Bright Eyes Album

So there is this woman and she was on an airplane, and she's flying to meet her
fiancé, sailing high above the largest ocean on planet earth, and she was seated
next to this man, who, you know, she had tried to start conversations, and only,
really the only thing she did heard him say was to order his Bloody Mary. And
she's sitting there, and she's reading this really arduous magazine article
about this third world country, that she couldn't even pronounce the name of,
and she's feeling very bored and very despondent, and then uh, suddenly, there's
this huge mechanical failure and one of the engines gave up, and they started
just falling in thirty thousand feet, and the pilot's on the microphone and he's
saying, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, oh my God, I'm sorry," apologizing and, and she
looks at the man and she says, she says "where are we going?" and he looks at
her, and he says, "we're going to a party, it's a birthday party. It's your
birthday party, happy birthday darling. We love you very, very, very, very,
very, very, VERY much." And then he starts humming this little tune and it kinda
goes like this:
1-2, 1-2-3-4

We must talk in every telephone, get eaten off the web
We must rip out all the epilogues from the books that we have read
And to the face of every criminal strapped firmly in a chair
We must stare, we must stare, we must stare

We must take all of the medicines too expensive now to sell
Set fire to the preacher who is promising us hell
And in the ear of every anarchist, that sleeps but doesn't dream
We must sing, we must sing, we must sing

And it'll go like this:
While my mother waters plants, my father loads his gun
He says, "Death will give us back to God, just like the setting sun
is returned to the lonesome ocean"

And then they splashed into the deep blue sea
It was a wonderful splash

We must blend into the choir, sing a static with the whole
We must memorize nine numbers and deny we have a soul
And to this endless race for property and privilege to be won
We must run, we must run, we must run

We must hang up in the belfry, where the bats in moonlight laugh
We must stare into a crystal ball, and only see the past
And in the caverns of tomorrow with just our flashlights and our love
We must plunge, we must plunge, we must plunge

And then we'll get down there,
Way down to the very bottom of everything
And then we'll see it
Oh we'll see it, we'll see it, we'll see it

Oh my morning's coming back, the whole world's waking up
Oh the city bus is swimming past, I'm happy just because

If you hate the taste of wine
Why do you drink it till you're blind?
And if you swear that there's no truth and who cares
How come you say it like you're right?
Why are you scared to dream of God
When it's salvation that you want?
You see stars that clear have been dead for years
But the idea just lives on...

In our wheels that roll around
As we move over the ground
And all day it seems we've been in between
The past and future town

We are nowhere and it's now
We are nowhere and it's now

And for a ten minute dream in the passenger's seat
While the world was flying by
You haven't been gone very long
But it feels like a life time

I've been sleeping so strange at night
Side effects they don't advertise
I've been sleeping so strange
With a head full of pesticide

I've got no plans in too much time
I feel too restless to unwind
I'm always lost in thought as I walk a block
To my favorite neon sign

Where the waitress looks concerned
But she never says a word
Just turns the juke box on and we hum along
And I smile back at her

And my friend comes after work
When the features start to blur
She says these bars are filled with things that kill
By now you probably should have learned

Did you forget that yellow bird?
How could you forget your yellow bird?
She took a small silver wreath and pinned it onto me
She said this one will bring you love
And I don't know if it's true

Grey like new day leaks through the window
And some old song comes on the alarm clock radio
You walk the forty blocks to the middle
Of the place we heard where everything would be
And there was barracades to keep us off the street
But the crowd kept pushing forward
Until they swallowed the police
Yeah, they went wild, they went wild
They went wild, they went wild

We left before the dust had time to settle
And all the broken glass swept off the avenue
All the way home I held your camera like a bible
Just wishing so bad that it held some kind of truth

And I stood nervous next to you in the dark room
You dropped the paper in the water
And it all begins to bloom

Yeah, they go wild, they go wild
Yeah, they go wild, they go wild

Just when I get so lonesome I can't speak
I see some flowers on a hill side
Like a wall of new TVs

