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The Life You Hit

by Callum Baird

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1.
Well she’s got mineshaft eyes, hair like diamonds And the sun don’t break across her face And I know she kept the ticket on my heart I know I can be replaced Time waits for no man, but he does for her Every street’s got catwalk lights The fire-touched Mediterranean coast Comes alive in the sleepless nights Well she don’t have to worry about the taxi queues Or the paint dripping off the walls She came to me right out of the courtyard mist Now I come every time she calls Well come on, tell me, what you gonna do to me next? I hope it’s something I don’t expect Come here, I’ll tell you, what I’m gonna do to you now I’ll keep you alive Baby, you won’t be going home tonight I don’t know just what keeps her awake at night But it’s the same thing that haunts my room When she puts that shell up against her ear That ain’t the sea she’s listening to The trees are out there swinging, on the forest path Trapdoor lovers are waiting in the east Where the sunlight frames the statue of Venus She just stands amongst the falling leaves With a smile that all the collectors want And a heart made of liquid stone She throws clocks and swords up into the air Straight through the church windows Well the lightning’s gonna strike up the band The thunder’s picking the wine The dust beneath her sandals is stirring up a storm And it’s one that just suits her fine So come on, tell me, what you’re gonna do to me next I hope it’s something I don’t expect Come here, I’ll tell you, what I’m gonna do to you now I’ll keep you alive Baby, you won’t be going home tonight You won’t be going home tonight
2.
Hang on to your hat, babe, lest it be taken by the wind Look out across the grasslands, see the old tornadoes spin Failure sings in the opera house, and underneath the Kingston Bridge And if you ain’t heard failure sing, well you ain’t lived Cast your spells on the rain, they say, or else you’d a-better start to save Hold on to what you got, until your holding it in your grave Seems like I can watch the sun fly, see the moon close and open wide We’re just sand in an hourglass holding on to the sides Happiness drives a race-car, sorrow can only crawl You’ve cursed my life to flash by, but I don’t feel cursed at all It don’t matter if you’re content, only that you believe that you are Take a look around the world, don’t focus on the graveyards Hang on tight to the sky, babe, the clouds are moving fast Look outside my window, see the glaciers flying past Carnations bloom in the meadow, as leaves fall on powder snow If there’s an ice age coming, we’ll sleep through it in our bones Dive into Old Man River; swim through all your teenage dreams See the girl in the arms of the old king; watch the quicksand take the queen Fortune favours the lucky; the lucky got nothing on the young They got six numbers but no years to count them on Happiness drives a race car, sorrow can only crawl You’ve cursed my life to flash by, but I don’t feel cursed at all It don’t matter if you’re content, only that you believe that you are Take a look around the world, don’t focus on the graveyards We’ll work until our backs hurt, burying moments in the earth But it’s only when they’re down there with the diamonds You find out what they’re worth Happiness drives a race car, sorrow can only crawl You’ve cursed my life to flash by, but I don’t feel cursed at all It don’t matter if you’re content, only that you believe that you are Sorrow can only crawl, happiness drives a race car
3.
Niagara 04:42
I was picking through the bones of St Petersburg, like many men before me I was flying a single-engine plane, across the Mississippi I built myself a house at the crossroads, sometimes there’s nothing to choose I was wearing a rain coat; I had the stock-market blues War paint dancing on cave walls, space station coming crashing down We’re living in a shipwreck, even the rats are getting out of town Feel the patchwork wind, spreading across the mid-west I’ve known gamblers and thieves, I’ve known solitude best The web spins across the dust bowl, and through the Boston choir Hits the city running, hits it with cold barbed wire And its skipping chains in the schoolyard, rust on cathedral doors People searching for paradise, paradise ain’t here no more Oh, it’s back in the dice cup of the gods Oh, you can’t get back what you haven’t lost She paints pictures of Niagara, just watching the water fall Helicopter sickness, theatre posters on the wall Just when you’ve got it all sewn up, that’s when it falls apart City boys just copy and paste their hearts And they got more fashion weeks, than they got weeks in a year The sun’s got a price on its head; even the rats are getting out of here Oh, and it’s in the birthplace of the blues You can’t get back what you didn’t lose Flat cap hanging down, smoking by the train line Everybody’s on Main Street, tonight Mayor says don’t listen to your souls, follow your hearts And the townspeople wave flags as they watch the children march And they come back feeling invincible; sometimes invincible is as good as dead Back out on the streets with a mine-cart rattling through your head Oh, and it’s in the ghost of mining towns You don’t go through you just go around Oh, and it’s in the dice cup of the gods You can’t get back what you haven’t lost
4.
