Melissa Etheridge:
"Breakdown" (2000)
Breakdown
Angels Would Fall
Stronger Than Me
Into the Dark
Enough of Me
Truth of the Heart
Mama I'm Strange
Scarecrow
How Would I Know
My Lover
SleepBONUS TRACKS:
Touch and Go
Cherry Avenue
Beloved
breakdown
How could I stay
How could I breathe
There had to be more for me
Promises gone
Plastic and stone
I'm doing fine all alone
So you're having a breakdown
So you're losing the fight
So you're having a breakdown
And I'm driving and crying Unraveled and flying
I'm coming to your breakdown tonight
I cannot run
I cannot hide
It came with me locked inside
The bough will break
Cradle will fall It only takes one call
So you're having a breakdown
So you're losing the fight
So you're having a breakdown
And you need me tonight
I found my place in this downtown
Salt air and yellow street lights
So you're having a breakdown
And I'm driving and crying
Unraveled and flying
I'm coming to you're breakdown tonight
Angels would fall
The rope that's wrapped around me
Is cutting through my skin
And the doubts that have surrounded me
Are finding their way in
I keep it close to me
Like a holy man prays
In my desperate hour
It's better that way
So I'll come by and see you again
I'll be such a very good friend
Have mercy on my soul
I will never let you know
Where my mind has been
Angels never came down
There's no one here they want to hang around
But if they knew
If they knew you at all
Then one by one the angels
Angels would fall
I've crept into your temple
I have slept upon your pew
I've dreamed of the divinity
Inside and out of you
I want it more than truth
I can taste it on my breath
I would give my life just for a little death
So I'll come by and see you again
I'll be just a very good friend
I will not look upon your face
I will not touch upon your grace
Your ecclesiastic skin
I'll come by and see you again
I'll have to be a very good friend
If I whisper they will know
I'll just turn around and go
You will never know my sin
stronger than me
So you closed your eyes in the morning
You said you want to start smoking again
You said you had that dream last night
Of the stranger in your room
You said you want to start making new friends
Well I'd found some peace
You want release
You must be stronger than me
I don't know how you can take it
Invest your heart and then you break it
I don't know how you can set it free
You must be stronger than me
Set it up but it's not perfect
Tear it down cause it's not worth it
If someone else can light your mystery
They must be stronger than me
So I closed my eyes at midnight
Cinderella must go home
But the map was burned
And I've taken a wrong turn
And I found myself alone
I'm tired of this war
I don't want to fight no more
You must be stronger than me
So it's too late then
You could have told me when
Living died and passion lied
Now you're a refugee
Well if it's what you need
Run away from the truth you see
You must be stronger than me
into the dark
There were stairs they were steep
I was falling falling deep
You were there you were small
There was screaming down the hall
I've been here sleeping all these years
There comes a time we all know
There's a place that we must go
Into the soul into the heart
Into the dark
There was fire there was death
There was lying on your breath
I turned away I would pretend
But the burning never ends
I've been here sleeping all these years
There was a wave over the house
There was fear choked in my mouth
You were there you left your mark
As I stumbled in the dark
enough of me
We were all wounded in some domestic war
I found you to settle my score
You looked like father
You felt like mother
My mind told my heart
There is no other
And I gave you my soul
And every ounce of control
I gave you my skin
And my original sin
I gave you my pride and my side
oh my pride
Ain't that enough
I turned your dreams into lightning
Ain't that enough
I held the world back for you
Ain't that enough
I loved you past the point of dying
Ain't that enough of me for you
I was so sure one and one gave you one
My noisy love is coming undone
Now you leave like father
Disappointed like mother
And I know in my heart
There is no other
And I gave you my soul
And every ounce of control
And I gave you my shame
And my eternal flame
And I gave you my need and my seed Oh my need
Why can't you hold on
truth of the heart
I hear your questions
I see your face
Your life before you
Is full of grace
What can I tell you
To let you know
Your angel's eyes
Will watch you grow
Come listen close
And I'll try to let you know
It's all I know
There is no magic
There are no secrets
We all begin this race at the start
But I have come this far
With a truth of the heart
Deep down inside
I think we're all the same
Try not to judge someone
And never shame
I do believe that people are good
They just want hope and respect
And to be understood
Sometimes it hard sometimes it's strange
But the truth of the heart is people can change
Yes there is danger and there are shadows
And there is fear inside the dark
It has powered countries and borne religion
Fear can never rule the heart
My father's burden
My mother's rain
My own desire
My sister's pain
All souls have traveled along this road
Each one has carried their own heavy load
mama i'm strange
What's this little lie
They keep on telling me
It's just another high
They keep on selling me
I was only five
They fed me so much jive
They said just have a ball Just be a Barbie doll
They churned and burned me out
Until they turned me out
Over and over again
Mama I'm strange
The thoughts and the wants are the locks
On the back of my brain
I'm descending pretending I'm blending
I'm going insane
And they want me to change
Mama I'm strange
I'm on a shaky wall
I'm tripping down the hall
And all the king's men can't
Can't sew me up again
I've got a leaky head
Don't know the full extent
I'm drowning in my bed
I'm just an accident
They chewed and blew me out
