Jackson Browne

[fox69]

"The Drums Of War"

"The Drums Of War"



Roll out the drumbs of war
Roll up the cover of the killing floor
Roll out the drums of war
And let's speak of things worth fighting for
Roll out the drums of war

Time comes when everything you ever thought you knew
Comes crashing down and flames rise up in front of you

Roll out the drums of war
Roll back the freedoms that we struggled for
What were those freedoms for?
Let's not talk about it any more
Roll out the drums of war
Roll out the drums of war
If you know what your freedom's for

Whatever you believe the necessary course to be
Depends on who you trust to identify the enemy
Who beats the drums for war?
Even before peace is lost
Who are the profits for?
And who are they who bear the cost
When a country takes the low road to war

Who gives the orders, orders to torture?
Who gets to no bid contract the future?
Who lies, then bombs, then calls it an error?
Who makes a fortune from fighting terror?
Who is the enemy trying to crush us?
Who is the enemy of truth and justice?
Who is the enemy of peace and freedom?
Where are the courts, now when we need them?
Why is impeachment not on the table?
We better stop them while we are able
Roll out the drums of war
Roll out the drums of war
If you know what your freedom's for

Whatever you believe the necessary course to be
Depends on who you trust to identify the enemy
Who took this country to war?
Long before the peace was lost
Who are the profits for?
And who are they who bear the cost
And who lay down their lives?
And who will live with the sacrifice
Of our best and brightest hopes,
The flower of our youth,
Of freedom, and the truth?

 

[fox69]

"The Fairest Of The Seasons"

"The Fairest Of The Seasons"



Now that it's time
Now that the hour hand has landed at the end
Now that it's real
Now that the dreams have given all they had to lend
I want to know
Do I stay or do I go
And maybe try another time
And do I really have a hand in my forgetting

Now that I've tried
Now that I've finally found that this is not the way
Now that I turn
Now that I feel it's time to spend the night away
I want to know
Do I stay or do I go
And maybe finally split the rind
And do I really understand the undernetting

Yes and the morning has me looking in your eyes and seeing mine
Warning me to read the signs carefully

Now that it's love
Now that the candle's falling smaller in my mind
Now that it's here
Now that I'm almost not so very far behind
I want to know
Do I stay or do I go
And maybe fall another side
And do I really have a sound that I can ride on

Now that I can
Now that it's easy ever easy all around
Now that I'm near
Now that I'm falling to the sunlights and to song
I want to know
Do I stay or do I go
And do I have to do just one
And can I choose again if I should lose the reason

Yes and the morning has me looking in your eyes and seeing mine
Warning me to read the signs oh carefully

Now that I smile
Now that I'm laughing even deeper in the side
Now that I see
Now that I finally found the one thing I denied
I want to know
Do I stay or do I go
And it is finally I decide
That I'll be leaving in the fairest of the seasons

 

[fox69]

"The Fuse"

"The Fuse"



It's coming from so far away
It's hard to say for sure
Whether what I hear is music or the wind
Through an open door
There's a fire high in the empty sky
Where the sound meets the shore
There's a long distance loneliness
Rolling out over the desert floor

And the years that I spent lost in the mystery
Fall away leaving only the sound of the drum
Like a part of me
It speaks to the heart of me
Forget what life used to be
You are what you choose to be
It's whatever it is you see
That life will become

Whatever it is you might think you have
You have nothing to lose
Through every dead and living thing
Time runs like a fuse
And the fuse is burning
And the earth is turning

Though the years give way to uncertainty
And the fear of living for nothing strangles the will
There's a part of me
That speaks to the heart of me
Though sometimes it's hard to see
It's never far from me
Alive in eternity
That nothing can kill

Oh Lord
Are there really people starving still?
Look out beyond the walls of Babylon
How long will their needs go unfilled
I want to say right now I'm going to be around
I'm going to be around
When the walls and towers are crumbling
When the towers are tumbling down
And I will tune my spirit to the gentle sound
I want to hear the sound
Of the waters lapping on a higher ground
Of the children laughing

 

[fox69]

"The Late Show"

"The Late Show"



