Patti Scialfa Album

Underneath the swirling light of jasmine tea and smoke
you traced my face up on the barroom wall
and you tried to intimidate me as you drank your drinks and joked
saying it takes more than clean hands to catch angels when they fall
Well I'll keep that in mind

Come on darlin' oh my my
come and hear my 23rd Street lullaby
got a bottle of wine, a bag of tricks
there's a place for you under my fingertips
there's a place for you, oh my my
up on the rooftops of my 23rd Street lullaby

Me and you on the avenue, on a summer night
bass and drums and the traffic hums and I feel all right
Well come and walk beside me darlin' and I'll take my place
I'm a little low on courage, but I'm high on faith
and I feel so fine

Come on darlin', oh my my
come and hear my 23rd Street lullaby
got a bottle of wine, a bag of tricks
there's a place for you under my fingertips
there's a place for you, oh my my
up on the rooftops of my 23rd Street lullaby

sha la la la la la la la
sha la la la
sha la la la la la la la
sha la la la

Got a downtown heart, got a love so sweet
got a tone poem and a funky little beat
got a music box, it's soft inside
and in your arms I come alive
so don't you worry now, say you will
I'll be waiting here until you take a chance, take a risk
I'll take what's broken and I'll take what's fixed

Me and you on the avenue, on a summer night
bass and drums and the traffic hums, and I feel all right

Come on darlin', oh my my
Come and hear my 23rd Street lullaby
got a bottle of wine, a bag of tricks
there's a place for you under my fingertips
there's a place for you, oh my my
up on the rooftops of my eyes
want to take a chance, take a risk
I'll take what's broken and I'll take what's fixed
I can't hear you
Let me hear you
my 23rd Street lullaby

New York City, 1988
standing in the Chelsea rain
with a small suitcase
I used to walk invisible
and the only time I felt recognized
was when I saw myself reflected
in your loving eyes
now I'm looking for a piece of my past
on these streets that I once knew but…

Hey hey, you can't go back
hey hey, you can't go back

Now I used to have the kind of luck
that went from bad to worse
a gypsy on the waterfront
she told me I was cursed
she said no one's young forever
well I just laughed
I turned to leave around the corner
and the years went past
now I'm looking for a piece of myself
on the same streets that I once knew but…

Hey hey, you can't go back
hey hey, you can't go back

How can everything look so different
how can everything look so the same
thru an open window I hear a record playing
“Who will stop the rain”
Now there's a river
of faces in the tide of rise and fall
do they wonder where we have gone
do they think of us at all
will they recognize us now
in those perfect clothes and gowns
do they wonder what we're doing here
on this side of town

Hey hey, you can't go back
hey hey, you can't go back

Rose was a waitress for twenty years or more
bringing in the change, she was heaven sent
she taught me how to balance trays when I didn't know what to do
and I learned to turn tables to make my rent
She said keep your eye on the work clock, keep a dollar in the jukebox
and there's a bottle of whiskey behind the coffee machine
Don't talk to the boss, he's just trouble you don't want to cross
he's the walking definition of what it is to be mean

Well, I'm going out tonight on the streets of the city
Going to spend my money tonight
I'm going out on the streets of the city
Rose, you're pushing fifty, but you sure look all right

Well there's this guy who speaks no English, and he does the dishes by hand
You know his pace it never slacks
I said "Rose, he must be one of God's good children"
She just laughs and says "Yeah, God's got him doing the dishes all night in theback"
But he keeps smiling and those plates keep piling up so high
seems he can't make a dent
Me I'm just bitchin' by the service station
so tired of waiting on all these jokers for a lousy ten percent

Well I'm going out on the streets of the city
Going to spend my money tonight
I'm going out on the streets of the city
Rose, you're pushing fifty, but you sure look all right

Now listen
I traveled once with this rock and roll band
and my baby was a hero at every small town bar
and I watched that summer of '88 pass through the rearview mirror of his rentedcar
but don't you learn hard and fast that the good times, they ain't meant to last
and that sweet love, ain't it the first to disappear
Rose, sometimes I get so frightened, I don't want to spend the rest of my life
working on the graveyard shift here

Well I'm going out on the streets of the city
Going to spend my money tonight
I'm going out on the streets of the city
Rose, you're pushing fifty, but you sure look all right

