Sweet Wednesday

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LYRICS

• Days Grow Long
• Southern Drawl
• Hey My My
• Ophelia
• Desert Flowers on Route 66
• Castle in the Sun
• Million Dollar Smile
• Curious Eyes
• One Thing
• Kimchi
• My Life is not My Own
• I Still Love You
• Open Up the Blind
• Jimmy the Spoon's Grand Finale

• Mid-Morning Rain
• (Lisa, I'm Sorry I Brought You to) New York City
• Going Over Brooklyn
• Pacific Shores
• How Can I Know?
• Wherever You Go
• Winter Hill
• McDonald's
• February Snow
• Lost without a Clue
• Crazy That It Rained Again
• San Francisco
• Grandma
• Hold Me Close

DAYS GROW LONG
Lyrics and Music by D. Falk ©2011 Sprocket Deer Music, BMI

So my love, well, I must leave
But I will be back soon
We shall hold each other again
With the return of three new moons

When the days grow long
And the night gets cold
Do you think about me?
Could it save your soul?

Darling here I am
You know you’ve got to be brave
There’s a place for us
Somewhere beyond the grave

See our ship’s hit by a storm
Seen waves about a mile high
It seems that we’ve been swallowed by the sea
Never again to see the sky

When the days grow long
And the night gets cold
Do you think about me?
Could it save your soul?

Darling here I am
You know you’ve got to be brave
There’s a place for us
Somewhere beyond the grave

Been searching for so long
Been dying to see you
I’m running in circles
Been running to meet you

See your ghost fly through the air
‘Neath the winter stars so bright
When the moon is full and takes an orange glow
That’s where our souls ignite

When the days grow long...

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SOUTHERN DRAWL
Music and Lyrics by L. Housman ©2011 Sprocket Deer Music, BMI

I remember my hair was at sixes and sevens
You told me, “How lovely you are…
There’s a strange kind of glow that you get to your face from
the nights that you slept in the car.”

And you said, “There’s a place in the town
You can hold down a job
You can shake off your load…”

But the price was too heavy
And I too unsteady
And so I got back on the road

And I carry a Southern Drawl
Sometimes, ‘cause it makes me think of you
Makes me think of you

Heart shaped tomatoes
Forget-me-not flowers
And lace, in your garden they grow

And I just throw down a few
Seeds in each town
In the ground by the side of the road

And I come back, they’re trampled
Or starving for light
And I tend them
The best that I can

But the one in your yard that we planted together
It reaches a green, leafy hand

And I carry a Southern Drawl
Sometimes, ‘cause it makes me think of you
Makes me think of you

And we haven’t spoken for years
Still your voice, it comes out of my mouth
From time to time
And folks always ask
From what part I come in the South

Oh, the last time I saw you
My coat was unraveling
And so you held onto the string

And it stretched across miles
And mountains and oceans
‘Til it all fell apart at the seams

And when it was gone, well I had just my arms
And my knees to keep me from the cold

But the last words we’ve spoken
Were angry, so stubborn
You won’t call again on the phone

So I carry a Southern Drawl
Sometimes, ‘cause it makes me think of you
Makes me think of you

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HEY MY MY
Music and Lyrics by D. Falk ©2011 Sprocket Deer Music, BMI

Come to the place with that look on your face
And the feeling that it all went wrong
I wanted to tell you
I decided to put it in song

I wanted to know you
I wanted to show you
I want you to know who I am
We’re caught between a million miles of what we can’t understand

Hey my my
What are you trying to hide
I’m sitting here talking to myself again going
Hey my my

Break through the mystery
Forget our history
I don’t even know where to start
I’m walking the plank and the daggers of my broken heart

I don’t know what to feel
I don’t know what is real
I don’t even know my own name
I’ve tripped on the bricks and the mortar
And the fires of Shame

Hey my my
What are you trying to hide
I’m sitting here talking to myself again going
Hey my my

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OPHELIA
Music and Lyrics by D. Falk ©2011 Sprocket Deer Music, BMI

We met during the Revolutionary War
Near Old Man Smith’s grocery store
Conditions were bad, morale kind of scary
Half our men dead from dysentery

I ran the French canons from Lake Champlain
That we slid across the Hudson in the ice and the rain
When we won Boston, headed down to York
A town with a temple and thirty churches

And there were girls like I’d seen in the pictures
Living on down in the Red Light District
I was lost, just looking for a martyr
When I fell in love with the madam’s daughter

The greatest love that I ever had was
Ophelia, goddess of the moonlight

I asked the madam for her daughter’s hand in marriage
She said, “There’s nothing more that I’d disparage.
Got no money, think your cause is just
I lose business when you tar and feather the Loyalists.”

