Sketches For My Sweetheart The Drunk :: May 26, 1998
Jeff Buckley and Columbia Records
Album Information | Lyrics | Tracks | Cover Art | Discography

Lyrics

The Sky Is A Landfill | Everybody Here Wants You | Opened Once | Nightmares By The Sea | Yard of Blonde Girls
Witches' Rave | New Year's Prayer | Morning Theft | Vancouver | You and I | Haven't You Heard
I Know We Could Be So Happy Baby | Murder Suicide Meteor Slave | Back in NYC | Gunshot glitter
Demon John | Your Flesh Is So Nice | Jewel Box | Satisfied mind


The Sky Is A Landfill (J. Buckley / M. Tighe)

Circle around the park
Joining hands in silence
Watch the evil black the sky

The storm has ripped the shelter
Of illusion from our brow
This power is no mystery to us now.

Leave your spirit genocide
The cancer you won’t remove
We cast our funeral rose inside
And bury the need to prove
Our mutilation is to gain from the system

Ooh, turn your head away
From the screen, oh people
It will tell you nothing more
Don’t suck the milk of flaccid Bill K.
Public’s empty promise
To the people that the public can ignore

This way of life is so devised
To snuff out the mind that moves
Moving with grace the men despise
And women have learned to lose

Throw off your shame or be
a slave to the system

I see you take another drag
One more lost soul to raise your flag
The sky is a landfill
I see you take another drag
Let’s see you take another drag

You like to dance to the rolling
Head of the adulteress
You sing in praise of suicide
We know you’re useless
Like cops at the scene of the crime

With your steroids and your feedbag
And your stable and your trainer
I got a mail bomb for you Mister Strong Arm.

Throw out the stones from all the cemetery homes
For the violence of a nation gone by

Or the politics of weakness
And the garbage dump of souls
That will now black the sky

Their yellow haze and crowds of eyes
Will plug up the mind that moves
Moving with grace the men despise
And women have learned to lose
We’ll share our bodies
In disdain for the system

Oh, I see you take another drag
One nation bends to kiss the hag
The sky is a landfill
I see you take another drag
I see you take another drag
I have no fear of this machine!


Everybody Here Wants You (J. Buckley)

Twenty-nine pearls in your kiss
A singing smile
Coffee smell and lilac skin
Your flame in me

Twenty-nine pearls in your kiss
A singing smile
Coffee smell and lilac skin
Your flame in me

I’m only here for this moment

I know everybody here wants you
I know everybody here thinks he needs you
I’ll be waiting right here just to show you
How our love will blow it all away

Hmm, such a thing of wonder in this crowd
I’m a stranger in this town
You’re free with me
And our eyes locked in downcast love
I sit here proud
Even now you’re undressed in your dreams with me

Oh, I’m only here for this moment

I know everybody here wants you
I know everybody here thinks he needs you
I’ll be waiting right here just to show you
How our love will blow it all away

I know the tears we cried
Have dried on yesterday
The sea of fools has parted for us
There’s nothing in our way
My love

Don’t you see, don’t you see?
You’re just the torch to put the flame to all our guilt and shame
And I’ll rise like an ember in your name

I know I, I know I
I know everybody here wants you
I know everybody here thinks he needs you
I’ll be waiting right here just to show you
Oh let me show you
That love can rise, rise just like embers

Love can taste like the wine of the ages, oh babe,
And I know they all looks so good from a distance
But I tell you I’m the one

I know everybody here, well, thinks he needs you
Think he needs you
And I’ll be waiting right here just to show you.



Opened Once (J. Buckley)

I once was open
And one with a travelling heart
I loved this sweet guy

Just like the fiction
Rushing in your riverbed
Arise like applause in my head

And in the half-light
Where we both stand
This is the half-light
See me as I am

Just like the ocean
Always in love with the moon
It’s overflowing now
Inside you

We fly right over
The minds of so many in pain
We are the smile of light that brings them rain

In the half light
Where we both stand
In the half light
You saw me as I am

I am a railroad track abandoned
With the sunset
Forgetting
I ever happened
That I ever happened.


Nightmares By The Sea (J. Buckley)

Beware the bottled thoughts of angry young men
Secret compartments hide all of the skeletons
Little girl wants to make her home with him
In the middle of the shore, she wonders

“Don’t know what you asked for.”
“Don’t know what you asked for.”

