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1. |
A Fool is a Fool
02:16
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I know just how it's gonna go
A little girl on a swing
And when the cops come in to cordon off the park
She'll run straight home and empty the storm drain
Into her mother's cotton skirt
And when she sees that little face full of tears
She'll know to stop sleeping with the news on
Letting it go in and out
She dreams of things that happen this time of the year
But somewhere else, where no one she knows lives
A fool is a fool
Because she's happy just the way it is
I know just how it's gonna go
A painted door on a wall
Built of concrete and holding up the rails
But crumbling each time the train goes
Matching footsteps with itself
And all the moving bodies mutter in their sleep
What is the least that I can do?
A fool is a fool
Because he's happy just the way it is
I know just how it's gonna go
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2. |
I Am a Coward
04:14
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I came in from the yard with a stomach full of gin
I got that photo finish on the bottle I've been living in
'cause when I read your letter, heard you singing every word
You could've reached across the room and pushed me over
I am a coward, I am a junkie
I fill my mouth with gin and I feel happy
Oh no bird, oh no lovely
You're not the source of my misgivings honey
As far as I had known I was a stop-gap man for you
Before you came right out with it I'd buried every thought of you
So why'd you have to go digging up that ghost
If I had known... well, there's no use in finishing that thought
'cause I was a coward, and I was a junkie
I filled my mouth with gin and I felt happy
Oh no bird, oh no lovely
You're not the source of my misgivings honey
I've got forty days, I've got forty nights
To gets my head on right
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3. |
Sight from Sound
02:55
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Oh Toronto, I've held such a grudge
Leaves a stain on my hands
While the rain falls on Montreal
Making mud out of sand
I've had from the start a broken heart
I waited even then for your love to end
I've had from the start a broken heart
And all the king's men couldn't put it back
Together again
Detroit city is a shadow on this
Concrete Canadian town
Come tomorrow I'll find my way back
Making sight out of sound
Down in the bones of this house
I'll always be tied to this town
But I left my heart in another goddamn country
And I'm not going back
I'm not going back
In Vancouver was the last I saw her
Sleeping naked in her bed
I took that train all the way until I
Saw the ocean again
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4. |
Grass Green Sea
03:58
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Always did forget about the midnight sun
'til the morning comes
Blowing through that open pane
Handcuffed to the bridge where I slept off the wine
And I'm waking up
Seems I've lost what's left to gain
I must be going insane
Damn this raise is baiting me
I'm always waiting for signs
To turn back the time
I am bought, fixed right up and I'm sold
Painted my initials at the back of the bar
Before it rotted through
What else is there to do when I can't sleep?
Try to set my watch to the sound of the birds
But I'm hearing things
They're singing in a different key
Their language isn't meant for me
I'll take my chances on
The long way around the wall
Just to fold back the hill
Watch the city sink below the grass green sea
Black top drop me off a mile outside
The living room
On the floor where I used to lay
There's a deck of cards in the shape of the house
Where you used to live
Down by the salt sea spray
Where the wood cracked and fell away
Downstairs where you kept the piano
Always managed to be
Just a stone's throw away
From the fire, still it always felt so cold
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5. |
Coffee
03:36
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Left the coffee on the burner for too long
Leaves that charcoal taste on my tongue
The taste of cigarette lips and the smell of burning hair
Makes me wonder why I care
If the floorboards creek or if there's fresh paint on the walls
If you answer when I call
When you go, take the radio
'cause someone else will
Think of how to say what I never could
And put it to a song no one can get out of their heads
I've been lying to the whiskey in my hand
This ain't exactly the outcome I had planned
I took the long way home 'cause I knew you'd be there
Makes me wonder why I care
If the floorboards creek or if there's fresh paint on the walls
If you answer when I call
When you go, take the radio
'cause someone else will
Think of how to say what I never could
And put it to a song no one can get out of their heads
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6. |
Shelter Valley
01:49
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7. |
The Places I Have Lost
03:07
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All the dead leaves at the back of the barn
Won't you give up what you're hiding?
And the leaves in the trees always spinning in the wind
Will soon enough be dead on the ground
The path home is always grown over
But the barn door is always unlocked
When I come back to the places I have lost
Past the fields on the way out to Kingsville
There's a harbour built of cedar
Where I sailed in circles and never set foot
On the dock of any other shore
So I'll find a new means of distraction
And I'll find a new thing to destroy
While I try to translate sorrow into joy
Now I always come back to this crossroads
Where the spinwheels fill the skyline
And I think of the day when my grandma died
And how I was just too young to know
I envied how much Dad was feeling
And I wondered why I didn't cry
Now I know that he was luckier than I
Soon enough I became a rover
I took to a change of scenery
And when I heard my home calling out to me
I would never pick up the phone
I know how this city is faceless
But I don't know what I'm hiding from
Still it's nice to know she won't miss me when I'm gone
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8. |
Visions
04:15
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April was a thirsty one
She never had the time to get all her drinking done
But at least we made the coast
Had I known she'd never been there
And that sleeping in the grass was more than she could bear
Now I know, now I know
We'll be out here the whole damn night
Somewhere where the sun is still up
I know there is a girl who I used to say I loved
And she's still on my mind
April was a fine fine one
But Visions of Johanna are how my day's begun
Now I know, now I know
We've been over this a thousand times
Every day we get a little more
Closer to Toronto and further from the shore
Can't we turn around
I'm a man who's out of words
I wouldn't believe a half of what I've said or what you've heard
Now I know, now I know
I've done everything, all that I can
And this is how it is
This is how it is
This is how it is
My friend
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