Lyrics

All songs by Christopher Tucker, ©&® 2005 Dilligaf Music/ASCAP.  All Right Reserved.

Amoralia

I’m made of a million men.
I am both all and none of them.
My very favorite place to hide is pitting body versus mind.
What do you do when neither is right?
And who are you if neither side?
When without or within you’ll give up to go on with your life.
What can you do but put up a fight?
But with whom when nothing is right?
And you stare at the fork in the road of your mind –
what a sight!
Chorus:
With a conscience like a car crash
you live for your rock-n-roll.
With the patience of a thermostat
you keep it all under control.
And you make a mess with your nonsense
to have nothing for it all.
Amoralia.  Amoralia.
So I’m at war with a million men
knowing well no one can win.
I long to be all of any side – with a persona to hide behind.
Is it you who is wanting fire?
Or is it you in the disguise?
As you say that you’re neither or nor and
you’re walking the line.
Aw, look at you, ya satellite!
What do you do in this house of lies?
As you claim that you’d give all you’ve got
just to make up your mind…
Chorus

Modern Dances

So says this kid from the bar
who claims he thrice was shot,
“Remember who you are but don’t forget who you’re not.”
And the girls are doing modern dances
trying to forget their circumstances
and they do it all night on the back of the beat.
And all night they do it to these city streets.
And all night they keep their favorite secrets.
They will not tell because they like to tease.
Is fame your God-given name?
Can we get married?  Can mine be the same?
With torn up shirts and ripped up skirts
lining our floors as the morning lurks in disguise.
Can we hide the disguise?
So here comes one-way Ann.  She’s off the wagon again
with coca cola keys (she’s on a three day bend).
Making out with all the modern dancers,
trying to forget her circumstances,
more than anyone else she’s been around the block.
And all night – she’ll fuck ya ‘til a million o’clock.
And all night – she’ll carry all the aces
and look straight through your lucky poker face.
Is fame your God-given name?
Can we get married?  Can mine be the same?
With torn up shirts and ripped up skirts
lining our floors as the morning lurks in disguise.
Can we hide the disguise?
Fuck the light.  Shut the blinds.

Pine Street

Waiting for these pangs of love to go away;
Waiting for this pine for love to come and go again;
there is always a wanting for to leave
when you know that you can’t go.
There is knowledge waiting on the road
but you know that you won’t go.
You say that time will have its way
and you learn these lessons everyday.
In the end, there is no price to pay for what you know
and you don’t know.
Waiting for these pangs of love to go away;
Waiting for this pine for love to come and go again;
there is something asking you to leave
when you know that you can’t go.
But in having, the ladies and the gentlemen are both goin’ coco.
And you want your story to be told
as the lines in your face are growing old.
In the end, you don’t have to pay a price for what you know.
Didn’t you know?

Paper and Pens

I did what I could to find you in your forest of ruined men.
You’d think I might have learned from them.
I carried such a weight behind you –
I tried to save you from yourself and you invited me to hell
and I went for you there and I paid for the fare and
I lived to my bed with my paper and pen.
This battle of wills that you’ve waged just for thrills
is all over this bed – working you out of my head,
working you out of my head.
But there’s always a line to amend…
So confined to this bed, with paper and pen,
these lines I amend.
I will not let you take it away from me.
I didn’t want to have to steal you
but I wanted to make you more
than a temporary paramour.
Now I can barely believe you.
I treat you like a queen of queens
and you don’t even know what it means.
My orchestra plays in my head like a plague
to your face in my thoughts feeling all is made for naught.
Every inch, every mile, every page of our file
is all over this bed – working you out of my head,
working you out of my head.
But there’s always a line to amend…
So confined to this bed, with paper and pen,
these lines I amend.
I will not let you take it away from me.

