Lyrics to Discarded Angels:
1.KILLING
Walk softly
Turn the lights down low
Are we all alone,
My love
Step lightly
Bring me slowly down
Listen closely,
My love.
Something follows you inside
Something that you try to hide
Covers you when I lay down beside you
(Can you see what I can see)
Find the things I want to lose
Wear the clothes that I refuse
Taste the rain inside my shoes…
If you do, then you will understand why I am crying,
Why I am down
Come quickly
When you close the door
No shadows,
My love
In this room you have no pride
Show me things I can’t describe
Tell me where it hurts you when it’s over
(When it’s over…)
Then you will see
What’s killing…
Just beyond that distant bridge,
Something that I can’t resist…
Nightmares crashing in the mist
Deep inside my emptiness is killing me…
(It’s killing me).
Walk softly,
Bring me slowly down.
Are we all alone,
My love
In this room there is no pride
Show me things you can’t describe
When it hurts, it hurts all over…
When It's over
(When it’s over….)
Underneath your secret kiss
Tell me what it is you miss
Can you see…what’s killing me….
It’s killing me
2. THE RED AND THE BLUE
Bought myself a new red coat
Only take it out at night
The cold dark wind is blowing in
Keep the dust far off my mind
Bought myself some boxing gloves
Bought myself a blue guitar
Pour my whiskey in a crystal glass
Drink my wine from an old black jar
DON’T CALL ME BABY I GOT NOTHING HERE FOR YOU
There’s nothing left and that’s just fine
An empty bottle and a worn out pair of shoes
I’m givin it back and I’m takin my time
Bought me a ticket for a lonesome train
Then I tore it into two
Tied one half to the whipping post
Sent the other one home to you
Don’t call me Baby I’ve got plans for you
There’s nothing left and that’s all fine
An empty suitcase and a pocketful of rhyme
Puttin on those shoes and I’m takin my time
Bought myself a new red coat
Lay me down in your big black car
Pour my whiskey in a crystal glass
Spill my blood with a blue guitar
3. THE ASTRONAUT
Dry your eyes for the second round
Save your tears…
(This is anybody’s call)
I can see her now,
Your parishioner
In the planet of the dark...
Intermissioner
Climb the stairs
(He is an astronaut)
But she was pale
And she was cold
And she was
Barely there…
4. Slowly By Degrees
Show me what you know and I will follow
Through the endless maze inside your rooms
Disconnect the locks with slow incisions
Filling in the answers, two by two by two…
Travel by suggestion; drive by instinct.
Your acceleration, my disease…
Close enough to whisper (hear my distance)
Losing my direction (slowly… by degrees)
Turn my corner now
I can see you on your knees
Step by step now, I will show you
How to leave me (slowly… by degrees).
Slip between the cracks and stain their carpets;
Kill them in the morning, deep and slow…
Bring to me the trace of your next victim
Enter through my window; show me where to go.
Conjure all the ghosts that haunt my bedroom
Edit my confession, skin to skin…
Breathing in the scent of your suspicion
Inch by inch, I let you in ….
Turn my corner now
Can you see me, on my knees
One by one now, I will show you
Inch by inch (and slowly… by degrees)
Telephone my house and change my number
Memorize the map on my back door
Turning up the volume, deep, inhaling…
Counting down the hours, one by one by one…
Turn my corner now
I can see you on your knees
Step by step now I will leave you
Inch by inch and (slowly…. by degrees)
Slowly, by degrees….
5. NIKKI'S BLUES (For Nikki Sudden)
Walkin west on Houston
A black cat came fast and shook my mind
Three o'clock in the morning
It’s getting hard and harder to read the signs
And one says ‘Baby… don’t you think it’s time…’
Riding back on the 6 train
A tall man smiles the way you do.
Count the stops in the glass
Counting the nights I listened for you
I’m thinking maybe.. maybe it’s time…
(To put your face back in my mind)
For a bottle of wine
Night shadows creep; I can’t sleep;
I call your name.
Dirty glass in the sink;
Old note in red ink
And nothing to say…
Except maybe…
Maybe it’s time
Outside on the street
I’m feeling tired and weak…
I hear a ghost-step shoe
Black coat in the shaft;
That cold dark laugh,
Old scuffed-up boots..
And he’s sayin’ Baby… I ain’t got a dime…
But I’ve got something for you.
Walking east on Houston
I’m counting 2 by 2 by 2…
Hands deep in my pockets
Nevermind the cold…I’m shaking for you……
Baby.. I know you’ve been lying...
And maybe….maybe it’s time…
(To put your face back in my mind)
For a bottle of wine...
6. KATHY
Tell me how the winter looks to you now;
Does Christmas Eve seem like an eternity passed?
