Rites Of Passage Producer: Peter Collins ©1992 Three Hits Galileo Ghost Joking Jonas & Ezekial Love Will Come To You Romeo & Juliet Virginia Woolf Chickenman Airplane Nashville Let It Be Me Cedar Tree

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Three Hits
Words and Music: Amy Ray
(Dedicated to the memory of a great poet, Frank Stanford)

Three hits to the heart son and it's poetry in motion
One could send you down the river three's a strange way to be delivered
Would you trade your words for freedom that's a barter for a blind man
Three hits to the heart son and it's poetry in motion

Are you leveed like a treasure only words can help me find you
And this world's a fickle measure I will painfully remind you
From a wise man to your red hand you lay covered in our best sins
Three hits to the heart son and it's poetry in motion

Well I dream you constant stranger with your best bloods and your anger
You say mother do you claim me my beloved do you blame me
Well the first two might release you but the last one sings in me son
Three hits to the heart son and it's poetry in motion

Three hits to the heart son and the last one sings in me

Galileo
Words and Music: Emily Saliers

Galileo's head was on the block
The crime was looking up the truth
And as the bombshells of my daily fears explode
I try to trace them to my youth

And then you had to bring up reincarnation
Over a couple of beers the other night
And now I'm serving time for mistakes made by another
In another lifetime

How long till my soul gets it right
Can any human being ever reach that kind of light
I call on the resting soul of Galileo
King of night vision
King of insight

I think about my fear of motion
Which I never could explain
Some other fool across the ocean years ago
Must have crashed his little airplane

How long till my soul gets it right
Can any human being ever reach that kind of light
I call on the resting soul of Galileo
King of night vision
King of insight

I'm not making a joke you know me I take everything so seriously
If we wait for the time till all souls get it right
Then at least I know there'll be no nuclear annihalation in my lifetime
I'm still not right

I offer thanks to those before me that's all I've got to say
Cause maybe you squandered big bucks in your lifetime
Now I have to pay
But then again it feels like some sort of inspiration
To let the next life off the hook
Or she'll say
Look what I had to overcome from my last life
I think I'll write a book

How long till my soul gets it right (till my soul gets it right)
Can any human being ever reach the highest light
Except for Galileo (resting soul)
Resting soul (of Galileo)
King of night vision
King of insight

How long? (till my soul gets it right) (till we reach the highest light)
How long? (till my soul gets it right) (till we reach the hightest light)
How long?

Ghost
Words and Music: Emily Saliers

There's a letter on the desktop that I dug out of a drawer
The last truce we ever came to from our adolescent war
And I start to feel the fever of the warm air through the screen
You come regular like seasons shadowing my dreams

The Mississippi's mighty, but it starts in Minnesota
At a place where you can walk across with five steps down
And that's just how you started like a pinprick to my heart
But at this point you rush right through me and I start to drown

There's not enough room in this world for my pain
Signals crossed and love gets lost and time passed makes it plain
Of all my demon spirits I need you the most
I'm in love with your ghost
I'm in love with your ghost

Dark and dangerous like a secret it gets whispered in a hush (don't tell a soul)
And when I wake the things I dreamt about you last night make me blush (don't tell a soul)
When you kiss me like a lover and you sting me like a viper
I go follow to the river play your memory like the piper

And I feel it like a sickness how this love is killing me
But I would walk into the fingers of your fire willingly
Dance the edge of sanity I've never been this close
In love with your ghost
oooooh-oooooooh-ooooooh-oooooooooh
oooooh-oooooooh-ooooooh-oooooooooh

Unknowing captor you'll never know how much you
Pierce my spirit but I can't touch you
Can you hear it a cry to be free
Oh I'm forever under lock and key
As you pass through me

Now I see your face before me I would launch a thousand ships
To bring your heart back to my island as the sand beneath me slips
I burn up in your presence and I know now how it feels
To be weakened like Achilles with you always at my heels

This bitter pill to swallow is the silence that I keep
It poisons me I can't swim free the river is too deep
Though I'm baptized by your touch I am no worse at most
In love with your ghost

Joking
Words and Music: Amy Ray

You said the world was magic I was wide-eyed and laughing
We were dancing up to the bright side
Forget about your ego forget about your pride
And we will never have to compromise

And you were only joking
You were only joking brother

We talked about mothers kissing the wounds of our fathers
I could have been your sister I would have been your brother
You kissed me like a soldier heading for a war
I'm a dying man but I don't know what for

