Every New Year I have the same old fear
When I make my resolutions
Will they fade away In a couple of days
Or will they be a real solution?

I want to be a better man
Not the same old me
Have the strength to say yes I can
Set a course and then take to the sea
Not afraid of who I am
Push on through the gale
Knowing I can't direct the wind
But I can set the sail

Resolutions may just come and go
Hang on as long as the next melting snow
Some may change you, you can never tell
Maybe this time, they will serve me well

Help me be a better man
Not drifting with the flow
Swirling with the mood I'm in
Pulled by something deep down below
And face any storm, and be calm again
Not swept up by the gale
Knowing I can't direct the wind
But I can set the sail
Knowing I can't direct the wind
But I can set the sail


A Better Man

Looking outside as the snow gets it's act together
Swirling round and round
Dancing to the ground
I dream of summer days

No place to hide or to go in this kind of weather
It always gets me down
When winter comes to town
I wish it would just go away

Give back the leaves
and the breeze through the trees
and the lazy afternoons
Bring back the spring
Where there's life in everything 
In the gentle days of June
The Gentle days of June

I'll hang around, cuz I know there'll be better weather
This too shall pass
Just wait till I complain
When I have to cut the grass

It's a small price to pay for the days I don't need a jacket
Or hear the songbirds sing
I'll make it through this storm
By dreaming of warmer things

Give back the leaves 
and the breeze through the trees
And the lazy afternoons
Bring back the spring
Where there's life in everything
In the gentle days of June
Bring them soon

Looking outside as the snow gets it's act together
Swirling round and round
Dancing to the ground
I dream about summer days.

Give Back The Leaves

Verse
I've got a party planned
Just me and fifty little friends
They've promised to lend a hand
And how it goes- it just depends
It's a private thing
It's a weekend fling
I'll see how it goes


Verse
Some friends will never change
They act like they own the place 
Sometimes it's a crying shame
Some goodbyes are just too hard to face
And you can't let go
You can't say no
It's a crying shame

Chorus
Sometimes you try
For the highest of highs
You can't get it right.
What is life anyway?
Just part in a play
Just a string of closing nights    
Darkness and lights
Darkness and lights

Verse
I like to lose myself
Sometimes I like to be found
There's a needle up on that shelf
Sometimes I take it down
It's a selfish call
Really no friend at all
No friend at all


Chorus
Sometimes you try
For the highest of highs
And there's never enough
What is life anyway?
Just part in a play
And an endless search for love-- and release
A little peace.
There is no peace.


Phillip

Nothing's the same
As I move from empty room to empty room
Thinking your name 
And remembering all the things we used to do
You've left this house a quiet place 
Too quiet to ignore
I stand here in an empty space
That wasn't here before

This will take some time 
For us to learn what life is like to live without you
Pretending we're fine
As if we had a clue what we should do
We have to make up our minds
That this is going to take some time

Will our life ever look the same?
How long before this heals?
'Til regret and longing memories
Aren't the only things we feel?

This will take some time 
For us to learn what life is like to live without you
Pretending we're fine
As if we had a clue what we should do
We have to make up our minds
That this is going to take some time


This will take some time

Box Elder creek doesn't flow very deep
It's a dry sandy bed in the flat 
Where it dives under ground and at times can't be found
As it wonders it's way to the Platte

But it's the blood in the arms to those Weld county farms
And the crops that their effort will yield
And there's a fraking machine that wants to suck that creek clean
Taking water away from the fields

Who's not willing to trade
Our future for this modern life we've made?
Just a drop in a well. 
Is there nothing we're not willing to sell?

Brokers move fast when they're sniffing for gas
Cuz it's waiting right under their feet.
It’s supply and demand pumping chemicals and sand
At high pressure up to a mile deep.

Brokers say it’s not greed, it's just some water that we need
A few partners is all that we seek
Just a few little wells- and you hardly will tell
Cuz there's plenty on Box Elder Creek
(break)

Box Elder Creek doesn't flow very deep
There’s hardly enough to get by
Cattle and barns, enough to irrigate the farms
It's not much when you've got land this dry

And if some neighbors sell out, there will be little doubt
This valley turns dry as a bone
Hey nothin’ ever lasts, you trade water for gas
And then say goodbye to your homes

Who's not willing to trade
Our future for this modern life we've made?
Just a drop in a well. 
Is there nothing (X4) , we won’t sell?


