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Temporary Redemption |
1 |
a letter from john |
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Somewhere I've never been, that's where she took me
Someone I've never seen, she mistook me
But I was just the victim of a jezebel's revenge
I wish these tears would turn to wine again
I tried to dive right into the holy grail
Added speed and heroin and made a cocktail
Then the moon turned into blood and it's death became the wind
I wish these tears would turn to wine again
I would let you rescue me if you climbed out on the ledge
Reached out your hand to me and made a pledge
They tried to kill me with pills, it was helter skelter
I hid in Beverly Hills in a homeless shelter
Will I see Delilah there or maybe Mary Magdalene?
I know this rust will turn to gold again |
2 |
if i promise you... |
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If I promise you jewels, one day you'll get diamonds
Engraved on a ring a poem that's rhyming
If I tune this guitar, then soon it'd be chiming
Nothing would stand in the way
If I promise you kisses all sexy and wet
Get your lips ready 'cause that's what you'll get
If I'm Romeo then you're Juliet
But I forget how they ended that play
If I promised you dancing then that would be odd
I never like prancing I feel like a fraud
But if that's what I told you the crowd would applaud
We would dance until we fell through the floor
If I promise you danger we'll swim with the sharks
If I warn about water then get in the ark
I'm a guy of my word, a man of my mark
Don't see how you could ask for more
So why'd you try to lie and cram all these words in my mouth
Could've, should've, would’ve scrammed like a bird heading south
Never promised you marriage, don't dust off your gown
Get out of the carriage that goes into town
My tacky sombrero don't go with your crown
Your red doesn't go with my grey
I promised you fun, did I deliver or not?
I'm a fly stuck to tape, this time I got caught
Now I gotta go, but I'll miss you a lot
And I'll see you on some rainy day |
3 |
whatever happened in heaven? |
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Hallucinations, screaming, running through my head
Crumbled cookie dough from you house of gingerbread
Through the lighthouse fog the shore was far to swim
Go to the drugstore please and refill my medicine
Do you want me to say it?
Do you want me to say that things are alright?
Chamomile tea, a bath before I sleep
In my room the laughing gas begins to seep
Hold your headstill babe so I can see you smile
Before the demons come to chain me to denial
Whatever happened in heaven?
To make the angels cry so many tears?
Whatever happened in heaven?
To make the minutes roll along like years? |
4 |
don't go shooting horses |
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You can find me anywhere
Anywhere you go at all
I will follow you until
The heavens start to fall
I'm not the way they make me out
I'm full of fear, filled with doubt
It's been so long since I described
These nervous butterflies
When I met you I was dead
Thoughts of anger ran my head
It took some time to see your charms
To hear your voice in my guitar
The bitter dust that covered me
Was shaken almost instantly
I can't believe I came so close
And never overdosed
So don't go shooting horses
'till you know the ride is done
I may not be a king among men
Good luck's friend, ten out of ten
But I know how to make you smile
And turn your tears to crocodiles
I'm so lonely it's a shame
There's no pictures inside my frame
But at least your light is there
To save me from despair
I've been living a lie all this time faking smiles
Now I'm trying to decide just how to tell you all the while..
Did I find a friend in you?
