Before The Robots
| 1. Burned |
| 2. Daylight |
| 3. Lifetime |
| 4. It's Only Natural |
| 5. Overcome |
| 6. Special |
| 7. American Dream |
| 8. Our Last Night |
| 9. Southern Thing |
| 10. Juicy |
| 11. Hollow |
| 12. Our Finest Year |
| 13. Breathless |
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On a Tuesday in December
When you walked out I remember
You were smiling as you turned 'round
In the hallway, lingered in the doorway
Still the words you said to me
They make me think of how we used to be
CHORUS:
Hand to my heart
I want to be the one who always learned
She says You're just like the sun
I get so burned when you are close to me
In the back room of a mansion
You are planning your deception
Always calling, never phoning
I'm a victim of another's war
Still the words you said to me
Come ringing in your silent symphony
(CHORUS)
And still it hurts so bad
I thought I'd get on over on you
And still I hope you're sad
Deserving more than anyone
I could give you one reason
You could be my winning season
All the things we could have been just fell away
(CHORUS) |
You're a long walk in a rainstorm
You're a cut that refuses to heal (yeah)
You're a dull ache that I can't shake
You're a cold that's clogging up my head
Or a broke watch keeping time still
'til you pull me in, pull me in
And I can't fight, yeah
CHORUS:
If the night is cold
And you're feeling old
And the morning cuts you like a knife
And you're wearing thin
Feel you're giving in
In the darkest hour of the night, you find daylight
You're a stalled car in the desert
You're a song I can't get off my mind
In a dire strait with no help at all in sight
You come rushing in, rushing in
With a lifeline, yeah
(CHORUS)
Pull me closer to your breast
I need you finally I confess... I'm drifting...I'm drifting
I love you but I hate you too
God only knows what I could do...I'm drifting...I'm drifting
Come on..give me one reason
Come on...find me in daylight
(CHORUS) |
Allie woke up 8AM
Graduation day.
Got into a car,
And crashed along the way.
When we arrived late to the wake,
Stole the urn while they
Looked away,
And drove to the beach
'Cause I knew you'd want it
That way.
And you were standing
On the hood of the car
Singing out loud
When the sun came up.
And I know I wasn't right,
But it felt so good.
And your mother didn't mind,
Like I thought she would.
And that REM song was playing
In my mind.
And three and a half minutes
Felt like a lifetime
It felt like a lifetime
And you move like water
I could drown in you.
And I fell so deep once,
Till you pulled me through
You would tell me
"No one is allowed to be so proud
They never reach out
When they're giving up."
And I know I wasn't right,
But it felt so good.
And your mother didn't mind,
Like I thought she would.
And that REM song was playing
In my mind.
And three and a half minutes
Felt like a lifetime
Are you sitting in the lights?
Or combing your hair again,
And talking in rhymes?
Are you sitting in the lights?
When I got home, heard the phone,
Your parents had arrived.
And your dad set his jaw
Your mom just smiled and sighed.
But they left soon
And I went to my room.
Played that disc that you'd given me,
And I shut my eyes
Swear I could hear the sea.
When we were standing
On the hood of your car
Singing out loud when the sun came up.
And I know I wasn't right,
But it felt so good.
And your mother didn't mind,
Like I thought she would.
And that REM song was playing
In my mind.
And three and a half minutes,
Three and a half minutes,
Felt like a lifetime. |
Girl
Your daddy's knocking on your door
I hear your footsteps on the floor, to me
Stumbling back to your room
Pain
It is a thing I can't explain
I only feel it when you go away
Waiting for you to return
CHORUS:
Don't fight it if it feels good (don't fight it)
You hide it but you never should (don't hide it)
Don't listen to the voices in your head
What are you and me but monkeys in a tree
It's only natural....n-n-n-n-natural
Hey
I know your mother's off at work
You say your dad is such a jerk to you
Why can't they just all fade away
Girl
Is that the way it's gonna be
I'm only happy when you're down on me
You can be my honey bee
(CHORUS)
ba-da-ba-da-ba-da-ba-da-particlepartdeuxetc-ba-da-ba-da
(you know...they never caught jack the ripper)
(CHORUS)
is it the color of your hair?
