Burnt Norton (Pt. III)

[Pt. II here]
by T.S. Eliot

Here is a place of disaffection
Time before and time after
In a dim light: neither daylight
Investing form with lucid stillness
Turning shadow into transient beauty
With slow rotation suggesting permanence
Nor darkness to purify the soul
Emptying the sensual with deprivation
Cleansing affection from the temporal.
Neither plenitude nor vacancy. Only a flicker
Over the strained time-ridden faces
Distracted from distraction by distraction
Filled with fancies and empty of meaning
Tumid apathy with no concentration
Men and bits of paper, whirled by the cold wind
That blows before and after time,
Wind in and out of unwholesome lungs
Time before and time after.
Eructation of unhealthy souls
Into the faded air, the torpid
Driven on the wind that sweeps the gloomy hills of London,
Hampstead and Clerkenwell, Campden and Putney,
Highgate, Primrose and Ludgate. Not here
Not here the darkness, in this twittering world.

Descend lower, descend only
Into the world of perpetual solitude,
World not world, but that which is not world,
Internal darkness, deprivation
And destitution of all property,
Desiccation of the world of sense,
Evacuation of the world of fancy,
Inoperancy of the world of spirit;
This is the one way, and the other
Is the same, not in movement
But abstention from movement; while the world moves
In appetency, on its metalled ways
Of time past and time future.

[Pt. IV here]

There Is a Light That Never Goes Out

by Steven Morrissey

Take me out tonight
Where there's music and there's people
Who are young and alive
Driving in your car
I never, never want to go home
Because I haven't got one
Anymore

Take me out tonight
Because I want to see people
And I want to see lights
Driving in your car
Oh please, don't drop me home
Because it's not my home, it's their home
And I'm welcome no more

And if a double-decker bus
Crashes into us
To die by your side
Is such a heavenly way to die
And if a ten-ton truck
Kills the both of us
To die by your side
Well, the pleasure, the privilege is mine

Take me out tonight
Take me anywhere, I don't care
I don't care, I don't care
And in the darkened underpass
I thought, 'Oh God, my chance has come at last!'
But then a strange fear gripped me
And I just couldn't ask

There is a light, and it never goes out

Colorado

by Rick Roberts

Hey Colorado, it was not so long ago
I left your mountain to try life on the road
Now I'm finished with that race
It was much too fast a pace
And I think I know my place
Colorado, I want to come home

There was a woman, but I left her far behind
I could have loved her if I only had the time
But I stopped along my way
Just long enough to say
Lord, I'd really like to stay
But my lady knows I've got to go

I was too young to know what I'd done
I made my plans, but I was wrong

Hey Colorado is it too late to change my mind?
I've done some thinking, and I'm trying hard to find
The way to come back home
Oh I've been so very long alone
Won't you take care of your own?
Colorado, I think I'm coming home

Rocky Mountain High

by John Denver

He was born in the summer of his 27th year
Coming home to a place he'd never been before
He left yesterday behind him, you might say he was born again
You might say he found a key for every door

When he first came to the mountains, his life was far away
On the road and hanging by a song
But the string's already broken and he doesn't really care
It keeps changing fast and it don't last for long

It's the Colorado Rocky Mountain high
I've seen it raining fire in the sky
The shadows from the starlight are softer than a lullaby
Rocky Mountain high

He climbed cathedral mountains, he saw silver clouds below
He saw everything as far as you can see
And they say that he got crazy once and he tried to touch the sun
And he lost a friend but kept the memory

Now he walks in quiet solitude, the forests and the streams
Seeking grace in every step he takes
His sight is turned inside himself to try and understand
The serenity of a clear blue mountain lake

And the Colorado Rocky Mountain high
I've seen it raining fire in the sky
Talk to God and listen to the casual reply
Rocky Mountain high

Now his life is full of wonder but his heart still knows some fear
Of the simple things he cannot comprehend
Why they try to tear the mountains down to bring in a couple more
More people, more scars upon the land

In the Colorado Rocky Mountain high
I've seen it raining fire in the sky
I know he'd be a poorer man if he never saw an eagle fly
Rocky Mountain high

The Colorado Rocky Mountain high
I've seen it raining fire in the sky
Friends around the campfire and everybody's high
Rocky Mountain high

Up on Cripple Creek

by Robbie Robertson

When I get off of this mountain
You know where I want to go?
Straight down the Mississippi river
To the Gulf of Mexico
To Lake Charles, Louisiana
Little Bessie, girl that I once knew
She told me just to come on by
If there's anything she could do

Up on Cripple Creek she sends me
If I spring a leak she mends me
I don't have to speak, she defends me
A drunkard's dream if I ever did see one

