STORMS



Track Listing:



Back to the album listing

I Don't Wanna Talk About Love

 (Nanci Griffith/James Hooker)


I don't wanna talk about love
Cuz I've heard it before . . .
and it talks too loud
You can hear it in a disco midnight . . .
Shouting
I don't wanna think about it
Think about it
It comes dressed in its summer clothes
When you're traveling through the heart
of the winter's cold

I don't wanna talk about changes
Changes come of their own free will
And if you wanna talk about leavin'
Well, you've always walked . . .
And, you always will
Every time you talk about love
You talk about your yesterdays
Yesterday's washing away
with this morning's rain

I don't wanna talk about it
Cuz love has a voice of its own
If all we do is try to out shout it
. . . then the love is gone

(chorus)
I don't wanna talk about love now
I don't wanna talk about love now
I don't wanna talk about love now
I don't wanna talk about love now . . .
Can't you hear the voice of my heart
It calls your name in the middle of the night
It's always been a quiet voice
when it's breaking
I don't wanna talk about this love
This love was my saving grace
So, can't I just say that I love you . . .
and we'll call it a day?

(repeat chorus)

Back to Track Listing:

Drive-In Movies And Dashboard Lights

 (Nanci Griffith)


Sister had a crystal voice
She played a Silvertone from Montgomery Ward
Baez songs in Monroe hair
She sure could turn the boys' heads to stare
Swim wear saunter, tan and haunt them
that's all she learned in school
Books were for the other girls
and the other girls were fools
In Texas back in sixty-nine
it was drive-in movies and dashboard lights

Father waltzed her down the aisle
cuz college didn't suit her style
The sad truth was that she could barely read
but, if you'd told dear Father . . .
he wouldn't believe you
The telephone rang . . . it drove Mother insane
from the hearts left on the shelf
Sister's gone and she won't be home
Cuz she didn't take care of herself
In Texas back in sixty-nine
it was drive-in movies and dashboard lights

(chorus)
Where is she now?
The backseat Queen of fraternity
Where is she now?
She is heavy of thigh and light on integrity
Someone should've told her
when beauty's all you offer
Too soon the world discovers that your
beauty's gone
(It's gone . . .)
Mother can't you hear your daughter crying
Father wake up her youth is dying
Her kids are grown . . . Husband's gone away
it's a shame cuz she had such a lovely face
Can't you see she needed more
than, "Oh, what a pretty child"?
You never taught her truth from lie
all you told her was to smile
In Texas back in sixty-nine
it was drive-in movies and dashboard lights

(repeat chorus)

In Texas back in sixty-nine
it was drive-in movies and dashboard . . . lights

Back to Track Listing:

You Made This Love A Teardrop

 (Nanci Griffith)


What've you got to say for yourself, now baby
Now that I am leaving you
what have you got to lose?
The truth you tried to keep from me
well, it nearly drove me crazy
And I have grown weary
from sleepless nights of you
Is that a broken heart in the corner of your eye?
Something to remind you?

(chorus)
You made this love a teardrop
waiting to fall
There are those who can't love right
I just can't love wrong
When you are lonely in the night
how I hope you will recall
You made this love a teardrop
waiting to fall
No, I will not forgive you for betraying trust
between us
Though I will always care for you
I've loved you half my life
And when I give my heart again
I know that I'll remember
love is but a fragile flame
and trust just fuels the fire
When I think of all the years your love has taken
from me
I can't believe I'm leaving you

(repeat chorus twice)

Back to Track Listing:

Brave Companion Of The Road

 (Nanci Griffith)


Where are you going there?
With your suitcase by the back porch stairs
with my heart in your hand
in this cold December wind again
The cafes and bars are closed
the Christmas lights are veiled in snow
Tell me, where are you going?
My brave companion of the road

(chorus)
It seems to me that you are lonelier
than I've ever seen you be
Oh, it's plain to see
that you've gone crazier
than you ever thought you'd be
When the lights go down
and the dance floor is empty
and the crowd is going home
. . . I will be waiting
for my brave companion of the road
Some days come up roses
Some days just come and go
Some nights are so ruthless
that you can't recall the day before
This love has seen better days
than home for these holidays
Cuz this love has miles for sense of place
oh, my brave companion of the road

(repeat chorus)

Tell me, where are you going?
My brave companion of the road

Back to Track Listing:

Storms

 (Eric Taylor)


As quiet as a street lamp
This is some kinda town
Whiskey go easy
When the sun goes down
My best to the midnight . . .
God, look at the moon
There's enough for two shadows
There's only one in the room
there's only one in the room

(chorus)
There's a storm out on the water
Oh, bless the ships at sea
There's a storm down in my lover's heart
Oh, God bless me
I wanna be blown by the wind of his
breathing
Shown by lightening flashing
Oh, I've never been afraid of the thunder
I wonder
Will he rain on me?
Is loneliness contagious?
Another damn song about a waitress
It's the only hotel here
. . . and the engine's gotta cool
I'm a bad hand at solitaire
You lie to yourself and no one cares
While the wall paper fades . . .
The sun takes the moon
There should be two to a room

(repeat chorus)

There's a storm out on the water . . . will he rain on me?

