Wallflowers

6th Avenue Hearthache

Sirens ring, the shots ring out
A stranger cries, screams out loud
I had my world strapped against my back
I held my hands, never knew how to act

Chorus:
And the same black line that was drawn on you
Was drawn on me
And now it's drawn me in
6th Avenue heartache

Below me was a homeless man
I'm singin' songs I knew complete
On the steps alone, his guitar in hand
It's fifty years, stood where he stands

Now walkin' home on those streets
The river winds move my feet
Subway steam, like silhouettes in dreams
They stood by me, just like moonbeams

Look out the window, down upon that street
And gone like a midnight was that man
But I see his six strings laid against that wall
And all his things, they all look so small
I got my fingers crossed on a shooting star
Just like me-just moved on

Birdcage

So sad that you took it so badly
And acted so madly
So scared
like a baby by the morning
with sunlight unfolding
Your eyes have turned red
And are holding me
inside your story
In the end
you'll have started on a new one
Of anguish and delusions

He smiles
just like a magician
Who's just cast his illusions
of castles and sandstones
on the backbeach
And bright lights
within your reach
The sounds
of a warning
by the morning
of hound dogs coming for me
With the ropes leading back to your knees
And you looking straight at me

On your knees in the rain
with a basket of flowers
just for me
As the bells in the trees up above
all swung and rang softly
You said you rang them for me
For me

I've been delivered

I could break free from the
wood of a coffin
if I need
But nothin's hard as
Gettin' free from places
I've already been

I've been waste-deep
in the burnin' meadows
of my mind
In the engine
In cold December
shootin' fire from the hose

Now turn off your lights
'cause I'm not comin' home
'til I'm delivered for the first time

I was first-born to a parade
that follows in rows
down a narrow cold black river
faceless shadows
movin' slow

I would move swift when
the sounds of a trumpet would blow
I've been the puppet
I've been the strings
I know the vacant face it brings

Now the bells of curfew
They may ring before I'm through
But soon
I'll be delivered for the first time

You might keep clean
in the back of an angel motorcade
It doesn't matter who walks in
you know, the joke is still the same
You'll just wake up
like a disposable lover
decomposed
I've been gone
I've been remembered
I've been alive
I've been a ghost

So now, if downtown explodes
I'll still be on this road
'til I'm delivered for the first time

I have drawn blood
from the neckline
when vampires were in fashion
You know I'd even learn
to cut my throat
If I thought I could fit in

'Cause I, I once heard
that you gotta learn
how to blend in to this mess
Where nothin's hard
nothin's precious
and nothin's smooth or flawless

Now, no more amused
just screaming to be delivered
for the first time

Now I'm 10 miles in the deep
and mighty blue sea
Looking back, towards a long white beach
burnin' up into yellow flames

And I just wave back
like a little boy up on a pony
in a show
'cause I can't fix
something this complex
any more than I can build a rose

So just keep on letting go
'cause I must be close
to being delivered for the first time

Now I'd rather bleed out
a long stream from being lonely
and feel blessed
Well than drown, laying face down
in a puddle of respect
I was once lost
in the corridors of the arena
in blindfolds
I've been the bull
I've been the whip
I just pulled down the matador

So now, turn on your lights
'cause I'm comin' home
I've been delivered for the first time

Josephine

I feel pretty good
I feel all right
And I've been thinkin' maybe
I could spend the night

I know you've been sad
I know I've been bad
But if you'd let me
Make you ribbons from a paper bag

Chorus:
Josephine
You're so good to me
And I know
It ain't easy
Josephine
You're so sweet
You must taste just like sugar & tangerines

I won't make a sound
Sleep on the ground
When you wake I will
Drive you into town
I missed your smile
Your schoolgirl style
But I never had much fun
Maybe the very first mile

(chorus)

Don't you know
I watched you walkin' home from school
Your friends on the old playgrounds
You never looked so down
Won't you come and help me with these cuts of mine?
I've disconnected my heart
And cut myself on the wires
Josephine

I know I was wrong
I knew all along
But I got so far from my home
I never thought I'd be so lonesome

(chorus)

Mourning train

Mama don't 'you send me no love this month
'cause my heart is all used up
and mama I wanna come home
I wanna get back home

So look out into the morning rain
'cause I'm on the mourning train

I'm bringing down my suitcase now
I'm shining up my good shoes brown
'cause no-one knows my name
now, no-one knows my name
So look out into the morning rain
'cause I'm on the mourning train

Mama look at me now
Oh how I wish
You were around
So many friends I wish
I had right now

Mister you can't hurt me now
You've got my girl, I still don't know how
But it don't matter now
No it don't matter now
So look out into the morning rain
'cause I'm on,
I'm already on
The mourning train

Murder 101

Never thought that I knew too much
I always thought I knew enough
I didn't want to learn this stuff
I didn't ever want to be that tough
But love was just implied
And everything else died
This class has now begun
In Murder 101

You can learn it in the first degree
You could even make yourself believe
That you'll never even think of me
When you're packing up your things to leave
Now my intuition failed
I can't graduate unskilled
They don't excuse the young
This is Murder 101

Find yourself another heart that needs a rest
Tie a hook onto a single thread
Drop it down beneath the chest
There's the first part of this test
They'll grade you on a curve
They're including everyone
No matter what you've heard
You know this class has now begun
Drop out before they come
To Murder one by one

Just look what we've done
In Murder 101

Just look what we've done
In Murder 101

Just look what we've done
This is Murder 101

Just look what we've done
To Murder one by one

One Headlight

So long ago, I don't remember when
That's when they say I lost my only friend
Well they said she died easy of a broken heart disease
As I listened through the cemetery trees
I seen the sun comin' up at the funeral at dawn
The long broken arm of human law
Now it always seemed such a waste
She always had a pretty face
So I wondered how she hung around this place

