Lifted or The Story is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground

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Track Listing

Lyrics

The Big Picture

The picture's far too big to look at kid
Your eyes won't open wide enough
And you're constantly surrounded
by the swirling stream of what is and what was
Well, we all make our predictions, but
the truth still isn't out
But if you want to see the future,
go stare into a cloud

And keep trying to find your way out
of that maze of memories
It all sorta looks familiar
until you get up close and then it's different, clearly
But each time you turn a corner you're...
you're right back where you were
and your only hope is that forgetting might
make a door appear

Well is it your fear of being buried
that makes you so afraid to speak?
An avalanche of opinions
like the one that fell, that I'm now underneath
It was my voice that moved the first rock
and I would do it all again
So, I mean, it's cool if you keep quiet, but
I like singing

So I'll be holding my note
and stomping and strumming and feeling so very lucky
And there is nothing I know
except this lifetime's one moment and wishing will just leave me empty

So you can try and live in darkness
but you will never shake the light
No, it will greet you every morning,
and it will make you more aware with its absence at night
when you're wrapped up in your blankets, baby,
that comfortable cocoon
But I've seen the day of your awakening, boy,
and it's coming soon

So go ahead and lose yourself in liquor
and you can praise the clouded mind
But it isn't what you're thinking, no,
it's the course of history, your position in line
You're just a piece of the puzzle, so
I think you'd better find your place
And don't go blaming your knowledge on
some fruit you ate

Cause there's been a great deal of discussion, yes,
about the properties of man
animal or angel, you were carved from bone but your heart, it's just sand
And the wind is gonna scatter it
and cover everything with love
So if it makes you happy then keep kneeling, Mama,
but I'm standing up

Because this veil it has been lifted, yes,
my eyes are wet with clarity
I've been a witness to such wonders
Oh, I've searched for them all across this country
But I think I'll be returning now
to that town where I was born
And I understand you must keep moving, friend,
but I'm headed home

Yeah, I'm gonna follow the road
and let the scenery sweeping by easily enter my body
and I will send you all this message in code
under ground, over mountains, through forests and deserts and cities
All across electric wire, it's a baited line, yeah,
The hook's in deep, boys, there's no more time
So you can struggle in the water, be too stubborn to die
Or you could just let go and be lifted to the sky

Method Acting

There's no beginning to the story
A bookshelf sinks into the sand
And a language learned and forgot, in turn,
is studied once again
It's a shocking bit of footage
Viewed from a shitty T.V. screen
You can squint at it
through snowy static
to make out the meaning
And keep on stretching the antenna
Hoping that it will come clear
We need some reception
a higher message
Just tell us what to fear
Cause I don't know what tomorrow brings
It's alive with such possibilities
All I know is I feel better when I sing
Burdens are lifted from me
That's my voice rising

So Michael, please keep the tape rolling
Boys, keep strumming those guitars
We need a record of our failures
Yes, we must document our love
I have sat too long in my silence
I've grown too old in my pain
To shed this skin,
be born again,
oh, it starts with an ending
So thank you friends for the time we shared
My love stays with you like sunlight and air
And though I truly wish I could keep hanging around here
My joy is covering me
Soon I will disappear

It's not a movie
no private screening
This method acting
well, I call it living, yeah
It's like a fountain
a door has opened
We have a problem
with no solution but to love
and to be loved

So I've made peace with the fallen leaves
I see their same fate in my own body
But I won't be frightened when I'm awoken from this dream
and returned to that which gave birth to me
Gave birth to me, gave birth to me, gave birth to me
And the story goes, and the story goes
And it goes on and on and on and on
It's going on and on and on and on
It's going on and on and on and on
It's going on and on and on and on
It's going on and on and on and on
It's going on and on and on and on
It's going on and on and on and on
and on and on and on and on and on

