Joy Rides For Shut-Ins

Lyrics

Tayter Country

(Todd Spahr)

I'm the wrong boy you dreamed about
Standing loud, I would never shout
Slouching in the bar with conviction
I'm the one with the leather views
Waiting in line to release the truth
Liquid right lends itself to direction

But with a machine gun
With a machine gun
With a machine, be more than seen
With a machine

The volume drones to a hundred black
We'll play "The End" and then give it back
To the comfy light of tradition
'Cause when the shroud is removed for you
The cutting edge becomes petting zoo
An ailing malted knight's new prescription

With a machine gun
With a machine gun
With a machine, be more than clean
With a machine

I don't really wanna touch you
I don't really wanna touch you
I don't really wanna touch you
I don't really wanna touch you
I don't really wanna touch you
Tonight, tonight

I'm the wrong boy you dreamed about
Standing loud, I would never shout
Slouching in the bar with conviction
With conviction
With conviction
With conviction...

Shawn has this to say about "Tayter Country":
"Tayters" is the name of a regional brand of potato chips here in Boston. The story I heard behind the song is this: Todd and Brian were working together in the mail room of a law firm downtown, and used to see a Tayters truck drive by every morning. At the time, they were trying to get a band going - they may not have met Mark yet - and they were struggling to catch on with the Boston audience, who they saw as cold and cliqueish. Todd and Brian took to calling the local scenesters "Tayters" - hence the title of the song. "Tayter Country" was written as a total putdown of the Boston music scene - the irony is, that's the song which became their first local hit here! The demo tape caught on like wildfire on the college radio stations' rock shows - hosted by the same people they were dissing in the song! Of course, nobody could make out the lyrics, except for the "machine gun" chorus, so nobody knew...

Leave Me Alone

(Brian Stevens)

Pointed speech just flows right through my head
Leaving me with wounds from what you said
There is one thing that I can plainly see
A hundred faces making fun of me

Leave me alone
Can't you hear me
Leave me to my only piece of ground
You've beaten me till I can't make a sound
The things I want just will not come around

Some you talk to just will stop and stare
Picking up the pieces here and there
Mixed into the ground around my feet
Looking for what's there to let me speak

Leave me alone
Can't you hear me
Leave me to my only piece of ground
You've beaten me till I can't make a sound
Things I want just will not come around

Leave me alone
Can't you hear me
Leave me to my only piece of ground
You've beaten me till I can't make a sound
Things I want just will not come around

Bed of Nails

(Mark Rivers)

If they right to make me wrong
Would you learn to hate me
Cut my ties or change my song
Would you move to save me

Caught in a bind that I'm bound to come back to
Here as I lay down to die
In my bed of nails

Could you stand to watch me crawl
Would you move to help me
Turn your back or break my fall
Save my name or sell me

Caught in a lie that I'm bound to come back to
Here as I lay down to die
In my bed of nails
In my bed of nails

You lean upon me like the weight of the world
And it's bound to make me change
And roll me over as we lie in the bed
Wide awake
But I can't make it up

Envision the crimes that I'm bound to wake up to
Here as I lay down to die
In my bed of nails
In my bed of nails
In my bed

Tie my shoes and tie my tie
Tie my arms behind me
Tie my shoes and tie my tie
Tie my arms behind me
Tie my shoes and tie my tie
Tie my arms behind me

Proud Land

(Brian Stevens/Todd Spahr)

Here we sit upon the fringe
We'll break the bread and start the binge again
Lead me to some past to follow
Raise my glass and toast to swallowing

But this proud land, it is not real
You know they feed up on the weak
Not on the wheat
It seems to be

Tuned in are the wide-eyed screening
Sounds without a meaning just a trend
Sow your seed and pass the bag
We've raised the corn and now the flag, amen

But this proud land, it is not real
You know they feed upon the weak
Not on the wheat
It seems to be

On any nameless street
The clothes are on the line
The dogwood's blooming
And the paper's right on time

Black and white it's read to us
To feed the hand that feeds on us again
Sell the pride and wear a grin
'Cause happy days are here again

But this proud land, it is not real
You know they feed upon the weak
Not on the wheat
It seems to be

What in the World?

