I was born with the apple in my mouth
A chocolate saint in the fat man’s house
With a monkey’s ache and a papal hat
Fed promises that all broke like glass
So 'scuze me if I can’t fathom this
I wasn’t built for all your Love and happiness

I was built for splitting rails
For powder blue girls with feathered tails
For whaling ships and marking cards
And neon colored shooting bars
Like St Peter’s ghost with a ghetto frown
To hang from stop signs upside down
From a factory girl and a sailor's kiss
With hello on their skin and goodbye on their lips
So 'scuze me if I seem afraid of this
I wasn’t born for all this Love and happiness

I was raised a pilgrim’s son
Saying I’m sorry for nothing I done
To raise sons that fall and dogs that bite
And dreams that try and cheat the night
By Union men that all headed south
Waving oily rags that could ignite your house
From a traitor’s hand with a whiskey spark
And kin that fear their God and the dark
So ’scuze me if I seem afraid of this
I wasn’t built for all this Love and happiness
 

Jeff Finlin:  guitars, drums, percussion, vocals
Tony Garnier:  bass
Joel Diamond:  organ
Larry Saltzman:  slide

Knock knock knocking on my back door
It’s June with the daylight coming for more
She lives in an alley we’ll just call desire
She floats like an angel but blows like a tire
She’s just what you need
When you’re walking the wire
I pick up her pieces and brush out her hair
She irons some creases in my vacant stare
Leaves cold winter memories fastened with care

Oh June leaves my heart like an ember
June with her dresser drawer members
June with a smile she comes crawling
June with the daylight calling

She puts on her red dress and I shed my blue suit
We dance round the kettle and have us a hoot
Gaze through the madness by closing our eyes
In the light of the station we laugh our goodbyes
To all of the world and its army of I’s
She settles for me and I settle for her
While the cars on the avenue quietly purr
She’s nothing you’d dream of but carries the cure

Chorus
 

Jeff Finlin:  guitar/vocals
Mark Ribot:  guitar
Joel Diamond:  piano, organ
Dave Hofstra:  bass

She walked the aisle in eggshell blue
Compromising white
While the purple thistles twisted
In the fading spring twilight
She said “I do” to Gene her boy
As a thunderstorm blew in
Then they ducked inside to beat that rain and let their lives begin

Gene he worked the diamond mines
He knew not much else at all
She’d dig the dirt, fatten the herd
Then whack their heads in fall
If this life she ever questioned
She’d recall that wedding day
And the words the preacher spoke
Before he sent them on their way

He said isn’t it a wonder the sun it rise and then it falls
Isn’t it a wonder, yeah love it conquers all
Isn’t it a wonder, let your conscience be your plain
And you will come to see these golden rings
As the perfect mark of Cain

Well their love fell to a whisper, it almost never sang at all
And as fate would have it late one night
A stranger came to call
She had killed and fried the fatted beast
For Gene and all his hounds
Then tucked them in and took a walk
To the bar outside of town
He was standing in the neon in a black mortician’s hat
Rhinestones flashing in the mirror
Over the wooden bar in back
He laid all that he had on her
Which was little more than change
A few kisses and an understanding
Of the perfect mark of Cain

Isn’t it a wonder the sun it rise and then it fall
Is it any wonder she felt nothing for so long
Is it any wonder she stood laughing in the morning rain
With an aching head and a new tattoo
Of the perfect mark of Cain.

Well she packed that ugly morning
With all her worn and tattered things
And paid the ticket master
With a single golden ring
As the train pulled from the station
A wino stumbled past the door
And she knew that losing everything 
Was the only hope of finding more
Gene he found her goodbye note
On the nightstand by the bed
And killed the pain of his broken heart
With a gunshot to the head
The family’d thought their love was perfect
As they washed them splattered doors
Until they read the note she left him
They found crumpled on the floor

It said isn’t it a wonder hello’s just like goodbye
Isn’t it a wonder the calm lies in the eye
Is it any wonder living and dying’s just the same
And it was signed with a teardrop
The perfect mark of Cain

Jeff Finlin:  guitar, vocals 
Tony Garnier:  bass 
Mark Ribot:  guitar 
Joe McMahan:  guitar

Ten thousand pilgrims looking back home
Ten thousand pilgrims wondering why they come
They ain’t got much going 'cept what’s in their genes
God’s gift of not knowing and tabloid magazines
They’re all waiting in their trailers tipping the jug
Watching their tv’s – waiting on a flood

Well the rooster he’s crowing he says it’s time
The rooster he’s crowing maybe it’s a sign
I been so patient saving up the days
Walking in the shadows listening to what they say
Got a hog and a razor, writing letters in blood
But nothing ever seems to come
When you’re waiting on a flood

I went to the sheriff, asked him how he rest
I went to the sheriff, he said it’s some kind of test
I got bullets in my mailbox, a target on my head
My chest is oh so heavy carrying 'round this lead
I’m all pinned down here like a frog in the mud
There ain’t nothing but me
Waiting on a flood

Silence it is golden like the rising of bread
Silence it is golden and it scares me to death
But in all that nothing and expectation dead
I feel a new sun rising from my heart to my head
And that ghost in the mirror hit the floor with a thud
Nothing ever come from
Waiting on a flood

