"The People's Key" (2011)

• Firewall Lyrics – Bright Eyes
• Shell Games Lyrics – Bright Eyes
• Jejune Stars Lyrics – Bright Eyes
• Approximate Sunlight Lyrics – Bright Eyes
• Haile Selassie Lyrics – Bright Eyes
• A Machine Spiritual (In The People’s Key) Lyrics – Bright Eyes
• Triple Spiral Lyrics – Bright Eyes
• Beginner's Mind Lyrics – Bright Eyes
• Ladder Song Lyrics – Bright Eyes
• One For You, One For Me Lyrics – Bright Eyes

Firewall Lyrics – Bright Eyes

If there is no such thing as time, you're already there, and you're controlling this cycle. You say, "Man, look what we found here, Einstein, " or whoever you're talking to, Tesla - whoever you're talking to. Problems of the future can be solved by mankind because you create them. And you have to believe in the future, it's what we have to do. We progress, we always progress - we try to. So the Sumerian tablets, they say the same thing like Genesis said, that there were chariots of fire that came into the sky. And these beings got out of them, and they walked like a man but they had reptilian features. They had snake-like eyes, a tail, and, uh, scales, right? And they were - they were here, and they made slaves out of the people. And where they landed in is what the Bible calls the Garden of Eden. They were trying to inbreed with the people here. The women would die, the babies were deadborn. But after two thousand years they started taking, the babies started being born and living. And they had tails, they had a few reptilian features. They could phase shift from one dimension to another dimension, and the people who know say it's from the fourth dimension - the next dimension. Space is expanding; there are spirits coming from the center, right? We're going counterclockwise. There's supposed to be eight other universes going counterclockwise, and that's called Superuniverse, you know? And love's always been the message. It's just - circumstances happen, right? People freak out, just flat flip out, you know? Well, that's where Hitler came from, Hitler came from that way. He was an outspoken, charismatic yeller. And, and all these people said, "Hey, we'll use this guy, hey, look at all these people listening to this guy." You know what I mean? And so that's just what the trip's like, that. You know? It still exists, and their bloodline goes back - back into Sumerian times. You know, they didn't call it reptilian, they didn't call it that. But they did, because they called him Satan, they called him the Devil, and it's the same damn trip. It's a negative force, coming in on a positive force, because it's a third dimension, right? And for it to solidify or to crystallize, it has to have both elements, right? And you have to keep it in balance, or it will, it will, one of them will destroy the other...

I do my best to sleep through the caterwaul
The classicist, the posture in avant-garde
I bought a gray macaw, named him Jules Verne
He'll probably outlive me - he's a bright bird
Keeps me company, I teach him new words

I saw a hologram at the theme park
She looked as real as me through the white fog
Then she melted down to her ankles
Turned into a million watt candle
If I knew where she went, I would follow

Walking through the land of tomorrow
Martian trinkets, plastic Apollos
In the sunshine, try to act normal
My veins are full of flat cherry cola
Slept on a bench by the rollercoaster

Dreamed I was riding on a motorbike
Lion of Judah, painted on the side

I'm doing fine, I'm back in the Palisades
Life's a wash, a pastoral school play
China shops and cold ivory towers
I and I make toast to the Caesars
Forcing down the dregs of Decembers

Madeleine, she spins in a slow bang
All through the house, the strong smell of burnt sage
Let's make it clean and run out the spirits
I know a diving bell when I hear it

We're going down now under the surface
Light to dark can shift in an instant
Feeling close but keeping my distance
On all fours she's just so insistent
Fills my mind with jump ropes and slit wrists
Bust through the firewall into Heaven

And then I'm standing in that blinding light
Crooked crosses falling from the sky

Seen yeah seen by I and I [x7]
Seen yeah seen
Seen yeah seen
By I and I

Shell Games Lyrics – Bright Eyes

Took the fireworks and the vanity
The circuit board and the city streets
Shooting star, swaying palm tree
Laid it at the arbiter's feet

If I could change my mind, change the paradigm
Prepare myself for another life
Forgive myself for the many times
I was cruel to something helpless and weak

But here it come, that heavy love
I'm never going to move it alone
Here it come, that heavy love
Tag it on a tenement wall
Here it come, that heavy love
Someone got to share in the load
Here it come, that heavy love
I'm never going to move it alone

I was dressed in white, touched by something pure
Death obsessed like a teenager
Sold my tortured youth, piss and vinegar
I'm still angry with no reason to be

At the architect who imagined this
For the everyman, blessed Sisyphus
Slipping steadily into madness
Now that's the only place to be free

But here it come, that heavy love
You're never going to move it alone
Here it come, that heavy love
Tattooed on a criminal's arm
Here it come, that heavy love
Someone got to share in the load
Here it come, that heavy love
You're never going to move it alone

No, I don't want to play
It's a shell game, it's a shell game

Distorted sounds on oscilloscopes
Distorted facts, I could never cope
My private life is an inside joke
No one will explain it to me

We'll be everything that we ever needed
Everyone, on the count of three!
Everyone, on the count of three!
All together now!

Here it come, that heavy love
We're never going to move it alone
Here it come, that heavy love
Playing as the cylinder rose
Here it come, that heavy love
I only want to share in the load
Here it come, that heavy love
I'm never going to move it alone

Jejune Stars Lyrics – Bright Eyes

Every new day is a gift, it's a song of redemption
Any expression of love is the way to return
To that place that I think of so often, but now never mention
The one the voice in the back of my head says that I don't deserve

Come fire, come water, come karma
We're all in transition
The wheel I'm becoming erases the physical mind
Until all that remains is a staircase of misinformation
And the code we inherit, the basis, the essence of life

So I go, umbrella under my arm
Into the green of the radar
How'd it get so dark in the day?
It's just so bizarre
Is it true what we're made of?
Why do I hide from the rain?

Inside's so cloudy, nostalgia
But there are no features
Look at ourselves through a porthole
The passage of time
See that sunny day that we snuck out, hid under the bleachers
Kissed as the band marched
Everything fell into line

So I go, umbrella under my arm
Into the green of the radar
How'd I get so lost? I'm amazed
It's just so bizarre
All the things I'm afraid of
Why do I hide from the rain?

Sure I have my doubts
But I know it now
We are Jejune stars
So it starts again
At our childhood's end
I'll die young at heart

So I go, umbrella under my arm
Into the green of the radar
How'd it get so dark in the day?
It's just so bizarre
If it's true what we're made of
Why do I hide from the rain?

Approximate Sunlight Lyrics – Bright Eyes

Used to dream of time machines
Now it's been said we're post-everything
As a child, imagining
Neckties and coastlines
I've seen the show, man, what a sight
Drenched us in approximated sunlight
The crowd was small and mostly blind, but kind
You're too kind

Now you are how you were when you were real
Now you are how you were when you were real

There you go again, on that circular trip
Lick the solar plexus of some L.A. shaman
I'm out of breath, I better sit
Been living hard, living

All I do is follow, just follow this hollow you around

I wouldn't waste another thought
On what is fair and what is not
The Quinceañera dress she bought
Was unstitched with bullets

All the guests in the garden screamed
Women and tires squealing
Such opulence, such misery
Unwinding, unwinding

All I do is follow, just follow, just follow this hollow you around

Now you are how you were when you were real

Haile Selassie Lyrics – Bright Eyes

Pilgrim across the water
We are the same brother
Hitchhiking back to Zion
Holding our tears as we flip the album
What if this leads to ruin?
You got a soul, use it
All this despair forgiven
Rolling away on the Wheel of Sevens
Sings like the Queen of Sheba
Voice through a Blonde Speaker
One dropping bubble and Leslie
Calling me home like Haile Selassie

Pilgrim beside the fire
It's been a long winter
We got a lot in common
Cover our heads as they split the atom
All of our days are numbered
I'll take in some comfort in knowing the wave has crested
Knowing I don't have to be an exception
Children they fill the bleachers
One is the next Caesar
Keep all their minds collected
Until he comes
Until he comes

How do you make a day in plain sight?
Too good to be true

I seen, I seen, I seen stranger things man

I seen, I seen that tree of smoke

Yeah

I seen, I seen, I seen, I seen stranger things happen
Happen before

Pilgrim up on the mountain
Barefoot and still climbin?
Filling the book of hours
Day after day in the filth and squalor
We are the chosen people
Safe from the next evil
One love!
Magnetic memory
Reel after reel
Spinning infinitely

I had the wildest dream last night
I was swimming with you in that cenote the Heavens made with black fire
Just woke up too soon

I seen, I seen, I seen stranger things man
I seen, I seen those daytime ghosts

Yeah

I seen, I seen, I seen
I seen stranger things happen
Happen before

I seen, I seen, I seen the strangest things man
I seen, I seen that tree of smoke

Yeah

I seen, I seen, I seen stranger things happen
Happen before

A Machine Spiritual (In The People’s Key) Lyrics – Bright Eyes

The people's key
Ringing through arena seats
The black machine
Played it all from memory
A fever dream
Well, I'll come back eventually
To wade into the water
Another and another

We go
Form some kind of code
The bodies float
And form some kind of code
The bodies float
Someone's out to know

Papa hobo
Don't hide your eyes
Mother mountain
Don't kill your unborn child
His day is coming
His day is coming

A question burns
Beneath the centuries of dirt
That voice you've heard
Well, every head's a different world
Well, mine's concerned
I boarded up the windows
A catatonic plateau
A backwards black-faced minstrel show
So just let me go
The prisoner moans
Oh, just let me go
The prisoner moans
No one has to know

Eva Braun went to dye her hair
Little Hitler sighs in his giant's chair
And dreamed of nowhere
And dreamed of nowhere
And dreamed

The people's key
Ringing filling everything
The theme repeats
Thinner than the galaxy
Impart to me
Your wisdom and eventually
I'll float into the ether
Another from another

We grow
Form some kind of code
A flesh at bone
We form some kind of code
A flesh at bone
No, you're not alone

History bows and it steps aside
In the jungle there's columns of purple light
We're starting over
We're starting over
We're starting
We're starting

Triple Spiral Lyrics – Bright Eyes

I loved a triple spiral
My maiden mother crow
I folded my devotion to an origami rose
So out her ten feet window, she said to look below
Could I see the town was burning?
Could I see the broken prison?
Could I see that it was time for me to go?