Ophelia was seventeen, I was a half year older
Bonniest lily of York I told her
We both agreed to run away that night
Get married beneath the forest in the pale moonlight

The greatest love that I ever had was
Ophelia, goddess of the moonlight

We met south of the city ‘neath the midnight moon
Made love under the stars, heard the sound of the loons
Ground started shaking, lightning came in a blast
That could take out seven men in its path

And we were separated by the night and the storm
And I went into a cave where it was dry and warm
The next day Ophelia was nowhere to be seen
She came with the night and was gone like a dream

The greatest love that I ever had was
Ophelia, goddess of the moonlight

So I was alone, the punishment was murder
Worse off than the Loyalists as a deserter
I was caught by the crown, wouldn’t praise it out of reason
So they put me in the brig, gonna hang me for treason

The moon was hidden and the night was cold
Ophelia came to me some have told
We flew home some how got away
Rode British horses through the night
Crossed the Hudson by daybreak

So if you see two birds black as midnight
Running as if escaping from the pale moonlight
Fleeing from the British and American hands
Some say that was me and sweet Ophelia

The greatest love that I ever had was
Ophelia, goddess of the moonlight

It’s overcast today on Route 66
My stomach growls over the engine's roar
Drove all night from Dallas to get away
From my boyfriend who was just in jail
Spent my last two hundred to pay for his bail

So I stopped at Phillips 66 when my car would go no more
Listen to my story before you walk out that door

“Hey mister, I left my wallet at the last station
And I got no money for food
But I got friends in California
And you know we’re cool
So if you could spare just a little change
Well, it’ll all add up
A dollar every hour puts some fuel in the tank
And some food in the glove.”

So I stopped at Phillips 66 when my car would go no more
Listen to my story before you walk out that door

I was just a hundred miles from Orange County
When the clerk said he was on to my scam
He said, “You must leave this place
Save your sob stories, I don’t give a damn.”

So I pulled over at the next rest stop
To pass the night
As the last tank of gas fell through my engine
Like sand through an hourglass

Did you pass me on Route 66?
I was walking by the road
Picking desert flowers in the February cold

'Cuz I’m always on Route 66
A shadow passing in the night
I’m still out there looking for that violet light

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CASTLE IN THE SUN
Music and Lyrics by L. Housman and D. Falk ©2011 Sprocket Deer Music, BMI

Well I wish there was a window in this big brick wall
And I try to eat sugar and it tastes like salt
Wilted flowers were the only kind of ones you sent
Is that any kind of way you ought to treat a friend?

'Cause you
Didn’t do me like you could have done
Could have given me a castle in the sun
Instead you threw me down inside this hole
Why you chew me out I’ll never know

Well the days go by and they’re all the same
Each one stumbling along so lame
You stole my heart when I was just sixteen
How could anyone treat anybody so mean?

'Cause you
Didn’t do me like you could have done
Could have given me a castle in the sun
Instead you threw me down inside this hole
Why you chew me out I’ll never know

And if a castle is too much to ask
I would be happy with just a minute of your time
Because the past is such a tangled thread
I need you to help me to unwind
Unwind

Well I’ve got my books and I’ve got my poems
So I won’t be traveling along alone
Feel like the shadow of a shadow in the early dawn
Tell me, baby, did I hold on for too long

'Cause you
Didn’t do me like you could have done...

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MILLION DOLLAR SMILE
Music and Lyrics by D. Falk ©2011 Sprocket Deer Music, BMI

Well your daddy says I’ve been lying to you
But you know that that ain’t true
And I love the pretty way that you smile at me
And all the crazy things you do

Tap my feet and I’m feeling fine
I’m gonna love you until the end of time
Or at least until the break of day

Well they say this ship is out to sea
You put out your four sails
As I drift onto that barroom stool
Gonna drown them sorrows with ale

Well, clap my hands and I’m feeling fine
I’m gonna love you until the end of time
Or at least until the break of day

Cuz baby it’s all right, it’s okay
Things will get better in a little while
It’s all right, it’s okay
Just show me that million dollar smile

The rain’s been tearin’ down
The tide’s been rollin’ low
And at times we’ve been stranded in the Gulf of Mexico
Oh Baby, it’s all right, it’s okay
Thing’s are growing brighter each and every day

Well the waters crash upon thirsty shores
And the clouds at times they weep
And voices come walking past that chamber door
And they’ll knock on you in your sleep
And the clown steps down from his lofty stand
He was looking kind of glad
And he cries out for everyone to see and hear
“You can’t lose what you’ve never had.”

Well, snap my fingers and I’m feeling fine
I’m gonna love you until the end of time
Or at least until the break of day

CURIOUS EYES
Music and Lyrics by D. Falk ©2011 Sprocket Deer Music, BMI

I didn’t say nothing, all I could do was stare
At her emerald eyes and her long brown hair
She caught my glance from across the room
I smiled back at her and then I howled at the moon

Before I knew it she was sailing my way
Her hair blew through the wind and her dress a bouquet
Of lilac flowers and the violets in bloom
And of curious eyes that could light up a room

When we sailed home we both had to get jobs to get by
And we spent all out money, spent it all getting high
The Writing didn’t work out, she never made it on stage
What was once a ripe orchard became a torn page

Things go right, Lord, things go wrong
Sometimes all we’re left with is a song
Time moves fast, time goes by so slow
Tell me, Lord, where did the time go?

