| This song is labelled, Song 8
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| I remember us playing this piece of music on a February day
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| And now in front of me, I’m looking at a blank page
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| I showed up with nothing but fearlessness
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| It took me 45 years to build up that kind of confidence
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| And I’m sure as I can hear foghorns, that it’ll be something
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| My brother’s sleeping in the other room
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| He doesn’t read a lot, he just likes watching the tube
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| He’s been watching some comedians since 2 o’clock in the afternoon
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| I took a bath and tried to relax and I love the sound of my brothr’s laugh
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| Though the comedian made good points, I got sick of th comedian’s voice
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| His high pitch, and the pace at which he delivered
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| Somebody’s favorite comedian isn’t for everybody, wouldn’t you say?
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| Don’t matter who it is, I can’t listen to Netflix comedy specials all day
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| I got out of the tub and I got dressed
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| I asked him, «Have you seen the movie Alpha Dog?»
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| And he said, «No», so we watched that one next
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| Justin Timberlake, Sharon Stone, Fernando Vargas, Sharon in the mental hospital
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| This is her most mournful scene that I’ve ever seen
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| She’s wailing on the screen with her heavily medicated face
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| How can you not feel her pain?
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| Playing the bereaved mother whose son was buried in Las Padres
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| Kidnapped and killed over $ 1000
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| And I’m in San Francisco on this August night, and my brother just left
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| And like I always do when he left, I wept
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| God, I miss my brother, maybe that’s why Daniel has always been one of my
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| favorite Elton John songs
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| Because when my brother leaves on a plane, Oh, I miss him so much
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| I thought about how many times we’d walk past the Golden Dragon restaurant
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| Talking about the massacre there in 1977
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| You were 9, and I was 10
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| We remember so many dark things that were on the news back then
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| Three channels was all that we had, Kung Fu
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| Turn the channel, 900 dead bodies in Guyana on channel 2
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| I love the piano I’m hearing right now
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| The shuffle of the drums, restrained, subtle, pa-pow
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| And that’s me in the background singing the falsetto notes
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| That’s no church choir, those are no angels, that’s me opening up and letting go
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| I remember Luke Wilson telling me what a film set was
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| «If you’re gonna show up, show up»
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| I said, «You mean, if I show up and complain later that my performance was
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| lackluster that I could be cut or shit out of luck?»
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| He said, «That's right, brother», or maybe he said, «buster»
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| I said, «I get it, but if I’m great at what I do, and I don’t do a great time
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| this time around
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| I’ll get more chances to blow people’s minds down the line, right?»
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| He said, «Look, all I’m saying is, if you’re gonna show up, show up»
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| And I thought to myself, who do I think I am anyhow, Marlon Brando?
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| I gotta do my best now, not gripe about how good I could’ve been a year ago
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| I never did end up with a part on that set with Luke Wilson
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| But I learned from Luke, and what the heck, for that guy, I got a lot of respect
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| I remember seeing Mahavishnu Orchestra when I was a kid
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| Every guy in that crowd looked like John McLaughlin
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| Mahavishnu were blowing every one of those dude’s mine, including mine
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| Mahavishnu showed up, Billy Cobham? |
| Holy fuck
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| Jonas Hellborg, are you kidding me?
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| I thought, this is pretty cool
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| But when I grow up and play concerts, I hope there’s a few girls there
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| I hope there’s more variety in the crowd
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| A room full of guys who look like John Mclaughlin and talk about Mesa Boogie
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| amps doesn’t sound like a whole lot of fun
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| Now I’m somewhere else listening to the eucalyptus trees shaking on a windy day
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| The top of the blue bay has turned turbulent white
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| A gray, cream-lined barge just parked in the dark
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| All the big white ones taking off, faster than anyone could imagine a thing
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| that heavy could move
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| I remember running to take a photo of one and I barely got the shot
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| I move around a lot, you gotta move your body
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| You gotta have a plan unless you want to get all moody broody
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| Sitting around the house doing nothing when you got two good arms,
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| a leg and a leg is deteriorating and diminishing like a Perry Como 8-track
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| tape
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| This music sounds pretty to my ears |
| Listening to you type sounds pretty
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| Listening to you clip your fingernails sounds pretty
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| The train whistle from across the water sounds pretty
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| The vultures sitting in the trees look pretty
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| Even their droppings on the cement sidewalk look pretty
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| The turkeys scurrying across the ground are so pretty
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| If you’re sitting around moody broody, thinking, this or that sucks
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| Well, Ford might say, «It's been a while since you got your feathers plucked»
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| Now it’s night time and I hear the singing crickets
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| Shawn Porter’s fighting at the STAPLES Center in Los Angeles next month,
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| and I got tickets
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| Complimentary tickets from Fox Sports for my shoutouts to deceased boxers
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| Shawn’s from Ohio, so I’ll be representing, and taking my girlfriend out for
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| lobsters
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| I’m not bragging, I’m just saying I’ve come a long way from rust belt Ohio
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| My most tender memory of my mother is her taking me out to dinner once at Red
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| Lobster
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| I love my mother, my God, I love my mother
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| I flew the coop, I had to get out of there to make the living I’ve made,
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| my brother
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| But it don’t mean I don’t have bountiful, endless love for my mother
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| This is it, the big picture
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| Everything feels right in this moment, like perfect, sweet kisses
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| I’m at chapter 15 in A Book of Bones
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| The dead woman is mysteriously found in a freezer named Adrianne R. Pone
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| I’m flipping between that and Black Spring
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| Henry Miller says that relieving one’s bladder is one of the great pleasures in
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| life, and with that, I agree
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| At my age, there’s a lot of peeing, and I never thought too much about it
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| before really
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| But a simple joy and relief it is to pee
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| What’s not to like in life when you’re a wordsmith as good as me?
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| When the music is as beautiful as what I’m hearing?
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| When my bay window looks out on the Pacific Ocean?
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| Nathan, do you think this album has gone over 80 minutes?
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| I gotta check, but it’s gotta be close to 79
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| This record’s done, I’ve made enough double CDs
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| There are a few outtakes, as usual, but for this one, the universe told me to
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| leave them be
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| August 19th, 2019, I shriveled up when there was a knock on my door
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| I opened it, and they handed me a picture of Jesus
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| I flipped it over, and it said, «The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day
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| Saints»
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| I said, «Hey, this ain’t my cup of tea, but you came to my door to talk with me
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| I know all about the Angel Moroni, Joseph Smith and the golden plates
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| But you came here to talk with me, I respect that
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| You’re brave, you showed up» |