Poison Years

Bob Mould Poison Years Lyrics
1.All Those People Know


2.Black Sheets Of Rain

Checking in every morning
To the sound of steam and caffeine
The sludge in the bottom of the cup
Just like the sludge in the stream
Slag heap keep growing higher
Every morning the sky, it's on fire
And it's only 9 am again

Is there an upside to every downside?
Keep it inside, it's a downward slide of broken glass
Keeps building in piles

And i don't know
I don't know if the sun ever smiles

It's the black sheets of rain
Following me again
Everywhere i go
Everywhere i've been
Following me again

I feel the toxins fill my blood stream as i'm walking through
the parking lot
Over and over and over and over and over and over
The clouds hanging over
Choking the life out of me
The motto seems to be
'we work in order to be free'

It's the black sheets of rain
Following me again
Everywhere i go
Everywhere i've been
Following me again

Over and over and over and over and over and over again

Where were you in my hour of need
(i never see the sun stop shining)
The clouds roll over the sunlight
(someone stopped the sun from shining)
And i stand here, ready to bleed
(i never see the sun stop shining)
A little rain is all we need
(someone stopped the sun from shining)
Where will you be in my darkest hour of need?
(i never see the sun stop shining)
Where will you be in my darkest hour of need?
(someone stopped the sun)
Here it comes again


3.Brasilia Crossed With Trenton

I walk through the day
Through the open fields
I walk to my truck
To my truck and drive away
To the road
Through the broken roads, trusty road
I was headed for the road
The road that runs that way

And i, i see the train
The trains don't run to brasilia
I walked through the fields
Through the fields to brasilia
My ticket stub says i'm going
I'm going to trenton

When my friends stop by
I try to impress them, no buildings over two stories high
Except my house, oh my my, i see
See crossed lattice work made out of brick
I see buildings
With laundry hanging out of the window
Never in my wildest dreams would i think i'd see
Brasilia crossed with trenton

When you live in the middle of nowhere
Your imagination runs away and wild
You make games, i make games that i play most once a day
I pretend brasilia turned to trenton
Brasilia crossed with trenton

Department store
The only place that i buy clothes anymore
I used to be a big shopper 'round the world
Big credit cards, they don't matter anymore
'cause i can't pay any money that i owe
To these cards anymore
They don't take these things down at the bank
They just take money

Imagine yourself in the middle of nowhere
Imagination runs away for a while
I play games about once a day or so
I don't know, that's where i'd rather go
Brasilia crossed with trenton

I wish that i could tell my story
To all the people that listened to my story long ago
I knew that this would happen sooner or later
That i'd get disillusioned with it all
Just throw my hands up to the sky and say
Oh lord, what happened, what happened
To make things run this way

Imagine yourself in the middle of nowhere
Your imagination runs away for a while
You learn to play games about once every day or so
I walked to brasilia crossed with trenton
Brasilia crossed with trenton


4.Compositions For The Young And Old

Found a book of interest the other day
Compositions for the young and old to sing
Poems written many years ago
They told of family and hope and other things
Put together in the old days
When fifteen cents, it was a buck
That's when five would get you ten
Before it took you eight just to get you one
Some people, they don't care when they're down on their luck

Cheap thrills are awful hard to find these days
No one is amused for free
Someone's pulling on your mama's apron strings
You'd better run and see who it is

Playing cards with your neighbors on the back porch
Singing with an old beat-up guitar
Going to the local swimming hole
Until they closed it down, now there's nowhere to go

Things used to be so simple, long time ago
Now everything is so expensive and complicated
I hear you need a license for just about anything

Used to be that a handshake was a man's word
Now we settle arguments in court
No one trusts anyone's intentions anymore

Rummaging through the attic when i'm home
It brings back those memories to me
I'd amuse myself when i was small
When i was younger, the simplest things would do
Now i'm on everybody's mailing list
For things i can't afford to buy
I hear the weatherman
He says 'it looks like rain for a while'
I guess i'll have to stay inside
Make peanut butter sandwiches and cry


