1. |
cut the kid
02:30
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Cut the kid with the boxtop
Cut the vein no sound
For a light in the room
There was no one around
On the streets turned out
To a world coming down
Left it all for a new high
Latchkey never found
Cut the kid with the wide eye
Cut the kid no one sees
the curbside diamond
the kid nobody believes
Keep the cracks for the orphans,
ghosts of some American dream
Another chance you’ll never find it
when you cut all they do is bleed
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2. |
2nd son
03:53
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Heart in your own two hands
same t-shirt, same stupid band
cut the carport in brand new Vans
just some kid with a latchkey secret screaming
Borrowed my brother’s jeans
when the dust started settling
filled the holes out with jagged knees
cutting corners inside my only pipe dream
I was the weaker one
caught the curse of the 2nd son
such a hard war I never won
swore the first chance I’d take and run
Heart buried underneath
the cold face of apathy
gave the fools what they came to see
stacking laughs up so high to hide the bleeding
Slept in his old room
hall of relics, an empty tomb
lonely trophies without a clue
keeping dust just over the truth
I was the weaker one
caught the curse of the 2nd son
such a lost cause, a lonely front
knew it was time for me to run
It’s hard to be gutter punk
stuck in shittown suburbia
held my thumb out for the trucks
left it all just the way it was
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3. |
held out
03:52
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Let it rush straight to my head
for a second thought I was dead
took a while to find my breath again
never fell, fell so hard
for a girl now I got these scars
she don’t want me like she did
I held out for the longest time
She never changed her mind
And I won’t change mine
Let it bleed like I knew it would
all my friends never understood
what I ever saw in her
But I could see in those eyes
a truth there behind the lies
something worth fighting for
I’ve still got so much love to give
it really didn’t have to end
Let it go I tell myself
put your heart on the shelf
try to forget about her
I try, but it never lasts
just can’t get passed the past
I wonder if I’ll ever will
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4. |
void
05:29
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I waited for nothing
turns out that something
is too much of a crowd
wandered the streets
cold caught in a dream
awake and asleep
my eyes were two storm clouds
every stop sign
a voice from the void why?
I pay it no mind
there’s not enough time
I’m just the wild wound
you’ve had since you were 2
the reason you run before the damage is done
I’m just the price you pay
the toll road on the way
some town in New Jersey
they won’t let you
pump your own gas
got my Mom on the phone
she asked me what’s wrong
I tried to think
I said “Momma, I really don’t know.
I’m still a kid at the skatepark
trying to toughen my tender heart
in a Black Flag t-shirt....
Does Dad still call me a fag?"
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5. |
||||
after school
she drove
to her brother’s house
he was at work
we found the key
under the cactus flower
I still wasn’t sure
she told me to wait outside
I stood on the porch
sweating with the cicada choir
when she emerged
she was holding a guitar
said “He never plays it…he won’t even know it’s gone.”
Some kind of Stratocaster
a no name, knock off
I remember it was my birthday
I felt her beating heart
Took it straight upstairs
I already had a little amp
I plugged it in
I drove by her old house today
her room was in the yard
just ashes and cinder block
last I heard she moved
to Florida and married
a volunteer fireman
I wish I still had that guitar
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6. |
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Back to biting my nails down to the quick
hand me those pills
They’re never mine, but what the hell I take them anyway
Shaky hands I try to keep them at my side
pretend I’m clean it never works
it’s not hard to see I’ve made some kind of trade
What’s the use, the real use?
The purpose of all pain?
You are what you do with it
I heard someone say
Hand me down something better
heard some kids faintly whisper
In a dream, but when I woke I didn’t wanna change
Sky was burnt orange for an hour
golden then a Summer shower
I’d have enough for my habit
if they gave out dimes for my mistakes
TV in the early morning
before the white noise blared its warning
Heard a voice say “Dial this # and it will all go away.”
