Lyrics
The sun is shining on his plastic chair
A rolled up Cuban on his lip
Worn out eyes look through the salty air
Out to another cargo ship
And to the south, the pastel condos rise
As if to form a solid wall
My gosh it seems like just a month or two ago
That there was nothing there at all.
He hears another wave a-crashing
And the irony is plain
Up and down the coast it’s changing
Changing but still
That old ocean looks the same
Made his money selling big machines
First came down here in sixty-two
Every year the same old friends would reconvene
He smiles to think of all the stuff they’d do
But nowadays there’s only Stuart left
And Stuart’s moving kind of slow
He might stop over with a six pack for a gift
And reminisce on the patio
Just then another wave goes crashing
And the irony is plain
Up and down the coast it’s changing
Changing but still
That old ocean looks the same
He remembers how
This was a paradise
Back when Alicia was alive
The people with him now
They treat him very nice
They do his laundry
And take him out for drives
And in the car he tends to contemplate
Florida before there were these walls
Seems like now it's every mile, another guarded gate
With lighted palms and waterfalls
And there is grumbling in the supermart
Heads are shaking side to side
Everybody wants to keep things just the way they were
On the day they arrived
He hears another wave a-crashing
And the irony is plain
Up and down the coast it’s changing
Changing but still
That old ocean …
Up and down the coast it’s changing
Changing but still
That old ocean looks the same.
Lyrics
Where are you calling from?
I can hardly hear you.
Your voice is soft and weary
And so far away.
Missed you all night long insanely.
Wish I had more sleep, but mainly
I wish I was
Where you’re calling from.
Where are you calling from?
I can almost see your face
Looking thru a foggy windshield
Driving in the rain.
Checking in some dive motel room
You should find a better place, still
I wish I was
Where you’re calling from.
Making up just half a bed each morning,
Looking at a TV show alone,
I keep trying to tell myself
To keep my mind on something else
But every time I hear the telephone,
I wonder
Where are you calling from?
If only I could touch your sleeve
I’d pull you close and make you promise
Not to leave again.
Guess it’s time to say goodnight now
But as I reach to turn the light out
I wish I was
Where you’re calling from.
Lyrics
The house was never warm enough right after her husband died
She would walk around in her coat all day thru the emptiness inside
Just a couple months ago he was standing right over there
But he had blown away like the cottonwood and she didn’t know to where.
He had always been the one to handle their affairs
But now that was all up to her if she could just get down the stairs
So she was putting papers into piles all across the basement floor
When she noticed some old cardboard box she didn’t remember from before
Full of cocktail napkins and paper scraps, and it did not take her long
To realize that there inside were his unfinished songs.
He had always wanted to be a songwriter, but it was a distant dream
Oh he would play for her if he finished one, but they were few and far between.
Looking now at this box so full, had she been that out of touch
To know that he was writing with no idea how much?
But she remembered now he once told her how their position would be strong
If he could only get fifty cent for each unfinished song.
In a verse about a lonesome walk, she heard footsteps out on the deck
In a line about his trembling breath, she could feel it down her neck
She could hear his voice and touch his skin and she was almost sure
When she read the words “Forever Love” he forever was with her
Oh his mind could go from place to place and he could leave his songs undone
Never would become a star but he had been her morning sun
And they say that it’s a good idea to finish what you start
But there was something in those unfinished songs that got into her heart
He had left her on a winter night but it would not be so wrong
To say that he come back to her in those unfinished songs.
Life goes on and so does she, it’s a little struggle every day
But the world is little struggles and she’s okay, okay
She remembers him thru her photobooks and his letters in the drawer
And his suit still in the closet and his shoes there on the floor
But it goes beyond remembering, it’s like he isn’t even gone
Every time she opens up that box of his unfinished songs.
Lyrics
Couple weeks ago I took a trip to the little town where I was raised
The corn was high as the miles slipped by on a clear September day
When I got in, the sun was low, the stores all closed downtown
I looked for someone I might know, but no one was around.
Drove that truck til I ended up on the street where our family lived
The house looked almost miniature but the trees had got so big
I was watching some kids and the game they were playing as I sat while the engine ran
I was just about to pull away when I heard a screen door slam
And I thought I saw me, running thru the yard
Catching up with some friends for one last at bat
Before coming in from the dark
I never can explain it right
Just something in the air that night
But there out in the fading light
I thought I saw me.
Now my memories have a hold on me and I guess they always will
There's a picture so real, sometimes it feels like the past might be happening still
Like if I walked outside and climbed on up into that rusty old truck of mine
And drove just right in the Midwest night, I could almost drive back into time.
I thought I saw me, running thru the yard
Catching up with some friends for one last at bat
Before coming in from the dark
I never can explain it right
Just something in the air that night
But there out in the fading light
I thought I saw me.
Lyrics
When Joseph got the news that day, it startled him
But thru it all he never left her side
And though the baby wasn't really part of him
He cried his love all Christmas night
And Mary watched them there together
At first it took her by surprise
When she turned around to see a little bit
Of Jesus there in Joseph's eyes
Now in this whole wide world I don't know who could guess
Just how bad the pressure might have been
Living every day with all your humanness
Bringing up a boy who had no sin
And Mary watched them grow together
It always took her by surprise
Every time she turned to see a little bit
Of Jesus there in Joseph's eyes.
