Shawn Mullins Album

On a mantle made of oakwood
There's a photograph from my childhood
It was taken in the desert early light
I look a lot like a leprechaun
With a Mexican vest and a red hippie hat on
Maracas in my left hand, stick in my right
There are canyons there are caverns
There are boarder roadside taverns
I am held captive by the big blue sky above me
She naps with the TV on
I smell the June cut grass from my pappy's lawn
I play alone in the little room upstairs
There are Lincoln logs and cookie tins
Colored blocks and wars to win
I draw and I dream and beat my drums up there
There are circus lights and maple leaves
There are daffodils and dogwood trees
I am held captive by the big blue sky above me
Now the coffee's strong
And the fruit's all wrong
And my wakeup call's for somebody else
And the TV's hoax and neurosis jokes
Always keep my laughing at myself
And I laugh a lot that's what I do
And I learn the things I never knew
And I see canyons I see caverns
I see border roadside taverns
And I am held captive by the big blue sky above me
I am held captive only by the big blue sky
I am held captive by the big blue sky above me

Lately I've felt deep inside myself
maybe something ain't right
I feel like I've been turned
and put on the back burner
And there's no rescue in sight
maybe I have changed
But you know I feel the same
still got this hunger in my bones
I feel like an all night drive
all the way to the other side
There's a place I used to call my home
Lately I've seen a different side of me
I don't know where I have gone
I'm killin' friend and foe
somebody tell me so I know
Whose side I am on
like a cat stuck in a tree
I gotta jump before i'll be free
I guess the ground will break my fall
Lately I've been lost
gotta find me an albatross
To lead me back into my port
of call hey I hey I
Got something to tell you
hey I hey I never meant to hurt you
Gotta get my stuff
and go gotta leave to free my soul
Lately I've been out of my head again
I don't know what I have found
I feel at home here I'm not alone here
Lot of messed up heads in this town
But I never drew one single word from you
You lay there hidden in the prone
I never proved to be anything but an oddity
I guess I'm better of alone
Hey I hey I got something to tell you
hey I hey I never meant to hurt you
Gotta get my stuff
and go gotta leave to free my soul

Hold on to your love,
But don't hold on too tight.
And death is just a word we use to counter life.
We blame it on the dove,
When we cannot be free.
We curse the stars above and say the rosary.
So take her by the hand,
Tell her truths and lies,
And love her while you can, before she learns to fly.
And try to understand


She has not gone wild.
Though she's your little girl, she is not a child anymore.
Her heart and mind are strong,
She wants to make a change.
No one's in the wrong, no need to rearrange.
Her love is always there,
A simple state of mind.
So join her if you care -- the truth is in her eyes.
The truth is in her eyes, in her eyes.

Another look into her might just free me now.
I feel the drowning pounding of her pain
And her dreams like eyes,
As she looks into my sin.
So knowing where and why she's looking through my window.
The cameraman wants to take her picture.
Now words spill out of hearts onto the stone,


And her image ties the knot of never knowing the whole truth from lies.
Feels like I'm just now showing pictures to the man
Whose dreams are realized.
He's older now but he's got newborn eyes.
Another look into her might just set me free.
I took her like a shot into my arm.

[No lyrics]

I can see the pictures of me and ask
"do I look so different than anyone else? "
I can hear them marching near and feel
The steady pounding of a heart.
With every step this open door --
A mission for a love lost long ago.
I welcome it's return.
Years gone by, no time to cry a prayer for me


As I watch my bridges burn.
I was like you, I never knew
How I could be a victim of our red, white, and blue.
I work the day, I earn my pay,
I want to find a way back to my baby blue.
I still can see pictures of me and ask
"do I look so different than anyone else? "

He's a walkin' contradiction when he sings his verse.
He's got a caffeine fix addiction but it could be worse.
And he is loved by many understood in time.
But it's easier to love him than to try to read his mind.
He's a mass of words expression and toil,
and his temples in the trees, the water and the soil --
he's a man of evolution, always changing like the seasons.
He finds the right solution but gets lost in his own reason,
and he's got a ways to go.
I know he's doing what he can.
Sometimes this world's a lonely place for the evolution man,
but she's always been there for him.
She's his steady ground, and he'll never ever own her,
it's the other way around.
'Cause she's the way out of here,
she's the needle in his vein,
and he knows she's the only thing that will ever stop the pain.
He stands there naked in the light giving all he's got.
Most folks don't understand that
we're no different than the rocks and stones.
To the evolution man she said,
"I got a funny feelin' that I'm headed somewhere new and
there ain't no use in stealin' your sweet sweet dream from you
'cause I know you'll find what you want if I set you free...
and I'll still be here if you find that what you want is me,
'cause it's a long and lonely road.
I know you're doing what you can
but I never thought it would be so hard to love
the evolution man.
You're an evolution man."

