Lucinda Williams Album

Baby, see how I been living
Velvet curtains on the windows to
Keep the bright and unforgiving
Light from shining through

Baby, I remember all the things we did
When we slept together
In the blue behind your eyelids
Baby, sweet baby

Traced your scent through the gloom
'Til I found these purple flowers
I was spent, I was soon smelling you for hours

Lavender, lotus blossoms too
Water the dirt, flowers last for you
Baby, sweet baby

Tangerines and persimmons
And sugarcane
Grapes and honeydew melon
Enough fit for a queen

Lemon trees don't make a sound
'Til branches bend and fruit falls to the ground
Baby, sweet baby

Come to my wolrd and witness
The way things have changed
'Cause I finally did it, baby
I got out of La Grange

Got in my Mercury and drove out west
Pedal to the metal and my luck to the test
Baby, sweet baby

I been tryin' to enjoy all the fruits of my labor
I been cryin' for you boy but truth is my savior

Baby, sweet baby if it's all the same
Take the glory and day over the fame
Baby, sweet baby

You don't have to prove
Your manhood to me constantly
I know you're the man can't you see
I love you Righteously

Why you wanna dis me
After the way you been kissin' me
After those pretty things you say
And the love we made today

When you run your hand
All up and run it back down my leg
Get excited and bite my neck
Get me all worked up like that

Think this through
I laid it down for you everytime
Respect me I give you what's mine
You're entirely way too fine

Arms around my waist
You get a taste of how good this can be
Be the man you ought to tenderly
Stand up for me

Flirt with me don't keep hurtin' me
Don't cause me pain
Be my lover don't play no game
Just play me John Coltraine

I think I'm gonna make myself a little something to eat,
Get a can down off the shelf, maybe a little something sweet.
Haven't spoke to no one, haven't been in the mood,
Pour some soup, get a spoon, stir it up real good.
Go out with a friend, they know the music might help,
But I can't pretend - I wish I was somewhere else.

I wanna watch the ocean bend,
The edges of the sun,then
I wanna get swallowed up
In an ocean of love.

Put on my coat, go out into the street,
Get a lump in my throat, and look down at my feet.
Take the long way home, so I can ride around,
Put Neil Young on and turn up the sound.
Drive up the coastline, maybe to Ventura,
Watch the waves make signs out on the water.

I wanna watch the ocean bend,
The edges of the sun,then
I wanna get swallowed up
In an ocean of love.

Stand in the shower, clean this dirty mess,
Give me back my power, and drown this unholyness.
Lean over the toilet bowl, and throw up my confession,
Clense my soul, of this hidden obsession.

I wanna watch the ocean bend,
The edges of the sun,then
I wanna get swallowed up
In an ocean of love.

I wanna watch the ocean bend,
The edges of the sun,then
I wanna get swallowed up
In an ocean of love.

You've got a sense of humor
You're a mystery
I heard a rumor
You're making history

Photographic dialogues
Beneath your skin
Pornographic episodes
Screaming sin

'Til its real live bleeding fingers
broken guitar strings

You are my Prince Charming
Draped in velvet robes
of all that's alarming
Raw and exposed

Shattered nerves
Itchy skin
Dirty words
and heroin

Better real live bleeding fingers
Broken guitar strings

(break)

I climbed all the way inside
Your tragedy
I got behind
The majesty

Of the different shaps
In every note
the endless tapes
of every word you wrote

With real live bleeding fingers
broken guitar strings (x2)

Overtime
That's what they all tell me
That's what they say to me
Overtime
Your blue eyes, your black eyelashes
The way you looked at life
In your funny way
I guess out of the blue
You won't cross my mind
And I'll get over you
Overtime

Your pale skin, your sexy crooked teeth
The trouble you'd get in
In your clumsy way
I guess one afternoon
You won't cross my mind
And I'll get over you
Overtime

I guess out of the blue
You won't cross my mind
And I'll get over you

You say there's always gonna be this thing
Between us days are filled with dreams
Scorpions crawl across my screen
Make their home beneath my skin
Underneath my dress stick their tongues
Bite through the flesh down to the bone
And I have been so fuckin' alone
Since those three days

Did you only want me for those three days?
Did you only need me for those three days?
Did you love me forever
just for those three days?

You built a nest inside my soul
You rest your head on leaves of gold
You managed to crawl inside my brain
You found a hole and in you came
You sleep like a baby breathing
Comfortably between truth and pain
But the truth is nothing's been the same
Since those three days

Did you only want me for those three days?
Did you only need me for those three days?
Did you love me forever
just for those three days?

You say there's always gonna be this thing
Between us days are filled with dreams
Scorpions crawl across my screen
Make their home beneath my skin
Underneath my dress stick their tongues
Bite through the flesh down to the bone
And I have been so fuckin' alone
You built a nest inside my soul
You rest your head on leaves of gold
You managed to crawl inside my brain
You found a hole and in you came
You sleep like a baby breathing
Comfortably between truth and pain
But the truth is nothing's been the same
Since those three days

Did you only want me for those three days?
Did you only need me for those three days?
Did you love me forever
just for those three days, baby?

Did you only want me for those three days?
Did you only need me for those three days?
Did you love me forever
just for those three days?

