WILD STRAWBERRIES Lyrics
from http://endor.org/strawberries

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WAITING FOR THE FUTURE on Deformative Years



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NO WAY TO BREAK MY HEART on Deformative Years



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BITTER on Deformative Years



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DRINK YOU DOWN  on Deformative Years



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I DON'T WANT TO STOP on Deformative Years



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YOUR LOVE (ALL THEY NEED) on Deformative Years



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PUDDLEGUM on Deformative Years



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NOTHING TO HIDE on Deformative Years



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WHEN THE FEVER BREAKS on Deformative Years



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KISS THE ENEMY on Deformative Years



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YOU NEVER REALLY KNOW on Deformative Years



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LUCKY DAY on Twist

They've got you where they want you
Nothing's ever gonna satisfy you
You think they'll never buy you
They're doling out affection
Just like a confection

It's hard enough to know which way to go
Without you in my head
This could be my lucky day
This could be my lucky day

You have give them credit
Especially when it is due
Love becomes a debit
You can whisper me in seconds
Kiss me by the season

It's hard enough to know which way to go
Without you in my head
This could be my lucky day
This could be my lucky day

I'm dizzy like the ceiling
I'm studid like a middle name
I don't know what I'm feeling
Why don't you kiss me while we're sinking
Into the unthinking

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BUNGALOW on Twist

Joy is dancing like another thousand coming to my bungalow
She's infectious and I think of heaven looking down on me below
Don't think about tomorrow
You'll never see today
Joy is dancing like another thousand coming to my bungalow

You turn around and everything's the same
You turn again and everything has changed
You take me to the place where everything starts
Just like a brand new notion
I got the way to make it o...
I got the way to make it okay

You take me to the place where angels cry
Under the swollen mine
I got the way to make it o...
I got the way to make it okay
Don't think about tomorrow
You'll never see today

Joy is dancing like another thousand coming to my bungalow
You turn around and everything's the same
You turn again and everything has changed
Joy is dancing like another thousand coming to my bungalow

She's infectious and I think of heaven looking down on me below
Don't think about tomorrow
You'll never see today
Joy is dancing like another thousand coming to my bungalow
You turn around and everything's the same
You turn again and everything has changed


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JADED on Twist



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WISH on Twist



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SOMERSAULT on Twist



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LOVE SONG 3000 on Twist



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WAKE on Twist

Wake
    by Wild Strawberries
        Transcribed by Gerrit (webmaster@endor.org


Tell me what I need to hear
And I'll believe you
We've been doing this for years
And it shows

I don't care what people say
All I want to do is wake you
When I wake you

I know when we smell the same
It's official
I know you can guess my thoughts
Before me

I don't care what people say
All I want to do is wake you
When I wake you
When I wake you

I'd never knew how to love
Before I met you
We've been doing this for years
And it shows

I don't care what people say
All I want to do is wake you
When I wake you
All I want to do is wake you
All I want to do is wake you
All I want to do is wake you
All I want to do is wake you
All I want to do is wake you


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TWIST on Twist



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ALL I WANT on Twist



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POPSICLE on Twist



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THOUSAND KISSES on Twist



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I KNOW YOU'RE GONNA BREAK MY HEART on Twist



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TAINTED LOVE on Twist

Tainted Love
    by Soft Cell


Sometimes I feel I've got to
Run away I've got to
Get away
From the pain that you drive into the heart of me
The love we share
Seems to go nowhere
And I've lost my light
For I toss and turn I can't sleep at night

Once I ran to you (I ran)
Now I'll run from you
This tainted love you've given
I give you all a boy could give you
Take my tears and that's not nearly all
Oh...tainted love
Tainted love

Now I know I've got to
Run away I've got to
Get away
You don't really want IT any more from me
To make things right
You need someone to hold you tight
And you'LL think love is to pray
But I'm sorry I don't pray that way

Once I ran to you (I ran)
Now I'll run from you
This tainted love you've given
I give you all a boy could give you
Take my tears and that's not nearly all
Oh...tainted love
Tainted love

Don't touch me please
I cannot stand the way you tease
I love you though you hurt me so
Now I'm going to pack my things and go
Tainted love, tainted love
Tainted love, tainted love
Touch me baby, tainted love
Touch me baby, tainted love
Tainted love 
Tainted love
Tainted love

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WRONG TO LET YOU GO on Twist

    by Wild Strawberries
        Transcribed by Perry Sherk 


I've been to all the familiar places,
Often running like a sentence, never begun
I've been looking for a way to let you know
I've got nothing left to fill the spaces
I've got nothing but a center coming undone
I've been doing circles and it shows

Every cloud in the sky, everyplace that I hide
Tell me that I, I was wrong to let you go
Every sound that I hear, every thought that I fear
Tell me that I, I was wrong, I was wrong to let you go

It's the little things that make you crazy
Like the thought of someone touching your skin
I can see you everywhere I go
You could be inside a sea of faces
It could be the aroma of a glimpse
Swimming the river as it flows

Every cloud in the sky, everyplace that I hide
Tell me that I, I was wrong to let you go
Every sound that I hear, every thought that I fear
Tell me that I, I was wrong to let you go

Every cloud in the sky, everyplace that I hide
Tell me that I, I was wrong to let you go
Every sound that I hear, every thought that I fear
Tell me that I, I was wrong to let you go

