Beautiful Ride

by 'Dewey Cox'

Now that I have lived a lifetime's worth of days
Finally I see the folly of my ways
So listen when I sing of the temptations of this world
Fancy cars and needles, whisky, flesh, and pearls

And then in the end it's family and friends
Loving yourself, but not only yourself
It's about the good walk and the hard walk
And the young girls you made cry
It's about making a little music till the day that you die
It's a beautiful ride

As I stand on the precipice of death, my perspective is enormous
Every leaf, every cloud, I see the hands which have formed us
Some days all you got is a nighttime graveyard walk
You whistle some sweet melody to the ghost down at the dock

So into your hand lead the marching band
Don't you let them fade your colors grey
'Cause when all is said and done
When youth is spent and burned
You'll see that it's all about
Music, flowers, babies
Sharing the goodtimes
Traveling not just for business
Accepting your mortality
This is finally what I've learned

And then in the end it's family and friends
Loving yourself, but not only yourself
It's about the good walk and the hard walk
And the young girls you've made cry
It's about making a little music every day till you die
It's a beautiful ride

New Routine

by Adam Schlesinger

Two men sit in the corner of a diner
Both of them look quite a bit like Carl Reiner
One of them is smoking even though the sign says not to
The waitress says to stop, he says, 'sorry but I've got to'
Tell each other jokes that they both know that they both know
They talk about real estate, prostates, Costco

And when they finish up they leave a twenty on the table
The waitress picks it up with the half-eaten bagels
And when her shift is over she goes back to Mineola
Sits on the couch, opens up a diet cola and says

'I'm so, I'm so sick of this place
'I'm so ready for a change of pace
'I'm just looking for a new routine'
So she spins her globe
And the next thing you know
She's living in Liechtenstein

She doesn't speak German, only high school Spanish
But within a few weeks she discovers she can manage
But there's not much going on except for banking and skiing
So she breaks up with the man that she just started seeing
He drops her at the airport in a diesel Mercedes
Thinks to himself, 'I'm so feeble with the ladies, and I

'I'm so, I'm so sick of this place
'I'm so ready for a change of pace
'I'm just looking for a new routine'
So he grabs his cap
Throws a dart at a map
And now he's living in Bowling Green

He talks his way into a job at La Quinta
Falls for the manager who's moving back to Canada
She's tried Roanoke, Reykjavik, Rome
Says 'you're really sweet but I just want to go home'

Two men sit in the corner of a diner
One of them says 'I might take a trip to China'
It's one of those things we should do before we're too old
Thanks but no thanks, bring me back an egg roll
Bring it back

Carl Perkins' Cadillac

by Mike Cooley

Life ain't nothing but a blending up
Of all the ups and downs
Dammit Elvis, don't you know
You made your Mama so proud
Before you ever made that record
Before there ever was a Sun
Before you ever lost that Cadillac
That Carl Perkins won

Mr. Phillips found old Johnny Cash
And he was high
High before he ever took those pills
And he's still too proud to die
Mr. Phillips never said anything
Behind nobody's back
Like 'Dammit Elvis, don't he know
'He ain't no Johnny Cash'

If Mr. Phillips was the only man
That Jerry Lee still would call Sir
Then I guess Mr. Phillips did all of y'all
About as good as you deserve
He did just what he said he's gonna do
And the money came in sacks
New contracts and Carl Perkins' Cadillac

I got friends in Nashville
Or at least they're folks I know
Nashville is where you go
To see if what is said is so
Carl drove his brand new Cadillac to Nashville
And he went downtown
This time they promised him a Grammy
He turned his Cadillac around

Mr. Phillips never blew enough hot air
To need a little gold plated paperweight
He promised him a Cadillac
And put the wind in Carl's face
He did just what he said he's gonna do
And the money came in sacks
New contracts and Carl Perkins' Cadillac

Dammit Elvis, I swear, son
I think it's time you came around
Making money you can't spend
Ain't what being dead's about
You gave me all but one good reason
Not to do all the things you did
Now Cadillacs are fiberglass
If you were me you'd call it quits

If Mr. Phillips was the only man
That Jerry Lee still would call Sir
Then I guess Mr. Phillips did all of y'all
About as good as you deserve
He did just what he said he's gonna do
And the money came in sacks
New contracts and Carl Perkins' Cadillac

The Mountains Win Again

by Bobby Sheehan
Note: I recommend reading through Looks Like Rain below in order to understand the allusions herein.

