Rock Singers

"Keep a fire for the human race; Let your prayers go drifting into space. You never know what will be coming down, Perhaps a better world is drawing near. Just as easily it could all disappear"

"Into a dancer you have grown From a seed somebody else has thrown. Go on ahead and throw some seeds of your own. And somewhere between the time you arrive And the time you go, May lie a reason you were alive That you'll never know."

"Out into the cool of the evening, Strolls the Pretender. He knows that all his hopes and dreams Begin and end there"

"It's such a clever innocence with which you do your sorcery As if somehow the years just bow and let that young girl go free I thought I was a child, until you turned and smiled"

"I'm going to find myself a girl Who can show me what laughter means. And we'll fill in the missing colors In each other's paint-by-number dreams."

"When you see through love's illusions, there lies the danger. And your perfect lover just looks like a perfect fool. So you go running off in search of a perfect stranger, While the loneliness seems to spring from your life Like a fountain from a pool."

"What I was seeing wasn't what was happening at all."

"I thought I knew where I was going, until I heard your laughter flowing And came upon the wisdom in your eyes"

"Honey you shake and I'll rattle and we'll roll on down the line And see if we can't get in touch with a very close friend of mine. But let me clue you in, it ain't like him To argue or pretend-- Honey let me introduce you to my redneck friend."

"Someone's gonna have to explain it to me, I'm not sure what it means. My baby's feelin' funny in the morning; She's having trouble getting into her jeans"

"Well, just look at that girl With the lights comin' up in her eyes. She's got to be somebody's baby; She must be somebody's baby."

"I try to shut my eyes But I can't get her outta my sight. I know I'm gonna know her, But I gotta get over my fright. Well, I'm just gonna walk up to her, I'm gonna talk to her tonight.Yeah, she's gonna be somebody's only light, Gonna shine tonight. Yeah, she's gonna be somebody's baby tonight."

"Though Adam was a friend of mine, I did not know him well. He was alone into his distance, he was deep into his well. I could guess what he was laughing at, but I couldn't really tell. Now the stories told that Adam jumped, but I'm thinking that he fell."

"Well, I'm a standing on a corner In Winslow, Arizona And such a fine sight to see, It's a girl, my lord, in a flatbed Ford Slowin' down to have a look at me."

"Well I'm running down the road Tryin' to loosen my load, I've got seven women on my mind, Four that wanna own me, Two that wanna stone me, One says she's a friend of mine."

"Take it easy, take it easy Don't let the sound of your own wheels Drive you crazy."

"Doctor, my eyes have seen the years And the slow parade of fears without crying. Now I want to understand; I have done all that I could To see the evil and the good without hiding. You must help me if you can.Doctor, my eyes Tell me what is wrong. Was I unwise to leave them open for so long?"

"The daughter of a captain on the rolling seas, She would stare across the water from the trees. Last time he was home he held her on his knees And said the next time they would sail away just where they pleased."

"I'm glad that the Bush years are behind us."

"These days I seem to think a lot About the things that I forgot to do For you And all the times I had the chance to."

"Now if I seem to be afraid To live the life that I have made in song Well it's just that I've been losing so long."

"These days I sit on cornerstones And count the time in quarter-tones to ten, my friend Don't confront me with my failures I had not forgotten them."

"'Cause I have wandered through this world And as each moment has unfurled, I've been waiting to awaken from these dreams. People go just where they will, I never noticed them until I got this feeling That it's later than it seems."

"Oh people, look around you, the signs are everywhere You've left it for somebody other than you to be the one to care You're lost inside your houses,theres no time to find you now"

"I told her I had always lived alone and I probably always would. And all I wanted was my freedom. And she told me that she understood. But I let her do some of my laundry, And she slipped a few meals in between. And the next thing I remember, she was all moved in. And I was buying her a washing machine."

"Looking through some photographs I found inside a drawer, I was taken by a photograph of you. There were one or two I know That you would have liked a little more, But they didn't show your spirit quite as true. You were turning round to see who was behind you And I took your childish laughter by surprise, And at the moment that my camera happened to find you There was just a trace of sorrow in your eyes."

"So where are the strong And who are the trusted? And where is the harmony? Sweet harmony — 'cause each time I feel it slippin away, it just makes me wanna cry: What's so funny 'bout Peace, Love, and Understanding?"

"As I walk through This wicked world Searchin' for light in the darkness of insanity, I ask myself Is all hope lost? Is there only pain and hatred, and misery? And each time I feel like this inside, Theres one thing I wanna know: What's so funny 'bout Peace, Love, and Understanding?"

"I knew the bride when she used to rock and roll."

"And so it goes and so it goes But where it's goin' no one knows."

"I pick myself up off the ground to have you knock me back down Again and again and when I ask you to explain You say, you've got to be... Cruel to be kind in the right measure Cruel to be kind it's a very good sign Cruel to be kind means that I love you Baby, you got to be cruel, you got to be cruel to be kind."

