1. art and entertainment
2. music

MOMENT
Happy
Lori Chaffer
We’re taking a risk, making the dare
Gonna step out and breath the air
Not gonna listen to any old thing
Gonna fly off like a bird in the spring
Cause we’re happy, happy yeah
We may have to build, got a hammer and nail
We’ll launch the ship and hoist the sail
Nothing else matters, we’ve no cares
We can go almost anywhere
Cause we’re happy, happy yeah
There might’ve been storms
They might’ve been real
They came at us with their zeal
Our minds they tried to rewrite the past
We battened down tight and closed the hatch
We made it through back to the shore
Won’t get tossed around no more
We’ll catch the breeze in our hair
Open up baby cause we are there
Cause we’re happy, happy yeah
Humming Along
Don Chaffer
Mmm. This thing is humming along
Mmm. This thing is humming along
Mmm. This thing is humming along
We’re gonna get there
I know where gonna get there soon enough
We’re gonna get there
I know where gonna get there soon enough
Mmm. I’m like a spoke on a wheel
Mmm. I’m like a spoke on a wheel
Just like a spoke on a wheel
Wait a second
Wait a second longer
The longer we can hold on
The longer we can make it til we get there and
After All
Lori Chaffer
We been driving down the avenue
We don’t look back just move on through
Maybe we’ll go, maybe we’ll stay
Lost in our own getaway
After all, after all
Sometimes you deserve a little moment
You make your path, you make your plans
They say you can’t, you say, oh yeah I can
But it won’t mean that it’s not hard
When you get dealt a hand of rotten cards
After all, after all
Sometimes you deserve a little moment
So call me crazy, let’s go away baby
Wanna runaway lately cause I need a break maybe
For the day or call me crazy but it might be awhile ‘til I’m through
Not Looking Good
Lori Chaffer
It’s not looking good for us
What made it through the flood is now covered in rust
It’s not really working like I thought
But I can’t take it back
Like something I wish I’d never bought
I’m sorry that I dragged you all this way
For no one to call us back, no one you can play with
I could plant a thousand little seeds
But I can’t see a garden, just dirt up to my knees
Say it isn’t over, no, I need a second chance
I need a second chance
All of Us
Don and Lori Chaffer
You wait, you wait, you wait
One day you’re alone
The next you have a close companion
You give up everything
to grow those little wings
Because some things are worth your abandon
It may be like a fight
In the middle of the night it’s true
But then you see the light
Shining all around and down from the moon on
All of us
All of us
Here together
They say the years will fly
And the days will take so long
Little moments become songs you’re singing
They are watering the ground
And the sun is shining down
For the lily and the bloom she’s bringing
It may be like a fight
In the middle of the night it’s true
But then the morning breaks
And it will awaken a new day for
All of us
All of us
Here together
No Use
Don Chaffer
It’s no use
Tryin’ to fight it anymore
It’s no use
Tryin’ to fight it anymore
Wave after wave
Crashes on the shore
No use
No use
No use anymore
There’s no way
To take it back and make it right
There’s no way
To take it back and make it right
Blow after blow
The drum is always tight
No way
No way
No way to make it right
Be This Way
Lori Chaffer
Some days are a little tired
Some feel like they failed a test
You are like a forest fire
Burning round my chest
But I keep hoping it won’t be this way
Yeah, I keep, hoping that soon it won’t be this way
Sometimes I know you feel discarded
Because you are the hardest kind
So many places are bombarded
Deep inside your mind
But I keep hoping it won’t be this way
Yeah, I keep, hoping that soon it won’t be this way
No we won’t go
No we won’t go
No please don’t go
No please don’t go
‘Til We Finally Meet
Don and Lori Chaffer
When we awoke you were not to be
You never swam in our blue sea
Now you’ve gone to different oceans
Than the one we floated our hopes in
You were a breaking in the clouds
We barely said these things aloud
There was a question you were the answer
We heard music you were the dancer
Peace, sweet dreams
May you be in our memories
Till we finally meet
I had a dream I was alone
The sun was hot, oh how it shone
And I was tired but I kept going
Wild winds were blowing
And I looked up I raised my eyes
Your mighty branches filled the skies
And I found shade beneath your leaves
What wonder sorrow sees
On and On
Don Chaffer
In the midnight
It doesn’t seem right
When there’s no light
It gets hard
To see
And to want
To keep going
CHORUS
On and on
On and on
Keep going don’t stop
The bottom won’t drop
If you keep going on
If they call out
When you’re in doubt
Seems like somehow
You can keep movin’
You can keep going
NO DOUBT OF SUNSHINE
Time And Time Again
Don Chaffer & Ben Grimes
If they could pull your attention
To what’s coming on
You would cut your hair
You would mow your lawn, alright
You wouldn’t need a memory
Of younger days
Just playing in the waves
Of the cathode rays tonight
I wanna do better but I don’t know how
And I lose my head when I take a bow
And everyone’s up when I’m getting down
And that’s how it happens
Time and time
Time and time again
Time and time
Time and time again
She said, I don’t know baby
Maybe you’re the one
He said, Hell yeah, honey
I’m a man with a gun, alright
It was a rainbow summer
And the days were long
Somewhere, somehow
Someone went wrong
One night
Time and time
Time and time again
Time and time
Time and time again
Everything changes when life begins
Fixes what’s broken in the hearts of men
I haven’t felt like this since
God knows when
And that’s how it happens
It’s Alright
Lori Chaffer & Don Chaffer
Gone today cause it’s hard to stay
When the line is long
Find the ache in the things that break
And the reel is strong
It’s alright
Alright though it seems
Like a dark night
A hard time in your dreams
Try to bring in anything
It’s not easy to do
You can see them getting even
When you’re through
Out in space
Holding a place in the atmosphere
Missing how
Everything felt when you were near
We Already Got It
Lori Chaffer & Don Chaffer
You take a little lovin’
You take a little time
You put it all together
Oh my, oh my
I got a little secret
I got a little rhyme
Let the roses have the red
And the violets have the blue
As long as you are mine. Oh
They talk about the way they want it
But we already got it
We already got it
They talk about the way they want it
But we already got it
We already got it made, babe
You start at the beginning
You start to run the race
And when you start to lose steam
Just look into my face
I got a little secret
I really wanna tell
When I look at you, I feel it
That old magic spell
Back Together Again
Don Chaffer
We came a long way
From up around the bend
We came from everywhere
And had a tear to mend
We came across the sea
And bore a heavy load
They made us pay the entry fee
And walk a rocky road
And it’s so good to be back together again
Yeah it’s so good to be
Back together again
We have a memory
That we don’t understand
We were a sight to see
But we made it to dry land
We didn’t have a plan
Oh, so unprepared
We took a long train
And this is the joy we share that it’s
So good to be back together again
Everybody Knows It
Lori Chaffer
Everybody knows it
It’s over in a minute
It’s over the instant everybody knows
Everybody wants it
Until they get it
Then they wanna forget it
Then they wanna go
Stuck in a hard place
You’re in a rough phase
There are people keeping you down
Then you see my face
And know it’s okay
You can get up off the ground
It’s like a bad day
Goin’ the wrong way
You can’t shake that awful sound
And then you see how
You still got me now
You can get up off the ground
So Good To Have A Friend
Don Chaffer
One word said, one word heard
And that soft landing of understanding
Talk gives way, nothing left to say
You don’t fight it
It’s alright if it’s just quiet
It’s so good to have a friend
Everybody wants one in the end
There’s no use in trying to pretend
I’m telling you everybody wants a friend
I’m telling you it’s
So good to have a friend. Hey
Deep regrets no one gets
But you don’t hide it
You’re not stuck inside it
The long, hard day
When the sun gives way to the night time
And the long climb, you just might find
That it’s so good to have a friend
Call It A Dance
Lori Chaffer & Don Chaffer
We can change
It’s not like we can’t pick
Our feet up off the floor
It takes a certain kind of brave
To believe you can leave
The road you’ve always walked before
We can face ourselves in the mirror
We can look real hard
At all those things that are not nice
When you move to the left
Move to the right
Call it a dance and you’re feet feel light
Carry that weight
Hold your head up high
Cause you move to the left
Move to the right
In the middle of the day
And the middle of the night
So don’t be afraid
It’s never too late to try
Sometimes life bears down
With the weight of a hundred suns
And when you find that the strain
Of carrying everything’s never done
Funny thing, but you know when you go
To the edge of what you can bear
You have the strength and you know why
Don’t you hope so
Don’t you hope so
Carry that weight
When you move to the left
Move to the right
Call it a dance and you’re feet feel light
Carry that weight
Hold your head up high
We don’t want to be left
We wanna be right
And kiss the dawn at the close of night
Don’t be afraid
It’s never too late to try
We can change
Get It Together
Don Chaffer
I know you told me
That you really didn’t mean to
I know that you’re not used to
Really bein’ seen through
I know, I know, I know
I’ve heard it all before
I know about the heat
You say that you were feeling
I know about the kinda
Blow that leaves you reeling
I know, I know, I know
I’ve heard it all before
You’re gonna have to get it together
You’re gonna have to get it together
Cause you’re comin’ apart
You’re comin’ apart
You say the things you think that
Nobody can see through
You snap the lock that you think that
No one has the key to
I know, I know, I know
You think about it, and it shows
Sometimes the clothes come off
Sometimes you see it naked
Sometimes you think you’re certain
Only to find out you’re mistaken
You’re gonna have to get it together
You’re gonna have to get it together
Cause you’re comin’ apart
You’re comin’ apart
You’re gonna have to get it together
Open The Door
Lori Chaffer & Don Chaffer
Walkin’ down the street
With my shoes on my feet
Got my mind on somethin’
That’s a little bit more complete
Where are you, where are you
I wanna know
Open the door
Open the door
I’m gonna find what I’m lookin’ for
I’m feelin’ fine
With my happy on my mind
I need a little somethin’
I don’t gotta lotta time
Where are you, where are you
I gotta know
Please let me, please let me
Please let me get what I need
Overcome It
Don Chaffer
I am going to try to overcome
The things that knock me down
Every time I dive into the water
I am trying not to drown
Four and twenty stones were piled
High down by the river’s edge
Remind yourself by any means
That the fall is the reason
They made a net to catch
Overcome it
Oh overcome it
When it comes against you, baby
Overcome it
Oh overcome it
When it comes against you, babe
Find the power down inside, the one
That cuts right through the noise,
And lose the old worn-out excuses
A great surrender will make a way for joy
I am going to try to rise above
The things that knock me down
I’ll Go
Lori Chaffer
I can’t take it
I can’t fake it
I can’t breathe you out
Without breathing you in
I don’t hear right
I don’t see straight
I don’t feel the same
When you touch my skin
So I’ll go
I’ll go
I’ll go home and lock my door
You don’t love me
You don’t want to be free
I been trying hard not to run away
You don’t like it
You don’t have to
I know how it is a slap in the face
My friends tell me I should run away
My friends tell me I’m being played
They want me to see better days
But surely you would have me stay
Stay By Your Side
Don Chaffer
Get it wrong and everyone’ll say
You get a boat out
Just to see it blown away
If you lie and think you’re okay
You set a bone to break
Living on a little summer wage
Then break down
And you’re fallin’ all the way
Get it wrong and everyone’ll say
Ain’t that the way, ain’t that the way
I’ll stay by your side
Til the darkness passes
I’ll stay by your side
Til the storm is through
Out alone you’ve gone a long ways
Got a weak will
And a thing you couldn’t say
Never sank, you rowed a load over
The early mountain lake
Now you’re on, you’re farther on gone
Countin’ on someone
That you say is just a pawn
Get it wrong and everyone’ll say
Ain’t that the way, ain’t that the way
No Doubt of Sunshine
Don Chaffer
The slender boughs of flowers
And the arc of growing leaves
The tender way the grass collapses
Underneath our feet
And the easy way
The sun gives out its sunshine
Come on, Come on
There is no doubt of sunshine
It’s another day
The sun gives out its sunshine
Come on, Come on, there is no doubt of
Sunshine again
Sunshine again
We’ll lay down our troubles
All those little things
No more holding back
The songs the morning sings
And the easy way
The sun gives out its sunshine
Come on, Come on
There is no doubt of sunshine
IN THE MIDDLE OF IT
Happen Every Time
Don Chaffer
This is not the story of a girl who, for her senior photo,
Chose to pose with a tiger who mauled her
That’s a little low though
You ought to know- when you own a Siberian tiger,
And they want to pet itThat it’s only an innocent query, and
You don’t have to let it happen every time, you know
Or happen at all
You could always just say no
You could take the fall
But again, it’s an inappropriate thing for me to criticize him
I understand
There’s a guy who hears about a deal and he just buys in
Never question, never wonder, never think hard
And I don’t despise him
I just hope he keeps the hell away from my kid
And the bed he lies in
Cause it won’t happen every time, you know
Or happen at all
You could always just say no
You could make the call
The lion will lie down with the lamb
Or at least that’s what I read
They made it work in a Las Vegas showroom,
But the lamb was dead
Topless girls with peacock feathers turned about like fans
I wanted badly to believe for the sake of the dance
CHORUS
But it doesn’t happen every time, you know
Or happen at all
You could always just say no
You could make the call
Couple Cheap Rings
Lori Chaffer
They found a couple cheap rings and a family photo
They say he flipped his Maserati on the way to Desoto
They started cleaning up the mess
Before anybody could make it home
Couldn’t get no one to confess so they let em all go
Hey hey break it up get on your way
Hey hey there’s nothing more to see today
Hey hey
There’s a crystalline aura at the local soiree
The cool kids swarm round like bees round a bouquet
Can’t keep from rubbernecking cause there isn’t anything going on
They say, what the heck, drink it up until it’s gone
Everybody wonders
If you’re ever coming back
After all your blunders it’s like a train running off the track
No one seems to get a second chance anymore
If you fall down they shut your broken face in the door
And say...
Haven’t You Always
Don Chaffer
The Monk flunked out of the Franciscan order
The Rock Star deferred to her domestic side
The two were then married at the Mexican border
Each with a pistol and field guide
Strolling through fields of fresh-cut barley
Walking with the workers who harvested hay,
Leaning on ledges with staggering vistas
Depending on kisses to get through the day
Haven’t you always wanted to know
How it would feel to let it all go?
Haven’t you wondered, in line for the ticket,
Whether you’ll get in to witness the show?
Haven’t you always wanted to know?
And for a little while, no one was boring
Neither was far off and harder to see
But then the rain gave in to violently pouring
That’s when the monk had to take up a hobby
The Rock Star would sleepily strum with her fingers
Softly on an unplugged electric guitar
Every forsaken melody lingers
Every unfulfilled vow is a scar
Falling
Lori Chaffer
I’m gonna break you, baby
I’m gonna make your name
Something that people whisper
In the halls of fame
Here’s to the golden vein we’ll find
Everyone soon will listen and you will blow their minds
But it will be hard to hold
And you will grow old
Time won’t last forever
Your time won’t last
Just a little bend here, honey
To see the curve in your back
It doesn’t matter if you believe it
It only matters how you act
There’s the incision
Soon you’ll never have to try to make your own decisions
These are things you can buy
But they will be hard to hold
And they will grow old
Time won’t last forever
Their time won’t last
Falling
Let’s not pretend now sweetheart
Life is all compromise
Some things that look full are empty
A dirty cup can look white outside
Please understand me
I don’t mean to make you cry
The poor bastards just need a distraction
And ours is not to reason why
And they will be hard to hold
And they will grow old
Time won’t last forever
Their time won’t last
Falling
Needs A Break
Don Chaffer
Stop me if you’ve heard this one
I’m tryin’ not to repeat myself
But every other month or two
I take another one back down off the shelf
And turn it over like a rabbit’s foot
That’s dyed bright blue at a factory
And sold by a cashier wordlessly
Who’s planning a career as an actor
He just needs a break, needs a break, needs a break
He needs a break, needs a break
Everybody just needs a break
Stuck in his pocket like a life preserve
He got five smooth stones from an old weak brook
That’s one mile from the highest hill
Where he sits every night with a shepherd’s crook
And he hums some song from a red notebook
That he wrote while strumming on a beat up harp
He’s gonna ride their shoulders if he wins this one
But if he loses, they go get his body after dark
And he needs a break…
Now maybe I’m lost or maybe I’m just plain
Maybe I misheard it when they read my name
So I work my brain like a construction crane
I try to oversee
I nearly go insane
And I keep ending up on my knees
And begging God for a little mercy please
And at night sometimes when I unaware
I can tell He’s friendly
I can tell He’s there
He just needs a break…
Tools In The Garage
Don Chaffer
He was an old man
He had fourteen sons
And he didn’t always mention his daughters
He was a lame man
He had a bad war wound
He chased the ship that gave it to him and caught her
He had grandkids
They’d come to visit
They were young and they were full of wonder
But he wasn’t happy
He lost his dear wife
To some sleepy trucker’s midnight blunder
There were tools in the garage
There were shotguns in the closet
There were too many things not to touch
He was never really friendly to the children he was close to
He might have loved ‘em but not too much
He had wire racks
He had glass jars
Full of nuts and bolts and things he no longer used
There was an organ
That his wife use to play
And a cabinet that he would keep full of booze
And every once in a while
You could get that old man to smile
And then it’s like the heavens would ring
I never saw it last long
Ah, but now that he is gone
That’s the only thing that means anything
Gimme My Walkman
Don Chaffer
I bought a Bridge Over Troubled Water cassette
And I listened to it ten thousand times
To and from high school in my pickup truck
I was swimming in Paul Simon’s rhymes
Cause when you find a friend in need
I tell you, you find a friend indeed
Gimme my Walkman, Mom
Please I need it bad
That way I don’t have to listen to
The fights you have with dad
Sail on silver girl
Your time has surely come
Strike up the grand piano
Bang the big bass drum
I’m gonna blow this joint
I’m gonna be a star
Cause I don’t wanna drive a taxi
I don’t wanna tend a bar
So find me a good drum solo
Find one pretty quick
Maybe give me Ginger Baker, Keith Moon
Or give me John Bonham’s sticks
Call up a little thunder
Help me drown these noises out
There’s only one sound I hate worse
Than when they scream and shout
We’re Not Gonna
Lori Chaffer
We’re not gonna dance
We’re not gonna cry
We’re not gonna sing you no lullaby
We may wanna
But we’re not gonna
We’re not gonna win
We’re not gonna lose
We’re not gonna make other people choose
We may wanna
But we’re not gonna
When I was a child
I spoke like a child
I acted like a child
I thought... Well you know
Then one day you grow up
Drink from that cup
And everything changes
You say
You are gonna laugh
You’re not gonna lie
You are gonna live better than you saw them try
Well you may wanna
But you’re not gonna
Now I’m a woman
I stick to my guns
But I have a little fun... well, you know
Cause one day you grow old
Wrinkle and fold
Everything changes
Oh everything changes and you tell yourself
Cause you are gonna live
You are gonna die
You are gonna make
Other people cry
You may not wanna
Ha
You may not wanna
It’s okay, man, you’re just gonna
I’m Gonna Love You
Lori Chaffer
I’m gonna love you in my way
I troll for good views in mounds of clay
It’s hypnotic if you stay
Underwater, deep at bay
You may think you see me for what I am
But I know you don’t understand
I must have loved you for what you gave
But you became some kind of slave
Put down your weapon; it will be good
I won’t put mine down though I know I should
I buried wishes, cut down wood
I’d forgive you if I could
Only One Time
Don Chaffer
Only one time and then I said no
But everything that I think
Is still caught on that one moment of weakness
Like watching a steamboat sink
How you play the game
How you say your name
These are things we’re working through without a clue
Haven’t you been gone?
I haven’t seen your dawn in a long, long, long, long time
Only one time and then I said no
But everything I believe
Is tainted by that one moment of weakness
Like watching a Greyhound leave
How you turn the page
How you act your age
These are things we try to do without a clue
Haven’t we had words?
I haven’t seen nor heard in a long, long, long, long time
Only one time and then I collapsed
And distantly, I’m quite sure
I heard, over me, a pardon pronounced
And now all I need now’s a cure
How you keep it up
How you fill the cup
These are things we’re living through, all thanks to you
Haven’t isn’t fun
I haven’t gone for a run in a long, long, long, long time
Only one time, and maybe that’s all
As long as I keep in mind
The fact that if I’ve done it that one time
One more could be close behind
So keep a close watch on this heart of mine
I’m In The Middle of It
Don Chaffer
Halfway here
Don’t disappear
Things might go clear
If I just stay on deck
And don’t strain my neck
And get into the thing I’m in the middle of
Just one more time on the fiddle, love
I’m gonna pay attention this time, I swear
At the Loan and Pawn
You can see what’s gone
And there’s ghosts out on the lawn
If you squint your eyes
And don’t look surprised
They’ll stare right back at you graciously
And you don’t have to get high to see
Just remember, when the tire goes flat, to use the spare
I’m in the middle of it
I got everything I wanted, and I really love it
I’m in the seat of honor
If you could die from happy, baby I’d be a goner
So sorry when I go dark
It must ’a’ been that I forgot about the spark
So sorry when I go lame
I got no reason I should ever complain
Old sunshine
It’s goin’ all the time
And that’s not just a good tagline
Cause every living thing
Would cease to sing
If the sun just decided to close up shop
We’d all be lyin’ on the chopping block
And in a couple minutes there wouldn’t be anyone there
I should never complain
(He should never complain)
Difference Between
Lori Chaffer
Come down, come down, come down
Your gonna get your feelings hurt
I’ve found, I’ve found, I’ve found
That you gotta get your feet in the dirt
The ground, the ground, the ground
Is sometimes a just desert
But there’s a difference between believing in yourself
Difference between believing in yourself and being crazy
There’s a difference between believing in yourself
Difference between believing in yourself and being lazy
Come back, come back, come back
There’s no reason you should walk away
An attack, an attack, an attack
Is not allowed to make you think you’re ok
White and black, white and black
You’d think there’d be a little grey
We won’t give in
We won’t give in
We need something to defend yeah
Rivers Rise
Don Chaffer
I have watched
From a distance now for several months
We used to hang out
Every day and talk all at once
Those were greater days and greater lays
Or whatever it was that we used to say
But the rivers rise and
And our longing eyes are
On what’s gone downstream
And the ground is damp
And there is no lamp
And things aren’t what they seem
So we make calls
And we leave behind our voices after we’re gone
Each tries to catch
The other in between a hurry and a yawn
And the children need, and there’s ground to seed
And the general sense of security
On this bank where sinners sank
There’s polished bits of glass
From years ago when two guys swore
They’d never let this pass
Be Easy, Baby
Don Chaffer
Be Easy, baby
Don’t cry so hard
My road was blocked
My way was barred
But it’s not all darkness
The night sky is starred
So be easy, baby
Don’t cry so hard
If I ever had a reason to run away
I would take it like a one horse open sleigh
I learned twice as much from sorrow as I learned
During all my days of study oh how I burned
An Unfinished Tale Volume 2: Truth
Don Chaffer
2011
There%Is%No%Justice%Now!
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I!don’t!remember!if!it!was!a!dream!
Or!if!it!was!something!I!read!
Either!one!coulda!done!the!trick!
Either!one!of!‘em!can!raise!the!dead!
You!are!different,!now,!to!me!
By!memory!and!patina!
Than!when!I!used!to!lie!in!wait!
To!serve!you!your!subpoena!
There!is!no!justice!now!
There!is!no!justice!now!
There!is!no!justice!anymore!
That!mercy!will!allow!
You!said!these!things,!these!little!words!
That!ring!in!me!like!chimes!
In!my!mind,!I’m!by!the!fireplace!
And!you’re!still!reciting!rhymes!
A!paper!bag!of!drunken!slurs!
Slip!from!form!into!ashes!
And!figure!skaters!triple!lutz!
And!no!one!ever!crashes!
I!won’t!lie,!I!won’t!pretend!
That!you!were!like!a!saint!
Except!to!say!that!sainthood’s!
More! than! selfGimposed! restraint!
So!ring!the!bell,!and!let!‘em!know!
A!man!is!just!a!man!
Come!one,!come!all,!the!gates!are!wide!
They’re!striking!up!the!band!
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Oh%Baby%Something%New!
I!found!you!out!diggin!in!The!Field!of!Sacrifice!
Just!out!past!the!end!of!the!boulevard!of!Virtue!&!Vice!
Vice!on!the!left!side!of!the!street,!Virtue!on!the!right!