Good luck had just stung me
To the race track I did go
She bet on one horse to win
And I bet on another to show
The odds were in my favor
I had 'em five to one
When that nag to win came around the track
Sure enough, she had won

I took up all of my winnings
And I gave my little Bessie half
She tore it up and threw it in my face
Just for a laugh
Now there's one thing in the whole wide world
I sure would like to see
That's when that little love of mine
Dips her doughnut in my tea

Now me and my mate were back at the shack
We had Spike Jones on the box
She said, 'I can't take the way he sings
'But I love to hear him talk'
Now that just gave my heart a throb
To the bottom of my feet
And I swore as I took another pull
My Bessie can't be beat

Now there's a flood out in California
And up north it's freezing cold
And this living on the road
Is getting pretty old
So I guess I'll call up my big mama
Tell her I'll be rolling in
But you know, deep down, I'm kind of tempted
To go and see my Bessie again

Where the Columbines Grow

by A.J. Fynn

Where the snowy peaks gleam in the moonlight,
Above the dark forests of pine,
And the wild foaming waters dash onward,
Toward lands where the tropic stars shine;
Where the scream of the bold mountain eagle,
Responds to the notes of the dove
Is the purple robed West, the land that is best,
The pioneer land that we love.

The bison is gone from the upland,
The deer from the canyon has fled,
The home of the wolf is deserted,
The antelope moans for his dead,
The war whoop re-echoes no longer,
The Indian's only a name,
And the nymphs of the grove in their loneliness rove,
But the columbine blooms just the same.

Let the violet brighten the brookside,
In sunlight of earlier spring,
Let the fair clover bedeck the green meadow,
In days when the orioles sing,
Let the golden rod herald the autumn,
But, under the midsummer sky,
In its fair Western home, may the columbine bloom
Till our great mountain rivers run dry.

'Tis the land where the columbines grow,
Overlooking the plains far below,
While the cool summer breeze in the evergreen trees
Softly sings where the columbines grow.

Babylon

by David Gray

Friday night I'm going nowhere
All the lights are changing green to red
Turning over TV stations
Situations running through my head

Looking back through time, you know
It's clear that I've been blind, I've been a fool
To open up my heart to all that jealousy
That bitterness, that ridicule

Saturday I'm running wild and
All the lights are changing red to green
Moving through the crowd, I'm pushing
Chemicals are rushing in my bloodstream

I only wish that you were here
You know I'm seeing it so clear, I've been afraid
To show you how I really feel
Admit to some of those bad mistakes I've made

And if you want it
Come and get it
Crying out loud
The love that I was
Giving you was
Never in doubt

Let go your heart
Let go your head
And feel it now
Babylon

Sunday all the lights in London shining
Sky is fading red to blue
I'm kicking through the Autumn leaves
And wondering where it is you might be going to

Turning back for home
You know I'm feeling so alone, I can't believe
Climbing on the stair, I turn around
To see you smiling there in front of me

Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me

by Steven Morrissey

Last night I dreamt
That somebody loved me
No hope, no harm
Just another false alarm

Last night I felt
Real arms around me
No hope, no harm
Just another false alarm

So tell me, how long
Before the last one?
And tell me, how long
Before the right one?

This story is old
I know
But it goes on

I Had the Craziest Dream

by Mack Gordon

In a dream the strangest and the oddest things appear
And what insane and silly things we do
Here is what I see before me, vividly and clear
As I recall it, you were in it, too

I had the craziest dream last night
I never dreamed it could be
Yet there you were, in love with me

I found your lips close to mine, so I kissed them
And you didn't mind it at all
When I'm awake, such a break never happens
How long can a guy go on dreaming?

If there's a chance that you care
Then please, say that you do
Say it and make my craziest dream come true

No Expectations

by Mick Jagger

Take me to the station
And put me on a train
I've got no expectations
To pass through here again

Once I was a rich man
Now I am so poor
But never in my sweet short life
Have I felt like this before

You heart is like a diamond
You throw your pearls at swine
And as I watch you leaving me
You pack my peace of mind

Our love was like the water
That splashes on a stone
Our love is like our music
It's here, and then it's gone

So take me to the airport
And put me on a plane
I got no expectations
To pass through here again

Rise

by Eddie Vedder

Such is the way of the world
You can never know
Just where to put all your faith
And how will it grow

Gonna rise up
Burning black holes in dark memories
Gonna rise up
Turning mistakes into gold

Such is the passage of time
Too fast to fold
And suddenly swallowed by signs
Lo and behold

Gonna rise up
Find my direction magnetically
Gonna rise up
Throw down my ace in the hole