Bright Eyes

[fox69]

"It's Cool, We Can Still Be Friends"

"It's Cool, We Can Still Be Friends"


Yeah, you still kiss me, but it's just on the cheek
Yeah, you still kiss me, but it's just on the cheek
Yeah, you still kiss me sometimes, but it's just on the cheek
You pull away so easily

And I still call you, but I get your machine
And I still call you, but I get your machine
And if I'm lucky I guess, I get your roommate answering
But you're at the bar, or at Gene's

And we go to dinner, but you won't hold my hand
We sit at the same table, but we don't play with our feet
Yeah, we still go to dinner sometimes, but we don't sneak a kiss
When the waitress turns around

And we still watch movies, but we don't share the couch
And we still rent movies, but we don't share the couch
Yeah, we still watch movies sometimes, but you don't lay in my lap
The plot is slow, take a nap

And you even stay over, but now we stay in our clothes
Yeah, you'll even sleep over, but now we stay in our clothes
Yeah, you even sleep over sometimes, but we stay in our clothes
I'm only there so that you're not alone

And you say that I hurt you, in a voice like a prayer
Yeah, you say that I've hurt you, and your voice is like a prayer
Yeah, well maybe I hurt you sometimes, but let's contrast and compare
Lift up your shirt, the wound isn't there

I guess that your truth, is just the ghost of your lies
I guess your kind of truth, is just the ghost of your lies
Yeah, your kind of truth, darling, is just the ghost of your lies
I see through them all the time
So I'm pouring some whiskey, I'm gonna get drunk
Yeah, I'm pouring myself some whiskey, I'm going to get really fucking drunk
I'm pouring some whiskey right now, I'm going to get so, so drunk
That I pass out, forget your face, by the time I wake up.

 

[fox69]

"Jejune Stars"

"Jejune Stars"


Every new day is a gift, it's a song of redemption
Any expression of love is the way to return
To that place that I think of so often, but now never mention
The one the voice in the back of my head says that I don't deserve

Come fire, come water, come karma
We're all in transition
The wheel I'm becoming erases the physical mind
Until all that remains is a staircase of misinformation
And the code we inherit, the basis, the essence of life

So I go, umbrella under my arm
Into the green of the radar
How'd it get so dark in the day?
It's just so bizarre
Is it true what we're made of?
Why do I hide from the rain?

Inside's so cloudy, nostalgia
But there are no features
Look at ourselves through a porthole
The passage of time
See that sunny day that we snuck out, hid under the bleachers
Kissed as the band marched
Everything fell into line

So I go, umbrella under my arm
Into the green of the radar
How'd I get so lost? I'm amazed
It's just so bizarre
All the things I'm afraid of
Why do I hide from the rain?

Sure I have my doubts
But I know it now
We are Jejune stars
So it starts again
At our childhood's end
I'll die young at heart

So I go, umbrella under my arm
Into the green of the radar
How'd it get so dark in the day?
It's just so bizarre
If it's true what we're made of
Why do I hide from the rain?

 

[fox69]

"Jetsabel Removes The Undesireables"

"Jetsabel Removes The Undesireables"


My brother finds comfort in calculators.
He assigns every number a name.
He believes that they add up to certainty and he is upset with fractions that remain.
So I examine these maps with my eyes and at best I can trace with my
Finger all the way to that town where she went an attempt to forget the cracks and the lines of my face.

So Jetsabel cleaned out the closets for me and she piled the boxes in the hall.
Tomorrow when she wakes she'll come take them away and they will never haunt me again.
But it is still hard to sleep with the moons heavy beams.
I run barefoot to the backyard, just to freeze in my place by the rod iron gate, too afraid and ashamed to advance.

Today I walked through the snow and found a field of headstones.
They were in rows like the weeks on calendars where each box is a day that you can never escape, without pills or the poison of sleep.
These memories leak from these faucets that weep.
Hot tears splash against the shower floor and I stand in the steam as if inside a dream--
I can see her again by the sink from behind the bathroom mirror she pulls a thermometer and placed it under my tongue.

