Lyrics

Every time I go out for a bottle of wine
Someone's bugging me 'bout something from 1989
Why does everybody wanna talk about the good old days?

Did you get lucky, did you get screwed?
Did you bite off a little more than you could chew?
Why does everybody wanna talk about the good old days?

What was so damn great about being young and dumb?
Wasting all those chances living stoned and numb
So you had a year in Paris and ate a snail or two
Did you finally figure out what Fitzgerald always knew?

Did you get married but forgot to get divorced?
Did you lay down all your money on the wrong horse?
Why does everybody wanna talk about the good old days?

What was so damn great about being young and free?
Wasting all those hours ignoring destiny
So you went through a couple million and got sued once or twice
Did you finally lose that hard-on and found a life in Christ?

I hear you broke your ankle, that must have been quite a shock
Yeah I see you got that old Gretsch guitar out of hock
Why does everybody wanna talk about the good old days?

Lyrics

I'm just a man with a cast iron soul
it's kinda dark and kinda cold

You're just a gal with a beautiful smile
it's kinda sweet and kinda wild

Sometimes love is like a sneak attack
tendons tear and bones go crack

I'm just a man with a cast iron soul
when I get all hot the embers glow

The embers glow...

Lyrics

Say what you will about love and pain
It ain't gonna help you anyhow
Do what you will, it's all the same
I think you relate to me somehow

I've been staring at the sun
For far too many years
I've come undone, it's all too clear
I'm the last of the only ones

Hedge your bets, take it slow
Someone's waiting in the wings
Turn it on and steal the show
It don't really mean a thing

All my ghosts are on the run
Throwing darts and naming names
I'm under the gun, but I feel no shame
I'm the last of the only ones

Some people say that life's a game
And getting by gets you through
The hand of fate will slap you down
And leave it's ugly mark on you

I've been staring at the sun
For far too many years
I've come undone, it's all too clear
I'm the last of the only ones

Lyrics

Sitting here bending notes
All the hipsters look like Warren Oates
Can't remember what I was on
But for a couple of bucks I'll play you a song

Oh me, Oh my
Love to bitch, don't want to die

Sitting here the world's a joke
Gonna go outside and have a smoke
Looking down at my old shoes
Can't seem to shake these new world blues

Oh me, Oh my
Love to bitch, don't want to die

Congee Village in Chinatown
The green tea helps the rice go down
Look at her what a heart attack
Cross-eyed stare like Karen Black

Oh me, Oh my
Love to bitch, don't want to die

All the kids are growing beards
Playing pong and feeling weird
All the world's out getting high
Can I have a piece of that there pie?

Oh me, Oh my
Love to bitch, don't want to die

Lyrics

We talk in riddles and ride the storm
We hide in darkness and try to stay warm
We calm our nerves so we don't feel a thing

We've got to raise the roof to make it right

We shut the gates and don't let anyone in
We shut it down before it has a chance to begin
Now that ain't right

We've got to raise the roof to make it right

Put your hand in mind, see if we can shake things up a bit, if we try real hard

We've got to raise the roof to make it right

Lyrics

So many years down on my luck I don't know
Wondering how much lower I could go
Sometimes it's hard to make sense of it all
Searching for an easy place where I could fall

So many years I was lost I don't know
So many miles and nothing left to show
Dangling my toes across the precipice of sin
If there is a heaven will they ever let me in?

Thank you for the good times
Thank you for the bad
Thank you for everything we never had
Can I stay here with you on Thanksgiving Day?

So many times on my own I don't know
So many gardens left for me to sow
Tossed the blame like seeds across a barren field
Scars upon my life just barely concealed

Thank you for the good times
Thank you for the bad
Thank you for everything we could've had
Can I stay here with you on Thanksgiving Day?

Tossed the blame like seeds across a barren field
Scars upon my life just barely concealed
Thank you for the good times
Thank you for the bad
Thank you for everything we could've had
The wonder of a sunrise the mystery of it all
The way the lovers kiss as the rain begins to fall
Shadows cast at dusk up against the kitchen wall
Can I stay here with you on Thanksgiving Day?

