Because Because Because Because BECAUSE

He was an all-around cowboy
Back in eighty-nine
From the top, it's been a long way down
Since the whiskey and the women
Started winnin' his time
They rode him high and hard to the ground

Despite all my rage, I am still just a rat in a cage.

the ants are my friends, they're blowing in the wind

To dance the Bamba
You need a little bit of grace
A little bit of grace for me, for you
Up and up
And up and up, and up I will go

On a hilltop, on a sky-rise
Like a firstborn child
And at full tilt, and in full flight
Defeat darkness, breakin' daylight

Where Ma Rainey and Beethoven once unwrapped their bedroll
Tuba players now, rehearse around the flagpole
And the National Bank at a profit sells road maps for the soul
To the old folks home and the college
I wish I could write you a melody so plain
That could hold you dear lady from going insane
That can ease you, cool you, and cease the pain
Of your useless and pointless knowledge

Who are these men of lust, greed and glory?
Rip off the masks and let's see
But that's not right, oh no, what's the story?
Look, there's you and there's me

Good morning, Mr. Blue, we've got our eyes on you
The evidence is clear, that you've been scheming
You'd like to steal away and while away the day
You'd like to spend an hour dreaming

What will it take, to whip you into line?
A broken heart? A broken head?
It can be arranged. It can be arranged

Step softly, Mr. Blue, we know what's best for you
We know where your precious dreams will take you
You've got a slot to fill, and fill that slot you will
You'll learn to love it, or we'll break you

What will it take, to whip you into line?
A broken heart? A broken head?
It can be arranged. It can be arranged

Be careful, Mr. Blue, this phase you're going through
Can lead you nowhere else but to disaster
Excuse us while we grin, you've worn our patience thin
It's time we showed you who's your master

What will it take, to whip you into line?
A broken heart? A broken head?
It can be arranged. It can be arranged

Don't worry, Mr. Blue, we'll take good care of you
Just think of it as sense and not surrender
But never think again, that you can think again
Or you'll get something you'll remember

What will it take, to whip you into line?
A broken heart? A broken head?
It can be arranged. It can be arranged

Tom Paxton  ~  Mr Blue

Our town, our town, do love a stampede
Stampede by my old jacket in the park
Someday I'll pick it up, look for the label and whisper:

I need somewhere that's safe to run
It can't just be with anyone
It's got to be with you

 oldviolin wrote:


Spot on.

The kingdom is ransacked, the jewels all taken back
And the chopper descends
They're hidden in the back, with a message on a half-baked tape
With the spool going round, saying I'm back here in this place

Socialism, hypnotism, patriotism, materialism
Fools making laws for the breaking of jaws
And the sound of the keys as they clink
But there's no time to think.

call me mellow yellow

(it was the lebanese hash, red if little stronger)

Don't forget your history
Know your destiny
In the abundance of water
The fool is thirsty

Go ahead, push your luck
Find out how much love the world can hold
Once upon a time I had control
And reined my soul in tight

Well the whole truth
Is like the story of a wave unfurled
But I held the evil of the world
So I stopped the tide
Froze it up from inside

And it felt like a winter machine
That you go through and then
You catch your breath and winter starts again
And everyone else is spring bound

And when I chose to live
There was no joy, it's just a line I crossed
It wasn't worth the pain my death would cost
So I was not lost or found

And if I was to sleep
I knew my family had more truth to tell
And so I traveled down a whispering well
To know myself through them

Growing up, my mom had a room full of books
And hid away in there
Her father raging down a spiral stair
Till he found someone
Most days his son

And sometimes I think
My father, too, was a refugee
I know they tried to keep their pain from me
They could not see what it was for

But now I'm sleeping fine
Sometimes the truth is like a second chance
I am the daughter of a great romance
And they are the children of the war

Well the sun rose with so many colors
It nearly broke my heart
And worked me over like a work of art
And I was a part of all that

So go ahead, push your luck
Say what it is you've got to say to me
We will push on into that mystery
And it'll push right back
And there are worse things than that

Cause for every price
And every penance that I could think of
It's better to have fallen in love
Than never to have fallen at all

Cause when you live in a world
Well it gets in to who you thought you'd be
And now I laugh at how the world changed me
I think life chose me after all

Dar Williams - After All

Long as I remember the rain been comin' down
Clouds of mystery pourin' confusion on the ground
Good men through the ages tryin' to find the sun
And I wonder, still I wonder, who'll stop the rain?

I pass the houses of the dead
They're calling me to join their group
But I stagger on instead
Dear God, sweet God
Protect me from the truth, hey
I'm dead but I don't know it
He's dead, he's dead
I'm dead but I don't know
He's dead, he's dead
I'm dead but I don't know it
He's dead, he's dead
Please don't tell me so
Let me, let me, let me go

In the fog and in the rain
Through the pleasures and the pain
On the step outside you stand
With your flowers in your hand, my Apple Scruffs