Ain't No Time to Bleed   (Eric Andersen)   [Albums: Beat Avenue]

Stranded in the wilderness
Heart inside my hand
For every act of wickedness
Add another grain of sand
The sacred hoop hangs in the sky
Great Spirit’s on his knees
Where the red and black roads intersect
The sacred tree just bleeds

O Father, if you see me
Crying in my hour of need
Until my time for dyin
Ain’t No Time To Bleed

There’s a town beyond Jerusalem
Built of mud and brick
Somewhere on the outskirts
A sign made out of sticks
The battle is still raging
The wind left long ago
A tattoo of a trumpet
On the walls of Jericho

O mother, if you see me
Crying in my hour of need
Until my time of dyin
I got no time to bleed

See the wounded darkened plain
It’s a chaos and a curse
The north is flames and ashes
The sky has died of thirst
Joan of arc stripped off her armor
Jesus pawned his cross
So much sold down the river
How much do pawnshops cost?

O sister, if you see me
Crying in my hour of need
Until my time of dyin
Ain’t no time to bleed

The rain will wash the river clean
The clouds will clear away
The sun will set upon the graves
Of those who couldn’t pray
So much to be done here
Where does the work begin
Do we stop before we’re finished
Or start all over again

O brother, if you see me
Crying in my hour of need
Before my time for dyin
I got no time to bleed

Standin on this empty shore
My life rolls in the waves
A strange wind full of memories
That weren’t mine anyway
Some believe in accidents
Some believe in fate
The only thing I believe is time
Time is never late

O child, if you see me
In my hour of need
Until my time of dying
There ain’t no time to bleed
Until my time of dyin
Got no time to bleed

No time to bleed…

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Before Everything Changed   (Eric Andersen)   [Albums: Beat Avenue]

My dreams they never fail me
They never miss the mark
Sleepin at the strangest hours
Tryin to beat the clock
If a picture’s worth a thousand words
A photograph proves that
How can you even picture love
If ya’ can’t afford to laugh
It’s changin like a roll of dice
Nothin’s really sure
Hate is spreading like disease
And there ain’t no easy cure
Below the blackened skyline
Beyond the smokin rain
Dreams never burned to ashes
Up until . . . until everything changed
Until everything changed

Well, I used to be an optimist
Used to play the lottery
Now I don’t even bother
To lock the front door when I leave
My bed’s a worn out boxing ring
My life’s rundown gym
What once was Charles Bukowski
Is now Emily Dickinson
My future has moved out of town
It’s that emptiness you hear
The silent empty tower shouts
The coast was never clear
Well, I look out on the highway
Things are gettin strange
Didn’t it all seem so familiar
Before . . .  before everything changed
Before everything changed

Sittin in this sad cafe
Starin in your eyes
They’re lookin good but changed to me
Lookin old and wise
Sidelined by the future
Leaves only us to blame
The future wins and soon forgets
The future don’t explain
Don’t need illumination
Don’t need no poison pen
Words can live their own life
They know exactly what they meant!
Well, I miss you more than I did before
Nothin feels the same
Didn’t we all feel vain and self-assured
Right before . . . before everything changed
Before everything changed

It’s dark and clouding over
The river’s risin fast
My baby’s love was sad and true
I knew it wouldn’t last
I heard the midnight special
Pass by an hour ago
Is there something here to get me high
A man who sunk so low
The clock ain’t turnin backwards
The sands blow at my feet
If you ever hear from the Man upstairs
I’d love to hear him speak
I’m cashing all my chips in

Too dumb to play the game
I used to plan an hour ahead
Up until . . . till everything changed
Until everything changed, until everything changed
Until everything changed

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Salt on your skin     (Eric Andersen)   [Albums: Beat Avenue, The Cologne Concert]

