The Wallflowers Album

Now coming down
Out of this swandive to your arms
I make no sounds
WhenI move thru your reservoirs
I wake up quick
I wake up sick
As you abandon me
Into these fields of rank and file
Thru this cloudI hear you breathing
Thru these barsI watch them bring more in

NowI send back letters from the wasteland home
Last slowdance to this romance on my own
May take two to tango, but boy it takes one to let go
It just takes one to let go.

Now boy keep still
Don't spread yourself around
Get back in line
Eat your bread
And just work the ground

'Cause you're not through
They're not done with with you
Did you think you were
The only one who's been let down
So sleep tight little boys of the new dam
Let them drop in the quicksand

NowI send back letters from the wasteland home
Last slowdance to this romance on my own
May take two to tango, but boy it takes one to let go

Now another bad idea gets thru
Down they send me unto you
Every bridgeI should have burned
Every lesson i've unlearned
When the smoke give way to ruins
Incarcerated lovesick fools
I wait for you to cut me loose
But until then

NowI send back letters from the wasteland home
Last slowdance to this romance on my own
May take two to tango, but boy it takes one to let go
NowI send back letters from the wasteland home
From whereI slowdance to this romance on my own

Whatever I know too much
You won't be anyone
Now tell me what you are thinking of
How could think you'd be enough
It's not that you've stayed too long
It's not that you've done something wrong
It's not your fault
But you embarrass yourself

Hand me down
It's better when you're not around
You feel good
And you look like you should
But you will never make us proud

You've been used by a army of cues
You've been touched by the lips of a queen
Now we've all made good use of you
But you won't be needed again
So don't you move and let someone else in
Make some room for a new harlequin
It's never enough
So don't disappoint us again

Hand me down
It's better when you're not around
You feel good
And you look like you should
But you won't ever make us proud

Hand me down
It's better when you're not around
You feel good
And you look like you should
But you could never make us proud
Hand me down

So look at you with your worn out shoes
Livin' proof evolution's through
We're stuck with you
This revolution's due

Hand me down
It's better when you're not around
You feel good
And you look like you should
But you could never make us proud

Hand me down
It's better when you're not around
You feel good
And you look like you should
But you won't ever make us proud

Maybe I could be the one they adore
That could be my reputation
It's where I'm from that lets them think I'm a whore
I'm an educated virgin

Sleepwalker, don't be shy
Now don't open your eyes tonight
You'll be the one that defends my life
While I'm dead asleep dreamin'

Cupid, don't draw back your bow
Sam Cooke didn't know what I know
I'll never be your valentine
The sleepwalker in me
And God only know that I've tried

Let me in, let me drown or learn how to swim
Just don't leave me at the window
I could be the one to be your next best friend
You may need someone to hold you

Sleepwalker, take this knife
You may see someone tonight
You'd be the one that saves my life
When I'm dead asleep dreamin'

Cupid, don't draw back your bow
Sam Cooke didn't know what I know
I'll never be your valentine
The sleepwalker in me
And God only know that I've tried

I'm in your movie and everyone looks sad
But I can hear you, your voice, the laughtrack
But you never saw my best scene
The one where I sleep
Sleepwalk into your dreams

Now, sleepwalker, what's my line
It's only a matter of time
Until I learn to open up my eyes
When I'm dead asleep dreamin'

Cupid, don't draw back your bow
Sam Cooke didn't know what I know
I'll never be your valentine
The sleepwalker in me

Now, the sleepwalker in me
Now, the sleepwalker in me
And God only know that I've tried

I could break free from the
wood of a coffin
if I need
But nothin's hard as
Gettin' free from places
I've already been

I've been waste-deep
in the burnin' meadows
of my mind
In the engine
In cold December
shootin' fire from the hose

Now turn off your lights
'cause I'm not comin' home
'til I'm delivered for the first time

I was first-born to a parade
that follows in rows
down a narrow cold black river
faceless shadows
movin' slow

I would move swift when
the sounds of a trumpet would blow
I've been the puppet
I've been the strings
I know the vacant face it brings

Now the bells of curfew
They may ring before I'm through
But soon
I'll be delivered for the first time

You might keep clean
in the back of an angel motorcade
It doesn't matter who walks in
you know, the joke is still the same
You'll just wake up
like a disposable lover
decomposed
I've been gone
I've been remembered
I've been alive
I've been a ghost

So now, if downtown explodes
I'll still be on this road
'til I'm delivered for the first time

I have drawn blood
from the neckline
when vampires were in fashion
You know I'd even learn
to cut my throat
If I thought I could fit in

'Cause I, I once heard
that you gotta learn
how to blend in to this mess
Where nothin's hard
nothin's precious
and nothin's smooth or flawless

Now, no more amused
just screaming to be delivered
for the first time

Now I'm 10 miles in the deep
and mighty blue sea
Looking back, towards a long white beach
burnin' up into yellow flames

And I just wave back
like a little boy up on a pony
in a show
'cause I can't fix
something this complex
any more than I can build a rose

So just keep on letting go
'cause I must be close
to being delivered for the first time

Now I'd rather bleed out
a long stream from being lonely
and feel blessed
Well than drown, laying face down
in a puddle of respect
I was once lost
in the corridors of the arena
in blindfolds
I've been the bull
I've been the whip
I just pulled down the matador

So now, turn on your lights
'cause I'm comin' home
I've been delivered for the first time

I'm standing outside your window, baby
And there you are
Another year, another candle's burning
for the party girl
No one even knows that you're there
Happy Birthday, no one cares

You come around here,
You'd better bring a witness
Everyone in here's on the guest list
And when you're gone you won't be missed
Keep one eye open
when you kiss