A neighbor on this avenue
You can hide your secrets here
I'll make sure that they're always near
But all this song is meaningless
All in vain, all unlessv I say out loud what I know is true
I'm singing this for you |
5 |
here's a song for you |
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So you think you can shut her out like she was never there
You'll go back to your boring world, all cupboards bare
Nobody ever sends you postcards from the vintage days of loneliness
You could look in her eyes for answers but she'll just look away
It don't matter if she frowns or smiles, it all feels the same
There's no god above with puppet strings waiting to make your worlds as one
And there's no mountaintop with wise old men who will tell you where to run
They've got no clue
So here is a song for you
Take all these words and make them true
She's got a heart like yours it needs somebody too
The emotional walls you raise they hurt you too
Always hid behind mirrors you made, she can't get through
So much more than you ever show, if she only knew
Maybe you need some time to find yourself but time is all you've had
You've been so comfortable in misery to find joy so close at hand
I think you're due
So here's a song for you
All of the things you think just do
Maybe the words will give you strength to make it through
Love never came easy to me |
6 |
i don't speak french |
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If your lonely give a shout
‘cause I know what you're talking about
We are both in the same boat
And the falls are just up ahead
All our friends play connect the dots
I just stand around and watch
Meanwhile my stomach's all in knots
From daydreaming in my bed
My tongue is tied, I've tried hard not to flinch
No words in the English language can express
And I don't speak French
Salad days are in the past
Now my ship is sinking at the mast
Need commitment that'll last
But it's so hard to find the words
As for you I don't know much
Except imagining your touch
But this dreaming is my crutch
I live in another world
My thoughts made it to the game and then got benched
I smashed my teeth in with a monkey wrench
I don't speak French
I can sing it all in lines
Even make the meaning rhyme
Still I wish I had a dime
For every time I stood silently
Got no fear of the unknown
But put us in a room alone
I'll be cross-eyed, I'll be stoned
But I swear that's not me
I sailed the English channel and got drenched
I smashed my teeth in with a monkey wrench
And I don't speak French |
7 |
elijah fed by ravens |
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Don't wanna laugh no more, I'm searching for something real
Don't wanna laugh no more, I'm searching for something real
When I stand naked in the mirror, wanna have something to reveal
Right now I got a thousand faces, and every one of them is alone
Right now I got a thousand faces, and every one of them is alone
Whenever one of them look back, they turn right into stone
I live with love inside my heart, but that don't make me soft or weak
I live with love inside my heart, but that don't make me soft or weak
‘Cause love is violence wrapped in beauty, even when it turns the other cheek
My flesh is always frail, and always ready for a shock
My flesh is always frail, and always ready for a shock
But my sight will never fail, I got it nailed to a rock
I was trapped and hidden, 3 days and nights I feared the worst
I was trapped and hidden, 3 days and nights I feared the worst
But like Elijah fed by ravens, you came and satisfied my thirst
Had a woman I call lover, she wore compassion like a mask
Had a woman I call lover, she wore compassion like a mask
She said if you want the void cemented, all you got to do is ask |
8 |
dirty limericks |
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My Play opened in the dark of a new decade rising
I turned into a chameleon at dawn
She was waiting with a gift, but the seal it was broken
And her bloody claws they told me something's wrong
But I'm fooled by shiny toys, and I'll break them 'til I'm screaming
I laid down to be her bridge across the pond
But she lied just like they all do
There was no one I could call to
My mama said ,"Boy, will you ever learn?"
I found some piece of mind in the solid rock of boredom
And I almost gave my hand away for good
But I woke up with a bang! converted back to lightning
Traded all my steel back to wood
I wasn't meant to be no wise man I carry guilt around not gold
I'd shred those phantom letters if I could
But it's OK 'cause she's gone now
Don't see her ever calling
She knows I'm past the point of no return
You swam all the five great lakes, ran the great wall of China
Threw out all you Cracker Jacks to get the prize
And you ruined you beauty, but somehow I still love you
You’ve got dirty curls and baby bloodshot eyes
But for all your talk of zen, you can't hide your shady habits
You're prayers are dirty limericks in disguise
But you're here and that's what matters
When the rest of them have splattered
I'll stay until the judge says courts adjourned |
9 |
a negative prayer |
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We fell out of a whiskey dream to the bloody sidewalk street
Advanced disease, we're on our knees and trying to be discreet
A party's on, the booze is gone, there's something in the air
It's thicker than blood, stains like mud, it's the power of negative prayer
What miracles responsible for romantic destiny?
The cupid's ace in leather & lace by the garden of Eden's tree
The fur is fake, the wedding cake sits by the marching band
They play on your fears while drying your tears, ain’t celebration grand?
It's the power of negative prayer
It's the hour of negative prayer
Come back to me insanity, let sleeping fables lie
I'd like to get a letter to mother goose before I die
The world is crumbling underneath a giant's angry shoe
Put all your eggs in one basket case and you'd be edgy too
A banjo's strumming, slumming lovers songs for nickel tips
A promise fell like a dead man from his cemetery lips
The crowd stirs as the singer slurs his words and nearly swears
I'm in the last row squeezing coal with a shovel of negative prayers |
10 |
killing you |
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Your bag of tricks is heavy, it's filled with bricks and stones
You fell asleep in traffic sucking on a soupbone
But I know your sad voice breaks, when the sky gets blue
Too much happiness is killing you
A cinematic scene, a light bulbs flicker death
The steam of Irish whiskey trying to bate our breath
Who's idea was this anyway? the slaughterhouse said boo
I live for this disease that's killing you
And you hurt my eyes wide open
Now I’ll never sleep again
I had the balls to be your lonesome scapegoat guy
I had to sleep face down, you would have milked me dry
I know the words to sing. and all the scary tunes
Every strum of my guitar is killing you
You wanna fly and sting just like a bumblebee
But when you hit the grill it will be killing me |
11 |
razorburn |
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How could I resist the glory train that went on by?