I can feel myself heading back to the earth
each new idea seems to make it much worse
maybe death is a mask for some kind of rebirth
it's draggin me slow through the mud
Now I'm driving through Holland in the middle of the night
the rain is blowing fiercely over the dikes
over the sea I can just make out the lights
but I don't know how deep is your love
Well I look over yonder and I what do I see
a big bang of angels and they're singing to me
they wave to come closer but there ain't time, you see
my below has no use for above

I been so many places where do I begin
soon as it's over it starts up again
all I remember of you as the memory grows thin
are the tears in the dark and the salt ...  on your skin

Well I never played Hamlet but I learned some good lines
like how good is timeless when you're running out of time
why does life with a reason get tricked by a rhyme
what's the trick of not turning back
Well I ask you how far — how far does far go?
where this crossroad ends, baby I'll never know
I never was one to get knocked off the road
but I sometimes lost sight of the track
Searching the border why look anymore
it's wrapped in the mist like a faraway shore
I don't even know where where is anymore
and I wouldn't know fiction from fact

I been so many places where do I begin
soon as it's finished it starts up again
all I remember of you as the memory grows thin
are the tears in the dark and the salt ...  on your skin

Well you made a sad smile whe you touched my face
you traced lines with your fingers that you couldn't replace
I pointed to blue skies bigger than space
but I knew that you only saw rain
Some get so tired and sick of romance
some are unlucky cuz they never had the chance
for some love can be just the jail of the dance
sleepwalking you slow through the flames
The sky's sending messages into the air
I don't know many places but I'd know anywhere
when the dealer dealt danger I was getting my share
but there's no point in talking 'bout that

I been so many places how do I begin
soon as it's finished it starts up again
all I remember of you as the memory grows thin
are the tears in the dark and the salt ...  on your skin

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Song of You and Me   (Eric Andersen)   [Albums: Beat Avenue]

We crossed the German border into Alsace-Lorraine
Bought two tickets for Marseilles on the Strasbourg train
When the sun rose we were flyin on a wind of lavender
Drinkin red wine in the morning along the Cote d’Azur
Then you asked a question that touched a chord in me
Could there ever be a bluer blue, bluer than the sea
I had to think it over, if that could really be
I think I gave an answer then, for you . . . but not for me

We set up house right off the square close to our café
Made love every morning, watched the ships roll on the bay
Pressure started mounting, my feet were in the flames
The bar, the little market place, the strolls after a rain
I was backed up to the wall with every feeling that I lacked
A romance gotten out of hand, I was fallin through the cracks
You saw a piece of driftwood, floatin in the blue
I saw a broken seashell and the pearl, the pearl inside . . . were you?

On the all-night train to Stockholm, you got me actin like a kid
Your mouth spun out of rebel words, my soul was on a thread
Your kisses made me seasick when you pressed your lips to mine
A Casablanca no man’s land, where the hero’s dumb and blind
You placed your head down on my lap we never were discreet
Was it love or was it crazy? With another woman ‘cross the sea
Danger loves to make your plans cause danger never sleeps
That night you hummed the chorus line to that song, that song . . . of you and me

When near became too many times another word for far
Separation played the major role but betrayal was the star
Outside the central station, outside in the rain
You pressed your lips against the glass, one last time again
I stumbled to streets alone, lookin for my drunken boat
Love had took me hostage without a ransom note
I sailed back to my shipwrecked home to cut the anchor free
Watchin from the churnin waves, you blowin kisses, on the sea to me

Remember that night in the autumn light on the southern shore of Crete
Cats chasin their own shadows, we walked along the beach
We smoked and watched a girl swimming naked in the sea
We had a screamin argument, more smokin jealousy
Two can live together and still feel all alone
We both knew you had someone else waitin there back home
When you start playin games with two, the puzzle never ends
A chess game and an extra pawn – me . . .
Me or you . . . or you and him?

