Earth Pressed Flat

10000 Maniacs Earth Pressed Flat Lyrics
1.Beyond The Blue


I was thinking today
If you would remember
You'd choose to remember
What you left me out there in the cold

Days fading away
I see you so near
I hear your voice calling
It calls me from these pages to you

Beyond the blue
So sudden too soon
Secrets we knew

And i was thinking today
If you would surrender
You'd choose to surrender
To feelings that you tried deserting

And if given the choice
I'd still wait for the moment
Still wait for the moment
When i could have a hero like you

Beyond the blue
So sudden too soon
Secrets we knew

Days are fading away
But i see you clear
I hear your voice calling
It calls me from these pages to you

Beyond the blue
So sudden too soon
Secrets we knew


2.Cabaret

Music:10,000 maniacs
lyrics:mary ramsey

Shards of glass cut through my gaze
Broken streamers hanging at my legs
Drunk and giddy full of fate
At the cabaret
Smokey stares from the bar
Do stray bottles tumble
I feel the misty spray
What a perfect, perfect day for the cabaret
From afar he sees
Venus rise overwhelmingly beautiful
He sighs the look of love was in her eyes
Puts his hand upon her leg
Looking closer his lust begins to fade
What a drag the queen did say.
Could this be a dream i'm in? ( fellini would be proud )
Gluttony enfolds the scene
Give them one last round ,
Shining faces dance away
Swinging skirts between the panted legs
Kaleidescoping
Then shassez in a blink the glasses fly
Suddenly joy becomes a fight
There they tossed and turned a sight.


3.Earth Pressed Flat

Detroit, l.a.,boston, san francisco,
First time over the ocean on a plane
A billion stars below me lay,
Circle slowly jfk,
So much there to see inside of a week
They came looking for something new
Try to press it flat inside of a few days
Old dominion saturday, arlington's eternal flame
Sunday tour niagara falls in the mist.
Monday i'll be heading south
New orleans the cajun sound
Tuesday's tupelo elvis's home . . .
Try to press it flat inside of a few days
What a wonderful stay,
On a mule grand canyon ride on wednesday,
Hope to get to denver in a day friday
Ride to washington, in the glacial mountain sun
Hop a train for canada to the east
They came looking for something new
Try to press it flat inside of a few days
What a wonderful stay.


4.Ellen

Music:10,000 maniacs
lyrics:mary ramsey

Eager to please was just the way that he was
Though his attempts there falling short,
Expectation
See he would tell of all his conquests,
Was he bragging?
But in the evening all alone
Ellen unplanned delays
Saving for someone who really cared about you
Invincible they say
Married to your name
She was the kind between a child and a lady,
Quick was her temper
Like a blaze from an ember
No one had measured to her standard,
So in the evening all alone all alone
How do i tell them to open their minds
And to take a chance
Maybe on finding life's treasure stubborn they stay set
In their ways really not wanting to be lonely not alone.


5.Glow

Music:10,000 maniacs
lyrics:mary ramsey

In the coolness of the morning
Sparing moments here in magical tide
I would meet you without question
To share a starry gaze a look through the sky
From the start
There was this kind of glow
The start when it's right
You'll know,
Fascinating love's a secret
An ancient riddle with no reason or rhyme
Unpredictable the muses they play
Never knowing whether teasing or shy.


6.In The Quiet Morning

Lyrics/music - mimi fariña
In the quiet morning
There was much despair
And in the hours that followed
No one could repair

That poor girl
Tossed by the tides of misfortune
Barely here to tell her tale
Rolled in on a sea of disaster
Rolled out on a mainline rail
She once walked tight by my side
I'm sure she walked by you
Her striding steps could not deny
Torment from a child who knew

That in the quiet morning
There would be despair
And in the hour that followed
No one could repair

That poor girl
She cried out her song so loud
It was heard the whole world round
[ a symphony of violence
The great southwest unbound ]
In the quiet morning
There was much despair
And in the hour that followed
No one could repair