They looted the museum, took all that they could hold
A motorcade of flatbed trucks
Made off with with quite a haul
And that's when I heard someone shout
"In with new, out with the old!"
A dusty box of letters
A rusty suit of armor
A casket made of 14 carat gold

That's the problem
Your sense of time
She changes like an hourglass
They're playing on the side

I loved you triple spiral
Father, son, and ghost
But you left me in my darkest hour
When I needed you, when I needed you
Now that the dream is over, I want it to be known
I never saw you coming
From my little human prism
How sad it is to know I'm in control

That's the problem, an empty sky
I fill it up with everything that's missing from my life
Where'd you come from, you faded sign?
Spinning through the centuries
Expanding all the time

Three worlds at once that blend together
Three times I cried for us
But I felt better then ...

I loved you triple spiral
My maiden mother crow
You found me in this fallowed state
My mind was off and stow
I heard your strange commotion
And wished I could go home
To live a little longer
A full indian summer
Long enough to carve you into stone

Beginner's Mind Lyrics – Bright Eyes

Hold on tight beginners mind
The wheel is spinning too
Fast to make your move
The worst must be assumed
Oh how they'll try to pull and pry
Away what you know now
Beat and beat it out
Leave a drum that makes no sound
A snuff film on a jumbotron
For all the world to see

A cocktail napkin epitaph
Some psycho babel telegram
Message written in the sand
The tide rolls in
Swear you'll do the opposite
Of all those tangled hypocrites
Who say that the experiment has failed
Don't go there
You're getting nowhere
You're getting nowhere

Stay a while my inner child
I'd like to learn your tricks
Know what makes you tick
Nurse you when you're sick
Oh how you've grown so cynical
Hard lines carved in your face
The sunshine's so cliche
Just like love and pain
You tried your best the rorschach test
But there's just nothing to see

? hope terabytes the perfect pitch?
Some universal elegance
? stack the sound and then the fifth?
Along the bridge

Swear you'll be the opposite
Of all the stilted hypocrites
You know what made you infamous to them
Don't you
You keep starting over
Keep starting over

Hold on tight beginner's mind
The currents far too strong
It'll carry you along
Till you're just like everyone

Stay a while my inner child
I'd like to learn your trick
To know what make you tick
To nurse you when you're sick

Ladder Song Lyrics – Bright Eyes

No one knows where the ladder goes
You're going to lose what you love the most
You're not alone in anything
You're not unique in dying
Feel a strange day every now and then
Fall asleep reading science fiction
I want to fly in your silver ship
Let Jesus hang and Buddha sit
It's on now
The days are long now
The ups and the sundowns
And a twisting mind
If I got to go first
I'll do it on my terms
I'm tired of traitors always changing sides
They were friends of mine

Don't hang around as the promise breaks
You'll be there when the next one's made
Kiss the feet of a charlatan
Some imagined freedom
All the rest is predictable
You can say you're the first to know
Bought a mantra to concentrate
Car alarm or hissing snake
I know now
Oh, it's going to turn now
You got to calm down
Or I'll lose my place
Got to get to the center
Got to get to the concert
Run off with a dancer
Going to celebrate

Welcome the new age
Covered in warrior paint
Lights from the jungle to the sky
See now, a star's born
Looks just like a blood orange
Don't it just make you want to cry
Precious friend of mine?

Well, I know when it's finally done
This whole life's a hallucination
You're not alone in anything
You're not alone in trying
To be

One For You, One For Me Lyrics – Bright Eyes

One for the righteous, one for the ruling class
One for the tyrant, one for the slaughtered lamb
One for the struggle, one for the lasting peace
One for you, and one for me

One for the Führer, one for his child bride
One for the wedding, one for the suicide
One for the bunker, one for the broadcast booth
One for me, now one for you

How did we get so far away from us?
How did we get so far away?

One for the people, one for the parliament
One for the weary, one for the malcontent
One for the master, one for the protégé
One for you, and one for me

One for the bread lines, one for the billionaires
One for the missing, one for the barely there
One for the certain, one for the real confused
One for me, okay, now one for you

Now that we've come so far away from us
Now that we've come too far to say
You and me, you and me that is an awful lie
You and me, you and me that is an awful lie
It's I and I
It's I and I
It's I and I
It's I and I

"Cassadaga" (2007)

• Clairaudients (Kill Or Be Killed) Lyrics – Bright Eyes
• Four Winds Lyrics – Bright Eyes
• If The Brakeman Turns My Way Lyrics – Bright Eyes
• Hot Knives Lyrics – Bright Eyes
• Make A Plan To Love Me Lyrics – Bright Eyes
• Soul Singer In A Session Band Lyrics – Bright Eyes
• Classic Cars Lyrics – Bright Eyes
• Middleman Lyrics – Bright Eyes
• Cleanse Song Lyrics – Bright Eyes
• No One Would Riot For Less Lyrics – Bright Eyes
• Coat Check Dream Song Lyrics – Bright Eyes
• I Must Belong Somewhere Lyrics – Bright Eyes
• Lime Tree Lyrics – Bright Eyes
• Susan Miller Rag Lyrics – Bright Eyes

Clairaudients (Kill Or Be Killed) Lyrics – Bright Eyes

[Spoken:]
Cassadaga, oh yeah, that's where you're going to find the center of energy.
And they've got those in Arizona too.
You know, there's, I know that there's wonderful grounds that have vortexes.
That you might be interested in going to.
And then go to Nevada. And then go to California.
And then come south and go back through Arizona.
And go through Texas. You know what I'm saying?
Getting rid of the old feelings of the old ways of thinking.
And, you know, it's kind of like with people and the tarot cards.
Just because you get the Death card doesn't mean death or dying.
It means transformation. It means changing things around and starting something new.
Cause I was pulling in on a, on a dog or companion
Somehow I get the impression that you're almost a little afraid to start the trip.
It doesn't have to be a straight line happy face.
But make kind of a happy face, I mean kind of a smile.
Go up, up the east coast, but it's gonna be a circle.
You know what I'm saying? It's gonna be a sloppy circle.
Don't be afraid. You know, years and years and years ago, you know, you might,
You might have come across some river and rock and the mountains or whatever.
And then when you get there maybe you'll have the answers you seek.

We have moved into a new era and life as we know it is changing.
Your relationships, career, and location will all be subject with an energy.
Allow me to share with you tips that will assist you during these new times.

Don't give up hope on yourself, no.
Just be patient about the fact that, be patient about how things are unfolding.
Because psychically, you're less ... why are you afraid to start?
I think you should go.
I think you should go.
You know, plan ahead, pack the things that you think you're gonna need,
And then just go.
Cassadaga might be just a premonition of a place you're going to visit.

Corporate or Colonial
The Movement is unstoppable
Like the body of a centerfold it spreads
To the counter-culture copyright
Get your revolution at a lower price
Or make believe and throw the fight, play dead
It's exploding bags, aerosol cans
Southbound buses, Peter Pan
They left it up to us again
I thought you knew the drill
It's kill or be killed

Future Markets, Holy Wars
Been tried ten thousand times before
If you think that God is keeping score, Hooray!
For the freedom-fighting simulcast (Victory! A defeat! Victory!)
The imminent and the aftermath
Draw another bloody bath to drain
Like the polar icecaps centrifuge (Oh Allah! Oh Jesus please!)
First snowman built at the end of June
He slicks his hair for the interview, his fifteen-minute fame
Would you agree times have changed?

