UPWARD MOMENTUM

His back to the door with house red and pulsating aura
Humming in bronze frequencies that say, “I was made for ya...”
Held in the light where his smile shone it

Read the brochure and you sure like the package he’s sellin’
Bar full of smoke and nachos and he’s citrus and mellon
Don’t have to take my word for it
Don’t have to take my word for it

Woke up in a cheap motel

Well-tailored trousers show promise of upward momentum
Such a relief to be part of the team not resent them
You can’t believe you get paid for it
You can’t believe you get paid for it

Woke up in a cheap motel

Multinational monsieur
Your smile is all the rage
Marketing down on one knee
For such a loving living wage

Woke up alone hung over and needing a cold shower
Worked up and laid off in one casual stroke of power
That corner office had your name on it
That corner office had your name on it

Woke up in a cheap motel


ROBSON STREET PUNCHLINE

Somewhere before my eyes and yet out of my sight
Lives a greed of pornographic size
Bottom-fed and raised expecting to be praised
Every time it whips out its franchise

History is ending, nothing needing mending
Everyone is rich and feeling fine
Another yearly bonus, a better way to own us
Laughing at the joke with no punch line

Come out from your suburb and bring yourself downtown
And tell me that it makes some kind of sense
A lady draped in fur, a junkie next to her
Ignorance is black belt self-defense

Have a manifesto, drizzle it in pesto
Wash it down with vintage Cabernet
The system can’t be beaten if all the hope is eaten
And everybody loves a cheap buffet

Budget alchemy, pink slip tyranny
Cartoon villainy hates citizenry
Asking questions they can’t spin away

Well, I get up from my bed and get onto the bus
And elbow for my two square feet of space
And when I wonder why bother to even try
I see the same look there on every face

All driven like cattle, constantly at battle
Flaws like a crevasse in the design
Well, I could walk away from, shut up and just play dumb
Laughing at the joke with no punch line

History is ending, nothing needing mending
Everyone is rich and feeling fine
Another yearly bonus, a better way to own us
Laughing at the joke with no punch line

No punch line


LOVE IS SMARTER THAN YOU

Like a plan by a cat burglar
For the heist of the century
You would sneak in undetected
Trade diamonds for forgeries

Like a computer to a grandmaster
You’re the deepest blue ever been
Such weakness all pink and fleshy
Checkmating your machine

Love does all the dirty work
Love cock tease selfish jerk
Love knows where your motives lurk
And won’t let the sordid ones through
Love is smarter than you

Like a sun goddess that you stare into
And you’re grateful for the cataracts
She goes down, leaves you blinded
and fasting ‘til she gets back

Love has its imitations
Love knows your limitations
Love tires of invocations
The get-rich-quick schemes are for fools
Love is smarter than you

Like a gun fighter in a town only
Big enough for one of you
Love guns you down in cold blood
Saying, “Don’t cry, the bullet went right through...
Call me in a year or two.”

Love works on every degree
Love street smart, PhD
Love ain’t about chemistry
It lives in between molecules
Love is smarter
Cause love works harder
Love is smarter than you


WINTER OLYMPICS

First thing tomorrow, I’m gonna find the number
For the Winter Olympics selection committee
And I’m gonna petition to get love-makin’
Included for next year as a demonstration sport

Cause we got a talent - it’d be a shame to waste it
With some intensive training we could be champions
I know we won’t settle for less than perfection
And the way you’re looking at me right now
Already puts us halfway there

So let's go hit the showers
For hours and hours
The gold is ours
The gold is ours

It’s a delicate balance between friction and moisture
Beauty and grace and raw animal power
With your tongue in my ear and my hand getting warmer
I’m feeling real good bout our ability to perform under pressure

The judges from Russia will be looking for style
And I think our thing with the dresser
Should put us over the top
Like synchronized swimming in a candlelit pool
Stretching and swelling with whispered incentives

My eyes melt like butter, my toenails flutter
My blood’s gone clear
Hold me near

First thing tomorrow, I’m gonna find the number
For a place that delivers so we can replenish ourselves
And there’s no other reason that I can think of
That we should ever leave this very, very unmade bed


GREEN

Just because we have barely met
Just because you don’t know me yet
Just because of some years in age
That doesn’t mean we should not set the stage

Just because we walked down different streets
Just because I’ve got a taste for sweets
Just because it’s a little bit wrong
That doesn’t make the thought go away for long

Ooh-ooh...
Pick me off your apple tree
Ooh-ooh...
I am fresh and new and green

Just because I may not advertise
Just because I’m in plain clothes disguise
Just because I am not off the rack
That doesn’t mean I could not arch your back

Ooh-ooh...

