Aimee Mann - Coming Up Close - A Retrospective

Voices Carry

Album: Voices carry

In the dark, I like to read his mind
but I'm frightened of the things I might find
Oh, there must be something he's thinking of
to tear him away
when I tell him that I'm falling in love
why does he say

Hush hush keep it down now voices carry
Hush hush keep it down now voices carry
Uh-uh

I try so hard not to get upset
because I know all the trouble I'll get
oh, he tells me tears are something to hide
and something to fear
and I try so hard to keep it inside
so no one can hear

Hush hush keep it down now voices carry
Hush hush keep it down now voices carry
Hush hush keep it down now voices carry
Uh-uh

He wants me
but only part of the time
He wants me
if he can keep me in line

Hush hush keep it down now voices carry
Hush hush keep it down now voices carry
Hush hush shut up now voices carry
Hush hush keep it down now voices carry
Oh hush hush, darling, she might overhear
Hush, hush - voices carry
He said shut up - he said shut up
Oh God can't you keep it down
Voices carry
Hush hush voices carry
I wish he would let me talk.

You Know The Rest

Album: Voices carry

Here I go again
making promises
if I tell you no
it still sounds like yes

You know the rest
do I have to say it?

Am I in too deep?
Can I still confess?
-when you trusted me
that was just a guess

I guess
you know the rest
you know the rest
do I have to say it?

Well, I warned you once
but without success
and I just escape
with my heart
a mess

know the rest
(it's not so easy)
you know the rest
(its not that easy)
do I have to say it?
you know the rest.

No One Is Watching You Now

Album: Welcome home

Same town as its ever been
if there's changes somewhere
they've occurred from within
Streets pass and hold up to me
every corner defined
by the places you'd be

but no one is watching you now
no one is watching you now
like I did

Even the longest of days
you could make disappear
by the look on your face
We used to drive into town
and the eyes of the girls
followed you all around

but no one is watching you now
I know no one is watching you now
like I did

Forty-eight hours pass
and I'm longing to stay
Forty-eight hours pass
and watching you, watching you
is ages away

Something has torn me apart
oh but what do I care
about watching my heart
I know that sadness bleeds through
and my sadness for me
is now sadness for you

cause no one is watching you now
I know no one is watching you now
No one is watching you now
like I did

On Sunday

Album: Welcome home

You should take a walk
but its just the same wherever you go
you just wish the ghost was gone
So you make some calls
but its talking while you're wanting to go
you're just ringing phones for fun
You can always make a new excuse to cry
but you don't have to use it on yourself

So why spend your sadness now
save it up for me on Sunday
and why is lonely all you have
when love is what you'll find on Sunday

You might guard your heart
but its awfully fun to have it brokena
or at least to leave a bruise
It becomes an art
though the rules of which are rarely spoken
by the lucky ones who can choose
So your pain becomes another souvenir
and your souvenirs become your world

So why spend your sadness now
save it up for me on Sunday
and why is lonely all you have
when love is what you'll find on Sunday

Why spend your sadness now
save it up for me on Sunday
and why is lonely all you have
when love is what you'll find on Sunday

Coming Up Close

Album: Welcome Home

One night in Iowa, he and I in a borrowed car
went driving in the summer, promises in every star
out in the distance I could hear some people laughing
I felt my heart beat back a weekend's worth of sadness

There was a farmhouse that had long since been deserted
we stopped and carved our hearts into the wooden surface
we thought just for an instant we could see the future
we thought for once we knew what really was important

Coming up close
everything sounds like welcome home
Come home and oh, by the way
don't you know that I could make
a dream that's barely half-awake come true
I wanted to say -
but anything I could have said
I felt somehow that you already knew

We got back in the car and listened to a Dylan tape
we drove around the fields until it started getting late
and I went back to my hotel room on the highway
and he just got back in his car and drove away

Coming up close
everything sounds like welcome home
Come home and oh, by the way
don't you know that I could make
a dream that's barely half-awake come true
I wanted to say - but anything I could have said
I felt somehow that you already knew

Coming up close
everything sounds like welcome home
Come home

Coming up close
everything sounds like welcome home
Come home Come on home

Will She Just Fall Down

Album: Welcome home

I'd like to take her home
but no one walks where she does
she goes into the cold
wearing two unmatched gloves

Is it that (a change of scene is all she needs)
Maybe it's (something she works out alone)
And if I don't hold her up
will she just fall down?

She says she feels fine
she says she feels right at home
but I can hear her cry
when I leave the room oh

Is it that (a change of scene is all she needs)
Maybe it's (something she works out alone)
And if I don't hold her up
will she just fall down?

