Complete Lyrics

 

Builder

I am a builder of things great and small, I play hammers and nails like an instrument
If you wanted me to I could build you a wall, but you don’t need any more walls
Or make you a bed in a tree so the stars could watch us sleep
Or build you a boat we could sail in the wake of the hump-backed whales

When we lie side by side we have nothing to say
Nestled close like a nut and a shell in a contradictory way
Well I’m hollow inside as a gourd with seeds that have shriveled and dried
and barely have life anymore, yeah they barely have life any more

An artist in search of a muse has childlike charms and desires
but someone afraid of the thing they want most is selfish and hard to inspire
Let me lay my head on your chest and tap into your heart like a root
We are swimming upstream in another strange dream but love is the tastiest fruit

 

I know what I like

Birds are circling overhead like fighter planes against the blue
and we are waiting on the grass for food to be served in the park
“What is it you did today?” and “Now what plans have you made?”
Cops are by the baño like they are every day

And speaking of baño let’s write it on the wall of all our bathrooms cuz we’re so bilingual
We eat at taquerias and shop Korean markets
and sometimes say “How are you?” at the liquor store

It must be our interests that keep us apart
and that’s why we sit steeped in silence on BART
I don’t understand things or know how to change them but I sense there’s something wrong here

I know what I like, I like to ride my bike
कितने रुपए मेरे दोस्त?
Loud music in cars or loud music in bars, why do we like what we like the most?
Cuz it’s art on Fridays and God on Sundays and never the twin shall meet
Sometimes we open doors for each other but usually we stare at our feet
Usually we stare at our feet

 

When You’re Dead

When you’re dead please don’t linger on the words I said
They are not important in comparison to the things I couldn’t say
I bet you heard those anyway

There are few people in the world who’ve studied you
Watched you slice the bread and butter your toast
What will they miss the most? Perhaps a song that you wrote
Will they wear your old bath robe when you’re dead?

Though you can control your limbs and choose the foods you eat
Who knows what will happen once you step into the street
There could be a bird in flight who shits upon your head
Shit can ruin your favorite shirt but it won’t make you dead

 

If you could meet her

If you could meet her you’d know who she is
by the shape of her laugh, by her graceful hands
You’ll never meet her for she is gone
They are gone, we will be gone

Sometimes I wish we could all go to sleep
’til we were peacefully numb and content
Blank empty space in our well rested minds
That would be all. What would be left of us?

 

Zappa Dream

I dreamt I was a bird soaring above a valley
and you were down below with bow and arrow
You shot me in the wing, I didn’t see it coming
You watched me slowly fall and claimed my body

Dreams are so fucked up, even the really good ones
He has dreamt of her each night for over two years
And he wonders

Would it be such a bad thing to be finished with living?
Surrounded by idyllic visions, perfect sculptures of the ones he has loved

Everyone preserves a myth, guards it like a bone
You’ll see it in your lover’s eyes but never in your own
I cannot say with certainty what awaits us each
But I’d be happy frolicking with seagulls on a beach

Are you in love with your life or a dream
or just overwhelmed wondering what this could possibly mean?

There is a magic on this earth in cats and clouds and cars
For everything that we call real was once the dust of stars
Yes, you have been a river rock and a drop of rain
And with any bit of luck you’ll be those things again

Are you in love with your life or a dream
or just overwhelmed wondering what this could possibly mean?

 

Yellow Canary

The paper may be yellow, but it’s not a canary
And I have got a vision, but I’m not a visionary
So let’s go to the park and lie in the dappled light
’til the sun goes down, then we’ll put on our sweaters

When I woke up this morning I found myself unhappy
cuz all that I am doing does not amount to much
I’ve got a little garden outside of Ron’s Machine Shop
where I like to eat my breakfast and watch the trucks go by
Into the heat of the midday, driving down the crowded freeway
I’m tired of life in the city but I’m not ready to leave yet

Steadily we’re growing wings and one day each shall fly
With a thud into the windowpane that looked just like the sky

I wish I was a tiny little beetle in a tree
or a leaf upon the surface of a stream floating out to sea
Something far away from this cacophony and grime
and I can’t even fathom what it’s like for those who roam the streets at night
in my neighborhood

 

Gone

I fell into a well again, I can’t get out without a friend
to pull me up and shake me dry, I love the feel of water leaving my skin

Let’s go to town, we’ll paint it pink
I’ll pour my sadness down the sink
With heart shaped glasses and scabies rashes and
Whiskey for that cough that won’t go away

Follow me to the dentist chair
They’ll only pull one tooth I swear
A charming gap in a smile that craves attention

And when they are done
You’ll feel no pain
Almost as if nothing were gone

 

Boxcar

When I hear that distant murmur it reminds me of times past
though the golden days are over (these legs surely are her last)
I will hear the screeching steel and I’ll watch the hills recede
I was meant to ride the rails just as I was meant to breathe

For a boxcar is a cradle to a girl who’s cast away
the materialist ideals of the dreary modern day
You can taste the deaths of ghost towns on the lines that have been cut
but blue collar boys don’t matter to the business men way up

I will hear the screeching steel and I’ll watch the hills recede
I was meant to ride the rails just as I was meant to breathe

For no lullaby is sweeter than the roaring of a train
No aroma better omen than Canada’s good grain
and I’ve yet to see a view that beats the rising of the sun
from the doorway of a boxcar open to anyone

 

Grotto

Sometimes at dusk I leave this world to swim in my pristine deep green grotto
There’s schools of fish in twilit clouds and seaweed swirling like a mermaid’s hair

We all need a place to go to swim in our pristine deep green sorrows
Where shadows play upon the walls mimicking the rising of our fears

In darkened rooms self-critical fingernails
waste precious time picking at scabs
Burdened by love beyond our capacity
Afraid to give away all we have

If you were naked would you be as beautiful as you’ve convinced us you are?

I’ll create a giant butterfly net so I can catch and comprehend your dreams
But when I’m there inside your head will you feel safe or vulnerable and mean?

In darkened rooms self-critical fingernails
waste precious time picking at scabs
Burdened by love beyond our capacity
Afraid to give away all we have

 

Tennessee Valley

Such a pretty little beach
Feel the pebbles ‘neath your feet
Hear the ocean’s wild roar
as you’re walking with a girl

Wind is dancing in her hair
and it’s stinging at your eyes
and you want to kiss her cheek
but it seems so hard to do

And the sun hangs in the sky
like an orange on a string
slowly dipping in the sea
Night is seeping in like ink

Oh your heart’s a hummingbird
in the presence of this girl
and she’s leaving very soon
so you take her hand in yours

OH MY LORD what’s happening to me?
I thought I knew myself, I don’t know anything
OH MY LORD what matters any more?
Let’s throw it out the door
and start with something new
it’s easier to do
there’s always someone new
let’s start with you

and some stones are left unturned
and some leaves are turned again
and it’s always fragile dreams
that you never want to end

but she slips away like sand
running towards the hungry waves
and it’s hard to let her go
but you almost understand

 

All lyrics by Rosie Steffy