Let me tell you of a story, love, on a winter’s night alone
At the New York City Opera, Mme. Butterfly was shown
I sat up in the same row where we had sat before
I dreamed that we’d seen La Bohème, but you said Turnadot
Now me a broken arrow, fallin from your smokin bow
Was it love or was it crazy? Every leading man must know
As the curtain fell and the music died, I was the last to leave
The crowd had seen a tragedy but I . . . I  . . . saw you and me

On the all-night train from Switzerland, it was almost Christmas eve
Face reflected in the window, a dream burnin on my sleeve
I saw you in the tunnel but my arms weren’t long enough
You were naked on the kitchen floor the day the Blue Hour struck
Every word we tried to speak, ice froze in our throats
Was it love or was it crazy?  I didn’t want to know
When I finally dried my eyes on your new-washed dirty sheets
I saw you bend down, dry your hair, but that . . . but that . . .
Was you and me . . . you and me…  song of you and me

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Shape of a Broken Heart   (Eric Andersen)   [Albums: Beat Avenue]

It was in the evening rain
That time we had to part
I reached out and I touched you
A hand on a work of art
Hidden in the doorway
Kissing farewells in the dark
It was not your breast I touched then
But the shape of a broken heart

You came up from the border
Where the farms and factories met
Beautiful and fragile
You gave love that you couldn’t get
Somewhere I heard a lute play
But it could have been a harp
When I saw your smile
It was the shape of a broken heart

I know you’ve seen the islands
I heard you lived in Spain
Only winds and beach survive there
And the cross that holds your pain
We found a piece of driftwood
You made a drawing of a star
When the wave rolled off the sand then
It was the shape of a broken heart

It was in the evening rain
In that hour we had to part
I reached out and I touched you
A hand, a work of art
Hidden in the doorway
Kissing farewells in the dark
It was not your breast I touched then
But the shape of a broken heart

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Great Pyramid   (Eric Andersen)   [Albums: Beat Avenue]

Lookin for the black lamb
So feared and sacrificed
Tryin to break the seventh seal
Lookin for somebody nice
Lookin at the throne of God
Where fate and blood are hung
I’m lookin for the holy note
That never has been sung
Not lookin for the broken man
Vanished on the cross
I’m lookin for the eyes of God
I’m lookin for the lost

I looked under the Great Pyramid
Seekin out the diamond light
Lookin for the Big Something
To give a meaning to my life
From the sands of Abu Simbel
To slopes of White Delphi
Saw a poet hanging upside down
Life-in-balance but still alive
I hid out in the rushes
Hidin from the sun
No need to read the leaves to see
Begin and End are One

Motion in water
No motion in stone
Motion in bloodstream
No motion in bone
Motion in motion
The wind in the sky
Motion in everything
What crawls and what flies
Motion in everything
Dead or alive

Lookin at the sand dunes
All along the Libyan night
Somewhere to the north of here
Is where I’ll set my sights
Horizons boast of caravans
Silhouetted by the moon
Each dune a frozen white cap
My mind an empty room
I must have been delirious
No water here to drink
Drawin pyramids from memory
Fingers black as ink

So much left unspoken
So much left unsaid
So many lives forgotten
The love just left for dead
Too many hearts forsaken
Abandoned from neglect
Capsized in the vicious tides
Where ships of love are wrecked
I’m swimming with the Sirens
My trophy if I win
More meaningless and careless love
Not worth its weight in skin

Some nights I’m sick from loneliness
In a dark too bright to see
A blind man fumblin for the boat
He built from memory
The streets of lower Broadway
To the sunken plains of Troy
I’m looking for my Helen, man,
I’m simple like a boy
I think I’ll sail to Sicily
Camp out on the plain
Live on rain and roses
Till it all makes sense again

Motion in water
No motion in stone
Motion in bloodstream
No motion in bone
Motion in motion
The wind in the sky
Motion in everything
What crawls and what flies
Motion in everything
Dead or alive