Four Winds Lyrics – Bright Eyes

Your class, your caste, your country, sect, your name or your tribe
There's people always dying trying to keep them alive
There's bodies decomposing in containers tonight
In an abandoned building where
Squatters made a mural of a Mexican girl
With fifteen cans of spray paint and a chemical swirl
She's standing in the ashes at the end of the world
Four winds blowing through her hair

But when great Satan's gone... the Whore of Babylon...
She just can't sustain the pressure where it's placed
She caves

The Bible's blind, the Torah's deaf, the Qur'an's mute
If you burned them all together you'd get close to the truth still
They're pouring over Sanskrit on the Ivy League moons
While shadows lengthen in the sun
Cast all the school and meditation built to soften the times
And hold us at the center while the spiral unwinds
It's knocking over fences crossing property lines
Four Winds, cry until it comes

And it's the Sum of Man slouching towards Bethlehem
A heart just can't contain all of that empty space
It breaks. It breaks. It breaks.

Well I went back by rented Cadillac and company jet
Like a newly orphaned refugee retracing my steps
All the way to Cassadaga to commune with the dead
They said, "You'd better look alive"
And I was off to old Dakota where a genocide sleeps
In the Black Hills, the Badlands, the calloused East
I buried my ballast. I made my peace.

Heard Four Winds, leveling the pines

But when great Satan's gone... the Whore of Babylon...
She just can't remain with all that outer space
She breaks. She breaks. She caves. She caves.

If The Brakeman Turns My Way Lyrics – Bright Eyes

When panic grips your body and your heart is a hummingbird
Raven thoughts blacken your mind until you're breathing in reverse
All your friends and sedatives mean well but make it worse
Every reassurance just magnifies the doubt
Better find yourself a place to level out

Got a cricket for a conscience always looks the other way
A cocaine soul starts seeming like an empty cabaret
Hey, where have all the dancers gone? Now the music doesn't play
Tried to listen to the river but you couldn't shut your mouth
Better take a little time to level out

I never thought of running
My feet just led the way

Mixed up Signals
Bullet Train
Cars are switched out in the crazy rain
I could meet you any place
If the Brakeman turns my way

All this automatic writing I have tried to understand
From a psychedelic angel who was tugging on my hand
It's an infinite coincidence but it doesn't form a plan
So I'm headed for New England or the Paris of the South
Gonna find myself somewhere to level out

Are your brothels full, Oh Babylon, with merry Middlemen?
Never peer out of their periscopes from those deep opium dens
All this death must need a counterweight always someone born again
First a mother bathes her child then the other way around
The Scales always find a way to level out

I tried to pass for nothing
But my dreams gave me away

Mixed up Signals
Bullet Train
People snuffed out in the brutal rain
I could live to any age
If the Brakeman turns my way

It is an old world it's hard to remember
Like a dime store mystery
I'm a repeat first time offender
Who has rewritten history

Mixed up tea leaves
Phantom Pain
Fuzzy logic in the crazy rain
Getting better every day
If the Brakeman turns my way
Mixed up Signals
Bullet Train
Cars are switched out in the blinding rain
He'll be smiling as he seals my fate
When the Brakeman turns my way

Hot Knives Lyrics – Bright Eyes

The Wife forgave the Mistress for she only entertained
The pain was gone the instant she cleared her throat to speak her name
Said, "Both of us must suffer from the same unending ache"

The world was not of interest though her days were never dull
Her bed beneath a crucifix on guests performing miracles
With the Son of God just hanging like a common criminal
When I do wrong I am with God, she thought
When I feel lost I am not at all

So give me Black Light (Give Give me)
So give me Hot Knives (Deep Clean sleep)
On a dance floor no one tells time (There is no time)

Oh, I've made love, yeah, I've been fucked, so what?
I'm a cartoon, you're a full moon, let's stay up

She went to see a Mystic who made medicine from rain
And gave up her existence to feel everything, dream others' dreams
Bid farewell to her family with one ecstatic wave (Please take care I love you all)
Out the window as the car rolled away
She just vanished into a thick mist of change

So let us rejoice (Let's Rejoice!)
In all this Pink Noise (Out Pink Noise!)
An oscillation that we can pin point (We're right here!)

Make A Plan To Love Me Lyrics – Bright Eyes

I heard you're scheming new pyramids
Another big idea to get you rich
Make a plan to love me sometime soon

You said you had your foot in the door
You buy and you sell, you buy some more
Make a plan to love me sometime soon

Life is too short
Death doesn't ask
It don't owe you that

Some things you lose
You don't get back
So just know what you have

And make a plan to love me sometime soon

First you want to ride off into the Sun
Then you want to shoot straight to the Moon
Make a plan to love me sometime soon

When you are young the world is a Ferris Wheel
I know we will grow old it is lovely, still
Make a plan to love me sometime soon

Life is too short
To be a fool
I don't owe you that

Do what you feel
Whatever is cool
But I just have to ask

Will you make a plan to love me?
Will you make a plan to love me?
Will you make a plan to love me sometime soon?

Soul Singer In A Session Band Lyrics – Bright Eyes

See the Soul Singer in the session band
Shredded to ribbons beneath a microphone stand
Felt the quickness of pity like a flash in a pan
For the Soul Singer in the session band

Now a red carpet bagger makes a Blackberry call
To the plastic piranhas in the city of salt
Wasted wheat paste campaign post no bills on the wall
You mean nothing to no one but that's nobody's fault

See the Soul Singer in the session band
Shredded to ribbons beneath a microphone stand
Felt the quickness of pity like a flash in a pan
For the Soul Singer in the session band

I had a lengthy discussion about The Power of Myth
With a post-modern author who didn't exist
In this fictitious world all reality twists
I was a hopeless romantic now I'm just turning tricks

Just like that Soul Singer in the session band
Shredded confetti beneath a microphone stand
Saw the Conflict of Interest slipping cash in the hand
Of the Soul Singer in the session band

His room is on fire since he painted it red
There are a stranger's silk sequins at the foot of the bed
He has been to weddings and funerals but he still never wept
Now sorrow is pleasure when you want it instead

Just like the Soul Singer in the session band
Wailed like an infant atop a white baby grand
We'll need every sand bag and every man
To save the Soul Singer in the session band

Headlights or Taillights it's a flip of a coin
I have been coming and going since the day I was born
And I followed the breadcrumbs but I never got home
I grew old in an instant now I am all on my own

Just like that Soul Singer in the session band
Shredded to nothing beneath the microphone stand
Saw the wave of the future through the crack of the dam
Drowned the Soul Singer in the session band
Bless the Soul singer in the session band

Classic Cars Lyrics – Bright Eyes

She was a real royal lady, true patron of the arts
She said the best country singers die in the back of classic cars
So if I ever got too hungry for a suitcase or guitar
To think of them all alone in the dark
So I laid some nights beside her in a bed made for a queen
She said I kissed her different, that all the men her age were mean
Gave me anything I wanted, Oh the generosity
I took all that I could, it was free
Now the sky is a torn up denim and the clouds are just splattered paint
It's a room I'm renovating; it's a name I got to change
If I get out of California I'm going back to my home state
To tell them all that I made a mistake

And I keep looking for that blindfold faith
Lighting candles to a cynical saint
Who wants the last laugh at the fly trapped in the windowsill tape
You can go right out of your mind trying to escape
From the panicked paradox of day to day
If you can't understand something then it's best to be afraid

The whole world it loves you if you are a chic chameleon
Intersecting circles she could hang with anyone
But when conducting business she would lie about where she's from
Saying, "Life is how it is not how it was"
I learned to listen felt like I was back at school
She'd talk forever about the phases of the moon
Saying, "Everything is a cycle, you've got to let it come to you
And when it does, you will know what to do"
Without even knowing I guess I took her advice
Painted her front door it seemed a suitable goodbye
It's not that often but I think of her sometimes
Just something quaint, a couple ships in the night

And they keep moving at a glacial pace
Turning circles in a memory maze
I made a new cast of the death mask that is gonna cover my face
I had to change the combination to the safe
Hide it all behind a wall let people wait
And never trust a heart that is so bent it can't break

Middleman Lyrics – Bright Eyes

I traveled though the atmosphere as a wall of feedback climbed
The pegs were gold, the band was old, they played in half time
Now every dream gets whittled down just like every fool gets wise
You will never reap of any seed deprived of sunlight

So I have become the Middleman
The gray areas are mine
The in-between, the absentee
Is a beautiful disguise

So I keep my footlights shining bright just like I keep my exits wide
'Cause I never know when it's time to go, it's too crowded now inside
The dead can hide beneath the ground and the birds can always fly
But the rest of us do what we must in constant compromise

So I have become the Middleman
The gray areas are fine
The "I don't know," the "maybe so"
Is the only real reply
It is the only true reply

Cleanse Song Lyrics – Bright Eyes

Hear the chimes, did you know that the wind when it blows
It is older than Rome and all of this sorrow
See the new pyramids down in old Manhattan
From the roof of a friend's I watched an empire ending
Heard it loud and long the river's Om
Time marching on to a madman's drum

Don't forget what you've learned all you give is returned
And if life seems absurd what you need is some laughter
And a season to sleep and a place to get clean
Maybe Los Angeles, somewhere no one's expecting
On a detox walk through a Glendale Park over sidewalk chalk
Someone wrote in red, "start over"
So I muffled my scream on an Oxnard beach
Full of fever dreams that scare you sober
Into saltless dinners