False Advertising

On a string, on a string
On a string, I was held
The way I move, can you tell?
My actions are orchestrated from above
And so I swing and I sway
Wave my hand, kick my leg
And it's always right with the music
"Until all that swaying starts to make you sick"
For a song, I was bought
Now I lie, when I talk
With a careful eye on the cue cards
Onto a stage, I was pushed
With my sorrow well rehearsed
So give me all your pity and your money, now
All of it
"We used to think that sound was something pure"
But if I could act like this was my real life
and not some cage where I've been placed
Well then I could tell you
the truth like I used to
and not be afraid of sounding fake
Now all anyone's listening for are the mistakes

("Oh, I'm sorry"
"No, it's ok, it's ok
One, two, three, one, two, three")

In a house by myself
I hear the ice start to melt
And I watch the rooftops weep for the sunlight
And I know what must change
Fuck my face, fuck my name
They are brief and false advertisements
For a soul I don't have
Something true I have lacked
and spent my whole life trying to make up for
But I found in a song
and in the people I love
They will lift me up out of darkness
And now my door, it stands open
I'm inviting everyone in
We're gonna laugh
We're gonna drink until the morning comes
That's what we're gonna do!
Come on! Come on!

You Will. You? Will. You? Will. You? Will.

Well, you say that I treat you like a book on a shelf
I don't take you out that often
cause I know that I completed you
And that's why you are here
That's the reason you stay here
How awful that must feel

You said you would be my dream
I could have you every night
And if by morning I'd forgotten you
well, no big deal, that'd be all right
cause you're the reoccuring kind
You are the reoccuring kind
You never really leave my mind

Are you the love of my lifetime?
cause there's been times I've had my doubts
We were just kids when I first kissed you
in the attic of my parents' house
And I wish we were there now
It took so long to figure out
What this book has been about

Now I write when I'm away
letters that you'll never read
You said go explore those other women
the geography of their bodies
But there's just one map you'll need
You're a boomerang you'll see
You will return to me

Oh, You Will. You? Will. You? Will. You? Will. You? Will. You? Will. You? Will. You? Will. You? Will. You? Will. You? Will.
Oh, You Will. You? Will. You? Will. You? Will. You? Will. You? Will. You? Will. You? Will. You? Will. You? Will.

Cause if you don't then this book's all lies
If you don't then my plans would all be ruined
If you don't I'll start drinking like the way I drank before
Well, and I just won't have a future anymore

Lover I Don't Have to Love

I picked you out
of a crowd and talked to you
Said I liked your shoes
You said thanks can I follow you?
So it's up the stairs
And out of view
No prying eyes
I poured some wine
I asked your name, you asked the time

And now it's two o'clock
the club is closed we're up the block
Your hands on me
Pressing hard against your jeans
Your tongue in my mouth
Trying to keep the words from coming out
You didn't care to know
Who else may have been you before

I want a lover I don't have to love
I want a girl who's to sad to give a fuck
Where is the kid with the chemicals?
I thought he said he'd meet us here but I'm not sure
I got the money if you got the time
You said it feels good, I said I'll give it a try

Then my mind went dark
We both forgot where your car was parked
Let's just take the train
I'll meet up with the band in the morning
Bad actors with bad habits
Some sad singers, they just play tragic
And the phone's ringing
And the vans leaving
Let's just keep touching
Let's just keep... keep singing

I want a lover I don't have to love
I want a boy who's so drunk he doesn't talk
Where is the kid with the chemicals
I got a hunger and I can't seem to get full
I need some meaning I can memorize
The kind I have always seems to slip my mind
But you, but you
you write such pretty words
but life's no story book
Love is an excuse to get hurt
and to hurt
Do you like to hurt? I do I do
Then hurt me
Then hurt me
Then hurt me, then hurt me, then hurt me, then hurt me, then hurt me, then hurt me, then hurt me