Now I hear she dates some rich man lives on 42nd Street
And she wears her fancy clothes
Ruby slippers on her feet
I guess together couldn’t make ends meet
It’s kind of sad thinking about it when it’s love and defeat

There’s a place in my heart I won’t let nothing come in
I try to let nothing out but it’s from here that I sing
Of lilac flowers and the violets in bloom
And of curious eyes that could light up a room

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ONE THING
Music and Lyrics by D. Falk ©2011 Sprocket Deer Music, BMI

You are the shining light of the morning
You are the calm and constant beauty of the night
You’ve got the song of the birds and the magic of words
That sparkle before the light

For you I’d cross a thousand oceans
Brave ten thousand deserts and the London rain
You are my love, you are my shelter
Your smile melts away
All sadness and pain

As the days go by like rain
And the night goes by all the same
If there’s one thing that I know
It’s that our love will never go
Away

I know you’ll always be there for me
Just like I’ll always be there for you
You are my love you are my best friend
And we will carry each other through

As the days go by like rain
And the night goes by all the same
If there’s one thing that I know
It’s that our love will never go
Away

And if I counted the ways I loved you
I’d be standing here for a thousand years
And if I counted all the love and laughter that you’ve given me
It would be more than a beach has sand or an ocean has tears

As the days go by like rain...

Tell me baby, tell me true
You’ve got the fire inside of you
And the one thing that I know
It’s all right, allright

You got the sweetness, you’ve got the flair
And you’ve got roses in your hair
And the one thing that I know
It’s all right, allright

So tell me baby, tell me true
Oh sweet darling, I love you
And the one thing that I know
It’s all right, allright

And the days go by like rain

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KIMCHI
Music and Lyrics by L. Housman and D. Falk ©2011 Sprocket Deer Music, BMI

All these little puzzles I was trying to work out
And instead they got smashed on the floor
Victim of carelessness driving too fast
Took my heart off to a far distant shore

And I take Kimchi out in the fields by the school
But he won't run with anyone else besides you
And the sky came down bluer than ever before
And it painted my shoes and painted the floor
Of our house here

I remember mornings of lavender
Rise to the strain of your soft violin
And at the crescendo I'd start to sing too
And Kimchi would howl and join in

And I take Kimchi out in the fields by the school
But he won't run with anyone else besides you
And the sky came down bluer than ever before
And it painted my shoes and painted the floor
Of our house here

And your parents call everyday
Think I've hidden you here
"Are you just in a closet somewhere?"
Your voice it lives only
In my ear

Well it took a long time to let you in
It's gonna take a long time to let go
Stuck in traffic your jokes will find me
and follow wherever I go

And I take Kimchi out in the fields by the school...

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MY LIFE IS NOT MY OWN
Music and Lyrics by D. Falk ©2011 Sprocket Deer Music, BMI

Been beat down, gone underground
And my life it is not my own
I ran away into the fray
Still my life it is not my own

You can get on your knees and pray
You can wait until the judgment day
You may find yourself in need of attention
And the one thing you hold true
Is that it all comes down to you
But still my life it is not my own

Been born again, and I’ve lost a friend
And I can't find my way home
Got a wife somewhere and children there
Still my life it is not my own

Oh mercy mercy me, I pray onto the stars and sea
That someday soon I may walk beside them
But until that blessed day, all that I can do is pray
Because my life it is not my own

You can get lost inside this city
Where it always looks like rain
There ain’t nothing you can do
There ain’t nothing you can say
Because you just can’t stop the rain

Ain’t seen the sky since ‘45
And my life it is not my own
Heard Jesus saves, and I’ve seen early graves
And stil my life it is not my own

You may find yourself confused and then quietly amused
You may find yourself with nothing left to trust n
With this tremor in my brain, and this hurt inside my veins
Because my life it is not my own

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I STILL LOVE YOU
Music and Lyrics by D. Falk ©2011 Sprocket Deer Music, BMI

What do you do in the middle of the day
To fight these blues that won’t go away?
I still love you the best that I can

What do you do in the middle of the night
As we toss and turn from the battles that we just can’t fight?
I still love you the best that I can

And if the moon were to rise too soon
And then fall into the sea
And if the stars as bright as they are
Disappeared and we just couldn’t see ‘em
I’d laugh for you, if you want me to

What do you do in the early morn
To put the pieces back together of these dreams so torn?
I still love you the best that I can

Oh oh oh oh. Oh oh oh oh oh. Oh oh. Oh.