Take the fruit from the tree, break the skin with your teeth
Is it bitter or sweet? All depends on your timing
Like a meeting of chance with the train station glance
Many lifetimes had past in a instant reminded
Of a millstone house in a seaside town
When your heart gave out in a mission bed
So your wife gave birth to a funeral dirge
You woke up purged as a wailing infant
In Krug Thep, Thailand

Hear the chimes, did you know that the wind when it blows
It is older than Rome and our joy and our sorrow

No One Would Riot For Less Lyrics – Bright Eyes

Death may come invisible or in a holy wall of fire
In the breath between the markers on some black I-80 mile
From the madness of the governments to the vengeance of the sea
Everything is eclipsed by the shape of destiny

So love me now
Hell is coming
Kiss my mouth
Hell is here

Little soldier, little insect, you know war it has no heart
It will kill you in the sunshine or happily in the dark
Where kindness is a card game or a bent-up cigarette
In the trenches, in the hard rain, with a bullet and a bet

He says, "help me out"
Hell is coming
Could you do it now?
Hell is here

See the sterile soil,
Poisoned sky
Yellow water,
Final scraps of life
Bringing new tears

Wake, Baby, wake but leave that blanket around you there is no where as safe
I'm leaving this place but there is nothing I'm planning to take
Just you
Just you

Coat Check Dream Song Lyrics – Bright Eyes

Shrill as a choir of children
Urgent like the first day of May
False and inflatable feeling
Tugs at my senses, big as the Macy's Parade
One brick on top of another
Such is the measure of man
Planets are inset like diamonds
On a gravity halo, eternity's wedding band
I slept with that dealer all summer
The ecstasy is still in my spine
Coat Check I couldn't remember
Walked into the winter, came out on the other side

In the South the sun is shining
Back in the East the lights went out

Stuck on a ladder to heaven
On trial way back in The Hague
Lullaby sounds from the engine
In my Styrofoam coffin, asleep on the interstate
Black globes, old symbols of freedom
A murderer still on the lam
Cities encircled in iron
On a great silver beltway, democracy's shackled hands
Seance that brought us together
Objects we move with our minds
Coat Check and I lost the number
Short sleeves in the winter, fell back through the other side

Out in the West the cars are crashing
Up in the North the ice gave out

Saada Tekmel B'Lhouria...
Houria...

I Must Belong Somewhere Lyrics – Bright Eyes

Leave the bright blue door on the whitewashed wall
Leave the death ledger under city hall
Leave the joyful air in that rubber ball today

Just leave the lilac print on the linen sheet
Leave the birds you killed at your father's feet
Let the sideways rain in the crooked street remain

Leave the whimpering dog in his cold kennel
Leave the dead starlet on her pedestal
Leave the acid kids in their green fishbowls today

Leave the sad guitar in its hardshell case
Leave the worried look on your lover's face
Let the orange embers in the fireplace remain

'Cause everything it must belong somewhere
A train off in the distance, bicycle chained to the stairs
Everything it must belong somewhere
I know that now, that's why I'm staying here

Leave the ocean's roar in the turquoise shell
Leave the widower in his private hell
Leave the liberty in that broken bell today

Just leave the epic poem on its yellowed page
Leave the gray macaw in his covered cage
Let the traveling band on the interstate remain

'Cause everything it must belong somewhere
Sound stage in California, televisions in Times Square
Yeah, everything it must belong somewhere
I know that now, that's why I'm staying here
Well I know that now, that's why I'm staying here

Leave the secret talks on the trundle bed
Leave the garden tools in that rusted shed
Leave those bad ideas in your troubled head today

Just leave the restless ghost in his old hotel
Leave the homeless man in that cardboard cell
Let the painted horse on the carousel remain

'Cause everything it must belong somewhere
Just like the gold around her finger or the silver in his hair
Yeah, everything it must belong somewhere
I know that now, that's why I'm staying here
Oh I know that now, that's why I'm staying here

In truth the forest hears each sound
Each blade of grass as it lies down
The world requires no audience
No witnesses, no witnesses

Leave the old town drunk on his wooden stool
Leave the autumn leaves in their swimming pool
Leave the poor black child in his crumbling school today

Leave the novelist in his daydream tune
Leave the scientist in her Rubik's cube
Let the true genius in the padded room remain

Leave the horse's hair on the slanted bow
Leave the slot machines on the riverboat
Leave the cauliflower in the casserole today

Just leave the hot bright trash in the shopping malls
Leave the hawks of war in their capitols
Let the organ's moan in the cathedral remain

'Cause everything it must belong somewhere
They locked the Devil in the basement, threw God up into the air
Yeah, everything it must belong somewhere
You know it's true, I wish you'd leave me here
Now you know it's true, why don't you leave me here?

Lime Tree Lyrics – Bright Eyes

I keep floating down the river but the ocean never comes
Since the operation I heard you're breathing just for one
Now everything is imaginary, especially what you love
You left another message said it's done,
It's done

When I hear beautiful music it's always from another time
Old friends I never visit, I remember what they're like
Standing on a doorstep full of nervous butterflies
Waiting to be asked to come inside
Just come inside

But I keep going out
I can't sleep next to a stranger when I'm coming down
It's 8 a.m. my heart is beating too loud
Too loud
Don't be so amazing or I'll miss you too much
I felt something that I had never touched

Everything gets smaller now the further that I go
Towards the mouth and the reunion of the Known and the Unknown
Consider yourself lucky if you think of it as home
You can move mountains with your misery if you don't
If you don't

It comes to me in fragments, even those still split in two
Under the leaves of that old Lime Tree I stood examining the fruit
Some were ripe and some were rotten, I felt nauseous with the truth
There will never be a time more opportune

So I just won't be late
The window closes, shock rolls over in a tidal wave
And all the color drains out of the frame
So pleased with a daydream that now living is no good
I took off my shoes and walked into the woods
I felt lost and found with every step I took

Susan Miller Rag Lyrics – Bright Eyes

When all the knots attention keep you from getting loose
Relax your love
Relax your living
And cruise... past the People's Choice and their backwards attitudes.

When you're done all sleeping and all your dreams fall through
Relax your rush
Relax your grieving
And lose... yourself in the till of your woodwind solitude.

Light in the corners of the room
In your Eighth House is a rising moon
Better get out of her soon...

Far away from the rag trade
Fa away from this maritime state you're stuck in
Relax your law
Relax your ego
And groove... from the deep-sea dive to the nose-bleed altitudes.

When you divide the memories outside the photobooth
Relax your cause
Relax your feeling
And choose... not the one that you want but the one they just handed you.

When wet tequila gimmicks starts off but gets you juiced
Relax your thoughts
Relax your breathing
And do... what you want, when you want, with whoever you wanna do.

The sun is eclipsed as silence swoons
And you your Eighth House is a darkened room
Is it midnight or high noon?

Far away from the rag trade
Far away from this marathon race you're running
Relax your costs
And dodge the seroes
And prove... what you think that you can to whoever you needed to.

Far away from the rag trade
Far away from this maritime state
Far away from the rag trade
Far away from this maritime state you're stuck in
...You're stuck in

EP: "Four Winds" (2007)

• Four Winds Lyrics00 – Bright Eyes
• Reinvent The Wheel Lyrics – Bright Eyes
• Smoke Without Fire Lyrics – Bright Eyes
• Stray Dog Freedom Lyrics – Bright Eyes (feat. Ben Kweller)
• Cartoon Blues Lyrics – Bright Eyes
• Tourist Trap Lyrics – Bright Eyes

Four Winds Lyrics – Bright Eyes

Your class, your caste, your country, sect, your name or your tribe
There's people always dying trying to keep them alive
There's bodies decomposing in containers tonight
In an abandoned building where
Squatters made a mural of a Mexican girl
With fifteen cans of spray paint and a chemical swirl
She's standing in the ashes at the end of the world
Four winds blowing through her hair

But when great Satan's gone... the Whore of Babylon...
She just can't sustain the pressure where it's placed
She caves

The Bible's blind, the Torah's deaf, the Qur'an's mute
If you burned them all together you'd get close to the truth still
They're pouring over Sanskrit on the Ivy League moons
While shadows lengthen in the sun
Cast all the school and meditation built to soften the times
And hold us at the center while the spiral unwinds
It's knocking over fences crossing property lines
Four Winds, cry until it comes

And it's the Sum of Man slouching towards Bethlehem
A heart just can't contain all of that empty space
It breaks. It breaks. It breaks.

Well I went back by rented Cadillac and company jet
Like a newly orphaned refugee retracing my steps
All the way to Cassadaga to commune with the dead
They said, "You'd better look alive"
And I was off to old Dakota where a genocide sleeps
In the Black Hills, the Badlands, the calloused East
I buried my ballast. I made my peace.

Heard Four Winds, leveling the pines

But when great Satan's gone... the Whore of Babylon...
She just can't remain with all that outer space
She breaks. She breaks. She caves. She caves.