Yeah, they go wild, they go wild

I know that it is freezing, but I think we have to walk
I keep waving at the taxi's, they keep turning their lights off
But Julie knows a party at some actors West side loft
Supplies are endless in the evening, by the morning they'll be gone
When everything is lonely I can be my own best friend
I'll get a coffee and the paper, have my own conversations
I see the sidewalk and the pigeons and my window reflection
The mask I polish in the evening, by the morning looks like shit

And I know you have a heavy heart, I can feel it when we kiss
So many men stronger then me have thrown their backs out, trying to lift it
But me I'm not a gamble, you can count on me to split
The love I sow you in the evening, by the morning won't exist

You're looking skinny like a model with your eyes all painted black
Just keep going to the bathroom, always say you'll be right back
Well, it takes one to know and kid, I think you've got it bad
But what's so easy in the evening, by the morning's such a drag

I got a flask inside my pocket, we can share it on the train
And if you promise to stay conscious I will try and do the same
We may die from medication, but we sure killed all the pain
But what was normal in the evening, by the morning seems insane

And I'm not sure what the trouble was, that started all of this
The reasons all have run away, but the feeling never did
It's not something I would recommend, but it is one way to live
Cause what is simple in the moonlight, by the morning never is

And what's so simple in the moonlight, now it's so complicated
And what's so simple in the moonlight, so simple in the moonlight

You were born inside of a raindrop
I watched you falling to your death
And the sun, well, it could not save you
From falling down to the streets all wet
Body of water, toxic and timeless
Atlantic Ocean, New York skyline
I always get lost when I leave the village
So I couldn't come meet you in Brooklyn last night

But I sing glory from my lowest
And I will say peace to the people I meet
While the world waits for an explosion
That instant of light that wipes the slate clean

So don't be fooled, so don't be lied to
Love was always cruel
And don't act strange, don't be a stranger
It happened to me, now it's happening to you
But if you take that train underwater
Then we could talk it through

Well, if I could tame all of my desires
Wait out the weather that howls in my brain
Because it seems that it's always changing
The winds indecision, the sorrowful rain

I was a postcard, I was a record
I was a camera until I went blind
Now I'm riding all over this island
Looking for something to open my eyes

We will sing glory from a high rise
And I will say thanks if you're pouring my drinks
While the world waits for an explosion
That moment in time when we are set free

So don't stay mad, just let some time pass
And in the morning you awake feeling new
And if I don't come back
I mean, if I get sidetracked
It's only cause I wanted to

This is the first day of my life
Swear I was born right in the doorway
I went out in the rain, suddenly everything changed
They're spreading blankets on the beach
Yours is the first face that I saw
I think I was blind before I met you
Don't know where I am, don't know where I've been
But I know where I want to go

So I thought I'd let you know
That these things take forever, I especially am slow
But I realized how I need you
And I wondered if I could come home

I remember the time you drove all night
Just to meet me in the morning
And I thought it was strange, you said everything changed
You felt as if you'd just woke up

And you said, "This is the first day of my life
I'm glad I didn't die before I met you
Now I don't care, I could go anywhere with you
And I'd probably be happy"

So if you want to be with me
With these things there's no telling
We'll just have to wait and see
But I'd rather be working for a paycheck
Than waiting to win the lottery

Besides, maybe this time it's different

Well I'm changing all my strings, I'm gonna write another travellin' song
About all the billion highways and the cities at the break of dawn
Well I guess the best that I can do now is pretend that I've done nothing wrong
And dream about a train that's gonna take me back where I belong
Well now the ocean speaks and spits and I can hear it from the interstate
And I'm screaming at my brother on a cell phone and he's far away
And I'm saying nothing in the past or future ever will feel like today
Until I park it in an alley, just hoping that our shit is safe

So I go back and forth forever
All my thoughts they come in pairs
Well I will, I won't, I doubt them
I'm not surprised, but I never feel quite prepared

Now I'm hunched over a type writer, I guess you call that painting in a cave
And there's a word I can't remember, and a feeling I cannot escape
And now my ashtray's overflowing, I'm still staring at a clean white page
Oh and morning's at my window, and she is sending me to bed again

Well I dream the dark on the horizon, I dream the desert where the dead lay down
I dream the prostituted child touching an old man in a fast food crowd
Oh yeah, I dreamt a ship was sinking, there was people screaming all around
And I woke to my alarm clock, it was a pop song and it was playing loud

