The Sunset Tree

I checked into a bargain-priced room on La Cienaga
Gazed out through the curtains at the parking lot
Walked down to the corner store just before nightfall in my bare feet
Black tarry asphalt, soft and hot
And when I came back, I spread out my supplies
On the counter by the sink, looked myself right in the eyes

[Chorus]
St. Joseph's baby aspirin
Bartles and Jaymes
And you
Or your memory

[Verse 2]
I ducked behind the drapes when I saw the moon begin to rise
Gathered in my loose ends switched off the light
And down there in the dark I could see the real truth about me
As clear as day, Lord, if I make it through tonight
Then I will mend my ways
And walk the straight path to the end of my days

[Chorus]
St. Joseph's baby aspirin
Bartles and Jaymes
And you
Or your memory

[Verse 1]
'36 Hudson in the garage
All sorts of junk in the unattached spare room
Dishes in the kitchen sink
New straw for the old broom

[Chorus 1]
Friends who don't have a clue
Well-meaning teachers
But down in your arms, in your arms
I am a wild creature

[Verse 2]
Floor two-foot high with newspapers
White carpet thick with pet hair
Half-eaten gallons of ice cream in the freezer
Fresh fuel for the sodium flares

[Chorus 2]
I write down good reasons to freeze to death
In my spiral ring notebook
But in the long tresses of your hair
I am a babbling brook

I broke free on a Saturday morning
I put the pedal to the floor
Headed north on Mills Avenue
And listened to the engine roar

My broken house behind me
And good things ahead
A girl named Cathy
Wants a little of my time
Six cilinders underneath the hood
Crashing and kicking
Aha!

Listen to the engine wine
I am going to make it through this year
If it kills me

I am going to make it though this year
If it kills me
I played video games in a drunken haze

I was seventeen years yound
Hurt my knuckles punching the machines
The taste of scotch rich on my tongue

And then Cathy showed up
And we hung out
Trading swigs from a bottle

All bitter and clean
Locking eyes
Holding hands

Twin high maintenance machines
I am going to make it through this year
If it kills me
I am going to make it though this year
If it kills me
I drove home in the California dusk
I could feel the alcohol inside of me hum
Pictured the look on my stepfather's face
Ready for the bad things to come

I downshifted
As I pulled into the driveway

The motor screaming out
Stuck in second gear
The scene ends badly
As you might imagine
In a cavalcade of anger and fear
There will be feasting and dancing
In Jerusalem next year
I am going to make it through this year
If it kills me
I am going to make it though this year
If it kills me

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: John Darnielle

The reception's gotten fuzzy.
The delicate balance has shifted.
Put on your gloves and black pumps.
Let's pretend the fog has lifted.
Now you see me, now you don't.
Now you say you love me.
Pretty soon you won't.
If we get our full three score and ten.
We won't pass this way again.
So kiss me with your mouth open.
Turn the tires toward the street.
And stay sweet.

All the chickens come on home to roost.
Plump bodies blotting out the sky.
You know it breaks my heart in half, in half.
When I see them trying them fly.
Cause you just can't do things your body wasn't meant to.
Hike up your fishnets, I know you.
If we live to see the other side of this
I will remember your kiss.
So do it with your mouth open.
And take your foot off of the brake.
For Christ's sake!

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: John Darnielle

 

"Dance Music"
 

Alright, I'm on Johnson Avenue in San Luis Obispo
And I'm five years old or six, maybe
And indications that there's something wrong with our new house
Trip down the wire twice daily

I'm in the living room watching the Watergate hearings
While my stepfather yells at my mother
Launches a glass across the room, straight at her head
And I dash upstairs to take cover

Lean in close to my little record player on the floor
So this is what the volume knob's for
I listen to dance music
Dance music

Okay, so look, I'm 17 years old
And you're the last, best thing I've got going
But then the special secret sickness starts to eat through you
What am I supposed to do? No way of knowing

So I follow you down your twisting alleyways
Find a few cul de sacs of my own
There's only one place this road ever ends up
And I don't want to die alone

Let me down, let me down, let me down gently
When the police come to get me
I'm listening to dance music
Dance music

We stank of hair dye and ammonia
We sealed ourselves away from view
You were looking at the void and seldom blinking
The best that I could do was to train my eyes on you

We scaled the hidden hills beneath the surface
Scraped our fingers bloody on the stones
And built a little house that we could live in
Out of Dinu Lipatti's bones

We kept our friends at bay all summer long
Treated the days as if they'd kill us if they could
Wringing out the hours like blood-drenched bedsheets
To keep wintertime at bay, but December showed up anyway

There was no money; it was money that you wanted
I went downtown, sold off most of what I owned
And we raised a tower to broadcast all our dark dreams
From Dinu Lipatti's bones

There's bound to be a ghost at the back of your closet
No matter where you live
There'll all ways be a few things, maybe several things
That you're gonna find really difficult to forgive

There's gonna come a day when you'll feel better
You'll rise up free and easy on that day
And float from branch to branch, lighter than the air
Just when that day is coming, who can say? Who can say?

