ping lyrics

Loyal to You lyrics

Introduction John Fischer, a favorite author/speaker (and musician!), introduced the band
Holiday on Ice A song written in L.A. about winter, homesickness and denial. From Farewell to Juliet's "Grace..." LP.
Mary Across the Ocean Chasing the dream, missing it, and being grateful for what you've found instead.
Dig "Am I my brother's keeper?" From Sunny Day Roses' "bloomshine!" LP.
Here Comes the Sunburn from Meet Your Maker: As Mason crosses the Great Sand Sea, the elements take their toll.
Just Add Water from Meet Your Maker: Mason encounters the mirage.
Going My Way from Meet Your Maker: Mason attempts to hitch a ride with a Bedouin's wayward camels.
Miracle Rain from Meet Your Maker: Hope arrives in the heart of utter hopelessness.
Bedouin Girl from Meet Your Maker: Rescued and aided by those with little to give.
Tomorrow from Meet Your Maker: A new lease on life. "Why should I worry ... ?"
Pop (Some Days) You win some, you lose some; it works out in the end. From Sunny Day Roses' "bloomshine!" LP.
Healer Regarding the Great Physician. From Farewell to Juliet's "Grace..." LP.
Dinosaur
All the Way Home

"Holiday on Ice"

i made it through the wasteland
thank God i'm back where i belong
i thought i knew the way
i guess the map was wrong

i've missed these icy winters
i'd not have thought it so
when power lines have fallen
and it's seventeen below

i'm alive
i can feel the fire within
my skin may crack, my bones may freeze
but i'm with kindred company

flowers grow in the desert
if stems are thick and roots are strong
i've watched them bloom together
but never get along

seems every tender blossom
each wants the water for its own
each longs to teach the world
to hum a different tone

one fine song, got the feel and the rhythm
the words don't matter, 'cause nobody listens

alive
i can feel the fire within
if i turn blue as deepest sea
i'm here with kindred company

alive
i can feel the fire within
my skin may crack, my bones may freeze
but i'm with kindred company

one thousand dreams, i've been here
two thousand miles from heart to mind
three wishes, i'd be grateful
for never having gone

so tonight we're gonna party
like it's 1993
we may not make Cornerstone again
but that won't bother me

three small words, gonna learn how to use 'em
take what's left, gotta learn how to choose 'em

alive
i can feel the fire within
my skin may crack, my bones may freeze
but i'm with kindred company

alive
i can feel the fire within
if i turn blue as deepest sea
i'm here with kindred company

"Mary Across the Ocean"

i could lend you a lesson from a long-toothed life
leave you face down and snoring in your dinner
if you care for a wager on the last in line
here's your easy money on the winner

when i harken back to those illinois nights
when i would sing to the crickets 'bout the l.a. lights ...
well, it must be the promised land is further west
but i couldn't swim that far

mary across the ocean
loving you with deep devotion
i've made a task reduction
wanting you my only function

so, i set off searching for the golden fleece
a destiny i could visualize 'pon
trade the mundane here for the romantic there
waiting just to the south of the horizon

i drove all day for mexico
but i broke down in texas north of el paso
left my vision of sleeping on the foreign soil
'cause i couldn't walk that far

mary across the border
left me here in deep disorder
i've made a task reduction
finding you my only function

tried to catch that dream
we never will
'cause these legs weren't made for standing still
old sisyphus; he laid the rule
we claw and strive
but we never arrive
if we did, we'd keep on going by

i've spent half of my life just trying to turn your head
from high school on to pushing thirty
the music's fine, but as i sell myself
it only leaves me feeling dirty

the truth of the matter is life's not half bad
still, we dream of experiences we've never had
i'd run through the pasture rolling thick and green
if that fence didn't climb so high

mary across the border
left me here in deep disorder
i've made a task reduction
finding you my only function
mary across the ocean
loving you with deep devotion
i've made a task reduction
wanting you my only function

