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Oh, my ship in a bottle,
how I'm glad you are here.
Landlocked as I've been, you give me hope.
And I can see right through
what is holding you back
from setting sail with me.
Is that true? Or is it only me
who is sea-eager all the time,
thinking of you as my satellite?
Oh, I could swear I saw the same thing in your eyes
when you leaned back in your chair,
and looked into me with a tired stare
that seemed to say,
"some nights I wish that you could take me anywhere.
So just find a way
to get me out to sea."
And, oh, my ship in a bottle
how I wish I could get in your cell --
the glass that's holding me back from taking the helm.
But I've got a way of making maps
that are just set in fantasy.
I know that you will never take me
to where it is I've been aching to go.
It doesn't exist, I already know.
Sometimes I think it'd be better
if I didn't talk like this at all.
But I can't be more direct.
I'd break the glass
and never see you again.
So let's just do what it is that we do best.
Oh, my ship in a bottle
let's grab another pint.
I'll drown in that instead of your eyes.
I promise you that I will not
dabble in cartography.
I'll just drift off into the lonely sea.
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2. |
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Lately I know I haven't been the same.
I've been giving out apologies
like they were my name.
And I've been hard on myself,
maybe a little too much,
'cause you say that you still love me
and I'm touched.
Still though, when I look deep in my eyes
I see a busted-up boy of 24.
And I try to analyze every crack and splinter
that I can catch on me,
to find some mending epiphany.
And I know you'd just like me to stop now
get back to being that friend that I once was.
Shut my presumptuous ol' mouth.
The one that assumes my sadness made you hate me.
And if you're honest that you don't,
I'll be honest when I say
you are the key that I'll always need
to lock away my startled sadness
and throw it to the street.
And all my love goes out to you.
The constants surrounding me,
solving all my little problems with living.
So if some doctor wants to give me medicine,
well I heard that those pills
can kill your creativity.
And if this is the last song that I write.
I want to thank you for knockin'
the sunlight back in me.
Like the broken flashlight I am
and will always be.
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3. |
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My mind's drawing a blank:
a clean slate of creativity
with nothing for it to chase.
But it's got a picture of you.
One that you sketched up real quick
after I asked you to.
You said, "don't laugh,
I really can't draw."
But I like the way the unsure lines
make your smile seem so full.
And lately, that's all I can see.
And when I try to write
that's all that comes outta me.
And you call it imperfect,
but it looks right
to someone as broken as me.
We'll never know what we could become.
But it doesn't matter in the end:
you can't miss what never was.
And anyway, I've too many dreams on the shelf.
Some half-finished, or never started.
Like this one that you starred in.
And in it,
you said "just shut up and listen.
The world's a beautiful song,
and if you're not quiet,
you may miss it.
And the trees are full of poetry:
beautiful lines are in every leaf."
And you told them what you're telling me.
You said,
"Don't you ever go, don't you ever go.
I've got you waiting.
Don't you ever go, don't you ever go.
I've got you waiting
Don't you ever go, don't you ever go.
I've got you waiting with me in this life.
And that's all I ever need."
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4. |
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5. |
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I'm playing these chords in my room
and they sound so delicate.
They bring to mind that feeling
of falling in love again.
But you know that I
really haven't found it yet.
So I'm choking on words to put to this song,
just waiting to breathe you in.
Well, it's not in standard tuning,
but I think I'll make the words rhyme.
And if you were here, I'd sing out
the best analogy that I could find
to portray how you would make me feel
whenever you're around:
that overjoyed feeling
that you like living in my ghost town.
Sometimes without you I feel like
a punctured beanbag chair:
with my insides pouring out
from this hole that I can't repair.
Like I've been thrown in the attic
and left as a souvenir.
So that when you miss this novelty,
you can just come right up here.
Well, I'm next to all those dolls you kept
from when you were a kid.
And that picture that you drew your mom
back on Mother's Day when you were six.
And she loved it so much that for years
she kept it on the fridge.
Until you were embarrassed, and asked her to put it away.
Just like you'd say to me about this.
Just like you'd say to me about this song.
And maybe I would listen.
Or maybe we'd argue at night
about how this was a gift to you,
and how you've made me feel alright
about all those other moments
that I only saw myself ahead
as some lonely aging man
who only holds on to senescence.
But anyone that's just listening in,
I don't want you feeling bad.
Because, in reality it's me.
I'm the only problem I've ever had.
It's just me,
so someone please just adjust me.
Won't someone please
adjust me.
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6. |
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It always starts out sweet
with everyone calling their arm-lengths to meet
till there's no distance at all.
But like a broken car
it doesn't really go very far
before we just stall.
