Thorns of Life Lyrics

forgetters

2009-10-10T13:24:00.000-07:00

I have a couple forgetters songs I recorded at their second show before my recording device ran out of batteries. Here they are.

Not Funny:

I don't know the name of this one:

I Hate New York

2009-10-10T13:23:00.005-07:00

Thanks to Catherine and MPF, I've tried to integrate your suggestions.

they don't make movies anymore

just a sex explosion

as we go shopping ourselves mean

want to wake up on the screen

properties keep changing hands

we think we own them but we can't

I want to hold something that lasts

I want to shatter all my past

the volume of the vanity

new york is giving me the creeps

like teeth into a baby's knees

oh baby baby baby please

they name the planets after gods

and the bridges after men

I want a planet and a song

and a building when I am gone

had a girl I let her go

now she's someone else's girl

I had a job I couldn't stand

couldn't tell ya what I did

the volume of the vanity

new york's giving me the creeps

like teeth into a baby's knees

oh baby baby baby please

got to get out of here

vampires at the gates

they've got a style which is smashing down doors

there is no head to cut off

(solo)

some people make me want to scream

for the smallness of their dream

some things that they hold in disdain

couldn't mean much less to me

cause you and I know where it's at

we see the stars and things like that

I want to see them all with you

I want to break up and destroy

the volume of the vanity

new york is giving me the creeps

like teeth into a baby's knees

oh baby baby baby please

I'm checking myself for holes

the valley of the dead

I want your love and your danger now

if I go down I am going down with someone

this is the culture capital

beauty bought and sold

but you and I both know

they'd trade their only souls

like a bridge or tunnel toll

for a thing they never owned

Available

2009-10-10T13:23:00.003-07:00

[Thanks to Joe for his suggestions.]

You derde overseas
wrapping the sender seas
walking the checks to the middle east trust must be nicer in Venice California
shopping the her tata
naping the naps afar
nothing is natural
not with a christ in your cap
you would die all too ready
is this how I pay to get by
the sooner we climb the livable lie
I guess I said some things that could have been more delicate
to run your thing you advertise alternative

I was adverti know long line last
passing red shirt close too knit at your mother in love
keep her on valium
your father's closet is full of wives he's always out shopping just keep
insane he cries because he can't afford his own daughter
that might explain the show of contempt
you might home some thing of rent
oh man that would need your blessing if we're closer than you know
with Beverly bleeding next to same unmusic school
here's how it looks outside the estate
gargoyle columns cheap point outwards davis, it's been rescinded

(solo)

I got no ax to grind

baby no blade to use
I cut my teeth on that
achilles heel of the stone cold
snow white Madonna
calling me for a tom
salting a kiss kata
pass out the way we're going
down on the way bed shoe
since blast men seek out jail
jailing the generals
to keep us from rooming
I probably chosen sad woo Kate
I know some see clears have interpreters
under its grip said you would be here for the priviledge
far too misstate the rumor look what god gave
next ones around here on the train you'll take it home
standing on the platform

My First Time

2009-10-10T13:23:00.001-07:00

Thanks to Michaelish and Catherine for doing this one.

i met her in the eleventh grade
she was already on some secret probation
a mother's nightmare, a father's dream
she was egyptian to me

took me an hour just to get myself brave
i called her up at her mother's house
my voice was shaking
we were suspended
on the line
'til she said, "okay fine"

it was my first time
being one to choose
it was the hardest thing
i ever had to do

we drove around santa monica
too young and broke

to go in the places people go to

not much was open
at 9pm i took her home
and we hung out

she knew a lot more about it than me
took my hand and showed me things
it wasn't guilty
or dirty
it was tender
a little awkward
and i came

it was my first time
it was her third
i think we both did fine
but it got better after that

the velvet underground was playing
heroin
that might sound inappropriate
but it's such a beautiful song
and we weren't doing anything wrong
or maybe we were
and that turned us on

it was my first time
i think she could tell
but she kept me on
and she taught me well

Kryptonite

2009-10-10T13:22:00.001-07:00

I haven't tried to figure out the lyrics to this song yet. Help! Thanks

We Build Al Qaeda in Washington

2009-10-10T13:19:00.000-07:00

I haven't tried to figure out the lyrics to this song yet. Maybe you could help?

