10000 MANIACS – Verdi Cries

The man in 119 takes his tea alone.
Mornings we all rise to wireless Verdi cries.
I’m hearing opera through the door.
The souls of men and women, impassioned all.
Their voices climb and fall; battle trumpets call.
I fill the bath and climb inside, singing.

He will not touch their pastry
but every day they bring him more.
Gold from the breakfast tray, I steal them all away
and then go and eat them on the shore.

I draw a jackal-headed woman in the sand,
sing of a lover’s fate sealed by jealous hate
then wash my hand in the sea.
With just three days more I’d have just about learned the entire score to Aida.

Holidays must end as you know.
All is memory taken home with me:
the opera, the stolen tea, the sand drawing, the verging sea, all years ago.

10000 MANIACS – What’s The Matter Here

That young boy without a name anywhere I’d know his face.
In this city the kid’s my favorite.
I’ve seen him. I see him every day.
Seen him run outside looking for a place to hide from his father,
the kid half naked and said to myself “O, what’s the matter here?”
I’m tired of the excuses everybody uses, he’s their kid I stay out of it,
but who gave you the right to do this?

We live on Morgan Street;
just ten feet between and his mother, I never see her,
but her screams and cussing, I hear them every day.
Threats like: “If you don’t mind I will beat on your behind,”
“Slap you, slap you silly.”
made me say, “O, what’s the matter here?”
I’m tired of the excuses everybody uses, he’s your kid, do as you see fit,
but get this through that I don’t approve of what you did to you own flesh and blood.

“If you don’t sit on this chair straight
I’ll take this belt from around my waist and don’t think that I won’t use it!”

Answer me and take your time,
what could be the awful crime he could do at such young an age?
If I’m the only witness to your madness offer me some words to balance out what I see and what I hear.
Oh these cold and lowly things that you do I suppose you do because he belongs to you
and instead of love and the feel of warmth you’ve given him these cuts and sores don’t heal with time or with age.

And I want to say “What’s the Matter here?”
But I don’t dare say.

10000 MANIACS – The Painted Desert

The Painted Desert can wait till summer.
We’ve played this game of just imagine long enough.
Wait till summer?
When I’m sure the rains have ended, the blooms have gone,
everyone killed by the morning frost.
Is a cactus blooming there in every roadside stand
where the big deal is cowboy gear won in Japan?

The Painted Desert can wait till summer.
We’ve played this game of just imagine long enough.
Wait till summer?
When I’m sure the rains have ended and the blooms have gone,
everyone killed by the morning frost.
Is a cactus blooming there upon the Northern rim
or in the ruins of the Hopi mesa dens?

You met a new friend in the Canyon, or so you wrote.
On a blanket in the cooling sand you and your friend agreed that
the stars were so many there they seemed to overlap.

The Painted Desert can wait till summer.
We’ve played this game of just imagine long enough.
Wait till summer?
When I am sure the rain has ended, the blooms have gone,
everyone killed by the morning frost.
Was a cactus blooming there as you watched the Native boy?
In Flagstaff trailer court, you wrote the line:
“He kicked a tumbleweed and his mother called him home where the Arizona moon met the Arizona sun.”

I wanted to be there by May at the latest time.
Isn’t that the plan we had or have you changed your mind?
I haven’t read a word from you since Phoenix or Tucson.
April is over will you tell me how long before I can be there?

10000 MANIACS – These Are Days

These are the days.

These are days you’ll remember.
Never before and never since, I promise, will the whole world be warm as this.
And as you feel it, you’ll know it’s true that you are blessed and lucky.
It’s true that you are touched by something that will grow and bloom in you.

These are days you’ll remember.
When May is rushing over you with desire to be part of the miracles you see in
Every hour.
You’ll know it’s true that you are blessed and lucky.
It’s true that you are touched by something that will grow and bloom in you.

These are days.