1-800-something something I was tempted, but I couldn’t
desperation always calling like a bill collector she’s never fazed
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7. |
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I hear it all the time
there’s nothing to do in this town
that don’t involve a bottle or some pills
you were just watching some live feed
from New York City
just to see the streets with people
and wish you were there
let’s go to goodwill after work
I just got paid I’ll buy you a shirt
it’s still name brand
though it’s a hand me down
we don’t have to waste away
We don’t have to move to L.A.
It sounds crazy, but we could stay
And make it work
here
Yes, you’re right
We’re not like the parking lot boys
With their big heads
And their even bigger toys
Maybe they pay the insurance
And maybe even the note
They make vaping look so serious
Like it’s an olympic sport
Hey, do you want kids? Me either.
I still feel like one
You know the houses are really cheap here
and I really wanna leave
still I’m scared if I go I’ll never come back
and if I stay I’ll end up at the dog food plant
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8. |
red devil
05:47
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I let you out under the green awning
you never want me to park and walk you in
I show back up just to find you waiting
half-smiling you ask for a cigarette
I’m too young to be your Momma
you’re not my Daddy at least not by blood
you told me once in your right mind, lucid
somewhere near Houston you’ve got a son
It feels like a bad investment
I always look, but never see a return
lost count on the couch I’m losing
worn a path to your bedroom
just to watch you crash and burn
I feel stuck in a bad movie
and if I had a bow I’d tie it up
but the plot never thins
and we know how it ends
this story is shit i’ve had enough
I used to pray just like they told me
I used to always be able to find the Amen
now I talk to the popcorn ceiling,
“Fuck you God. I can’t lose him…..
God, I can’t lose him.”
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9. |
designated
05:13
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Stole her car and her pills
taped a note to the tv
said “I’m sorry. I can’t live like this anymore.”
Drove as far as I could
far as the tank would take me
Left it parked at a church
another note with the keys on the dash
“Give it to somebody who needs it.
Give it to somebody who needs.”
Put my thumb out in the air
called myself Sal Paradise
lost and looking out for love
couldn’t find it anywhere
Instead a man picked me up
18 wheels on his truck
He said “I’m going far as Freeport.”
I said “that sounds right to me.”
I took the battery from my cell phone
threw them both out the window
He let me out at the bus stop
just like in the movies
on the corner was a cop
I could tell he was angry
I felt just the same
lost soul born to bury
underneath a shy smile
every grief like a body
Find the seam (you won’t)
Search for the clearest cut(you won’t)
Mine for a vein to start(you won’t)
Drill straight for the heart
it happened eventually/they saw the back of my ID
designated for the day as if just to say
“Give them to somebody who needs them.
Give them to somebody who needs.
Give them to somebody who needs them…that is no longer me.”
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10. |
i was gonna ask you
05:28
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Is there a cure behind the clouds?
Is there a circle coming around?
Some source no one sees?
A secret caught tween you and me?
Where’d you get that heart attack?
That giant target on your back?
Hurt looks deeper than a scratch
just too weak to lift the latch
I was gonna ask you after the storm blew through
Never thought it would take you away from me
Here’s a dream no one dreams
here’s a bruise that never bleeds
Here’s a hand you’ll never hold
fly you high then crash you low
Was it really your own idea?
Just too much there to feel?
Something must have scared you still
to make you take that desperate deal
Is your head still attached?
Is your heart still on attack?
Are you finding what you lacked?
I didn’t mean to turn my back
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11. |
cut the kid(reprise)
04:33
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Cut the kid with the boxtop
Cut the vein no sound
For a light in the room
There was no one around
On the streets turned out
To a world coming down
Left it all for a new high
Latchkey never found
Cut the kid with the wide eye
Cut the kid no one sees
the curbside diamond
the kid nobody believes
Keep the cracks for the orphans,
ghosts of some American dream
Another chance you’ll never find it
when you cut all they do is bleed
|
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