Bowl Of Oranges

The rain it started tapping on the window near my bed
There was a loophole in my dreaming so I got out of it
And to my surprise my eyes were wide and already open
Just my nightstand and my dresser where those nightmares had just been
So I dressed myself and left then out into the gray streets
But everything seemed different and completely new to me
The sky, the trees, houses, buildings, even my own body
And each person I encountered I couldn't wait to meet
And I came upon a doctor who appeared in quite poor health
I said, "There's nothing that I can do for you you can't do for yourself."
He said, "Oh yes you can. Just hold my hand. I think that that would help."
So I sat with him awhile then I asked him how he felt
He said, "I think I'm cured.
No, in fact, I'm sure of it.
Thank you, stranger,
for your therapeutic smile."

So that's how I learned the lesson that everyone's alone
And your eyes must do some raining if you're ever gonna grow
And when crying don't help, you can't compose yourself, it's best to compose a poem
an honest verse of longing, or a simple song of hope
That's why I'm singing 'baby don't worry cause now I've got your back
And every time you feel like crying, I'm gonna try and make you laugh
And if I can't, if it just hurts too bad, then we'll wait for it to pass
and I will keep you company for those days so long and black
And we'll keep working on the problem we know we'll never solve
Of love's uneven remainders, our lives are fractions of a whole
But if the world could remain within a frame like a painting on a wall
Then I think we'd see the beauty then, we'd stand staring in awe
At our still lives posed
Like a bowl of oranges
Like a story told
By the fault lines in the soil'

Don't Know When But A Day Is Gonna Come

Is it true what I heard about the Son of God?
Did he come to save? Did he come at all?
And if I dried his feet, with my dirty hair
would he make me clean again?
They say they don't know when but a day is gonna come
When there won't be a moon and there won't be a sun
It will just go black, it will just go back
to the way it was before
I knew a lovely girl with such pretty pride
And every man wanted her, yeah, and so did I
Yeah, and so did I, but she up and died
In a fit of vanity
Now men with purple hearts carry silver guns
and they'll kill a man for what his father's done
But what my father did, you know it don't mean shit
I'm not him
And you think I need some discipline, well, I've had my share
No, I've been sent to my room, I've sat in a chair
and I held my tongue, I didn't plug my ears no, I got a good talking to
And now I don't know why but I still try to smile
when they talk at me like I'm just a child
Well, I'm not a child
no I am much younger than that
But now I've read some books and I've grown quite brave
If I could just speak up I think that I would say
that there is no truth, there is only you
and what you make the truth
So, I'll just sing my songs and I'll pass a hat
And then I'll leave your town and I'll never look back
No, I don't look back because the road is clear
and laid out ahead of me
Now, I'll get home I'll meet my friends at our favorite bar
We'll get some lighter heads for our heavy hearts
And we'll share a drink, yeah, we'll share our fears
And they will know how I love them
They will know how I love... they will know how I love them
I'm nothing without their love

Now I don't know when but a day's gonna come
When there won't be a moon and there won't be a sun
It will all go black, it will go back
to the way it's supposed to be
Is it true what they say about the Son of God? Did he die for us? Did he die at all? And If I sold my soul, for a bag of gold to you which one of us would be the foolish one?
Which one of us would be the fool? Which one of us would be the foolish one?
Which one of us would be the fool?

Could you please start explaining? You know I need some understanding
Could you please start explaining? You know I need some understanding
Could you please start explaining? You know I need some understanding
I could do good with some explaining. You know I want to understand

Nothing Get's Crossed Out

Well the future's got me worried, such awful thoughts
My head's a carousel of pictures, the spinning never stops
I just want someone to walk in front
And I'll follow the leader
Like when I fell under the weight of a schoolboy crush
Started carrying her books and doing lots of drugs
I almost forgot who I was
But came to my senses
Now I'm trying to be assertive, I'm making plans
Gonna rise to the occasion, yeah, meet all their demands
But all I do is just lay in bed
And hide under the covers
Yeah, I know I should be brave
But I'm just too afraid
of all this change

