Nanci Griffith

[fox69]

"Drops From The Faucet"

"Drops From The Faucet"


The drops from the faucet like a nervous heart
Beat on my porcelain sink a rhythm avant-garde
I page through the phone book, reach for my fountain pen
Is he comin' in for the holidays to haunt me again?
I call up the Grand Central, "information please.
Is that nickel line on time? Oh fine!"
It's a hair-do with a wave
We both forgot and forgave last time

A peddler of pots and pans down on Union Square
Said City Hall wants us off the street
There's no Christmas in the air
Some high-brows were waiting
Carnation bright lapels
Their big cars line the curbs outside those grand hotels
I passed a marquee, Third Avenue
"Ramona" with Loretta Young and I swung myself around
And (headed) uptown to the train

So this is New Year's eve another year has passed
We wait so patiently, (but) still they come and go so fast
I stand on this platform, wait for that basket of light
And the sound of the whistle screamin' out
Like some hot trumpet in the night
And... as I'm waitin' I wonder why and where...
And what went wrong
But this song don't tell no lies
It was just a quick good-bye, yeah

 

[fox69]

"Everything's Comin' Up Roses"

"Everything's Comin' Up Roses"


This life is filled with wonder
This life is full of days not spent
Oh I cannot help but ponder
What relevance that lends

[Chorus:]
Oh but everything is comin' up roses
And when I'm pushin' up daisies...
They'll want roses anyway
Oh and everything is comin' up roses
Its comin' up roses every day

I've got a heart bent on confusion
I'm punch drunk straight half the time
I'm feelin' watered down and diluted
Still this weathers holdin' fine

[Chorus]

There's a piece of land in Kentucky
My grandfather worked one long hot day
Now its a flatland blackstop strip mall
Still, I remember what he'd say

[Chorus 2x]

Everyday.....everyday.....Buy the dozen....everyday

 

[fox69]

"Fields Of Summer"

"Fields Of Summer"


I am fragile in the morning
I grow stronger in the day
I can sprint like a new spring doe
By the fall of the night
Love has chased me down
Through the cities and the towns
Until I stood beside the road
And let it pass me by
Like a fool I've missed the rain
Cuz I was crying

[Chorus:]
Then you are calling
Call my heart awake from years of slumber
And then I'm falling
Like a child head over heel
In fields of summer
Can you hold me?
Though I am inclined to
Leave my home and wander
Can you keep me...
Like a child head over heel
In fields of summer?
Fields of summer
Fields of summer
I am falling
Like a child head over heel
In fields of summer

Now that you have caught me
Are you sure you really want me?
Though I'm fragile as December
On your shoulder in the dawn
And when the day has made me stronger...
Can you satisfy my hunger?
When the night has come and I would race the moon
Across the sky...
Would you chase me through
Those open fields of summer

[Chorus]

Can you hold me?
Hold me?
Hold me?
Because I'm falling,
Like a child head over heel
In fields of summer

 

[fox69]

"Fly By Night"

"Fly By Night"


Oh, its just another summer mornin', Baby, somewhere in this town
The heat is rising
Oh, I know where you spent last night so you can stop apologizing
You say that you've been out... just lookin' around this town
I don't wanna know just exactly what you've found
Because tonight I'm goin' out on these streets and watch the lonely hearts
Go flyin'

Don't they fly by night
Yeah tonight I'm goin' out on these streets and watch the lonely hearts
Go flyin'

I'll be standin' on the corner watchin' the men folk go by
I don't wanna touch 'em honey, I'll look them in the eye
And say, "Tonight I am out on these streets to watch the lonely hearts
Go flyin"

Oh, I never put a chain upon your heart or tried to make you walk the
Line for me
Only a fool would want a heart that needs a chain to keep it restin'
Here beside of me
You say you wished I cared what you did with your time
But what's your time is yours and tonight is gonna be mine
And I'm goin' out on these streets tonight
To watch the lonely hearts go flyin'
Don't they fly by night
I'm going out on these streets tonight
To watch the lonely hearts go flyin'

I'm comin' out of your pocket and into my own
I'm gonna have a stronger heart when I round the bend for home
Now I'm goin' out on these streets tonight
To watch the lonely hearts go flyin'
Don't they fly by night
I'm going out on these streets tonight
To watch the lonely hearts go flyin'
I'll be standin' on the corner watchin' the men folk go by
I don't wanna touch 'em honey, I'll look them in the eye
And say, "Tonight I am out on these streets to watch the lonely hearts
Go flyin"
Oh, they fly by night
I'm going out on these streets tonight to watch the lonely hearts go flyin'

 

[fox69]

"Ford Econoline"

"Ford Econoline"


She drove west from Salt Lake City to the California coastline
She hit the San Diego Freeway doing sixty miles an hour
She had a husband on her bumper
She had five restless children
She was singing sweet as a mockingbird in that Ford Econoline

[Chorus:]
She's the salt of the earth
Straight from the bosom of the Mormon church
With a voice like wine
Cruising along in that Ford Econoline

