Patty Griffin Album

Let's write a story of a title wave
We run out of luck
We run out of days
We run out of gas
A hundred miles away
From a station

There's a war and a plague
Smoke and disaster
Lions in the coliseum
Screams of laughter
Motherless children
A witness and a bible
Nothing but rain ahead
No chance for our survival

Just before the flood comes
Just before the night falls
Just before the blood runs
Into the valley
Just before my eyes go
Just before we can't go any further
Love throws a line to you and me

I heard someone calling me from very far away
Sister oh sister did I hear them say?
Prisoner of this endless story of pain
You hold the key
Try to find the way

And just before the flood comes
Just before the night falls
Just before the blood runs
Into the valley
Just before my eyes go
Just before it all blows to pieces
Love throws a line to you and me

Love you better pick up your pace
If we're gonna win this race
Love we're running out of time
Pull yourself out from behind
 

To the end of the Earth, I'll search for your face
For the one who laid all of our beauty to waste
Threw our hope into Hell and our children into the fire
I am the one who crawled through the wire
I am the one who crawled through the wire

There's a million sad stories on the side of the road
Strange how we all just got used to the blood
Millions of stories that'll never be told
Silent and froze in the mud
Silent and froze in the mud

I know a cold as cold as it gets
I know a darkness that's darker than cold
A wind that blows as cold as it gets
Blew out the light of my soul
Blew out the light of my soul

I dream in my sleep, I dream in my days
Of some sunny street not so far away
Where up in a window a curtain will sway
And you and I'll meet down below
You and I'll meet down below

I know a cold as cold as it gets
I fight a war, I may never see one
I live only to see you live to regret
Everything that you done
Everything that you done
Everything that you done
 

The Sunday after there was laughter in the air
Everybody had a kite
They were flying everywhere
And all the trouble went away
And it wasn't just a dream
All the trouble went away
And it wasn't just a dream

In the middle of the night
We try and try with all our mights
To light a little light down here
In the middle of the night
We dream of a million kites
Flying high above
the sadness and the fear

Little sister just remember
as you wander through the blue
The little kite that you sent flying
on a sunny afternoon
Made of something light as nothing
Made of joy that matters too
How the little dreams we dream
Are all we can really do

In the middle of the night
The world turns with all of it's might
A little diamond colored blue
In the middle of the night
We keep sending little kites
Until a little light gets through
 

I'm standing in the shadow of the hill
I'm standing in the shadow of the hill
Feel the fear everywhere
Hope it don't get me killed
I'm standing in the shadow of the hill
I'm standing in the shadow walking blind
I've been unfair & unkind
Turned away from your suffering far too many times
Now I'm standing in the shadow walking blind
Sister, brother, there's a fire on the hill
And it's burning like a lantern
Making all this time stand still
I'm standing, I'm standing, I'm standing
I'm standing, standing, standing
Mother, I am weak but I am strong
Standing in the darkness this long
But in the deepest darkness I listen to your song
Mother I am weak but I am strong
I'm standing, and I'm standing, I'm standing
I'm standing, standing, standing, I'm standing
Standing in the shadow of the hill
 

Say goodbye to the old street that never cared much for you anyway
And the different colored doorways you thought would let you in one day
Goodbye to the old bus stop frozen and waiting
The weekend addition has this town over-rated
You walk across the baseball green
The grass has turned to straw
A flock of birds tries to fly away from where you are
Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye old friend
I can't make you stay
I can't spend another ten years wishing you would anyway

How the sky turns to fire
Against the telephone wire
And even I'm getting tired of useless desires

Everyday I take a bitter pill
It gets me on my way
For the little aches and pains
The ones I have from day to day
To help me think a little less about the things I miss
To help me not to wonder how I ended up like this
Walk down to the railroad track and ride a rusty train
With a million other faces I shoot through the city veins
Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye old friend
You wanted to be free
And somewhere beyond the bitter end is where I wanna be

How the sky turns to fire
Against the telephone wire
And even I'm getting tired of useless desires

Say goodbye to the old building that never tried to know your name
Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye old friend
You won't be seeing me again
Goodbye to all the window panes shining in the sun
Like diamonds on a winter day
Goodbye, goodbye to everyone

How the sky turns to fire
Against the telephone wire
It burns the last of the day down
And I'm the last one hanging around waiting
On a train track and the train never comes back
And even I'm getting tired of useless desires
 

I wished I was smarter
Wished I was stronger
I wished I loved Jesus
The way the my wife does

I wished it'd been easier
Instead of any longer
I wished I could've stood
Where you would've been proud
That won't happen now
That won't happen now

There's a whole lot of singing
That's never gonna be heard
Disappearing every day
Without so much as a word
Somehow

I think I broke the wings
Off that little songbird
And she's never gonna fly
To the top of the world Now
To the top of the world

I don't have to answer
Any of these questions
Don't have no god to
Teach me no lessons

I come home in the evening
Sit in my chair
One night they called me for supper
But I never got up
I stayed right there
In my chair

There's a whole lot of singing
That's never gonna be heard
Disappearing every day
Without so much as a word
Somehow

I think I broke the wings
Off a little songbird
And she's never gonna fly
To the top of the world
Now
To the top of the world

I wished I'd had known you
Wished I had shown you
All of the things I
Was on the side
But I'd pretend to be sleeping
When you'd come in in the morning
To whisper goodbye
Go work in the rain
I don't know why
Don't know why

Cause everyone's singing
We just wanna be heard
Disappearing every day
Without so much as a word
Somehow?

