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LYRICS
Song Titles: Hunger
Mexico I
Messiah
Light
Hunger
Queen of Distance
Mexico II
So What If I Saw Jesus
Sidestep the Bullet
Dictaphone
Christopher Says
Mexico III
Mexico I
Dreams, the infallible reality of our steps through the unconscious.
The Mexican cigars, in utero you drank wine. an now, only cervecas. The
burning Cuban tobacco sickly sweet against the ice blue water like melted
margaritas, grenadine and mouthwash. Floating topless, the sunburn scar
on your thigh. She reaches like the Clematis scaling the adobe walls,
its yellow flowers like floral constellation, he stretches across the
table and brushes my hand reaching for a beer.
Messiah
Did you reinvent the wheel
while I was driving west
Do you find the best things here
Are only second best.
I tried and tried
and still I stumbled to confess.
Now that he's gone
He's the chosen one
I keep my best shoes on
For when the Messiah comes.
He said believe me I am
Only here to help you
I was there in Roman times
Drunker than the thieves
He cried and cried that night
I tore my tear-soaked sleeves.
And now that he's gone
He's the chosen one
And I keep my best shoes on
For when the Messiah comes.
- break -
Inside everyone
Is something to see
Was it the candy apple sky
Or was it really me?
Did you reinvent the wheel
while I went out for coffee
Do you write your problems down
and sell them for money
Do you play in a rock-n-roll band
and think it's kind of funny
That now that he's gone
He's the chosen one
And I keep my best shoes on
For when the Messiah comes.
Light
Light, the echo of your scent
the last night that we spent
Alone, rising through the dust,
And everything you trust
Falls through
All my dreams of you.
Behind, the midnight dress I wore,
I love you to my core
Defy your eternal grace,
the smile upon your face
So blue
The destiny of you.
The night, the pardon in your glance
The thought of your romance
Alone, waiting for the call
Now there is no one at all
To see,
What you meant to me.
- BREAK -
I wish, for just one more day,
To explain the night away.
And ahh, it's only circumstance
the fickle heart of chance
that takes,
And takes until it breaks.
... the echo of your scent
the last night that we spent
Alone, rising through the dust,
And everything you trust
Falls through
All my dreams of you.
Hunger
- INTRO -
Climbing through the Bardo stages
Amongst the souls of sages
I believe you'll be coming home.
Your nightmares turn to reckless truths
Your ruthless love it so becomes you
Sunrise sunlight seeping through my mind.
CHORUS:
Safety in your hunger
Feeling through the dark
Safety in your hunger my
Safety in your hunger my pet shark.
Another day in paradise
Heaven's just the light that shows you vice
The dark sea coral castles in your heart.
The radio is filled with voices
That made mistakes and made their choices
I still believe that you'll be coming home.
CHORUS
break 2X
You follow me around
Like a bad reputation
Did the whole universe let you down.
You swallow justice through the sky
To ask why not the preacher lie
Down in daisies dancing at the moon.
break 1X
Another day in Paradise
Heaven's just the light that shows you vice
The dark sea coral castles in your heart.
The radio is filled with voices
that made mistakes and made their choices
I still believe that you'll be coming home.
- break - 3X
CHORUS
Red crystal clear rebellion
Behind the fountain of youth
I see you sleeping in my arms.
Queen of Distance
She never cared for days like this
Where the weather growled and hissed
grinding salt between her fingers
She still believed in happiness
And she stumbles through the wreckage
like a harlequin of bliss
Writes her name in every taxi
Longing for the things she missed
And steered by fortunes of her past lives
She sees road signs in the mist.
She's the queen of distance.
She spends hours in the bath
Reading the star charts of the stars
And he loves her like a shelter
Sees the headlights not the cars
And she stumbles through the wreckage…
And he wants to take her home
Just to prove that she is wrong
And from the castle of your mind
Stretch your arms into the wind
Until you feel your dusty future
Blowing fast across your skin.
She said she always thinks of him.
As she stumble through the wreckage
With her eyes pressed to the floor
Holding high court in her corset
Like a thousand years before
And steered by fortunes of her past lives
She shows him to the door.
She's the queen of distance.
Mexico II
Half the highway is made of dirt and the workers building the new road
scream into the car "Caliente, caliente" the Heat. Everywhere
the Beetle, like the cucarachas. One highwayman cut out a circle from
a piece of cardboard an placed it on his head to block the sun so now
he looked like a hobo angel of 42nd street dancing in the Southern dust
of America. The other America. Where there are no driving laws and the
military policia are 17 year old boys with machine guns holding court
on top of brown trucks wearing brown uniforms against their brown skin.
But the guns are black and the sky behind the swaying vehicle is azure,
is blue, and stretches like a lazy cat across every continent.