Reinvent The Wheel Lyrics – Bright Eyes

My friend you were a model, a priceless work of art.
Boys would fashion their emotions to the pattern of you heart.
And I heard you wrote that record for a girl you loved but died.
I'm here sewing mine, together, just hoping you're alive.
And I know you'll never come back now to the world where people are.
'Cause you never understood what they loved you for.
Now ghosts they have their secrets, and they'll tell them to a few.
So you can never pay attention, when they're whispering to you.
There were many talents you possessed that I wished myself to have.
But the way your eyes would gloss over, well I never envied that.
And I doubt you'll ever come back now from wherever it is you are.
'Cause you never understood what we loved you for.
I'm sure the T.V. sets will tell us when someone reinvents the wheel.
Till then I'll have a million conversations about shit that isn't real.
But I'll try to breathe in meaning dig deep through every gasp of air.
Cause I know you did the same thing for as long as you can bear.
I guess everything just circles 'round to where it was before.
So I hope I'll see you soon in some other form.

Smoke Without Fire Lyrics – Bright Eyes

Come on in, my weary friend the welcome here is endless.
These fears of yours like painted whores they will not stay the night.
If all your life, you've done what's right, don't say you felt obliged.
Come along use your timid tongue, too shy to tell your story.
This pain in you so far removed from anything you've known.
So I won't condone another moan, not when everything is fine.
So in a drought learn to dance.
And pray the dead will return.
And dream of smoke without fire.
Just come see me again when it burns.
Somewhere here along the way, well I was lead astray
by a wolf in no ones clothing it was a brilliant disguise.
And I forgot that life existed I thought it was just some kind of game.
That's what brings me to your doorstep, though I don't know why I came today
standing still in the dust. given up on the rain.
And as for smoke without fire, I've already laid in the flame.
I've already laid in the flame.
Brother be afraid of flames
well I ain't afraid of flames.

Stray Dog Freedom Lyrics – Bright Eyes (feat. Ben Kweller)

There's a skinny dog in a dirty parking lot.
And he doesn't bite, but he begs.
And he knows what's true so if you are, he'll follow you
if you're headed home all the way.
So we let him finish every dinner plate,
and we watched his tail saying "thanks, thanks, thanks."
And we tried to name him, but he ran away
once he knew his freedom was at stake.
It's the same old shit, so it's how you deal with it.
it's the glove that fits that you wear.
So when the wind blows strong, I put a few more layers on,
and I tell myself I don't care.
I might make a phone call to a better man.
To ask the questions that I have.
Like how did I get started? And where's it gonna end?
why should I treat a traitor like a friend?

Cartoon Blues Lyrics – Bright Eyes

I listen to a lecture of nonsense till dawn.
By a plagiary poet with dark glasses on.
He said "how did you ever dream up that song?
The one where the baby dies."
I said I'll tell you the secret which one's your good ear?
Yeah, people are made up of water and fear
If there weren't women present we wouldn't be here.
So lets make like we're friends.
Then the pot turned to powder and soured the mood
And the people I come with were gone from the room.
So I asked like a child may I be excused?
and disobeyed them all.
Into that late night latrine rain soaking through my shoes.
I tried walking backwards to get less confused.
Working off a theory I could never prove
That it was life itself to blame.
And time ruined the world
like a failed revolution.
A tumor we could not remove.
An old friend, a constant, the blues.
Now my days are distractions that ring in my hands.
Solitaire crosswords and films on demand.
Return from a cartoon back into a man.
You start to smell that human smell.
And so I sleep with the fan on to drown out the street,
and the noise rising up from the bar underneath.
For that inconvenience all my drinks are free
So I guess it's just as well.
Why do I envy the ending right from the start?
Just get it together to take it apart.
Watching the horse as it follows the cart.
I sweep up my broken spell.
And I felt something changing the world
like a new constitution
A thief I would have to pursue
at all times at all costs.
The truth.

Tourist Trap Lyrics – Bright Eyes

It's not the road we used to know,
they tore some buildings down.
The traffic's like a pack of dogs.
There's fewer trees, windows, fleas,
concrete on the lawn.
There's people here, but you are gone.
And I'm fine, still swimming through time.
Afraid some days I've reached the shore.
Make yourself free, a man said that to me.
Now my heart is like an open door.
And the road finally gave me back
but I don't think I'll unpack
'Cause I'm not sure if I live here anymore.
It's not my weight that makes me faint.
for the sugar in my blood.
But the way these strangers stand so close.
They say my name, like a guessing game.
"Is that really you?"
No, I don't think it ever was.
In the spring,
when the world's turning green,
I only think about the fall,
or the frets on the board
a progression of chords.
Oh how I want this to resolve.
And the road finally gave me back,
but I don't think I'll unpack.
'Cause I'm not sure if I live here anymore.
Now the road finally gave me back,
but I don't think I'll unpack.
'Cause I'm not sure If I live here,
no, I'm not sure if I live here anymore.
I'm not sure if I live here anymore

"Noise Floor (Rarities: 1998-2005)" (2006)

• Mirrors And Fevers Lyrics – Bright Eyes
• I Will Be Grateful For This Day Lyrics – Bright Eyes
• Trees Get Wheeled Away Lyrics – Bright Eyes
• Drunk Kid Catholic Lyrics – Bright Eyes
• Spent On Rainy Days Lyrics – Bright Eyes
• The Vanishing Act Lyrics – Bright Eyes
• Soon You Will Be Leaving Your Man Lyrics – Bright Eyes
• Blue Angels Air Show Lyrics – Bright Eyes
• Weather Reports Lyrics – Bright Eyes
• Seashell Tale Lyrics – Bright Eyes
• Bad Blood Lyrics – Bright eyes
• Amy In The White Coat Lyrics – Bright Eyes
• Devil Town Lyrics – Bright eyes
• I've Been Eating (For You) Lyrics – Bright eyes
• Happy Birthday To Me (February 15) Lyrics – Bright eyes
• Motion Sickness Lyrics – Bright eyes
• Act Of Contrition Lyrics – Bright eyes
• Hungry For A Holiday Lyrics – Bright eyes
• When The Curious Girl Realizes She Is Under Glass Again Lyrics – Bright eyes
• Entry Way Song Lyrics – Bright eyes
• It's Cool, We Can Still Be Friends Lyrics – Bright eyes

Mirrors And Fevers Lyrics – Bright Eyes

I was cold in a dream
somewhere close to the surface
Between the ice and the stream
there is three inches of air
So I swam towards the light
I let my breath get there first
When I opened my eyes
I saw myself in the mirror
And I knew I would do like my father has done
Yes, we will never break from these chains
Your life is gonna course like a history book
Don't be frightened of turning the page
Cause it's is all the same
It will always be the same

I Will Be Grateful For This Day Lyrics – Bright Eyes

I had girl I knew she grew became a woman
Now I think that she teaches at one of the schools downtown,
We used to roll the windows down
And play the music loud
Smoking out in her car
Lost in west Omaha,
And we'd get drunk and kiss
Our bodies twist like shoe laces.
And we never came untied;
I guess you were just my type.
You know that summer never stopped.
I still pretend I'm there.
Bands in the living room,
Neighbors ain't never cared.
So when I sat behind the drum set.
Your heartbeat's what I tried to play.
With kick and snares so careless not in time.
So you got ahead of me.
And I guess I'm still dragging behind.

I had a friend who changed his name
But couldn't change himself.
Never quite figured out
How to do with what life had dealt.
He put a needle in his arm
To calm his handsome hell.
Who would have imagined it?
Could've worked out so well.
Now he's a shape that moves
Like echoes through my empty room.
And there's a voice that speaks
Like someone's right behind me.
I turned around and found
Exactly what you would expect.
Clothes I left on my floor.
The papers piled on my desk.
But where the ink is
Where the cause effect what's meant by it
The story is incomplete.
The pictures' left unfinished.
So I am writing my own ending.
I'll let my pen bleed black or blue.
And I will color in the meaning.
It will be gold and green and true.
And I'll learn to love my new discovered proof.
I'll be grateful for this day.
I will be grateful for each day to come.

Trees Get Wheeled Away Lyrics – Bright Eyes

Anchormen spike their blood
Wear masks of mud
Cucumbers cut to fit their eyes
And so no one would know how tired they've grown
Of talking and telling their lies

While your tvs change stations scroll messages
Victims and Christians both drinking blood
And they pray for the destruction of all hatred
More often just those with hate for us

Cause it hurts when you discover one's worse and one's better
To suffer or cause others to
And you can live by your conscience
Now guilt is a concept
You're no longer subscribing to

There's a virgin in my bed
And she's taking off her dress
I don't know what I am gonna do
There's a song stuck in my head
And I can't help singing it
Oh how I hope my singing pleases you
Cause this is not who I've become
But what you made me into

Oh we got no health insurance
No cellular service
No disease they can cure
But we need more money to burn
So each person must learn the dollar amount they are worth

And your pills make me dizzy
Forgetting my body
I watch as it walks away
And I just keep drinking the poison
And smoking the cartons
A pack and a half a day

So when time comes to claim me
My friends and my family will gather around my grave
And they'll believe that they knew me and loved me and missed me
And all call me by my name

So imagine what you want
And then hold on to that thought
Cause that's as close as it will ever come
And believe you're where you are
Just keep acting out the part
But at the end of the day the trees all get wheeled away
And you'll be standing alone in a blank blank space

So believe you're who you are
And just stay in character
But at the end of the play the audience walks away
And you'll be shivering cold on a well lit stage.

