Up There Down Here

(feltenberger)

Life as we know it has come to an end
A suburban catastrophe
It's time to start mourning the death of a friend
Who's standing in front of me

And i can't stop the hatred that wells up inside
As i look for a glimmer in his vacant eyes
And i can't do a damn thing 'cause i can't feel a damn thing
With a hole in my heart that's a thousand miles wide

'cause the smile has left his face
The portrait of happiness he can't retrace
Gone is the love that once lived there
It's cold as a stone, cold as a stone

It's laid out before him with trembling hands
But the parts don't seem to fit
And the 34 winters haven't left him as cold
As this one conversation did

And i don't understand with eyes open wide
Why you see love so clearly but it still leaves you blind
And i can't do a damn thing, 'cause i can't say a damn thing
And i can't stop this woman from pushing him aside

'cause the smile has left his face
The portrait of happiness he can't retrace
Gone is the love that once lived there
It's cold as a stone, cold as a stone

Life as we know it has come to an end
Nothing can be the same

(alexander)

Somewhere the wind is whispering into somebody's ear
Somewhere someone is hearing just what they want to hear
Somewhere somebody's savior has finally appeared
The kind that makes great poetry and abbreviates careers

Love all, trust a few

Jehoshaphat the genius said to bosco the kid
Come and get it, youth is served, you're gonna love it kid
Don't get it on your clothes, don't put it up your nose
Pass the madness 'neath the door, pass the madness 'neath the door

Love all, trust a few

Given time i can find a reason to love anyone
A reason to love anyone

Somewhere a man is washing his clothing in a fountain
Somewhere a man is throwing pennies not bothering to count them
Somewhere a man's reflection reveals nothing about him
Somewhere a man's forgetting all of this was once a mountain

Love all, trust a few

(alexander)

Martha's wearing blue jeans
And she's praying for the poor
Two midgets shop for halloween
At a salvation army store
And a widow with a quarter
Buys herself a plastic ring
A little faith is a precious thing

Santa in december
The circus in july
The fat man he has mouths to feed
Just like you and i
And a family of agnostics
Attends a christening
A little faith is a precious thing

Tonight meet me at the graveyard
Up on teaberry hill
We'll lie upon the ground and dream
Where truth and superstition
Are just a reasoning away
And nothing is ever as it seems

Like a seed that grows
'neath fallen leaves
She wouldn't let them keep her down
Left her parents home
Moved to the country
Now her children play in the backyard
Near where the cooling towers steam
A little faith is a precious thing

(alexander/naydock)

Marlon brando eats alone tonight
I may be right
But then, i don't know much about him
There's a part of you my system lacks
But through the cracks
It only shows in bits and pieces

I always feel i'm talking to
The person who last talked to you
Your rabbit's foot and four leaf clover
Only serve to run me over now

Which one of you
Will join me tonight
Which one of you will i see
Which one of you
Are you trying to hide from me

I never understood this posturing
The heart's a thing
That makes or breaks your reputation
If you were choking on excessive praise
I couldn't raise
An army strong enough to save you

I always feel i'm talking to
The person who last talked to you
Your rabbit's foot and four leaf clover
Only serve to run me over now

Which one of you
Will join me tonight
Which one of you will it be
Which one of you
Are you trying to hide from me

Are you the soldier
With the world on his shoulders
Or are you the hero
Who never gets older
The list goes on and on

Marlon brando eats alone tonight
I may be right
But then, i don't know much about him
The saddest thing's to see you fade away
The slow decay
It eats at me at every level

I always feel i'm talking to
The person who last talked to you
Your rabbit's foot and four leaf clover
Only serve to run me over now

Which one of you
Will join me tonight
Which one of you will it be
Which one of you
Are you trying to hide from me
Which one of you
Will join me tonight
Which one of you will i see
Which one of you
Are you trying to hide from me

(alexander)

Luther's windows are littered with nothing
A crystal, a picture, a dead potted sage
A dusty white curtain, the nose prints of a dog
A shot glass collection from his truck driving days

Luther's bedroom is as hot as an oven
With air that's as stale as old forgotten bread
In a cage on the dresser there's a parrot that talks
But her name over and over is all that it says

Turn your back to the sun
You see only shadows
Look beneath the stars
You see only night
Like a homesick sailor
Luther's standing in the window
Watching the world floating by him tonight

Luther's hands once held a chain
With keys to a home and a blue chevrolet
Now he lives with his mother, steals all her liquor
And chain smokes and stares at the ceiling for days

Turn your back to the sun
You see only shadows
Look beneath the stars
You see only night
Like a homesick sailor
Luther's standing in the window
Watching the world floating by him tonight

Luther's sitting by himself on the sofa
With his head bowed down but his eyes are open wide
Having a one man revival with an electronic bible
Listening to the parade going by
And the bass drum is pounding, the trumpets are bleating
And he's reading a verse from st. john
A trickle of light seeps through the blind
Luther pulls down the shade until he makes up his mind

Well, turn your back to the sun
You see only shadows
Look beneath the stars
You see only night
Like a homesick sailor
Luther's standing in the window
Watching the world floating by him tonight
It's floating by him tonight

(naydock/badlees)

When the rain is sports arena loud
In the evening of a self-inflicted day
And you're contemplating sides that might collide
The hemlock society and life insurance salesmen
And you discover all your coupons are for things you hate
And all your pennies are canadian and you curse that paperweight

Drown it all and leave it still
You're a millionaire of words
Hand in hand as light as birds
We'll go running up that hill

When acquaintances drain your reservoir
Of cigarettes like bad construction
And all your phone conversations slither
Into a sales pitch from the world of don lapre
And the love from a close-as-sisters friendship
Up and dies like it too often does

Drown it all and leave it still
You're a millionaire of words
Hand in hand as light as birds
We'll go running up that hill

The funeral directors' trade show crowd
Strangles parking so you drive a while
Past streets and neighborhoods and ghosts
Of incidents that now define you
When the weight of expectation cracks
Cracks your countenance in the damnedest places

Drown it all and leave it still
You're a millionaire of words
Hand in hand as light as birds
We'll go running up that hill

(smith)

Once was a man who didn't do too well
He spent more than a little time down in his little hell
He had time to decide even if it was worth the ride

He started early on before it was cool
To take the risk on of dealin' in the high school
Never mind that a line wasn't much more than a good time

Yeah de yeah

Carefree and careful as a man could be
What are the risks of burnin' hot if you can't even see
That the ore's run aground sinking in to the shore

Careful and conscious of the burning red
Of the flashing lights and the feeling of dread
Captured in everything in this dragging little moment

Yeah de yeah

Inevitably in a little hell
Immeasurably in a little hell
Character breathes with a little hell

Run out of thoughts and possibilities
It ain't only the man with no eyes who can't see
You back up, up a day, coulda wrote, wrote it all...
You back up, in a daze, shoulda wrote, wrote it all down

Yeah de yeah