HELL THEN DIVINE
1. CASCADE
I'll write you from your dreams
Chase you all around this town
Won't say I'm sorry for the rain
But I'll dance as it comes down
Drink like dirt
You know it's been awhile
Since my head's been under water
It seems like this cascade
Has always been falling
Rising all around
Carrying us in it's flood
And blood intentions
It whispers like a lover
Until my head is under water
2. SWAY TO THE ROLL
She will say your name like sugar and salt
And you will come to know flying to fall
Just sway to the roll of the ship that is sinking
With willing eyes and bottomless drinking
She will say your name, you will say her name
You will bide your time in sunsets and further
In shadows of low sex like lovers of murder
Just sway to the roll...
You will take your mind to the smaller devils
And she will cage her heart in soft stone and metal
Just sway to the roll...
3. OLD MEXICO
I've got my star-spangled boots on
My head's hanging loose down this highway
Lord, I'm tired of bitching,
Hissing, and spitting every goddamned day
And though I love you like water
I feel like I'm drowning if I stay
Oh, don't you want to go down to Old Mexico?
Yeah, I'll call you up
When I'm turning my luck like a fortune wheel
When all the señoritas cry
And the bulls run dry from my heart of steel
If you could see this sky
And how it dies in my eyes you'd know how I feel
Oh, don't you want to go down to Old Mexico
No one there will know our name
No one there will put out our flame
Hell, you ain't nothing to me but everything I've seen
You ain't nothing to me
Put on a pretty dress
Just hang-on to a bus for your precious one
You can make up your dreams
Between your sweaty knees down a dirt road
Don't make me feel like a thief
Who forgets where he keeps all his stolen gold
Oh, don't you want to go...
4. SLOWER TO THE WATER
I'll keep it to the blood I've learned
To the wisdom of laying hands turned
You cannot free your spirit so easily today
Deciding who's your saviour by the crosses that sway
By the crosses that sway
You turn your back on me
You turn your back on me
It's not too late to turn your back on me
It's not too late to turn your back on me
Just push me down that Highway 1
To those wicked shores of lust
Take me back fifteen lovers surprised to see yourself
But slower to the water-- is it so sweet in hell?
Is it so sweet in hell?
You turn your back on me...
5. WE WERE ON FIRE
I miss the midnights of your starry eyes
The weary rest, the pulling tides
On the shores of LA we did ride
When we were on fire
The sirens, the engines of an angel slow
To wake and shake the undertow
As the neon traced one last show
When we were on fire
We were on fire...
I miss your valleys, your avenues
Those empty ways of loving you
Never knowing, baby, which one was true
When we were on fire
We were on fire...
6. RADIO TOWERS AT NIGHT
(Instrumental)
7. THE DEVIL ON ME
I said I won't drink and I won't run around
I won't say anything on my way down
I've got the Devil on me...
I won't say I love you, I won't look into your eyes
And I won't touch you between the lines
I've got the Devil on me...
I won't whisper your name, I won't make a sound
I won't leave this road-- heading straight out of town
I've got the Devil on me...
8. SHINE
This downtown of no-town rides
The highway rails then divides
Cast aside the lightning slides
Then it lines us up in its bright strides
Now the motel ghosts come visiting
Like wind through these fields they're whispering
And we sit in our brokedown Ford shivvering
One with the guilt of their mysteries
There is no blame in my name
And this well of confusion I cannot drink dry, cannot drink dry
Love is a road strange and cold sometimes, sometimes
Maybe this storm is our due sin
For the hearts we have hung-up in ruin
We sacrificed for a dream of smoke and gin
We're sold and wasted on this road again
There is no blame in your name
And this well of confusion you cannot drink dry, cannot drink dry
Love is a road strange and cold sometimes, sometimes
This downtown of no-town hides
The desert rain behind our eyes
We're loaded-down and spirit-wide
We're holding hands and biding time
Lord-- you shine
Goddamn, you shine...
9. ON THE LLANO
(Instrumental)
10. MIDNIGHT, TEXAS
This highway is a whispering mother
Of all I have lost and won't ever find
When she speaks to me out of Midnight, Texas
It's a simple blood spilled like water
Spilled like water sometimes
Oh, fortune, don't you weave upon this road
I saw hell in her eyes a thousand miles ago
When she speaks to me...
Now the radio is dead, lost to the thunder
I let the static of the rain carry my mind under
When she speaks to me...
11. BURNT WATER
Caught between the rusty cross
The way between these atmospheres
And the hells of all this burnt water
The simple words and twisted kisses
The thoughtless treasures of midnights gone
And the mornings that found you fallen like a daughter
Of that burnt water
Just walk on home alone if you want
We've got a chain of love from stars to rooftop
And I'll climb that ladder like a hungry fire
Just let myself drop by drop to the ground
I'm trusting in the black light roads
Where time just rolls in emptiness
Stronger than these wells of burnt water
Troubadors have passed this way
But they passed away, they lied like sunsets
Painted on but whispered so much softer
"Yeah, that burnt water..."
You walk on home alone if you want...
All songs ©2004 J. L. Lucas, BMI