Your wishes won't be coming true this year
Now darling don't you cry
We're going to teach you everything
You'll learn to get by
Now lesson number one in homicide
is emotional murder is no crime

You come around here,
you'd better bring a witness
Everyone in here's on the guest list
And when you're gone you won't be missed
Keep one eye open
when you kiss

Now sticks and stones, baby, break your bones
But the names, in here, can kill
We'd let you leave
but no one else wants you
Your ransom was not made
Now you ain't got to stand up tall
But now baby, you must stand up

You come around here,
you'd better bring a witness
Everyone in here's on the guest list
Now we've never been so impressed
Keep one eye open when, whenever you kiss

We didn't make it
We did not pull through
You shouldn't blame me
I don't blame you
Now what else did you think
that I would do?
ooooh as if it wasn't hard enough

I'm so tired of waking up
feeling bad
You haven't been the kind of place I have
Could it hurt you now
to let this pass?
oooooh as if it wasn't hard enough
You want to make it so much harder

Now in another world
I could learn to forget
But 'til then I'm here
making room for new regrets
Now some flowers they never bloom
And some flowers just bloom dead

The way you make me feel
I could collapse
An epidemic I cannot outlast
How could you feel used
when I feel trapped?
ooooh as if it wasn't hard enough

And just as my conscience
starts to clear
I drag the river and you're still there
The way I bring you down
could not compare
ooooh as if it wasn't hard enough
You want to make it so much harder

Now in another world
I could learn to forget
But 'til then I'm here
making room for new regrets
Now some flowers they never bloom
But some flowers just bloom dead
Now some flowers they never bloom
And some flowers just bloom dead

The way I sleep
this bed just can't be made
I pull the covers up around my head
Now when I think of me
I think of somebody else instead
As if it wasn't hard enough
You're gonna make it so much harder

Now in another world
I could learn to forget
But 'til then I'm here
making room for new regrets
Now some flowers they never bloom
And some flowers just bloom dead
Now some flowers they never bloom
And some flowers they just bloom dead

Mama don't 'you send me no love this month
'cause my heart is all used up
and mama I wanna come home
I wanna get back home

So look out into the morning rain
'cause I'm on the mourning train

I'm bringing down my suitcase now
I'm shining up my good shoes brown
'cause no-one knows my name
now, no-one knows my name
So look out into the morning rain
'cause I'm on the mourning train

Mama look at me now
Oh how I wish
You were around
So many friends I wish
I had right now

Mister you can't hurt me now
You've got my girl, I still don't know how
But it don't matter now
No it don't matter now
So look out into the morning rain
'cause I'm on,
I'm already on
The mourning train

Well I'm down here in the well
Looking back up at the hill
Well I thank heavens I fell
Must look more
like myself
Now everyone is so kind
Everyone looks like
a long lost friend of mine
I'm on top of the world again
When I'm looking
up from under Babylon

I had a home in the fields
Earned my wage in the factories there
And I was raised by the mill
And I worked with my brothers there
I told my mother I'd always write
I headed west for the coast
with the big city lights
Now mamma I'm so sorry I've forgotten
But now I'm looking
up from under Babylon

Now tell me how far I've been
And how deep was I in
Tell me how I conceived
The vanity to believe
That I would not be outnumbered
By the thumbs I have been under

Now stray dogs in the street
Learn how to beg, steal, borrow and cheat
And in the dead summer heat
I fell asleep with blood on my teeth

But those days before I met you girl
Were just ice cream falling down
on the shoes of my world
I'm so happy that you're my friend
When we're looking
up from under Babylon

When we're looking
up from under Babylon

Never thought that I knew too much
I always thought I knew enough
I didn't want to learn this stuff
I didn't ever want to be that tough
But love was just implied
And everything else died
This class has now begun
In Murder 101

You can learn it in the first degree
You could even make yourself believe
That you'll never even think of me
When you're packing up your things to leave
Now my intuition failed
I can't graduate unskilled
They don't excuse the young
This is Murder 101

Find yourself another heart that needs a rest
Tie a hook onto a single thread
Drop it down beneath the chest
There's the first part of this test
They'll grade you on a curve
They're including everyone
No matter what you've heard
You know this class has now begun
Drop out before they come
To Murder one by one

Just look what we've done
In Murder 101

Just look what we've done
In Murder 101

Just look what we've done
This is Murder 101

Just look what we've done
To Murder one by one

So sad that you took it so badly
And acted so madly
So scared
like a baby by the morning
with sunlight unfolding
Your eyes have turned red
And are holding me
inside your story
In the end
you'll have started on a new one
Of anguish and delusions

He smiles
just like a magician
Who's just cast his illusions
of castles and sandstones
on the backbeach
And bright lights
within your reach
The sounds
of a warning
by the morning
of hound dogs coming for me
With the ropes leading back to your knees
And you looking straight at me

On your knees in the rain
with a basket of flowers
just for me
As the bells in the trees up above
all swung and rang softly
You said you rang them for me
For me

Come back babybird
With your dirty wings in tatters
Come home where you belong
Nobody knows you better
Now bring back your velvet heart
And we'll make you brand new feathers
Sleep through the morning light
With your arms around your brother

Babybird
come back home
Babybird
you were never really on your own

Now outside faces cry
With the tears of lonesome orphans
And behind every mask
is the face of another
Wherever you have been
wherever you took cover
No arms that pulled you in
could hold you like your mother

Babybird
come back home
Babybird
you were never really on your own

When all my colors fade
And my wings, they've turned to leather
I'll know the reasons why
God let me get older
When all my days are through
And I fly these hills no longer
I'll lay beneath the stars
And I'll watch you flying over

Babybird
come back home
Babybird
you were never really on your own

Babybird
come back home
Babybird
you will never be all alone