Box Elder Creek

It’s another opening of a high school show
The dressing rooms are full of laughter
We stage crew kids live in a world they’ll never know
For us it’s not a laughing matter.
I’m busy going through, thinking cue to cue
Sitting in the corner of our shop
Cuz the show cannot go on if I do my job wrong
Without me the whole thing would just stop

It’s the doorbell.  In scene two
It can’t be rushed or god forbid, one second late
It’s my part to get through
And if say so myself, I do it great.

The curtain goes up, a lot of boring stuff
All of us are waiting backstage for the blackout
We hardly make a noise, us stagehand girls and boys
And when It’s time to change the scene I take a chair out
But now the pressure’s on as they drone on and on
I’m sitting here just waiting for my cue
I finally hear the right line and at the perfect  time
I press the button just like I always do.


Now every backstage eye watched as I try and try
But the button doesn’t work as I expected 
I thought I was gonna die when from the corner of my eye
I saw the cable to the doorbell disconnected
Now what I just told you took just a second or two
But to me, it was so very, very long
And as I started to cry I gave it one last try
Then I jumped up and I yelled “ding dong!”

The doorbell.  In scene two
It can’t be rushed or god forbid, one second late
It’s my part to get through
And if say so myself, I do it great (x2)



Backstage

Kept-- Well, I started in D… a few lyrics.  Kept the rodeo theme.  I tried to capture a little of the tune from the original.
Changed-- Well... I changed species.

D                           Bm
That rodeo bronc, Sylvie 
           G          A             D
Hasn’t always been this way
         A                               D
She once was mean and frisky
                                             A
But she’s twenty years old today
                                      D
You always hate to draw old Sylvie
                                    A
She’s just that kind of horse
                      Bm                        G
She loved to twist and turn and toss you
                                         D
But now time has run it’s course

   A                            G                      D
Oh Sylvie, oh Sylvie-  The Colorado Bay
   A                          G                               D
Oh Sylvie, oh Sylvie-  gonna see a better day

D                                              Bm
They were selling her to some factory 
             G          A         D
For her bones and her hide
         A                          D
I just couldn’t let that happen 
                                               A
To the only bronc I coulndn’t ride
                                                 D
Well she loved that damn old rodeo
                        A
Why I’ll never know
                Bm                        G
Now I’m taking her out to pasture
                                                D
Where the old blue northerns blow

   A                            G                      D
Oh Sylvie, oh Sylvie-  The Colorado Bay
   A                          G                               D
Oh Sylvie, oh Sylvie-  gonna see a better day

Sylvie Morph 3

At first it was no big deal, I really liked the way that it feels

Things were different -- not quite real.    I called it having fun

 Getting high on the way to school,  a part of every thing I would do

You’d be my friend if you got high, too

We’d find a brand new world.  Find a brand new world.

 

That search gets a little rough, finding out there is never enough

I'd keep trying till I had too much, then I'd have one more

 I'd laugh about the things I'd done.  Most times I was the only one

It's an acquired taste for fun that leaves you broken and alone

 

It's a bitter pill to take, Looking back at old mistakes.  

Hoping that it's not too late to find a brand new world. 

Find a brand new world.

 

Somewhere I lost my chance to choose, left it somewhere with the pot and the booze

Until I finally heard the breaking news that I was going down

It took me over forty years to finally face my feelings and fears,

Suddenly it was very clear it was time to change

 

It's a bitter pill to take, Looking back at old mistakes.  

Seeing that it's not too late to find a brand new world. 

Looking back at old mistakes, finding that it's never too late

I'm in charge of my own fate and it’s a brand new world   

Brand new world

She'd never say she was brave
There’s a choice if God makes you this way.
A lifetime of pain
Can drive many insane 
But not the girl with the butterfly skin

She'd never say it was fair
It's a different view from her chair
The whole world runs around 
And rarely looks down 
To the girl with the butterfly skin

Every day's another challenge
Another wound won't heal
Sometimes she asks herself-- why even try?
most every day she finds an answer
no matter how bad she feels
If you look for courage, look in Anna's eyes

She'd never say there's no hope
Despite what they might diagnose  
In what time she has left, 
She strives for her best
She's the girl with the butterfly skin
The girl with the butterfly skin

(Here's a link to a recent video we produced about E.B.  http://videos.sorensonmedia.com/Denver+Film+%26+Digital+/E.B.+You+Can+Help+Final4/1cce0d26F1d27q48ae48f48peaeb9b74937c

The girl with the butterfly skin

WNYC's Radiolab explores Transient Global Amnesia.

steefsealy