And!you!in!the!garden!with!the!moon!up!high!in!the!innocent!night!
I!don’t!have!to!do!things!by!committee!or!boards!
But!if!you!ever!knew!how!selfish!I!can!be,!you’d!want!
To!put!some!regulations!on!me!
Oh!baby!
Oh!darling!
I!don’t!want!to!go!down!to!the!store!to!just!get!something!fun!
But!Oh!baby!
Oh!darling!
If!we!stay!here!one!more!minute!I!might!come!undone!
Stay!here!one!more!minute!and!I’m!gonna!come!undone!
I’m!up!against!it!with!bank’s!collapse!and!the!credit!freeze!
Lately,!I!even!been!incapable!of!feeling!the!slightest!breeze!
I!can!spot!a!slight!from!a!mile!away,!but!the!breeze!is!lost!
The!baby’s!sleeping!sweetly!in!cradle!but!all!I!feel’s!the!frost!
Lately!it’s!hard!to!swallow,!and!lately!it’s!hard!to!spit!
I!never!loved!the!city!but!I!dream!I!have!
But!I’d!like!the!dream!to!happen!while!I!feed!the!calves!
Maybe!we!should!move!out!where!
Things!are!much!more!still!
I!think!
We!will!
Maybe!we!should!throw!away!
Monopoly!and!clue!
Why!don’t!
We!do!that!
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No%Reason%To%Leave!
They!were!gathered!round!and!pointing!
At!the!stars!up!in!the!sky!
They!were!telling!me!the!meaning!
And!I!was!failing!to!see!why!
Why!should!distant!twinkling!mean!
That!things!were!soon!to!change!
The!porch!light!flickers!warmly!
And!the!dinner’s!on!the!range!
And!I!was!hard!to!persuade!
I!was!sure!I!should!have!stayed!
They!had!to!push!me!on!my!way!you!know!
And!somehow!I!could!not!really!see!
Cause!I!had!a!real!good!reason!to!go!
But!no!reason!to!leave!
The!thunder!never!rattled!at!me!
Lightning!never!struck!
I!never!heard!a!word!that!shook!me!
I!never!felt!too!stuck!
But!sometimes!when!the!doorbell!rings!
And!there’s!nobody!there!
You!hear!your!own!heart!reaching!out!
Into!the!evening!air!
I!had!been!hard!to!persuade!
I!was!sure!I!should!have!stayed!
They!had!to!push!me!on!my!way!you!know!
Somehow!I!could!not!really!see!
Cause!I!had!a!real!good!reason!to!go!
But!no!reason!to!leave!
No!reason!to!leave!
I!had!been!hard!to!persuade!
I!was!sure!I!should!have!stayed!
They!were!gathered!round!and!pointing!
At!the!stars!up!in!the!sky!
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!
!
Moving%Again!
Pack!up!the!bedsheets!
Roll!up!the!rugs!
Gather!the!paper!
For!glasses!and!mugs!
Or!throw!it!away!you!
Won’t!regret!what!you!lack!
If!you!take!too!much!
You!wind!up!flat!on!your!back!
We’re!moving! again!
We’re! moving! again!
Talk!to!the!highway!
It’s!been!your!best!friend!
But!all!it!can!answer!is!you!know!
We’re!moving!again!
All!of!those!words!that!
You!heard!back!at!school!
Each!one!is!useless!when!
You!try!to!be!cool!
Throw!out!the!baby!
When!the!bathwater’s!gray!
Walk!til!you’re!sure!the!
Crying’s!all!gone!away!
Somewhere!in!some!dining!room!
A!family!sits!to!eat!
Somewhere!on!some!well!known!corner!
Two!old!friends!will!meet!
Right!where!they!live!
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The%Truth%of%The%Matter!
The!station’s!investigation!was!covered!
in!curious!circumstances!
The!criminal!was!liminal!and!like!a!beige!rage!
of!disappearing!glances!
The!elected!detective!
received!handsome!advances!
And!a!king’s!ransom!of!lances!
couldn’t!outGjoust!his!dances!
Cause!they!put!in!the!fix!upstream!
All!the!mean!men!who!run!the!machine!
And!the!bacon!they’re!makin’!is!not!getting!lean!
But!before!they!learn!how!to!make!it!any!fatter!
I’m!just!trying!to!get!to!the!truth!of!the!matter!
I!thought!maybe!the!savior!could!speak!to!the!weak!
who!were!born!in!a!corner!and!curled!
Up!like!a!snake!but!they!rattled!so!fakers!and!tattles!
with!manners!and!banners!unfurled!
Brought!in!witches!and!bitches!with!twitchedy!pitches!
and!outrageous!riches!were!hurled!
At!the!liars!and!spires!that!come!over!wires!
who!say!that!they!speak!to!the!world!
Cause!they!put!in!the!fix!upstream!
Those!impossible!ostriches!set!up!the!scheme!
And!they!prance!and!they!strut!and!they!preen!
But!before!I!go!deaf!from!the!incessant!chatter!
I’m!just!trying!to!get!to!the!truth!of!the!matter!
Now!the!person!who!worsens!has!often!been!softened!
By!language!that!mangles!the!angle!
Of!the!thing!that!they!bring!with!a!whack!and!sting!
To!the!gang!who!will!hang!and!then!dangle!
Executioners!giggle;!the!guilty!just!wiggle!
Like!marionettes!on!a!string!
Lifeless!and!likely!to!stifle!the!knightly!
Who!would!far!rather!blather!than!sing!
Cause!they!put!in!the!fix!upstream!
Theology!perfectly!built!to!blaspheme!
They’re!all!drunk!on!a!drum!full!of!whipping!cream!
But!if!you!hit!reality,!it!never!shatters!
So!I’m!just!trying!to!get!to!the!truth!of!the!matter!
Cause!they!put!in!the!fix!upstream!
The!committees!in!line!to!define!the!obscene!
Get!you!guilty!for!life!before!you!hit!your!teens!
But!if!you!hit!reality,!it!never!shatters!
So!I’m!just!trying!to!get!to!the!truth!of!the!matter!
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You%Gotta%Let%It%Go!
There!is!a!book!of!songs!I!lost!
When!the!door!was!left!ajar!
At!a!San!Jose!hotel!
In!an!Isuzu!rental!car!
I!went!down!to!the!train!tracks!
To!try!to!find!it!there!
I!dug!through!piles!of!trash!
But!it!wasn’t!anywhere!
You!gotta!let!it!go!sometimes!You!
gotta!let!it!go!sometimes!When!
there’s!nothing!you!can!do!About!
the!things!you!cannot!find!
One!of!those!songs!was!something!about!
Swimming!in!a!lake!toward!the!sun!
One!ripple!rolls!away,!it!said!
And!then!another!one!comes!
I!always!wished!I!could!find!it!again!
I!imagined!how!I’d!feel!
When!that!song!came!walking!home!
But!here’s!the!deal!
Sometimes!goodbye!
Can!be!a!beautiful!word!to!say!
Sometimes!goodbye!is!
The!rolling!hills!
That!tumble!toward!
The!mountain!where!
The!highway!threads!
A!pass!that!leads!
To!the!other!side!
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Fight%Our%Way%Through!
And!the!young,!solitary!puppeteer!
Did!not!know!
How!to!get!the!children!to!laugh!
And!so!
He!had!to!
Ply!his!trade!on!the!
outskirts!of!town!
Where!he!met!an!old,!sad!widower!
Who!could!see!
The!beauty!of!the!young!man’s!plays!
And!so!
He!told!him!
He!should!go!where!the!
People!were!grieving!and!sad!
We!will!have!to!just!
fight!our!way!through!
from!this!point!on!I!suppose!
When!the!two!went!out!together!the!
Old!man!found!
Audiences!who!would!weep!
And!so!
They!two!
Agreed!to!go!on!a!
While!as!a!pair!
After!years!of!fruitful!traveling!
That!young!man!
Came!upon!the!old!man!in!bed!
With!a!girl!
Whom!he!had!
Seen!just!earlier!at!that!afternoon’s!show!
That’s!when!the!country!went!to!war!
The!puppeteer!went;!the!old!man!didn’t!see!him!anymore!
The!girl!from!the!show!found!someone!younger!
The!old!man!rehearsed!his!blunder!
In!his!mind!
In!the!dark!
And!wanted!things!to!change!
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!
Biggest%Thing%I%Ever%Did!
Biggest!thing!I!ever!did!
Was!tell!you!what!I!thought!of!you!
Without!the!hesitations!and!
Apologies,!I!said!it!true!
I!should!have!known,!I!said!
And!I!mean!known!it!like!a!drug!dog!knows!
Like!doing!simple!mathematics!
You!put!the!answer!where!the!answer!goes!
I!should!have!let!the!training!just!
Guide!me!to!a!simple!choice!
To!stay!the!hell!away!from!you!
And!when!you!failed,!then!rejoice!
But!that’s!not!how!I!played!it,!no!
I!showed!affection!like!a!birthday!gift!
I!gave!you!everything!I!had!
I!gave!you!such!a!crucial!lift!
I!skipped!a!rock!with!all!my!might!
To!find!out!what!the!skipping!brings!
You!seemed!to!float!but!then!you!sank;!
Outrageous!arrows,!fortune!slings.!
Biggest!thing!I!ever!did!
Ever!since!I!was!a!kid!
I!mean!the!biggest!thing!I!ever!did!
Ever!since!I!was!a!kid!
Was!to!tell!it!like!it!is!Yeah!to!tell!it!like!it!is!
I!lied.!The!biggest!thing!I’ve!done!
Was!move!toward!your!fireplace!
Where!you,!unconsciously!were!hidden!
In!the!flickering!on!your!face!
And!though!it’s!hard!to!navigate!
The!stumbling!and!the!easy!sweat!
I!still!believe!I!did!this!right!
And!yet!there’s!one!thing!I!regret!
That!the!biggest!thing!I!ever!did!
Ever!since!I!was!a!kid!
I!mean!the!biggest!thing!I!ever!did!
Ever!since!I!was!a!kid!
Was!to!tell!it!like!it!is!Yeah!to!tell!it!like!it!is!
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!
I!should!have!known,!I!once!had!said,!
And!I!meant!known!that!you!would!fail!me!
But!since!then!I’ve!discovered!how!
To!fail!others!equally!
And!now!I!wish!I!would!have!said!
I!might!be!mad!but!I!don’t!want!you!dead!
And!if!it!please!the!court!I!think!I!know!
What!I!would!like!to!have!the!record!show!
That!I!always!loved!you!anyways!
That!I!always!loved!you!anyways!
Biggest!thing!I!ever!did!
Ever!since!I!was!a!kid!
I!mean!the!biggest!thing!I!ever!did!
Ever!since!I!was!a!kid!
Was!to!tell!it!like!it!is!
Yeah!to!tell!it!like!it!is!
An Unfinished Tale Volume 1: Beauty
Don Chaffer
2010
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Everybody%Talks%About%Friends!
Everybody!talks!about!friends!
Like!the!divine!right!of!kings!
Everybody!figures!they’re!meant!
To!be!happy!and!everything!
Everybody,!everywhere!
‘Round!the!posies!in!a!big!ring!
I!just!sit!here!and!I!stare!
Thinking!bout!a!ghost!ship!
Sailing!!on!a!windy!sea!
Thinkin’!bout!the!short!life!
Of!a!worker!bee!
And!whether!anybody!knows!me!
I!don’t!see!why!I’m!so!lonely!
But!I!got!a!funny!feeling!
That!it’s!my!fault!and!I!
Want!so!bad!to!
Rise!above!it!
Do!you!think!that!maybe!there’s!a!way?!
Does!a!class!five!hurricane!ever!say!
I!know!you!
And!you’re!okay?In!the!backyard!in!the!spring!
My!honeysuckle!will!bloom!
And!stand!like!a!Soldier!in!Greece!
At!attention!at!the!unknown!tomb!
I!keep!waiting!to!hear!
When!the!mockingbird’s!song’ll!resume!
A!whistle!like!the!tip!of!a!spear!
Singing!like!a!cell!phone!
Sounding!like!a!minuet!
Feeling!like!the!mojo!
That!isn’t!in!you!yet!
But!it’s!the!song!you!can’t!forget!
The!National!Weather!Service!warned!
Everybody!in!town!before!
It!blew!ashore!
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Far%Off%Shapes!
I!have!a!local!retail!store;!it’s!a!haberdashery!
Haberdashers!sell!hats!and!we!do!so!happily!
Day!after!day,!It’s!wake!and!make!my!way!to!my!place!of!work!
On!the!way,!I!wave!to!the!maids,!bricklayers,!and!the!soda!jerk!
And!I!think!that!
I!should!sweep!the!walk!
So!I!do!but!
No!one!stops!to!talk!
Far!off!shapes!are!difficult!to!see!
Long,!long!ways!between!you!and!me!
Frank!the!Bear!was!a!prominent!citizen!in!my!home!town!
But!nobody!really!much!liked!havin’!him!around!
It!wasn’t!that!Frank!wasn’t!charming!or!a!patron!of!the!arts!
Or!that!Frank!wasn’t!kind!when!he!went!to!the!auto!parts!store!to!buy!parts!
But!Frank!would!eat!someone!every!once!in!a!while!
And!no!one!could!forgive!his!bloody!smile!
One!thing!follows!another!
That’s!what!mother!said!
If!snake!kills!mongoose’s!brother!
Snake!will!turn!up!dead!
I’m!not!saying!nothing!ever!makes!sense!
That!would!be!too!much!
All!I’m!saying’s!when!two!things!are!close,!
That!doesn’t!mean!they!touch!
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No%One%Was%Prepared!
I!set!out!across!the!desert!with!a!camel!
And!a!red!rider!wagon!full!of!water!for!the!hot!days!
Hank!came!along!with!a!hanging!bag!of!handsome!clothes!
He!said!he!needed!something!for!crazy!crazy!parties!
Nancy!called!before!the!cell!phone!service!flickered!out!
Like!a!candle!at!the!start!of!a!rainstorm!
She!said!something!about!her!granddad!right!before!he!died!
Saw!a!light,!and!said!now!maybe!we!can!transform!
No!one!was!prepared!
I!tried!hard!to!remember!what!she!told!me!that!he!said!
But!the!words!wouldn’t!come!when!I!was!half!gone!
Then!when!suddenly!I’m!utterly!defeated!I!can!hear!
Every!word!I!ever!heard,!but!I’d!forgotten!
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Oh,%How%The%Mighty%Have%Fallen!
Oh!how!the!mighty!have!fallen!
Out!of!our!memories!like!
Cancelled!TV!shows!
And!losing!candidates!for!the!presidency!
Oh,!how!the!mighty!have!fallen!
We!used!to!cower,!bow,!or!tremble!
Now!we!just!laugh!at!the!very!
Thought!of!what!they!held!to!be!sacred!in!their!lives!
Soothe!my!troubled!heart!
Oh!how!the!mighty!have!fallen!
From!the!skies!where!they!once!crissGcrossed!
In!fighter!jets,!and!sweater!vests,!
Smoking!cigarettes!at!a!swank!martini!bar!
Oh!how!the!mighty!have!fallen!
On!some!forgotten!hill!
They!try!to!end!their!lives!
And!have!to!cry!for!help!from!the!stranger!who!wanders!by!
Don’t!tell!anybody!
I!don’t!want!the!word!to!get!out!
Don’t!tell!anybody!
Give!me!just!a!minute!I!think!that!I!can!figure!this!out!
Soothe!my!troubled!heart!
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He%Was%Never%Seen%Again!
I!sent!the!message!
But!the!message!wasn’t!heard!
A!carrier!pigeon!
But!he!would!not!take!a!bird!
I!wrote!a!note!
I!wrote!it!out!by!hand!
And!if!he!ever!read!it!
Well,!he!did!not!understand!
Because!he!got!into!a!plane!
He!took!the!plane!into!the!fog!
He!took!the!fog!into!the!mountain!
He!was!never!seen!again!
I!worked!for!ten!years!
On!my!grandfather’s!farm!
Just!to!be!near!him!
But!he!had!an!awfully!long!arm!
So!I!gave!a!tenth!of!
My!money!to!the!church!
And!I!carved!out!my!longings!
In!the!bark!of!that!old!white!birch!
In!what!ways!am!I!like!him!
The!question!rattles!in!my!brain!
I!never!thought!about!it!much!but!
I!should!also!ask!how!we!are!not!the!same!
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Beauty%Will%Break%My%Heart!
He!was!lying!on!his!bed!
Closed!his!eyes!and!then!he!said!
Time!to!dress!
The!wound,!I!guess!
She!was!in!a!rocking!chair!
Trying!to!enjoy!the!air!
Of!her!home!
One!more!time!
Maybe!Beauty!will!break!my!heart!
Maybe!I!will!finally!fall!apart!
After!all!the!leaves!have!fallen!
Down!on!the!ground,!and!I’m!done!stalling!
I!will!lean!against!a!dying!tree,!
And!let!the!beauty!break!come!break!me!
Stars!in!heaven,!rouse!yourselves!
Dress!up!like!the!Christmas!elves!
Make!me!toys!
Make!some!noise!
Ah,!but!that’s!not!how!it!works!
Neither!benefits!nor!perks!
They!will!shine!
But!they’re!not!mine!
Cinched!up!belts!and!buckles!
Tightened!down!just!so!
Bozo,!George!and!Chuckles!
All!the!funny!guys!put!on!a!show!
But!I!think!beauty!will!break!my!heart…!
Pink & Blue
Waterdeep
2008
PINK
Do The Dance
Written by Lori Chaffer
Morning breaks
Fighting chance
You’re awake
You do the dance
The dance
Dance
Waterdeep’s!Pink!&!Blue!
©!2008!Gentleman! Adventurer’s! Songs!(ASCAP)!
Admin! by!Simpleville! Music,! Inc.!All!rights!reserved.!
www.waterdeep.com!
Life Of The Party
Written by Lori & Don Chaffer
Some roads dead end
Some just disappear
Well I don’t know but I’ve been told
That I’m the kind that won’t let you near
Most people tell you what you wanna hear
But sometimes what you need is not as bad
As all the things that you fear
There is something on the other side of a dream
CHORUS
Come on down
Come on down
Come and be the life of the party
(We’ll be the life of the party)
There’s a million ways to start a fire
And then just watch it burn
When the sun comes out, we won’t pout
We won’t criticize anybody
(We’ll be the life of the party)
Just let it go, let it go
Don’t hold on to it
Peter Peter Pumkin-eater lied
(He did not keep her very well)
He said he had a standard to uphold and he would not compromise
And Dr. Jekyll had his Mr. Hyde
(The good doctor tried to take it in stride)
So play the game too long and all you’re left with is your darker side
There is something on the other side of a dream
BRIDGE
There is wanting
There is holding onto things
It can’t be occupied or turned into a theme
Come on down, come on down...
Waterdeep’s!Pink!&!Blue!
©!2008!Gentleman! Adventurer’s! Songs!(ASCAP)!
Admin! by!Simpleville! Music,! Inc.!All!rights!reserved.!
www.waterdeep.com!
Oh
Written by Lori & Don Chaffer
I wanna go out and plant a seed
But we’re too busy trying to build a new city
There’s a market and a jail and an empty pier
And a woman with a tune we don’t really wanna hear
Its all tied to a box and bunch of pages
That no one understands, not even the wise sages
I think its about time I defected
Cause I’m getting a little tired of feeling dejected
CHORUS
Oh
Grandmama she went out last night
Stared up at the moon cause it was such a safe light
She opened up a box with a bunch of pages
That she couldn’t understand though it calmed her rages
She say “Cows make milk and bees make honey”
She sang “I don’t need much I just need a little money”
Grandpa he danced the ol’ soft shoe
He needed a chance to shake off the rhythm of the blues
Went out last night held the dirt in my hand
Nothing special, tasted bland
Wrote down names in hard black lead
Closed our books and went to bed
Waterdeep’s!Pink!&!Blue!
©!2008!Gentleman! Adventurer’s! Songs!(ASCAP)!
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Accidents Happen
Written by Don Chaffer
This is the story of Captain Breeze
And the way he moved with his injured knees
And the boy whom he once taught to climb trees
Before the Captain lost his way
And this is the story of Sam the kid
How he, for a couple of lousy quid,
Bought a jar of priceless jewels with a broken lid
And why he couldn’t stay
CHORUS
Accidents happen; accidents do
Someone‘ll act like they’re into you
But their axe’ll fall in between violent and blue
Then the accidents come and start falling on you
Accidents come and start falling on you
Sam was out looking for cheap guitars
He was looking through other people’s yards
When he found his blessing in a box of jars
And he bought it right away
When he thought of Breeze he felt himself tear
He thought, I probably should just let him share
But I can’t be sure he’ll even be there
So I’ll wait ‘til the end of day
They met on the bank by the river dam
Captain Breeze and the eager one, Sam
And the Captain said, no talking while we eat our ham
They were chewing not talking right then
And when lunch was over the captain spoke
He said, “You know, kid, you kinda seem like of a joke”
Sam didn’t look up cause Sam’s heart was broke
And he wondered when their talk would end
BRIDGE
That night beneath the northern star,
Sam left with nothing but his jar,
And he had no plan except to get as far
As he could from his Captain friend
Waterdeep’s!Pink!&!Blue!
©!2008!Gentleman! Adventurer’s! Songs!(ASCAP)!
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The Highest Branch
Written by Lori Chaffer
I am so happy
To have climbed that tree
And I stand on the highest branch
Everything is underneath
Even my mother
Even my father
Especially my brothers
Waterdeep’s!Pink!&!Blue!
©!2008!Gentleman! Adventurer’s! Songs!(ASCAP)!
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Lying In History
Written by Lori & Don Chaffer
Something just isn’t quite right
I’m not feeling alone tonight
I know that you are gone
So why haven’t I been able to move on
We were only children back then
At the place where anger and love begins
But what might have been never was
And so I do what anyone does
CHORUS
Why be a mystery
Lying in history
Some nights I can’t picture your face
Barely formed and then taken away
Like the crash of a wave
Leaves a hole where a rock had once taken its place
Seven long days and then you were
CHORUS
Lying in history
Why be a mystery
A good woman who can find
Never sleeping, always kind
Strong and fearless with a right mind
Pretty soon she leaves herself behind
CHORUS
Lying in history
Why be a mystery
Waterdeep’s!Pink!&!Blue!
©!2008!Gentleman! Adventurer’s! Songs!(ASCAP)!
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BLUE
Right Before
Written by Don Chaffer
The night before the demolition
An overweight man gave me permission
To go through the basement at the mission
And see what I could find
Right before you slip up Right
before the great regret Right
before everything changes
You’re not okay
There was one stuffed bear and a can of kerosene
There was something about it that was almost serene
To be the last witness of these things
That were left behind
BRIDGE
I don’t know if anyone should
Given the chance, I don’t think I would
I just know that if I don’t admit it,
It’ll haunt me, and I’ll never quit it
CHORUS
Right before it’s burned down
Right before it’s blown apart
Right before everybody gives up on it
It’s in the air
Right before the wrecking ball
Right before the dynamite
Right before in the middle of the night
There’s something there
The last time we kissed was at the station
She was heading off for summer vacation
We were both well done, it was just gravitation
That our lips met
CHORUS
Right before it comes again
Right before I lie down
Right before the last flight out
And the old black bear
Right before the buzzer sounds
Right before my time is up
Right before there’s nothing left
There’s something there
You gotta know that the night before the demolition
I sent out a brief transmission
I said somebody go and get me a good magician
I’m about to change
So I placed the key in the car’s ignition
While I re-thought our position
But if you won’t let go, then you can’t
transition
You can only bet
CHORUS
Right before it goes off
Right before it walks away
Right before the last thing that you
Won’t ever say
Waterdeep’s!Pink!&!Blue!
©!2008!Gentleman! Adventurer’s! Songs!(ASCAP)!
Admin! by!Simpleville! Music,! Inc.!All!rights!reserved.!