All young lovers know why
Nightmares blind their mind’s eye
Your rube is young and handsome
So new to your bedroom floor
You know damn well where you’ll go

I’ve loved so many times and I’ve drowned them all
From their coral graves, they rise up when darkness falls
With their bones they’ll scratch the window, I hear them call

“Don’t know what you asked for.”
“Don’t know what you asked for.”
“Don’t know what you asked for.”

All young lovers know why
Nightmares blind their mind’s eye
Your rube is young and handsome
So new to your bedroom floor
You know damn well where you’ll go

Stay with me under these waves, tonight
Be free for once in your life tonight

Your rube is young and handsome
So new to your bedroom floor
You know damn well where you’ll go

All young lovers know why
Nightmares blind their mind’s eye
Your rube is young and handsome
So new to your bedroom floor
You know damn well where you’ll go

All young lovers know why
Nightmares blind their mind’s eye
Your rube is young and handsome
So new to your bedroom floor
You know damn well where you’ll go.


Yard of Blonde Girls (Audrey Clark, Lori Kramer, Inger Lorre)

Through the yard
Through the yard of blonde girls
Through the river and the sea
Gold sharks glittering
A tree of white
Breaks the earth
The streets where Lola played

Very sexy, very sexy, okay, okay

Fear, we may come X4
So run, run, run, run, run, run, run.

It’s in your heart
It’s in your art, your beauty
Even in this world of lies
There’s purity
You’ve got innocence
In your eyes
Even in this world of lies

You’re still hopeful
Very sexy, okay, okay

Fear, we may come X4
So run, run, run, run, run, run, run

Through the yard
Through the yard of blonde girls
Through the river and the sea
Gold sharks glittering
A tree of white
Breaks the earth
The streets where Lola played

Very sexy, very sexy, okay, okay

Fear, we may come X4
So run, run, run, run, run, run, run.


Witche's Rave (Audrey Clark, Lori Kramer, Inger Lorre)

It sounds just like a scream
I don’t know what you mean
Your witchcraft’s all around me
In your ragged pagan scene

You tell me all the ways around my garden that you like
I float just like a bubble
Heading for a spike

All is well between the breasts of passenger and slave
We’ll never make it out alive to join
The witches’ rave

You’d like to see him suffer
For you fantasy and thrill
He fell sick while we made love
He’s out there, somewhere, still

Oh I feel the spell that you have cast, hot, pink, nasty
Bubble gum, coming down just like a big red coal

I can’t help from looking
Outside for a guarantee
I can’t help from looking
Outside for a guarantee

Hey! I try to keep all hidden
When you come around
Oh, no! The sight of broomsticks
Sliding on the ground
You’re levitating something
'Cause I feel so collectible

We’re all lying natural
He’s watching from a window up above
I see he loves you, I’ll bring you closer

Something in my fate says it’s not right for me
Tell me
Am I cursed or am I blessed?
I can't tell, oh yes!
'Cause all is well between the breasts of
Passenger and slave
I’ll never make it out alive to join
The witches’ rave

I can't help from looking
Outside for a guarantee
I can't help from looking
Outside for a guarantee
I can't help from looking
Outside for a guarantee
I can't help from looking
Outside for a guarantee
I can't help from looking
Outside for a guarantee
I can't help from looking
Outside for a guarantee
For a guarantee


New Year's Prayer (J. Buckley)

Oooooo, Fall in light, fall in light. Fall in light, fall in light
Feel no shame for what you are X5
As you now are in your blood
Fall in light

Feel no shame for what you are
Feel no shame for what you are
Feel it as a water fall
Fall in light, ooh
Fall in light, fall in light, Fall in light, ooh
Fall in light, fall in light, fall in light
Grow in light

Stand absolved behind your electric chair, dancing
Stand absolved behind your electric chair, dancing
Past the sound within the sound
Past the voice within the voice

Leave your office
Run past your funeral
Leave your home, car
Leave your pulpit
Join us in the streets where we
Join us in the streets where we
Don’t belong, don’t belong
You and the stars
Throwing light

Ooooooh
Fall, fall
Ooooooh
Fall in light, fall in light. fall in light
Oooooh
Fall in light, fall in light fall in light
Grow in light


Morning Theft (J. Buckley)

Time takes care of the wound
So I can believe
You had so much to give
You thought I couldn’t see

Gifts for boot heels to crush
Promises deceived
I had to send it away
To bring us back again

Your eyes and body brighten
Silent waters, deep
Your precious daughter in the
Other room, asleep

A kiss “Goodnight” from every
Stranger that I meet
I had to send it away
To bring us back again

Morning theft
Unpretender left
Ungraceful

True self is what
Brought you here, to me
A place where we can
Accept this love

Friendship battered down by
Useless history
Unexamined failure

But what am I still to you
Some thief who stole from you?
Or, some fool drama queen
Whose chances were few?