Well, some essential part
is missing that I just can't replace
I know that these things are a matter of grace

And on her birthday I'll
get a watch to keep her time
and I'll stay up with her
when she forgets to wind it

Is it that (a change of scene is all she needs)
Maybe it's (something she works out alone)
She says that (she only needs a change of heart)
Too bad that (parts alone are not enough)
And if I don't hold her up
and if I don't hold her up
and if I don't hold her up
will she just fall down?

David denies

Album: Welcome home

It's what he wants but he won't say
he'd rather make-believe I want to say goodbye
It's down to her although I know
she never made him happy now she makes him cry

He cannot work he cannot think
beyond the guilt he has for leaving her alone
I'm going down I cannot breathe
he doesn't think to leave me anything at all

David denies that he'll ever change his mind
(but he always changes)
David denies - but he's left his love behind
(left his love behind)

It's what he wants I'm almost sure
and I can hardly stand him saying it's not so
and so I'll wait and so I'll hope
somehow I can convince him not to let me go

David denies that he'll ever change his mind
(but he always changes)
David denies - but he's left his love behind
(left his love behind)

and so I'll wait and so I'll hope
somehow I can convince him
and so I'll wait and so I'll hope
somehow I can convince him not to let me go

What About Love

Album: Welcome home

Living on silence
living by the book
you get it to a science
of living on one good look
so put out all the fires
and blow away the smoke
I'm getting pretty tired
of living on hope

so what about love, baby
what about making room for two
what about love, baby
what about you

Living on daydreams
walking in my sleep
and nothing is as it seems
when you're in so deep
so put out all the fires
and blow away the smoke
unless you're getting tired
of living on hope

so what about love, baby
what about making room for two
what about love, baby
what about you

what about you
what about you
what about me

Why Must I

Album: Everything's Different Now

Why must I take it so hard
there's no light in the tunnel
or dog in the yard
It's my fault for wanting too much
going deeper than most
getting harder to touch

I've known days when I'd
wake up and say,
The world can get along just fine.'
So why must I take it so hard this time.

Why must I take it so hard
other people get by
with either bourbon or God.
But my world became this one boy
it's the way that I'm made
do you think I enjoy it?

I've known days when I'd
wake up and say,
`Just live and let it all go by...
So why must I take it so hard this time.

I've known days when I'd
wake up and say,

Be careful of the love you find

Be careful of the love you find.
Oh, be careful.

The Other End (Of The Telescope)

Album: Everything's Different Now

Shall we agree that just this once
I'm gonna change my life
until it's just as tiny or
important as you like
and in time, we won't even recall that we spoke
Words that turned out to be as big as smoke
like smoke, disappears in the air
there's always something smouldering somewhere

I know it don't make a difference to you
but oh, it sure made a difference to me
You'll see me off in the distance, I hope
at the other end
at the other end of the telescope

There was a time not long ago
I dreamt that the world was flat
and all the colours bled away
and that was that
And in time, I could only believe in one thing
the sky was just phosphourus stars hung on strings
and you swore that they'd always be mine
when you can pull them down anytime

I know it don't make a difference to you
but oh, it sure made a difference to me
You'll see me off in the distance, I hope
at the other end
at the other end of the telescope

There, there baby now, don't say a word
lie down baby, your vision is blurred
Your head is so sore from all of that thinking
I don't want to hurt you now
but I think you're shrinking (I think you're skrinking)

You're half-naked ambition and
you're half out of your wits
and though your wristwatch always works
your necktie never fits
Now its so hard to pick the receiver up
and when I call, I never noticed you could be so small
the answer was under your nose
but the question never arose

I know it don't make a difference to you
but oh, it sure made a difference to me
When you find me here at the end of my rope
when the head and heart of it finally elope
You can see us off in the distance, I hope
at the other end
at the other end of the telescope

'J' For Jules

Album: Everything's Different Now

I was winding my clock
which was waking us up
in the morning, we were laughing
away like fools

I was saying my prayers
he was combing his hair
in a country that began with a
'J' for Jules

You know I'll miss you
and thus it begins
but I'll release you
and thus it continues -
Someday we'll be happy again

Oh, the rain never comes
count my blessings on my thumbs
and the dogs just want to sleep in the
sun all day

You know I'll miss you
and thus it begins
but I'll release you
and thus it continues
Someday we'll be happy again

There's no way a country like that could die
Told me that they drift away
But that's a lie

Well, I just bought a car
but it stays in the yard
and the country that began with a 'J'
now ends in my heart

