What would a Tabs & Chords thread be without a Lyrics thread to go with it? Lyrics are sparse on the internet, so I say we band together and up the ante. Post lyrics, links to lyrics, or requests for lyrics, and hopefully Jason can help out if we get stuck.
To start: A little soul searching and I found 99% of the lyrics for El Paso. I can't figure out the missing words either. Anyone have any corrections? Additions?
There are a few that I've written out. They might have mistakes as it's just me listening to the song and writing down what I hear.
I AM LIKE SNOW TO YOU
I am like snow to you Soon I will be gone Oh I might stick around for a spell But I won't last until summer
Were my shoes always half out your open door? Did I even once take my jacket off to stay Was I always on my way to the next road trip? Is this a legitimate excuse? Or is this just a mistake I keep making? I keep making, I keep making, I keep taking off.
I am like snow to you I am like snow to you I am like snow to you I won't last until summer
WANTING AND REGRET
There's wanting and regret The setting back of clocks Forgetting and nostalgia And dusk at 4 pm
There's detachment and resolve The poignancy of winter The skins we shed and ones we grow There are scabs
There's forgiveness and relief The illusion of indifference A box of notes and keepsakes I can't seem to discard
So come on down to my basement room Let's page through this thesaurus And find a better synonym For loss
We'll share a glass of lemonade And go through some old photographs And understand that love doesn't die It just changes
Well there're hours and there're days There's longing and second guessing An advent calendar's tiny doors Mark progress and control
I'm coming to a point Of resignment and acceptance A sort of hibernation A cocoon
So bury me in snow Set aside my Christmas presents Wake me up on valentines day And we can try it all again
MY BALANCING ACT
In Wyoming, there's a stretch Where the hills are plaster and glass Some tundra, broke up trees This could be the moon Mmm, this could be the moon
And you remember you're on a planet And every "hi, how are you" Sounds so foreign Every Applebee's sign Every "hey, how's it going" "Oh I guess I'm fine" I guess I'm fine
Just go on Let them sing Just go on Let them sing Just go... Let them sing Let them eat cake
Oh, you're trying so hard Oh, you're trying so hard (this is my balancing act) Oh, you're trying so hard (this is my balancing act) Oh, you're trying so hard
Hey Spencer, I filled in most of the holes in El Paso. This is my favorite song...
Well, it seems like all the kids 'round here are wrapped up with leaving this place. Tony told me from his kitchen on Mesita and he talked about to me about staying.
He said, "Man, you see across the street that's the university. you hit a home run and the ball rolls into Juarez. High school juniors leave their cars walk across to the bars you can imagine how it is. and even if we get out, well, we always end up back home to the only place we really know. el paso el paso!
Eddie he told me about the kidnapped women what they call "The Disappeared" of drugs and thugs and depressing strip clubs i guess these border towns can be pretty weird. fair enough but on the east side there's a pack of wild dogs called the rippers they chase rabbits in the summer time true story but they can only catch them when their little rabbit hearts quit and melt give out under these cloudless oven skies
see them run and they run straight into the sun only to explode you can watch them limp away like boats trying to stay afloat in el paso. el paso!
yeah.
dusk was hugging the foothills as i drove in the mountains were draped with shadows east of I-10 the first couple stars like light bright pegs like a candle in a colander uh huh my brother telephoned from new york state and he told me about a disastrous date he said i know there's lots of fish in the lake but sometimes it seems like they hibernate and some nights i get so bored i cut my hair other nights i just stand in front of that tall hall mirror and stare until my gaze gets soft and my reflection turns weird and when i think of my life i feel so unprepared he said, "man, how can you live like a tramp out on the road you know bouncing like a tetherball here and there to and fro chasing the highway like a dirty gravel rainbow do you ever get release let alone a pot of gold?" and i said, "dude, chill, remember last summer those books i would read about the history of greece and philosophy well they say maybe when we die there's peace or at least just rest from these tiresome lives we lead and either way, that makes so much sense to me" besides, who cares until they're deceased and the clergy weeps and the family grieves and the tombstone proclaims R. I. P. and they wrench the fillings out of of your poor old teeth and they cover your corpse in a snow white sheet and they hang a tag from your ice cold feet and they pray for your soul over a couple of weeks and they say, he was a pretty, the newspapers say he was a pretty oh they claim he was a pretty good guy and they let the body lie yeah they let the body lie oh they let the body lie yeah they let the body lie. well, everyone must die it's true, but first we get to live don't ever ever forget to live
so, i let my cellphone drop low down beneath the driver's seat and i pulled off on the shoulder and stared hard across at mexico at some space station looking refinery there was a puff of smoke like a dragon's cough off the tops of that factory so me i joked aloud "i wonder if they make clouds?" instead of guns and robots and machinery and i put my foot back on the pedal and i pulled off really slow into the loneliness and the darkness of el paso el paso
please say say say el paso and you say, say it again el paso. you say ohhhh. you say ohhhhhhh. you say oh-ohhhhh. you say oh-ohhhhhhh. you say yeahhhhhhhhhh. you say yeahhhhhhhhhhhhh. you say yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. you say yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. yeahhhhhhhhh.
