1. |
Rabbit
04:03
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Where had you gone?
You missed the goings-on
In your oblivion
You couldn’t see a damned thing
Went for a drive
Sped toward the corner dive
Came home just half-alive
But why, you can’t remember…
Where are you now?
Furrows upon your brow
No one can tell you how
You even came to be here
Woke with a start
Worlds-upon-worlds apart
Hands on the shopping cart
And children at your ankles
Contentment isn’t everything, is it?
But it’s the business we’re all in
Where have you been? Where have you been?
Where have you been so long?
What have you got?
The little scheme you bought
Isn’t the dream you thought
It was at the beginning
Give them a bit
They’ll take the whole of it
You’ll be hard-pressed to get
Any of it back, but
Contentment isn’t everything, is it?
But it’s the business we’re all in
Where have you been? Where have you been?
Where have you been so long?
So, you got a firm grip on the situation?
Forgive me if I can’t help feeling skeptical
You’re looking well, but are you comfortable?
I want to hear it from your own lips
What do you like?
Short strolls and urban hikes?
Bright-red banana bikes
Breezing down the side-streets?
Contentment isn’t everything, is it?
But it’s the business we’re all in
Where have you been? Where have you been?
Where have you been so--
Where have you been so--
Where have you been so long?
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2. |
Point Of View
04:59
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Saints for the window, saints for the gate
Saints for to move your real estate
And one to whisper in my ear
Muddy my judgement, cloudy my sight
My head can’t take it when my heart is right
But, really, how often is that true?
Guess it depends upon your point of view
Spirits descending to tug at my sleeve
Making me feel what I won’t believe
Drumming my fingers, table for two
You say you’ll meet me, you never do
But I keep coming anyway
Willing to help you, eager to please
But all of my anxieties
Have left me desperately obtuse
Far too confused to be of any use
Severed connections and fretful desires
Are not what your sensible soul requires
I hear from the bedroom the strain in your voice
The same divinations for the same old choice
I turn down the blanket, I switch off the light
My head can’t take it when my heart is right
But, really, how often is that true?
Guess it depends upon your point of view
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3. |
Modicum Of Lonesome
04:19
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Rush up the boulevard
Run down the avenue
You tell me once more
You’re just passing through
I lean on the red brick
You’re so seldom homesick
And I’m just a modicum of lonesome
We walk on the cobbles
And talk over coffee
You ask if I’ve missed you
I smile and say, “Awfully”
No hang-ups, no demands
Just my hand in your hand
And I’m just a modicum of lonesome
‘Love’ is not a word you like to use
And understandably
You speak in ones, you never speak in twos
Always I and never We
I’m starting to wonder
If this is a problem
You whisper, I shiver
The lamplight goes dim
You drift off, the clock ticks
The stereo statics
And I’m still a modicum of lonesome
I don’t want to beg for what I need
I’ll take what I can get
You don’t lie and I am not deceived
By what’s plainly counterfeit
Old satin pillows
Spent cigarillos
A million emotions
I mustn’t expose
I’m empty and achy
You fill me, but break me
And I’m still a modicum of lonesome
I lean on the red brick
You’re so seldom homesick
And I’m just a modicum of lonesome
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4. |
Henceforth
03:52
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All your erstwhile dears
All of those who thirsted for you:
It may seem presumptuous, but
They could never thirst as I do
All your worst fears
All those dismal and insidious forms
Will be swallowed in the unrelenting
Warmth of my arms
In the most comfortable love
For which there’s no cause to crawl or beg or bleed
Hands that hold you like you are all they want
And more than they’d ever need
All my grand designs
All the lines I stole from others:
However it’s ascribed
Whatever is, is all yours
All those dark nights
I spent shivering in fits of despair
Disappear: now any bed’s a refuge
Long as you’re there
In the most comfortable love
For which there’s no cause to crawl or beg or bleed
Hands that hold you like you are all they want
And more than they’d ever need
I’ve got satin and old lace
Grosgrain ribbon, new linen
Sanguine, sweet joy, made visible
Made physical, made concrete
In the most comfortable love
For which there’s no cause to crawl or beg or bleed
Hands that hold you like you are all they want
And more than they’d ever need
Hands that hold you like you are all they want
And more than they’d ever need
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5. |
One Note Tune
02:17
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Tired, tired, tired of myself
Glum and solemn, drinking from the bottom shelf
I have broken what I couldn’t hope to mend
Can’t go on pretending like I never sinned
Wealth of heartache, dearth of joy:
He was once my golden boy
And I was something to him
But now we’re out of time and out of rhythm
How, oh, how-- how could I have been so hard?