These are the days you might fill with laughter until you break.
These days you might feel a shaft of light make its way across your face.
And when you do you’ll know how it was meant to be.
See the signs and know their meaning.
It’s true, you’ll know how it was meant to be.
Hear the signs and know they’re speaking to you, to you.

10000 MANIACS – Trouble Me

Trouble me, disturb me with all your cares and your worries.
Trouble me on the days when you feel spent.
Why let your shoulders bend underneath this burden when my back is sturdy and strong?
Trouble me.

Speak to me, don’t mislead me, the calm I feel means a storm is swelling;
there’s no telling where it starts or how it ends.
Speak to me, why are you building this thick brick wall to defend me when your silence is my greatest fear?
Why let your shoulders bend underneath this burden when my back is sturdy and strong?
Speak to me.

Let me have a look inside these eyes while I’m learning.
Please don’t hide them just because of tears.
Let me send you off to sleep with a “There, there, now stop your turning and tossing.”
Let me know where the hurt is and how to heal.

Spare me? Don’t spare me anything troubling.
Trouble me, disturb me with all your cares and your worries.
Speak to me and let our words build a shelter from the storm.
Lastly, let me know what I can mend.
There’s more, honestly, than my sweet friend, you can see.
Trust is what I’m offering if you trouble me.

10000 MANIACS – Noah’s Dove

You won a prize for that,
for telling lies like that
So well that I believed it.
And I never felt cheated.
You were the chosen one,
the pure eyes of Noah’s dove.
Choir boys and angels
stole your lips and your halo.
In your reckless mind,
you act as if you’ve got more lives.
In your reckless eyes, you only have time and your love of danger
to it you’re no stranger.
In that August breeze
of those forgotten trees,
your time was set for leaving,
come a colder season.
In your reckless mind,
you act as if you’re got more lives
In your reckless eyes,
it’s never too late for a chance to seize some final breath of freedom.
Very, so very wise.

Don’t reveal it. I’m tired, tired of knowing
where it is you’re going.
In your reckless mind,
you act as if you’ve got more lives.
In your reckless eyes,
it’s never too late for your love of danger
to it you’re no stranger.
In your reckless mind,
you act as if you’ve got more lives.
In your reckless eyes, it’s never too late
for a chance to seize some
final breath of freedom

10000 MANIACS – Please Forgive Us

“Mercy, mercy,” why didn’t we hear it?
“Mercy, mercy,” why did we read it buried on the last page of our morning
papers?
The plan was drafted, drafted in secret.
Gunboats met the red tide, driven to the rum trade for the army that they
created.
But the bullets were bought by us, it was dollars that paid them.

Please forgive us, we don’t know what was done,
Please forgive us, we don’t know what was done in our name.

There’ll be more trials like this in mercenary heydays.
When they’re so apt to wrap themselves up in the stripes and stars and find that
they are able to call themselves heroes and to justify murder by their fighters
for freedom.

Please forgive us, we don’t know what was done.
Please forgive us, we didn’t know.
Could you ever forgive us? I don’t know how you could.

I know this is no consolation.
Please forgive us, we don’t know what was done,
Please forgive us, we didn’t know.
Could you ever believe that we didn’t know?
Please forgive us, we didn’t know.
I wouldn’t blame you if you never could.
Please forgive us, we didn’t know.
I wouldn’t blame you if you never could.
Please forgive us, and you never will.

10000 MANIACS – Like The Weather

Color of the sky as far as I can see is coal grey.
Lift my head from the pillow and then fall again.
Shiver in my bones, just thinking about the weather.
Quiver in my lip as if I might cry.

Well by the force of will my lungs are filled and so I breathe.
Lately it seems this big bed is where I never leave.
Shiver in my bones, just thinking about the weather.
A quiver in my voice as I cry,

What a cold and a rainy day.
Where on earth is the sun hid away?

Hear the sound of a noon bell chime.
Well I’m far behind.
You’ve put in ’bout half a day
while here I lie
With a shiver in my bones just thinking about the weather.
A quiver in my voice as if I might cry,

What a cold and rainy day.
Where on earth is the sun hid away?