Every cloud in the sky, everyplace that I hide
Tell me that I, I was wrong to let you go
Every sound that I hear, every thought that I fear
Tell me that I, I was wrong to let you go

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MIRROR MIRROR on Stir of Echoes



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TRAMPOLINE on Lilith Fair, Volume 2



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THE WAY IT GOES on Bet You Think I'm Lonely


Cali said she saw you walking with a rose in your hand
Cali said you weren't walking alone
You're about as pretty as the picture of the flowers
You drew on my chemistry notes
Boy I really loved you oh well
That's the way it goes

Cali said she saw you lying with a hole in your head
Cali said you weren't lying no no you weren't lying alone
You're about as pretty as the picture of the flowers
I drew on your suicide note
Boy I really loved you oh well
That's the way it goes

Everyone's dying to meet you
Everyone's dying to know
Mama said you could be my antidote, well
You're about as pretty as the picture of the flowers
They drew on your pale headstone
God I really loved you oh well
That's the way it goes


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LIFE SIZED MARILYN MONROE on Bet You Think I'm Lonely

Booker T is playing on the radio
Jimmy Dean he plays on my mind
Someday soon I'm gonna' wipe your filthy boots 
When I expose you
You Philistine, your Philistine eyes

You can take your five and dime
Shove it in your Elvis records
You can send your valentines
To your very own life sized Marilyn Monroe

You keep singing everyday's the fourth of July
I keep wondering why
I don't know how I ever met you, 
Don't know why I can't forget the way you tease me
You Philistine, your Philistine eyes

:You better stop calling
Kicking my love around
I don't care if you're another Rudolph Valentino
I don't care if you're the marrying kind
You better stop calling
For my love

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MANNEQUIN on Bet You Think I'm Lonely

Little sister Judy says, "Whoa baby whoa
What about my reputation?"
She cracks a smile turns on the radio
It's the Zombies singing you make me feel so good
And she says, "Don't call me Judy don't call me Sam
Don't call me anything till you know who I am."

I have been around this little old world
I have been upside down
And I think it's a mannequin
Hanging on a merry go round

He says to Judy, "I will do anything if I want to."
He says it like he means it 
He says it like he's said it before
Now please don't get the wrong impression
I'm no left handed narrator looking for confession
I'm just keeping score

:I have seen  your second face
And I have touched your broken mace
I have held you once too often
Hey...hey...hey oh
Well there you go

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BET YOU THINK I'M LONELY on Bet You Think I'm Lonely

I have seen you once with your altruistic bandage
And I know that you have given me the eye
Let me see you twice and I will be your appendage
In this silver dollar kingdom of the blind

I bet you think I'm lonely
I bet you think I've got you on my mind
You were yours and I was always mine
I bet you think I'm lonely
I bet you think I'm crying all the time
Pity always said she'd be your bride

I have fallen down at least every other Sunday
And on every other Monday I have cried
I have played the clown
I have danced around your glory
I have waited I have waited for my line

I have written down almost everything you told me
And I sold it for a purple wedding gown
I can't hear you now when you say that you are sorry
And I'll never stoop to polishing your crown

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CRYING SHAME on Bet You Think I'm Lonely



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SWEET on Bet You Think I'm Lonely

Did I tell you she's not good for you
Did I mention she's not free
Can I tell you can I show you
I've been waiting on my knees

 I will be your movie star
I will be your movie queen
I will touch you in the dark
When you're alone and bittersweet

I've seen the ring on her finger
I've seen the fire in her eyes
I know that smoke always lingers
In disguise

So I see we've got a problem
Back by popular demand
I call you call her but the line is busy
I can understand

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CINNAMON on Bet You Think I'm Lonely

If you ask Uncle Charlie,
He'll give you some elderberry wine
If you ask Uncle Charlie,
He'll give you some elderberry wine
It may be what you want 
But I got what you need--Cinnamon

I'll trip over you any old time you please
I'll trip over you any old time you please
You've got what I want
You've got what I need--Cinnamon

I'll give you cinnamon baby 
When you're touching my knees
I'll give you cinnamon when we're old
I want you all over me
I'm gonna' start a rumour
Baby that's my soul

It's a bloody shame 
You don't know what you've got in your hand
It's a bloody shame 
You don't know what you've got in your hand
Baby if you want I can draw a diagram

I have seen the future 
Trying to press her tongue between your lips
I have seen the future 
Trying to press her tongue between your lips
I've got what you want baby and it goes like this

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NEVER RUN TO YOU on Bet You Think I'm Lonely

You were in white
I was in gray
I was doing circles at the foot of your golden mane
You were making speeches
You were naming names
Somewhere in your eye I think I see the flicker 
Of a man who's slain

Oh--I want to run to you
Oh--I want to run to you
Oh--I want to run to you
I want to run to you

Little sister Mandy 
Is a little bit strange
She thinks she's a satellite
I can understand that
You're not to blame
I can see the pilot holding your love 
With a silver rein

Mandy's in the whitehouse
Gregory's in sales
Me and old Cissy are pissing on the family tree
I'll save you my speeches
If you save me your name
Eyes in the orbit fixed on the first thing 
To set them free

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CALIFORNIA on Bet You Think I'm Lonely

My daddy was a banking man
My mama was a thief
My mama taught me how to stand
My daddy taught me how to cheat
I will rob you till you're blind
I will love you till I cry
I will kiss you seven times
When I crucify you