You know I'll miss you
and thus it begins
but I'll release you
and thus it continues
Someday we'll be happy again

Someday we'll be happy again
Someday we'll be happy again.
(oooo)
(oooo)
(oooo)
(oh)

(Believed You Were) Lucky

Album: Everything's Different Now

So I guess I'll give it up
yeah I guess I will
what's the use in pushing
when it's all uphill

I can't be appointed
keeper of the flame
without two to carry
it won't burn the same - oh
It seems obvious to me
but then again
could be
you just never felt that way

I wish you believed in life
believed in fate
believed you were lucky
and worth the wait
'cause life could be lovely
Life could be so great

It gets so embarassing
so I acquiesce
and I'll change my mind again
you change your address - oh
It seems logical to me
but then again
could be I was simply not that smart

I thought you believed in life
believed in fate
believed you were lucky
and worth the wait
'cause life could be lovely
Life could be so great

There must be some other door that they are saving
behind which my happiness lies
I won't be wasting my words
to tell you hopes that I had -
we can just leave it alone for now

I wish you: Belief in Life
Belief in Fate
Belief you are Lucky
and worth the wait
'cause life could be lovely
Life could be fucking great.

Limits To Love

Album: Everything's Different Now

We've known her ever since she was a kid
she was the kind of girl who repeats her mistakes
Her parents never minded what she did
She was a fallen angel with dirt on her face
But past a certain point she stayed behind
the two of us could never read her mind
the million ways she had of killing time

So we just gave up
yeah we just gave up
'cause sometimes, you know
there's limits to love

We'd get impatient with her now and then
oh, she'd smile and say, `now you're not being nice.
I guess her definition of a friend
was someone long on love, and short on advice
We gave her money but the money's bad
She took the dollars and just tore them in half
We got so angry, we just had to laugh

but we still gave up
yeah we still gave up
'cause sometimes, you know
there's limits to love

She'll get in trouble but she will scrape through
oh, she's the kind of girl who can always find help
I'd say she's stupid, but it'd be untrue
oh, you've got to be smart if you're fooling yourself
We tried to love her, but our love unwound
(so our love was weak)
We talked about her when she wasn't around
(so our talk was cheap)
and still we felt that we were letting her down

'cause we just gave up
yeah we just gave up
'cause sometimes, you know
there's limits to love

Sometimes you know
there's limits to love

Long Gone (Buddy)

Album: Everything's Different Now

So what if it's breaking my heart at the root
Something that could happen to anyone, I suppose
Never any comfort to get from the truth
from knowing the part of this person that no one knows
So we just cry
with hopelessness
We're making such a mess

It's long gone, buddy, now - run and go after it
It's long gone, buddy, now - run and go after it

It's not that I'm frightened of being alone
It's just that I know what a burden this grief can be
Everything happens for something, I know
Can't understand for the moment what this could mean
That love is gone
That love is blind
That love is so unkind

It's long gone, buddy, now - run and go after it
It's long gone, buddy, now - run and go after it

Nobody wants to be happier more than me
Nobody wants to be happier more than I do
but happiness
I must confess
I don't have

It's long gone, buddy, now - run and go after it
It's long gone, buddy, now - run and go after it

Do It Again

Album: Coming Up Close - A Retrospective, 1996. ('Til Tuesday)

We talked on the second of December
And I told her that our chances were slender
And this conversation sounded so familiar
Like a welcome mat - a broken blender

We walked to a restuarant she'd been to
And I looked at her while she was looking into
Someone else's mirror - seeing if she's someone too
Giving me that deja vu

I look back
And I see that same old rag
He's calling my name
He says you're gonna do it again

Time is all we need, she finally let out
But I see her drawing maps if she can get out
Now I wonder which of us will get the axe out
And do the final blow

I look back
And I see that same old rag
He's calling my name
He says you're gonna do it again

Says you're gonna do it again

I saw you
I said this time it's different
I'll know better
But I can't keep from loving
I have heard that one before

Ooooh

It was a shock I guess, but I'm not surprised
I would've done the same, if I was in your eyes
You know you left a trail about a mile wide
And though I've been there once
And seen the signs

I just followed you to
my forgone defeat because my
My history has a habit of repeating
I expect some trouble got the same beating
Time and time again

I look back
And I see that same old rag
He's calling my name
He's says you're gonna do it again

Ah - says you're gonna do it again
(says you're gonna do it again)
Says you're gonna do it again
(says you're gonna do it again)
ah (says you're gonna do it again)
ah
(says you;re gonna do it again)
ah
(says you;re gonna do it again)