Carolyn Arends

Carolyn's music is very honest and I really enjoy her folksy pop style. She has had some struggles in life and her music and book share honestly about "the cruel, short, beautiful, long adventure that is this life." For more pick one of her albums and be sure to check out her website where you can listen to clips of her music. Below are the lyrics from some of the lyrics that have meant a lot to me. These are by no means all of her lyrics.

Carolyn Arends Lyrics

Altar of Ego
words and music by Carolyn Arends

I am talking too loud when there’s so much I should be hearing
I am walking too proud when I know a fall is nearing
I am thinking too much for someone who knows too little
I am spinning so fast, I’m landing in the middle
Of this cold familiar place where I struggle to save face
And I lose all of the things that matter

Chorus
I don’t want to be here again
Bowed at the altar of ego
I’ve sacrificed most everything
Here at the altar of ego
The altar of ego

I’ve got just four friends I will let advise me
Me, myself, and I and the evil twin inside me
We talk each other up and we bring each other down
‘Cause there’s nothing we like more than the ever present sound
Of the voice inside my head, once again it’s led
To losing all the things that matter

Repeat chorus

I need a touch of love, I need a thrust of grace
A push, a shove, a slap in the face

I have gazed too long at the person in the mirror
As I turn away, I’m finding things are cleared
I will set my sights on Someone so much higher
Not on what I want, but on what I require
To travel to the place where at last I can embrace
All the things that really matter

Repeat chorus

Big Deal
by Carolyn Arends and Connie Harrington

What will people think?
What will people say?
I can't believe these questions scare me so
What's it gonna take
To get into the game
What could be the worst scenario?
I could hit a wall...I could lose it all
Slip and fall flat on my face

Chorus:
Big deal - so what
I won't be the first to mess things up
Big deal - it's alright
At least I'll know I tried
Big deal- it's OK
I'll get it right someday

I could lock the doors
I could close the blinds
Play it safe inside my living room
I could let my fears
Bury me alive
Keep from the things I'm meant to do
Or I could take the cup of life and drink it up
And when I spill it on myself

Repeat chorus

I will take the cup of life and drink it up

(C) 1997 running arends music/New Spring Publishing, a division of Brentwood Music
Publishing, Inc. and BMG Songs, Inc. (gospel division) (ASCAP)

Dance Like No One's Watching
Carolyn Arends

I want to sing just like the sparrow 'cause the sparrow knows
That your eye will be upon her everywhere that she goes
I want to shout out like the mountains 'cause they say those rocks
Love to lift up their praises and they never stop
I want to chase you like King David till it's all that I can do
To sing and shout and laugh about the way you made me new

I want to dance like no one's watching
Dance like no one's watching
Dance like no one's watching
Nobody but you

I want to grow just like the lilies dressed up in your best
'Cause they stretch toward the sun and trust in you for the rest
I want to climb up like a daughter on her daddy's knee
Who is laughing 'cause she knows that she is loved abundantly
You said that I should come to you just like a little kid
And maybe even kick my heels the way that David did

I'm gonna dance like no one's watching
Dance like no one's watching
Dance like no one's watching
Nobody but you

Well heaven knows I worry and those worries tend to keep me
Bottled up so tightly in my soul
So spill me like the perfume that was poured upon your feet
And then fill me till at last I overflow

That's when I'll dance like no one's watching
Dance like no one's watching
Dance like no one's watching
Nobody but you

I want to chase you like King David till at last you capture me
And then I’ll sing and shout and laugh about the way you set me free

I want to dance like no one’s watching
Dance like no one’s watching
Dance like no one’s watching
Nobody but you

c 2001 Songs of Peer, Ltd / Mr. Marley's Music (ASCAP)

Do We Dare
by Carolyn Arends

The prayers that we pray in foxholes and funerals
The songs that we sing in delivery rooms
The questions we ask when nobody's listening
But the man in the moon
The way our hearts beat - faced with a sunrise
Like maybe they know something we don't
But it's all in code and we can't decode it
Or maybe we won't

Chorus:
Do we dare pay attention, dare even mention
The mystery we find ourselves caught in
And do we dare to remember
All that we have forgotten

Each breath that we take - we take for granted
So if there are clues we remain unaware
All the days of our lives burn down like matches
Vanish into thin air
But there are dreams that we dream when we least expect them
And memories that come like unbidden tears
All the things we believed when we were still children
It's been so many years

Repeat chorus

We are battered and torn from the day we are born
In a world that has blinded and bound us
Is it any surprise we don't open our eyes
To the truth that's disguised all around us

Like the secrets we keep we don't know we're keeping
From before there was time, before there were lies
Can we find you again this far from the garden?
Do we dare even try?

Repeat chorus

(C) 1997 running arends music/New Spring Publishing, a division of Brentwood Music
Publishing, Inc. and BMG Songs, Inc. (gospel division) (ASCAP)

Do What You Do
by Carolyn Arends and Connie Harrington

She's on the clock but she doesn't seem to mind
Whatever matters she always finds the time
She laughs out loud when it's funny
And when it's not she sighs...

