I lost the words to a song
I guess I never really had
I wasted time swingin' slow
trying to rhyme with a lie
And I guess if it would have stayed
it would have contained
a line about how life is good
and how nothing should change
But before I could set down my pen
the notes all slipped away
and now I only have an empty page

I know this feeling well
Because I feel it every time
I guess I'll write it down
And sing it by and by (by and by)

Wandering off on my own
into the silence of the night
Moon has the same naked glow
but alone it's not alive
Strolling down the promenade 
Where I thought life had changed
Thinking about you
fading into haze
I thought we had at least one verse composed and arranged
Glory to a hymn time didn't save

I know this feeling well
Because I feel it every time
I guess I'll write it down
And sing it by and by (by and by)

I lost the words to a song
I guess I never really had
I wasted time swingin' slow
trying to rhyme with a lie
She said what a pity
that your music seems so bad
where a couple jumbled lines
is the best you've ever had
But maybe chasing melodies will keep me alive
And I can sing this song by and by

By And By

Many moons ago
I met a tortured soul
She had calm brave eyes and a vagrant mind
you could see
She wanted to be
a famous shadow
wiser than the willows 
Leaving secrets for me to find
We left that little town
the malls and the movies
chasing stories
Leaving floating grins behind

And dead flowers in Babylon
Sculptured ivy and stone
Astronauts in our sleeping bags
Troubadours in our shoes
Before Tolkien
and Lewis Carroll
and Shakespeare
I had you

Looking for answers but never asking questions
because when you smiled at me
I didn't need the truth
Suffering, patiently
You painted butterflies on skeletons
the elements of your soul in view

Sunlight and anarchy
strange places we'd rather be
A dark mind sitting next to me
Was all I ever knew
Before Poe
and Lennon
and Kafka
I had you

Sunlight And Anarchy

I told you five o clock we'd meet
on across the clocktower
to play a little game before you drifted on away

Either night is coming or the sky is falling
the ground is cold, the birds are sleeping
and on and on the clock is ticking, soon I'll be awake

On and on...

The children are out playing
as the churchbell is softly ringing 
and the wind that moves our curtains 
shifting shadows on the lake

The softness of the water is the
moisture in the air you breath is the
smile on your face is the 
brightness of the sun

On and on...

Then at nine o clock we'd meet
to sit beneath the willow tree
and you sank into the water where tomorrow never knows

You walked across the backyard 
toward the neighbor's backdoor crying
and I asked you what you needed, 
you said absolutely nothing at all

On and on...

The Clocktower (On And On)

We are entertainers
but you are the show
Put on your face and wear your costume
The curtain's opening on you

But you play it so cool
the scholars in the balcony rave
you saved the show from a cold review
by the end of the first song you sang

Then I'm in the spotlight
and you danced with me
But I was too young
Honey, so naive
Because love isn't all that you need

The orchestra knows before me
They strike a new note, before we all bleed
These backstage blues, ain't the life for me
At the end of act I, I'm already gone

And I haven't caught a break since
Not one one-liner gig
You belong in the company
while I get caught in the rain

The orchestra knows before me
They strike a new note, then it's pouring
This one-off show, ain't the life for me
At the end of act I, I was already gone

Backstage Blues

If you hate me so much you'll knock me out swiftly
take all my money and slander my name
and tell me you never loved me
but you'll love to see me vanishing

If you love me so much you'll put in your hands in your pockets
take all your money and hand it to me
and don't ask me where I'm traveling
‘cause where I go I want nobody following

It will be a few decades 'til I can come home
several more until I can show my face again
Maybe I'll see you in nighttime fantasies
Maybe I'll never see you again 

You want to believe that the world isn't spherical
so I will pretend that dogs are not carrying 
buckets of fire across the cold still smoldering
residual compost of postmodern reality

I will try to explain and it's not very clear
but the sound of the world is a concrete symphony
a broken chorus
a nighttime lynching
that beats on and on like a terrible dream

You want to believe that the world isn't spherical
so I will pretend that dogs are not carrying 
buckets of fire across the cold still smoldering
residual compost of postmodern reality

Residual Compost Of Postmodern Reality

I woke up in the mornin'
had a coffee cup of wine
and waited for a bus that's always late
My name is on my shirt, oh oh
The sun made her mind up
blackness faded into white
and the blue sky overhead  made me cry
With my pain seeping into the earth, oh oh

I could see it all
faces in a crowd
faded like paintings
lost like shadows
And honey is this all?
I wanna burn it down
If Madeline is out there
I'll meet her in the ashes

Riding to my job with a voice in my ear
saying I couldn't fail this if I tried
but it's only tires rolling, on the road (on the road)

I can see it all
from the dirty bus seat I'm in
we only go on livin'
poisoned by our dreamin'
And honey is this all?
I wanna burn it down
If Madeline is out there
I'll meet her in the ashes

The capital lights shine like little stars
they make me want her watercolor mind
but it's only silent buildings, in the glow (in the glow)

Madeline

Here I am again sitting in a dark cafe
playing your tunes
When Uncle Louis left
the stable was abused
and the horses were afraid
It's a bitter tale
a winter dark that'll haunt my heart till June
but I'm playing to an empty room

With one foot on the floor
One resting on the rung of the stool
It's a void I intersect
And all I need to say is captured in these songs
in words you never kept

The audience smiles
they know about love too
They make their cell phone lights dance in the room
Alone on stage in a hollow light
Echoes of my guitar swallowed by the rafters

Lift the capo up to play another key 
Therapeutic dreams
As patrons walk inside watching me sing
the songs I wrote for you
played to an empty room

Music In A Dark Café

Who am I now?
Who was I then?
Give me a canvas and with my own blood I shall paint
Invisible love
Echos of pain
Visions of castles with footprints of kings that were made
by bones that rise
a grave keeper keeps time
He says that this only happens in the dark, lonely shadows of night
And when morning comes
they lay down and decay
they never made colors to paint the shadows that remain 

Let's hold hands
And sing our songs
The same old tunes
we've been at for so long
Do you remember dancing?
You said take your hand
And you scolded me so
saying I should hold you tighter

That was a lifetime ago
And who am I now?
Painting an image
Subject still unfound
I guess I'm the same one 
who had all the dreams once
A queen in the parlor 
stepping in time to a fast waltz
and the instruments played 
of their own accord
as if they were made for you and heaven needed an encore
The picture is clear 
inside my mind
but my hands are frozen 
the canvas is still solid white

Let's hold hands
And sing our songs
The same old tunes
we've been at for so long
Do you remember dancing?
You said take your hand
And you scolded me so
saying I should hold you tighter

That was ages ago
And who am I now?
Painting an image
Subject still unfound

Painting An Image

There's a castle in a distant place
I see it in my heart
A garden grows where nobody knows
Filled with ancient flowers
A table in a clearing
A basket filled with food
and sunlight poking in
It was only you

We watch the songbirds
behind the weeping tree
We used to climb under the branches as kids
and play eye of the hurricane
I would hold your hand 
and the storms that shook us knew
to be silent then, just for pretend
It was only you

And you painted the sky with whispers
Ruby sun, aqua blue
We had a drink and a dance
in the rolling hills to the cricket's tune
I can see it now
every little cloud
The moon woke up to greet us too
It was only you

Now that you're really gone
they say it's time to change
but all the colors of the pretty things
they're all your colors, babe
The cartoon summer green
and every time I see the moon
I smile more my friend as the years go by
It was only you

Only You

Written by Paul McCartney
Flaming Pie, 1997

"One Take Tributes"

nbugaloo