Drunk Kid Catholic Lyrics – Bright Eyes

The drunk kids, the catholics
They're all about the same
They're waiting for something
Hoping to be saved
Well I have been happy the past couple days
Just thinking of the women who've taken your place
And every night I think I certaintly won't ever sleep sober or alone
And then suddenly it occurs to me
I've slept alone before you
And so I pour myself the stiffest drink my stomach can stand
And convince myself to lay back down again
I'm gonna lay back down, I'm gonna lay back down again
The drunk kids, the catholics
They're all about the same
They're waiting for something
Hoping to be saved
The drunk kids, the catholics
They're all about the same
They're waiting for something
Hoping to be saved
The drunk kids, the catholics
They're all about the same
They're waiting for something
Hoping to be saved
They crawl from the oceans
To paint in the caves
But I'm working all weekend
I need to get paid
They crawl from the oceans
To paint in the caves
But I'm working all weekend
I need to get paid
They crawl from the oceans
To paint in the caves
But I'm working all weekend
I need to get paid
They crawl from the oceans
To paint in the caves
But I'm working all weekend
I need to get paid

Spent On Rainy Days Lyrics – Bright Eyes

I wish I saved up for rainy days
Cause they're the hardest to be dry
I got no self control
I'm always begging into telephones
I bought a little from my brother's friend,
Well, just to get me by
I don't trust his cut
The effect is never as high as the mark-up
I think I'll print it in the personals that I'm looking for a match
Someone to light me up,
Someone to burn the proof of the things that I've done
Each day there are hours I skip like a stone
I just crawl in a bag
I'm gonna live my life like somebody's shadow

I know I'm lazy with the little things,
I mean I never held a door
But I still loved you more than anyone since or before
You are always saying that I owe you one,
Well, let's consolidate this debt
Get on a payment plan, I'll pay you compliments,
You can still treat me bad
But now it's easy, getting easier,
To leave you and this town behind
I'll do some traveling
Once I'm gone tell all our friends you got even
I'm held like an object and then set aside
And I'm back on the shelf, I'm locked in the drawer
I'm mint in the box, but you would still sell me for cost,
Wouldn't you?

I'll be anything...
The cord of a parachute...
The blanket on top of you...
The window you are looking through...
The cord of a parachute

The Vanishing Act Lyrics – Bright Eyes

Were you surprised that we never spoke?
That in the still of the night, when nothing stirs
I woke and I gathered up some clothes
I never planned on this but it's the way it goes
And now it all seems too familiar like pages turned on calendars
We get the same twelve months to fuck things up, year after year
And I can't believe how down I am like a well I'm being lowered in
Now water stops, the bucket drops us farther and farther down
Farther and farther down

Well I guess that you never knew me
Or at least not well enough

So I fill my gut with dark red wine
Until my brain shuts off and my eyes go blind
You won't see me there in that thick black air
Yeah, I'll finally make something disappear

Because I've been practicing disappearing
And I think that I've got it down

Now there is no sun, just a cellar
Nowhere is sky, just that black, black dirt
Now there is no sun, it's just a cellar
Nowhere is sky, just that black, black
Black, black dirt

Expanding outwards, just echoes for answers
Not that it matters, it's back or it's forwards
Unhappy lovers with baskets of flowers
Use them as markers
The place where your bed once stood
A time when it still felt good

But you'll get that feeling back
Yeah, you just need some time to think
And to add up the hell, get it straight in your mind
But to calculate cost, that may take some time
But I'm sure you'll get to feeling better
Yeah, I just need some time to drink

So I'll fill my gut with that blood red wine
Until my insides swim and my veins unwind
I'll be lying there in that hot white air
Once that something's gone, it might never reappear
It might never reappear
It might never reappear
It might never reappear

Soon You Will Be Leaving Your Man Lyrics – Bright Eyes

He always gets so mad things you laugh at.
"Don't get so worked up" you'd say. But on the
Back deck you admit that you haven't felt much
Like laughing lately anyway. And so I say, "that
Could change."

I noticed how you waste no time making your way
Across the room. You leave a wake of tongues
Still waving after you. And it isn't no coincidence
Where you finally choose to stand. I guess soon
You will be leaving your man.

It's a sweet smile and then a denial. Hey, you
Are just trying to be nice. But there is a meaning
To every fleeting action you unconsciously
Decide. The clocks they chime. Now it's time.

I know you try and play it cool but there are
Some thoughts you just can't hide. Only in your
Closest friends do you confide. The way you say
You'll be seeing me, oh like it's so offhand. I
Guess soon you will be leaving your man.

You stare at me so boldly now. You have no lack
Of confidence. It's just those lessons on sublety
You missed. I know you dream of saving me
Like I'm some plane that you could land. But
When you fly you'll be leaving your man.

Blue Angels Air Show Lyrics – Bright Eyes

Claire's turning blonde for the summer I guess
The sunlight just soaks into her hair
And she sits next to me on the motorboat
And shyly replies as to which boy she likes at her school.
So I am reminded of things I've forgotten.
The way doors can open and people just walk in.
It's not unexpected, no it's just how you planned it.
I'm beginning to think that it might never happen.
But now it is happening.
There's a show we can see at the base outside of town
Where the planes they turn circles in the air.
I watch you stand next to me with your hand over your mouth
And join the crowds heavy gasp.
One for each time they pass overhead.
So we've been selected in this beautiful lottery.
We struggled so long but it ended so easy.
It's starting to surface, all golden and godlike
This feeling we had every day and every night.
It bursts in an energy. a door it is opening.

Weather Reports Lyrics – Bright Eyes

Well I left my baby for a dream as lovely, for a love that's only in books I read.
And then I hit the cities, spent all my money, I just left my whole life in a taxi cab.
Cause it's just a memory, I can't love completely, when you're really with me, I'm indifferent.
But I try to get my head clear, it's too full of ideas that I haven't thought of yet.
And time, clocks keep waving their hands, doing all that they can to get our attention,
But the days fly away down a clean interstate and I'm staring drunk at a map.
So I let my hair down for the second time now, for the final time, now I had my fun.
But there's no returning from the places we've been, just repeat our slogan, never again.
So we split, said you had to get out, headed back to the south, where everything is gentle.
And I stayed for a couple weeks more, all the weather reports said it would be snow for sure,
But the storm moved away to a neighboring state. I started the car.

Seashell Tale Lyrics – Bright Eyes

Let's go place some money on the order of the horses
Break the ribbon of that famous finish line
And we'll gather up our stash babe
Find a little ranch babe
And buy a lonely little pony to ride
Well I know I was lucky when the needle came and stuck me
This porcupine came and poked my cactus hide
So let me finish what I start babe
Open up your heart babe
I saw a land of milk and honey in your mind
Our flesh and blood has found me in your arms again
See the whisper of the wind has found your hair again
And though my heart said give me refuge in you dignity my dear
All I could do was put a seashell to your ear
Our flesh and blood has found me in your arms again
I see the whisper of the wind has found your hair again
And though my heart said give me refuge in your dignity my dear
All I could do was put a seashell to your ear

Bad Blood Lyrics – Bright eyes

No news
That's good news
Someone's gonna break
See things change
I've been changing everything
It's peaceful
The pitch black
When the last light on goes out
I'm stranded
In my bed
So I think about
The bad luck
The bad blood
That may have come between
Two good souls
That's one heck of an offering
So take these gifts that have been given
And ended up with an alphabet
But some words are too wrong to define
Now the whole world is waking up
A ribbon cut for the opening
We all knew that day would arrive
Up all night
All upset
The outside's growing light
No breakfast
Just not much of an appetite
So be cool
And believe in the things you haven't learned
'cause you lost
And it's gone
But it will return
Now it's all laid out in front of you
And that's half murdered the mystery
Are you still to shy to describe?
Now the whole world is waking up
A ribbon cut for the opening
Yes, finally the day has arrived
So seek
And rejoice
Fill your hands with something tangible
And fly your love
Like a flag
And destroy the desire
For that which is impossible
And accept what you get with a smile

Amy In The White Coat Lyrics – Bright Eyes

You take your clothes off
Right after school
The tea is on
The flame is blue
And you hope it won't take
All afternoon
The TV's waiting
To talk to you
It's your naked body
On white velour
But there's no feeling
Just weight on you
But you get nauseous now
As he speaks to you
Such proper language
For acts so cruel
He says "we all follow the rules
We can't very well go and break them now can we?
For you, for you, for you..

