10,000 Maniacs

Tolerance Lyrics

The still and silence is torn with violence. A loud breaking sound in the night is made. Hear it grow, hear it fade. The sound you're hearing, the sound you're fearing is the hate that parades up and down our streets, coming within bounds and within reach. Now, inside the place we hide away, we hear it near and hope it turns away. Turn away... There's something seething in the air we're breathing. We learn slash and burn is the method to use. Set a flame, burn it new. We're overpowered. We kneel, we cower, we cover our heads. Feel the threat of blows that will come and the damage that will be done in its wake. Now, inside this place we hide away, we hear it near although it's miles away. We hear it near and hope it turns away. Turn away... This house divided, we live inside it. Hate's dwelling place is behind our door in fitful nights. Hear it walk the floor and hear it rave as it moans and drags along its ball and chain, as it moves through this house it can't escape. Now inside this place we hide away. We hear it near and hope it turns away. Turn away....

Few and Far Between Lyrics

Times are far between, and few I bet, when we can look upon our lives without regret. Of all the things I have done, you think I'm proud of everyone without exception? 'Till you make your peace with yesterday, you'll never build a future. I swear by what I say. Whatever penance you do, decide what it's worth to you and then respect it. However long it will take to weather your mistakes, why not accept it? My hands, for now, are tied. I'm a body frozen. I'm a will that's paralyzed. When will you ever set aside your pain and misery? No matter how I beg, no matter how I wish or plead, you'll never be more than alive. You'll never do more than survive until you expect it. Do you want to build a world with our lives? You better soon decide or you can forget it. My hands, for now, are tied. I'm a body frozen. I'm a will that's paralyzed. 'Till you drop that heavy baggage you're dragging behind, there won't be room for us to both go this ride.

Jubilee Lyrics

He fills the flower vases
Trims the candle bases
Takes small change from the poor box
Tyler has the key
He takes nail and hammer
To tack up the banner of felt scraps glued together reading,
"Jesus Lives in Me"
Alone in the night he mocks the words of the preacher:
"God is feeling your every pain"
Repair the Christmas stable
Restore the plaster angel
Her lips begin to crumble and her robes begin to peel
For Bible study in the church basement
Hear children Gospel citing Matthew 17:15
Alone in the night he mocks the arms of the preacher raised to the ceiling
"Tell God your pain"

To him the world's defiled
In Lot he sees a likeness there
He swears this Sodom will burn down.
Near Sacred Blood there's a dance hall
Where Tyler Glen saw a black girl and a white boy kissing shamelessly
Black hands on white shoulders
White hands on black shoulders
Dancing, and you know what's more
He's God's mad disciple,
A righteous title for the Word he heard
He so misunderstood
Though simple-minded, a crippled man, to know this man's to fear this man
To shake when he comes
Wasn't it God that let Puritans in Salem
Do what they did to the unfaithful?

Boys at the Jubilee
Slowly sink into brown-bag whiskey drinking
And reeling on their feet
Girls at the Jubilee
In low-cut dresses yield to the caresses and the man-handling
Black hands on white shoulders
White hands on black shoulders
Dancing, and you know what's more

Through the tall blades of grass he
Heads for the Jubilee
With a bucket in his right hand
Full of rags soaked in gasoline
He lifts the shingles in the dark and slips the rags there underneath
He strikes a matchstick on the box side and watches the rags ignite
He climbs the bell tower of the Sacred Blood to watch the flames
Rising higher toward the trees
Sirens wailing now toward the scene

Verdi Cries Lyrics

The man in 119 takes his tea alone. Mornings we all rise to wireless Verdi cries. I'm hearing opera through the door. The souls of men and women, impassioned all. Their voices climb and fall; battle trumpets call. I fill the bath and climb inside, singing. He will not touch their pastry but every day they bring him more. Gold from the breakfast tray, I steal them all away and then go and eat them on the shore. I draw a jackal-headed woman in the sand, sing of a lover's fate sealed by jealous hate then wash my hand in the sea. With just three days more I'd have just about learned the entire score to Aida. Holidays must end as you know. All is memory taken home with me: the opera, the stolen tea, the sand drawing, the verging sea, all years ago.