I pick up my smile
Put it in my pocket
Hold it for a while
Try not to have to drop it
Men are not to cry
So how am I to stop it?
Keep it all inside
Don't show how much she rocked ya

Can you feel the same?
You gotta love the pain
It looks like rain again
I feel it coming in
The mountains win again

Dreams we dreamed at night
Were never meant to come to life
I can't understand
The ease she pulled away her hand
This time in my life
I was hurt enough to care
I guess from now on
I'll be careful what I share

Can you feel the same?
You gotta love the pain
It looks like rain again
I feel it coming in
The mountains win again

A pocket is no place
For a smile anyway
Someday I will find
Love again will blow my mind
Maybe it will be
That love that got away from me
Is there a line to write
That could make you cry tonight?

Looks Like Rain

by John Perry Barlow

I woke today and felt your side of bed
The covers were still warm where you'd been laying
You were gone, my heart was filled with dread
You might not be sleeping here again

It's all right, I love you
That's not gonna change
Run me 'round, make me hurt again and again
But I'll still sing you love songs
Written in the letters of your name
And brave the storm to come
For it surely looks like rain

Did you ever waken to the sound of street cats making love
And guess from their cries you were listening to a fight
Well you know, hate's just the last thing they're thinking of
They're only trying to make it through the night

I only want to hold you, I don't want to tie you down
Or fence you in the lines I might have drawn
It's just that I have gotten used to having you around
My landscape would be empty if you were gone

It's all right, I love you
And that's not gonna change
Run me 'round, make me hurt again and again
But I'll still sing you love songs
Written in the letters of your name
And brave the storm to come
For it surely looks like rain

Green and Grey

by Chris Thile

I'm in a room full of people, hanging on one person's breath
We would all vote him most likely to be loved to death
I hope he still wants it, but it might remind him of when
He aimed for the bullseye and hit it nine times out of ten

That one time his hand slipped, and I saw the dart sail away
I don't know where it landed, but I'm guessing between green and gray
I thought nothing of it, but it still haunts him like a ghost
With all eyes upon him, except two that matter the most

He says, 'Green is the color that everyone sees all around me
'Gray is the color I see around her, and she's just a blur'
'The more the crowd cheers, the less I can hear
'And they don't really care what I play
'It might be for her, but for now it's between green and gray'

We paid and we cheered, now we're gone, and to us that feels right
But for him every one of those evenings turns into a night
With another hotel room where he lays awake to pretend
That he's doing fine with his notebook and Discman for friends

He says, 'Green is the color that everyone sees all around me
'Gray is the color I see around her, and she's just a blur
'Night after night, what I hear, what I write
'Fills the room, and my head starts to sway
'It might be for her, but for now it's between green and gray'

'I want you to love me,' he whispers, unable to speak
And he wonders aloud why feelings so strong make the body so weak
Then he awoke, now he's scared to death somebody heard
If it was you, and you know her, please don't say a word

Here's to the Meantime

by Grace Potter

You're running me ragged
I don't do the things I should
If the devil made a fire
You'd be the wood

I've just got one question
Answer me if you could
How can so much trouble
Look so goddamn good?

Look at the way that you've been living
Look at the love you should be giving
Look at what tomorrow left behind
Look at at the life that you've been missing
Look at the girl you could be kissing
Look what happened in the meantime

You gotta get yourself back home
Before I find you and kindly remind you

So come sit down beside me
With a dollar and a dime
And we'll drink away our fortunes
Here's to the meantime

Wine and Blood

by Warren Haynes

Desirée's in disarray
Waiting for her angels to come
Where she used to feel the weight of a thousand lifetimes
Now she just feels numb
But there was a time when her beauty
Raised the eyebrows of the town
Any man would gladly give up all he had
Just to take Desirée down