Your older sisters,
I had them too,
But you're my favorite
You know it's true.
You look like your mother
In that thin disguise
Your parting mouth,
Your shining eyes.
And the way that you hate me
And the length of your hair
It's the reason I make you
It's the bond that we share
Cos you were all trying to endure it
You could easily go and make your own life somewhere
Couldn't you? Couldn't you? Couldn't you, couldn't you, couldn't you, couldn't you, couldn't you?"

With the sun beams bright
You keep your eyes shut
Your alarm clock lies
Get to school on time
But you're a bag of warm fluid
You're the corpse in the class
You walk so near to your locker
You lay so low in the grass
Did you get that coat from the principal?
Did you get that bruise on the bus?
You should wash your hair more
You should look more like us.
But I saw you walking once
Under powder blue skies
You looked cold still
Your collar was high
And I tried to talk to you
But you walked right by
I don't know which I said then,
"Hello" or "Goodbye"
And yet we're all trying to be pure
But it isn't a very easy thing, now is it?
To do, To do, To do, To do, To do, To do
Isn't it, Isn't it, Isn't it, Isn't it, Isn't it, Isn't it, Isn't it, Isn't it?

Devil Town Lyrics – Bright eyes

I was living in a devil town
I didn't know it was a devil town
Oh lord it really brings me down about the devil town

All my friends were vampires
I didn't know they were vampires
It turns out I was a vampire myself in the devil town

I was living in a devil town
I didn't know it was a devil town
Oh lord it really brings me down about the devil town

All my friends were vampires
I didn't know they were vampires
It turns out I was a vampire myself in the devil town

I was living in a devil town
I didn't know it was a devil town
Oh lord it really brings me down about the devil town

About the devil town

I was living in a devil town
I didn't know it was a devil town
Oh lord it really brings me down about the devil town

I've Been Eating (For You) Lyrics – Bright eyes

So, I'm just the medicine
You take when you're sick
You get well and that's it
I'm put back on the shelf in your mirror
And it isn't exceptional
The course of our fate
So, people love and they hate
And I guess it's just our turn to hate
Yeah, you were just some song I wrote
A poem on a page
A sculpture I made out of clay
Desire was the flame
But now you're more of a basketball
Boys just pass you around
They bounce you hard on the ground and dribble
And then we all get high fives
And you think I'm an asshole now
Well, you're probably right
But at least I'm not blind to the facts
I've been wishing were lies
But still I hope you get everything
That you care to possess
And unbelievable sex with him
Or any one of my friends
But just don't ask about my appetite
I didn't lose it tonight
No, it's been gone half my life
It's just act, I've been eating for you

Happy Birthday To Me (February 15) Lyrics – Bright eyes

All eyes on the calendar
Another year I claim of total indifference
To here, the days pile up
With decisions to be made, I'm sure all of them were wrong
Into this song I send myself
And with these drinks I plan to collapse
And forget this wasted year, these wasted years
Devoted friends, they disappear
And I'm sorry about the phone call and needing you
Some decisions you don't make
I guess it's just like breathing and not wanting to
There are some things you can't fake
I guess that it's typical
To cling to memories you'll never get back again
And to sort through old photographs
Of a summer long ago or a friend that you used to know
And there below
His frozen face
You wrote the name and that ancient date, that ancient date
And you can't believe that he's really gone
When all that's left is a fucking song and
I'm sorry about the phone call; and waking you.
I know that it is late,
But thank you for talking, because I needed to.
Some things just can't wait.
(Yeah, some things just can't wait)

Motion Sickness Lyrics – Bright eyes

There is nothing for which I'm responsible.
Just this baggage I keep carrying on,
As if I had someone.

Maybe there's a woman somewhere,
Who's still thinking of me.
A girl with cold black hair,
Who's haunted in her dreams.
But what they've seen, but it wasn't me.
It's just some lie, they slept beside.
Yeah I kept this from them,
But I can't keep this from you.

So will you look for me, in that strange bright place,
Where the statues bloom in the park.
They don't need no brain.
Cause how I ever got to you, I have no idea.
It's like some secret door, well it just appeared.
So, no matter what I do from now on with my time.
You will always stay here, in my mind.
I'm certain of this, and I'm not certain of anything.

So, I wanna get myself attached, to something bolted down.
So these winds of circumstance won't keep blowin' me arround.
From when I land, to when I leave:
Theres not enough time, to sleep and sing.
I keep running around and all I want is to lay motionless.

Act Of Contrition Lyrics – Bright eyes

The air was all dust and not so untamed
The ground opened up and swallowed all of the rain
And it swallowed you too into distance unknown
As they sat down for dinner they waited for you to get home
Yeah, they set a place for you.

So don't believe everything you read in that diary of yours
And this nervousness, it isn't all your fault
Its just these shaking hands won't do what I want...them to
And I've tried to guess what it is that you thought about
That act act of contrition that rolled off out tongues as you left
What are you crying for?

Just dust my heart and you will find
There are no fingers printed there
Just the untouched place that lies inside
Of every lonely boy tonight.

And all of this open air has caused me to choke
On your new found hope for me.

Hungry For A Holiday Lyrics – Bright eyes

The indecencies of city streets
The cleaners' sweeping trucks from nine to noon
And the factories make clouds
To keep the sun from being jealous like the moon
While the husband holds his house
He hates his children for being green when he is gray
And his wife, she likes to talk on telephones
But just to people far away
Well, the big surprise was televised
On a crowded couch their eyes grew wide and wet
Oh, was it really such a sad event?
You could capture this with camera clips, but it don't exist
Just light on negatives
Another number on the birthday cake
You should act your age
We were hungry for a holiday
Won't cooperate with the calendar we found
We just scattered snow-like styrofoam
And sang our christmas carols all through town
And the voices soared, the people joined
With silver coins they filled our cupping hands
And we all agreed, the charity was much in need
Yes, a nobel cause at that
And I met a man, a mannequin
Who stood so still I knew he was afraid
And he preferred a place of permanance
To the awful guessing game of choice and change
Well, the big surprise was telelvised
On a crowded couch our eyes grew wide and wet
Oh yes, it's really such a sad event
You can't capture this with camera clips
No, it don't exist
Just light on negatives
Another candle on a birthday cake
And a wish you make
Well, if the costume fits, keep wearing it
But no Halloween could quite account for this
I guess you're getting into character
Or just be yourself, if that would help
Or sink completely into someone else
You dreamt of mountains but sometimes a hole
Is more comfortable

When The Curious Girl Realizes She Is Under Glass Again Lyrics – Bright eyes

Tomorrow when I wake up I'm finding my brother
And making him take me back down to the water.
That lake where we sailed and we laughed with our father.
I will not desert him. I will not desert him.
No matter how I may wish for a coffin so clean
Or these trees to undress all their leaves onto me.
I put my face in the dirt and then finally I see
The sky that has been avoiding me.
I started this letter I'm gonna send it to Ruba.
It will be blessed by her eyes on the gulf coast of Florida.
With her feet in the sand and one hand on her swimsuit,
She will recite the prayer of my pen.
Saying, ...time take us forward. Relief from this longing,
They can land that plane on my heart I don't care
Just give me November, the warmth of a whisper
In the freezing darkness of my room.
But no matter what I would do in attempt to replace.
All these pills that I take trying to balance my brain.
I've seen the curious girl with that look on her face.
So surprised she stares out from her display case.

Entry Way Song Lyrics – Bright eyes

Last saturday I stood in your entry way
That place where we used to wait
For cars to carry us away
Like once in this storm, they drove me and justin home
The music was just being born
It was all I was longing for

Now im on a plane
Off singin my songs again, oh please dont think ill of it
Cause its the reason I exists
But you, youre the crutch of a cripple
You're the calm of a conscience
You're the peace that I have found
When all these voices talk too loud you are quietly reassuring me
With the hands of a healer
And the tongue of a teacher
Its your voice that I have known
To be the first one on the phone
Yeah, you ran all the lights to the hospital

So don't you say to me
That life's a trap
The future is nothing but a tragedy
'Cos I'll be out of that window
Yeah, I'll start wishing to die again
Just say we're not walking backwards, kid
And show me to the door
And I'll walk behind
Out into the hot sunlight
Where the world's very much alive
Even when I close my eyes

Well, should I admit
That my promise is counterfeit
That I'm careless and childish
And that's all I can hope to be
And would you concede
That I think only of myself
I refuse everybody's help
Who has been reaching out for me
Well, you reach with the soul of a sailor
And the swing of a miner
You have cleared the rock away
Leaving gold there in its place
And it is more than anyone could claim
Oh, with the sense of a banker
And with the touch of a tailor
You saved this life for me
And you have sown it to beauty
And I am grateful now and I will always be

So would you sing with me
The song is all I know
Some truths are told now only in a melody
So I've been writing a new one
Yeah, I've been taking my time with it
It's gonna be so perfect
It's gonna hold all of us inside of it
You will see
If you just add your harmony
I think it would be complete
And be worthy of singing
Becomes a symphony

