Mary Chapin Carpenter Album

(Mary Chapin Carpenter)

In this world there's a whole lot of trouble, baby
In this world there's a whole lot of pain
In this world there's a whole lot of trouble
But a whole lot of ground to gain
Why take when you could be giving, why watch as the world goes by
It's a hard enough life to be living, why walk when you can fly

In this world there's a whole lot of sorrow
In this world there's a whole lot of shame
In this world there's a whole lot of sorrow
And a whole lotta ground to gain
When you spend your whole life wishing, wanting and wondering why
It's a long enough life to be living, why walk when you can fly

In this world there's a whole lot of cold
In this world there's a whole lot of blame
In this world you've a soul for a compass
And a heart for a pair of wings
There's a star on the far horizon, rising bright in an azure sky
For the rest of the time that you're given, why walk when you can fly

(Mary Chapin Carpenter)

I grew up in a house like this, we knew the groan of every stair
All the walls seemed to listen in, all the years seemed to take up air
When you dreamed it was of the wind blowing cold and hard
In those dreams you thought you lived in a house of cards

I grew up in a town like this, we knew the names of every street
On the surface it looked so safe, but it was perilous underneath
That's the place you shoved your doubts and hid your ugly scars
God forbid if word got out about your house of cards

And now I feel the wind about to blow, and baby I'm so scared
You're repeating the past instead of letting it go
And I don't wanna go back there

Now we're standing here face to face, afraid to move or else
I wanna prop up this fragile place, I can't do it all by myself
'Cause when we dream, it's of the wind, blowing cold and hard
When we wake up we still live in a house of cards

'Cause when we dream, it's of the wind, blowing cold and hard
When we wake up we still live in a house of cards

(Mary Chapin Carpenter)

When we were young, we pledged allegiance every morning of our lives
The classroom rang with children's voices under teacher's watchful eye
We learned about the world around us at our desks and at dinnertime
Reminded of the starving children, we cleaned our plates with guilty minds
And the stones in the road shone like diamonds in the dust
And then a voice called to us to make our way back home

When I was ten, my father held me on his shoulders above the crowd
To see a train draped in mourning pass slowly through our town
His widow kneeled with all their children at the sacred burial ground
And the TV glowed that long hot summer with all the cities burning down

And the stones in the road flew out beneath our bicycle tires
Worlds removed from all those fires as we raced each other home

And now we drink our coffee on the run, we climb that ladder rung by rung
We are the daughters and the sons, and here's the line that's missing

The starving children have been replaced by souls out on the street
We give a dollar when we pass, and hope our eyes don't meet
We pencil in, we cancel out, we crave the corner suite
We kiss your ass, we make you hold, we doctor the receipt

And the stones in the road fly out from beneath our wheels
Another day, another deal, before we get back home

And the stones in the road leave a mark from whence they came
A thousand points of light or shame, baby, I don't know

(Mary Chapin Carpenter)

She says it's been so long, she can't remember when
The mention of his name didn't make her feel again
That everything is possible and every day a brand new start
Yeah, love's something powerful when it finds a willing heart

Sometimes it's a fire burning out of control
Sometimes it's a candle burning long and low
All these years she never let it go
There's a keeper for every flame

There is someone in his past that he hasn't gotten over yet
Each day's like the last, he just misses what he can't forget

It's just an empty space where something used to be
Now he guards the gate, but he's lost the key
So no one enters, but no one leaves
There's a keeper for every flame

Thought my heart had broken, but it was just a little bruised
I thought love had spoken, I guess I was just confused

Sometimes we were a fire burning out of control
Sometimes we were nothing but a candle glow
But it never died, baby, how I know
There's a keeper for every flame

(Mary-Chapin Carpenter)

I have a heart that's proud you bet
I have a mind that won't forget
And I have arms that are strong and yet
Tender when they wanna to be
Well you can be the will that finds the way
And you can be the one who saves the day
But show me tender when it's time to say
Exactly how it ought to be

And I never would've known it darlin'
If I hadn't known about you
You said everyone can be a rock and roll like a river too

Well something happens when you find someone
Who makes you feel like you can do no wrong
No you don't have to take the whole world on
Just be tender when you want be

And I never would have known it baby
If I hadn't known about you
You said everyone can be a rock and roll like a river too

So let the waters carry us away
Wave goodbye to the old parade
Baby when we're unafraid
To be tender when we want to be
All the waters wash our cares away
All that we can see are better days
Don't ever let me hesitate
To be tender when I want to be

(Mary-Chapin Carpenter)

