The Wallflowers Album

Pretty little girl on the side of the road
Yellow hair in a yellow bow
Little thumb sticking in the exit lane
Two packs of smokes and a candy cane
With women hips and baby lips
A Hallelujah book in the back of a pillow-slip.
If she gets out of here too soon
She'll run fast by the shy of the moon.

If she's been havin' the same old dreams,
Of lullabies and pale blue skies
Fallen asleep beneath the stars,
Orion aims and shoots his arrows oh so far
Aims 'em hard,
He shoots the moon and takes her as his own reward.
If she's gonna see those stars too soon
She'll run fast by the shy of the moon.

If she found out so long ago
That she wants more than all she knows
The river ends right as she goes,
Water breaks and she's gone down in the undertow,
She's below,
But I'll stand tall and hold up high my mistletoe.
She's gonna shine just like brand new,
She'll take my hand and we'll run by the shy of the moon.

Sugarfoot's got two hands
Just as long as he can see,
One hand in the birdfeed
And a hand in the apple tree.
He stands in line, just a little behind
A yellow moon that hangs,
he's all tangled and he broke his sticks on the links
Of his own chain gang.

You oughta see this home that he own,
It's like a box of jewelry,
He's got his own church bell
And his bed it lays in a gallery.
And all the colors they shine like flames
Coming in through the window pane,
They end up getting checked over twice
For the reds of someone's veins.

It's so cold and blown all apart,
It's so cold and needing of a heart.

He stands alone on the top of his home
Where all the blue birds flown,
Sucks in on his cheeks and he cries
As he moans through a saxophone.
He reaches high with his hands in the sky
And puts his fingers right into the storm
Always one to stand under the moon
And blow on his own horn.
And anyone with anything has already begun to think
That somebody down there knows
Just how he sat down on his knees in the dirt
And buried someone's rainbow.

It's so cold and blown all apart,
It's so cold and needing of a heart.

It's so cold and blown all apart,
It's so cold and needing of a heart.

Well, I know you ain't my enemy,
The only one's inside of me,
He's killing me getting free.
I hear he wants my head with an old ice pick
And fix me up on a stick.
An' all I've ever got to be
Is everything I wanna be
And Sugarfoot disagrees,
He still stands tall underneath that apple tree
Man, he's still watching me.
His chain gang is tryin' to pull me down
Like the birds and the fireflies.
They shoot arrows up into the skies
And they burn all the feathers dry.
Well, he only wants to fill his belly up
With rocks till it hurts, then he stops.
Well, he don't know what to do with love
If it don't fill his belly to the top.

It's so cold and blown all apart,
It's so cold and needing of a heart.

It's so cold and blown all apart,
It's so cold and needing of a heart.

She told you about it through a broken bleeding windpipe.
It shook your bones and made your life feel skintight.

Well, Sidewalk Annie
Now your coattails have come undone,
Your whisper's a scream now
Since you don't speak to anyone.

The howlin' winds could never care what she liked,
Rhythm and Blues or A Stranger In The Night
It tore up the trailer with the sounds of a howlin' wolf,
The cellar was stone, even the garden was bulletproof.

Well, Sidewalk Annie
Now your coattails have come undone,
Your whisper's a scream now
Since you don't speak to anyone

Little girl in your white ice skates,
We've seen your face walkin' around the old school gates,
With a hand on your hip and the other one on your head,
You realized it wasn't gone, but lost instead.

Sidewalk Annie
Now your coattails have come undone.
Your whisper's a scream now
Since you don't speak to anyone.

Invested a nickel into the banks of a wishing well
And blew out the candles and hoped for somethin' that she could, she
could sell.

Sidewalk Annie
Now your coattails have come undone.
Your whisper's a scream now
Since you don't speak to anyone.

You talk so loud, you talk so much and you talk so funny,
But honey, what are you talkin' about ?
Something 'bout being, being reimbursed
For every unregistered virus.

Drainpipes are filled up with dirty rain,
And the leisure train is speeding in the diamond lane.
With electricity shut off again
Leaving the night-life only for the madmen.