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Okay, Okay, Yeah
Written by Don Chaffer
I ran my fingers over the cloth and found the seam
I thought this isn’t here or there; it’s in between
And I always wished I could stand right where sky meets sea
But when I dreamed it one time, it seemed sad to me
Sad like a farewell written in the sand
Sad like a waterfall splashing in your hand
Sad like the sunlight in a marble hall
Maybe sad isn’t quite the right word after all
CHORUS
I could go over everything again, and wonder why but
I don’t think that’ll give an answer to me anymore, cause
Now I’ve learned some things just refuse to come to the light, and
It’s okay, okay, yeah
I said okay, okay, yeah
I was certain of hurt and I was scared to care
I thought falling would mean that I would land nowhere
Now I wonder if one is ever sure at all
Maybe you don’t rise above maybe you love the fall
Fall like a toddler learning to stand
Fall like a satellite floats unmanned
Fall like a fool at a downtown bar
Maybe fall doesn’t really go all that far
BRIDGE
Go call off the dogs now
Sunset’s setting in and
We won’t find the body
Til another day begins and
I suspect they’ll ask me
Once they find it in my head
Why I seek the living
Here in the land of the dead
Waterdeep’s!Pink!&!Blue!
©!2008!Gentleman! Adventurer’s! Songs!(ASCAP)!
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You’ll Be Fine
Written by Don Chaffer
(Things will turn out just fine. Just fine. Just fine.)
I would like to say something gentle like “Go”
No, this is far too rough
Go is never enough
Prepare along the way
Don’t trust everything they say
If they won’t take the peace you give, take it back
Don’t take two changes of clothes or even a backpack
CHORUS
Fine. You’ll be fine
I always hated hearing it
And it doesn’t help in steering it, but
Fine. You’ll be fine
I just had to get this down for the sake of the day that I’m not around
Okay, Okay, I’d like to say something easy like “Breathe”
No this is far too painful
Coursing through your brain, you’ll want to speed it all up
But you can’t; you’ve slipped up
So you go spend your oxygen until it’s gone
Then draw it back in like a drowning man
And move on
BRIDGE
Someday I’ll be gone
I hope the sense of my approval lingers on
Okay, I’ll say something wise then, like “Wait”
No this is far too easy
Would that life were breezy
What if someone needs you?
What if a knife bleeds you?
You can’t just sit around and wonder what to do
You get up, you get moving or you’re through
Waterdeep’s!Pink!&!Blue!
©!2008!Gentleman! Adventurer’s! Songs!(ASCAP)!
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I Rolled Into New Year’s Eve
Written by Don Chaffer
I rolled into New Year’s Eve
By way of a grey albatross
A tangle of feathers and arms and legs
And I think my wallet got lost
I had been working hard, man
Seventeen hours a day
Every fence had been torn down already, yeah
Everything was out of my way
PRECHORUS
I could make promises
And plans to change but then
I just don’t know
Making the promise and
Making it good are so
Different you know
CHORUS
Ooh
Calendars do not have pages
Calendars only have screens
Nothing to cross off, and nothing to turn
You just click it and something goes clean
Click and then you feel a pounding
Click and then you feel a rush
Nothing is anything anywhere anymore
Nothing is turning to mush
PRECHORUS
I could’ve said “Haven’t I? I hadn’t noticed,” but then
I would have lied
Cause I noticed every last second that sneaked away
Late in the night
Waterdeep’s!Pink!&!Blue!
©!2008!Gentleman! Adventurer’s! Songs!(ASCAP)!
Admin! by!Simpleville! Music,! Inc.!All!rights!reserved.!
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My Second Try
Written by Don Chaffer
We were probably somewhere in Texas
I was trying to place a call
The words were going back and forth
Just the words, that’s all
It was dry and pretty sunny
Rain was falling onto distant roofs
It was the smell of asphalt giving up
The thundering approach of hooves
Ashtrays made room for tin cans
Once they had all grown too full
Slippers took the place of shoes
There were no laces left to pull
The thing we all cannot even talk about
On the anniversary of the event
Is the barker’s last and whispered words:
“Go on. Collapse the tent.”
I’d take up the family business
If I even knew what that was
The creaking of the wooden floor
The lone electric buzz
You don’t get second chances
That’s how I heard it sold
I just smiled, but I kept my head down
Cause my second try was gold
Waterdeep’s!Pink!&!Blue!
©!2008!Gentleman! Adventurer’s! Songs!(ASCAP)!
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Heart Attack Time Machine
Waterdeep
2007
Good, Good End
Written by Don Chaffer
You can leave right now
You can ring a bell
You can tell 'em you think I ain't doin' too well
But when I stood like you
I eventually fell
So you can leave right now
Go on and ring your bell
I'm amazed by life
And it's amazed by me
We're a strange old pair- me and eternity
It don't make good sense
It ain't easy to see
But I'm amazed by life
And it's amazed by me
It's a long hard road
With a good, good end
And if I keep on walking on past the crooked bend
I will meet my Maker
I will meet my Friend
It's a long hard road
With a good, good end
Waterdeep:! Heart!Attack!Time!Machine!
©!2006!Gentleman! Adventurer’s! Songs!(ASCAP)!
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Easy Does It
Written by Lori & Don Chaffer
Don't waste your breath
Don't waste my time
Can't you see
I'm sick of trying
No more cheap veneer
No more Paul Revere
Running every day
I float around
Try not to hit the ground
And break a limb
'Cause my bones became thin
When I was in a play
Showing off Broadway
Reciting all my lines
CHORUS
Easy does it
Don't waste your breath
Don't waste my time
The fire is hot
The walls are limestone
Living in a cave
It's easy to behave
To think we call this saved
Don't you miss the sky?
Waterdeep:! Heart!Attack!Time!Machine!
©!2006!Gentleman! Adventurer’s! Songs!(ASCAP)!
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Heart Attack Time Machine
Written by Don Chaffer
I was young and I was dumb
And my left arm was going numb
Dare to think, while I’m on the brink
That a simple word of comfort just might come
CHORUS
Brace yourselves. We’re headin’ back
In a time machine to a heart attack
Where the flow of blood into the brain
Is down to a trickle, almost insane
They were telling me I was really free
They could see it by the way I used my words
But in the dark of night I could see that they weren’t right
Because speeches are to free as cages are to birds
BRIDGE
Peel off each old sticker
With a slow and steady hand
Strip off all the high gloss sheen
And maybe go sell the van
It’s time to let the people know
That you're sorry that you made ‘em go
And that life must be a more sacred thing
Than a couple cheap words
And a promise ring
So kick me down, and tear my gown
‘Cause I’ve been prancing ‘round the stage in my underwear
But I just went along I even lead them all in song
We had special words that we always used down there
CHORUS
It’s a deep dark mine and I gave in
To the fact that we’re up against a cave-in
I’m pretty happy that I lost control
‘Cause I never really had it. I was just on a roll
Waterdeep:! Heart!Attack!Time!Machine!
©!2006!Gentleman! Adventurer’s! Songs!(ASCAP)!
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Diana
Written by Don Chaffer
CHORUS
Diana stays with me tonight
Then tomorrow
Then tomorrow
Who will tell you if I cry
O, my sorrow
O, my sorrow
I hardly ever knew her face
And here she is, taking your place
You have gone so far away
For all I know it’s outer space
La, la, la, la, la, la, la
Pining for yesterday
La, la, la, la, la, la, la
Feeling like an empty plate
He went away today
And I don’t know when he’ll be back
Before he left he held my face
And told me he was gonna crack
La, la, la, la, la, la, la
Kick your legs and bend your knees
La, la, la, la, la, la, la
Stare up at the apple trees
Waterdeep:! Heart!Attack!Time!Machine!
©!2006!Gentleman! Adventurer’s! Songs!(ASCAP)!
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Stay In Touch
Written by Don Chaffer
Here are the keys to my kingdom
Take her for a drive ‘round the block
The brakes might squeal but just ignore that sound
And promise me you’ll stay in touch with the ground
Every single thing I gave to Cindy
She took it, smiled and promised me her love
Well, don’t trust Cindy, even if she frowns
And promise me you’ll stay in touch with the ground
CHORUS
Move around
Stay on the ground
No, really this isn’t all just Cindy’s fault
And maybe she was just along for the ride
Most things in my life have to do with how I’m bound
To my promises to stay in touch with the ground
‘Cause promises are only mercenary troops (that’s right)
They bear no real allegiance to the soil (that’s right)
When they fight they always look around (that’s right)
They have never really been in touch with the ground
BRIDGE
Last time we went out for dinner, she told me
That I had disappointed her
She said of all of the things that you could have shown me
The ones you chose were peculiar
I just smiled and called for the check
And I said, honey, let’s just call this thing a wreck
Waterdeep:! Heart!Attack!Time!Machine!
©!2006!Gentleman! Adventurer’s! Songs!(ASCAP)!
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City Of Atlantis
Written by Don Chaffer
The city of Atlantis is wide and real
The streetlights still work, and the bells still peal
Homes under domes of high-pressure glass
Seated on lawns of green water grass
You try to make out the sounds with no luck
So you turn the radio dial in your truck
The town hall meetings are opened with song
The citizens all willingly sing along
Drowned in the sound of the saddest refrains
The mayor conveys her most intimate pain
You see her lips move, but you can’t hear her speak
So your mind wanders back to the slow oil leak
CHORUS
Ophelia with seaweed in her tangled hair
Travel or unravel- she will follow you there
Open your gates, O, dear hidden Atlantis
I can’t smell the rose, but I know where the plant is
Waterdeep:! Heart!Attack!Time!Machine!
©!2006!Gentleman! Adventurer’s! Songs!(ASCAP)!
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Annie
Written by Lori Chaffer
CHORUS
Annie
Oh, Annie
Who raised you up?
Who raised you up so well?
Coming ‘round the block
Key will turn the lock
The door will swing
Hum a little tune
Making up for nothing
Summer setting in
Hit the pool with friends
And this time try to dive
Lying down at noon
Waking up for nothing
Waterdeep:! Heart!Attack!Time!Machine!
©!2006!Gentleman! Adventurer’s! Songs!(ASCAP)!
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Northern
Written by Lori & Don Chaffer
Northern ticket on a south bound train
He rolls his own
Some leaves and some paper his only refrain
He’s blowing smoke
Daddy’s the lord of the sugar cane
And a winning colt
Skittish and hamstrung at the gate
Bet on as a joke
CHORUS
Ride on
Through the dawn
He’s gone
And he may never make it back home
Straight through
It’ll break you
Take two
Won’t begin until you get thrown into a lake like a stone
Loose fitting suit on a juvenile
Almost a man
His brother he snapped like a crocodile
He joined a band
Now, he gets by on talk radio
He’s so polite
Up in the morning and away he goes
To catch a flight on time
Waterdeep:! Heart!Attack!Time!Machine!
©!2006!Gentleman! Adventurer’s! Songs!(ASCAP)!
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Close The Door
Written by Don Chaffer
Every time that I get down
I am like a salmon on
An upstream journey, then
Death to follow once I spawn
I have seen the big fish climb
The ladder at the reservoir
Watch ‘em work like devils
Half delirious do they even know where they are?
CHORUS
Jesus I’m a sucker; I
Wish I believed less of the lies
Did anything I thought I knew
Turn out to be true?
Baby boys and little toys are all that I see anymore
Will somebody close the door?
It’s cold outside
Every single time I thought that
I had figured it all out
I was run aground again and
Floundering with crazy doubt
Maybe every way I’d learned
To deal with the tragedy
Was just another junkyard find
Rust-eaten and raggedy
I have paced the floor at night
Staring in his tiny face
Swearing that I’ll do my best
To make for him a solid place
Barring acts of God or even
Acts of other men, I’ll be
The father that I always wished
I had been allowed to see
Waterdeep:! Heart!Attack!Time!Machine!
©!2006!Gentleman! Adventurer’s! Songs!(ASCAP)!
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…And I Can’t Sleep
Written by Don Chaffer
It’s one o clock and I can’t sleep
Or at least I haven’t tried
Something there is inside a man
Which cannot be denied
It’s two o’clock and I can’t sleep
Or at least I’m still awake
Something there is in consciousness
That slumber cannot break
There’s a drunk on stage who believes in God
There’s a girl with a tutu on
And a ten-year-old with hazel eyes
And a wino who you conned
It’s three o’clock and I can’t sleep
But I’m starting to look weak
Something there is in humankind
That fights when odds are bleak
It’s four o’clock and I can’t sleep
Or at least that’s what I’ll say
When my wife comes to wake me
I’ll have lost another day
There’s a best friend who has disappeared
And a car with a dented hood
Everybody said I follow you
But nobody understood
It’s five o’clock and I’m asleep But
I think I’m still awake Something
there is in consciousness That
slumber cannot break
It’s six o’clock and I’m not here
I’m fighting in some war
That nobody inside my head
Remembers anymore
Waterdeep:! Heart!Attack!Time!Machine!
©!2006!Gentleman! Adventurer’s! Songs!(ASCAP)!
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Cold
Written by Lori Chaffer
Cold is your heart in the winter
Sweet is a song
Strange are the sounds that they made for you
Empty and gone
Long is my heart when I hear you tell
Of all that’s been locked up and broken into
Lost is the sweetness of the mornings
Where all your secrets are held
Cold are the images of love and steel
Warm is your hand
Hard is the heart that won’t let you feel
Soft is the iron in your land
Lost are the ships that are set to sea
Sinking them is sometimes in the plan
But you and I we have another way
We will sleep and dream of sand
Large is the swelling of the ocean’s rage
So strong are its tides
It will pull you though you have a place
To anchor inside
Dark are the eyes that will never see
The kingdom of The Great Light
And my Lord, He smiles on everything
And to the meek, He gives delight
Waterdeep:! Heart!Attack!Time!Machine!
©!2006!Gentleman! Adventurer’s! Songs!(ASCAP)!
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The Khrusty Brothers
2007
A Liturgical Introduction
Nestled in the bosom of the Appalachian Mountains
Is a wooden cabin
And in that cabin
Is a family
And in that family
Is a father
And in that father
Is a network of veins and arteries
And in those veins and arteries
Is blood
And in that blood
Is a mixture of barbiturates and alcohol
And this sadly is where our story must begin
Yeah
The Khrusty Brothers
The!Khrusty! Brothers:! The!Khrusty!Brothers!
All!Songs!by!Don!Chaffer! ©!2006!Gentleman! Adventurer’s! Songs!(ASCAP)!
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On A Shelf
On a shelf down in the basement
By a box of old CD's
Is a book back from the days when
I was young and not in need
Is that true that I was ever
In a place of self-sustain
I'm not sure it is; in fact I am just
Lying straight and plain
But then plain gets more appealing
Every day that I'm hit hard
By a street fighter from England
In the shadows of a shipping yard
She was blue and green and made of
Cherry coke and marmalade
I was hopeless in her presence
I was just hopin' I'd get laid
I'll jump rope like Sly Stallone when he
Gets buff for Rocky Five
And then gorge myself on French fries
Every night at the local dive
I'm the very thing I hate
And I can't make that go away
So go fire off three more rockets
Baby, let's let that big band play
Maybe someday I'll get ready
Maybe, baby, someday, I'll go
To the land of the dry heave
Where they've never seen the snow
And I'll look up in a phone book
Where they keep those passed away
And I'll make my pilgrimage to see
The place my father lays
...or "lies," I s'pose is what he does
Aw, man now that there's a pun
By the way, baby, when you're bored,
What exactly do you do to have fun?
The!Khrusty! Brothers:! The!Khrusty!Brothers!
All!Songs!by!Don!Chaffer! ©!2006!Gentleman! Adventurer’s! Songs!(ASCAP)!
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Tennis Shoes
I am fascinated by your tennis shoes I
was lacerated by it when his booze
Caught a caustic runway like a fighter jet
Cause Airplane fuel and soda's neither light or wet
But I digress, let's get back to your tennis shoes
I saw 'em sticking out of the confession booth where
You admitted sad and lonely things were true
Soon, I'll screw the courage up just to talk to you
Cause screwing up, you know, is now my specialty
You are not as scared of me as you will be
Once we meet and share a kiss
And, then revealed, I spoil the bliss
CHORUS
I am sorry
I misrepresented who I am
(I guess I lied to you)
I am sorry
I must have told you I was on the lam
(I'm not runnin' from the law)
But it's really nothing quite so glorious
The truth is really more laborious
I just disappeared from myself for fun
The secret's out, it's really not your tennis shoes
(Why you gotta look at my tennis shoes?)
But I get so embarrassed by the place I choose
To look when I can bring myself to raise my eyes
(Eye eye eye eyes)
So I incorporate the science of disguise
Norse mythology has always captured me
(Give it up for the God of Thunder)
How do you feel about the God of Thunder, he
Goes by Thor and Marvel had a comic book
(Loki's goin' down)
Oh my God, here you come, I don't know where to look
Looking like a fool is now my specialty
Odin, for your favor, I shall wrestle thee
(His ambition seems to know no bounds)
Once we lock, and I prevail
(What makes him think he will prevail?)
You will make me alpha male
(Like Ted Nugent, the master of the compound bow)
The!Khrusty! Brothers:! The!Khrusty!Brothers!
All!Songs!by!Don!Chaffer! ©!2006!Gentleman! Adventurer’s! Songs!(ASCAP)!
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Did I Ever Become
It was down at the lake
I had a lump in my throat
You were wrapping up tight
In your old navy coat
We were faking that things
Were as plain as the sky
Which was lying down low
Like a cold war spy
I could play like a kid
I could swagger and yell
I was full of myself
I was empty as well
But I felt like a king
In a chamber of gold
When you wandered by
And your scent would take hold
CHORUS
Did we ever become
Who we thought we would be
Is it ever the case When
you run into me That you
think to yourself
Spontaneously
Hey he's just like he was
He's just what I thought he would be
(Did I ever become what I thought I would be?)
I don't want to be foolish
I don't want to be dumb
But I swear I'd trade somebody
Both of my thumbs
Just to have back the force
Of my naiveté
And to live with my heart
For just one more day
The!Khrusty! Brothers:! The!Khrusty!Brothers!
All!Songs!by!Don!Chaffer! ©!2006!Gentleman! Adventurer’s! Songs!(ASCAP)!
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Captain Purdue
Watching one more year go by
Wondering when I'm gonna cry
I am half a football field
From the place my heart will yield
To the fact that you are gone
And that you slipped the surly bond
And I will not see your face
When the family bows for grace
CHORUS
Thank God for Captain Purdue
Of the US Army too
And be with all those people out there
Less fortunate than us
Alone and friendless
In the winter air
I'm sick of sinking down
In my tight black evening gown
It's a lost cause every day
I'm faking it all the way
I've tread the rocky road
I've struck the mother lode
But I'm still bare knuckled here
And hoping things come clear
BRIDGE
It's a half-minded lopsided double-dipped ice cream cone
That I lick and look around but I'm eating it all alone
And I'd give up my right ear
Just to watch you hang your hat again
And not your neck my dear old friend
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Sympathy For Jesus
I came stumbling into church
With a hot gun in my hands
I was ready to talk to Jesus
To tell him my demands
But Jesus ain't no fool
He's seen this kinda thing before
And He had a couple angels stop me
At the front door
I said now come on that ain't fair
You should be accessible to all
He said everybody gets a secretary
Even just to take their calls
So address me to my face
If you think you've got the balls
But I ain't playin' around
Boy, at all
This was not what I expected
So I stiffened in my stance
And I tried hard to remember
Every single shitty circumstance
Then I quivered like a victim
With his predator in sight
I was ready now to vindicate
I was ready to start a fight
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
I give up, I can't go on like this any more
Well I appreciate your kind, he said
And then Jesus poured a drink
My face musta looked funny
Cause he said, It's not like you think
I'm saddled with the job you know
Of interpreting my Dad
To a bunch of frightened people,
Frightened or just mad
And most of 'em think they got it right
And then he threw some ice cubes in
But most of 'em are just dead wrong
About life and death and sin
And then I got my fiancée'
She's s'posed to speak my mind
But sometimes she's just chicken
And then she messes it up other times
Now you can stand right there and judge me
Shoot, you can send me straight to hell
I know you got the power
I know that fact full well
But before you do explain to me
Why suffering and why death?
And why did I pray all those years
And waste all that good breath?
CHORUS
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Well the angels sang it under their breath by
the door
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Whittle Down
One hundred movies on a little list
Which of 'em can't I afford to miss?
Bound for an island with a VCR
Life's been funny for me so far
Blue-green glow in the long, long night
Like a dance on a river with a bottle of sprite
I was joking when I said it couldn't get no worse
I never knew the coroner didn't use a hearse
No, man, it's a black-tinted modified Aerostar
How do you suppose we ever made it this far
I'm a boy on a field with a soccer ball
Still hoping that you're coming out to see
me this fall
CHORUS
Whittle down the days with a pocket knife
Carve a little statue to dysphoric life
You can love your family you can hug your wife
But they still bang the drum and then they
play the fife
So master of the battle rap, king of fools
Take me your pretty little 8-Mile school
I can out-suffer anybody, sickly ghoul
I'm a starch-fed white bread fossil fuel
I got a secondhand heritage from Liverpool
I'm the experiment's errant little molecule
Who can change the range of the whole
new school
But now I'm braggin' like a dragon like
them other fools do
For the sake of the ache of my new hairdo
Shaved at the scalp with the ashes too
Remembering the dead like an old-school Jew
No loans, but my clothes are all rent in two
But torn up shorn down, just like you
That's the way that it works, that's the age-old rule
You can yell, you can stomp, you can ridicule
But you're pained and you're drained and
you're miniscule
Sitting in the kitchen on a three-leg stool
Just workin' like a jerk 'n tryin' to finish
night school
Thinkin' of a kingdom and a crown of jewels
Eminem acted in a big screen show
I could be a battle rapper if I just said so
It's made with the aid of a literary flow
And Mr. Dylan grillin' burgers with your
best friend Joe
Me and Eminem and the bad cash flow
We been leakin' on the weekend like a
Vincent Van Gogh
It's a paint-eating, lead-poisoned hip hop show
If we could just get the money to record our demo
BRIDGE
Don't walk away. Please don't go
I feel like I never really got to know
Anything at all. It's a bad talk show
The Viet Nam War and the alcoholic roar
Are the soundtrack wound back over and o'er
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The Phone Call
I think it was a Sunday afternoon
If I remember you were sick
The television threatened like a glass monsoon
But I could change the channel with a flick
I hadn't drawn a breath
And though you cannot speak or walk
You're standing up to death
All that I had thought about was
PRECHORUS
We were catching up on laying down
We were finally settling in
We had some ideas for when we got well
We were just about to begin
CHORUS
Back when the phone call came
Back when the phone call came
I can't even say his name
Cause it was back when the phone call came
CHORUS
That's when the phone call came
That's when the phone call came
I can't even say his name
But that's when the phone call came
Maybe we could get you in a set of wheels
And take you out for a little spin
Watch your eyes while tree after tree goes by
See how you take it all in
The feeling dropped and cracked like a big
glass bowl
My eyes were wide and narrow at once
I could not believe that this was happening
We hadn't talked for almost two months
BRIDGE A
Tin foil, house keys
I'm weak at the corner of my eyes
Pillows, slippers
Thick unconscious sighs
Wood floors, coasters
My shelves of compact discs
The jackets hung, a coat of dust
Let's cut back on our risks
BRIDGE B
Oh, but thank you a thousand times
My words are nickels and dimes from a
chair that reclines
Junk the metal detector finds
Emptied out mines, leftover rinds
Stolen street signs, four-dollar wines
But thank you a thousand times
I hadn't showered, hadn't shaved
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Touch His Bones
I been diggin' through my clothes
I don't think nobody knows
Cause if some would touch his bones
Well I'd just head back home
All alone
And when the sun had rose
I'd say nobody, nobody knows
You might think you'd figure out
The way Hemingway'd doubt
Cause if some would touch his bones
And stand among the stones
All alone
Then when the sun had rose
They'd say, "Hey, buddy, don't muddy those"
CHORUS
Awful dreams
Another choir of smothered screams
And I
I am reeling I feel like I believe
But I won't deny that I'm in need
I don't know my left from right
I must be quite a sight
The dogs will bark but will not bite
When, in the middle of the night,
He comes again
With a voice that's ripped and old,
He says, "Hey, buddy, my body's cold"
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All!Songs!by!Don!Chaffer! ©!2006!Gentleman! Adventurer’s! Songs!(ASCAP)!
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To Get Ourselves Clean
But haven't you seen me?
I stalked through your dreams
I hung from your rafters
And shattered your beams
Your lights are like workers
Who've gone on a strike
Demolish the mission
Go sit on a bike
You may not be cute
And you may not be well
You may be an old phone
With a real ringing bell
But you're not just lying
You're in desperate shape
And things haven't whispered
Since you lost the cape
Cape at Canaveral
Cape of Good Hope
Caper of daring, OKay, we need soap
CHORUS
To Get Ourselves Clean
To Get Ourselves Clean
To Get Ourselves
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All!Songs!by!Don!Chaffer! ©!2006!Gentleman! Adventurer’s! Songs!(ASCAP)!