Tell the wind to find herself another man
Blow a thousand kisses to forgotten lovers
Touch me where my thinking turns to circumstance
Hop into my car we'll drive to California

My mama was a wanted man
My daddy was a priest
My mama taught me how to stand
My daddy taught me how to please
I will rob you till you're blind
I will love you till I cry
I will kiss you seven times
When I crucify you

My daddy was a banking man
My mama was a thief
My mama taught me how to stand
My daddy taught me how to cheat



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EVERYONE'S GOT THE BLUES ON SUNDAY on Bet You Think I'm Lonely

Here comes Sadie
She's okay
She showed me her 45s
Down by the pool hall yesterday
Well hello Sadie
What's that you say?
Everyone's got the blues on Sunday

There goes Charlie
He's all right
He gave me a wet kiss 
Outside the liquor store last night
Well so long Charlie
You're not to blame
Everyone's got the blues on Sunday

Turn to the left
Turn to the right
Till you see the man 
Do you see him baby 
With the wandering eye
Dig until you drop dig until you drop
I could be home I could be home 
I could be home free

I've been digging down below
Maybe it's garlic maybe it's gold
Maybe it's mercy maybe it's fate
Maybe it's the thought of you on Sunday

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ANGEL CAME TUMBLING DOWN on Bet You Think I'm Lonely

Nobody cries in Eden
Nobody dares it's our home town
Everybody cried when angel came tumbling down

Somebody said they saw her grave
Somebody said she almost drowned
Everybody cried when angel came tumbling down

She was my only weakness
She was my only crown
Everybody cried when angel came tumbling down

I have only one regret
I shoulda' stole her dressing gown
Everybody cried when angel came tumbling down

She would play the innocent
When she was the only whore in town
Everybody cried when angel came tumbling down

She had her own sweet baby james
Nobody knows his father now
Everybody cried when angel came tumbling down

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GOTTA GO on Quiver


History is everything
Said the professor to the petitioner's girl
She, playing with her shoe,
Says I just want someone, I just want something new

I don't know what hit you
Don't care where ya been
I just know you gotta' go

Speed is everything
Said the co-pilot to the girl with the braid
She, looking round the room
Says I just want someone, I just want something new

I don't know what hit you
Don't care where ya been
I just know you gotta' go

Timing is everything
Said the conductcor to the boy half his age
He, tightening a screw,
Says I just want someone, I just want something new

I don't know what hit you
Don't care where ya been
I just know you gotta' go

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TRAMPOLINE on Quiver

I don't need directions
I can see the course
You don't need to whisper baby
I've heard it all before
Hate and lemon under your nails
I don't need protection
I don't need to show your telling tail

I don't need your prohibition
I don't need to score
You can keep your liquor 
Baby that's for sure
Whine and silver under your feet
I don't know what moves you
I can't even see when i'm on my knees

Baby give that quiver to me
I can shoot an arrow through anything
Please don't give me your reasons
I'll never need them when I'm on my trampoline

I have seen the devil
Looking for the chord
I can make your carbon copy
Sullen and adored
Mercy and ashes under your hair
I don't need revisions
I don't need to fill
What isn't there

CHORUS

Tolerance is petty
Misery is bored
Someone slipped the combination
Underneath the door
Tongue and courage under your skin
I don't need your resolution
I don't need to sort what could have been

CHORUS

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MINIONS on Quiver

Any last requests before I go
Time is fading fast and feeling slow
Hit me when I start to dream
When I whisper maybe close the screen

I'm not asking for opinions
Spare me all your little minions
I just want to wake inside my dreams
I don't know what makes me happy
Just give me joy and make it snappy
Paste my numbered soul with magazines

Someone made a killing on tv
Everyone was willing no one free
All the kids in china stores
Know that living makes them sore

CHORUS

Blessed are the meek for they shall see
Everything that we've already seen
Everybody we have known
Every thing that's overgrown

CHORUS

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BLUNT on Quiver


I don't want to be beautiful
No one ever hears her speak
I don't want to be a diplomat
With a heart attack for peace

All that I need is a fire escape
All that I need is a stone
Everything that starts out burning
Ends up overgrown

I don't want to be an astronaut
I've flown higher on my own
I don't want to be a movie star
I don't need to be alone

All that I need is a blunt excuse
All that I need is a ruse
Everything that starts off burning
Ends up feeling used

I don't want to be president
There's some things I'd like to keep
I don't want to be a nightingale
I don't need to feel that cheap

All that I need is an antidote
All that I need is a muse
Everything that starts off burning
Ends up feeling used

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SPEAK OF THE DEVIL on Quiver


Speak of the devil baby
I've got my reservations
I saw you coming from a meter away
I'm not excited
I'm not even waiting
I saw the picture and I know it's a fake

That's how the story goes
That's what the people say
I'm bitter I suppose
But bitterness is gold when she wants her way

If you're gonna put me under
Make sure you do it neatly
If I'm going under I'll go all the way
If you're going pull the curtains
Make sure you pull discreetly
Nothing sticks together without needles and chains

CHORUS

I know the number
I've seen the mark already
I drove the rental into the Hertz
I can smell the fishes
I know the crimes are changing
Nothing sticks together without needles and skirts

