Snailhouse Lyrics – Lies on the Prize

1. Dollar Signs

I woke up this morning with dollar signs in my eyes
I get so much done with my eyes on the prize
Everybody knows it can't be good to spend all your money on what you should

I woke up this morning with razor blades in my ears
Something so familiar, are you reeling in the years?
I try to make sense of the voice I heard, a beautiful mosquito or an ugly bird

Burn all your bridges
Shake that thing
This is how we overthrow the king

All around the castle
We overturn the soil
Set free all the horses and fill the moat with oil
So burn all your bridges
Shake that thing
This is how we overthrow the king

2. (Not) Superstitious

When you look into the darkness you're looking in my eyes
Wiping off the knife before the blood has time to dry
Oh oh oh oh oh

If you're blurry at the edges you're gonna get some bleed
Like visiting the animals and hogging all the feed
Oh oh oh oh oh

I think I've really lost myself

If you don't for the money or you do it for the love
They're gonna dust for fingerprints they're gonna drag the lake
Oh oh oh oh oh

Taking what you want and leaving what you don't
Can't look them in the eyes until you've got them by the throat
Oh oh oh oh oh

I think I've really lost myself

I know what you're thinking dear
Do you wanna know what it is?
Come close I'll whisper in your ear

I'm not superstitious but I'm not not superstitious
I'm not superstitious but I'm not not superstitious

3. Salvation Army

What did you call me when I was your fool
To lovers and others, hearts true and untrue?

What did you think when you first took me home?
To hell with the graces, chew the meat from the bone

Go on then
Make me your friend
But don't think that you won't be lied to

Jumping the border and playing both sides
Hopping the turnstiles and crossing the lines

I ironed my shirt and I tied my own tie
I love all the trouble I'm sleeping beside

Go on then
Make me your friend
But don't think that you won't be lied to

Go on tell everybody
You woke up with everything gone
Years at the salvation army won't bring it back
Don't leave me stranded
Don't leave me hanging on

Go on then
Make me your friend
But don't think that you won't be lied to

4. Tone Deaf Birds

Bore me, tell me things I already know
Tell me one more time before I go to sleep basking in your voice rich and sweet

Tone deaf, tone deaf birds sing anyway
Tone deaf, tone deaf birds sing anyway
It's cold at night
You sing yourself to sleep that's why you wake up tired

Poor me, they sell me things I don't really need
But tone deaf birds sing anyway

5. They Won't Believe You

They won't believe when you're calling out
They'll just believe you when you lie
You trusted everyone a little too much
And now they're going to find you out

They won't believe you when you're cracking jokes
They won't believe you when you cry
It must be something in their broken hearts
They'll only hear you when you lie

Lie, so everyone can feel your warm love

They're going to make you feel right at home
They're going to look you  in the eye
They're going to ask you things I never would
And not believe you 'til you lie

They won't believe you if you're running late
They won't believe you if you're right on time
They won't believe you if you hesitate
They'll just believe you if you lie

Lie, so everyone can feel your warm love

You can keep it simple you can dress it up
You can whisper on the sly
You can shout if from the mountain top
They'll only hear you when you lie

They won't believe you when you're giving up
They won't believe you when you try
It must be something in their broken hearts
It must be something in your eyes

Lie, so everyone can feel your warm love

6. Who We Are

I'll wait for whatever takes longer
I'll wait for whatever makes a weak man strong
Until I am sure I can't wait that long

I'll wait for the trickle like water
I'll wait for the lovers of love to fall
Beneath my feet a river I can wade them all

Who we are we'll never tell
Who we are we'll never tell

We gather ourselves in the water
We pool in the hollows beneath your eyes
And travel down your cheekbones where your lips are dry

But who we are we'll never tell
Who we are we'll never tell

7. Mahogany

It'll be mahogany they lay me in
Golden lilies from toe to chin
Oh tell the ones I love I'll smile on the them up above.
Oh oh oh oh oh

A pacifist to war was sent
He tried to change his regiment
Oh he fell twice as hard
New skin in the boneyard
Oh oh oh oh oh

 

8. O My God

I remember I first made your acquaintance
It was a sticky summer night
You put my handshake into your pocket until the situation was right

Many more have done it before you and many more will do it again
Spend half your life in a textbook and the other half with with your friends

Many more have done it before you and many more will never calm down
You spend half your life in the suburbs and the other half on the town

O my God you don't know when to leave you owe your god
O my God if you don't know when to quit you owe your god

I remember when I first wandered your highways
I was sleeping through the sights
I through my money away on your truck-stops in the middle of the night

When the cynical become the believers
Will the believers just take flight
And sit smoking around their campfires singing dylan songs all night?

