1. |
It Is Not Enough
06:09
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Your thoughts like a bow and string
Where melody intertwines
The carefully constructed lines
Of the songs that you sing
I can sense all your love and rage
Your passion’s beyond a doubt
But how is that working out
As you look from the stage?
When you’re pouring your heart out for years
And the audience never appears?
It is not enough to hope for comfort
It is not enough to be sincere
It is not enough to wish for something
It is not enough to hope they’ll hear
I’ve seen how you guard the spark
But how can it ever last?
The words never seem to pass
The proscenium arch
If you want to persevere
Acknowledge you must dismiss
Your dueling antagonists
Ambition and fear
With that cold contradiction inside
You will always be unsatisfied
It is not enough to hope for comfort
It is not enough to be sincere
It is not enough to wish for something
It is not enough to hope they’ll hear
Now just as the curtain’s drawn
You’re burning like firewood
That each line is understood
And their moved by your songs
And then shower their praise down on your soul
Well, my friend, that’s beyond your control
It is not enough to hope for comfort
It is not enough to be sincere
It is not enough to wish for something
It is not enough to hope they’ll hear
It is not enough to count your sorrows
It is not enough to sing your tears
It is not enough to need them forever
It is not enough to hope they’ll hear
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2. |
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The pleasure of buying
The spreading of money
The enjoyment of all the things that paychecks can buy
Are making happy all the thousands of families
This is Total War, now.
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3. |
My Monochrome Life
05:42
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Drop with me down upon the suburb
Where I spent my youth
Notice here a line of shady trees
And the pool party, too
Where the paperboy drives a Suburban
Brick mailboxes line the drive
Where the children will play in the anthills
Just to prove that they’re still alive
Carports and calendar girls
A white Chevrolet that you wash when you’re feeling like going outside
Children running to hide
Sprinklers ticking the minutes away from their innocent lives
And the city it frightens you
So you live close enough to commute
And the weeds in your flowerbed scare you
The minorities, too
Ambitious but don’t make a difference
Be the first to be king of your block
Be enslaved to your corporate successes
And your wife’s biological clock
Carports and calendar girls
A white Chevrolet that you wash when you’re feeling like going outside
Children running to hide
Sprinklers ticking the minutes away from their innocent lives
Something sinister walks through the suburbs
Here I am as a child standing by
Here’s the sun beating down on the pavement
Here it’s catching a glint in my eye
See the adults ignore my seduction
See it all in the length of my stare
See a flame shoot across the horizon
See the horns hidden under his hair
Hear me wonder aloud, “Does he see me?”
See a meteor crash in a field
See the bargain of sin in an apple
See me using my hand as a shield
See me using my hand as a shield
See me using my hand…
Carports and calendar girls
A Lincoln Mark VIII with a vanity plate
Reading clearly “ITS MINE”
Going out for a drive.
See them giving it all in exchange for a monochrome life
My monochrome life
My monochrome life
See them giving it all in exchange
See them giving it all in exchange
See them giving it all for my monochrome life
My monochrome life
My monochrome life
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4. |
Mandy, Your Memory Lies
02:35
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Mandy, your love is true
There’s so much you’ve been through
And when your heart was given to you
It taught you what to do
Mandy, your love is real
It left you broken on a wheel
And when you gave up trying to heal
It taught you what you won’t reveal
But the awful truth you hardly realize:
All the fiction in what you fantasize
Mandy, with your water weary eyes
Though your heart is true, your memory lies
Though your heart is true, your memory lies…
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5. |
A Simple Thing
04:31
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I was a college boy from the setting sun
Never listened to anyone.
Oh no. No no no no.
You go to school, to the head of the class
It doesn’t matter after you pass
Oh no. No no no no.
And they sing, “Hallelay Hallelujah
Hallelay, What’s it to you?”
No.
No no no no.
There’s a simple thing, but it’s easy to miss
You can find it in your lover’s kiss
Oh no. No no no no no no no no
Now singalong now…
Ooo We Ooo Ooo Ooo Ooo
Ooo We Ooo Ooo Ooo Ooo Ooo Ooo
Ooo Ooo Ooo Ooo
Ooo We Ooo Ooo Ooo Ooo
Ooo We Ooo Ooo Ooo Ooo Ooo Ooo
Ooo Ooo Ooo Ooo
Then they set you up with a full time job
Live each day like you’re being robbed
Oh no. Oh no no no.
You want to find that clown who sang, “Forever Young”
‘Cause now you answer to everyone
Oh no. No no no no.
And they sing, “Hallelay Hallelujah
Hallelay, What’s it to you?”
No.
No no no no.
There’s a simple thing, but it’s easy to miss
You can find it in your baby’s kiss
Oh no. No no no no no no no no
But don’t lose yourself…
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6. |
Ambition and Fear
03:03
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Ambition!
I caught you again!
Ambition!
You too the reigns again!
How many times must you fail
Before the lesson’s learned?
