| HOMEspun | Discography | Lyrics | Chords/Tabs | Media | Grant's Comments | Links | Update | E-mail |
Grant Lee
Buffalo
Storm Hymnal - Gems From The Vault Of Grant Lee Buffalo 2001
Disk II: Double Takes
Take a rush laugh
Was the world this fuzzy last year
Take a walk run past
The old machines that sleep in pastures
It's the well that draws you back
When the gate you open latches
Overgrown with leaves and phone lines
Now I can't remember who I was before
Changed my name changed my face
We're coming down
Take a rush relax
Does the rock believe you're happy
Take a drive to crash
Into the bike you once pedaled madly
Quite content among the mint
Now I can't remember who I was before
Changed our coats cleared our throats to say
We're coming down
2. THE SHINING HOUR (ALTERNATE ACOUSTIC VERSION)
Are we still on
the phone
With the lady Anna Clarke and her trumpet solo
Whose ghost sings for pay
In the blue billiard room of the Monterey
For room and for board
And the backdoor key is a nineteenth century civil war sword
Once owned by John
Booth
Who misplaced his script when he caught his leather boot
This could be the
shining hour
Based on all those mad beliefs
In the money oil and angel powder
In the new age magazine
There's a hole
in the wall
Behind the photograph of Al Capone he's a sittin' down at city hall
The police they peek thru here
And they watch you get dressed in the two-way mirror
But it's all in good spirits
And if you close your eyes ya can't help help but to hear 'em move
This could be the
shining hour
Based on all those mad beliefs
In the money oil and angel powder
Ah the truths they rule obscene
I propose a toast
To the memory of the horse who carried King
Tut and his gold
Into the sun
He collapsed last summer from the heat stroke somewhere in the East
Village oh
It kills me to think
That I'm no longer living just looking for excuses to drink
So lift up your glass
And your Ouija
board 'cause I'm fading fading fading fast
This could be the
shining hour
Based on all those mad beliefs
In the money oil and angel powder
In the new age magazine
3. WISH YOU WELL (ALTERNATE ACOUSTIC VERSION)
I see the end I
see the end of time
From the widow's walk I feel the undertow
It grows and my fishin' pole
Like a willow bends toward the blackest hole
Hole
I see the film see the black and whites
Circle stationed stupid to the tape that rolls
My soul receives another blow
From the flashlight of the city hate line
I wish you well
I tell you that it can be helped
I told you it can be helped
I see the bad dreams
that you speak about
And all the things you bring to light are comin' down
Now everybody hit the ground
Fear is on the march and in the lost and found
These are the times to read between the lines
Yeah my truck runneth over false prophet signs
And road blocks
In the road
I wish you well
I tell you that it can be helped
I tell you that it can be helped
I told you it can be helped
[Los Angeles has been hit]
Newspaper cloaks
to wrap the truth
Propagand-acid dropped on the youth
It's easy to see like pulling a tooth
No one in line in the ballot booth
The Dragon down south may blow some smoke
Even the jester is drummin' up votes
They talk about building morale and hope
They're just building bigotry a better rope
One that won't break one you can't even see
One made of paper and policies
I wish you well
I tell you that it can be helped
I told you it can be helped
It can be helped
4. SOFT WOLF TREAD (ALTERNATE ACOUSTIC VERSION)
The soft wolf tread
Thru Emerald Forest he was lookin' to make a bed
There in the spindly thicket softly did he tread
The soft wolf tread
Sure was starved
And thru his silver coat his ribs shown sharply carved
The hand that feeds was pickin' weeds
And he sure looked starved
Up comes Hood
he's beautiful
As a sirloin steak to a pit bull chained up
It's good to see such an old friend again
Such an old friend again
The soft wolf said
dear Hood
What brings you to this neck of the woods
In your scarlet cape and your basket full of grapes
What lures you to the woods
The soft wolf tread
the clearing
And he's nervously tugging on his earring
He talked how good such an old friend again
Such an old friend again
And then he spun
a twisted tale
'Bout a child who cried his name
So many times that even when he yelled
No one ever came
The soft wolf tread
Such an old friend again
A flat-footed traveler
came in off the street
And opened up his carpet bag of Persian at my feet
And gathering up the amaranth trampled 'neath his heels
I've come for your brother he said pointin' to the fields
Blazing now flames
of blue
Brace yourself I will take him from you
His face was not
angelical saintly in the least
And I could tell from his accent he was from the East
And I took him for a cripple he walked with a cane
I've come for your brother he said pointin' to the plains
Blazing now flames
of blue
Brace yourself I will take him from you
Take him from you
Now the New World
flags are flyin' ships are on alert
The orders sent out overseas mustn't be overheard
While information flickers in purple machines
Me I have my orders and lamps of kerosene
Blazing now flames
of blue
Brace yourself I will take him from you
I will take him from you
I will take him from you
I will take him
Let go of my hand
I don't wanna drag you
Down with me now
Let go of my hand
It would destroy you
To reach out to me
See me I'm drowning
And I'll take anything
To keep me afloat now
Till I get to the land
Think of yourself
Let go of my hand
See it as it is
See it as it really is
See it as it is
Let go of my hand
I don't wanna fool you
Into believing
I meant anything
It would destroy us
In one single minute
Look at us both now
We're already in it
See it as it is
See it as it really is
See it as it is
Let go of my hand
Of my hand
See it as it is
See it as it really is
See it
I heard that your
Orpheus he done
left town
