COUNTING CROWS

COUNTING CROWS

THIS DESERT LIFE (1999)

  1. Hanginaround
  2. Mrs. Potter's Lullaby
  3. Amy Hit The Atmosphere
  4. Four Days
  5. All My Friends
  6. High Life
  7. Colorblind
  8. I Wish I Was A Girl
  9. Speedway
10. St. Robinson In His Cadillac Dream
11. Bonus Track

COUNTING CROWS

THIS DESERT LIFE

1. HANGINAROUND

She sat right down on the sofa
I said, "Where have you been?
I've been waiting for you.
Cause last night I had something so good
These days get so long and I got nothing to do"
I been hanginaround this town on the corner
I been bummin' around this old town so long
I been hanginaround this town on the corner
I been bummin' around this old town
for way too long
We spend all day getting sober
Just hiding from daylight
Watching TV
We just look a lot better in the blue light
Well, you know I gotta get out
But I'm stuck so tight
Weighed by the chains that keep me...
hanginaround this town on the corner
I been bummin' around this old town too long
I been hanginaround this town on the corner
I been bummin' around this old town
for way too long

And this girl listens to the band play
She says "where have you been?
I've been lyin right here on the floor"
Well, I got all this time
To be waiting for what is mine
To be hating what I am
After the light has faded
hanginaround this town on the corner
I been bummin' around this old town so long
I been hanginaround this town on the corner
I been bummin' around this old town
for way, way, way, way, way too long.

2. MRS. POTTER'S LULLABY

Well I woke up in mid-afternoon
cause that's when it all hurts the most
I dream I never know anyone at the party
and I'm always the host
If dreams are like movies,
then memories are films about ghosts
You can never escape,
you can only move south down the coast
Well, I am an idiot walking a tightrope
of fortune and fame
I am an acrobat swinging trapezes
through circles of flame
If you've never stared off in the distance,
then your life is a shame
And though I'll never forget your face,
sometimes I can't remember my name
Hey Mrs. Potter don't cry
Hey Mrs. Potter I know why but
Hey Mrs. Potter won't you talk to me
Well, there's a piece of Maria
in every song that I sing
And the price of a memory
is the memory of the sorrow it brings
And there is always one last light
to turn out and one last bell to ring
And the last one out of the circus
has to lock up everything
Or the elephants will get out
and forget to remember what you said
And the ghosts of the tilt-a-whirl
will linger inside of your head
And the ferris wheel junkies
will spin them forever instead
When I see you a blanket of stars
covers me in bed
Hey Mrs. Potter don't go
Hey Mrs. Potter I don't know but
Hey Mrs. Potter won't you talk to me
All the blue light reflections
that color my mind when I sleep
And the lovesick rejections
that accompany the company I keep
All the razor perceptions
that cut just a little too deep
Hey I can bleed as well as anyone,
but I need someone to help me sleep
So I throw my hand into the air
and it swims in the beams
It's just a brief interruption
of the swirling dust sparkle jet stream
Well, I know I don't know you
and you're probably not what you seem
But I'd sure like to find out
So why don't you climb down
off that movie screen
Hey Mrs. Potter don't turn
Hey Mrs. Potter I burn for you
Hey Mrs. Potter won't you talk to me

When the last king of Hollywood
shatters his glass on the floor
and orders another
Well, I wonder what he did that for
That's when I know that I have to get out
cause I have been there before
So I gave up my seat at the bar
and I head for the door
We drove out to the desert
just to lie down beneath this bowl of stars
We stand up at the Palace like
it's the last of the great Pioneertown bars
We shout out these songs
against the clang of electric guitars
You can see a million miles tonight
But you can't get very far
Hey Mrs. Potter I won't touch and
Hey Mrs. Potter it's not much but
Hey Mrs. Potter won't you talk to me.

