Being Somewhere Lyrics

I was asked in the AMA section for lyrics to the new album. Of course, they’re included in physical copies (CD or LP) but I figured it’d be nice to have them here online as well. Here goes.

---

ALL MY PEOPLE

Was I dreaming or am I now?
Did I imagine all my friends around? 
All my people where I can see ‘em
All my people right where I need ‘em
All the faces and all the sounds
All my people come and cool me down

One weird dream away
Fading out again
Some day soon, not now
Some day soon, not now
Some day soon, not now

Before puritans remove the sounds
Before the villagers release the hounds
All my people where I can see ‘em
All my people right where I need ‘em
All the crows’ feet and bleeding into...

One weird dream away
Fading out again
Some day soon, not now
Some day soon, not now
Some day soon, not now

All the faces and all the sounds
All my people come and cool me down
Cool me down
Cool me down

One weird dream away
Fading out again
Some day soon, not now
Some day soon, not now
Some day soon
Some day soon
Some day soon

---

FIRE ESCAPE

Meet me out by the fire escape
It’s been forty nights and forty days
And I’ve become uncertain in a cosmic way
I chewed my fingers to the bone today

Oh, won’t you come around and meet me by the fire escape?
Untie this tied tongue tie
What is it that I want to say? What is it that I really want to say?
What are the words I’ve been choking on, hoping someone will articulate?

Oh no, that’s so murky water
Alright, we’re in the trenches now
And I don’t know when the party’s over
All I know is I’m getting out somehow
Oh what a fever dream

Meet me out by the fire escape
We’ll join the procession down the alleyway
Oh, our freedom’s a joke and we’ve got debts to pay
How many waves until the levee breaks?

Oh, won’t you come around and meet me by the fire escape?
Untie these tied tongue ties
What is it that we want to say? What is it that we really want to say?
What are the truths we’ve been choking on, hoping someone will articulate?

Oh no, that’s so murky water
Alright, we’re in the trenches now
And I don’t know how the story ends
‘Cause the pages just turn over and then turn over again

And redemption’s always out of sight and just around the bend
And the outcome doesn’t match with what it is that I intend
Like a stack of books that grows and gathers dust beside the bed
Or the disconnect between what people do and what they’ve said
And I want to read the news maybe without losing my head
Oh, what a fever dream

Meet me out by the fire escape
It’s been forty nights and forty days
And I’ve become uncertain in a cosmic way
I chewed my fingers to the bone today

---

EASY

Show up unannounced, get me off the floor
Take me somewhere I’ve never been before

Show me sunrises from the interstate
Throw all my devices in the deepest lake

Take me by surprise
I’m ready to drift if you’ve got the time

Show me how to be easy
How to be easy

Kill the madness when I’m stuck in it
Give it back when it’s appropriate

Shake my branches ‘til I fall
I’m somewhere between here and nowhere at all

Show me how to be easy
How to be easy
And make me believe it
That I could be easy

Show me how to be easy
How to be easy
And make me believe it
That I could be easy

---

JUST KNOW IT

Truth hurts, and it always shows up
Dead last when the party’s over 
Wouldn’t you just know it

Two birds, and one stone
Once cast, once thrown
Well ya can’t un-throw it

You’re gonna wear me out
You’re gonna wear me out
I just know it

Time burns like an old home 
It moves fast and kills slowly 
Wouldn’t you just know it 

Two birds, and one stone
Picked last, and sent home
Now ya can’t not throw it

You’re gonna wear me out
You’re gonna wear me out
I just know it
You’re gonna wear me out

I have wondered
Will I be swallowed?
Will I be wrestled?

You’re gonna wear me out
You’re gonna wear me out
I just know it
You’re gonna wear me out

---

ALL ROADS

In a million billion years
As we return to where we came
Will the memories remain?
Like the stillness of a frozen dawn?
Or the beat after the moment’s gone?

The thing I thought that was in the way?
Well, it was the way
The thing I thought that was in the way?
Well, it was the way
As for what maybe there was to say?
I don’t know what to say

Are we the stillness of that frozen dawn?
Are we the beat after the moment’s gone?
Are we a toddler in a marathon where all roads lead to sweet oblivion?

The thing I thought that was in the way?
Well, it was the way
The thing I thought that was in the way?
Well, it was the way
As for what maybe there was to say?