So I will find my fears and face them
Or I will cower like a dog
I will kick and scream or kneel and bleed

(a.k.a. One Foot In Front Of The Other)

If you walk away, I'll walk away
First tell me which road you will take
I don't want to risk our paths crossing someday
So you walk that way, I'll walk this way
The future hangs over our heads
And it moves with each current event
Until it falls all around us like a cold steady rain
Just stay in when it's looking this way

The moon's laying low in the sky
Forcing everything metal to shine
And the sidewalk holds diamonds like a jewelry store case
They argue "Walk this way and I'll walk this way"

And Laura's asleep in my bed
As I'm leaving, she wakes up and says
"I dreamed you were carried away on the crest of a wave
Baby, don't go away, come here"

And there's kids playing guns in the street
And one's pointing his tree branch at me
So I put my hands up, I say "Enough is enough
If you walk away, I'll walk away"

(And then he shot me dead)
I found a liquid cure
For my landlocked blues
It will pass away like a slow parade
It's leaving but I don't know how soon

And the world's got me dizzy again
You'd think after 22 years I'd be used to the spin
And it only feels worse when I stay in one place
So I'm always pacing around or walking away

I'm drinking the ink from my pen
And I'm balancing history books up on my head
And it all boils down to one quotable phrase
"If you love something, give it away"

A good woman would pick you apart
A box full of suggestions for a possible heart
And you may be offended and you may be afraid
But don't walk away, don't walk away

We made love on the living room floor
With the noise in the background from a televised war
And in that deafening pleasure I thought I heard someone say
"If we walk away, they'll walk away"

But greed is a bottomless pit
And our freedom's a joke, we're just taking a piss
And the whole world must watch the sad comic display
If you're still free, start running away

I've grown tired of holding this pose
I feel more like a stranger each time I come home
So I'm making a deal with the devils of fame
Saying "Let me walk away, please"

You'll be free, child, once you have died
From the shackles of language in measurable time
And then we can trade places, play musical graves
Tell them "Walk away, walk away, walk away"

So I'm up at dawn
Putting on my shoes
I just want to make a clean escape
I'm leaving but I don't know where to
I'm leaving but I don't know where to

Poison oak, some boyhood bravery
When the telephone was a tin can on a string
And I fell asleep with you still talking to me
You said you weren't afraid to die
In polaroids you were dressed in women's clothes
Were you made ashamed, why'd you lock them in a drawer?
Well, I don't think that I ever loved you more

Than when you turned away, when you slammed the door
When you stole the car, drove towards Mexico
And you wrote bad checks just to fill your arm
I was young enough, I still believed in war

Well let the poets cry themselves to sleep
And all their tearful words will turn back into steam

But me, I'm a single cell on the serpent's tongue
There's a mudfield where a garden was
And I'm glad you got away but I'm still stuck out here
My clothes are soaking wet from your brother's tears

And I never thought this life was possible
You're the yellow bird that I've been waiting for

The end of paralysis, I was a statuette
Now I'm drunk as hell on the piano bench
And when I press the keys it all gets reversed

The sun came up with no conclusions
Flowers sleeping in their beds
The city's cemetery's humming
I'm wide awake, it's morning
And I have my drugs, I have my woman
They keep away my loneliness
My parents, they have their religion
But sleep in separate houses

I read the body count out of the paper
And now it's written all over my face
And no one ever plans to sleep out in the gutter
But sometimes that's just the most comfortable place

So I'm singing, drinking, breathing, writing
Everyday I'm on the clock
My mind races with all my longings
But can't keep up with what I got

So I hope I don't sound too ungrateful
What history gave modern men
A telephone to talk to strangers
Machine guns and a camera lens

So when you're asked to fight a war that's over nothing
You know it's best to join the side that's gonna win
And no one's sure how all of this got started
But we're gonna make 'em God damn certain how it's gonna end

Well I could have been a famous singer
If I had someone else's voice
But failures always sounded better
Let's fuck it up, boys, make some noise

The sun came up with no conclusions
Flowers sleeping in their beds
The city's cemetery's humming