For those three days

For those three days

Come on, Come on, Come on
Kill the rats in the gutter
Sings the voice in the choir
Bring your Father and your Mother
Sing it higher and higher
Shake the clammy hand
Repeat the 23rd psalm
Make you understand
Where it was you went wrong

Voices from tapes
Shouting with twisted tongues
Emotional rape
Hell fire scorched lungs

Come on, Come on, Come on
Pay close attention to this
Let me give you something good to eat
Bite down hard 'til it sticks between your teeth
Glory, glory we've killed the beast
Blinded by glittery diamonds
Resting on crooked fingers
Shaded eyes they are the ones
Who'll lead you to your deliverance

From the figure of doom
Force you to understand
Lock you in a room

You run yourself ragged tryin' to be strong
You feel bad when you done nothin' wrong

Love got all confused with anger and pride
So much abuse on such a little child

Someone you trusted told you to shut up
Now there's a pain in your gut that you can't get rid of

No one heard your screams when you were nine
When bad dreams filled your summertime

So you don't always show your sweet side ...

You're tough as steel and you keep your chin up
You don't ever feel like you're good enough

You've had the blues ever since you were six
Your little tennis shoes and your pick-up sticks

You were screamed at and kicked over and over
Now you always feel sick and you can't keep a lover

Every Christmas there were presents to unwrap
But the things you witnessed when you were five and a half

So you don't always show your sweet side ...

Someone deserted you, the damage is done
Now you don't deserve to be loved by no one

Hands that would feed you when you were two
Were the same hands that beat you black and blue

You get defensive at every turn
You're overly sensitive and overly concerned

Few precious memories no lullabies
Hollowed out centuries of lies

So you don't always show your sweet side ...

I've seen you in the kitchen cookin' me supper
I listened to you bitchin' I watched you suffer

I still love you baby 'cause I know you
Don't mean to do the cruel things you do

I've seen you sewin' buttons on your shirt
I've seen you throwin' up when your stomach hurt

I'll stick by you baby through thick and thin
No matter what kind of shape you're in

'Cause I've seen your sweet side ...

I've been waiting for you to come back
Since you left Minneapolis
Snow covers the streetlamps and the windowsills
The buildings and the brittle crooked trees
Dead leaves of December
Thin skinned and splintered
Never gotten used to this bitter winter

I've been wasted, angry and sad
Since you left Minneapolis
I wish my thoughts were pure like the driven snow
Like the heavens and the spring's virgin buds
But they strangle me with their sin
Fill me up with poison
Black clouds have covered up the sun again

I can always trace it back
To that night in Minneapolis
Here on the seventh floor in a room I can't call mine
Deadbolt on the door, do not disturb sign
Shaking and trembling
On the clean white linen
Slivers of starlight across the ceiling

A dozen yellow roses
All that's left in Minneapolis
I wish I'd never seen your face or heard your voice
You're a bad pain in my gut
I wanna spit you out
Open up this wound again
Let my blood flow red and thin
Into the glistening
Into the whiteness

People...trying to tear us apart
Trying to rip out my heart
People talkin'
People talkin'

Livin' is full of misery and pain
Somebody called you a dirty name
Keep on walkin'
Keep on walkin'

I love you more than this cruel world will ever know
I wanna be your girl forever
I don't wanna let you go
If I could change things
I would die and return
Another name and
Knowin' everything I've learned
People talkin'
People talkin'

All of my life
I have tried to get along
All I ever hear now
Is gossip and waggin' tongues

I have suffered and I've cried myself to sleep
I have wandered down these highways and dirty streets
Keep on walkin'
Keep on walkin'

People tryin' to tear us apart
Tryin' to rip out my heart
People talkin'
People talkin

Livin' is full of misery and pain
Somebody called you a dirty name
Keep on walkin'
Keep on walkin'

People talkin
People talkin'
Keep on walkin'
Keep on walkin'

People talkin'
People talkin'
Keep on walkin'
Keep on walkin'
People talkin'

Last time I saw you, you had dirt under your nails
Your eyes were glassy and you looked so pale
You said my life has become a livin' hell
Ain't got enough money to pay my bills

Everything is wrong
Everything is wrong

Got a friend with a needle stuck in his arm
He got hooked on heroin in Vietnam
It used to help kill the pain some of the time
Now I can't sleep at all since I got back home

I worked in the strip mines off and on
Now I can't seem to get rid of this cough
Ain't been many jobs these last few months
And the last one I had I got laid off

I ain't got no hot water and they shut off the heat
Can you loan me some money for something to eat
Been out here on this corner for about a week
Tryin hard to stand on my own two feet

They want to try and tell me where I can live
They kicked me off my land and told me they'd give me
A nice little tract house with running water
But how am I gonna explain that to my Navaho mother

My American dream almost came true
But the things they promised me never came through
I believe in the American dream
But things are never quite what they seem

Everything is wrong
Everything is wrong
Everything is wrong

If we lived in a world without tears
How would bruises find
The face to lie upon
How would scars find skin
To etch themselves into
How would broken find the bones

If we lived in a world without tears
How would heartbeats
Know when to stop
How would blood know
Which body to flow outside of
How would bullets find the guns

If we lived in a world without tears
How would misery know
Which back door to walk through
How would trouble know
Which mind to live inside of
How would sorrow find a home

If we lived in a world without tears
How would bruises find
The face to lie upon
How would scars find skin
To etch themselves into
How would broken find the bones

If we lived in a world without tears
How would bruises find
The face to lie upon
How would scars find skin
To etch themselves into
How would broken find the bones

How would broken find the bones

Words Fell
Like roses at our feet
When you let me see you cry
Your silent lips against my cheek
Words Fell
On a night as black as coal
Your kisses traveled deep
Your eyes pierced my soul
Words Fell

Words Fell
In another place and time
We lived within the woods
Ate berries from the vine
Words Fell
When we lay among the stones
And watched the Druids dance
And walked along the rocky shores
Words Fell

Words Fell
In another place and time
I knew your mournful blue
Knew your golden grace
Words Fell
When we let the ocean hold us
And sank beneath the waves
In the silences of the roses
Words Fell
Words Fell