My Auntie Mabel
1953
Left her Minnesota dirt farm to see what she could see
in a letter to her mother telling her what she enjoyed
said there's nothing in the whole wide world like a city boy
1987
Took Daddy's Cadillac
I drove it to Chicago, never brought it back
Well all these years later, I'm still unemployed
Oh well there's nothing in the whole wide world like a city boy
My granddaddy had long grey hair
silver cane and a rocking chair
tapped that cane on a wooden floor
saying "take what you're given, and then ask for more"
Well now, baby, what do you think of that
Can you make a woman out of an alley cat
Can you take the agitation and not get annoyed
Oh well there's nothing in the whole wide world like a city boy
Now my Auntie Mabel, she plays the dominoes
way down South where the yucca plant grows
drinking whiskey out of Coca-Cola bottles, smoking Viceroys
Still swears there's nothing in the whole wide world like a city boy
Those city boys

Love… you're the one
the well known pleasure…
under my tongue
my holy water…
my gypsy rain
come and find me… once again
because you are everything I wanted

I need your faith…
I need your love
To take my place…
To rise above to stand up

Love, be my cure
be my medicine…
simple and pure
take my sorrow…
take my pain
and come and find me… once again
because you are everything I wanted

So give me your faith…
give me your love
and I'll take my place…
and I'll rise above
and I'll stand up

Give me hope and give me strength
and give me your soul understanding
give me faith and give me truth
and give me yourself everlasting
give me hope and give me faith
and give me your soul understanding
give me strength and give me truth…
and give me love

Love… you're the one
All of my medicine…
Under my tongue
because you are everything I wanted

And I need your faith
and I need your love
to take my place
to rise above
to take my place
I need your trust
So hear me now
And I'll rise above…
And I'll stand up

Stand up… stand up…
Stand up… stand up…

Give me hope and give me faith
and give me your soul understanding

Anna… in a foreign blue
yesterday I saw someone
who reminded me of you
and I…
held my breath and called your name
and though I knew it was not you
I followed just the same…
I wanted to raise the glass
to a symphony of miles
and say our last farewell
to yesterday's child

Anna… sweep the doorway clean
Let's forgive before we blame
and I…
will make my own amends
with the dust and sin
underneath my skin
and on my maiden name

So let's raise the glass
to a symphony of miles
and say our last farewell
to yesterday's child

Anna… in my dreams
I open my arms and I'm flying
let's do some living
forget about the dying…

Anna… I've done my thousand days
now I'm walking free in time
and I… still have my imaginings
where there's no struggling…
or suffering
just cigarettes and wine…

So let's raise the glass
to a symphony of miles
and say our last farewell
to yesterday's child

I was doing time in Salvation Park
up on the high rope me your ace of hearts
just when I thought I was so special
I thought I had it all
you take a wrong step
before you fall and you're

Stumbling to Bethlehem
in this absence of light
stumbling to Bethlehem
don't worry darling
yeah don't think twice

Now there's this man on the corner
in a long black sweater saying
“sinners they will burn forever”
well I must be guilty of something
some price I forgot to pay
I must have done somebody wrong
somewhere along the way
that keeps me

Stumbling to Bethlehem
in this absence of light
stumbling to Bethlehem
don't worry darling
yeah don't think twice

now you can count up all your blessings
you can count up every curse
but you never really know
which is better
or which is worse
so you try to do right
but it gets so rough
there's always someone
to remind you
that you're just not good enough
and you're

Stumbling to Bethlehem
in this absence of light
I'm stumbling to Bethlehem
don't worry darling
yeah don't feel twice
don't worry darling
yeah it's alright

So all that loneliness for a moment is through
and now it's going to take time
to find some faith for you
you've got a history of crash landings
coming down on nothing but a prayer
and finding no one there to break the fall
so you got all twisted up inside
got a new hairdo and a big disguise
till no one could recognize you at all

Well that's all right… that's o.k.
I'm going to love you… any which way
that's o.k. ... that's all right
we'll be each other's medicine tonight

Well the path of resistance for a moment
now has cleared
and you want to open up but you're
locked down shut with fear
because you know the lonely corner
where the blind man begs for change
you've carried that cup and cane before
and you never get what you think you deserve
so you settle for token kindness
and sympathetic words
anything to ease the pain

Well that's all right… that's o.k.
I'm going to have you any which way
that's o.k. ... that's all right
we'll be each other's medicine tonight

