Let’s have a drink at the Mission Rock Watch the Oakland lights Across the dry dock Watch the blue, blue sky Darken like an inhalation Over the graveyard of ships And your conversation
It’s sad when you try and manipulate me It’s sad ’cause I don’t love you that way anymore You’re worried if you remembered to use bleach on a needle Well so what So what So what So what
So we sit and watch the planes take off from Oakland and circle gracefully In a sky so royal and blue They flash their lights like a jewel In some pretentious crown Then vanish forever Hey, how’s your Margarita? You won’t be around very much longer
And all talk is useless It only makes us seem clever While nothing changes While nothing changes Nothing changes Nothing changes Not ever
If I could talk it out of you I would If I could beat it out of you I would But all I can do is Is follow stupidly behind And watch you walk To the ocean in your mind And there’s always more Always more ties you could sever And nothing changes While nothing changes While nothing changes And nothing changes Not ever
Well, haven't you seen that big sign Over on First and Seventh that says With words ten feet high and made of teeth "Oh reason not the need" and underneath Is a man doing an imitation of Satan But there is nothing evil in him He was just another saint that was made broken Next to an old doorway With a dark history of being left open
Saint Nicholas Left your toys again behind at the bar A silver gun Aome dollar bills A lump of coal And wolves howling at your door
A ceiling full of inflatable worlds And Xmas lights that spin all year round The question is always bigger than the answer It takes a nurse to ease you into your surrender As she smiles 'cause she knows you won't remember Things you should only be telling your mother As she counts you down, your drowned soul Tired and hard, defeated and getting mean And what's worse, the humiliations of a good time Or slipping into the routine Or for you is it All the same thing
Saint Nicholas Left your toys again at the bar A silver gun Some dollar bills A lump of coal Wolves howling at your door
Most people want to inhabit their lives Like ghosts and drift from room to room And brag about what imprisons them And wait for the sweep of a broom And written in the dust beneath your drink It says, “Deadness needs nothing to justify it” Like the ache that's crawling though your chest Needs nothing to amplify it
For years you wore the crown Now the wolves are hunting you down And you're dead serious in your face You're dead serious now Want someone to see you
Saint Nicholas The wolves all believe you Saint Nicholas The wolves all believe you
He’s always giving you free advice On ways you can avoid telling him no The game of survival Some play it far too well So much hate to make So much room in hell
And when he tells you you’re lucky You can’t tell its a lie You’re a figment of his vanity You’re a glint in his eye Even when he hurts you Well it all seems okay His beauty is always beyond you And somehow always gets in the way
You only have his rules to find justice with But babe they don’t include you They never did Evil wears a big smile Evil loves your mind Evil gets what it wants Evil leaves you behind
Are you the trash It left behind Are you the trash It left behind Are you the trash It left behind Are you the trash It left behind
The thinnest rope won't hang you It'll break and you'll be Just another pen stroke For the sunset Or the dawn Or the dawn
A little girl child of x or y Who doesn't speak Who doesn't know at least at the right time And that's all anybody wants Not angel wings Not invisible things
And everything's beautiful But babe not you or me
Like a tower ready to fall Spinning over the ground Like the gorilla ride There's moments and minutes There's seasons and there's dreams Glued onto dreams And everything's beautiful But babe not you or me And everything's beautiful But babe not you or me
You're the girl in the paperweight I barely know you You're so quiet Is there nothing In this weird perspective That'll let me breathe in The smell of Eden In your eternally open eyes I barely see you I barely see you
And everything's beautiful But babe not you or me Yeah everything's beautiful But babe not you or me I barely see you I barely see you I barely see you
This summer the sun was a shotgun pointed down at me And I was just another ugly American melting in the heat Watching the stagnant ocean breathe painfully It only wants to drag you down by your feet
No one swimming in the water No sharks, no eels, no little life boats Just a history lesson and some two bit Victorian ghosts Who do a turn at the pirate ship singing, “It's A Small World After All” Either you laugh at it, baby Or you hit a brick wall
You said to me “You're from California and you laugh too easily” You said to me “You just let things happen that are killing me”
