Disc 1 | ||||||
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1. |
| 3:38 | ||||
I had a king in a tenement castle
Lately he's taken to painting the pastel walls brown He's taken the curtains down He's swept with the broom of contempt And the rooms have an empty ring He's cleaned with the tears Of an actor who fears for the laughter's sting I can't go back there anymore You know my keys won't fit the door You know my thoughts don't fit the man They never can they never can I had a king dressed in drip-dry and paisley Lately he's taken to saying I'm crazy and blind He lives in another time Ladies in gingham still blush While he sings them of wars and wine But I in my leather and lace I can never become that kind I can't go back there anymore You know my keys won't fit the door You know my thoughts don't fit the man They never can they never can I had a king in a salt-rusted carriage Who carried me off to his country for marriage too soon Beware of the power of moons There's no one to blame No there's no one to name as a traitor here The king's on the road And the queen's in the grove till the end of the year I can't go back there anymore You know my keys won't fit the door You know my thoughts don't fit the man They never can they never can |
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2. |
| 3:41 | ||||
Michael wakes you up with sweets
He takes you up streets and the rain comes down Sidewalk markets locked up tight And umbrellas bright on a grey background There's oil on the puddles in taffeta patterns That run down the drain In colored arrangements That Michael will change with a stick that he found (CHORUS) Michael from mountains Go where you will go to Know that I will know you Someday I may know you very well Michael brings you to a park He sings and its dark when the clouds come by Yellow slickers up on swings Like puppets on strings hanging in the sky They'll splash home to suppers in wallpapered kitchens Their mothers will scold But Michael will hold you To keep away cold till the sidewalks are dry- (CHORUS) Michael leads you up the stairs He needs you to care and you know you do Cats come crying to the key And dry you will be in a towel or two There's rain in the window There's sun in the painting that smiles on the wall You want to know all But his mountains have called so you never do- (CHORUS) |
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3. |
| 2:30 | ||||
Light up light up
Light up your lazy blue eyes Moon's up nights up Taking the town by surprise Night time night time Day left an hour ago City light time Must you get ready so slow There are places to come from and places to go Night in the city looks pretty to me Night in the city looks fine Music comes spilling out into the street Colors go flashing in time Take off take off Take off your stay-at-home shoes Break off shake off Chase off those stay-at-home blues Stairway stairway Down to the crowds in the street They go their way Looking for faces to greet But we run on laughing with no one to meet Night in the city looks pretty to me Night in the city looks fine Music comes spilling out into the street Colors go waltzing in time |
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4. |
| 4:35 | ||||
Marcie in a coat of flowers
Steps inside a candy store Reds are sweet and greens are sour Still no letter at her door So she'll wash her flower curtains Hang them in the wind to dry Dust her tables with his shirt and Wave another day goodbye Marcie's faucet needs a plumber Marcie's sorrow needs a man Red is autumn green is summer Greens are turning and the sand All along the ocean beaches Stares up empty at the sky Marcie buys a bag of peaches Stops a postman passing by And summer goes Falls to the sidewalk like string and brown paper Winter blows Up from the river there's no one to take her To the sea Marcie dresses warm its snowing Takes a yellow cab uptown Red is stop and green's for going Sees a show and rides back down Down along the Hudson River Past the shipyards in the cold Still no letter's been delivered Still the winter days unfold Like magazines Fading in dusty grey attics and cellars Make a dream Dream back to summer and hear how he tells her Wait for me Marcie leaves and doesn't tell us Where or why she moved away Red is angry green is jealous That was all she had to say Someone thought they saw her Sunday Window shopping in the rain Someone heard she bought a one-way ticket And went west again |
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5. |
| 3:21 | ||||
I hired a coach to take me from confusion to the plane
And though we shared a common space I know I'll never meet again The driver with his eyebrows furrowed in the rear-view mirror I read his name and it was plainly written Nathan La Franeer I asked him would he hurry But we crawled the canyons slowly Thru the buyers and the sellers Thru the burglar bells and the wishing wells With gangs and girly shows The ghostly garden grows The cars and buses bustled thru the bedlam of the day I looked thru window-glass at streets and Nathan grumbled at the grey I saw an aging cripple selling Superman balloons The city grated thru chrome-plate The clock struck slowly half-past-noon Thru the tunnel tiled and turning Into daylight once again I am escaping Once again goodbye To symphonies and dirty trees With parks and plastic clothes The ghostly garden grows He asked me for a dollar more He cursed me to my face He hated everyone who paid to ride And share his common space I picked my bags up from the curb And stumbled to the door Another man reached out his hand Another hand reached out for more And I filled it full of silver And I left the fingers counting And the sky goes on forever Without meter maids and peace parades You feed it all your woes The ghostly garden grows |
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6. |
| 4:05 | ||||
Sisotowbell Lane
Noah is fixing the pump in the rain He brings us no shame We always knew that he always knew Up over the hill Jovial neighbours come down when they will With stories to tell Sometimes they do Yes sometimes we do We have a rocking chair Each of us rocks his share Eating muffin buns and berries By the steamy kitchen window Sometimes we do Our tongues turn blue Sisotowbell Lane Anywhere else now would seem very strange The seasons are changing Everyday in everyway Sometimes it is spring Sometimes it is not anything A poet can sing Sometimes we try Yes we always try We have a rocking chair Somedays we rock and stare At the woodlands and the grasslands and the badlands 'cross the river Sometimes we do We like the view Sisotowbell Lane Go to the city you'll come back again To wade through the grain You always do Yes we always do Come back to the stars Sweet well water and pickling jars We'll lend you the car We always do Yes sometimes we do We have a rocking chair Someone is always there Rocking rhythms while they're waiting with the candle in the window Sometimes we do We wait for you |