Pick me off your apple tree
I am fresh and new and green
I might not know but I aim to please
Let me get down on my knees

Just because you got some man who clings
Just because you might teach me things
Just because it would piss off your mom
Let’s find a mean streak and go drop that bomb

Ooh-Ooh...


SWEATERS FROM CLOSETS

Running late for work
Ironing your shirt
Can’t seem to smooth out none of the creases

Riding on the bus
Windows thick with dust
Commuting into September
Those late summer days can seem so cold
Those late summer days you feel so old

Out drinking last night
Our drinking most nights
Mourning the slow death of vocation

You ran into the girl
Who once was your whole world
She still smells like a life you’re not over

Those late summer days can feel so cold
Those late summer days you came so close
Memories somehow find regret
Too few moments you won’t forget

Trees making their peace
Nighttime in release
Sweaters waking up from closets

Going back to school
This year’s hockey pool
Offering yourself to diversion

Those late summer days can feel so cold
Those late summer days you feel so old


DANGEROUS MAN

Love sizes up denial and buys a drink for greed
Hey baby, hey baby, it’s nothing that you need
Hustles your money, trades you for a bag of seed
That you sew so hopefully

Hey mister, hey mister, can you explain the math
Trust minus honestly like a radio in the bath
Hollywood spectacle enactment of God’s wrath
That we chose too earnestly

You be the tough girl, I’ll be the soft boy
The most dangerous man you know
'Cause I’m a secret service full of codes
And I’m paving old forests with new roads
If anyone else hears the sound of your tree falling
Then that’s progress, the doctors say it is

Counseling, counseling is runways in Milan
Strutting gazelles shaming the denims you’ve got on
Picture perfection, airbrush all your troubles gone
As prescribed by your MD

(Chorus)

And when your bridge collapses
Downsizing your synapses
The other ghosts and I will
Take you in arm

Welcome, dear tough girl


LONG DRIVE HOME

Dream of you again
This time so filthy and so real
How I hate how good it made me feel
Your skin was salt water
Baby, I swam

Scenery all around as far as eyes can see
Won’t be beautiful til memory
Right now I’m naming hurricanes for you

Two lane crawl get me home
Four lane highway spread your wings to me

Stereo only tuning in the French AM
Le Rock Classique may be gold to them
But I am ready to dive out the door

Old train bridge declares in aerosol, “Je t’aime, Ma Fleur”
“N’etre pas fache, n’etre pas peur,”
I’d add if I thought one day
You’d drive this stretch

Two lane crawl get me home
Four lane highway spread your wings to me

Passenger, I’m always the passenger

Carry on: service as my baggage and slim advice
I can’t free myself from cheap device
I fear honesty is a poker game

Farmer tan - neck as red as Edward Island shore
I don’t know what we’re driving home for
when we had ocean keeping us afloat

Two lane crawl get me home
Four lane highway spread your wings to me


JAWS OF LIFE

The man and the boy and the mutual dream
Are singing back-up to the ambulance siren
And the salt in the wound makes a nougaty gore
But the jaws of life can only chew iron

Well I can’t be in this accident scene
For very much longer today
My eyes are sore and my shoulders over-shrugged
And there ain’t no overtime pay

I don’t know what you been led to believe
But I never tried to fake my death
Buried in snow in the 30 below
Sending smoke signals with my breath

I saw in your eyes what you wanted from me
But I couldn’t make myself feel it back
Now I’m treading water in my mud puddle deep
I’m not the dealer baby, I am the smack

You got a heart big as Medicine Hat
But I got me a Hollywood dick
Only up for the girls with the LA sheen
Who’d never slum it with a small town hick

I don’t know what you been led to believe
But I always wanted to touch you there
Grinding teeth and a sigh of relief
But I never took up my own dare

I just wanna run so I can feel the blood up in my lungs
I just wanna fuck so I can beat my heart til I come
I just wanna run so I can feel the blood up in my lungs
I just wanna fuck so I can beat my heart til I come alive
Hey alright

