Lyrics (last updated 11/22/15 - check back for additions)
2004-2015 words & music by Jordan F. White
Original lyrics posted here: Crazy Girl, Quarter-Life Crisis, No Promises, Kingdom Falls, Where To Begin, Walking Clean, Maybe Amy, Bloodshot, Therapy?, Engine of the Ocean, Comin' Round Again, September, The Days I Didn't Speak, Horseless Carriage (Whiskey On The Way), In Too Deep, Heads Up, 1993, Baby's Breath, Jackson Browne, Before I Go Out
She was a beauty, batting eyelashes
Against blue iris eyes
She came up to me
Tapped me on the shoulder
And here comes our suprise
To her house her baby's crying "mommy"
From the other room
Better get out before I get swallowed
All too soon
Because..
Chorus:
Because you fell in love
With a crazy girl
There's no time for blame
Cause she's all in this world
Crazy girl and I'm playing your game
Crazy girl, I don't think
I can stay stane
When she's up she talks in circles
And tells me where she's been
My face stiff and unchanging
But weeping softly in the wind
Here all night, as if I have the choice
Oh boy, you know you don't have a choice
Oh you know
You don't have a choice
Because..
(Chorus)
I used to have an open mind
A mind that was crystal clear
They say man, "there's plenty more"
But right now none of them are here
(Chorus)
Quarter-Life Crisis (listen to an acoustic version recorded live on 90.3 WXLV FM by clicking HERE, on REVERBNATION or on MYSPACE)
So I've been hearing
"You're not really old"
And youth is something
The young cannot hold
And I remember when I heard the news
Yeah, 'til then I thought I sang the blues
(Chorus)
Cause it's a quarter-life, a quarter-life
A quarter-life crisis -
And I don't have what it takes to fight this, no, no, no
It's a quarter-life, a quarter-life, a quarter-life crisis
Can you give me what I need to right this?
No
An old friend is long gone
With his young man's disease
I was standing tall
Now I'm down on my knees
Stare up at sunsets
Until they fade away
Oh it's been so long
Since I got down to pray
(Bridge)
And the sun goes up and the sun goes down
But it's not enough to keep 'em around
And the sun goes up and the sun goes down for me
For you
And me, oh and me
(Chorus)
So I've been hearing
"You're not really old"
And youth is something
The young cannot hold
But that don't mean
The rain is worth a try
We line the clouds for all we're worth
And then we say goodbye
No Promises (listen on the Four Songs EP)
Last night I whispered to myself
That the true enemy comes from within
Cause I took another dip in your fire
And I think that I burned myself again
Yes I burned myself again
Backdrop,
All you needed was some oxygen
And a little bit of me
Flashback, J
I'm running in the sand
But you're running kinda late
(Chorus)
No promises
No promises at all
Waiting for you waiting for me
Waiting for some call
There's no promises
No promises at all
Forget all that -
I just remembered one
The day you said you fell with me
The day without the sun
I'd keep this feeling checked
If I just knew what you would say
To keep you movin' on
To keep you on your way
(Chorus)
Driving through this city now
There's three words you once said
They picked me up they gave me something
To get outta my own head
Was something about the thunder
The way it comes up fast -
The way you'd wanna hide with me
And wait for it to pass
(Chorus)
As the skies explode above me -
As I pulled into my lane
I knew you were the only one
To drow me in your rain
Yes you were the only one
To drown me in the rain
Cause afterall
You gave me no promises
And you kept them all
You gave me no promises
And you kept them all
You kept them all
Got myself a place and the first week I crashed on a floor
Got myself a place and the first month thought there'd be a little more
Nobody stops when they drive by when they see a light
Though they know I'm wide awake cause its the middle of the night
At nineteen, threw stones at her screen
Waiting on a street that was certainly mine
At twenty-four, just knocked on her door
And I drove down that road one more time
We said "never call past ten"
Cause the family was asleep
We would just meet in the road
Where the sidewalk met the street
Nobody told me it would take so long
For you to grow young
Nobody told me a minute is just a minute
For just about everyone
Years later found myself backing up dad's Chevy
He said "son I'd change it all if you'd let me"
But you trespass from now on
If you set foot on this land
To shimmer the skies with my eyes
From inside our hands
Where To Begin (listen to it now on REVERBNATION or MYSPACE)
Do you have the strength to tear down something new?