Everyone I've ever known has wished me well
Anyway that's how it seems, it's hard to tell
Maybe people only ask you how you're doing
'Cause that's easier than letting on how little they could care
But when you know that you've got a real friend somewhere
Suddenly all the others are so much easier to bear

Now to see things clear it's hard enough I know
While you're waiting for reality to show
Without dreaming of the perfect love
And holding it so far above
That if you stumbled onto someone real, you'd never know
(You'd never know)
You could be with somebody who is lonely too
(Sometimes it doesn't show)
He might be trying to get across to you
(Words can be so slow)
When your own emptiness is all that's getting through
There comes a point when you're not sure why you're still talking
I passed that point long ago
(Long ago)
Now I'm so tired of all this circling
And all these glimpses of the end
(You know it's useless to pretend)
That's all the voices say:
"You'll go right on circling
Until you've found some kind of friend"

I saw you through the laughter and the noise
You were talking with the soldiers and the boys
While they scuffled for your weary smiles
I thought of all the empty miles
And the years that I've spent looking for your eyes
(Looking for your eyes)
And now I'm sitting here wondering what to say
(That you might recognize)
Afraid that all these words might scare you away
(And break through the disguise)
No one ever talks about their feelings anyway
Without dressing them in dreams and laughter
I guess it's just too painful otherwise

Look...
It's like you're standing in the window
Of a house nobody lives in
And I'm sitting in a car across the way
(Let's just say)
It's an early model Chevrolet
(Let's just say)
It's a warm and windy day
You go and pack your sorrow
The trash man comes tomorrow
Leave it at the curb and we'll just roll away

 

[fox69]

"The Light From Your Smile"

"The Light From Your Smile"



Oh the light from your smile
Can be seen for a mile
By travellers dark in their sorrow
If you want me to stay
Throw a smile my way
And I'll stay by your side 'till tomorrow

Woooah...

'Cause all my battered dreams are shattered now
And I need all your beauty to warm me

In the time that I've known you
I've always shown you
That I could be captured in kindness
Now a storm's blowin'
Tomorrow I'm goin'
Well the sun takes away my blindness

Woooah...

Cause all my tattered hopes are shattered now
I wait for the future to touch me

Oh the morning is nearing
The clouds disappearing
The sun will be coming to guide me
Wherever I go
I want you to know
That I carry your smile beside me

Woooah...

The slowly shifting fog is lifting now
And I see the road I'll be taking

 

[fox69]

"The Load-Out"

"The Load-Out"



Now the seats are all empty
Let the roadies take the stage
Pack it up and tear it down
They're the first to come and last to leave
Working for that minimum wage
They'll set it up in another town
Tonight the people were so fine
They waited there in line
And when they got up on their feet they made the show
And that was sweet...
But I can hear the sound
Of slamming doors and folding chairs
And that's a sound they'll never know

Now roll them cases out and lift them amps
Haul them trusses down and get'em up them ramps
'Cause when it comes to moving me
You guys are the champs
But when that last guitar's been packed away
You know that I still want to play
So just make sure you got it all set to go
Before you come for my piano

But the band's on the bus
And they're waiting to go
We've got to drive all night and do a show in Chicago
or Detroit, I don't know
We do so many shows in a row
And these towns all look the same
We just pass the time in our hotel rooms
And wander 'round backstage
Till those lights come up and we hear that crowd
And we remember why we came

Now we got country and western on the bus
R and B, we got disco in eight tracks and cassettes in stereo
We've got rural scenes & magazines
We've got truckers on the CB
We've got Richard Pryor on the video
We got time to think of the ones we love
While the miles roll away
But the only time that seems too short
Is the time that we get to play

People you've got the power over what we do
You can sit there and wait
Or you can pull us through
Come along, sing the song
You know you can't go wrong
'Cause when that morning sun comes beating down
You're going to wake up in your town
But we'll be scheduled to appear
A thousand miles away from here

 

[fox69]

"The Long Way Around"

"The Long Way Around"



I don't know what to say about these days
I'm seeing people changing in the strangest ways
Even in the richer neighborhoods
People don't know when they've got it good
They've got the envy, and they've got it bad