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OPEN UP THE BLIND
Music and Lyrics by L. Housman ©2011 Sprocket Deer Music, BMI

Open up the blind
No don't be afraid
You've been hiding behind it so many days
That I think you forgot that sunshine is outside

You don't have to meet no one's eye
You can gaze at treetops when you walk by
If they ask your name, you can just call out
Something wild and strange

And the future you have written
In the margins can come true
It will rise to you unbidden
Like the steam that rises over all the gloom

Cause I've seen you with head in your hands
There lamenting mistakes that we've made
But here the bird comes, pecks at your window
So open it, don't be afraid...yeah...

Down by the rushes
Where willows wind
We would sit for hours
We would lose the time
Then you'd leap up and clear the stream in just one bound

The whole world was that stream for you
You leaped over all the sad things we'd do
Did you lose somewhere that pair you had of
Rocket powered shoes?

And the future you have written
In the margins can come true
It will rise to you unbidden
Like the steam that rises over all the gloom

Cause I've seen you with head in your hands
There lamenting mistakes that we've made
But here the bird comes, pecks at your window
So open it, don't be afraid...yeah...

It's so hard to go back outside
When you feel you're the victim of everyone's eyes
And there's so much about this past year
That you just can't explain

You won't have to
I'll walk with you
I'll deflect all their stares with my cheap mirrored jewels
And if you should stumble
Just take it as a chance to find marbles and treasures on the ground...yeah...

Now the puzzle has scattered wide
And some pieces of it
Have tried to hide
But they're out there, under rocks and under stars

I'll go searching, I've wanted to
Since the very first time that I met you
And the corners of all of your notes they were crowded
With drawings and tall tales

And the future you have written
In the margins can come true
It will rise to you unbidden
Like the steam that rises over all the gloom

So no more sit with head in your hands
There lamenting mistakes that we've made
Open the blind and open your heart
There's no reason now to be afraid ...yeah...

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JIMMY THE SPOON'S GRAND FINALE
Music and Lyrics by D. Falk ©2011 Sprocket Deer Music, BMI

Caught in an August swelter
Annie came to town looking for shelter
What she didn’t know was that she was the storm

She said, “If I could truly see you and you could see me
But I can’t be you, and you can’t be me
Maybe then we would both know that we’re not alone.”

Kathleen lives in the city
Spent half her days did not know how beautiful she was
She kept the story of her life in her cell phone

One day I did not notice
She said, “If we only get one chance I hope I don’t blow this
Ah somebody please tell me that I’m not alone.”

Jimmy the Spoon's grand finale
Is passing out drunk in some dark alley
But he didn’t mind until he couldn’t wake up
To make it for his next show

They had the Snakeman on rhythm
He said, “Man, I wish I could have played with him.”
Instead he sat in the alley reciting a poem

“Some say it comes down to nothing
You can spend your whole life looking for something
Still you don’t know what to do
Or what to say even when you’re in Rome

“When our savior calls us
And if love and good luck follows us
Maybe then we will all know that we’re not alone.”

Mid-Morning Rain
Lyrics and Music by Lisa Housman ©2006 Sprocket Deer Music, BMI

This is my day for waiting on the phone
I've been waiting here so long
That the song on the radio's repeating, yeah and
This is my day to get a flat tire
And get stuck out on the highway all alone
Just ten miles shy of meeting you, and

Hold out my hands to the midmorning rain
There's a woman crying in a town somewhere to the east
Don't ask me how I can hear it through all this thunder
Sometimes something hits your wavelength and it finds its way all the way to my ears

I don't know what I did wrong
Seems I always wreck the song
Trying to squeeze too many words into too little space
If I had a year or two
To escape from all of these crazy cars and trains
I might understand your love again, and

Hold out my hands to the midmorning rain
How it's falling like the pieces of a puzzle made of glass
And they dissolve into a picture in my hands
Reflections of the sky mingle with my life line again

(Bridge)
And I don't know if this is
The place I broke down last year
I'd like to think I got a little farther this time
But I always seem to break down
I try to find a rusted souvenir
An ornate turning gear
I give it to you

This is my day to find your note
In the pocket of my coat
That you wrote a year ago
I never saw it
Telling me I should not fret and that everything it happens for the best
As long as you can see the sky, and

Hold out your hands to the midmorning rain
Cup a bit of everything in life there in your hands
People on the highway rushing by so fast
Would wish that they were broken down
If they knew the pleasure you get from the rain

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(Lisa, I'm Sorry I Brought You to) New York City
Music and Lyrics by D. Falk and L. Housman ©2006 Sprocket Deer Music, BMI

Well, we’re heading over the Brooklyn Bridge now
Our engine sputters and comes to a halt
And the cars around us clench their wheels in anger
Against the sparkling asphalt

You say, “You should have filled the tank up back in Jersey!”
I say, “I would have but the gas gage doesn’t work!”
Now the cars are backed up for miles and miles
As we get a ticket from an NYPD parking clerk

Chorus:
Lisa, I'm sorry I brought you to New York City
I'm sorry you're having a bad time
The buildings strech so high
And the skyline's so pretty
Maybe you'd have a better time of it
If you could just stop complaining

Well, our friends we’re staying with they just got married
After three days with us they’re threatening divorce
They offered us free tickets to see the Sox play the Yankees
But you told them, “We don’t like sports!”

