1. I CANNOT CARE

I did what you told me to do

I returned it all

I gave back your inner sky

With nowhere to fall

The artifacts name

Yea the one that I borrowed

Well I think I might keep it there

At the edge of the hall

They say its careless to let down your walls

They say its dangerous out there

But in order to keep myself happy

I cannot care

Now as I gaze upon

The edge of the aging sun

I’m brought back to simpler times

When it was fun

The fact still remains

Though its gettin harder

I’ll stand out in the pouring rain

And dry out when its done

They say its careless to let down your walls

They say its dangerous out there

But in order to keep myself happy

I cannot care

2. BY THE JASMINE

When Dante woke up, he didn't mean to

He coulda used a little more time in his dreams

But it was gettin late in the evening

And as depressed as he was he went walking

In that buzzing night

And by the jasmine on the corner

He fit his headphones tight around his big ol head

He let the soundtrack move him through the city

Yea just a black boy walkin with moonlight in his eye

Karen Johnson was out jogging

With her neon vest and a chocolate lab named Sam

She just bought a house for next to nothin

Right across the street from where our hero

Lays his head

Her wristwatch counted every footstep

As she shot like an arrow through the night

She thought to get in a run before her early morning

Yea just a white girl runnin with the law on her side

And on a poor lit street she saw Dante standin

But to her he looked like a big black gun

She reached for her phone

Dialed 911

And in a matter of minutes

Dante was gone

When Dante woke up, he didn't mean to

He coulda used a little more time in his dreams

3. CARNIVAL MIRROR

Well you know I'd rather live off the goodwill of strangers

And let my hair grow wild and wide

Than have the shadow of money crossing over me

Wherever I go I feel it under my eye

I ain't sayin that I ain't used to it somehow now

I spent my time with the wise man too

But if its one thing I woulda done differently

I'd kill em fast before he understood

For cryin out loud, I just want out

No I can't take it anymore

This carnival mirror got everybody feelin sick

There's no winners, there's no losers

Just life and its abuser

Leave no trace and give no reason why

Cruel by design

From what I gather theres nothin to worry about

Inside these walls taller than heaven

With all this talk about building them higher now

You gotta wonder whats behind the levee

With your eyes like fire and your heart like stone

And your voice like oblivion moaning

Yea you are quick to abide by your bottomless pride

But you hide when it's overflowing

For cryin out loud, I just want out

No I can't take it anymore

This carnival mirror got everybody feelin sick

There's no winners, there's no losers

Just life and its abuser

Leave no trace and give no reason why

Cruel by design

4. FUNNY STORY

There aint no one that can easily say

How it all started anyway

I might as well make it up myself

I figure it could only do me well

I might as well throw it in my song

A little music never did no harm

The meaning of life is such funny story to me

Stand tall at the highest mountain

Higher than you’ve ever seen and scream

“I don’t know shit and I don’t really see a problem with it”

Turn off my mind and all I see is deep space

I drift away and i’m leaving without a trace

I think i’m sick/ like anyone i’m just trying to live

I had a dream every color mixed

Where blue and orange was every shade of red

Purple and green were reflecting green

I couldn't tell you what it meant to me

When I awoke in the middle of night

All I saw was black and white

The meaning of life is such a funny story to me

Stand tall at the highest mountain

Higher than you’ve ever seen and scream

“I don’t know shit and I don’t really see a problem with it”

Turn off my mind and all I see is deep space

I drift away and i’m leaving without a trace

I think i’m sick/ like anyone i’m just trying to live

5. RANSOM BLUES

My own regard for the spirit

Is of no one's concern

No when it comes to lighting fires

I don't pick and choose which coal gets first to burn

But someone like you

You'll only smother it

You'll choke the life from every flame

No matter how dark your sky

In or outside your eyes

Your lips will never find my name

What have you got to live for

If you don't have the time

I've been around some

Benn up and down some

I've played for ransom for my mind

Mistaken my heart for a trap

To get the monkey off my back

When he was just a friend of mine

But someone like you, You'll never see it

You'll carry on, fakin the blues

I've heard enough of your cries

To leave you high and dry

I bid farewell, so long, adieu

What have you got to live for

If you don't have the time?