is it the silly way you stare? |
north light comes uninvited
through the window to where you lie
disjointed, dust and silence
quite at a loss
CHORUS:
i feel strange
i feel changed
i feel strange.....overcome...overcome by you
i fell in too deep
but i learned to swim
in an undertow
since i'm giving in
i feel strange
i feel changed
i feel strange...overcome...overcome
I'm a little bit wiser, I'm a little bit sadder
I'm a little bit less, you might have guessed
But if you could be staying
Tell me now, darlin', I think I'm fading
I swear I'll never trade your love for a lie
(CHORUS)
(overcome..overcome...
sometimes it helps me to give it up
in some ways you're never gonna get it
some nights i feel i'm gonna give it
sunlight...every night
overcome...overcome)
...hold still, come on and save me
...hold still, come on and let me
...hold still come on again...
...hold still, come on and let me
...hold still, come on and let me |
Are you real?
Are you real or just a dream? It's been so long I don't know.
I can feel
I can feel you with me now...even though you're far away..
CHORUS:
And some are special
Come back, racing through your mind
You are special...your light, your heat will never die
I was lost.
I was lost and I found you...I will know no further love.
People move.
They come in close and fall away...Love, you refuse to fade.
CHORUS:
Cause some are special
Come back, racing through your mind
You are special...your light, your heat will never die
So...regretful...uh-huh...How could I ever be so blind?
You are special...I thought I'd never lose my mind
I was pulling far away
You were begging me to stay
I thought I was losing you
Funny how the opposite was true
Real enough...whole enough...I'd settle for a lie.
CHORUS |
She was a midwestern prom queen
Got a boyfriend headed out west
They ended up in the valley
In a one-room apartment, a disconnected phone, yeah
Now 5 years later she's single
She's got 2 kids and a note
And if she gets a moment to herself
She can remember how everything used to go away
She says:
CHORUS:
Where did the time go?
When everything was simple and free
I want to know what happened
Somebody woke me before I could have my American dream
yeah, yeah, yeah
For 20 years he worked corporate
He planned to early retire
His CEO, he stole a billion dollars
Now he's working at Denny's hopin' for a raise
He thinks:
(CHORUS)
I'm a little bit rebel, I'm a big patriot
I can see both the sides of the coin
But it still gets a bit rough, everything is screwed up
Guess it's just the American way
Sometimes I wonder how you are
You're up in New York City with the family
I think I could have been your guy
It's just a moment in time where it's slipping all away.
(CHORUS) |
We were standing in an empty room
The moonlight was falling
You were holding my hand when the car pulled up for you
And I could have spent a life with you
But those days were over
You were calling my name when your face faded from view
And wasn't it you who told me the sun would always chase the day
And wasn't it you who told me:
CHORUS:
Angels fly in the air tonight
Saying wasn't it just like swimming out on the lake?
And stars collide and the air's alive
Or was it just like those promises that you made
On our last night?
I remember waking up with you
The days doing nothing
You meant more to me then than I think you ever knew.
But you were gonna be a doctor, movie star
A poet at a Nobel seminar
I hope the world never tore that out of you
Cause wasn't it you who told me the sun would always chase the day
Yeah wasn't it you who told me:
(CHORUS)
And what ever happened to the things you loved
And the songs we played, and the indian days
Whatever happened to the things you gave away?
Like Harold and Maude singing
Like Harold and Maude singing
I was waving as you drove away
The sunlight was falling
You were writing backwards in a dusty window pane
(CHORUS) |
Kelly was a blackjack dealer living on the Gulf of Mexico
Kelly had a taste for guns and pills; he was looking for a mark to roll
Sarah was a Kappa from Tulane; she was looking for a little change of pace
When a cop pulled 'em over on the interstate, Kelly blew that car away
(I heard him singin')
CHORUS:
Gulf breeze, on the porch, me and my honey rockin' back and forth
Ridin' up again with my kin and friends, underneath the yellow moon
Sweet dream, New Orleans, Mississippi River running over me
Pretty mama come and take me by the hand
Don't mock what you don't understand....it's a southern thang
(it's a southern thang)
Now when they held up the bank in Mobile, they finally made it on the evening news
She's a Georgia peach, never within reach; he's a felon from Baton Rouge
I heard Robert Johnson playing on the steel guitar in the heat of the Delta sun
Kelly drove 'em back up to Memphis to finish what the king had once begun
(come on and sing it now:)
CHORUS:
Gulf breeze, on the porch, me and my honey rockin' back and forth
Ridin' up again with my kin and friends, underneath the yellow moon
Sweet dream, New Orleans, Mississippi River running over me
Pretty mama come and take me by the hand
Don't mock what you don't understand....it's a southern thang
(come on baby, now...come on baby now...it's a southern thang...)