She stares out the window
At the world passing by
She is caught beneath the wheel
Too heavy to lift, she feels too weak to try
People stare like strangers
Where once she might've asked them in
To fill the void where her heart once was
Now she just fills her glass again
And again

She walks the floor less traveled
Thinks of a sad melody
Wine and blood don't mix like they used to
Now they just make a memory
Too many years trying to do the right thing for the wrong man
Now the picture is clear
She drinks, and she cries, and she hides from the past
'Cause the truth is more bitter than the tears

All these half-truths and alibis
Help build a wall of denial
She takes comfort in the night, darkness blocks the light
From falling on her aging smile
Grey befalls her halo
Where there once was a golden mane
And her eyes don't shine like they used to
Without the moon, the sun would be in vain

She puts on her make-up
Though no one's seen her for days
Her silence is a lonely cry
She's trapped inside a maze
Her tears have turned to honey
Drawing the black flies of depression
Desirée's in disarray
Waiting for her angels again

Best Imitation of Myself

by Ben Folds

I feel like a quote out of context
Withholding the rest
So I can be for you what you want to see
I got the gesture and sounds
Got the timing down
It's uncanny, you'd think it was me

Do you think I should take a class
To lose my Southern accent
Did I make me up?
Or make the face till it stuck?
I do the best imitation of myself

The 'problem with you' speech
You gave me was fine
I liked the theories about my little stage
And I swore I was listening
But I started drifting
Around the part about me acting my age

Now if it's all the same
I've people to entertain
I juggle one-handed
Do some magic tricks and
The best imitation of myself

Maybe I'm thinking myself in a hole
Wondering who I am, when I ought to know
Straighten up now, time to go
Fool somebody else
Fool somebody else

Last night I was east with them
And west within
Trying to be for you what you want to see
But I can't help it with you
The good and bad comes through
Don't want you hanging out with no one but me

Now if it's all the same
It comes from the same place
And if my mind's somewhere else
You won't be able to tell
I do the best imitation of myself

Yes, it's uncanny to see
You'd really think it was me
The best imitation of myself

Ragged Company

by Grace Potter

O Lord, I think I'm falling to my disbelief
I'm cursing like a sailor and lying like a thief
It's hard to heed the calling from the better side of me
When I'm blaming everybody else, and no one's coming clean

O Lord, can you see my thick skin wearing thin?
And the demons of a lesser me are beckoning me in
Those who gathered 'round me, I'm watching them all leave
'Cause I am my own ragged company

You can take a trip to China or take a boat to Spain
Take a blue canoe around the world and never come back again
But traveling don't change a thing; it only makes it worse
Unless the trip you take is in to change your cruel course
Every town's got a mirror, and every mirror still shows me
That I am my own ragged company

O Lord, it's lonely, O Lord, it's mighty cold
And I don't want to live this way, afraid of growing old
It's hard to heed the warning when you cannot see the crime
The only way to remember is to forget in a rhyme
And I'm scared to tread the red road that leads to Galilee
'Cause I am my own ragged company

Teenage Wasteland

by Pete Townshend

Out here in the fields, I fight for my meals
I get my back into my living
I don't need to fight to prove I'm right
And I don't need to be forgiven

My kids ain't gonna break my heart
My greed ain't gonna spoil their part
This land just has to be a new one
I'm gonna tan underneath a new sun

Don't cry, don't raise your eye
It's only teenage wasteland

Don't have the latest suit, the long grass is my fruit
I am really ordinary man
The family is free to do just as they please
And we all sleep together in the caravan

Hey you, don't walk on the turnips
My lord, when will they ever learn it
Look there, nations of travelling children
Nowhere to go to escape the chill wind

Don't cry, don't raise your eye
It's only teenage wasteland

My kids ain't gonna break my heart
And my greed ain't gonna spoil their part
This land just has to be a new one
I'm gonna tan underneath a new sun

Sally, take my hand
Travel south cross-land
Put out the fire and don't look past my shoulder

The exodus is here
The happy ones are near
Let's get home before we get older

Teenage wasteland
It's only teenage wasteland
They're all wasted

N.B. This is an earlier version of - and different song from - The Who's more well-known Baba O'Riley.