BRIGHT EYES - lyrics by Conor Oberst

1)"The Bible's blind. The Torah's deaf. The Qu'ran is mute.
If you burned them all together you’d get close to the truth"

2)"And now it’s off to old Dakota where a genocide sleeps
In the Black Hills, the Badlands, the calloused East
I buried my ballast. I made my peace"

3)"i find that life is easier when it's just a blur
with no details to confuse who or what or where i was
so when the ending comes the full regret will seem obscure"

4)"and we’ll stay like this, all gold and green
the light collects and projects your heart on a movie screen
and if you close your eyes we will always be the way we were that night you crawled inside of me"

5) And each morning she wakes with a dream to describe
Something lovely that bloomed in her beautiful mind
I said "I'll trade you one for two nightmares of mine
I have some where I die, I have some where we all die."

6)"But the night rolls around and it all starts making sense
There is no right way or wrong way, you just have to live
And so I do what I do and at least I exist
What could mean more than this?"

7)"I see the whisper of the wind has found your hair again
And though my heart said give me refuge in your dignity my dear
All I could do was put a seashell to your ear"

8)"we must take all of the medicines too expensive now to sell
set fire to the preacher who is promising us hell
and into the ear of every anarchist that sleeps but doesn't dream
we must sing, we must sing, we must sing"

9)"we must hang up in the belfry where the bats in moonlight laugh
we must stare into a crystal ball and only see the past
into the caverns of tomorrow with just our flashlights and our love
we must plunge, we must plunge, we must plunge"

10)"Well, I should stop pointing fingers; reserve my judgment of all those public action figures, the cowboy presidents. So loud behind the bullhorn so proud they can't admit when they've made a mistake. While poison ink spews from a speechwriter's pen, he knows he don't have to say it, so it, it don't bother him. "Honesty" "Accuracy" is just "Popular Opinion." And the approval rating is high, and so someone's gonna die."

11)"Well, ABC, NBC, CBS: Bullshit. They give us fact or fiction? I guess an even split. And each new act of war is tonight's entertainment. We're still the pawns in their game. As they take eye for an eye until no one can see, we must stumble blindly forward, repeating history. Well, I guess we all fit into your slogan on that fast food marquee: Red blooded, White skinned oh and the Blues."

12) "I dream the desert where the dead lay down
I dream a prostituted child touching an old man in a fast food crown
Oh yeah, I dreamt this ship was sinkin' there was people screaming all around And I awoke to my alarm clock it was a pop song it was playin' loud"

13) "see the sterile soil, poisoned sky, yellow water,
the final scraps of light bringing new tears."

14) "But if the world could remain within a frame like a painting on a wall. Then I think we would see the beauty then. We would stand staring in awe at our still lives posed like a bowl of oranges"

15) "Love's an excuse to get hurt"

16)"We have a problem with no solution but to love and to be loved"

17)"But I am not gonna bless you with such compliments,
some degrading psalm of praise,
like the kind that converted you to me so long ago.
Because the truth is that gossip is as good as gospel in this town.
You can save face but you won't ever save your soul."

18)"Our love is dead but without limit,
like the surface of the moon,
or the land between here and the mountains.
Well it is not these hiding places that have kept us innocent,
but the way you taught me to just let it all go by."

19)"And so we've learned to be as faithless,
stand behind bulletproof glass,
exchanging our affections through a drawer.
And it was always horribly convenient,
and happening too fast.
You should count your change before you're even out the door."

20)"An argument for consciousness
The instinct of the blind insect
Who never thinks not to accept its fate
That's faith, there's happiness in death"

21)"The levity of longing that
Distills each dream inside my head
By morning watered down forget
On silver stars I wish and wish and wish"

23)"I still felt imprisoned inside that holding cell
that is myself"

24)"There will be no planets to align
Just the carcass of the sun
And little painted marbles spinning senseless
through an endless black sky"

25)"And the shades of the lamps are woven red
The light, it stains and consecrates
Anointing all forgotten forms
That swirl and smoke
And haunt this place"

26)The girls in gowns all nurse the dark
Pulling it near to their swelling breasts
And watch as it seeps to their hearts
And beats within their virgin chests
And here I know seduction breeds
From wanton hearts that would seduce
And grows and spreads its vines and leaves
Embracing those who might have moved"

27)"But now remain to drink the night
From vials black and thick with steam
With intoxicating delights
Would leave you drunk inside this dream
And you watch them take the light from you"

28)"Well, I drug your ghost across the country and we plotted out my death."

29)"Haligh, Haligh, a lie, Haligh,
The plans were never finalized,
But left to hang like yarn and twine,
Dangling before my eyes.

30)As you tear and tear your hair from roots
From that same head that you have twice removed
Now, a lock of hair you said would prove
Our love would never die.
And I sing and sing of awful things
(The pleasure that my sadness brings)
As my fingers press onto the strings,
Yet another clumsy chord."