Yeah, you're the cool of the water
You're the start of the summer
Keep me still like a anchor
In a storm you're the cellar
When I'm heavy with worry make me light as a feather
When I'm deafened by anger you're the song I remember
With the grace of a dancer and the strength of a pillar
When I'm starving to suffer you just fill me with laughter
You're a poet
And a saint
You are the only one I choose to imitate
Oh, like the love of a father through the eye of a camera
It's this picture I have seen
We're on a sloping hill of green
And you are walking there beside me

It's Cool, We Can Still Be Friends Lyrics – Bright eyes

Yeah, you still kiss me, but it's just on the cheek
Yeah, you still kiss me, but it's just on the cheek
Yeah, you still kiss me sometimes, but it's just on the cheek
You pull away so easily

And I still call you, but I get your machine
And I still call you, but I get your machine
And if I'm lucky I guess, I get your roommate answering
But you're at the bar, or at Gene's

And we go to dinner, but you won't hold my hand
We sit at the same table, but we don't play with our feet
Yeah, we still go to dinner sometimes, but we don't sneak a kiss
When the waitress turns around

And we still watch movies, but we don't share the couch
And we still rent movies, but we don't share the couch
Yeah, we still watch movies sometimes, but you don't lay in my lap
The plot is slow, take a nap

And you even stay over, but now we stay in our clothes
Yeah, you'll even sleep over, but now we stay in our clothes
Yeah, you even sleep over sometimes, but we stay in our clothes
I'm only there so that you're not alone

And you say that I hurt you, in a voice like a prayer
Yeah, you say that I've hurt you, and your voice is like a prayer
Yeah, well maybe I hurt you sometimes, but let's contrast and compare
Lift up your shirt, the wound isn't there

I guess that your truth, is just the ghost of your lies
I guess your kind of truth, is just the ghost of your lies
Yeah, your kind of truth, darling, is just the ghost of your lies
I see through them all the time
So I'm pouring some whiskey, I'm gonna get drunk
Yeah, I'm pouring myself some whiskey, I'm going to get really fucking drunk
I'm pouring some whiskey right now, I'm going to get so, so drunk
That I pass out, forget your face, by the time I wake up.

"I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning" (2005)

• At The Bottom Of Everything Lyrics – Bright eyes
• We Are Nowhere And It's Now Lyrics – Bright eyes
• Old Soul Song (For The New World Order) Lyrics – Bright eyes
• Lua Lyrics – Bright eyes
• Train Under Water Lyrics – Bright eyes
• First Day Of My Life Lyrics – Bright eyes
• Another Travelin' Song Lyrics – Bright eyes
• Landlocked Blues Lyrics – Bright eyes
• Poison Oak Lyrics – Bright eyes
• Road To Joy Lyrics – Bright eyes

At The Bottom Of Everything Lyrics – Bright eyes

So there was this woman and she was on an airplane,
and she was flying to meet her fiance seaming high above the largest ocean on planet earth.
She was seated next to this man she had tried to start conversations,
but the only thing she had really heard him say was to order his Bloody Mary.
She was sitting there and she was reading this really arduous magazine article about a third world country
that she couldn't even pronounce the name of.
And she was feeling very bored and despondent.
And then suddenly there was this huge mechanical failure and one of the engines gave out,
and they started just falling thirty-thousand feet,
and the pilots on the microphone and he's saying "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, oh my god... I'm sorry" and apologizing.
And she looks at the man and says "Where are we going?" and he looks at her and he says "We're going to a party.
It's a birthday party. It's your birthday party.
Happy birthday darling. We love you very, very, very, very, very, very, very much."
And then he starts humming this little tune, it kind of goes like this: 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4

We must talk in every telephone
Get eaten off the web
We must rip out all the epilogues in the books that we have read
And in the face of every criminal
Strapped firmly to a chair
We must stare, we must stare, we must stare

We must take all of the medicines too expensive now to sell
Set fire to the preacher who is promising us hell
And in the ear of every anarchist that sleeps but doesn't dream
We must sing, we must sing, we must sing

It'll go like this:

While my mother waters plants
My father loads his guns
He says death will give us back to God
Just like this setting sun is returned to this lonesome ocean

And then they splashed into the deep blue sea
It was a wonderful splash

We must blend into the choir
Sing as static with the whole
We must memorize nine numbers and deny we have a soul
And in this endless race for property and privilege to be won
We must run, we must run, we must run

We must hang up in the belfry
Where the bats and moonlight laugh
We must stare into a crystal ball and only see the past
And in the caverns of tomorrow
With just our flashlights and our love
We must plunge, we must plunge, we must plunge

And then we'll get down there, way down to the very bottom of everything
And then we'll see it, oh we'll see it, we'll see it, we'll see it

Oh my morning's coming back
The whole world's waking up
All the city buses swimming past
I'm happy just because
I found out I am really no one

We Are Nowhere And It's Now Lyrics – Bright eyes

If you hate the taste of wine
Why do you drink it 'til you're blind?
And if you swear that there's no truth and who cares
How come you say it like you're right?
Why are you scared to dream of god
When it's salvation that you want?
You see stars that clear have been dead for years
But the idea just lives on

In our wheels that roll around
As we move over the ground
And all day it seems we've been in between the past and future town

We are nowhere, and it's now
We are nowhere, and it's now
You took a ten-minute dream in the passengers seat
While the world it was flying by
I haven't been gone very long
But it feels like a lifetime

I've been sleeping so strange at night
Side effects they don't advertise
I've been sleeping so strange
With a head full of pesticide

I got no plans and too much time
I feel too restless to unwind
I'm always lost in thought
As I walk a block to my favourite neon sign
Where the waitress looks concerned
But she never says a word
Just turns the jukebox on
And we hum along
And I smile back at her

And my friend comes after work
When the features start to blur
She says these bars are filled with things that kill
By now you probably should have learned

Did you forget that yellow bird?
How could you forget your yellow bird?

She took a small silver wreathe and pinned it onto me
She said this one will bring you love
I don't know if it's true but I keep it for good luck

Old Soul Song (For The New World Order) Lyrics – Bright eyes

Gray light, new day leaks through the window
An old soul song comes on the alarm clock radio
We walk the forty blocks to the middle
Of the place we heard that everything would be
And there were barricades to keep us off the street
But the crowd kept pushing forward
Till they swallowed the police
Ya they went wild

We left before the dust had time to settle
Now all the broken glass swept off the avenue
And on the way home held your camera like a bible
Just wishing so bad that it held some kind of truth
And I stood nervous next to you in the dark room
You dropped the paper in the water
And it all begins to bloom
Ya they go wild

And just when I get so lonesome I cant speak
I see some flowers on the hillside
Like a wall of new TVs
Ya they go wild

Lua Lyrics – Bright eyes

I know that it is freezing but I think we have to walk
I keep waving at the taxis; they keep turning their lights off
But Julie knows a party at some actor's west side loft
Supplies are endless in the evening; by the morning they'll be gone.

When everything is lonely I can be my own best friend
I get a coffee and the paper; have my own conversations
With the sidewalk and the pigeons and my window reflection
The mask I polish in the evening, by the morning looks like shit.

And I know you have a heavy heart; I can feel it when we kiss
So many men stronger than me have thrown their backs out trying to lift it
But me I'm not a gamble you can count on me to split
The love I sell you in the evening, by the morning won't exist.

You're looking skinny like a model with your eyes all painted black
You just keep going to the bathroom always say you'll be right back
Well it takes one to know one, kid, I think you've got it bad
But what's so easy in the evening, by the morning is such a drag.

I've got a flask inside my pocket we can share it on the train
If you promise to stay conscious I will try and do the same
We might die from medication, but we sure killed all the pain
But what was normal in the evening, by the morning seems insane.

And I'm not sure what the trouble was that started all of this
The reasons all have run away but the feeling never did
It's not something I would recommend, but it is one way to live
Cause what is simple in the moonlight, by the morning never is
What's so simple in the moonlight, now is so complicated
What's so simple in the moonlight, so simple in the moonlight

Train Under Water Lyrics – Bright eyes

You were born inside of a raindrop
I watched you falling to your death
And the sun, well she could not save you
She'd fallen down too, now the streets are wet

Body of water
Toxic and timeless
Atlantic ocean
New York skyline
I always get lost
When I leave the village
So I couldn't come meet you
In Brooklyn last night

But I sing glory from my lowest
And I will say peace to the people I meet
While the world waits for an explosion
That instant of life
That wipes the slate clean

So don't be fooled
No don't get lied to
Love was always cruel

And don't act strange
Don't be a stranger
It happened to me, now it's happening to you

But if you take that train under water then we could talk it through

Well if I could tame
All of my desires
Wait out the weather that howls in my brain
Because it seems
That it's always changing
The winds indecision
The sorrowful rain

Yeah, I was a postcard
I was a record
I was a camera
Until I went blind

And now I'm riding
All over this island
Looking for something
To open my eyes

But I still sing glory from my high rise
And I will say thanks if you're pouring my drinks
While the world waits for an explosion
That moment in time, when we'll be set free

So don't stay mad
Just let some time pass
And in the morning you'll wake feeling new

And if I don't come back
I mean if I get side tracked
It's only cause I wanted to

I'm keeping up with the moon on an all night avenue