3. AMY HIT THE ATMOSPHERE

If I could make it rain today
And wash away this sunny day
down to the gutter
I would
Just to get a change of pace
Things are getting worse
but I feel a lot better
And that's all that really matters to me
Amy hit the atmosphere
Caught herself a rocket ride
out of this gutter and
She's never coming back, I fear
But any time it rains,
She just feels a lot better
And that's all that really matters to me
We've waited so long for someone
to take us back home
It just takes so long
And meanwhile the days go drifting away
And some of us sink like a stone
Waiting for mothers to come
There has to be a change, I'm sure
Today was just a day fading into another
And that can't be what a life is for
The only thing she said
was she feels a lot better
And that's all that really matters to me

We've waited so long
for someone to take us back home
It just takes so long
And meanwhile the days go drifting away
And some of us sink like a stone
Waiting for mothers to come.

4. FOUR DAYS

All I want is something good
It gets harder every time
She is leaving here tonight
Take a breath
Take your time
Spread your wings and rise
Make a mark upon the wall
Paint your face and pass the time
Close your eyes and she ascends
Hold your breath and ease your mind
Forty Thousand times
Time fades into the night
They descend and then they climb
Feathers falling through the night
Have you seen Ohio rise?
It has been four days and nights

All I want is something fine
It gets harder every time
She is sleeping far away
Take a breath
Take your time
Spread your wings and rise
Rise into the black Ohio skies
They descend and then they climb
Feathers falling through the night
Have you seen Ohio rise?
It has been four days and nights.

5. ALL MY FRIENDS

Thought I might get a rocket ride
When I was a child but it was a lie
That I told myself
when I needed something good
At seventeen, had a better dream
Now I'm thirty-three and it isn't me
But I'd think of something better if I could
All my friends and lovers leave me behind
I'm still looking for a girl
One way or another
I'm just hoping to find a way
To put my feet out in the world
Caught some grief from a falling leaf
As she tumbled down to the dirty ground
Said I should have put her
back there if I could
But everyone needs a better day
And I'm trying to find me a better way
To get from the things I do
to the things I should
All my friends and lovers leave me alone
To try to have a little fun
One way or another I just wish I had known
To go out walking in the sun
And find out if you were the one
Does it make you wanna come
a little closer now?
And did you wanna dance with me?
Did you wanna hum a little harder now?
Can you see her waiting there?
Can you see her? Because I'm almost there
Can you see her waiting there
for someone like me?

All you want is a beauty queen
Not a superstar
but everybody's dream machine
All you want is a place to lay your head
You go to sleep dreaming how you would
Be a different kind if you thought you could
But you come awake the way you are instead
All my friends and lovers shine like the sun
I just turn and walk away
One way or another
I'm not coming undone
I'm just waiting for the day.

6. HIGH LIFE

All my friends got flowers in their eyes
But I got none this season
All of last years blooms have gone and died
Time doesn't give a reason
Hey baby, do you ask yourself sometimes
What you need to be forgiven?
Everything that you've ever done wrong
Is the reason that I'm driven
Straight to you
Waiting here for you
Wanting to tell you
How I get my ends and my beginnings
mixed up too
Just the way you do
Thought if I told you
You might want to stay
for just another day or two

Waiting for the trains that just never come
Beginning to believe in
the disappearing nature
of the people we have been
We have begun to change
into the worst kind of people
So unkind
Oh apologies, no apologies, this apology
Doesn't describe the way
it feels to feel for you
Waiting here for you
Wanting to tell you
How I find myself slowly disappearing too
Just the way you do
Thought if I told you
You might want to help me to remain with you
I just wanna stay for a little while
I wanna stay for a little while
There's a night life falling down on me
I just feel like a change
Beneath the sun in the summer,
a sea of flowers won't bloom without the rain
But oh, this desert life, this high life
Here at the dying end of the day
I wasn't made for this scene baby
But I was made in this scene
And baby it's just my way
I don't wanna go home alone,
I wanna come on home to you
Waiting here for you
Wanting to tell you
How I line my sky
with all the silver I can use
Just the way you do
Thought if I told you
You might want to stay
for just another day or two.

7. COLORBLIND

I am colorblind
Coffee black and egg white
Pull me out from inside
I am ready (3 x)
I am taffy stuck and tongue tied
Stutter shook and uptight
Pull me out from inside
I am ready (3 x)
I am fine
I am covered in skin
No one gets to come in
Pull me out from inside
I am folded and unfolded and unfolding
I am colorblind
Coffee black and egg white
Pull me out from inside
I am ready (3 x)
I am fine (3 x).

