1.
Steven's Take On The Loss Of Love And Ambition
2. Show Business Diatribe
3.
Lonely, Lonely, Lonely
4. Dreams Gleam
5. No One Will Know Your Secrets
6.
The Bridge (Iowa Sleeps)
7. So Many Songs
8. At the Hotel (Part II)
9.
Renaissance Is Not Me
10. Opulent Opine
STEVEN'S TAKE ON
THE LOSS OF LOVE AND AMBITION He says, "My bones ache
My eyes are
tired
The rum and coke
Keeps me wired I guess the only thing I ever
wanted
Was to be a poet
To have a chance
To broadcast my feelings
About pain and loss
I want to live this
Yet it is a job
Without
hope, it is a desperate job" Broken heroes on a powerdrive
The last of
the Romeos
With a box of old candy in hand
Steven drips through the door
And falls to the floor
And says, "I think I'll join the army
They
schedule things well in the army
I could keep my house clean I could choose
to box
Or maybe clean the latrines
But meals would be on time
And
college would be free And at night I could turn on the light as I read
The stories of lost heroes
The ebullience of busted dreams
Forgotten towns
and pulverized families and nations" SHOW BUSINESS DIATRIBE Seeing
old friends
And we all start sinking
Trying to find what makes success
tick
Traveling and dying and feeling sick Never felt so low before
No one to blame, I almost want more
Bad fortune comes when I ask it to
I slept through the job, but no one knew Have to focus, have to sleep
Have to pay the bills, promises to keep
The pad on the hill will be mine
Passing my time drinkin' red wine Maybe I'll start up with a new band
I depend on what I was, it determines who I am
I wish I could record a tape
of my thoughts
When it hits paper, the best is lost But success is counted
by those who fail
Live a lonely life, home's a jail
Family's tough, kids
are too
Who is the spouse sitting in the bed next to you? Broken glasses,
broken heart
In some circles I'm considered smart
But I've got no money,
a shitty car
And a dream deferred of becoming a star No one likes hearing
others complain
We've all hit the fan, we've all felt the pain
But the
woman's a vacuum in my brain
With a Midas touch, as soft as rain LONELY,
LONELY, LONELY Lonely, lonely, lonely
5 a.m. and I'm not asleep
Can't remember the promises
That I remembered to keep Saw a woman at the
red bar
She thought I was wonderful
I didn't think much of her
And
felt guilty about it Lonely, lonely, lonely
5 a.m. and I'm not asleep
Can't remember the promises
That I remembered to keep One of these days
these
They'll get in line for me
And I won't have to pick up their drinks
They'll line up dutifully Lonely, lonely, lonely
5 a.m. and I'm not asleep
Can't remember the promises
That I remembered to keep Now they don't care
That I'm at work on a novel
That I starve for the art
That I stoop and
grovel Lonely, lonely, lonely
5 a.m. and I'm not asleep
Can't remember
the promises
That I remembered to keep DREAMS GLEAM Dreams
gleam
Stack the amps, haul the drum riser
Plug the sponsor
Figure
the divisor For your bus miles, grocery files,
And laundry piles
Back stage pass gives you the glory
Phone the story to your speed dials
Dreams gleam
Dreams gleam Skin your knee
Break your leg
Break
the piano key
Trash the square peg Hopefully you can
Care enough
to believe
That all the work is worth it
Without reprieve Dreams gleam
Dreams gleam Start all over
Start with order
Channel chaos
Write
about your father When he was laid off
Live the dream
Have some freedom,
be naïve
When you can afford to Dreams gleam
Dreams gleam You
spend 12 months
Making a record you can't stand
Because you defer the
choices to the other man
But you must have faith in your mind Dreams gleam
Dreams gleam NO ONE WILL KNOW YOUR SECRETS Your eyes are tired
Your blood fails
You can't find the rhythm
The accountant assails
And no one can play your music the way you'd like them to
No one will hear
your words the way they should
No one will stop you in the street and tell
you
The meaning of your song better than you could No one will know your
secrets
No one will keep your pictures The crowds are never large enough
Or discerning enough
The bank account's never big enough
Time is never
sharp enough The book is always half-written
The song is never finished
The yard never complete
The house never fully clean No one will know your
secrets
No one will keep your pictures Perhaps one could be like a superhero
One person by day
One person by night
Design everything perfectly
Pay for the materials
And always be the right person for the situation
Cover the cost
Design the house Design the life
Live the dream
And always be the right person for the situation
The beauty is never attainable
No one will know your secrets
No one will keep your pictures THE
BRIDGE (IOWA SLEEPS) We stood on the bridge
You said, "I feel so cold"
With a daughter dying
You didn't know what you'd be told
Soon we
could be gone
Or soon your child, old
I don't know who you thought of
When we stood out on the bridge,
With such a weight to hold Iowa sleeps
and you can't control it
Feel so cheap with the thief who stole it If
we drive to Philadelphia
Before the bad weather comes
It's August now,
we've got a few months
Will you recognize what love is
Like you do today?