We're like whitefish beached all day on hot parking lots Waiting for the summer parade to sadly drift by Melancholy floats filled with suicides and drooping paper flowers A defeated army and no wind to blow away the smell of surrender
There was '50s nostalgia and horrifying Flintstone characters Living memorials to wasted days and wasted bitter nights And everyone on the promenade participates in your silence Cause I'm always wrong, baby, and you're always right
You said to me “You're from California and you're as dumb as can be” You said to me “Are you the Scarecrow, the Tin Man or are you Dorothy” You said to me “I'm beginning to think that you're a part of the enemy” You said to me “If I was drowning would you save me from Southend-on-Sea” From Southend-on-Sea
There was a chamber of horrors and it was packed with onlookers Wax figured day trippers being tortured Worse than their crimes deserved And there I was in a stranglehold spinning out from your nightmare And my life with you was a black cloud hanging in the air
And you said to me “You're from California and you lie too easily” You said to me “Did you really think that this was going to set my heart free” You said to me “I'm beginning to think that you're a part of the enemy” Part of the enemy
You said to me, “If I was drowning would you save me from Southend-on-Sea” From Southend-on-Sea
Spec's almost drowned off the coast of California And started this museum To help the shipwrecked remember They grow quiet The sea grows colder Drinking the night away Burn bridges grow older
Kent worked at Spec's since 1970 Right after Haight Street finally choked on its own vomit An impartial smile made him a gentleman Some bartenders have the gift of pardon
A bar has a longer history than a country What keeps the moon chained Are ridiculous acts of faith And after a couple of drinks Visionary eyes all burn The drunks seem saint-like In their disillusion
Kent always knew the serious nature of a smile Knew the serious nature of the job he was given Never told himself there's only so much a man could take on Some bartenders have the gift of pardon
With the same old tape wearing out in the background Billie Holiday “Solitude” Or some sad old Irish folk songs You're not promised the moon Or lied to by its distractions You enter the world alone And that's the first and the last thing
It seems one night he was having a hard time falling asleep And found himself in an accidental shipwreck Dreaming he's still at the bar counting sheep The cold ocean threw its chains around his neck
Never have to worry about counterfeits at 2 a.m. 'Cause that's all there is 'Cause that's all there is Just some old poets drinking The last nightmare in And the comfort of the dark And being forgotten
Some bartenders have the gift of pardon Some bartenders have the gift of pardon
Is the pain they caused you your final destination it’s just going to make you hate your own reflection you try and endure it but you know you gotta give in tell me why such a cheap thing always hides the real thing
My love, though all you had was stolen, tell me will your heart always be broken
The little hero who threw away your life feeling hate and being proven right always looks into mirrors trying to see bullets instead of eyes sees a handsome devil who’s the spirit of the skies
Relax my love it’s just the gates of hell swinging open I hope your heart won’t always be broken
Hate seems like the sun in the heavens and there’s nowhere to run, no way to get even Just hide in the shadow of your own making and hold your head high, even if you’re faking
The goal I guess is to be like glass transparent to anyone looking through but our lives aren’t like that and once the glass is broken you do the best you can do
Relax my love though this time the world wasn’t joking I hope your heart won’t always be broken
I hope your heart won’t always be broken I hope your heart won’t always be broken Broken Will your heart always be broken always be broken
Inside he's empty A head filled with shopping lists and politics And a hollow eggshell kind of frailty Pulling himself back together like desperate wishes Into the wild sea that moans and boils Filled with old ghosts and a whole other language Uncoiling forever Indecent and foreign Welcome to the laws of decay The song of Darwin and dismay
The wild sea rises higher Heavier it rushes down on him It was invited, it was not unwelcome His fear was just a 60 watt silver lining Shining from the edges of his crying Teaching him its frozen prayers Distant as the next second Far as any distant land's future on the horizon He's laughing in the ocean Laughing in the ocean Laughing in the ocean All his life was a gesture A check paid in dirty dishes Listen to the sea wind, hear how it hisses As it rolls over all your vain petty wishes And your sweet passionate kisses