Subway

2009-10-10T13:18:00.000-07:00

Here's my fraught attempt to decode "Subway." Please suggest corrections in the comment field. Thanks.

Am I the suit well I wasn't much

I got so crushed in a reptile beel

alone with you but never touch

one pill for everything never fade

never never drive never mean a thing

never feel a thing

never dragon fly

I pass you by on the way I am

down in a mud hole thing

down in the eleven night

song should be good

just a little sad

about having a good time

going to a lie

you a little thing

who's got a shot

we could fire expectations

die with a pit in hole

their picking hole

I just don't know how to be a world

this train is for beautiful girl

making me sell

got this fire on a where thing

caz with a ona thing

down in a little thing

From a Tower

2009-10-10T12:53:00.000-07:00

Thanks to giftofisolation and Benson for help with this one.

heaven just got your postcard

my dear Verona girl

we are blessed and powerless

where ever we turn we win

still this Campanile

longs for some time beside thee

Could you storm my tower

bring your bells

I am mad man bastille

Twelve residents who see your fires

we cheer inside

we cheer for you fire bringer

No, I don't know you well

but I know enough to tell you that

If you storm this tower

we'll just lay down

I do build you up

precipitously

to up whipped peaks

you never claim to be

cause humans will fill

any void with their hopes and distortions

its not so bad

just to sing from a tower

I hope we don't change too much,

without checking in

but if you should

there's that to look forward to

my verona girl

(harmonica)

and I found your black power earrings

exactly where you hid them

this too is a postcard

from a bloodless revolution

now i don't know you well

I know you just enough to tell you that

when you get back

we can be how you want

Not a Track Bike

2009-10-10T12:24:00.000-07:00

Here's my attempt to discern the lyrics to Not a Track Bike. Please help if you can by suggesting changes in the comments field.

she has the defect of these many fine qualities

I'm punk and partial to the faction of these mirz

no dear dependent faces took the chance and fight the races

could nas the red quilt go

blow up codjew the blow up the glass face

blow the glass floor blow up the house rock

I want and need to have life

I am a pack and pan but

or the thing that we won't fight down I want a little bit back

she needs to love to Canarsie

fat sand and wet sand the darkies

right now she cuts through the butter

slim jim and fat load a motherload

blow up the cop shops prop up the molotovs

pen up the gentry stabbing for entry

I I want an interesting life without the requisite strife

and inherit the meek full time

I want and interesting life

(guitar solo)

I just stood beneath your nails

death rays and sex fiend chemicals

4000 guys like you

4000 thousand girls too

all over them all over the american walls seriously

I am the boy that

I want want an interesting life on the lower east side

I'd rather fucking die

I think it's a beautiful mistake

and I paid back my old love

and gods been here steaming mail

screaming "no what an interesting life"

(breakdown)

so unbound these uneven keys

through the worships though my archepile

I've found that dream to do what you kept fucked in shepards full

the cast full the catwalk blow up the psycho

I want an interesting life,

not the kind you can buy, not the kind you can trade

not the kind you can fake

due to the tragic events of every month

there will no longer be smile or fun

and we need a new lightbulb and cuckhold disease

and to molt in between

so everyone get away

Ribbon Head

2009-10-10T12:23:00.000-07:00

Here's my faulty effort at decoding Ribbon Head. I appreciate your help.

