Do you remember what that rusty tailfin Dodge
Looked like years ago, brand new in someone's garage?
But now the grass grows high around that ancient castle ruin
A relic of a time when we were shooting for the moon
In the afterglow of the last big war
You drove that brand new lifestyle off the showroom floor
Never heard of Selma town or Vietnam
Too close a look wasn't part of the plan
But look out, here the sixties come
Look out, and they've got a gun
And you cannot da doo run run away
Nickel soda, and winning home teams
Just like a cover shot from Look magazine
But then Coke sold out, and baseball too
Oh has the same thing happened to me and you?
Well you really couldn't blame us not seeing the light
All our information was in black and white
If someone wasn't living like Leave It To Beaver
We never saw them on our TV receiver
But I can't help falling in love with...
Do you remember the American Dream
Years ago, when it was shiny new and clean
But that hard rain finally came to fall
And now our tailfins, they don't hardly fly at all
But look out, here the sixties come
Look out, and they've got a gun
The party's over anyhow
The King is in the army now
Say goodbye to Eisenhower
Start counting down to zero hour
Relay Tower
intro: Em7 D/F# G C Em7 D/F# G
G
C
Em7 D/F#
"Well I know it was here" said the man in the park
G
C
And the woman said "Come on dear, it's getting dark"
Em7 D/F#
G
C
Em7
D/F# G
The couple had come back to see their initials they'd carved
on a tree
G
C
Em7
D/F#
Well they searched and they searched but all they could find
G
C
Was a fence with a "No Trespassing" sign
Em7
D/F#
G
C
Around a steel needle scratching the sky
Em7
D/F# C
And they asked the groundskeeper "Why?"
Em7
D/F#
Well he looked at them like they had just come from Mars
C
G/B
and he said "It's so people can phone from their cars
Am
C
D G
Someone complained that reception was poor, so goodbye old sycamore"
C
D
But you can't carve a heart on a relay tower
G
D/F#
Em7
Like you can't say "I love you" with a plastic flower
C D/F#
But you can call from anywhere, it's true
C
D/F#
If there was anywhere left worth going to
C
D
Em7 D/F# G C Em7 D/F# G
But you can't carve a heart on a relay tower
G
C
Em7 D/F#
Hey you've got no right to complain, you know
G
C
Cause the town council met a year ago
Em7
D/F#
G
C
Em7
D/F#
C
A few angry people and the company man who smiled as he shook their
hand
Em7
D/F#
He said "I'll make you an offer that you can't refuse
C
G/B
We'll plant two new trees for each one that you lose"
Am
C
Now there's ten little shrubs along the barbed wire
D
G
That'll never grow any higher (Chorus)
G
C
Em7
D/F#
Well the old man smiled as he said goodbye
G
C
But the groundskeeper thought he saw a tear in his eye
Em7
D/F#
G
C
Em7 D/F# C
So he said "I only work here y'know, but I was sad to see them
go"
Em7
D/F#
And as he watched them walk away holding hands
C
G/B
He noticed a piece of paper they had stuck in the fence
Am
C
He could barely make out in the deepening gloom
D
Em
D C9
"John loves Margie, nineteen forty-two"
(capo 3rd fret for original key)
(intro): D F C G Am C G D Am Em7 Am Em7
Am
Em
C
D
Instant karma New Agers and teenagers with pagers hey
Fmaj7
C
Dm
Esus4 E
And Trekkies beaming up to join comets in the sky
Am
Em
C
D
Bill Gates is a hero while computers choke on zeroes
Fmaj7
C
Dm E
Am Em7 Am Em7
And Jesus Christ is here, but he's just a plain old guy
Am
Em
C
D
Hindsight is blind sight and Manson's got a website
Fmaj7
C
Dm
Esus4
E
So we've done a damn sight better than our parents did before
Am
Em
C
D
We could all be living underground until the all-clear siren sounds
Fmaj7
C
Dm
E
Am
2000's scary but at least it's not a bore
D
A
Em7
A7sus4 A7 D
And they say these are the last days of the fi - nal century
A
Em7
A7sus4 A7
So long, I will always think of thee
D
A
C
G
They say this is the final millennium
Em7
A7sus4 A7 D F C G Am Em Am Em
But it's just another Mon - day to me
Am
Em
C
D
The Great Unknown and fat-free scones and cell phones and ovine
clones
Fmaj7
C
Dm
E
I'm all alone, I can't find The Zone, won't someone show
me how?
Am
Em
C
D
We live in fascinating times, in fading times, negating times
Fmaj7
C
Dm E Am
I can't remember hating time as much as I do now
D
A
Em7
A7sus4 A7 D
These are the last days of the final century
A
Em7
A7sus4 A7
So long, I will always think of thee
D
A
C
G
They say this is the final millennium
Em7
A7sus4 A7 Bm Bm/A G A7sus4 A7
But it's just another Mon - day to
me
Hey hey
D
A
Em7
A7sus4 A7
And whether it's all over in a flash or in a slow protracted
D
death
A
Em7
A7sus4 A7
There will be wonder at the ending of the race
Bm
Bm/C
G
D/F#
But if the earth goes on without us and never thinks about
us
Em
when we're gone
A7sus4 A7 Em7
A7
D F C G Am C G D
Oh wouldn't that finally put us in our place?
