John Hiatt

[fox69]

"The Walking Dead"

"The Walking Dead"


It's that mechanical motion
Skin-tight when the nights are bloodless
Lip-sync the latest notion
From zombie drill instructors

Throw out of all the parties
Maybe it's time for me to bed
Now his eyeball's runnin'
Just like a razor down her leg

[Chorus:]
Baby's joined the walking dead
Up from her grave
Another white slave
Nothin' goes in or out of her head
Never you mind
Tryin' to find
A real live girl in your bed
She's joined the walking dead

She likes this frenzy feeding
She cuts across the dance floor
Thinks she's the only one bleeding
He cuts his teeth on girls like her

Just a little more makeup
'Til she makes up for being used
He hardly knows what he's saying
She hardly knows how to refuse

[Chorus]

She's walking

With his eyes in your head
With his tongue in your bed
And your lips are swollen red
From the kiss of the walking dead

[Chorus]

 

[fox69]

"The Wreck Of The Barbie Ferrari"

"The Wreck Of The Barbie Ferrari"



Saturday night he comes home stinking
Sunday morning she wakes up thinking and thinking and thinking and thinking
Does she need to get the kids dressed to go to church
He's pulled a shotgun out of the lurch
He heads for the TV room starts to search
His problems swollen like a river and his reality's shrinking
He finds them huddled by the toy box and splatters 'em all
The ken and the midge and the skipper doll
They look like a family but they're really not at all

Well he's sad but he ain't sorry
It ain't the end of the world
It's just the wreck of the barbie ferrari

He wonders if he ever said I do
To that little blonde plastic voodoo
And his mind's gone fishin'
Well it started just as plain as the nose on your face
Now it's in a thousand peices all over the place
He thought she was driving but it's twisted beyond recognition
All the diapers and the tutus and the basketballs
She was givin' them a lift to the promised mall
But somewhere by the TV that V-12 stalled
As he loaded the chamber her eyes got starry
It ain't the end of the world
It's just wreck of the barbie ferrari
When they get home from church won't they be sorry
He's cornered 'em all on his urban safari

It aint the end of the world...

He's played with cars and guns since he could crawl
Now he wishes he'd never met that doll with her face gone
There wasnt nothing he ever thought about
He couldn't drive through or shoot his way out
As he surveys the family room littered with dolls
He can't find one leg to stand on
He aims the gun at his head now he's starting to cry
Looking for the courage to let it fly
Can't live without his family now that something has died
He's not sure who's hurt not sure who's sorry

It ain't the end of the world...

 

[fox69]

"Thing Called Love"

"Thing Called Love"


Don't have to humble yourself to me
I ain't your judge or your king
And baby, you know you ain't no Queen of Sheba
And we may not even have our dignity, no
This could be just a prideful thing
But baby, we can choose you know,
We ain't no amoebas
But

[Chorus:]
Are you ready for this thing called love
Don't come from you and me,
It comes from up above
I ain't no porcupine, take off your kid gloves
Are you ready for this thing called love

And you ain't some icon carved out of soap
Sent down here to clean up my reputation
And baby, I ain't your prince charming
Now we can live in fear, or act out of hope
For some kind of peaceful situation
Baby, don't know why the cry of love is so alarming
But

[Chorus]

The ugly ducklings don't turn into swans
And glide off down the lake
Whether your sunglasses are off or on
You only see the world you make

Before the laws of God and the laws of man
I take you for my wife, yeah
To love, honour, cherish and obey,
Now, I didn't have no plans to live
This kind of life, no
It just worked out that way
And

[Chorus 2x]

Just a crazy little thing called love
Its justs a crazy little thing called love

 

[fox69]

"Thirty Years Of Tears"

"Thirty Years Of Tears"



Is this a place I can rest my poor head
To gather my thoughts in sweet silence
Is this a place where the feelings aren't dead
From an overexposure to violence
And is this a place I can slowly face
The only one I truly can know

These are tears from a long time ago
I got these tears from a long time ago
I need to cry 30 years or so
These are tears from a long time ago

Oh Darling, oh darling, say unto me
Where have you been all my lifetime
Well I have been swimmin' the seven sad seas
Fair women have thrown me their lifelines
And I just pulled them on to the water's dark grin
I'd have warned 'em but I didn't know

These are tears from a long time ago
I've got these tears from a long time ago
I need to cry 30 years or so
These are tears from a long time ago

Well, I've cried me a river, I've cried me a lake
I've cried till the past nearly drowned me
Tears for sad consequences
Tears for mistakes
But never these tears that surround me

Alone in this place with a lifetime to trace
And a heartbeat that tells me it's so
I've got these tears from a long time ago
These are tears from a long time ago
And I need to cry 30 years or so
These are tears from a long time ago
These are tears from a long time ago
I've got these tears from a long time ago

 

[fox69]

"This Secret Life"

"This Secret Life"


I dreamed I was being kept alive
To bear the brunt of a family joke
About which no one spoke

To multiply and divide
This hideous thing, this human kind
With something else on his mind

I was going to bed
You were saying, "I do"
Then I lost my head

[Chorus:]
When I awoke
I was living this secret life
Complete with a secret dog
And a secret wife
In another zone
Address unknown
This secret life
This secret life

And I am chilled to be here
Among these ghosts so heaven-bent
With hell to pay for rent

When I am holding you near
I'm not so sure this world is real
I'm not sure how I feel

And I was going to say
"Not a whisper, dear"
Then I drifted away

[Chorus]

Come out, come out
Wherever you are
You look so near
You seem so far
This scale's messed up
The angle's wrong
Your day will come
Meanwhile, the night is long

[Chorus]

 

[fox69]

"Through Your Hands"

"Through Your Hands"


You were dreaming on a park bench
'Bout a broad highway somewhere
When the music from the carillon
Seemed to hurl your heart out there
Past the scientific darkness
Past the fireflies that float
To an angel bending down
To wrap you in her warmest coat

[Chorus:]
And you ask, "What am I not doing?"
She says "Your voice cannot command.
In time, you will move mountains,
And it will come through your hands."