The leaves will still fall from the trees in that old mining town The church bells will still ring out at midnight, same as every other hour The rain still pours, across the doors and windows too Whispering, baby, some day no-one’s gonna miss you We called it the beach, but it was just gravel and leaves, by the riverside It was there I grew up, oh the glory and love, and those winter fires My first kiss, she stole it from me, way down in the forest’s heart Oh to be back where it started I can feel them about to take me now The highway fades, and I hope that’s angels calling out I can feel you about to leave me now Your picture fades, and I’m praying everything evens out I was racing home, four hours from dawn, to get back before she wakes The working life, takes it all, takes it twice, and gives it back too late And out of misty nowhere, headlights appeared, I flew off the side of the road Baby, I won’t be coming home She’ll be just twenty-three, when she lights that candle for me, still just a little girl And I won’t say she’s wrong, if she moves on, but I’ll still wait for her Wishing I could taste, her kiss on my lips, hear her jacket hit the floor You say you love me, darling I always loved you more I can feel them about to take me now The highway fades, and I hope that’s angels calling out I can feel you about to leave me now Your picture fades, just pray for me everything evened out Maybe I’ll sit, on the rooftops and whisper, to the passing cats Maybe I’ll walk alone, towards the sun, on the railroad tracks Maybe I’ll go, see the pyramids, like we always said we’d do I wish I could have gone with you I can feel them about to take me now The highway fades, and I hope that’s angels calling out I can feel you about to leave me now Your picture fades, and I’m praying everything evens out
5.
Time passes quickly on an island; time lets the past drift away Across the golden waves, into the spellbound night And I sat on the banks of history’s coast, watched the steelworks crumble to dust It’s all just fate and chance; you can’t cage it in plans, you can’t leave it to rust So we cleared away memory’s cobwebs, from the windows and the cabin door Walked back along the shore, across electric sand That old wooden sign was just swaying in the wind, standing dark in a neon sunset We walked in two years late; where the future was waiting, saying “don’t miss me again” The Irish singer in the corner, and the ships on the wall Old people in the shadows, smoke rising up from their eyes Through the ghost of my past, climbing up on the stage Violins and tip trays The person I wasn’t then, I’ll always envy him Every minute I couldn’t make mine Every second that should have been mine The cathedral’s lit up in the evenings, against the night clubs and the cruise ships A perfect mix, of who I am and what I was She said “All I can see, is the best of you boy; I won’t romanticize what I didn’t love” But why shouldn’t I babe? There can be peace in mistakes that led me to us The angel in my wallet, the band around my wrist The bench by the fountains, on my balcony kissing her The blood of the sunrise, like the wine still in my glass The winter coming up fast Oh her stories of her lovers, well I never wanted them I’d listen but I’d try not to hear Every word as they burned in my ears Now I’m not saying if I go back I would, but I’d consider it I don’t know if I could trust myself to find my way back here I could be somewhere else Oh maybe somewhere without… The Irish singer in the corner, the ships on the wall My jacket round her shoulders, hers waiting for her on the bed The handwritten ticket, to the look on her face Well I missed her all three of those days The people in her past, I’ll always envy them Every minute that was never mine Every second that should have been mine
6.
