David Thomas Lyrics
EREWHON
(1996)
Obsession
If the river's dryIf the treaty's broken
If they call the law
and the law has spoken.
Don't say I never loved you
Don't say I never try
Don't say I never loved you
My oh my I guess I do.
When you testify
in the court of... who?
That you cannot love me
I got no hold on you.
You won't see a haunted man
You won't be able to look into his eyes
You won't see a haunted man
but my oh my I guess I am.
Do I look like gum to you?
How do I look like gum to you?
This will chew me up
This will spit me out.
This will step on me
Will I stick to you?
Do I look like gum?
My oh my I guess I do.
So why do I feel the pain?
If I said I missed you
What? Would I feel again?
Would I feel again?
My oh my here comes the rain
Let me stand in it!
I didn't mean it
I didn't mean that
I didn't mean that.
At the back of the world
By the base of the sea
Coming apart on me.
I try to grab it
My fingers stretch
Just can't hold it.
Too tired to fight
Who will referee?
I need a referee.
I need a referee
who will referee
I need a referee.
Writers: Thomas-Moliné
©1996 Hearpen Music
Planet Of Fools
(Tip of the hat to Kevin Coyne)Every day I think about a better world
This one's not the one it's supposed to be
Somewhere past Mars there's a planet of fools
I know.
Nobody will talk about it
Somehow there's been a slip in time and space
I'm convinced that I woke up one day
and nothing made a speck of sense anymore.
Every day I think about that better world
Somewhere past Mars is a planet of fools
I know
Why should we live here in tears?
I know they're not bad people
But I'd like to go home
If it's all the same to you dear NASA
Somewhere past Mars there's the planet of fools.
Why must we stay here?
Why must we live here in tears?
Writers: Thomas-Moliné
©1996 Hearpen Music
Nowheresville
I found my thrill in NowheresvilleThe mayor calls to ask me my will
The chief of police said no one was killed.
There's nothing here that cannot be fixed
There's no one to blame
When your eyes have played you tricks.
If you lived here you'd be home now
Nowheresville
Why don't you come home too?
Number Six goes into town
Nobody minds
Just don't hang around.
Nowhere I go gets me farther from
Someday I hope
If you lived here you'd be home now.
Somebody saw her down by the river
Crying aloud about an Indian giver
Don't you do what I have done
I stood on my pride
I played deaf and dumb.
If you lived here you'd be home now
Nowheresville.
Nowhere I go gets me farther from
Nowhere I go
Nowhere I go gets me farthest from.
Writers: Thomas-Moliné-Diagram
©1996 Hearpen Music
Fire
Last night the river went callingLike a train when it jumps the tracks
How it roared through the night
Vowed to never go back
I hear the river men cry
We never knew peace.
Are we like a house
Made of dry grass?
People pass saying
Man it won't last
See the fire and sparks
Spitting fire and smoke.
Last night the river went calling
How it pushed through the awful black
Boats of gold hanging by their fiery stacks
I heard the river men cry
Shall we never know peace?
Will we never know peace?
Last night I dreamed that I was falling
Where do we go? I say to myself
If I call your name
And you answer crying?
We never knew peace
Will we never know peace?
Writers: Cutler - Jones - Krauss - Maimone - Ravenstine - Thomas
©1989 Ubu Projex
Lantern
When the land is like a mirrorSmokestack lightning is in the middle of the sky.
When the moon is like a river
There's a shack on the levee where the watchmen hide.
When the sun is like a lantern
Smoke is in the hole where the twilight shows.
When your tears are like a woman
They must dance in the dust of the neon land.
When the land is like a mirror
When the moon is like a river
Dance like a mirror
Then tears are like a woman.
Writers: Thomas-Moliné-Diagram
©1996 Hearpen Music
Morbid Sky
In my head the morning never comesSadly we go
Never to come back again
Them days I feel like a motherless child
Marking time
Under the morbid sky.
The heart is a lonely man
Hands roll out and roll up again
Somehow I know
You and I were never meant to be
You and I are like flowers under a morbid sky
You and I are strangers on a morbid sky.
Slowly we dance
Turning
Waltzing
Waltz across to Texas
We waltz by the sea
Liar.
I heard only raindrops
Burst in the dust
Apart
Though we wait
The daylight never comes
Ever.
Writers: Thomas-Moliné
©1996 Hearpen Music
Weird Cornfields
I said that I would miss youI said that I would not forget
I said that I would miss you
I guess that I do.
One day is much like another
Some days look the same
This is my tragic ending
I got what I wanted.
There's a township road
That crosses a girder bridge
Outside of Meadville.
In the flats of French Creek
Corn is standing in harvested rows
Dry and bonelike in the moonlight.
The corn is creaking
Like the sound of floorboards
Creaking in the dark.
Like there's something trying to be said
The harvest moon is rising
Pale and harvest-like in the sky.
Like the end of the world
Tonight in paleness
Something is nagging at me.
In the haunted house of a Coupe de Ville
I was saying How How How
This is how it ends.
In this own nightmare of mine
A cornfield travels with me
In the backseat across the paleness.
It stretches to infinity
Like every damned thing I have ever done wrong
You are there.
Saying How How How
This is how it ends
In the haunted house of a Coupe de Ville.
Writers: Thomas - Moliné - Diagram
©1996 Hearpen Music
Kathleen
Somewhere nearSomewhere far
Somewhere down the street
Past the local bar
A shot and beer homey kinda place.
Go inside
Show my face
Someone I barely know
A poet with a heart of gold Kathleen call me.
I dropped out of line
Past my prime
Slave to a way of life
I'm just the world that time forgot
A skittle bowl social swirl.
Bowl of chili
Onion rings
And the check on time please Miss
Ma'am You
And a Rolling Rock.
Kathleen why don't you call my name?
Ladies and Gentlemen
Let me tell you about self-pity
It's a terrible
Terrible
Terrible thing to waste.
No one hears me tell the truth
I've lost the track of time
The blush of youth
I'm just a fella to tell a story to
Waiting at a bus stop
Banging on a desktop
I long to see you.
Kathleen call me.
They call me Old Man River
I roll
I roll therefore I am
- Wheeze -
Old Wheezer coming down the street...
Somewhere near
Somewhere far
Somewhere down the street
Past the local bar
A shot and beer homey kinda place.
I go inside
Show my face
It's someone I barely know
A poet and a heart of gold
Both looking at a glass of foam.
I'm not a poet
You know that I'm not a glass of foam
I've got a heart of gold.
Writers: Jones-Krauss-Maimone-Thomas
©1993 Ubu Projex
Highway 61 Revisited
Just can't hold it.River's dry
Treaty's broken
Call the law
Law has spoken.
Too tired to fight.
Haunted man
Here comes the rain
Look into his eyes
Feel the pain.
Nothing here.
Back of the world
Base of the sea
Coming apart
Who will referee?
Nothing here.
Here comes the rain
Feel the pain.
Look into his eyes
River's dry.
Treaty's broken
Law has spoken.
Look into his eyes.
Writers: Thomas-Moliné
©1996 Hearpen Music