She said "you are as pale as a sheet, you look awful my sweet lay down and wait for the sun."
So I stayed in that bed. She brought me water and read each night from a volume out loud.
She whispered soft poetry.
Her favorite was Anabel Lee.
And those words, like these drugs comforted me.
But the clocks kept waving their hands and she could not understand why my temperature would never drop.
And although she promised with tears that she would always be here I heard truth like the sounding sea.

I said, "My Arienette, oh how soon you'll forget this house will never be your home.
And you will leave in the fall when the trees become graves and their color lie dead in the grass."
Gold and green torture me like the lies I believe too easily.

Oh my Jetsabel, look at this hell that I have made.
If you want maybe drop by sometime put some flowers on my grave.
So that I will look beautiful in my silent sepulchre.
Yeah that's fine throw those dresses away I don't want anything of hers.
For the moon never shines and the stars never rise without bringing me dreams.
Haunted by the ghosts of those bright eyes.

 

[fox69]

"June On The West Coast"

"June On The West Coast"


I spent a week drinking the sunlight of winnetka, california
Where they understand the weight of human hearts
You see sorrow gets too heavy and joy it tends to hold you
With the fear that it eventually departs.
And the truth is I've been dreaming of some tired, tranquil place
Where the weather won't get trapped inside my bones
And if all the years of searching find one sympathetic face
Then its there I will plant these seeds and make my home
I spent a day dreaming of dying in mesa, arizona
Where all the green of life had turned to ash
And I felt I was on fire, with the things I could have told you
I just assumed that you eventually would ask
And I wouldn't have to bring up my so badly broken heart
And all those months I just wanted to sleep
And though spring, it did come slowly, I guess it did its part
My heart has thawed and continues to beat
I visited my brother on the outskirts of olympia
Where the forest and the water become one
And we talked about our childhood, like a dream we were convinced of, that
Perfect peaceful street where we came from
And I know he heard me strumming all those sad and simple chords
As I sat inside my room so long ago
And it hurts that he's still shaking from those secrets that were told by a
Car closed up too tight and a heart turned cold
And I went to san diego
The birthplace of the summer
And watched the ocean dance under the moon
And there was a girl I knew there, one more potential lover
I guess that something's got to happen soon
Because I know I can't keep living in this dead or dying dream
And as I walked along the beach and drank with her
I thought about my true love, the one I really need
With eyes that burn so bright, they make me pure
They make me pure
They make me pure
I long to be with you [x2]

 

[fox69]

"Kathy With A K's Song"

"Kathy With A K's Song"


Love is real
It is not just in novels or the movies
It is fact
And it is standing here right in front of you
So if you open your eyes
Oh what a sweet discovery
There is hope, and there is joy, and there is acceptance
So now let all of the light that collects on your plants
Keep you warm, make you smile
And I will be there with this pen in my hand
To record all the while
You'll be laughing so loud
That the house would shake with sound
And everything will be as new as the day it was found
Love is real
It is not just in long distance commercials
Or something that you thought you felt back in high school
So I will turn black and white
Become that horoscope you're reading
It predicts something good is on its way
Oh, and then I will send you the world green and blue
In a box through the mail
You can open it up, hold it right in your hand
And be glad that it's there
And be glad that you're there
Now, you can feel all the knots in your stomach start to untie
And suddenly it's not so hard to say you're all right
Love is real
It is not just in poetry and stories
It is truth, and it will follow you
Everywhere you go from now on
So if you'd just cast off your doubt
Then your lips would answer for you
Oh my darling, when you smile, it is like a song
And I can hear it now
And I can hear it now
And I can hear it now
Yes, I can, I can, I can
I can hear it now
I can hear it now
Yeah, I can, I can, I can
I can hear it now
I can hear it now
I can hear it now
Yeah, I can, I can, I can
I can hear it now
I can hear it now

 

[fox69]

"Ladder Song"

"Ladder Song"


