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Living at the End of Time

 

LIVING AT THE END OF TIME
Lyrics


Nancy
Got To Be You
It's a Pleasure To Know You
Hawks Above the Highway
Classified Love
Humility
Living At the End Of Time
If You're Gonna Do It, Do It Right
You're So Good To Me
Size Thirteen Blues

We're All in This Together

 


NANCY
Nancy Nancy your father's in the corn
Nancy Nancy the autumn's coming on
Nancy Nancy your mother calls you in
Listen Nancy I'm coming back again

Nancy Nancy I have a fine guitar
Nancy Nancy and I have a lucky star
Nancy Nancy soon you'll be nineteen
Listen Nancy cause it's later than it seems

Since I was younger and I started dreaming
There's a voice inside my head
I heard it whisper There's no use believing
I must have listened to the words it said
But I saw a raven sitting in the wires
And it fell before it flew
The body hanging like a sad desire
Just before the wings came through

Nancy Nancy I know that we'll get by
Nancy Nancy but I think that we can fly

Nancy Nancy I've travelled from my home
Nancy Nancy where I used to be alone
I know Nancy the past is all behind
Listen Nancy you fill me up inside

Nancy Nancy the city lights they shine
Nancy Nancy let's see what we can find

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IT'S GOT TO BE YOU
I've been to London I've been to France
I took a trip now I'm taking a chance
It's got to be you
It's got to be you
It's got to be true
Got to be you

The first step was easy the second's a cinch
It may be that I'm dreaming but I don't want a pinch
Hello to romance goodbye Mr. Blue
I may be falling but I'm landing on you

CHORUS

Why should I worry why should I care
I got so many bills hey I'm a billionaire
Why should I argue why should I shout
I thought I was a fighter til you knocked me out

CHORUS

I made my bed I'm jumping right in
If there's a luckier man I must be him
Sugar and salt women and men
I'm singing these words just so I can tell you again

CHORUS

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IT'S A PLEASURE TO KNOW YOU
It's a pleasure to know you
And the comfort you bring...

I came to your city after I left my home
And I was a stranger dressed up in stranger's clothes
Favors I needed but charity's out of style
And rare as the beauty in the face of a trusting child

Chorus: And it's a pleasure to know you
A pleasure to see you smile
A comfort to know
We'll share the road awhile
Pleasure is fleeting
Comforts are far between
It's a pleasure to know you
And the comfort you bring

They say life's a journey a highway from birth to death
Mapped in despair and traveled in hopelessness
Well they may believe it but just between you and me
The trick to the traveling is all in the company

Chorus

Lovers may leave you lovers may turn away
And children may scorn you you know they will someday
The seasons are fickle and fate is not known as kind
But friendship's a diamond and trouble's the diamond mine

Chorus

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HAWKS ABOVE THE HIGHWAY
Hawks above the highway as we're headed south
three kids in the backseat the taste of failure in my mouth
Detroit in the rearview what's ahead I cannot see
but you don't look too happy sitting next to me
no you don't look too happy sitting next to me

Chorus: Oh Annie there's no more room for doubt
oh Annie things ain't working out
a funny kind of feeling is coming over me
but I'll always love you Annie

: It's the clouds with silver linings that take you in this way
now there's nothing in my pockets but the bills I have to pay
I listen to you talking but I don't want to be naive
how much of what you're saying can I let myself believe

Now there's chicory blue in the vacant lots
when you're walking looking for a job
and there's a worried look on their little faces
when you come home at three o'clock
then there's the loving that we ain't doing
Annie don't it leave you kind of blue
cause I know you need a man lying next to you
a woman needs a man

My father used to tell me the way his father came
they were drafting in the old land and coming to his name
he had no use for fighting someone else's war
now we're living where he landed
but there's no place left to go

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CLASSIFIED LOVE
I used to read the headlines to keep myself informed
But I gave up on that now I just try to stay warm
Bought me a wood stove started ripping up my porch
Til somebody gave me a newspaper that's hot as a torch Classified Love

Right after the Help Wanted just before Apartments To Rent
There's a little section they call Personals that's tres convenient
You write your ad on a paper and send it in with your check
Then you sit by your mailbox and in comes rolling Le Sex

I'm an SWM looking for the creme de la creme
If you're an SWF looking for a little tenderness
You send your phone and your photo to to Box 62E
I'll let you watch the reaction in my BVDs

When the weekend comes I turn down my heat
I'm gonna have a little space heater in between my sheets
I know she'll be literate cause she's answered my ad
And if she turns out athletic we'll have us an Olympiad

It's late in December it's snowing outside
I'm bundled up and shivering when Friday's mail arrives
She's got a Swedish friend she writes then something about menage a trois
I knock over three lamps reaching for my encyclopedia

I look at my oil bill then I look at her photo
There's no picture of her friend but the temperature's down to 7 below
So I call up the number and turn down my thermostat
She says they'll be over at seven
I spend the afternoon on the steam vent outside the Laundromat

