- Carbon-Dated Love
- Keep It In A Bottle
- In the Garden
- Yolo County Airport
- Highway Down
- Hallowed Ground
- Environmental Children of the Future
- Ever Since the Grid Went Down
- Pale and Troubled Race
- The Salty Sea
- Getting Home Tonight
- Open Door
- Never Alive
- Good and Foolish Times
Carbon-Dated Love
From Topanga to the sea
You took a walk with me
To be free
To be free
Halfway down the trail
We were sprung from our jail
I see a whale
You fill your pail
With the spirits of the bees
And the heat above the trees
You love flowers
You feel their powers
This old fern is our friend
Our love will never end
Carbon dated love
Tragedies unfold
My heart’s made out of coal
Carbon dated love
And there’s a fossil of a fern
When we open up the earth
Still glowing green
Down in the seam
There’s 300 years of coal
But it took so long to grow
Black as pitch
It flipped the switch
And in the dungeon down below
A forgotten miner’s glove
Waits its turn
Just like the fern
This old fern is our friend
Our love will never end
Carbon dated love
Tragedies unfold
My heart’s made out of coal
Carbon dated love
It started in the sun
But when we were done
The shade had taken hold
Under cottonwood trees
The wet canyon breeze
Mud seeps through our clothes
When we finally reached the shore
There stood an oaken door
Out in the foam, calling us home
Finally feeling brave
We stepped into the waves
We stepped right through
Me and you
This old fern is our friend
Our love will never end
Carbon dated love
Tragedies unfold
My heart’s made out of coal
Carbon dated love
Keep It In A Bottle
Well we walked fast and we walked slow
We saw a bear and a buffalo
Dry grasses up to our knees
You said, have you been hearing about the bees?
I said yes I have but that’s all right
Nothing can stop the blue of the sky
To which you made a wordless reply
You reached to the earth and you reached to the sky
Handful of dirt and a handful of sky
you said
Let’s keep it in a bottle
Let’s keep it in a bottle
We found a flower
On top of the ridge
You said it looks like a natural bridge
You took a photo and you picked it too
You said it looks a little bit like you
And then you said
Let’s keep it in a bottle
Let’s keep it in a bottle
Let’s keep it in a bottle
Let’s keep it in a bottle
Then a cloud laid a soft and purple glow on the rock and the feather
And the cool of a new Montana rain claimed the weather
and the line of the ridge and the peak
tied us together
Then the July sun hit the yellow hills
Soul connection is such a thrill
102 and there ain’t no shade
My tiny shadow is a window pane
You said
The hills are dry
The hills are ripe
The hills can bring on
A lifetime
So give it to me
Give it to me now
Water from your well
Let’s keep it in a bottle
Then a cloud laid a soft and purple glow on the rock and the feather
And the cool of a new Montana rain claimed the weather
and the line of the boulder and the creak
tied us together
In the Garden
Well the botanist and the astrophysicist
Got into a terrible fight
The flowers trembled and some stars fell from the sky
And the snakes watched silently
The bees imperious from their place in the divine
As ambitious noise from urban toys
Bothered paradise again
In the garden
The world is still a tree
In the garden
The lilies in the field
In the garden
Consider you and me
My three masted schooner was loaded for sea
With a load of lumber to trade for tea
But the harbormaster said your passage is not free
Then the breeze blew in from SMC
And the quad was filled with brilliant teens
Drawing fabulous fire through invisible wire
And I joined them in the trees
CHORUS
CO2 is bringing weather like this town has never seen
October thunderheads are black and red on Sunset in a dream
Two Angelinos in gray hoodies are jacked up about the rain
The farmer’s market in EP has an organic ex-Marine
He sorely wants to meet my dad to talk of 1953
Now all ye hunters and ye gatherers prepare
For wild blue wandering
Wild blue wandering
Yolo County Airport
I’m drunk, I’m stoned, and I’m tired
but pretty soon I’m gonna be wired
On the love from the crowd
that makes me feel so proud
I’m flying in to the Yolo County Airport
Well we got a big gig at the Palms in Winters tonight