I've been shutting down all week
And I've been falling through
I'm watching the sun rise in New Jersey
Hear the water bruising up the shore
It couldn't rain another drop
But the sky is breaking for more
(Chorus)
So can you tell me where to begin
It's like I'm sinking like I'm caving in
So can you tell me where to begin
I was finished in your skin
I can see the skyline by the boardwalk
Something's calling me to something new
I guess I should go and that's why I'm here
To suffer distances
From you
(Chorus)
The morning sun it dries up the ocean
It burns like the salt in the waves
The tourists are all stirring
They are counting their days
When I was clean and I felt free
It wasn't so long as we make it to be
And now I'm learning what to make
Of all my wreckage
Hangin' round the drug store
I am waiting on a line again and again
I am waiting on a line
But it never ends
And it wasn't always this way
But no part of me is etched in stone
But you can't help crashing
When you're coming down all alone
(Chorus)
You've gotta run and run
Until something burns out your sun
I've gotta stop the things we do
I gotta get myself to walk clean with or without
You've gotta run and run
Until something burns out your sun
I've gotta stop the things I do
Gotta get myself to walk clean
With or without you
With or without you
California dreaming on such a winter's day
California dreaming but they say it's so far away
But if I'm dirty I must apologize
If I've come alive
Cause this 5 o'clock shadow
Is coming way before 5
And it's right before my eyes
Right before my eyes
(Chorus)
So she said "you better stay off the rooftops if you,
If you wanna hide from the sky"
She said "you better stay off the rooftops if you,
If you wanna hide from the sky...."
$200 jeans, you can't afford her gasoline
Maybe someone, somewhere can tell me what that means
If your blood is boiling over again I guess you'll never learn
That all the bridges that we cross become the bridges that we burn
And the specials on the house tonight
So you can just have mine
You know she crawled inside my soul
And that's more than just a sign
They push me past doorways -
Where I could have walked on through
But it takes so much to run from you
(Chorus)
But if my eyes are
Bloodshot
I'm not -
On my way home
You'll see -
It won't be
Me lying in this bedroom
And if you've got -
One thing left to say
That pretty, pretty girl
She's just one drink away
I shoulda been a cowboy on my way out west
With cowboy boots and cowboy hats and a cowboy vest
I'd get a gold rush fever of one-hundred and three
And let some ghost town haunt what's left of me
(Chorus)
Are you giving in or up
In your car -
(Chorus)
Therapy?? (new song)
Engine of the Ocean (listen to an acoustic version now on MYSPACE)
If porcelain was your face then you were a child of the candle
Sleeping in a raincoat in the shed
To awake like fire from the coal and fog inside your head
And you wanted to sleep through morning
But the sun you love denies
And you want to be a child but your Father's ghost replies:
"It's coming up behind you child, to show you where you lost -
When your way of letting go was your last chance to hold on...."
Chorus:
You keep me running like the engine of the ocean
I'd trade all the salt for some emotion
You keep me running like the engine of the ocean
I'd trade all the salt for some emotion
Now you find me on a line of the water and the land
Where the ocean breaks into rocks
That only become the sand
A sky whispering down on the beach
But I forget that it's all out of reach now
(Chorus)
And you could have found me on a line of the water and the land
I'm just like the rocks that only break into sand
And you, oh you could find me now
Running, running down now
(Chorus)
You're just the engine of the ocean now
Engine of the ocean now....
