The Lyric Poetry of Greg Greenway "Dont make me sing, that's why I paid to see you."

DGDGBD no Capo
I have seen my brother stumble,
I have seen my father fall,
like shadows from behind me,
reaching out so far that
I always have wondered,
my feet are so blinded,
if ever they’ll find their ground
on a road worth walking down.

I have walked these empty sidewalks
without a trace, without a sign,
past windows with their shades drawn tight
over thousand of lives, thousands of lives.
And I wonder, my eyes are so blinded
if ever they’ll see somehow
a road worth walking down.

Sometimes it rises up inside you
sometimes I feel that I may drown
and vanish without ever saying
this is my life, this is my ground.
And I wonder if my mind is so blinded
I won’t know it when I’ve found
a road worth walking down.

Down in Virginia, ‘neath a holly tree
by the river that gave him his youth,
my father lies saying what he always said,
“please yourself.”

I have seen my mother’s courage.
You give them life, you let them go.
And I have chosen my own direction
so far away, so far away from it all.
And I wonder, my heart is so blinded
I won’t know it when I’ve found,
a road worth walking down.

C9 (CGDGCD) capo on 4

Out on the great plains, under a bright sun
there’s no interrupting the endless horizon,
nothing to hold you anchored to one place.
My mind starts to fill in the wide open space.

And like a runaway train, eastbound,
my mind starts running, my mind starts running
to the way across this great plain
you can see forever, I can see how far I am from you.

Back where the sun rises over the ocean
I gave my promise, I made my choices.

Out here, people pass through me like ghosts in a
daydream,

as soon as I’ve reached them, they’ve faded behind me.

Chorus

There’s a map of the world that I hold in place
here in my mind, ready to trace
the invisible line that connects our fates
always.
I used to think I could be any one of a thousand people
live almost anywhere, find love and live well
they say this is an ocean, wind waves in the wheatfields,
but it only reminds me of how far away I feel.

Chorus

C9 tuning Capo on 3

When I first started out, I kind of floated around,
I thought it might be better somewhere else

then they dragged me out.

I was mistaken. Then they gave me my good name.
They sent me off to school when I could talk and move

around.

I thought that they were joking when they said, “ shut up,

sit down.

I was mistaken. Barely escaped with my good name.
I fell in love like people do, they said, “You want to be happy?”

I said “I do.”

I was mistaken. Barely escaped with my good name

My good name, it’s all I’ve got,
says who I am, says who I’m not.
When I leave this world I will escape with my good

name

I went to see a banker, I need a loan to get clear.
He said, “man, you’ve got nothing.
I said, “That’s why I’m here.”
I was mistaken, barely escaped with my good name.
I got a job pretty easy, all the bosses at the top
said, “Forget what you’re hearing, keep buying that

Enron stock.”

I was mistaken. I think they escaped with my good name.

Chorus

What have I learned from the school of hard knocks.
Of all your possessions, everything you’re got.
Don’t be mistaken. All you’ve got is your good name.

Chorus

CGDGBD no Capo
I had a day in the life, it was a crossroads
I saw somebody come, I saw somebody go.
Same expression on their faces
different ends of the road.
Somebody lost the struggle, that’s how it was said,
someone was born with a long journey up ahead.

No one had a map, no instructions to be read.
That’s all I need to know. It’s just so.
I said to myself,
every little day the world’s brand new
the sun comes up, the clouds roll through.
Everything else is just up to you.
Every little day the world’s brand new.

I felt terrible, I felt lucky at the way things are
like a glad accident, like a bright shooting star,
like a brave little ripple in an ocean so large.
That’s all I need to know. It’s just so.

Every little day the world’s brand new
the sun comes up, the clouds roll through.
Everything else is just up to you.
Every little day the world’s brand new.

I heard myself saying the words with thinking,
every little day…

In the face of the big questions, nobody knows why,
some people smile a knowing smile, some turn away and
hide.
So much has to happen between hello and goodbye.
It’s all I need to know. It’s just so.

Chorus

C9 Capo on 4th
Is it the moon that makes me sing.
Is it the song that keeps me wandering.
Is it the road stretched beneath the sky,
that keeps me in love with this mystery of life.

What is this fate that twists young men,
like a flight of swallows in a vagrant wind,
and steals their lives before they begin,
and spreads their love so far, so thin.

Where it leads, what design,
to even ask, I hear, it’s just a waste of time.
Where it leads, know it’s true,
somehow this mystery of life lead me to you.

And so my love, don’t make me choose,
don’t make a mistress out of the moon.
These songs keep saying that the road leads here.
Don’t turn my mystery into your fear.

Chorus

G tuning (DGDGBD) Capo on 3
Lately I just can’t control this thing,
stop this rain from happening.
I got all wound up
until it sprung like a spring
it doesn’t have to be that way.
You say the way, the way,
that’s what they all say,
when trouble comes, trouble stays
When that rain begins to fall,
it pours down like a waterfall

Because every day, it tries my soul
to reach up out of this hole,
it makes you strong, but it makes you cold,
it comes down from me to you.
Cause it’s a soulless city behind that door
with the “I’ve got mine, you get yours,”
makes you blind to what you’re living for,
it doesn’t have to be that way.
You say the way, the way,
that’s what they all say,
when trouble comes, trouble stays
When that rain begins to fall,
it pours down like a waterfall.

