Bella's Birthday Cake was burning
Like Lightning, Like Fire
Bella's Birthday Cake was burning...

Bella made her bed in red every loneliest night of the year
Tied me to the rages of her rocking chair - Bella
Fed me quiet offer through her ever wares - I'll tell ya
Bella she was born today feeling kinda spry

Bella's Birthday Cake was burning
Like Lightning, Like Fire
Bella's Birthday Cake was burning
Ever yearning Forest Fire

and all of her lines she left unread
"spirits and battles won," she said
and over her mountian tops she ground me off
where...I can't remember...

Bella played the bridge on the second loneliest night of the year
Bella she was born today...

BELLA'S Birthday Cake was burning
Bella's BIRTHDAY Cake was burning
Bella's Birthday CAKE was burning
Bella's Birthday Cake was BURNING...50 years gone.

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DAY BY DAY

Day by Day I wake up for you I do
and I rise to who knows who
well if I can say...some other day

Day by Day I reach out to you I do
and I pretend there's something to it
And if I can say...I've had better days

Day by Day I resort to you I do
and I wash up after you're through
If I can say...that's O.K.

You're in my head again
You're in my bed again
You're in my mirror again

And if you don't mind me...I don't mind you

Day by Day I reflect on you I do
I reflect on you I do

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THE GARDEN

Do you believe in the man in the garden
Do you believe that he was there
Do you believe in the man in the garden
Do you believe or do you care

Did he rise from the ashes and lead the sky above
Did he lie in the name of love

....in the garden

Do you believe in the path that you follow
Do you believe it takes you where you want
Do you believe in the lies that you swallow
Do you believe it takes you where you go

See the man. He never lies he never will
Did he fight for the right to kill

....in the garden
....in the garden

There's a little man in a house alone...waiting
He doesn't lie.
He doesn't wait for love to hold on to
He doesn't lie. He doesn't wait...

Johnny's in the garden
I see the err in my ways

....in the garden

Do you believe in the man in the garden

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OCEAN

I got a thing for fish with no eyes
Who swim deep in the sea
With nothing to see

I've got a thing for mountians of sand
Left all to their own
To quietly stand

won't you help me now...

Take me to the bottom of...
Take me to the bottom of...
Take me to the bottom of...the ocean

I got a thing for mermaiden tails
Swim naked with me
Your hair of seaweed

I got a thing for sunken shipwrecks
With booty of gold
I don't care if it's wet

won't you help me now...

Take me to the bottom of...
Take me to the bottom of...
Take me to the bottom of...the ocean

I don't need no air.

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HAPPY

Big Daddy's in the back seat taking to the Mammas
God don't the world smell good today
I'm bigger than a fruitcake
Smaller than your honor
A farmer for a daughter..HEY

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LOVE SONG

Put away your tears and your sleepy eyes.
Put away your bullshit.
Big Boys they don't cry to their mammas.
She'll be back soon.

Put away your rain coat and make your bed.
Take another bullet right to your head now.
We're going on a picnic
and we'll get there soon.

And she says maybe it's over.
And he says, there's plenty more fish in the sea
But I say, don't go away...from me.

So put away your dinner and have a snack.
Tie your little brother up in a sack.
We're moving to the country
And we'll get there soon.

Pack up all the things that you don't deserve.
Take another swing, well here comes a curve ball.
I betcha can't hit it
Cause you'll swing too soon.

And she says maybe it's over.
And he says, there's plenty more fish in the sea.
But I say, Don't go away...
Don't go away...
Please don't go away...from me

But can you take it to heart...
I'll never leave...

So take those damn pictures off of that shelf.
Put away your mommy. You don't need her.
I found you a new one.
And she'll be here soon.

And she says, My God it's over.
And he says, I found another fish in the sea

But I say, why me...why me
why...is it me?

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WHITE PICKET FENCE

I've cut off the curls
I shaved half my face
Became half the man you asked to replace.
I'm willing to save you
You said you're worth saving
But half of my appetite's lost half it's craving
Stand in the mirror
That's me beside you
The one with the smile, the one who abides you.
Don't mind the madman
The killer, the lover
He's slowly fading one into the other.

Where is that white picket fence
That I painted myself in the late days of April?
Where are the daffodil mountians?
I know that they're somewhere around here by the garden.

