More Songs For Dreamsleepers And The Very Awake Chords

Capo 2nd fret

Standard (EADGBE)

Verse

E

Chorus

G A E E

When playing E, play around with the third fret on the two highest strings aswell

as lift the finger from the D-string to get that country feeling to it.

 Intro E

Verse

They say to move along, but it's hard to move along

when something's not right with my air.

They say to get along, but it's hard to get along

with what's going on over there.

And maybe the boy with the lead in his side

needs attention, for without it he'll surely die.

Ignorance is bliss and it's something we'll miss

should we choose to open up both of our eyes.

Chorus

So I says "You've been hit, how hard does it hurt?"

And he says "Not as bad as the two in my back."

And I said "I find it pretty hard to move with

this subjection around my neck."

Verse

And maybe the boy with the lead in his side

would like to get a chance to tell his side.

Ignorance is bliss and it's something we'll miss

should we choose to open up both of our eyes.

You know, I'm having these symptoms too.

Is there really nothing any of us can do?

You know, I'm having these symptoms too.

Is there really nothing any of us can do?

Chorus

So I says "You've been hit, how hard does it hurt?"

And he says "Not as bad as the two in my back."

And I said "I find it pretty hard to move with

this compulsion tipping off my tongue."

Verse

You know, I'm having these symptoms too.

Is there really nothing any of us can do?

(2) STAY WARM

Verse

C Am

Chorus

 [F G C Am] *2

F G A♯ Am

F G C

Verse

So we built burning cities at the top of our notes,

now we doubt our commitment to God and Country

or Job and Comp'ny. Though no one wants to break their arm

to reach for what they don't know,

Chorus

this truth's in you and it's bruising through

when you're provoked: open notes from open throats

rattle down closed-circuit hopes, like all those little bones

that choke up, lonely in the cold.

Verse

So it's for all those who gave clinch pins as engagement rings,

who make "Amen"s instead of making amends,

who let someone steal their kisses,

who hit the bottom of a bottle and forget

to put the message in it.

Chorus

We know what we don't deserve,

but we're oh-so-tired and we "have no time,"

and the only thing that we were taught

was where, when, and how often to draw lines.

Verse

But if we only find ourselves in decision.

And we only find ourselves indecision.

Will we have found the solvent or the solution?

And is there merit in either both? Either both?

Chorus

this truth's in you and it's bruising through

when you're provoked: open notes from open throats

rattle down closed-circuit hopes, like all those little bones

that choke up, lonely in the cold.

Please don't choke up in the cold.

(3) BONES

 Vere: C E Am F

C F F/E F/D C

Chorus

F C F C

F C Am

C F F/E F/D C

Verse

Over the tracks,

with a sack full of matches,

I'm gonna burn all the letters I've wrote.

Don't worry, darling,

I ain't brave enough to catch it,

this fire that's licking my hopes.

Chorus

Besides, if I went up

like a soaked rolling paper,

I'd still be fast-burning-out.

And what's the use of a good, strong noose

when your problem's too much hanging around?

Verse

So I walked back crashing,

my pockets full of ash in

the latesummer moon's holy glow.

that loved me to death on the banks

of every river,

where every breath in brought me home.

Chorus

'Cause if home's where hearts is

beating like a bird's wing,

then I've many homes and I should:

said a man who wasn't homeless,

"I'm always just traveling/

taking walks around my neighborhood."

Verse

Trumpet solo

Wisdom: it comes

but age don't unlock it.

You've got to spend all the passion you've found.

With more change in their heads

than in all of their pockets,

Outro

 some can shCow you the waFy to slow dAmown. (ooDoh...)

CSometimes we all nFeedF/E to sF/Dlow dCown.

Verse

E E C G

E E G D

Chorus

C G D Am

Verse

I've got this frozen virus in my blood,

like my words are the warmest I could ever touch.

I'll limp west with the sun

and sleep the days under wide-eyed illusion.

But that beacon has seen me sleeping,

knows the ruse; the rouge, the spill that pools

to pull at my shoes and leave me to stand,

forever free, forever dead.

Chorus

Please stay alive.

I can't beg again

with a back that's bad as your eyes

and ears--oh my.

Please stay alive.

I can't ask again

with a tongue that's worse than ...

Verse

... my pride

Oh Angels, keep the windows open

wide as English bathtubs

running through miss Annie's head

(the one she cradled in CO).

I know I shouldn't talk so low

of high life when I've got no

frame of reference; all the ones I found

were broken with pictures torn out

Chorus

and strewn asunder

under summers laced with tracer fire,

copper pieces, and fishing wire.

(Rolled in the covers

over tumblers filled with vacation.

Empty, it reeks of self-deprecation.)

[First chorus two and a half times]

Verse

C♯m E C♯m E

A E A E

Verse

It's like some overbearing tax on praxis;

how I'm supposed to feel bad for this

when all I've sworn to do

is hold soul like a cold in haunted bronchial tubes.

And my love for you

is harmless as fallen fruit.

'Picked up quick how nice

a jaw cradles a fist -

you made it look like an accident

and no (no)

one finds truth

among tooth that march 'round

my parched mouth

slinging science to the beat of their own gums.

Ooh (ooh)-ahh-la-lies we advertise.

Bastardized pidgin insult,

a lingua franca of

heroes and villains:

Failure.

I don't know it any more than I know success -

it ain't my mess.

I won't baby you, won't wipe your mouth

when the shit-talk stops.

