Leaving Marshall St- the lyrics page

 

The Rub (Sygit)

Queen Anne she called me up today
to tell me all about the frogs that she’s been kissing
She said you aught to find your own prince Jen
you don’t know what you have been missing
It’s been so long since I danced in the flames
I don’t remember how to fan that spark
I’m standing here with two cold left feet
my eyes have grown accustomed to the dark
Roll up your sleeves, dig in
It’s just a little dirt
You gotta work on relationships or relationships won’t work

Chorus:
Everybody want a piece of that pie
Nobody want to do the dishes
Everybody want a dream come true
In go the pennies- out come the wishes
Nobody said that love is easy
It’s sneaky by design
And we’re still falling for the same old tricks
They get us every time
that’s the rub
Nobody wants to be alone
Everybody wants one of their own
Just a little bit of love

I’m not a frequent flyer, my passports expired
And I’m afraid to climb that awesome height
I tried to book a stay in paradise,
But I guess I missed my flight.
There’s a lot of hot air in this town- it’s a desert
A lot of heads stuck in the sand
We’re searching for our next tall drink of water
Red-eyed and looking for a place to land
It’s easy to lose focus when you’re moving at the speed of sound, but
Everything that goes up you know sooner or later’s gotta come back down

Chorus

 

Pay for What You Get (Sygit/Davis)

Elmore was a gambler he made a wager that he couldn’t pay
So they dressed him up in concrete cuff links and he swam like granite
To the bottom of the bay

Chorus
Oh you got to pay for what you get
Got something you regret
They won’t let you forget about it
O Lord you got to pay for what you get
They won’t leave you alone til you’re Dead and Gone

Sally knew her way around an oven
She had the skills a baker really needs
She mixed it up with every Tom and Harry
Now Sally has too many mouth to feed

Chorus
They won’t leave you alone until (your bread is gone)

I hear that holy men are getting a percentage
Turning profits off of heavens laws
Now Beelzebub is pinching all his pennies
Cause even the devil quotes the scripture for his cause

Chorus
They won’t leave you alone until (your money’s gone)

Children heed the words that I am saying
Forget the bottom line and listen well
The jury doesn’t factor good intentions
And the guilty know what paves the road to hell

Chorus
They won’t leave you alone until (you’re dead and gone)

 

My Sweet Angeline (Sygit)

When I was but a lad of ten
My father took my hand and
Said “the devil will steal your life away
As long as you’re still standing”
But tweren’t the devil
That turned my head
and took me for my soul
t’was ruby lips and emerald eyes
hair of blackest coal
hair of blackest coal

I met her one cold autumn night
When love secured my doom
She became my bride to be
And I became her groom
No wedding bells would toll that day
And no bride would there be
She’d run off with the baker’s son
To climb his family tree
Climb his family tree

Beware you lonesome lovesick fools
Of ever wanting more
She’ll tear your heart from ‘tween your ribs
And throw it on the floor

I met a chap near Birmingham
Who thought he knew the score
Seemed he’d engaged and Angeline
Not quite two months before
He’d traveled round this country fair
but never could he find
a girl who stole a young man’s heart
like my sweet Angeline

As years pass by it pains me less
That him she did prefer
She never quit that baker’s boy
The baker’s boy quit her
Oh Angeline
Sweet Angeline

 

Back to the Roots (Sygit)

Dig a little deeper boys
Down into the soil
Down beneath the sedentary rocks sand water and oil
Just a little further boys
Til the truth is absolute
Back to the origin
And back to the roots

Chorus
Back, back, back, back

Dig a little deeper boys
down 15,000 years
Before the bonds of history
Before your Grandpas hopes and fears
Just a little further boys
Til the truth is absolute
Back to the origin
and back to the roots

Chorus x2

Dig a little deeper boys
Til the blackboards all have burned
Forget all the prejudice
And the crooked things you learned.
Just a little further boys
Til the truth is absolute
Back to the origin
And back to the roots

Chorus

Back to the roots

 

Marshall St (Sygit)

I come from a town where
the stop signs are bored
and the policemen are fat
as thick as the pockets of the man next-door

Where it’s hard to find your voice
cause you feel like rusty strings
and there’s a thousand shiny new guitars
out there waiting in the wings

So I’m going to drive on through the night
till I forget where I am going
I’m riding shotgun with my doubts but my cup is overflowing

Cause the days go by too fast
to be flying the flag at half mast

I came to rest in the city
where the days and nights are seamless
and you see yourself reflected
in the faces of the dreamless

Where every evening down on Marshall Street
the best and brightest of the poor
hop a Bluebird bus and fly away
brave pawns in a rich man’s war
(A rich man)

Down on Marshall Street they’re fading fast
They’ve been flying the flag at half mast

I was delivered to this country
Yeah I was born in the USA
Where you can say whatever you like
as long as we like what you say

But that won’t keep me quiet
No that won’t hold me down
I’ve got two empty and strong lungs
And I’m gonna push some air around
Yeah I’m gonna push some air around
Are you gonna push some air around?

