These Days Mean Nothing to Me
These days mean nothing to me
Names and faces pass through me
My heart beats in a cage
These days mean nothing to me
Time erases all that I see
Oh, but you come looking for a lamb
Like the ocean takes from tired land
Always and everywhere seeking your face
Always and everywhere seeking my escape
And you come looking for a lamb
But instead you find this angry man
These days mean nothing to me
My Heart is Pinned to Your Sleeve
You wonder why they stare
It’s the gruesome thing you wear
It’s the part of me you took
And now it’s part of your look
It’s an awful thing that you and I have done
I pinned it like a flower, not knowing you would run
But it’s too late to change things now
My heart, my heart is pinned to your sleeve
Whatever you wish or believe
All the boys you’re meeting, they can hear it beating
My heart, my heart is pinned to your sleeve
It’s a thing I can never retrieve
I can still see the seams where I stitched up my dreams
Now all my passion is so much fashion
You will wear it out tonight
It will shine its secret light
All that heartache, is that all it makes?
A tattered ribbon on your arm
A badge of broken beauty
Take it, please
My heart is pinned to your sleeve
(Do the) Memory Lapse
It’s a way of life I could teach you
Do dead futures crowd in on your mind uninvited?
Lose some sight, go selectively blind to old pictures
Let them go, leave it behind
Oh, because she’s far ahead and you’re forgotten
Memory lapse and be okay
Hey, hey, hey, hey
Oh, because I see you caught, I see you helpless
Memory lapse and be okay
Oh future, future shining bright
Future clear this head tonight
Light up the places I select
Darken the places I reject
My head is in your hands
Don’t hold the torch so long you burn your fingers off
Clutching photos and old songs
I’ve seen you walking half-awake
Through the ruins of what’s gone
Like a vampire
Leave it behind
Oh, because she’s far ahead and you’re forgotten
Memory lapse and be okay
Hey, hey, hey, hey
Oh, because I see you caught, I see you helpless
Memory lapse and be okay
Oh future, future shining bright
Future clear this head tonight
And I don’t remember
Killer of Dragons
Bring your bow and arrow
And fortified wine
Take a taxi to the caves tonight
It’s a cloudless evening
Good for hunting I think
If you want to
Will you do it, will you come out tonight?
Will you do it, will you come out tonight?
Will you do it, girl?
Say you’ll meet me, I’ll wait here
My killer of dragons
Ba, ba, ba, ba, ba
Will you do it, will you come out tonight?
Will you do it, girl?
My song is true
It’s a weapon for you
Poisoned with old love
And your aim is still sharp
You can find the mark
In that shadow above
So come on won’t you
Say you’ll meet me, I’ll wait here
My killer of dragons
Book of the Dead
Read to me
Tell me a story
If you say the words just right
I could change for you tonight
I believe it
Read to me
Make it easy
All these twists in the plot
Have got my head tied up in knots
Please release me
Secrets I need
Secrets you can read
From my book of the dead
Page after page
You decipher every code and illustration
You read hieroglyphics
And you know every trick
To reach the other side
So come on, read to me
And I will listen
Every word that you proclaim
Is a link in the chain
That could pull me through
Secrets I need
Secrets you can read
From my book of the dead
Strange and sweet incantations
To guide me through this wasteland
You’ve got the words
You’ve got the words
You’ve got the words to make me well
(Read them out to me)
Angels and Devils
Their hands in your head
As you lie in your bed
Wondering why you feel sad
And then equally glad at the same time
Who holds the maps,
Who leads the way
Who lays the traps,
When the choices are made?
I don’t know how to pray
Don’t ask about that
Sometimes I look in your eyes
And see something
Something that wears your disguise
It’s you that I want
It’s you that I need
Please set yourself free, my dear
No angel, no devil
Deserves what you’ve got more than I
No heaven for me
No hell and no in between
Oh, they’ve got hooks in my soul
But my body is whole
And waits just for you
Clare
The future’s no place for me
Watch it sink like a boat in the sea
Tie my past to the mast
It can all go down
And why should we ever go
Climb back to that place down below?
Just sit still, I will build
Us a time machine, yeah.
I get high
High on the edge of the world with you
Say it’s chemicals in my brain
Say it’s atoms at work once again
Either way, I will stay
I’m a martyr that way
I don’t care if the cause is real
Don’t explain away how we feel
Oh, just leave it, please believe it
I know you can too.
I get high
High on the edge of the world with you
Seagull Blues
Oh, grey friend
Please stay a while
Rest from the salty skies
Tell me tales
Of things you’ve seen
Far from your shells and bones
Have you seen this girl I knew?
If you see her won’t you wish her well?
Does she think of me
When wind makes the wires moan?
