Joe Henry Album

That the revolution began,
I was in a hotel pool with another kid
And an Australian business man.
And nothing there would make you say
After all this talk, today would be the day...
Nothing but an upset tray
Left by the pool
This afternoon

An orange cup was thrown
From an upstairs room
A cherry bomb of giddy lust, I guess,
From a bride and groom.
And nothing there would make you say
After all this talk, today would be the day...
Nothing but an orange cup
From an upstairs room
This afternoon

I've spent every long summer
Just this way
Sinke my mother started making up their beds
And learning to look the other way.
So what's one more drunk businessman
Coming on to me in the shallow end?
Nothing there would make you say
After all this talk, today would be the day...

Listen:
What's another slogan mean
Scrolled across my TV screen?
What's another bride and groom
Locked up in a fancy room?
What's one more drunk businessman
Coming on to me in the shallow end
This afternoon?

I see in you an animal trace
That's quick in your blond and deep in your face,
Mine has been tamed; I'm shamed to pretend
When I'm this close to your animal skin

I remember when love was something I craved
Bot I settled for less and the comfort it gave,
For living is hard when real love begins
And it leaves heavy lines on your animal skin

Oh, let your arms make a deep night for me
Enclosing my world so I cannot see,
l'll rise with your breath and fall back again
‘Cause you bring me close to my animal skin
You bring me back to where I'd once been
When I'm this close to your animal skin.

You wild beasts and you creeping things
Get down in your place,
Down with all the absolutes
God's awful grace.
Who wants to see this coming?
Who wants to think you do?
Better to be blind when I'm
Falling for you

Go and tell old Pharaoh
His time has come about,
His pretty houseboys laugh and sing
As they're filing out.
They've set fire behind them
I see it burning into view,
High upon the mountain where I'm
Falling for you

All manner of abandon
Is just the thing we need,
Get ready for the country, boys,
The town has gone to seed.
The telephone live is sagging
With word coming through:
Put your head between your knees, I'm
Falling for you

I can quit this anytime,
It's just to help me sleep,
It stops the tiny voices
And strange hours that they keep.
Who wants to hear them bleating on,
And have to answer too?
Better to be dumb when I'm
Falling for you

So you ladies and you gentlemen-
Pull your bloomers on,
Swing up on the highest beam
And let the floods come on.
Who wants to be there wondering,
When the Wonders rage on through?
Better to say never when I'm
Falling for you

Please don't speak another truth out loud
Whatever else you do,
I only want you keep me lost in your cloud
I'll do the same for you.
Don't believe a single thing you've heard
Really, I'm as good as gold.
You don't need to sell me with another word
I'm already sold

If I give in to your open arms
Then you can think the worst of me
For pulling out my weakness like a charm
And making sure you'd see.
Love, when it's defeated, just remember
Can still keep you in its hold.
No need now to tempt me with surrender
I'm already sold

What was that, A lonesome battle cry?
Sweeping in upon us from the rear?
Like a child, I hide my eyes
And think I've disappeared.
Mercy, hope, faith and love and treason
Are trump as long as darkness holds,
I don't need to see the sun, there's no reason
I'm already sold

A cut-out picture of a sugar tart
With olive skin and a purple heart,
Concrete shoes, and it's just the Start
Of bigger things unseen.
Heroes of our glory days
Ride upon the hip-hoorays
Of hometown girls who've been displayed
In dirty magazines.

"And what am I supposed to do with you?"
Just tell me everything I've heard before
Like it was news

The miners strike, hold out for love
We bust their heads, push and shove,
By helmet light, we rise above
And say, "look out below!"
They're such a grim, romantic crew,
Swear they won't forget but do,
It leaves them free to cry anew
At every song we know.

"And what am I supposed to do with you?"
Just tell me everything I want to hear
Like it was true

Sometimes I wish that I was king
And held the end of every string,
The fear, the prize, the mortal sting
Of what will come of this.
For now I'll let all chance unwind
To keep our secret hearts entwined,
And if I choose to see this as a sign
It surely is.

"And what am I supposed to do with you?"
Just tell me everything I want to hear
Like it was news.

Take that noise out in the street,
This rubble out from under my feet
No rest for the weary in here,
And make a fuss, you're a volunteer.
These days, they lord above me
Growing mean as they grow shorter,
Like a flag on a closing border now...
Closing right behind you

In a crowd down off the hill,
Full of bloodlust and good will,
We carried pride above our heads
Like a flag we could cheer to wake the dead.
And when we could go no further,
And were drowning on a desert,
We raised our flag to follow the breath of God...
But it was blowing every which way.

I loved you long before I knew
Love is something one decides to do.
My vanity and fear conspired belief
That love's just a mirror for a thief.
So when you held me tight against you
And I mistook your heart for thunder,
And like a flag, hid behind and under you...
Who could blame me?

(When you held me tight against you
And I mistook your heart for thunder,
Like a flag, I hid behind it
Like a flag, I'm hiding under you)
Now I hang my clothes out to dry
Like waves of surrender, they fly.
The whore of this world looks old and played
Still she peeks from the alley
like a waiting bride's maid.
Laugh or bleed as you need to
Who of us doesn't know already?
Every flag flies like confetti now...

