So still Dreams of rain in sheets, Dreams of ice and wings So delicate These things. Love, love, love is a word so small Let it fill up up, up 'Til I can't see at all I want to be blind Only my hands to guide me Bring all of you inside me City fast asleep Lights hum in the gray, Like her breathing will someday Strangest beauty cries One and one By and by Now three of us here lie Love, love, love for one so small Come fill me up, up, up 'Til I can't see at all I want to be blind Only my heart to guide me Gather all the world inside me |
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from Vienna Teng - Dreaming Through The Noise (2006)
Sunday:
Dark water draining north The heat swells and bursts like plague Sunday: Ever-so-faint slow tambourine Glides onward toward the grave Who drew the line? Who drew the line Between you and me? Who drew the line That everyone sees? Darling, Lake Pontchartrain is haunted: Bones without names Photographs framed in reeds Darling, What blood our veins are holding. The overpass frozen Fires ablaze at sea Who drew the line? Who drew the line That cuts to the skin, buries me in? Tell me, who drew the line Darling don't close your eyes (Lie as darkness hardens Lie of our reunion O lie if God is sleeping O I believe you now) Darling, Lake Pontchartrain will cradle me And all you left behind Listen: Ever-so-faint slow tambourine Is marching back through time |
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from Vienna Teng - Dreaming Through The Noise (2006)
It's so beautiful here, she says,
This moment now And this moment, now And I never thought I would find her here: Flannel and satin My four walls transformed But she's looking at me Straight to center No room at all for any other thought And I know I don't want this Oh I swear I don't want this There's a reason not to want this But I forgot In the terminal she sleeps on my shoulder Hair falling forward, mouth all askew Fluorescent announcements beat their wings overhead: Passengers missing We're looking for you And she dreams through the noise, Her weight against me Face pressed into the corduroy grooves Maybe it means nothing Maybe it means nothing Maybe it means nothing But I'm afraid to move And the words: they're everything and nothing I want to search for her in the offhand remarks Who are you, taking coffee, no sugar? Who are you, echoing street signs? Who are you, the stranger in the shell of a lover Dark curtains drawn by the passage of time? Oh words like rain, how sweet the sound Well anyway, she says, I'll see you around... |
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3:24 |
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from Vienna Teng - Inland Territory (2009)
If this were the last snowfall
No more halos on evergreen If this were the last glimpse of winter What would these eyes see? If this were the last slow curling Of your fingers in my palm If this were the last I felt you breathing How would I carry on? This is not the last snowfall Not our last embrace But if I were that kind of grateful What would I try to say? |
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4:13 |
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from Vienna Teng - Inland Territory (2009)
All of a sudden the conversation turns
And everyone concerned is looking down Guilty party is right here in the room But no one can assume the high ground Oh it almost caught up with you Caught up with you then Oh you should've thought of this my friend If you knew it was wrong why did you do it You don't know, you didn't mean to, it slipped your mind And it feels so good to feed a habit You're just making the most of your borrowed time Waiting for the white light Heading home you swear that you'll be good Do everything you should, and know the facts But in the morning you're back to petty needs Tragedy recedes to photographs Oh it hasn't caught up with you Caught up with you yet No it hasn't taught you when to quit If you knew it was wrong why did you do it You don't know, you didn't mean to, it slipped your mind, It is OK because everybody does it This whole party is rolling on borrowed time Waiting for the white light Shine down Wipe it all out again, Show me how It doesn't matter in the end If you knew it was wrong why did you do it You don't know, you didn't mean to, it slipped your mind It is OK because everybody does it No laws are broken if we're all committing the same crime But I know it's wrong, why do I do it I don't know, I don't mean for it to slip my mind It just takes so much to break a habit Even when I'm aware we are out of time Am I waiting for a white light |
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4:44 |
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from Vienna Teng - Inland Territory (2009)
In the fall,
We circle through the leaves And talk about the little ones. And we smile, but never say too much. The moment always vanishing. One by one the neighbors' lights come on. Our October day is almost gone. I know the border lines we drew between us Keep the weapons down, Keep the wounded safe, I know our antebellum innocence Was never meant to see the light of our armistice day. In the spring, We climbed the rolling hills And talked about our budding plans. And we smiled, Our faces like a mirror Showing us our secret sides. But then the fights The sharp words splintering the night, How I couldn't be what you'd need But oh how I could make you bleed I know the border lines we drew between us Keep the weapons down, Keep the wounded safe I know our antebellum innocence Was never meant to see the light of our armistice. But how much would I give to have it back again? How much did we lose To live this way? You'll go home, I'll stay here Seasons keep on marching I'll stay here, you'll go home With only strangers watching |
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4:32 |
