Released 27 April 1993
Label DGC
Produced Don Fleming
Recording Engineers Jon Auer, Adam Kasper, Jim Waters
Assistant Engineer Fred Kevorkian
Mixed David Bianco; John Hanlon (“Love Letter Boxes,” “Earlier Than Expected”) at Larrabee West, W. Hollywood; Ocean Way, Los Angeles
Assitant mixing engineers: Mark Guilbeault, Jamie Seyberth
Recorded At Ironwood Studios, Seattle; Sear Sound, New York; 316 81st Ave. N., Seattle
Mastered Stephen Marcussen at Precision Mastering, Los Angeles, CA
Jon Auer: Guitar, singing (plus bass & vibes)
Dave Fox: Bass
Mike Musburger: Drums
Ken Stringfellow: Guitar, singing (plus bass, organ & piano)
Art direction/design Kevin Reagan
Photographs Dennis Keeley
01. Dream All Day
02. Solar Sister
03. Flavor Of The Month
04. Love Letter Boxes
05. Definite Door
06. Burn & Shine
07. Earlier Than Expected
08. 20 Questions
09. When Mute Tongues Can Speak
10. Lights Out
11. How She Lied By Living
12. Coming Right Along
Dream All Day
I’ve got a lot of thoughts
Got a lot of plans
I lost a lot of sleep
Trying to understand
I could dream all day…
In a blackened room
Staring into space
Underneath a thousand blankets
Just to find a place
Where everything is reachable
Imagining is safe
I tried to make it so
I didn’t even know
I could dream all day…
I dreamt I was awake
My mouth was colored grey
As the world revolved around me
I could only say
I could dream all day…
Solar Sister
I’ll call you sister Carrie but I’ll never say it
Mute it to a whisper
And spin your solar sister
And magnet will deliver
An arrow from her quiver
I’ll call you sister Carrie but you’ll never hear it
Fifty minutes later
As time pulls down her fader
And nibbles off the fakers
Who roll under the breakers
I’ll close my eyes and listen to you read the story
Knowning I’ll soon be left behind
So won’t you read sister Carrie Jean, sister Carrie
Always the patient one
I’ll call you sister Carrie I won’t breathe a word
Frosting on the beater
The flag trips down the meter
You thought you could defeat her
You’re lucky you could meet her
I’ll close my eyes and listen to you read the story
But I’m already far behind
So won’t you read sister Carrie Jean, sister Carrie
Always the patient one
I’ll close my life and let you teach me a new story
Out of the pages of your mind
And magnet will deliver
So, spin, my solar sister
And you can read, sister Carrie, read…
[download guitar 1] – [download guitar 2]
Flavor of the Month
Can you hear it?-like an invitation
Can you feel it?-it’s a revelation
The flavor of the month is busy melting in your mouth
Getting easier to swallow and harder to spit out
Can you hear it?-does the sound remind you?
Can you feel it?-it’s gonna redefine you
The flavor of the month is busy melting in your mouth
Getting easier to swallow and harder to spit out
Can you hear it?-like an invitation
Can you feel it?-a reverberation
The flavor of the month is busy melting in your mouth
Getting easier to swallow and harder to spit out
[download guitar 1] – [download guitar 2]
Love Letter Boxes
Something ’bout the whiteness of the phone
Something ’bout the Genius of Modern Music
How can I think
How can I fail you?
Something ’bout the distance to the nerve
Something ’bout white hands of fate I don’t deserve
The bedroom ghosts
How long to sleep
Perchance to drown
We have been old together
No inside joke, this I won’t tolerate
I see you clearly
Ah, love letter boxes
All in favor say I will blindly
Follow the ring around the positive sign
Something ’bout the history of the Jews
Beautiful one don’t read too much into clues
Please shake the hand of the velvet glove
Whose fingerprints glow in the dark
And reveal crimes both brave and strange
I cannot tell you how to tell the truth
Even if it hits you
Ah, love letter boxes
All in favor say I will blindly
Follow the ring around the positive sign
Positive sign
‘Round the positive sign
Positive sign
Positive sign
Definite Door
Say goodbye to your friends and family
Pack your promises silently
Leave a note on your kitchen table
This is all you will ever be
So hope for a better place for a better time for a better speed
So hope for a better use for a better word for a better need
And if you listen close enough
You might hear too much
Hard as sharp and razor-rough
You’ve never seen the such
It’s the definite door
To another dimension
Nothing
No more
Not even a mention
Keeping track of the eyesight streaming
Isn’t part of the regimen
Many hours of sleepless dreaming
Unaware of the mess you’re in
And if you didn’t have a clue
You probably never will
And all the things you didn’t do
Will inundate you still
It’s the definite door
To another dimension
Nothing
No more
Not even a mention
Better cross your heart, make it people-proof try to fight the fright
And have a real good trip, see you when you fall don’t forget to
Write yourself back
And if you fail to see the point
Of doubting all you do
Don’t forget to blame yourself
There’s nothing else for you
Say goodbye to your friends and family
Pack your promises silently
Funny how they forget to tell you
This is all you will ever be
This is all you will ever be now
This is all you will ever be
This is all you will ever be now
This is all you will ever be
Burn and Shine
Burn and shine, son
And keep your spirit clean
For this is not a dress rehersal
Junior Phoenix
With your ash-filled eyes
Who will harbor your misfortune?
