Indigo Girls

[fox69]

"Strange Fire"

"Strange Fire"


I come to you with strange fire, i make an offering of love, the incense of my soil is burned by the fire in my blood. i come with a softer answer to the questions that lie in your path. i want to harbor you from the anger, find a refuge from the wrath.

This is a message of love. love that moves from the inside out, love that never grows tired. i come to you with strange fire.

Mercenaries of the shrine, who are you to speak for god? with haughty eyes and lying tongues and hands that shed innocent blood. who delivered you the power to interpret calvary? you gamble away our freedom to gain your own authority.

Find another state of mind. grab hold. strange fire burns with the motion of love.

When you learn to love yourself, you will dissolve all the stones that are cast, you will learn to burn the icing sky and to melt the waxen mask. yes, to have the gift of true release, this is a peace that will take you higher. i come to you with my offering., i bring you strange fire.

This is a message of love. love that moves from the inside out, love that never grows tired. i come to you with strange fire.

 

[fox69]

"Sugar Tongue"

"Sugar Tongue"


All the fur and fin will lose again
Cause our better is their worst reckonin'
And our fine-feathered friends will sing until they bleed
And how will we replace that symphony?
I've got the blackest boots, the whitest skin
Satisfy my sugar tongue again
Bring me love that buys us shoe-shine days
Guilded verses for your ethylene
And sing it to me free and clean
All the kids come home with foreign limbs
From hunting trips abroad they lose again
And we'll teach them how to talk
And whistle while they walk
And do the dirty work of battle hymns
I've got the blackest boots, the whitest skin
Satisfy my sugar tongue again
Sing me love that buys us shoe-shine days
Guilded verses for your ethylene
And sing it to me free and clean
Drinking tea with milk and Janjaweed
Pontificate on genocide or greed
With a spoonful of descent
For the orchestra of need
Is just enough to please this colony
I've got the blackest boots, the whitest skin
Satisfy my sugar tongue again
Bring me lullabies and morphine-dreams
Belladonna with her atropine
And sing it to me free and clean

 

[fox69]

"Tangled Up In Blue"

"Tangled Up In Blue"


Early one morning the sun was shining
I was laying in bed
Wondering if she'd changed at all
If her hair was still red
Her folks they said our lives together
Sure was gonna be rough
They never did like mama's homemade dress
Papa's bank book wasn't big enough
Me I'm standing on the side of the road
Rain falling on my shoes
I'm heading out to the east coast
Lord knows I've paid some dues
Getting through
Tangled up in blue
She was married when we first met
Soon to be divorced
I helped her out of a jam I guess
But I used a little too much force
And we drove that car as far as we could
Abandoned it out west
We split up on a sad dark night
Both agreeing it was best
She turned around and looked at me
As I was walking away
Then I heard her say over my shoulder
We'll meet again someday
On the avenue
Tangled up in blue
I was living in the great north woods
Working as a cook for a spell
I never did like it all that much
And one day the axe just fell
So I drifted down to New Orleans
Where I happened to be employed
Yeah I was working for a while on a fishing boat
Right outside of de la croix
And all the while I was alone
The past was close behind
I'd seen a lot of women
But she never escaped my mind
And I just grew
Tangled up in blue
She was working at a topless bar
And I stopped in for a beer
I just kept looking at the side of her face
In the spotlight so clear
Now later on as the crowd thinned out
And I was just about to do the same
Yeah but she was standing there at the back of my chair
She said don't I know your name
Well I muttered something underneath my breath
She studied the lines on my face
I must admit I felt a little uneasy
When she bent down to tie the laces
Of my shoes
We were tangled up in blue
I know I know I know
She lit a burner on the stove
And offered me a pipe
I thought you'd never say hello she said
You look like the silent type
And then she opened up a book of poems
And handed it to me
Written by an Italian poet
From the 13th century
Every one of his words rang true
And glowed like burning coal
Pouring off every page
Like it was written in my soul
From me to you
Tangled up in blue
Yeah yeah
I lived with them on Montague street
In a basement down the stairs yeah
There was music in the cafes at night
And revolution in the air
That's when he started into dealing with slaves yeah
Something inside of her died just died
And she had to sell everything she owned
And she froze up inside
Finally the bottom fell out
I became withdrawn
The only thing I knew how to do
Was to keep on keepin' on
Like a bird that flew
Tangled up in blue
Oh yeah
Now I'm headed back again
I gotta get to her somehow
And all the people we used to know
They're an illusion to me now
Some are mathematicians
Some are carpenter's wives
I don't know how they all got started
I don't know what they're doing with their lives
But me I'm still on the road
Headed for another joint
We always did feel the same
We just saw it from a different point
Of view
Tangled up in blue
I know I know I know
Yeah yeah oh yeah