CHORUS

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PRETTY LIP on Quiver

I'm not the perfect sister
I'm just the wounded one
I was created to compare
I'll quit while she's ahead
I've finally found the rent
I'll memorize the words to every other line she says
She's got pretty little lips
She's got perfect skin
I wonder why I even try
To disappoint you
I could draw a diagram
I could point it at your mouth
I could stroke it till you're blind
And I'd disappoint you

She's got good intentions
The kind that make you squirm
She's like the movie of the week
I've seen her kind before
So pretty and adored
So empty and so free that I'd forgotten I'd forgotten

CHORUS

I'm not the perfect sister
I'm just the wounded one
I was created to compare
One day I'll make the cut
I'll put it down in blood
I'll make you wish that it was any other way

CHORUS

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I GUESS I'M AMUSED on Quiver


Sandi's on her kitchen floor interlude
Bobby's got a great big ball on the roof
Kittys trying hard to stall and sinking
Jaycee thinks its all his fault
I guess I'm amused

Evil's got a brand new name that's the truth
Hope says she's got a pain in her tooth
Pity came before the fall but she faked it
God I think I missed it all
I guess I'm amused

Now we're marching two by two into the boat
Maybe if we made it three we'd stay afloat
I'm blunt enough to say my name and mean it
Drunk enough to stay the same
I guess I'm amused

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MIRROR, MIRROR on Quiver


I think I missed you in the elevator
I think I missed you when I shot too high
Just like the bullet in the temple baby
I really miss your eyes

I know I missed you in Andalusia
I think I missed you when I took my time
Just like that photograph that Carroll drew ya
I think my shot was wide

Mirror mirror on the wall
Tell me why you make things fall
Mirror mirror look at me
Tell me why we disagree

It's so complicated
Just when you think you've got the one in sight
He starts to run into the crowd of cages
With all that bleeding light

I think I've got the combination
I think I've got my settings straight
I measured time like he was half-crustacean
And now he makes me wait

Mirror mirror on the wall
Tell me why you make things fall
Mirror mirror look at me
Tell me why we disagree

I've resorted to aphorisms
Somewhere between love and jism
Stolen like the blanket I stain on bended knee
I'm afraid of my own drop shadow
I'm frozen by the coming youth
I'd like to see the dotted line
Between flies and truth

Mirror mirror on the wall
Tell me why you make things fall
Mirror mirror look at me
Tell me why we disagree

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CONCHA Y TORO on Quiver


You know everything I'm saying
You know long before I speak
I saw you at the side of the road with her hands around your neck
I saw you at the side of the road and you know I want you back

You're my Concho y toro
Concho y toro

I don't mind what they are saying
I know you're my little red
I met you at the liquor store you were hanging with your friends
I can tell as much by the way you blush there will be no bitter end

CHORUS

I love kissing you in doorways
I get drunk when you are near
I want you like a worn out suit wants another glass of gin
when I'm with you I can't stand up I want to know where you begin

CHORUS

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YOU COULD BE SO COLD on Quiver


How about keeping time with my wicked daughter
She would be so surprised just to see your face
After all those evil things you taught her

I bet you didn't know
You could be so cold

Meet her in the back of the cellar
She will give you wine like you'll never taste
I'll be hanging pictures of umbrellas

I bet you didn't know
You could be so cold

I'll be sitting pretty by the television
Please don't forget to leave the change
Hey it's my little prison

I bet you didn't know
You could be so cold

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GRAVITY on Quiver


Is that a bruise on your shoulder
Or the name of a friend
Did you cry when you told her
Or did you pretend
Nobody's hero
Ever gets thrown by the wind
Nobody's hero
Ever kicked them in the shins
You should know by now
Gravity loves to win

I spent some time with her sister
The one with the cane
She said it was an accident
With no one to blame
I tried to warn her
Don't turn you back again
I tried hard to show her
She should recognize the grin
You should know by now
Gravity killed her twin

I wrote a line about beauty
She wrapped it in tin
She took my picture of Eden
And soaked it with gin
It's as easy as falling forever down
It's so easy everything grows when you drown
You should know by now
Gravity stole her crown

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NOT GOING TO CRY on Quiver


Maybe I should have noticed
When faith forgot her shoes 
I should have marked the day 
When pity came to stay
And truth settled on the roof

I'm not gonna cry when you go
Crying leaves me cold
And when i'm cold
I start to crave
Someone warm and safe

She smells like the violent
Swollen arm of spring
Wrestling with her clothes
Tempting I suppose
Tepid and glistening

CHORUS

Lately I've been thinking
Hope is underage
I'll never kiss her lips
Unless she insists
And probably then I'd wait

CHORUS

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I DON'T WANT TO THINK ABOUT IT on Foxfire



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I DON'T WANT TO THINK ABOUT IT on Heroine

Meet me in a doorway 
I'll be painting pictures of gates 
You were so crazy 
I was so chaste 
I don't know what happened to me 
I don't know 

I don't want to think about it 
I don't want to think about it 

You rendered me conscious 
You cut my innocent face 
I'm not really bitter 
Then again I'm not amused 
I just want to kick you till you cry I loved I really loved you 

Meet me in a doorway 
I'll be wearing Middleton's lace 
It's as sterile as chess 
Nobody'd guess 
You were touching me between the love of God and sister mercy