Jason! Thanks! After almost seeing you in Brooklyn, I always hear "Tony told me from his kitchen above Sea Lab", but that just doesn't fit at all with the rest of the lyrics.
here's one of my favorites: "The First Snow of the Year."
For the first snow of the year Maybe we will stand together On some empty washed-out corner In your parents neighborhood
Oh these streets you know by heart Let us walk and let us listen Joni Mitchell wishes for a river I just wish you'd point your mittened hand
Find the moon and the stars like woah Cracked white keys against the black keys of the sky, Yeah So the sky is this piano and the music is hushed and still And perfect for the first snow of the year
Sharon there is something nice The simple glow of a living room The drunken wash of mantle lights Like hazy and slow on hardwood floors Where jeans get warm against your legs Sweaters get warm and zippers get hot
And my brother and the girl he loves Are lying soft on the couch and you can sort of hear them say You are my life, You are my size You are my friend, my best friend
And the window pane is polar stains And networked map that leads a path Through arctic veins to the first snow of the year
Take me to the bridge!
And the air it smells like winter And these clouds stood stacked like slate and Yellow taxis find the street Bicycles whir and buses squeak We lean against a mailbox and wait for everything
My buddy calls it "Tetris brain" When you play that game all day And at night when you're going to sleep You close your eyes and see the pieces moving
I swear to god that's what it was Those seven weeks we talked so much I would feel my cell phone vibrate In my pocket even though it was off
So I held you like a flag, I did! For this idea of ourselves together And waved it wild about my head The autumn green to orange to red to white
For the first snow of the year Then white For the first snow of the year That's right The first snow of the year
@Jason: I can't even remember when (sometime warm), but last year you played at Sealab 187, or were supposed to, or I had read you were going to. Something like that. So I met a friend in the city, we ventured into Brooklyn, and found out the show had been moved (maybe?) down the street. We wound up somewhere you were definitely, but we did catch the end of some great punk band, then stuck around for a second show the house was having. I never found out where your show was, but it was an awesome night nonetheless.
being in a car with my best friends and screaming "you are my life you are my size you're my friend you're my best friend" makes me feel like nothing else.
I picture Steve at the factory, his fingers feel like wire There's got to be 'bout a million better ways to spend eleven hours In his head he's already quit, and when he finishes this shift watch him drive To a place where the sky opens up and he sits with the crickets and writes Of stars over Washington, and knives in the front I know you can only eat caterpillars for so long Before a beautiful butterfly emerges from your mouth An emerald, an anthem, a song
Jon and Johnny, Eric and I Set a course for the north but we're only bringing our bikes See us pedal like devils across state lines Sing to the crows and shout at the vanishing light Well the Swiatlowski brothers better get up Find us lost in a river in southern Vermont Alone in the forest, singing a chorus, fearless The hopeful and the unafraid
There's jobs and there's bills and there's brain cells to kill Tonight let's abandon the bars There's Cumberland Farms and its parking lot charms Tonight we'll surrender our cars And lay in back yards with thrift store guitars Wear poison ivy like battle scars of a summer where I know we tried so hard And it wasn't a fight, but we won
Here's Omaha copied and pasted from an email from Jason a while back.
let's find our way out of here let us run from the sound of bars let us run from this sound of wooden chair legs scraping shining wooden floors let us run from lager taps, from little yellow plastic swords and the clink of clinking glass from florescent bulbs from lighters let's find a place where we can be alone, let's slip away we can't really talk here and so much of what i want to say you know and i love that you know and i love that i still feel compelled to say it so let's make it out together let us burst into this grim northern rain it's well past four in the morning let us fall into shattered alleyways with broken brown orange light and crooked slick wet brick let us run into black and then more black and then hurdle a grand stone wall into sopping emerald fields chasing clouds and then catching them and then beating them and a hundred thousand stars pricked out of nothing folding into dry caked sand the sea and oily waves oily licorice waves and grinning white caps collapse into me--oh my darling--collapse into my arms and we'll climb inside one sleeping bag i would sit behind you i would press mittened hands against your tingling ears against the beautiful bare of your shoulder where the scarf let it show, where the salt and moistness gleam and our chests heave and i would whisper soft and nice, soft and nice we will never, ever, ever be alone again
turns out "mittened" is not a word... who knew? why not for that matter? what the hell else would you call it?