No one knows where the ladder goes
You're going to lose what you love the most
You're not alone in anything
You're not unique in dying
Feel estranged every now and then
Fall asleep reading science fiction
I want to fly in your silver ship
Let Jesus hang and Buddha sit
It's on now
The days are long now
The ups and the sundowns
And a twisting mind
If I got to go first
I'll do it on my terms
I'm tired of traitors always changing sides
They were friends of mine

Don't hang around as the promise breaks
You'll be there when the next one's made
Kiss the feet of a charlatan
Some imagined freedom
All the rest is predictable
You can say you're the first to know
Bought a mantra to concentrate
Car alarm or hissing snake
I know now
Oh, it's going to turn now
You got to calm down
Or I'll lose my place
Got to get to the center
Got to get to the concert
Run off with a dancer
Going to celebrate

Welcome the new age
Covered in warrior paint
Lights from the jungle to the sky
See now, a star's born
Looks just like a blood orange
Don't it just make you want to cry
Precious friend of mine?

Well, I know when it's finally done
This whole life's a hallucination
You're not alone in anything
You're not alone in trying
To be

 

[fox69]

"Landlocked Blues"

"Landlocked Blues"


If you walk away, I'll walk away
First tell me which road you will take
I don't want to risk our paths crossing some day
So you walk that way, I'll walk this way

And the future hangs over our heads
And it moves with each current event
Until it falls all around like a cold steady rain
Just stay in when it's looking this way

And the moon's laying low in the sky
Forcing everything metal to shine
And the sidewalk holds diamonds like the jewelry store case
They argue walk this way, no, walk this way

And Laura's asleep in my bed
As I'm leaving she wakes up and says
"I dreamed you were carried away on the crest of a wave
Baby don't go away, come here"

And there's kids playing guns in the street
And ones pointing his tree branch at me
So I put my hands up I say "enough is enough,
If you walk away, I'll walk away"
And he shot me dead

I found a liquid cure
From my landlocked blues
It'll pass away like a slow parade
It's leaving but I don't know how soon

And the world's got me dizzy again
You think after 22 years I'd be used to the spin
And it only feels worse when I stay in one place
So I'm always pacing around or walking away
I keep drinking the ink from my pen
And I'm balancing history books up on my head
But it all boils down to one quotable phrase
If you love something, give it away

A good woman will pick you apart
A box full of suggestions for your possible heart
But you may be offended and you may be afraid
But don't walk away, don't walk away

We made love on the living room floor
With the noise in the background of a televised war
And in the deafening pleasure I thought I heard someone say
"If we walk away, they'll walk away"

But greed is a bottomless pit
And our freedom's a joke
We're just taking a piss
And the whole world must watch the sad comic display
If you're still free start running away
Cause we're coming for you!

I've grown tired of holding this pose
I feel more like a stranger each time I come home
So I'm making a deal with the devils of fame
Saying "let me walk away, please"
You'll be free child once you have died
From the shackles of language and measurable time
And then we can trade places, play musical graves
Till then walk away, walk away

So I'm up at dawn
Putting on my shoes
I just want to make a clean escape
I'm leaving but I don't know where to
I know I'm leaving but I don't know where to

 

[fox69]

"Laura Laurent"

"Laura Laurent"


Laura, are you still living there on your estate of sorrow? You used to leave it occasionally.
Now, you don't even bother to ride that commuter train west to Chicago,
to stroll through the greenery, in the park, past the statues.
How their eyes seemed to follow you like a hated addiction.
Their beauty carved out of absolutes that you could never claim, or even envision.
Laura you were the saddest song in the shape of a woman. I thought you were beautiful,
but I wept with your movements. I hope you are laughing now from that place of the carpet
where we shared a sleeping bag, in your sisters apartment. Oh how she would worry so, you know,
I was just a stranger. But she asked me to care for you. That is what she did
and I went and betrayed her. But do you know we are in high demand,
Laura, us people who suffer? Because we don't take to arguing and we are quick to surrender.
Well, I think I would call tonight if I still had your number.
Your thoughts have always laid close to mine. We were both skipping supper.
But you should never be embarrassed by your trouble with living.
Because it is the ones with the sorest throats, Laura, who have done the most singing. Everybody!
La La La La La La La La La Lah...