Oh, stop.

Trumpet solo

I won't baby you, won't wipe your mouth

Verse

A E A A

Chorus

 [D Bm A A] *3

A E A A

Verse

Each year my hands look more like my father's:

scars of a yesterday, but palms up to tomorrows,

knuckles dug in rusted earth to loose the saplings. Follow

the hollows to the trunks and wrap my arms around the sorrow.

Chorus

And the seeds that I will sow slow as the earth turns will be

the snares that strip the ankles, (trip to hide me from the half-truths,)

the garden, hard and soft, holding me, older than the oak trees.

Mama didn't raise no fool.

Verse

Each year my feet look more like my mother's:

heels feel for days before and toes hold to the next end,

pounding out the sounds of freedom, loud and out the quicksand,

kicking down the rocks to talk the language of the wetlands.

Chorus

And the paths I will travel spring up ringing with their own voice,

rolling over stones and soles, (fast awake, in-tune,)

rising from the dust to trust themselves with their own noise.

Mama didn't raise no fool.

Verse

Each year our eyes are looking more like someone else's:

taking in the things they string together through distraction.

We burn what we learned in urns to piece together action,

or mistake a greater dose of hope for peace and satisfaction.

Chorus

And I sustain the pain and shame of the slings and the arrows

launched from the mouths of folks that I once thought I knew.

Yes, I've known love but not how to love in spite of these blows,

so I keep on and hope I learn to.

For now?

Course I can hear 'em, but I can't listen

to folks who have the curse of sight without the gift of vision;

they're deep as summer puddles, just as easy to see through, and

Mama didn't raise no fool.

Outro

AMama didn't Eraise Ano EfooAl.

Verse

Am C

Chorus

Am D Am F G

 Breakdown 1: F C F C F C Em G

 Breakdown 2: Am E F G G♯ Am

Verse

Blue smoke and cider sounds

curled above our heads like tongues of fire

under wires in a big

City Hall stands tall and every pregnant pause

is giving birth to answers

I can't understand.

"We're only starting a racket 'cause you've started a racket!"

I scream, "We only want to level this city because

things are so uneven!" But I don't think they can hear me.

Chorus

Verse

Like hot breaths between my praying hands

could make my fingers glow,

like the psalms between my palms are all

I'll ever need to know,

I count out hymns for hims and hims and hers and hers

and hims-for-hearses, turn to face the wind and silence

flying sins in words-like-curses.

"Church and state had their day in the centuries before,"

I say, "The future is unwritten if we hold what can erase."

But I still get sad ripping up ads that the Marines

send to friend every kid in my family.

Chorus

('Cause I can afford to.)

Breakdown 1

I told her once, "There's a great line in this song I heard,

But I can't tell you unless something really big happens to us."

Breakdown 2

(8) TENDER SPARKS (OCTOBER AND OVER)

Verse

D Open D (x54030/xx0030)

Chorus

 [Bm C♯m D D] *2

Bm C♯m D D/C♯ Bm

G A D

Verse

October and over.

There’s never enough words for my throat.

So cold in the root cellar suburbs.

Low in the lowlight, and high on tender sparks.

Chorus

Water comes through wood over my head same as it would

through the hull of a dead ship sailing on a slow sea.

And I’ve seen too many wrecks to think this year.

Verse

That horizon’s climbin’ high’s it can.

This ladder flatters gravity, and the bones we hold tremble our knees,

but they'll be worn no more.

Chorus

There’s all those girls and all those boys

who liked me better when I was weakened by loss

in all the right spots, but I don’t need to slap people in the face.

(9) SOME TREES

Verse

G B E A

Chorus

C Am

Verse

Trumpet solo

Hitting and missing, (mostly missing,)

I sit kissing where your face was

an hour before.

Both spell disaster

with some kind of far-off capital L.

But I'll never say it, dear.

Like tossing bread at the bird in the park;

it's not going to help anything anyway,

or make anything go faster.

Chorus

And I've been sure that she'd be

this ghost that she'd never meet,

that I'd find her dragging dumb luck

down cold nor'easter streets.

Verse

Trumpet solo

But I've fallen into your arms

like a collapsed prizefighter,

and so far I'm crawling this year

like it's going stale.

Braced to embrace, I'm all sick-grins in

(Break my jaw on a Goodnight, I slip grins in,)

the corner of the living room, back of the kitchen,

(the back of the hallway, the back of the kitchen,)

and tonight I'm wrapping myself in linens

Chorus

like gauze and staunching thoughts

from running where they ought not to run.

I'm not lost,

I could slow it down, but I

Doubt I can--I can't stop.

Verse

Trumpet solo

(Well, gosh, it's hot.

I want a body where my head

is finally the top.)

(10) LANDING

Verse

Am C F F

Chorus

C G F F

Verse

Like a block party with smoke.

Little godspittle showers the hair on our arms.

My hair still smells like burning church.

I know folks brought under the grace of some fog there.

I know folks joined in word and deed there.

I know the love that won't falter without an altar.

Holy Holy Holy

Chorus

Verse

Hiss on the house when a steeple calls out:

the AM static of a thousandth rescue mission.

Your lashes were fastened, fascination came second,

and the minutes were mashing up symbols with actions.

Verse

My Is bled all over the page,

and I couldn't cross my Ts without a prayer and a bowed head.

In the dark, back to ark, my feet were bare.

Chorus

There was glass in all of the parking lots.

Lots of solos

[second verse with chorus chords]