Headstrong Lyrics

To your common sense firm arguments I won't listen to your voice of reason trying to change my mind. I mind my feelings and not your words. Didn't you notice I'm so headstrong even when I know I'm wrong? Take this to your heart and into your head now: before you waste your time, call a truce and call a draw. What's the use in mapping your views out in orderly form when it does nothing but confuse and anger me more? I mind my feelings and not your words. Didn't you notice I'm so headstrong. You're talking to a deaf stone wall. Take this to your heart and into your head now: the old wives' tale is true, I'll repeat it. All is fair in love and war, that's how the famous saying goes. Open up your eyes, see me for what I am: cast in iron, I won't break and I won't bend. Take this to your heart and into your head now: the old wives' tale is true, I'll repeat it. All is fair in love and war, that's how the famous saying goes. If I told you we were out to sea in a bottomless boat, you'd try anything to save us, you'd try anything to keep us afloat. And if we were living in a house afire, I don't believe that you could rush out and escape it and not rescue me. Take this to your heart and into your head now: the old wives' tale is true, I'll repeat it. All is fair in love and war, that's how the famous saying goes. Listen, I think they were talking to you.

A Campfire Song Lyrics

A lie to say, "O my mountain has coal veins and beds to dig. 500 men with axes and they all dig for me." A lie to say, "O my river where many fish do swim, half of the catch is mine when you haul your nets in." Never will he believe that his greed is a blinding ray. No devil or redeemer will cheat him. He'll take his gold to where he's lying cold. A lie to say, "O my mine gave a diamond as big as a fist." But with every gem in his pocket, the jewels he has missed. A lie to say, "O my garden is growing taller by the day." He only eats the best and tosses the rest away. Never will he be believe that his greed is a blinding ray. No devil or redeemer can cheat him. he'll take his gold to where he's lying cold. Six deep in the grave. Something is out of reach something he wanted something is out of reach he's being taunted something is out of reach that he can' beg or steal nor can he buy his oldest pain and fear in life there'll not be time his oldest pain and fear in life there'll not be time A lie to say "O my forest has trees that block the sun and when I cut them down I don't answer to anyone." No, no, never will he believe that his greed is a blinding ray no devil or redeemer can cheat him. He'll take his gold where he's lying cold.

I'm Not the Man Lyrics

It crawls on his back, won't ever let him be.
Stares at the walls until the cinder blocks can breathe.
His eyes have gone away, escaping over time.
He rules a crowded nation inside his mind.

He knows that night like his hand.
He knows every move he made.
Late shift, the bell that rang, a time card won't fade.
10:05 his truck pulled home.
10:05 he climbed his stair, about the time he was accused of being there.

But I'm not the man.
He goes free as I wait on the row for the man to test the rope he'll slip around my throat...
and silence me.

On the day he was tried no witnesses testified.
Nothing but evidence, not hard to falsify.
His own confession was a prosecutor's prize,
made up of fear, of rage and of outright lies.

But I'm not the man.
He goes free as the candle vigil glows, as they burn my clothes.
As the crowd cries, "Hang him slow!" and I feel my blood go cold, he goes free.

Call out the KKK, they're wild after me.
And with that frenzied look of half-demented zeal,
they'd love to serve me up my final meal.
Who'll read my final rite and hear my last appeal?
Who struck this devil's deal?

Maddox Table Lyrics

The legs of Maddox kitchen tables My whole life twisted on a lathe In a foreman's torrent My first English was "faster boy if you want your pay" Barking commands Loud and simple We could all obey Then I was forever pulling silvers Rubbed the sawdust always Deeper in my eye Varnish vapor that could linger On my skin It held tight The whine of spinning blades Still echoes to bother my sleep at night See that ox Stamped dead center On the letter head of the company mail Four decades a spitting image Of the animal I portrayed At Maddox Table a yoke was carved For my neck Sun through the window oil spattered And in mason jars Tricked plenty seeds thrive The standing joke Around the shop was With my green thumb Anything'd grow My part was to laugh Show and ornery jig had Cut it at the knuckle bone See that ox Trade mark burned Into every stick of furniture From horn to tail Four decades a spitting image Of the animal I portrayed At Maddox Table a yoke was carved For my neck Was tailor made O my Dolly was a weak Not a burdened girl Treat her to a piece of vaudville A Wintergarden moving picture show Bemus Point on July Sundays By trolley we'd go To your benefit we's strike or bargain With the waving fist a union man Not just for Smokes spirits candy and cologne But for Automobile keys Cash in the bank And the deed On a place called home

Like the Weather Lyrics

Color of the sky as far as I can see is coal grey.
Lift my head from the pillow and then fall again.
Shiver in my bones, just thinking about the weather.
Quiver in my lip as if I might cry.