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Every Time A Lie
I was sippin’ on my whiskey in Kentucky town
Where the top shelf bourbon is a Jim Beam brown
And I'm headin' out east. I'm goin' to Boston town
Gonna find out if Ted Williams is still around
I'm a 400-hitter, baby, I'm a diamond in the rough
When I get it all together I'm gonna show you my stuff
Maybe the Red Sox Kid can teach his swing
To the up and coming uppercut new line drive king
But people get uneasy then they go pale
When you tell 'em that you recently got outta jail
But it's cool cause I was pardoned by the Alabama governor
A deep fried, sun-hardened gentleman, a southerner
I played him Lynrd Skynrd just to show him I'm for real
And then we'd sit with bowls of grits and I'd be super genteel
He was taken by the bacon and the collard greens
That I pressed in my folded up rolled-cuff blue jeans
I am cluttered up with sputtered out half-broke cars
I'm a junkyard full of funk put out by fast-choke stars
I fail like a pail with a split in its side
I'm the new clothes behind which the emperor can't hide
So, I got a resume' from yesterday's visit to the zoo
I was thinkin' maybe I could put to use the old kung fu
To subordinate the primate, the leopard and the emu
With a black belt, you know, I can do what other people can't do
I wore out all my friends at my junior high
Cause every time I told a story, it was every time a lie
And now I can't remember my for-real history
And my counselor, he told me "you don't buy it, buddy, it's for
free"
But nothing comes free, my daddy always used to say
And nowadays my daddy's not around me anyway
So I remember what he told me. Cause he can't be here today
After all, he is a secret agent working for the CIA
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All!Songs!by!Don!Chaffer! ©!2006!Gentleman! Adventurer’s! Songs!(ASCAP)!
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Just Opened Up
The last time I was breathin'
I was scared
I never knew what people felt
I never cared
Now the world just opens up Like
a basement or a coffee cup Like a
thermos on a boy scout trip
That your dad spilled when he lost his grip
CHORUS
Every time I think about it
I don't want to be
Sad, cause bein' sad's too real
And real is like a small insect
It's a never-ending pain in your neck
And you wish that real would just go away
The last time I saw Henry
I was drunk
I hadn't showered for a week
Man, I stunk
But Henry he just opened up
After one insincere hey what's up
And spilled his guts
I guess he couldn't see that
Every time I wonder
About the Cubs
And how the fans bite their nails
Down to the nubs
I'm hopin' maybe that this year
They will finally make it clear
That Chicago knows about baseball
And they really got it right this fall
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All!Songs!by!Don!Chaffer! ©!2006!Gentleman! Adventurer’s! Songs!(ASCAP)!
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The Beginning Of A Parade
This is the beginning of a parade
Roll out the big floats we all made
The Fire Insurance Company
Has a home on fire, it's a sight to see
Ever since everything got so damn rough,
I been tryin' my best just to toughen up
So you can sell the horse and melt down the bit
I don't care anymore; I don't give a shit
This is the beginning of a parade Roll
out the big floats we all made There's
a long and thin and lonely line
At the Bud Light tent; everybody's buyin'
Ever since we took that last long ride
I been staring at a photo of you outside
The way the sunlight skims your skin
Like a lake at dusk I'm swimming in
The beginning of a parade
I love you strong like a fire hose
It's a love nobody besides us knows
I kind of like keeping it to myself
Like a jar I store up on the highest shelf
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All!Songs!by!Don!Chaffer! ©!2006!Gentleman! Adventurer’s! Songs!(ASCAP)!
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Waterdeep Live 3.26.03—Muncie, IN
Waterdeep
2003
Secret Lives
Written Don Chaffer
CHORUS
Everybody's got their secret lives
Yeah
All the way from the ocean to the desert
A million stories dying to be heard
But once they open up their mouths
They know they will never be the same again
So they hide
He's been pushy since he was young
From the things he's done
In dark and private places
She's been skittish since the car wreck
And the thing that doctor said
Can't get it out her head
So she cries
BRIDGE
Maybe it won't be the same
But what is there to lose
That you can hold on to
I mean really hold on to
Waterdeep:! Live!3.26.03G!Muncie,!IN!
©!2003!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
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You
Written Lori Chaffer
You cause my heart to sing
You are always listening
You understand my dreams
You do
You cut away my lies
You see through my disguise
You are not so far away from me
As I thought You'd be
You love me as I am
Even when I cannot stand
You whisper in my ear
All the things I need to hear
From You
You are a mystery
You bring strong men to their knees
You change the hearts of kings
You do
You have names for all Your stars
You heal my wounds and kiss my scars
You sing a million songs over me
Waterdeep:! Live!3.26.03G!Muncie,!IN!
©!2003!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
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Alone Everybody
Written Lori & Don Chaffer
I am happiest when by myself
Nobody's hurts nobody's helps
Like a gun or bullet on a shelf
Alone everybody's fine
I've been playing little tricks on me
It's fascinating what I'll believe
Then in circled stitches my mind weaves
Alone everybody lies
I tell myself my life is pretty easy
I take a pill if I am ever queasy
I shut the door when it gets a little breezy
But people really baffle me
So I tiptoe around because it's easier to fake it
Try not to be loud, or emotionally naked
I'll agree to go out with my friends, but never make it
At least I keep my evenings free
If you want to try to shift the blame
Think of how hard you try and all your pain
Oh, there's one amendment to the game
Alone everybody cries
I've been thinking I could get along
I think I'm happy, I think I'm strong
But like my cactus when it's dry too long
Alone even cacti die
Alone everybody's fine
Alone everybody lies
Alone everybody cries
Waterdeep:! Live!3.26.03G!Muncie,!IN!
©!2003!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
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Man I’m Gonna Sing
Written Don Chaffer
I'm sellin' all my records
And all my magazines
Tryin' to lose my memory
Of all them famous scenes
Gonna buy a horse now
And learn to ride that thing
Gallop in a field somewhere
And man, I'm gonna sing
Cranked up like a drum head I'm
thin; I'm 'bout to break
Somebody save me from myself
For God Almighty's sake
OUTRO
Leave the children alone
Let them come to me
CHORUS
Hey
Gonna sell my TV too
For seventy-five bucks
Take a bag of stale bread to the pond
I'm gonna feed some ducks
I'm gonna lend someone my laptop
Cause I can't give that thing away
And then I'm gonna write some letters
once
I figure out what to say
Going camping in December
Even if I freeze
Watch the snowfall quietly
Feel the winter breeze
Going to the beach soon
Watch the ocean heave
And if I fall in love with standing there
Man, I ain't ever gonna leave
Wish I could get a promise
That if I want to rest
That I will learn to do it then
Feel the peace inside my chest
Cranked up like a drum head
I'm thin; I'm 'bout to break
Chased away the boy I was
Cause he told me I'm a fake
Waterdeep:! Live!3.26.03G!Muncie,!IN!
©!2003!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
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If I Said I Don’t Mind
Written Lori Chaffer
Way down low, way up high
Don't seem to matter which side you used to fight
All you gotta do is get by
Another day another night
The sea's a little deep, the sea's a little wild
I don't care what you answer most of the time
But right now it would be a lie
If I said I don't mind
If I said I don't mind
You drink a little gin to lift the load
You cut your skin so you won't explode
All you really want is to be left alone
Or so we're told
You seem a little weak just like a little child
I don't care what you answer most of the time
But right now it would be a lie
If I said I don't mind
If I said I don't mind
Well I mind, well I mind
Waterdeep:! Live!3.26.03G!Muncie,!IN!
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You Knew
Written Don Chaffer
In a crazy haze
In a purple robe
I walk amaze
King of the strobe
Flashing and unfaithful
I'm hardly light at all
Tripping and ungraceful
I was born into the fall
You knew
You knew
I've never been true
I'm true in You
You knew
At the stretch of dawn
In the yawn of time
You thought upon me
With Your bread and wine
But how my blood is hardened
I fear of losing life
Do drown me in Your heart and
Say I'll be Your wife
You knew
You knew
Before I was true
I was true in You
You knew
Waterdeep:! Live!3.26.03G!Muncie,!IN!
©!2003!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
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Whether Or Not
Written Don Chaffer
This morning when the sun came up
I was still lyin' down in my bed
But it started burning real bright
Whether or not
It was shining on my head
Just today another flower bloomed
And I just walked right on by
It became a little swirl of fantasy
Whether or not
It caught my eye
CHORUS
I could just go round bein' down, sleepin' late
Runnin' round in a state, feelin' dead in the head
'Cause of all the things that people said
But none of them can get inside of me
I think I'd rather just decide not to hide
From the facts of the dark and relax 'cause the spark
Of the fire that's inside me isn't goin' out
The darkness just ain't gonna swallow me
(Because I'm gonna live eternally)
I think about myself so much
It kinda makes me ill
I prob'ly oughta let my cup
Just fill up
But overfill
Waterdeep:! Live!3.26.03G!Muncie,!IN!
©!2003!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
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The Family In The Woods
Written Don Chaffer
The stepson of the engineer
That drove the train you rode
Sold the railroad company
And the debt that you owed
And so now the new management
Comes a-knockin' at your door
It's pay up or eviction
There's no mercy anymore
CHORUS
Hey, hey
Who will remember me when I'm gone?
It ain't about how much you know
Or how long you been known
It's do you know the folks in charge
And how much do you own
It's bucks and bloody knuckles
It's contracts cut in steel
It's clauses sharp and pointed
And who's behind the wheel
So tell me that old story
Of the family in the woods
Momma cooked the crawdad
And Daddy traded goods
Tell me how when their boy died
They yelled and cried and prayed
Tell me how this very day
There's flowers on his grave
Waterdeep:! Live!3.26.03G!Muncie,!IN!
©!2003!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
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Bring The Sadness Back In
Written Don & Lori Chaffer
They were laughing at the bar about the girl with the big butt
Saying they ain't never seen nothing like that slut
And how could anybody ever think about bein' with her?
Joey likes to drink and when he drinks he likes to fight
And his buddies think it makes for a pretty funny Friday night
When Joey gets all liquored up and takes a swing and causes a stir
CHORUS
The whole world is full of laughter
But the high is wearing thin
I'm praying someone somewhere gently
Will bring the sadness back in
Underneath the mattress where he keeps his cash
Is a bunch of magazines he calls his secret stash
It's a life that he ain't never lived
But man he'd love to give them dice a roll
And every time he flinches while he's flippin' through the stack
He tells himself that anything that paper might lack
Is made up by the fact that
Every woman there is under his control
CHORUS
All these promises of freedom
In the bondages of sin
I'm praying someone somewhere gently
Will bring the sadness back in
BRIDGE
Everybody's aching underneath their skin
But all of 'em are laughing as they're bein' sworn in
To testify, so help them God,
That everybody here's having a blast
Waterdeep:! Live!3.26.03G!Muncie,!IN!
©!2003!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
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1Beginning
Lori Chaffer
2002
Make No Protest
Written by Lori Chaffer
Make no protest as you go
For every soul must pay its dues
This is the kingdom they talk about
They talk about and fight for
And for which they die
You'll not be gone from them for long
But you'll forget their names and maybe mine
We'll stand in the sunrise and the sunsets and the moon light to remind you
Please don't look at me that way
You know I hate to shatter the
Innocence I've made
The innocence I've made
Some are already there who feel like you
I understand, cause I've lived there too
Some ignore, some defy, some are confused
And others decide to return their own way
How lonely
I'll be standing by you still
Though while you're there you might not feel it
Is there any persuasion that I can use
That I can use
To convince you
Please don't look at me that way
You will never be all by yourself
All by yourself
And you will never be the same
You will never be the same
Lori!Chaffer:! 1Beginning!
©!2003!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
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Welcome
Written by Lori Chaffer
Welcome to this dusty land
Where you will cry lots but we'll all understand
Things may not turn out sometimes like you plan
That's alright our little man
Welcome outside of your mother's womb
I know that it's frightening
But now there's more room
Just think of all the great things you'll do
Just by you being you
I don't care what the world
Says about all this struggling
All I know is that now you're here
It's all lovely lovely
I don't care about
All the things that have troubled me
Now that you're here I remember life
Can be so lovely
Lori!Chaffer:! 1Beginning!
©!2003!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
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Bough Will Break
Written by Lori & Don Chaffer
Ask me bout the way I am
Sometimes I don't give a damn
I don't want to live this way
But I don't think I have a say
So don't tell me who to be
Cause the bough will break
And my heart it aches
And my heart will ache tomorrow
And I fear the night
And the morning light
Cause I think my time is borrowed
Ask me bout the way I feel
Sometimes I know it ain't real
Maybe if you hold me tight
I can pretend that it's alright
Please tell me who to be
Ask me how I am today
I can't lie to you okay
Maybe you will dry my tears
Maybe my eyes never clear
But this is who I need to be
Cause the bough will break
And my heart it aches
And my heart will ache tomorrow
And I see the night
And the morning light
Cause I think my time is borrowed
Lori!Chaffer:! 1Beginning!
©!2003!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
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Animals
Written by Lori Chaffer
We all act like animals
Scouring the dirt just for handfuls
Of decay we think will ease our troubled minds
Every day is like a little war
We try to fight but then we quit before
It's time
You go down to the riverbed to wash your feet
You slip in real quietly to be discrete
Oh addiction only tastes sweet
'Til it's inside
We all wanna dance like little girls
Utterly weightless in a carefree world
But instead we just stiffly smile and nod
Every day you give a little more
Then look back and see you closed the door
On your life
Some hide and some seek
Some lay down at Lazarus' feet
In the dark when the cold came upon him
We all wanna see our broken dreams
Played out in details on the screen
Of our lives when we make it to the other side
Where every day's another open door
Where we get all we hungered for
Inside
Lori!Chaffer:! 1Beginning!
©!2003!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
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Alone Everybody
Written by Lori & Don Chaffer
I am happiest when by myself
Nobody's hurts nobody's helps
Like a gun or bullet on a shelf
Alone everybody's fine
I've been playing little tricks on me
It's fascinating what I'll believe
Then in circled stitches my mind weaves
Alone everybody lies
I tell myself my life is pretty easy
I take a pill if I am ever queasy
I shut the door when it gets a little breezy
But people really baffle me
So I tiptoe around because it's easier to fake it
Try not to be loud, or emotionally naked
I'll agree to go out with my friends, but never make it
At least I keep my evenings free
If you want to try to shift the blame
Think of how hard you try and all your pain
Oh, there's one amendment to the game
Alone everybody cries
I've been thinking I could get along
I think I'm happy, I think I'm strong
But like my cactus when it's dry too long
Alone even cacti die
Alone everybody's fine
Alone everybody lies
Alone everybody cries
Lori!Chaffer:! 1Beginning!
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Fade Away
Written by Lori Chaffer
Someone told me you would be here tonight
And I walked over from the other side
To see if you were alright
You say, in the wildest sense I am alive
You could tell me that your dreams were always mine
And that you'll fight for all eternity on my side
But I say I know you won't stay
Fade away
Walked down to the coffee shop to do what I do
And you said that it was all my fault
I just looked at you
They say it's the mildest things that pull you through
Lori!Chaffer:! 1Beginning!
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Stella
Written by Lori & Don Chaffer
Stella you never loved him
You were just sleepin' around
You swear to god to tell him
Before he figures it out
Stella you never heard
Anybody say he cared
Or that he even liked your hair
Cause if you had
It wouldn't matter if
All the lovers came down to your heartbreak hotel
And fell down on their knees
You'd just give 'em hell and so would he
Don't do her any favors
Don't you make her mad
Don't make her fall in love again
Don't try to make her not feel sad
Stella you couldn't gamble
On what was being said
So you flew off the handle
Into another bed
Where all the lovers come down to your heartache hotel
And fall down on their knees
And do as you please
'Til all the lovers get a little piece of your heart
And don't come down anymore 'til you say please
'Cause you gave 'em hell
So they'd run away
Lori!Chaffer:! 1Beginning!
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If I Said I Don’t Mind
Written by Lori Chaffer
Way down low, way up high
Don't seem to matter which side you used to fight
All you gotta do is get by
Another day another night
The sea's a little deep, the sea's a little wild
I don't care what you answer most of the time
But right now it would be a lie
If I said I don't mind
If I said I don't mind
You drink a little gin to lift the load
You cut your skin so you won't explode
All you really want is to be left alone
Or so we're told
You seem a little weak just like a little child
I don't care what you answer most of the time
But right now it would be a lie
If I said I don't mind
If I said I don't mind
Well I mind, well I mind
Lori!Chaffer:! 1Beginning!
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You Will Always Hurt
Written by Lori Chaffer
First there was the dawn
And I couldn't sing a song to you
Then there came the rain
But I couldn't seem to blame you
Sometimes it rains
Sometimes it snows on you
Sometimes it sleets
Sometimes it defeats you
It's quiet on dark nights
And you must give up the fight before long
Trust is not a game
That naive stupid people play in youth
Sometimes it rains
Sometimes it floods you
Sometimes you bleed
Sometimes you just need to make it
through
Make it through
You will always hurt
You will always sting
You're my badlands
My grand canyon
My empty stream
You're my reservation
My second place consolation
My devastation
A thorn
A pang
A deep dark heartache
My greatest fear
A lonely tear
Hopelessness
An empty caress
An earthquake
A broken plate
Lost innocence
A cheap defense
My delusion
My confusion
A cancer
A wrong answer
A lost game
Fickle as fame
A bad critique
A glass that leaks
A fallen leaf
Talk too shallow
Ground that's fallow
Fatal attraction
Nuclear reaction
False resurrection
Thrown election
You're my silence
My violence
You're a sad song
You're a long, you're a long, you're a long
way from home
You're a long, long, long, long way from
home
You
You will always hurt
You will always sting
'Cause you won't let go of everything
Until you're quiet one dark night
And you give up the fight you've fought so
long
And find that trust is not a game
That naive stupid people play in youth
And you let it rain
You let it flood
You let it drive out all the pain of love
Lori!Chaffer:! 1Beginning!
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Please Don’t Let Go
Written by Lori Chaffer
It's the warmest of falls
I've hardly noticed at all
The birds are still around
Singing peace my little child
There's a crowd in the bar
There's a crowd in the church yard
There's a silence in my heart
While I sing you this prayer
Please don't let go of me
Went down to the tracks
Can't seem to relax
Feel a traveling coming on
What else could go wrong
There's a hole in the earth
Quicksand to mirth
I've played round it since birth
Dodged it some but still it hurt
Please don't let go of me
There's a big storm comin' round
It might flood or worse better climb to the high ground
If lightning chases me down
I will throw myself into your fate
Lori!Chaffer:! 1Beginning!
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It’s Not Safe (Everything’s Going To Be Alright)
Written by Lori & Don Chaffer
Everything's going to be all right
If we dance until the morning light
Everything's going to be okay
Someday
I don't care if it takes all night long
I'm so tired of feeling like everything's all wrong
If it takes a little wine and a lot of song
Doesn't mean it's not safe
Bingo on the starboard side
The show tonight is really great
Slot machines are hot tonight
Tomorrow's Acapulco bay
Everything's going
I just wanna feel good sometimes
What's so wrong about throwin' our cares away
If it takes a little letting go to really unwind
Doesn't have to be unsafe
A round of drinks in memory
Of you and me before the wars
Summertime and over there
Has anybody seen my gal
Everything's going
Life can be so hard even if you think you're strong
You can get knocked down in so many different ways
Yeah I know the path is narrow
But it's mighty long
And it's not safe
Not safe
Everything's going to be alright
Lori!Chaffer:! 1Beginning!
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You Can Sing
Written by Lori & Don Chaffer
Fat tires and cigarettes
Romeos and Juliets
Another night of crazy bets
That everyone survives
With no scars and no regrets
You wait it out like a seasoned vet
Letting go can look like that
Before you realize
You can sing
You can believe
You can be anything you want
All the time
Day or night
You can be anything you want
Tank full of gasoline
Long gone the look serene
Strapped in like a tired marine
With many miles to go
You used to be a summer rain
Not too old and not too vain
Long before you learned the game
That now you're stuck inside
But you can sing
Over the line over the line
Far far too driven
And losing our minds
It's a beautiful night
A beautiful sunrise
Did we ever notice
Are we too blind
Fat tires and cigarettes
Romeos and Juliets
Stinging losses deep regrets
That everybody hides
In coffee shops and magazines
Choir lofts and college flings
Did everybody lose their dreams
Out on the playground
Lori!Chaffer:! 1Beginning!
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Whole 'Nother Deal
Waterdeep
2002
At Least I Got A Car
Written by Don Chaffer
A friend of mine dropped out of school
He didn't tell no one. He just left one day
Folks said he was actin' like a fool
But he said, "I was about to go crazy and I was
already foolish anyway
And what did I have to lose? What did I have
to lose?"
He took off to Wisconsin late that night
Wisconsin, where he figured he could blend in
He said nothing felt good under him- not the road,
Not the tuition money in his pocket,
Not really even the car he was driving in
And what did he have to lose? What did he
have to lose?
He said
BRIDGE
Cause you're tired of how the seats feel
And you're tired of the steering wheel
And you'd buy a new car but
The last thing you want is something new
Last thing you want is something new
Going home feels like the thing you ought to do
Cause You can only drive so far
CHORUS
Man I wish I had a home tonight
Somewhere I could feel more than alright
And alright ain't bad, but alright's just alright
And, man, I wish I had a home tonight
(Man, I wish I had a home)
CHORUS
At least I got a car I can drive tonight
I know it ain't much but it makes me feel alright
And alright ain't good, but alright's alright
At least I got a car I can drive tonight
Oh, college was hard for me and my friends
We all felt like little kids but they said we
couldn't act that way
I knew I was supposed to change
But changing's hard and it was easier just to
play video games
What did we have to lose? What did we have to lose?
We said
Man, sometimes don't you want to just sit still?
Cause you can only run so fast or drive so far
And home might feel like a funny idea that
you never understood
But you want it more than you want the car
Don!Chaffer:! +! Waterdeep:! Whole!‘Nother!Deal!
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We’re All Dying, Tracy James
Written by Don Chaffer
CHORUS
We're all dying, Tracy James
There's no need for naming names
'Cause we're all dying, somewhere out there crying
'Cause we're all dying, Tracy James
I have watched you as if you were on a skillet cooking
I am waiting for the moment to say something looking
Looking like an idiot. You are so beautiful
Beautiful but dying, Tracy James
I have hoped for something new and simple, virgin
I have stitched together people like a surgeon
Hoping like a madman. You are so innocent
Innocent but dying, Tracy James
BRIDGE
Ambulances and their bleeding sirens
Books and all their stale pages
Smiles, but they're vain
We're all dying, Tracy James
I am seized now by how every soul dies stately
I am taken by the afterlife then lately
Taken like a captive by a truth that will not let me go
We must live forever, Tracy James
CHORUS
'Cause we're all dying, Tracy James
There's no need for taking pains
To catalog the sins and blames
There must be some much greater Name
Who sees the struggle and the shame
We all live forever, Tracy James
We all live forever, Tracy James
OUTRO
Live forever, Tracy James
Each one named by her name
Don!Chaffer:! +! Waterdeep:! Whole!‘Nother!Deal!
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On Our Way To Crazy
Written by Don Chaffer
There's a crazy girl in Santa Fe
That Allan used to see
She got mad one day and threw his things
Out the window violently
There's a park where she hangs out now
With the hookers and the bums
Ain't it wild how quick it changes
From the suburbs to the slums
CHORUS
Almost no one slides on purpose
No one sells their soul for free
But once we love the things that hurt us
We're on our way to crazy
On our way to crazy
There's a deep and howling darkness
That is tucked into the film
In between the flickers of her body
Milky white and slim
It's a loneliness translated
Into sex and back again
But the meaning gets all muddled
When she thinks he is her friend
And the black hole of attraction
That just follows her along
It looks all rich and sumptuous
But it always feels wrong
And "The contents they don't matter
It's appearance that is key"
That's the mantra that she mutters
By the glow of the TV
Now you've followed down the spiral
To its deadly final point
Where you think the reason you was born
Was just to dirty up the joint
Now remember how it used to feel
How everything would work
Back before you lost control
Back when the steering wheel jerked
Don!Chaffer:! +! Waterdeep:! Whole!‘Nother!Deal!