Latchkey Kids

It seems like bound for gloom I have been forever in this room
simply trying to write down the story of my life.
I get lost in the times of makeshift hide-a-ways, fishing lines,
and secret antidotes; tires swinging from ropes.
We carved initials into the trees,
put patches on the knees of our jeans
and out loud we laughed the candy wax from our teeth.
We put our pennies on the train tracks,
hit lightening bugs with wiffle bats,
and we bagged up the fallen leaves.
Watched the mill pond thaw and freeze
as do these memories.
Before most girls grew tits,
we were the neighborhood latch key kids,
selling Mike & Ikes, spraypainting dirt bikes.
We hid inside of our forts
your father’s basement stash of porn.
We ate bomb pops smothered with pop rocks.
We rode our bikes to the arcade, lit m-80s along the way
and all night we laughed
at cassette tapes that we had made.
Before we got our first guitars,
we learned to play with matchbox cars
and I’m out to find another tree
for to carve for posterity the acronym for me.

Mocking Fate

Well if you’ve never known what you want,
you’ll never know what you need.
You’re runnin’ around talkin’ ‘bout a suicide
and feelin’ short of incomplete.
Well I ‘mo tell you where I been
and I ‘mo tell you what I seen.
A black cat bone fucking Jesus Christ –
I’ve seen and been with everything!
I’m mocking fate.  I’m mocking fate.
So get out of my face.  I’m everything that you hate.
I’m here to unbatten the hatch.
I’m here to lift every latch.
Cover my body in gasoline,
oh, and honey I’ll light the match.
When all the money’s long gone
and none of your lights come on,
and all the heat ya got’s from kerosene,
I’ll show you how to have some fun!
It’s called mocking fate.
Yeah, mocking fate.  So get out of my face
I’m everything that you hate.
I ‘mo tell you what I want
and all of it’s against the law.
Ya set it on a platter right in front of me
cos honey I want it all.
When everything cool is gone
and everything’s a strip mall
and rock-n-roll’s a part of antiquity,
I’ll come and kill the king with a pawn
I’m mocking fate.
I’m mocking fate.  So get outta my face.
I’m everything that you hate.

Pillbox Locket

You wanna know my name?  Look inside your pillbox.
You wanna see my face?  It’s in your favorite place.
Look inside of your closet and, lying on the floor,
is a pillbox locket in a jacket pocket from the night before.
You wanna have some fun?  Well, welcome to the funhouse.
You want some party favors?  We got ya!  Many flavors!
So if you’re goin’ up or if you’re comin’down,
well, either way we got it in the pillbox locket.
So pass the bottle ‘round and
we can sing our favorite songs about gettin’ by.
You’ll turn around and tell me how you’re feelin’
but I know you can’t tell me why
the only time your money can buy is in that pillbox locket.
You wanna know what’s up?  Go and check the mailbox,
where just a little package can help you with your baggage.
And when this party is through (three days from now),
I’ll tell you what I’ll do.  I’ll leave it up to you.
So pass the bottle ‘round and
we can sing our favorite songs about gettin’ high.
You’ll turn around and tell me how you’re feelin’
but I know you can’t tell me why
the only time your money can buy is in that pillbox locket.
Open up your pillbox locket.
Open up your pillbox locket.
Open up your pillbox locket.
Open up your pillbox la la la la la!
la la la la la!
la la la la la!
la la la la la!
la!

Black Cat Dice

You must be out of your mind to think that I could want
one more night – one more night in your arms.
While once you opened my mind up, now I’m simply lost.
Nothing’s right.  Nothing’s right and I’ve had enough.
Chorus:
Are you kidding me with your black cat dice?
Throw them bones.  Throw them bones
in the name of vice.
Are you kidding me with your black cat dice?
Throw them bones on your own and get off of mine.
I think we took it all too far.
You were always there for me
but I’d never felt so all alone.
I think you’re out of your mind and here our road divides.
Take a look.  Take a look at what you’ve done to my life.
There are words all over these streets and
I’m going to make them mine and fill this book.
Fill this book like a satchel of wine.
Chorus