Come over here baby, turn your lamp down low
Come over here baby, get your face off the floor
You been laying in the bedroom recounting your dreams
Don’t ya know our love is the spaces in between
You best settle on something to help you rise above
Or you’ll be there all your life
Waiting on a flood
 

Jeff Finlin:  guitar, vocals, drums
Richard McLaurin:  slide
Mark Linebaugh:  bass, guitar

We used to talk about hell while the dead birds fell
From the poison wires around the old church bells
We used to drink 'em on up now, till we fell down
Then pick each other up off the ground
She used to sing of a cold blue storm brewing on the rise
Now she just lights up the world with a magic in her eyes

Yeah she’s a mama now, calls a love her own
Bows to little Bhudda as she points him toward the throne
Whistles lullabies and prayers before the night
No more where’s or why’s or how’s
Yeah she’s a mama now

We used to soak them sheets and make love again
Now she beats em on a rock and hangs them in the wind
Instead of picking me up now she leaves me on the floor
In a million colored pieces, to check the king’s drawers
She used to sing of a cold blue storm brewing on the bow
But now she just moos like a dog and barks like some kinda cow

Yeah she’s a mama now
She wears a big halo made of hammered tin
That he rattles on the floor, of biscuit buttock cheeks
Endless little feats and possibilities

Yeah, she’s a mama now, calls a love her own
Bows to little Bhudda as he sits upon his throne
Whistles lullabies and prayers before the night
No more where’s or why’s or how’s
Yeah she’s a mama now
 

Jeff Finlin:  guitar, vocals
Tony Garnier:  bowed bass
Mark Ribot:  guitar

Mama loves my mission when I bring her chili sauce
And tales from the borderlines of folks I double-crossed
But even though she’s glowing, her smile can’t hide her pain 
It’s just so hard to love her blowing kisses from a train

Daddy always told me boy light a fire behind your eyes
And uncork that motor with kerosene and compromise 
But then he never told me why Ma threw plates and cursed his name 
Guess it was just too hard to love her blowing kisses from a train

Remember this – these are the days 
We were riding shotgun down through the golden age 
Blow me a kiss and dream of better days
And a face there in the mirror you can somehow explain

Moonlight on the mountains painting pictures on the rocks 
But this line don’t stop dear so I can hear the nighttime talk
And even when I'm close up I feel so far away 
And it's just so hard to love you, just so hard to love you
Just so hard to love you blowing kisses from a train

Jeff Finlin:  piano, drums, hubcap, vocals
Tony Garnier:  bass
Larry Saltzman:  guitars

Sometimes she laughs so hard she cries
Sometimes she’s darkness, other times she’s light
Finds a warmth in my soul dear, with an icy stare
With the touch in her hand and the sound of a prayer

And when I think it’s all over she finds a place to begin
Out above these ruins, time and time again
She knows the face of perfection carries mistake in its heart
And that’s the weight of the flame of her love in the dark

When I sink from the sadness I see along the way
And start living tomorrow instead of living today
She walk me past reflection in the murky pool
To where the water runs deep and love’s the only rule

And when I’m caught in the crossfire, head goner than gone
Can’t see standing still’s the only way to move on
She turns the lamp down low and lights the way with a spark
That’s the weight of the flame of her love in the dark

Jeff Finlin:  drums, guitar, vocals
Tony Garnier:  bass
Joe McMahan:  guitar
Larry Saltzman:  guitar
Joel Diamond: organ

Pulled in a whistle stop and looked for your name in the directory U's
I knew you were there, thought I had nothing to lose
Threw rocks at the stop sign, staring at the payphone till the morning begun
You were the only road I hadn’t done

I looked east
I looked west
Saw the sheen of my dreams put to the test
I looked north, still I wanted to run
'Cause love weighs eighteen tons

A few drinks at the bar behind the wheel of my car 
I’m ready to turn right but it’s left at the light and into the night
Out toward the four lane you can hear them silky snow caps call
But the weight in my heart slows the car to a crawl

I looked east
I looked west
Seen the sheen of my dreams put to the test
I looked north but still I couldn’t give her the gun
'Cause love weighs eighteen tons

From San Juan to Silverton there’s a chill in the air that cracks the mind
Spooks the horses at night, makes you float in time
That same chill hits me and I cease to believe and I look toward the track
Want to roll away in vain and never look back

And then I look east
I look west
See the sheen of my dreams being put to the test
I look north and catch a little hope where I begun
'Cause love weighs eighteen tons

Jeff Finlin:  guitars, vocals
Tony Garnier:  bass
Joel Diamond:  organ
Mark Ribot:  guitar

There’s a place our love it prays
In between the give and take
High above all that we know is right or wrong
Where moonlight becomes the dawn

In between the heart and soul
Where desolation meets the road
A place compassion breaks the hardened to a fall
Where moonlight becomes the dawn

Where hopelessness it turns to faith
Where perfection meets mistake
The place the bluebird sings the morning to the night
High above the you and I

So if your heart it aches and yearns wondering where the tide will turn
Don’t forget the winter always turns to spring
Don’t forget the sound of your darkness as it rings
The voice you hear echoes from where you belong
And moonlight becomes the dawn

Jeff Finlin:  piano, vocals
David Henry:  cello
Ned Henry:  violin