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Rollin’ Like A Semi
Written by Don Chaffer
Everyone is hungry, baby
Everyone in sight
Everyone is groping, honey
In the middle of the night
Lies and altercations, Johnny
Federal Offense
Swinging for the bleachers, buddy
You hit the foul side fence
CHORUS
Rolling like a semi, brother
Diesel runnin' low
Try to make your destination
Try to make the show
I see it on your face now sister,
Skin all fake and tight
You're smiling like an alley cat, dear
And it doesn't look quite right
And we all try to break it down
Into our religious code
We're deluded by the thought that maybe one day
We will have paid back what we owed
CHORUS
You roll it like a joint now, sister
Breathe every page in deep
And wonder when the blues will fade out
And why the high won't keep
BRIDGE
Lean, brother, lean
Get the weight off of your feet
Let the judgment overtake you
And then find the mercy seat
Don!Chaffer:! +! Waterdeep:! Whole!‘Nother!Deal!
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Secret Lives
Written by Don Chaffer
CHORUS
Everybody's got their secret lives
Yeah
All the way from the ocean to the desert
A million stories dying to be heard
But once they open up their mouths
They know they will never be the same again
So they hide
He's been pushy since he was young
From the things he's done
In dark and private places
She's been skittish since the car wreck
And the thing that doctor said
Can't get it out her head
So she cries
BRIDGE
Maybe it won't be the same
But what is there to lose
That you can hold on to
I mean really hold on to
Don!Chaffer:! +! Waterdeep:! Whole!‘Nother!Deal!
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Motel Rooms
Written by Don Chaffer
Those motel rooms are lonely places
Sometimes that Gideon's Bible is your only friend
You can change the channel
You can talk to her on the phone
But you hang up and you're alone there in the end
CHORUS
And You wonder if anyone's ever felt this way
And you know they have, but you wonder what they would say
And when Jacob wrestles the angel, and winds up limping on that day
A little bit of that old loneliness just goes away
When you turn the engine over the next morning
And it's on to the next motel room in the next town
And the miles stretch out
Like a long thin asphalt desert
And you're still five days from being homeward bound
CHORUS
But when Samson, he goes blind after his woman done him wrong
You figure, "Ah well, five days ain't really all that long."
And when Jesus raises up the dead and gives sight to the blind
You say now there's a man that I could get behind
Don!Chaffer:! +! Waterdeep:! Whole!‘Nother!Deal!
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Let’s Get Into A Fight
Written by Don Chaffer
Let's get into a fight
Come on, little baby, let's argue
Then we'll be sure that everything's all right
Even if we get mad like dogs
Dogs out in the junkyard
Crazy from the neighborhood kids' talk
Come one little baby, let's cast aside
All this crap and take a ride
To the California ocean side
Eat some oysters, let 'em slide
Even if they taste bad
We'll head to the dock where the waves get wide
And hide ourselves away
CHORUS
I just wanna be a little crazy
Baby, I just wanna live
Oh, I wanna patch the holes and stop the drain
And stop this leaking, stop this leaking like a sieve
Let's get into a fight
Come on, little baby, let's argue
Then we'll be sure that everything's alright
Even if we get small dark holes
Holes in our famous egos
Where a little light can reach our poor souls
Come on baby, let's hoist the sail
Out on the sea where the wind won't fail
A thousand miles from the nearest jail
Pour some wine and eat some cheese
Take deep breaths and slack our knees
And sail away
Don!Chaffer:! +! Waterdeep:! Whole!‘Nother!Deal!
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Build The Tower Tall
Written by Don Chaffer
The revolution came and the revolution died
We believed all of the leaders but the leaders just lied
Sitting in a jail with a bitter grudge to bear
Released as a loner with nothing left to share
CHORUS
Make a tower tall. Make a tower high
Build it so big that it just rips through the sky
Scramble up the language; try to communicate
We make our plans in vain; we cannot elevate
We all just grit our teeth while we watch the nightly news
Another year another hundred thousand lives to lose
All this talk of peace and the great new consciousness
But the weight of expectation left our living rooms a mess
BRIDGE
When I was in the cell, nobody came by
No one would have known if I'd have died
And all I want to know is- would someone shoot me straightWas there ever a chance, or were we meant to wait?
CHORUS
To see the tower fall, to see the crooked straight
To see the huddled masses pass through the gate
Speaking all in common
The promises of peace
The sound of weeping mothers
Everywhere has ceased
OUTRO
We'll do what we can
We'll do what we can
For now
Don!Chaffer:! +! Waterdeep:! Whole!‘Nother!Deal!
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The Family In The Woods
Written by Don Chaffer
The stepson of the engineer
That drove the train you rode
Sold the railroad company
And the debt that you owed
And so now the new management
Comes a-knockin' at your door
It's pay up or eviction
There's no mercy anymore
CHORUS
Hey, hey
Who will remember me when I'm gone?
It ain't about how much you know
Or how long you been known
It's do you know the folks in charge
And how much do you own
It's bucks and bloody knuckles
It's contracts cut in steel
It's clauses sharp and pointed
And who's behind the wheel
So tell me that old story
Of the family in the woods
Momma cooked the crawdad
And Daddy traded goods
Tell me how when their boy died
They yelled and cried and prayed
Tell me how this very day
There's flowers on his grave
Don!Chaffer:! +! Waterdeep:! Whole!‘Nother!Deal!
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All The Places You Can Run
Written by Don Chaffer
Out behind the shed
In the valley of the dead
All in one accord
Underneath the hood of a '65 Ford
In grocery store Crying
out for more Getting
stoned or bored
Even on a pew in the house of the Lord
CHORUS
All the places you can run
All the ways you set to flight
In the middle of the broad daylight
Under cover of the secret night
You can run
Behind your smiling eyes
Your face looked so surprised
Sure, I'm doing fine
Down at the bottom of a bottle of wine
In a suit and tie
Seeing someone on the sly
Without nothing on
Pushing your lawnmower regularly 'cross your lawn
Don!Chaffer:! +! Waterdeep:! Whole!‘Nother!Deal!
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O Virginia
Written by Don Chaffer & Matthew Perryman Jones
O Virginia
You been trailin' off too fast
You laid your dress down
In that old Kentucky grass
You said your baby was the prince of Persia
All he did was worship you
Do you remember what your daddy told you
When he would hold you
CHORUS
And when everything was going hazy
Did you ever think that this is crazy now?
O but even though you missed the warning
There's a mercy born on every morning
O Virginia
You been on the road too long
You learned the grinding
Yeah but you forgot the song
In your memory it's the angels falling
And the men all calling you
And when you answer at the door, you're there
Ready to share
But O Virginia, there's nothing left
CHORUS
In the war between the blame and pity
Your words were smooth, but your teeth were gritty, girl
Cause you wouldn't lay down your defenses,
And admit the way you killed your senses
When everything was going hazy
You did not believe that this is crazy now
And, Virginia, though you missed the warning
The angels wept and prayed for mourning
O Virginia
That young sweet and tender girl
Don!Chaffer:! +! Waterdeep:! Whole!‘Nother!Deal!
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What You Don't Know
Don Chaffer
2002
The Luckiest Man On The Face Of The Earth
Written by Don Chaffer
You were the best supporting actor
The unforeseen factor
You were the guy who yanked the chains behind the stage
If you had talked a little faster
Maybe dressed in alabaster
You'd have been the hero of the age
CHORUS
Well here's your day in the sun, Lou
We see it now that you're done, you
Are the luckiest man on the face of the earth
The luckiest man on the face of the earth
You always played the second fiddle
You were the guy just right of middle
You were the man who drove the car while others slept
If you had flashed a little fancy
Maybe been a little dancy
You'd have been the jewel that they all kept
BRIDGE
You were consistently alive
You were the king of the line drive
There was always something about you, Lou
And in the face of that disease
When the muscles start to squeeze
The life right out of you
When most men shudder at the dread
Here's this thing you said
'Bout being the luckiest man on the face of the earth
Don!Chaffer:! What!You!Don’t!Know!
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If I Wanted To
Written by Don Chaffer
If I wanted to forget you
It'd a been easy
If I wanted to lose you
It'd a been quick
Hell, I lost myself
For four years
And I might have slipped away
But I fell sick
It ain't just you then
Who was in danger
Of disappearing
Underneath the waves
It was everyone and
Everything I ever loved
Slipping out of knowing
Into unmarked graves
But the camera's
In the prison yard as well
They can tell you that
You won't amount to nothin', boy
Or that's what we expect
From nasty girls like you
They act like everything is figured out
But what'll they do when
That tragedy comes falling on them too
CHORUS
If I wanted to
If I wanted to
If I wanted to, I tell myself
I could have. Is it true?
Did I want to?
It started as a vow
In some old tree house
You swore you'd never be your
Fathers when you aged
But you're all sitting at this bar
Wondering who you are
And you're becoming those at whom you
Once were so enraged
And a prison bar don't have to be
Too strong you know
It's how many there are side by side
That keep you in the cell
The camera dollies out
From where you’re lying in your bunk
Don!Chaffer:! What!You!Don’t!Know!
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Cross The Mountain Stream
Written by Don Chaffer
I'll carry my baby cross the mountain stream
So she can stay close to me
And when we get over the mountain stream
Maybe my baby be free
My baby can't really walk no more
Her legs are too weak and thin
She never dreamed of crossing that stream
She never thought she'd get in
CHORUS
Carry her cross that stream
My daddy fired his stillhouse up
Deep in the forest hills
Out come the drink of the devil there
Drink of a thousand ills
Carry my daddy cross the mountain stream
Make him some eyes that are clear
Silent and brewing or bull hot and flame
Make that stillhouse disappear
CHORUS
Carry him cross that stream
Carry me over the mountain stream
I think I can't do this alone
So carry me over the mountain stream
Tell me I'm on my way home
And when we get over the mountain stream
And everything is complete
When that great table is set for the feast
Let all the broken come eat
CHORUS
Carry me cross that stream
Don!Chaffer:! What!You!Don’t!Know!
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Bring The Sadness Back In
Written by Don & Lori Chaffer
They were laughing at the bar about the girl with the big butt
Saying they ain't never seen nothing like that slut
And how could anybody ever think about bein' with her?
Joey likes to drink and when he drinks he likes to fight
And his buddies think it makes for a pretty funny Friday night
When Joey gets all liquored up and takes a swing and causes a stir
CHORUS
The whole world is full of laughter
But the high is wearing thin
I'm praying someone somewhere gently
Will bring the sadness back in
Underneath the mattress where he keeps his cash
Is a bunch of magazines he calls his secret stash
It's a life that he ain't never lived
But man he'd love to give them dice a roll
And every time he flinches while he's flippin' through the stack
He tells himself that anything that paper might lack
Is made up by the fact that
Every woman there is under his control
CHORUS
All these promises of freedom
In the bondages of sin
I'm praying someone somewhere gently
Will bring the sadness back in
BRIDGE
Everybody's aching underneath their skin
But all of 'em are laughing as they're bein' sworn in
To testify, so help them God,
That everybody here's having a blast
Don!Chaffer:! What!You!Don’t!Know!
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Man I’m Gonna Sing
Written by Don Chaffer
I'm sellin' all my records
And all my magazines
Tryin' to lose my memory
Of all them famous scenes
Gonna buy a horse now
And learn to ride that thing
Gallop in a field somewhere
And man, I'm gonna sing
Cranked up like a drum head I'm
thin; I'm 'bout to break
Somebody save me from myself
For God Almighty's sake
OUTRO
Leave the children alone
Let them come to me
CHORUS
Hey
Gonna sell my TV too
For seventy-five bucks
Take a bag of stale bread to the pond
I'm gonna feed some ducks
I'm gonna lend someone my laptop
Cause I can't give that thing away
And then I'm gonna write some letters once
I figure out what to say
Going camping in December
Even if I freeze
Watch the snowfall quietly
Feel the winter breeze
Going to the beach soon
Watch the ocean heave
And if I fall in love with standing there
Man, I ain't ever gonna leave
Wish I could get a promise
That if I want to rest
That I will learn to do it then
Feel the peace inside my chest
Cranked up like a drum head
I'm thin; I'm 'bout to break
Chased away the boy I was
Cause he told me I'm a fake
Don!Chaffer:! What!You!Don’t!Know!
©!2002!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
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People Go By Like A Flame
Written by Don Chaffer
I had to take someone to the airport just this morning
I had forgotten about all the faces
Everybody that I saw was going to or coming from different places
But they all looked the same
Crushed and shy or loud and angry
Everybody just walked along without looking at anyone
I ran into a friend of mine from my junior high days
I spent the night at his house once
I remember that night vividly
We were nearly strangers now. It'd been so long
And he was headin' off to Germany
It was him and his girlfriend, and he was gonna study French there
Or maybe it was it German
CHORUS
People go by like a flame
And you never even know their name
You might get warm
You might get burned
But either way a flame is not the sun
That rises every day
His girlfriend wasn't there when I showed up
And I remember thinking how lonely to go to Germany alone
Then he told me that she'd be there soon
But it still seemed really sad to me
He still looked like he was on his own
Now he was smart. He knew a lot
But I wanted to ask if him he was okay
There was just something in his eyes
BRIDGE
Late at night, the moon is bright
And the fields are silver-gray
And no, it's true it ain't no sun
But it's pretty anyway
Don!Chaffer:! What!You!Don’t!Know!
©!2002!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
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John Henry, Where’d You Go
Written by Don Chaffer
John Henry, where'd you go
I wonder every time it snows
See the hammer and the body in the evening light
Skin of brown
Under a bed of white
The cracked mountains of those cold cruel mines
An elegy under the steam drillï¿_s whine
If you listen right at suppertime
At sunset
You can hear it chime
CHORUS
That ringing sound like silver
That ringing sound like gold
That ringing sound like angel choirs
That never grow old
His mother hardly speaks
Her rocking chair just creaks
I will sit here in the darkness when the sun falls down
Eat supper cold
Listen for that sound
That was one hell of a year
So I'll make my prayer clear
Let the hammer crack the suffering tree
And crack the sky
So everyone can see
CHORUS
John Henry shines like silver
John Henry shines like gold
John Henry's like the angel choirs
That never grow old
His mother sings like silver
His mother shines like gold
His mother sings that ringing sing sing like angel choirs
That never grow old
Don!Chaffer:! What!You!Don’t!Know!
©!2002!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
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Against The Window Pane
Written by Don Chaffer
I believe the heart's a theatre,
And that the actors on its stage
Are playing dreams but they're imposters
And that the devil pays their wage.
I believe the passion of that drama
That we're certain is for real
Is a diversion for our senses
While the director comes to steal.
CHORUS
And ever since I was a little kid, I didn't want to run away,
But it scared me half to death to think that I might have to stay.
I've had a hundred scarecrow certainties.
I've built a wooden drawbridge for my brain.
But they all burn up
When I see Your face
Against the window pane.
I believe that in the passionate,
There's a part that is divine
I've seen the cosmos in a woman's smile,
Tasted eternity in wine.
But I don't just believe in sentiment,
Or miracles of everyday.
I believe that there are lepers healed.
I believe the dead are raised.
BRIDGE
Jesus was a lover. He had a fire in His eyes
That could burn away excuses, cremate your alibis.
He had a gaze that would expose to you all the subtle lies
That your soul permits your heart to tell concerning all that it denies.
Don!Chaffer:! What!You!Don’t!Know!
©!2002!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
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What You Don’t Know
Written by Don Chaffer
Sometime while I was sleeping
We crossed into Virginia
I woke up and stepped out of the van
Ma'am, where's the cigarettes?
She said, "over there" with a southern drawl
I said, "do they all talk like you 'round here?"
CHORUS
Sometimes what you don't know can hurt you
Sometimes you can't see right from wrong
You're too blind to see
And too far down the road
And now she's gone, gone, gone, gone, gone
Crystalline and hazy
The memory is crazy
You never know the way that it might go
Like laughin' under summer trees
Or stayin' close when the branches freeze
I guess this is all I was ever supposed to know
BRIDGE
Somehow I'm gonna get up from this car wreck
Somehow I'll get up and walk away
After two months in intensive care
And half a year in God knows where
I am gonna pick up and move on
Last night while I was dreaming
My daddy came and spoke to me
He said, son ain't no man ever loved too good this way
All brain and no feelin'
Gets you screwed into the ceiling
Don't try so hard to figure out what to say
CHORUS
'Cause sometimes what you don't know, it won't hurt you
And it ain't so hard to see what's right from wrong
Just open up your eyes
And take off that disguise
Boy, the way you dramatize
Won't make a heart that's wise
You're a man when you live inside your own skin
You're a man when you live inside your own skin
Don!Chaffer:! What!You!Don’t!Know!
©!2002!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
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Up Before The Sun
Written by Don Chaffer
Up before the sun
Of all the things I could've chosen
This is not the one
Neither sad nor fun
To be chewing on my fingernails
Up before the sun
Angry with the Word
Of all the ways I could've listened
This is what I heard
Neither fish nor bird
To be on the earth and wrestling
Angry with the word
Trusting in Your heart
All the things that could've killed me
Or torn me apart
Neither end not start
To be somewhere in the middle of it
Trusting in your heart
Don!Chaffer:! What!You!Don’t!Know!
©!2002!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
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The Quiet Wonder
Written by Don Chaffer
I'd shake your hand
If I had one to extend but it was
Blown off in the war
The war that ended just a minute ago
When I came in the front door
When I left town
'Bout a hundred years ago I didn't
Think I'd lose my way
The kind of losing where you wonder at the end
If you even know your name
CHORUS
I remember the days
When we sang
Sang the tunes of the night
With the quiet wonder of
Being so near
I understood
That the nature of your smile was always
Etched within the frame
Of the way that you insisted that you be
And I thought it was a game
Now you're gone
And I'm looking at the ground where you
Held us all aloft
And the burdens that you carried like a mule
On your back, tender and soft
BRIDGE
All the crazy caravans
The trails of dust and memories
Rising like the feathers of a bird
Spread the wings, the family
Of bleary eyes and hungry for
The promise which will save us in a Word
Don!Chaffer:! What!You!Don’t!Know!
©!2002!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
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Long On Diagnosis, Short On Cure
Written by Don Chaffer
Last night I heard this old guy play guitar
He could push you with the music. He could
take you far
But he would push you with his right hand
And always hide his left
I just had one question for him, "Mister,
Have you ever been convicted of theft?"
CHORUS
Cause He'd (They'd) say "This one's close to dying
This one's fine
This one's past the turning point.
He's crossed the line."
Now he was awful good at triage,
That's for sure,
But he was long on diagnosis,
And short on cure.
CHORUS
Now you been close dying
In fact you've crossed the line
You done sailed right past the turning point,
Thinking everything's fine
But when the gas runs out
And your sitting there stone cold
You think, "I was young when all this started
Now I'm old."
But when the doctor pushes the triage crew aside
He says, "You're all long on diagnosis
Short on cure."
And he turns to you and says,
"Come on, Darlin' we can make this
Yes, I'm sure."
A long-winded conversation in a dorm room
late at night
Not so much about the truth as whether you
said it right
I raised the prospect of hope eternal. I was
laughed at and scorned.
They rolled their eyes like dice on a table
But their number was forlorn.
BRIDGE
Now, you can take your chance
Beat your fists on the boards of despair
You end up with splinters in your knuckles
Thinking, "unjust, unfair."
Or you can fall on the altar of sadness
And call for the knife.
But either way you're just denying your
hearing.
Put your ear to God's chest, and clearly
It's the pulse of life.
Don!Chaffer:! What!You!Don’t!Know!
©!2002!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
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Leave Me Alone
Written by Don Chaffer
Turn out the lights
Close the door
I'll not be taking visitors anymore
Shut off the power
Take down the sign
And let the machine answer the line
CHORUS
Leave me alone
Not because I'm angry
Just because I need to hear myself breathe
And be alive
And wonder why she's gone
Since I was a boy
Always her voice
Was ringing in the air around our home
How still the air
Winter is here
But missing is her warm familiar tone
CHORUS
Leave me alone
I just need a moment
To myself to quiet down to quiet down and grieve
And be alive
And miss her being so nearby she's gone
Don!Chaffer:! What!You!Don’t!Know!
©!2002!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
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Dogpaddle
Waterdeep
1998
My Father Laid His Hand On My Shoulder
Written by Don Chaffer
All the malice I've felt
Toward the people who've hurt me
Was a dark lonely hole
Where I ended up dirty
Trying to make sense
Of what's fair and what's ugly
So I drew my conclusions
And I stated them smugly
When the adrenaline rush
Of the wave of rage passes
And I'm cold in that hole
And there's mud on my glasses
I don't care anymore
To issue all my subpoenas Or
seek revenge on my foes Fulfill
my grave-like agreements
CHORUS
Though the world is a winter
Growing colder and colder
I remember the warmth
When my Father laid His hand on my shoulder
When my Father laid His hand on my shoulder
In my nightmares I've seen
All the wrath and destruction
Of my dark enemy
And his lethal deduction
CHORUS
But when I was shamefully weak
And knew I should have been bolder
I was strengthened again
When my Father laid His hand on my shoulder
When my Father laid His hand on my shoulder
BRIDGE
It's not my duty to judge
There's another who does so
I am asked to forgive
To release and to trust though
It's not my duty to die for the
Sins I've committed
I'm allowed to run free
I've been fully acquitted
CHORUS
All the days of my life
And when I'm years and years older
I'll remember the day
When my Father laid His hand on my shoulder
All the days of my life
And when I'm years and years older
I'll remember the day
When my Father laid His hand on my shoulder
When my Father laid His hand on my shoulder
That if I've ever felt helpless
If I've ever felt fearful
Then he had right to accuse
Pierce my side with his spear full
Waterdeep:! Dogpaddle!
©!1999!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
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The Razor Light
Written by Don Chaffer
You set the table in your spirit
Entertain the devil for a while
And then you laugh at all his jokes
Insisting it's alrightIt's okay to smile
But you are
Dancing with the demons
And walking on the wall that borders hell
Thinking "Right now, I'm not testing God,"
But always wondering how you'd feel if you just fell
I'd like to say that it was simple
Like a dog you don't want pregnant so you fix her
But it's a matter of unconscious sin
I don't know if you know it, but you're been brewin' up a strychnine elixir
Because you're
Are you walking darkly
To avoid the razor light
Did you lose the taste of flesh and blood
When you threw up late last night
Is your soul in some fine limbo
Between bitterness and lust
Can you talk about the cross these days
Without wincing in disgust
Waterdeep:! Dogpaddle!
©!1999!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
Admin! by!Simpleville! Music,! Inc.!All!rights!reserved.!
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Unwind
Written by Don Chaffer
Okay, here, You got my ear
I found my way outta town
I'm finally just sittin' down
Grinding gears and iron tears
They've kept my mind occupied
Didn't notice that I almost died
Lately I been lost
God, I been turned around
I've gotten so tangled up
I need some help just to get unwound
I had a dream on a bed of steam
That I got into a number of fights
over a garden of earthly delights
Silver Sue and the camera crew
They been talkin' bout my name in lights
It's been a forty long days and nights
Now Diamond Joe, he's a gigolo
And I been tryin' to get through to him
About the ocean that he's tryin' to swim
How it's a lie that he could rely
on some mystic saltwater seals
to hear his last breath's appeals
And save him before he dies
I been awful close to the fire
Tryin' to get some folks to look up higher
Cause there ain't much time
Before the Earth's goodbye
The lightning flashes once
then it splits the sky
And the ones He's known
They're headed home
Waterdeep:! Dogpaddle!
©!1999!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
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I Am In My Being Here With You
Written by Don Chaffer
The deepest ties are the hardest to understand
But the warmest to embrace
And today I am assured of this
At the seeing of your face
In giving up myself to you
I'm becoming more complete
Darling, we're in the face of mystery
But we're drawing from its heat
CHORUS
I'll swallow all the problems
I will swallow all the pains
I'll drink this life together
Down to the blood inside my veins
I'll swallow all the pleasures
I will swallow all the smiles
I'll drink the life I have with you
Down through the years and through the miles
A song is in its singing
A gift is in its bringing
And I am in my being here with you
I've seen in you an oceanfront
I've seen in you the skies
And sometimes I when I'm suffering
I find comfort in your eyes
When the whole world starts to shaking up
Right underneath my feet
I remember, Darling, we're in the middle of a mystery
But we're drawing from its heat
BRIDGE
I love you so much
It sometimes makes me weep
It's so simple to say
But it runs so deep... so very deep
Waterdeep:! Dogpaddle!