I was in a picture frame doing my damndest not to cry
Then I dreamed Ezekiel, by a gleaming glow of bronze
His face was reaffirmed by razorburn
You can relocate the grave, but it's still just a place where dead bones lie
Or waste away your prime, shoving a camel through a needle's eye
But I'll still be in the game, struggling A to Z
It started as a germ, razorburn
Samantha's seventeen, a student of philosophy
Seems like a million years ago since I believed in immortality
Still a kiss can make it worth all the toil in the dirt
I'm crawling like a worm, through razorburn
Speaking of the way, the spirit fights the hand
I tore my flesh away in a life sized frying pan
Because Leonard Cohen said, "everbody knows"
But I'm still trying to learn about Razorburn
Savannah's like a doll, made of porcelain and wax
Either that or I'm a monster or a pyromaniac
But I know that there's two sides to every bloody war
I finally get my turn with razorburn |
12 |
bleeding on the inside |
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Felt her kiss to the roots of my teeth
She left her felt so I wrote underneath
Of the tissue with tears barely dried
I'm only bleeding on the inside
And these chemicals rack my brain
I'm a patient not a name
Send you pictures from life's other side
I'm only bleeding from the inside
My handlers say that I'm a little intense
Got political ideas on every side of the fence
Glue pennies to the floor at the morgue
It just doesn't make sense
A disease they can't quite place
Hold the eight ball and the ace
Swing against the rising tide
I'm only bleeding on the inside
Through the zig-zag, jet-lag times
And the bitter street-wise rhymes
Way too cute for suicide
I'm only bleeding on the inside |
13 |
secrets that i know |
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I got bored with life and lost my appetite
So I went to Paris to be a parasite
Hung out with Morrison and a talkative Marceau
They told me all the secrets that I know
I was a salmon swimming back against the stream
Can't decide what's worse, needles or caffeine
Einstein's working overtime to break my genetic code
I won't tell him all the secrets that I know
I'm in a sugar shack in the outback of Madrid
Serving time for a crime I never did
The judge sentenced me to life on death row
I wouldn't tell him all the secrets that I know |
14 |
raze the living dead |
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A pretty girl in tears,
A handstand by a clown
My channel surfing mama's got
The biggest wave in town
But I can't really trust her
Think I'll hit the road instead
Tell the boys on Beale street
We gonna raze the living dead
I asked questions of her body
She answered with her soul
Incomplete before the sun went down
By the morning I was whole
Then night came knocking down the door
And put a pistol to my head
There's other slot machines in Vegas
Where we can raze the living dead
The drugs were working overtime,
Hills were wearing shades
We passed a nuclear family
In the American parade
It was like a Norman Rockwell nightmare
Just like my buddy J-Man said
Reload your wrecking ball
We’re gonna raze the living dead |
15 |
what could we do? |
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I'm making this up on the bus in the rain
The morning you told me goodbye
Last I saw you sleeping while I would be weeping
But still to upset to cry
It was all so supreme but I know what you mean
When you said that we shouldn't have rushed through
The clock can't be wound to before we were found
What could we do?
How did it all start? not a fool with my heart
Usually wait to fall in
But it all felt so right on that innocent night
Didn't seem like it was such a sin
You grabbed hold of my hand when I stumbled and ran
Together we walked along through
But when all of your dreams come apart at the seams
What do you do?
Why did the mood turn so blue?
You didn't even give me a clue
Now I'm stuck to depression like glue, it's true
Now the bus is at home, I'm getting out in the rain
To walk the few steps to my door
But I know that real soon my heart's gonna swoon
And my ego will be nice and sore
You could tell me I'm dumb
Right now I'm too numb
Didn't think the consequence through
Guess I wouldn't trade it though my mind's trying to fade it
What could we do? |
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