Oh my God
They've sold Hollywood,
Burned down my neighborhood,
Even shot Robin Hood.

An' oh my God,
I guess it was never understood,
To understand brotherhood
Right from wrong
And the bad from the good.

Well, everybody's got their own smoke-screens
With personal armies for everyone in between.
With plastic rifles given to every team
What a beautiful dream, even bullets have guarantees.

An' oh my God
They've sold Hollywood,
Burned down my neighborhood,
Even shot Robin Hood.

An' oh my God,
I guess it was never understood,
To understand brotherhood
Right from wrong
And the bad from the good.

There's the sweetest evil image detector
As sweet as nectar, an overrated candy dispenser.
She don't give food to eat or anybody, anyplace to sleep,
But she can tell you, what you can and what you can't create.

An' oh my God
They've sold Hollywood,
Burned down my neighborhood,
Even shot Robin Hood.

Oh my God,
I guess it was never understood,
To understand brotherhood
Right from wrong
And the bad from the good.

An' oh my God
They've sold Hollywood,
Burned down my neighborhood,
Even shot Robin Hood.

An' oh my God,
Guess it was never understood
To understand brotherhood
Right from wrong
And the bad from the good.

I know you're tired of waking up on the floor
Pushed to the edge with nothing heavy to hold
Using your clothes as a blanket and a bed
Holding your hands just to lay your head.

I know you don't remember ever falling down,
Who picked you up, who gathered around
But you don't have to be his girl
And you don't have to be my girl
You can always be your own girl.

With the sound of your feet you follow yourself to sleep
Restless and ageless and looking for somethin' to keep,
When you finally fall asleep you're awake in dreams,
Hanging by the ankles in a skeleton ravine.

I know you've kicked the lights, fell on your shoes,
Punched out the colors, leaving you the blues.
But you don't have to be his girl
And you don't have to be my girl
You can always be your own girl.

There's a soft melody that's ringing in my ears
Simple and slow and it always brings you here
With broken crayons you've scribbled on the wall
Shapes of nothing and shadow box them all.

Your fingertips are broke and your knees don't bend,
Your imagination took the worst hit and cut it's skin.
But you don't have to be his girl,
You don't have to be my girl,
You can always be your own girl.

There's a soft melody that's ringing in my ears
And it's the same one you could never avoid in yours,
And if you lay down you can hear from tongue to tails
About a tattooed rhythm and drumming by color wheel.

Your rung is broken on the bottom of the rope
And you can't tie another, another knot of hope.
And you don't have to be his girl
And you don't have to be my girl
You can always be your own girl.

We took 'em high, we took 'em straight up the hill,
They wanted it all, we gave 'em such a fill.
In their parades we stole every thrill
And in their games we made every kill.

We took them hard, we took them up against the wall.
In their loss we never let them fall
In their flames we sailed up to the moon
In their rains we slayed dry like a fire would.

So the bottom of my fears
Is that the girl might just disappear,
But that'll be the death of me,
The day she's just a memory

Well she turned out the lights
When she opened the whites of my eyes
Another one in the dark
Broken hearted mama
Just another one in the dark.

When we rolled, rolled on like a big drum,
We went to the top just above everyone,
They wanted to win, tie us up with a string, and steal everything.
We took 'em skin on skin, we laid 'em down in the ring.

So I swear, we're a pair,
Like loneliness and a prayer,
And you know I may still believe,
You may still need me.

Well, she turned out the lights
When she opened the whites of my eyes
Another one in the dark
Broken from the start
Just another one in the dark.

And in their nights we made out with a loud scream,
And in their sleep we howled inside every dream,
So if you're trying to break me,
Come on why don't you shake me,
Right out of my tree,
The one that you made me, me

Well, she sang out of tune,
When she shot down the moon,
As I saw my all freeze,
Down onto my knees,
Where I was hit at the hip,
Between the cup and the lip,
As I was struck down under
With lightning and thunder,
As she cut all the strings
That I'd tied to her wings
Leaving me in the dark,
We stood just feet apart,
But she never seen me at all.