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7. |
| 5:04 | ||||
Peridots and periwinkle blue medallions
Gilded galleons spilled across the ocean floor Treasure somewhere in the sea and he will find where Never mind their questions there's no answer for The roll of the harbor wake The songs that the rigging makes The taste of the spray he takes And he learns to give He aches and he learns to live He stakes all his silver On a promise to be free Mermaids live in colonies All his seadreams come to me City satins left at home I will not need them I believe him when he tells of loving me Something truthful in the sea your lies will find you Leave behind your streets he said and come to me Come down from the neon nights Come down from the tourist sights Run down till the rain delights you You do not hide Sunlight will renew your pride Skin white by skin golden Like a promise to be free Dolphins playing in the sea All his seadreams come to me Seabird I have seen you fly above the pilings I am smiling at your circles in the air I will come and sit by you while he lies sleeping Fold your fleet wings I have brought some dreams to share A dream that you love someone A dream that the wars are done A dream that you tell no one but the grey sea They'll say that you're crazy And a dream of a baby Like a promise to be free Children laughing out to sea All his seadreams come to me |
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8. |
| 2:44 | ||||
PENANCE CRANE:
The pirate anchored on a Wednesday And why he came to port I wonder To see a lady so my friends say She dances for the sailors In a smoky cabaret bar underground Down in a cellar in a harbor town I know he told her love was treasure And they would reap the fullest bounty He only comes to port for pleasure So when the winds of morning Blew the curtains in she woke and found he'd gone I saw his sails unfurling Thursday dawn The pirate he will sink you with a kiss He'll steal your heart and sail away THE DANCER: Saturday early we met in the cove near the forest PENANCE: He'll leave you drowning in the flotsam Of a broken promise in the bay THE DANCER: (Dancing we wakened the dawn and the birds into chorus) PENANCE: He came again to see her Yes I think they told me it was Saturday THE DANCER: (Ask Penance Crane she was out in her garden she saw us) PENANCE: I was at sea then I didn't see them I don't believe what you are saying It isn't true I hardly knew him Is this some game that you are playing Go ask the dancer she's the one who saw him last The one who drew him here He hasn't come to me since spring last year There was a time when he would Bring me silks and sandalwood and Persian lace THE DANCER: (Then came another "goodbye" and another "Please don't go") PENANCE: And he would hold me close And tell my sailing stories by the fireplace THE DANCER: (All night I dance and all day I keep watch with my sorrow) PENANCE: I was at sea I tell you I was Nowhere near the mentioned murder place THE DANCER: (Searching for sails that don't come And I guess but I don't know) PENANCE: Go ask the dancer She knows the answer THE DANCER: I don't know PENANCE: She knows the answer THE DANCER: I don't know PENANCE: She knows the answer THE DANCER: I don't know |
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9. |
| 3:52 | ||||
Fly silly seabird
No dreams can possess you No voices can blame you For sun on your wings My gentle relations Have names they must call me For loving the freedom Of all flying things My dreams with the seagulls fly Out of reach out of cry I came to the city And lived like old Crusoe On an island of noise In a cobblestone sea And the beaches were concrete And the stars paid a light bill And the blossoms hung false On their store window trees My dreams with the seagulls fly Out of reach out of cry Out of the city And down to the seaside To sun on my shoulders And wind in my hair But sandcastles crumble And hunger is human And humans are hungry For worlds they can't share My dreams with the seagulls fly Out of reach out of cry I call to a seagull Who dives to the waters And catches his silver-fine Dinner alone Crying where are the footprints That danced on these beaches And the hands that cast wishes That sunk like a stone My dreams with the seagulls fly Out of reach Out of cry |
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10. |
| 4:39 | ||||
There's a man who's been out sailing,
in a decade full of dreams. And he takes her to a schooner, and he treats her like a queen. Bearing beads from California, with their amber stones and green. He has called her from the harbor, he has kissed her with his freedom, he has heard her off to starboard in the breaking and the breathing of the water weeds. While she was busy being free. There's a man who's climbed a mountain, and he's calling out her name, and he hopes her heart can hear, 3,000 miles he calls again, he can think her there beside him, he can miss her just the same. He has missed her in the forest, while he showed her all the flowers, and the branches sang the chorus, as he climbed the scaly towers of a forest tree. While she was somewhere being free. There's a man who sent a letter and he's waiting for her reply. He has asked her of her travels since the day they said goodbye. He writes, "Wish you were beside me, we could make it if we try." He has seen her at the office, with her name on all his papers, through the sharing of the profits, he will find it hard to shake her from these memories. And she's so busy being free. There's a lady, in the city, and she thinks she loves them all. There's the one who's thinking of her, There's the one who sometimes calls. There's the one who writes her letters, with his facts and figures scrawl. She has brought them to her senses, they have laughed inside her laughter. Now she rallies her defenses, for she fears that one will ask her for eternity. And she's so busy being free. There's a man who sends her medals, he is bleeding from the war. There's a jouster and a jester and a man who owns a store. There's a drummer, and a dreamer, and you know there may be more . She will love them when she sees them, they will lose her if they follow. And she only means to please them, and her heart is full and hollow like a cactus tree. While she's so busy being free. Like a cactus tree- Being free. |