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He Will Come
Written by Lori & Don Chaffer
Soon it will be hammered into what she calls her silly head
That she really isn't silly but she's beautiful instead
But every time she gets a hold of something pretty, it slips away
So she keeps hoping that someday soon
CHORUS
He will come. He will come
He will comfort all that's hardened
Change the deserts into gardens
And we all will see His face.
He will come. He will come.
He will soften all the starkness
Break the chambers of our darkness
And we'll all be overwhelmed
She spilled her coffee in her Chevy on the way to work at 8:05
She always thought that she was clumsy and she hated it and wondered why
She can handle any tragedy that happens but not little things like this
So she keeps hoping that someday soon
Within the world of a girl, the words she hears they mean an awful lot
And the music in her mind when she gets older has the lyrics she was taught
And when she gets to heaven all the right things will be said
And He will look on her with favor
All my scars will turn to fountains
All my valleys into mountains
And we all will see His face
All you watchmen lift your voices
Then every boy and girl rejoices
When we'll all be overwhelmed
Waterdeep:! Dogpaddle!
©!1999!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
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Take Jericho
Written by Don Chaffer & Kenny Carter
We're gonna take Jericho
By blowin' them horns
We're gonna take Jericho
By blowin' them horns
'Cause that's what my Lord said to do
We're gonna take Jericho
By blowin' them horns
We're gonna lift Him up
When we're way way down
We're gonna lift Him up
When we're on the ground
'Cause that's what my Lord said to do
We're gonna lift Him up
When we're way way down
CHORUS
We can see Jericho coming
Down down down down down Come
on, brother, blow your horn Cause you
know that Jericho is coming
Down down down down down down down down down
We're gonna cross that sea
Walkin' on dry land
We're gonna cross that sea
Walkin' on dry land
'Cause that's what my Lord said to do
We're gonna cross that sea
Walkin' on dry land
Waterdeep:! Dogpaddle!
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Go Find John
Written by Lori & Don Chaffer
Go find John
Hiding in the backyard
Crying cause his hands hurt
All the thorns
Crying for you to
Go find John
Scattered and bewildered
Swallowed by the dirt there
All alone
CHORUS
Go tell him
I told him
Go tell him
He's welcome to come home
Go tell him
I know him
He's tried and tried and nothing works at all
Go find John
Drunk to kill the pain there
Lying on a strange bed
All the seed
On the ground
Go find John
Floating in the ocean
In her dark apartment
All alone
Waterdeep:! Dogpaddle!
©!1999!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
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Sink or Swim
Waterdeep
1997
Sink Or Swim
Written by Lori Chaffer
Will you hold my hand
Do I have to stand in this world all alone
Where it's icy cold
And all the people chime in
"You've got to sink or swim"
Where there's rain there's drought
So I'll confess my doubts
Where there's threshing of the fields
Something's bound to yield
And all the people cry out
They feel they're about to drown
On the ocean floor
But I know there's more
I know You understand what it's like to me man
Sometimes I forget You're near
Sometimes I forget you hear
The way the raindrops fall
The sound of the wind as it calls
And every breath I breathe
And song I don't sing
Waterdeep:! Sink!Or!Swim!
©!1997!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
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No One Told You
Written by Don Chaffer
Your momma's drunk
You sister went insane
You been trying to keep from getting sick
Standing in the pouring rain
No one told you
That it would be this hard
And that it'd hurt so bad inside
Cause no one ever
Really gets to know
We're all on the same dark ride
But when the ending comes
Will you choose to live
Or will you choose to die?
The girl you love
You've tried to tell her that
That you love her so
But if she's supposed
To love you back
She doesn't seem to know
Just to be fair
It should be stated that
It's not always this way
Once in a while
From behind your back
You can hear somebody say
"No one told you
That I am really here
But I have been all along
And I know your sky
Is far from clear
And that it has been far too long
But when the ending comes
"I already did, so you don't have to die."
Waterdeep:! Sink!Or!Swim!
©!1997!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
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Not Enough Time
Written by Lori Chaffer
My father told me never to fear
All of the darkness that I see down here
He said not to worry, you'll be okay
Just don't become a part of the deadly game
And if you're troubled by all of the hate
Don't look aside, stare it in the face
And you can love them like you should
Love all the people that have so misunderstood
Don't wait for the night to fall in on you
There's not enough time
Your simple please are not enough
To keep the rain from pouring
The mindless stone your clinging to
Will turn into a boulder
It barely rests above your head
So soon it will be falling
Don't wait for the night to fall in on you
There's not enough time
The piece of gold you bow down to
Can never calm your anger
Millions of charms that "detour harm"
Can't make your joy forever
The stars just fall down from the sky
No wish you make to them will be granted
Waterdeep:! Sink!Or!Swim!
©!1997!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
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I Know The Plans
Written by Lori Chaffer
You talk of hating war
But where's your own peacetime?
You don't love anymore
All my children
You linger in your mind
"Everyone's so unkind"
But you forget about the mines you laid on your land
I know the plans I have for you
I know the things that I want for you to do
I know the plans I have for you
And it hurts sometimes to see you blind
You read up on the lies
And keep them in motion
So clever the disguise of devotion
You tell Me there's no time
But there you stand joking
But you forgot that I'm the one
Who weighs the words you've spoken
I know the plans I have for you
I know the things that I want for you to do
I know the plans I have for you
And it hurts sometimes to see you cry
Waterdeep:! Sink!Or!Swim!
©!1997!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
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Lonely Sometimes
Written by Don Chaffer
I woke up from a strange rain
And it was dreaming outside
I rolled over for the telephone
I thought I'd call someone
Tell them I dreamed I had died
But I know that I was all alone
I just get lonely sometimes
I want someone to take away my grief
I just get lonely sometimes
I want to wake up in the morning with someone
Lying next to me who I can turn to for relief
I just get lonely sometimes
But I know I just need You
I probably slept in a bed of bitterness
That's why I woke up this way
That's probably why I'm in this lonesome hole
I probably got to needing everything
And needing it today
That's probably why I play this lonely role
But I know I know I know I just need You
Waterdeep:! Sink!Or!Swim!
©!1997!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
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And
Written by Don Chaffer
I am haunted by my love for comparison
My fascination with a single common theme
And I am hounded by the fear that I might be losing it
Slipping from reality into dream
When my mind is muddled by the way it seems to work
I start looking for just one connecting Force
Someone to assure me that we didn't lose the war today
That the battle's General's still riding on his horse
In the mornings when I pray, I've often come to You with dreams
Little bits of power that I can't comprehend
And sometimes I can keep my eyes unclosed for long enough
To see the blowing of a distant steady Wind
The distance doesn't take too long for You to cover it
And when You reach me, You just blow these things apart
You clear the crowd that's gathered 'round the crisis of my soul
And whisper to my suffocating heart
And is the juice of the joints of the motion of life
And is the love that is between God and his beautiful wife
And has two hands and two feet and a long, lovely side
And rose three days after he was crucified
So You're the Force of gravity that I feel pulling at my feet
You're the Fuel at the center of the sun
And, it's your Ghost that fills the atmosphere with what we need to breathe
And, everything I've ever wondered, You're the one
Both my hands are stained with blood
And both my lips are stained with tears
From when I kissed the widow of the man I killed
And, yet You're asking me to swallow Your forgiveness here today
You say the bond required for my pardon's been fulfilled
Waterdeep:! Sink!Or!Swim!
©!1997!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
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Go
Written by Lori Chaffer
Go tell it on the mountaintops
That I'm alive
Go listen to the children cry
And let them know
That dark and night are not their masters
Between you you'll know all the things
That I never said out loud
Don't walk away from the crowd
Go tell them that it's cold outside
And I won't thrive there
And I'm getting tired of hiding My face
From your disgrace
Although you think that you've disguised it
And when you get too tired of waiting
To picture My face in the clouds
Look around
I know it won't be sown the way
You want it to be
I will make it grow with or without you
You'll pray, I'll wait
You may fall down a time or two
Go tell it in the valleys low
That I'm alive
Go listen to the men that sigh
And let them know that dark and night
Are not their masters
And when you get too tired of waiting
To picture My face in the clouds
Look around
Waterdeep:! Sink!Or!Swim!
©!1997!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
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Both Of Us’ll Feel The Blast
Written by Don Chaffer
We're both dirty, baby- that's just the way it goes We'll
try to cut the fuses off before everything blows And if it
blows and both of us are standing real close by Then
both of us'll feel the blast and both of us'll die
But dying's overrated, it's a ticket on a train
And as long as I can hold your hand, I'll know that I'm still sane
Maybe I'm an idiot for thinking that that's true
But I believe that Jesus knew what He was doing when He gave me you
Lately I've been wondering- what are we gonna do
When we wake up in the morning and its just me and you?
Cause we ain't never done this thing but I guess that's how it goes
You breathe deep as it comes to you and hold tight when it blows
And if it blows and both of us are standing real close by
Then both of us'll feel the blast and both of us'll die
And dying's underrated, it's a ticket to the feastThe one we're all invited to, from the greatest to the least
I hope we sit together when Jesus serves the wine
So I can look into your eyes when I taste it the first time
And I know there's no secrets when you're sitting at that table
But I believe we'll smile real knowingly when we read the label
And it says "passion sacrificed to keep from going crazy."
We'll tip our glasses to the Host who used to look so hazy
And drink it down all sweet and slow and slip inside His mind
And realize as it goes down- this is communion wine
This is communion wine
This is communion wine
This is communion wine
Waterdeep:! Sink!Or!Swim!
©!1997!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
Admin! by!Simpleville! Music,! Inc.!All!rights!reserved.!
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Legend Of Vertigo
We believed it was time to lift off from the land of vertigo
The captain said "despite the wind and tide, you will have to row."
Will that mean that the ones who do not wish to row won't wish to go?
Maw was mawkish cause the house we'd left we'd surely never know again.
We search for planets where the land won't be the kind you have to sow.
We left behind pernicious minds and fancy lies.
BACKGROUND VOICES by Don
"i'm really gonna miss you - you and your mom,
i got real used to how it feels to have a kind of family again,
my mom left us when we were all six.. i mean when i was six.
i told you about that once. remember that - when i told you about that?
that one day in the park, on the bench. you had that green skirt on
and it was one of those days when the sky was really blue in your eyes
like it gets sometimes. i told you that didn't i? on certain days when
you were real clear, how you... a, i don't know that there's any words for it,
but you were always the clearest one of us. with you gone,
it's like my balance is off or something... god, i miss you. you're like
a little bit of God to me. everybody needs a little God. you were that to meyou and your mom. you were like the family i needed. please come back to vertigo.
i think i need you here. please come back to vertigo. i need you here."
"everyone's been kind of acting sad or strange lately around here.
things already seem different just knowing you're leaving.
yesterday i was talking to sheila. she's pregnant again, you know.
she started crying when i told her about you leaving. you helped her so
much when annie was born. she kept saying how she doesn't know what to do
(i'm glad i was the only one there actually). i would have been a little
embarrassed for her otherwise. oh, and greg, i'm scared about him, hon, he
seems like... like he might do something crazy. he keeps saying stuff about
how his balance is off - weird things like that, and he just sort of spaces
off, not like his normal thing. it's like all the time now. i'm worried.
if you were here, i think... well, you're not though... you know, there's
one thing that i don't get about you leaving. i never saw you falling for
all that captain stuff - all that business about new worlds and all. i mean
really, i'd hate all that rowing and order taking, and you, well, i always
thought you were more the free spirit type. why don't you just quit all this
leaving business and come back to vertigo. we'd still have a place for you."
We'd thought it so dreamy the way it spun our time.
Everything was so easy if we hid behind the lies.
That made us seem leavened made us reel we were usually tripping
Till we couldn't feel but our souls were just dripping out all that was real.
All you sinners
All you spinners
All who love
The winding roads
Who love vertigo
It's time to board
Or be lost to the undertow
Thank God I get I get to go away from vertigo
Waterdeep:! Sink!Or!Swim!
©!1997!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
Admin! by!Simpleville! Music,! Inc.!All!rights!reserved.!
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18 Bullet Holes
Written by Don Chaffer
18 bullet holes in the body of a priest
They say he was eating a hot dog when the ammunition was released.
They say he was always fat and lazy but he was an awfully nice guy.
That's just one more death to show you you never know when you're gonna die.
You might be facing the beast
Sometimes, God, I feel like I'm living in a bone grinding mill
And every time I hear the sound I can barely stand still
It's a thing I can't quite make out sometimes but it seems to keep getting louderOne more body from the valley of the dry bones getting ground up into powder
Against Your holy will
Oh, God, it hurts so bad to love anybody down here
Why don't You come and help me out?
Cause I can't even see clear
The funny thing about the way a girl gets destroyed
About the way that deal goes down
Is that everybody pretty much sees it coming at the sister
From all the way across town
And she isn't always blinded, she isn't always far astray
She just might not be thinking, she might be having a bad day
But when you choose, you choose, and when you drown, you drown
Last night I dreamed that You swallowed me into Yourself
And I was floating on the sea inside
When I landed on the shore, I saw all these people that I thought had died
I hadn't seen some of them for ages
They had left without a single word
And when I said something to them, not a single one of them had heard
They were all looking right through everything like it wasn't even there
Some were full of anger, some full of fear
And then I recognized that something very sad
But very beautiful was happening right here
They were all caught outside standing alone in a very heavy rain
And when a raindrop landed on my tongue
I didn't need You to explain
That these were Your tears
Oh, God, it hurts so bad to love anybody down here
Oh, that's right, You know so well
One thorny crown, three nails, and a spear
One thorny crown, three nails, and a spear
Waterdeep:! Sink!Or!Swim!
©!1997!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
Admin! by!Simpleville! Music,! Inc.!All!rights!reserved.!
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I’m Afraid I’m Not Supposed To Be Like This
Written by Lori Chaffer
Well I'm afraid I'm not supposed to be like this
Like I was born in a land where no serpent hissed
And I have waited a long time for Your kiss
Well I have felt that they'd all take offense at me
And so a fence I have built to protect the seed
But all the bricks will secure its mortality
I have been seated in circles and stood in disgrace
At the noted intention to be in place
And I have seen that one man saved the human race
But it took His life and it took His faith
I have risen from ashes and fed on flames
But even so I still fear I have played a game
And it seems no one else is as sick and depraved
I have heard that I'm not supposed to be this way And
still the stones that are lifted fall down to stay But I
keep doubting and think one will strike my face
He's been promising me something more than pain
Where the cost is grace and my loss is gain
And I have chosen because there is no other way
I either wallow in shame
Or humble myself and be saved
And be saved
Waterdeep:! Sink!Or!Swim!
©!1997!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
Admin! by!Simpleville! Music,! Inc.!All!rights!reserved.!
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You Knew
Written by Don Chaffer
In a crazy haze
In a purple robe
I walk amaze
King of the strobe
Flashing and unfaithful
I'm hardly light at all
Tripping and ungraceful
I was born into the fall
You knew
You knew
I've never been true
I'm true in You
You knew
At the stretch of dawn
In the yawn of time
You thought upon me
With Your bread and wine
But how my blood is hardened
I fear of losing life
Do drown me in Your heart and
Say I'll be Your wife
You knew
You knew
Before I was true
I was true in You
You knew
Waterdeep:! Sink!Or!Swim!
©!1997!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
Admin! by!Simpleville! Music,! Inc.!All!rights!reserved.!
www.waterdeep.com!
Down At The Riverside
Written by Don Chaffer
They sat near one another at the water's edge I'll
say "they" because "we" is too hard to say And
he told her what he'd come so far to tell her
With tears in her eves she said it can't be that way
I left the ring down at the riverside
He stared at the water for a long time, leaning on his hand
He was going through the things that he was wondering
The air was fairly still, like the calm before the storm
No one would have guessed the rain. there was not distant thundering
He still felt a long ways away inside
I left the ring down at the riverside
Should I tell them how he cried?
Should I tell them how you held me, my never-bride?
And how I left the ring down at the riverside
The riversideOne like where believers stood for John to baptize them
I'm going down to die, but I'll be coming up alive then
I'm going down to die, but He'll bring me up alive then
Waterdeep:! Sink!Or!Swim!
©!1997!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
Admin! by!Simpleville! Music,! Inc.!All!rights!reserved.!
www.waterdeep.com!
I Am
Written by Lori Chaffer
I am more than you think
I am more than you know
I'm as black as the darkest night
And whiter than snow
You're tripping through wires and words
And spires and tombstones
I have burned with desire
Felt the air become fire
Given lions my bones
Buried Myself with stones
And I love whether or not you believe Me
I'm as wide as the ocean
And as small as your soul
I'm as tall as the mountains
And I am deeper than gold
I'm as swift as an arrow
But I am slow when you stray
I'm as calm as the waters
That we walked on that day
And I love whether or not you believe Me
If you ask Me again My reply still will stand
I am who I am
And I love whether or not you believe Me
Waterdeep:! Sink!Or!Swim!
©!1997!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
Admin! by!Simpleville! Music,! Inc.!All!rights!reserved.!
www.waterdeep.com!
To Chase Away the Birds
Waterdeep
1995
To Chase Away The Birds
Black crows flying in your wheat field
Babies cryin', all you got's a paper shield
It don't make much sense to you
Who said it had to?
Most folks smile away the blues
I mean I... I guess they do
You never really know for sure
But I'm surviving on this hunch that everybody else is hurtin' too
He was crazy
Crazy but able
So he excused himself from cleaning up the stable
This is the way that horses die
This is the way you learn to lieBy sacrificing the real and forgetting how to feel
I loved him like fire
We both had similar burning desires
He kept expecting it all to work out down here
I just hang on to holy fear
Now I know how far out I'm getting here
But it's a dark night walk- the life of fear
And I'm trying to choose the words
That'll chase away the birds
Good God, just hurry up and come down here
Waterdeep:! To!Chase!Away!The!Birds!
All!songs!written! by!Don!Chaffer.!
©!1995!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
Admin! by!Simpleville! Music,! Inc.!All!rights!reserved.!
www.waterdeep.com!
Scared
Somebody just said something 'bout the devil
And I looked into your eyes
Honey, I think I saw a demon wink
Right through your thin disguise
Well, that's okay, I could run away and that'd be the end of that
Except I think I felt one inside me too
Right behind where I'm hidin' at, and
I'm scared
Honey, I'm scared
A stronger man might not be
Maybe a strong man would stay cool
But I'm not so sure that strong man wouldn't just be a fool
Now, babe, listen up. I ain't sayin' that you're any worse off than me
I'm just askin' you to consider the possibility
That both of us are bound for hell
I don't want to say this too loud
Because I know I'll get an argument
From the thick surrounding crowd, but
Hear me babe this ain't no joke that I'm talkin' about
I really think there could be a problem that needs some straightening out
And if there is, it ain't just about guilt and shame
It's a matter of eternity
Oh, baby, please please please please listen to me, 'cause
Waterdeep:! To!Chase!Away!The!Birds!
All!songs!written! by!Don!Chaffer.!
©!1995!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
Admin! by!Simpleville! Music,! Inc.!All!rights!reserved.!
www.waterdeep.com!
Get Me Clear
I told a lie
Could you tell me why?
Heavy sigh
You gotta help me die
Cord of sin
You said you'd cut it. Can you tell me when?
Jesus, kiss
Come and collect me for eternal bliss
Though it's against your nature to be impolite
Would You please break into my heart tonight
And steal away my fear?
Cause it's my nature to just sit and guard it
Though the prison doors, I'm afraid to depart it
I'm stuck right here
You gotta get me clear
I hear a word
Somebody says something that I know is absurd
But I give it room
Now, inside the greenhouse of my heart I got a deadly bloom
My fist 'round a rose
My hands all bloody from the thorns there, I suppose
But I don't let go
Sometimes I'm a coward. I try not to let it show
Waterdeep:! To!Chase!Away!The!Birds!
All!songs!written! by!Don!Chaffer.!
©!1995!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
Admin! by!Simpleville! Music,! Inc.!All!rights!reserved.!
www.waterdeep.com!
The Razor Light
You set the table in your spirit
Entertain the devil for a while
And then you laugh at all his jokes
Insisting it's alrightIt's okay to smile
But you are
Dancing with the demons
And walking on the wall that borders hell
Thinking "Right now, I'm not testing God,"
But always wondering how you'd feel if you just fell
I'd like to say that it was simple
Like a dog you don't want pregnant so you fix her
But it's a matter of unconscious sin
I don't know if you know it, but you're been brewin' up a strychnine elixir
Because you're
Are you walking darkly
To avoid the razor light
Did you lose the taste of flesh and blood
When you threw up late last night
Is your soul in some fine limbo
Between bitterness and lust
Can you talk about the cross these days
Without wincing in disgust
Waterdeep:! To!Chase!Away!The!Birds!
All!songs!written! by!Don!Chaffer.!
©!1995!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
Admin! by!Simpleville! Music,! Inc.!All!rights!reserved.!
www.waterdeep.com!
My Little Hands
She plays with my words like they were hers
Little soldiers in a war against themselves
She used to rob me of my own intent
But now I'm keeping my findings from her shelves
I used to think that honesty was all
Between the two of us, nothing should go unsaid
Then she taught me, although I took too long
That some things should be said to God and then just left for dead
I've got to learn to live alone
Just lean into the Wing
I've got to know that there is only One
For whom I sing
I've got to learn the difference
Between me and this place
Got to let my little hands
Reach only for Your face
I've felt the pressing of listening
I've known an empathetic overload
I've been a mile in so many other shoes
I forgot my own out on the road
But I'm coming now to understand
That where my heart is, there's my treasure
And the suffering that I am going through
Will be replaced with a glory that I can't even measure
Waterdeep:! To!Chase!Away!The!Birds!
All!songs!written! by!Don!Chaffer.!
©!1995!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
Admin! by!Simpleville! Music,! Inc.!All!rights!reserved.!
www.waterdeep.com!
Instead
The cosmic finger doesn't stir up rules just to ruin us
But He also doesn't let us do just whatever we want
And the eyes of God can see the force that's doin' us
He's givin' out chances to escape the haunt
CHORUS
Cause it's a touch of love that can free you of despair
And forgiveness rolls
Thank God He's so unfair
'Cause I should've been dead
For what's inside my head
But He killed His Son instead
Obedience can sometimes be monotonous
So we squander our hours in pettiness and lust
But God did not put life down here so it could rot in us
And there's a place we go after ashes and dust
My Jesus, I love thee
I know Thou art mine
To Thee all the follies of sin I resign
My Gracious Redeemer, my Saviour art Thou
If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus 'tis now
Waterdeep:! To!Chase!Away!The!Birds!
All!songs!written! by!Don!Chaffer.!
©!1995!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
Admin! by!Simpleville! Music,! Inc.!All!rights!reserved.!
www.waterdeep.com!
Everybody’s Guilty
She's got her eye on the wind
She resents her own skin
She wants to fly
She's got a bend in her mind
She treats herself so unkind
She don't know why
Innocent Jane
She's got an innocent name
But in the still of the night
Or in the heat of the light
She'll confess to you
That everybody's guilty
She'll confess to you
That everybody's guilty
Well, everybody can stare
They won't find nothing there incriminating
It's all buried inside
Where it can stay safe and hide
Latent destruction, lying in waiting
Come on, Jane, throw that stuff away You
got to let yourself die every day Because
the thief breaks in to kill and steal
He don't make no friends and his words ain't real
He will take you out and beat on you
And after all of this is through
He'll make you promise that you'll never tell
He wants your loyalty in the fires of hell
You got to run into the arms of someone kinder
Someone who doesn't care what a woman's put behind her
Just say, "Forgiver of sins,
Won't you come right on in
And in the still of the night
By a sweet candlelight
Tell me how You came to be the Savior of the guilty
How You came to be the Savior of the guilty."
Waterdeep:! To!Chase!Away!The!Birds!
All!songs!written! by!Don!Chaffer.!
©!1995!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
Admin! by!Simpleville! Music,! Inc.!All!rights!reserved.!
www.waterdeep.com!
Sweet River Roll
Homebound Henry's got a tumor in his head
He wakes up every morning after dreaming he was dead
He used to think that life was boring, but now that's not the case
He turns to his wife in the evening, he says "Honey I'm afraid I'm gonna lose this race."