That poor girl
Tossed by the tides of misfortune
Barely here to tell her tale
Rolled in on a sea of disaster
Rolled out on a mainline rail


7.Once A City

Music:10,000 maniacs
lyrics:mary ramsey & john lombardo

This was once a city
Harmony a common theme
But these complications
Now make life a bit uneasy
Hallowed buildings scrape the sky
Voices ride the airwaves
Once a city years gone by
Will they still be standing in thecenturies ahead
Going underground little children hiding,
Bullets never meant for them
Must there be such bloodshed in our hearts, our homes, ourheads?
Will i be walking, walking so free?
This was a city once
This was once a city
Harmony a common theme but these complications
Once a city, once a dream.


8.On & On(Mersey Tune)

Music:10,000 maniacs
lyrics:mary ramsey

Out through the foggy window there
Just to see the eyes of my future children
Looking back at me
Back through the foggy window
On and on
Miles pass years turn over
On and on
There from that rolled down window
Ponies run free cradled protectively
There in the greenery somewhere
I keep this picture
On and on
Miles pass years turn over
On and on
For all the roads we've travelled
And all the bridges burned
I was thinking out loud the ways of the world
That all seem so constant
How few of the lessons we really have learned.
Out through the foggy window frozen in frame
Capturing passing pictures life's lastrefrain,
Memories ashes scatter
On and on
Miles pass years turn over
On and on.


9.Smallest Step

Music:10,000 maniacs
lyrics:mary ramsey & john lombardo

When the day ends
And church bells are ringing
When the valley is shroudedin snow,
When you're feeling that hope somewhere vanished
And there's no poetry left to console you,
With the smallest step you'll find a way
Oh of fate borne and life is a jewel
But stone will tarnish as dust will descend
Take a minute and wipe free the lustre,
It'll mirror a day without end
With the smallest step you'll feel
It starts a journey your way.
Oh they tried to tell me
But i'll learn for myself
And when they tried to tell me
You know the words disappeared on the wind
I was running away
And when the laughter echoes through you
In a pale beaming ray and you'll know always
And ever within you anyway.


10.Somebody's Heaven

Music:10,000 maniacs
lyrics:mary ramsey

There like a feather you fell someone's heaven above me
Floating so fickle tempting me teasing my ways
Thrown from its clutches i struggle to free what escapes me
Absalom hanging like you i'm caught in between
Heaven then earth then heaven between you
Release me untangle my hair
Absalom hanging like you i'm caught in between
Heaven then earth heaven between you
Patient i wait as i hold a small feather
That floated from somebody's heaven.


11.Time Turns

Music:10,000 maniacs
lyrics:mary ramsey & john lombardo

I saw time turn
So much there to unlearn,
You were envy you wouldn't say
You tore heart strings that sorry day
Dark light hid the tears one
For each of the years
Love has reasons
Reason never knows
Time turns over
Love overflows
I should have spoken
Sooner on that sorry day
Your arms are open
And i wondered why
Wondered why
Five years passed to the day
Time heals some people
Say when you hurt the ones
I love you're also hurting
Me and time turns over
Turning you from me
I thought you'd never reach me
On that sorry day
Your arms were open wide
And i wondered why


12.Who Knows Where The Time Goes

Across the evening sky, all the birds are leaving
But how can they know it's time for them to go?
Before the winter fire, i will still be dreaming
I have no thought of time

For who knows where the time goes?
Who knows where the time goes?

Sad, deserted shore, your fickle friends are leaving
Ah, but then you know it's time for them to go
But i will still be here, i have no thought of leaving
I do not count the time

For who knows where the time goes?
Who knows where the time goes?

And i am not alone while my love is near me
I know it will be so until it's time to go
So come the storms of winter and then the birds in spring again
I have no fear of time

For who knows how my love grows?
And who knows where the time goes?

(copyright © 1967 sonet music)