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CAREFUL on Heroine


Careful in the kitchen 
Says the man in red 
He knows exactly where to hang his head 
Someones in the bedroom 
Playing with the lamp 
Love is like her hair beneath the curtain soiled and damp 

Isn't she so beautiful 
In her baby blues 
I'll be over when i know 
That she's all over you 

I can hear the ticking 
Of the cuckoo clock 
I can see you hiding in the shadow of her locks 
She don't really love you 
She don't understand 
What she's got between the precious creases of her hands 

Life becomes the poet 
Messing with her words 
In the margin soft and blurred 
Time is my complexion 
Love is my parade 
Funny how the fiddler knows exactly when to play

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HEROINE on Heroine


The first thing I remember you were walking away 
You were singing something gentle in the fade 
The next thing I remember I nearly pushed you off the stage 
I pretended not to be afraid 

I played the fool 
I played the drowning man 
I will play your heroine 
I know the rules 
You wrote them on my veins 
I will play your heroine 

I'm calling from the border of another nameless state 
I am sitting on the steps of our mistake 
I will bring you postcards of everything that's gray 
I will draw your smile on my slate 

I said I loved you 
I said I needed you but baby I was wrong 
Well that was Sunday 
And now it's Wednesday and I'm feeling strong 

Memory's a lover trying to tell you that she's late 
Memory's a silent second take 
She will drink the poison if you put it in your cup 
She will touch your eyes and never stop

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FALL on Heroine


I'm not the kind you marry 
I'm not that kind at all 
I'm not the one you think you want 
But I will be the one 
There when you fall 

I'm not your bloody mary 
I'm not that type at all 
I'm just the writing on the wall 
But I will be the one 
There when you fall 

Did I tell you I would come around 
Did I say that I would ever be the one to hold you

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MY OWN INVITATION on Heroine


I'm gonna lie 
No one's home 
I'm gonna try 
To be alone 
I don't want you messing with my family stone 

Maybe I'm shy 
Maybe I'm wild 
My best disguise 
Is my style 
I can't help remembering you scratched my smile 

I got my own invitation 
I'll make my own way home 
When I told you I'm patient 
I was wrong 

I remember the time 
When you were right 
You said that maybe is as good as might 
That's the time you went and broke my key of life 

It's not a crime 
To keep things cold 
I'll never mind 
What I'm told 
I don't want you messing with my rubber soul

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ON MY OWN on Heroine


I want to be the leading lady on my own 
I want to act sophisticated on my own 

I want to walk across your ocean 
I want to file you under C 
I want to hang your mixed emotion over me 

I want to touch you where the hurting never goes 
I want to drive five wicked horses through your pose 

Everyone loves a winner when he's wrong 
Everyone wants the singer to sing along 

If you were water I would never be dry 
I'd draw the curtain on the edge of the sky 
If I could turn you I would gladly oblige 
If I could find you we'd be running out of time

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DEBUTANTE on Heroine


Casey brought his own confetti 
I loved him in the fall 
He thought we had it made 
I left him at the picture show 
I loved him after all 
Oh mister junior 
I always miss the curtain call 

If it's trust that you need 
I can do the deed 
Pick up your boots and stay 
If it's love that you want 
It's my favourite haunt 
Three steps forward 
Dance the debutante 

Jacob used to call me Temple 
For that was all he saw 
He left his only cane 
Seventeen hats from Italy 
Are hanging on my wall 
Oh mister junior 
I guess that they're above it all 

Some of them smile in sympathy 
And some don't smile at all 
Some kill the time with change 
Yesterday his name was Threnody 
Today his name is Fame 
Oh mister junior 
I reserve the right to rearrange

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AISLE C on Heroine


I think you taught me about everything 
I think you taught me that too 
Did you say that you'd pay better 
If I wanted you 
To come again tomorrow 

Go ahead and fire me 
Mister big 
Your words inspire me 
Like your clothes 

There's a special in aisle c 
And all the people are gone 
I heard you say that to be someone 
You've got someone to pay 
Again tomorrow 

Cassettes are sold in aisle b 
Microphones are too 
I think I've got me a red handed tight fisted excuse 
And I'll be back tomorrow

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FINE on Heroine


Pretty soon we'll be planting marigolds 
Pretty soon we'll be trading stories 
What ever happened to the baby that I used to know 
I sit here staring as my body grows cold 

And when you tell me I feel fine 
And when you touch me I feel 
Fine 

I caught you flirting with my memory 
You said that she was just a friend 
Some things are better when they're standing in front of me 
Some things grow bitter when they're near the end 

Say goodbye to the vinyl we had 
Say goodbye to the radio songs 
You said you'd always keep around 
I don't know if I'll be happy 
I don't know if I'll be sad 
I'll always be there when you drown 

I'll place my why inside your sympathy 
I'll leave my x beside your o 
My generation is a runaway centipede 
My generation is about to go

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EVERYTHING THAT RISES on Heroine


There's a penny poised on a whitewashed fence 
There's a little black boy praying for his government 
There's a nervous lady reaching for her place 
There's a red faced son running from his race 

Everything that rises 
Everything that rises must converge 

This is my country-this is your sign- 
We are painting fences, drawing lines 
Well I don't know much about anything 
And I don't know much about conversation 
Look at me, look at me giving my weakness away 

Do you know Coventry-ribbons and bows- 
She will throw confetti in your soul 
Well I don't know much about anything 
And I don't know much about conversation 
Look at me, look at me giving my weakness away

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GIVE IT UP on Heroine


Words can be a problem when you're on parole 
I don't care much for language I just want her soul 
She left me just when Pushkin turned to shove 
The answer to the question who are you thinking of? 