Lyrics

All the boys have disappeared from the avenue
And upstate the system's filled up with you know who
Yeah on 42nd Street you can't find a single peep
New York City's gone to sleep

Walking home from the East Village to Morningside
The sun's just coming up as I step inside
I'm still thinking about something that you said at last call
New York City's back is against the wall

I still like the taste of whiskey I still like getting high
I stand out in the laughing crowd but I ain't gonna hide
Yeah they talk behind your back when you try to stick out your neck
New York City's stacked the deck

I saw this old grandma pushing two kids right down the street
Over by Tomkins Square where them chess players use to sell the weed
Man them brats were shreiking so loud and whiter than Doris Day
That's New York City's future, what can you say?

Got nothing to say...

Lyrics

It's my nature to be cruel
No matter what I try to do
I can't help myself but to push you away
No matter how much I need you to stay

It's the feeling that I'm wrong
And the fact that I can't stop singing this song
But I'm not gonna mess you around
Searching for the things that can't be found

It's my nature to be cruel
And shoot too wide in this lover's duel
Yeah we both love to play these games
Broken umbrellas left out in the rain
Oh my nature lets me down

It's the way you stare at me
Like I'm making it up as if the blind can see
Yeah we both know that the truth is clear
We're so messed up but the end ain't near

It's my nature to be cruel
And shoot too wide in this lover's duel
Yeah we both love to play these games
Broken umbrellas left out in the rain
Oh my nature lets me down

It's my nature...

Lyrics

When darkness falls and the fear comes out
and your soul's at risk don't dare to shout

hold your mud... hold your mud

When your lover screams that you're a fool
and you start to tremble and drip that drool

hold your mud... hold your mud

Oh sweet Jesus what's the use? Of living right such abuse...

hold your mud... hold your mud

When you're out scrounging for your next meal
and a busker asks "well how does it feel?"

hold your mud... hold your mud... hold your mud... hold your mud

Lyrics

Oh baby, do you think that we could maybe
pull these covers back over our heads one more time
and hide away?

Oh baby, I know it sounds so crazy
but I'm so in love with you once again
you warm my toes

I hate the way this cold city makes you old before your time
We're trying so hard to get ahead but falling so far behind

Under here is a special place
we'll disappear without a trace
keeping it all at bay
thinking about better days
and laughing at the world

Oh baby, do you think that we could maybe
lock the door, turn off that phone, close our eyes
and hide away?

Oh baby, I know it sounds so crazy
but I'm so in love with you once again
you ease my mind

Oh baby...

Lyrics

Take a little hint from me
the truth ain't very hard to see
you're just swimming with the tide

Squeeze the dirt between your toes
turn your friends all into foes
make 'em guess just who you are

Shoo the demons from your head
smoke that spliff like Natty Dread
you're only human after all

C'mon dude I know it's cruel
Losing each and every duel
You wake up every morn
Wishing you were never born
No one here loves to play the fool

Find that nugget it'll keep you sane
just say yes to love and fame
tell the losers to go on home

Take a little hint from me
the world ain't nothing like you think
no one wants to feel your pain

C'mon down and join the show
Listen to that rooster crow
Poke your head outside
Forget about suicide
The slow burn is the way to go

We're all so tired of all these tears
broken bikes with missing gears
let's go riding in the rain

Take a little hint from me...

Lyrics

Bought my first guitar in 1969
Saw "Woodstock" on the screen the following year
Played in bands in junior high wrote a song or two
That's what brought me here

Never was a singer until 1982
Jim Beam whiskey helped me kill the fear
Made a lot of noise on stages all across the land
That's what brought me here

That's what brought me here, brought me here
Chasing silly rainbows, wiping away the tears
Brought me here, brought me here
Every road, that's what brought me here

Wrote "Apache Princess" on an old Yamaha
Something must have caught my sister's ear
"Dan you know you're not allowed to write your own songs"
Ain't it funny, that's what brought me here

Pulled a smash and grab to get a sweet guitar
but the cops got me with the gear
"I sentence you to LA boy to learn to strum and play"
Thank you judge, that's what brought me here

That's what brought me here, brought me here
Chasing silly rainbows, wiping away the tears
Brought me here, brought me here
Every road, that's what brought me here

Something called my name down Highway 95
Pulling us together far and near
to celebrate the beauty that we all keep inside
Yes indeed, that's what brought us here

That's what brought us here