The Tyranny Of Distance

Ted Leo & The Pharmacists The Tyranny Of Distance Lyrics
1.Biomusicology

Had we never come across the vastness of pavement
The barrenness of waves and the grayness of the sea
Never lost or ne'er been misguided
We'd have ne'er reached seas so shining

Or come from out of a hansom in Camden
To a bar in the basement while all the while it rained
Or come around to the friendliest of faces
Handsomest in ugly places

Or come from out of the tunnels we dig in
To see that tunneling's not living and working doesn't work
Or come to find that loving is labor
Labor's life and life's forever

Or come to see that keeping's not giving
You get what you've given, you get what you deserve
And in the midst of all of the action
Maybe only there found satisfaction

Chasing sea foam dreams around another dirty old town
Parallel run streams toward the gray ocean from the green ground
'Oed und leer, das meer, but look beneath the glassy surface
All the songs you hear, down there they have a purpose

All in all, we cannot stop singing
We cannot start sinking, we swim until it ends
They may kill and we may be parted
But we will ne'er be brokenhearted


2.Parallel Or Together?

We're caught in a landslide, the minutes come tumbling down
And into an hour's time, within which a day's worth of work
Must be planned out and pan out for every week to be worth
The weekends of downtime and months of an ennui that kills

And years of resentment
Of everyone's contentment and you
Can't justify it still

I tell you my reasons, you don't tell me your inside jokes
Until I've gone bitter on every word that you've spoken
And all of your kind words amounting to naught but a token
And all their inaction will tumble away with the days

And nights of together
As we're really not together at all
But parallel

Now I'm walking on downtown in a town that is not my home
And shopping for breakfast to be eaten all alone
And dreaming of houses, none of them that I own
But that's not my province, that's not for what I am known

So I gather around me all the little pieces of a song
And fit them where they belong

So go to your downtown and bring what you've brought back home
You never should worry, your hours will now be as long
As the days that you hurried and months when it all seemed wrong
In all of the action will tumble away with the years

And parallel evenings
And parallel tracks of our tears
And nights of together are where?

So I gather around me all the little pieces of a song
And fit them where they belong
And fit them where they belong
And fit them where they belong
And fit them where they belong
And fit them where they belong
And fit them where they belong
And fit them where they belong
And fit them where they belong
And fit them where they belong


3.Under The Hedge

Oh, I've been sometimes under your wall
Peeping at all where I'm not welcome
I've seen you one time stumble and fall
But I still love you, you see

I've been five times back to the well
Seeking to tell myself we're something
But you can't teach what you can't sell
And I'm not the only one, it seems

I still would say if you asked, it's built on bonding
But others will take it all and leave you wanting
I know you've done this before to them but here's where it ends
and where I stand
You can't hold onto yourself, for I have got your holy head in
my hands

And I've been long time out at your wall
Seeking to call you back from over
'Cause when you're up there, you seem so tall
But you're not the only one, you'll see

I still would say if you asked, it's built on bonding
But others will take it all and leave you wanting
I know you've done this before to them but here's where it ends
and where I stand
You say you can't hold yourself back, well I have got your
sainted head in my hands

And I've been sometimes under your hedge
I ran like a rabbit from the rifles
You had me two times out on the ledge
But I still love you, you see


4.Dial Up

Pack up what you own and you dial up who you can phone
And you save up all your pennies
And we hope, but oh, is there any?
And we wonder oh, how can he put you out tonight?

Go back in your mind twenty years in time
And we'll go walking through your garden
See the trees you planted in your yard then
All your work, it didn't seem so hard then, but it's hard
tonight

Five years further on, from the stage it looked like we'd won
But how many of those who heard you play
Have gone their insouciant ways?
And the streets run bloody to this day and to your house tonight

And we, still so touched, can we offer you that much?
More than those who you fought and who've left you with naught?
And who lied to you, they've lied to you
They've lied to you, lied to you, lied to you, lied to you, but
this you always knew

So pack up your bulls and smalls and we'll tack up your
paintings on our walls
And we'll write down all our songs then
And we'll right up all our wrongs then
And we'll tear up the streets a million strong then in your name
tonight


5.Timorous Me

Me and Johnny sitting in the green grass
I don't remember too much from that far back in the past
But man, oh man, was Jonathan a laugh
In those days

Apparently he was my very best friend
We spent warm summer days wishing they would never end
But I only know from photographs I look at
Every now and again

And J-J-Johnny
Ooh, all he left us was an apple tree
And ooh, where'd he go and ooh, why'd he leave?
Ooh, why do I grieve?

