1. CHASING IT DOWN

Turn around, your life it will change
Without your consent, without your okay.
It happened again- I woke up today and everything changed.
All my friends and all my family suddenly don’t understand me – understand,
I’m not the man they think I am.

Try chasing it down, try chasing it down, try chasing it down
It don’t wanna be found, it don’t wanna be found, it don’t wanna be found

Favourite table, favourite waitress, favourite place -
It’s up in flames, it’s up for sale, it doesn’t matter anyhow.
Like anything that tasted sweet, it only tastes that way about a week –
Before, at best, gone bitter sweet.

Abigail, oh, baby gal, you had a name that said itself.
But funny how the name can change about the time you find
You’re sick of saying it – saying it, saying it, saying it – shoorah!

Had a thing so lovely, took every last part of me.
But funny once you’re into it, the all encompassing thing’s
Just a part of it – part of it, part of it, part of it – shoorah!

Try to get back there, try to get back there, try to get back there…
It’s a one shot deal, one shot deal, it’s a one shot deal…

Turn around, your life it will change
Without your consent, without your okay.
All my friends and all my family
Suddenly don’t understand me – understand,
I’m not the man they think I am.

Oh, where’d it go? Oh, where’d it go? Oh, where’d it go? Oh!

Try to get back there...


2. THE STAND

“Tell me your weakness”
Oh I keep it a secret
“Oh come on just one vice”
Okay it’s vodka on ice
But then there’s women on bikes
Or just the women who straddle
“Oh now you are a handful”
I forgot about handfuls.

“Tell me your fears”
Okay it’s everyone here
“You mean, just all of the people?”
Yeah, and all of their peers.
And all of their pets
And their chandeliers,
And their cigarettes -
I haven’t smoked in years.

I can hardly stand the sight of it all
I can hardly stand the sound of it all
I can hardly stand the taste of it all
I can hardly stand the smell of it all

“Talk about space”
Well it’s a beautiful place
“But it’s so damn cold”
Sure, for the human race,
But for the planets and the stars,
And everything else, and Mars
“It’s like paradise
Spread out with a butter knife.”

I can hardly stand. I can hardly stand.
Everyone’s fucked and they don’t even know.


3. BABY DON'T DANCE

She lookin’ like Stonehenge in Olde England
She don’t move, she don’t move, she don’t move -
She just stands
She doesn’t feel the sound – she feel for the ground
She like a dead fish in a cold pan –
She don’t give an inch to the band
She don’t, she don’t dance

My baby don’t dance. My baby don’t dance.
My baby don’t dance. Baby!!!

She doesn’t feel ashamed – she just feel estranged
To the sh-ha-ha-immy shake
She the straightest dame in the place -
She’s so, she’s so safe

Damn, my baby don’t dance
My baby don’t dance. My baby don’t dance.
My baby don’t dance. My baby doesn’t…

She don’t, she don’t dance…

“She lookin’ like a dead fish in a cold”
She don’t


4. ORIGINAL SPIN

It’s just the world. That’s all it is.
Toppling through outer space on a trip.
It’s just the world, big and round, now isn’t it?
Some kind of topical fish in a tropical storm.
We dig a blade in the rib cage of an ice age
And we twist until it’s warm.
You know it’s just the world (it was only Rome)
Trying to be something with an original spin.
An unoriginal sin (I’ve sinned before),
Just with a bottle of gin and the girl next door.

I think it’s spinning for mine, you think it’s spinning for yours.
It’s spinning for sure, but if it’s spinning for neither,
Than really can either of us be sure just what it’s spinning for?

Oh yeah, it’s just the world trying to be something;
Another Byzantine or Palestinian,
But with original spin, my friend.
An unoriginal sin (ph look, I’m sinning again),
Just with a bottle of gin and my baby cakes.

Oh yeah, it’s just the world – all it is.
A little place in outer space on a trip.
It’s just the world, where you’re swimming or sinking;
Making a bed, laying in it – never to stop and think,
“It might be spinning for providence.”
Really, it ain’t. No really it ain’t.
I know it’s nice to say.

I think it’s spinning for mine, you think it’s spinning for yours.
It’s spinning for sure, I think it’s spinning for fun
It must be fun to make ol’ mother earth shake!

It’s just the world...


5. BORN IN A FLASH

Photograph
Looking down at me, I’m looking at the past
Something about my family in high contrast
Something about my infancy in white and black
Something about my memories in a…

Photograph
A portrait of the past
Born in a flash

Polaroid
1954 it was a Polaroid
’55 through ’56 were all destroyed
Daddy was an anarchist
We can’t afford somebody catching wind of this here

Born in a flash, born in a flash
A little piece of the past
Born in a flash


6. SIMPLY SIMPLE

Take me lightly, I’m not the way I ought to be –
I’m just the way I got to be.
Take me slowly or else you may come by injury –
I’ll hurt you emotionally.
Rock me baby until my eyes are closed and I’m asleep –
Then it’s safe for you to leave.
Call me lazy, for I have yet to let my soul free –
It’s still very much in my reach.

I just want it to unfold –
Simply simple
I’ll do everything I’m told –
Keep it simple.