"Dig"

i'm in it
deep in it
and i made my own way down here
with my fingernails and bones

chewing it
swallowing it
my deafened ears and blackened lungs
full of earth and stone

someone up above left a pickaxe and a shovel
a long strong rope and a pair of gloves
they're little comfort to me here
they'll never dig alone

should a brother have to ask if he's keeper of the other
still voice calling
dry eyes weeping
blood cries from the ground

exhume me
unearth me
i think these sod-caked eyes are ready
to see the sun again

i'm sorry
i'm helpless
compassion is a precious thing
and i've nothing to spend

"Here Comes the Sunburn"

here comes, here comes the sunburn, Masey
red hot white man
cutting through the savage tan

here comes the sunburn, Masey
red light white heat
incinerating by degree

with the sun protection factor
running zero down on me ...
gonna wear the blackest shade of coal
that the world has ever seen

here comes the sunburn, Masey
deep sky wide sand
only creature in the land

here comes the sunburn, Masey
spare time, no plans
idle mind and busy hands
busy, busy

if absence makes the heart grow fonder
then everybody's loving me ...
gonna build the biggest sand castle
that the world has ever seen

well, i can feel my body blister
as i cross this desert land
i'll expire here in style
in my palace in the sand
if i had my old umbrella
i'd be singing in the rays
no tea across the Great Sand Sea
no shelt'ring from the sky
no shade

here comes the sunburn, Masey
all beach, no shore
crawling on the desert floor
little darlin'

here comes the sunburn, Masey
pale face blood red
peeling skin begin to shed
little darlin'

i feel my eyes are slowly melting
it's been so long since they've been clear
gonna leave a bleach-blonde skeleton
and i'm going to leave it here

well, i can feel my body blister
as i cross this desert land
i'll expire here in style
in my palace in the sand
if i had my old umbrella
i'd be singing in the rays
no tea across the Great Sand Sea
no shelt'ring from the sky
no shade

"Just Add Water"

how far to Farafra?
how long 'til i see Siwa?
way station in the wasteland
a balm for bleary eyes

buzzing head rings hollow
my mouth too dry to swallow
wander on through the wall-less maze
as i'm flipped by rolling floors

and this could be a lovely place, truly
skipping stones across the lake with you beside
fabled Atlantis pales before such liquid grace
... just add water

It's utter dehydration
No drop of perspiration
my brain begins to boil
like an egg inside the shell

On the verge of vision
a palm and cool reflection
Could this have once been Eden
here in this Godforsaken land

and this could be a lovely place, truly
gliding through canals past drawn Venetian blinds
racing the dolphin with his blissed and kindly face

instrumental break

... just add water

A diving swan, so sweetly see
the surface rush to greet me
The point of my entry
cast in ripples on the pool

the final sound that i hear
as the sand pours into my ears
is the laughter of the Northern wind
as it howls across the dunes

and this could be a lovely place, truly
shoot the curl all day and ride the perfect wave
off in a barrel down Niagara's raging face
hydroplane
hurricane
a geyser unrestrained

"Going My Way"

head says i wait for the buzzards
tail says i move along
the cycle keeps repeating
over and over again

too long without a direction
too soon i change my mind
my will is two-faced
like the coin that i'm throwing

over the dune and far behind
hey joe, hey joe
a shuffling dromedary line
are you ... goin'
oh...

chorus:
bgv: go... in'... my... way...
oh, take me, run to the water
hey, get me out of here
if you're going anywhere
you're going my way

this ain't no hitchhiking weather
worn legs are giving out
stagger until i stumble
over and over again

i know you soak up the water
you'll last for forty days
it wouldn't bust your hump
to give me a tow in

over the dune and far behind
hey joe, hey joe
a shuffling dromedary line
are you ... goin'
oh...

chorus:
bgv: go... in'... my... way...
take me, run to the water
get me out of here
if you're going anywhere
you're going my way

bridge:
together we could clear the sand
together we'd survive the day
but Kipling says you got that hump
by blowing off the job
so 'scrutiating idle
how you got this far, i've got no clue

finally climb up the last dune
the first of ever more
no sign of transportation
looks like i've blown it again

sauntering after the nomad
such placid state of mind
your chance to save the day
and you'll never know it

over the dune and far behind ...

instrumental break

chorus:
bgv: go... in'... my... way...
take me, run to the water
get me away from here
if you're going anywhere
you're going my way

one camel turns to the other
"hey, man, you got a light?"