You've got to give it up 
Give it up 
Hold me baby when you give it up 
Give it up 

Every now and then I start rambling on 
I don't care much for grammar I just need her son 
He left me in the sibilance and pops 
The answer to the question who made your sentence stop

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EVERYBODY LOVES YOU WHEN YOU'RE DEAD on Heroine


She told me her name was Cymbeline 
I met her at the corner of Church and Queen 
She was selling lies and other painted things 
I hardly even noticed when she touched my ring 

She sold me a camera for a song 
A silver instamatic made in Bonn 
Careful with my heart it's not very strong 
She wrote that on the border when I was gone 

She said that she's going home 
And she won't be long 
Half a mile from Texas 
She looked at me and said 
Everybody wants you when you're dead 

I can drive for hours when I'm wrong 
She said it like a preacher before the throng 
Careful with your life--it's not very long 
We struggle for a moment and then we're gone 

I think I'll take her bishop with my queen 
The glass is nearly empty and she's asleep 
Somewhere in my mind I think I see her weep 
Perhaps I'll check the silver before I leave

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I DON'T WANT TO THINK ABOUT IT on Decadence



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GRACE on Grace

I think I met you on the seventeenth floor
When I stood on Margot's window sill
Or maybe it was in the Crimean war
When I lost my middle finger

I really don't love you
It just looks that way
Radio lover meets serial killer
He says it's inevitable
She says call me Grace

I think I met you on the mental ward
You watched me juggle my life
Or maybe it was in some naphthalene story
Roman candles and wine

I think I met you on death row
Somewhere in Louisiana
Or maybe it was at Heathrow
You were flying to Cancun

I think I met you at Graceland National
I was the one torching the bike
Or maybe it was at the abattoir
I was the one with the knife

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SISYPHUS on Grace


I've seen your fame chase the wind like a tongue on fire
Self-portrait of a weather vane in windy November turning
My love moves me without moving
Thoughts escape and words elude me
As Sisyphus and Tantalus call my name

Waiting for the day
The day when my love becomes my love
Waiting for the day
he day when my love becomes my love

Grains of sand down the throat of a chapel choir
Stains on Claude Monet á la gare St. Lazarre
My love moves me without moving
Thoughts escape and words elude me
As Sisyphus and Tantalus call my name

Roll the stone just a little higher
Give the bird just a little more grain
For the hill by the spire
My love moves me without moving
Thoughts escape and words elude me
As Sisyphus and Tantalus call my name

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CRYING SHAME on Grace




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JACKIE GOT MARRIED on Grace

Jackie got married on Valentine's Day
It was a lovely wedding
He met his bride on the interstate
Seventeen miles from Connecticut
At least that's what Jackie said
Ruby told me she wished he were dead
And I hold all these things in my heart

Bobby got shot on Independence Day
He was a fine young preacher
Till they carved his heart away
Ruby said he would want it that way
I don't really know what to say
So I hold all these things in my heart

I've got no infant messiah
I've got no gabardine prose
I've just got five hundred dollars
That nobody knows about
I'll give you my money
I will sell you my soul
If you would just hold these things
If you would just hold these things in your heart

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EVERYTHING THAT RISES on Grace

There's a penny poised on a whitewashed fence
There's a little black boy praying for his government
There's a nervous lady reaching for her place
There's a red faced son running from his race

Everything that rises
Everything that rises
Everything that rises must converge

This is my country-this is your sign-
We are painting fences, drawing lines
Well I don't know much about anything
And I don't know much about conversation
Look at me, look at me giving my weakness away

Do you know Coventry-ribbons and bows-
She will throw confetti in your soul
Well I don't know much about anything
And I don't know much about conversation
Look at me, look at me giving my weakness away

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I DON'T WANT TO THINK ABOUT IT on Grace


Meet me in a doorway
I'll be painting pictures of gates
You were so crazy
I was so chaste
I don't know what happened to me
I don't know

I don't want to think about it
I don't want to think about it

You rendered me conscious
You cut my innocent face
I'm not really bitter
Then again I'm not amused
I just want to kick you till you cry I loved I really loved you

Meet me in a doorway
I'll be wearing Middleton's lace
It's as sterile as chess
Nobody'd guess
You were touching me between the love of God and sister mercy

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DOWN AND OUT IN CANAAN on Grace

Drinking curdled milk from a silver cup
Watching all the boys waiting for the plan to erupt
You can talk all you like when you're down on your luck
And you're looking for a reason to run

Down and out in Canaan
On a cloudy day you can see the sun
Down and out in Canaan
Nobody's gonna' ever give you reason to run

Love is never so wise as it is when it's crossed
Like an angry wind stirring up a handful of dust
Turning water from wine, mixing gold into rust
Painting justice in the wake of the sun

Close the bitter page with a sour look
Cast a callous eye around you at the pictures you took
Live your life in a line, leave your love in a book
Hang your money on the tip of your tongue

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MAY I CALL YOU BEATRICE on Grace

Just a little thought in the head of the one
With the sunburnt cheeks and the eyes to the ground
Making earwaxed tongue-tied gutter sounds
Thinking of the lost rib, dialing the indelible
Thinking the unthinkable-no one's home
And the eyes say I don't believe we've met
I don't believe you've had the privilege
I don't believe we've met