The wild, wild sea Forever dumb, it has no memory Just a replay of your complicated amnesty As it rolls over rocks and weed breaking your birdcage And your poet's pages And all your drowned words That were just death threats and unpaid debts And leaves you breathless and peaceful for a while And you think your heart is without hate for a while And you think your soul is without hate for a while And your body was an animal that loved to hide See the source of your heart buried deep in the tide See the source of your heart singing from the tide Lonely joy Lonely joy Tears of joy The source of your heart deep in the undertow Hidden tongues and hidden hands pulling you from below To the source of your pain The source of your pain in the undertow
It's hot and it's humid but the rain won't fall Thunder cracks but the rain is stuck And the wind blows cool And wet And smells like the flu And rests a cool hand on your forehead A comfort instead of a cure And the I-280 on-ramp lights turn on And I can feel the speed building
Denial is what you bought So you'll never be caught The storm just hangs like it's dumb Unable or unwilling
A little girl with a white rosary Calling to heaven to take her away From the trap that life turned out to be And from the trap she only wanted Jesus to see 'Cause you're damned by the things you don't see
A touch that vanity undermines A strength lost in the flicker of disbelief A poem that can't contain its awful rhymes In shadow like a thief
And now I walk careful And quiet Wherever I go The secret business of a spy So no one will ever see or know
A little girl with a white rosary Calling to heaven to take her away From the trap that life turned out to be From the trap she only wanted Jesus to see She was damned by the things she couldn't see
When my plane finally goes down I hope it falls into the sea And then the freezing clean water it will Wash away whatever's left of me
These sweet breezes blowing here Roosevelt Hotel, Hollywood, USA Could dissolve the tissue paper around my heart Spring the trap door and watch it fall away
And your love is all I have to take with me And your love is all I'll have to take with me
When my plane finally goes down I hope it falls into the sea And then the cold and the hard love of the tides Finally make sense to me
And your love is all I'll have to take with me And your love is all I'll have to take with me And your love and your love
The people I was with said you were Nothing but a fag hag and a dope fiend But the song of your eyes Was of the loneliest woman I've ever seen We talked drunkenly at the bar I thought there's a sweetness here The world is missing You just got fired and now you're out High and drunk and celebrating
Cleopatra Jones If they don't see you then they're blind Cleopatra Jones Liquor and love and everything that's kind
Always kind to strangers But you know enough never to look back You never know if they're about to Pour salt in the knife wound on your back People in this bar are all smiles But that doesn't mean they'll give you The air you need to breathe When the show's over They'll take a big part of you When they decide to leave
Cleopatra Jones She can kung fu just like Hercules Cleopatra Jones Leaves evil men on their knees
Cleopatra only answers to a higher source from above A sensitivity to bright light And an unfounded belief in love And a soul a little bigger A little bigger than politeness can endure Lighter than air and harder to hold And much much bluer Much bluer
Cleopatra Jones Is in exile with a lot of class Cleopatra Jones Teach me how to kick a little ass Cleopatra Jones Scales of justice under her head wrap Cleopatra Jones Crown of thorns, wears it like a nightcap
Your warm embraces thrill me in your arms I fall like a star rain or shine come what may in your arms the cold seems far away
And there's no safety in this world I have no time for good luck charms but I still long for your touch 'cause I know I'm saved I know I'm saved I know I'm saved I know I'm saved in your arms
An empty heart is like an empty house filled with old ghosts and little else and secrets that everyone but me knows that without love nothing grows
And there's no safety in this world I have no time for good luck charms but I still long for your touch 'cause I know I'm saved I know I'm saved I know I'm saved I know I'm saved in your arms in your arms
I don't think about consequences I only know what my heart senses and it pulls me like an arrow straight to you love it pulls me to what is true love
And there's no safety in this world I have no time for good luck charms but I still long for your touch 'cause I know I'm saved I know I'm saved I know I'm saved I know I'm saved I know I'm saved I know I'm saved in your arms in your arms in your arms
There are pools across the tidal plain That look like white sheets draped across The vacuum beyond our conversation The thread of our lives unraveling