And it's too hard to focus through all this doubt
I keep making these to-do lists but nothing gets crossed out
Working on the record seems pointless now
When the world ends who's gonna hear it?
But I'm trying to take some comfort in written words
Yeah, Tim, I heard your album and it's better than good
When we get off tour I think we should
Hang and black out together
Cause I been feeling sentimental for days gone by
All the summers singing, drinking, laughing, wasting our time
Remember all the songs and the way we smiled
In those basements made of music
But now I've got to crawl
to get anywhere at all
I'm not as strong as I thought

So when I'm lost in a crowd
I hope that you'll pick me out
How I... I long to be found
The grass grew high, I laid down
Now I wait for a hand
To lift me up, help me stand
I've been laying so low
Don't wanna lay here no more
Don't wanna lay here no more

Don't wanna lay here no more
Don't wanna lay here no more, no more

Everything that happens is supposed to be
And it's all predetermined can't change your destiny
Guess I'll just keep moving
Someday maybe I'll get to where I'm going

Make War

Our love is dead but without limit
like the surface of the moon
or the land between here and the mountains
Well, it is not these hiding places
that have kept us innocent
but the way you taught me to just let it all go by
And so we've learned to be as faithless
Stand behind bulletproof glass
exchanging our affections through a drawer
And It was always horribly convenient
and happening too fast
You should count your change before you're even out the door
Well, yes you should
but please return, return
to the person that you were
and I will do the same
Cause it's too hard to belong
to someone who is gone
My compass spins, the wilderness remains

Once too often I've retreated
into the depths of my despair
I built a barricade to block you on the road
But standing there with all of my possessions
piled higher than a house
I felt closer to you than you ever would have known
So let's let all these tiny acts of charity
become ground on which to build
a monument to commemorate our time
And though you say you've found another
who will surely speed you on your way
Don't let the forest grow over that path you came there by
But you will, so...
so hurry up and run to the one that you love
and blind him with your kindness
And he'll make war, oh war
on who you were before
And claim all that has spoiled in your heart

(All right, help me out, boys)

Now I tell myself I've mended
under these patches of blue sky
There's still a few holes that let in a little rain
And so it's crying on my shingles
My floorboards moan under my feet
The refrigerator's whining so I've got reason to complain
But I'm not gonna bless you with such compliments
Some degrading song of praise
like the kind that converted you to me so long ago
(so long ago)
Because the truth is that gossip's as good as gospel in this town
You can save face but you won't ever save your soul
And that's a fact, so...
so hurry up and run to the one that you love
and tie him up in your likeness
And he'll become, become, oh, the prisoner I was
And know all that has spoiled in your heart
He'll know it all
He'll know all that has spoiled in your heart
So hurry up and run to the one that you love
And blind him with your kindness
And he'll make war, oh, war, on who you were before
And claim all that has spoiled in your heart
Yeah, he'll claim all that has spoiled in your heart

(so hurry up and run to the one that you love
and blind him with your kindness
and he'll make war oh war on who you were before
and claim all that has spoiled in your heart
yeah, he'll claim all that has spoiled...)

Waste of Paint

I have a friend, he's mostly made of pain
and he wakes up, drives to work and straight back home again
He once cut one of my nightmares out of paper
Oh, I thought it was beautiful, I put it on a record cover
And I tried to tell him that he had a sense
of color and composition so magnificent
And he said, "Thank you, please, but your flattery
is truly not becoming me
Your eyes are poor, you're blind, you see
No beauty ever could have come from me
I'm a waste
of breath, of space, of time."