When the wind blows cold
And the eyes of the child grow old
When the erratic conga rises and falls
Above the faithful metronome
You can take me back to the gravestone

See her strain from the weight of the globe
Spinning around his assumptions-barefoot and tight-lipped
He in his favourite chair blowing his world around
First she's Beatrice, then she's a pumpkin
Then she's a faded leaf in a book on his pantry shelf

The head sees the hand play with the ring in the pocket
And the head knows the hand knows the ring is as round
As the tear-soaked shoulder in a room in another town
The ring is getting heavy and so is the crown
Which she drags to the chair feebly to keep the swelling down

When the bird in the bush is worth two in the hand
And the empty cage holds the empty man
The bird keeps flying from the Orgoglian rising
And the phone keeps ringing and the phone keeps ringing
And the ring keeps slipping and the phone 
And the phone keeps on ringing
And he's thinking about the one who got away

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RIVERRUN on Grace

Ten miles to save my name
Steel crosses cold as stone
Looking like a gambler throwing coins away
I'm feeling so displaced
You're painting candy on my faith
You're so convincing I am so ashamed

Riverrun softly through the hands of people without toys
Riverrun boldly through Vanity Fair
Riverrun cold
Riverrun slow
Riverrun free with the wind in your hair
Life from the turn of the stairs

I've felt the mountain rain
I've seen it nurse a thousand veins
I've watched the rivulets of silent grace
But now my memory strains
To wash its hands in muddy streams
As I sit fishing by a dying tree

It's hard to know your place
Look down and people call you brave
Look up and people tell you what to say
Don't throw my words away
Don't even try to paraphrase
Some words are spoken best from broken frames



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I GO AND on Grace

I've gone and done it again
Everytime I think I'm more than myself
I go and

I've gone and left you again
I know I said I'd only be an hour
But I ran into a friend

I watch the sky my heart beating
Fearing for the fear relieving rain
When I see those eyes gently pleading
I wonder why I run away
I run away

Mumbling with my old friend ambition
Something about the way that the wind has of blurring
vision
Lying in the shade of the cathedral with my eyes closed
Closed to the day and the cry of the wounded minstrel

I know I'll do it again
As long as the rain is a stone's throw
From the point of my pen

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PEACE LIES WAITING on Grace


Murder cries the cathedral
A hungry hawk, a sword, a ploughshare
Set the stage in Canterbury
Seven years and then

Peace lies waiting-fugitive, cloistered and longing
Peace lies waiting-hovering above the spearpoints
Peace stands higher than my fragile sense of need

Peace I leave with you
Not as the world gives or has ever seen
Safe in the ruins
Killed but not wounded
Pierced with painful joy

When he smiles
Even the wind and the rain
Close their eyes
Hold their fire

I've never seen peace in a vacuum
But I've seen it in a bitter sea
Safe in the ruins
Killed but not wounded
I'm held tightly free

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HOW LONG? on Grace


Gunther told me it would take one week
I knew for sure that he was lying
How long

Well I went to see my doctor
Only she was crying twice as much as me
How long

They say suicide is painless
But I'd like to disagree
I've watched my country cut her veins
I've seen her civilized o.d.
And Thomas More he signals me
With foreign wars and razor-blades
All I can say is how long
How long

Forgive me this intrusion
You're my only consolation
As my people cry with me how long

I don't mean to be exploitive
But my God I know you're listening
And I know that you are crying here with me

When the vicar shot the stranger
We assumed his good intentions
When the stranger shot
We pronounced him dead

There's a part of me that's empty
When the world has stopped its shaking
There's a part of me that wants it all to end

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THE ONLY THINGS I KNOW on Carving Wooden Spectacles

Maybe you're waiting
Hoping the world will spell it's name
In an open minded, whole-hearted way
Maybe you're waiting
Looking for the widow
Who's lost between a lie and a lonely way
Maybe you're afraid I'm the same way

A beggar's crutch, an angel's sigh
A broken hand pressed to its side
These are the only things I know
Love is nothing when it's wise
Jesus holds me wondering why
These are the only things I know

Everyone's a preacher and everyone's a baker
And everyone's a bit of an undertaker going round and round
Throw me a bottle and I'll pass you a hammer
And we can make music like chinese lanterns blowing down

I can hear you talk about the space behind the mirror
And I can see you hold your hand up high
Breathe into the wind and talk about eternity
Look into the gutter and tell me what you see

The patient sun, the constant tide
The tuneless minstrelsy of pride
These are the only things I know
I am yours and you are mine
Life is circled by a line
These are the only things I know

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BORROWED REFLECTION on Carving Wooden Spectacles

Like a cabbagetown rubby reaching for the copper on Bleeker Street
Like a coconut commoner combing through the needles on any beach
Like you want to know
What you need to know
Smiling to the camera
Looking for the window that no one sees

I want to go walking
Walking with you

Like a calico mother waiting for the moment to hold her knees
Like my borrowed reflection crawls into the space of an empty sheet
Like the world is your buoy
And the moon is your defense
Like the horror of the naked eye
Looking at the mark of a leaky pen

Cover me with pomegranates
Till I see my royal partner
I will be the queen of spades
Then I will measure time
As if it flowed from mirrors
Under heaven's wake