Sweet River, roll all over me
Sweet River, roll all over me
Soaking wet Juliet- she lives in a well full of tears
Her husband left her for some bimbo after twenty-two years
Now she's got to start all over, but she's just so terrified
She thinks it woulda been so much easier if he woulda just died
And I'm lookin' out my car window sittin' in the pouring rain
Although your house is fifteen miles away, I can still feel your pain
I've thought and prayed and worked it through about a hundred times or more
How your soul just cries to everyone to help you get up off the floor
Right now it's morning, you're probably totally unaware
Of the flood of kisses you hold back by the way that you despair
It ain't me I'm talking about here, or anybody else you can touch
That's all I want to say right now, I don't want to say too much
Except Sweet Jesus, roll all over me
Sweet Jesus, roll all over me...
You gotta come down and just set me free
Waterdeep:! To!Chase!Away!The!Birds!
All!songs!written! by!Don!Chaffer.!
©!1995!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
Admin! by!Simpleville! Music,! Inc.!All!rights!reserved.!
www.waterdeep.com!
On A Night That Felt Outdated
Well, this night just feels outdated
It's a tired reminder of the bad
When you held on to what you hated
And you hated what you had
And your mind was out on the corner
Sellin' herself as something cheap
Your pride he says he owns her
And she's dumb, she follows like a sheep
She don't know what he does to a lover
He'll whisper lies in a restless ear
He tells a wife she don't deserve to hover
Over a man who doesn't seem to hear
Some things are easy to forget, even if they're bigger than the now
And she has tried to remember them but she can't remember how
So she lies on her bed staring up at the cracks in the ceiling
She's even pinched herself to wake up, but her body's got no feeling
Well he calls her out on the driveway
He's pullin' her by her hips
He says you ought to come by my way
And he kisses her on the lips
His mouth feels cold to her heart
Unlike her man who's still asleep in their bed
But she numbs herself to that part
And she leans to what she calls her head
And though her face had turned away for a moment
And her eyes had flashed a bit with doubt
She felt the tug of a brilliant showman
And she was on her way out
It wasn't long before she was out sellin' on the corner like something cheap
On a night that could feel like hell in the reminders that it made you keep
Like the one where you were standin' on the driveway
There was a cold feeling on your lips
Some woman's saying to ya come my way
And she's pullin' you by your hips
But the prodigal did not stay way
There was a destiny he had to keep
And I may give my mind a dirty day
But tonight I got floors to sweep
Some things are easy to forget, even if they're bigger than the now
And you have tried to remember them but you can't remember how
So you lie on your bed staring at the cracks in the ceiling
You've even pinched yourself to wake up, but your body's got no feeling
Waterdeep:! To!Chase!Away!The!Birds!
All!songs!written! by!Don!Chaffer.!
©!1995!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
Admin! by!Simpleville! Music,! Inc.!All!rights!reserved.!
www.waterdeep.com!
You Lay Me Down
The winter of emotions
Sometimes steals into my head
It's the tundra of the shutdown
It's the burying the dead
And I'd like to make my springtime
But I have no read recourse
But to wait on some long loving
From some deep and pure source
You lay me down
You whisper somehow
I can hear it when I'm very still
You don't ever touch me or chase away the chill
But one day soon, you will
The art of all my problems
Is in how they're resolved
I try until I'm hopeless
And then a hand so soft
Is brushing back my hair
From its clinging to my face
From crying God I live in
Such a weak and desperate place
Waterdeep:! To!Chase!Away!The!Birds!
All!songs!written! by!Don!Chaffer.!
©!1995!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
Admin! by!Simpleville! Music,! Inc.!All!rights!reserved.!
www.waterdeep.com!
Hardened
There's a little child drowning in a pond
And you would have me throw a blanket on
The surface of the water
Even though she was your daughter
And watch just how helplessly she dies
For the sake of how it looks
Cause it's like you've read in books
It's a symbol of the way you see this life
And if a savior came upon a tray of gold
You'd insist that he had already been sold
Even though you knew he hadn't
You're afraid to trade the bad in
For a good you don't know
Like a certain generation
In a proud and headstrong nation
Who expects God to dance whenever she
plays the fife
The lexicon of death is all you know
You feel suffocated by the falling snow
Cause you miss the beauty there
In the quiet holy air
And start looking for a desert you can roam
Your eyes too closed to see
The secret ministry
Of the frost upon the window of your home
Oh, why are you so hardened? You
know you could be pardoned And
then you would not feel so alone
You're not alone.
You're not alone.
Youmre!not!alone.!
And if you want to talk in terms of the
survival of the fittest
Then take a look at the soul's auction house
and whose the highest bid is
You understand the fear of man
But you forgot about the fear of God
And to the bloody ransom
That makes an ugly soul turn handsome
You give a condescending nod
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
There's a sense of desperation in your touch
And you say out loud you hate it very much
But you're addicted to your sadness
Cause it creates the touch of madness
The kind you like inside your veins
Oh, why are you so hardened?
You know you could be pardoned
I guess you just will not let go of the reins
Waterdeep:! To!Chase!Away!The!Birds!
All!songs!written! by!Don!Chaffer.!
©!1995!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
Admin! by!Simpleville! Music,! Inc.!All!rights!reserved.!
www.waterdeep.com!
If You Want To Get Free
In the gas station bathroom by the condom machine
I heard the word of the Lord
He said "Take off your shoes,
This is holy ground too
You know I came for the sick and the bored."
Beneath the selling of beers
And the welling up of tears
Out beyond the beam of the remote control
There's a whispering voice
That the humble ear ears
That says "I am still waiting
For you to ask just to be made whole."
And the bush it was burning on the mountain top
And though the leaves never blackened, the fire didn't stop
That's the way that it works in this old life of sin
You gotta let the fire burn you just to get clean within
I am so often deterred from my actual intent
By distractions in a cellophane wrap
And the cruel voice that taunts me when I open them up
to find just one more box full of crap
It's where you're mocked while you abstain
And then cursed when you give in
It's all a game that's impossible to beat
But there's a peaceful refrain God'll sing in your brain
When you put the nails to your hands and your feet
And the smell of our sacrifices
Still fills up my head
There's just a few left at the altar, Lord
All the rest of them fled
And we've cried and we've tried
We've sweat and we've bled
But we don't just need atonement
We need to be raised from the dead
When they took down the cross from that dark hillside
The blood on their hands was the blood from his side
That's the way that it works, that's the way it must be
You gotta let His blood stain you of you want to get free
If you want to get free
Don't you want to get free
I think you want to be free
Waterdeep:! To!Chase!Away!The!Birds!
All!songs!written! by!Don!Chaffer.!
©!1995!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
Admin! by!Simpleville! Music,! Inc.!All!rights!reserved.!
www.waterdeep.com!
You Were at The Time For Love
Don Chaffer
1994
Have You Fallen On The Cornerstone
Are you the chosen lady
Are you the one who walks in truth
And if my name was Boaz
Would your name be Ruth
Have you fallen on the cornerstone
Or is that rock gonna fall on you
Are you gonna take me down and play with me
Or do you have that holy fear
Is your need the kind that won't be filled
Or can you just sit quietly here
Do you long for the ritual
Of communion on your lips
The bread and wine, the flesh and blood
Cause sometimes, girl, it drips
At a cost from a cross
Can you stomach all the everyday
Can you bear to walk at night
Will you open up your door to me
Before I take my flight
Honey, when you look for me,
You know there's bound to be a fight
They'll beat on you for asking 'round
Those watchmen of the night
But, Darling, if you seek me,
It's me that you're gonna find
Honey, when you seek me
It's me that you're gonna find
Do you long for the ritual Of
communion on your lips Cause,
Honey, if you want me to I'll be
the skirt around your hips
Don!Chaffer:! You!Were!At!The!Time!For!Love!
All!songs!written! by!Don!Chaffer.!
©!1994!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
Admin! by!Simpleville! Music,! Inc.!All!rights!reserved.!
www.waterdeep.com!
Gloom Higherway
I feel the need to delve into the mystery
To say some things you might not understand
To swim a league in the sorrow of this place
And be sustained by unseen hands
I feel the need to sing a song
That wrestles with the divine notion
That blood atones, that death completes
That joy can supercede emotion
Because the wilderness will be glad
And the desert will rejoice and bloom
And the ransomed of the Lord will walk upon the road
That found foundations in the wasteland of gloom
The moon makes some kind of sense tonight
To the questions I can't speak in words
And my spirit waits on the wind to come and say
"Come now and clearly see what once was blurred"
Cause You speak in ways I can't explain
You call us in names we can't repeat And
you craft the cold to counter that Which
we desire but burns us with its heat
Don!Chaffer:! You!Were!At!The!Time!For!Love!
All!songs!written! by!Don!Chaffer.!
©!1994!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
Admin! by!Simpleville! Music,! Inc.!All!rights!reserved.!
www.waterdeep.com!
Unwind
Okay, here, You got my ear
I found my way outta town
I'm finally just sittin' down
Grinding gears and iron tears
They've kept my mind occupied
Didn't notice that I almost died
Lately I been lost
God, I been turned around
I've gotten so tangled up
I need some help just to get unwound
I had a dream on a bed of steam
That I got into a number of fights
Over a garden of earthly delights
Silver Sue and the camera crew
They been talkin' bout my name in lights
It's been a forty long days and nights
Now Diamond Joe, he's a gigolo
And I been tryin' to get through to him
About the ocean that he's tryin' to swim
How it's a lie that he could rely
On some mystic saltwater seals
To hear his last breath's appeals
And save him before he dies
I been awful close to the fire
Tryin' to get some folks to look up higher
Cause there ain't much time
Before the Earth's goodbye
The lightning flashes once
Then it splits the sky
And the ones He's known
They're headed home
Don!Chaffer:! You!Were!At!The!Time!For!Love!
All!songs!written! by!Don!Chaffer.!
©!1994!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
Admin! by!Simpleville! Music,! Inc.!All!rights!reserved.!
www.waterdeep.com!
Something’s Got To Go
I spent my head in the candy store buyin' hopes based on hints
Which probably weren't right
Someone dimmed the light
And I lost my sense of truth
So take my pennies on the counter glass and spend 'em right for me
You got vision in the night
You're level headed in a fight
You play Boaz to my Ruth
Oh, and maybe it's just me
Lord, knows I been wrong before
But I feel like something’s got to go
'Cause it just can't stay this way anymore
I been pourin' out the oil while the engine's on, forgetting that it's hot
I been cuttin' my hand
On the rocks of the land
I been tryin' this without a plow
And I feel like a jar with the water gone. I'm all pasty and dry inside
You got to fill me up
We gotta meet and sup
so you can tell me how
Misplaced passion
How many times will I deny my right to choose
Misplaced passion
I often choose the jail and request to be abused
Misplaced Passion
They say a hope deferred can make a heart grow sick
Misplaced passion
They say a sickly heart can play the cruelest trick
Misplaced passion
Like a pure man's hand inside murderer's glove
Misplaced passion
Can you help me out? Can you teach me how to love?
Don!Chaffer:! You!Were!At!The!Time!For!Love!
All!songs!written! by!Don!Chaffer.!
©!1994!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
Admin! by!Simpleville! Music,! Inc.!All!rights!reserved.!
www.waterdeep.com!
Such A Shallow Pool
Do I have enough compassion
Or have I sold out my Love
For the keeping of rules
Am I so much in fashion
That I forgot I was born
To a family of fools
God, hold me out of that water
'Cause it's such a shallow pool
And the fall just might kill me
She was so pretty when she just walked by
It made me feel lonely
Lord, it just made me sigh
And when You'd rather wait, I'd rather fly
But I'm just now learning to walk
Oh, my my
Selah
And a lot of my friends seem to be
Running around on the same fallow ground
Or is that me
They don't know
'Cause I don't show much at all
And when I fall, I fall alone
When I fall, I fall alone
So take my face in your hands
And tell me you love me
Tell me you love me
Don!Chaffer:! You!Were!At!The!Time!For!Love!
All!songs!written! by!Don!Chaffer.!
©!1994!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
Admin! by!Simpleville! Music,! Inc.!All!rights!reserved.!
www.waterdeep.com!
Completely Known
Andy never had a father
Who was anywhere nearby
And when he was and Andy asked him things
He couldn't get him to reply
So Andy taught himself the things That
thought he might ought to know And
when he talks about the winter time He
says, "I understand the snow."
Andy left his small hometown
He went to college and he majored in art history
Now he lives in a canvas world
As a docent in a gallery
Andy speaks aesthetically
He can quantify the beautiful
But he can hardly feel inside
So he just does what's dutiful
July's tendency's to freeze
Whenever she's confronted
She's borne so many losses
That her senses have been blunted
As he left, he said
"I got a ring I'm gonna send ya."
And I used to bathe in tears at night
Cause I felt like I was on my own
I used to think I would never be
Completely known
I used to hold on tightly
To the sorrows that I owned
But they were all I knew
They had run me through
And they had left me
All alone
I used to pray every day
That God would mend what's torn
Now I see the only way is to die...
To die...
And be reborn
I have finally found a way to live
In the presence of the Lord
She learned about death and dying
When she was only six years old
Since then every one she meets
Seems a little cold
She's tried to change herself
By being a good lover
But every time she finds someone good
He leaves her cause he says she smothers
She lost count a year ago
When she was living in West Virginia
The last one never even told her it was over, in fact
Don!Chaffer:! You!Were!At!The!Time!For!Love!
All!songs!written! by!Don!Chaffer.!
©!1994!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
Admin! by!Simpleville! Music,! Inc.!All!rights!reserved.!
www.waterdeep.com!
Oh, Girl
Oh, Girl, I'm gonna call you now
And hope you hear somehow
Across the valley low
Above the muted snow
And, girl, I hope your feet ain't froze
That you don't fear the way the river flows
And that your eyes are fixed above the glare
That the sun and snow can fashion there
That you have heard the sirens call
But, baby, you don't want to fall
Girl, I'm gonna say a prayer
That you will not stay there
Down in the valley low
Amidst the heavy snow
Cause, girl, I really want you here
To linger close and then draw near
And to gaze with me above the glare
At the distant golden thoroughfare
And to touch his side and its scar
To feel the heat of holy morning star
I don't believe we'll make it there unharmed
But since there's to be a fight, babe, you know we both been armed
With love
Girl, I'm gonna call you now
And hope you hear somehow
Don!Chaffer:! You!Were!At!The!Time!For!Love!
All!songs!written! by!Don!Chaffer.!
©!1994!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
Admin! by!Simpleville! Music,! Inc.!All!rights!reserved.!
www.waterdeep.com!
The Fall
He thought, "She doesn't seem the same this time
As the last time I saw her."
He thought, "She speaks so much of what she really means
Right outside her words."
And the way her fingers flickered about the edges of her hair
Were not a sign of any nervousness but of her deepening despair
And she was not here with him at all
She had once known the truth, but she had chosen the fall
He heard her loneliness most of all above
The din of what she said
The had a heavy feeling on the inside
That she'd been living with the dead
Come home, girl, come home
Don!Chaffer:! You!Were!At!The!Time!For!Love!
All!songs!written! by!Don!Chaffer.!
©!1994!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
Admin! by!Simpleville! Music,! Inc.!All!rights!reserved.!
www.waterdeep.com!
Eden Again
He came rolling through the hills just to be with me
And I was young and I was pretty and I was free
It was before the time that I knew that I
Could make the rain clouds form in my spirit's sky
It was before the time that what I wanted had to be
Tied to this old world and all its slavery
And life was like a dream
And everything was clean
And I was free.
Sometimes I wish that everything could've just ended there
That my body and my soul had been just caught up in the air
I'd have gone back to Him who's shining everywhere
I would've drunk in all his water, and breathed in all his air
But I chose to eat my fruit and I chose to go my way
And I chose to throw my innocence away
And I've learned my lessons hard and I've learned my lessons well
And I have tasted all I care to taste of hell
I think I'm ready to return, to let the fires I started burn
I think I'm ready to be born again
I think I'm ready to return, to let the fires I started burn
I think I'm ready to be born again.
I'm gonna come rolling through the hills just to be with you
You'll make me young and pretty again, You'll make me free
And this time 'round, 'stead of trying to stand I've decided to lean,
And let You wash me in Your blood, and make me clean
Oh, and living out Your dream
Everything is clean
And I've become free
Don!Chaffer:! You!Were!At!The!Time!For!Love!
All!songs!written! by!Don!Chaffer.!
©!1994!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
Admin! by!Simpleville! Music,! Inc.!All!rights!reserved.!
www.waterdeep.com!
Take Me
"Old ain't a word that I'm fond of," he said.
"And these days I've begun to lose count."
Mumbling she rolls in her wheelchair, and says,
"I'm afraid that they've closed my account."
There's a blur that occurs in the line of their life
That decays the whole notion of sense
And they call to the past, insisting that it last,
While they're climbing down reality's fence
Singing with me
Take me
Take me
Write my name in the most Holy Tome
And when it's my time
To assume the sublime,
Take me to my promised home
And their hands aren't gnarled, they're in love with the earth
And they're dying to go there again
We say the essence of life is strong in our youth,
Slowly buried under wrinkles of skin
But there's God in the way that life comes to an end,
In the way that it draws to a close,
In the saying of soul to the house of the skin,
You're too weak now to really oppose
Don!Chaffer:! You!Were!At!The!Time!For!Love!
All!songs!written! by!Don!Chaffer.!
©!1994!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
Admin! by!Simpleville! Music,! Inc.!All!rights!reserved.!
www.waterdeep.com!
You Can’t Hide
I talked to a girl I know the other day
About her married life
It started just two months ago
She was sayin' it was hard
She don't know if they'll make it through
I'm thinkin', "baby, it ain't even begun to snow"
Darlin', you can't hide
A brother of mine and I went out for a walk
On the moon
As the sun began to set
I ran home. I know how cold it gets out there at night
But, Mama, he ain't come home yet
I been tryin' to tell him, You can't hide
I'm gonna tell you now that you just can't hide
Whoever told you you could, babe, they just lied
Just today I fell down while I was
Carryin' my cross
You lifted it off my back
I closed my eyes. I thought, "it's over now"
Everything went black
But I heard you say, you can't hide
They may've thrown you out in the wrecking yard
When you were only two
But are you gonna get through
You may have swallowed down a poison pill
Maybe it bowed you to the ground or broke your will
But I tell you oh, no, you can't hide
I'm gonna tell you now that you just can't hide
And if they told you could, babe, they just lied
I'm gonna tell you now that you just can't hide
You can't run away from what you got inside
Don!Chaffer:! You!Were!At!The!Time!For!Love!
All!songs!written! by!Don!Chaffer.!
©!1994!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
Admin! by!Simpleville! Music,! Inc.!All!rights!reserved.!
www.waterdeep.com!
The Worst Is My Being Alone
"Aaron, have you ever had a burning in your chest
That made you just want to be free?"
It was a warm afternoon when she asked him this,
As they sat on the shore of the sea
Well, Aaron just tugged at his hair and he took
A very long time to reply
And by the time that he spoke, she'd forgotten she asked
And was lost in the clouds of the sky
He said, "Kelly, I don't think
I've ever wanted as much
To be free as I've longed to be known.
And of the things that I hate
As I look at my life,
The worst is my being alone."
The rest of his words he kept from her ears
Cause he thought she might not understand
And she didn't reply. She couldn't figure out how,
Cause the fire in her heart had been fanned
Oh, of all the things known that he could've spoken that day,
He chose one from deep down inside
Without intending her to, he caused her to confess
Her false confidence and how she had lied
She said, "Aaron, I don't think
I've ever wanted as much
To be free as I've longed to be known.
And of the things that I hate
As I look at my life,
The worst is my being alone."
And as they headed home, neither of them could speak a word
And they held their own spirits to blame
But at the pulse of the waves, they both turned around
Surely someone was calling their name
Someone was calling their name
Don!Chaffer:! You!Were!At!The!Time!For!Love!
All!songs!written! by!Don!Chaffer.!
©!1994!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
Admin! by!Simpleville! Music,! Inc.!All!rights!reserved.!
www.waterdeep.com!
Old Stuff
The!Day!
!
Written!by!Lori!Chaffer!
Morning can be a time of mourning or potential hope
As the sunlight warms my window where I lay
Emotion muffled by devotion to myself and
No one will wake me from this dream
CHORUS
Hour by hour and day by day
We go through our lives finding our own way
What do you get by singing alone
The music just bounces off the walls
Noon day the glowing heat of the suns gaze on my discontent
I’ll bask in the rays or slowly suffer its abuse
And high tide is rolling in and the undertow pulls me out to sea
The soft sand makes it awfully hard to stand
Evening time to go to bed and forget the day that I just had
And the morning is the highlight of the day
Don!&!Lori!Chaffer:! Old!Stuff!
©!1998!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
Admin! by!Simpleville! Music,! Inc.!All!rights!reserved.!
www.waterdeep.com!
Indian Story
Written by Lori Chaffer
Back a long long time ago
There was an old man his story he told
He was the chief of a native tribe and he
Spoke of beginnings and endings and wars and lies
He said I tell my tale from a different view
Of the day we saw wagons and suddenly knew
Our lives would never be the same
No nightmare compared to what they brought our way
White man after white man came over the hills that protected our lives
They went on to steal our freedom cause their own they couldn’t find
They soon took over the West and the East
Always making promises they couldn’t keep
My baby died from diseases they brought
All the while we hardly fought
Buffalo gone land divided by train they won’t let us stay
But they won’t let us get away
You should see my mother’s tears too proud to well up in her eyes
You should hear the wind whisper its sad goodbyes
CHORUS
If you take the land
Please respect the land
This is our one last plea
Before we’re forced to flee
And lead your white man’s way
And finish off these lonely lonely days
We’ll warn you as we once were
Take only what you need and leave the land as you found it
He went on to tell me never underestimate
The power of the sun and the moon and the tide and fate
He said you white men don’t understand what it’s really like to live off the land
Too bad you’ve never tried it then you’d realize it’s not yours to have
Every one needs to get a chance to hear the owls speak their wisdom at night
Everyone needs to witness coyotes that fill you with fright
Don!&!Lori!Chaffer:! Old!Stuff!
©!1998!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
Admin! by!Simpleville! Music,! Inc.!All!rights!reserved.!
www.waterdeep.com!
Porcelain and Wine
Written by Lori Chaffer
I heard the old lie again today
That all is right when the money rains
I saw a couple leaving a store
Their smiles were quick then they were no more
All the precious time a’wasting
On porcelain and wine and fine vacations
And all the lovers who’ve gone awry
Don’t see the rainbow right before their eyes
And to the conscience who speaks his mind
I wish him luck in these troubled times
An old acquaintance knocked on my door
He said I knew him and that he knew me more
He was quick to twist all of my thoughts
And made me wonder what was true or not
All the wanting that goes untried
Dissatisfaction and foolish pride
With every striving plan they still can’t see
They’re blinded by the quiet trap of greed
And to the righteous wherever you are
I wish you peace in these troubled times
Maybe you have closed your eyes
To the deceit and incessant lies
This ignorance brings deceitful bliss
It’s to our shame we’ve come to this
I can see how the world has got you down
Your feet just can’t leave the ground
Maybe in time we’ll see all the good in little things
And not focus on what we need
The road is turning someone’s got to turn it back around
Rain rain go away
Come back again some other day
And money money pour down on me
You bring short laughter for such a small fee
I know you won’t last long here
Maybe time will tell
And money will disappear
Time is passing by
And I don’t have enough porcelain and wine
Don!&!Lori!Chaffer:! Old!Stuff!
©!1998!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
Admin! by!Simpleville! Music,! Inc.!All!rights!reserved.!
www.waterdeep.com!
Hope
Written by Lori Chaffer
Old man on the street
Chin down he walks alone
He has nothing to eat
He has nowhere to go
Preacher man he approach
Says he knows what to do
Old man he looks up
With tear filled eyes he doubts there's anything new
And the preacher man says
CHORUS
Your hope is round the corner
Waiting for you
And if you round that corner
He'll show it to you
Woman pushing her cart
Filled with all that she owns
A tear freezes in her heart
But she can't sell her heart though it's made of gold
She stumbles upon a house
The food's warm she'll stay dry for the night
She asks them how much it costs
They replied, it's already been paid on a cross
Hope's there in front of you
Open your heart and He'll see you through
There can be no other way
Don!&!Lori!Chaffer:! Old!Stuff!