It’s a good thing
It’s a good, good thing
It’s a good thing that you came by
Oh, grey friend
I like it here
I have no wish to be found
Let’s watch the rocks where the ocean boils
Where the person I once was drowned
Oh, and I’m still wild
I’m still wild for her
If you see her won’t you let her know?
I hope to see you once again upon some hidden isle
Goodbye
Open Up the Gates
Open up the gates
I’m hoping it’s not too late
I’m here, I’m here
Open up the gates
Does good come to those who wait?
I’m here, I’m still here
Open up the gates
I’m hoping it’s not too late
I’m here, I’m here
Atlantis and Avalon
Shining behind the dawn
I’m still here
What has become of me and you?
I was so sure we’d make it through
I know you saw the waymark too
And it’s still there, just out of view
Oisin, My Bastard Brother
Out hunting on the beach at dawn
Your arrow struck a magic fawn
Wonder and surprise
When it changed before your eyes
Oh, my!
Words transformed your skin and bones
As she described her secret throne
This daughter of the sea
Oh, but you went willingly
Yes, it’s true
Her shipwreck eyes, her deep-sea gaze
Stirred up desire, churned up the waves
White horses, foaming steeds
Brought you down through the deep
Oisin, my bastard brother
Stay awhile, let’s have another
Years go by, your mother cries,
“Gone, he’s gone, my precious son!”
Your father thins into the air
Your friends keep watch but then they despair
In hallowed halls in darkest ocean
You lived perfection in slow motion
Centuries went by
Till one day you woke and cried,
“It’s been too long!”
She let you go, she brought you home
To discover you were now alone
In a place you could not recognize
‘Cause everyone had died
What a shame
The missing years came in to claim
Your stretched out soul, your human frame
You wandered old and mad
Then you withered on the sand
Oisin, my bastard brother
It’s not too late, let’s have another
Your story pains me as I dream
Of people I have known
Of places I have been
Please join me for a toast, a drink
We’re brothers you and I,
I think
The Case Against Love
So much more than love to live for
So much more
You know it, you know it
Make it true
Will you throw your bones upon the pyre,
Or are you tired of tears and funeral smoke?
So much more than love to live for
You know it, make it true
When you are old and live alone
With several cats in a claustrophobic flat,
Will you still dream of silver beams
Of moonlight dripping off your lover’s back?
Will old blue aching skies still scorch your dreams?
Ah, but we both know that for that spell
You’d set up tent in outer hell
And when the goddess comes to call
She’ll knock you off your horse like Paul
To fill her jeweled goblet with your tears
When our star is old and swollen red
When life is dead
Will love have left a trace?
Will the frozen earth call to the sky
And long to die in the arms of outer space?
So much more…
Cartoon Breakup
I know when the good is gone
I hear people say move on
‘Cause our words are like weapons drawn
Is it swords or pistols at dawn?
Well, come on then, let’s divide the map
Does heaven really cut in half?
Then I’ll settle in the eastern lands
Near some mountain in my memory
But I hear the old song you sing
And I hear the tune that plays on your strings
Oh, and it’s echoing, answering
Echoing, answering
Echoing, answering
Echoing, answering
I have seen the wolf that sleeps in your dreams
You’ve dropped stones at the bed of my stream
We have sat on the banks now it seems
For a week or a century
We have died and come back so very often
Let’s just leave the latch off the coffin,
Share a joke, raise a glass at the gallows
With the hangman, our old friend
‘Cause I hear the old song you sing
And I hear the tune that plays on your strings
Oh, and it’s echoing, answering
Echoing, answering
Echoing, answering
Echoing, answering
Invisible Choirs
A kiss, a touch, a bite, a lick
A call, a cry, a song, a trick
All those voices and violins
Do me wrong, do my poor head in
How many vanished lives
Converge in you and me?
All those lives meet here
Reaching for eternity
Let’s say that this is ours
Let’s say we serve no powers
They sing the songs, they start the trance
They beat the drums that make us dance
Let’s say that we are free
Not slaves to secret energies
I see you, do you see me?
Tonight in bed they let us be
Let us
Behind, before us
An endless chorus
A roar that pushes us on
A hum that deafens
A hum of the heavens in me and you
I don’t want to dance to the song
‘Cause the melody goes on and on
Binds me up in the tune and then
Sets me free and binds me again
A kiss, a touch
A kiss, a touch…
Space Hobo
See that distant light?
That was my home
A thousand years ago
Maybe more, maybe more
I don’t know
Believe me when I say
That place was nice
Before the age of ice
That killed off all the life
Well, I guess the sun had died
I don’t know
There’s somewhere else
There’s somewhere I must go
Sad to see it hanging
Dead in space
Still turning on its track
But they say you should not look back
Will you show me where to look
In all this black?
There’s somewhere else
There’s somewhere I must go
I need a lift
Don’t wanna drift
Anymore, anymore
‘Cause there’s nothing to go back to