Stepping Off Lyrics

Spontaneous Etude #1

[my first song for guitar, I wrote this freshman year in high school in response to my crush on Anne.  Who is possibly a nun by now.   The recording actually uses clips from many recordings over the years, most residing solely on degrading cassettes]

I don't know what I wanna be
don't know what I'm gonna do
but I know that wherever I go
I hope I get to be with you

I don't know why the world turns 'round
don't know why the sky is blue
but every sunset when it turns orange and red instead
I know I wish that I were with you

There are times in my life when I don't know what happening to me
I get so confused that I flirt with catastrophe
and sometime I feel like there ain't no place I can go, I wanna
jump from the wagon, pull the chain and stop the show

chorus
Let me off, let me out, let me in, let me laugh, let me cry let me grin again
I sat in deep despair, all the while wishing you were there

Here's a story about a people, a planet and a plan
it turns out they got it wrong, they shan't get it wrong again
but after all my travels, and all that I've been through
wouldn't you know, wherever I go, this story's been there too

Let me off... Wishing, wishing you were there

But the wind still blows and the stars still rise and the moon about here phases goes
the valleys whisper and the mountains echo

Well I'm an educated man, I know enough to know
that no matter how much you learn, there's that much more to go
then suddenly she looks my way, looks me in the eye
looks at me and knows my name, do I detect a smile?

Let me off... I never once noticed you were there. 

Status Quo Antebellum

music and lyrics by Matt

 [another high school creation, from the dark, dank, dour place that was my teenaged mind. The title refers to futility of fight.  You heard me.  This recording is actually just me, all alone, nary another band member to help shake the intolerable loneliness....]

It was a cold and rainy December and the sky was dark and grey
and if I rightly remember, it really was a hell of a day
a crowd of people were gathered together in a sad and mournful way
and if you listen past the rainy patter, you can hear them pray
let him rest ever more, in this peace so premature
and so skillfully procured by the inexhaustible and everlasting charms
of liquid courage

I read the lines one last time and I turned to the black iron gate
as they quoted ancient rhythmic rhymes to send him from this place
I looked back one last time at that group of black satin and lace
and the tears of my mother for her only child ran sweetly down her face
but it's time to go, I can dwell here no more
when the morning sun assures of another day for the living
then I must be on my way

I walk the shores of my mind's emotion
and am lost forever to the wrath of that ocean
where the beasts of the sea could not withstand
the cruelty of these beasts called man
I climb a mountain to view a lake
which to my despair are both manmade
as we drain the earth into the sea
the prophets cry "nothing is free"
I'd love to see their faces when
they learn there really is no end
and cry and run through endless mazes
screaming "oh sweet Jesus sing our praises."

I wake up in my safe bed and I know that it's finally done
but endowed with the wisdom of the dead how can my life go on
then as if for the purpose of clearing my head enter these rays of sun
and from my shoulders drops this lead and I forget what's come and gone
and my life's the same, I've forgotten the pain, it was probably just the rain
and my incurable propensity to let the stuff get me down

 

Undiscovered Country

music and lyrics by Matt 

The kids are playing let them play
A few hurt feelings let me say
Now stop your fears, now dry your tears
You're just a child and laugh we may

And mock your melodrama still
Lest I remember how you feel
How dark the night, How harsh the day
How easy now to lose your way
How insignificant your will

You can stop now
You can drop out
Can you take it away?

So many ants, yet no one knows
WWI was based on nothing, so it goes
And yet our world is shaped by WWII, which WWI caused to ensue
How strangely serious life grows

The kids are playing let them play
But something's different here today
The child's tears become a stream
The child's cries become a scream
And can the world be as it seems?
He chose to sleep, perchance to dream!

The kids are playing let them play
A few hurt feelings let me say
Now stop your fears, now dry your tears
You're just a child and laugh we may

Song for Lisa - Last Dance

[these songs were actually written seperately but they go well together and bookend the subject matter.  The first is narrative of a true story. It's okay to be impressed by how incredibly romantic I am.  The second is a wake for the same relationship, borrowing heavily from Marc Cohen's Sometimes in Winter (if you can find this poem, it's incredible).  Although, had I been listening to Weezer that year, it would not have needed to be written.  Alas, I was dumb.]

Song for Lisa: music and lyrics by Matt

I lie awake awhile last night
and couldn't get to sleep
I guess you know you're under my skin
and you're in there pretty deep
I was fighting a losing battle
which I didn't even want to fight
so I opened up my window
and slipped out into the night

chorus
Hello, said the man in the moon, How are you?
won't you sing me a tune?
so Hello, I sang to the man in the moon, Hello
how's this for a tune?

I walked down the darkened street
listening to the sounds of the night
the air never smelled so sweet
and I knew that I was alright
I walked all the trails to your house
though I don't remember one mile
but I remember how the stars they'd dance
and the moon laughing all the while

chorus

I climbed up to your window
merely to say goodnight
I figured, hey, since I've come all this way
I may as well do it right
You looked like a goddess, standing there
though I know I must have given you a fright
but your forgave me right away
and you let me hold you tight
I can remember standing there
praying that I would not awake
hoping that this was more than a dream
hoping it was not a mistake
your kisses were as sweet as anything
and your eyes ever like a poem
and you know you needn't worry about me
because I flew all the way home

chorus

Last Dance: music by Matt, lyrics Marc Cohen, some annoying talkshow guys and a rambling radiovangelisist, reproduced entirely without permission.  Marc, if you want a profit share, it's yours.

The cornball notion that nothing is right and nothing is wrong, You look around and everything is kind of a warm fuzzy gray, well and that's not how it goes...well maybe it's fuzzy and gray, but...like that yogurt in the fridge...but the point I'm making is they want to let the bad guys get away with all that, excuse me but, bull, and it is, and then... what is? they just want to appease the hell out of everybody... Sometimes in winter, you want to protect all you hold dear, For now, summer is an impossible task: Sunday mornings continue to begin with Faure's requiem. Luckily the students will return on Monday...Remember what I was saying earlier, about the last words of Jesus on the cross? What he said was, you can't give up the ghost...Looking out the window and seeing a fresh coat of snow on the ground, Causes another rose to bloom.Everyone knows the bit about "my God, why have you forsaken me" but that's not all he said... You know and I know because we are believers, I believe...I was on a show a couple of weeks ago and a man was quoting, well purporting to quote... Sometimes you've gotta fight, rolling over and all that namby pamby crap is not how we made the world's greatest country...They believed, they fought... the soldiers... right... that's the dream Like the soldier who refuses to believe that a soul can die. Or that you don't love him....well, and I knew what he said. He did call out, but one passage remained that we forget he said"Into your hands I commend my spirit...The one who remains beautiful, unexplained. Let us pray...