Your mother says your father says
He does not want to tell you
As if he didn’t know you
Behind the lighthouse
There’s still the hole you made
Better fill it in or it will get you
So talcum powder
Is now your closest friend
Smooth and white and ordinary
Your father says your mother says
She does not want to tell you
As if she didn’t know you
And in the dream everyone is holding hands
In a circle, and you heal
Do you remember
The taste of pemmican?
Then say hello to Hiawatha
She’s still frowning
At your puffy face
Overweight and barely breathing
No one ever said a word
They did not want to tell you
As if they didn’t know you
As if they didn’t know you
As if they didn’t know you
Burn and shine
You burn and shine
Earlier Than Expected
Sacred pictures
With which she will fortell the future
Expert witness
A wound that won’t believe in sutures
‘Cause she’s earlier than expected
A little premature madonna
Earlier than expected
Rush right home now
Prepare, prevent, defend, define now
With no examples
You’ll find the burdens more than ample
‘Cause she’s earlier than expected
A little premature madonna
Earlier than expected
And if you saw her trails
Would you consider her guilty of being a child?
Open mouth-faced
She saw Ulysess, claimed him captive
The vanquished embraced
He knew for this to be receptive
And hust have grace and be festive
Of freeze in the dirt which he rests in
‘Cause she’s earlier than expected
A little premature madonna
Earlier than expected
‘Cause she’s earlier than expected
A little premature madonna
Earlier than expected
And she will sleep and rest her brow
And face the tempest of tomorrow
20 Questions
A boy once was frozen
All guarded and closed in
Before he had chosen
A beauty to behold
The cream of creation
A red-wine sensation
The power of persuasion
Personified and whole
And we will not get younger
But we won’t wait around ’til we die
‘Cos she’s got twenty questions
And so do I…
The first time I passed her
The second I asked her
The third wish will last her
For long enough to know
The cream of creation
A red-wine sensation
The power of persuasion
Personified and whole
And we will not get younger
But we won’t wait around ’til we die
‘Cos she’s got twenty questions
And so do I…
So onward and upward
Ascent of the unheard
I search for enough words
To thankfully extol
The cream of creation
A red-wine sensation
The power of persuasion
Personified and whole
When Mute Tongues Can Speak
When mute tongues can speak
And relate their need
I make fun of skins laying in a dark room
In a piglet’s eye
If the dream had wings
Then the nest of feathers could freeze without them
I never knew how to fear correctly
When we were seven we would hit directly
By some misgiving that you dealt ineptly
All was forgiven when you knelt to help me
See the boy of smiles
With the teardrop shape
Shuddering and crying with the wind knocked from him
And the kids just stare
Is this guy for real
Some mistakes are all too apparent
It’s nothing personal–just a lousy memory
Dissected birds are my adopted family
I pool myself until I see anemones
All was forgiven when you knelt to help me
In a can of boys
Across a crowd of thorns
Everyone is laughing all expensive painful
Windbreaker is torn
Friendly tree has scars
Experience is necessary to be normal
I never knew how to fear correctly
When we were seven we would hit directly
By some misgiving that you dealt ineptly
All was forgiven when you knelt to help me
It’s me…
Lights Out
Lights out
Lights out
Goodnight, shuteye
That’s a good guy
Soothing seething, brooding
Are you breathing?
Are you sleeping?
Are you sleeping?
New day
New day
Endless chasm barking blue grey
Are we living in a tombstone smiling?
Driving
Are we there yet?
Are we there yet?
Trickle
Trickle
Father fickle loves to tickle
Sister caffeine fill my inside churning
Turning
Talking
Tripping through the traffic blocking
I’m collapsing, won’t you turn the lights out?
Lights out
Are we there yet?
Are we there yet?
Lights out
How She Lied By Living
Shimmering was she
And loveliness to see
The found her when she was three
Where she lied
We talked within a wave
Of things we could not crave
But circumstances turn grave
That’s where she lied
You told me, you told me you loved life
Don’t tell me, don’t tell me you loved life
Don’t tell me you loved life
I read your book of Rot
And wondered what you thought
As journalists have taught
It pays to lie
The fruit upon a vine
The gun that swallows time
To shimmer in our minds
That’s how she lied
You told me, you told me you loved life
Don’t tell me, don’t tell me you loved life
Don’t tell me you loved life
Coming Right Along
Freed the daytime with indifference
Watch the twilight starve the sun
Shuffle home against the darkness
Turn the key and bite your tongue
And please be strong
You don’t know it but you’re coming right along
Call belated, leave a message
Wait for hours just to talk
Feel like slowly getting blown off
Stretch your eyes, invite the clock
And please be strong
You don’t know it but you’re coming right along
Please be strong
You don’t know it but you’re coming right along
Cry as if to say you’re sorry
Sight a life and hate your own
Try to think of what to mention
Leave the television on…
And please be strong
You don’t know it but you’re coming right along
Please be strong
You don’t know it but you’re coming right along
You don’t know it but you’re
Coming right along
Coming right along
Coming right along