But you were only joking
You were only joking brother
You were only joking
You were only joking brother

Gravel and glass on the bottom of my feet
I bruised my heels on the swollen street
We were girls in bars, boys on the town
Bumping like a pinball off a careless crowd
You said good friends are hard to come by
I laughed and bought you a beer it's too corny to cry
Well sentiments given, sentiments lost
You shook it off with a smirk and a toss

You were only joking
You were only joking brother

And you were only, you were only, you were only joking
Brother

1 - 2 - 3 - 4

Sha na
Sha na
Sha na
Sha na
Sha na (Wide-eyed and laughing)
Sha na ( Dancing up to the bright side)
Sha na ( Wide-eyed and laughing)
Sha na ( Dancing up to the bright side)

woooooo-hoooooooo

Jonas & Ezekial
Words and Music: Amy Ray

I left my anger in a river running highway five
New Hampshire, Vermont border by
College farms, hubcaps, falling rocks
Voices in the woods and the mountaintops

I used to search for reservations and native lands
Before I realized everywhere I stand
There have been tribal feet running wild as fire
Some past life sister of my desire

Jonas and Ezekial hear me now
Steady now and don't come out
I'm not ready for the dead to show its face
Whose turn is it anyway

Now when I was young my people taught me well
Give back what you take or you'll go to hell
It's not the devil's land you know it's not that kind
Every devil I meet becomes a friend of mine
Every devil I meet is an angel in disguise

Jonas and Ezekial hear me now
Steady now and don't come out
I'm not ready for the dead to show its face
Whose angel are you anyway

aaah-aaaaah-aaah-aah

White chain rope darling
Fear be still my dear
A bullet in the head now he's dead
A friend of a friend someone said
He was an activist with a very short life
I think there's a lesson here he died without a fight
In the war over land where the world began
Prophecy say that's where the world will end
But there's a tremor growing in our own backyard
Fear in our heads fear in our hearts
Prophets in the graveyard

Jonas and Ezekial hear me now
Steady now and don't come out
I'm not ready for the dead to show its face
Whose turn is it anyway
Jonas, Ezekial, hear me now
Steady now I feel your ghost about
I'm not ready for the dead to show its face
Whose angel are you anyway

Love Will Come To You
Words and Music: Emily Saliers

I guess I wasn't the best one to ask
Me myself with my face pressed up against love's glass
To see the shiny toy I've been hoping for
The one I never could afford
The wide world spins and spits turmoil and the nations toil
For peace
The pause of fear upon her chest
Only love can sooth that beast
And my words are paper tigers
No match for the predator of pain inside her

I said love will come to you
Hoping just because I spoke the words that they're true
If I offered up a crystal ball to look through
Where there's now one there will be two

I was born under the sign of cancer (Love will come to you)
Like brushing cloth I smooth the wrinkles for an answer (Love will come to you)
I'm always closing my eyes and wishing I'm fine
Even though I'm not this time

I said love will come to you
Hoping just because I spoke the words that they're true
If I offered up a crystal ball to look through
Where there's now one there will be two

Dodging your memories a field of knives
I'm always on the outside looking in on others' lives

I said love will come to you
Hoping just because I spoke the words that they're true
And if I've offered up a crystal ball to look through
Where there's now one there will be two

And I wish her insight to battle love's blindness
Strength from the milk of human kindness
Safe place for all the pieces that scatter
Learn to pretend there's more than love that matters

Romeo & Juliet
Words & Music: Mark Knopfler

A love struck Romeo sings the streets a serenade
He's laying everybody low
He's got a love song that he made
He finds a convenient streetlight and he steps out of the shade
And says something like
"You and me, babe, how about it?"

Juliet says, "Hey, it's Romeo!
You nearly gave me a heart attack"
Yeah well, he's underneath the window now she's singing,
"Hey, la, my boyfriend's back
You shouldn't come around here singing up to people like that"
Oh anyway whatcha gonna do about it?