I was scared half to death at the Life Café
There was a Pit Bull in the vestibule by the door
He was chewing on the remains of a bacon double cheeseburger
And he looked like he wanted something more

Chorus

We headed south to a restaurant by the river
Our waitress danced with candles on her head
She tripped on your bag
And the highlights of your hair turned a brilliant fiery red

You sprinted all the way out to the front door
Were you crying out in anger or in pain?
You stepped outside
And your hair was extinguished
By the sweet summer rain

Lisa, I'm sorry I brought you to New York City
I'm sorry you're having a bad time
The buildings strech so high
And the skyline's so pretty
Maybe you'd have a better time of it
If it would just stop raining

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Going Over Brooklyn
Music and Lyrics by Lisa Housman ©2006 Sprocket Deer Music, BMI

I think I know you from another subway car
Maybe something from December of '94
The way you tap your foot and look out in the distance
And now I'm tapping with the force of your persistence
And we tap
And my hair still looks like crap
From this morning when I didn't have time to brush it

Chorus:
Ooh, going over Brooklyn
Ooh, riding in the air...

I think that other time you looked me in the eye
I think eventually we even got to, "Hi."
But now you look out like you don't even remember
Come on, what's three years compared to one great moment in time?
You know it really was sublime, take my word for it

Chorus

I see your sketchbook lying open on your lap
You've drawn a woman and she's caught inside a trap
And she looks at me like I'm supposed to help her
Maybe rescue her or ask you to undraw her
And I can't, and as the subway starts to slant, I stumble forward

Some lady yells at me I bumped into her thigh
Somebody steadies me, somebody passes by
And all these plastic seats are slowing turning empty
I'm way past my stop but maybe you'll remember
Looking up, you'll say, "Let's go out for a cup and have a few kids."

Chorus

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Pacific Shores
Music and Lyrics by Dave Falk ©2006 Sprocket Deer Music, BMI

Drivin’ down on the highway
Feel the wind on my neck
Came in this town on a one night stand
And I ain’t ever coming back

You couldn’t see things my way
You don’t like my point of view
But maybe baby I was to blame
Tryin’ to find someone else inside you

Chorus:
Still hear the Pacific shores call from far away
Saying maybe she will come back
Back to me someday

Her daddy, he was a sailor
Followed the Northern Star
Ended up in jail for fifteen years
For what started out as a fight in a downtown bar

And she tends to laugh when she’s nervous
And she cries when she’s tired
The way she always finds her way is something
That I have always admired

Chorus

(Bridge)
Night time, falling down the dunes of Half Moon Bay
Our footprints glowed in the phosphorescent sand
And I left my guitar too close to the shore
And when the tide came in, it played a lonesome tune
So, I snatched it up and played you a song I hadn’t even written yet
And if I remember correctly it went a little something like this

Drivin’ down on Highway 1, I feel your hand on my lap
The air is warm, your eyes are closed
And you’re taking an afternoon nap
And I wrote you a letter, sayin’, “Hey I’m doing fine.”
You wrote me back, said you never took me to be
The phone talking letter writing kind.

Chorus

How can I know
What is it you're thinking
If you won't tell me yourself?
I try to read signs
You leave with your fingers
Still the dust collects upon my shelf

The car backfired and sounded like a whole parade of gunshots
Your speckled dog was cowering, and the butterflies flew off
And I had no more hurry, I just gave my breath to chance then
Left a dusty city phantom for a green I had supposed

Out on the road
Past all the truckstops
I couldn't drive anymore
You said there's a sound
something strange in the engine
We stopped for you to try to find a cure

I took your dog and ran
Out towards the mountains
We found a sandy place there
Where a bluebird had flown past
And when I came on back
You'd got the engine running
You took that tattered feather
And laid it on the dash

Chorus:
Fractured words and scattered moments
We felt each other move at night
You touched my hair just like a comet
Sparkling shivers of your light

Tousle-haired child
From over the mountains
From a planet far, far away
Stay with me long
I believe in the silence
You will find a way to say,

"I love you like a night
Sky that comes a-searching
Over hills and canyons
For a poet to inspire
And through the dark green night
I'll find the place that's hurting
And with the sand inside me
To heal it I will try"