Am Em7 Am Em7
Am
Em7
C
D
And I never seemed to find the time to find that inner peace I
Fmaj7
meant to find
C
Dm
Esus4
E
It slipped my mind while I was trying to have fun
Am
Em7
C
D
Now I face my own creator as a spiritual procrastinator
Fmaj7
C
Dm E Am
A week from Thursday, swear to God
it will be done
D
A
Em7
A7sus4 A7 D
In the last days of the last years of the fi - nal century
A
Em7
A7sus4 A7
So long, goodbye, farewell, I will always think of thee
D
A
C
G
They say these are the waning days of the final millennium
Em7
A7sus4 A7
But it's just another Monday
D
A
Em7 A7sus4
A7
They say these are the final days
D
A
Em7
A7sus4 A7
They say we've got to change our ways
Bm Bm/C
G
D/F#
I say it's only just a phase
Em7
A7sus4 A7
Em7
A7sus4 D F
I'll be okay once I have had my second helping
of
caffeine
C G D F C G D
Well I hopped into my hotrod to go do just what I like
And I turned onto the highway to the parkway to the pike
And four lanes became seven lanes of solid traffic flow
And I found myself a-going where I did not want to go, in
Traffic, traffic
I am caught up in traffic
And I'm just one man in a traffic jam with no escape in sight
I'll be goddamned gridlocked on this road
Till the day turns into night
In traffic
Well I was rolling through the toxic fumes and I went to change
a lane
But this SOB he speeded up and it near drove me insane
So I honked my horn and I yelled and cursed till I could not even
see
Then I said "Just wait till someone tries to get ahead of me" in
Traffic, traffic
We're both caught up in traffic
And we'll both be cheating cause we're both competing for an extra
minute or so
And an eye for an eye, a lane for a lane is the only law we know
in traffic
Well my car commenced to overheat so I pulled off to the side
And I tried to flag somebody down that might give me a ride
But they all said "No, uh-uh, not me, I can't waste my gasoline
Besides you might be one of them schizo psycho slasher fiends,
in
Traffic, traffic
Can't stop the flow of traffic
And there's no one there who even cares if you might live or die
And if you break down you may as well just kiss your ass goodbye
Yeah, traffic
Now there's a hundred million others out there in their
automobiles
Sealed up in their stereophonic air-conditioned shells
And each one wishes each one would just get off of the road
"Just let me through, I don't care about you and I'm carrying a
heavy load" in
Traffic, yeah, traffic
We're all caught up in traffic
And the freedom of the open road is my God-given right
Hey gas is cheap, fill up the tank, we're blowing town tonight
In traffic.
Sometime in the year Ian Fleming died
There was a spy at my school
And though other children would laugh and chide
I knew he was cool
The boy whose name you could never recall
Never hung with the guys
A shadow of a shadow of a face in the hall
The pain of the world in his eyes
The spy at my school seemed awkward and shy
A nerd with nothing to say
But I knew it was all just a brilliant disguise
He never once gave it away
Watching James Bond every night
Learning the lessons they taught
Don't talk, for God's sake
Don't fall in love
That's how the spy gets caught
I only talked to him once or twice
He smiled and slouched in his chair
The burden of all of the secrets he knew
Too much for his shoulders to bear
Sometime in the year Ian Fleming died
There was a spy in my town
But he must have been captured and took cyanide
Haven't seen him since caps and gowns
But someone said they see him now and then
Bussing the tables at Bob's
Oh what a brilliant disguise again
Good to know that he's still on the job
Sometime the year Ian Fleming died
I am sailing without you
Far beyond familiar shores
I always thought you'd be right here with me
Half of my courage is yours
You pulled me out on these waters
From my safe quiet bay
And set my sight on a light on the horizon
I'm gonna get there someday
Captain Captain, tell me something
Tell me what course to steer
Captain Captain, now that I'm captain
Wish you could see me here
Wish you could see me here
Cause I was there in your shadow
Eaiting to show what I could do
See me now, armed with your vision
I'm bound for glory too
Riding high on the airwaves
Navigating by feel
On the screen, on the dial
Always a little unreal
I know there's no turning back now
The course is charted and sealed
Hear the gale, I am ready
I am lashed to the wheel
Though I am sailing without you
A far off lighthouse still shines
I always knew you were right here with me
Captain, Captain of mine.