Our mother has been absent
Ever since we founded Rome
But there's gonna be a party when the wolf comes home

We're gonna comandeer the local airwaves
To tell the neighbors what's been going on
And they will shake their heads and wag their bony fingers
In all the wrong directions and by daybreak we'll be gone

I'm gonna get myself in fighting trim
Scope out every angle of unfair advantage
I'm gonna bribe the officals, I'm gonna kill all the judges
It's gonna take you people years to recover from all of the damage

Our mother has been absent
Ever since we founded Rome
But there's gonna be a party when the wolf comes home, oh

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: John Darnielle

The king of the jungle
Was asleep in his car
When your chances fall in your lap like that
You've got to recognize them for what they really are

Nobody in this house
Wants to own up to the truth
I crawl in shotgun and reach into his mouth
And grab hold of one long, sharp tooth

And hold on
For dear life, I hold on

Well, of course he wakes up
His paw hits the horn
I am going to regret
The day that I was born

And then Mom rushes out to the driveway
My sister too
Everyone's screaming
I am dreaming of you

I hold on
For dear life, I hold on

And my arms get sore
And my palms start to sweat
And the tears roll down my face
'Till my cheeks are hot and red and soaking wet

In come the cops
They blowtorch the doors
I start wailing
The lion roars

There's no good way to end this
Anyone can see
There's this great big you
And little old me

And we hold on
For dear life, we hold on
We hold on

•  

There's bound to be a ghost at the back of your closet
No matter where you live
There'll all ways be a few things, maybe several things
That you're gonna find really difficult to forgive

There's gonna come a day when you'll feel better
You'll rise up free and easy on that day
And float from branch to branch, lighter than the air
Just when that day is coming, who can say? Who can say?

Our mother has been absent
Ever since we founded Rome
But there's gonna be a party when the wolf comes home

We're gonna comandeer the local airwaves
To tell the neighbors what's been going on
And they will shake their heads and wag their bony fingers
In all the wrong directions and by daybreak we'll be gone

I'm gonna get myself in fighting trim
Scope out every angle of unfair advantage
I'm gonna bribe the officals, I'm gonna kill all the judges
It's gonna take you people years to recover from all of the damage

Our mother has been absent
Ever since we founded Rome
But there's gonna be a party when the wolf comes home, oh

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: John Darnielle

Feed the kittens in the kitchen.
Set food out for the strays.
Try hard to do your best.
The magpie will have his way.

Fill your mouth with berries
By the full light of the moon.
Work all night if you have to.
The magpie comes at noon.

Shore up the crucifixes
Above the archways and the doors.
The magpie will come at midday.
And you will go down on all fours.

And when the cherries white with blossoms
Be ready and be brave.
And remember what we had here
When there was something left to save

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: John Darnielle

On the day that Dennis Brown's lung collapsed
Spring rain was misting down on Kingston
And down at the harbor, local cops were intercepting an inbound shipment
And for a while there it was chaos
As they handcuffed and then roughed up some sailors

On the day my lung collapses
It's not going to be much different

On the day that Dennis Brown's habits caught up with him
School children sang in choirs
And out behind the Chinese restaurants guys were jumping into dumpsters
And the stench was overbearing
But they were past the point of caring

On the day my habits catch up with me
I'll be down among the jumpers

And when the birds come home in spring
We will fill them full of buckshot
And jets of contaminated blood
Will cloud the rivers and the lakes
It took all the coke in town
To bring down Dennis Brown

On the day my lung collapses
We'll see just how much it takes

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: John Darnielle

King Saul fell on his sword when it all went wrong
And Joseph's brothers sold him up the river for a song
And Sonny Liston rubbed some tiger balm into his glove
Some things you do for money and some you do for love, love, love

Raskolnikov felt sick, but he couldn't say why
When he saw his face reflected in his victim's twinkling eye
Some things you'll do for money and some you'll do for fun
But the things you do for love are going to come back to you one by one

Love, love is going to lead you by the hand

Into a white and soundless place

Now we see things as in a mirror, dimly
Then we shall see each other face to face

And way out in Seattle, young Kurt Cobain
Snuck out to the greenhouse, put a bullet in his brain
Snakes in the grass beneath our feet, rain in the clouds above
Some moments last forever, but some flare out with love, love, love

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: John Darnielle

Got up before dawn
Went down to the racetrack.
Riding with the windows down
Shortly after your first heart attack.
You parked behind the paddock,
Cracking asphalt underfoot,
Coming up through the cracks

Pale green things
Pale green things

We watched the horses run their workouts.
You held your stopwatch in your left hand
And a racing form beneath your arm,
Casting your gaze way out to no man's land.
Sometimes I'll meet you out there
Lonely and frightened.
Flicking my tongue out at the wet leaves

Pale green things
Pale green things

My sister called at three a.m.
Just last december.
She told me how you'd died at last, at last
And that morning at the race track was one thing I remembered.
I turned it over in my mind
Like a living chinese finger trap.
Seaweed and indiana sawgrass

Pale green things
Pale green things

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: John Darnielle