With everything on the line
Or will it disappear when we end upon the
East Coast in the coming days Iowa sleeps and you can't control it
Feel so cheap with the thief who stole it With our child so ill
And our
doctor's papers on your window sill
Do you have any plans for tomorrow?
If you're anything like me
You can only see your breath on the window by the
car seat
And you realize what it's like to be truly alone You're not thinking
about yourself
Or the work that waits in Philly
You're thinking about
me and your daughter
And I'm reminded of a hero in the Greek Odyssey
Marching
off to Troy Iowa sleeps and you can't control it
Feel so cheap with the
thief who stole it This is love
Selfless, sometimes painful
Helen
of Troy
I'm your boy
Let's remember how to work hard
The way we did
Before we thought all
Hard work was in vain Iowa sleeps and you can't
control it
Feel so cheap with the thief who stole it SO MANY SONGS
Songs are wild and songs are grand
Songs put an aching in my hand
Songs make you proud when you strike it up with the band
Songs make you weak
and you can't hardly stand Words, so many words
So many songs
So many
songs Songs paint the scene when you feel depressed
Songs ease the strain
when you need to guess
Songs tap that part of you that desires to impress
Songs catch the worst, songs catch the best Words, so many words
So many
songs
So many songs AT THE HOTEL (PART II) Through the saffron
In the hotel
Ruby licks
Blood red lips Through the satin sheets
Sad retreats
Past the bellhops
Can't feel my feet With a woman
In French jeans
I'm a man
I'm a man
I'm a man
Know what I
mean? In the bathtub
With the champagne
Head full of mercury
Damage
to the brain Can't remember where
One thought began
And another ended
She's an "also-ran" She died easy
In the lobby I'm a man
I'm a
man
I'm a man
Know what I mean? Whoa - don't you know I am a pauper's
son?
Whoa - you know your uncle was a Russian mobster's gun
Whoa - the
hotel lobby's walls are as gold as the Arabian sun RENAISSANCE IS NOT ME
Economists speculate that
Specialization is the key
The only way
to increase
Productivity, you see? As a young lad I was brash
To believe
that I could change this reality
Now you say I'm quite rash
To revise
my view but it makes sense to me Renaissance charlatans
Paint your portrait,
hang it on the wall
Paint your buildings like fountains that spurt
One
hundred stories tall
But you can only be in one place at one time
And
you can only be one person So I think I'll look at life through a single lens
I'll see where it begins and where it ends
The renaissance myth
Is lost
on me
I'm going to be
What I'm going to be You can only have one father
And one mother
In one home, one life, one love
One drive, one goal
Renaissance charlatans
Paint your portrait, hang it on the wall
Paint
your buildings like fountains that spurt
One hundred stories tall
But
you can only be in one place at one time
And you can only be one person
So I think I'll look at life through a single lens
I'll see where it begins
and where it ends
The renaissance myth
Is lost on me
I'm going to
be
What I'm going to be OPULENT OPINE The languid shadows
Glided along the wall
The shoe hadn't been worn
In the heal it was torn
We drank from dusty cups
And sang us a song "Let's stay together
Sing
it all at once
We'll be lucky again
We are drunk out on a boat
That
was all we wrote
This is the love between
Women and men"
| 