Oh Ribbon Head go too far,

you are not allowed out in the yard

with the children and your cake mag loose

holding the hammer hotels, describing the circles in the sand

someone should stop you

ribbon head, unhook the wires

leave you for dead

for all you've said no truth

just a few spet shields you must go back to the basement

with a wrench and ghost holding your hammer and oil can

tears of a robot, skin of a man

It's how you were programed

ribbon head going stable, going dead

a lamppost, a history a mud wimp think,

only we take our eyes and make believe

ribbon head this is the last time we'll meet

out in the fields

ribbon sun memorial rain down the overcoats you know the code

up to the knees round falafalo

ripping the red flag from their throat

ribbon head, there is no more chance a lot

should you rule

and deliver them art and lies

and these pale lights through our eyes through time

and would make a lesser crime

of what they think

hoping the do push too far you push too hard against all the odds

Westchester rotery and I think a chain

holding your hammer and your class

no names on your figures, no kings in your past

someone must stop you

Ribbons head, burn down your barracks

eggs in your head

a humor post, a history

how much we think

only you, take our eyes

and make believe

Ribbon head this is the last time, we'll meet

out in the fields cold and hysterical

god in the envelope could not that provide

nothing is real building the rival scope

tracks box that overflow

the end of this

Vivid Green

2009-10-10T12:09:00.000-07:00

Skipping Kryptonite for the time being, which I am having trouble with, here's my attempt to transcribe"Vivid Green."

Vivid green remember apocalypse machinery

falling down my hairy tree

swords for hands let free

soft stones and ready glass

assume these forms assume ourselves

every exit entering

protect yourself don't auset fine

english wears and wake up phone

slaush ka teen rock harmonies

streaming there with rainbows spent

moons were crooked smiles again

I have always loved you, like a prophecy coming due to me

I have always been you, been you every century

little drinks for cavern eyes, startled glis backology

daughters red white water lines split their genes to suit a grey

fuzzy sadfit morrow swim, get yourself accelerate,

sorry now infolding in she's going to give to be herself

I have always loved you, like a prophecy coming totally

my room's above you, it's the sunset of a century

so many society

saw you alone

how long now

how many more

majesty laments, razor wire drives this place

now is your turn to do those born of steady field

seize your hand and run with you

sonic fields past plastic youth

fatal rainbows fall apart

everywhere we're what we are

I have always loved you, memory calling every

fire blooms above above you, from the west end of the century

Oh Deadly Death

2009-10-10T11:58:00.000-07:00

This is the fifth song on the recording. I suspect my effort to transcribe it is a bit less error filled than some of the other ones, but it still isn't 100% accurate. Thanks for your help!

Oh deadly death I have lay and longed for you

I hold my breath in darken room

and no one shows how to live

outside the screen of televisions

oh razor blade, you set my arms to light a bed and fruit to a life

and no one knows how good it feels to come so close

to come so real to come so

I can know

I can forget

there's always you, there's always one thing left

there's always

(guitar solo)

Oh lovely life, I think I know your works

100 proof you did your worst, you let me go almost first, along your way

a different curve

I found my way

Black Art

2009-10-10T11:52:00.000-07:00

I apologize that much of this is nonsense - but it's what I hear in the recording. If it were easier to make out I wouldn't be asking for the collective help of the internet. This is the fourth song, "Black Art."

the truth that all cats know

alone is best

it's a state of rest

let your ghost go west

and a paint yourself

space age thank aid

I'll put paint in a couch of shame

the world was here when I valued you

little thing

just let me down easy

and I would smile, and walk that mile

and your heart breaks east

favors a raincoat

color taught

what's left to lose

I could be your friend

we could be raintroops

when the world was bright

it's a knuckle fight

and trickle night

but there's more to life

then killing bulls and fish

could have said excuses learned

and we're alive

and we can't stop

show our eyes

another night

so lets come find

the complex

I could be your boy I guess as cool as this

no matters in my mystery

I don't want to be alone anymore

not enough scare or bored I just do

(guitar solo)

til then be shima

which one belongs to a pycho cyst

and hara kare with a smith corona, what the fuck

left arm on the right way

we can't go back, or we can't go on

I could be your boy

and you could be this song

so you better pack

your gonna lose this kid

I am not your sordid boy

with so much to give

Thorns of Life Lyrics

2009-10-10T11:34:00.000-07:00

I am setting up this blog because I sometimes like to read Blake Schwartzenbach's lyrics while I listen to his music. Unfortunately, there aren't any Thorns of Life lyrics available online, and they are a bit tricky to figure out by listening to the Gilman Street recording. Hence I thought I would publish my error-filled attempts to decode the lyrics and hope that internet users would come to my aid and offer improvements. I'll post each song as a separate entry in the hope that the comment field becomes a place for suggested changes. Thanks in advance for any and all help!