Juliet
The dice were loaded from the start
And I bet and you exploded into my heart
And I forgit, I forget the movie song
Now when you gonna realize it was just that the time was wrong
Julie

We both come up on different streets
And they both were streets of shame
Both dirty both mean
Yes and even the dreams were the same
Well I dreamed your dream for you and now your dream is real
So tell me honey
Now how can you look at me as if I was just another one of your deals

Now you can fall for chains of silver
And you can fall for chains of gold
You fall for pretty strangers
And the promises they hold
Well you promised me everything and then you promised me thick and thin
But now you just turn away and you say,
"Romeo, I think I used to have a scene with him

Oh Juliet
When we made love you used to cry
You said "I love you like the stars above
Gonna love you till I die"
There's a place for us I know you know this song
Now when you gonna realize
It was just that the time was wrong
Julie
I'm so in love

But I can't do the talk like they talk on my TV screen
I can't do a love song not the way you sung it to me
I can't do everything but I would do anything for you
Ah no I can't do anything except be in love with you...yeah

Now all I do is miss you
And the way it used to be
And all I do is keep the beat
I keep bad, bad company
And all I do is kiss you
Through the bars of this rhyme
When Julie, I'd do the stars with you
Anytime

Oh Juliet
When we made love I used to cry
I said I'll love you like the stars above
I'm gonna love you till I die
There's a place for us
I know you know the movie song
One day we're gonna realize
It was just that the time was wrong
Julie
Julie
Julie

Now this love struck Romeo he sings the streets a serenade
He's laying everybody low he's got a love song that he made
And he finds a convenient streetlight and he'll step out of the shade and he'll say something like
"You and me, babe, how about it?"

Vocals & Acoustic Guitar: Amy Ray

Virginia Woolf
Words and Music: Emily Saliers

Some will strut and some will fret
See this an hour on the stage
Others will not but they'll sweat
In their hopelessness in their rage
We're all the same the men of anger and the women of the page

They published your diary and that's how I got to know you
Key to the room of your own and a mind without end
And here's a young girl on a kind of a telephone line through time
And the voice at the other end comes like a long lost friend

So I know I'm alright life will come and life will go
Still I feel it's alright cause I just got a letter to my soul
When my whole life is on the tip of my tongue
Empty pages for the no longer young
The apathy of time laughs in my face
You said, "Each life has its place"

The hatches were battened the thunderclouds rolled and the critics stormed
The battle surrounded the white flag of your youth
If you need to know that you weathered the storm of cruel mortality
A hundred years later I'm sitting here living proof

So you know you're alright life will come and life will go
Still you feel it's alright someone'll get a letter to your soul
When your whole life is on the tip of your tongue
Empty pages for the no longer young
The apathy of time laughed in your face
Did you hear me say, "Each life has its place"

The place where you hold me dark in a pocket of truth
The moon had swallowed the sun and the light of the earth
And so it was for you when the river eclipsed your life
And sent your soul like a message in a bottle to me and it was my rebirth

Chickenman
Words and Music: Amy Ray

I am an only child born of the wild
Riddled to spend my time defending the land
You are the only one born in the sun
Riddled to spend your time defending my plan

Dead dog on the highway
Median cats are growling at me
I turn my lights on brighter
I'm counting through the night ride

And it's one more life for the taker (Chickenman Chickenman)
And it's one more song for the maker(Chickenman Chickenman)

On the road to Athens
I saw a dead deer on the highway
I slipped into a desert
I killed five prairie dogs and a rabbit

I was running down on Queen Street
I saw a woman on the sidewalk
She was beaten by a stranger
Danger danger danger

And it's one more life for the taker (Chickenman Chickenman Chickenman hold my hand)
And it's one more song for the maker (Hold my hand Chickenman)

I was on the road to Austin
I met this man on the highway
He sold me junk and conversation
He was wise and dirty from the weather

I said darkness goes into darkness
All the carnage of my journeys
Makes it hard to keep on giving
He said you got a lot of road left child, you better start living

Give me one more life then, he said you gotta pay for that Chickenman
Give me one more song then, he said you gotta pay for that too Chickenman
Give me one more, one more, Chickenman Chickenman Chickenman hold my hand

I am an only child born of the wild
Riddled to spend my time defending the land
You are the only one born in the sun
Riddled to spend your time defending my plan

I went looking for a car, found myself beneath the stars
I went looking for a girl, found a man and his world

Chickenman Chickenman Chickenman hold my hand (hold my hand)
Chickenman Chickenman Chickenman hold my hand (hold my hand)
Chickenman Chickenman Chickenman hold my hand (hold my hand)
Chickenman Chickenman Chickenman hold my hand