Cause the days go by too fast
to be flying the flag at half mast
Yeah the days go by too fast
to be flying the flag
at half mast

How are you flying your flag?
How are you flying your flag?

 

Once (Sygit)

Instrumental. No lyrics.

 

Racecar #4 (Sygit)

Racecar #4
Pick me up at my front door
Cause I love you, racecar
Racecar #4

I love you though you’re past your prime
You’re my automatic valentine
And I love you, racecar
Racecar #4

Racecar take me far away
On some exotic holiday
Ride with you through thick and thin
Can’t we take another spin?

Racecar #4
Pick me up at my front door
Cause I love you, racecar
Racecar #4

Four white walls in a sea of chrome
He’s not your average palindrome
But I love him, racecar
Racecar #4

Thought we’ travel far and wide,
But I was taken for a ride
Bought you at too cheap a cost
Left me choking on exhaust and…

Now racecar #4 can’t
Come and pick me up no more
But I love you, racecar
Racecar #4
Yeah I love you, racecar #4
I still love you racecar #4

 

Amputate this Heart (Sygit)

I remember sitting up with you til 4am
We’d been drinking beer and smoking
When you leaned over and asked what love meant
I thought that you were joking

Then one day your love for me flew south
Funny words came tumbling out of your mouth
Now I’m sifting through ashes looking for one last hit
Of one more habit I can’t quit

Chorus:
Cause I get up early and I stay out late
I’m going deaf and blind I can’t stand up straight
I’m gonna leave you baby if I have to amputate this heart… amputate

Was I just some short term problem that you could forget
A quick as one more drag from one more cigarette
A broken record player that you just can’t unplug
Asking what came first the abuser or the drug

Chorus

 

The Ballad of Penny Evans (Goodman)

Oh my name is Penny Evans and my age is twenty-one
A young widow in the war that’s being fought in Vietnam
And I have two infant daughters and I do the best I can
Now they say the war is over, but I think it’s just begun

And I remember I was seventeen on the day I met young Bill
At his father’s grand piano, we’d play good old ‘Heart and Soul’
And I only knew the left hand part and he the right so well
And he’s the only boy I’ve slept with and the only one I will

It’s first we had a baby girl and we had two good years
it was next the 1A notice came and we parted without tears
it was nine months from our last good night our second babe appears
it’s ten months and a telegram confirming all our fears

And now every month I get a check from an Army bureaucrat
And it’s every month I tear it up and I mail the damn thing back
Do you think that makes it all right, do you think I’d fall for that?
You can keep your bloody money, it won’t bring my Billy back

I never cared for politics, and speeches I don’t understand
And likewise took no charity from any living man
But tonight there’s fifty thousand gone in that unhappy land
And fifty thousand ‘Heart and Soul’s’ being played with just one hand

My name is Penny Evans and I’ve just gone twenty-one
A young widow in the war that’s being fought in Vietnam
And I have two infant daughters- I thank God I have no sons
Now they say the war is over, but I think it’s just begun

 

Black-Eyed Susan (Sygit)

I come when you need me, I run when you call
Down the cookie-cut avenue, suburban sprawl
To save you from another car wreck romance
You’ve been struggling to survive
Cause you surpassed the posted limit
And you’re stuck in overdrive

You had the midnight oil a burning as I pulled up to the gate
The clock said it was early, but the sky said it was late
You found a message in a fifth of the expensive brand
It said “buy your courage by the bottle,
When it’s time to take a stand.”

Chorus:
Black-eyed Susan in a little white lie
She’s bent and she’s broken, but she never cries
Oh Black-Eyed Susan we all go a little mad
Thinking about the things we once had
Thinking about the things we once had

There’s dishes on the counter, dirty laundry in the sink
The houseplants are browning, yeah they’re dying for a drink
I watch you tip ‘em back yourself, til you’ve tipped onto the floor
But this act ain’t nothing new, no you’ve seen this place before

Chorus

When the walls are shrinking in and you feel it’s time to go
And you’re drunk dialing all the numbers of the people that you know
Call me up and I’ll come running, we can drink to better health
And you’ll convince me things are different, but you won’t believe yourself

Chorus