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from Vienna Teng - Inland Territory (2009)
Sun sets in an ocean of brown farmland haze
Power lines draped across roads you could drive on for days Well it's all too perfect Time to look back at us now Endless and empty like Kansas Our cities of clouds Flat on the table like Kansas I lay down in sheets suddenly worn threadbare Every wall I lean on transforms to sliding doors and thin air Well I hope yours is kinder Let go of this when you find her Bury this hard Down underneath your white canvas Our houses of cards Flat on the table like Kansas It's not regret Just an unexpected accounting of debts Only now called No it's not regret Just remembrance is all Of how close we had come The war almost won But I sent up our flag and moved on You and I Lost to the winter like Kansas And all my goodbyes Flat on the table like Kansas |
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3:33 |
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from Vienna Teng - Inland Territory (2009)
In another life
You and I worked West Virginia coal mines Side by side Collecting the black dust like sin The day the main shaft caved in I caught your eye As the lantern light guttered out And the after damp swallowed us slowly I gripped your hand And caught a glance Of the next time 'round In another life You and I were Red Guards in training Side by side We marched on Tienanmen Turned our own parents in For hoarding rice And in the Great Leap forward We crawled on our bellies and died A blood orange sky Gave a cry Of next time 'round In another life I was married at thirteen You were killed at twenty-one On a minor battlefield I was buried beside my second stillborn child My last thought it seemed A fever dream Now we sink into a summer afternoon Central Park in June Marveling at the bounty our days contain And we feel it like the shiver Of a passing train That other life Deep underground You and I Side by side We are the next time 'round |
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3:33 |
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from Vienna Teng - Inland Territory (2009)
Oh girl you think you got time
You're gonna get 'round to it way down the line But one step, two step, you fall behind So you better have a good plan Oh girl you think you got time You're gonna get 'round to it way down the line But I'm telling you no matter what you have in mind You're still gonna need a man Take it from your grandmother I've been 'round No one's gonna take care of you In that world you've got yourself into All the good boys, oh baby they're in grad school Oh girl your story's all wrong Your dream'll be a nightmare before too long Turning thirty and still trying to sing your songs Come on who do you think you are Oh girl it's too heavy a load Your mama and your baba they are worried souls How you gonna raise a family when you're on the road With some tattooed boy with a guitar Take it from your grandmother I've been 'round This music career isn't real life It won't see you through to when you're sixty-five When the tide turns you won't survive You'll sit on the banks and cry Oh girl you've never know war When they come in the night and knock on the door You can go from the high life to dirty poor And lose everything you knew But the one thing they can't take away from you Is your mind and the education you've been through O you find a man who understands that too Make sure that he stays true Gives respect where its due Make sure he knows what he's got in you Because a woman isn't just for cooking meals Scrubbing floors, making babies A woman's got ambitions same as he does Maybe more When the sirens wailed and the bombs fell We ran from the schoolyard into hell And what we could've been time will never tell 'cause we never had your chances The advantages that you've been handed Take it from your grandmother I've been 'round |
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4:06 |
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from Vienna Teng - Inland Territory (2009)
Oh no not now
Please not now I just settled into the glass half empty Made myself at home And so why now Please not now I just stopped believing in happy endings Harbors of my own But you had to come along didn't you Break down the doors, throw open windows Oh if you knew just what a fool you have made me So what do I do with this? This stray Italian greyhound These inconvenient fireworks This ice-cream-covered screaming hyperactive thought God I just want to lay down These colors make my eyes hurt This feeling calls for everything that I am Not I'm not that kind I'm so good at shooting down any notion This tired world could change It's all been bought Or at least that was my line No use in spending all that emotion When there's someone else to blame But you had to come along didn't you Rev up the crowd, rewrite the rule book Where do I go when every 'n' turns into 'maybe' So what do I do with this? This sudden burst of sunlight And me with my umbrella Cross-indexing every weatherman's report I was ready for the down slide But not for spring to well up This feeling calls for everything I can't afford To know Is possible now What do I do With a love that won;t sit still Won't do what it's told What do I do With a love that won't sit still |
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3:13 |
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from Vienna Teng - Inland Territory (2009)
Oh my god
What have I done Chasing some mirage in my Mojave sun Don't say every chance is lost, Please don't say anything at all In sand and thorns I'm walking forth Bare and blinking as the day that I was born Bells in spires of China white Ring for an Augustine tonight Oh now, I'm breaking down Oh let me be Let me be your Augustine Lead me now I understand Faith is both the prison and the open hand Bells on low on high Will you ring for Augustine tonight Oh now I'm breaking down, Every illusion in between All the lies that I have seen Oh let me be your Augustine |