That brings us to who we need
A place where we can save
A heart that beats as
Both siphon and reservoir

You’re a woman, I’m a calf
You’re a window, I’m a knife
We come together
Making chance in the starlight

Meet me tomorrow night
Or any day you want
I have no right to wonder
Just how, or when

You know the meaning fits
There’s no relief in this
I miss my beautiful friend

I have to send it away
To bring her back again.


Vancouver (J. Buckley / M. Tighe / M. Grondahl)

Lady
All the troubles are my fright, I disgust you
Feel the power you cut the truth into you
Why do you think I’d hidden out on this rely
I could kiss you
With lines of escape in my mouth

Please let me bring back these gifts of mine to the woman
His eyes shined on my back as I slept and knew you
You didn’t leave it all
You made an even call
My belly released the stars
And tears between the scars. Ooooh

We're where we belong
It should end here
Until the end of time
Beyond the moment
That ends our bondage
I am your failed husband contender
I’m your loan shark of bliss.

This dream you’ve ridden on
Turns your world to explosions
You need to be alone
To heal this bleeding stone
Now, smell the rain of London it still insists
That we beg for our purity
As if we are pure in the rain of our contentment
As if I can think of this no more.


You And I (J. Buckley)

You and I
Ah, the calm below that poisoned the river wild
You and I
Tears that dry on a rude awakened child
Where you look down
I’ve walked before
Burning holes
With eyes of liquid brown
If we had only known
In a way
We wouldn’t reach this ground
You were my only home
Silver eyes
I want to see you shine
And we will feel the weight
Fall away from us in time
Searching our past for the true
You and I, you and I, you and I
All for you
Where you think you’ll fall
I adore you
Where you shut your soul
I will open for you
If we had only known
In a way
We’d never reach this ground
I'll know
Silver eyes
I can see us shine
I said, we will feel the weight
Fall away from us in time
Searching our past for a true
You and I, you and I, you and I
All for you.


Haven't You Heard (J. Buckley)

Your wish is my command!
Have you heard this talk about eye contact
Gonna be the downfall of this town
First the photographs take you to the right hands
Leads you to the authority mold

Paranoia will write the world prayer
Make sure that you fit in the right holes
But when you take his offer, you’re done for
Done for, done for, oooh....

Phantoms in pockets, we’re in panic
Making order in total disgust
Oh, they read a list of all who cannot stay
Take you down, on the ground

Paranoia will write this world prayer
Make sure that you fit in the right holes
But when you take his offer, you’re done for
Done for, oooh....

Make sure you learn to beware your neighbor
Bolt the doors and hire your guards
Suck your life with their virus called language
Someone told you this all would go down
And the last thing you see is the luster
Hold the razor, goodbye to your friends
Would your underground please call the mayor
Call the neighbor, call your friends

Paranoia will write the world prayer
Make sure that you fit in the right holes
But when you take his offer, you’re done for
Done for, done for, oooh....

Well, when he first saw you
You’d need no protection
Eyes trained on your mouth
You’ll learn to take him
Hmmm, It’s a brand new power, oh

My friends had her questions right
Beware your neighbor
Haven’t you heard, haven’t you heard
That we’re done for. Oh
Learn to beware your neighbor
And the right mode
Haven’t you heard?
Haven’t you heard
That we’re done for, done for ? Oh

When I count down from ten
You’ll feel the lead in your lids
You’ll have no need to exist
And wake up refreshed.


