1. |
The Greater Picture
04:23
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I’ve been watching too much of the evening news for my own good and I’ve been reading too much of the fine print than I should
The space between my ears gets a little denser each day
As I’ve been taking in everything everybody has to say
The greater picture doesn’t offer me that much
They’ve been tearing down buildings and putting the same ones back up But you can’t build anew just using the ground
You’ve got to use what you got
You’ve got to use what’s around you
You can change the light bulbs, the fixtures, and all the lamps
But the new light alone doesn’t mean anything has really advanced
These walls tell more than textbooks could ever prove
These windows see farther than documents ever do
The greater picture doesn’t offer me that much
They’ve been tearing down buildings and putting the same ones back up But you can’t build anew just using the ground
You’ve got to use what you got
You’ve got to use what’s around you
I got a structure of support beams to tell me where to stand
I got cinderblocks of decades to tell me who I am
I know history owes me nothing but I owe something to its truths
To put this little body carrying around this soul to good use
The greater picture doesn’t offer me that much
They’ve been tearing down buildings and putting the same ones back up But you can’t build anew just using the ground
You’ve got to use what you got
You’ve got to use what’s around you
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2. |
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I just want to kiss you but this time could be the last
So I purse my lips and miss you won’t you pour me a new glass?
I know this old one ain’t quite empty but I ain’t had that much
He says “you got to learn to say when you don’t say it enough”
So I roll you and I smoke you, let you stream out of my mouth
I can still smell you on me even when I come back down
I got someone back home that I ain’t been doing right
So how come I am still just the girl on the side
So I call you up just to ask how you been
I tell you about this new love I’m breaking in
I know I’m wrong but it’s been so long since I’ve been in town
But I still carry your picture around
My mother sends me phone cards I call her once a week
The weather is always better there every time we speak
I show all my friends your photo and they say I did just fine
I call you just to tell you it’s raining outside
I’ve been talking in my sleep again to make up for the day
There ain’t nobody ‘round here that wants to hear what I have to say Besides I’d rather kiss you and you know I think I might
If you want me back, I would drive home tonight
I would drive home tonight
So you call me up just to ask where I’ve been
I lie to you about this new love I’m breaking in
Because in a few more days I’ll be on my way back in to town
But I still carry your picture around
In just one drink you will matter more
But I start to forget you after three or maybe four
I’ve been living on granola bars and coffee and beer
I still can’t tell you what i’m doing here
But I just want to kiss you and this time could be the last
So I purse my lips and miss you
Won’t you pour me a new glass?
I want to make this bottle last
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3. |
Been So Lost
03:34
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I been so lost I’ve been so lost
I can’t find my way around
I locked myself out of my car
And put my feet back on the ground
It’s been so long, it's been so long
Since I’ve been this far down
I stretched myself out way too thin
I left head stuck up in the clouds
I ain’t got much time for you
I ain’t got no time for myself
So who’d you think be coming out of this cocoon
Something better or just something else?
