1.
Mr. Mumbles
2. 22 Is A Good Age
3. Listen Here, Ramona Dear
4. Stars
Shine Bright Tonight
5. She Says She Never Loved
6. So That's Life, Then?
7.
Things That Make You Die Make You Feel Alive
MR. MUMBLES
I'm feelin' like I'm onstage
But I'm alone in my house
Feelin', feelin',
feelin' so bummed out
I'm an ambitious guy
And somehow we both met
How did I become so covered in sweat?
It was only a fling, I knew that was
your thing
Now I can't go to sleep
I imagine you're lost
In a place
where the bus
Can't get you across
With another lover, another high cost
I'm feelin' so ill
But why would I think you're gonna when you never said
you will?
I imagine you're not safe
Under another's touch
But you
always said that I worry too much I can't sleep this pain is breaking the
night
And taking up my time
What's wrong or right with me, behind the
water-lights?
You take a cruise into the white
With a ballroom dress
and a need to spite
The others who would catch your sighs
I'm glad that
I'm in this cold foxhole
'Cause I'll emerge with a balance beam dose of gymnastic
control
I won't speak what's on my mind
That's difficult and serpentine
And lovers lose their breath
God don't reward the humble
Call me Mr. Mumbles
My insides are turning out
The alarm clock made me jump out
Of my
warm, warm, warm bed
I'm an ambitious guy
And you're in some other stead
What's going through your head?
Are you thinking of me?
I ponder this,
regretfully
It was only a fling, I knew that was your thing
Now you're
off and you're lost
Some new lover, some new cost
In his hand is a cross,
you gotta fake, fake, fake it baby
I'm gonna take a spill to the floor
And remember you by the door
Now he's got his hand on your leg
And I'm
alone on the street
There's a cab by the road
And I'm yelling, "Where
is she?"
But what kind of cost
Does a boss like me have
If I can't
gain the love
Of a flighty gal like you
But what's a dreamer to do?
The pain of loss is breaking my night
And stabbing pain
Of what is right,
wading among the water-lights
The green lake gust of fairy tales sights
Your love letter beats and bashes my life
That's what I get for being so hopeful
Getting so low will make me clean
Get away from this dirty section of town
And bring me the balance beam dose of gymnastic control
Call me Mr. Mumbles,
dear
I won't speak what's on my mind
That's difficult and serpentine
And lovers lose their breath
God don't reward the humble
Call me Mr. Mumbles
So hopeful
So hopeful
So hopeful 22 IS A GOOD AGE You
worked real hard to get to know me
The chrome graveyard rose and we somehow
convened
I didn't work too hard to win affection from you
When things
come so quick how can you give them any value? We're in an unholy place where
nobody frets
We don't worry about morals, there are no regrets
But what's
the damn point when nobody frets?
Everything's equal and nobody gets too
high
I want to feel high Like you wanted me because I'm a special guy
I heard you're in New York
Headed for a divorce
With lack of family support
Discoing, discoing into the night
But you can turn the page
22 is a good
age When we last spoke you were ingénue
You'd get all choked up when I
ask you what you wanted to do
When we last spoke you were ingénue
You
were a little sad at the way God treated you So don't fret much 'bout that
Catholic guilt
Your mama died young and you've had it with the stilts
You're walkin' on stilts and you're too easy
The only regret I have left is
that I let an easy girl like you leave me So you moved to New York
Got
married, then divorced
With lack of family support
Discoing, discoing
into the night
But you can still turn the page
22 is a good age To
disco, disco, disco Take your time, baby
I have a feeling that,
If
you're like the others
You're gonna fall back in love with me So you moved
to New York
Got married, then divorced
With lack of family support
Discoing, discoing into the night
But you can still turn the page
22 is
a good age To disco, disco, disco LISTEN HERE, RAMONA DEAR
Listen here, Ramona dear
Pay attention
Sit across the table and think
Of all the opportunities that passed in a blink
I'm sincere, Ramona dear
Pay attention
Time is runnin' out on dreams you ponder
So sitting here
is a waste of time You lived in San Francisco
You wrote your manifesto
I'm sincere, Ramona dear
Pay attention
Sitting here's a waste of time
There are clichés in empty galleries
Forgone dreams and salaries
Jean
Harlow on your wall
You were dressed by your fifteen year old friend
There
are clichés in empty galleries
Forgone dreams and salaries
Jean Harlow
on your wall
You were dressed by your young friend My room was empty,
walls were bare
I showed you the place, you didn't care
You ignored the
living room and
I would have loved for you to care
But time was running
out Listen here, Ramona dear
Destiny doesn't smile on the slow
You
hear the music I make
And I can tell it don't make you shake
So it's time
for you to go
Conversations on death won't help you
You're beyond this
cafe
You've got to leave
I probably won't grieve Georgia O'Keefe can't
help you out
Dreamin' is done, it's time to act
So leave me now...
