Lyrics
Album: Curve of the Earth
Time Out of Mind
In the ever elusive present | I am slogging out my days | While the past keeps cornering up to me | Beggin’ me to stay put | Looking back | And the days are wasting away | You think you’ve got your eye on something solid | This is just the thing | What happens when you reach that place | And the world’s still beckoning? | I’ve been thinking about Victoria in October | Before the cold kicks in | Walking downtown in the early evening | The wind pushing beneath my skin | Dark comes earlier than you expect | And it seems you’re never wearing enough | The kind of cold that’s cold but not unpleasant | Especially not in memory | Here it’s time out of mind | It’s time away from right or wrong | What comes to matter is that you’re living | Whether you’re on the path you thought you’d be | Or somewhere in between | You think you’ve got your eye on something solid | This is just the thing | What happens when you reach that place | And the world’s still beckoning? | Here it’s time out of mind | It’s time away from right or wrong | What comes to matter is that you’re living | Whether you’re on the path you thought you’d be | Or somewhere in between
Bus Stop
When those girls came so close to you today | So close you could smell their hair | You could have touched their hands | How did you feel? | They rushed to take cover | under the bus shelter-- | There was no other seat | so they sat beside you. | Huddled together they talked about-- | what did they talk about?-- | School or sex or lipstick | Or nothing at all. | When the bus pulled up there was a flurry | a magnificent moment of chaos | when everything was equal | There was no time to notice | whose shoes weren’t cool | who was standing beside who | When those girls came so close to you today | So close you could smell their hair | You could have touched their hands | How did you feel? | They moved something in you | I saw you smile
Why Do We Suffer
Why do we suffer | When it might be as easy as a phone call | Five years we discover that it’s been | And you still make me smile | So you call out of the blue | and what a difference it makes | I thought you were lost to the world | and I took that for granted | And it’s not tragedy | Cause you’re still around | I could hop a bus | Maybe stay a week or two | Would that be alright with you? | Did you know I had a baby? | You ask in earnest | Five years and we | Start havin’ babies | Who knew? | We could sit around coffee like we used to do | And say nothing at all | We could make a new commitment | We could gather the stars | Why do we suffer when it might be as easy as a phone call | Five years we discover that it’s been | And it’s not tragedy | Cause you’re still around | I could hop a bus | Maybe stay a week or two | Would that be alright with you?
Railway Breeze
Think I’ll take a walk | It’s cool now after dark | Listen to the railway breeze | Baby how I need you please | It’s true that I could sure use you now | It’s true, hey I could sure use you now | Been thinkin’ about our sighs | Oh, across these lines | How hard it’s been to know | If you’ve sunk, or if you’d show | Don’t think I can’t feel you now | Don’t think that I don’t wanna feel you now | Somewhere around this time of day | You find it hard to stay | Remember that field we found | Beside the highway, not a sound | You said you could see to the curve of the earth | You said you could see to the curve of the earth
First to Lose
I should have noticed how you turned away | Hid your face beneath your hair | Singled out in class today | A deer caught in the headlights | You said you’d fallen out of bed again | And they asked no questions | But there’s a fist shape bruise around your eye | And it’s not going nowhere | Such a pretty girl and clever too | The ones that are the first to lose | Nobody knows how it happened | Nobody wants to talk about it | We don’t dig here | We don’t even scratch the surface | I should have noticed how you turned away | Hid your face beneath your hair | Singled out in class today | A deer caught in the headlights | In the headlights with your eyes closed | Tears dropping on your desk | It’s sticky in this room | Too close for comfort | Nobody knows how it happened | Nobody wants to talk about it | We don’t dig here | We don’t even scratch the surface
Talking to Him