Always turning away Away Away
The tide makes all our decisions for us It breathes just like a pearl accordion The water softly inches for your eyes Kisses the soft skin under your disguise
Under the sun we flood across the shallows And lay on our backs Gleaming like liquid pearls The wind and the light Give us up a show of hands Gives us to any justice that'll have us
Now I'm out walking On Saturday morning Without a direction I'm a dime a dozen A worthless tourist A walking target
With his eyes stuck On glue and paper No roof to crawl under But with a heart full of rain A heart full of rain
Full as the clouds My throwaway map Should throw me away And where does it take me Streets long since flooded Raindrops and heartbeats Though Noah doesn't want me You won't let me drown
I don't need to see you I just need to feel you When we make love Feel you in the dark Feel you in the future When we make love
Up in heaven Do we make 'em burn up? Or do they ignore us? Bigger fish to fry
Waiting with the others At the Sacre-Cœur Many different colors From all over the world Here in the City of Love No one wants me here But I remember The sweet things we did together When we made love
Saturday morning Waiting with the others Listening to Messiaen Waiting in the dark At the Sacre-Cœur The future doesn't matter Nothing lasts but the dark Where we feel love
Track me down and I'll give you My pomegranate heart My throwaway heart Track me down and stop me I'm ripe enough for the terror That lies at the center of my heart's desire
I'm always alone I'm always alone I'm always alone I'm always alone And I don't want to be Always alone
With the music of life, my soul is out of tune, And I feel like I'm growing old much too soon, My love for you, I just couldn't convey, And the keys to my happiness, I let slip away. Now I'm a man without a dream, I've got a heart that has no hope, All my senses are numb, Losing you, I've become, A man (I'm just a man) without a dream. Instead of striving to reach my goals and my aims I got distracted with meaningless games, For just an illusion, I traded love that was real, Now my eyes cannot see and my heart cannot feel. Now I'm a man without a dream, I've got a heart that has no hope, All my senses are numb, Losing you, I've become, A man (I'm just a man) without a dream. Sometimes I think I'm a prisoner of fate, Doomed to find out things a little too late, And so I must play this broken man's role, Unless you come home, girl, and bring back my soul. 'Cause I'm a man without a dream, I've got a heart that has no hope, All my senses are numb, Losing you, I've become, A man (I'm just a man) without a dream, Without a dream, Without a dream.
On the freeway The traffic fixed in front of me Like a still-life I don't want to survive
I can't stay in between the lines With my hands held just so I watch the sky and a silent race As fast as you can go
I forgot there was such a thing As good people left Can't you just save my life?
I got a fresh screwdriver Right before closing time I got a fresh screwdriver Right before closing time
A quote from the architect That designed the slums Said, “Beauty just don't matter It's a function of form” I said, “Yes, you're right, you're right You must be right Your truth is part of a bigger lie That sews our lives up tight.”
And I forgot there was such a thing As good people left Can't you just save my life?
I got a fresh screwdriver Right before closing time I got a fresh screwdriver Right before closing time
Set me up For my last breath I watch you wave your hands over a top hat Boring me to death
I got a fresh screwdriver Right before closing time I got a fresh screwdriver So what if I'm dying? I got a fresh screwdriver Right before closing time
Ain't no sunshine when she's gone. It's not warm when she's away. Ain't no sunshine when she's gone And she's always gone too long anytime she goes away.
Wonder this time where she's gone, Wonder if she's gone to stay Ain't no sunshine when she's gone And this house just ain't no home anytime she goes away.
And I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know Hey, I ought to leave the young thing alone, But ain't no sunshine when she's gone, only darkness everyday. Ain't no sunshine when she's gone, And this house just ain't no home anytime she goes away.
Anytime she goes away. Anytime she goes away. Anytime she goes away. Anytime she goes away.
원죄와도 같은 고독을 끌어안고 노래하는 한 남자가 있다. 24살이 되던 해 American Music Club(이하 AMC)을 결성하고 온 몸으로 부딪히며 12년간 밴드 활동을 하였다. 그리고 94년 AMC의 해산 후 [60 Watt Silver Lining](96)로서 공식적인 솔로 데뷔를 한 그는 2001년, [West](97)와 [Caught in a Trap and I Can't Back Out 'Cause I Love You Too Much, Baby](98)에 이은 4번째 정식 앨범 [The Invisible Man]을 들고 돌아왔다.AMC 시절부터 악명 높았던 무대 매너는 밴드의 평을 극과 극으로 갈라놓았고 앨범 [Mercury]와 [Everclear]가 호평을 받으며 슬로/새드 코어계의 컬트적...