Now I don't ever see Jonathan no more
But my life rolls on just like it did before
And I only wonder what it is
That I even miss him for

Me and Timory holding hands
I was shaking hers 'cause she said she was a fan
There was an awkward pause and something that should have began
Just passed us by

But I watched her sing along with every word
In the prettiest voice that I never heard
And I still see her dancing, wearing my shirt
Right there

And t-t-timorous me
All Timory left me was a memory
And ooh, I was blind and ooh, now I find that
I can't see

Now me and Jodi spent a lot of our time
Just sitting in silence, driving late at night
Maybe even wondering what was on each others' mind
Sometimes

But I know she's like me so I let it ride
She's dwelling in the quiet space left behind
Where only peace can answer why, and you abide
The birds must fly


6.Stove By A Whale

Sailing on the sea, it's teal, your meal was alright
But not the captain's voice, it made me shake and squirm
Not in what you hear, but feel, surreally thrust between
What accents mean and what you think they should

And I'm not talking 'bout just being a mile up in the air
And I'm not talking down to people who are living there

But stateside at the quay, you fear the nearness of that
Auld familiar distance between everyone and you
The distance keeps us safe from waves of subcutaneous problems
That our governments and our accents and our parents have us
swimming in
Until all that sin has soaked us through and through
And through and through and through

And I'm not talking to the people who've been in jail
And I'm not talking 'bout just wanting to belong somewhere
And let's not talk about the color of your eyes or your hair
I'm talking 'bout, talking 'bout the color of the sea from way
up there


7.The Great Communicator

My own intent's not easy to see
I'm not the great communicator that I used to be, apparently
But I know what it means when I hear screams
And it's the sonics, not the phonics and it's all in the
delivery

Now I'm learning 'bout what lies underneath
So if you catch me speaking through my teeth
Oh, you gotta stop me now

I keep my ear to the street
And I keep on reading lips and looks as I'm looking for that
perfect beat
But I know it's all down to me
And if something's lost in the translation, I know I shouldn't
take it so personally

But your s's look like f's to me
We been ebonic since we been thirteen
How you like me now?

They get detached from what's been going on
They feed you crap you can't keep growing on
They give you stats that tell you nothing at all
'Bout who you want to be

But your s's look like f's to me
We been ebonic since we been thirteen
How you like me now?

They get detached from what's been going on
They feed you crap you can't keep growing on
They give you stats that tell you nothing at all
'Bout who you want to be

Who you wanna be?


8.Squeaky Fingers

Like it's a dream and there's a moon, and a tune
A shower in a motel room
And through the steam and in my ear, I can hear
Squeaky fingers on the mirror

Beyond the door, out in the lot, the night is hot
The kids are giving what they got
And is it me, or is it fey when I say
It reminds me of another day?

Out in the road, across the town, out and down
Where they disappear without a sound
Into the hole from whence they came, without a name
Giving and getting joy and pain

And into pants, then into boots and business suits
To fill them out while they commute
Or to remain in tricked-out cars and country bars
County fairs and church bazaars, stay hard!

Like it's a dream in motion slow and they all know
I hear them come and watch them go
And as the steam begins to clear, I face the mirror
The evidence has disappeared

Into the hole from whence it came, still unnamed
Like tomorrow's town is just the same
Into the hole from whence I came, still unnamed
Like tomorrow's town is just the same, unnamed


9.My Vien ILin

And when I was seventeen
I made myself a DMZ
But they continued bombing me
Hot and steadily

They divided me at seventeen
I declared myself a DMZ
But they continue bombing me
Incessantly

Dig in Vien Ilin, dig in today
The Americans are on their way
American bombs away
Dig in today

We make our days as they make us
As I must, says Odysseus
Make myself my own Telemachus
'Bous Stephanos, Stephanoumenos Dedalus!'

And if it hasn't been a bust
Then land-ho, Ulysseus
And all of us like Dedalus
Dead, dead all of us

Between the dense red clay and the deep blue sea
What horrors rage internally
And what reactions, chemically
Through synapses so awfully

Conducting electricity
And converting less efficiently
What potential energy
For this life of endless tunneling?

So deep beneath the DMZ
Lightless of necessity
Their bombs are heard incessantly
Our days, they make us, clearly


10.The Gold Finch And The Red Oak Tree

As I did walk through cities one Saturday
A golden finch came winging my way
And sang to me a song of my country
And words of life from city and sea

Golden finch, your song is your love
And you will sing forever above
Golden finch, alight in your loft
Where I have learned and oh, you have taught

While she did wing through aerial places
A red oak tree grew under her feet
And when the world had started its taking
She lit amongst its loftier leaves

Golden finch, alight in your loft
You have learned and oh, you have taught
Red oak tree, will carry your loss
When you alone can't carry that cross


11.St. John The Divine

And when the world will stay the same
But your place in relation to it has changed
And when the word begins to lose
Its power to restore and soothe

And when the blackness starts its spread
From behind your tired head
What taxes now was once your wealth
What sucks and aches becomes your health

And when the night spreads into day
In one unbroken spread of gray
And when the darkness fills the space
Between the bone and skin of your face

And seeps between your skull and brain
As input filters through its stain
The tightness in your brow contains
What poisoned yesterday but now sustains

And when the night begins its flow
And you watch yourself give up control
When what was cold now keeps you warm
And you watch your outer self transform

And the one you love
Keeps the faith that you can rise above
But if you've kept faith with yourself
You might admit that you could use some help

Remove yourself and study close
When next the dark begins its flow
If clinical the problem be
Remove yourself and you will see

When next the blackness flow begins
I eat your pills, you eat my sins
And take me back to prouder days
But please don't take my anger away

And I don't pray
But I humble myself
I am on my knees today
I don't pray


12.You Could Die (Or This Might End)

Working it out again
And you're dreaming it out again
About you giving your all again
Until you feel like you could die or this might end

Taking it all again
And you're giving your all again
Until you run yourself dry again
And you feel like you could die or this might end