1. |
Saturday Night
02:45
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The last great defender of the heart of Saturday night
Burned out madly in the back seat of a black Cadillac
How the thunder crashed
Our fathers' leather jackets
A bit too big on our shoulders
Slowly unstitch in the closet
A dusty crypt of characters
We've retired, starved and silenced
Dead poets and pissed off kids
Haunt the highways, plaintive clichés
Longing for glory days that never came
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2. |
Joyride
03:04
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Engines thunder through midnight avenues
Where boys and girls get sad together
Burn out on bad luck and patiently surrender
To the tightening binds of our parents' lives
Slip under the covers
And let history become us overnight
Jenny, remember
When we were young and thought we could outrun
The plans we made with oblivion?
Beneath pool hall lights and neon signs
We held communion with the demoralized
The keys were in that car when we spilled out of the bar
Onto the midnight avenue
I can still feel the wind on my flushed face
And hear that Chevy engine roar
White knuckles and torn blue jeans
Your hair an auburn storm in the passenger seat
In the rear view mirror
The lights of our hometown disappear
Thunder Road on the radio
A fuel-injected sermon for the restless souls
Hey, that was you and that was me
Wild hearts on a dark street
Racing fate and placing faith in love and clemency
Jenny, remember?
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3. |
Blue Moon
02:53
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You put your money in, the record spins, and Elvis comes to life
In a truck stop diner on the side of highway 95
Oh and the salty few on their barstools are giving us the eye
But honey, it's just us and the horizon tonight
The highway gleams with unbridled dreams and our stolen search for that which
We could never put our finger on but could always feel its absence
Oh and the homes we knew will forget us too and the wheels will continue to spin
But honey, tonight it's just us and the horizon
The habits that we wore lie in tatters on the floor
Of every crumbling building whose doorsteps we'll darken nevermore
Oh and you ask me if I'm scared, god damn, I’m scared of everything
But what keeps me up at night is settling
For a narrative that's been written a thousand sour times
So honey, let's riot in the horizon tonight
Hallelujah, nothing left to lose
Got nothing left to lose but you
My blue moon
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4. |
Borderland
03:11
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Dark avenues turn into open roads
Crowded tenements into well-kept homes
Some folks die wealthy and young with bitter hearts
Others stay healthy long enough to see joy wither and scar
I don't want any part of it
To be the victim, the assailant, or the advocate
So we're riding out to where we don't exist
Headlights cutting bright into the darkness
Oh, obscurity has found me in a motel suite
A thousand miles from the refinery
And polluted streets we grew to resent
Where we'd coexist with poison family and bitter friends
Chain link or picket, no one was admitted to the winning end
We were all wolves or lambs for the man behind the curtain
Arguing in circles for the prosecution or the defense
Lying on the hood of the car watching the sun go down
The devil in me knows one day we'll have to turn around
"Can you imagine," Jenny says to me
As the moon rises over the beach,
"Having our own place by the ocean?
I know it will never be,
But isn't it pretty to dream?"
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5. |
Arcade on the Pier
02:49
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Found an apartment on the outskirts of the waterfront
I know it wasn't the one we were dreaming of
In the basement of a home owned by an old woman
It's cold at night but when the wind is right you can hear the ocean
Jenny's taking classes at the two-year school
I found me a job and put my hands to use
The margin's thin, see, we ain't got much coming in
But it's hard to put a price on independence
Salt has worn the paint from that stolen Chevrolet
That we left by the pier behind a boarded up arcade
Sometimes I ride out just to see if it's still there
Our rusted shepherd in disrepair
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6. |
Roadside Graves
03:35
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I followed the American dream into a dark alley
Where outlaws with crowbars were waiting in the shadows for me
They beat me red white and blue
Left me disillusioned and destitute
The bathroom door is still broken
From the night I came home with
Salt in my blood and whiskey on my tongue
Pink slipped on the first of the month
You slammed the door, said you blamed me for
The mess that we were in
We sat on either side of a broken hinge
Just you and I and that ugly horizon
Broken promises litter the steps that once stretched on and on
I defaulted on us, glitter to dust, ‘til all the good we knew was gone
I never knew what I wanted
Except for you and the wind in my hair
Now those blue eyes are haunted
And ash is in the air
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7. |
Fireworks
03:37
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Dark clouds painted the western sky
As I poured over the classifieds
In the local diner
Where a muted TV on the countertop
Next to the coffeepot
Re-ran The Outsiders
Truer words were never spoken
Cherry, when you assured "Things are rough all over"
I tried to run from the salt-cracked streets
Where nothing but despondency
Ever seemed to thrive
Burned a path across these lonely states
And cursed my naiveté
On the other side
I was a ghost on the Fourth of July
When the fireworks shone in your tear-filled eyes
It’s hard to not drip with disdain after drowning in debt
God damn the blood in my veins, I ain’t no patriot
I saw burdens much heavier than mine on weaker shoulders
It’s hard not to take a dive sometimes when things are rough all over
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8. |
Full Bloom To Bedlam
03:05
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Joy and fear and resentment
Hang like stars in the apartment
The nights, once cold, are now torrid
But a salty breeze is rolling in
So I toss under the sheets beside
A full moon and my bitter bride
Sleepless with trepidation
'Cause the bough is close to breaking
And spring has come to Bedlam
Bluebirds stole each foolish breadcrumb
Spring has come, full bloom, to Bedlam
I used to watch her get ready
For morning classes every week
Now she's putting on a uniform
And everything else on the back burner
Suddenly each selfish whim
Comes racing back and barges in
And I curse myself for thinking
I could ever be a kid again
'Cause spring has come to Bedlam
The witches whispered "Soon we'll get them"
Spring has come, full bloom, to Bedlam
Bluebirds stole each foolish breadcrumb
Spring has come, full bloom, to Bedlam
The witches whispered "Soon we'll get them"
Spring has come, full bloom, to Bedlam
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9. |
Level Me
03:59
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Dawn's creeping in
And my side of the bed is still made
Shift the car into neutral
And back it out of the driveway
A fire so wild burns in the rear view
Ahead lies a steady commute
Level me right where I'm standing
I'm gonna drive straight back to you
The road is abandoned
And the morning is in bloom
The sun's coming up
And I'm racing the rust in my veins
Outpacing the stubborn and stern
But some devils remain
Saturday night calls like whiskey and fame
From the shadows of a lost highway
Daylight spills over the hillside
Where dew is still wet on the vine
Every constant I knew I constantly outgrew
Except for you and those stormy blue eyes
Except for you and those stormy blues
Level me right where I'm standing
I'm gonna drive straight back to you
The road is abandoned
And the morning is in bloom
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10. |
Sunday Morning
04:32
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A fading parade of bad ideas
Burns out madly and disappears
The anger that drove you and I here
Is a trail of smoke in the rear view mirror
Home used to be crumbling buildings
I dodged the debris but not the devil in me
Haunted the line between independent and free
Sunday morning left me an orphan
Of one ways and borders and false ideas of fortune
I don’t mind if you don’t mind
Taking the long way home tonight
Cut me down from the clouds
Pull me out of the ground
Over, I am over that shit
Sunday morning left me an orphan
Of one ways and borders and false ideas of fortune
White knuckles and torn blue jeans
Your hair an auburn storm in the passenger seat
I found my place in this sad country
Next to you and those stormy blues
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