1. |
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Do every stupid thing that makes you feel alive
Do every stupid thing to try to drive the dark away
Let people call you crazy for the choices that you make
Climb limits past the limits
Jump in front of trains all day
And stay alive
Just stay alive
Play with matches if you think you need to play with matches
Seek out the hidden places where the fire burns hot and bright
Find where the heat's unbearable and stay there if you have to
Don't hurt anybody on your way up to the light
And stay alive
Just stay alive
People might laugh at your tattoos
When they do get new ones in completely garish hues
I hide down in my corner because I like my corner
I am happy where the vermin play
Make up magic spells
We wear them like protective shells
Land-mines on the battlefield
Find the one safe way
And stay alive
Just stay alive
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2. |
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Downtown north past the airport
A dream in switchgrass and concrete
Three gray floors of smoky windows
Facing the street
Michael pulls the blinds back up
Stares blankly at the intersection
Watching for the guy who's got the angel dust
Crystal clear connection
Days like dominos
All in a line
We cheer for the home team every time
Lakeside View, Lakeside View
Lakeside View for my whole crew
Most nights now sleep in the kitchen
Keep my face cool on the floor
And John, John comes by to drop off his envelopes
Still playing postman after all these years
Pull down my army surplus jacket
Dig through some drawers to find the keys
Emerge transformed in a million years
From days like these
Under each eye little greasepaint smudge
You can't judge us - you're not the judge
Lakeside View, Lakeside View
Lakeside View for my whole crew
And just before I leave
I throw up in the sink
One whole life recorded
In disappearing ink
And Ray left a message thumbtacked to the door
I don't even bother trying to read them anymore
Lakeside View Lakeside View,
Lakeside View for my whole crew
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3. |
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Some things you do just to see how bad they'll make you feel
Sometimes you try to freeze time 'til the slots are a blur of spinning wheels
But I am just a broken machine
And I do things that I don't really mean
Long black night
Morning frost
I'm still here
But all is lost
Speed up to the precipice and then slam on the brakes
Some people crash two or three times and then learn from their mistakes
We are the ones who don't slow down at all
And there's nobody there to catch us when we fall
Long black night
Morning frost
I'm still here
But all is lost
Feel the storm every night
Hope it passes by
Hallucinate a shady grove where Judas went to die
Unfurl the black velvet altar cloth
Draw a white chalk Baphomet
Mistreat your Altar Boys long enough and this is what you get
Sad and angry... can't learn how to behave
Still won't know how in the darkness of the grave
Long black night
Morning frost
I'm still here
But all is lost
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4. |
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Unknown engines underneath the city
Steam pushing up in billows through the grates
Frankie Lymon's tracking "Seabreeze" in a studio in Harlem
Just a pair of tunes to hammer out
Everybody's off the clock by 10
The loneliest people in the whole wide world are the ones you're never going to see again
Feels so free when I hit the avenue
Nothing like a New York summer night
Every dream's a good dream
Even awful dreams are good dreams
If you're doing it right
Remember soaring higher than a cloud
Get pretty sentimental now and then
The loneliest people in the whole wide world are the ones you're never going to see again
And four hours north of Portland, a radio flips on
And some no one from the future remembers that you're gone
Armies massing in the dusky distance
Ghosted in the ribbon microphone
Leave a little mark on something, maybe
Take the secret circuit home
Nothing in the shadows but the shadow hands
Reaching out to sad, young, frightened men
The loneliest people in the whole wide word are the ones you're never going to see again
Yeah, the loneliest people in the whole wide word are the ones you're never going to see again
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5. |
VIA - Harlem Lullaby
04:27
|
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Unknown engines underneath the city
Steam pushing up in billows through the grates
Frankie Lymon's tracking "Seabreeze" in a studio in Harlem
Just a pair of tunes to hammer out
Everybody's off the clock by 10
The loneliest people in the whole wide world are the ones you're never going to see again
Feels so free when I hit the avenue
Nothing like a New York summer night
Every dream's a good dream
Even awful dreams are good dreams
If you're doing it right
Remember soaring higher than a cloud
Get pretty sentimental now and then
The loneliest people in the whole wide world are the ones you're never going to see again
And four hours north of Portland, a radio flips on
And some no one from the future remembers that you're gone
Armies massing in the dusky distance
Ghosted in the ribbon microphone
Leave a little mark on something, maybe
Take the secret circuit home
Nothing in the shadows but the shadow hands
Reaching out to sad, young, frightened men
The loneliest people in the whole wide word are the ones you're never going to see again
Yeah, the loneliest people in the whole wide word are the ones you're never going to see again
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6. |
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Like a star come down to walk the Earth in radiant array
I saw the light of my spirit descend the other day
I was standing by the bus stop on North East 33rd
When I got the word
I will be made a new creature
One bright day
I don't have to be afraid
Speed that day on it's way
And you can't tell me what my spirit tells me isn't true, can you?
