RECORDS

On the big wingspan of your best laid plan
A world that ain’t worth knowing in the palm of our hands
Tried putting the blame on misunderstanding
Village in flames, earthquake, crash landings

She’s a laugh a minute from a joke so cruel
A weighted blanket in the swimming pool
Okeedokee for a broken fool
A new hand sign for your twisted ways
It’s the new OK

Deep in my own head drenched from the cups
I thought going downtown might cheer me up
We promised each other we wouldn’t let it get too rough
Said let me know son, when you’ve had enough

Said let me know when you’ve had your fill
Force of nature and the force of will
Break your spirit when it gets revealed
That you’ve settled for an injury instead of a kill
Blood on your hands that point with skill how we lost our way
It’s the new OK

And I wonder if the life we lived will be around when the weight is lifted
off the ground when the plates have shifted and the whole thing’s burning down
Will we rise up from where we’re planted with our fists up to the sun?
Or will we settle for tear gassed eyes staring down the gun?

Summer in Portland, everything’s fine
Black Lives Matter holding up the line
We got mommies and vets taking fire
From the cops on the beat and the occupiers

It’s 11:29 and the shit comes down
Shooting volleys from behind the fence
Smashing medics and the once free press
It gets bloody and it gets messy
Goons with guns coming out to play
It’s a battle for the very soul of the USA
It’s the new OK

You know the deal, can’t change how you feel, but you try anyway
You look for the means to conquer your dreams but your insides are quick to betray
Know right from wrong but damned to become just another bum pacing the floor
Carry the weight of your expectations but know they won’t fit through the door

It’s tough to let go when you’re faced but you can’t deliver
You’re not even sure who you are anymore

Unkindness of ravens outside the window
Sound in your head’s like a murder of crows
You’re wondering where did all of the time go?
Cut loose from everything you held close

It’s tough to let go when you’re faced but you can’t deliver
You’re not even sure who you are anymore
It’s tough to let go but you know that these things you are holding onto
are killing you faster than you kill yourself

It’s tough to let go when you’re faced but you can’t deliver
Aces and scars hiding under your sleeve
Goodbyes make you bleed, but you know its time to cast off apart
and take what you need to be part of this life

Take what you need to believe there’s something more worth clinging to
but you’ll never know till you leave

It’s tough to let go It’s tough to let go

Something’s gonna happen when you pull that string
About to take the stitching off of everything
The unraveling is happening
The pressure to be perfect made you wind so tight
Worked all day, tossed and turned all night
The unraveling is happening You stripped your screws and broke your spring

The gears you grind are mired and stiff You drive that car right off that cliff
Shift your hip as the music plods Burned your bridges, throw your rods
No matter how you break it down Your friends all scatter when the shit comes down
The unraveling is happening Whole world coming apart at the seams

You sometimes think you could be so free if you drove a little faster into that tree
You hide your feelings in the sound so loud Smile so big and walk so proud
Your family’s in horror cuz you’re off the rails Tears spilled along the bloody trail
The unraveling is happening You lost it all and you had everything

We needed warming from the cold hard facts
Unheeded warnings bout the broken tracks
All hope is fading and not coming back again
Uniting forces may be calling fast, changing courses to some Stalin past
Melting faces through the looking glass, my friend

Something’s got ahold of our feel alright, out of control in the appetite
We’re moving into the perilous night, Amen

Dumb, white and angry with their cup half filled
Running over people down in Charlottesville
White House Fury, it’s the killing side, he defends
Defend the up-ender, yes he played that tune
It ain’t the ending but its coming soon
We’re making love beneath a sputnik moon again

White House is glowing from that Red Square light
The gates at the border being slammed down tight
We’re moving into the perilous night, my friend
Something’s got ahold of our feel alright, out of control in the appetite
We’re moving into the perilous night, Amen

Why’s that drone looking through my window?
World keeps turning in the torch light shadow
Fourth Reich in khakis is beckoning
Both ends burning to the reckoning

Ronnie Reagan must be spinning his grave
Putin’s on the rise, Ukraine’s under siege
Fascism’s knocking and Trump says “Let Them In”
I’d like to tell you there’ll be better days
But optimism’s running low today
We’re off the deep end with a lifeguard that can’t swim

