FLYER



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The Flyer

 (Nanci Griffith)


He was a flyer for the Air Force
On a plane from San Antonio
I was travelling to London
He was going off to Buffalo
Changing planes in Pittsburgh
We got grounded in a storm
And, I would give anything
To be on that flyer's arm

We played cards, mostly blackjack
As we sat out on the tarmac
We sang songs we knew in Spanish
As we both loved songs of language
He'd heard me on the radio
I'd seen the flyers of San Antone
And, I would give anything
To have that flyer for my own

(chorus)
God bless the flyer
Who would be flying home tonight
Cuz' I would give anything
To see that flyer, flyin' tonight
He said he'd never married
Cuz, his heart was in the clouds
And I said I was too clumsy
That I broke the wings of the loves I found
He shouted out his name to me
As I ran to make my flight
I would give anything
To see that flyer, flyin' tonight

One year I watched a war in London
In the airport leaving London
And I wondered if I'd know him
If I saw his wings in motion
Did I leave my heart in Pittsburgh...
In the lightning of that flight?
I wish that you could tell me now
Will he be flyin' home tonight?

(repeat chorus twice)

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Nobody's Angel

 (Nanci Griffith)


Something's disturbed me
I'm out of your company
I'm Out of the country
With another man's heart
I'm angered and doubtful
And I'd shout an earful
But nothing comes out
When I open my mouth

(chorus)
I'm nobody's angel now
(she's out of the country now)
Nobody's angel now
(she's out of the country now)
And if I can't give love
I can't rise above the clouds
Nobody's angel now
I was the forest for love songs
The one who can't love wrong
The one who won't fall
But will still write it down
I'm the one who would understand
Who listens with pen in hand
I'm everyone's shoulder
Till it's me who falls down

(repeat chorus)

(bridge)
I'm grounded and rusty
An' my dance card is dusty now
Because I wanted to be
What the angels see
When they look down
Just a couple on the avenue
With their feet on the ground
And I'm nobody's angel now

Something's disturbed me
I'm out of your company
I'm out of the country now
Something's disturbed me
I'm out of your company
I'm out of the country
Nobody's angel now
(she's out of the country now)
Nobody's angel now
(she's out of it)
I'm out of the country now
I'm out of the country
And nobody's angel now

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Say It Isn't So

 (Nanci Griffith/Harlan Howard)


When you say I love you
Is it just because you know that's what I want to hear?
Lately friends are warning me
What they hesitate to tell me leaves a thread of fear
People talk around this town
And when the final truth comes down
There's only one thing left to do
It's come back 'round to you
(come back 'round to you)

(chorus)
Say it isn't so
Tell me that you're someone
I'll believe in
Am I the last to know
That you don't love me anymore?
Oh, if you ever did
Say it isn't so
Am I caught up in a web
That you are weaving?
Oh, the stories I've been told
Indicate that you're already
Reachin' for the door
It's just a lovers situation
Are you in or out of love?
I've heard those words before
I've had to face up to the truth
Cuz' staying and pretending
Would have hurt him more
Sometimes lovers stay too long
Sometimes they leave too soon
There's only one thing left to do
It's come back 'round to you
(come back 'round to you)

(repeat chorus)

(tag)
Oh, the stories I've been told
Baby...Just say it isn't so

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Southbound Train

 (Julie Gold)


I'm sitting on a southbound train
Staring at the sky
I'm thinking of my childhood
And I'm trying not to cry
While a stranger sleeps against me
And it feels like I'm his wife
Towns and cities flutter past
Like the pages of my life

My heart is on the baggage rack
It's heavy as can be
I wish that I could find someone
Who would carry it for me
Just to pay it some attention
And to handle it with care
Because it has been dropped
And is in need of some repair

(chorus)
Some things I know
Some things I guess
Some things I wish that I could learn
To express
Like the way that I feel
As I stare at the sky
And I remember your voice
And the sound... of goodbye
Maybe it's the autumn...Chill
Maybe it's the rain
Maybe I should wake the stranger
And ask him his name
But, my eyes they would betray me
And my words could not defend
No, I must learn to wait my turn
Before I love again

(repeat chorus)

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These Days In An Open Book

 (Nanci Griffith)


Shut it down and call this road a day
And put this silence in my heart in a better place
I have travelled with your ghost now so many years
That I see you in the shadows
In hotel rooms and headlights
You're coming up beside me
Whether it's day or night

(chorus)
These days my life is an open book
Missing pages I cannot seem to find
These days your face
In my memory
Is in a folded hand of grace against these times
No one's ever come between your memory and me
I have driven this weary vessel here alone
Will you still find me if I leave you here beside this road
Cuz' I need someone who can touch me
Who'll put no one above me
Someone who needs me
Like the air he breathes

(repeat chorus)

(bridge)
I can't remember where this toll road goes
Maybe it's Fort Worth, maybe it's a heart of gold
The price of love is such a heavy toll
That I've lived my life in the backroads
With your love in my pocket
If I spend the love you gave me
Tell me where will it go?

