FATE'S GOT A DRIVER

Doghouse Records
Recorded and Released by Split Lip – 1995
Remixed and Re-released by Chamberlain – 1996

• HER SIDE OF SUNDOWN
• DRUMS AND SHOTGUNS
• YELLOW LIKE GOLD
• CHAMBERLAIN (FIVE-YEAR DIARY)
• UNIONTOWN
• SURRENDERING THE GHOST
• STREET SINGER
• THE SIMPLE LIFE

HER SIDE OF SUNDOWN

I’m running out like quiet from sunrise. I’m running out. Sweet sounds keep on. Fate and tragedy – I’m calling you selfish begging men. Sweet sounds don’t leave. Because there’s a world I’ve got to see and it silently waits for me. Sweet sounds don’t leave. Chance is in her glasshouse, I know, and I know I’m throwing stones but it’s not enough to break love’s law. Now hold your breath and hold your heart – a boy like me should know this part and what secret sounds bring, you’ve played it. Boy, you gave me life but I’ll have my time (when trumpets sing for me). Boy, you gave me life but it wasn’t mine. I’m running out like quiet from sunrise. I’m running out. Sweet sounds keep on. Trading the highest love for a case of lockjaw – five years gone but not for good, please believe. I guess we’ve both held our breath so long we’ve forgotten how to dream. We both knew this world would drop if we but breathed.
Boy, you gave me life but I’ll have my time (when trumpets sing for me).
Boy, you gave me life, but it wasn’t mine.

DRUMS & SHOTGUNS

Rise, but keep quiet. Something stirs outside. It’s got me frightened. Drums and shotguns keep me awake tonight from all the fighting (and this is nothing like I thought it might be). This is my refuge…awake. At last darkness, tuck away with me out into the night’s perfume. If over the hills you hear cries, they’ll never touch you. Sleep, the sun is creeping over a bleeding sky. I hear no fighting. Drums and shotguns slipped away this time when in crept morning. Rise, but scream like fire. And in the night reside. Dance beneath the lightening. Drums and shotguns sing me to sleep tonight, the sweet sound of fighting (and this is nothing like I thought it might be). This is my refuge…awake.
And I keep hoping.

YELLOW LIKE GOLD

Frail like dreams – I had crossed a thought-thin line I’d never seen. I know that dreams turn nails to leaves and this deceiver is someone I can’t keep at bay. So I blame me whenever I let my ghost stray. I blame the honest man with his heart in his hand. And I come harboring secrets in the night knowing that beneath this skin lies a man waiting to come alive. This is the sound thoughts make – like ballads from the barrel of a gun. And I “at my sky-blue trades” fade back to where I came from. I blame the honest man with his heart in his hand.

CHAMBERLAIN (FIVE YEAR DIARY)

Make whispers of these words; if they’ve moved you I can prove they’re empty. I’ve been sailing paper ships under burning bridges since the beginning. But I wouldn’t change a thing if the days were there for changing. I’ve learned enough from living. And they’ll probably say of me, ‘Here is one who came just to leave.’ I’m the one who reached for love and missed. Can you come down to me? I’ll be waiting with that same look on my face. And I’m still stuck inside of sorrow though the days outside are flames. And I still comb the night for stars behind a wind-kissed windowpane. I’m the one who reached for love and missed. Can you come down to me?
Now the days stretch out like the landscape of this town when the seasons change. I’ll be waiting with that same look on my face. We all dance when the seasons change.

UNIONTOWN

Strange morning, even stranger day. I took my thoughts for a walk in the backyard. Digging for dreams I found them buried there, and in my mind I was a king. Living lifetimes in a day in this field town. Dreaming high on warehouse roofs, where lilies bend like men with broken backs. Street cars come humming down on pot-holed streets where our past is dead and
lying. Living lifetimes in a day in this field town (oh how we shudder ‘neath that sword). It moved to me like music through a room and now, now I live for song. Have heart and hang the past. Quiet the softer side. From here I go on laughing. Quiet comes the end this time. I’m finding system in these big thoughts. I’m thinking thoughts that could shake the world that we all come from. Living lifetimes in a day, in this field town.

SURRENDERING THE GHOST

In the engine hymn of this evening’s train, I thought I heard your name. And in the whistle’s refrain of this evening’s train, I swore I heard your name. I remembered keeping mad hours in the night under an honest sky when the world’s shadow stood side-by-side, and so did you and I. Like a bashful boy to shudder from a ray of light, a coward by design. While across this crowded town there’s a girl who bleeds from open wounds and an open heart. That’s a feeling that I can’t afford. I’ve been in the dark too long.

STREET SINGER

You’ve sirened your pride in with banners flying the nation. They all read “come see about me.” We both bend in strong winds but it seems we all can’t fend the break. So stay brave if your arbors fall. You’re under lock and key and I could break in but I’ve never been a thief.
All done with this old place, with the romance of sunlight on your face and friendships too much like disease. Dear Sovereign, I’m thinking that passion left town when your heart did (you’re at it again). But you used to beat the bright out of the sky. You steal meaning from
seasons, break silence like a bone of mine. Come closer or don’t come at all. You’re under lock and key and I could break in but I’ve never been a thief.

THE SIMPLE LIFE

Dark streets carry me home now.
I’ve stayed too long.
We’re brave men to sip the stars dry, leave sleep alone.
I built this house out of a fate-driven dream,
and these walls are what they seem.
Light breaks again, and I can’t follow you down.
Hurt stays when the work is over.
We’ve stayed too long.
We’re brave men to sip the stars dry, leave ourselves alone.
Light breaks again, and I can’t follow you down.
Light breaks again, and I can’t follow.

Music by Adam Rubenstein / Lyrics by David Moore
Copyright 1995
All Rights Reserved