Like a blood-borne baby squints into the light and begins to breathe
Like the moment I close my eyes on the edge of sleep
Like the rumour of joy
Or the musings of grief
Dance with me a second time
Till I feel the blood in my feet



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POSTCARD FROM A VOLCANO on Carving Wooden Spectacles


I got a postcard from a volcano
Something 'bout a weather change
Looking for a new town
Hope to see you soon
Sincerely

My my things have changed
I wrote these words upon the ceiling
Now I'm walking on the page
That kept my broken world

Everyone's a gold mine
Everyone's an empty vein
Everyone's an open handed blind magician
Everyone's a millionaire looking for a copper
Down on old factory road

Carving wooden spectacles
Is nothing more than wishful thinking
Read it on the line below
Some things never change

Life is but a festival
Coloured gold and green and purple
Death is never what you know
Love is never sane

I spent a month in addictions
I'll never hail a cab again
Maybe I'm suspicious
Maybe I'm afraid

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AT THE UNICORN on Carving Wooden Spectacles

You and me and Billy Turpine playing by the fire escape
You can be the mountains, I will be the wind
She will be sin

It seems like a long time, swinging on the broken gate
Stealing from the clothesline, call call Billy
She'll take the blame

Mama used to say
She'd live and die this way
While the band played at the Unicorn
By the Somerset Stage

You know I've seen a lot of things, I've done a lot in my time
Nobody ever told me life would be a friend of mine
Like a child with a crooked mind trying to sleep

I don't know which way the wind blows
I don't know what the second hand holds
Billy oh cold cold Billy...

Mama used to say
She'd live and die this way
While the band that played at the Unicorn
Sang her sorrows away

You can't always get what you want to
You can't even get what you need
Sometimes life is a bit of an angry child
With blood on its knees

You and me and Billy Turpine
Playing by the fire escape
You can be the mountains
I will be the wind
Who will be sin?

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EASTER MORNING on Carving Wooden Spectacles

Gretta's in the corner but she's miles away
Mary's coaxing Adam to stare time in the face
And me and Joey Carpenter are listening to the naked miner
Talking about the way things were before the world was green

I can run where I want
On Easter morning
Run where I dream

It's like a grey suited businessman who's looking for the answer
His wife is complicated and his girlfriend has cancer
Maybe I'm a dotted line between the clouds and Union Station
Maybe I'm an open window swinging in the breeze

Tell me if you've ever seen the convalescent fisherman
Before I kiss you in the corner of my lifelong quarantine

If my name was Richard Nixon would you treat me with conviction
If my name was Colin Thatcher would my protest really matter
But my name is contradiction and I'm standing in your liquor store
I'm stealing from your baby boy and lying in your lanes

You know I don't care much for your chemical names
Pesticide and pimozide they're all the same
And I've half a mind to sit you down and tell you about the holy war
I've half a mind to sit you down and blow you up with metaphor

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WALKING BY LIGHTENING on Carving Wooden Spectacles

The woman in the window turns to see him wave
She says life is like a sailor in a storm
Truth knocks once then slips away
Love shouts loudly then it fades
Like water off a collar slightly worn

Walking by lightning
Taken by storm
Frozen by fire
Healed by thorns

A flash in the night is always what it seems
And memory prides itself on being brave
From the end you see the mean
Like a vague forgotten dream
Crawling through the mist of yesterday



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MEI MEI on Carving Wooden Spectacles


Mama I don't want to run away
You know that I could never stay
If this letter never reaches home
I wave goodbye to you and mei mei

You know the placards and the common way
You wore the hat that never fades
You know the hatred for the grave
Of everything you lost that day

The rice grows faster than the hands can cut it down
I can see it rising in the wind
Withered palaces will never stop the rain from falling
In between the cracks until the cracks turn into veins
Flowing through another reign

Don't fear the truth that holds the world away
Don't fly the flag that never waves
I saw a soldier with his gun
Listening to the v.o.a.

I curse the poster in the people's way
I curse the bottle to its grave
And even so I know this rage
Connects me with the ones I hate

Time will lay its peonies upon your bed
Fate will hold you helpless in its net
And like a quickly fading song
How soon the world forgets

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HOLLYWOOD on Carving Wooden Spectacles

I got a picture of my friends and me
Sitting outside Thistletown Laundry at night
That looks like me between the Holly twins
Singing hey ho this is your life
And there's old Ruby and her worn out magazines
And the guy we called Joe Cinnamon who's polishing his speech

Hey it looks like Hollywood
Hey it looks like Hollywood

Joe married one of the Holly twins
And they ran the local five and dime
My mama told me that the other twin
Got a teaching job at Thistletown High
But me and Ruby and her worn out magazines
Jumped a box car on the western line by ol' Cole Martin's stream

Well me and Ruby had big plans
Gonna' move to the city gonna' be larger than life
Just like the girl beside the Marlboro man
And the pretty lady in the Ivory ad
Thistletown, Indiana is no place for me
Give me miles and miles of neon signs and flashy magazines

Me, I sold my camera for a string of beads
And Ruby sold he mother's china figurines

I got a picture of Ruby and me
Selling candy bars at the Roxy
The guy who took it called us calendar girls
And he said someday he'd make us famous
But me and Ruby never made no magazines
All we got was just a cold recurrent broken bottle dream

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