(repeat chorus)

(tag)
These days your face
In my memory
Is in a folded hand of grace
Folded hand of grace
Folded hand of grace
Against these times

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Time Of Inconvenience

 (Nanci Griffith)


We're living in a time of inconvenience
Compassion fails me with this meanness in the air
Our city streets are filled with violence
So we close our doors to the city
And pretend that it's not there
Here I go again
Back out on these mean streets
The evil seems to cling to the soles of my feet
Cuz' I'm living in a time of inconvenience
At an inconvenient time

We're living in the age of communication
Where the only voices heard have money in their hands
Where greed has become a sophistication
And if you ain't got money
You ain't got nothin' in this land
An' here I am one lonely woman
On these mean streets
Where the right to life man has become my enemy
Cuz' I'm living in his time of inconvenience
At an inconvenient time

(bridge)
I've turned my cheek
As my history fades
While the clock ticks away
Any progress we've made
I never thought
I'd be ashamed to be human
Afraid to say
My time has seen it's day
Cuz' I'm living in a time of inconvenience
living in a time of inconvenience living in a time of inconvenience It's an inconvenient time

This is the time of greed and power
Where everyone needs to have someone to shove around
Our children come to us for answers
Listening for freedom but they don't know the sound
And there they are, our children
Dumped out in these mean streets
The evil sweeps them up
And brings them to their knees
Cuz' they're living in our time of inconvenience
They're living in the age of communication
This is the time of greed and power
This is the time that I wish was not mine
Cuz' it's an inconvenient time

tag
(time, oh time)
(it's an inconvenient time)

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Don't Forget About Me

 (Nanci Griffith/James Hooker)


I can't be your weather
Cuz' if it rains then it rains
I can't be your lover
Cuz' the feelings would change
I can't be the wind
Cuz' the wind blows too free
But if you want a true companion
Don't forget about me

(chorus)
Don't forget about me
When your heart's in the shade
When there's no one to hold you
And you've fallen from grace
When the spotlights come blind you
And you can no longer see
I'll be right there beside you
Don't forget about me
Friends never leave you
They're a two way street
They'll always believe in you
When you've ceased to believe
And I'll still feel the same
If you're a friend in need
Cuz', I'll always love you
Don't forget about me

(repeat chorus twice)

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Always Will

 (Nanci Griffith)


I saw you on the avenue
You looked so tired and a little blue
You were in your Sunday best
With your father's tie upon your chest

(chorus)
Hey, you always stood me still
Hey, you always will
In the corridor of one hotel
We once crossed paths I recall it well
Voices in an empty hall
Slamming doors to hearts that fall

(repeat chorus)

(bridge)
Always will.....Always will
Hey
Always will.....Always will
Hey

Love has been my passer by
I stood too still to catch your eye
But there out on the avenue
In your father's tie I'll remember you

(repeat chorus twice)

(tag)
Hey, you always will

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Going Back To Georgia

 (Nanci Griffith/Adam Duritz/Brian Claflin)


Oh the city snow makes your brown eyes shine
We've gotta look real hard to find a reason to cry
New York, New York is a friend of the travelling kind

And I'm coming around from years of hard times
He's chased me down through the towns and the miles
Once stilled by love he was bound to roll on by

(chorus)
And if you feel my love won't leave you
And if your sorrow has been your share
If you are travelling back to Georgia
Won't you take me with you there
Well I'm long gone darlin', lonesome blue
I been thinking of leavin', I been thinkin' of you
But that big city singin', man, I like the way that it shines

I was half a mile from Canada waitin' on a train
Wonderin' and wishin' I could disappear again
I been killed by love till it takes me to the end of the line

(repeat chorus)

Well, I've been troubled by a love untrue
He's a fool who'll drown in his fountain of youth
I can see that now as I'm walkin' and talkin' with you

Well, I been blinded by the sun, washed in the rain
Scattered in America, I'm scatterin' again
But if you're goin' south darlin' I guess I'm travellin with you

(repeat chorus twice)

(tag)

Take me with you...
Oh... won't you take me home

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Talk To Me While I'm Listening

 (Nanci Griffith)


I should have known that you were gone back in Germany
You told me in the dark while I was sleeping
Then you slept through the sunrise
As it washed across your face
And all that I had heard were our hearts beating

(chorus)
Talk to me while I'm listening
While this love has a voice that we both
Can hear
Before you let it go...
The greatest love I've ever known
Won't you please
Talk to me
While I'm listening
I cannot find a place to put this love away
Or lose the thought of sunlight on your face
I thought I heard your voice
Say I love you today
But it was only the sound of my heart breaking

(repeat chorus)

How I wish that I could take us back to Germany
I would stay awake and you would talk to me
Yet for every drop of rain I hear
There's bound to fall another tear
Upon this page of song of my heart aching

(repeat chorus)

(tag)
Before you let it go...
This greatest love I've ever known
Won't you please
Talk to me
While I'm listening
Talk to me
Talk to me

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Fragile

 (Nanci Griffith)