5.Hanging Tree

Another exit on the freeway
Another bridge i cannot bear to cross alone
And i've been on the mend
I've been getting ready to change my name again

And once i had a love so fair
Once i had a reason to keep on
Left a paragraph taped up on my door
It said 'don't wait up 'cause i ain't comin' home'

So i've been driving far and wide to find my call in life
Been looking for a place where i belong
I guess a little pain never killed anyone
I guess i feel that way again

I can't come clean, i cannot stay
Got no reason to explain
I've been here too long, i need a change
And i hope you'll understand

Stained glass window never gonna carry my name
Been laid to rest in a field of sticks and stones
And above my head all that's left are footsteps
Of some kid too young too far away from home

So don't send me invitations to your big parade
Place of residence unknown
In my eyes there is no compromise
There is no calm before the storm

These things happen all the time
Should i throw myself from the hanging tree?
Is there a place for those of us who don't belong?
I haven't found it yet


6.If You're True(Live)


7.It's Too Late

Lately i've been thinking
And how the whole world's come undone
Everybody's got this sinking feeling
Feeling they're on the run
But i know a place where time stands still
I can picture it in my mind
But i'm not sure if we can get there

(there is no reason reasons rhyme
Why can't you see we're almost out of time)

It's too late it's too late it's too late
To cover what you've done
It's too late it's too late it's too late
To call for anyone at all
Well i guess i should be so brave to think that i'm the only one
who knows
It's too late it's too late it's too late
To cover what you've done

Oh no we need a change (this world's stranger now)
Now is not the time to run away (there must be a way)
A way that we could listen to the warning signs so pay attention
This is my intention to prevent this fate before it gets too
late

And as the hands of the clock go round and round
And the world keeps marching on
Can you afford to let it fall now?

(the fish in all the streams are dying
Fluorocarbons fill the sky
And i don't really want to die before my time has come)

It's too late it's too late it's too late
To cover what you've done
It's too late it's too late it's too late
To call for anyone at all
Well i guess i should be so brave to think that i'm the only one
who knows
It's too late it's too late it's too late it's too late
Now now
It's too late

(lately i've been thinking
Haven't had that sinking feeling now)


8.Out Of Your Life

If you want me out of your life
Now all you gotta do is tell me
I ain't got a life of my own
And the one i got with you could kill me
You've been taking some time, does it weigh on your mind?
If you think you've got an answer tell me, i don't know
But if you want me out of your life
Now all you gotta do is tell me

If you want me out of the way
Now all you gotta say is something
And do you think you'll tell me today?
Well it seems i'm waiting here for nothing
You still call me your friend, yeah i think you're pretending
If you keep on ignoring me then i will go
But if you want me out of your life
Now all you gotta do is tell me

When all this confusion goes, what else could there be
But this feeling i knew that turned out to be true
When i saw you walking out you turned your back on me

If you want me out of your life
Now all you gotta do is tell me
I ain't got a life all alone
And the one i had with you near killed me
Now it's time to catch up on the ones i forgot
It took losing you to find the things that i still got
But if you want me out of your life
Now all you gotta do is tell me
Tell me
Tell me now, and i will get out of your life


9.Poison Years

Poison thoughts in my mind
Got to free myself from this bind
I know i'm a reasoning guy

In an act like jesus christ
Stare into the sun
You don't see eye to eye with anyone

I throw it all away (don't talk to me no more)
The more i think, the less i've got to say (i don't remember you
no more)
About these poison years:it's just a memory

And every time you knock me down
It's all that i can do to get up off the ground
Pull myself apart again

At the end of this rope
Rope at the end of the line
I see you swing by your neck on a vine

Treason is the reason for my poison years
Leaves are changing seasons of my poison years

Poison years in my mind
Got to free myself from this bind
I know i'm a reasoning guy

Every time you knock me down
It's all that i can do to get up
To get up off the ground


10.Sacrifice/let There Be Peace

If i ride on the rails
I shall ride them alone
And if i need all this pain
I will find it alone
If i'm wanted for leaving
I will leave here alone
And if i can't resist this
Then i am unfit to go on