Here we are howling at the moon
Here we are pissing in the wind
Feeling like a brick in brooklyn

The thing I thought that was in the way?
Well, it was the way
The thing I thought that was in the way?
Well, it was the way
As for what maybe there was to say?
I don’t know what to say
The thing I thought that was in the way
Well, it was the way

---

IN YOUR CORNER (FOR SCOTT HUTCHISON)

Why?
Why can’t the see-ers see a way out?
When they drown in information,
When they’re stranded at the station,
When their film begins to fade out?

Now we’re crying in the shower
Crying in the car park
Crying in the office towers
And we’re trying not to get dark
Trying hard to fight that darkness
Trying not to count the hours

So come find us if you can
We’ll be unified and sad
We’ll be in your corner

Leave a light on when it’s bad
And we will congregate and make a plan
And we’ll be in your corner
We’ll all be in your corner

Why?
What leads the best of us to suffer?
And do they know their pain and write it down
To help the rest of us recover?

Now we’re crying in the shower
Crying in the car park
Crying in the office towers
And we’re trying not to get dark
Trying hard to fight that darkness
Trying not to count the hours

So come find us if you can
We’ll be unified and sad
We’ll be in your corner

Leave a light on when it’s bad
And we will congregate and make a plan
And we’ll be in your corner
We’ll all be in your corner

Leave a light on if you can
Until it’s crystal clear, and you understand
We’ll all be in your corner

---

LONG AFTER

It’s different now than it was then
Hits me now more often
One foot in the coffin

When all my days are seen to
And all my skin turns see-through
You can pull the plug ‘til it comes loose
I’m gonna find new ways to love you

I’m gonna find new ways to love you
I’m gonna find new ways to love you
I’m gonna find new ways

I ain’t messing around
This ain’t puppy love, I’m not freaking out
This is calm and steady
Somehow, I know that you’ll know
You’ll know

I ain’t messing around
I put all of my wild oats down
I’ve got stillness in my blood now
Long after I’m in the ground
I will still find ways to love you somehow

It’s different now when we argue
You can read me as I read you
So let me count the ways to
Find new ways to love you

When all my days are seen to
And all my skin turns see-through
It was always clear that it was you
I’m gonna find new ways to love you

I ain’t messing around
This ain’t puppy love, I’m not freaking out
This is calm and steady
Somehow, I know that you’ll know
You’ll know

I ain’t messing around
I put all of my wild oats down
And I’ve got stillness in my blood now
Long after I’m in the ground
I will still find ways to love you somehow

I ain’t messing around
This ain’t puppy love, I’m not freaking out
This is calm and steady
Somehow, I know that you’ll know
You’ll know

---

WISH I WAS HERE

If you need distraction
If you need a friend
To flip a table in slow motion
I’ll pay the ransom to get you outta your head
If you think it would
If you think it might help (help)

I’ll sign your cast
I’ll read the fine print for ya
Dial your friends
Smile in pictures
So you can be still
Can I help you to be still?
You’ve been, you’ve been thinking
Wish I was here… Man, wish I was here (here, here)

If you need distraction
If you need a friend
To flip a table in slow motion
I’ll pay the ransom to get you outta your head
If you think it would
If you think it might help 

I’ll write an anthem
Where the story ends
In safe passage
And the good guys win
So if the man comes
And he wants somethin’
I think it would
I think it might help (help)

I’ll take the floor
Read all the headlines for ya
Die in your place
Lie if I have to
So you can be still
Can I help you to be still?
You’ve been, you’ve been thinking
Wish I was here… Man, wish I was here (here, here)

If you need distraction
If you need a friend
To flip a table in slow motion
I’ll pay the ransom to get you outta your head
If you think it would
If you think it might help 

I’ll write an anthem
Where the story ends
In safe passage
And the good guys win
So if the man comes
And he wants somethin’
I think it would

---

NO TRAGEDY PLEASE

What I can take, it will be tested
What can break me has a name

So when I’m calm and feeling rested
There’s still a devil at the gate

And I have learned that if I let it
It will coax my ease away

So maybe too many things really matter to me?
And maybe loss just affirms the value of everything?
Maybe love is a curse and we’ll never be free?
Maybe there in the sting lies the real poetry?

Just no tragedy please, just no tragedy please

If I could read what the cards tell
Could I live with what they say?

Or would I just sit there shuffling and re-shuffling
Try to fix the deck my way

What is this long and painful process?
Learn to leave things as they lay

So maybe too many things really matter to me?
And maybe loss just affirms the value of everything?
Maybe love is a curse and we’ll never be free?
Maybe there in the sting lies the real poetry?

Just no tragedy please, just no tragedy please

There’s nothing more that I need
Just no tragedy