And we're left with
smiling faces: a familiar sight
to me and you alike.
But mine's not what it seems.
See, this is just a mask
that I put on to make sure you'll have a blast
while my red heart turns to green.
And I traverse envy like a country abroad.
I keep bumping into love at every corner.
But I can't speak the language,
so I hope you don't mind
if I just
give up trying.
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7. |
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Springtime, and these warm nights,
well my mind's got me imagining things.
I'm picking up the pieces of the past
to form a collage: a you and me.
Driving around with our windows down
and our guards down even more.
We'd be talking our thoughts out loud
and let the warm air write those papers for us.
And by moonlight, our thesis is supplied.
And we'd warrant it all night
with support from those green lawns
that we'd choose to lie down on.
And now I'll never forget these nights
I've drawn up in my mind,
as vivid as a memory.
I'll put you into that starry sky:
the very same one I'm here alone examining.
And now if I squint, sometimes
I can connect the dots,
trace you into my lost and found.
Where I'll return the favor in kind:
I'll be the paper,
you just sketch your heart out.
Well, there's a lot of things
I should focus in on rather than this thought of you.
And now my eyesight is failing me,
'cause there's just nothing that straining can do.
But don't you know each day's like a lotto ticket:
you gotta scratch that silver lining
with all you got.
And you know what? More often than not
I'm finding out that I've already won.
So, with nothing to lose I think of you,
imagining that maybe I'll choose
a lucky number that you're hiding under.
But until then, I've got this pen in my hand
And now I'll never forget these nights
I've drawn up in my mind, as vivid
as a memory.
I'll put you into that starry sky:
the very same one I'm here alone examining.
And now if I squint just right
I can connect the dots,
trace you into my lost and found.
Where I'll return the favor in kind:
I'll be the paper,
you just sketch your heart out.
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8. |
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When I try to sing
there’s this lump stuck in my throat
from swallowing
the day too hard.
I can’t bring it back up;
sometimes I feel it’ll never go away–
like I just can’t
live with it.
well, Chris once told me
“we’ll always want more,
but as long as we can be
happy with what we’ve got
it’s fine.”
And I’d love to live
believing him this time,
because he’s just so right.
So I’m training myself
to not take this for granted again.
I’ll be an acrobat,
’cause this time I may not have a net;
and if I fall, imagine just
the cold concrete instead.
The cold concrete instead.
So I’m trying real hard
not to worry myself sick,
wind up spending all
these days in bed.
And I know it’s you all
that’ll pull me through–
’cause spring’s here now,
so i feel like,
well, it’s gotta mean something to me
in this chain of events:
’cause your smile’s got my mind set on
being free.
Like a hacksaw cutting through these days.
And, I think that’s all I need.
So I’m training myself
to not take this for granted again.
I’ll be an acrobat.
And this time I may not have a net,
so if i fall, imagine just
the cold concrete instead.
The cold concrete instead.
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9. |
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10. |
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Well, I'm gonna say that the best part of my life
is the part you're all in.
Without you here I'd have no answers
to my little problems with living.
And you're probably not surprised
'cause you solve them all the time,
so you're getting used to hearing this.
But it's my pleasure
to be redundant, and take some time
just to sing about it.
Don't you love those plans we make all the time
to accentuate our days?
When we're traveling around, or just hanging out,
or traveling out of state.
'Cause you're the tilt of my Earth
that brings about my many moods and varied seasons.
You've got me smiling and singing and writing and dreaming
through each and every one.
So this is just a small thanks wrapped up in a melody
for being able to shake the sun right out of me
like the broken flashlight that you know I am:
just trying to make the day brighter if I can.
Now I don't know where I would have ended up
if I didn't know you all.
But it'd probably be someplace less happy
with a gray that'd never seem to fall.
So I'm taking my time,
and I'm playing with words:
throwing memories into my bed.
And no matter where life takes us
this'll be the best fucking time we could've ever had.
And when we die, we don't know where we'll go
but I've got my faith, and I've got you all.
so I'm not too worried about aging,
because you're making this one shot at life
worth living.
So I'm saying "thanks."
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Well, for years I've been saying that I want to collect all those songs that were left on the cutting room floor. So, here they are!
This album contains songs that were recorded from 2005-2007, for the albums Terra Firma and Drunken Sailors. But, guess what? I'm going to keep updating this album, Leaves of Grass style (oh, the beauty of online music distribution), adding new "unreleased" material each new release. So, it's more like a tree than an album: when you walk away for a while, it'll have grown by the time you come back.
I'm working on a new album (slowly...VERY slowly) as I write this, so once that thing is released, Odds & Ends right here will be updated.