(Mark Rivers)

Don't know what in the world ever happened to you
     after all of the pain that you went through
Never made up your mind what to do with the time
     and now you've found what you're running out of

You've got so much to criticize but you keep it all inside
As stale as your old alibis, a man in his prime

And so you're back to your guns but now they're pointed at you
     and your shot in the dark hit what you listened to
What was critically done was not so easily said
     and with your feet in the mud they moved on

You've got so much to criticize but you keep it all inside
As stale as your old alibis, a man in his prime

Don't know what in the world ever happened to you
     after all of the pain that you went through
Never made up your mind what to do with the time
     so what in the world ... what in the world?

Right on the Nail

(Todd Spahr)

There's a chill in morning till sparks ignite
For the one who'll make it tonight
There's a flag to show his regard for right
And it waves as he's set alight
No tired steps on the dance floor
The change is more than a dream
And through this miracle of ours
We watch him cause a scene

It's a common ritual all eyes are light
With the fame of earthly demise
Thirty seconds later the supper chimes
Turn it down and wait for prime time
The screen that glows all around you
An image, one we've all seen
But even if there were sounds there
Don't wonder what they mean

(You will be right on the nail)
Cause a scene
(You will be right on the nail)
Cause a scene, and it won't matter anyway

Through another door at a similar time
Find the words strewn about the night
While the piles of paper, the foul blue light
Wage a war, the radio's tired
Those tidy steps on the dance floor
Change is oddly a dream
Through the fragments and your snores
You watch them cause a scene

(You will be right on the nail)
Cause a scene
(You will be right on the nail)
Cause a scene, and it won't matter anyway

Fast asleep, your head draped in the front page
The droppings of the world lining your cage
Everywhere there's a war going on
Are you wasting the bulk of your time?

All those tired steps all around you
To change is to change your jeans
A harder look might arouse you
If there's action and lots of tease

(You will be right on the nail)
Cause a scene
(You will be right on the nail)
Cause a scene, and it won't matter anyway

Cause a scene
(You will be right on the nail)
It's all you've dreamed
(You will be right on the nail)
Cause a scene, and it don't matter - anyway

There's a chill in morning, all eyes shut tight
For the one who made it tonight

Step Down

(Todd Spahr)

You're so alarmed by every twist, the pain
     again how they let you down
Routinely scarred by the world
     its scenes obscene soberly push you around
Your decorated lace innocence is so profound
Just keep an eye out from behind it
     so they'll notice you're still around
So you go to your friends and they love to
     look inside of you
You're as sweet as you can be - Step Down, you're through

You talk aloud behind the doors and backs
     of people whose help you've found
Parading, always trading privileged words
     that help you to win the crowd
Easy to light up a silouette with quotes too loud
They'll realize when all complaints have dried
     that you'd never sell them out
Cause you know they're your friends and they love you
     look inside it's true
You're as sweet as you can be - Step Down, you're through

With an extreme amount of candor
You'd be lost but very good
And in between responsibilities
You could rule the neighborhood
But your scheming isn't stood
Still you scream - but not at me

Don't dry your eyes to proudly wear the proof
     that suddenly I've let you down
Another reason for you not to live
     just stay home and kick around
Just one more slap to your innocence - it all compounds
So while you're struggling from beneath
     make sure they don't catch you looking down
Then you tell all your friends it's the last time
     but they know more than you

You're as sweet as you can be - Step Down
You're as sweet as you can be - Step Down
You're as sweet as you can be - Step Down
You're as sweet as you can be - Step Down
You're as sweet as you can be - Step Down
You're as sweet as you can be - Step Down
You're as sweet as you can be
 

Baba Ghanooj

(Brian Stevens/Todd Spahr)

Since I've been here
You've run rings 'round my eyes
Since I've been here
I have seen where I want to be
I want, 'cause you've got, a name

A chance brought to near
I reach to fill out my life
With my place made so clear
I can see where it's leaving me
I want, 'cause you've got, a name

Cast in obscurity
Where extras steal the lines and
See how the critics gleam
At what they had in mind and
All that's left in me
Is hating why I'm "fine" and
I want what you've got,
I want 'cause you've got, a name
Fade and fall away

Pass through your day
Unentangled by mine
No nettle or grate
That seem to be placed here in my way
I want, 'cause you've got, a name

There's more than sanity
I'm bored with clean and quaint and
There's more than grasses green
Or something brightened faint and
So I want more than me
And someone else to blame and
I want if you've got
I want 'cause you've got a name

Tell me stranger
If I look frightened
Soon I'll swallow it if
Not today
We all know heaven
Is just a slap away

Since I've been here
You've run rings round my eyes
Since I've been here
I can see where I want to be
I want, 'cause you've got, a name

Cast in obscurity
Where extras steal the lines and
See how the critics gleam
At what they had in mind and
All that's left in me
Is hating why I'm "fine" and
I want what you've got,
I want 'cause you've got, a name.