I'm coming home at 6:30 and what do I see
But the girl in the photo with this Valhalla escapee
She says It's not getting any warmer and on me slowly it dawns
Then she says I'd like you to meet my Swedish friend Hans

Now I've been in tight places I won't give you the blow by blow
But there are some tight places into which I don't wish to go
I know she must have been cold and I guess she was justified
But when she asked for my keys I just had to reply

One day I may be M and eventually D
But I'll never be F and I'll never be G
And those capital Bs and little i's you may see
Well they don't apply here so keep your Hans off me

Now it's February and I can see my breath
My back porch is gone I think I'm freezing to death
So if one morning you're missing a tree or a shrub
It's just I'm cold and too cowardly for Classified Love

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HUMILITY
Humility is a private thing
It makes no speeches it don't soar on silver wings
She loved you once but you would not see
Now her love falls to the ground
Her loves lies trampled down
By the crowd you gather round your humility

Save
You can't save the world
Save
You can't save the world

Blood on your sheets is no one's concern
It's a fool who teaches what he still must learn
She's by your side like the friend you need
But you spread your love so thin
She's left out once again
You lose and think you win with your humility

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LIVING AT THE END OF TIME
I'm 220-54-5337-
54-43-32-21-11-
8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1-0-0-0-....9
I stood up and I've been counted here at the end of time

I'm third-string second-rate two-bit but you know what
I once had the singular pleasure of the company of a good woman but
If love is a rainbow then she was colorblind
We could've worked it out but she was too bust living at the end of time
We're living living at the end of time (2x)
I always heard her say that she needed to unwind
Well she's gonna get her chance here at the end of time

When the clock stops ticking there'll be no pocketpicking no more
And no pocketpickers and no liquor and no liquor store
No liquor store owner no type-A blood donor and no place for Mr. Burke to work
Cause there'll be no blood given to no one living and no more Mr. Burke

Now when the clerks stop clerking that's when it all gets murky to me
Will there be time after timecards that's what I'm waiting to see
When we're all blown to pieces aunts uncles nephews nieces and the undersigned
There'll be nothing cooking and no one looking No hands clapping and no minds snapping
No trees to hit the ground and no one to hear the sound
And even if you could imagine the universe spinning round
If there's no one to see it that's good enough for me - it's the end of time
We're living living at the end of time (2x)
I ain't got no future but at least I know it's mine
Here we are at the end of time

Now some folks say they don't believe and some folks say they can't conceive it
Some act like you can just deny it others say if there's a better bomb then we better buy it Some folks say that we can win it even if we don't begin it
Well you may be afraid and try to hide it or you may be the one to authorize it
Or from your thoughts you may succeed to drive it but there's one thing you can't do
And that's survive it

There's breadlines in the headlines as the deadline comes in view
The finger of a glutton on the button ain't there nothing we can do
But holler from our squalor for a dollar while they're handing out Guggenheims
To some Mahler scholar in a collar who's living tastefully at the end of time
He's living...
Waiting for that burst of hyperactive sunshine
We're living living at the end of time

I've always said there's something attractive about radioactive debris
You might say that einsteinium is just fine-ium with me
Let that fermium wreck my sperm-ium and curl my spine
I've reconciled realism and masochism here at the end of time

One day some misanthrope isotope gonna throw a rope on you
You'll grope for hope in your horoscope when you start to feel like a walking barbecue
You'll try to cope use special soap maybe even call the Pope
But he'll give you the same old line
And when you're sliding down that slope faster than an antelope
You might write me a letter if you can still find an envelope
You might ask me if I think there's any hope
But I'd have to tell you Nope - you're living at the end of time
You're living...
Look at it this way: it's a permanent solution to the same old grind
We're living living at the end of time
I might cut my toe off and pin it to my ear
I might go on a rampage steal your baby for a souvenir
Wind up in a tower with a gun adding red to a landscape that's too drab
Or I might just stay in watch the tube have myself a Tab

Down by the Gitcheegoomie she saw through me so clear
Once I was a protester now I'm an investor I fear
I hit the skid then I almost overbid when she said Are your kids and your investments in line
I bought them all new clothes and I sent the wife a rose
But she only moved in close and the way she juxtaposed
She had me so discomposed I had to pack my nose to get me through the end of time
We're living...
Somehow somewhere we must have signed on some dotted line
Now here we are at the end of time

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WE'RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER
We're all in this together
we're all in this together
come sun or stormy weather
together everyone

Now you may be a poor man no butter for your bread
and you may have no more than the crust to keep you fed
or you may be a rich man with icing on your cake
but when the baker hits the switch man together we will bake

We dream while we are sleeping we dream while we're awake
now time has come a-creeping our golden dreams to take
so this is what it's come to we're prisoners of pride
there's no place we can run to we live or we'll all die

So choose to go on living give up your hiding place
for death can be life-giving when you look him in the face