The Klan and the Nazis are taking up the fight
against their own salvation in the savior’s light
We’re moving into the perilous night, Amen
Flags of oppression are blocking out the light
dismantling The Greatest Generation’s fight
We’re moving into the perilous night, Amen

Sarah memorized every bumper sticker
on the back of every pickup with a rebel flag,
Every morning in the senior parking lot
every weekend in the fields with the windows hot
She learned to work them into every sentence
So good she made herself useful to the men who print them
All the way up in the balconies, half the working classes clapping ones and threes

She had them hearing old Dixie driven down in every note of Barry’s baritone
and strangle-holding pearls in the clutches of their liver spotted hands
She made PC worse to Mama than the VD Daddy brought home from the rodeo
She made it look so easy all Fat Donnie had to do was wear the pants

What’s a girl got to do to get a little bit of credit in a place like this?
For knowing Night Moves crowds would never heed The Rivers cautionary winds
For knowing only Mama’s boys would claim involuntary self-inflicted rage
The tikis would’ve never hit the streets if it weren’t for Sarah’s flame

I flew in from the west coast just in time for last call
This place is way too fancy
I’m never quite prepared for the heat of southern fall
And the guy in the lobby playing piano as I came in
I gave him the stink eye
But I wish that I could play the piano half as good as him

I’m Sea Island lonely, if you see me in the morning
Won’t you please say something kind to me
Won’t you fix me a cup of coffee and tell me that you love me
That this life is how it’s meant to be, how it’s meant to be

Now the driver in the front seat, he’s been more than patient
waiting for me to catch a buzz
To drink another cold beer and put on a dry shirt
so we can make that drive to Jacksonville

I’m flying to New York City at five-thirty in the morning
sleep-walking south of Houston all alone
I’ll just catch myself a different buzz and look up at the bright lights
and revel in the darkness of my songs

Singing Sea Island lonely
It’s a wonder that it’s only written in the wind that carries me
I’ll fix you crunchy bacon and make your eggs less runny
and thank you for the way that you take care of me

Sea Island lonely, don’t even try to telephone me
Cuz the reception is dissolving rapidly
I’ll call you in the morning when New York City lights are dawning
to convince you it’s how it’s meant to be

How it’s meant to be

Standing in the trenches and swinging for the fences
Locked on and clocked in
I ain’t coming to my senses from religion or expenses
or the runs that I ain’t knocked in
I’ll take the best you have to offer and improvise the rest
then do it again tomorrow
Keep your hands out of the coffers and always do your best
and we’ll probably let you follow
We got three hours till daylight, Locked and loaded for the drive

You got to know who you can trust and who’s ass you should bust
when it’s hard to tell the difference
When to put it to the test and when to lead with the left
and what it takes to go the distance

What it takes to go the distance when you live so far from home
Determination and persistence when the first punch has been thrown

Our forefathers used to brave the mighty ocean’s wave
for the things that were denied them
Sailed far away from home without cellular phone
while the dragons swam beside them
They built cities shore to shore for their grandson’s to explore
with just the Northern Star to guide them
Traveled all across this land in our Econoline Van
and did our best to stand beside them

Passing out at the party and waking up alone
What it takes to go the distance when you live so far from home   

Go ahead and holler for help No one is going to save you.
The voices that were hired to protect only betray you
Now it seems it’s all going down and I’m just standing on
a balcony outside of town Watching the orange clouds

The kids are in their bedrooms asleep and I don’t want to wake them
From some dreams that I hope are sweet These days have shaken them
Walking in our daydreams Needing some awakening
From the privilege of skin and the seat at the table that’s awaiting them

Across the Burnside Bridge there’s heads getting bashed and teargas
Boys too stupid to really be proud
Watching the orange clouds Watching the orange clouds

And I’m trying really hard to find a way to help to make it all better
As I struggle on how and if I should share these stories that are so upsetting
But I’m starting to doubt my own facility of even comprehending my place
It’s too late to try for shelter as the helicopters give it away
Give it away…

Sure wish I could get some sleep Just didn’t realize
this bottom is so damned deep Hoping one day we’ll rise
and move onto some better place We can look back on nightmares
of this endless spring Watching the orange clouds

Watching the orange clouds

And I’m trying really hard to find a way to help make it all better (X3)
And I’m trying really hard to find a way…