Cruel to him who treated me with such regard?
Take your lines and feed them to the next girl down
I’m already lachrymose enough to drown
Wealth of heartache, dearth of joy:
He was once my golden boy
And I was something to him
But now we’re out of time and out of rhythm
Tired, tired, tired of myself
Glum and solemn, drinking from the bottom shelf
Change, come quickly! Change, you couldn’t come too soon!
I’m worn-out from sounding like a one note tune
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6. |
Deficit
03:44
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Oracular utterances, glasses of beer
Cups of coffee to make it clear
Taking it very slowly, holding my head
Hanging on by a golden thread
Good gracious, my darling, what can I do?
Haven’t I space enough for two?
And where are my manners? I’ve taken your praise
Laid you bare with my turns-of-phrase
You know it’s not exactly
All it was cracked up to be
In fact, it’s really less than nothing:
You’re running a deficit, honey – you’re running a deficit, honey
In the tenuous rhythm, the tremulous hum
Of a strained consortium
You’re itching for movement, the critical mass
The slightest shift in the impasse
You know it’s not exactly
All it was cracked up to be
In fact, it’s really less than nothing:
You’re running a deficit, honey – you’re running a deficit, honey
Swifts in the sunlight, sixty degrees
Dulcet winds through the rustling trees
I’ve sought for perfection, the best I can get
Is to sit here hoping you won’t leave—not just yet
‘Cause the truth is awfully brutal
I’ll probably never be suitable--
Suitable for you
You know it’s not exactly
All it was cracked up to be
In fact, it’s really less than nothing:
You’re running a deficit, honey – you’re running a deficit, honey
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7. |
Evolve
02:42
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Another year distant
Another year gone:
It’s not a problem we must solve
It’s just the way, just the way we people evolve
Sentiments shift
Interests drift
Relationships dissolve:
It’s just the way, just the way we people evolve
I hold before me
Slivers of memory
Poring over every
Artifact
Nearly to brimful
With composite people
Seems you’re the only one
I’ve kept intact
Despite what you meant
Despite my good intent
How we tried to split the difference
It breaks and we change and evolve
You’ve grown beyond me
Maybe I’m beyond you, too
But think of me fondly
As somebody you once knew
Another year distant
Another year gone:
It’s not a problem we must solve
It’s just the way, just the way--
It's just the way, just the way
We evolve
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8. |
Shy Away
03:36
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Tatyana, don’t shy away: sometimes your foot slips
When you try to catch a glimpse of the outside
And peer from the precipice onto the wider world below
If there’s something I’ve missed, then, it’s best that I don’t know
Boats in the harbor, lights on the bridge
Strangers whisper in the timbre of another language
A touch on your shoulder, a chill through your veins
The fever may have broken, but the weakness remains
Tatyana, don’t shy away: sometimes your foot slips
When you try to catch a glimpse of the outside
And peer from the precipice onto the wider world below
If there’s something I’ve missed, then, it’s best that I don’t know
The hands of your children, impossibly small:
You want them desperately, but you don’t want them at all
A wave from the window, a stroll up the path
Faces, distant as the figures in a photograph
The things you had longed for, the way it had been
Before restlessness took hold and settled under your skin
Tatyana, don’t shy away: sometimes your foot slips
When you try to catch a glimpse of the outside
And peer from the precipice onto the wider world below
If there’s something I’ve missed, then, it’s best that I don’t know
Tatyana, don’t shy away…
Don’t shy away…
Don’t shy away…
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9. |
Systems
04:17
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Don’t you pretend you can turn away:
We’ve all got a dog in this fight
Even systematists who have lost their systems
Hope that it still might
Work. And sometimes I’m an awful cynic
Who won’t hear a single thing
So I know where you’re coming from
And I know where you’re going
You’ve cleaned up your language
Paid off your debts, taken your medicine
But it’s not any better--
No, it’s not any better
Tired to death of the television’s
Strain on your aching eyes:
The old ungraspable cataclysms
Clothed in a new guise
Embers of war that seem to smolder
Smolder forever
It weighs on your shoulders
But you pull yourself together
Shut all the blinds
Cover your ears, wait in the dead air
But it’s not any better--
No, it’s not any better
Onerous clouds press down
Slate-grey and brushed-steel
You lie on your back and wonder:
Are you crushed or too numb to feel?
The man on the street, the girl in your bed
The voice from the satellite
And the systematists who have lost their systems
Hope it can be made right
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