Do I need someone here to scold me
or do I need someone who’ll grab and pull me out of four poster dull torpor pulling downward.
For it is such a long time since my better days.
I say my prayers nightly this will pass away.

The color of the sky is grey as I can see through the blinds.
Lift my head from the pillow and then fall again
Shiver in my bones just thinking about the weather.
A quiver in my voice as if I might cry,

A cold and a rainy day.
Where on earth is the sun hid away?
A cold and a rainy day I shiver, quiver, and try to wake.

10000 MANIACS – My Sister Rose

Big plans are being made for my sister’s wedding day.
We’ll have a ball at the Sons of Roma Hall.
Family, friends come one and all.
First the best man makes a toast to Rocky and my sister Rose,
“A life of years free of tears. Bottoms up and lots of luck!”
‘
Polka, tango everyone, cha-cha, mambo Rose and Rock alone.
Frankie Rizzo and his Combo play on.

Single girls all hear the call from a crowd at the back wall
and when the bouquet flies each one tries to be the best catch and next years bride.
Uncle Sam and Uncle Joe take their places in the row.
They’re standing by side to side for dollar dances with the bride.

Polka, tango everyone, cha-cha, mambo, Rose and Rock alone.
“He’s a banker, she’ll be well off now.”

Sister Rose take your mother’s place.
Trade your home and your maiden name.
For a list of vows and a veil of lace made a wife of you today.

Now they cut the five tier cake, “That Colucci, he can bake.”
A frosted tower of sugar and flour for the couple of the hour.

Polka, tango everyone, cha-cha, mambo Rose and Rock alone.
She was born to wear that gown.

Sister Rose take your mother’s place.
Trade your home and your maiden name.
For a list of vows and a veil of lace made a wife of you today,
but you’re my sister Rose the same.

10000 MANIACS – Eden

We are the roses in the garden, beauty with thorns among our leaves.
To pick a rose you ask your hands to bleed.
What is the reason for having roses when your blood is shed carelessly?
It must be for something more than vanity.

Believe me, the truth is we’re not honest, not the people that we dream.
We’re not as close as we could be.
Willing to grow but rains are shallow.
Barren and wind-scattered seed on stone and dry land, we will be.
Waiting for the light arisen to flood inside the prison.
And in that time kind words alone will teach us, no bitterness will reach us.
Reason will be guided in another way.

All in time, but the clock is another demon that devours our time in Eden, in our Paradise.
Will our eyes see well beneath us, flowers all divine?
Is there still time?
If we wake to discover in life a precious love, will that waking become more heavenly?

10000 MANIACS – Headstrong

To your common sense firm arguments
I won’t listen to your voice of reason trying to change my mind.
I mind my feelings and not your words.
Didn’t you notice I’m so headstrong even when I know I’m wrong?
Take this to your heart and into your head now:
before you waste your time, call a truce and call a draw.

What’s the use in mapping your views out in orderly form
when it does nothing but confuse and anger me more?
I mind my feelings and not your words.
Didn’t you notice I’m so headstrong.
You’re talking to a deaf stone wall.
Take this to your heart and into your head now:
the old wives’ tale is true, I’ll repeat it.
All is fair in love and war, that’s how the famous saying goes.

Open up your eyes, see me for what I am:
cast in iron, I won’t break and I won’t bend.
Take this to your heart and into your head now:
the old wives’ tale is true, I’ll repeat it.
All is fair in love and war, that’s how the famous saying goes.

If I told you we were out to sea in a bottomless boat,
you’d try anything to save us, you’d try anything to keep us afloat.
And if we were living in a house afire,
I don’t believe that you could rush out and escape it and not rescue me.
Take this to your heart and into your head now:
the old wives’ tale is true, I’ll repeat it.
All is fair in love and war, that’s how the famous saying goes.
Listen, I think they were talking to you.