Fade and fall away
Fade and fall away
Fade andfall away
("Mixed in with 'hey man, do that thing'; we were having a few too many inside jokes."--Brian Steven)

Calm Him Down

(Todd Spahr)

From a sordid hobby, to a dying art
It used to calm him down
Now he can't keep count
Another one that's wasted - could've been your son
She used to come around
Now it's all but drowned out
By the stale glow from the night stand
"Sing for the camera" till you can't stand it
Pop it open, palm to the morning
Stain on the fabric of moral magic
Feeling that it can't hurt
Seeing that it won't work

With a chaste white body that he chased away
She used to come around
He's better off without it

Switch on the mirror, you see yourself
Dangling at arm's length, like someone else
You've been unmasked, hero,
And you won't last the day

Among the pile of empties is a brand new star
So used to falling down
So cradled by the sound of
Throwing up while corporate idols sing for the camera
She couldn't stand them
Switch it off - no kick it over
Would be too much effort and how you miss it
Everything here is cursed -
All of it reeks of her

My original lyrics to this one were way off. Here's what Shawn has to say about "Calm Him Down":
Yeah, that's what it's about. Shocked me a little the first time I saw the lyrics!

Taking Up Space

(Brian Stevens/Todd Spahr)

Her in the mirror you seem to fear her now
She's takin' up the space that once made her so proud
Beauty is passion you've seen it rationed out
Remember what you had was in but soon in doubt

It's drilled into your head
You live it till you're dead

Sally doesn't sleep a lot at night
Sometimes she wished she could
But the preparation must begin with the light
To look is to be good

The stranger inside her sees what's confined her fade
Taking what you want and hiding it away
The Model you follow seems is too hollow to need
Whatever is inside is pushing at your seams

It's drilled into your head
It's the only thing you're fed

Sally doesnt dream a lot at night
The days just seem too full
Be contented with the world her mother said
You are too beautiful

Her in the mirror you seem to fear her now
She's taking up the space that once made her so proud
Beauty is passion you've seen it rationed out
Remember what you had was in but soon in doubt

It's drilled into your head
You'll live it till you're dead

Sally doesn't sleep a lot at all
She never really could
It's so late and straight and all along
She never understood
So she throws the curtains open the whiten streetlights
Fill the empty room
But they're just passin' by no one can see
That she is beautiful

La La La

(Todd Spahr)

We're just three white rich kids bitching 'bout the world
We think we've got problems - we ain't got problems
The man in the oily coat shouting at the world
Should we try to see him or only stop his screaming
La la la la la, la la la la la
La la la la la - so goes our song
We say the grass on the other side's colored by war
We think we really see this but do we really see it
The only green that matters in this cardboard world
Always ready to condemn it but still we're soaking in it

La la la la la, la la la la la
La la la la la - tell you Madge knows

When you're seething with attitude
Or breathing for multitudes
Be sure to call your mom
I know she'll come along
And help you to be strong
When you need another loan

When you're breathing with attitude
Or seething for multitudes
Be sure to call your mom
I know she'll come along
When you need another loan
'Cause you want to buy this song

We're just three white rich kids bitching 'bout the world
We think we've got problems - we ain't got problems
The man in the oily coat shouting at the world
Ready to condemn him, still we're soaking in it

And it's a secret test
Go and talk to the West
It's just another dime in vain

This is another one where a couple of missed words make all the difference. Shawn had this to say about "La La La":
Remember Madge? Madge the manicurist, from the Palmolive TV commercials of the 1970s?

Madge: "Palmolive softens hands while you do the dishes. See, you're soaking in it!"
[camera shows closeup of Madge's customer, with her hand in the little bowl of green liquid, as she suddenly jerks it out]
Customer: "In dishwashing liquid???"
[Madge's hand appears to reassure her and place her hand back in the bowl]
Madge: "Relax - it's Palmolive!"

At least once, when they played this live, Todd changed the lyrics to, "We think we've got problems, I think we've got problems..."

Untitled ("Tayter King Song")

In Tayter Valley
Where the Tayter People sing
They're singing for
Their Tayter King
Scrump diddle-dee bob
Tayterlicious!