Lyrics

Blue is for Water
David
Footprints in the Snow
Hymn for the Lovers
In Love
Lonely Hours
Motorcycle Jesus
Nowheresville
Paris, 1972
Sweet Hurricane
The Bargain
The Enemy
The Other You
The Wedding Kids

Blue is for Water

Blue is for water, blue for the sky
blue for the tears from her pretty blue eyes
What good does it do to hide from the truth
when you're in love with a stranger
who doesn't love you?

She pulls on her blue sweater
therešs a chill in the air
while her lover du jour sits in her pink kitchen chair
hešs sullen and smoking
shešs stoking the fire
afraid to let go of her wild desire

Blue is for water, blue for the sky
blue for the tears from her pretty blue eyes
Sometimes it won't make you better
sometimes it just kills
but she's saved by the sunrise
on the lake deep and still.

Blue is for water, blue for the sky
Blue for the tears from her pretty blue eyes
Blue for the tears from her pretty blue eyes.

© Julia Rohan, 2003
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David

The cafe crowd was closing in
the wine and talk flowed free
I looked for you in every face
that joined that company
then like the sea that parted for Moses and the Jews
the drunks and angels stepped aside
and there was only you, only you...

You ordered Scotch straight up and lit another black Gitanes
then squinting through the rising smoke
you reached to kiss my hand
you wear your beauty like a curse
but all your lovers know
you're cold and perfect as that boy by Michaelangelo, Michaelangelo

David I'm afraid of everything you do to me
the way you look shakes down my walls
and brings me to my knees, brings me to my knees...

But I'll never let my feelings show
I swear I'll never let you know
I'll smile and laugh you off as though it doesn't hurt to let you go...
then I'll let you go
then I'll let you go
then I'll let you go...
© Row Your Boat Music, 2002
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Footprints in the Snow

Snow is softly falling on the rooftops of the town,
it gathers on the hydro wires, the hedges and the groundŠ
a bus stops at the corner and a dark-haired girl steps down
and when the driver pulls away there is silence all around.

She makes her way on up the street, her footprints in the snow
and thinks about the life inside, how quickly small things grow
then something like a whisper makes her stop to look up high
to where a billion shining stars lie scattered Œcross the sky.

Close your eyes and feel it near, a change is in the wind
for the life you know is a shadow of the life still left to live
open up your heart and feel the presence and the power
embrace the great unknown for this may be your finest hour.

At night she lies awake in bed, her husband by her side
she guides his hand so he can feel the little kick inside
"I'm so afraid," she tells him, and he says "I understand".
Outside the snow is falling on the houses and the land.
© Row Your Boat Music, 2002
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Hymn for the Lovers

To you who have been wounded by love's cold bitter sting
And you who reach but ne'er can touch love's shiny golden ring
To you who dose yourselves with sex for the fleeting joy it brings
To you who love when all is lost
It is for thee I sing

To you once swept up off your feet now with no place to stand
And you whose dreams were cruelly crushed by beauty's fickle hand
To you left hatless in the rain your heart dangling on a string
To you who love when all is lost
It is for thee I sing

To you half mad with longing, and you all full of shame
and you whose pride's a poison that drives true love away
to you who opened up your heart just to see your love take wing
to you who love when all is lost
it is for thee I sing
to you who love when all is lost
it is for thee I sing
© Row Your Boat Music, 2002
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In Love

I never saw this coming, it took me by surprise
I looked into your eyes and saw the light
It took a lot of courage, not to run and hide
I couldn't deny the truth, it felt so right

Oh just when I had it all together, now I'm falling apart
tangled up in something, playing reckless with my heart
it's too late to turn back now
too late to wonder where this will lead
when I see you smile you know I want to believeŠ

A feather could knock me over, if I am dreaming let me sleep
let me keep this feeling one more day.
Emotions have got me reelin'
it's like a roller-coaster ride inside me, I am flying away.

Miracles still happen, now I know that it's true
I thought I'd never love again, and then came you.

Oh just when I had it all together, now I'm falling apart
tangled up in something, playing reckless with my heart
it's too late to turn back now
too late to wonder where this will lead
when I see you smile you know I want to believe, in love...
© Row Your Boat Music, 2002
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Lonely Hours

Anglina's leaning out the window
Of her little one-room flat
The heat so bad just breathing
Make the sweat roll down her back
The courtyard's full of old folks
And the ones too young for school
She doesn't feel like moving
But there's so much work to do

Lonely hours that just seem to last forever
Lonely days that you swear just go nowhere
Longing for that sweet feeling of together
When it seemed that life was more than lonely hours

The city lies in the noon-day haze
It hides ten thousand sins
And all at once her mind is lost
On wayward thoughts of him
The one who brought her misery 
Like some boys bring home flowers
The one who would not stay and left her
Only lonely hours

Lonely hours that just seem to last forever
Lonely days that you swear just go nowhere
Longing for that sweet feeling of together
When it seemed that life was more than lonely hours
© Row Your Boat Music, 2002
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Motorcycle Jesus

Motorcycle Jesus
Is blessing the remains
Of the ancient art of chivalry
The art of naming names
He goes around from town to town
A gentle man and true
A victim of his own romance
He's got his eye on you

When I was in his company
He showed me his tattoos
A gun and roses and a heart
With an arrow run right through
His arms were strong
He lifted me above myself at last
I couldn't bear to let him go
But he promised to come back

And I hear he's worked his miracles
On a thousand souls and more
And all were changed but none remained
What they had been before

He loved them with such tenderness
A heart so full and pure
He made them know their beauty
He made their old lives new
© Row Your Boat Music, 2002
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Nowheresville

She leaves the baby at her sister's 'cause outside her Romeo
revs the engine on the pickup 'cause he just can't wait to go
and he curses the old-timers who keep getting in his way
so she lights a joint and stares across the moonlit fields of hay.