Now her husband was a gambler, he was a Salt Lake City rambler
He built a golden cage around his silver-throated wife
Too many nights he left her crying with his cheating and his lying
But his big mistake was him buying her that Ford Econoline

[Chorus 2x]

Now she sings her songs around this country
From Seattle to Montgomery
Those kids are grown and that rounder knows
You cannot cage your wife
Along the back roads of our nation, she's become a living legend
She drives a Coupe DeVille but her heart rides still
In that Ford Econoline
She drives a Coup DeVille but her heart rides still
In that Ford Econoline

 

[fox69]

"Fragile"

"Fragile"


I look out on these shields of heather
Across this countryside
I wonder how they've grown together
While people live such separate lives
I think I'll stay inside for the winter
Cuz' the weather's in my bones
And the wind could shatter bone to splinter
Then howl me back home

[Chorus:]
I'm fragile as the lady of the harbor
Fragile as her torch that glows
Fragile as these gulf stream waters
To the Texas coast... To the Texas coast

I stared up at the faces in the mountain
Just a year ago
Laughin' in the spirit of America
And singin' in the snow
Now I wish I felt as strong as that mountain
Just carved in stone
I wish I was the gulf stream water
And I could sail you home

[Chorus]

I would give you all that's in me
Though part of me is gone
If I could have that day upon the mountain
For the snow and the song
But here's to love and all that it changes
When you're alone out in that storm
Cuz' if I'd had a shield of heather
I'd have never loved at all

[Chorus]

I would sail you home
To the Texas coast
I would sail you home
To the Texas coast

 

[fox69]

"Friend Out In The Madness"

"Friend Out In The Madness"


I am not a child, though you'll treat me as you've always seen me
You never saw the changes in a heart grown old and wise
Hey, it's good to see you smile, it's been so long between the pages
... wheels out on the highway seem to laugh between my lines

[Chorus:]
Do you still want to know?
Where does the love go when it dies?
Hey, I want you to know... love never dies...
It is sheltered here very safe inside and it's left you
With a friend out in the madness

And you say you love me still...
How your soul does change and your heart still ponders...
How I could grow fonder... of a life out on my own
I still sing the harmony
I'll have another wine and toast this madness
I'll howl at your moon... on my way home alone

[Chorus 2x]

 

[fox69]

"From A Distance"

"From A Distance"


From a distance the world looks blue and green
And the snow-capped mountains white
From a distance the ocean meets the stream
And the eagle takes to flight

From a distance there is harmony
And it echoes through the land
It's the voice of hope, it's the voice of peace
It's the voice of every man

From a distance we all have enough
And no one is in need
There are no guns, no bombs, no diseases
No hungry mouths to feed

From a distance we are instruments
Marching in a common band
Playing songs of home, playing songs of peace
They're the songs of every man
God is watching us, God is watching us
God is watching us from a distance

From a distance you look like my friend
Even though we are at war
From a distance I can't comprehend
What all this war is for

From a distance there is harmony
And it echoes through the land
It's the hope of hopes, it's the love of loves
It's the heart of every man

It's the hope of hopes, It's the love of loves
It's the song of every man

 

[fox69]

"From Clare To Here"

"From Clare To Here"


Four who shared this room and
We were caught up in the crack
Sleeping late on Sundays
And we never got to Mass

[Chorus:]
It's a long way from Clare to here
It's a long way from Clare to here
It's a long, long way
It get's further by the day
It's a long, long way from Clare to here

When Friday comes around
We're only into fighting
My Ma would like a letter home but
I'm too tired for writing

[Chorus]

It almost breaks my heart
When I think of my family
I told them I'd be coming home with my
Pockets full of green

[Chorus]

The only time I feel alright
Is when I'm into drinking
It can sort of ease the pain of it and it
Levels out my thinking

[Chorus]

I sometimes hear the fiddles play,
Maybe it's just a notion
I dream I see white horses dance upon
That other ocean

[Chorus]

 

[fox69]

"Ghost In The Music"

"Ghost In The Music"


Down at the station the tracks are cold
The wheels of thunder, they roll no more
And the heart of America cries for the souls
Who won't be rollin' home

The dragon weeps with empty eyes,
The whistle sighs no more in the night...
It rests in the lines, like a ghost in the music,
The soul of America's pride

Toil of our fathers with foreign hands,
They laid the tracks and they opened the plains
They fought the mountains and they merged our seas
They set America free

Tell me,... Where is the blaze of the hobo's caldron?
The refuge for these poor and these fallen?
It rests in the lines, like a ghost in the music,
The soul of America's pride

Foreign father... American son, father see what your son has done
He's torn up the mountains
And reshaped the plains
The dreams he dreams aren't the same

To the fallen ones who may still be askin,
"Who'd take time to stir these ashes,
Who'll hear the lines of a ghost in the music
And kindle America's pride?"

Tell me,... Where is the blaze of the hobo's caldron?
The refuge for these poor and these fallen?
It rests in the lines, like a ghost in the music,
The soul of America's pride.