Time is running out, for you
To fill the gallery STARS SHINE BRIGHT
TONIGHT You won every game, touched every heart, indelibly
Go team,
go team, go
You aced every class, were requited at every pass
Go Tom,
go Tom, go
Talent shows and party girls, somehow you always won
Even
though you felt bad in the wings
In bed, in the head, you met a girl whose
song you'd sing
Stars shine bright tonight School book looks and purple
hair, Tom you had your share
Go Tom, go Tom, go
All-star shine and gold
medals, dining in the halls, look at the walls
Go Tom, go Tom, go Now
you go into the world, and your heart is gonna break
You've been blessed
so much till now
On a date, with the girl, she don't love you like you think
The stars shine bright tonight
And your golden arch is gonna break
The stars shine bright tonight
Above your string of dead-end coffee dates
The stars shine bright tonight
And I can no longer assure you
That
everything is gonna be all right SHE SAYS SHE NEVER LOVED January
is the bluest month
She's been after me since August
I can tell she's
a flaky one
But her hair brings to mind stardust I thought, "What value
can I assign
When she doesn't test my mind?"
She's an artist and she's
so fine
But she don't make the lamplight copper shine She can't sleep
And she can't eat
And her heart is achin'
And she don't feel complete
With just a small taste of lovin'
A little bit of kissin' and a-huggin'
When it all gets taken away
She'll try and say
That she never loved
She came at me so quickly
That I thought there must be a catch
The wind
and the wine brought us together
In some anonymous nest
She's says that
she is crazy
She says she thinks I am, too
But I now know she's just impulsive
And she might feel the impulse to split soon Who knew? I can't sleep
And I can't eat
And my heart is achin'
And I don't feel complete
I
got a small taste of lovin'
A little bit of kissin' and a-huggin'
Now
it all is slippin' away
And I'll try to maintain
That I never loved
The world is full of chance
It's hard to judge value, you see
People fall
in love, break hearts
And their dreams die as they age rapidly Let's compare
our philosophy
And our impact on the course of history
In the end,
we'll either be friends or lovers But never both, that's something we can never
be Oh, this misery
This world is full of lost souls Who can't sleep
And they can't eat
Their hearts keep on achin'
And they'll never feel
complete
Rememberin' distant dreams of romantic lovin'
Behind the empty
eyes, done with discoverin'
Now aware that it's slippin' away
And they
struggle to maintain
That they never loved
Never loved
Never got their
heart stomped on If it's sent from up above
How could love
Be such
a put-on? SO THAT'S LIFE, THEN? These are the tragedies that we
forestall
We all want to leave a light on in the hall
To close the chapter
- but still be allowed to recall
Whenever we need an experience to pull us
through So that's life, then? A photo album on a dusty shelf
A series
of memories, unable to be articulated by the common self
But always kept
in mind, always made aware
As the seasons change like the colors of your
hair These piano keys are out of tune
I run up the scale, as I have for
six hours - since about noon
And the tension that mounts between "mi" and
"fa"
Is like the tension we've felt since you returned from New York
And I imagine orchestral epiphanies
You standing on Ellis Island, drawing
cartoon dreams in the sky
Perhaps wiping a tear from your green eye
And
vowing to carve out some piece of clarity So that's it, then? An understanding
of a reality that can never be seen
Never fully explained, only painted in
odd paintings hanging
In a non-profit gallery - that's all there is, all
there was
The inarticulate pangs of each glob of paint you rub On the
empty canvas, in empty galleries
Where the empty souls hunt for the opposite
of normality
Because to simply be normal would not be enough
I see you're
not a gamble, you can be counted on to be undependable Your clothes, your
hair, your eyes, and your mouth
They will all be with me, with me in this
house
Where the snow gathered around the yard
And the freakish weather
caught us off guard And we rode the bus and we went to eat
And your feet
scuttled to meet more faces of the street
You didn't know what to say when
I said, "When will we next meet?"
And I knew you wouldn't be there forever
You wouldn't be there forever THINGS THAT MAKE YOU DIE MAKE YOU FEEL ALIVE
He smoked his cigarette
He looked out at the green lake
He remembered
the smell of August
When a lovely lady's acquaintance he did make He did
not think of this lady much
But now that the months had set in
He remembered
the summer lights
And the auroras in the dimly vacant Seattle nights The
things that make you die make you feel alive And he thought, "Our first meeting
must have gone all right"
He looked at the cigarette and said,
"Didn't
I quit smoking in 1998?"
How is it that you can never truly quit something?
When things come quick, you do not notice
But you're building a ladder
for your scheme
You meet people who are new in town and you go to the shows
And you try to feel like it's all clean The things that make you die
make you feel alive As time went on and lovers came and went
Eventually
he realized something was there
And, in the end, they only went out for about
3 weeks
In a tempestuous and torrid love affair But as it crumbled
He was confused even more
He heard the inarticulate pangs of her emotional
mumbles
As he walked out his front door The things that make you die
make you feel alive He said, "Maybe if I smoke this cigarette
And I awaken
those dormant parts of my soul,
Then maybe she will love me more
She'll
see those parts that have kept me from being quite whole" But he did not believe
in riding off into the golden sunset
He did not believe in much
He believed
in the clarity she might bring
Ultimately, he believed in the memory of her
touch And the clarity she might bring
For him to know himself
In those
dark winters
When the lights go dim The things that make you die make
you feel alive | 