Ambition!
My old sad friend… let’s go
What drives a man up a mountain?
Or frees a statue from the stone?
What makes a burned out poet try
To say something with the same old notes?
When there’s no one listening
And you’re getting old?
Ambition!
You still take hold… come on now, take my hand now…
Fear!
You killed me again!
Fear!
I’m staying home again
Afraid of rejection mostly
Afraid of correction, partly
Afraid that sincerity
Might not be good enough… cause it’s not…
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7. |
Middle Child Blues
04:32
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These are days of little things
Days drawn in chalk
If you’re going to hide your limp
You gotta change the way you walk
You pass through darkness to enter the world
Scratch around to find your worth
Then you lose your innocence
And sing about your birth
And you sing this way:
Sometimes I feel like a child
Sometimes I feel like a child
Sometimes I feel like a child
Who never had a home
Now there aren’t too many left
Just a wall of whispering
Voices in my head
Like some old fever dream
She’s calling from the plane
Flying over me today
I can’t find the words to say
So I tell her I will wave
Everything limps along till it dies
Everything limps along until death
I can barely stand up now
And it ain’t no way to live
No it ain’t no way
Sometimes I feel like a child
Sometimes I feel like a child
Sometimes I feel like a child
Who never had a home
There are words I want to say
I gotta say them in a whole new way
But I was born in ’78
And I taught myself to shave
They make you too grown-up to love
And too smart to let your troubles drown
So there’s not much to hold you up
When the words aren’t pouring out
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8. |
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If she’s the one who could
Save you from yourself
And if she’s the one who could
Magically restore your health
If you think to yourself
That you know that she’s the one
Well, I think you might have some complications
If she’s the one who could
Somehow make you see
And if she’s the one who could
Reconnect you to your dreams
If you think to yourself
That you know that she’s the one
Well, I think you might have some complications
Yes sir…
And if she’s the one could
Release you from your past
And if she’s the one who says,
“All you have to do is ask..”
If you think you’d give it all away
‘Cause you know that she’s the one
Well, I think you might have some complications
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9. |
Black It Out
03:22
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Your memory is long
But your time is short
You’re the only one who knows
So what’re you crying for?
They can turn you out
Twist you around
Until you feel you’re nothing at all
Then they do their worst and forget you
That’s how you fall
That’s how you fall…
So I say
Black it out
Black it out, now
Black it out
Black it out, now
Water turns to wine
And then to vinegar
You wait around so long
That’s there’s only one way to learn
You gotta suck it down
Head hit the ground
Until you remember nothing at all
Then the fog inside is lifted
And you don’t feel small
No not at all
So
Black it out
Black it out now
Black it out
Black it out now
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10. |
Goodnight, Universe
05:53
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She want to be a scientist
Now she’s a parking lot attendant
Down by the bank
You want to be an astronaut?
Is that the best you’ve got?
A damned parking lot?
Goodnight, universe
Goodnight, universe
Goodnight
I never owned a telescope
But I can understand the feeling
The Ecstatic Dream
If you’re going to fight to claim the stars
Or write a song on your guitar
You’ll bear the scars
Goodnight, universe
Goodnight, universe
Goodnight
If they know the words, they’ll sing along
And if they don’t they’ll call you wrong
And every punch just makes them strong
Until they stop your song
Can’t spin a fantasy for you
But I can hold you close and whisper
“Face the truth”
For every consummated dream
Marks the death of seventeen
And stars go unseen
Goodnight, universe
Goodnight, universe
Goodnight
There’s no shame in it
There’s no shame in it
There’s no shame in it
There’s no shame in it
Goodnight
Goodnight
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11. |
A Song Out of Season
07:18
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We had dreams
Worn out things
They came to the best of us
And burned with our wings
We had lives
Untroubled minds
And all we aspired to
Saw none of it coming true
Still we know
When darkness grows
Those dreams we could not fulfill
They bring us together still
So we all sang a song out of season
A song long removed from the Top 40 charts
We all sang a song out of season
A song that inhabits our innermost hearts
We sang a song out of season
We had souls
Virginal
Our passions were justified
So those were our goals
We had songs
Kept us strong
And each little lyric sheet
Was closer than family
So we know
When darkness grows
The slightest of melodies
Can work like a remedy
So we all sang a song out of season
A song long removed from the Top 40 charts
We all sang a song out of season
A song that inhabits our innermost hearts
We sang a song out of season
So we know
When darkness grows
And life’s looking monochrome
We don’t have to be alone
So we all sang a song out of season
A song long removed from the Top 40 charts
We all sang a song out of season
A song that inhabits our innermost hearts
We sang a song out of season
And there’s nothing I’ve forgotten…
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Kristopher Wright Austin, Texas
Kris is too tired to write yet another biography in the third-person in an attempt to trick you guys into thinking he has a publicist or something. Just listen to the songs or don't. I don't care anymore.
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