Well all the stopped clocks are ticking
it's time I do believe
when you've got nothing left to give
and you're too paralysed to receive
when you're unfamiliar to yourself
and a stranger to everybody else
when you're too lost and too gone to see

Well that's all right… that's o.k.
I'll recognize you any which way
that's o.k. ... that's all right
we'll be each other's medicine tonight

Standing at your doorstep darlin'
what can I do
you're a part of me forever
like a troublesome tattoo
I lay awake at night
curse your name into the dark
while the memory of you rings
like a church bell through my heart
then a cold rain starts to fall

Oh Romeo
remember how we'd listen to the radio
when the girls sang
“baby baby you know it's true
ain't no one in this world for me but you”

Now I'm a believer darlin'
I believe in heaven above
and when I look in your eyes
I believe I still see love
well maybe I will never know
just why you walked away
did you think I wasn't good enough
or were you just afraid
of the cold rain that's fallen
all around us now

Oh Romeo…

Now I'm living here in Chelsea
In somebody else's arms
got a ring around my finger
diamond snake around my arm
don't know if he knows
about you darlin'
I don't even care
sometimes he pretend to reach for me
and I pretend I'm there
while that cold rain
has fallen all around us now
listen

Oh Romeo
remember how we'd listen to the radio
when the girls sang
“baby baby you know it's true
ain't no one in this world for me but you”
well there is no one

Check your time plan station master
and bless the 3:45
she's rolling fast and free
and don't she look just like me
spitting off smoke
and all empty inside
I left my baby down on a city street
our love followed the course of the sun
it rose above the city skyline
and sunk behind the turnpike oil drums… well

Come on now mister conductor
come on and seal my fate
I was raised to find my way
now I'm going to find my state of grace

So I went walking down the edges of the city
to the iron lady and the holy land
with no English my family came
and money left a stain on their foreign hands
I don't know how some people do it
they just walk away and they
don't look back…
under a river in a cold mud tunnel
my grandfather's ghost's still
slamming the jack… well

Come on now mister conductor
come on and seal my fate
I was raised to find my way
now I'm going to find my state of grace

Last night I had a dream of forgiveness
we were walking on some sacred ground
and a light fell from heaven with a promise
That all lost things are someday found… well.

Come on now mister conductor
come on and seal my fate
I was raised to find my way
now I'm going to find my state of grace
I'm going to find my state of grace

Daniel's by the jonny pump
he's drunk on cheap wine
he's got a monkey wrench in his hand
saying he'll be prepared next time
everything seemed so right
who would have thought to make amends
with a love so pure
who would have thought we'd burn in the end
from the tip of the fire to the heart of the blaze
when the rain came
there was nothing left to save
sifting thru the ashes for a clue
nothing but a memory of me and you
baby, down on Chelsea Avenue

Light a candle light a light
I'm going to take you down tonight
so let the bells ring and the whistles blow
across the soft country that we used to know
where every path you take is marked
and every story in your heart
all comes running back to you
baby, down on Chelsea Avenue

Didn't we love to love to love
didn't we love to love to love
didn't we love to love now
didn't we
didn't we walk so tall
didn't we walk so free?
didn't have to search for the strength
to be just what we wanted to be
after the temptations
it was just burning rain on wood
the more we learned the less we really understood
now I don't know who makes these final decisions
who will be rewarded, punished or just forgiven
but I forgave you darling because I knew
it's what you would have wanted me to do
baby, down on Chelsea Avenue

I ferried my dreams across the water
underneath a faceless moon
I woke to find myself uncovered
in this dark and dusty room
take me… up the wooden stairs
where the windows are open wide
there we can watch the city skyline
tremble in the heat waves rolling by
and don't the world look pretty
when you're young in the city

So there I was
Ophelia climbing
through these tangled threads of light
I was caught
open and bleeding
but I was willing to stay the night
take me down… to where the buildings
stand empty at our feet
where the… dirty Hudson River
and the sweet blue oceans meet
and don't the world look pretty
when you're young in the city

Don't you sometimes wonder
why it all goes by so fast
I held you in my fingers
now I hold you in my past…
once I watched you… walk on water
now I watch you walk across the room
I always thought we'd have forever
now these forevers go by too soon
take me down… to the streets below
where the moon and traffic lights
guide us… while we go dreaming
thru another sleepless night
and don't the world look pretty
when you're young in the city