Please Remain Calm
On Both Eyes
And when the floor gave out, we made our way to the ground
And laid for hours.
In the ashen dirt, we knew we didn’t have much
But it was ours.
Between loneliness and some broken love,
I’d choose none of the above.
They say we wanted it a little too much…
Oh, it’s a distant land:
The one where we live,
But it slipped from our hands.
The grass overgrown, the broken family home,
See the place where we grew up
Turned a circus for gamblers and gawkers and theives.
When the word got around, we spilled out on the streets.
As the banks decorate every house in defeat.
All set to expire,
A fighter past his prime.
My daddy said,
No one likes a whiner,
But I got shiners on both eyes.
Boy, is there a job for you?
And if there was,
Would you even want to?
‘Cause when the floor gave out, we made our way to the ground
And laid for hours.
Cut-up and hurt, you held me firm.
The world moved on without us.
I know my honesty’s a little too much,
But there’s no one fighting for us.
Is there something here that you can still love?
[Chorus]
Still my memory stays and replays
The first time that we held
Or was it our world at all?
Young and racing towards nothing
Was it our world at all?
Burning headlong with the blinders on
Sold all my stock of the American dream.
More than someone to fuck
Before we all fall asleep.
I see a broken world coming for us
And Maria,
It’s you and me
Fighting for love.
If we can believe it’s enough,
We’ll take the bombs from the great above
[Chorus]
Don’t Die On Me Now
We never wondered if we should,
But only how we made it look so good.
We got nervous and caught up on purpose.
Before, doubt was calling out…
Now it’s all falling down
Don’t die on me now
Not tonight, not this town
Don’t die on me now
Is there a doctor in the house?
Cause I’m about to get on the ground
And save this mouth-to-mouth
To keep the power from going out
Barely living, hand-to-mouth
Stalled and falling out
[Chorus]
I’ve been a hero, and I’ve been a fool.
And all of it for you.
Blowing on a pair of dice
Fight like hell until
I get us out of here alive
The restless breathe,
The drumroll please,
You’ve gotta believe…
[Chorus]
Brokenheartland
Staring through the disconnect,
I felt my own inconsequence.
‘Neath the standing army of discontent,
I felt my own inconsequence.
On a waiting train that wouldn’t leave,
I prayed these chords my soul to keep
Tonight, they won’t take me alive
‘Cause there’s a song everyone knows,
And though no one sang a single note,
I can feel it
From the rumbling jungles of our self-defeat
To the sullen barracks where no one (dares to) sleeps.
On the battlefield of broken hearts,
I saw this world fucking torn apart
Just waiting for nothing.
[Chorus]
Across the broken heartland,
We’re all coming out
Blasting the sound of the trodden down
And tonight we’re for it,
Fucking verse bridge and chorus.
No one knows who won the wars,
But we know something died.
Sleepless, workless,
Stuck in line.
Giving in for the first time.
We just stopped waiting
For someone to save us.
They tell me we got something to lose.
Like what, to whom?
I know you hear it too.
Woke Up Next To A Body
Such a cheap game, pretending
To win a father’s blessing,
When we’ve been downstairs undressing,
Knowing not the time it takes…
Your thoughts start to stray, and
You see the paleness in me.
You hear the lonely bars of Nassau singing
You to sleep…
I woke up next to a body
That didn’t belong to me.
Had me feeling like a sinner on Sunday.
Had me feeling like your father would hate me.
Over hill, over dale, baby we left an ugly trail.
But I always thought it’d lead somewhere we’d rest.
Now on my back I obsess,
The thought of you unimpressed
By the things I do,
The things I say.
The way you talk to me.
I woke up next to a body
That didn’t belong to me.
Had me feeling like a sinner on Sunday.
And I see it hiding
In your sullen, sunken face,
You’ve decided.
Do you think you know how this ends?
Living as distant friends.
No longer young and in love and
At war with the world.
Impossible!
Oh, we couldn’t have seen ourselves here
In this desperate place made more austere.
And now that it’s all gone to hell, they’re asking,
“What’s there to sell when everyone’s come off the shelves?”
Can’t you feel the unease?
From these “Troubled States”* to the Middle East,
The youth of the world are alive in the streets.
When the bell strikes Four on the trading floor,
(Yes, we’d like some more)
Will freedom ring?
In the scorching streets of the Arab Spring
Tarhir Square sings,
“Will freedom ring?”
Hurt, we yearn
And I’m not about to roll over.
I’ve felt your feet trampling over.
No, not the tankers, the bankers, dictators or Kings…
I refuse to believe it’s impossible.
The youth of the world are alive in the streets.
It’s not the bricks “they” fear, it’s what we think.
*Inspired by Crime in Stereo’s “The Troubled Stateside”
May Love Prevail
Hey Twenty-Two,
I’m onto you.
And all the while refusing to
Believe that you’re a party to their
Cold, cornered, grey aesthetic,
Cracked pavement, pale, pathetic.
In this crowd of battered lives,
I found eyes.