Is the sky still looking down with the moon in its eye?
Can you still hold back the tears the way you used to when we met.
Kathy, I’m lost, he said
(Though he knew she was sleeping),
And the words came through like summer wind on her face.
And I will never lay me down to sleep again
I will stay in a chair in this dark room
With the words that never come.
Tell me, do the autumn fires burn for you now?
Does your dark hair still fall down like rain on your face?
Cutting across the graveyard with childlike indifference--
Can you reach up and touch the harvest moon with someone else’s hand?
Kathy, I’m lost, he said,
(though he knew she was sleeping),
And the words came through like summer wind on his face
And I will never lay me down to sleep again;
I will stay in a chair in this dark room
With the words that never come.
Tell me how the summer rain feels to you now;
Has the darkness of last night frozen inside your eyes?
I shiver to hear you repeat the last words you’d spoken…
Promise me now the nightmares have all gone.
Kathy, I’m lost, he said,
But she wasn’t sleeping
And the words came rushing through like wind on her face
And I will never lay me down to sleep again…
I will stay in a chair in this darkroom,
With you, in your bed, in this dark room,
And me, in a chair, in this dark room,
With the words that never come
(I will never lay me down to sleep again….)
7. ALL THIS AND SOMETHING ELSE
Drink with me the glass of midnight; wake me if it gets too late
Claustrophobic god of nightmare—I’m the one that makes you wait.
Climb inside my one-wheel drive and ride me to your blackest lie;
Agony of sleepless hours; choose me when you start to die.
In these rooms of open wounds
I’ve eaten from your plate
All this and something else….
(He doesn’t answer)
Crawl inside my second skin and you will know what I will know.
Swim with me in midnight waters; I can feel your undertow.
Far outside your bloodless eyes
I shiver when you dream
All this and something else…
(He doesn’t answer)
Breathing deep your suffocation I can feel your illness writhe.
Inject yourself inside my veins and bleed with me till I am dry.
Penetrate my sister
(Maybe she will make you melt)
All this and something else….
I will make you answer
I will make you answer me.
(He doesn’t answer;
He still won’t answer)
I WILL MAKE YOU ANSWER
I WILL MAKE YOU ANSWER ME
(He doesn’t answer...
He still won’t answer)
8. BLACK WIND
A black wind’s blowing through me
I’ve felt this once before
The night you looked into me
And brought me through some kind of door.
Inside your house of history
With cigarettes and wine
Upon a bed of moonlight
I drank your borrowed time
I looked inside your vision
He brought me to his knees
He broke my sorrow open
And taught me how to bleed
Tell me where you’ve gone tonight
And if she’s gone there too
They’ve broken the windows of heaven
And a black wind’s blowing through
And if you see the one I love
Please tell him I was brave
How they’d broken all ten of my fingers
On the headstone of his grave
And if he wants to find me
And believes that I was true
Show him the road he left on
With the black wind of my youth
The smell of your guitar is on me
Your footsteps in the rain
And a song you haven’t yet written
Is lying in my name
A black wind’s blowing through me
I’ve felt this twice before
And if you should see the one I love
Just say it blows no more
9. THE HOUSE WHERE I’VE BEEN
It’s an innocent dream
But it’s a dangerous act.
Things are not what they seem
When the night turns black.
You make me feel things
Behind my back;
You can try to reveal things
But you’ll never get even one word out of my heart.
I carve your name on the wall
Of the room where I used to go to be alone,
And names mean nothing
In the house where I’ve been.
You’ve got a dangerous hand
With a forger’s knack.
Silence is a command;
Solitude is a fact.
I hear you feel things
In the night;
I see you steal things
But you’ll never steal my heart away.
In the dark I can feel your name on the wall
Of the room where I used to be alone
(It feels like nothing)
In the house where I’ve been.
The first time it hurt just a little bit,
The next time it seemed so deliberate,
The last time it felt like something
Then there was nothing at all….
I hear you steal things
Behind my back.
You can try to conceal things
But you’ll never get even one word out of my house.
And I scratch your name from the wall
Of the room where I used to go to be alone
And pain means nothing
In the house where I’ve been.
The first time it hurt just a little bit;
The next time it seemed so deliberate
The last time it felt like something
(Then there was nothing at all.)
The first time it hurt just a little bit
Next time it seemed so deliberate
The last time it felt like nothing
In the house where I’ve been..
It feels like nothing
In the House where I've been
It feels like nothing.
10. MOST OF THESE THINGS
A ship's come in like a loaded gun
I once had a dream
But now there's none
Are you sleeping...where have you gone?
With the TV on...