Comet 04:48
You’re a scarecrow baby, standing with open arms Got myself a scarecrow; put in it my crow farm Making statues of your family, in clay and paste Drifting from the front to the back, never quite in the right place And jealousy is just another word for insecurity I don’t have to talk about the past any more I’m not sleeping in prison but I’m sleeping in the city You’re fighting sleep, darling, what are you fighting for? The coast is clear, lighthouse keeper’s on the run He said, “Hand me a stencil, I’ll show you the shape of things to come” He’ll beg you for money, out in the midnight gloom He says “show me where you were born, and I’ll show your tomb” He’s pale like the moon, dragging in front of his chains He warns “they’ll take from you what you love the most” I’ve been haunting this island for years, I see my chains But we ain’t the same man, I’m not a ghost I saw a comet last night Did you see it? Did you point your guitar at the sky, wishing you could be it? Or did you just blink, and miss it? You ain’t a slave girl, but I know your back still hurts You’re out working; I’m here chipping away at frozen words You were my first love, and I’m in love with you now It’s just everybody in between, I want to forget about Who’s that guy over there looking at you funny? He just made a copy of your credit card It’s time like this I’m glad we ain’t got no money All of the other times, it’s just hard I saw a comet last night Did you see it? Did you stand on your porch with my letters, wishing you could be it? Or did you blink, and miss it? You can’t hear a pin drop in the middle of storm Why would anyone want to hear a pin drop? I just want to hear the storm Went to a drive-in cinema, wanted to watch the past It wasn’t the past I wanted; it was just you, back here with me at last Memories are like diamonds, until they get stolen From that safe that you keep in the back of your mind Show me a man who ain’t afraid of time I’ll show you a man that’s truly alive I saw a comet last night Did you see it? Did you stand there with your urn in your hands, wishing you could be it? Or did you just blink, and miss it?
7.
She’s always been a pitch-fork lover, comes a-banging on the door Well I don’t mind you coming over, but what do you gotta bring that pitchfork for? And whatever happened to your peace of mind? She said, “That peace of mind, wasn’t mine” “It’s like my heart baby, it was always yours” See those planes criss-crossing the sky, all up above the fields in a grid of smoke See those wicker-basket thieves, escaping down the river in a boat Didn’t have a poster, didn’t have a reward So I just nailed her perfume on the door Everybody just drags themselves back in by the nose And the sun splits the apple trees, and the breeze Blows down from a cottage on the hill She says, “I think I’m in love again” Throwing up stones on a window until I’m sitting on her porch with the stars She says “I won’t be a fool again” I said “Just don’t fool me” Well I’ve spent some time in England, I was far from impressed And I went to Argentina, they’re friendly but they got no depth The only lesson I learned, is what I already knew You can’t really love someone, unless they want you to You shouldn’t not make a move because you’re used to not making it And now the waiter’s got no clothes on, the menus are hanging from the chairs She says “Where’s the menu?” I say, “Can’t you see it, it’s right there!” I scream at her, “How come you can’t see it, are you blind?” She says “Yeah, and I’ll be blind until the end of time” “And even if I could see, I couldn’t see a threat to you” Then the sun splits the battlefield, and the breeze Blows down from the general’s tent She says, “I don’t want to fight again” On the bridge on the river, he’s broken and bent He says “I got no regrets but I’m tired” “I just can’t fight again” She says “I promise you won’t have to” I just met your sister’s husband, sitting on the kerb in lover’s lane He doesn’t want freedom; just a different cage Oh but you, just you try and get some beauty sleep The kind of rest only the rest of us need I’ll wake you up in an hour; you can put your new waistcoat on
8.