The ground wants you back
The ground wants you badly
The ground wants you still
Like some lover, so madly.
It pulls at your feet,
Gets into your nose,
Onto your bed
And under your clothes,
Loves you madly
So madly
Madly
Loves you madly

The sun wants you deep
The sun has a need
To take you in then
Spit you out like a seed.
The sun has a plan
You know nothing about,
In the dark when the light
Of your heart has gone out,
Loves you madly…

This floor has a lean
It gives to the side,
Where marbles and water
Roll and collide.
In the fashion of something
You think couldn't fall,
The floor tricks your step,
Throws you to the wall,
Loves you madly...

Oh, God loves a sinner
God loves a crook,
God loves you frail
And splayed out like a book.
God loves you bent
And weck at the knee,
When the lesser of you
Gets the better of me
Loves you madly…

Oh, my dear,
I've swallowed the moon,
And left it dark like a ring
Burned on a spoon.
But now all the stars
They fall around you,
And land at your feet
To light up the room

The sign of the times,
The rules of the road,
And our coat of arms all scream
That mercy gets old.
But your secret heart,
As still as bloom,
Waits at the door
To light up the room

Your bed is a drift,
It's come loose from the floor,
The dead float up like dreams
I push them back with my arm like an oar.
But your face is alive
Like a nickel cartoon,
Shown on the wall
To light up the room

The siren on top
Of the library wall,
The stairs that give way
At the end of the hall;
The pawnshop pavilion,
The newspaper saloon,
All burn in your wake
And light up the room.

What can I write home about?
The water's cold, the pilot's out.
I keep my children out of sight
And my man never came home last night.

What will I learn to tell myself?
We're supposed to want for nothing else;
Just show the world a stoic light
But my man never came home last night

This is what we make of this--
The walls all smell like blood and piss.
And every book that comes our way
We burn to keep the dogs away

We'll tell this story later on
And tell of how it made us strong.
By then we'll know that we were right
But my man never came home last night

What will I learn to tell myself?
We're supposed to want for nothing else;
Just show the world a stoic light
But my man never came home last night

I can't stay here in my room
I can't hold my own against the heavy lean
Of your perfume;
That tries to keep your pillow down and low
Across my face
As if what lingers here of you could
Take my breath yet still be my saving grace
Lover, if you rise
Lover, if you go
Lover, if you rise
Lover, if you go

There are plenty who would just as soon
Settle all their debt with blond,
Beneath a whoring moon that answers
Every prayer for rain with flood;
And there will always be one more ready
Savior standing tall
Waving from the tower
That looks from here like
It will sway and fall
Lover, if you rise…

I've cut back your roses just to give myself a day
Free of vulgar beauties that I know
Will fade away;
The scene is like a circus chasing
Winners out of town,
Leaving here a wet street of mirror,
And I won't dare look down
Lover, if you rise...

In my room, things can change any hour
That I'm gone
Something will be an a shelf that I know I left
Scattered and undone;
One Small thing will be gone,
Or will be moved just so,
The smallest thing, after you, will be changed
I know, I know, I know
Lover, if you rise…

Aaaah come sit beside me,
That'll do for now
The night has come and left me
Just the light that you allow.
Come speak my name,
Fill my head with all such foolish dreams
My flesh and blood is no more real to me
Than what they seem

My love for you is burning
Like a sparkle along a fuse,
I feel your mark upon me now
As surely as the hand that leaves the bruise.
Life is for the living
And life comes hard for some,
The rest of us, with flesh and blood,
Make it hard all on our own

All I ever wanted
Was the freedom to refuse,
Or something of my own to love enough
To hate to lose.
The fever in my brain is leaving
Smoke behind my eyes
When the part of me that wants to change
Fights the part of me that tries

Now you see a golden light
Because I've turned a gold light on.
Sometimes, God knows, you've got to
Learn to shine shine shine shine all on your own.

I stepped out of darkness
And for a moment I'm only living by your kiss,
your kiss, your kiss, your kiss, your lips, your kiss, your kiss
And now, just for now our flesh and blood
Is no more real than this

More real than this
More real than this
More more more more more more more more more more more more real than this
Flesh and blood is more real than this
More real than this
More real than this
Flesh and blood
Flesh and blood
More real than this
More real
More real than this

Thought that bell was in my dream,
All in my head,
Until the trucks were in the Yard
And the fire was in my bed.
Oh, can you hear the ringing bell,
Telling time like time was to tell?
Can you see the smoke rise and curl
All the way from your side of my world?

Hush your talk, here comes the boss
Down off of his perch.
He walks the floor in cream-white shoes
Like we were piggin' iron in church.
Oh, can you hear the furnace hum
Above the shouts and all the chewing gum?
Hear the union priest lead the factory choirgirls
Singing out to your side of my world?

I could dance when I was young
And I was pretty good,
I'd do all the tricks and such
But back then everybody could.
I should have seen how this would be,
But nothing's true till I've seen it on TV.
Yet there you were, in your high heels and curls
Coming in as big as life, from your side of my world.

Let's pretend we've never loved
Let's pretend out' hands are clean,
Free of all the spit and shine
And the smell of gasoline.
Cause here come the planes and the tambourines,
The funeral march, and the beauty queens,
The circus freaks selling lemonade
From the back of an open-air motorcade.
Here come the heart machines and the baby shoes,
The ship-to-shore relay of the sporting news,
That mail-order brides --fake tits and pearls
All making way from your side of my world