Just because the first time that I told you that I loved you | We were listening to Dylan and I was talking to him | Struck by visions as we lay there | Ain’t it just like the night to play tricks | Chorus: When you’re lyin’ | When you’re tryin’ | When you’re lyin’ | When you’re tyrin’ | Doesn’t mean it wasn’t true | Doesn’t mean I wasn’t talking to you || Cause we couldn’t get it right | Couldn’t keep it through the night | Never restful in our sleep | No you know we couldn’t keep it | Couldn’t keep it through the night | Though we tried to get it right | We awoke facing each other not the truth | I don’t think of you too much these days | I never thought that there would come a time | When I could say that I don’t think of you too much these days | And it wouldn’t be a lie | Just because the first time that I told you that I loved you | We were listening to Dylan and I was talking to him | Struck by visions as we lay there | Ain’t it just like the night to play tricks
Trouble
They’re looking at you, | Or is it all in your head? | Wondering what the trouble is | What the trouble has been | But when they greet you they say | You’ve gotten better | Or they say nothing at all | Another day ignoring | Another nightfall | You’ve got the routine down | You could do it in your sleep | But what if you miss a step | Forget a beat? | They’ll be on you in a second | He’s losing it again | Is it safe for our children here, | Is it safe for them? | And you think what’s so special about them | Why have they got the knack | For fitting in this little box | For going around this small track | What makes them so normal | What does that mean, anyway | I’ve been around awhile | I got something to say
The Other Side
You say you’ve seen the other side | and you tell me how pretty it looks | You passed this life so easily into the next | Found what you’ve been looking for | Yeah, you saw the light | Now it’s so hard for you to get out of bed | Hey what’s the point? | There’s this pill I’m gonna take | But I have to wait | I have to close my eyes | I have to cross my fingers | Maybe someday I’ll see the future | You say, hey I reject the status quo | “I’m not satisfied with my world” | Don’t you know I understand | They’re building another Wal-Mart down my block | And I can’t sleep at night | I can’t sleep at night, I can’t sleep at night | I hear them pounding that corporate clock | I can’t sleep at night, I can’t sleep at night | everybody’s losin’ stocks | I can’t sleep at night, I can’t sleep at night | even though my doors are locked | I can’t sleep at night
Church Bells
Outside the church bells are tickin’ | My head ringin, singin all the hours left to fill today | Outside everything keeps movin | Cars are parking, dogs are barking | While my brain seems to be | Standing still | Remember when we didn’t think of tomorrow | Nothing but gay times | Splashing in the sun | Okay, I forgot that’s something I only dreamed of | Mever been able to hold on to today | But jesus I’ve tried | Jesus I’ve tried | I can’t seem to figure out the problem | It’s only the afternoons mostly when I’m down, down | What’s that son, you say I’ve got no problem | Singing my blues away before the dawn | I wanna know what you see when you look at me | I wanna know what you see when you look at me today | Outside the church bells are tickin’ | My head ringin’, singin’ all the hours left to fill today | Jesus I’ve tried
Lonely Moon
What I would give to see your smile | To feel your laughter next to mine | What I would do to revive you | To sing you blue | Or happy too | Lightning in the sky tonight | Can you see it from where you are? | It flashes through my heart tonight | Can you feel it too? | We tell your stories, the ones you’ve told | Try to get the timing tight | Deliver the punchline right If I close my eyes I can feel it sometimes | Your words and sighs into mine | Lonely moon in the sky tonight | Does it shine on you | Harvest moon burning bright | Does it speak to you?
Wayward King
This is one song I never thought I’d sing | It’s been two years | The details blur together | I still wear your ring | Everyone’s always said at least you’ve got your faith | But faith too can be tested | You were my every waking moment | My everything | Where are you now my coat of armour | My wayward king | How did you slip so low right under | The radar of my love for you | I could tell you stories of the terrors I have seen | But I know you’ve seen worse | Is there any other way to see that day? | Lord I wish I could | And part of me wants you to know | That I’ll never forgive you | But that ain’t the true part | Where are you now my coat of armour | My wayward king | How did you slip so low right under | The radar of my love for you