Chorus:
You do what you do like you know what you're doing
And you go where you go 'cause your feet keep you moving
Through the highs and the lows of the winning and losing
That's the way you know that you're alive

You never know what can happen in a day
She takes the subway at seven anyway
Sometime's the ride's really scary but then sometimes it's great
She says..

Repeat chorus
She's not afraid to live this life
She says it's not like rolling dice
It's in the hands of God so why not...

Repeat chorus

(C) 1997 running arends music/New Spring Publishing, a division of Brentwood Music
Publishing, Inc. and BMG Songs, Inc. (gospel division) (ASCAP)

Last Thursday (Call Me Crazy)
by Carolyn Arends

I think it was last Thursday - I went to see my friend
We drank some Coca Cola, we laughed a while and then
We dove into philosophy and politics and sin
The way we do
He told me he'd been looking the cold truth in the eyes
He told me my religion was wishing in disguise
He said "The only Savior is the one inside your mind"
And I said "if that's true
Then you can

Chorus:
Call me crazy 'cause I don't want to live that way
Call me lazy - I don't want to work that hard<
Call me crazy, but I don't think that I can save myself

You see I've read a thousand pages on how to help myself
To a thousand different ways to perfect mental health
And I swear I've tried them all and I'm still needing something else
And I think you are too
So you can

Repeat chorus

And furthermore I still believe in what I cannot see or touch
Crazy things like dreams and prayers and faith and hope and love
And I know a life without these things is not a life at all
So you can call it sanity but then you'll have to call me crazy

Repeat chorus

Father, Thy Will Be Done

by Carolyn Arends

When I cannot ask for more - Father, thy will be done

When I rail at heaven's door - Father, thy will be done

When my faith in you is strong - Father, thy will be done

When my strength is almost gone - Father, thy will be done <

Chorus:

Father, thy will be done

I want to see your kingdom come

Thy will be done

When I cry to you in prayer - Father, thy will be done

When I don't believe you're there - Father, thy will be done

When I feel your gentle hand - Father, thy will be done

When I just don't understand - Father, thy will be done

Repeat chorus

When I'm walking in the light - Father, thy will be done

When my heart is black as night - Father, thy will be done

When you give what I desire - Father, thy will be done

When you take me through the fire - Father, thy will be done

Repeat chorus

Feel Free

written by Carolyn Arends

You can fill my crosswords in with ink

Speak your mind before you think

Wear your shoes inside my house

Wear my clothes and wear me out

You can lose your head or spill your guts

I'm your friend I'm not your judge

Chorus:

Feel free to laugh or cry

Feel free to wonder why

Feel free to dance or grieve

You are safe when you're with me

Feel free

You can change your plans or change your mind

A million, billion, trillion times

Raise the roof or pound the door

Climb the walls or hit the floor

You can run with scissors if you must

But it'd be better if you just

Repeat chorus

To pray or scream or say or dream anything you want to

To tell me every secret thing about the ghosts that haunt you

And you can open up your closet wide

There's no skeleton inside

Worse than ones I call my own

Rest assured you're not alone

And together we can face that stuff

Till at long last both of us

Repeat chorus

Seize the Day
by Carolyn Arends

I know a girl who was schooled in Manhattan
She reads dusty books and learns phrases in Latin
She is an author, or maybe a poet
A genius but it's just this world doesn't know it
She works on her novel most every day
If you laugh she will say

chorus:
Seize the day, seize whatever you can
'Cause life slips away just like hourglass sand
Seize the day, pray for grace from God's hand
Then nothing will stand in your way
Seize the day

Well I know a doctor, a fine young physician
Left his six-figure job for a mission position
He's healing the sick in an African clinic
He works in the dirt and writes home to the cynics
He says "We work through the night so most every day
As we watch the sun rise we can say

chorus

Well I know a man who's been doing some thinking
He's as bitter and cold as the whiskey he's drinking
He's talking 'bout fear, about chances not taken
If you listen to him you can hear his heart breaking
He says "One day you're a boy and the next day you're dead
I wish way back when someone had said

chorus

Well one thing I've noticed, wherever I wander
Everyone's got a dream he can follow or squander
You can do what you will with the days you are given
I'm trying to spend mine on the business of living
So I'm singing my songs off of any old stage
You can laugh if you want, I'll still say

chorus

There You Are
written by Carolyn Arends

I was hoping you would write to me a message in the stars
As if the stars themselves were not enough
And I awaited your arrival here from some place very far
As if I couldn't feel your constant touch
Why did I think that you'd send thunder
To wake me from my slumber
When anytime I open up my eyes

Chorus:
There you are - loving me like crazy
There you are - though I am unaware
There you are - when my heart is doubting
Even there you are

I was waiting for a miracle and hoping for a sign
As if each breath I take is not a gift
And I was acting just as if the way you gave your life for mine
Didn't have my foolish heart convinced
What did I think could cause this hunger
Did I ever stop to wonder
Why every time I open my eyes

Repeat chorus

I was hoping you would write to me a message in the stars
As if the stars themselves were not enough

Return to Home page

web space provided by
... Get your own free home page at GeoCities!