Mourning rain from a new cracked sky
I sign my name
And it ends in 'Y'
Are you sleeping...where have you gone?
With the coffee on...
On my wall... a picture of someone saving you
But you can't see
Most of these things
Shine my world
Like a passing car
Do things look small from where you are?
Am I sleeping...where have you gone?
Can it be so long?
(Can it be so long...)
And on my wall ..
A Picture of someone saving you
But you can't see
On my wall…
A Picture of someone saving you
But you can’t see…
Most of these things…
Most of these things...
11. ALL STAND UP
I thought I saw a boy I know
Come down the subway stairs
He had needles in his arms
And blood in his hair
And I tried to lift him up
But I didn’t dare.
He said ‘put me down for the last dance
And then put me down again…
Write me in an afterthought
But just don’t leave me in
Put aside your motives
And reward me with a frown
Cause they all stand up
But they all fall down.’
Well I’d know your silence anywhere,
That breathing on the phone.
I can pick that silence in a crowd
But I just can’t take it home.
And some nights you just can’t fake it
There’s quiet all around
And they all stand up but they all fall down
(All stand up but they all fall down)
Sometimes you look so tired, sometimes you look away
Sometimes your love is strong enough but I know I’ll never stay
Sometimes you get a feeling
Like footprints in the ground
And they all stand up but they all fall down.
Be careful when you kiss the sky,
Be careful how you breathe.
Watch out what you believe in;
It could bring you to your knees
Just crawl into the back seat
And desecrate the crown
Cause they all stand up but they all fall down
(All stand up but they all fall down)
These nights I walk the restless halls;
I’m shipwrecked and unclean
These nights I fear the quiet lust
Of someone else’s dream
These nights I just can’t take it;
There’s quiet all around
And they all stand up but they all fall down.
There’s more mistrust than meets the eye
But there’s less than you forgot
And it’s all these damned loose endings
That keep tying me in knots
So step into the center ring
And mystify the crowd
Cause they all stand up but they all fall down.
(All stand up but they all fall down.)
12. ALL THE DISCARDED ANGELS
In a house of broken windows
Where all the doors are gone
I’m searching for your thirsty boots
And finding only one
But I see the discarded angels
Wearing your best shoes
They’re headed for the age of ice
the whiter shades of blues
(All the discarded angels)
Your face worn out with dreaming
Has grown pale like an old book
Your portrait has been packed away
And I’ve forgotten how to look
And all the discarded young angels
Desiring your desire
Are sleeping in your bed tonight
Like candles in a fire
(All the discarded angels)
And your words like silver bullets
And your mouth is a loaded gun
And emptiness has moved into
These rooms which once had none
And all the discarded angels
Competing for your desire
I see my face among them
Like a candle in a fire
And all the discarded young angels
Desiring your desire
Are sleeping in your bed tonight
Like candles in a fire
13. THE COLOR OF BLOOD
Come closer my sweet lover
Put your mouth right to the phone
If you tell me something I don’t know
I’ll follow you all the way home
Look down when you are walking
Look up when you’re alone
The whites of your eyes
Might shine in the dark
But I’ve never seen my own.
I give you one more shot, my love
One chance to fire or miss
I’m all out of impatience
And this is all there is
When it all comes down
To a man with a gun
You’re no better than your word
You can talk your way around it
But the color of blood is pure
So I’ve heard
(The Color of blood is pure)
Speak to me with words that make it matter
Tell me something I can understand
And make it black and white
So come to me my killer
Come closer than before
Sing to me in the key of love
Cause I’ll never ask for more.
When it all comes down
To the wire
You’re no better than you were
You can call yourself a liar
But you can’t change the color of blood
(The color of blood is pure).
14. THICKEST WINTER
In thickest winter I watch you, now
Before the teary throngs;
Your eyes are dry, your mouth is rough.
A hundred million witnesses
Approve your moment at the brink:
The words you choose, the way your fingers move.
The crying girl before the screen
Misdressed and out of time is stricken down
Like stone the cracks of longing
Undermine the way your fingers move
She hears: This is the way I love my girl
Deeper and deeper
This is the way I love my girl
I keep her and keep her
Invisibly the crying girl applauds with awkward grace
(This one is wild and anxious to move on)
Sequestered in her secrecy,
Obediently all she feels:
A different hand caressing her
The way your fingers move
He says: This is the way I love my girl
Deeper and deeper
This is the way I hold her hand
I keep her and keep her
With silent apprehension now the new regime begins
The past is only what you say it was….
The clever art of history designs and redefines the years
The crying girl digests the tears and sweat you shove inside her
He says: This is the way I love my girl
Deeper and deeper
This is the way I hold her down
I keep her and keep her