Chorus

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Wherever You Go
Music and Lyrics by D. Falk and L. Housman ©2006 Sprocket Deer Music, BMI

I was conquered by your kiss, overthrown by your beauty, Babe,
When Jed came in for the hostile takeover
Yeah, he came in so valiantly on his Trojan Horse
I think it was around the same time that we used our last pack
Now I sit here amidst the rubble of empty beer cans and pizza boxes
But I’m rebuilding Rome in a day

I think about you in my sleep
My head grows heavy and my knees get we-e-eak

Chorus:
Wherever you go, I will be with you
A-A-A-Always
Wherever you go, I will be with you
In your memory

You and Jed finally left that shed
You’ve got a one room apartment with weeds in the lawn
Yeah, we used to talk about having babies together
A girl named Jasmine, a boy named Leo or Zack
Yeah, Jasmine was gonna be an Astrophysicist
And Leo, a writer of songs
Yeah, we’d look on so proud on graduation day, babe,
When Jasmine gave the Valedictorian Address

Your ghost comes back at three past noon
You might have left this place too so-o-oon

Chorus

I’m pied piper to the rats in my practice space
Where I practice all I do and say
And I relive my past, and I realize my dreams
And it’s the place; you all know the place,
Where we all get a little better or a little worse each day

There’s Sleepy- he keeps me up all night with his snoring
And Grumpy cheers me up when I get real angry
Sister Heartache looks at me with her halo smile
She says, “It’s only a matter of time.”
And Grumpy says, “Hey man, get over it,
She’s a real pain in the ass and you can do much better!”
Sister Heartache cries, “You may never find a love as good as this one,
Man, there’s not even a reason to try.”

I think about you all the time
I try to come up with words that rhy-y-yme

Chorus

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Winter Hill
Music and Lyrics by Dave Falk ©2006 Sprocket Deer Music, BMI

So they say,
It was the coldest winter here in fifteen years
Winds so cold they even froze your tears
Ain't it strange, my love?

Then it took
Pouring like a fire through the burning rain
Stepping off the platform of that midnight train
That shook our ice castle walls

Picture still sits on the window sill
Where we lay frozen in a kiss
Here on Winter Hill

There you were
I was frozen by my worries, sitting at the bar
When you broke the ice and picked at your guitar
And drank from my frozen cup

That's when it changed
I was melting like a snowman when the air gets warm
Ain't it funny how our passion takes a different form
Say, ain't it strange my love?

Boarded your ship and you took the till
And we sailed home that night to our place on
Winter Hill

Well, spring time you may leave your lover
And summer time you are alone
Autumn's when the leaves are falling
And on Winter Hill we'll fall in love again . . . .

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McDonald's
Music and Lyrics by Lisa Housman ©2006 Sprocket Deer Music, BMI

He ordered up a Happy Meal; He sat down with his kids
I cleaned the salad trolley; I put out more plastic lids
He didn't speak to me, although I tried to say "Hello,"
His daughter had an army doll called "Cinderella Joe"

She was fighting with the ketchup, she was climbing up the fries
She went flying off the table into shark-infested skies
He yelled, "Molly, get on back here,"
When she brought the doll to me
She said, "I'll fight your carrot sticks with ghosts of Mr. T"

And I said, "That's a nice dolly, though she's missing half an ear,"
He stood and shouted, "Molly, get your body over here!"
She said, "I'm only talking with this lady on the phone,"
He said, "There's people you should talk to, people you should leave alone."

And I gave her a coin from Cuba, but he dropped it on the floor
He said, “You can’t take things from strangers as they headed for the door

Chorus:
And I guess he thought that because I work at McDonald's I have no soul
That a body can serve a Big Mac when it's on remote control
That serving fries would rob me of the dreams I have at night
That I'm not here, that I don't feel, that I don't reach for light

The preppy crowd comes in at lunch and orders up a storm
College boys and college-bound in sweaters that look warm
They talk about the girls they like and how they'd like to score
But when a girl walks in they don't discuss it anymore
And it's like this plastic shield up, like I'm wearing a disguise
They say "I'd like to screw someone." They don't avoid my eyes

Chorus

I got this job four years ago; I go to school at night
I came here from Havana with my mom to start a life
My grand-dad was a writer; I have his book at home
For pages it's a story, then it turns into a poem
He wrote it all in Spanish, crossed out every other word
It's a kid out in the countryside, a crooked flying bird
He wrote it on brown paper in a kind of jagged scrawl
And though no one else could read it, still he had to save it all
I read it every night now, as I try to go to sleep
My fingers smudge the pages; How can paper cut so deep?