Until they threw me out
Over and over again
If I could tranquilize
I might just vaporize
They couldn't supervise
They couldn't criticize
I have no evidence
I have no reverence
It makes no difference
I have no innocence
Help me mama help me now
scarecrow
Showers of your crimson blood
Seep into a nation calling up a flood
Of narrow minds who legislate
Thinly veiled intolerance
Bigotry and hate
But they tortured and burned you
They beat you and they tied you
They left you cold and breathing
For love they crucified you
I can't forget hard as I try
This silhouette against the sky
Scarecrow crying
Waiting to die wondering why
Scarecrow trying
Angels will hold carry your soul away
This was our brother
This was our son
This shepherd young and mild
This unassuming one
We all gasp this can't happen here
We're all much too civilized
Where can these monsters hide
But they are knocking on our front door
They're rocking in our cradles
They're preaching in our churches
And eating at our tables
I search my soul
My heart and in my mind
To try and find forgiveness
This is someone child
With pain unreconciled
Filled up with father's hate
Mother's neglect
I can forgive But I will not forget
Scarecrow crying
Waiting to die wondering why
Scarecrow trying
Rising above all in the name of love
how would i know
You say you don't feel like yourself
Does that mean you're somebody else
How would I know
Oh you say you just don't feel quite right today
Does that mean that you're slipping away
How would I know
You might believe there's a paradise
In the next hello
How would I know
If you don't tell me so
If you wanted to go
How would I know
You say you don't know what you're doing here
Does that mean you might disappear
How would I know
You might feel that there's something real
In the next hello
my lover
No one conceals me like
No one reveals me like
My lover
No one can disconnect
No one can resurrect
Like my lover
My lover makes me weak
Gives me breath to speak
My lover takes me home
Cools the rolling stone
My lover's thorny kiss
The reason to exist
I wonder
No one can saturate
No one manipulates
Like my lover
The sensuality
It's immortality
My lover
My lover needs to seize
Bring me to my knees
Reads me like a prayer
Calls the spirit there
Secretly inspires
Strips me to desire
I wonder
No one can visualize
No one can make me rise
Like my lover
They dream of paradise
They'll never ever pay the price
My lover
sleep
After your laughter like thunder
After your skin like coffee and cream
After it takes our bodies into the night
After we've come to the extreme
I want to lay down on your shoulder
Just inside your arm
I want to listen to your heart beat
And your breathing on and on
I want to lay down on your shoulder
Surrender to your peace
And go to sleep
And when we've gone a million miles
Made true our dreams with sweat and bone
After we've built it up with our bare hands
Made strong a place we can call home
And when the light in my eye is fading
When running water becomes too deep
Finally angels turn my fire to dust
And when my soul's no longer mine to keep
I want to lay down on your shoulder
Just inside your arm
I want to listen to your heartbeat
And your breathing on and on
I want to lay down on your shoulder
Surrender to the peace
And just go to sleep
Touch And Go
(M. Etheridge)
In a room full of silver shadows
A customary kiss goodnight
And it slips through your tightened shoulders
It reaches your heart and dies
And the sadness is bound to kill me
But i'm too far away to care
And i'd just like to know if you will
Could i even get there
Oh back to the touch and go
When not a soul could know
When you lovin' was slow
We lived every night for the touch and go
Now there's no one in the night to blame you
No one in your glasses of wine
I never won i only tamed you
Foolishly i called you mine
And you're pacing your cage every morning
And you rattle your chains every night
And you stare past the bars never knowing
With nothing left to put up a fight
Then we would touch and go
When not a soul could know oh your lovin' was slow
And we lived every night for the touch
Oh remember
The touch and go
When not a soul could know
Oh when your lovin' was slow
We lived every night for the touchÉ. and go
Are you still breathing
Tonight the scent is in the city
Tonight it's on the radio
Tonight I'll leave the key beside the door
Tonight I'm gonna touch and go
Cherry Avenue
(M. Etheridge)
And so you meet me
Down at the bar
7th and Cherry
That's where we are
And I promise not to take you down too far
Beetle takes a dollar
Benz will make a drink
Two will see you hollar
No one wants to think
And it's Que Sera Sera in black and pink
And so we dance
And my feet get lazy
All the stiffs here
They know I'm crazy for you
And so we dance
And the beat gets lost
And this jealous fool
Will pay the cost for you
On Cherry Avenue
Is this a crime
Or just a clear scheme
I want to make you mine
All your roads are green
And I promise not to show you what I've seen
Now it's closing time
Benz wipes down the bar
Beetle kills the lights
Cherry after dark
Beloved
(M. Etheridge)
Someone's shouting at me
You're all going to hell
Must not be too far away
Sometimes I can never tell
My shoes are still as empty
A mile they never walked
Send in their donations
And they never have to talk again
My beloved
The only one I see standing up for me
My beloved
Close my eyes heal my pride
I just want to show them who I am
I just want to show them what I can do
There's not much use to curse the damned
And there's power in nothing to lose
Someone's spittin' blood
Face down in the dirt
Someone's thinking about a gun
To try and stop the hurt
Someone drew conclusions
On the wall of destiny
Someone's gettin' louder
And that someone would be me
You think if you don't answer
The world will pass you by
But there's a fire in your kitchen
And the water's three feet high and risin'
© Melissa Etheridge.