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YOU'RE SO GOOD TO ME
You're so good to me
You're so good to me
Your kisses do more than they should to me
I never dreamed anyone would be
So good to me

You're so right for me
You're so right for me
And the difference is day and night for me
More and more I find there's no one else could be
So right for me

These words that I'm saying
Oh they're true
This song that I'm playing
It's for you

You believe in me
You believe in me
Somehow you found the man buried so deep in me
Now I want to say that you have set me free
Cause you believe in me

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IF YOU'RE GONNA DO IT (DO IT RIGHT)
If you're gonna do it man do it right
Stopping half way only serves to whet your appetite
Don't settle for a nibble take a big old bite
If you're gonna do it man do it right

When I was a boy
I had a friend named Jimmy used to wait for him to give me a sign
Lord what a joy
With the school bell ringing we're off and swinging our poles and fishing lines
Down by the creek
Gonna catch a little dinner oh my what a winner of a day
Til my knees go weak
From thinking bout my Daddy and just how mad he gonna be & the words he'll say Then I said Jimmy Now when it comes to courage I ain't got a whole big bunch
If we left right now we'd be back before lunch Jimmy say

Had a little job
It was eleven to seven bout the farthest from heaven I been
There was a man named Bob
When it was money he was after his mind worked faster than a bluegrass mandolin
A gamble or a scheme
He was the first one in it didn't take him but a minuet to fall
His money was green
Down to the very last penny he didn't save any and he never won nothing at all
One day I said Robert I been watching you lose your money for a long long time
Why don't you gamble one dollar and save the other nine Robert say

Met her in the spring
You coulda knocked me over with a feather man I didn't know whether I'd live
Went out and bought a ring
I asked her with a stutter & my heart shook a shutter but her answer was affirmative
So we planned the day
There was a great big wedding and a party that was heading for a brawl
That's when we slipped away
We wasn't looking for a palace just a room near Dallas
With a bed a four good walls

And later I whispered in her ear
I said a little out of breath but none the worse for wear
I said Your inventiveness is only matched by your staying power my dear
She said

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SIZE 13 BLUES
Well I'm walking and walking til my feet are half-dead
The words of this song going through my head
Three miles and a quarter and I think I got it right
I sit down on a church step start to write
With the sun on my head and my pencil in a whirl
And my heart just a-flying all over this world (2x)

Now when you're born you're a baby like a little hors-d'oeurve
The world pops you in its mouth waiting for dinner to be served
You're scrawny as a chicken wing or plump as a cashew
You feed the world the world don't feed you (2x)

Well I'm thinking and thinking til I'm thirty years old
And I wake up one morning and my knees are cold
Like I'm standing in a graveyard sinking low
Already two feet down only four more to go
Don't it set you scrambling and a-running a round
To keep your head above water and your knees above ground (2x)

When you're born you're a baby like a little eyeball
Laying on the ground soaking up shapes and colors and all
Along comes the world in a size 13 shoe
You see the world the world don't see you (2x)

Well I'm dreaming and dreaming til I don't know who I am
But the loneliest person in the loneliest land
So I find myself a tree and I walk out on the limb
Start jumping up and down things are looking pretty grim
Then I hear this little voice drifting to me from below
Now she says she's going with me anywhere I want to go (2x)

Well I'm singing and singing til I ain't half bad
And down at the folk club the guy says Come in, me lad
Well there's pipers in heat and the pennywhistler's half-crazed
And the fiddlers are going at it like Boy Scouts trying to start a blaze
There's a harpist harping like to tearing out your heart
And the folklorist she's crying cause she can't get her tape recorder to start
There's a concertina player in a fisherman's knit
And somehow they all manage to pause a moment for my benefit
I'm singing my songs and blowing this thing
They make me feel about as welcome as a blizzard in spring (2x)

Well I'm walking and talking with this guy out on the street
Our conversation is short but it ain't too sweet
He says You don't know but when you're born again you'll see
I say Pardon me sir but once was more than enough for me
I don't need your sermon and your sanctification
That's the trouble with religion it's the damn salvation (2x)

I was born in Africa a tentative soul
They didn't give me a name til I was two years old
I grew up in Asia with my belly on my knees
I was taught by South American revolutionaries
You add a twist of fate and a shaker full of salt
I keep my eastern oil money in a western bank vault (2x)

I was born in Harlem with a needle in my arm
And they threw me into prison so I wouldn't come to harm
I was born in Europe with a bomb behind my bed
Now I'm sitting on the sidewalk pouring liquor in my head
I was born with the Michigan poison in my veins
To haunt me all my lifetime and keep my children in chains
I was born in the islands to the local demagogue
And I threw away my history for a Sears catalogue
But I can see what you do and hear just what you say
Though I ain't never met you and you're half a world away (2x)

When you're born you're a baby but you grow up like a shot
And the world is growing with you til you're tangled up in knots
You can think what you think and do just what you do
But you free the world the world won't free you (2x)

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