I knew a woman she was dignified and true
And her love for her man was one of her many virtues
Until one day she found out that he had lied
And she decided the rest of her life from that point on would be a lie
But she was grateful for everything that had happened
And she was anxious for all that would come next
But then she wept, what did you expect
In that big old house with the cars she kept
And "Such is life," she often said
With one day leading to the next
You get a little closer to your death
Which was fine with her, she never got upset
And with all the days she may have left
She would never clean another mess
Or fold his shirts, or look her best
She was free
To waste away alone

Last night, my brother, he got drunk and drove
And this cop, he pulled him off to the side of the road
And he said, "Officer! officer! you've got the wrong man
No, no, I'm a student of medicine, a son of a banker, you don't understand."
The cop said, "No one got hurt, you should be thankful
And your carelessness, it is something awful
And no I can't just let you go
And though your father's name is known
Your decisions now are yours alone
You're nothing but a stepping stone
on a path
To debt, to loss, to shame."

The last few months I've been living with this couple
Yeah, you know the kind who buy everything in doubles
Oh, they fit together like a puzzle
And I love their love and I am thankful
That someone actually receives the prize that was promised
By all those fairy tales that drugged us
And they still do me, I'm sick, lonely
No laurel tree, just green envy
Will my number come up eventually
like love's some kind of lottery
where you scratch and see what's underneath?
It's sorry
Just one cherry
I'll play again, get lucky

So now I hang out down by the train's depot
No, I don't ride, I just sit and watch the people there
And they remind me of wind-up cars in motion
They way they spin and turn and jockey for positions
And I wanna scream out that it all is nonsense
Oh, your life's one track, can't they see it's pointless?
But just then my knees give under me
My head feels weak and suddenly
It's clear to see, it's not them, but me
who's lost my self-identity
As I hide behind these books I read
While scribbling my poetry
Like art could save a wretch like me
With some ideal ideology
That no one could hope to achieve
And I'm never real, it's just a sketch of me
And everything I've made is trite and cheap
and a waste
Of paint, of tape, of time

So now I park my car down by the cathedral
where the floodlights point up at the steeples
Choir practice is filling up with people
I hear the sound escaping as an echo
Sloping off the ceiling at an angle
When the voices blend they sound like angels
I hope there's some room still in the middle
But when lift my voice up now to reach them
The range is too high way up in heaven
So I hold my tongue, forget the song
tie my shoes, start walking off
and try to just keep moving on
with my broken heart and my absent God
and I have no faith, but it's all I want
To be loved
And believe
In my soul, in my soul, in my soul, in my soul

From A Balance Beam

(it goes on forever and ever and ever
and ever and ever
forever and ever and ever)

There's a man holding a megaphone, he must have been the voice of God
The bystanders claimed they saw angels flying up and down the block
They must have been attached to wires, I've seen one laying in the lawn
with a broken arm
so I called 911
Well, that is one less founded opinion, one more cause for a dispute
So the street filled like a basin up with cameras and their crews
And they washed away the rumors leaving just the concrete truth
It was a spectacle
No, I... I mean a miracle
So I fell like that girl from a balance beam
A gymnasium of eyes were all holding on to me
I lifted one foot to cross the other and I felt myself slipping
It was a small mistake
Sometimes that is all it takes

Now I'm staring at my wrist
hoping that the timing is right
When the planets will align
There will be no planets to align
Just the carcass of the sun
and little painted marbles spinning senseless through an endless, black sky

(and so it never started and it will never stop just like I am and you are)

It was in a foreign hotel's bathtub I baptized myself in change
And one by one I drowned all of the people I had been
And I emerged to find the parallels were fewer, I was cleansed
I looked in the mirror
and someone new was there
But I was as helpless as a chess piece when I was lifted up by someone's hand
And delivered from the corner my enemies had got me in
But in all of my salvation I still felt imprisoned in...
side that holding cell
that is myself
So I wait for the day when I'll hear the key
as it turns in the lock and the guard will say to me,
"Oh my patient prisoner you waited for this and finally...
you are free! You are free! You are freezing."