Pen Pals not sure about it. Im pretty tired at the moment. and even when I'm not my hearing never was 100%.
One, two, three
When new jokes expire And mix tapes click off Albums crackle through The candles burn out The credits start Somewhere party lights come on Stept out and walks awkwardly
College friends Christmas cards Bands run their chorus ? conclude
The first kisses Totally ends Pen pals made Is disappointment
And there’s melancholy Staggering and thorough Especially, from the awesome mid-20s At the ? but there’s still one thing That will never be the same
Tritely put An era has ended But it’s always true You can so tell when it’s past It’s like a death And you can never get How it used to be It’s gone
The holidays past Red wine wears off A long drive You’re visiting friend to the airport If your parents die Yeah They have to die
Take me home
there's a 'fuck' in there, but yeah.
I think it was the first song I heard by Jason. Sometimes when i feel really low I repeat it about 100000 times and I think it's always in my head anyway. Especially the piano...and the lyric 'If your parents die Yeah They have to die'...that kills me everytime.
When in-jokes expire And mix tapes click off Albums crackle through And candles burn out The credits start Slumber party lights come on Your step-dad walks in, awkwardly
When college friends are Christmas cards Bands run their chorus Novellas conclude
The first kisses It totally ends Pen pals meet There's disappointment
And there’s melancholy Staggering and thorough Especially, from these awesome mid-20s At the stomaching That some one thing Will never be the same
Tritely put An era has ended But it’s always true You can so tell when it’s past It’s like a death And you can never get Get it back to how it used to be It’s gone
The holidays pass Red wine wears off A long drive Your visiting friend to the airport If your parents die Yeah They have to die
hey! would any of you all mind posting the lyrics to Post Office? it's been playing in my head for weeks, pretty appropriate to life right now, and i can't make out the middle verse. here's what i gathered just from listening closely:
(Incomplete) Post Office
When we met at the post office My friends were still at the bar And I felt a little guilty Walking right past their parked car See I hadn’t gone to bed Which is where I totally said I’d be (I got busted) But I had to see you I think we both needed to see what would happen Sitting on a bench Out front of that locked up Brooks pharmacy And we were listening to flags clack against flagpoles So cold my teeth were ch-ch-ch-chattering I found it hard to look at your face And it killed me how our knees kept touching If we can’t have it all, can’t we at least have something? Cause the feeling that summer was confusing as hell Windows and doors and carpeted floors, some nights it was hard to tell Where the day would begin and the evening would end So we would stay up all afternoon so we could feel it all again With the best kind of insomnia, we felt everything, we felt alive
?and the trees were just streaks in your room?
We walked home in silence Stood in front of my car You got in and rolled the windows down, turned the radio on And me I started driving Last one on the road I said where are we going And you said just go Yeah, you said just go Just go, just go
how the trees reached into your room how we sat so still, like stills out of Goodnight Moon your arms heavy and weighted, like an orthodontist's x-ray apron you told me to stay and i remained
I just barely discovered you and I'm already a huge fan. I hope I can make it to one of your shows someday.
I was wondering if I could get the lyrics to July 4, 2004 from you. I want to play it (conveniently, my name is David, which isn't such a far cry from Jason for the "Oh, Jason, are you still waiting?" parts, so I won't have to do any meter juggling), but I can't quite catch all the lyrics while listening.
not sure how true these are to the real version, since they're pieced together from memories of live shows patched onto the album playing through my grainy laptop speakers. especially the part about anacortes bay... that's probably just me inserting my own memory of puget refinery.
We Will Bend, We Will Break
Samantha loves a calling card And my spiral bound is falling apart All these letters and email addresses, some decent photographs An air mattress on the kitchen floor, Gonna slide this note under your door I have to be early the show was amazing Making dinner was wonderful
Segments, fragments, house shows, basements Everywhere I go… eh eh eh everywhere I go Sometimes I feel really spread out Most times I feel home But I just miss my friends
Every different town I’m in, I want to get an apartment and start six bands! Fly awesome kites Ride awesome bikes Just feel so at home
I haven’t had a house in so long I keep singing my hobo song Here today, gone today Back tomorrow!
