|
Lyrics
SONGS FOR BRIGHT STREET
All songs © 2006 by Amy Speace, Speace Monster Music (BMI), unless otherwise indicated. Please do not reprint without permission.
STEP OUT OF THE SHADE
I wrote this song at the Rocky Mountain Folks Festival Song School, a week long "camp" for songwriters. About 200 amazing writers, all together, ego's and insecurities and comradeship and all….I wrote it for a friend, but really, I wrote it for myself...
You wake in a cloud every morning
Ready to find somewhere to hide
Turn on the news to thunderstorm warnings
Prepare for the worst you might find
You open your oversized umbrella
Like mothering arms it keeps you safe
Watching your feet you can't tell that
There is no rain
Step out of the shade and look at the day
Out here the weather's better
Now the sky comes into view
Step into the sun, let go of the rung
You've been hanging onto
Then take hold of something new
You might find you
You say you are happy with your choices
You've worked for years on your art
You found a direction and your own voice
So what are you hiding in your heart?
You might like it better there
With the sun shining on your hair
Back to the Top
WATER LANDING
Started this song on the plane from NYC to Nashville, thinking of soft and hard landings, and that place in a relationship where you're not quite sure where you'll land...
It's a quiet drive home, there's less and less to say
Pleasant nods and smiles are weighted
Behind us to the west, you see it in reverse
The sun is fire red and fading
It's all been done before
It's all been done before
We should have turned around when we had the chance
When exiting was easy
Now we'll drive straight through no admission of mistakes
Heading back to Jersey City
It's all been done before
It's all been done before
I retain the words
I practiced in my head
The ones I knew would hurt
The ones I never said to you
It's all been done before
It's all been done before
It's a quiet drive home, there's less and less to say
Pleasant nods and smiles are weighted
Back to the Top
NOT THE HEARTLESS KIND
What if I stacked the cards, hid the ace next to my heart
Playing out the game with a steady-handed art
What if I left the closet open, skeletons and all
Invited in the press, leaving you to take the fall?
What if I scratched below the surface enough to open up the bricks
Decades of desertion too eroded for a fix
What if I did all the things I swore I'd never do
Just to get me off the hook and leave the blame with you
I built this house with my own hands
I can tear it down crush these bricks to sand
You sat there on the sofa as the roof fell from the sky
I could leave you in the rubble but I'm not the Heartless Kind
What if I broke all of the mirrors just to hide my fears
Used the broken glass to wipe away my tears?
Then I'd leave you with the furniture, the photos in the frames
All I'd take in my bag is this mess that I made
So I'll prop up the destruction, tidy up before I go
Put away the cards but leave an ace in the hole
I will pack up all the memories, the ones faded and blue
Seal them in the boxes that I moved in here with you
And maybe we'll unpack them, put things back in their place
When broken love is mended by a whole lot of grace
Back to the Top
TWO
Wrote this sitting on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, staring out into the void. But I'd just come from Utah and camping at Zion and that rhymed better...
All the stars in the sky on this clear mid-May night
Far beyond the dark clay of the walls
They remind me of you and when our love was new
Everything's better with two
I have rolled out my bed alongside the red
Of Zion's great towering view
But the beauty so bold is lost all alone
Everything's better with two
A couple more drinks till they close
Then they'll turn out the lights and ask me to go
I'll sleep off the haze of my singular ways
And count the days till I'm back home with you
Some may swear by solitaire
Some like a group interlude
But with three or four it's hard to keep score
I keep it simple with two
A couple more shows till I'm through
Then I pack this guitar and head back home to you
And I'll cherish the nights I'll sleep holding you tight
Everything's better with two
Cause everthing's better with you
Back to the Top
SHED THIS SKIN
You want to have coffee, meet for a drink
Tell me your story, see what I think
How I make sense of Time versus truth
I tell you we're all just hanging on by one loose end
Shed this skin, Crawl within
Get to the core of something more
Then where I've been
I borrow stories 'cause I'm bored with my own
Life threw us some curve balls
We took a few bruises then batted them home
So let's drink to our blessings
That helped us prevail
Let bygones be bygones
And breakups remain love that tried but failed
Back to the Top
THE REAL THING
"Well-behaved women rarely make history"
I don't like men who tell me how to talk and how to dress
I don't like girls who gossip when their own life is a mess
I don't like winter in New York 'cause I don't like too much wind
But I like the way you feel against me naked on my skin
And I'll tell you what I think and I won't sugarcoat it baby,
I am the real thing
I'm too young to know better but I'm too damn old to care
With enough tequila I might take up any dare
I'm as aloof as November and mean like July
But I can purr like a little kitten if you scratch me on my side
I like the way I look although I am not model thin
I am the real thing
Do I make you blush do I talk too loud
Do I drink too much, do I act too proud?
Well take me as I am or take another now
'Cause I am not going to change for nobody no how
I am not a good reformer I found a twisted satisfaction
When I went back to confession just to see the priests' reaction
After quite a pause he asked me if I was contrite then
He gave me 25 Hail Marys to repeat every night
Then I asked him am I free to go repeating all of my sins
I am the real thing
You can look to the princess In her high glass tower
Or join us witches we keep very late hours
We are the real thing
Back to the Top
MAKE ME LONELY AGAIN
I sit by my window and stare at the moon
I've held all your letters till my fingers were blue
I recall every moment like I'm pressing rewind
I got what I asked for now I'm losing my mind
Even when I was younger I liked being alone
Felt awkward at parties didn't go to the prom
While the whole world was dancing and falling in love
I stayed home in my slippers watching 'Harold and Maude'
I feel like I'm dying
'Cause I'm always crying
If this is what love is
Make me lonely again
I didn't date much, didn't understand why
When girlfriends had crushes how they'd giggle and sigh
Love made them seem stupid, dizzy and lost
I bragged love would never tie my stomach in knots
But when I met you dear, my pride took a dive
I loved you in the instant you looked into my eyes
Now my whole world is spinning and I'm not sleeping so well
If love's really the answer why does it put us through hell?