Back to Track Listing:

It's A Hard Life Wherever You Go

 (Nanci Griffith)


I am a backseat driver from America
They drive to the left on Falls Road
The man at the wheel's name is Seamus
We pass a child on the corner he knows
And Seamus says, "Now, what chance has that
kid got?"
And I say from the back, "I don't know."
He says, "There's barbed wire at all of these exits . . .
And there ain't no place in Belfast for that kid
to go."

(chorus)
It's a hard life
It's a hard life
It's a very hard life
It's a hard life wherever you go
If we poison our children with hatred
then, the hard life is all that they'll know
And there ain't no place in (Belfast) for
these kids to go
(Chicago)
(This world)
A cafeteria line in Chicago
The fat man in front of me
Is calling black people trash to his children
he's the only trash here I see
And I'm thinking this man wears a white hood
in the night when his children should sleep
But, they slip to their window and they see him
And they think that white hood's all they need

(repeat chorus)

I was a child in the sixties
dreams could be held through TV
With Disney, and Cronkite, and Martin Luther
Oh, I believed, I believed . . . I BELIEVED
Now, I am the backseat driver from America
I am not at the wheel of control
I am guilty, I am war, . . . I am the root of all evil
Lord, and I can't drive on the left side of the road

(repeat chorus)

Back to Track Listing:

If Wishes Were Changes

 (Nanci Griffith/James Hooker)


I wish that you loved me
the way that I love you
I wish I had Angels
who sang in my dreams
If wishes were changes
we'd all live in roses
and there wouldn't be children
who cried in their sleep

He wishes I loved him
the way that I love you
If wishes were changes
I'd dry all his tears
If wishes were changes
I'd make him my anchor
He'd be my Angel
who sang through the years

(chorus)
So long to the blue days of wishing
If wishes were changes
there'd be no goodbyes
So long to the heart I have given
Cuz wishing won't bring back
the love in your eyes
I wish that I had your
wings of desire
I wish I had seen you
as I see you now
I wouldn't feel sorrow
you've left here inside me
But, wishing won't change
right from wrong for you now

(repeat chorus)

(first verse repeat)

Back to Track Listing:

Listen To The Radio

 (Nanci Griffith)


I am leaving Mississippi in the evening rain
These Delta towns wear satin gowns
in a high beamed frame
Loretta Lynn guides my hands through the radio
Where would I be in times like these
without the songs Loretta wrote?

(chorus)
When you can't find a friend
you've still got the radio
When you can't find a friend
you've still got the radio
Radio . . . listen to the radio
Radio . . . listen to the radio
I left a handsome two stepped good ole boy in
Tennessee
Now, he's sittin' on the sofa, lookin' for his supper,
wonderin' what's become of me
I've got a double-o-eighteen Martin guitar in the
back seat of the car
Hey, I'm leaving Mississippi . . .
With the radio on

(repeat chorus)

There's a moon across the border in the Louisiana
sky
I smell the Pontchartrain, I hear Silver Wings
then, away Merle Haggard flies
That good ole boy will find a Band of Gold
on the stereo
Hey, then my Mama's gonna call and say,
"Where's she gone?"
He'll say, "Down the road with the radio on."

Back to Track Listing:

Leaving The Harbor

 (Nanci Griffith)


When you are leaving the harbor
Do you cry out to the shore?
Do you bless the wave of the ocean
Do you call your vessel home?

As you leave the safest harbor
Do you wonder where you'll go?
When you feel your bough is breaking
do you call that harbor home?

When you sing the lullabye
do you sing it for the song?
Or do you love the way it slides
like velvet 'cross your tongue?

And as you sing the lullabye
do you savor every line?
Or do they flow as one with your heatbeat
with your voice and your mind?

If you turn the light out in the hallway
will your shadow lose its way?
Or do we share these shadows in the darkness
and they move from place to place?

We could share a shadow in the darkness
as shadows have no face
But should you sell our soul to the darkness
Can you face the light of day?

When you are leaving the harbor
Do you cry out to the shore
Oh, do you bless the wave of the ocean?
Do you call your vessel home?
Oh, do you bless the wave of the ocean?
Do you call your vessel home?

Back to Track Listing:

Radio Fragile

 (Nanci Griffith/James Hooker)


We all said you'd never make it
Cuz you had that fragile heart
And you were odd within the ways of the social
You through a caution to us all
And now when the late night drinkers
gather for their falls
Someone says they've seen you out there
laughing at us all

You mourned the cause of discontent
with those who couldn't loose the dark
From the broad of daylight to half spent stars . . .
Just waiting dusk to fall
Tell me, what the hell were you saying?
Was there a point to it all?
Oh, and did they really see you out there . . .

(chorus)
Is there anybody out there?
Is there anybody out there?
Oh, were you really out there . . .
Laughing at us all?
The midnight boy from Minnesota
shut you down and stole the show
They say that you were bitter in your anguish
Cuz it was you they ought to hold
You wore your causes on your sleeve
like a beacon wears the dark
It's only right you should be out there
laughing at us all

Now you are only dust for art
You're a shadow to recall
For all of those late night drinkers
in their ragged lonely bars
And we all said you'd never make it
cuz you had that fragile heart
Now, all our hearts you held are wasted
you're out there laughing at us all . . .

(repeat chorus twice)

Back to Track Listing:

Back to the album listing

1