I said Hallelujah, said what's it to ya

I've cursed it all

And it's cursed me back

I've made a fool of myself in despite of my health

I've tied the rope with no slack

But someone like you, you make me worry

You act like you're the only one that's gone wrong

No you won't give up till someone you break

I know your kind too well to go along

6. ME OH MY

I needed an answer or some kind of sign

I have too much goin on in my mind

I've tried prayin to the lord and therapy

and if I learned one thing it ain't for me

A friend said yoga was worth a try

but prices for lessons are too damn high

Me oh my

I wish someone would tell me why

I thought drinkin liquor was all I need

But all that it made me was sad and mean

So I took up smokin that cigaweed

And it just made worse my memory

So I switched to the hard stuff and I like cocaine

But my doctor she tell me it eats your brain

Me oh my

I wish someone would tell me lies

I took a vacation to Italy

If I knew the language I'd never leave

I've made love to women on a black sand shore

But I know in my heart that it ain't no cure

So if you got an answer won't you tell me please

Cos all that I do just bring me closer to my knees

Me oh my

I wish someone would hear my cry

7. BOUT NOW

Whatever pours out from your body

Is as holy as the wine

Of what jesus pulled from water

Of what the devil took from light

And if anybody asks you

What you’re doin out past night

Just tell em that you’re only lookin

For whatever pasts you by

For whatever keeps you honest

For what pleases you by sight

And if they should question further

Just tell em that the calendar you read

Said meteor’s shower

Bout now

Heard you whistling a strange tune

A melody that’s hard to pin

Did you hear it from the mountains

Or from the choirs that you’re in

And if anybody tells you

You spend too much time in bed

Just tell em that you’re only dreaming

Of what you should do instead

Of your identity in longing

Of the ego that you fed

And if they wake you from your dreaming

Just tell em that the calendar you read

Said meteor’s shower

Bout now

8. SAMMI’S SONG

The bluest sky I ever seen

Was advertised on a billboard for New Orleans

But i saw it up in Hollywood

Just before the funeral for a friend that I adored

And her name was Sammi girl

Inside my Avalon we smoked

Me and everyone who knew her most

And somewhere by the promenade

We recall hazy days and sleepless nights

When we had no sense of time

With Sammi girl

Ah she was fearless with signin’

When she sang she sung of pain

Its a scary world but she’s a scarier girl

Behold her lion’s mane

With a spirit you cannot tame

I won’t forget your name

No, no, no

No Sammie girl

9. SWEET MISERY

You can see the ring of darkness covering up the light

But to see it is to admit that its just passing by

My friend in New York City, she calls me time to time

And I tell her made up stories but never told her lies

And the weight of my heart/ It swings me left to right

Like a wrecking ball on a six foot chain

Forever, all my life

It only goes to show, Sweet Misery

You can follow me down to the end of my path

But you still gotta go through me

I believe, if for the moment, in heaven I reside

It might as well be anywhere, so why not in my mind

You, yea you, who else am I talking to?

Go sit down by your lonesome and entertain the fool

I was late for the party and I'm eating someone's food

I've never been so hungry to be without a clue

It only goes to show, Sweet Misery

You can follow me down to the end of my path

But you still gotta go through me

10. DIXIE RED

Draw a picture that I can’t trace

Or shield it from my mind

Sharp and heavy is the angel’s face

And gilded are the lines

Blue smoke from my cigarette

Danced upon my eye

Moon has risen and it lit your way

To Paradise

Dixie red lie in the grass

Like a diamond cut in half

It shines like gold

And it can’t be sold

Or even walked past

The morning whispers amazing grace

The evening it just sighs

Donald and Lydia in disarray

Will live a hundred lives

Boundless in the evergreen waters

Gently down the stream

Green River knows you as its father

Life is but a dream

Dixie red lie in the grass

Like a diamond cut in half

It shines like gold

And it can’t be sold

Or even walked past

11. SOLO

I was turning the end of my key

To a room at the end of the street

And when I entered I dropped to the floor

And thought of you some more

When I opened my eyes it was day

I was worried I'd too fade away

I got ready for nothin at all

And walked through the wall

In the middle of 20th street

I let my shadow take over the lead

And I followed him down the Ice Blocks

Like a parrot that talks

Solo, wherever I go

I feel so low

I know that it shows

Its a prison that I can't escape

Won't you just look away

There's a universe under my feet

I can feel it screamin from beneath

I was learning the words to a song

It didn't take very long

There are people way stronger than me

And it's from them that i'm learning to be

Throw a penny heads up off a cliff

When the gravity shifts

Take a memory out of the shade

And put it there in the sun to decay

I remember the curse from the lips

Of my enemy's kiss

Solo, wherever I go

I feel so low

I know that it shows

Its a prison that I can't escape

Won't you just look away

12. TELL MARY

Tell Mary,

That I’ve found time/

For Mary

If she’s inclined

In the Moonlight, where the buildings bend

Seems like its all hanging on

By a silver thread

Bearing the brunt of the monkey

Up there slingin mud

Struck with the silence of nothing

Aint that good enough?

Into the ocean-wide, throw

Please Tell Mary/

That all the dogs been fed

And buried/

In their beds

In the sunrise, wild weeds glow

All across this empty lot

Tell her I said so

Say what you want its alright child,

Little’s left behind

Beating the drum at the wrong time

Look at what you’ve done

Into the ocean-wide, throw

Man in the water

Uh-huh-huh

And see if it floats