©!1998!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
Admin! by!Simpleville! Music,! Inc.!All!rights!reserved.!
www.waterdeep.com!
1308 Ohio
Written by Lori Chaffer & John McKenna
I feel the warmer days a comin'
Kickin' the cold right out the door
I can see the equinox approachin'
Vernal sky no longer pours
And I open up my window
Let a cool breeze blow in
And I rush out of this dark house
So I can breath fresh air once again
And you run from the darkness
Run from the night
Well you look into the mirror and see the sun shine bright
I am sitting on my front porch
With my face to the sky
And I'm aware that spring is coming
And winter's passed me by
Earth comes to life in the spring
Spring brings the earth to life again
Sun creeps north in the sky
Don!&!Lori!Chaffer:! Old!Stuff!
©!1998!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
Admin! by!Simpleville! Music,! Inc.!All!rights!reserved.!
www.waterdeep.com!
Galeana
Written by Lori Chaffer
The backdrop of mountains cuts into the sky
They're there to protect or entrap the ones inside
A quiet village is full of tired brows
Thin strips of farm land fight it out with the farmers
In the night the roosters crow with hunger
The wind brings dust instead of rain brought with thunder
CHORUS
And as I hold your dirty hand all that I can say to you
Is in the awkward smile I make
I can't explain why I came to this distant land
Your simple smiles refresh my soul and
I can't help but love you and know
That you have all you need
When I would get lonely and feel like a foreigner
I'd look up to the sky and see it's just the same but brighter
Two eagles fly free but their patterns are not the same
One is weaker, but it's spirit soars higher
What one yearns for it never seems to reach
The other has learned to separate its wants from needs
As I look into your face I see hope and not disgrace
And strength that carries you along the rugged road you travel on
And as we go our separate ways you can be sure that I have changed
Because I've seen the way you live
Don!&!Lori!Chaffer:! Old!Stuff!
©!1998!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
Admin! by!Simpleville! Music,! Inc.!All!rights!reserved.!
www.waterdeep.com!
Mrs. Potter
Written by Lori Chaffer
Mrs. potter has a house on the corner where she sits and polishes her old silver plates
And she rocks in her chair alone singing songs of old and she wonders where did the time go
Mr. baker owns a grocery store where he's worked for a few decades or more and he tells all
his patrons his stories and gives advice and he wishes them all a good life
And oh in the twilight before the dawning the sun sets beautiful
And oh the moon is rising I swear it's smiling it'll turn your frown upside down
Little Billy has a fancy toy car
Someday when he's older he wants to be a star but for now all his
Dreams are as real as that car
And he's happy cause life is ahead of him now
There's a destitute poet who lives down the street
His words are fairly simple but to him they sound sweet
And the marrow of life is what he writes about
The well of words he's dug so deep he can't get out
And the weight of his message pulls the corners of his mouth
And he says oh it's hard to take life lightly when you have time to look around
And oh
There's a doctor with a scalpel in his hand and he cuts the hearts and wallets of each rich and
poor man
And he wants to quarantine the tragedy from life
'Cause no one else has time
There's an actress who lives next door and when she's on stage it's kind of like a war
But she won't blame anybody for the way it is and she wonders how she'll feel when the show
ends
'Cause the play's too long to take too somberly and it's too short to be a comedy
But oh in the twilight before the dawning the sun sets beautiful
And oh the moon is rising I swear it's smiling it'll turn your frown upside down
Don!&!Lori!Chaffer:! Old!Stuff!
©!1998!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
Admin! by!Simpleville! Music,! Inc.!All!rights!reserved.!
www.waterdeep.com!
To The Doubter
Written by Lori Chaffer
You question all I believe
And claim it's only due to how they raised me
I know you don't understand because you walk through life a blind man
No need to ignore the intellect
Don't you think God is smarter than you
And if he took the care to make this world
Don't you think he'd die for it too
CHORUS
And I hope that in time you will know
All of the secrets that in my heart I hold
And that you'll esteem them as much as I try to
And that you will hold them and love them more than I do
So what is it that you don't see
Is it the resurrection or the trinity
Sometimes simple things can seem hard
Under the black veil of the enemy
BRIDGE
Oh how can I help you to see
There's more to life than you and me
And all the hopes and fears we paint
Onto the canvas of broken dreams
Where we build our lives on we not he
They will be obsolete
Don!&!Lori!Chaffer:! Old!Stuff!
©!1998!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
Admin! by!Simpleville! Music,! Inc.!All!rights!reserved.!
www.waterdeep.com!
Afraid Of The Dark
Written by Lori Chaffer
People try to tell me what I should believe
But I just sit and listen cause love will never leave
Hieroglyphic sermons gallantly express
Visions of repression and the tears outlast the test
Men in black and navy forage for the law
Disillusioned dreamers forgot what they foresaw
Flagrant smiles creep mildly onto the vandal's face
We forgot to tell them that greed had been replaced
CHORUS
But you welcome me
In from the cold cold night
You welcome me despite the cries
I wish for you my conscience to overthrow the hate
To listen to the fragile. I swear it's not too late
The children of refinement are resurrecting change
Cause vagabonds were puppets and no one heard their name
Emancipation lingers an inch above our grasp
Diplomats beleager the voices that don't match
Heretics are punished. criminals set free
Prisons are dividers of opportunity
Futures lie in waiting. they're hoping to exist
Forgiveness is an army and no one will enlist
Guilt remains the symptom of peace that's gone awry
Inside the righteous mind frames distracted by desire
A thousand screaming nations fulfill the prophecies
I wonder how long we have until the time has come to leave
Don!&!Lori!Chaffer:! Old!Stuff!
©!1998!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
Admin! by!Simpleville! Music,! Inc.!All!rights!reserved.!
www.waterdeep.com!
His Perfection
Written by Don Chaffer
Paul kicks up trash on a dirty street
A few pages dance away in the wind
They cause a deep breath and a lusty sigh
When he compares them to his Rosalind
Early on Roz was a sight to behold
And she always made him feel like a man
But Paul thinks time's been cruel to her form
The way the ocean wears away at the sand
CHORUS
His perfection is a neon light
It stains his flashing eye
And the after-image in his head at night
Is nothing but a lie
He wants his world to be a perfect one
Says she no longer fills his needs
So he crams her into iron clothes
And gives her steel bread dough to knead
CHORUS
His perfection is a neon light
It stains his flashing eye
And the after-image in his bed at night
Is nothing but a lie
Don!&!Lori!Chaffer:! Old!Stuff!
©!1998!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
Admin! by!Simpleville! Music,! Inc.!All!rights!reserved.!
www.waterdeep.com!
To The Singer On The Stage
Written by Don Chaffer
The bottle hits the spotlight
And explodes into a fire
We're all following you, baby
'Cause we're sure you'll take us higher
There's a woman weaving back and forth beside me
Trying her hardest not to fall
She's going down. She hits the ground
No one seems to care at all
BRIDGE
There's people dyin' everywhere
While they're simply standing still
In the arena of the soul
It's all the gladiator's kill
And we love to watch
CHORUS
You say you'll take me somewhere
But where are you going tonight
'Cause if you're heading into the darkness again
I think I'd rather stay in the light
Passion and the smell of smoke
Are a worn out blanket for our fears
They're an attempt to exorcise the pain
That's been within us all these years
Then there's the primitive game of boy meets girl
In a sea of alcohol
In their sex, they try to stay afloat
While their spirits take a fall
Don!&!Lori!Chaffer:! Old!Stuff!
©!1998!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
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Been A Long Time
Written by Don Chaffer
It's been a long time
Haven't spoken for a while
Been tryin' to do it on my own again,
And I been fallin' on my face again.
It's been a long time
Since Galilee and the twelve
Since the time you died there on the tree
Since the time you set every one of us free.
It's been a long time.
It's been a long time.
It's been a long time
Since I felt really clean.
Since I felt completely relieved.
Since I felt like I really believed.
It's been a long time
Since I've listened to you.
Since I've walked a little way in your Light.
Since I've heard your voice and not put up a fight.
It's been a long time.
It's been a long time.
Don!&!Lori!Chaffer:! Old!Stuff!
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One Night Out In The Rain
Written by Don Chaffer
She had set herself against him
Before he'd even stepped in the door
She had examined all the evidence
And this had happened more than once
before
One night she heard something saving
In the way the wind mingled with her hair
She ran home to tell him of the hope she'd
found
In the midst of their despair. She said
He came in tired from the working day
Weary from the working atmosphere
When he fell back into the couch
He wished he could just disappear
CHORUS
Now you tell me my life's a prison
I tell you yours is a pit
So let's agree on that and just get on with it
We're both trapped
We both need
We're locked up
And we want to be freed
We tell lies
To our own heart
Then we're so surprised
We're so torn apart
He avoided her like he had been
Lately in his mind
He thought her anger was relentless
And she never just let him unwind. He said
CHORUS
You tell me my life's a prison
I tell you yours is a pit
That seems so hopeless, babe
How can we work with it
We're both trapped
We both need
We're locked up
And we want to be freed
BRIDGE
We need God
We need a higher hand
We need something far, far, far above this
broken land
They were searching for a reason
They should continue on in this
They'd given up all hope of romance now
They just wanted to coexist
But lately even that was getting harder
For the two of them to maintain
And when the darkness seemed to close in
She'd often go out walking in the rain
Don!&!Lori!Chaffer:! Old!Stuff!
©!1998!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
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After 40 Days
Written by Lori Chaffer
You set before me all my dreams
And vowed to give me everything
You said I did not have to choose
But father he would disagree with you
You took him to a mountaintop and showed him all the world
to you I will give all you see
If you will bow and worship me as king
The works that you spoke then were vows to be broken
And I will not hold on to these
Your promises your promises
Have only left me all alone
And selfish dreams your selfish dreams
I will no longer listen to them
Don!&!Lori!Chaffer:! Old!Stuff!
©!1998!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
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Silver Sword
Written by John McKenna
Awoke in the city
Late afternoon
Born soul surrounded
By poisons and by gold
There’s a sea of people
In need of one good reason
Lost hope in fairy tales
And the birth of each new season
Found I a silver sword
And a name to carry
Born soul a second time
When I knelt before my Savior
Promise of a kingdom
From the grace of a king
No more lying vanities
And no more broken dreams
Don!&!Lori!Chaffer:! Old!Stuff!
©!1998!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
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The Animal (Not Big Enough)
Written by Don Chaffer
When I was a little one, they told me
That he lived in flames
That he raped and stole and killed and maimed
And that he loved to curse our names
That he came in fire and the smell of hell
And he only took the evil folk
That he'd snort and breathe the flesh of dead
And that you knew him by the smoke
That he left behind
CHORUS
Well, the animal is bigger than I thought I
said the animal is bigger than I thought
Well, the animal is bigger- way bigger than
I'd ever thought before
But I'll tell you this my friend, he won't win
in the end
'Cause he's not big enough
Well, I'm a little bit older now, and
I think I'm just beginning to see
That he hides in your pocket in the evening sun
Slides in your home at the turn of the key
That he smiles in his suit as he shakes your hand
And he asks about the baseball game
That he dresses in the latest, and he knows all
the phrases
And he never forgets a name
And if you come to him with an armload of sin
And a life that's a total mess
He'll tell you you're okay. You didn't do
nothing wrong
And you're experiencing too much stress
He'll tell you you work hard three hundred
days a year
For the money in your bank account
And there ain't no reason that he can think of
That you should give any of it out
Well, those people on the street are all
shiftless and lazy
They ain't worth the clothes they fit
He'll tell you you're so right and you can feel okay
Because at church you always give a little bit
Well, he'll whisper in your ear when your tired
And he'll inform you of some regret
Or he'll slide and he'll slither in a sexy way
Off the glass on your television set
He'll pull your gaze off of someone's eyes
Right to another place
He'll hand you glossy dreams of some earthly queen
In leather and chains or lace
You'll say, "there's nothing I can do
I got to go down cause the passion is way too strong."
He'll tell you that's okay. Don't fret yourself
'Cause that passion'll make you live longer
He'll tell you that you can believe anything
you want
And there's no such thing as truth
And as soon as something real even touches
your soul
Well, he'll throw away the proof
He says that reason is the thing that makes
you human
Without it, you will die
And that Faith is a farce for the foolish and
the feeble
Who have fallen for an opium lie
Now that's not your game, he'll dictate to you
You know that stuff ain't real
And they may have paid Judas thirty pieces
of silver
But that Jesus guy wasn't worth steel
CHORUS
... 'Cause someone's on his back and he's
gettin' ready to attack
I'll tell you this my friend. He won't win in the end
'Cause he's not big enough
Don!&!Lori!Chaffer:! Old!Stuff!
©!1998!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
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Soul of Slavery
Written by Don Chaffer
Well, the first thing I noticed yesterday was
The bronze glow of dirt on her jeans
Then the reckless curl of blackened hair
And what I tend to think that means
The way her shirt danced above
The surface of her waist
The way it brushed across her hips
Whichever way she faced
CHORUS
And though my eyes were testing death again
My mind is done deciding
I'll avert them now to save myself
From a darkening abiding
I'm trying to know respect and trust
I've learned to hate the aimless thrust
'Cause it's a sacred act in sacrifice
And it's paid for with a heavy price
And I know what flesh can be
The soul of slavery
I'm tired of pretending I've got it all understood
That doesn't do me any good
You're among the foremost of the bad ones
I have heard it said
Leave yourself at the doorstep
Trust in the One who is not dead
The first thing noticed then today was
The tired look in her eyes
Then the way her shoulders bent beneath
The world and all its lies
This time I was feeling for
The things that haunted her
This time I was hoping that
She did not concur with them
Don!&!Lori!Chaffer:! Old!Stuff!
©!1998!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
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Apocalypse Now (The Non-Hollywood Version)
Written by Don Chaffer
I saw a movie on TV late last night
New York City was taken by a plague
And the medical authorities arrested it early
How they did it was a little bit vague though
But my mind started turning and my hands began to sweat
Because I thought of how it would have come out
These people would have been dead like a bullet to the head
And the plague would consume us no doubt
Without a doubt
Then I got to thinking gravely of the things I've noticed lately
How it all looks like it's coming to an end
And though this plague was on the screen
There's real things that we have seen
Looks like a slow train's comin' 'round the bend
Like a slow train comin' 'round the bend
CHORUS
But You said
We'd hear of wars and rumors of war
But we shouldn't be afraid
"Earthquake and famine, but don't cry my friend
Although the axe at the root of the tree has been laid
For the one who endures to the end shall be saved"
You know I almost wanna cry when I think about the lie
That we're doomed and there's no way out
That the dice are cast before you step out of the womb
And that's just something you can do nothing about
that it all doesn't matter anyway
We think it's already decided, that fate's to be abided
And death is in the cards for us all
It doesn't matter how you act, no one's immune to heart attack
And something some where’s gonna make you fall
No matter who you are
BRIDGE
O death- where's it's sting
Some of us, You said, would never taste this thing
Don!&!Lori!Chaffer:! Old!Stuff!
©!1998!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
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Big Word Tyranny
Written by Don Chaffer
Well, there's electro-therapeutic means to alter synaptic firings
Which will symptomatically relieve schizophrenic arms and legs.
But that's just esoteric doublespeak and it's getting pretty tiring.
What you're really endorsing here is just another form of cerebral scrambled eggs.
BRIDGE
It's all evolutionarily synchronized
Or synergistically realized.
Copulation is genetically mandated.
Altruism only held by the mutated.
CHORUS
Praise to You, Big Daddy
You hide good things from smarty pants
Only play peek-a-boo with babies.
Now you say faith is semi-atavistically inherent.
That is, that what I believe is somehow rooted in my great great great great grandparent.
And this tangled skein of evolution, in which survival's the only solution,
Makes marginal my intestinal response.
It equates the largest spirit battle with delusionary prattle,
And grounds its arguments in scientific taunts.
Don!&!Lori!Chaffer:! Old!Stuff!
©!1998!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
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Learning How To Rest
Written by Don Chaffer
I came around the corner
Of the outer edge of town
You were standin' in the center
There were people gathered all around
I'd never get through this crowd
You know my heart went kind of numb
But You smiled when You saw me
And You beckoned me to come
So I struggled through the pressing mass
I had a thousand things to say
But I was sure Your ears were flooded
There was just too much in the way
CHORUS
But then You said to me
Come away by yourself to a lonely place for a while
Well, I'm sure you're tired
You know, I cannot even see your smile
There's just too many people here
Why don't you come and be with me
Then you took my hand
And we headed out for the sea
I got here late this morning
You've been gone since the other day
They took You to the tomb
But I guess we all go there someday
I came out here to get away To
get some time to think Nothing's
making sense right now I feel like
I'm on the brink
Then on the distant shore
I hear one strong voice say
That side is yielding nothing
Cast your net the other way
BRIDGE
You know things get hard and the world's not stopping for me
But I know now what to do and I know where I need to be
Don!&!Lori!Chaffer:! Old!Stuff!
©!1998!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
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My Baby Keeps Me Sane Sometimes
Written by Don Chaffer
CHORUS
You know my baby keeps me sane sometimes
She's like the ringin' of the church bell chimes
You know she keeps me sane
When the pouring rain is comin' down
She'll say now, "You remembered every little thing except for
Some cornerstones of life as we know it," and oh...
I'll just bow my head and say I know, and pray to the Lord above
"Good Lord, You know I hope I don't blow it"
Sometimes time kicks along my suburban road
And I'll get to thinkin' about the mercies that I feel I have owed
And oh...
She'll say, "C'mon now, honey, sometimes a gift is just a gift and God's just there
And maybe that's a cross, babe, that we all get to bear, all get share.
Don!&!Lori!Chaffer:! Old!Stuff!
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Without You
Written by Don Chaffer
Daddy, I don't know what to do
So, Daddy, now I'm lookin' straight at you
Just don't want to try it on my own again
'Cause I'll just end up all alone again
Right now I don't know where to go
And no one can tell me how the wind's gonna blow
Just don't want to try it on my own again
'Cause I'll just end up all alone again
Without you
And nothin' to do
CHORUS
Without You
There's nothing to
My life at all
When I leave You is when I fall
I always feel so far away
Like walking home would take six days
I tried to wring water out of sand
I've gotten off my knees and tried to stand
Without you
Nothing to hold on to
CHORUS
Without You
There's nothing to
Hold on to
When I'm lost, I find you
Don!&!Lori!Chaffer:! Old!Stuff!
©!1998!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
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Wanting To Come Home
Written by Don Chaffer
He's flippin' through the channels lookin' for some skin
And he's wantin' something to pretend he doesn't hurt so bad inside
But the TV's leakin' all the same pain that he's got within
He feels like he's been taken for a sick and darkened ride
Later, he's talkin' to these people like they were his kin
But the only thing in common here is the beer
He feels like no one knows what's going out or coming in
And none of them are really wanting to be here
CHORUS
He says, Father, I think I'm wanting to come home
I need more than all this pain
Jesus, I been a lonely man for too long
I been too many years caught out in the rain
He had a girl he used to call his own
He was as good to her as he knew how
He loved her from top of soul to tip of bone
But she left him. She left him anyhow
BRIDGE
And he's not finding it
Not what he needs
Nothing to hold him up
To heal a soul that bleeds
Don!&!Lori!Chaffer:! Old!Stuff!
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Who We Need
Written by Don Chaffer
The words don't come to mind
To describe how much I owe
But You know
You paid it through Your hands
The pain doesn't come to heart
To feel how much I've killed
But You've been filled
With it. They drove it through Your feet
CHORUS
And I know
You're the Only One
Who we need
Who we need
The song doesn't come to mouth
To sing how dead I've been
But You've seen
It sang out from Your side
The tears don't come to eye
To say how I feel inside
But You died
So you could understand
Don!&!Lori!Chaffer:! Old!Stuff!
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Peace
Written by Don Chaffer
I can't always nail it down
Like I'd like to say I can
I don't always have it here
Like I'd like to think I do
It's been very long, my dear
Since I've held it close to me
I have wanted for so long
To be among the scattered few
CHORUS
The night is mostly deeper than I want for it to be
The rain is often harder in the dark
I'm often closer to the answer than I think I am
Because I'm usually just about to fall apart
I've given up on feelings now
They tear me up too much
But even now I'm feeling
These thoughts out on this page
My God, you are the only thing
I know is farther down A
suffering companion Even
to the end of the age
BRIDGE
No. I don't want this desert anymore
I want the Rock of water, fountain evermore
Don!&!Lori!Chaffer:! Old!Stuff!
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Waterdeep
Written by Don Chaffer
If I could fly right now
I would fly
I would take to the dark wet air that's around me tonight
Find my delight in the womb of the sky overnight
If I could fly right now
I would fly
If I could cry right now
I would cry
I would shake off the things that have been holding me in
Shatter the mazes that I've made here within
I would let myself be
Like water in the sea
If I could cry right now
I would cry
If I could die right now
I think I might just die
I would run to the end of the walls of this world
and then I would step right on through
I would submit willingly, let my spirit be hurled
Into You
If I could die right now
I think I might just die
But right now I am alive
I'm alive
Right now I'm alive
I need You to hold me
Hold me
Hold me
Even if I can't see you, or feel your arms around me tonight
I need You to hold me
Don!&!Lori!Chaffer:! Old!Stuff!
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I’m The One
Written by Don Chaffer
I feel like I'm the one they talk about
I feel like I'm the one that's given out
I feel like I've been seduced by the night
Like I'm the one that lost the fight
I feel like I'm on the floor from the damage done
From the cycle of death that I've begun
I feel like, I feel like
I feel like I'm the one
I feel like a light on a barely traveled highway
And like I'm burned out anyway
I feel like a walking man with nowhere to go
Who's not moving anyway but no one's ever even told him so
I feel like the best I ever did was just outdone
And I'm staring down the barrel of my own gun
I feel like, I feel like
I feel like I'm the one
CHORUS
Ain't you ever felt this way inside
You were so numb you would've said that you just died
Like your own road to Hell's been paved
And what you need is to be
What you need is to be saved
I feel like I'm standing on the tracks alone
And all I hear inside my head is the whistle's moan
I feel like I made myself stand in line
Only to get up front and serve my time
I feel like mine's the name they could've heard upon his breath
Like I'm the one that put him out to death
I feel like, I feel like
I feel like I'm the one
Don!&!Lori!Chaffer:! Old!Stuff!
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A Place Where You Can Stay
Written by Don Chaffer
When I hear your call
I'm gonna leave it all
All the noise'll just fade away
I will hear you say
CHORUS
Lover, raise up your head and know
The time is drawing close for you to go
I'm a comin' soon to take you all away
to a place where you can stay
When I see You comin' through the clouds
And I hear that trumpet blowin' loud
And the stars are all fallin' from the sky
And all the pain has made me ask you why
Don!&!Lori!Chaffer:! Old!Stuff!
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Hunting The Tender Heart
Written by Don Chaffer
He threw down his pride
Cause it didn't serve his ego
They say he took the pain out of his chest
Cause he couldn't feel it anymore
He was really lonely
And he needed to be believed
He had no one he could cry with
And he needed to be received
CHORUS
Bitterness is the enemy he ignores is hunting him
Forgiveness is an ocean he's forgetting how to swim
The jackal stalks the coastline seeking someone to devour
One who's almost given up when the bell tolls midnight hour
He's grown to hate to feel so vulnerable
He's started spurning feeling pain
But somehow he is starving
For the fall of honest rain
He's made a shell around his mouth
He can't drink through anymore
So he curses water-dwellers
While he's standing on the shore
Wishing he could go in
Don!&!Lori!Chaffer:! Old!Stuff!
©!1998!Hey!Ruth!Music!(ASCAP)!
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Hey, Hey, Hey
Written by Don & Lori Chaffer
I been plumbing the depths with a plumber friend of mine
We been takin' the time to break the bread and drink the wine
I been gathering wisdom I can give away
I been gettin' ready for the final day
Hey, Hey, that's me gettin' ready for the final day
Yeah, yeah, yeah
CHORUS
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey
It's a day
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey
I'm okay
Cause You're comin' my way
Someday soon
I been listenin' to a lot of rock 'n' roll
But I been more concerned with the state of my soul
So I'm ridin' on a horse named Jesus
Across the river of death to the land of whole
Been talkin' a lot about silence
And tryin' to avoid gettin' in a prideful way
Don!&!Lori!Chaffer:! Old!Stuff!
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