Well did you see me at McDonald's, trying to look into your soul?
Staring off to outer space like you were on remote control?
It's not like it's so bad if we keep missing in the night
Shedding mounds of fast food wrappers as we're reaching for the light
I'll clean up your fast food wrappers, just keep reaching for the light

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February Snow
Music and Lyrics by Dave Falk ©2006 Sprocket Deer Music, BMI

Yesterday I felt so bad I thought that I could die
So, I went on home and watched on my TV
Where I saw a man who told me of the story of my life
And all the things that happened in between

Chorus:
And I don’t know what you’re thinking
We’ve come so far, but we’ve still got far to go
We skip school and go drinking
Lose ourselves in the February snow
Get lost in the February snow

I’d like to try to take the time to tell you all that’s on my mind
But I’m scared that it might frighten you away
I awoke to find the frozen dew upon my windowpane
As the snowflakes fell so perfectly today

Chorus

(Bridge)
It takes a lot some times
Just try not to get upset
Good things they will come to you
Like a child in the dark
We go stumbling through the night
With no one there to see us through

All the snow that’s falling through my window in my room
Can’t take the pain of bygone days away
How we clutched at railings made of ice and then we slipped and fell
And I remember what you whispered on the way

Is that still what you’re thinking?
There are dreams that are too beautiful to know
Did we kill them all with our drinking?
Or did we lose them all in the February snow?
In the February snow

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LOST WITHOUT A CLUE
Music and Lyrics by D. Falk and L. Housman ©2006 Sprocket Deer Music, BMI

I was lost without a clue on the day that I met you
And my feet were growing bright green blisters
Then I turned into a field and instantly was healed
When I saw you walking with your sister

Chorus:
I’m so happy that I found you
And I hope that you will never go away
I’m so happy when I’m around you
I want to be with you each and every day

I was lost without a clue on the day that I met you
I was tripping over my own shoelaces
Then you taught me how to tie them into butterflies
And we went soaring over hills and churches

Chorus

And still sometimes this fog and thunder fills my mind, and
I am stumbling, I cannot find which way to go
Through the darkness that comes all around me like a shroud, you’re
Leading me towards the light

I was lost without a clue on the day that I met you
I was hanging out in subway stations
I was wrapped up in a book, didn’t know quite where to look
When you came and brought me inspiration

Chorus

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A long time ago in the January snow
Where we trudged for hours with no sense of the time
We were younger then, and we were not yet friends
We were just two lost angels bumming rides by the side of the road

Then you came to me like a whirlwind
And the burning asphalt started to bend
I saw Orion had no place to end
So I named it after you instead

I turned twenty four, when you broke into my prison door
And two worlds collided, and life as I once knew it ends

You taught the stars to me
Beneath the shady Sycamore tree
I was ugly then, but you chose me
And showed me the lights of fluorescent beauty

Lost in the rain, our course was like the launching of a space plane
And you showed me the stars in your head that shined like daffodil streets
Maybe we’re plagued in the heart, and letters and words tear us apart
There’s happiness these days, but it still beats the heck out of me

If gravity can pull us apart
And ghosts can travel through our art
The waters weep and the oceans part
By your spotlight silvery moon

You don’t seem to care what people think or say anywhere
You can look a thousand miles in a heart and stare
While the world thinks that we’re buffoons

It don’t seem to go. Don’t seem to know what I used to know
Just searching for the thoughts that I lost on the tip of my mind

And it’s crazy that it rained again
A rabbit squirrel said you were my friend
Is the beginning just a space to the end
Like the line of the shore and the sea?

Don’t get lost in the game
Even when the flame comes
Or if peace could sound like a victory drum
Or if the next driver saw my hitchhiking thumb

Cuz we’re the lost children of the universe
And Life ain’t free, but it still means a lot to me
And maybe someday we’ll learn what it’s all about

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I knew it was time to hit the road
When I finally started learning my way around
Can’t get too confident
It throws me off

And your voice was always loud and clear
You said that I would love it here
“You can really feel the difference;
Nothing but good will in California.”

And I thought that it might be a city full of
People like you
People who’d stop and ask you how your day was
People with your kind of way of filling
Up the whole room
I don’t think I could be in a
bad bad mood around you
Oh no..

So I got off the plane
I couldn’t believe that I was here
And we went speeding down that endless highway

You said, “Those things out there are palm trees
And they’re swaying on their stalks
I like the way they move
It makes me happy

And do you feel happy now,
You’ve come to San Francisco?
Send a hundred postcards out to everyone you know
You can stay at my house
Take a bus out to the mission
And practice your guitar all day
As if it was your home.”

You thanked your friend for the ride
We reached your house
We went inside
You said, “It looks like a crack house
But it’s affordable housing
And as I stepped into the hall
I saw the bright blue writing on the wall
It said, “come and find your vision..
Come and find your hope
In California.”

