LYRICS - HERE LIES EMPTY ORCHESTRA
I Forget
when my eyes got used to the dark
there wasn't much to see
the inside of my head is not the museum that it should be
it's as if I didn't know my own song
but it seems familiar, and I try to play along
when the string goes slack and then springs right back
and I forget
i forget
it must have rained for my face to be so wet
unless something happened somewhere that I forget
there was a fire somewhere off the road
and I knew because I saw the smoke
and my eyes don't lie to me, at least I think they don't
there's a cure for everything
and we might need them all
we need dramamine for traveling
and valium for the funeral
and I forget...
these moments only last for so long
so so long and so on
and may we all remember how these moments feel after they're gone
and by the time that we all wake up, in wherever that might be
all the fine things we did the nights before
will be some kind of memory
and I forget...
Always Already
I heard you can't go home again
And god, I hope that's wrong
Or is it that I just don't recognize anywhere I'm from?
We're always already here and always already gone.
Or maybe they don't recognize me
Because nobody's where they used to be
And this driving all the time can go to hell
And however these words rebel
This song is always already here and always already
Gone away, with everything you ever wanted to say
Do you still talk like a sailor when you're alone in the house?
Do you give a fuck about anything? Do you remember how?
Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?
We couldn't find anything better to do
Than think about questions that we already knew the answers to
Like the meaning of it all
And how to get to Carnegie Hall
We're always already standing and always all ready to fall
So say everything you ever wanted to say
Say it all
We're always already here and always already ...
Vaudeville Tears
well this is a long drive
with nothing to think about besides...
i'm ready to get better now
i swear at least i'll try
and how the world around me rings
my heart is done good by the strangest things
and these hands here are lost without you
they depend on the devil now for something to do
and they try, but they don't get very far
they just manhandle strings on electric guitars
memories, they blow through me
like tumbleweeds or like air through a reed
and this is the sound they all make
and this is where the pianos might come in,
but I don't play.
i'm so happy, I could break down and cry
i was blue before, but now I can't remember why
and these vaudeville tears, well they aren't really here
i just conjured them up for the show
they're all just from memory, you know.
This Heart is a Monster
This heart is a monster
It's made from things we've robbed from graves
And put together with things that should've been left to rest
Poorly sewn, this invention
Was shocked to life, and now it threatens
At any moment, to come apart at the seams
Wielding torches and pitchforks
The village took to the street
Wild with fear of what they might meet
And they were right to be so afraid
They called it a witch, and condemned it to burn at the stake
And now we're all safe
This heart is a vampire
And a demon, and a zombie, and a werewolf
If you're not careful, it might turn on you at night
And this heart begs forgiveness
For what the body around it turns into
I hope the monster in you might have some compassion for mine
Wielding torches and pitchforks
The village took to the street
Wild with fear of what they might meet
And they were right to be so afraid
They called it a witch, and condemned it to burn at the stake
And now we're all safe
Words and Music
It's like a sickness, it's like an obsession for us
At least, I thought it was
One foot tells the other one which way to go
It's amazing, the things that these muscles know
And things I forget, my body remembers...
I hoped the road would rise up to meet me
And so it rose, and swallowed me whole
I know every inch of these hundreds of miles
And I hate every one, but I'm making good time
And things I forget, I'm bound to remember
They rattle my bones like chains on a ghost
Let's hope there's a place in the world
A place left for both of us
And let's hope when we get there we find things
That words and music can't touch
A pencil and paper won't cure what ails you
But it might be a start, so says my heart
And it's like a sickness, it's like an obsession for us, they say
And maybe someday we will look all these songs in the eyes and we'll yell
"You keep your god damned hands to yourself!"
let's hope there's a place in the world
a place left for all of us
and let's hope when we get there, we find things
that words and music can't touch
that words and music cannot fuck up
that words and music can't touch
What Do We Want? When Do We Want It?