"Even if I was really prolific — which I'm not — I think I'd always put at least a couple of covers on my record. I think it's a sort of healthy thing to do. It shows that you're not totally self-obsessed."

"You know, the actual punk music, I didn't care for at all. I thought it was all rubbish, really. It was the attitude, the way that things were being shaken up, that excited me more. I still liked people who were good, you know? Who could actually play. Even though The Damned were a punk group, they played great. As did Elvis, and as did Ian. They were the ones who interested me. Not some of those daft punkers, especially the ones who had people who were actually pretty good musicians sort of pretending to play badly. That was just so stupid, and missed the point completely, I thought. So it was the people who were true to themselves, I think, that were the exciting ones."

"I've always felt quite like an outsider. I don't really belong in the mainstream, and I quite like that."

"An ex-girlfriend once got upset when I told her that music is the most important thing in my life. It’s more important than anyone else could ever be. I don’t want to be overly dramatic and say it’s the only thing that gets me up and keeps me going. But people in your life come and go. As you go through your life, you make friendships, you break friendships, you have relationships. Music is the one thing I’ve always been able to rely on. So why wouldn’t it be the most important thing in my life?"

"It’s hard enough having a relationship with one person, but to have a relationship with three other bandmates that you are so intimately tied to and you spend so much time with — and to have that actually work and function — is just astounding. I have been in a band for more than 10 years now. I never thought I’d be doing anything for 10 years straight, let alone a band, and I feel so fortunate for that. I have been allowed for some reason to do that. But it’s even more amazing that we get along better now than we did 10 years ago."

"Dude. You are marrying Zooey Deschanel. You have nothing, I repeat, nothing to be sad about anymore. From here on out, please only songs about emotional guys and their blind luck."

"Our band is very polarizing. There are people who absolutely can’t stand us, and people who absolutely can’t live without us. I’d rather spark those kind of polar-opposite feelings than have people be indifferent."

"I don’t spend my time perusing message boards to find out what people think about me or if people think my songs are good or if people love that lyric or this or that. I just want to be happy with it myself — and if other people like it, that’s great."

"Some fans get genuinely upset if I admit that a song that they held close to their heart was not based on actual events in my life. Like “What Sarah Said”: I was never in a waiting room in a hospital waiting for news that somebody was going to die."

"At this point in my life, I find myself obsessed with alternate paths I could’ve taken. I don’t think about this with a sense of regret, but with a sense of wonder..."

"A lot of the material is about the inevitable disappointment people feel as they move through life, and things don’t feel the way they expect. No experience will ever match up to the idealized version in your mind."

"Liking interesting things doesn’t make you interesting."

"I decided a handful of years ago that I just want to write songs that you can understand as soon as you put the record on. There’s no need to veil what’s happening in the song the way I used to. My goal as a songwriter now is to simply write some memorable turns of phrase."

"At some point I thought that, as I got older, I’d come to terms with a lot of things. I’d solve some big problems, and eventually I’d become content. It’s almost more depressing to think that the older you get, the more your problems multiply. When I’m old, I’d like to wake up in the morning and not really do anything — just be happy to exist. I’d like to look at my accomplishments and sit back and revel in my own achievement. But I don’t think that’ll ever happen. Before I made a living playing music, I used to work shitty job after shitty job and think “Man, as soon as I’m able to make a living in music, it’s really going to come together then, it’s really going be amazing.” I remember hoping there’d be 10 people at a show in 1998 when there was an incredible write-up in the local weekly. I don’t want to go back to that period of being obscure and having nobody know who I am, let alone have to struggle to get people to come to the show. I remember what it was like, and it was shitty."

"I find it very hard to accept the wonderful things in my life. My life really is great: I do exactly what I want to do for a living, I have a wonderful person to share my life with, I have a great family, I have great friends. But somehow there’s a void. I’m the last person who should be complaining or wondering why I’m perpetually unhappy. I would like to think that my lack of contentment is part of what makes my work the way it is, and for the better. I would rather make great records than make great relationships. When I’m at odds with myself, I would rather fuck up every relationship I’ve ever been in and write great records. And not because I need a breakup to provide me with material. Not like that."

"It’s amazing to have people singing a song back to you on a stage. It’s great to finish recording a song and play it for your friend, and they love it. That feels good. But nothing feels better than when you’ve finished something and you know it’s good, and you know that those other responses will come in time."

"Because of my age and what I do for a living and the amount of time that I’ve spent away from my family and loved ones, I’m starting to relate more to the late-period Kerouac stuff in the way that I once related to the fun and excitement of the early material. There’s a darkness inside of me that I’m only now starting to come to grips with and accept. And it’s starting to scare me."

"How I wish you could see the potential The potential of you and me It's like a book elegantly bound, but In a language that you can't read just yet You got to spend some time, love You got to spend some time with me And I know that you'll find love I will possess your heart"

"As the flashbulbs burst she holds a smile Like someone would hold a crying child Soon everybody will ask what became of you Your heart was dying fast and you didn't know what to do."