If we ever get out of here...I want you to promise me you'll go...down to the Gulf and swim
Deep in the sea
And you'll think of me
The way you used to sing that silly song to me:
Sing: "M-I-crooked letter-crooked letter-humpback-humpback"...get a little closer
"M-I-crooked letter-crooked letter-humpback-humpback"..Get a little closer!!!
CHORUS |
Here we go..
I got somebody's dying
You're like a soap opera cover
My love of suffer demands
Juicy
ah-ah-ah-ah ah-ah ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah
Juicy
You said somebody's saying
You're like a salve for a leper
You sweeten somebody's pain
Juicy
ah-ah-ah-ah ah-ah ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah
Juicy
Yeah, you gotta live for your own
You say you got all the sordid detail
Check out retail
Watch it sell
J-J-J-Juicy
(I got a delay...ay.ay.ay.ay.ay.ay)
(Mothers, children on the street can't get enough to eat) Juicy
(Off the record issues fly...Don't know the reason why?) Juicy
(Meet me down the checkout stand...You could be the loverman) Juicy
(Conscience bleeding in a song, Juicy as the day is long.)
(Goodbye)
Yeah, you gotta live for your own
You say you got all the sordid detail
Check out retail
Watch it sell
I've got to see that lie
You say what you've got to say
You gotta know it's a bitter poison, sapping all your soul away
(CHORUS) |
And they say your life was marred
And you were wondering if it would ever start....Stop.
Sunlight on a razor blade
Three different souls and the lives they made
I grew up in the 80s in the palisades
I was listening to Devo
And everybody catered to your needs
Were voted "most likely to succeed"
Holly came out, and Billy got paid
But Jenny got pregnant the first time she got laid
CHORUS:
All my rage sits inside
And even the finest things are leaving you hollow
And all my days left behind
And even the finest things are leaving you hollow.....
Cut to an interior view:
Holly married well, but so did you
One was black, one was blue
I was watching the days go by
Could you be seeing a silly dream
Where Billy lives on Prozac and nicotine?
Holly got a G.E.D. living in maternity
Nursing her broken heart for the love she lost
(CHORUS)
And the sky is blue, but so are you
Mary takes a drage off a cigarette
And the stereo is coming up behind her
Like she needs something to remind her
That life is richer in a minor key
Bill and Holly disagree, but I don't think so
(CHORUS) |
I am bending, made of steel
And I am stumbling towards something real
How can you forget this feeling
Of standing straight while the world is reeling?
Don't leave me here alone
You're as close as it gets to home
CHORUS:
Don't look down...You might fall
Life made monkeys of us all (In our finest year)
Don't wait up...We'll be fine
Somehow we might get it right...In our finest year
I am hopeful, full of doubt
And I am trying to work this whole thing out
So how can you just sit there sleeping
When your world's on fire and your chest is beating?
And I want to think you feel the same
(CHORUS)
In this moment, while you're breathing, if the tension leaves you needing
Will you be the one who stares are your life just slips away?
Don't leave me here alone
You're as close as it gets to home
I'll be there...if you fall
Love made suckers of us all
(CHORUS) |
Here you are now
Fresh from your wars
Back from the edge of time
And all that you were
Stripped to the bone
I thought you'd want to know
CHORUS:
When you feel the world is
crashing all around your
feet come running headlong
into my arms...
Breathless.
I'll never judge you
I can only love you
Come now, running headlong into my arms...breathless
Lay down your guns
Too weak to run
Nothing can harm you here
Your precious heart
Broken and scarred
Somehow you made it through
I only ask that you won't go again
(CHORUS)
So glad to see you smiling
So good to hear you laugh
I think that you found you even missed yourself
I'm only askin this cause I
think that truth be told
Oh, you'll never go again...
(CHORUS) |
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