 

[fox69]

"Tether"

"Tether"


Whatever it was, is wasn't manumission
To spill the blood, to pull the weed
You can bury the past, but it's a mausoleum
With the ghost of a fist that won't let us be
Can we bring it together,
Can we call from the mountain to the valley below?
Can we make it better,
Do we tether the hawk, do we tether the dove?
I kicked up the dirt, and I said to my neighbor
"We keep making it worse, we keep getting it wrong"
He tucked in his shirt, he stood a little bit straighter,
He said "We need a few less words dear, we need a few more guns."
But will it bring us together,
Can we call from the mountain to the valley below?
Can we make it better,
Do we tether the hawk, do we tether the dove?
Enduring love
Why so much and so strong, beyond this short existence?
So don't be still
You say there's a long line behind you
And it's hardly worth the mentioning
But I will
Cause we may flicker and fade,
But we never will be through with this
I see this world battered but not broken
There's a fallow heart, it's waiting on a sowing hand
You can grow what you want, But one day it's gonna rise up
So plant what you need to make a better stand
And we'll bring it together
And we'll call from the mountain to the valley below.
And we'll make it better
Let go of the hawk, we let go of the dove.
I sing to you, all you true believers
With the strength to see this and not be still.
I'm telling you now, find the hope that feeds you,
Don't let 'em bleed you of your will.

 

[fox69]

"Texas Was Clean"

"Texas Was Clean"


Texas was clean, just an oilman’s dream
A slate that I’d never written on
Dust blowing’ round a lonely town
Boots on the board of a barn

As far from the south without getting out
The corner of my heart

All this born in the powder and the horn
The feather on the gridded green
The brown and the white, the rich and the poor
Taking the hit for the team

And the horse they rode was a merry soul
Flickering on my bed post at night

Hey I wanna go, I wanna go there
And it’s just another place to go
Just another place to go

The horse they rode was a merry soul
Flickering on my bed post at night

I knew you for a moment or two
In a life that seems to just expand
In the Austin night under vapor lights
You laughed at me then you took me in

On the day of the dead in a circle we said the names
The corner of our hearts

Hey I wanna go, I wanna go there
And it’s just another place to go
Just another place to go

As far from the south without getting out
The corner of my heart

 

[fox69]

"The Girl With The Weight Of The World In Her Hands"

"The Girl With The Weight Of The World In Her Hands"


She won't recover from her losses,
She's not chosen this path, but she watches who it crosses
Maybe move to the right, maybe move to the left
So we can all see her pain she wears like a banner on her chest
And we all say it's sad, and we think it's a shame
And she's called to our attention, but we do not call her name,
The girl with the weight of the world in her hands.

We're busy with our happiness, busy with our plans
I wonder if alone she wants it taken from her hands
But if things didn't get any harder
She might miss her sacred chance to go a consecrated martyr,
The girl with the weight of the world in her hands.

I wonder which saint that lives inside a bead
will grant her consolation when she counts upon her need
It makes us all angry though we feign to care
But who will be the scale to weigh the cross she has to bear,
The girl with the weight of the world in her hands.

"Is the glass half-full or empty?" I ask her as I fill it
She said it doesn't really matter, pretty soon you're bound to spill it.
With the half logic language of the sermon she delivers
And the way she smiles so knowingly at me gives me the shivers
I pull the blanket higher when I'm finally safe at home
And she'll take a hundred with her, but she always sleeps alone,
The girl with the weight of the world in her hands.