Still you argue for an option
Still you angle for your case
Like you wouldn't know a burning bush
If it blew up in your face
Yeah, we scheme about the future
And we dream about the past
When just a simple reaching out
Might build a bridge that lasts

[Chorus]

So whatever your hands find to do
You must do with all your heart
There are thoughts enough
To blow men's minds and tear great worlds apart

There's a healing touch to find you
On that broad highway somewhere
To lift you high
As music flying
Through the angel's hair.

Don't ask what you are not doing
Because your voice cannot command
In time we will move mountains
And it will come through your hands

 

[fox69]

"Thunderbird"

"Thunderbird"



My Thunderbird, my Thunderbird
Put your head on my shoulder
Don't say a word
We'll cut across town in my Thunderbird

There's a burial ground
Beneath a cattle herd
Mr. Henry Ford's building me a Thunderbird

My Thunderbird, my Thunderbird
Put your head on my shoulder
Don't say a word
We'll cut across the country in my Thunderbird

We're from Pennsylvania
Welsh men of words
My daddy drove a Desoto
I drive a Thunderbird

My Thunderbird, my Thunderbird
She's the voice of the future
Baby, have you heard
Tomorrow's taken wing on my Thunderbird

My Thunderbird, my Thunderbird
Put your head on my shoulder
Don't say a word
We'll cut across town in my Thunderbird

Got electric windows
Tilt away wheel
Slide across the bucket seat
For that sexy leather feel of

My Thunderbird, my Thunderbird
Put your head on my shoulder
Don't say a word
We'll cut across town in my Thunderbird

From the old Volkswagen
Back to the Model T
A lot of men died
Just so you could ride with me in

My Thunderbird, my Thunderbird
She drives like a dream
Baby rest assured
It don't get any better than a Thunderbird

My daddy was a salesman
My brother was too
I would sell anything
Just to try to stay with you

But not my Thunderbird
No not my Thunderbird
Willy Loman's saying something
I can't hear a word
I'm going too fast in my Thunderbird

They make 'em that way
Yeah they make 'em that way
Well they make 'em that way
Yeah they make 'em that way
Well they make 'em that way

 

[fox69]

"Tip Of My Tongue"

"Tip Of My Tongue"


An empty house
Is the only thing standin'
Between our lives
And the speed of sound

Some words flew out
And made a crash landin'
No love survived
Not a trace could be found

[Chorus:]
I broke your heart
With the back of my mind
From the tip of my tongue
To the end of the line

I walked away
And you stood there tremblin'
Like a leaf
In the autumn chill

Now this house won't say, no
What I'm still rememberin'
Three angry words
And a love that they killed

[Chorus]

You couldn't say how much it hurt you
And I couldn't see the damage I'd done
'Til I watched the greatest love I've known
All come down to a slip of the tongue

Well I'd take it back
But time won't let me
No, time just takes
You further away

I watched you pack
A house full of memories
Where did you go
Lord, what did I say?

[Chorus]

 

[fox69]

"Train To Birmingham"

"Train To Birmingham"


I've been riding on this train
Drinking whiskey for the pain
Another good ol' boy going home
And every town I see
Seems to take a part of me
That's the price that you pay when you roam

[Chorus:]
Well I cry when I have to
And I lie when I can
But I die a little slower
On the train to Birmingham

I got holes in both my shoes
And a guitar full of blues
And a one way ticket for a remedy
It's the same ol' lonesome song
I've been singing all night long
Hey, porter, are we out of Tennessee?

[Chorus]

Well every year I ride this train
To Alabama in the rain
When I get that lonesome feelin' in my bones
I never get to Birmingham
But gettin' there ain't the plan
I just like the feel of going home

[Chorus]

 

[fox69]

"Trudy And Dave"

"Trudy And Dave"


Whatever you don't follow that shot, she rang those words out with all she got
With a baby and the laundry in the Chevrolet, well he thought about following anyway
But he drove 'em to the strip mall laundromat,
In his three day beard and his red man hat
Trudy washed their bell bottom jeans, while that baby just sat there lookin' mean

[Chorus:]
Trudy and Dave
They're out of their minds
Trudy and Dave
They're out of their minds

Well David put a match to a Lucky Strike
And the smoke curled up 'round his head how he liked,
It made him feel a little mysterious
'Til Trudy said "David honey, what about us?"

So he thought about them and those shots ringing out
And other things he shouldn't be thinking about
Like how it wasn't them at all, just life that was mean
And how a twenty dollar pistol made him feel so clean

[Chorus]

Didn't mean to do it baby, but I did it for love
The same shot his Daddy heard before him
A shot that can really blow you away
And when it is fired his mama told him
"David, you'll follow it to your grave"

Well Trudy and Dave, those crazy kids
Had a baby of their own and you heard what they did
In the middle of a strip mall shots rang out
Shots heard all over the world no doubt

'Cause it was there in the paper the very next day
'Bout a couple and a baby and a Chevrolet
Who shot up an automatic teller machine
Took the money for the laundry and drove away clean

[Chorus]