Well, you could walk like a stranger head back into here,
Bringing gifts while you act so sincere,
Bringing gifts for a boy who's five years,
Looking for rocks and training wheels.

I don't remember you from any of those books,
Ashes to ashes and six feet under, face down in a box.
Where did you ever learn to treat me like that?

You don't seem to have any of that family stuff,
You know the hardwood floors and all that penniless rough.
Your bad luck follows you like a heart attack,
Twist your fingers, soon as break your back.

I don't remember you from any of those books,
Ashes to ashes and six feet under, face down in a box.
Where did you ever learn to treat me like that that that?

It's coming from another with a mother who's just like yours,
Givin' you headaches and all those mental scores.
Give a little, have a little, take some for yourself,
Like the needy and the greedy always seem by themselves,
Well, you must be, have to be one of these,

Hidin' in the shade under your family tree
Think I met you once in a liquor store,
No think I saw you hanging by the stage door
Handing out programs to the family theater
Devised a role so you don't mistreat her.

Take it wild, take it fast,
You never gave yourself a chance.

I don't remember you from any of those books,
Ashes to ashes and six feet under, face down in a box.
Where did you ever learn to treat me like that, that, that, that?

I'm finding it hard,
Just to keep up with someone
Who's hangin' onto nothin'
Only to lose what's never mine.

And I'm finding it hard
Just to keep up with something
That's hangin' on to nothin'
To keep all these chains tied up and in line, in line.

Pretty Angel,
She bites the hands of the lion,
Ties it up with ribbon,
Watches as hound dogs
Bang on her drums, drums.

It's so, it's so easy for you to love nobody,
It's so easy for you, 'cause you're not tryin' anymore.

I seen this girl
She had her hands full of lightning,
She rolled it down to me,
A Lolita smile,
With a thorn in her eyes.

Now she, she spun the world,
Up on the edge of a pearl,
A carnivals girl,
Up on a ferris wheel forever, forever.

It's so easy for you to love nobody,
It's so easy for you, 'cause you're not tryin' anymore,
Just don't try anymore.

Now she, she howled like an owl
Only to fall like a sparrow
And lay beside the scarecrow
But after the Blackbird sings
Is the song, the song.

It's just so easy,
It's just so easy for you to love nobody,
It's just so easy for you, 'cause you're not tryin' anymore.

We can buy that mansion on the hill,
We'll fill it up until it's filled.
We'll buy a big black Cadillac
And we'll keep an extra one in the back.
We'll sit home just listening
To the sounds of the winds when they're breaking
And we can buy that diamond ring
And just about any other thing
With somebody else's money.

We can buy you that flower garden
With every rose that's ever risen.
With a blanket and a safety pin
We'll keep away all the boogie men.
And we can buy you that swing
Swing through the skies openings
And we can buy that diamond ring
And just about any other thing
With somebody else's money.

We can tattoo nickels on our skin,
We'll drain our veins and put honey in.
We'll buy new fingers two times ten,
We'll even put pennies in our chins.
We'll buy a silver set of wings,
Lay 'em on our backs for the winds
And we can buy that diamond ring
And just about any other thing
With somebody else's money.

We'll crash in on the neighbors wedding,
We'll steal the cake and go running.
You'll head straight for the jewelry
And I'll steal the money like a lottery.
We'll buy a set of legs just for walking,
And another set of tongues for when we're small talking,
Another set of lips for being obscene
And another set of heads for Halloween.

And we can buy you that swing
To swing through the skies openings.
We can buy that diamond ring,
Just about any other thing,
With somebody else's money.

We can buy babies for the babies,
We'll give them both big red ponies.
They'll live in that mansion on the hill
That we'll keep on fillin' until it's filled.

We'll watch the neighbors fatten up with greed
Watching us buying everything we don't need
I know they're listening
Through a telescope from across the street
Watching us fillin' up the bathtubs with sweets
Money, money, money.