Big Rig (on the Information Superhighway)
If you're staring at your on-line screen tonight
And suddenly you're blinded by a pair of headlights
Better pull off to the side and let me pass
Cause no one else cruises the net this fast
When you hear the sound like 18 wheels on a road
It's my 56K BPS modem
No laptop wimp better get in my way
In my big rig on the information superhighway
Got a gearshift mouse and a keyboard dash
This CPU speed is bound to make me crash
But I laugh at danger in a macho guy way
In my big rig on the information superhighway
Well no one's ever seen nothing but my taillights
I'm hacking secret files in broad daylight
Yes, I'm getting propositioned from all the females
They're begging for my cyberlove on their E-mail
Well my handle is peterbilt@delphi.com
You should see the size of my CD ROM
A megabyte of manhood, licensed and weighed
In my big rig on the information superhighway
Wearing snakeskin boots like Billy Ray Cyrus
Totin' my Norton Anti-Virus
Got a 10-gallon Stetson upon my head
For cruising Friday nights on the worldwide web
Well I'm really just a skinny little nerd named Hector
With thick glasses, acne and a pocket protector
But on line I don't drive in a shy way
In my big rig on the information superhighway
Once again I come up short my longtime friend
Upon the mercy of the court I throw myself again
So long I've been far away
Too long, I hear you say
I have always worn these clothes
That's the way it goes
If this life were all they say it is we'd be okay
I'd fly you in from anywhere to everywhere I play
As it is there's room for one on this dirt road I am on
I can't make you share these woes
And that's the way it goes
That's the way it goes
The way it goes I'm only married to a suitcase
God knows that's how you found me in the first place
Oh the contradiction of the life I lead
I sing about romance and love I have no time to see
But I won't tell you lies and I will not apologize
This is the life I chose
And that's the way it goes
That's the way it goes
And when I finally end this run and lay down my staff
I'm no prodigal son there'll be no fatted calf
I'll shake the dust off of my hat and hang it in an empty flat
It's what I wanted, I suppose
And that's the way it goes
That's the way it goes
That's the way it goes
What's up? What gives? What's going on?
An ad for MCI got me to call my mom
Cream of Tomato nearly made me weep
Homesick tears are cheap
No one ever lost a dime selling good old days
And we try to buy them back in so many ways
You can find someone who makes you feel wanted
Like your mama did when you were just a kid
You can take the vows and buy a cozy house
And try to feel the way you did when you watched Mickey Mouse
It would all work out just fine except that now you're grown
You can try, you can try, you can try, but you can't go home
You got a closet full of name-brand designer toys
You got a teddy bear to sleep with by the name of Joyce
You got everything you ever wrote to Santa for
And maybe you'd be happy if you had a little more
To take you back into that comfort zone
You can try, you can try, you can try, but you can't go home
Feel-good films, comfort foods
Shooting up nostalgic moods
Thomas Wolfe, don't be sad
Cause what you think you lost you never had
Every retro boomer sitcom on the Nickelodeon
Every Beatle ballad on Oldies 101
Every time Turn Turn Turn is used to turn you on to Time
50 million Alices all trying to climb
Back into that faded Kodachrome
You can try, you can try, you can try, but you can't go home
First you're forcibly ejected from your mother's womb
And when you leave for college she rents out your room
So you drink up with your buddies and say "I don't care
I couldn't wait, I couldn't wait to get the hell out of there"
Somewhere deep inside you've always known
You can try, you can try, you can try, but you can't go home.
You can try, you can try, you can try try try
No matter how much you wish, no matter what you buy
You can try, you can try, you can try, but you can't go home
You can't go home.
Well my woman loves me one day, the next she treats me so mean
Yeah my woman loves me one day, the next she treats me so mean
(But I guess it's due to childhood trauma, bad nutrition or bad
genes)
Well my woman is so cruel, she's the meanest in all Creation
Well my woman is so cruel
She's the meanest goddamned drag-your-name-through-the-mud
Set-fire-to-your-mama woman in all creation
(But I suppose I have contributed to our lack of communication)
B.B. King and Robert Johnson
They were not your sensitive New Age guys
When their women did them wrong
They could scream and rant and rave and cry
But now the Blues sticks in my throat because I'm
Self-helped and over-therapized
I got the understanding blues from my shrunken head to my shoes
I can't get mad at no one, can't shoot nobody with a gun
And if my woman fools around
You know there's only one thing I'm allowed to say:
"Honey, when you do that, I feel upset, rejected and abandoned"
Well I could get even baby, jilt you for someone half your age
Or I could poison your pet canary so you find him lying dead inside
his cage
But the shrink says "You need to find a more constructive outlet
for your rage"
I got the understanding blues, gonna give that counselor some
news
I can't hear what he's saying about no "empathy" and "role-playing"
He's got a lot of nerve to tell me I can't speak as I choose
So for once I'm gonna sing me a
Knock-down drag-out, tell you what pain is about
Had it up to my neck, politically incorrect
He-man not androgynous, just a little bit misogynous
Unenlightened, insensitive, un-understanding blues