Cherry

Cherry came out to visit my broken heart.
Cherry made out with everything from the start.
But you’re in on your own, you’re out on your own,
and maybe if you’re lucky people leave you alone.
I told her this and said that she was lookin’ like a loaded gun
But it’s alright.
Cherry never hurt no one.
Yeah it’s all right.  I got that tone.
You won’t get blood from a rolling stone.
It’s easy to see she’s coming for me
Think it over.  Get it over.
And it’s alright. Yeah it’s alright.
’cos it’s Cherry, man, she’s alright.
Cherry flew back to old L.A., CA.
Cherry broke it off with everyone that day.
She said, “The devil in me is dying to meet
the devil in you for a cup of tea.”
She told me this and said that she was feeling like a loaded gun.
But it’s alright.
Cherry never hurt no one.
Yeah it’s all right, she’s already packed.
I’m taking that girl to Venus and back
It’s easy to see she’s coming for me
Think it over.  Get it over.
And it’s alright. Yeah it’s alright.
’cos it’s Cherry, man, she’s alright.!

Let It Go

You wake up staring at the face of another day
that only gets in the way of who you feel you need to be.
You put your favorite look on your face
and you walk into yourself in this maze you have made
and you’re the only one to blame.
My walls are closing in, I reek of stolen gin
and my head is heavy with your memory.
I can’t forget the look on your face
the day your love took the place of me.
Baby, can we let it go?
Forget about the things we know.
Forget about you and me and all of the anxiety.
When you and your civil war
forget what you’re fighting for,
come and look at me with that face
and everything you want it to say.
You acted as though you knew how to carry your weight
but you create the things you hate
and you made a mess out of the best of me.
With all the writing on the wall could ya
make a little sense of it all.
Oh please, oh please, oh please,
could you stand upon your own two feet?
l lost my common sense caterwauling on your fence
and I tried to deal with your calamity.
But I’ll not forget the look on your face
the day your love traded a place with me.
Baby, can we let it go?
Forget about the things we know.
Forget about you and me and all of the anxiety.
When you and your civil war
forget what you’re fighting for,
come and look at me with that face
and everything you want it to say.

Photographs and Cherryade

She carries on but all she’s got
is her phonograph and what once was.
No longer waiting at your door
is the note she left the night before.
You left her standing lonesome with the chore
of dealing with the ocean
and the water always on its way…
always on its way
to the shore…
She looks about but all she’s made
are some photographs and cherryade.
No longer made of flesh and bone
is the girl you left that night alone,
waiting for the ringing from your phone
but you were busy singing to the water.
always on its way…
always on its way
to the shore…
She takes the paintings off the walls
and puts them in the basement for the fall.
But in the spring they will be gone;
sold with half the cellar on the lawn.
Youth is being lifted from the halls of talented and gifted
and the water is always on its way…
always on its way
to the shore…

The Migrant Living In Your Ear

Shadows roam the wall. The dying leaves announce the fall.
The dust motes dance with one another
and talk about the belle of their ball.
Remember I am here: the migrant living in your ear
for the rest of your life.
All that we complicate we communicate by walking away.
We compete with one another – but we don’t even know
at which game.
Our thoughts contain the words
but the words remain unheard like a storm on the rise.
I’ll be here when you’re feeling undefined,
when in no one can you find a place to hide
and all chaos and control are without divide.
Forget about you and me and all of this entropy.
Nothing should again be yours or mine.
The hills swallow the sun. The clouds are married into one.
The thunder is just applauding the two strangers that we have become.
The roof holds back the rain like one of the two of them’s gone insane
Don’t we know what it’s like?
The sky falls down in rows.
They’re canceling the evening’s shows.
The rain fills up the basement and destroys
last winter’s clothes.
Remember i was yours,
long before we slammed these doors each and every night.
I’ll be there when you’re feeling undefined,
when in no one can you find a place to hide
and all chaos and control are without divide.
Forget about you and me and all of this entropy
and nothing will again be yours or mine.