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5:24 |
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from Vienna Teng - Inland Territory (2009)
Father says head down
We don't want them finding you Mother says practice now All the words you know Oh Arizona's burning They say the fence turned round Now the razor wire keeps us out Mother says with luck We'll sleep under a roof tonight Father says in the truck We'll be crushed in tight Oh Chicago don't forget me As the miles between us grow Keep the maple tree carved with the name of my love The hills we would sled race down Lake Michigan stay endless and painted in sky Goodbye Mother says years ago The whole world was ours to rule Father says let it go Those days are gone for good All the signs read no gringo But somehow we'll find our way Maybe waiting at dawn by the factory doors Sunburnt and bent in the fields Please don't turn us in We'll be silent as the grave As time No gringo No Gringo aqua Words as levies against the flood Hoy cerrado There's too many to feed Room for only our own kind, our own blood No gringo, no gringo aqua You have stayed in this land for too long Tan amargo But there's no time to grieve You just pack up your things and move on |
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4:37 |
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from Vienna Teng - Inland Territory (2009)
While you were building your empires
I was still sleeping I was still sleeping While you were setting your woods afire I was still dreaming I was still dreaming Now I will unsettle the ground beneath you Send my waters ashore Creep into your bed Find you in every corner While you argue it over I am not waiting I am not waiting While you retreat to your comforts I am not fading I am not fading I've done this many times before you Old Shanghai New Orleans Amsterdam and Mumbai Strange new creatures To scavenge your pores Oh I've done this many times before you Ashen sky Lightning storms Deltas to desert plains Wartime on every border I've done this many times before you Watched the pattern take form Children your time is done If you say it's done together |
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4:12 |
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from Vienna Teng - Inland Territory (2009)
It came from nowhere
On the 38 Geary A girl with a backpack of shrapnel and wire Through spiderweb windows Of blood stained glass A pagoda's shadow and a cruel sunny sky Oh the flash then the silence Shouldn't there be screaming praying crying Oh anything at all Tell me where are the sirens Fire's getting closer but I've got to stay calm It's just the radio darling, Just the radio and your runaway imagination Just the radio darling We can turn away to another station Outside they're handing out Fate to the wounded Little tags in black red yellow, and green It's now my twenty-fifth hour With a scalpel in hand If I stop moving I will sleep on my feet And the rumors are seething Gunfire at freeway exits, bridges mid-barricades I can feel the fog creeping God where is the morphine, the sweet lidocaine It's just the radio Sing me a love song dear What good has the news ever done me Come on it'll never happen here, oh no We are not some third world country This is not some third world country I'm sorry Mama I held on for as long as I could I'm sorry Papa There was nothing more I could do It's just the radio |
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5:07 |
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from Vienna Teng - Inland Territory (2009)
He was there the night the wall came down.
He lost her in the endless crowd, In the shadow of St. Stephen's cross. He sent cries aloft for his fellow man, His fingers slipping from her hand, The rain clouds prowling overhead. She was there the night the wall came down. She faded into that newborn crowd Like a warning of what could be lost. Through the perforated night she ran, Her fingers slipping from his hand, And she breathed in freedom Before daylight tread. They were there the night the wall was drowned In the surging of that tidal crowd: An old world made new On the same holy ground. She found him standing, looking lost In the shadow of St. Stephen's cross, And he closed his eyes and heard no sound But her breathing warm against his mouth. |
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4:07 |
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from Kerrigan & Lowdermilk - Our First Mistake (2009)
Sometimes when I look at you, I don’t know why you’d wait. School girl in a little world Who learns everything late. I’ve always had all the answers Now I don’t have a clue Some nights when the clouds are thick, And the wind starts to blow. I stare out my window Wondering where I will go. I turn the light out Under the covers all I think of is you. Just you. Say the word And I just might listen. Say the word, And you might get your way. Loving you should be easier But say the word, And I might have to stay. Meanwhile there’s so many things That I don’t understand. I don’t know why I tremble When you reach for my hand. I didn’t know how to love Until you swept me away. Say the word And I just might listen. Say the word, And you might get your way. Loving you should be easier But say the word, And I might have to stay. I wanna love. I wanna ride. I want to be the girl There by your side. Just tell me when, Just tell me how. Tell me I’m ready now. Today. Say… Say the word And I just might listen. Say the word, And you might get your way. Loving you should be easier But say the word, And I might have to stay. |
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