I ain’t no butterfly, I ain't no butterfly
Just a little brown moth
That keeps coming ‘round
Trying get next to your light
I am so lonely but I’m so alone
That I ain’t got nobody to tell
So how come the only thing I want
Is just a moment to myself
Well you can ride in the passenger side
While I take the driver’s seat
I won’t make you carry nothing at all
Just keep me company
I been so lost I’ve been so lost
I can’t find my way around
The more I look the more I find
There ain’t nothing left to be found
I ain’t no butterfly, I ain't no butterfly
Just a little brown moth
That keeps coming ‘round
Trying get next to your light
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4. |
Finished, Finé, Done
02:59
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I know i don’t belong here but where else can I go
When every door i knock on seems to tell me “no”
I got thrown a curveball that went right across the plate
But when i’m up to bat, I just swing away
I’ve got a couple choices left meaning none
I’ve got a few lives to live meaning one
And then i’ll be finished, finé, done
Been talking to myself so long now I can’t shut me up
I’m the worse listener but I know it’s all i’ve got
I’d rather sing than talk any day of the week
Because I make more sense when I sing than when I speak
I’ve got a couple choices left meaning none
I’ve got a few lives to live meaning one
And then i’ll be finished, finé, done
The days just shed away like feathers
I'm bare-skinned before you know it
So I bite my tongue and I hold my breath
And try to make the most of this
Well I know I can’t complain but I can’t help myself
If they want the best of me then they’ll get the worst as well
I’ve got a couple choices left meaning none
I’ve got a few lives to live meaning one
And then i’ll be finished, finé, done
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5. |
Letter to Your Senator
05:12
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They all want a piece of you then a little more
They all think they’re telling you something you haven’t heard before
You wait for the wind to blow something better your direction
You look out your window and you don’t see nothing
Inherit yourself from somebody else
That way you got nothing to prove
Leave your thinking up to some other head
That way you got nothing to lose
You won’t let your conscience lead your politics
For fear the right thing will get in the way
So you leave it up to the generation right after you
To make up for all of your half-hearted mistakes
Inherit yourself from somebody else
That way you got nothing to prove
Leave your thinking up to some other head
That way you got nothing to lose
What’s the use in pretending
That this is the way it has to be
Like some sad song that won’t stop ending
Or just beginning all over and over again
After the math you are left with one big fraction
What’s the action that you plan to take
You can’t get to the yolk the white don’t want to budge
All you got are eggshells in your cake
Inherit yourself from somebody else
That way you got nothing to prove
Leave your thinking up to some other head
That way you got nothing to lose
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6. |
Long Time Coming
03:17
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It’s a long time I’ve been coming
It’s a long time I still ain’t come
But if I’m gonna get to the promised land
I’ll be walking all life long
I ain’t got time to travel
Every single road
But for every piece of gravel
It leads me closer to my home
Because the place i now call home
Don’t feel like one no more
Every time I return to it
It don’t feel like it did the time before
It’s a long time I been coming
A long time I been coming
And baby I still ain’t come
I lost all my friends and lovers
A long long time ago
And every time I leave
I lose everything I know
Maybe I don’t know much
But I got so much to prove
Maybe i can’t sit still
Because i got too much to do
Because the place i now call home
Don’t feel like one no more
Every time I return to it
It don’t feel like it did the time before
It’s a long time I been coming
A long time I been coming
And baby I still ain’t come
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7. |
All Over Now
03:33
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If it’s all over now I think she is missing out
On the better part of you
Did you think that you could just turn yourself around
by avoiding that other part of you?
Do you still say my name by mistake
Or am I a habit you have yet to break?
A name on your list of things to forget
All those resolutions you haven’t gotten to yet
But you can’t seem to forget
All your dirty dishes piled up in my sink
You leave me with nothing but all this time to think
About what I must have done what should I do
The least you could hand me is some kind of clue
You were just waiting for someone to set you free
If anything held you back it wasn’t me
All I can say is whatever makes you happy
You won’t find in somebody else
So when you finally get to cleaning up this fine mess you made
Maybe you should start cleaning up yourself
Because you ain’t been looking too well
If it’s all over now i think you are missing out
On the best part of yourself
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8. |
Used to Be
04:22
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I could think of better ways to spend my time
Than to memorize your face every time your name starts to slip my mind
I used to know the right lines i couldn’t tell you where it all went
I kissed a lot of faces but yours still seems to make the most sense to me
I used to be worth talking to
Lately I ain’t what I used to be
It used to be i could captivate you
But now I ain’t got nothing on me
Even on my emptiest stomach
I won you over with every love letter I sent
Now all you want to do is red ink all my grammar
What a waste of my thirty-seven cents
I used to be worth talking to
These days I am not so sure
It used to be I could captivate you
But I ain’t myself anymore
And after 19 years you think I would start to notice
All this shit keeps hitting closer to home
For all those things my father’s father never got to tell me
I guess i’ll just figure out on my own
I used to be worth talking to
These days I'd rather not speak
It used to be I could fascinate you
But I ain't got nothing on me
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9. |
Heart Like a Fist
04:56
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All these bumper stickers screaming
“War is not the answer” it’s not the answer
But I don’t know which question it is
They say your heart is as big as your fist
So there is this tendency to overuse your head
That imbalance alone could further your desire
To use human nature as an excuse
But I ain’t one for the easy way out
I’d rather put myself to use
So why not put yourself to good use?