I Know We Could Be So Happy (J. Buckley)

There’s no easy answer
None to blame or forgive
Two cripples dancing
To the end we live

I’m not with you not of you
Not with you, not of you
You are soft and young to me
I am the ghost who comes and goes
And I hope I’ll catch you
In the throws of one last look at the wonder
One last look at the wonder

O, God, I love you
And all the past we once knew
Some other love becomes you
Whatever else we come to
I know we could be so happy, baby
If we wanted to be

You are soft and young to me
I am the ghost who comes and goes
I'm hoping that I’ll catch you in the throws
Of one last look at joy that we’ve become

But there’s no easy answer, none to blame or forgive
We were two cripples dancing
To the bitter end we live
I’m not with you, but of you
I’m not with you but of you

O, God, I loved you
And all the past we once knew
Some other love becomes you
Whatever else it comes to
I know we could be so happy, baby
If we wanted to be

We had a birthplace in common
We had separate beds and lives

I’ll just sit here and glow
Break out the oldest pictures
Hand your ruined letters out to dry
We had a birthplace in common
And separate beds and lives
And lives, and lives
I know that we could be so happy, baby
If we wanted to be
I know that we could be so happy, baby
Yeah oh.


Murder Suicide Meteor Slave (J. Buckley)

Would you like to meet the villain somewhere
Underneath the skull of a moon
Fire burned his eyes out 'cause his chains are too long for you

Someone has to pay for the damage done
No-one’s gonna love you now
Your whole family’s splintered
You’re a slave to it all now

Oooooh Ahhhhh Oh

You’re a slave to it all now
You’re a slave
Welcome down to paradise rock
There is no single entrance
With the stars to revolve around
There is no real underground

No stars to revolve around
Here, they’re fashioning the noose
Sickened by the knell of the graveyard bell
You know it’s not long for you
Sick of all the vomit childhood
Not a trampoline of the freaks
Not even a slave to your father

Oh, you’re a slave to it all, now
Oh, you’re a slave to it all, now
Welcome down to paradise rock
There is no single entrance
With the stars to revolve around
There is no real underground

There is not single entrance
There’s no stars to revolve around
There is no real underground
You’re a slave to it all, now.

Happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy.


Back In NYC (J. Buckley)

I see faces and traces of home
Back in New York City
So you think I'm a tough kid
Is that what you heard
Well I like to see some action
And it gets into my blood
Let me out of Pontiac
When I was just seventeen
I had to get it out of me
If you know what I mean, what I mean

You say I must be crazy
'Cos I don't care who I hit, who I hit
'Cause I know it's me that's hitting out
And I'm not full of shit
Down by my bottle
Filled up high with gasoline
You can tell by the night fires
Where Rael has been, has been

As I cuddled the porcupine
He said I had none to blame, but me
Held my heart, deep in hair
Time to shave, shave it off, it off
No time for romantic escape
When your fluffy heart is ready for rape. No!
No time for romantic escape
When your fluffy heart is ready for rape
Off we go, off we go, off we go

You're sitting in your comfort
You don't believe I'm real
You never buy protection
From the way that I feel

Your progressive hypocrites
Hand out their trash
It was mine in the first place
So I'll burn it to ash

And I've taken all the strongest meats
And laid them down in colored sheets
Laid them down in colored sheets

Who needs illusion
Of love and affection
When you're out walking in the streets
With your mainline connection, connection.

As I cuddle the porcupine
He said I had none to blame, but me.
Held my heart, deep in hair.
Time to shave, shave it off, it off.
No time for romantic escape,
When your fluffy heart is ready for rape. No!
No time for romantic escape,
When your fluffy heart is ready for rape. No!
No time for romantic escape,
When your fluffy heart is ready for rape.
No time
Back in New York City.


Gunshot Glitter (J. Buckley)

Don't you wanna let go of your heart
Or you resist the beds of bliss
Fortune makes fools of us all
My dear materialista, silence was insane,
The parting was mutual.
Don't you want the rocket to rock out? 
There's room for us both to fly.
Tell the man I'm never coming back again.
Tell the man I'm never coming back again.
Why should you notice at all?
Gone again beside you will fall
Down to the sea out of the skies
Of gold cards and casual tears
I have only come to see you shine
Feminine smiles the right side is wise, more than I.
I wanna be your lover,
Lipstick my name across your mirror.
Blood red with flaked gunshot glitter
And be one with all you disowned in your young life.
You paranoia politician diva.
You paranoia politician diva.

Will you let go of your heart,
Left behind a hypnotizing swirl
The semi's left behind.

Don't you want to rocket to rock?
There's room for both of us to fly
Same show everyday, don't have to blow up in the sky.
So I just came from Hicks town,
Left my coins behind
Maybe some poor cloths pony will himself a life
Why should you care if I crash your affair?
Why should you notice me? I really wanna see you shine.