 

[fox69]

"The Rise Of The Black Messiah"

"The Rise Of The Black Messiah"


They called you the rise of the black messiah like so many boys before you
And they’ll be more, more to follow threatening and hard to swallow

I’m sitting underneath that hanging tree, just me and the ghost of the KKK
Poor man’s gallows in the middle of the woods - the saddest tree that ever stood

My friend I heard you tell of slavery’s end but have you heard of mass incarceration
That ol’ Jim Crow he just keeps getting born with a new hanging rope for the black man’s scourge

Hey ol’ man river, what do you know of that plantation they all Angola?
The devil spawned a prison there - the saddest farm that ever lived

Your great grand-daddy, he worked that land with shackles on his feet and on his hands
He built them levees he chopped that cane he died in the mud in his chains
Now you stand where he once stood shackles on you all the same

But he’s gonna rise, he’s gonna rise and all them lynches are gonna be damned
When outta that mud walks a brand new man

They called you the rise of the black messiah and said they’d do any damn thing the could to keep ya -

You and your brothers from spreading the word, the gospel of freedom and the black man’s worth

40 years in solitary, consider the man they just can’t bury
I got this letter in my hand, saying tell this tory when you can

He’s gonna rise, he’s gonna rise and all them lynchers are gonna be damned
When outta that hole walks a brand new man

 

[fox69]

"The Wood Song"

"The Wood Song"


The thin horizon of a plan is almost clear my friends and I have had a hard time bruising our brains hard up against change all the old dogs and the magician now I see we're in the boat in two by twos only the heart that we have for a tool we could use and the very close quarters are hard to get used to love weighs the hull down with its weight but the wood is tired and the wood is old and we'll make it fine if the weather holds but if the weather holds then we'll have missed the point that's were i need to go no way construction of this tricky plan was built by other than a greater hand with a love that passes all our understanding watching closely over the journey yeah but what it takes to cross the great divide seems more than all the courage i can muster up inside but we get to have some answers when we reach the other side the prize is always worth the rocky ride but the wood is tired and the wood is old and we'll make it fine if the weather holds but if the weather holds then we'll have missed the point that's where i need to go sometimes i ask to sneak a closer look skip to the final chapter of the book and maybe steer us clear from some of the pain that it took to get us where we are this far but the question drowns in its futility and even i have got to laugh at me cause no one gets to miss the storm of what will be just holding on for the ride the wood is tired the wood is old and we'll make it fine if the weather holds but if the weather holds then we'll have missed the point that's where i need to go

 

[fox69]

"They Won't Have Me"

"They Won't Have Me"


They won't have me, but I love this place.
The rural life is broken, the farmlands gone to chaff.
My hands are idle, my mind needs rest,
the toil of the decent and the sleep of the best.

I sit in diners with the old men,
they talk of work cause it's all they ever did.
They gave their hearts to Jesus and got serious
They gave up their drinking and worked for this nothing.

All this love to offer, all this love to waste.
All this love to offer, all this love to waste.

There's a lame dog on the highway
where the old road used to be.
Now you know what divides us
Is just a difference someone made.
Some got tired of trying, some were just too scared to stay.
We gave ourselves to nothing and we let 'em have their day.

Now who's gonna do the planting?
Who's gonna pray for rain?
Who's gonna keep the farmland
from the sub-division man?

All this love to offer, all this love to waste.

 

[fox69]

"Thin Line"

"Thin Line"


I thought the time was passed when I could
Find beauty in a verse
I set the stage and the scenery
Rehearsing every word
Yeah but when I tried to make it more
Well it was always less
And it's a thin line between pleasing yourself
And pleasing somebody else
Oh yeah
Oh yeah
All right
With my confidence on fire
I set to fixin' up my roles
My separation of desires
Just led me deeper down in the hole
Yeah when I tried to make it more
Well it was always less
And it's a thin line between pleasing yourself
And pleasing somebody else
Yeah and when I tried to make it more
Well it was always less
It's a thin line between pleasing yourself
And pleasing somebody else
Now I'm tryin' to get back
To what I know that I should be
Hoping to god that I, that I was just
A temporary absentee
Yeah when I tried to make it more
Well it was always less
It's a thin line between pleasing yourself
And pleasing somebody else
Yeah when I tried to make it more
Well it was always less
And it's a thin line between pleasing yourself
And pleasing somebody else
Somebody else oh yeah
Oh yeah
All right