You want babies – well, here I am so why now aren’t you pleased,
With a big baby like me?
(Mamma’s little baby, you’re mamma’s little baby
Yeah, you’re mamma’s little baby, just another little baby)
I’ll throw a fit and you will trip to pick up after it –
Domesticated bliss, ain’t it? Oh, no.

Simply simple (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah).
Simply simple (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah).


7. PROBLEMS

You and me we’re not the same.
I am a sinner, you are a saint.
When we get to the pearly gates,
You’ll get the green light,
I’ll get the old door in the face.

I’m a loser, a disgrace.

I found love in the strangest place –
Tied up and branded, locked in a cage.
I say, “I’m gonna stage a great escape.”
Let loose a love
All pent up and painfully out of place.

I’m a loser, a disgrace.
You’re a beauty – a luminary in my face.
I got a lot of not a lot. I got a lot less than a lot.

I’ve got problems
Not just the ones that are little –
Big old people problems
It’s something to consider
When you come for dinner at my place.

I seem to find myself with the craziest of dames.
They get the ball on me (not to forget the chains).
Some say strange be a stranger’s game.
Some go to baseball,
Some go debase a face they can’t seem to save.


8. ASPIRING FIRES

Baby, so you think you know crazy?
I think you know what you know,
But what you know you don’t know for sure.
Baby, you wanna see me crazy?
Well, I’ll show you what that’s like,
And then I’ll wave goodbye as you run for your life.

A little advice for aspiring fires
You get put out if you don’t get a little wild
Try again, try again, it ain’t right
You don’t got the due diligence to lose your mind

You’re not getting it right

Maybe you’re watching too much TV.
Because crazy in the box
Is everything that crazy’s not.

I’m losing my mind
I’m losing my mind again
I’d advise a friend not to try it if they ain’t crazy.

You’re not getting it right.

Baby, you wanna see me crazy?
Well, I’ll show you what that’s like,
And then I’ll wave goodbye as you run for your life


9. GETAWAY

In a dream, on a wave
I could tunnel underground or I could float away...
From it all, on a holiday, bon voyage...
I wanna get away from what I know.

I could shoot into the sun.
I could be the bullets of a Gatling gun.
Disappear, another Dillinger on the run...
I wanna get away from everything and everyone.

We gotta get away from it all
We gotta get away from everything we’ve come to know
We gotta get gone – like a holiday, but for longer
Away from all the silly things that haunt us

I could explode…
Oh what I’d give to be a super nova.
Oh, if I could be blown to bits I would, yeah.

And when you run from it darling, baby,
Would you think about taking me?

We gotta get away from it all


10. FAR IN TIME

He don’t walk along with anybody,
He just walking with himself.
She don’t stop to talk to anybody,
She just talking to her own self.
You don’t right a wrong for anybody,
You just put it on your shelf.
‘Cause I don’t get along with anybody,
I just get on by myself – myself.

We are so far in time
To be all apart

I could talk a lot of hot talk
At a potluck with my peers.
But the walls at home, they got the right tone -
Quiet, tender, sincere.
A little ant hill go down the landfill,
It’s a symbol of the age.
Where the dying art is the sum of the parts,
And apart is where we stay – I say.

We are so far in time
To be all apart, to be all untied
From each other, each other
Oh yeah, we are so far in time

He be living by himself.
She’s alone up in her head.
Are they alone or are they dead?
Just by themselves?
All by themselves.

I don’t walk along with anybody.
I don’t stop to talk to anybody.
I don’t right a wrong for anybody –
Not for anybody, not for anybody,
But myself.


11. OLEANDER

You stood beside me when I was out of my mind.
I broke the glass and you were there to sweep it aside.
And if you leave me, rest assured, it would kill me.

I make a mess and you’ll be there to help me undress.
I’ll be unclean, I’ll be obscene – you be the rest.
And if you leave me, rest assured, it would kill me.

Like an oleander - Like white leaves
Of an Oleander - White, like me

I’m like a child in a sty, I play with fire,
I burn you right out, I burned your bible,
You tried to cry – could only smile.
And if you leave me, rest assured, it would kill me.
Rest assured, it you leave…


12. CALM ME DOWN

Calm me down. Calm me down.
I’m inside out and upside down.
Hold my head in your hands
To calm me down – get it out.

Get it out. Get it out.
Use your teeth and your mouth.
Cut in deep to pull it out.
Oh, no, I’m aroused, now, I’m aroused.
You better calm me down, calm me down –
Use your teeth and your mouth.

Use your body
Use it to put me asleep
Your body, oh, sooth my soul
So beautiful

All my life, oh, all my life
I hurt myself and cut myself.
Put myself through living hell
Do I could feel what I felt,
When you took me in – absolved my sins
With your flesh and skin – use your skin.

Calm me down, baby
Your teeth, your mouth and me
Happily married, baby.
Calm me right down.

Use your body
Use it to put me asleep
Your body, oh…
Use your body
Use it to put me asleep
Your body, oh, soothe my soul
So beautiful

I wanna be a good man. Don’t wanna be no has-been.
I wanna be a real friend. Don’t wanna break when I bend.
I wanna be a sweet son. Don’t wanna fight with my mom.
I wanna be no seeker. I wanna scream, “EUREKA!”