"Gather 'round workers"
Is how this should go,
Though nobody thinks that means them
That won't make us younger or any less deeper in debt
We post all these signs to remember things by
While the meaning behind disappears
There's a sign in a field saying sometime, something had happened here
They tore down the machining plant
And paved the river
And we still believe in smokestacks here - go figure...
And it will take more than iron and lightbulbs to help us get better.
Politicians say "hope" and say "family"
And I don't even know what that means.
There's a man over here, says this race is about "opportunity."
What do we want? Some damn food in our mouths.
When do we want it? Now.
City hall is concerned with making rich people feel safe downtown.
When we're here to sing, who's there listening?
And who's there to bargain with now?
It's hard to sit down when the ground has been sold away anyhow.
What do we want? Some better questions to ask.
When do we want it? Now.
And we'll march in the streets just as soon as we figure them out.
It Gets Better
there's no such thing as trains anymore
virginia, that's the cold hard truth
stop all your crying now, we don't have much use for
those things long gone
those dinosaurs went quietly unto their great reward
the day that we left, I don't know what I expected,
it was just the middle of another summer day
and everyone we knew wasn't gathered on the corner
waving as we drove away
and it seemed strange...
strange, the effort standing still can take
and it's strange what I expected of the world in the first place.
our bodies and history get braided together,
and it's strange how it gets better
it gets better...
there's no such thing as trains anymore
virginia, that's the cold hard truth
stop all your crying now, we don't have much use for
those things we'll never see
they went coughing smoke into some yellow page of history
put two fingers to your wrist and then concentrate
count the seconds pass away
feel it pound at the gates and try to escape
but your skin keeps it safe and contained
and it gets better...
it gets better...
Like Pianos
I'm cutting the rope that holds up this song
And it falls like pianos to the sidewalk below
The set of the movie comes down around me
Until a window surrounds me,
and aren't I lucky?
And I keep saying "I," as if I were telling a story
As if I had an interest in whatever comes next
As if whatever came next would be fine
I'm jumping the first train out of this song
And I'll be damned in the first place for staying this long
And this is what hangs from the stick across my back
And if I took it all with me, I believe I'd be sick.
And I can't stand the trip
Because it's just like I was telling the story
And this is a story of trying hard
And the ending gets worse every time that I start.
World on a String
Have you heard the one about the priest in a boat
Or the horse that walks into a bar?
You've got to tell me if you know how this one goes,
You've got to stop me if you've heard it before.
I'm taking everything that ain't nailed down
And I'm leaving all the rest for dead
And I need another punch line to another joke
Like I need another hole in my head.
I've got a black dress coat and some songs I wrote
And I'm headed to the city on a greyhound coach
And all the hard luck, man it don't mean a thing
Because I've got the world on a string
How many of you does it take to screw in a light
and tell us all what you saw?
We all know the way to dig a hole to China, or find a way to Carnegie Hall.
Don't take me to a hospital
Because I don't need that now
Ain't nothing in a hospital
But sick folks anyhow.
I've got a black dress coat and some songs I wrote
On a boat that's headed out to sea
There'll be no more coming home to no one
And no one coming home to me.
Someone Else's Grace
I feel my chest rattle so
Though without the thousand cigarettes my grandmother smoked
And this prize was won through the things we've done
In all those deadly buildings where we were when we were young.
And there but for the grace of god goes
God's grace seems unreliable, so who the fuck knows?
We put ears to paper cones and secrets to megaphones
It was dark when I left, and it was dark by the time that I got home.
It's like some T.V. Christmas miracle
With impossible snow
And you think this feeling goes away - but it don't.
May we all make it out of here alive and safe
And be delivered from the jaws of death
By someone else's grace
For a change.
Lonesome
I've got to get a piece of road behind me
And give up on all of this sin
And buy into Jesus
Goodbye, hard times.
I'm going where you all can't find me.
Goodbye, state line
And thank you all for a good time.
But I won't be lonesome anymore.
I won't be lonesome anymore.