You say that you're happy
Well you should know better
I see that you've sewn up that rip in your sweater
That some lover tore off you
That left you both shaking
That bled deep inside you the wound you'd forsaken

Where is that white picket fence
That I painted myself in the late days of April?
Where are the daffodil mountians?
I know that they're somewhere around here by the garden.

Don't fear I will save you
Don't shout you'll awaken
The corpse in the desert staked out beside you
I cut off his wing
And shaved half his face
But I thought that I saw his eyes...move

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2 FROGS

I sing above my vision. I sing above my face.
A fat old amphibian speaker for the dead.
Gather round ye animals. Gather round this lake.
Take upon your vigil. Wallow in the wake.

It was glorious of glories-a maple April day
With a pocket full of horseflies and eyes as bright as rays
They said walk away walk away if you can
but one leap out the village and our caravan began

Traveled to a forest, nestled in the sky.
He ran beside the buffalo-wrestled with the lions
Every day a saturday, a summer waking morn,
His skin burned golden ember due the shine that toad had born.

While riding back an eagle, laughing with the sun
He spied an old hairy fairy man upon the river Young.
and Sol said, fly away fly away if you can
But he settled next the oarsman, said I'm my own man and this is my life...

Heed above my meter, Heed above my fate. Can't go back again...
I got a reason to be fevered-summer waking morn.
Back back when the poor poor boy was born.

Now cross into his fortune. While enchanted by the queen.
A lone shady shelter stood beckoning his lean.
And in the time it takes a pillow to figure out a face.
Out from in the white tree she rose to take its place.

And the battle for his spirit then caused him to remain.
And he fought as a thousand Visigoths and he cursed the night in vain.
She said run away run away if you can
But last he heard a voice of...I'm my own man and this is my life...

Off to in her castle, laid upon the stairs
She showered him with daffodils and tied ribbons in his hair.
He woke for bare a moment but she wouldn't let him weep.
With lips of only roses kissed him down to sleep.

So royal loyal subjects now let your ears unbend.
For here ye this traveled tail must sadly meet it's end.
What's fate done to our hero I cannot reply...
The last that I saw him, a flection in her eye.

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10 MILES FROM NOWHERE

How have you been
in the shape you were in
I'm suprised that you got where you're going

Who would believe
What a date you would be
If I knew I'd have thought about knowing

And in between now and the last time we met
I'd open the door if I met you again
And I swear that we'd be better/fair ever friends
>From here until 10 miles from nowhere

What is that there
In your brown paper box
I can see that you kept all the memories we'd lost

I'd sworn it was you
Who was destined and gone
To the pressure of past undertakings

Had I had known that it might have been me
I might have returned a letter or three
Or gave you a call from the sanctuary

for the cracks in these walls tell time for a fee

>From here until 10...
>From now until 10...miles from nowhere

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THE LAST GREAT AMERICAN

Mr. Merry cries in his coffin for days he says he can remember
And through the town some pallbearers sing old songs of a beautiful
and purple mountian
>From every walk of life we've come to see the last great American

So may I now present you the speaker
....friends he was a man of men, yeah a man of gold
....he had a (how to you say) ethical like sense
That's when the President started to giggle

Then the children gave the blessing
though the service weren't half done
each of them sued the other one...for the last great American

Wait...Time for my coffin
Wait...Time for my break
Wait...Time for my coffin

Merry reaches up and we bow our heads
Pulls the lid on down and his stone is read

Here lies our Merry
The man with the heart so spent
That in this day in age
is sick of living

Still judges argue letters
And fabric comes undone
For every daughter...every son..of the last great American

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(EUROPEAN B-SIDE)

Finally in the meantime since you paid for my room
I thought I'd write the European B-side or 2

See Mr. Merry's in the garden
Trying to tie his high top shoes
Johnny's off of daff-dill mountian
Praying for the news

and Oh what a piece I am
if you'd...be my friend

Thanks to all that you made me replace
For all you gave to me you left on my face

See Mr. Merry is the garden
Bella's taking ludes
Daddy's off without a pardon
But nothing left to lose

and Oh what a piece I am
Oh what a piece I am
If you'd...be my friend
if you
would you
be my friend

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