Songs from an American Movie, Vol. 1: Learning How to Smile

Baby go to bed and put out the light
We both know if we talk anymore
We're gonna end up in a great big fight
You can have your way again
Yeah, you believe what you wanna believe
You can walk all over me tomorrow
But tonight can we both just pretend to sleep

I think we're headed for a big fall
I think we're headed for a bad time
Ooh yeah you're gonna go downstairs
And sit in that chair you like
Gonna put a John Prine record on
I think we need to slow it down for a while

Yeah I wish we had never bought a king size bed
Yeah only damn thing that it's ever been good for
Plenty room for the real good sex
I lay in bed in the dark and all that I can see
Yeah, is the distance that grows between us
You seem so far from me

I think we're headed for a real big fall
Yes we're headed for a bad time
Yeah gonna go downstairs
Sit by myself all alone in the middle of the night
Gonna put a John Prine record on
Yes we need to slow it down for a while
Gonna go downstairs
Smoke cigarettes in a thrift store chair tonight
Gonna put a John Prine record on
Yeah we need to slow it down for a while
We need to slow it down for a while...

'~KHJ Los Angeles!~ Portions of the day's programming are reproduced by means of
electrical transcriptions or tape recordings.'

You can hear the music on the AM radio

The VCR and the DVD
There wasn't none of that crap back in 1970
We didn't know about a World Wide Web
It was a whole different game being played back when I was a kid

Wanna get down in a cool way
Picture yourself on a beautiful day
Big bell bottoms and groovy long hair
Just walkin' in style with a portable CD player
No, you would listen to the music on the AM radio
Yeah, you could hear the music on a AM radio

Flashback, '72
Another summer in the neighborhood
Hangin' out with nothing to do
Sometmes we'd go drivin' around
In my sister's Pinto
Cruisin' with the windows rolled down
We'd listen to the radio station
We were too damn cool to buy the eight track tapes
There wasn't any good time to want to be inside
My mama wanna watch that TV all goddamn night

I'd be in bed with the radio on
I would listen to it all night long
Just to hear my favorite song
You'd have to wait but you could hear it on the AM radio
Yeah, you could hear the music on a AM radio
I can still hear Mama say ¡°Boy turn that radio down!'

¡°Aw, Mom. Not that show again! I don't wanna watch that show! Can't we watch Good Times
or Chico and the Man or something cool? Turn it off!'

Things changed back in '75
We were all growing up on the in and the outside
We got in trouble with the police man
We got busted gettin' high in the back of my friend's van

I remember 1977
I started going to concerts and I saw the Led Zeppelin
I got a guitar on Christmas day
I dreamed that Jimmy Page would come from Santa Monica and teach me to play
Teach me to play...

There isn't any place that I need to go
There isn't anything that I need to know
I did not learn from the radio

Yeah when things get stupid and I just don't know
Where to find my happy
I listen to my music on the AM radio
You can hear the music on a AM radio
You can hear the music on a AM radio

I like pop, I like soul, I like rock, but I never liked disco
I like pop, I like soul, I like rock, but I never liked disco
We like pop, we like soul, we like rock, but we never liked disco...

No I never liked disco...

'Hey, ain't life wonderful? Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful... Isn't it wonderful
now?'

I close my eyes when I get too sad
I think thoughts that I know are bad
Close my eyes and I count to ten
Hope it's over when I open them

I want the things that I had before
Like a Star Wars poster on my bedroom door
I wish I could count to ten
Make everything be wonderful again

Hope my mom and I hope my dad
Will figure out why they get so mad
Hear them scream, I hear them fight
They say bad words that make me wanna cry

Close my eyes when I go to bed
And I dream of angels who make me smile
I feel better when I hear them say
Everything will be wonderful someday

Promises mean everything when you're little
And the world's so big
I just don't understand how
You can smile with all those tears in your eyes
Tell me everything is wonderful now

Please don't tell me everything is wonderful now

I go to school and I run and play
I tell the kids that it's all okay
I laugh aloud so my friends won't know
When the bell rings I just don't wanna go home

Go to my room and I close my eyes
I make believe that I have a new life
I don't believe you when you say
Everything will be wonderful someday

Promises mean everything when you're little
And the world is so big
I just don't understand how
You can smile with all those tears in your eyes
When you tell me everything is wonderful now

No
No, I don't wanna hear you tell me everything is wonderful now
No
No, I don't wanna hear you tell me everything is wonderful now

I don't wanna hear you say
That I will understand someday
No, no, no, no
I don't wanna hear you say
You both have grown in a different way
No, no, no, no
I don't wanna meet your friends
And I don't wanna start over again
I just want my life to be the same
Just like it used to be
Some days I hate everything
I hate everything
Everyone and everything
Please don't tell me everything is wonderful now...

I don't wanna hear you tell me everything is wonderful now

The only thing that ever made sense to me
Is the words to a song from an American movie
The only thing that ever made sense in my life
Is the sound of my little girl laughing
Through the window of a summer night

I sit alone in the back yard
Wishing I could be inside
Just the sound of my little girl laughing
Makes me happy just to be alive...

[Answering machine:] ¡°Hi, this is Peggy. Leave me a nice message or I'll kill ya.'

¡°Hey Peggy, it's me. You are never going to believe what happened to me today. I'm
sittin' at the unemployment office, waitin' on my loser of a caseworker, in one of those
nasty chairs, when from out of nowhere, this total stranger walks right up to me, sits
down, then leans over and says something like, 'This is gonna sound a little
obsessive.''

This is gonna sound a little obsessive
This is gonna sound a little bit strange
I have one thing to say
Before I turn and I walk away

This is gonna sound a little impulsive
This is gonna sound a little insane
I know you don't know me yet
But you and I, we will be together someday
Someday
I know, I know, I sound like I'm on drugs
Listen to me when I say

That ever since when I first saw you
Sittin' on your car outside
You asked for a cigarette
I couldn't stop starin' at your eyes

Ever since when I first saw you
Looking bored in that plastic chair
With the lights of the office around you
Those blond streaks, they look so pretty in your black hair
You look cool and alternative with that disaffected stare
Yeah you want people to think that you just don't care

Hey you can be with me
Yeah 'cause I just might be the one
Who will treat you like you're perfect
Who will always make you come
Hey you can be with me
Yes I will always let you win
I will never be like those other guys
I will never be your unemployed boyfriend

¡°Can you believe he said that to me? To me, of all people! I can't even remember the
last time a guy took me out on a date and actually paid for it!'

This is gonna sound a little bit out there
This is gonna sound a little insane
I keep having the same dream
You will be the mother of my children someday
Someday

I heard you sleep with that obnoxious guy
I know he is in that famous band
You look so sad when you are with him
Yes I never see him reach to hold your hand

Yeah you can be with me
Yes I will treat you like a queen
I will go to all those chick flick movies
That I really don't want to see
Yeah you can be with me
No I will never let you down
I will never make out with your girlfriend
When I know you're not around
Yes you can be with me
Yeah I just might be the one
Who will treat you like you're special
I will always make you come
You can be with me
Yes I will always let you win
I will never be like those other guys
I will never be like those other guys
I will never be your unemployed boyfriend

¡°Can you believe this? I mean, can this be for real?'

No!

'Then he takes my hand, writes down his number, and just walks away.'

Whoa!

'I mean, wow. But you know, the weird thing is, he's actually kind of cute, in a
really intense way. Kinda like Perry Farrell, you know. Intense, but sensitive. Anyway, I
told my bitchy sister about it, and she just laughed at me. I told her I'm really excited
about this! That I have a really good feeling about this guy! I told her, 'This could be
the guy.' I'm like...'