10000 MANIACS – How You’ve Grown

“My, how you’ve grown.”
I remember that phrase from my childhood days too
“Just wait and see.”
I remember those words and how they chided me, when patient was the hardest thing to be.
Because we can’t make up for the time that we’ve lost, I must let these memories provide.
No little girl can stop her world to wait for me.

I should have known.
At your age, in a string of days the year is gone.
But in that space of time, it takes so long.
Because we can’t make up for the time that we’ve lost, I must let those memories provide.
No little girl can stop her world to wait for me.

Every time we say goodbye you’re frozen in my mind as the child that you never will be, you never will be again.
I’ll never be more to you than a stranger could be.

Every time we say goodbye you’re frozen in my mind as a child that you never will be, will be again.

10000 MANIACS – Candy Everybody Wants

If lust and hate is the candy,
If blood and love taste so sweet,
Then we give ‘em what they want.
Hey, hey, give ‘em what they want.

So their eyes are growing hazy,
‘Cos they wanna turn it on,
So their minds are soft and lazy,
Well, hey, give ‘em what they want.

If lust and hate is the candy,
If blood and love taste so sweet,
Then we give ‘em what they want.

So their eyes are growing hazy,
‘Cos they wanna turn it on,
So their minds are soft and lazy,
Well… who do you wanna blame?

Hey, hey, give ‘em what they want.

If lust and hate is the candy,
If blood and love tastes so sweet,
Then we give ‘em what they want.

So their eyes are growing hazy,
‘Cos they wanna turn it on,
So their minds are soft and lazy.

Well… who do you wanna blame?

10000 MANIACS – Don’t Talk

Don’t talk, I will listen.
Don’t talk, you keep your distance
for I’d rather hear some truth tonight than entertain your lies,
so take you poison silently.
Let me be. Let me close my eyes.

Don’t talk, I’ll believe it.
Don’t talk, listen to me instead,
I know that if you think of it, both long enough and hard
the drink you drown your troubles in is the trouble you’re in now.

Talk talk talk about it, if you talk as if you care
but when your talk is over tilt that bottle in the air,
tossing back more than your share.

Don’t talk, I can guess it.
Don’t talk, well now your restless
and you need somewhere to put the blame for how you feel inside.
You’ll look for a close and easy mark and you’ll see me as fair game.

Talk talk talk about it, talk as if you care
but when your talk is over tilt that bottle in the air
tossing back more than your share.
You talk talk talk about it, you talk as if you care.
I’m marking every word and can tell this time for sure,
your talk is the finest I have heard.

So don’t talk, let me go on dreaming.
How your eyes they glow so fiercely I can tell your inspired
by the name you chose for me. Now what was it? O, never mind it.
We will talk talk talk about this when your head is clear.
I’ll discuss this in the morning, but until then you may talk but I won’t hear.

10000 MANIACS – Eat For Two

O, Baby blankets and baby shoes, baby slippers, baby spoons, walls of baby blue.
Dream child in my head is a nightmare born in a borrowed bed.
Now I know lightning strikes again.
It struck me once, then struck me dead.
My folly grows inside of me.
I eat for two, walk for two, breathe for two now.

Well, the egg man fell down off his shelf.
All the good king’s men with all their help struggled ’til the end for a shell they couldn’t mend.
You know where this will lead, to hush and rock in the nursery for the kicking one inside of me.
I eat for two, walk for two, breathe for two now.

When the boy was a boy, the girl was a girl, they found each other in a wicked world.
Strong in some respects, but she couldn’t stand for the way he begged and gave in.
Pride is for men; young girls should run and hide instead.
Risk the game by taking dares with “yes”.
Eat for two, walk for two, breathe for two now.

Walk for two? I’m stumbling.
Breathe for two? I can’t breathe.
Five months , how it grows.
Five months now, I begin to show.