And the window was open and I felt the fog come and
Enter my dreams
But all my sleep was stolen by awakenings

So I went outside in the half-grey light and
Wandered the streets
I thought that I could make it there in bare feet

And I saw the sleeping town and lights of San Francisco
A woman laying out upon her roof to catch the moon

And I felt your presence in the air
My God, I’ve missed you
Like a lighthouse always, Julie,
Shining out across the fog

I came home after a while
With battered feet and something wild
That I found on the corner of fourteenth and Elsie
You put it in a vase
By a statue of Jessie Helms you’d made
Out of pink triangles and a broken coat hanger

And the paintings that hung on your wall were of
Crimson and
Purple and gold

You said, “They have their secrets but they can’t be told.”

And skipping you took my hand and said,
“Let’s dance on the beach
You know the sand is finer and the air is sweet
In California.”

And I felt the sand between my toes in San Francisco
And I touched the ocean and the ocean tasted me

And I sat and played guitar for folks at Frieda’s Pizza
On a warm night in the mission

And they said, “You must come back soon.”
And I came back every day

But summer turns to fall, and I heard Massachusetts call
And like a leaf in Autumn I had to find the ground
I went to say goodbye to all my friends both low and high
And I planted a flower by a chinkapin tree

And in the midst of the rust and the cigarette butts
I planted it deep
And it was leaning lightly out
Towards the breeze
And I planted it high on the top of a hill
In the afternoon light
And then I had to go back down and catch my flight
Home

And I feel you in my blood and mind like San Francisco
And I feel your earthquakes from the other side of town
And if you should come back East
to Boston, well, I’ll kiss you

I do remember you now most especially in the fall

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Grandma
Music and Lyrics by Dave Falk ©2006 Sprocket Deer Music, BMI

When I was five, my parents went away on a one week vacation.
I went to the door, and who did I see? The best Grandma in the nation!

“Hey Jon, Jon! Grandma’s here! Do you know what that means?
We get to stay up late and watch movies, and eat lots of ice cream and go to Brigham’s!”

Chorus:
Life is good, yeah, life is sweet
Grandma's here so let's have a treat
Come sit down and watch a movie
Eat some cake and feeling groovy

Grandma let us stay up late that night to watch
James Bond in For Your Eyes Only
And Grandma seemed to have her eyes on Roger Moore
She said, “That Roger Moore is quite handsome.”

“Jon, Jon! Do you think Grandma and Roger Moore could get married?”
“Wow! That would be so cool! Grandma married to James Bond!”
“I get to sit next to Grandma.”
“No, I do! It’s my turn!”
“If Grandma sits in the middle, then we both get to sit next to her.”

Chorus

Grandma told me she came from Foggia
Which is across the Adriatic Sea . . .
I said, “Grandma, let’s go back there and visit someday,”
But she said she can’t because she’s an alien . . .

“Jon, Jon! Grandma said she’s an alien . . . Like ET . . .
I wanna go ride in her spaceship!”

Grandma drives her blue Buick Regal spaceship really slow
She drives 10 miles per hour in a 40 mile per hour zone
She points to a sign and says the speed limit is 16
“Grandma, I think that means route 16.”

Chorus

Someday when I’m older, and they find a cure for cooties
Maybe, I’ll have kids and grand kids of my own
And we can go feed the ducks, and walk through the autumn leaves,
Eat lots of ice cream, and watch movies!

Chorus

“Jon! Mom and Dad are coming home today, and you know what that means!
Grandma’s going to have to go back to her house,
And no more staying up late and watching movies and eating lots of ice cream.”

“Grandma, Jon and I were thinking . . .
Even though mom and dad are coming home today,
Maybe you could stick around the house for a bit?”

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This hot day suddenly turned so cold
In its gusts I am enveloped
In my pocket I have these photographs
That have never been developed

I picked the last ripe fruit yesterday
My boss said, "Well, you'll be on your way."
But I didn't save enough to
Get back to California yet

And when the cold wind tugs my shoulder
Tries to pull me where it hides
I see you standing over all the summer
Flowers that have died

Chorus:
Take me in, hold me close
Winter's coming like a ghost
That I can see on the horizon
Stealing the green from all the trees
And myself, I feel me stripped
Bare and empty like the wind
And you can clothe me in nothing but your love
If you want to try it out

San Diego winter's just a cooler shade of summer
You have to go
Up to the mountains for a flake of snow
Failing life and failing love
I left there fleeing pictures of
A world I was too familiar with to know

And I met you by a maple tree
Out by the railroad tracks
And I cherish all your kisses
And your hands upon my back

Chorus

And I am ragged, I am just a dusty traveler
Can you polish off this rough and quarried
stone that is my heart?
I will do the same for you
We'll make it through this winter
Even if it is the coldest one on these newspapers' charts

I'll take you in, hold you close
I know the thing you fear the most
Is getting stranded, being covered by the ever growing snow
I'll keep you warm 'til the spring
When the world wakes up again

I'll take you in, leaves are falling
I'll hold you close, snow is coming
I'll take you in
And you can clothe me in nothing but your love

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