Motion in everything
Dead or alive

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Under the shadows    (Eric Andersen)   [Albums: Beat Avenue]
Under the shadows, under the gun
under the wire, my back to the sun
I’m over the deadline, way over the edge
under the shadows, over my head

I’m hearing voices, but nothing sounds real
the music is heartfelt, it’s nothing I feel
too tired to phone, too edgy to care
no need to open my eyes, I know what’s out there

I see a reflection, there’s a man in the glass
too scared to reach out, I’m too frightened of masks
the face isn’t moving, cuz only time does
what’ll happen when he finds out that what is ain’t what was

Every person I know has made a mistake
like it or not, each has its own face
you can try and protect it, try and cover it up
or wear a disguise, is it ever enough

I think I’ll retire to an old rodeo
sit in the bleachers with an old radio
seen so many places, seen too many views
each face I remember, only one that I knew

Under the shadows, under the gun
under the wire, my face to the sun
I’m over the deadline, way over the edge
under the shadows, way over my head

under the shadows, way over my head

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Rains Are Gonna Come   (Eric Andersen)   [Albums: Beat Avenue]

The trumpet blast of summertime
Clouds begin to form
Shootin through the tangled roots
Signals of the storm
Was this the year we were deceived
Or the year before the last
When reality just starved to death
And the future ate the past
Standin on this empty plain
Hands up to the sun
Surely as the winds’ll rise
The rains are gonna come

The unblinkin eye of the dragonfly
Eats the bitter pill
Every child was born deceived
As they saw the earth was killed
Memories of slavery
Makin mutiny in my mind
Choices must be made here
What to keep and leave behind
Symbols shatter in the wind
The tempest has begun
Surely as the lightnin strikes
The rains are gonna come

Tongues thirst by the river
Mouths starve on the plain
The burnin bush spits poison
King Confusion reigns
Compassion nailed to the cross
The day the righteous fled
What meanin is worth rescuing
That indifference hasn’t bled
I feel like a fugitive
Runnin to the sun
Surely as the thunder roars
The rains are gonna come

I’m prayin for deliverence
From a world I can not see
Will there ever be redemption
While one soul’s left unfree
I’m lookin to the heavens
I’m looking to the ground
The whole world’s gone to pieces
Lost and upside down
With the vision of a blind man
Starin at the sun
Surely as the darkness falls
The Rains Are Gonna Come
Surely as the darkness falls
The Rains Are Gonna Come
Surely as the winds’ll rise
The rains are gonna come

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Run Away   (Eric Andersen and Lisa Stewart)   [Albums: Beat Avenue, Blue Rain]

Dreamin of the I-40
That ribbon of old blacktop
When you talked about Memphis
You know it almost broke my heart

I wanna run away
I wanna run away
I wanna run away
I wanna run away with you

Took a turn at Memphis
Headin south to Oxford town
For no particular reason
Just to see if anyone was around

Couldn’t see the swamp yet
The evenin was steamin hot
When you’re lookin for what you’re missin
You ain’t lookin at what you got

I wanna run away ...

Now, Graceland wasn’t gracefull
So we found the Rendez-vous Ribs
I shot out the lights on Beale Street
You said I didn’t, but I know I did

Coulda’ been the Mississippi
Could’a been on the yellow brick road
Or on a drunken Natchez gamblin boat
Well ya shoulda’ heard that whistle blow

I wanna run away ...

The drama we avoided
Became a scene without a plot
When love became a phantom
And Memphis just a shot in the dark

Rollin down the I-40
That ribbon of old blacktop
When you talked about Memphis
You know, it almost broke my heart

I wanna run away ...

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Stupid Love  (Eric Andersen)   [Albums: Beat Avenue]

Got a rosary in my pocket, a cat’s eye ‘round my neck
Ain’t no evil eye here to show me my way back
Blindsided in an alley, you put me in a trance
You had me and you knew it and I didn’t stand a chance

Stupid love, stupid me
Stupid love, stupid you
Stupid love, stupid us
Stupid me and you, in stupid love

Ah, your gift was unexpected, a cold raindrop in the dark
An arrow flyin in the night, straight into my heart
I tried to run for cover, love it didn’t care
My memory’s beggin mercy is my future anywhere?

