As Good As You Want

Skip your turn or place your bet
Have a drink or a cigarette
Go out and get
All you think you can get
It’s only
As good as you want

Play for keeps or play pretend
Hide your heart ‘til the bitter end
Read the letters
You were too scared to send
It’s only
As good as you want
It’s only
As good as you want

Got no time to get things done
The world at your feet
But you’re still on the run
Five more days
Until you can have fun
It’s only
As good as you want
It’s only
As good as you want

Babe it comes back around
Poor little thing
We wouldn’t want to see you
Break down

So skip your turn or place your bet
Have a drink or a cigarette
Go out and get
All you think you can get

Play for keeps or play pretend
Hide your heart ‘til the bitter end
Read the letters
You were too scared to send

Your crooked stars refuse to shine
You’re on your knees
Waiting for a sign
Turn that blood
Back into wine
It’s only
As good as you want
It’s only you

Rain

It feels like November again
You can tell by the
Blow hard wind
Hail to the fundraiser
And his twin
Democrat; Republican
They talk and talk and
Confuse everything
They tell you not to vote
Is some kind of sin
Then the guy with
The most votes
Doesn’t even win
Grab the wheel and
Give it a spin
Round and round
Until November again

On opposite sides
Of a broad and beaten path
It’s nickel and dime
With faces so straight
It’s almost a laugh
It’s nickel and dime
Responses rehearsed
And choreographed
They shimmy and shake
Until you forget what you asked
Don’t look for answers
Near a campaign

Rain, copper coins
Hit the ground
Like rain
A sewer fills
Like a heart will
With pain
And it’s coming down

A heart that is so covetous
Guided by greed
And fear and lust
A shark smells blood
Like you smell trust
Saints and whores
Deny you in disgust
Make numbers dance
Deceive, adjust
Have reports recount
The results they must
Skip town while it all goes bust
Leave a child behind
Choking in the dust
Of a heart that is so covetous

You slither past
My best defense
It’s nickel and dime
You undercut
My confidence
It’s nickel and dime
And you’d swear
None of this makes sense
Until you add
The dollars and cents
And watch them wave
Good luck
From the back of a train

Rain, copper coins
Hit the ground
Like rain
A sewer fills
Like a heart will
With pain
And it’s coming down

Don’t take your
Right to vote for granted
You’re lucky to have it
In the land of the free
Don’t take your right
To choose your better half
For granted
Not everyone gets it
In the land of the free
Don’t take your right
To good health for granted
It’s an arm and a leg
In the land of the free
Don’t take your right
To work hard for granted
Job after job after job overseas
Don’t take your
Guitar for granted
Don’t pawn it to pay
For a better TV
Don’t take your throat for granted

There’s a meeting inside
You’d best keep it down
We don’t want to hear another sound
Or see you again
In this part of town
Shut up and love it
Or leave right now
We’re gunna make sure
There are no cameras around
When we break out gas
Shields, batons and hounds
Round you up
And put you in the pound
Push your face
Straight into the ground
Be sure there will be
No cameras around

It’s just business
Free trade business
It’s nickel and dime
It’s big bank business
It’s none of your business
It’s nickel and dime
It’s in your best interest
To stay out of our business,
We’re gunna give you the business
But baby, it’s just business
What part of money talks
Do you need me to explain?

Rain, copper coins
Hit the ground
Like rain
A sewer fills
Like a heart will with pain
And it’s coming down

Wasted Time

You believe what you want to baby
But you break me up
When you say you’ll save me
Your talk sounds cheaper daily
Imperious and proud and empty

You’re just wasted words
And waste time
Decorating that grave of mine

You preach doom all day
But the day rolls by
Like a lonely cloud
In a clear blue sky
That disappears and leaves you dry
No evidence and no alibi

For all your wasted words
And wasted time
Decorating that grave of mine

Antagonists control the wind
From the Holy Land
To the Vatican
From Faith to Faith,
From sin to sin
In a game no one can win

You’re just wasted words
And wasted time,
Decorating that grave of mine

I’m a big bang baby,
I’m born again
Life is too short
To play pretend
Let the devil make
Room for one more
When he sees the things
You use god for
When I pray
I pray you get to heaven
And they say
“No way go back try again”

Every penny you take
From the poor
Every kid you take
Behind closed doors
A suicide a holy war
Blame the freaks
And the gays and the poor
All the things
You use god for
All the things
You use god for

In all of your wasted time
Decorating that grave of mine

And when I pray
I pray you get to heaven
And they say,
“No way go back and try again”

Elizabeth

I drew a face in my hand
So I’d have someone to hold
I carved a name in a stone
Thought I’d never
Let you know
But when you leave
Dragging memories
Of all the things
I could not show
When you reminisce
Remember this
The hardest part
Is letting go
The hardest part
Is letting go

The boys will lie
To stay by your side
Watch them drop down
To their knees
But to stand and burn,
Knowing fools have words
At moments just like these
To lose yourself
To try and be
The man that she
Deserves and needs
Elizabeth, here take this
And try to not
Remember me
Try to not
Remember me
Remember me

Maybe somewhere
Down the road
This will feel
More like home

I drew her face in my hand
So I’d have someone to hold
I carved her name in a stone
Thought I’d never
Let you know
Thought I’d never
Let it go
Let it go