Fat City

S. Colvin

Jane it sure looks like rain
These Canadian plains
And their windblown hair
Jane the bruise colored clouds
The smell of the ground
In the ripening air


I have seen you
In your fluttering dress
And your dry face of steel
As you're dragging your red rowing boat
Cross the forever fields


See Jane something's gone dead
Inside my head
There's nothing but fear
Jane the rivers of grief
The tears of relief
Seem ages from here


Sometimes the beauty of life
Hits like lightening washing everything
clear
And these dimmers of doubt flicker
Fade out and disappear


But Jane that is a luxury
There are those of little faith it seems
And they beg for truth like charity
And I see them on every street corner


They are holding out one righteous hand
While the other leads the marching band
In the shadow hymn of the scratchman
Heed the message, kill the messenger


Jane I heard you found love
Wriggling up from the mud
On the shores of Granville
But Jane in the wink of an eye
The naysayers fly
Like hounds at your heels


Jane they'll whisper your name
And you won't feel the chains
And you won't see the moss
Oh, Jane there's an art to the game
The aesthetics of love
The athletics of loss


Sometimes someone drifts by
And our nets get entwined in the sea
And in time I might find
They still mean something to me


But Jane that is a luxury
There are those of little faith in me
And they pull me down like gravity
And I see them on every street corner


They are masters in the sleight of hand
They are dancers and they step so grand
To the shibboleth of Shadowland
Heed the message, kill the messenger

S. Colvin - Elly Brown

Full full moon and
That same sad nature
I wanna cover every inch of you
Like ink on paper
Like the blind parade of souls
Consumed by religion
I can't wait 'til I get you
In that defenseless position


Chorus:
When we set the prairie on fire
Oh we go down to the water
Naked and slow
You and me
And the heart of desire
We set the prairie on fire
How hard will the wind blow
How far will it go


When the feeling burns down
To one solitary color
The velocity of longing
Melting into each other
It's a song our fingers play
All at once and together
You can bet we never learned it
But we've known it forever


Oh I dreamed that we were flying
Carried up from the ashes
Black silhouettes of velvet
Against the crimson of passion
We can almost hear the echoes
From the smoldering meadow
It's the rapture of the angels
And the rage of the devil


Chorus

In the cool dusk of horses
Through the rusted wires of sleep
With our arms around midnight
We're headed for release
We go riding in the wind
We go riding in the dark
Go riding, riding


Chorus

S. Colvin - J. Leventhal

I got a cool head doin' alright
But I been up here so long I was starving
For some hot spells, summer lights
Shinin' on your back roads
Tennessee


Somebody hit me hard
Right in my own backyard
Somebody put a hope lock on my heart
Runnin' down your back roads
Tennessee


Oh you got the banjos
And they play real slow
Not to me, not to me
I never heard such rock and roll
As on your back roads
Tennessee


Now I know you're not to blame
But you know that you should have
told me
That I would never be the same
After riding down your back roads
Tennessee


Somebody held me tight
Somebody tried to fight
Somebody raced out in the night
Runnin' down your back roads
Tennessee


Oh you kissed the soul of a rebel
In a Yankee girl
You got to me
I heard you callin' 'round the world
From your back roads
Tennessee


I saw somebody standin'
In a field with a crutch
Behind his rich southern daddy
With a Midas touch
They said be outta here by sundown
They said good luck
You might say I was the stranger
Who knew too much


Somebody took a hope lock from my heart
And threw it down your back roads
Tennessee


Oh you feel the north wind blow
That's only me
I want to hear some rock and roll
On your back roads
Tennessee


I'm not the bad city girl
Come down to rape you
I'm not the hometown queen
Who wants to save you
I heard you callin' to my soul
From your back roads
Tennessee

S. Colvin

I don't know what else to do
I would rather do anything
Than write this song for you
And perpetuate this thing
In my head, in my living room
With the usual arsenal
Of broken chords and rusty strings
To surrender all


And I don't like to be so weak
Retreating behind these lines
The same old tongue-in-cheek
Regretting that both are mine
And I don't like to live this way
This is really true
But I know better than to pray now
About what I just have to learn to do
But imagine the nerve of God
Letting me let you in
And I thought I could let you go in grace
I've gotta think again


Because right now I would be bought
and sold
To see your face somewhere
I would sell your sweet soul
Just to touch your crazy black gold hair
I don't care what's really real
I was someone that you'd heard of
I saw heaven in your eyes
And we made a deal
And that's what I know of love


Music, it never goes
But I told you I hate that shit
When people say'well you know
You got a song out of it'
But I don't know what else to do
I would rather be anywhere
Than here without you

S. Colvin - L. Klein

Maybe somewhere in the southern
hemisphere
There could be room for all this love
Where they've saved a place for innocence
And what is still mysterious
And their dreaming time
They're dreaming time


Because we've broken down the
wilderness
And we've blackened up the skies
And we cry 'cause we've got no vision left
While the smoke gets in our eyes
And there's no more time
And the dream is dying


But I love you baby
And I know you and I
Can find a way to heaven
Just like Orion in the sky
He's the long lost hero
He's the guardian of your son
But can he protect us baby
From all the sad things we've done


Now I know there's no sense in hiding
And we can't escape this war
And I have made my peace with dying
Down here on this killing floor
In a world gone blind
Where there's no more time


But I love you baby
And I know by and by
We gonna find a way to heaven
Just like Orion in the sky
He can walk upon the water
He can shine for everyone
But can he protect us baby
From all the sad things we've done


Is it too much to ask in a lifetime
For just one shot at happiness
Do you just have to laugh at the right lines
Until you come face to face
With the looking glass
To be reckoned with the sins of our time


I love you baby
I can see you and I
As we fly away together
Up to Orion in the sky
He's the last of the fallen angels
He's the light of the Southern Cross
Maybe he can take us baby
Back to the paradise we've lost


So I'll see you darlin'
Now fly baby, fly
Down across the Fiji Islands
To where the Seven Sisters cry
Gather all your dreams and take them
Somewhere so far out of reach
Follow the sword of the hunter, baby
And meet me on the beach
We are forever tied
Still on the run
To the medicine man
For all the sad, sad things
We've done

W. Zevon - J. Browne

Mamma where's your pretty little girl tonight
She's tryin' to run before she can walk
That's right
She's growing up
She's got a young man waiting
She's growing up
She's got a young man waiting


She's wide-eyed
She'll be streetwise
To the lies
And the jive talk
But she'll find true love
And tenderness on the block


Now daddy don't you ask her when
she's comin' home
When she's back don't ask her where
she's been
She's going out
She's got a young man waiting
She's going out
She's got a young man waiting


She'll be okay
Let her have her way
It's a long way
It's a long walk
But she'll find true love
And tenderness on the block
She's gonna find true love
She's gonna find true love
She's gonna find true love
And tenderness on the block


Now I know how much it hurts to see her go
But she's got a mind of her own you know
She's all grown-up
She's got a young man waiting
She's all grown-up
She's got a young man waiting


She was wide-eyed
Now she's streetwise
To the lies
And the jive talk
But she'll find true love
And tenderness on the block


She's gonna find true love