Stupid love, stupid love . . .

Remember at the station, that cut upon my sleeve
We left each other lonesome, you never saw me bleed
Ya know you must be gettin soft when you start actin tough
Truth rolled off the runway, I was lovin you too much!

I’m sleepin with my clothes on, a book upon on my chest
Sleepin with the TV on, my life is just a mess

Stupid love, stupid me
Stupid love, stupid you
Stupid love, stupid us
Stupid me and you, in stupid love

On that beach in Ischia, you showed up like a wish
You were on a joyride, I watched you from the cliff
Your skirt was gathered at the knees, the sand was made of smoke
Were you real or just a dream I had, or a poem I wish I’d wrote . . .

Stupid love, stupid love…

I’m goin down to New Orleans, to where the river flows
The river don’t ask questions or things that you don’t know
My heart was swimmin in the weeds, my mind was seein double
Every word I sang so true, now I can barely mumble

Stupid love, stupid me
Stupid love, stupid you
Stupid love, stupid us
Stupid me and you, in stupid love

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Still Lookin for You   (Eric Andersen)   [Albums: Beat Avenue]

I once loved a girl
With the rolling black curls
Her body so ripe and so fair
Her kisses were sweeter
Than grapes in the sun
Not a thing could go wrong in this world

Cause a train was our home
A couch was a bed
An opera nobody saw
Like a song I remember
Stuck in my head
I’d do anything get you back now

I keep lookin for someone
That friend that I knew
Ain’t it something a lover might do
Will I find you again
Or did our story just end
I’m still lookin
I admit that it’s true
Even that time when I looked away
I never stopped lookin for you

You’re many miles gone
Years kept us apart
And the letters I write I don’t send
Your image cuts deep
Deep in my heart
Too broken from tryin to bend

Are you a Venus of gold
Risin out of a shell
Or a wish I once dropped in a well
Or a face of an angel
Wounded by love
The face of my lost Raphael

I keep lookin  for someone
That person I knew
Ain’t it somethin a lover will do
Will I find it again
Or did our story just end
I’m still lookin
I admit that it’s true
And even that time
When I turned away
I only was lookin for you

I miss you so much
Your skin and your touch
I forget why I do what I do
The road’s wet and dark
A tear down a heart
Was that road ever runnin by you

And the dreams that we sowed
Lie in waste by the road
How on earth will we get them all back
And if love is a lie
Why does love ever try
I won’t stop to let myself ask

I keep lookin for someone
That friend that I knew
Ain’t it something a lover might do
Will I find you again
Or did our story just end
I’m still lookin
I admit that it’s true
And even that time
When I looked away
I never stopped lookin for you
Lookin for you
Lookin for you

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Feel Like Comin’ Home   (Eric Andersen)   [Albums: Beat Avenue]

Can’t say this world’s been wrong to me
live and let live and let us all be
so many faces gone away from me
I ask, where do they all go?

I sailed the seas and I sailed the roads
I’ve been afraid and I’ve been alone
Been chained to the things of what I don’t know
Now it’s time to let the river just flow
Cause now I feel, I feel it’s time, I feel like . . .
Like I’m comin’ home

Better find shelter you’re out on your own
Get out of harm’s way get out of the road
some days you wonder why you ever were born
ya’ come in and go out alone

Saw the apple of my eye
she looked so young but she looked so wise
she don’t back down or compromise
she knows just where it’s all goin

I sailed the seas and I sailed the roads
I’ve been afraid and I’ve been alone
Been chained to the things of what I don’t know
Now it’s time to let the river just flow
Cause now I feel, I feel it’s time, I feel like . . .
Like I’m comin’ home

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