God and Jesus walking thru eternity
Talking as a father and a son
I like to think that now and then they stop to see
If Joseph wants to walk along
And Mary sees them all together
Somewhere on a road beyond the skies
And everywhere she turns she sees a little bit
Of Jesus there in Joseph's eyes.
Lyrics
If this is us
Hands in our pockets, nothing left to say.
Don't know how it ended up this way,
Chilly as the fog, and lonely as a teardrop in the dust.
I guess the time has come to turn and walk away
If this is us
If this is you
I remember how you laughed before.
I could hold you for a lifetime more.
But something isn't right and I don't know what to do.
I guess the time has come to turn and walk away
If this is you
If this is me, baby down all day and up all night
Asking could we have found a way to make it right.
Could we make it right?
If this is love
In a dream I'm standing in the sea,
I see you swimming back to me.
You would rise up to my arms if dreaming was enough.
I guess the time has come, the time has come
If this is love
If this is me
If this is you
If this is us.
Lyrics
Well the pay ain’t too bad down at the shoe factory
Putting insoles to uppers on line number three
And when the work day is done, he goes home right away
Where Julie is waiting with little Jesse Rae
Then they all sit to supper, maybe turn on TV
Just three people and their love in a living room
‘til Julie says “Hey babe, I’m tired. I think I’ll take our girl to bed.”
And he says, “You two go ahead, I’ll be there soon.”
And up the stairs
As she reads the girl a story
She knows he’s down there working on a song.
In her prayers she stops
To think about the road their lives are on.
But the morning’s coming early.
She reaches for the light
And just before she sleeps she hears the sound
Of his guitar in the night.
At an old kitchen table, on a warm afternoon
He struggles to negotiate the demands of verse and tune.
It’s hard to get it right, and when he does it sends him flying.
For hours in the night he’s still trying
And up the stairs
She is mindful of her family
And she knows he’s down there working on a song.
In her prayers she stops
To think about the road their lives are on.
But the morning’s coming early.
She reaches for the light
And just before she sleeps she hears the sound
Of his guitar in the night.
The morning’s coming early.
She reaches for the light
And just before she sleeps she hears the sound
Of his guitar in the night.
Lyrics
Christopher Columbus, they taught me long ago
All the voyages and discoveries that he made
When he got back there to Spain I hear the people went insane
And they had a great big party and a ticker tape parade
Years later, Charles Lindbergh crossed the same sea
All alone as the plane began to climb
He was taking quite a chance, but he flew it clear to France
And I guess it was a big deal at the time.
But you and me
Nothing can compare to our life together
There
Is no kingdom, no great discovery
Someday
This old world might all go up in flames
But you and me
We will go down in history.
I know it’s real important, what Edison came up with
In a laboratory up in Menlo Park
Working thru the night on some new electric light
And without it we would all be doing Facebook in the dark
The inventors, the explorers who have made their mark on time
And the rulers and the places that they rule
Will belong to the ages and exist on the pages
Of the books we have our children read in school.
But you and me
Nothing can compare to our life together
There
Is no kingdom, no great discovery
Someday
This old world might all go up in flames
But you and me
We will go down in history.
Declarations, constitutions
Overthrows and revolutions
Market crash, Great depression
Presidential indiscretion
Astronauts up on the moon
Davey Crockett, Daniel Boone
Bach and Michelangelo
Elvis, Mozart, and Van Gogh
Waterloo and Watergate
Alexander, he was great
Martin Luther, Charlemagne
Lincoln’s heart, Einstein’s brain
But you and me
Nothing can compare to our life together
There
Is no kingdom, no great discovery
Someday
This old world might all go up in flames
But you and me
We will go down in history.
Yeh, you and me
Down in history.
Lyrics
Somebody’s Calling Your Name
His eyes are full of hunger, he is blistered by the heat
Walking slow on a Tanzanian plain
And there are babies back home with nothing left to eat
Somebody’s calling your name
Somebody’s calling out your name tonight
Somebody’s calling out your name
Somebody’s cry
Is reaching cross the sky
Somebody’s calling your name
And there are refugees and misfits and dreamers in the world
Just trying to find a way to ease their pain
Looking all around for a little piece of ground
Somebody’s calling your name
Somebody’s calling out your name tonight
Somebody’s calling out your name
Somebody’s cry
Is reaching cross the sky
Somebody’s calling your name
Christmas day is over and she sits down on the bed
And she wonders why nobody came
She holds the tiny present she had wrapped in green and red
Somebody’s calling your name.
Somebody’s calling out your name tonight
Somebody’s calling out your name
Somebody’s cry
Is reaching cross the sky
Somebody’s calling your name
Oh I am fearful of the day when it all might go away
And no longer can I hold you at my side
Will I ever have a rest in the rest of forever
Looking for you in a universe so wide?
So if you notice something as you’re traveling thru the stars
Like a song in your head you can’t explain
With words about old memories and a cedar top guitar
It will be me calling out your name
Somebody’s calling out your name tonight
Somebody’s calling out your name
Somebody’s cry
Is reaching cross the sky
Somebody’s calling your name
Somebody’s calling your name