When I was a kid everything I did was trying to be free
Running up and down Tinsel Town with the fire inside of me
My planets all in retrograde, the best of all my plans got laid
I made my breaks, and some mistakes
Just not the ones people think I made

Now I'm a long way gone
Down this wild road I'm on
It's going to take me where I'm bound
But it's the long way around

It's so hard keeping track of what's gone wrong
The covenant unravels, and the news just rolls along
I could feel my memory letting go some two or three disasters ago
It's hard to say which did more ill
Citizens United or the Gulf oil spill

And I'm a long way gone
Down this wild road I'm on
It's going to take me take me where I'm bound
But it's the long way around

It's never been that hard to buy a gun
Now they'll sell a Glock 19 to just about anyone
The seeds of tragedy are there
In what we feel we have the right to bear
To watch our children come to harm
There in the safety of our arms
With all we disagree about
The passions burn, the heart goes out

And we're a long way gone
Down this wild road we're on
It's going to take us where we're bound
It's just the long way around

 

[fox69]

"The Naked Ride Home"

"The Naked Ride Home"



Just take off your clothes and I'll drive you home I said
Knowing she never could pass on a dare
And knowing it sounded more desperate than reckless or bold
I just put it out there cold, too far gone to care

My eyes on the road, she slid herself down in the seat
And a vision of paradise swung into view
Across those five lanes not one driver glanced over to see
The beauty known only to me, and a big rig or two

On that freeway the light was receding
Her beauty, a sight so misleading
I failed to hear the heart that was beating alone
On the naked ride home

With the trace of a smile and that defiant look in her eye
She hurtled through space in a world of her own
And turning aside my caress spoke of all that she'd not yet done
As if I was the doubting one who would have to be shown

On that freeway the light was receding
Her beauty, a sight so misleading
I failed to hear the heart that was beating alone
On the naked ride home

She gathered her clothes
And ran through the yard in the dark
Up onto the porch like a flash, and inside
Then one room at a time
I watched every light in our house come on
Like the truth that would eventually dawn,
Forcing me to decide

But on that freeway the light was receding
Her beauty, a sight so misleading
I failed to hear the heart that was beating alone
On the naked ride home

 

[fox69]

"The Next Voice You Hear"

"The Next Voice You Hear"



Gather your deeds and your possessions,
Whatever certainty you've known,
Forget your heroes,
You don't really need those last few lessons.

Stand in the open;
The next voice you hear will be your own.

Well alright, they knew how they could hurt you,
And you let them cut you to the bone.
But God forbid,
you allow them to rid you of your virtue!

Forget their laughter;
The next voice you hear will be your own.

The next voice you hear...
The next voice you hear...
The next voice you hear...
The next voice you hear...
The next voice you hear...
The next voice you hear will be your own.

Throw down your truth and check your weapons.
Don't look to see if you're alone,
Just stand your ground,
And don't turn around - whatever happens.
Don't ask directions;
The next voice you hear will be your own.

The next voice you hear...
The next voice you hear...
The next voice you hear...
The next voice you hear...
The next voice you hear...
The next voice you hear will be your own.

 

[fox69]

"The Night Inside Me"

"The Night Inside Me"



I used to lay out in a field under the Milky Way
With everything that I was feeling that I could not say
With every doubt and every sorrow that was in my way
Tearing around inside my head like it was there to stay

Night in my eyes, the night inside me
There where the shadows and the night could hide me
Night in my eyes
Sky full of stars turning over me
Waiting for night to set me free

I caught a ride into the city every chance I got
I wasn't sure there was a name for the life I sought
Now I'm a long way gone down the life I got
I don't know how I believed some of the things I thought

Night in my eyes, the night inside me
Here where the shadows gather to decide me
Night in my eyes
Out at the end of light and gravity
Waiting for night

It takes the night to clear all of this mess away
The obligation, the burden and the light of day
It takes the night to fall between the world I obey
And a world where I hear angels play
Maybe I should go back to Spain

I walk around inside the questions of my day
I navigate the inner reaches of my disarray
I pass the altars where fools and thieves hold sway
I wait for night to come and lift this dread away

Night in my eyes, the night inside me
Here where the shadows and the light divide me
Night in my eyes
Night full of promise and uncertainty
Waiting for night to set me free