Everybody in the crowd is feeling all right
We were hanging with Mick and Keith
on Ibiza just last week
Now were flying in to the Yolo Country Airport
If you want to fly high all right
flying in to Yolo County tonight
If you want to fly high well alright
baby I’m coming home to you tonight
Well we Hawks finally caught our break
after seven long years thinking it was all just a big mistake
Now were caught in a bidding war
our picture’s on the wall at the Apple Store
We’re flying in to the Yolo County Airport
CHORUS
We partied hard in the Tyson family yard
Playing catch and release with the chicken and geese
Out in the pond there’s a lot going on
It’s not flat at all, there’s a 20 ft elevation we can see it all
Well our big jet plane hit a bad pocket of air
we dropped like a rocket woke up in the docket
of the repossession hearing
they were taking away the Yukon
cuz we couldn’t pay Barbossa
when the transfer case was broken
see the deal that was sub rosa
went awry in Mariposa
Still we’re flying in to the Yolo County Airport
CHORUS
Highway Down
Highway how much I need you
Highway wind across the land
Take me away from all my troubles
Give me my two feet on the ground
Big Sandy Mountain’s there to welcome me
Sweet desolation highway 93
Lay my bag out on the Carson Sink
I can’t be 1000 miles from anything
Oh won’t you take my down easy
Bring me all the way down
Oh won’t you take my down easy
Bring me all the way down
Oh won’t you take my down easy
Bring me all the way down
I could get addicted to the Highway Down
I get all up in my head too much
Stressed out about things that were said and such
I should be lying in my bed till dusk
A bed of flowers overlooking the San Joaquin
CHORUS
I’m gonna heal my afflictions on the highway down
Lord knows I love this Valley
Though it’s as wounded as an alley
I see the weddings and the rodeos and the worn out fields
From a bed of flowers overlooking the San Joaquin
CHORUS
I could be addicted to the Highway Down
Talking to my devil on the Highway Down
Getting on the level on my Highway Down
Dig my grave with a shovel
on the Highway Down
Hallowed Ground
Hallowed ground was burning up my feet
I was standing out in your street
Right beneath your window
Watching your candles glow
Hallowed ground was burning up my soul
I was halfway up the telephone pole
I was calling out your name
That hallowed ground will never be the same
Hallowed ground, hallowed ground
I’m standing making not a sound
Hallowed ground, hallowed ground
We got to get back on hallowed ground
Well the romance went the usual way
You’re in the kitchen with nothing left to say
There’s a child and a mortgage sleeping in our bed
I’m wide awake with these worries in my head
After all the poems and the plans
The recipes, the documents, the wedding bands
Put Mike Stinson on the stereo
These two lonely hearts need a place to go
CHORUS
Little bird outside our window
You said listen, he never sings the same
We listened for hours and hours
Little bird flew us away to
Our hallowed ground where our story began
Let’s make breakfast with our hallowed pots and pans
The ridge has got a dusting of snow
Let’s pack up the little one and go
Cause the little one has never seen the snow
CHORUS
Environmental Children of the Future
The environmental children of the future
Are making green plans for tomorrow
The environmental children of the future
Don’t need to steal or borrow
From their grandchildren’s rain
From their grandchildren’s sun
From their grandchildren’s mountain
The way that we have done
The environmental children of the future
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
The environmental children of the future
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
The environmental children
There’s a willowy lass who was first in her class
At the architecture school in the city
With recycled materials she built towers filled with dreams
Based on the pattern of a spinning falling leaf
After graduation she moved away to Maine
Now she’s building hay bale shelters in the cold October rain
CHORUS
Well the hundred year floods came in September
Then the hundred year floods came in November
And the hurricanes and flames came down on the plains
And the children of the future said “remember!”