It's payday night in Nowheresville and everywhere in town
they're dressing up and heading out, getting high and getting down
they're dragging on the back roads and they're crashing in their beds
the favourite game is butting heads with the famous Mr. Dead.

At the strip club on the highway there's a party goin' on
and Juliet's on shooters now her Romeo is gone
girls dancing like it's dangerous, boys screaming in their ears
and Juliet is crying like a baby in her beer.

The sun's first rays caress her face on the front porch where she lays
she doesn't want to see the light but she has to face the day.

It's another day in Nowheresville and every party girl in town
is brushing tangles from her hair and trying to live it down
they're desperate for romance, they're plotting their escapes
behind their eyes their perfect lies will keep their secrets safe.
© Row Your Boat Music, 2002
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Paris, 1972

If I were any wiser
I'd be young and wild and free
If you were any closer
You'd be inside of me
If life were any harder I'd be walking on thin air
If love were any sweeter, I guess I wouldn't care

But here I am, and it's allright
I'm one half sunshine, one half light
Another guest afraid to leave
With trembling heart pinned to her sleeve

I took a train to Paris
I was 18 and alone
I took a ride with strangers
Five thousand miles from home
I took one look in your dark eyes
And wanted to go there
I took a trophy when I left
A lock of your black hair

I didn't understand you then
All that Spanish jealousy
But I loved the way you said my name
And wept to see me leave
© Row Your Boat Music, 2002
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Sweet Hurricane

You think that you love himthat you can't live without him
but you don't even know him, so how can you know?

You say it's a feeling that sets your heart reeling
though you try to see reason, it just won't let you go.

But I've seen you crying, so I hope you're not lying to yourself
'cause it's a long way to fall

And I know what it's like to get carried away
swept up in love's sweet hurricane
riding high in the thrill of the eye
'til you drop like a stone, left all alone, in pieces again.

You think I'm too old nowthat my heart has grown cold now
and he's just waiting to hold you, to know how you feel.
But in the shadows between, what we hope and we dream
sometimes we can't see the storm clouds moving in

But I've seen you crying, so I hope you're not lying to yourself
'cause it's a long way to fall 
And I know what it's like to get carried away
swept up in love's sweet hurricane
riding high in the thrill of the eye
'til you drop like a stone, left all alone, in pieces again.
© Row Your Boat Music, 2002
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The Bargain

Driving down this highway
got my right hand on the wheel
I like the way the engine hums
and I like the way I feel
my love has nodded off to sleep
and the dog is sleeping too
all around us is the good green earth
above a sky of blue.

If I had only known it all 
would turn out this way
I never would have spent 
one unhappy day
now I realize, it's part of the bargain
I made, and I've paid.

Row your little boat my friend
let it gently float downstream
merrily we roll along
in this life that's but a dream
there's nothing that can harm you now
you've almost reached the sea
when you wake up, I will still be here
and you'll be here with me.
© Row Your Boat Music, 2002
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The Enemy

The T.V. crews are closing in, attracted by the heat
as chanting kids with hand-made signs start closing down the street
they want an end to hunger
they're demanding truth and peace
but all I see are innocents about to face the beast

Two streets away a silent row
of riot cops prepares to go
prepares to meet the enemy.

The mayor's called in the city's best, in case they need to make arrests
they're wearing bullet-proof blue vests
they want to bust some heads
The crowd shouts louder as it grows
with flower children row on row
while I remember long ago
those Kent state kids left dead

With clubs held high those silent rows
of riot cops prepare to go
prepare to meet the enemy.

And as I watch those boys in blue
knowing what they're going to do
forgive me but I'm silent too --
so who is the enemy?
© Row Your Boat Music, 2002
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The Other You

Hard-hearted, and heavy-handed
and no-one to call you the fool
such a far cry from that shy boy
who once sat by my side in school
now you're the smartest and the brightest
a killer smile no girl can refuse
well I'm glad to see you've made it
but still I miss the other you.

Now it's hard ball with the big boys
while you wait for your deals to come through
well I'm glad you've hit the big time
but still I miss the other you.

Curse my memory that won't let me 
stop remembering the past
long before you learned that old rule
that all the nice guys finish last
now it's love on cell and you wear it well
but it's hell when it all falls apart
you can run on empty just so long
before the breakdown starts

Life's a wonder, it'll pull you under
and I know that one thing is true
you can't buy a happy ending
I still miss the other you, I still miss the other you.
© Row Your Boat Music, 2002
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The Wedding Kids

The organist is grinding out her hymns, her head held high
the choir sings it's heart out for that great Almighty guy
the church doors open, all eyes turn to see that vision in white
come trembling down the aisle with the father of the bride...

Oh side by side against the tide of pessimistic truth
the wedding kids stand on the cake of optimistic youth
and though we stare into the wreckage of romance with deep regret
we cheer them on and hope we're wrong [End here 3rd time]
Oh, just to hedge our bets

Outside the limo driver lights another cigarette
eyes the sky and hopes the decorations don't get wet
his ex calls on the cell-phone says the child support is late
and he takes a coin and flips it, one side's love the other's hate...
© Row Your Boat Music, 2002
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