8. I WISH I WAS A GIRL

The devil's in the dreaming
He tells you I'm not sleeping
in my hotel room alone
With nothing to believe in
You dive into the traffic rising up
And it's so quiet
You're surprised
And then you wake
For all the things you're losing
You might as well resign yourself
to try and make a change
I'm going down to Hollywood
They're gonna make a movie
from the things that they find
crawling round my brain

I wish I was a girl
so that you could believe me
And I could shake this static
everytime I try to sleep
I wish for all the world that I could say,
"Hey Elizabeth, you know,
I'm doing alright these days."

The devil's in the dreaming
You see yourself descending
from a building to the ground
You watch the sky receding
You spin to see the traffic rising up
And it's so quiet
You're surprised
And then you wake
For all the things I'm losing
I might as well resign myself
to try and make a change
But I'm going down to Hollywood
They're gonna make a movie
from the things that they find
crawling round my brain

I wish I was a girl
so that you could believe me
And I could shake this static
every time I try to sleep
I wish for all the world that I could say,
"Hey Elizabeth, you know,
I'm doing alright these days."

In one of these dreams, you forgive me
It makes me think
of the bad decisions that keep you at home
How could anyone else have changed?
All these wrong conclusions
that leave you alone
How could everyone rearrange?
How could everyone else have changed?
What I see I believe
For all the things I'm losing
I might as well resign myself
to try and make a change
Well, I'm going down to Hollywood
They're gonna make a movie
from the things that they find
crawling around my brain

I wish I was a girl
so that you could believe me
And I could shake
this static everytime I try to sleep
I wish for all the world that I could say,
"Hey Elizabeth, you know,
I'm doing alright these days."

But I can't sleep at night (4 x).

9. SPEEDWAY

I get so nervous I'm shaking
Gets so I got no pride at all
Gets so bad
but I just keep coming back for more
I guess I just get off on that stuff
I'm thinking about taking some time
I'm thinking about leaving soon
I got some things I can't tell anyone
I got some things I just can't say
They're the kind of things no one knows about
I just need somebody to talk to me
I'm thinking about leaving tomorrow
I'm thinking about being on my own
I think I been wasting my time
I'm thinking about getting out (2 x)
In all this time,
The bottom line's
you don't know how much I feel
You say you see but I don't agree
You don't know how I feel

I'm just trying to get myself some gravity
You're just trying to get me to stay
Sometimes I sit here
looking down upon Los Angeles
Sometimes I'm floating away
I'm thinking about breakin myself
I'm thinking about getting back home
I think I been waiting for way too long
I'm thinking about getting outm (3 x).

10. ST. ROBINSON IN HIS CADILLAC DREAM

Staring out of his window
as the world rushes by
Arthur Robinson closes the glass
and replies,
"I dream of Ballerinas
and I don't know why
but I see Cadillac's sailing
I was born on the shores
of the Chesapeake Bay
But Maryland and Virginia
have faded away
And I keep thinking
tomorrow is coming today
So I am endlessly waiting
And the comet is coming between
Me and the girl
who could make it all clean
Out there in the shadow
of the modern machine
Walks St. Robinson
in his Cadillac dream

Carrie's down in her basement
all toe shoes and twinned
With the girl in the mirror
who spins when she spins
From where you think you'll end up
to the state that you're in
Your reflection approaches
and then recedes again
And the comet is coming between
Me and the girl
who could make it all clean
Out there in the shadow
of the modern machine
Walks St. Robinson
in his Cadillac dream.

I have dreamed of a black car
that shimmers and drives
Down the length of the evening
to the carnival side
In a house where regret
is a carousel ride
We are spinning and spinning
and spinning and now...
There's a hole in the ceiling
down through which I fell
There's a girl in a basement
coming out of her shell
And there are people
who will say that they knew me so well'
I may not go to heaven
I hope you go to hell

And the comet is coming between
Me and the girl
who could make it all clean
Out there in the shadow
of the modern machine
Walks St. Robinson
in his Cadillac dream.

11 BONUS TRACK
(No Lyrics)

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