Don't mean to get a little forward with you, don't mean to get ahead of where we
are
Don't mean to act a little nervous around you, I'm just a little nervous about
my heart 'cause
It's been awhile since I felt this feeling that everything that you do gives me
It's been so long since somebody whispered
Shut up and kiss me

Didn't expect to be in this position, didn't expect to have to rise above
My reputation for cynicism, I've been a jaded lady when it comes to love but
Oh baby just to feel this feeling that everything that you do gives me
It's been too long since somebody whispered
Shut up and kiss me

There's something about the silent type attracting me to you
All business baby none of the hype
That no talker can live up to

Come closer baby I can't hear you, just another whisper if you please
Don't worry 'bout the details darlin', you've got the kind of mind I love to
read
Talk is cheap and baby time's expensive, so why waste another minute more
Life's too short to be so apprehensive, love's as much the symptom darlin' as
the cure
Oh baby when I feel this feeling, it's like genuine voodoo hits me
It's been too long since somebody whispered...
Oh baby I can feel this feeling that everything that you do gives me
It's been too long since somebody whispered
Shut up and kiss me
Shut up and kiss me

(Mary Chapin Carpenter)

You can have it, I don't want it, and when you've got it, I'll be gone
It won't matter what you're saying when the damage has all been done

Can't seem to keep the faith, as if that's all I need to do
I'd rather walk away than take what belongs to you

You can have it, I don't want it, and when you've got it, I'll be gone
It won't matter what you're saying when the damage has all been done

Some words will cut you down like you were only in the way
Why should I stand ths ground, it won't hurt as much to say

You can have it, I don't want it, and when you've got it, I'll be gone
It won't matter what you're saying when the damage has all been done

Sometimes we're blinded by the very thing we need to see
I finally realized that you need it more than you need me

You can have it, I don't want it, and when you've got it, I'll be gone
It won't matter what you're saying when the damage has all been done
The damage has all been done

(Mary Chapin Carpenter)

The night is soft and silent, new moon at my door
There's nothing near as quiet as the light I'm looking for
And last time that it appeared he was lying next to me
Last time I felt this near to whispered ecstacy

And those who need adventure, they can sail the seven seas
And those who search for treasure, they must live on grander dreams

We rose and fell just like the tides, he filled my heart and soul and I
Buried all my dreams for someone else to find in my pirate days

This world is kinder to the kind that won't look back
They are the chosen few, among us now, unbowed somehow
And one day he turned to me, and before I took one breath
I knew I would only see his shadow in what light was left

And those who need adventure, they can sail the seven seas
And those who search for treasure, they must live on grander dreams

And if I've seen his face since then, it's only been in dreams my friend
Since I came to the end of my pirate days
And if I've called his name since then, it's only been in dreams my friend
So I came to the end of my pirate days

(Mary Chapin Carpenter)

I was standing on the sidewalk in 1945
In Jacksonville, Illinois
When asked what my name was there came no reply
They said I was a deaf and sightless half-wit boy
But Louis was my name, though I could not say it
I was born and raised in New Orleans
My spirit was wild, so I let the river take it
On a barge and a prayer upstream

Well they searched for a mother and they searched for a father
And they searched till they searched no more
The doctors put to rest their scientific tests
And they named me "John Doe No. 24"
And they all shook their heads in pity
For a world so silent and dark
Well there's no doubt that life's a mystery
But so too is the human heart

And it was my heart's own perfume when the crepe jasmine bloomed
On Rue Morgue Avenue
Though I couldn't hear the bells of the streetcars coming
By toeing the track I knew
And if I were an old man returning
With my satchel and porkpie hat
I'd hit every jazz joint on Bourbon
And I'd hit everyone on Basin after that

The years kept passing as they passed me around
From one state ward to another
Like I was an orphan shoe from the lost and found
Always missing the other
And they gave me a harp last Christmas
And all the nurses took a dance
But lately I've been growing listless
I've been dreaming again of the past

I'm wandering down to the banks of the great Big Muddy
Where the shotgun houses stand
I am seven years old and I feel my dad
Reach out for my hand
While I drew breath no one missed me
So they won't on the day that I cease
Put a sprig of crepe jasmine with me
To remind me of New Orleans

I was standing on the sidewalk in 1945
In Jacksonville, Illinois

(Mary Chapin Carpenter)

I can tell by the way you're walking
That you don't want company
I'll let you alone and I'll let you walk on
And in your own good time you'll be

Back where the sun can find you
Under the wise wishing tree
And with all of them made we'll lie under the shade
And call it a jubilee

And I can tell by the way you're talking
That the past isn't letting you go
But there's only so long you can take it all on
And then the wrong's gotta be on its own