I wanna be your lover,
Lipstick my name across your mirror.
Now, be one with all you disown,
True love has come to us all.
Blinded by the flame, right side smiles,
Organized male, love, my silence was insane.
The parting was mutual the moment I became
A paranoia politician
diva 
A paranoia politician diva
A paranoia politician diva
A paranoia politician diva
Diva, diva, diva


Demon John (J. Buckley)

Say farewell
G’night, Sonny-Jim
In your defenseless
Winning smile
What do you hope to win?
And bliss face down, defended

Well, now stoned Demon John
There’s no town the boy cannot belong
Why did you come here?
Is it to excavate all your sins?
Boil within?
Slaughter like the daughter of the devil you send me
I have to deal, you called me here

You couldn’t say that you were juiced
The night that you were introduced
To Demon John
Gonna take him with you when you go?
Dance down slow
Oh, way down

You cannot escape the bar-side angel dissector
You undo your life with too much cocoon
Who’s your protector?
Dark is the city where the white girls walk by
Down below your eyes, just like fireflies
You call me here, come on here, follow me dear
Past cascades of rage and fear
You called me here

You couldn’t say that you had been juiced
The time that you were introduced
To Demon John
Well, you knew you had to want to go
Dance down slow
By the light of the sun
Murder comes
Today or tonight
Better get yourself together
And transcend it, a burst of light
Blaze stars into me
While the love breaks through here and now
So, murder by the light of the sun

Please, don’t get too close to me
You said you are for real, it’s not pretend
All memories stolen, know this for yourself
How would you like to be the happiest man in the world?
Behind the weathered field hands
Whose blistered paws Harvest cut
For wedding clothes they’ll never wear
Marching down a road that was never there
It takes place on a sunlit lace and the backbone broken
Please bring us light
Demon John
You Demon John
Take him with you
When you go.


Your Flesh Is So Nice (J. Buckley)

I want to tell you a story
About a little cutey
She's ass-slappin' pretty
And voluptuous fingers
Wanna let her lick me
Stick the thick of my pussy
And as I cross the street
She looks good enough to eat me

Kitty!
Your flesh is so
Your flesh is nice
Your flesh is nice
Let me take a bite
Flesh is so nice

Oh, I take off my belt
Oh, I whip the staircase
Whip the staircase
Oh, kill all the men
Everything's dead to them
You're the only one I follow
Come on and let me give you that "O"

Flesh is nice
Your flesh is so
I wanna take you twice
Your flesh is nice
Your flesh is so
Your flesh is nice

Your flesh is nice
Wanna take a bite
Your flesh is so (x13)
Your flesh is so nice (x9)
Your flesh is so (x3)
Your flesh is nice
Your flesh is so
Your flesh is nice
Your flesh is so
Your flesh is nice (x4)


Jewel Box (J. Buckley)

I know you’re a woman
By the way you burn below
I’ll tell you secrets so good
You’ll never tell a soul
Come closer, that bonfire holds his life like stones
My years, my life unknown

Diamonds from the pavement
Where a broken glass had been
Just like these troubles that I’m leaving to the wind
Like sapphires in boxcars speeding towards the end
Like thieves, my bad luck grows

Jewel box of sadness
Bring to catch your tear
Crystalize illusion shine forgot I’m here
Jewel box of sadness
Bring to catch your tear
Oh, you left some stars in my belly

Star crossed child’s love on the bands of wedding gold
Silver studs of promise hide in the red crushed velvet folds
Inaction, intention, like emeralds I stole
My speech of custom gold
I think I ought to know

Jewel box of sadness
Bring to catch your tears
Crystalize illusion shine, forgot I’m here
Jewel box of sadness
Bring to catch your tear
Oh, you left some stars in my belly
You left some stars in my belly
You left some star in my belly.


Satisfied Mind (D. Houston)

How many times have you heard someone say
If I had money, I will do things my way
But little they know, that it's so hard to find
One rich man in ten with a satisfied mind

Money can't buy back all your youth when you're old
A friend when you're lonely, oh peace to your soul
The wealthiest person is a pauper at times
Compared to the man with a satisfied mind

My life is over and my time has run out
My friends and my loved ones
I will leave them no doubt
But one things for certain
When it comes my time
I'll leave this old world, oh yeah oh yeah, with a satisfied mind
One things for certain, when it comes my time, oh yeah,
I'll leave this old world, oh with a satisfied mind
Mind mind mind mind, satisfied mind