yellow brick road

if you should ever break me
if you should ever make me change my mind
i hope you don't mistake me
for anything but a cowardly lion

(chorus):
and i just can't fight anymore
and fallin is hard like a stone
and i follow blind to your door
i hope it lies at the end of the yellow brick road

and i have walked the good mile
and my sneakers have been wearin out
and i know that there's room for two here
but will there always be room for doubt

(chorus)

and eastward there only is evil around
and westward there's just wickedness to be found
and i know you can handle my heart and my brain
but is my courage the one you can tame

(chorus)

basement song

it's cold down in the basement that i'm renting for the time streets outside are quiet, three more hours 'til the grind when alarms will sound in unison, this sleepy town will rise to start another day with neither fanfare nor surprise

and the weather will be overcast and then will turn to rain folks will secretly be happy for the excuse to complain and the rain will sound like symphonies cascading of the town's victorian roofs with angles that the drops come rolling down

and my day will start of soggy, shoes have holes through to my feet as i stumble to the corner store to get something to eat the cute girl at the register will smile as if to say, "ain't we both in this together," then she'll send me on my way

hey yea

and the mayor with the shiny shoes will be at old town hall
his brother chief of police will catch truants at the mall
and mothers with their babies, off to daycare, then to work
i'll be heading to the alleys 'cause that's where the poets lurk

and i'll be seeing things in harmony, smelling them in rhyme
you know the kind of day when you can sink within the time
and the conflict then will rise, do i choose to concentrate
on all the things i love or try to fix the things i hate

'cause we american's dig our sitcoms, music, ballgames and french fries
and our teachers, they need raises and our schools, they need supplies
and resilience of the spirit goads the will to carry on
and the moon, it chase the sun around the earth to bring the dawn

hey yea

and our pres' was re-elected though i didn't put him there
half the country hates him the other puts him in their prayers
and i'm down in the basement trying to contemplate the scene
of a senate bill that's omnibus and what that's supposed to mean

and the business folk are happy 'cause their cuts won't be repealed
they're steppin over homeless now on route to make the deal
while kids with calloused fingers serve in war and take their lumps
so the wealthy kids with suv's can pay less at the pumps

but a hundred years from now all our troubles will be gone
we'll be searching out new planets after fucking up our own
we'll pick us out a doozy, plant a sturdy flag and then
ship up a few religions, do it all over again

hey yea

if i met greg brown i'd say i stole this song from you
we can't all be original, plus my rent is due
and i don't have health insurance, my car might be reposessed
'cause playin on this guitar is the thing that i like best

and tomorrow at a bar about a half a mile from here
i'll make fifty and a burger and they'll make me buy my beer
and the guitar will sound like fireworks exploding north and south
expressing all the feelings i can't push out through my mouth

hey yea

and someday greg you'll hear this song and it will make you smile
and you will take me on the road and we will travel for a while
and we will play together, trading verses, you and me
the crowd will want an encore...we'll give'm two or three

but for now the morning time will rear it's head before too long
and you know i cannot sleep until i've finished up a song
and tomorrow when i muster up the nerve to play this through
i'll hit the final chord and give a final nod to you

hey yea

staircase remedy

how did i get lost on my way to the second floor
just put one foot up from the one that i placed before
and i forget how it feels to place my first step
'cause i'm just watching the ones i've yet to climb

(chorus):
never lazy
makes me hazy
and if you're wanting perfection
you'll end up just like me
right here
searching for my staircase remedy

it's a myth it seems, that you get what your mind sets to
'cause your desires and dreams will all change as you follow through
and if you're lucky you may glimpse the fruit of your desires
and if you're not you may only glimpse the fruit of your desires

(chorus)

diamond eyes

in the waking hours i can do ok
it's the sleep that brings me down
and i've noticed that you've got a lot to say
wisdom tossed onto the ground

(chorus):
and i will not take my rest tonight
and i will not fall for your diamond eyes
and i'll stand my ground to my demise or to my happy end either way i'll be back again

you're looking stunning with that horse you came in on
the perfect sight for my sore eyes
but i'd like to see you now without your makeup on
and your hair uncombed or dyed

(chorus)

the circus comes to town, the legends will be told
the folks will come and pay the fee
but all that glitters certainly can not be gold
and you are you and i am me