"Miracle Rain"

the sun shines down so hard it's beating me
shell so parched, it's cracked and bleeding
i'm praying ... for a miracle
watching ... for a miracle
waiting ... on the miracle rain

the rain falls scarce in the western desert
it might this year, and it might not ever
i'm hoping ... for a miracle
lost ... without a miracle
aching ... for the miracle rain

fall down, fall down come cover me
upon, around all over me
within, without, be part of me

it's been so long since i've tasted water
chased that dream, and i never caught her
(still) i'm hoping ... for a miracle
begging ... for a miracle
longing ... for the miracle rain

the field, my soul, so dry and barren
i've laid down want, i've laid down care and
i'm praying ... for a miracle
gone ... without a miracle
dying ... for the miracle rain

fall down, fall down come cover me
upon, around all over me
within, without, be part of me

hope lay dead, but again it's stirring
revival as the horizon's blurring
i'm staring ... through a miracle
pelted ... by a miracle
soaking ... in the miracle

fall down, fall down come cover me
upon, around all over me
within, without, be part of me

drinking from the miracle rain
wonder at the miracle rain
laughing in the miracle rain
singing in the miracle rain
swimming in the miracle rain
revel in the miracle ...

"Bedouin Girl"

right about the time
that i gave up hope
felt a weathered hand on my shoulder
when i thought there was nobody 'round

just about then
before it all went black
said, "i could swear that i'm floatin' through the air"
i was riding on a camel's back

life! (she's giving)
life! (she's giving)
life! (i'm living)
Bedouin girl

lying on the ground
in a handmade tent
soothing cool rag on my forehead
mercy angel by my side

i can't understand
single word she says
but her eyes say "everything will be okay"
thank God for that Bedouin girl

life! (she's giving)
life! (she's giving)
life! (i'm living)
Bedouin girl

she kept me alive
for one more night
one more night
of living

Her eyes say everything will be okay

"Tomorrow"

always so dim and somber
always the hollow man
i left my spirit buried in the sand
it's a quiet existence
a dark and lonely view

the echoing of laughter
among these solemn hills
and now i realize how good it feels
just to open my eyes and
breathe and think it through

my life could go a million ways
it's ever new

why should i worry about tomorrow, before tomorrow?
i'll never hurry along tomorrow, before tomorrow
why should i worry about tomorrow
when today is not my due?
the morning arrives, i'm still alive
it's ever new

i saw the Khamsin blowing
it spoke a living word
it was the sweetest sound i ever heard
through the maelstrom raging
the word rang clear and true

"somewhere somebody loves you
your flesh was given spark
from the dust that fills your eyes
i made your heart
and i set it beating
let the rhythm follow through

the season to rise to another life **must replace/improve these lines**
is before you"

why should i worry about tomorrow, before tomorrow?
i'll never hurry along tomorrow, before tomorrow
why should i worry about tomorrow
or wonder if i'll find my way
there's more than enough to just getting by
day by day

instrumental

bridge:
grab today and hold it close
until it crawls into my skin
the veil that holds me blind is wearing thin

why should i worry about tomorrow, before tomorrow?
i'll never hurry along tomorrow, before tomorrow
why should i worry about tomorrow
when today is not my due?
the moment slides into another day
it's ever new

"Pop (Some Days)"

some days, baby, gonna wake up on the right side
some days, honey, gonna wake up on the wrong side
i know, sugar, in the end you find the good side

some days, baby, you go walking on a thin line
some days, honey, you go running on a bee line
i know, sugar, in the end it work out just fine

anywhere you go
i will be with you
when you're feeling low
i will see you through

some days, baby, you can run and miss the last train
some days, honey, no umbrella in the cold rain
i know, sugar, in the end you win the big game

i know, baby, in the end you find the good side
i know, honey, in the end it work out just fine
i know, sugar, in the end you're walking cloud nine

wa-oo bop shoo-wop
wa-oo shooby doo-wop

"Healer"

like surgery
and i've unskilled hands
tenuous and frail

with hope and fear
place the knife in the grip
of hands that once held nails

render the healer
the whole of my will
rely on the healer

like surgery
cut deep within
anesthetize the pain

a blackened heart
for opening
i feel the pull again

render the healer
the whole of my will
trust in the healer's skill

stitch into my soul
make my spirit whole

for surgery
i am not blessed
my fingers fail to hold

but i know one
with steady hands
and consummate control

render the healer
the whole of my will
trust in the healer's skill

render the healer
the whole of my will
rely on the healer