Airplane
Words and Music: Emily Saliers

Up on the airplane
Nearer my God to thee
I start making a deal
Inspired by gravity

If I did wrong I won't do it again
Cause I can be sweet and good and nice
And if I had enemies their friends
I'll hold on to my life with the grip of a vice

And I'm up on the airplane
Nearer my God to thee
I start making a deal
Inspired by gravity

That little spot on the ground is my hometown
I like to call it my home and it's sweet
I'd rather take a seat down there than a throne up here
Up above 30,000 feet
And I'm up on the airplane

I never should have read my horoscope
Or the fortune on the bubble gum strip
Saying what you think won't happen will
a great thing to read before a trip
On an airplane

Pilot says the big blue sky's like a swimming pool
Big fluffy clouds like a feather bed
But I'd rather have a real pillow underneath my head
Lying in my bed which is in my hometown which is
On the ground
Far from an airplane (my bed my hometown)
Far from an airplane (on the ground my bed my hometown)
Far from an airplane (on the ground my bed my hometown)
On the airplane (on the ground) (I'll be making a deal)
On the airplane (on the ground) (I'll be making a deal)
On the airplane (I'll be making a deal)
(I'll be making a deal)

Nashville
Words and Music: Amy Ray

As I drive from your pearly gates
I realize that I just can't stay
All those mountains they kept you locked inside
And hid the truth from my slighted eyes

I came to you with a half-open heart
Dreams upon my back illusions of a brand new start
Nashville
Can' I carry the load
Is it my fault I can't reap what I sow
Nashville
Did you give me half a chance
Withe your Southern style and your hidden dance
Away and you dance away and you dance away

All these voices they whisper through my walls
They talk of falling fast they say I'm losing it all
They say I'm running blind to love of my own
But I'll be walking proud I'm saving what I still own

I fell on my knees to kiss your land
But you are so far down I can't even see to stand
Nashville
You forgot the human race
You see with half a mind what colors hide the face
Nashville
I'd like to know your fate
I'd like to stay awhile but I've seen your lowered state today
I've seen it today honey I swear I've seen it today

Now I'm leaving I got all these debts to pay
You know we all have our dues I'll pay 'em some other place
I never ask that you pay me back
We all arrive with more I left with less than I had

Your town is made for people passing through
A last chance for a cause I thought you knew
Nashville
Tell me what you are gonna do
With all your Southern style it'll never pull you through
Nashville
I can't place no blame
But if you forget my face I'll never call your name again
Never no never again ah no

I fell on my knees to kiss your land
But you are so far down I can't even see to stand
Nashville
You forgot the human race
You see with half a mind what colors hide the face
Nashville
I'd like to know your fate
I'd like to stay a while but I've seen your lowered state today
I've seen 'em today honey I swear I've seen 'em today
I'm running away I'm running away I'm running I'm running away

Let It Be Me
Words and Music: Emily Saliers

Sticks and stones battle zones
A single light bulb on a single thread for the black
Sirens wail history fails
Rose-colored glass begins to age and crack
While the politicians shadowbox the power ring
And an endless split decision never solve anything
From a neighbor's distant land
I heard the strain of the common man

Let it be me (this is not a fighting song)
Let it be me (not a wrong for a wrong)
Let it be me
If the world is night
Shine my life like a light

Well the world seems spent and the president
Has no good idea who the masses are
Well I'm one of them and I'm among friends
We're trying to see beyond the fences in our own backyards
I've seen the kingdoms blow like ashes in the winds of change
But the power of truth is the fuel for the flame
So the darker the ages get
There's a stronger beacon yet

Let it be me (this is not a fighting song)
Let it be me (not a wrong for a wrong)
Let it be me
If the world is night
Shine my life like a light

In the kind word you speak
In the turn of the cheek
When your vision stays clear
In the face of your fear
Then you see turning out a light switch is their only power
When we stand like spotlights in a mighty tower
All for one and one for all
Then we sing the common call

Let it be me (this is not a fighting song)
Let it be me (not a wrong for a wrong)
Let it be me
If the world is night
Shine my life like a light

Cedar Tree
Words and Music: Amy Ray

You dug a well, you dug it deep
For every wife you buried you planted a cedar tree
The best, the best you ever had

I stand where you stood, I stand for bad or good
And I am green and you are wood
The best, the best he ever had

I dig a well, I dig it deep
And for my only love I plant a cedar tree
The best, the best we ever had