The pagans and catholics are duking it out
To claim over-preoccupied lands
Oh the threats and the blame never solve anything
But it riles up the crowds in the stands

While the pundits and late-night comedians
Trade theories on the nature of truth
I’ll old-man highlight my TV guide
Wishing that I better wasted my youth

Well, I don’t know what you been led to believe
But there ain’t no method to this act
Trapped in role that takes over control
When the first line of defense gets cracked

(Chorus)

Well I don’t know what you been led to believe
But I never tried to fake my death
Buried in snow in the 30 below
Sending smoke signals with my breath

(Chorus)

Hey Alright


LEFT FOR DEAD

Your lyrics knew my deepest secrets
Your chords burned fire through my heart
Move me with all your tribal rhythm
We share a little death of art

I practiced all your moves off TV
I am a lip synch bedroom star
Now all those memories I cherished
You use to try to sell me cars

I wanna know what happened here
Not rich enough from platinum sales
I wanna know what happened here
What good prevails

Did your song ever have a childhood
Before the marketing campaign
Were you so moved by diet cola
When you first wrote down that refrain

I wanna know who got to you
How’s that new beachfront property
I wanna know what rot in you
Integrity

Sponsored clothes, sponsored drink
Sponsor loves the way you think
It’s just a song, what compromise
Well, bend over, here comes your prize
And after the that last standing ovation
You’re just another common denomination

You sold me out for nothing
You left rock n roll for dead

No ideal with a price on its head


DAYTONA'S BEACH

I’m a big girl out past pretend
Came a lifetime from one long weekend
You get yer catsuit and full Brazilian
You make your living and dream your million
So save your judgement, college mister
Tell your girlfriend, tell your sister

You don’t know so you can’t say

I like a strong drink, I like the leering
I like to know that it’s me who’s steering
My days are ocean-caressed beaches
Where disappointment never reaches
Stephen sent me her new class photos
She’s got his smile but she’s got my hard nose

You don’t know so you can’t say

Another house call, a woozy bridegroom
A healthy billfold suggesting bedroom
The Yagermeister-brazen chorus
Hollers “What won’t you do for us...?”
I wag my finger, I get gymnastic
I know the line drawn and it’s elastic

You don’t know so you can’t say
You can’t say...


CUBE VAN, CABINET AND HOODIES

Pull into another town
Never heard of them they never heard of you
Gonna make some eardrums bleed
Maybe sell a shirt before the night is through
Over 80’s rock your engine is dying out
But grinding pistons won’t keep you offstage - no not tonight

Cube Van, Cabinets and Hoodies

Broken gear and rusted strings
That don’t make you any less of a star
On the bill with local hype
Hype that doesn’t seem to have spread that far - not so far
Playing for the staff and a pick-up baseball team
Who won’t stop yelling at you, “Play some Hip!!” - no, not tonight

Cube Van, Cabinets and Hoodies

Old man at the urinal right next to you
Complaining how it hurts to piss
He says, “Don’t you be laughing, Son.
One day you will end up just like this...”
Run back to the stage and hit that standby switch
There’s nothing that that kitten’s purr can’t solve - no not tonight

Cube Van, Cabinets and Hoodies


TURN IT DOWN

Every night, five nights a week for 15 rockin’ years
I called down the thunder and I reveled in the cheers
The band’s as tight as spandex, uncanny in the look
Painted up and platformed like a disco comic book

When I was young, I was hardcore and I loved the fantasy
I practiced to perfect the role but I never perfected me
Now my waistline’s soggy and the leather tends to chafe
Rock n Roll’s paid all my bills

You know as much as I love it loud
Sometimes I wish I could turn it down

I met a girl in Red Deer at an Army convention gig
She asked, “Is that your real hair?”
I said, “No, it’s just a wig.”
She said, “I think in real life, you’re handsomer than Gene.”
Now we’ve been married for 7 years with three kids in between

I must sound crazy to complain
This job has been my gravy train
But you know as much as I love it loud
Sometimes I wish I could turn it down

Sometimes I dream of an open stage
An arch top guitar and I act my age
I sing a song I wrote about lost love
And the crowd is hushed with well-provoked thought
I never once spit blood

Every night, five nights a week for 15 rocking years
I called down the thunder and I reveled in the cheers
My kids live in a warm house and the fridge is always full