Now I'm staring at the sun
waiting for it to explode
Because a day is gonna come
don't know when but it will come
And we'll finally know the way
out of here
And I'll throw away this wrinkled map and my chart of stars and compass, cracked
And I'll climb that tree all wet with sap
to avoid the hungry beasts below
I'll cut out my lover's tongue and sing
of graveyard gray and a garden green
and we won't have worry no more
No, we won't ever wonder again
about how this song or story ends
About how this song and story will end

Laura Laurent

Laura, are you still living there
On your estate of sorrow?
You used to leave it occasionally
but now you don't even bother
To ride that commuter train
west to Chicago
To stroll through the greenery
in the park past the statues
How their eyes seemed to follow you like a hated addiction
Their beauty carved out of absolutes you could never claim
Or even envision

Laura, you were the saddest song
in the shape of a woman
Yeah, I thought you were beautiful
but I wept with your movements
But I hope that you're laughing now from that place on the carpet
Where we shared a sleeping bag in your sister's apartment
Oh, how she would worry so
You know, I was just a stranger
But she asked me to care for you, yes she did
And I went and betrayed her
But do you know we're in high demand, Laura, us people who suffer
Because we don't take to arguing
And we're quick to surrender

Well, I think I would call tonight if I still had your number
Your thoughts have always laid close to mine
we were both skipping supper
But you should never be embarrassed by your trouble with living
Cause it's the ones with the sorest throats, Laura
who have done the most singing

Everybody
Lalala lalala lalalalalala lalalalalala lalalala lalalala

Let's Not Shit Ourselves (To Love and To Be Loved)

Well the animals laugh from the dark of the wilderness
A baby cries hard in an apartment complex
as I pass in a car buried under the influence
The city's driving me out of my mind
I've seen a child he's caught in that sad trap of gravity
He falls from the lowest branch of the apple tree
And lands in the grass and weeps for his dignity
Next time he will not aim so high
Yeah, next time neither will I

Now a mother takes loans out, sends her kids off to colleges
Her family's reduced to names on a shopping list
While a coroner kneels beneath a great wooden crucifix
He knows there are worse things than being alone
And so I've learned to retreat at the first sign of danger
I mean why wait around if it's just to surrender
And ambition, I've found, can lead only to failure
I do not read the reviews
No, I am not singing for you

Well, I stood dropping a coin into the pit of a well
And I would throw my whole billfold if I thought it would help
With all these wishes I make I should buy something real
At least a telephone call home
Well my teachers they build this retaining wall of memory
All those multible choices I answered so quickly
And got my grades back and forgot just as easily
But at least I got an A
And so I don't have them to blame

Well, I should stop pointing fingers, reserve my judgement
of all those public action figures, the cowboy president
So loud behind the bullhorn, so proud they can't admit
When they've made a mistake
While poison ink spews from a speechwriter's pen
He knows he don't have to say it so it... it don't bother him
"Honesty," "Accuracy," is just "Popular Opinion"
and the approval rating is high
amd so someone's gonna die

Well, ABC, NBC, CBS bullshit
They give us fact or fiction, I guess an even split
And each new act of war is tonight's entertainment
We're still the pawns in their game
As they take eye for an eye until no one can see
We must stumble blindly forward repeating history
Well, I guess we all fit into your slogan on that fast food marque:
Red-Blooded, White-Skinned, oh, and the blues
Oh and the blues, I got the blues!
That's me! That's me!

Well I awoke in relief, my sheets and tubes were all tangled
Weak from whiskey and pills in a Chicago hospital
And my father was there in a chair by the window
Staring so far away
I tried talking, just whispered, "So sorry, so selfish."
He stopped me and said, "Child, I love you regardless
And there is nothing you could do that would ever change this
I'm not angry, it happens but you just can't do it again"

So now I try to keep up, I've been exchanging my currency
While million objects pass through my periphery
Now I'm rubbing my eyes cause they're starting to bother me
I've been staring too long at the screen
But where was it when I first heard that sweet sound of humility
It came to my ears in the goddamn loveliest melody
How grateful I was then to be part of the mystery
To love and to be loved
Let's just hope that is enough