Lyrics
Hit the Top
When you're falling down
And you need something to hold onto
I'll be waiting for you at your table
Cause your friends won't be around
And you know you need some rocket fuel
When you've got a mule kicking in your stable
Cause you'll hit the top
Before you see the bottom
But you'll hit the bottom
Before you see the top
Now you ain't no philosopher
But you wonder what it's all for
When you know you won't break ground til you're buried
You're like a shark that never drowns
Cause you're always moving on
And everything you'll ever have will be temporary
Grace of God
I was standing in line
For throwaway food for a throwaway man
He showed me his teeth
Or should I say, the want of them?
He said his girl was burned in the floor above
He left her to die in the fire
When push came to shove
Still waiting for food
That no one wanted yesterday
It’s all a waste
So you might as well give it all away
They say, 'God bless!'
Put a bag in your hand
Of bent canned goods
And bread like sand
The man was wrong
You can get lunch for free
If you’re willing to trade your pride
And stand in the street
There but for the grace of God goes me
Every curb is a cliff
By the abyss
When I feel like this
And I’m just a home away
From homelessness
I look into their eyes and see
There but for the grace of God goes me
Play for Keeps
I'll tuck you in
Down in this hole
One little candle
One little girl
I got this guitar
When I got in this fight
And if you're good
I'll play it for you one more time
I'm gonna sing a song of hope
While you're drifting off to sleep
And I'm gonne leave you Daddy's guitar
To play this song
To play for keeps
On the streets of Ukraine
It's getting hard to sing
To hear the music in your head
Over the siren's scream
Rock and roll is a fight
To keep your dreams alive
When your whole damn band
Is out on the frontlines
Goodnight, my girl,
I'm off to give'em a show
One they'll never forget
And I hope you know
I didn't do it for glory
I did it for love
And there's no better reason
in this whole damn world
Close your eyes
And hold me tight
Give daddy kisses
And don't you cry
I'll play this old guitar into the night
So you can hear me singing to you
One last time
Borrowed Time
She's the kind you'd love
He's not the kind you'd like
But his problem is
He never runs from a fight
So the cops took him last month
And they stuck him with the knife
Until his judgement day
We're on borrowed time
She sees him every Sunday
Just to walk the line
But every other day
His little girl is mine
And while he's locked away
We're free to do what we like
Until his judgement day
We're on borrowed time
I hear the ticking of the clock
As I hold her through the night
Haunted by the ghost
Of a man who hasn't died
And if we have done wrong
Then we will pay the price
Until his judgement day
We're on borrowed time
Hey there, Mr. Judge
Won't you do what's right?
Won't you take him away
And make that little girl my wife?
You know the things we do for love
Living with our lies
Until his judgement day
We're on borrowed time
Why when someone dies
They say they're in a better place?
Have we been cast down
Waiting to return to grace?
Will we get out of Hell when we die?
Until his judgement day
We're on borrowed time
UK Trains
In England, UK
A Yank is never free
The trucks are all too small
If you can drive at all
The left's gone right
And right's gone wrong
It'll turn you round
Until you don't know what side you're on
I wanna get me on a train
And get me far from here
But the UK Trains don't take you nowhere
But the rain, and the sea
I can't remember the last time
I drank under the stars
And passed out by an open fire
Woke up rough as a tire
In the arms of a redneck beauty
With my dog licking my face
And a bit of the dog that bit me
I couldn't wait to leave it all behind
Now I miss those nights
Driving slow through town
Bouncing off the walls
And back with you again
Thinking now
I wonder what we might have been
I think my daily bread's
Begun to dull my knife
I ain't got enough whiskey
To cover my ice
I've gotta get out now
I've gotta run for my life
I've got to get'er done
Because it's do or die
Making It Die
Here's something I'll never forget
No matter how many years
My girl waiting in a line
To get sucked through the clinic gears
They don't give you any big cigars
They've got People magazines
So you don't have to listen to the hum
Of the hidden machine
Making it die
And as they took her hand away
I could see she was trying to be brave
She even tried to smile
She even tried to wave
But what they took away from me
Was more than they put in a shallow grave
It was what a hundred nights
Of heartache couldn't save
From making it die
And I'm ashamed to admit
I even wondered how long it'd be until
They finished sucking out her insides
So I could get me a decent meal
And when they let her back outside
There was nothing in her eyes
And I knew they had finished the job
That had begun with our first lies
Of making it die