Well by the force of will my lungs are filled and so I breathe.
Lately it seems this big bed is where I never leave.
Shiver in my bones, just thinking about the weather.
A quiver in my voice as I cry,

What a cold and a rainy day.
Where on earth is the sun hid away?

Hear the sound of a noon bell chime.
Well I'm far behind.
You've put in 'bout half a day
while here I lie
With a shiver in my bones just thinking about the weather.
A quiver in my voice as if I might cry,

What a cold and rainy day.
Where on earth is the sun hid away?

Do I need someone here to scold me
or do I need someone who'll grab and pull me out of four poster dull torpor pulling downward.
For it is such a long time since my better days.
I say my prayers nightly this will pass away.

The color of the sky is grey as I can see through the blinds.
Lift my head from the pillow and then fall again
Shiver in my bones just thinking about the weather.
A quiver in my voice as if I might cry,

A cold and a rainy day.
Where on earth is the sun hid away?
A cold and a rainy day I shiver, quiver, and try to wake.

How You've Grown Lyrics

"My, how you've grown."
I remember that phrase from my childhood days too
"Just wait and see."
I remember those words and how they chided me, when patient was the hardest thing to be.
Because we can't make up for the time that we've lost, I must let these memories provide.
No little girl can stop her world to wait for me.

I should have known.
At your age, in a string of days the year is gone.
But in that space of time, it takes so long.
Because we can't make up for the time that we've lost, I must let those memories provide.
No little girl can stop her world to wait for me.

Every time we say goodbye you're frozen in my mind as the child that you never will be, you never will be again.
I'll never be more to you than a stranger could be.

Every time we say goodbye you're frozen in my mind as a child that you never will be, will be again.

Gun Shy Lyrics

I always knew that you would take yourself far from home as soon as, as far as you could go. By the 1/4 inch cut of your hair and the Army issue green, for the past eight weeks I can tell where you've been. For I knew, I could see, it was all cut and dried to me there was soldier's blue blood streaming inside your veins. There is a world outside of this room and when you meet it promise me you won't meet it with your gun. So now you are one of the brave few, it's awful sad we need boys like you. I hope the day never comes for "Here's your live round son. Stock and barrel, safety, trigger, here's your gun." Well I knew, I could see, it was all cut and dried to me there was soldiers blue blood streaming inside your veins. There is a world outside of this room and when you meet it promise me you won't meet it with your gun taking aim. For I don't mean to argue, they've made a decent boy of you and I don't mean to spoil your home coming, but baby brother you should expect me to. "Stock and barrel, safety, trigger, here's your gun." So now does your heart pitter pat with a patriotic song when you see the stripes of Old Glory waving? Well I knew, I could see, it was all cut and dried to me there was soldier's blue blood streaming inside your veins. There is a world outside of this room and when you meet it promise me you won't meet it with your gun taking aim. I don't mean to argue, they've made a decent boy of you and I don't mean to spoil your homecoming my baby brother Jude and I don't mean to hurt you by saying this again, they're so good at making soldiers but they're not so good at making men.

If You Intend Lyrics

If you intend to live again, then open your eyes and don't pretend you're feeling there's nothing worth believing. God, if you persist you'll die like this, and wither in the midst of your first season, cut down with no reason. How can you be so near and not see everything? If you intend to live again, then take the outstreched hand of the one that needs you. It's been so long, we've missed you. Why do you intend to speed your end? Lie in the dark and let your limbs grow weaker, sinking low then deeper. How can you be so near and not see everything? Feel what might be. See what I see. Again and again and again and again say you don't. You say you don't, but you will. How can you be so near and not see?

Hateful Hate Lyrics

In the dark night a giant slumbered untouched for centuries 'til awakened by a white man's cry: "This is the Eden I was to find." There were lands to be charted and to be claimed for a crown, when a hero was made by the length he could stay in this dangerous land of hateful hate. Curiosity filled the heads of these, there was an upper room they had to see. Curiosity killed the best of these for a hero's hometown welcoming. Still they moved on and on. Who came building missions? Unswerving men of the cloth who gave their lives in numbers untold so that black sheep entered the fold. Captured like human livestock, destined for slavery. Naked, walked to the shore where great ships moored for the hellbound journies. Bought and sold with a hateful hate. Curiosity filled the breasts of these with some strange ecstasy. Curiosity killed the best of these by robbing their lives of dignity. Still they moved on and on. Calling men of adventure for a jungle bush safari. Come conquer the, his claws and teeth. See death in his eyes to know you're alive. European homesteads grew up in the colonies with civilized plans for wild hinterlands, their guns and God willing. Such a hateful hate. Curiosity spilled the blood of these for their spotted skins and ivory. Curiosity filled the heads of these madmen with the lies of destiny. Curiosity spilled the blood of these, then blotted their lives from history. Curiosity filled the heads of these, one man claimed all that he could see. Curiosity still entices these madmen with a lusting and a greed. Their legacy, legacy, legacy...

