Lyrics The Rocket Swing

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All lyrics © Diftong 2015

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Vintage Van
Cormorant
The Rocket Swing
A Storyville Blue Note
Heart of the Matter
Jubilee
Voodoo 22
Dying of the Light
The Hole
One for the Road

Vintage Van

Living on-line on Dismal Street
Horror stories coming in
A load of Joe the Plumber´s tweets
Who did what where when and since
Who did what ever since
Devoid of any imagination
It´s copy, paste and water down
We must log off and flip the switch
Now is the time to shut it down
Time to shut it down

We have long planned our escape
In our own small mobile home
A sturdy van of vintage make
That will take us down the road
Takes us down the road
We don´t need SatNav
We don´t need shortcuts
To leave it all behind
Two old hippies in a van
On their way to paradise
All the way to paradise

Hey let´s go find El Dorado
Hey let´s go find the Holy Grail
Find the Fountain of Youth
Let´s go find us a muse

Vintage van, way to go, way to go
Carry us down the road
Vintage van, take it slow, take it slow
Let´s take the long way home

Cormorant

A cormorant tattooed in black
Sits next to the monkey on your back
Those two working together
Are like birds of a feather

Mesmerized by your sleight of tongue
Nobody senses anything wrong
While you´re showing off your self-inflicted wounds
A long shot aimed at the moon

Night after night the crowd explodes
They watch as you leave your heart exposed
Beg for you to take of your shirt
They love to point where it hurts

Those stupid birds can hardly fly
We once saw one crash from a clear blue sky

You pour yourself another
You prance and holler
Declare you piss on it all
Better watch your back
That bird is reckless
It will take you down in its fall

The Rocket Swing

A city girl and a son of the forest
Born in the best of times
With two great wars in the past
And heavy fruit on the vine

Those were magic days we spent
Childhood never seemed to end
Still, we grew up and we went
Our separate ways

Building castles out of sand
And flying the rocket swing
All we had to do is stick out our hands
And we had wings

The postman came by and dropped a card
The words hit me pretty hard
Something cruel curtailed your life
And where was I?

Building castles out of sand
And flying the rocket swing.
All I had to do was stick out my hands
And I had wings

Summer Solstice comes and goes
Fronts move in and bring the cold
Though you are gone
My train of thought goes on and on

And I see us
Building castles out of sand
And flying the rocket swing
All we have to do is stick out our hands
And we´ll have wings

And now I like to think
That you found that rocket swing
You can stick out your hands
And you´ll have wings

A Storyville Blue Note

Picking tobacco, picking cotton
Picking sad redemption tunes
No chance of freedom
Anytime soon

Full color delta in black and white
Was the scene of the crime
Twenty lashes
Buffalo hide

Brother tied some strings to a gourd
He locked horns with the truth
He played some chords
And sang the blues

Sister danced with moist eyes
Came the time to kiss goodbye
Her man was gone
The blues was on

Storyville was built on blue notes
And so the story goes
Losing sorrow
Into song

Heart of the Matter

Building a wall that cannot contain
The far-flung hatred and stones
Ancient grudges no longer explained
In the rise of the settler´s homes

A temple´s ruins on sacred ground
Where unctuous voices betray
Where bells cannot ring safe and sound
Where mothers are always afraid

Why do you keep looking at God
While innocent children are shelled
What makes you think that you are heaven bound
When you make this world into hell

The heart of the matter is a matter of the heart
You´d think that his message was clear from the start
Yet who was denied three times in a row
Time and again the rooster crows

Time and again he has been denied
Time and again the rooster cries
The heart of the matter is a matter of the heart
And it´s not and it´s never too late to start

Jubilee

She´s the one that I selected, or did she select me?
Not all what I expected, she is all that I need
Now it´s business as usual
And she is always on my side
I am taking her for granted and that can´t be right.

Despite our creaky joints
We walked and walked some more
We often kept on walking until our feet were sore
We covered rocky ground on our quest for holy bones
But it always felt so good to be back home

Twenty five years is about as long
As I have been trying to write this song
After all this waste of paper
All these crossed-out words
This is what I´ve got for what it´s worth

We climbed the Devil´s Mountain to our silver jubilee
All the way up and back and we came away scot-free
My lady and me

Voodoo 22

I never learned to draw the line or question the rules
Must have been a sitting duck from your point of view
You were smart and ruthless and I was a coward
I had a craving for truth
And you had a craving for power

Everyday you drove me up against the wall
With your bullhorn opinions
And your bittersweet drawl
Desperate for an answer, I tortured my mind
The moment always past before I found my reply

One day I´d had enough and set myself free
I covered my tracks
And hoped that you´d forget all about me
You kept some of my hair, took some wax and straw
And when the moon was dead
You made yourself a doll

You have got the nerve to spook my dreams
Sticking needles in a doll that looks just like me

I´m a foot stomping soldier on a mission to find you
A one-man firing squad with a rusty 22
I know I might get caught, convicted, crucified
That´ll be the day after you died

Dying of the Light

(Chorus lines by Dylan Thomas)

Gran sits in her chair all day
And her light but slowly fades
Sometimes she must wonder
Why she has to wait
Her time will come

The light fades much too fast for some
They have trouble holding tight
So we must rush to help them stop
The dying of the light
Their time will come

I went to see the poet´s house
And left with a chorus line
To pound these strings and rage against
The dying of the light
My time will come

Don´t go gentle
Into that good night
Rage against the dying of the light

The Hole

Our paths crossed under lucky stars
We found one that was lost
Pledged that we would follow it
Follow at all cost

We grew a crop on common ground
Shedding sweat and tears and all
And now they´ve gone and ripped it out
Left nothing but a hole

Down there I can hear them whisper
We have a right to reap what we sowed
What´s happened ´s not our fault
We want our reward

Be careful what you wish for
There are two sides to a coin
There is heaven in a small dose
A little more is poison

In the hole, who I thought were my friends
They hiss and show their sharp ugly fangs
Hold me now
If you don´t hold me now
They will drag me down

One for the Road

Home is where the heart aches
And home is where the heart breaks
And life is what you make it
So at daybreak I´ll lug my suitcase into the yard
And leave home with a broken heart

I´ll be wandering alone, with my hopes held high
On narrow ridge, steep slopes on both sides
I will carefully place my feet on the track
And never, never look back

At least while you´re drinking, Bukowski wrote
The world doesn´t have you by the throat
Sobriety is but a state of mind
So, my friends, this round I´m buying

And it´s one more for the road, boys
Time for me to go
One for the road
Time to go