Chorus:
Hey, come on try a little
Nothing is forever
There's got to be something better than
In the middle
But me & Cinderella
We put it all together
We can drive it home
With one headlight

She said it's cold
It feels like Independence Day
And I can't break away from this parade
But there's got to be an opening
Somewhere here in front of me
Through this maze of ugliness and greed
And I seen the sun up ahead
At the county line bridge
Sayin' all there's good and nothingness is dead
We'll run until she's out of breath
She ran until there's nothin' left
She hit the end-it's just her window ledge

(chorus)

Well this place is old
It feels just like a beat up truck
I turn the engine, but the engine doesn't turn
Well it smells of cheap wine & cigarettes
This place is always such a mess
Sometimes I think I'd like to watch it burn
I'm so alone, and I feel just like somebody else
Man, I ain't changed, but I know I ain't the same
But somewhere here in between the city walls of dyin' dreams
I think of death-it must be killin' me

(chorus)

Sleepwalker

Maybe I could be the one they adored
That could be my reputation
It's where I'm from that lets them think I'm a
whore
I'm an educated virgin

Sleepwalker, don't be shy
Now don't open your eyes tonight
You'll be the one that defends my life
While I'm dead asleep dreaming

Cupid, don't draw back your bow
Sam Cooke didn't know what I know
I'll never be your valentine
The sleepwalker in me and God
Only know that I've tried

Let me in, let me drown or learn how to swim
Just don't leave me at the window
I could be the one to be your next best friend
You may need someone to hold you

Sleepwalker, take this knife
You may see someone tonight...
You'd be the one that saves my life
When I'm dead asleep dreaming

Now Cupid, don't draw back your bow
Sam Cooke didn't know what I know
Never be your valentine
The sleepwalker in me and God
Only know that I've tried

I'm in your movie
And everyone looks sad
But I can hear you
Your voice in the laugh track
But you never saw my best scene
The one where I sleep...
Sleepwalk into your dream

Now, Sleepwalker, what's my line
It's only a matter of time until I
Learn to open up my eyes
When I'm dead asleep dreaming

Now Cupid, don't draw back your bow
Sam Cooke didn't know what I know
Never be your valentine
The sleepwalker in me
Now, the sleepwalker in me
Now, the sleepwalker in me
And God only know that I've tried

Some flowers bloom dead

We didn't make it
We did not pull through
You shouldn't blame me
I don't blame you
Now what else did you think
that I would do?
ooooh as if it wasn't hard enough

I'm so tired of waking up
feeling bad
You haven't been the kind of place I have
Could it hurt you now
to let this pass?
oooooh as if it wasn't hard enough
You want to make it so much harder

Now in another world
I could learn to forget
But 'til then I'm here
making room for new regrets
Now some flowers they never bloom
And some flowers just bloom dead

The way you make me feel
I could collapse
An epidemic I cannot outlast
How could you feel used
when I feel trapped?
ooooh as if it wasn't hard enough

And just as my conscience
starts to clear
I drag the river and you're still there
The way I bring you down
could not compare
ooooh as if it wasn't hard enough
You want to make it so much harder

Now in another world
I could learn to forget
But 'til then I'm here
making room for new regrets
Now some flowers they never bloom
But some flowers just bloom dead
Now some flowers they never bloom
And some flowers just bloom dead

The way I sleep
this bed just can't be made
I pull the covers up around my head
Now when I think of me
I think of somebody else instead
As if it wasn't hard enough
You're gonna make it so much harder

Now in another world
I could learn to forget
But 'til then I'm here
making room for new regrets
Now some flowers they never bloom
And some flowers just bloom dead
Now some flowers they never bloom
And some flowers they just bloom dead

Up from under

Well I'm down here in the well
Looking back up at the hill
Well I thank heavens I fell
Must look more
like myself
Now everyone is so kind
Everyone looks like
a long lost friend of mine
I'm on top of the world again
When I'm looking
up from under Babylon

I had a home in the fields
Earned my wage in the factories there
And I was raised by the mill
And I worked with my brothers there
I told my mother I'd always write
I headed west for the coast
with the big city lights
Now mamma I'm so sorry I've forgotten
But now I'm looking
up from under Babylon

Now tell me how far I've been
And how deep was I in
Tell me how I conceived
The vanity to believe
That I would not be outnumbered
By the thumbs I have been under

Now stray dogs in the street
Learn how to beg, steal, borrow and cheat
And in the dead summer heat
I fell asleep with blood on my teeth

But those days before I met you girl
Were just ice cream falling down
on the shoes of my world
I'm so happy that you're my friend
When we're looking
up from under Babylon

When we're looking
up from under Babylon

Witness

I'm standing outside your window, baby
And there you are
Another year, another candle's burning
for the party girl
No one even knows that you're there
Happy Birthday, no one cares

You come around here,
You'd better bring a witness
Everyone in here's on the guest list
And when you're gone you won't be missed
Keep one eye open
when you kiss

Your wishes won't be coming true this year
Now darling don't you cry
We're going to teach you everything
You'll learn to get by
Now lesson number one in homicide
is emotional murder is no crime

You come around here,
you'd better bring a witness
Everyone in here's on the guest list
And when you're gone you won't be missed
Keep one eye open
when you kiss

Now sticks and stones, baby, break your bones
But the names, in here, can kill
We'd let you leave
but no one else wants you
Your ransom was not made
Now you ain't got to stand up tall
But now baby, you must stand up

You come around here,
you'd better bring a witness
Everyone in here's on the guest list
Now we've never been so impressed
Keep one eye open when, whenever you kiss