CHORUS
The environmental children of the future
Took their elders by the hand
They said the earth is a self-regulating organism
Let us help you understand
And the willowy lass lay down on the grass
Singing prayers for the Great Barrier Reef
And the sky overhead was her feathery bed
Now floating freely like a spinning falling leaf
CHORUS
Ever Since the Grid Went Down
Went back to smoking Marlboro Reds
Now I don’t worry about getting dead
I sleep when I’m tired and I eat when I can
I’m finally living like an honest man
Like an honest man
Out in my back yard I set up my TV
I painted it with symbols like it was 800 BC
Got down on my knees and prayed to this God
Got up on my roof and covered it with sod
Covered it with sod
Ever since the grid went down
I’m through acting like a clown
I sleep when the sun goes down
Ever since the grid went
Ever since the grid went down
I killed a man for batteries
I killed a man for gas
I almost killed a soldier for talking to fast
Talking too fast
I use my Telecaster to paddle my boat
My G5 tower’s a milking stool
For milking my goat
I go fishing in the reservoir and forage in the dump
I charge admission to my Andy Gump
To my Andy Gump
CHORUS
Caught my neighbor tapping into my well
Loaded up my sling shot and sent him to hell
Now his wife is my wife and his whiskey too
His three little children are sewing my shoes
I gotta hit the mountains for some winter meat
Feed my brand new family a tasty treat
Oh it may sound wicked but the logic is sound
Ever since the grid went, Ever since the grid went
Ever since the grid went, Ever since the grid went
Down
Pale and Troubled Race
We took a little trip with Tony and Kip
Far across the sea
To our fathers’ land with their troubled stand
In the world’s great comedy
And the garrison stood like trees in the woods
Midst the hunters and the prey
We shook off the fright, sparked up a light
Back to Amerikay
The pale and troubled race
Finding a home in this golden place
The pale and troubled race
North of the Tyne my ancient mind
Woke inside of me
The air on my skin was like an old friend
Just like a memory
And the blood that was spilled in these green and gray hills
Flows inside of me
I stand in the water and look at my daughter
In the shadows of the family tree
CHORUS
In the Belladrum wild we discovered our tribe
All the colorful tents in the meadows
From the teepees rose a blue peat smoke
And the whisky did flow from the river
And we sang of the Golden Girl
And the dancers did twist and swirl
in the muddy black summer soil
we were oh so alive and our spirits did thrive
on the edge of the Arctic circle
The pale and troubled race
Finding my home in this golden place
And I take a taste
And the first one’s strange
and the second is plain
and the third gets better
and the hills in grow wetter
with the mists in the heather
and I climb with my daughter
to the falling water
and the sky overhead
is purple and red
and I sing what I said
diddle di de de dode de di
diddle do de di diddle de di
The Salty Sea
The shallow blue Pacific
And the continental shelf
Soon gave way to the black and gray
Of the mid-sea trenches with their scaly wenches
And their tales of the mountain elf
Tales of the mountain elf
Me oh my, there’s a tear in my eye
Big as the salty sea
Come on down, we’ll all drown
Down in the salty sea
They laughed and they danced and they fiddled
They sang their ancient songs
They pulled me into the circle
And said laddy, come along
The black and the gray did soon give way
To the tops of the waves and the sun dappled caves
On the volcanic sands of a virgin land
In the 18th century
In the 18th century
Five hundred nights of drinking
With my dancing fairy friends
I came out of the fog of the gentry’s grog
Woke up in the sand of Van Dieman’s land
In a planter’s chains with a brand new name
And they yoked me to the plow
They yoked me to the plow
I burned the eucalyptus
And I carried off the stones
For fourteen years I worked the fields
And my fingers to the bone
And then one night the planter
Plucked me from my toil
He said I understand you’re a dancing man
And fast with a fiddle, and smack in the middle of
The parlor I lept for the Queen
I lept for the visiting Queen