Woke up on lockdown one more time
My visions won't ever learn
But I see the light that much clearer
Every time I return
Forge my armor in the old fire
My spirit sings loud and clear
Even in here
I'll be reborn someday, someday
If I wait long enough
I don't have to be afraid
I don't wanna be afraid
And you can't tell me what my spirit tells me isn't true, can you?
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7. |
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Sunset on Snohomish.
Burn the tree line down.
Hold my hopes underwater,
Stand there and watch them drown.
Fishing out their bodies,
From the bathroom sink.
Leave them in a bucket,
Til they start to stink.
I think I'll stay here,
Til I feel whole again.
I don't know when.
Trout swim past the fishing lines.
Sky gets dark and close.
Cars start up and make,
Their nightly exodus.
On a picnic bench alone,
Watch the sky go dark.
Dig my nails into my hands,
Hope it leaves a mark.
I think I'll stay here,
Til I feel whole again.
I don't know when.
|
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8. |
||||
Sunset on Snohomish.
Burn the tree line down.
Hold my hopes underwater,
Stand there and watch them drown.
Fishing out their bodies,
From the bathroom sink.
Leave them in a bucket,
Til they start to stink.
I think I'll stay here,
Til I feel whole again.
I don't know when.
Trout swim past the fishing lines.
Sky gets dark and close.
Cars start up and make,
Their nightly exodus.
On a picnic bench alone,
Watch the sky go dark.
Dig my nails into my hands,
Hope it leaves a mark.
I think I'll stay here,
Til I feel whole again.
I don't know when.
|
||||
9. |
||||
Sunset on Snohomish.
Burn the tree line down.
Hold my hopes underwater,
Stand there and watch them drown.
Fishing out their bodies,
From the bathroom sink.
Leave them in a bucket,
Til they start to stink.
I think I'll stay here,
Til I feel whole again.
I don't know when.
Trout swim past the fishing lines.
Sky gets dark and close.
Cars start up and make,
Their nightly exodus.
On a picnic bench alone,
Watch the sky go dark.
Dig my nails into my hands,
Hope it leaves a mark.
I think I'll stay here,
Til I feel whole again.
I don't know when.
|
||||
10. |
||||
Pull my mask so tight
Till it pinches my skin
Nerves strung so high
I am a mandolin
Jenny calls from Montana
She's only passing through
Probably never see her again
In this life I guess
Not sure what I'm gonna do
Plug a nightlight in
Leave a porchlight on
Because the small dark corner
Have designs on me
Live like an outlaw
Clutching gold coins in his claw
Room full of ambitious young policemen
Everybody trying to make his mark
I was a red dot
Blinking on the screen up overhead
And when the room went dark
Dream of maybe waking up someday
And wanting you less than I do
This is a dream though
It's never gonna come true
Plug a night light in
Leave the porch light on
Because the small dark corners
Are establishing a colony
Live like an outlaw
Clutching gold coins in his claw
Can't ever set aside the sweetness
Of the days before the crews put up the border
Fields full of wet rain
Cling tight to their memory forever
Think about Montana when I close my eyes
Possibly Jenny's headed east
Count a couple of stray hopes out loud
May their numbers one day be increased
Plug a nightlight in
Leave the porchlight on
Because the small dark corners
Breed like heavy animals
Live like an outlaw
Clutching cold coins in his claw
|
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11. |
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Cops and robbers, strictly bargain line
Spent the wet night tracking visions through the pines.
Draw my arms into my hospital gown.
See the sky open up and rain down,
Rain down.
Mercy for the Diaz brothers.
Mercy for the Diaz brothers.
Hear my rivals on the western wind.
Hard to know who might or might not be your friend.
Work by the Plutonian light.
Forbidden rosary prayers all night,
All night.
Mercy for the Diaz brothers.
Mercy for the Diaz brothers.
Beam of a flashlight,
All night in the woods.
Hunt us like dogs,
And then string us up for good.
Keep one step ahead of enemies.
Foretell worse things than such frightful nights as these.
Lead us to the beach by our hands,
And bury us there in the sand.
Mercy for the Diaz brothers.
Mercy for the Diaz brothers.
Mercy for the Diaz brothers.