They think we’re shy but we’re twice as alive
Oh, they won’t know
It’s their panic that scowls straight through your face.
But ‘til they put their heart against the State,
They’ll never know how to pump blood like us.
Now it’s just rushing to my head
And now all your friends,
They’re afraid of you
Their cheating world is watching
Close your eyes,
Hope that something survives.
Oh, I seen you shake,
Like you just can’t take
Waiting for them to
Make up your mind
(Just give me…)
One for the worst times ahead,
One for the words left unsaid,
One for their world on its head…
They won’t know.
The “M” Word
Is it true?
That he’ll never put a ring on you?
You’re abused, but is that the worst
He’s done to you?
It’s a sad time to be young,
Knowing the worst has just begun.
Meridith, do you really want to marry him?
This could end up an embarrassment, and
You’ll have to keep his name.
Meridith, do you think that he’ll be fair with it?
‘Cause all I’ve heard is his disparagement
Towards “you and him.”
But time isn’t on your side…
[Chorus]
Meridith, I know you feel the options narrowing.
With no proposals, twenty’s harrowing.
You hear their whispers grow.
Meridith, it’s apparent that he’s scared of it
And only seconds from “The hell with it!”
Don’t be remiss,
Hangin’ with guys like him.
Please bear in mind,
To him, that word brings back to life
Decades of unending fights.
Oh, he’s prepared for as Cold a War as
His parents endured.
So be careful when you put yourself out there…
You’ll say “I do.”
He’ll say “I do not know…”
It’s a sad time to be young,
Knowing the worst has just begun.
Patriot/
Whether forever, or never again
I see you gone
And now, I just want to be there with you,
Forever…
Oh, how your eyes fell into mine
And we stirred to find the world alive
Like we couldn’t feel the decline…
Old railroad, take me away to that time
When men held something close.
The place where we touched the flame,
We burned slowly before it
All went up in smoke.
Smoke, stone, broken bones
A hard place we called a home
[Chorus]
I saw with my own eyes us unraveling
While others took to your side.
Men of priviledge and class,
They danced, they drank, they
Robbed the whole place blind.
And drunk with Pride, you hurt, you stole
But I still carried you home.
From the jungles, to the deserts, to the trenches’ reddened snow,
So maybe Hell ain’t a place
It’s a time, a time, a time when things move on
Ain’t it a cryin’ shame, that after all this we lived to see it gone
Pieces in my hands
Try’n to put ‘em back
Just the way they were before
How we tamed earth and broke rock just to bring us close
20,000 miles of steel across the great unknown
You can’t put a fallen leaf back on the tree…
Oh, say can’t you see,
That they’ve taken you from me
All I wanted was to be there with you forever.
Closing Remarks
And they wait for his closing remarks
Only moments before he embarks
And the people are giving off sparks
Along the avenue, along the avenue
Oh your gaze, and the craze it’s
Created in me.
Can’t you see?
Just take my hand,
You’d have total command
Total command, total command
Oh, be my man.
[Chorus]
Enough of the gambit, the baiting,
The dark backroom trading,
You know I’ve been waiting for you.
Never have I been held so captive
By someone I find so attractive.
What I’d give…
Now I’m waiting for your miracle
[Chorus]
Everybody wants to peel him away,
Everybody wants to steal him away
Oh, he’s impressed by you
Everybody wants to peel him away,
Everybody wants to feel him…
Close your eyes, he’s undressing you
And they wait for his closing remarks,
Only moments before he embarks
And they’re wondering what becomes of the sparks
When they’re all…
One Last Salute
Restless with the endless hurt of waiting
Trembling with the fear of wasting
It all on someone else,
All on something else.
Somehow, I always knew they’d come for us.
But even if this sad world caught us,
Why come running with your hands up?
Yeah, you still play.
The dream doesn’t die, it just walks away.
And you don’t chase,
Hope it stays near.
It will never disappear.
If you can just keep an eye on it,
It won’t disappear…
But it’s never looked farther from here.
Then maybe I wouldn’t be hanging around
Here in Old Watertown,
Pushing pallets around for someone else.
Lately, I’ve been crawling through the wires,
Whispering as the Hurt transpires,
Is anybody trying to get us out of here?
You still say,
The dream doesnt die, it just walks away.
You don’t chase and pray it
Does not disappear.
It’s never looked farther than here
Wishing we could go back
To when I felt something, anything
I need a reaction
My soul satisfaction
Because I see the writing on the wall…
In the walls of the hospitals,
We’re screaming things that can’t be proved.
How this whole thing was unstoppable,
We were burdened with its proof.
Like how the beating comes free for all,
But you’ll pay for every bruise.
You didnt choose, still we lose.
In the walls of the hospital,
Screamed the ones they couldn’t use
We can’t hold ‘em responsible,
But, we can’t let them run loose.
Chain gang baby playing rock’n’roll
And the mischeif that ensued.
So please, one last salute
For the way that we lose.
We been knocked around,
We been kicked down.
When the floor gave out,
We found common ground.
Lyrics
