The Back 40

Pearl Jam songs and Beatnik books

Cigarettes and stomach pumps

Pills scattered across the floor

A picture above the dresser door

Trying hard to give up fast

Hoping hard that I wouldn't last

Speeding down a one way track

With Pearl Jam and Kerouac 

Minor chords and Mary Jane

Glenlivet and killing pain

Razors stabbing in the wrist

Teardrops on virgin lips

Begging Mama to let me go

Mama wouldn't do that though

Screaming loud into the sky

With minor chords and bloodshot eyes

I made it through the darkness

I made it through the brush

Fought all those monsters

I swore I'd never touch

And now here before me

I never dreamt I'd see

My toes in the green grass

Of the back 40

You never know how far you'll go

When you're crawling down a gravel road

Blood keeps flowing like tick of time

And suddenly you find

You made it through the darkness

You made it through the brush

Fought all those monsters 

You swore you'd never touch

And then there before you

You never dreamt you'd see

Your toes in the green grass

Of the back 40

Breather

I've lived a life that didn't want me
Fought a mind that wants to scold me
Looked through eyes that seen only clouds
I've held a hand that wants to choke me
Drank a drink that wants to drown me
Smoked a smoke that wants to burn me down

But I am a breather
I am a dreamer you can't wake
I am a fighter
I am a mountain you can't shake
I have survived when I've given up
I've kept on playing with bad luck
Cause I am a breather
I am a breather you can't snuff

I've danced with demons that still haunt me
Kissed lips that didn't love me
Cursed God upon hollowed ground
I've made mistakes that want to tempt me
Bring me back to where they met me
Trip me up and try to tie me down

But I am a breather
I am a dreamer you can't wake
I am a fighter
I am a mountain you can't shake
I have survived when I've given up
I've kept on playing with bad luck
Cause I am a breather
I am a breather you can't snuff

I keep on crawling till I stand
I keep on swimming towards dry land
I give my fire and till I'm ash
Let me tell you who I am

I am a breather
I am a dreamer you can't wake
I am a fighter
I am a mountain you can't shake
I have survived when I've given up
I've kept on playing with bad luck
Cause I am a breather
I am a breather you can't snuff

Beautiful Things

Bullets are flying and monsters are real
The darkness is here and it's nipping our heels
Shit's getting crazy, nah, shit's gone insane
Hope is on fire and our heroes are tame
One stumble away from an early grave
They tell us we're free but we fear like slaves
Everywhere that you look the sky's going gray
This wonderful world don't seem so pretty these days

But I see beautiful things when I close my eyes
I see the woman I love with her hand in mine
I see the leaves on the ground, the blue in the sky
I see my dad and my brother playing poker with Christ
I can sing like Janis, I can strum like Cash
I got Elvis hips and Liberace class
I fight like a sinner but forgive like a saint
I see beautiful things when I go blind and paint

On Their Lapels

On their lapels
There's a pretty little pin
They say it speaks of freedom
And justice for all men
Give me your tired
Your poor, huddled masses
This is God's land
But not for you bastards
Do you see this Bible here
Do you see that spacious sky
We fill the clouds with bullets
But we'll pray that you survive
Learn to take shelter
And learn to run fast
There's blood on the Baptist floor
But baby, that's how we make our cash
Our skin is so porcelian
Our pockets so lined
If you don't have the money
We don't have the time
You moan that you're hungry
You whisper that you're sick
Dust yourself off and crawl
To the gutter beneath the bridge
Cause on this lapel
There's this pretty little flag
But we don't honor freedom
Anymore than the chain honors the slave

Go Easy

You don't have to do this
You don't have to burn out
You don't have to be the light
The night reminisces about
Got all your arrows aimed
To stake an early grave
But don't leave in a fury
Why don't you go easy

I know about those days
There's no words to pray
But you scream so loud inside
Like echoes in abandoned caves
Your stomach twists
And you scratch your wrists
But you don't have to rage now
Why don't you hang around

You don't have to be a memory just yet
Don't have to be a voice they all forget
A photo, a story and moon lit tears
Don't have to be an anchor on future years
Put down the gun, put down the blade
It isn't time just yet to be a yesterday
Now don't leave in a hurry
Why don't you go easy

My Favorite Day

On my favorite day I wake up
With my arm around her waist
On my favorite day I go to leave
And she asks me to stay
She calls me Baby
I call her Darlin'
We sway to the Dixie Chicks
And sing Bad Moon Rising
On my favorite day it's Autumn
In a lighthouse off the shore

On my favorite day I'm naked
With no walls surrounding me
When I tell her I'm not perfect
She says I don't need to be
I call her Darlin'
She calls me Baby
We lie in bed for hours
And sing karaoke
On my favorite day she's the last wish
I'll ever have to make

She kisses me on the street
Outside Lee's Luxury Lounge
On my favorite day she pulls me close
And I explode without a sound

The Other Way Around

He opened up the page
To the verse where Judas hangs
Laid the Bible on the bed
Grabbed the rope and pulled the thread
All the thunder in his mind
Broke the sky and crossed the line
When pride kills, love has chilled
And shame swallows empty thrills

But it ain't you that let God down
He made us weak, He made us small
We all get thirsty, we all have lust
We all get greedy and risk too much
And I know it's hard to see
When crowns are heavy and knees are weak
But it ain't you that let God down
Maybe it's the other way around

I see him crying in his chair
2 AM and my mind takes me there
Whiskey bottle and head in hands
Life's dark ocean or rising sand
I never knew he hurt so much
He just prayed to a silent God
And it strikes me now what I'd have said
If I'd have known how broke he'd been

It ain't you that let God down
He made us weak, he made us small
We all get thirsty, we all have lust
We all get greedy and risk too much
And I know it's hard to see
When crowns are heavy and knees are weak
But it ain't you that let God down
Maybe it's the other way around

There's nothing left in that house
But the rafters where he damned himself
Wasn't him that let God down
It was the other way around