 

[fox69]

"Let's Not Shit Ourselves (To Love And To Be Loved)"

"Let's Not Shit Ourselves (To Love And To Be Loved)"


Well, the animals laugh from the dark of the wilderness.
A baby cries hard in an apartment complex,
as I pass in a car buried under the influence.
The city's driving me out of my mind.
I've seen a child is caught in the sad trap of gravity.
He falls from the lowest branch of the apple tree
and lands in the grass and weeps for his dignity.
Next time he will not aim so high.
Yeah, next time, neither will I.
Now a mother takes loans out, sends her kids off to colleges.
Her family's reduced to names on a shopping list.
While, a coroner kneels beneath a great, wooden crucifix.
He knows there's worse things than being alone.
And so I've learned to retreat at the first sign of danger.
I mean, why wait around, if it's just to surrender?
An ambition, I've found, can lead only to failure.
I do not read the reviews.
No, I am not singing for you.
Well I stood dropping a coin into the pit of a well.
And I would throw my whole billfold if I thought it would help.
With all these wishes I make,
I should buy something real, at least a telephone call home.
Well, my teachers, they built this retaining wall of memory,
all those multiple choices I answered so quickly.
And got my grades back and forgot just as easily,
but as least I got an A.
And so I don't have them to blame.
Well I should stop pointing fingers;
reserve my judgment of all those public action figures,
the cowboy presidents.
So loud behind the bullhorn, so proud they can't admit
when they've made a mistake.
While poison ink spews from a speechwriter's pen,
he knows he don't have to say it,
so it, it don't bother him.
"Honesty", "Accuracy" is just "Popular Opinion."
And the approval rating's high,
and so someone's gonna die.
Well ABC, NBC, CBS: Bullshit.
They give us fact or fiction? I guess an even split.
And each new act of war is tonight's entertainment.
We're still the pawns in their game.
As they take eye for an eye until no one can see,
we must stumble blindly forward, repeating history.
Well, I guess we all fit into your slogan
on the fast food marquee:
Red blooded, White skinned oh and the Blues.
Oh and the Blues, I got the Blues! That's me! That's me!
Well, I awoke in relief.
My sheets and tubes were all tangled weak from whiskey and pills,
in a Chicago hospital.
And my father was there, in a chair, by the window, staring so far away.
I tried talking, just whispered, "...so sorry...so selfish..."
He stopped me and said, "Child I love you regardless
and there's nothing you could do that would ever change this.
I'm not angry. It happens. But you just can't do it again."
So now I try to keep up, I've been exchanging my currency.
While a million objects pass through my periphery.
Now I'm rubbing my eyes 'cause they're starting to bother me.
I've been staring too long at the screen.
But where was it when I first heard a sweet sound of humility?
It came to my ears in the goddamn loveliest melody.
How grateful I was then to be part of the mystery,
to love and to be loved. Let's just hope that is enough.

 

[fox69]

"Light Pollution"

"Light Pollution"


John A Hobson was a good man
He used to loan me books and mic stands
He even got me a subscription to the Socialist Review
Listening to records in his basement
Old folk songs about the government
"it's love of money, not the market," he said, "these fuckers push on you.
And freedom yells, it dont cry.
Whatever sells will decide.
But there is no hell when you die.
So dont look so worried."
He got a night life
Lost his day job
Pushing paper, swinging pendulums
Anything to serve a function or to occupy some time
You have got to earn this living somehow
You are good as dead without a bank accound
But it is funny how alive he felt, down in that unemployment line
With all the trash at his feet
The pools of piss in the street
All of that filthy empathy for the way we're feeling
The billboards shade
The flags they wave
The anthem was playing loud
The baseball game was letting out
Then all at once he saw the dust
And heard every tiny sound
Got in his truck and turned around
Drove out through the crowd
And the cops drove out past that center mall
Out past that sickening sprawl
Out past that fenced in gold
And maybe he lost control fucking with the radio
But I bet the stars seemed so close at the end