We opened Pandora's box
just to see if she was home
She had an apple pie a jaundiced eye
and a big red telephone
She said "boy's I know why you are here,
you wanna take me for a ride?
But before we go I think you ought to know
that I'm awful hard to hide
I'm awful hard to hide
So how will you do in this town boy's(sic)
How will you call him dead?
Will he die in his rack from a heart attack
or from a bullet through his head?"
Then she whispered as we took her out
"He need not be afraid
'Cause deep inside the system hide's the truth
That you've betrayed the truth that you've betrayed."
Nowhere for us to run
Thirty silver pieces got the job done got the job done
Poor Pandora's life
it was not as it had been portrayed
A government, an accident and now the bed is made
And we tried to put her back
but we were defeated by our greed
Tried again while shadowmen did their dirty little deed
Their dirty little deed
We opened Pandora's box just to see what we could find
And in there was a note pandora wrote
just before she lost her mind
It said "my passing will allow a peak(sic) behind the veil of secrecy
It's farther out than you can see
Just no telling where that trail will lead
No telling where that trail will lead."

If I take this opportunity to tell you what happened,
Will it destroy our unity?
Will there be nothing left to tap into?
I hate to lay this on you, but I've been holding back these tears.
This morning I awakened from a dream so real
It's in my memory and has been for fifteen years,
And I don't mind if you have to tell someone --
I had to tell someone.
That's why I'm telling you.
Times were different then, and I was very young,
But I'm older now.
I'm angry now.
I don't know what to do.
I never thought I'd hate him,
But I've got to tell you brother,
My childhood has been taken.
I know now I was the other lover,
And I fought him the best way I could.


I got the hell out of there but it still cuts me like cold steel,
And I split like wood.
Sometimes I wonder if he knows or cares.
And it's alright if you have to tell someone --
I had to tell someone.
That's why I'm telling you.
Times were different then, and I was very young,
But I'm older now.
I'm angry now.
I don't know what to do, he thinks it all surrounds him.
That's just the way it is, don't want my kids around him.
But I can tell you this -- I don't expect you to feel the way I feel,
But I didn't know what else to do.
They say these things take time to heal.
I can start by telling you,
I can start by telling you,
I can start by telling you.

I see her up there,
She is dancing on the wind with her lover,
And maybe one or the other sees me smiling
In the sun's summer light at their perfect flight.
She sees me watching her
As she climbs and circles round,
Now she's falling and I hear him calling her
As their wings cut through the blue and the white.
I watch their perfect flight,


Sometimes I see you, you're walkin' all alone in the furs.
I want to free you but you're no longer mine.
Maybe you never were,
Although sometimes peace can find me
When I'm all alone and lying in a meadow
And bathing in the shadows
And as the sun drips down
And day turns to night
I watch their perfect flight.

I guess she'd rather be alone
it makes things easier
No more late night telephone calls
I wonder if this pleases her
and all things in my head
I wonder if there's something
I could have said to make you stay
'Cause everything I do revolves around you
And I cannot lie
I'll tell you how but I can't tell why
And everything I feel
I don't know if it's real
It comes and goes but each time
it blows a part of me away
Two lanes of highway stretched in front of me
as far as I can see
The grass here's greener
than most grass I've seen
The sky's a big gray hazy canopy up over me
nothing much here to do
Just keep my hands on the wheel
my mind's on you
Everything I see bring's thoughts
of you and me and who we are
We've said so little and come so far
and everything I try
I'm preoccupied with dreams of you
Don't want you to break my heart in two again
Everything I do revolves around you
and I cannot lie
I'll tell you how but I can't tell why
And everything I feel
I don't know if it's real it comes and goes
But each time it blows a part of me away
Everything I do everything I do everything I do

It's four o'clock in the mornin',
I hate to call you when it's stormin',
But I didn't have a choice.
I know you must be sleepin',
Don't wanna wake you from your dreamin',
It's so good to hear your voice.
Did you win your game?
Do you feel the same?
I can smell the rain from here.
I love you so much.
I miss your touch.
Feels like I've been gone a year.
One hundred miles from spartanburg,
Just outside of orangeburg,
I'm in my head tonight.
The place I played was a drag, shari.
Don't know why I even gig there,
But the band was good and tight.
How's your mom and dad?


God it makes me sad to be apart from you.
Are your kids ok?
Tell 'em I said "hey."
I'll be home sunday after two.
Shari, I don't know where I'm goin',
Don't know which way the wind is blowin'.
I just hope I'm doin' right.
I feel the cold wind in my face now,
But I'm pickin' up the pace now.
I guess we both should say goodnight.
I hope you win your game.
You know I feel the same.
I'll be home soon to wipe away your tears.
I love you so much.
I miss your touch.
Feels like I've been gone a year.
Is it stormin' still?
Are there daffodils?
I can smell that rain from here.