Tired atlas Seasick Compass Everywhere I go… eh eh eh everywhere I go Sometimes I feel really stretched out Most times I feel home I just miss my friends
But we will bend, yeah! We might break, a little We will grow! We will grow! 2x
I woke up to the refinery lights Sickly I thought it was a sunrise I sat and I watched the dance of decay Across the Bay of Anacortes’ industry
I view stars lapse in a canoe I laughing I’m touching through The guys are still asleep And still I’m up, and I’m twenty-six
Oh, and I love this going away Coming home to an unused mirror And a slightly different face Not to say anything major has changed But all these small discoveries Feeling bigger, smaller, humble
We will bend Yeah we might break, a little We will grow! Yeah we will grow! 2x
We might bend, we might break, we might bend, we might break… We’ll bend and we’ll break and we’ll bend and we’ll break… We will grow!
and jason - i know it's a long haul for you, but i would also love to come hear you play a house show on the west coast. the bay area would be great, but me and my friends would probably go as far as portland to sing our hearts out. keep us posted.
max, i gotta get out west! thanks for the extra inspiration to do so!
here are a few corrections; you were mostly spot on, though!
We Will Bend, We Will Break
Some envelopes, a calling card My spiral bound is falling apart All these letters and email addresses, some decent photographs An air mattress, the kitchen floor, Let me slide this note underneath your door I have to leave early the show was amazing Making dinner was wonderful
Segments, fragments, house shows, basements Everywhere I go… eh eh eh everywhere I go Sometimes I feel really spread out Most times I feel home But I just miss my friends
Every different town I’m in, I want to get an apartment and start six bands! Fly awesome kites Ride awesome bikes And just feel so at home
I haven’t had a house in so long I keep singing my hobo song Here today and gone today and Back tomorrow!
Tired atlas Seasick Compass Everywhere I go… eh eh eh everywhere I go Sometimes I feel really stretched out Most times I feel home I just miss my friends
But we will bend, yeah! We might break, a little We will grow! We will grow! 2x
I woke up to the refinery lights It tricked me, I thought it was a sunrise I sat and I watched the dance and decay Across the Bay of Anacortes’ industry
Our freestyle raps and our canoe Our laughing and our touching through You guys are still asleep Hey Phil, I’m up, and I’m twenty-six
Oh, and I love this going away Coming home to an unused mirror And a slightly different face Not to say anything major has changed But all these small discoveries Feeling bigger, smaller, humble
We will bend Yeah we might break, a little We will grow! Yeah we will grow! 2x
We might bend, we might break, we might bend, we might break… We’ll bend and we’ll break and we’ll bend and we’ll break… We will grow!
Hi, I'm new here. Just became a fan within the last week or so, and I must say the music is great. Thanks for the lyrics to The Post Office. That one might be my favorite. I'm sure I'll be asking for some more lyrics here soon, but right now I just ask for Alcoholiday. Please and thank you.
Alcoholiday is by an awesome band from Scotland called Teenage Fanclub. It was written by one of their guitarists, Norman Blake. Here are the words, I think!
There are things I want to do, but I don't know If they will be with you, if they will be with you There are things I want to say, but I don't know If they will be to you, if they will be to you
Listen ever get a feeling when you're taken by the hand And led a course you can't command Went to bed but I'm not ready Baby I've been fucked already Falling into line but I'm doing nothing We've got nothing worth discussing Went to go but it's all hazy People say I'm going crazy
All I know, is all I know What I've done I leave behind and I don't know what sort to find me
Oh wow, I've heard Teenage Fanclub before, but not this song. I guess I should seek them out more. That's How I Got To Memphis is a Tom T. Hall song, right? I love the cover of that one.
Thanks to everyone for the lyrics. I appreciate it. I'll try and add some later as well.
hey guys ... i organized and added most albums to jason's page on lyricwiki ... i added all the lyrics i found in this thread as well as what i could find on the internet. please if you have any other lyrics, add them, anyone can edit lyrics and add their own, you don't even have to register!
Here's "For Mike," at least according to my ears...
Nights and weekends are the hardest times, and I lose it over just the smallest things. I was cutting up credit cards and saw her signature and cried, but for the most part I'm doing alright. I'm fine. I'm okay.
I'm going down to Contoocook for Thanksgiving at my daughter's, but maybe if you're around we could play cards or get an ice cream, you and me?
Nights and weekends are the hardest times.