O my God you don't know when to leave you owe your god
O my God if you don't know when to quit you owe your god

When cupid first stuck me with arrows it put the wind back in my sails
It scared the shit out of my parents they'd never seen their boy so impaled

I still remember when I first met you it was a sunny afternoon
I put your brown eyes into my suitcase
I knew they'd be looking back at me soon

O my God you don't know when to leave you owe your god
O my God if you don't know when to quit you owe your god

9. Fire Alarm

Working late I didn't have much time to call
If you talk to mom and dad say I love them all
People sleeping in the hallways blood on the elevator wall

Someone slept out in the hallway on a table top
He pissed against the wall and didn't clean it up
I thought I heard your face so I shouted out your voice

Don't be afraid
You've got your youth though that will fade
Does it keep us safe from harm if the kettle whistles along with the fire alarm?

Though we have a lot to learn
We've made our bed and now we have to sleep in in forever or just tonight
Until things work out
Right before our eyelids close when a baby dreams a mother knows to kill the lights
and let that baby dream

Don't be afraid
You've got your youth though that will fade
Does it keep us safe from harm if the kettle whistles along with the fire alarm?

10. Blue Sun

It's all there in everything you are
The ennui the electric guitar

You turn up you tell it like it is
Turn it up and shout it to the kids

All in good time you'll wake up feeling fine

Only when they call my name I answer
Only then I tell them that I here
The blue sun that wakes you up
Is the same one, the red one that drags the day

You're fed up from living in your car
With no one to wonder where you are

You're fed up from living like a pig
Staying up and never sleeping in

All in good time you'll wake up feeling fine

Only when they call my name I answer
Only then I tell them that I here
The blue sun that wakes you up
Is the same one, the red one that drags the day

Tell me why we never have the time to get anything done
Tell me how we made it until now
How we got anything done

11. Born in the City

Born in the city, the blue and the grey
It makes me feel like a kid again to wander in this way
So I picture myself as a baby at 35 years old
In a basket on your doorstep starving and cold
But when I'm old and withered what will they say?
"He was kind gentle and funny but he played it safe"

For one night, the procession of us in the limelight
It's not right
Lighting up fires without torch songs
It's not right

The matchmaker makes up the matches
The matches give us our flames
Going to peoples' parties the court and spark is the same

The icebreaker makes conversation
The icemaker freezes our drinks
The dance floor shakes our assets and our expectations sink

For one night, the procession of us in the limelight
It's not right
Lighting up fires without torch songs
It's not right

 

12. Tell Me What You Want

Just think back to when you were young
Did the moon replace the sun?

Driving back from the lake and the trees
Can we stop and take in the breeze?

Tell me what you want
Tell me tell me
Tell me what you want
Tell me what you really really want
Tell me tell me
What you really really want
Tell me what you want

If we survive our personal hells
Choose our battles defend ourselves well
Will you tell me what you want?

Thinking back to when you were young
The moon was just the other side of the sun

Tell me what you want
Tell me tell me
Tell me what you want
Tell me what you want
Tell me tell me what you really really want
Tell me what you want

Tell me what you want
Tell me what you want

13. Homesick

Homesick pretender I remember your name
It rolls off my tongue like the cascading rain
It echos and murmurs and brings me new shame
Homesick I remember your name

When you finished school you started to roam
On buses and couches you forgot your home
Through city and country you sought to learn
Homesick to never return

Soon someone you love will give you a choice
Do or don't, but you can't undo what's been done
Homesick you're forgetting someone

When you were a baby you always would cry
Whenever your mother would sing you good-bye
Now vibrations lull you as you roll along
Homesick that's only a song

Soon someone you love will give you a choice
Do or don't, but you can't undo what's been done
Homesick you're forgetting someone