Gonna grab a hold
Of that little songbird
And take her for a ride
To the top of the world
Right now
To the top of the world
 

As I row, row, row
Going so slow, slow, slow
Just down below me is the old sea
Just down below me is the old sea
Nobody knows, knows, knows
So many things, things, so
So out of range
Sometimes so strange
Sometimes so sweet
Sometimes so lonely

The further I go
More letters from home never arrive
And I'm alone
All of the way
All of the way
Alone and alive

You just have to go, go, go
Where I don't know, know, know
This is the thing
Somebody told me
A long time ago

The further I go
More letters from home never arrive
And I'm alone
All of the way
All of the way
Alone and alive
 

Red lights are flashing on the highway
I wonder if we're gonna ever get home
I wonder if we're gonna ever get home tonight
Everywhere the waters getting rough
Your best intentions may not be enough
I wonder if we're gonna ever get home tonight

But if you brake down
I'll drive out and find you
If you forget my love
I'll try to remind you
And stay by you when it don't come easy

I don't know nothing except change will come
Year after year what we do is undone
Time keeps moving from a crawl to a run
I wonder if we're gonna ever get home

You're out there walking down a highway
And all of the signs got blown away
Sometimes you wonder if you're walking in the wrong direction

But if you brake down
I'll drive out and find you
If you forget my love
I'll try to remind you
And stay by you when it don't come easy

So many things that I had before
That don't matter to me now
Tonight I cry for the love that I've lost
And the love I've never found
When the last bird falls
And the last siren sounds
Someone will say what's been said before
Some love we were looking for

But if you brake down
I'll drive out and find you
If you forget my love
I'll try to remind you
And stay by you when it don't come easy
 

A couple of young girls went
Sailing down A1A
Into the arms of Florida
Sailing down a highway
Singing their heads off
Protected by the holy ghosts
Flying in the ocean
Driving with their eyes close

The night wants to kiss you deep
And be on his way
Pretend he don't know you the very next day
Isn't it hard sometimes
Isn't it lonely?
How I still hang around here
And there's nothing to hold me

You slide down into the seat
From twelve hours on your feet
And get the tide to wash you away
For thousands and thousands of days
And someone you never meet
Signs a check you get every week
You try and you still can't forget
All the strangers that you have met

The night never owed you nothing anyway
Makes promises that he never intends to keep every day
Isn't it hard sometimes
Isn't lonely?
How I still hang around here
And there's nothing to hold me

Every time, every year
The travelers come and go
You see them landing with their pale wings
And flying back to the snow
And the summer comes marching in
With his heavy boots on
Kicking along the blacktop
Sidewalks of A1A
The young girls in their bare feet
Cigarettes smoking
Looking every which way
Wishing and hoping

And you want the night just to let you sleep
And be on his way
Wrap you up in some cool sheets
And have nothing to say

Isn't hard sometimes
Isn't it lonely?
How I still hang around here
And there's nothing to hold me
 

All you kids get out the back door
I've never seen her this bad before
She took all her favorite things down from the window
and broke 'em all over her clean floor

It's Saturday at the mansion
The oldest boy walks with a slouch
The young ones are wild in back of the house
and she gave up and went back to sleep on the couch

Something as simple as boys and girls
gets tossed all around and then lost in the world
Something as hard as a prayer on your back
can wait a long time for an answer

When I was little I'd stare at her picture
and talk to the mother of God
I swear sometimes I'd see her lips move
like she was trying to say something to me

When I was eighteen I moved to Florida,
like everyone sick of the cold does,
and I waited on old people waiting to die
I waited on them until I was

Something as simple as boys and girls
gets tossed all around and then lost in the world
Something as hard as a prayer on your back
can wait a long time for an answer

So I'm wearing my footsteps into this floor
One day I won't live here anymore
Someone will wonder who lived here before
and went on their way

I live too many miles from the ocean
and I'm getting older and odd
I get up every morning with a black cup of coffee
and I talk to the mother of God

Something as simple as boys and girls
gets tossed all around and then lost in the world
Something as hard as a prayer on your back
can wait a long time for an answer...
can wait a long time for an answer

Maybe … it's alright.
Maybe we won't fight anymore.
Maybe love is waiting at the end of every room.
I don't know.
I don't know.
But maybe … maybe it's al……….right.(or maybe is al……….right).
 

Tonight
I sing soft and low
Just like the moon
Over the snow
I hear icicles falling in the dark

We're just like anyone else
We just want a little bit
Of sun for ourselves
And a little bit of rain
To make it all grow
Maybe a minute or two
To get lost in the glow of love

There's always someone throwing matches around
Waving the shiny new knife
The first to run when the house burns down
I've seen it everyday of my life
I must confess there appears to be
Way more darkness than light
I want to fall like a pearl
To the bottom of the sea
There no one will find us tonight

Tonight
It might look pretty bad
We might lose everything
We thought that we had
But shadows will pass
Smoke, it will clear
If something survives of us around here
I'll be glad 'cause I know
I was lost in the glow
Of love