Mercy for the Diaz brothers.
|
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12. |
||||
Like a spent gladiator
Crawling in the Colosseum dust
Who can count on his remaining limbs
All the people he can trust
Like the one who stands behind him
Cheering him on
Ecstatic when he stands defiant
Wild with abandon when he's gone
Just stay alive
Keep your eyes on the pay line
Like a village on the steppe
About to get collectivized
When the men emerge with rifles from the haystack
Everybody looks surprised
Like the mice in the forgotten grain
Way up on the top shelf
Like someone who's found a small town to escape to
Keeps one eye on his abandoned, former self
Stay in the game
Just try to play through the pain
Like a fighter who's been told it's finally time for him to quit
Show up in shining colours
And then stand there and get hit
Like the clock that ticks in Dresden
When the whole town's been destroyed
Like the nagging flash of insight
You're always desperate to avoid
Like the bloody-knuckled gunman
Still stationed at the breach
Like that board game with the sliders
And the children on the beach
Stay alive
Maybe spit blood at the camera
Just stay alive
Stay forever alive
|
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13. |
||||
Cold through broken baseboards.
I despise this town.
Snow on the sunroof,
Two stories down.
Hold hands,
Wish the snow away.
Rise in the darkness,
Of the gathering day.
Sing
Sing for ourselves alone
Speak into,
The microphone
Cedar smudge our headbands,
And take to the skies.
Soar ever-upwards,
On air gone black with flies.
Shroud ourselves in the cosmos.
Let the music play.
Bright star of the morning,
Shine on his rising way.
Sing
In the night
In the nameless dark
Father long gone,
But we bear his mark
Learn some secrets,
Never tell.
Stay sick,
Don't get well
Clutch those broken headboards.
Ride the highest wave.
Dusky diamonds shining in the far depths of the cave.
Try to explain ourselves,
Babble on and on.
By the time you receive this, we'll be gone.
Sing.
Sing high.
While the fire climbs.
Sing one for the old times.
|
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14. |
||||
You knew that they were out there by the signs they’d left behind
On old abandoned buildings
Just some x’s and some lines
Half-circles in the concrete, crescents in the snow
You could find the little beacons almost everywhere you’d go
[Verse 2]
Only people who were sick enough knew how to read them right
I got sick when I was seventeen
And I’d hunt down signs all night
[Verse 3]
You listen for the voices in the generator’s hum
Hang out behind the powerplant and wait for them to come
(na na na na na)
It’s about their mission in the rustling of the surf
But those secrets can be kept from you if your faith is strong enough
[Verse 4]
Only people who’ve been sick too long
Can hold on to the hope
But some friendly ghost is listening to the prayers they learned to sing
At the slack end of the rope
|
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15. |
||||
[Verse 1]
Spread out the old maps on the floor
Plot the course of the infection
Trace from its beginnings to the present
Is there no one here who's making this connection
Feral cats out by the trash can
To the true believer everything's a sign
Scrape the pigments from the baseboards
In the shadow of the western hills
And paint my vision on my body
In the shadow of the western hills
[Verse 2]
Bleak rose petaled sky in two dimensions
Black tree line a blade that cuts across it all
Can't seem to sleep or find my appetite
Since I got back from the hospital
Call up Rebecca maybe try to explain
But she hangs up while I'm still talking I walk out into the rain
Wander from the alley to the darkness
Sink down completely leave no trace
Trapped beneath the surface of the ice again
Lie still with the moonlight on my face
Wait for the wolves to keep their promise
Listen for their footfalls on the snow
I can't hear things clearly to be honest
In the shadow of the western hills
He gets most healed that waits the longest
In the shadow of the western hills
|
||||
16. |
||||
[Verse 1]
Spread out the old maps on the floor
Plot the course of the infection
Trace from its beginnings to the present
Is there no one here who's making this connection
Feral cats out by the trash can
To the true believer everything's a sign
Scrape the pigments from the baseboards
In the shadow of the western hills
And paint my vision on my body
In the shadow of the western hills
[Verse 2]
Bleak rose petaled sky in two dimensions
Black tree line a blade that cuts across it all
Can't seem to sleep or find my appetite
Since I got back from the hospital
Call up Rebecca maybe try to explain
But she hangs up while I'm still talking I walk out into the rain
Wander from the alley to the darkness
Sink down completely leave no trace
Trapped beneath the surface of the ice again
Lie still with the moonlight on my face
Wait for the wolves to keep their promise
Listen for their footfalls on the snow
I can't hear things clearly to be honest
In the shadow of the western hills
He gets most healed that waits the longest
In the shadow of the western hills
|
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