A simple solution is all i require
If fire is the passion i only aspire to be free
Let me be free

If the strain on your conscience gets under your skin
And leads you to making a sacrifice
Sacrifice me
Let there be peace

To the grave from the cradle
We don't rock anymore
Now i stand here with both feet
Planted firm on the floor
And if you're planning a future
Of indefinite grace
You'd better start removing
The lines of deceit from your face

A simple conclusion is all i require
If fire is the passion i only aspire to be free
Let me be free

And all of the hypocrites lie through their teeth
Talk about making a sacrifice
Sacrifice me
Let there be peace

How much longer can all this go on?
How many more choices can one person have?

And all of the questions with no proper answers
Continue continue
Have to go on have to go on have to go on
Should i bend down and worship the ground
Of the beautiful people who live without flaws?
Success is a virtue to share with the world
But failure's a lesson that's best learned alone
Respect is a virtue that strong men command
But when words become weapons
There'll be peace in the valley of death when i rise
Peace in the valley of death when i rise


11.See A Little Light

Listen, there's music in the air
I heard your voice, coming from somewhere
But look how much we've grown
I guess i should have known

As the years go by, they take their toll on you
Think of all the things we wanted to do
And all the words we said yesterday
That's a long time ago
You didn't think i'd really go, now
Are you waiting? (i know why)
You're already saying goodbye
Are you ready? (i know why)

I see a little light, i know you will
I can see it in your eyes, i know you still care
But if you want me to go
You should just say so


12.Shoot Out The Lights(Live)


13.Stop Your Crying

A moment sits suspended in time what i a time i had with you
Living in your fantasy world, well there ain't much of a view
I rarely stepped outside of myself, always caught up in between
Some place i thought was good for my health and the place i've
always been
So let me tell you now

Oh, you better stop your crying
'cause you're feeling so damn happy
You try to make me feel like dying
Oh, you better stop your crying
'cause the tears that are running down your face
They don't make me feel like dying

I guess i never wanted to crash in the wave of your emotion
I walked away from all of the trash looking for a perfect ocean
But lately i've been finding myself fighting upward int he
stream
And who could tell that i'm living in hell? lord, i must be
dreaming

Oh, you better stop your crying
'cause i don't listen to you anymore even when you know you're
lying
Oh, i see the story on your face
Stop your crying, 'cause you can't make me feel like dying

So now the party's come to and end and to end a perfect time
I send you love and all of the best, and all the rest is mine
And i'd rather sit and talk to myself after all is said and done
What happens next, hey no one can tell, and i ain't tellin' no
one

Oh, you better stop your crying
'cause the tears that are running down your face
They don't make me feel like dying
Oh, you better stop your crying
You ain't even trying, you better stop your crying


14.Wishing Well

Wishing well runs wet and dry
I wish for things i never had
Surrounds and wells up in my eyes
The screaming voice, it lies
Wishing well gets someone's attention
Every wish you ever had
In a day of nights, in the darkest of light
Sits and cries, watch the lies

Could you give me a wish if i tell you what i want?
Will the price be no object?
I wish for dreams of light
I live for wishing well surprise

Deepest light, the secret lies
Wishing well gives you all that you desire
Homes and trains, and the greenest of plains
That you ever happened upon
The silent wish, it calls you out
Calls you out by name
Lays upon the plain, on the mountain high
City lights, wish delights

What if the waters and wishes appear?
Will the price be no object?
I wish for dreams of light
I live for wishing well surprise

Twist and shape on the winding twine
Around the spindle winds
Wish again, four times again
Four wishes deep into the well

There's a price to pay for a wish to come true
Trade a small piece of your life
Roots in the soil, uprooting the soil
Mountain high, the mountain high
The wish is only to speak a kind
Kind of word, so benign absurd
The well, three wishes run dry
Wishing well is dry
When no grass grows, the weeds run in line
Wish three wishes, three wishes run dry