Arbor Day Lyrics

Wide open falsehood The clan destine truths Rival till the end In a series of duels Pardon the drapery language I choose Waltz in Vienna has taught me to use Every tall room a fiction Leather bound treasure books Up to the ceiling Gold spine upon spine The guile and the treason The faith and allegiance Wide open falsehood The clan destine truths Rival till the end In a series of duels Pardon the drapery language I choose The author grew fat to imagine His lead pen careening Gave voice to the scheming An Aryan cabale to dethrone The guile and the treason The faith and allegiance To the empire unknown The baron and his mistress Dine in fine banquet hall As rebel insurgents plot in The attic space crawl Wide open falsehood The clan destine truths Rival till the end In a series of duels Pardon the drapery language I choose His small hand did strive To explain all the Rants and raves of A people enslaved By the cant of the shrewdest Capable men The guile and the treason The faith and allegiance Now lie in my hand The guile and the treason The faith and allegiance Now lie in my hand

Jezebel Lyrics

To think of my task is chilling.
To know I was carefully building the mask I was wearing for two years, swearing I'd tear it off.
I've sat in the dark explaining to myself that I'm straining too hard for feelings I ought to find easily.
Called myself Jezebel.
I don't believe.

Before I say that the vows we made weigh like a stone in my heart.
Family is family, don't let this tear us apart.

You lie there, an innocent baby.
I feel like the thief who is raiding your home, entering and breaking and taking in every room.
I know your feelings are tender and that inside you the embers still glow.
But I'm a shadow, I'm only a bed of blackened coal.
Call myself Jezebel for wanting to leave.

I'm not saying I'm replacing love for some other word to describe the sacred tie that bound me to you.
I'm just saying we've mistaken one for thousands of words.
And for that mistake, I've caused you such pain that I damn that word.
I've no more ways to hide that I'm a desolate and empty, hollow place inside.

I'm not saying I'm replacing love for some other word to describe the sacred tie that bound me to you.
I'm not saying love's a plaything.
No, it's a powerful word, inspired by strong desire to bind myself to you.
How I wish that we never had tried to be man and his wife, to weave our lives into a blindfold over both our eyes.

Noah's Dove Lyrics

You won a prize for that, for telling lies like that So well that I believed it. And I never felt cheated. You were the chosen one, the pure eyes of Noah's dove. Choir boys and angels stole your lips and your halo. In your reckless mind, you act as if you've got more lives. In your reckless eyes, you only have time and your love of danger to it you're no stranger. In that August breeze of those forgotten trees, your time was set for leaving, come a colder season. In your reckless mind, you act as if you're got more lives In your reckless eyes, it's never too late for a chance to seize some final breath of freedom. Very, so very wise. Don't reveal it. I'm tired, tired of knowing where it is you're going. In your reckless mind, you act as if you've got more lives. In your reckless eyes, it's never too late for your love of danger to it you're no stranger. In your reckless mind, you act as if you've got more lives. In your reckless eyes, it's never too late for a chance to seize some final breath of freedom

Eat for Two Lyrics

O, Baby blankets and baby shoes, baby slippers, baby spoons, walls of baby blue. Dream child in my head is a nightmare born in a borrowed bed. Now I know lightning strikes again. It struck me once, then struck me dead. My folly grows inside of me. I eat for two, walk for two, breathe for two now. Well, the egg man fell down off his shelf. All the good king's men with all their help struggled 'til the end for a shell they couldn't mend. You know where this will lead, to hush and rock in the nursery for the kicking one inside of me. I eat for two, walk for two, breathe for two now. When the boy was a boy, the girl was a girl, they found each other in a wicked world. Strong in some respects, but she couldn't stand for the way he begged and gave in. Pride is for men; young girls should run and hide instead. Risk the game by taking dares with "yes". Eat for two, walk for two, breathe for two now. Walk for two? I'm stumbling. Breathe for two? I can't breathe. Five months , how it grows. Five months now, I begin to show.