Back to the Top
DREAMING
By Deborah Harry and Chris Stein
Back to the Top
ROW ROW ROW
Music by Amy Speace, Lyrics by Amy Speace/James Mastro
Every folk singer needs a river song. This is my river, the one I spent most of my childhood on.
Heading down the Susquehanna
In a boat made of pine
Floating down this gentle river
To forget what once was mine
I know you love another
Even though you swear you're true
So I built this boat with your betrayal
And I'm floating far from you
Back to the land of my grandmother
To the hills where she lay
The Allegheny mountain valley
Where the city melts away
And someday I may forgive you
If I find the grace for that
But now I'm bound through Pennsylvania
And I just may not come back
Row row row this drifting boat
By the light of the moon
Gently lead me back to hope and back to loving you
Right back to you
I met you first in California by the side of Highway One
With your hair down to your shoulders haloed by the setting sun
I was driving to Elmira so I offered you a ride
You said you'd come as far as Kansas
Then you remained right by my side
I fell for you by Minnesota you said you'd fallen days before
I pledged my love then paid for breakfast
Gave you the key to my front door
I thought I'd be your one and only
That hand in hand we'd bear the years
But like this river we divided
May these waters drown these tears
Back to the Top
RIGHT THROUGH TO ME
Nerissa Nields challenged me to write a song using the image of the moon and mars being very close to each other.
Stayed up all night under canopy stars
The light of the moon competing with mars
The glow of the fire had faded away
Over the mountains crept in the day
We huddled together to keep out the cold
Shoulder to shoulder head to toe
A meteor shower rained us her light
Your lips reached mine my heart took flight
Blame it on the night, blame it on the lack of light
Blame love on the way that I leaned in cause I could barely see
I looked inside you, you got right through to me
You teach me these things before you go
Say God always sends us what we need to know
One day you look up from your shuffling feet
And crash into who you thought you might be
The magic of moonlight and stars collide in the morning
Love lands in rooms you never thought were still open
Back to the Top
I CAN'T FIND A REASON TO CRY
You ask me if there's something wrong
I say I'm working on a song
You haven't said a word in miles
I lay my left hand on your thigh
Today I woke and something changed
Can't seem to pinpoint what seems strange
Yesterday it all seemed fine
But love can rotate on a dime
I can't find a reason
I can't find a reason
I can't find a reason to cry
Instead of telling you I'm sad
I lean against the seatbelt strap
You're arguing about the war
I count the pennies on the floor
At 60 miles an hour I can't figure out a way
To fix the fallen pieces of this day
Back to the Top
DOUBLE WIDE TRAILER
Music and Lyrics by Amy Speace/Jagoda/Jenny Bruce
We wrote this song driving back from a tour in North Carolina with an Atlas on my lap. Jagoda was driving. I was humming the tune, we all were laughing out loud. It's an homage, of sorts.
I found love in a double wide trailer
Never thought I'd feel so at home in the mud
Fell into the arms of a man from Carolina
Traded in my trust fund for a six-pack of Bud
Somewhere east of Durham my jeep broke down in Justice
Trying to get to Duke to meet a good friend for the break
A good ol' boy pulled over said, "How can I be of service?"
I got into his pickup truck that was my first mistake.
He took me down to Zebulon to his cousin's service station
He offered me some jerky while he checked under the hood
He shook his head and wiped his brow and said "I'll tell you darlin'
I hope you got a place to stay cuz this sure don't look good"
The Good ol' boy he smiled at me and said "My name is Billy
My mother calls me Buddy but my cousin calls me Joe
You can call me anything you want you sure are purdy
And I can cook you dinner if you've nowhere else to go."
His eyes were blue and gentle and his smile was warm and friendly
He wore a cut of t-shirt and a Nascar baseball cap
His arms tattooed with Dixie crosses wrapped around his biceps
Who would have known by dinner he would have me on his lap
18 month have passed and now I'm pregnant with our second
Never got to Durham, I guess that's plain to see
I sold the Jeep for parts to pay for cigarettes and diapers
While Joe and Billy Jr. watch Bonanza on TV
Back to the Top
HOME
This is the earliest song written for the album. I used to live with the band The Vestrymen, a really amazing band and forerunner to the whole jangly alt-country scene going on now. Matt Davis was a great songwriter and I'm sure I stole a lot of what he was doing back then in the early 90's. I was lucky to have gone to college in Western, MA with some amazing music going on: DinosaurJr., Buffalo Tom, The Vestrymen…I didn't yet write music, but I was watching and listening. This was a letting go for me...
Summertime on Old Bay Road
Innocence, no where to go
There were fireflies in mid July
Lighting up the northern skies
I'm with the love of my life, and I
I feel at home here
I used to watch you play from a stool on the bar
Watch where your fingers lay on that old guitar
Then I tried to sing to you a song I wrote
Anything that would move us closer to certainty
You left so easy that I found a home alone
Now I dig down deep enough to find the place I hide the tears
The photos and the tapes have lasted 10 years
Now you live downstairs, maybe across the street
With your wife and child and we sometimes meet
In the grocery line, the movie aisles,
paying parking fines, sometimes on line
On rainy nights in our different lives
We have our own homes
We have our own homes
Back to the Top
SONGS FOR BRIGHT STREET
All songs © 2006 by Amy Speace, Speace Monster Music (BMI), unless otherwise indicated. Please do not reprint without permission.
|