I'm trying to remember not to forget. I will never forget.
caitlin you sent me a photograph a green picture of your sharp silouette now i don't ever want to forget july, san francisco as summer in the summer sun alright alright, but i wasn't the only one
yeah, we threw outselves into utah down to the arizona edge the end of the giant red bookmark keeping pace while saying push ahead keep running say keep running keep on running keep it running
juliet ------ juliet i believe in you there aint nothing that i want more than to see you smiling softly and shining at the san diego shore so drive, so be alive and let getting there, let getting there be your fire
lyndsy ------ lyndsy the unexpected is always better than the best laid plans not even schedules but hopes that we plot with pins these anticipated programs but when i break through the open window some opportunity my heart was a lake in a northern michigan dusk the best time to water ski
when the deer stand still in government fields where my parents taught me to drive their '88 grand voyager in 1989 when your grandma has a boyfriend because her husband screwed around and you don't know just what is happening but you know you ain't supposed to be around so you run up the steps to the dock and stop short before jumpin' in turn and stared down the old wooden stairs at the trees, at the house, and you swim yeah, you slowly swim yeah, you slowly swim away yeah, you slowly swim away
what a good good life where everything comes around again so you get another chance to say "i love you, i just miss you, i just wish you would stay" and you know, and you know, and you know, and you know, and you know that you hope they'll listen this time, this time
what a sweet sweet life, with elk and giant bears, and you, to the west the dark sea and sleeping whales, to the sunset on my back like a lion's mane attached to my neck, in coals, roses, and ash. let the night, let the night, let the night, let this night become a place where i can find hidden light, hidden light
what a funny funny life to watch develop, when the calendar's a delicate design of waiting, of planning, of wanting and regret and disappointment. but hope and triumph too.
come and be (x4) brave with me tonight, this this let it go (x5) it's not, it's not giving up it's giving in to a moment trying to be free let us be free let us be free i will be free
sitting in your sister's volvo in the parking lot of a chinese restaurant in salem, new hampshire
listening to elliott smith on compact disc his third album sounds pretty good mmm hmmm
mmm hmmm
all i want, at least right now is to be close to you the smell of your hair is literally amazing honestly
this is like one of those awesome dreams where you get to hang out with the guys from fugazi and youre so frustrated and angry that it was just a dream
but this is not goodbye this is just good night youre back to massachusetts and im to the north
ill see you in six or seven days go...
the best thing in the world is to love someone and they love you back
Jason, quite frankly there are a few times in this song where I have no clue what you are saying for sure. I have parenthesized what I'm not sure of and if I'm wrong anywhere else let me know.
Watch Your Step
in a heartbeat in the smallest movement of your hand in a silence in the wonderful cover of night
under blankets and sheets where i sat at your feet and that intoxicating place where desired unspoken (and we speak) with the dull (muted) blue off a muted t.v. lines (we've drawn in good time) as we adjust our boundaries
in this moment in a forcefield of brazen uncertainty in a friends house in the living room by shaky candle light waitin on a friend to leave
now your legs splay across my lap my hands rest on your knees pendulum pulse in my ears like a drunken timpani
oh to (fix stumply) beside you to (renege) this tacit treaty with courage and clumsiness with bravery and stupidity
woah you better watch your step youre breaking a heart that you havent won yet i say woah you better watch your step as youre moving past moments that i cannot forget
so (weigh the options) and (hone your defense) (of the time that we save between lust and regret)
there's an album in my head of the songs that we sang i cant quite get the verse and the choruses tamed every other day or so i google image search your name but theres only one picture and its always the same
i have (them) memorize the lyrics i downloaded this mp3 printed out the bass tabs feigned my way around the key
im working on a version that should jog your memory although maybe a jog seems ambitious maybe we should crawl
woah you better watch your step youre breaking a heart that you havent won yet i say woah you better watch your step as youre moving past moments that i cannot forget etc.
in a heartbeat in the smallest movement of your hand in a silence in the wonderful cover of night
under blankets and sheets where i sat at your feet in that intoxicating place where desire and unspoken limits meet with the dull pewter blue off a muted t.v. lines redrawn in real time as we adjust our boundaries
in a moment with a forcefield of brazen uncertainty in a friends house in the living room by shaky candle light waitin on a friend to leave
now your legs splay across my lap my hands rest on your knees pendulum pulse in my ears like a drunken timpani
oh to fit snugly beside you to renege this tacit treaty with courage and clumsiness bravery and stupidity
woah you better watch your step you're breaking a heart that you haven't won yet i say woah you better watch your step as you're moving past moments that i cannot forget surveying your options and hoarding your bets an autonomous zone between lust and regret
there's an album in my head of the songs that we sang i can't quite get the verse and the chorus seems tame every other day or so i google image search your name but there's only one picture and its always the same
i haven't memorized the lyrics i downloaded this mp3 printed out the bass tabs faked my way around the key
i'm working on a version that should jog your memory although maybe a jog seems ambitious maybe we should crawl
woah you better watch your step you're breaking a heart that you haven't won yet i say woah you better watch your step as you're moving past moments that i cannot forget etc.