So what if I saw Jesus
So what if I saw Jesus
You might have seen him too
If you'd been through
What all I been through
So what if I did…
So what if I done some things
Maybe I regret
This world it might've kicked me down
But I'm not dead yet.
So what if I did…
So what if I love someone
Even though he done me bad
So what if I stay up nights feeling
Lonesome and sad?
So what if I did…
So what if I saw Jesus
Sitting on his throne
And said, "Hey man why don't
you lie down here cause I'm
Tired of sleeping alone?"
So what if I did…
I spend my days sleeping these days
Nothing turns me on
You're the green lantern till your
Chemicals subside
I remember Texas and when
You were still alive.
In a perfect world I see you
Side step the bullet
In a better universe you
Side step the bullet.
Lie down on the floor
I follow the ouiji to you.
Tell me everything you thought that
I'd find out from someone you knew.
A buffalo nickel pressed into my palm
Like a song like a psalm psalm
In a perfect world I get along
Chorus
You're the fortune teller's child
But you didn't think to write or call
When you thought to end it all
A broken record of what I never said
And stacks of what Rilke had to say
Piled on the bed
You the sheik me the slave
Me old age and you the grave
Chorus
Driving through Texas with the television on.
That was September and now you're gone.
Dictaphone (All you need is love)
Talking to the dictaphone
He said I am not alone
And I do appreciate the things
that make me feel at home
I do believe in God
But does God believe in me.
I have seen the Future
and it's mediocrity.
CHORUS:
If they had a war without a gun.
Would anybody come
You rally round the one
that makes you feel strong
And all you need is love
All you need is love
To give peace to everyone.
You overdose on your despair
And the perfume in your hair
they fill the streets with their crusaders
of things to eat and things to wear
You drive to work each day
You find people like to stare
At accidents and presidents
They find no future there.
CHORUS:
- BREAK -
The man on television said
Don't believe the things you've read
I raised a flag I raised an army
Just to keep your children fed
And you're living all alone
With the voices in your head
That teach you to be human
You can follow me instead.
CHORUS:
All you need is love . . .
Christopher Says
Christopher says
I won't be needing you
The light was nice and the food was fine.
But I remember the food was wine
And the light was dim.
Ah do you
Know when you're in love
I think you do.
Christopher says,
Watch the trucks go by.
They will clear your head
and take you far.
And I could love you
Like a violin
My fingers racing cross your skin.
Chorus
Christopher says,
I see in black and white
And you'd look fine in a box
I didn't know that your were blue
And what could I do.
Christopher says,
There was a girl I loved
An angel in my heart
She was a perfect dove
And I would have thrown
myself to sea.
If only she loved me.
Christopher says,
I won't be needing you
The sun is shining grey
And I think you've done
your best.
Now get up and get dressed.
Chorus
Mexico III
In town the dogs are everywhere and they look at you sleepily wandering
the streets, considering moving aside for the traffic. Tom and I sit in
the post office. Two chairs on either side of a glass coffee table with
brochures pressed beneath the bottom glass. Outside the street is a circus.
The police directing traffic to some crazy Mexican percussion only they
can hear. About 10 minutes go by and neither of us speak or move. Caliente.
The heat. Staring at one another through the tinted world of sunglass.
The minutes tick by no clock. Eventually the man arrives. I remember leaving
New York with its vine-like grip, thin tendrils reaching around your ankles,
indiscernible roots, like tiny hands pulling your thoughts into the urban
landscape. The inescapable euphoria of the streets. Everywhere, everyday
is carnival. The colors of peoples' hair rivals the colors of the rainbow,
like the one that lifted out of the Mexican Caribbean yesterday and spread
jam-like a bold stroke though an otherwise flawless blue. Only this spill
of dye and the sun herself weaving light through the lazy branches of
palm. Myself becoming a brown skinned creature, I prepare to return.
Credits
Produced by Brenda Kahn
Engineered and Mixed by Tim Bright
Recorded at 60 Cycle, Brooklyn, NY
All songs written by Brenda Kahn
©Rocket 99 Music Publishing
Guitar and Vocals Brenda Kahn
Bass Ernest Adzentoivich
Misc percussion and slide guitar Tim Bright
Mastered by Howie Weinberg at
Masterdisk Studios, New York, NY
Photography: Karen Pearson
This record would not have been possible without the love and support
of Thomas Droge.
We would also like to thank Ed "HI" Aquilino, Candace Corelli,
Juli Berg, Cecil Hooker, Frank Butler, Susan Eng, Nancy Wood, Tim Patalan,
Vinnie, Khalid, Ohni, Callie Hirsch, Ed and Arlene Kahn, Shelly, Harmon,
Nancy and Janet… and especially everyone listed in the credits for
all their priceless time and effort!
I would also like to thank my friend Jeff Buckley who showed me how pure
music could be, how to seek joy and embrace life, and to dedicate this
record to the memory of him.
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