Well the planter he was very well pleased
And kind disposed to me
He invited me in to his cozy den
For cigars and porter and the social order
Was the topic of his drunken screed
The topic of his drunken screed
And he told me:
It took slavery to tame these wild lands
It took slavery to train ten thousand hands
To redirect the river
To build the Grand Canal
The cotton fields, the pyramids, the well
Now I ask you to forgive me
For I struck a devil’s deal
My sheets are clean on this packet of steam
For the Cape I am bound and Dublin town
With southern gold in the bottom of the hold
And my star crossed soul to trade for a load
Of Fenian rebels and Carlow boys
And a captain I will be
Yes a captain I will be
CHORUS
Getting Home Tonight
I’ve been hanging on to a dream
I’ve slept in the dirt for a week
Jerry’s gone but his guitar’s still ringing
I have followed sights and sounds
I have froze on Hunger Mountain
Telluride was kind and we were singing
And the tattered unbowed tribe
Can be found from time to time
Will you share this bowl with me I think it’s raining
Well the campus was a breeze
But I have fled into the trees
Where the wanderers look down upon the city
She said I wonder how I’m getting home tonight
She had a sleeping bag and a sweet and subtle smile
She handed a tab to me
And I simply had to agree
I wonder how I’m getting home tonight
We were lying in the sand
And God reached down his hand
And said I now pronounce you Wanderer and Rainbow
And the sun electrified the park
Like a shaman kept in the dark
We witnessed the rise of the sun for the very first time
I said do what you will to me
Take me, take me, take me
Let me climb your glorious rainbow to my awakening
She said I wonder how I’m getting home tonight
She had a sleeping bag and a sweet and subtle smile
She handed her heart to me
And I simply had to agree
I wonder how I’m getting home tonight
Let me climb your glorious rainbow to my awakening
Let me climb your glorious rainbow to my awakening
to my awakening
to my awakening
…
Open Door
I’m not gonna sit around
Talk about how you let me down
I’m not gonna drown myself in tears
I’m gonna walk right through that open door
I’m going to leave you behind the open door
Call my name, I won’t come back no more
I’m going to leave you behind the open door
I’m gonna leave you behind the open door
How can you look me straight in the eye
Tell me that you love me
Tell me that you’ll try
I swore to myself that I’d be good
But seeing you to night is making me
So damn confused
CHORUS
I’m not going to be untrue
For anyone, not even you
I’ve got better things to do
Than sit around and be blue
On you
Never Alive
There’s a breathless view painted blue
And I cannot be true, not like you
So I walk away, everyday
Let the years explain my lovely pain
I throw a rock into the water
and no ripples arrive
like the snow up on the mountain
I was never alive
I know you’re strong as we circle the pond
Smell the cabin fire, snap the ice on the wire
And you run ahead, on a cold white bed
Down the orchard row, frozen apples in the snow
I throw a rock into the water
and no ripples arrive
like the snow up on the mountain
I was never alive
And it’s just one night, watching embers die
And your hand’s so warm, as we weather the storm
There’s a breathless view, painted blue
And I cannot be true, I’m not like you
I want to walk to the sunrise
Let the mountain decide
Let the searchers discover
I was never alive
I throw a rock into the water
and no ripples arrive
like the snow up on the mountain
I was never alive
Good and Foolish Times
Red canyon walls and waterfalls
On my color TV
Late night call
Grab your shawl
You’re 800 miles away from me
Didn’t we have some good times
Some good and foolish times
Didn’t we have some good and foolish times
Didn’t we take some long rides
Some long and winding rides
Didn’t we take some long and winding rides
Goddam this telephone
Now I’m feeling more alone
I can’t call you again
I break down and drive all day
Sunset on the Great Salt Lake
I knew I’d find you at the Red Iguana Café
CHORUS
Then we have our same old fight
Underneath the disco lights
You’re out the door and then
Clear corn liquor in a jar
Locked in my brother’s car
Bet we’ll do it all again
CHORUS