Money on the floor put money in the beds
Put money in the drains
Money coming out of our heads,
Money, money, money.

We can kill many a dirty man
Work by the church when they bring us in.
We can buy anything
Because there's always something
That's so funny about spending
Somebody else's money.

Do you ever stop to count all the invitations
At the end of the day when it comes down to one decision
Of dead beat girls and freaks at a peoples convention,
All these sugars with no vitamin sensation.

Do you ever stop to look over old relations,
Or look to the belly of another one's emotions,
Someone young in the winds of a revolution
Trying to save his face in the evolution.

Asleep at the wheel,
No windshield,
But you know that the streets
Here don't change.

He's kept alive in the chain of mental starvation,
Bone rail skinny, only feeding off frustration.
Unlike you who seem bred from corruption
Feeding off the plates of an ununited nation.

Asleep at the wheel,
No windshield,
But you know that the streets
Here don't change.

With a lover in the street whose waiting to make a connection
To be the mother to the soul of your next abortion,
She'll steal your money with the eyes of a baby's complexion
Then she'll laugh at you and your sexual invention.

Smelling like a rose, in the flowers of devotion,
Devoted the heat of a spotlight in motion,
With a face full of mud even though you were only joking
As if you really understood the value of isolation.

Asleep at the wheel,
No windshield,
But you know that the streets
Here don't change.

Your tongue so fast like a freight train coming on rollin'
Every smile you give's just to keep your mouth from clothin'
Every engine burns as a sign of the explosion
Locked in neutral your engines are broken.

Like candle wax that sun melts into the ocean,
Like the moon that lights the tracks of the old train station,
You can color in the lines of mother earth's addictions,
And not hold a gun in the face of the Earth's abduction

Asleep at the wheel,
No windshield,
But you know that the streets
Here don't change.

Seen the shadow on my wall
Turn and fall
On broken hands and all
Turn and crawl
Seen that sun gone down
And the waterfall
She stood tall in the fallen rain
Right off an orphan train
She'll run to me again,
I believed,
See how wrong, how wrong you can be.

I know who watches you,
Who watches me ?
I know who hears you,
Who hears me ?
If my eyes blind,
Who'll see
The best in me ?

I hear all the lonely cries
Underneath all these lies
She can't get them by,
Or through me.
See how wrong, wrong you can be.

My honey bee,
Why are you flyin' so far from me ?

She keeps her hands so free
And walks through me,
Straight on through the dead of night
Her face is painted white
By these street lights.
They hold you down so tight
And like hounds they bite.

She fell down in her diamond suit
On lonely avenue, her color's only blue
She won't take clues,
See how wrong, how wrong you can be.

My honey bee
What on earth are you trying to do ?

And where that hero falls, I held on
I always thought I'd see the lights close on me
And the water freeze, surrounding me.
Look how wrong you can be.

My honey bee
Why are you flyin' so far from me ?

Well, I know you find it hard to smile,
To keep your happiness in style
You pass in silence in the mornin'
You know you shouldn't ever try to ignore me.

And you look to be pretty nervous
Sweaty hands and blood shot eyes.
So hard to identify you,
Just a loser in a loser's disguise.

She don't back down,
And she won't come around here
Now there's all this talk about dying
Well I don't get it, for the life of me.

With your fingernails painted red
And your eyes all ready to wed
Decorated from head to toe
Like a magician in a talent show.

She don't back down,
And she don't come around here.
An' there's all this talk about dying,
Well I don't get it, for the life of me.

So you've smoked your last cigarette
Burned coldly on a train from Tibet
And broke your last bottle of wine
And unraveled your last ball of twine.

Well, she don't back down,
She don't come around here
Now there's all this talk about dying,
Well I don't get it, for the life of me.

She don't back down,
She don't come around here
Now there's all this talk about dying,
Well I don't get it, for the life of me.

Well, I know you find it hard to smile
To keep your happiness in style
You pass in silence in the mornin'
You know you don't usually ignore me.

Now there's all this talk about dying,
Well, I don't get it, for the life of me.