I look out on these shields of heather
Across this countryside
I wonder how they've grown together
While people live such separate lives
I think I'll stay inside for the winter
Cuz' the weather's in my bones
And the wind could shatter bone to splinter
Then howl me back home

(chorus)
I'm fragile as the lady of the harbour
Fragile as her torch that glows
Fragile as these gulf stream waters
To the Texas coast... To the Texas coast
I stared up at the faces in the mountain
Just a year ago
Laughin' in the spirit of America
And singin' in the snow
Now I wish I felt as strong as that mountain
Just carved in stone
I wish I was the gulf stream water
And I could sail you home

(repeat chorus)

I would give you all that's in me
Though part of me is gone
If I could have that day upon the mountain
For the snow and the song
But here's to love and all that it changes
When you're alone out in that storm
Cuz' if I'd had a shield of heather
I'd have never loved at all

(repeat chorus)

(tag)
I would sail you home
To the Texas coast
I would sail you home
To the Texas coast

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On Grafton Street

 (Nanci Griffith/Fred Koller)


On Grafton Street at Christmas time
The elbows push you 'round
This is not my place of memories
I'm a stranger in this town
The faces seem familiar
And I know those songs they're playin'
But I close my eyes and find myself
Five thousand miles away

(chorus)
It's funny how my world goes round without you
You're the one thing I never thought
I could live without
I just found this smile to think about you
You're a Saturday night
Far from the madding crowd
The buskers sing by candle light
In front of Bewleys Store
And a young nun offers me a chair
At a table by the door
And I feel compelled to tell her
Of the sisters that we knew
How when they lit their candles
I'd say a prayer for you

(repeat chorus)

The church bells ring for holy hour
I'm back out in the rain
It's been twenty years or more
Since I last said your name
I hear you live near Dallas now
In a house out on the plains
Why Grafton Street brought you to mind
I really can't explain

(repeat chorus)

On Grafton Street at Christmas time
The elbows push you 'round
All I carry now are memories
I'm a stranger to this town

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Anything You Need But Me

 (Nanci Griffith)


Let me say this one more time
Just in case you didn't hear it right
I'll put it in my own words
So I'll know it's understood
You sent me out on a limb
You brought me home... Sent me back again
...Out on that limb one too many times
You should've known I'd learn to fly

(chorus)
You can have anything on earth you need
Anything that breathes you can surely still it's wings
You can have everything on earth you see
Anything on earth you need but me
You can have anything you need but me now
Anything on earth you need but me
I'm shattered as the broken glass
Around the wreck out on the tracks
You had the very heart of me in your hands with honesty
You rolled it up within your sleeve like a beacon
Then you left it out
In the cold and the rain
I've picked it up and brought it home again

(repeat chorus)

It's time to move the lights are green
After all it's love we need
And if it doesn't dance and breathe
Then it doesn't grow it seems
My headlights catch you with my love upon your sleeve
You're standin' still in the middle of this road
It's time to pass you by and go

(repeat chorus)

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Goodnight To A Mother's Dream

 (Nanci Griffith)


Flippin' bottle caps through the ring around the moon
All alone on a Saturday night with the stars in bloom
I am a vision of my mother's dream come true
Built this house out in the hills
All by my own will
I've got love enough for two
But it's just me and this old moon

(chorus)
And the sailors on the water
...They all want the captain's daughter
They want her beauty and her youth
To grace their bow out on the sea
Me, I'm getting older and I'm plain
As plain can be
Got a bank full of mother's dreams
Maybe mother just didn't see
That love would be the only thing
Her daughter would ever need
(bridge)
Oh, I am the heart not taken
The one thought not worth breakin'
I am the late blooming rose
With only her mother's dream to hold
On this less travelled road
Who really knows
...Maybe the hearts not taken
Are truly made of gold

I'm gonna flip one more bottle cap up at the moon
I've got an early call with so much work to do
But, when I go inside I'm gonna let my back door slam
Mother, to tell you the truth
I would trade your dream away
Just to hear some loved one say
I love you, too

(repeat chorus)

(tag)
Say goodnight to the moon
I'll say I love you to the moon...
And to my mother too
'Buenos suenos' to the moon

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This Heart

 (Nanci Griffith)


This heart was almost taken
This heart had a love of it's own
This heart was reawakened
When you came along

This heart was born feet runnin'
This heart saw your porch light on
This heart hit the sidewalk wonderin'
Why you left it on

(chorus)
This heart was stranded in the winter
Was stuck out in a blizzard in it's summer clothes
This heart knows
When the love comes
And when it goes
This heart hears the telephone ringin'
This heart's gonna let it go
'Cuz this heart knows the bells she's hearin'
Aren't the telephone
This heart has heard your laughter
This heart has learned how to smile
This heart'll be your true believer
If you'll stay awhile

(repeat chorus)

(bridge)
This heart... This heart... This heart
This heart... This heart... This heart

(repeat chorus)

This heart was almost taken
This heart was born feet runnin'
This heart hears the telephone ringin'
Gonna let it go
This heart... This heart... This heart
This heart... This heart... This heart
This heart... This heart... This heart

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