Snuck out the back way while you slept face down
Bound for the underworld he rolled down his wool sleeves
And like a serpent coiled about the wet leaves
Tennessee
waltzing a dance of disease
Can't you see
Pick up your shears
Delilah right
there
Leave all your cares to fall like dead hair
Outside a carriage waits to take you home
Its tricky handbrake will not hold out for long
Do hop inside for your map it has been drawn
Can't you see
What leads you
Pickin' the mandrake
I would use for tea
I heard the water spirits calling me
And faintly a peacock cried behind the tulles
Can't you see
That when you feel
it tickle your brain
Filling your skull's bowl with a butane
Maybe the genie wants back in the lamp
He's run out of wishes and his clothes are all damp
Back to the bottle though he knows just how cramped
That can be
What leads you
What is it
A simple tale of
rich to rags
But one that often comes to mind
The seer that looked into the mirror
And left his sleeping wife behind
I said goodnight Sir John
Dee
Well light is a
medicine to all of us
With which we feed the silver lamb
That walks beside the wolf of the trinity
They say her teeth are made of sand
I said goodnight John Dee
Goodnight
A lantern swinging
like a pendulum
The shape of your smile's shadow appears
To invoke the worst I reached into my purse
And I took out the shew-stone gently
And I said goodnight well goodnight John Dee
Goodnight well goodnight John Dee
Goodnight goodnight John Dee
Goodnight
They had a crush
on you River
Blue suede jacket and boots River
And your face shaped like a moon oh River
You were like my
own James
Byron Dean
Private
Idaho was my East
of Eden
Hit me like a stone when I heard you passed
On Halloween
You're only 23
River
And you're restless as the sea River
But but ya had a hold on me oh River
You were like my
own James Byron Dean
Private Idaho was my East of Eden
Hit me like a stone when I heard you passed
On Halloween
Halloween
You were like my
own James Byron Dean
Private Idaho was my East of Eden
Hit me like a stone when I heard you passed
On Halloween
Halloween
Mild amnesia love
ya so-so
And such and such
Tom let's take a walk love
Look you squarely in the eye
Two paupers are
your friends
Now your rouge is wearing thin
I'm picking out the little pins
You planted in my side
Gold chain drag
My enemy grows
fatter
And I sense a social unaware
I sleep beneath a metal roof
Rain goes patter patter
Gold chain drag
Has anybody seen
my chain
Has anybody seen
Has anybody seen
Has anybody seen my chain
Gold chain drag
Wind sure kicked
up in the last hour or so
Just as re-entry was close we came tumbling down
Like a falling star over New Mexico
They snowed the
crashing
at Corona
Threatened the teletype photographed our bodies
They sold the crashing at Corona
As a radar reflector flew us out to Albuquerque
Brass came to the
Great Plains
with their armored cars jeeps and junk
Took great pains with the remains till they all were inside the crates and trunks
Then the freight was lifted into the bombers' haul
They snowed the
crashing at Corona
Interrupted the wire concealed debris
They snowed the crashing at Corona
Said a weather balloon went down out of White
Sands Trinity
Rains came plugged
the storm drains shame while the 509th
Bomb grew
Rocket wrecks wind the Bolex
days of space age what lie next
Verification of the Kodak test
They snowed the
crashing at Corona
Interrupted the wire concealed debris
They snowed the crashing at Corona
Said a weather balloon went down out of White Sands Trinity
Flew us out to
Albuquerque
White Sands Trinity
There ain't a question
ah that he can't answer
And nothin' can stump him surely you've met this
Sure Know-It-All
Mr. Know-It-All
He is the foremost
thinker on everything
We are but servants in the high court of
King Know-It-All
Mr. Know-It-All
He will admit there
may be times
It can be hard to handle those with little minds
But we all have a work on this earth to do
Exist to educate you
[All I'm asking
is to]
Know-It-All
Look at da Vinci
he wasn't all that smart
Neither was Tesla
not even Jean-Paul
Sartre
Can Know-It-All
Know-It-All
Know-It-All
Mr. Know-It-All
Know-It-All
Mr. Know-It-All
Were you there
at the creek
That is called Wounded
Knee
Were you there at the creek
There but unseen
In the 7th
Calvary
Were you there at the creek
Were you there
on the wind
That hammered the plains
Were you there on the wind
To scatter their names
I'll ask you again
Were you there on the wind
It makes me weep
It makes me weep
It makes me weep
Now how could you be
Were you there
in the crowd
When the first shot rang out
Were you there in the crowd
Moving about
Black powder cloud
Were you there in the crowd
Were you there
by the Sioux
With the white flag of truce
Were you there by the Sioux
'Cause the flag was no use
The bullets all flew
Were you there by the Sioux
It makes me weep
It makes me weep
It makes me weep
Now how could you be
If you choose sides
I know where you were
With soldiers that ride
So stalwart and sure
Not into pride
Into massacre
It makes me weep
It makes me weep
It makes me weep
Now how could you be
Whatever happens
to the plans we lay
Seems like we've watched them all go south
And I done lost count of the mistakes I've made
Just tell me it isn't too late now
Where do we go
from here
Where do we go from here
Where do we go from here my friend
Whatever feelings
you still have for me
I wouldn't want to see them wane
It hasn't all come to us easily
But I wouldn't change it just the same
Where do we go
from here
Where do we go from here
Where do we go from here my friend
It's comin' out
wrong once again
It's comin' out wrong once again
Maybe your timin'
it just wasn't right
Maybe the sky was over-cast
Maybe the fruit was fallin' 'fore it was ripe
Maybe we just weren't built to last
Where do we go
from here
Where do we go from here
Where do we go from here my friend