Slow down this tune
Cause I'm about to overflow
The melody dissipates
But the music is all I know
There's a look of cars at night
When their headlights shine bright
And they make you come alive
And this is what you call your life
Chorus 1:
So if you're coming 'round again
I won't break but I might bend -
You feel the darkness closing in
It fits just like a second skin -
There's a look upon your face
We know we just can't replace
But we let it go to waste
And now I fill this empty space
Chorus 2:
So if you're coming 'round again
I won't break but I might bend
You feel the darkness closing in
It fits just like a second skin
Easy come and easy go -
But it gets cold here in the snow
Ring, ring, there's no one home
But we both know you're not alone
September (listen to it on REVERBNATION or listen/watch the music video now on MYSPACE)
I cannot decide how far to go and how far there is
'Cause no one knows, the distance
Sitting out here in the stale air
Watching time fall with the sky it's got me thinking
How I'm so far from you
And there's no way at getting back
I feel you -
The mystery and misery returns
Just like seeing you 'round this cold night burns
And I'm talking to myself
And answering my own questions that you'd know
I'm falling out of sync in light
Now you're gone and it's alright
I watch the sky fall into the summer night
Chorus:
But something
Speaks in my ear
It's whispering "you threw away a year"
Alone and in your room
Septembers coming soon
There was a time there was a great time
But I don't know where it goes -
I'd like to say but I
I just don't know -
Stale air I was breathing and oh yeah,
Slipping into you
Still I feel myself slipping into you
(Chorus)
The wasted paragraphs
And all the words that you would say
Cause I am so far from you
A little farther everyday
But....
(Chorus)
I cannot decide how far to go
And how far there is cause no one knows
Cannot decide how far to go
Or how far there is
Cause no one knows
No one knows
No one knows
Another silent morning for another quiet day
Some nights I believe I've said years ago
All I'll ever need to say
And this heavy foot in exile is the time that tip toes away -
Always thought I'd have more words
More nouns, more lies, or more verbs, to say
(Chorus)
But today, no way
I swear I didn't say a word
And today, no way
I swear that I wasn't heard
But the days I didn't speak and the days I didn't eat
They were the days that turned into weeks
I was sitting out on a curb
People walking by feel me
So disturbed -
And no sound, as I stare at the ground
And it's only coming down and when it all goes down
You know just where I'll be found
No sound on the ground
(Chorus)
And all the silent times at the bars
I wish the smokey roof was open
So I could see some stars
Do you feel like a piece of paper in the wind?
Or do you sit still when you try to spin?
Cause they come at anytime....
(Chorus)
Oh these days turned into weeks
You could pull yourself out of your sweater
All the lightning like the fuse
If you only knew it's the lightning you use
Horseless Carriage (Whiskey On The Way) (new song)
In Too Deep (listen to it on MYSPACE)
Where's this color come from
Of that that's already been
A black eye that lasts forever
Bruises deeper than the skin
A body set on fire
Frozen and unmasked
Let he who turns down his wine
Have the first stone to cast
Now I'm far from hopeless
Cause I watched the planes crash on down
Put a flag out on my doorstep
Before I saw 'em all over town
Here's a little tip toward oblivion
For you and your things lost
Believe in something bigger
It comes at quite a cost
Here's a heads up
For those like you and me
Who press back on gravity
Until gravity lets us be
So I never heard the truth
'Til I heard it in his song
And I never saw the buildings
'Til I saw that they were gone
And here's a heads up
For those who hang their heads low
Don't break yourself to pieces
Before you even know
Here's a heads up
For your blue eyes marked by ash
For some highway closed
For the stocks that crash
Heads up, for those who hang their heads low
Heads up
1993
Baby's Breath (featured on 2006 release CD "Care Package")
A little match blown out and thrown away
Too young, too old, too sad to say
When a baby comes crawling around
Mother is sadder for the things she's put in the ground
So you try to walk with your head up high but at night you lie in bed and you cry
And your friends say it will get better
But they haven't been there
Or read your letter
(Chorus)
Cause you're a younger mother than you know you should have been
You've denied another and some say you sinned
You're a younger mother than you know you should be
You're calm as a river but still you blow by the sea
And my cousin cries cause a young baby dies
Blue eyes I find
But I can't lie
Cause it was just a year before
You decided you didn't want her anymore
And the things you took away
Now I'm saying what I said I'd never say
A baby's first breath
Won't be today
Jackson Browne