Spiders spin their webs, across the tower gates At the top the princess’s hair, still doesn’t reach her waist At the end of the pier, staring out across the moonlit bay There’s an old man dressed in rags, trying to remember every wave Liza’s on the street, waiting for an actor to call Swallows fly past an abandoned city hall She says when I fell for him, I broke my neck And now he’s sleeping; now he’s sleeping in somebody else’s bed They’ve boarded up the coal mines early, gone into town for a drink When there’s worse than being out of work, nobody cares what the foreman thinks Washing lines hang across the city, grapes drying in the midday sun Let off some steam in the bathhouse, or in the ruins of one Kings on his throne, shifting under death’s hard glare But you can’t hide in a palace, you can’t hide anywhere And every hand you’re ever dealt was already fixed By the man with the expensive shoes, expensive shoes, and cheap tricks Take me as I am, you say, but I don’t know what you are Take me for a ride on the back of your horse-drawn star And we’ll take it as we find it; I ain’t saying I’ll be your man Fate put us together, fate put us together, but I got my own plans Planets and stars spinning, like on a ballroom floor Comet coming down the stairs, got nothing but fire on Across the busy marketplace, urchin with a two-tailed coin Sweeping up glass outside a pharmacy, until the glass is gone Liza’s on the street, throwing love letters in the wind She doesn’t know how to stop; she only knows how to begin She says, that it was Judas taught the world to kiss How could he leave me, how could he leave me, alone like this? They got seaweed up in the taverns, flood coming in from the east Mother Nature cares nothing for war, but neither nothing for peace Some take pleasure in sorrow, others in winter bliss It’s all about the life you hit boy, and not the life you miss Town crier’s in the rain, dreaming of the end of days Nobody’s listening, but he’ll shout it anyway And every card he was ever dealt, had the devil’s mark Burning diamonds, burning diamonds, and broken hearts Take me as I am she said, but I didn’t know what she was The world doesn’t revolve around me, but my world does And I take it and I leave it, and maybe I leave you too But I wanted you then, I wanted you then, ain’t that good enough for you Lets just take it as we find it; I ain’t saying I’ll be your man Fate put us together, fate put us together, but I got my own plans
9.
The grace and poise of a desert snake Sliding across the sand Spitting poison onto red rocks And into my open hands Colouring up the wood-painted sky A sunset cherry-red Throw yourself into the wishing well Don’t wish that you were dead And she’s out hunting bandits in the hills Playing piano in the old mill Chasing scarecrows through the mine Dancing on frozen lakes But only in the summertime She’ll touch you like a graveyard, she’s so cold Blessed with wings and a curse that she won’t unfold The moon lashes out with her silver whips Driving waves against the rocks Smashing the ghosts of pirate ships And the hands of broken clocks The ocean’s tense like a chessboard Waiting for her next move But she can go forward, or she can go back Some bridges are fireproof She’s still got the ocean in her veins But her skin got tough in the dust of the interstate Oh and now the rain hits black and smoke bleeds out from the factory’s mouth Oh, the shipyards burn, taste the hot wind, see the blowtorch clouds She’s scraping the sky on a street downtown And all the city dogs howl Beneath panama hats Paintbrushes trailing behind her But I don’t think about that She’ll touch you like a graveyard, she’s so cold Blessed with wings and a curse that she won’t unfold Playing piano in the old mill Chasing scarecrows through the mine Dancing on frozen lakes But only in the summertime She’s still got the ocean in her veins But her skin got tough in the dust of the interstate
10.
I look at a golden throne, I see a diamond shine I look at your coffee cup, sitting next to mine I look at lies baby, I look at the truth Nothing’s as beautiful as you I look at shipwrecks, I look at waterfalls I look at a snowflake, I look at them all I look at the future baby; I know you see it too Nothing’s as beautiful as you Nothing’s as beautiful as you in your new clothes Draped in bangles, your face lighting up my soul Nothing’s as beautiful as you on your own No-ones good enough for you I look at the desert, freezing stars at night I look at the fairground, all those neon lights I look at the leaves baby, floating in a forest pool Nothing’s as beautiful as you I look at all the faces, in those magazines you read I look what you think you love, what you think you need I look at the past baby; I kow you say it’s all I do Nothing’s as beautiful as you Nothing’s as beautiful as you in your new clothes The whole world just a-catching its breath, at what you never show Nothing’s as beautiful as you on your own No-one’s good enough for you I look at the devil mama; I know what it is he sells I look up at heaven, I see the angels I look at a world’s that bad baby, you make it seem so good Nothing’s as beautiful as you

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released October 11, 2010

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