10000 MANIACS – Can’t Ignore The Train

Steep is the water tower
Painted off-blue to match the sky
Can’t ignore the train

Night walks in the valley silent
You could swear the earth just moved
Can’t ignore the train

Dust to be kicked up
In the crack-faced idle sinister town

Screen door to the rail station
Devil in her, she ran alongside the wasted tracks
Hem pins darted in her calves
Can’t ignore the train

One spoiled girl with the tidiest apology
Somehow wedged inside her throat
Can’t ignore the train

Patience their virtue
But I never could abide by that
Dungeon life with electric light
A clean towel and a basin
Mantel figures mind their places
And laughs where they belong

Through adventure
We are not adventuresome

Rage to share with a wardrobe mirror
In a room so beige and cold
Can’t ignore the train

Window days saw the children pick their street games on thirty, thirty
Thirty afternoons

Molly, the boys are
Starting in that rhyme again
Teasing more and more the second daughter
How she fell
Young locked in some folks’ prison
Made to dwell
Till they’re braiding her gray hair
Sitting in the wishing chair
Sitting in the wishing chair
Sitting in the wishing chair

10000 MANIACS – A Campfire Song

A lie to say, “O my mountain has coal veins and beds to dig.
500 men with axes and they all dig for me.”
A lie to say, “O my river where many fish do swim,
half of the catch is mine when you haul your nets in.”
Never will he believe that his greed is a blinding ray.
No devil or redeemer will cheat him.
He’ll take his gold to where he’s lying cold.

A lie to say, “O my mine gave a diamond as big as a fist.”
But with every gem in his pocket, the jewels he has missed.
A lie to say, “O my garden is growing taller by the day.”
He only eats the best and tosses the rest away.
Never will he be believe that his greed is a blinding ray.
No devil or redeemer can cheat him.
he’ll take his gold to where he’s lying cold.
Six deep in the grave.

Something is out of reach
something he wanted
something is out of reach
he’s being taunted
something is out of reach
that he can’ beg or steal nor can he buy

his oldest pain
and fear in life
there’ll not be time
his oldest pain
and fear in life
there’ll not be time

A lie to say “O my forest has trees that block the sun
and when I cut them down I don’t answer to anyone.”
No, no, never will he believe that his greed is a blinding ray
no devil or redeemer can cheat him.
He’ll take his gold where he’s lying cold.

10000 MANIACS – Back O’ The Moon

Jenny

Jenny you don’t know the nights I hide
Below a second story room
To whistle you down
The man who’s let to divvy up
Time is a miser
He’s got a silver coin
Only lets it shine for hours
While you sleep it away

There’s one rare and odd style of living
Part only known to the everybody Jenny
A comical where’s the end parade
Of the sort people here would think unusual

Jenny

Tonight upon the mock brine of a Luna Sea
Far off we sail on to Back O’ The Moon

Jenny

Jenny you don’t know the days I’ve tried
Telling backyard tales
So to maybe amuse
O your mood is never giddy
If you smile I’m delighted
But you’d rather pout
Such a lazy child
You dare fold your arms
Tisk and say that I lie

There’s one rare and odd style of thinking
Part only known to the everybody Jenny
The small step and giant leap takers
Got the head start in the race toward it

Jenny

Tonight upon the mock brine of a Luna Sea
Far off we sail on to the Back O’ The Moon

That was a sigh
But not meant to envy you
When your age was mine
Some things were sworn true
Morning would come

And calendar pages had
New printed seasons on
Their opposite sides

Jenny

Jenny you don’t know the nights I hide
Below a second story room
To whistle you down
O the man who’s let to divvy up
Time is a miser
He’s got a silver coin
Lets it shine for hours
While you sleep it away

There’s one rare and odd style of living

Part only known to the everybody Jenny
Out of tin ships jump the bubble head boys
To push their flags into powdered soils and cry
No second placers

No smart looking geese in bonnets
Dance with pigs in high button trousers
No milk pail for the farmer’s daughter
No merry towns of sweet walled houses

Here I’ve found
Back O’ the Moon
Not here
I’ve found
Back O’ the Moon