Jen Cloher

You’d been gone so long you could have been dead
Piles of books you bought but never read
Paint a still life of your side of the bed
Patti Smith poems, a hair tie, and some vitamins
There’s only so much you can say in a text
Reading between the lines is hazardous
A slow reply can really mess with your head
I was feelin’ kinda free
Now I’m desperate

[Chorus]
Oh god I forgot myself
Oh god I forgot my health
I seen it coming but it’s too late now
Oh god, oh god, I forgot myself

[Verse 2]
I was shooting for a different score
My head, my heart, the way, the open door
Like a fly up against the window
The open sky, so close, I’ll never know
See my reflection staring back in the glass
I’m getting older
I know, that things don’t last
For all the time I spend worrying
Most things they never happen

Paralysed
I'm paralysed
In paradise
Paralysed
And worrying
Won't change a thing
In paradise
My first-world guilt
Makes me feel
Like I really care
But faith without works is dead
I'm devoted to the show, but not the deeds of compassion
I'm full of good intention, but never any action

[Verse 2]
Oh, goddamn
We drained the dam
Now the kangaroos
Are drinking from the pool
Whilst I float on by
The trees can't decide
Whether to lose their leaves
Unseasonably
A little summer snow
And no-one knows
Which way the wind will blow
If you think it's the end, it's only the beginning
Can you spare a minute for hashtag activism?

Noisy minors bully the suburbs
Out beyond the haze
Seaside holiday houses
Lay quiet as a grave
Tombs of dreams past
Wealth gone to waste
The Australian dream is fading
Stolen anyway

I'm never gonna lose my head to a setting sun
I'm never gonna dream of things that just can't be done

Pavement's too hot to walk on barefoot
So you hop and skip
Prawns in wheelie bins marinate
A cocktail of stink
Bat swaying on
The power line
Wings open in surrender
This is how you die

I'm never gonna lose my head to a setting sun
I'm never gonna dream of things that just can't be done
I'm never gonna say, never gonna do, never gonna be
Anything more than what's expected of me

It's true
It's true
It's true
It's true

I'm never gonna lose my head to a setting sun
I'm never gonna dream of things that just can't be done
I'm never gonna say, never gonna do, never gonna be
Anything more than what's expected of me

Anything more than what's expected of me

I start missing you
Days before you leave
I guess it’s a kind of sensory memory
Deep below the conscious
Mind you
I can be on my own
I’m an only child
I like my company
Potter ‘round
Make another pot of
Tea for two is when
You come home
We sit and eat breakfast
Eggs with soldier toast
Buttered well
So you get the edges
Of the things we never say
Distance has a funny way
Of slowly making you someone
That I don’t know

[Verse 2]
People ask me why
I don’t go on the road with you
I tell them
“Here’s a day in the life of a touring muso”
Early morning flight
Press all day
City through a window
Air-conditioned room
With a view
Late night
Early morning
Light creeps through the blinds
And the cat
Hungry for her breakfast
Routine keeps me sane
I’m not made
For the lonesome highway
I guess I’m never gonna be
The Joy to your Slim Dusty
But you know I’m always here
When you get home

Indie rock is full of privileged white kids
I know because I’m one of them
Who else has the luxury to gaze backwards?

[Verse 2]
I went out on the road with my girlfriend
I watched her have the career most people dream
It doesn’t sound so bad
Buffet breakfast on the terrace
Young men wearing glasses and sweaters
But it’s exhausting up here on the surface

[Verse 3]
I’ve spent a lot of time wondering what I should be doing
Success is a slippery eel that keeps on moving
It has nothing to do with making music
It has nothing to do with making music

[Verse 4]
Most critics are pussies who want to look cool
Those who can, they do
Those who can’t review
What’s hot today is forgotten tomorrow
All that you have is your joy and your sorrow

When I was young
I wanted to be Jon
It wasn’t hard
Short hair, no curves to speak of
I could do things
I couldn’t do as Jen
Ride bikes with boys
Kiss girls and make some noise

[Verse 2]
I grew to be
A Young Lady
Catholic Girls School
Will try to do that to you
Never fit in
To love was to live in sin
So I stood out
I was born to let it out

[Chorus]
This world it wasn’t made for women
You know even before you’re bleeding
I’m sorry, can’t you hear me speaking?
How is it now, now that I’m screaming?

You come home broken
Bruised on the inside
Nothing left
Dead-eyed, dazed and confused
You’re working for the man
To play with Uncle Sam
Cost ten grand for your band
That’s a hand ya gonna lose

[Verse 2]
Well the Saints were stranded
Lindy, Grant and Robert
Had to go between
Just to be heard
Australians in London
Making do with nothing
Oh yeah the Wide Open Road!

What I got and what I don’t gotta

[Verse 3]
Our giants have to bend
Just to make the ends meet
Let’s hope Uncle Archie
Can pay the rent
Tyranny of distance
Proving our existence
Buried country culture’s shallow grave

Standing side of stage
Watching people
Watch the Dirty Three
In one woman’s face
I can see it’s the air she needs
She needs to breathe
These songs were the only thing
That got her through seventeen
When life felt like a high-pitched scream

[Verse 2]
The boy from Clifton Hill
Who escaped to New York
Conjures up a rhythm no-one could dream of
Like some kind of sorcerer
He turns the drums
Into feeling
Loose magic slowly tumbles out
Feels like your dreaming
Everything slows right down

[Chorus]
Nothing in the world
No, nothing could ever feel
Like the first time
Sue’s Last Ride
Messed you up for real

I'm lost
Planning or remembering
I don't remember
And plans are disappointments
Waiting in the Wings
Life is what happens
When you're making them

[Verse 2]
You're home
I can hear your typewriter
Click-clacking
You know
One becomes a writer by writing
And so you devote mornings to what you know

[Chorus 1]
Aim high
Let go
We'll never know
What we're doing here or when we're gonna die
Time is only wasted trying to know why
To be kind
Truly kind
Is radical

ADVERTISEMENT

 

SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT

[Chorus 2]
Aim high
Let go
We'll never know
How close we are
To what we love
There's no meaning but the meaning you create
And no end to all the things that you can make
To be kind
Truly kind
Is radical

[Verse 3]
Watch you laughing while you sleep
Things look funny in your dreams
I'll never know
Where you go
Or what you think
And at night I curl into
The soft animal of you
And fall asleep
Just to dream
Another day

Loving you is like a dark art
Loving you is like a dark art
Somewhere between head and heart
We’re together miles apart

[Verse 2]
Maybe that’s why love is blind
Maybe that’s why love is blind
If we knew what we would find

[Verse 3]
The other side to love’s joy is shadow
Jealousy, fear, loss, anger, sorrow
If you never stay to sit in love’s shadow
A part of you will always be hollow

[Verse 4]
Loving you is like a bright star
Loving you is like a bright star
You seem closer than you are
Loving you is like a bright star