can you remember
a time when you knew
a hope for the future
and a love that was true

can you remember
a time when you tried
to capture a moment
before it had died

can we go back
i heard you say
we listened to the early rain
and watched the sun
come gently through
the heather clouds and morning dew
i told you then
those days were gone
but we could see a golden dawn
a gentle breeze
an evening chill
these things can bring a newfound thrill
like christmas time
when you were young
or summer nights when school was done

september comes around
like a lifelong friend

September Came Again (apartment demo)

I didn't cry beside your brothers grave
And every eye was dry but yours that day
Not bastard but he might as well been
I guess it doesn't matter with your next of kin

I always cried as a little boy
You always begged me to smile for pictures
I didn't know that the way I felt was not the same
As all the other boys who grinned in picture frames

And in the church that day we sang and we prayed
I was the kid with the painted nails
And all of those hicks that he used to call his friends
They looked at me and they shook their heads

We went to Wendy's in our funeral clothes
I told my cousin about the cure
You sat and you bitched our food took way too long
I told her new dawn fades was my favorite song

But it doesn't matter now
My uncle Charles is laying in the ground
Your sister Mary turned her head and sighed
I stood and I wondered who would be the next to die

Funeral Clothes (apartment demo)

Send me away 
There's no place left for me to stay
And tell my friends to fuck off
They can't help me anyway

And I guess I should have known
It's not so easy when you're grown
To find a way to satisfy
The yearnings in your mind

Now I'll swallow all my pills
And pray for sleep to cure my ills
I drove up to marietta
See what I might find
No peace or absolution
No joy of any kind
I wonder If I'll find a way to sleep at night
I wonder if these hills could bring me peace of mind
I wonder why your body makes me feel alive
I wonder where I'll find myself
On the day I die

I looked from up the mountainside
At the valley down below
The depths were calling out to me
And the wind was blowing cold

Marietta (apartment demo)

This feeling will it stay
I can't make it go away
The sense that everything will somehow turn out to be okay
Its hope that brings me down
That's keeping me around
I wish I could let go
I wish I could just say
It doesn't matter now
They don't love me anyway
But time and time again
You called me your best friend
And I guess that is enough for now
And love is never easy
And life is never kind
It doesn't seem to end the things that weigh heavy on your mind

But I guess that's why they call it love

They Call It Love (apartment demo)

the beauty and the pain of being known
the price you pay for somebody to call your own
the price you pay for friends who love and cry
when they hear about you on the day you die

I never said goodbye
I just walked away 
I couldn't ever find
the words to say

all those memories of my old home
visions of the places that I used to roam
I know things will never be the same
all those memories now only bring me pain

I hope you won't believe that I don't love you
as I pack my bags to go away
it's not that I can't stand to be around you
I'm only moving on to something new

Isle Of Elba (apartment demo)

send me away
there's no place left for me to stay
and tell my friends to fuck off
they can't help me anyway
now ill swallow all my pills
and pray for sleep to cure my ills

and I guess I should have known
it's not so easy when you're grown
to find a way to satisfy
the yearning in your mind
I drove up to Marietta
to see what I might find
no peace or absolution
no joy of any kind
I wonder if I'll find a way to sleep at night
I wonder if these hills could bring me peace of mind
I wonder why your body makes me feel alive
I wonder where I'll find myself on the day I die

I looked from up the mountainside
at the valley down below
the depths were calling out to me
and the wind was blowing cold

Marietta Ver2

this new horizon cuts the sky
and severs the stars like a knife
and when I look at the night
seems like heaven has lost its light
so I say
starlight woman
wont you come down and shine on me
and when I reach
across the bed
and grasp at empty sheets instead
I cry

this disillusion has me torn
is it a gift to be born
but when I look across the way
I see you smile and I hear you say

I love you
and I'm glad you chose to stay

john balentine