(chorus)

eddie whistles:

hey eddie
you're looking good to go
your money's where your mouth is
and your mouth is movin slow
you got the kinda walk that seems to waste away the day
and you can tell a lot about a man by what he does not say

hey eddie
you're just like apple pie
your inside's soft and sticky
but your outsides kinda dry
you're living out the life you thought you'd never have to lead
but if i know you you've go something buried up your sleeve

(chorus):
and you're walkin down the streets of the other side
finding all the secrets that they hide
whistle for me

hey eddie
you're such a pretty freak
you tried out all the bad stuff
now the good stuffs looking bleak
and if i could i'd surely like to shake your twisted hand
spread your legend through the streets and all across the land

(chorus)

waiting

in a dim reflection of a move i make
i get the feeling every moment is at stake
in a quiet hour, no one else around
i try to gather up the strength to take this demon down

(chorus):
and i keep my vision on the sky
in another day of do or die
and they tell me that with luck i may get by
well i'm waiting

gonna play it softly, gonna take it slow
'cause even when i look within i'm still the last to know
gonna feed the fire, gonna take my time
gonna measure every breadth and every fleeting sign

(chorus)

streets are dark and empty, leaves are on the ground
a little bit of vision laid in each brick of this town
half a mile to boston, autumn wind is cold
and someday i'll learn that i'm as wise as i am old

(chorus)

on the crawl:

takes another token
switches to another line
that's how the day begins

picking up a shovel
dreaming of the summer time
that's how the day begins sometimes.

(chorus):
on the crawl
yeah we're working overtime
on the crawl
to make it through to suppertime
and it feels like I'm still asleep
in this same old dream
and would you notice if the world was spinning upside down

pours another coffee
wipes the sleep out of her eye
s that's how the day begins

pressing on the snooze bar
stealing nine minutes of time
that's how the day begins sometimes

(chorus)

arms around a lover
steal a kiss before the grind
that's how the day begins

hiding 'neath the covers
cotton mouth, cotton mind
that's how the day begins

(chorus)

chain

i will not ever be alone
no i will never be alone

(chorus):
'cause i do survive
in six billion lives
yeah i live my life
on a chain

i will remember you my friend
though we will never pass again

(chorus)

in five million years
competition steers
sociology
through biology
and i will know myself
see me in everyone else
...in everyone...
i will know myself

(chorus)

yeah i will never be alone

dumb love song

she's been wandering round for days
wearing clothes you'd throw away
and her hair is knotted too
she sings tangled up in blue
and she knows every line
sings them different every time

when i see her i'm confused
'cause i want her to be my muse
but she's always movin on
just a second and she's gone
walkin through the pines
and she walks different every time

(chorus): i've been here before
around this room and through this door
it's just another dumb love song
so come along

she says "adam, can you see
all the beauty within me
though i know i look a fright
i'm thinkin clean tonight
and if you will come with me
you will see things differently"

then she takes me by the sleeve
leads me out among the trees
to a cabin in a wood
where everything smells good
like a fire burnin pine
or the flowers that she finds
picks'm different every time

(chorus)

there we'd sit by candle light
at a wooden table deep in night
and she'd read me verse and song
and philosophies long gone
and she'd let me sing sometimes
and she'd know every line

when i wake up from my dreams
i'm alone and then it seems
that she was just pretend
or she's wandered off again
and i miss her in my mind
miss her different every time

(chorus)

beautiful doom

winter breeze on a summer day
hit the road and i run away
in a tail wind of blue and grey
streamin out on cue

read your sign like a caveat
i'll take a look baby what you got
then i'll cut line like a pistol shot
ringin like it do

and don't you look away
cause i may be gone today

(chorus):
'cause i'm going forward
on a rocket flight
gonna burn out bright
and you're lookin over
to see if i can shoot that moon
to my beautiful doom

and i'm heady like a nursery rhyme
enigmatic like a five and dime
cut me open you can see it shine
delusion on the fool

but i'll parade it like the stanley cup
the pied piper for the bottom up
knock on wood for a little luck
and that will see me through

and don't you look away
'cause i may be gone today

(chorus)

could be like cashin in a ten grand check
or starin at a ten car wreck
you never know what you're gonna get
when the tragic chase the muse

it's just my simple, vapid, little rhapsody
top heavy with some melody
smoothed over in a velvet key
to scintillate and soothe

and i won't look away
'cause i may be gone today

(chorus)