I don’t need no economic theory
To tell me everybody is out for themselves
Still there is this little girl idealist in me
That keeps hoping there is something else
And you could prove me wrong so easily
With your textbook statistic prophecy
But just because that’s the way things really are
Don’t mean that’s the way they have to be
So let’s make them the way they should be
I ain’t nowhere close to the person that I'd like to be
Because I just want to be like the books that I read
Like the songs that I sing, where everything I need
Fits in a single suitcase in the back of my car
Where I’ve seen so much without going so far
So you can’t sit there and tell me there’s nothing here for you
In a world where there is so much to see
Because baby, i have been looking around
And it’s all beautiful to me
All these politicians are screaming “war is the answer”
“It’s the answer to every question there is”
I say “hey, I don’t mean to but-in on you
But you know you’re heart is just as big as your fist”
So don’t you humor me with your quick fire solution
Media illusion you did all you could do
Because I am not one for the easy way out
I’d rather put myself to good use
So let’s put ourselves to good use
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10. |
Right, Right Now
03:39
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You can twist your neck as far as you want
Just to watch your back and keep walking into walls
Kicking at the plaster, it would take you faster
Just to turn your nose around and find what’s cooking down the hall
You can find what’s cooking down the hall
Good intentions are just that
And thinking everything will just fall into your lap
Or a mystical, miracle will land upon your doorstep
All that time that you spend waiting you ain’t ever gonna get back
I want to make it right oh, I want to make it all right
Oh, I want to make it all right, right now
So surround yourself in things you want a
What you need goes missing with the writings on the wall
That you have been erasing and I've been working at retracing
All those painted over words direction arrows
All I want is to make it all right, right now
I want to make it all right, right now
All your pictures of me keep turning out so blurry
I ain’t sitting still but I ain’t in no hurry
And everybody wants to be understood and loved
You can place me under both of the above
So turn your head to watch your back
Your shoulders ain’t the only thing you’re throwing out of whack
You can only see so far with the corner of your eye
And you ain’t getting nowhere and you don’t know why
Don’t you try to make it right, right now?
Don't you want to make it right, right now?
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11. |
Route 68
04:17
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I bet you don’t think much of me right now
I bet you’re not thinking about me much
I know i can’t really blame you somehow
Blaming me seems more fun
I’m falling out of favor with myself
Trying to find out where I need to be
It’s the farthest i’ve been yet the closest i’ve come to being
Where I want to be
I’m losing concept of linear time
Running in circles around the same old line
I’ve tallied my miles, I’ve got too many to bear
I checked the map and I’m not getting anywhere
I’m falling out of favor with myself
Trying to settle this debate
I don’t want to just throw up my hands
I know fate always brings it too late
So I raise my fist like it does any good
Because this place owes me something at least I think it should
The equation is missing something that the world don’t want to give me
Or else I’m missing something that I don’t want to see
I’m falling out of favor with myself
Trying to rid this ambivalence in me
But time keeps moving before I want to go
Before I know where I need to be
Before I know where I want to be
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12. |
Something to Say
03:05
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I am just a girl looking for acceptance
In an unjust world that won't even swipe my card
I am just a woman seeking salvation
In a broken nation that won't let you be who you are
I got time and I'll wait in line
They should know I got something to say
I ain't complaining I am just saying
I won't be complacent with things how they are
Why should i be waiting for something to happen
When I got my two eyes, my ears, my lips, my arms
I use my time to wait in line
They should know we got something to say
The town where I come from they well understand
That you don't get nothing without asking first
When they call on me raising my hand
I will use my friends' and my neighbors' words
So ladies grab your mothers your fathers and you brothers
Because they won't know you're speaking if you can't be heard
I have been waiting way past my number
I think it's high time we take our turn
So I push my way to the front of the line
They should know we got something to say
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