And when you're ready to leave it behind you
You'll look back, and all that you'll see
Is the wreckage and rust that you left in the dust
On your way to the jubilee

And I can tell by the way you're listening
That you're still expecting to hear
Your name being called like a summons to all
Who have failed to account for their doubts and their fears

They can't add up to much without you
And so if it were just up to me
I'd take hold of your hand, saying come hear the band
Play your song at the jubilee

And I can tell by the way you're searching
For something you can't even name
That you haven't been able to come to the table
Simply glad that you came

And when you feel like this try to imagine
That we're all like frail boats on the sea
Just scanning the night for that great guiding light
Announcing the jubilee

And I can tell by the way you're standing
With your eyes filling with tears
That it's habit alone keeps you turning for home
Even though your home is right here

Where the people who love you are gathered
Under the wise wishing tree
May we all be considered then straight on delivered
Down to the jubilee

'Cause the people who love you are waiting
And they'll wait just as long as need be
When we look back and say those were halcyon days
We're talking 'bout jubilee

(Mary Chapin Carpenter)

Everywhere I see the signs, pointing one direction
No more twists or crooked turns, leaving room for doubt
Where I used to take the time for quiet and reflection
Now I only hear the noise of what I am without

I see them walking hand in hand, and my eyes just want to linger
On those golden wedding bands, wrapped around their fingers
By the time I turn away, I feel it once again
I'm back in this familiar place, outside looking in

Baby, all the tears between us couldn't fill the spaces
And all the word we grasped at, they just fell away
I kept waiting on forgiveness to fix the broken places
But nothing even like it ever came my way

And tonight I drove around, and the street came up before me
I took a turn and then I found this old house coming toward me
I heard the sound a heart must make when a memory's caving in
Oh baby, what a hungry place, outside looking in

It's the hardest kind of need that never knows a reason
Are we such a lonely breed, or just born in a lonely season
Baby, it's all in the eyes, it's where the reckoning begins
It's where we linger like a sigh, it's where we long to be pulled in

It's where we learn to say goodbye without saying anything
Standing on the borderline, outside looking in

(Mary Chapin Carpenter)

Baby where's that place where time stands still
I remember like a lover can
But I forget it like a leaver will
It's no place you can get to by yourself
You've got to love someone and they love you
Time will stop for nothing else
And memory plays tricks on us, the more we cling,
The less we trust
And the less we trust the more we hurt
And as time goes on it just gets worse
So baby where's that place where time stood still
It is under glass inside a frame
Was it over when you had your fill

And here we are with nothing but
But this emptiness inside of us
Your smile a fitting, final gesture
Wish I could have loved you better

Baby where's that place where time stands still
I remember like a lover can
But I forget it like a leaver will
It's the first time that you held my had
It's the smell and the taste and the fear and the thrill
It's everything I understand
And all the things I never will

(Mary Chapin Carpenter)

If you ever need to hear a voice in the middle of the night
When it seems so black outside that you can't remember
Light ever shone on you or the ones you love in this or another lifetime

And the voice you need to hear is the true and the trusted kind, with a soft
Familiar rhythm in these swirling, unsure times, when the waves are lapping in
And you're not sure you can swim, well here's the lifeline

If you ever need to feel a hand take up your own
When you least expect but want it more than you've ever known
Baby, here's that hand, and baby's here's my voice that's calling

This is love, all that ever was and will be
This is love

If you ever need some proof that time can heal your wounds, just step
Inside my heart and walk around these rooms; where the shadows used to be,
You can feel as well as see how peace can hover

Time's been here to fix what's broken with its power and the love that
Smashed us both to bits spent its last few hours calling out your name,
And I thought, this is the kind of pain from which we don't recover

But I'm standing here now with my heart held out to you
You would have thought a miracle was all that got us through
Well baby, all I know, all I know is I'm still standing

And this is love, all that ever was and will be
This is love, standing up for you baby, standing up for me
And I see you still and there's this catch in my throat;
And I just swallow hard till it leaves me
There's nothing in this world that can change what we know
Still I know I am here if you ever need me

And this is love
If you ever think of me, let it be around twilight, when the world has
Settled down, and the last round of sunlight is waning in the sky as you
Sit and watch the night descending

A car will pass out front with lovers at the wheel, a dog will bark out
Back, and children's voices peal over and under the air, you've been there,
Lost in the remembering

If you ever wish for things that are only in the past
Just remember that the wrong things aren't supposed to last
Baby, it's over and done, the rest is gonna come when you let it

And this is love, all that ever was and will be
This is love, when you let it baby, if you let it now
This is love, all that ever was and can be
This is love