Waterfall, waterfall, waterfall
and then that rain pours down like a waterfall.

I will not bend, I will not break,
no matter what those people say.
In my darkest hour, I feel afraid,
it’s always going to be that way.
it doesn’t have to be that way.
You say the way, the way,
that’s what they all say,
when trouble comes, trouble stays
When that rain begins to fall,
it pours down like a waterfall.

Waterfall, waterfall, waterfall
and then that rain pours down like a waterfall.

Piano
You don’t travel like I do
across an atlas on thin red routes.
Across the small print in-betweens
No, you don’t travel when you leave

Way out West under the big, big sky
the clouds roll over brown mountainsides
They watch the weather come down the rise
the same way that I watch your eyes

The clouds you raise are the space you need
to go somewhere without me
So we both get time to sit alone
and wait for someone to come home.

You don’t travel like I do
across the country in vague pursuit.
You don’t need to be gone that way,
you can sit right here and be miles away.

The clouds you raise are the space you need
to go somewhere without me
So we both get time to sit alone
and wait for someone to come home.

You don’t travel like I do

DADF#AD Capo on 3
The days are growing longer,
there’s a warm breeze coming on,
something inside seems to come alive,
singing a summer song

Hola, Maria. Show me that soft smooth skin.
It’s mystical rite on a warm gusty night.
I hardly know where to begin.

La la la.
La la la la la.
La la la la la la,
la la la.

The sun is growing stronger, we’ve got every reason to smile.
The child in me, feels so frisky and free,
i hope he can stay for a while.

Chorus

It’s been so long since I’ve seen a day like today,
so long, gonna throw these clothes so far away.

I had a friend like the winter,
with a clear winter day in her eyes.
Seasons are bound to be seasons,
you can only wave them goodbye.

Chorus

C9 Capo on 4
I paid at the door, I surveyed the space,
two tables from the stage front, my favorite place.
I was bursting with pride, I was flushed with success.
I had to ask her out six time before she finally said, “OK.

Then this guy started singing, it was a pretty good show
until that telltale expression, “don’t even go there, oh no.”

Don’t make me sing
that’s why I paid to see you
it’s a show business trick, singer songwriter schtick
why dont you write something new
Don’t make me sing,
Don’t even act like I should
give me a break, I’m on a first date
why don’t you write something good

We gave it our best show, we gave him a chance,
until he turned into Barney in combat boots and black pants

Chorus

I gave in to peer pressure, I gave it all that I’ve got.
She used to be smiling, now she’s checking her watch.

Chorus

Don’t make me sing, they hit me up at the door,
I did my job all day, why should I have to pay
to help you do yours.
Don’t make me sing, why don’t you try something else.
If I had a good voice, I’d be up there myself.

Chorus

G tuning (DGDGBD) Capo on 4
Sky’s so wide and the world’s so big
how could it find the way
into so small a space under the sun.
Put in the air with a blind revenge,
she never would see the face,
never would know the name of the one.

She was a young girl sitting on a mail box,
a young girl, her friends were all smiling.
Then she was a headline for being in the wrong place,
a headline, for living in a senseless time, gone wrong.
And now she’s just gone.

Into the day without a trace, nothing she could have done.
It tells you when it is time, your time has come.
ou shake your head for the ones she loved,

feel for the ones she knew,

and pray if you don’t find harm, it won’t find you

Chorus

If I go in the wink of an eye, I would not change a thing,
that I was a singer with a chance to sing.
If I go in the wink of an eye, my love, it would not erase,
the mornings I watched the sun warm you awake.

Chorus

Piano
Tennessee sat down at her piano,
her hands lay there so gently and light.
With far away eyes she stared into the dimness,
and played me a day in her life.
Of boats on a crystal green lake in Kentucky,
sails unfurled, swolen in the wind,
and the freedom she felt and the space all around her,
and the feeling of life rushing in.

Tennessee, even after you had come and gone
I needed your laughter for so long
I won’t believe
I won’t see you again, Tennessee.

Tennesse, things go so quickly now,
you turn your head and the days just pass you by.
There’s so little time and so much confusion,
people don’t know where to try.

Chorus

These sun washed days have brought a whispering intrusion,
voices from the distance finding their way home,
from days with desire so fiercely in confusion.
Times when I was first out on my own.

Tennessee sat down at her piano.
I asked her why it had been so long since she had played.
She said the music had turned into notes upon the pages,
she could not stand to play it that way.

Chorus

D tuning (DADF#AD) Capo on 3
I will not, I won’t be bought,
I will not, I won’t be broken,
even though, yes, I know, I’m the living hell
for the ones who are holding the keys to my cell.
I remember the wind must blow,
and the river will have its way,
and I will walk out of this cell one day,

Free at last, free at last.
Shadows on this land will pass into the light.
Oh, in this life,
I will be free at last.

As year after year goes by,
I will not, I won’t doubt my reasons.
Even though, yes, I know they have taken my life,
it’s these very walls that keep saying I’m right.
I remember the wind must blow,
and the river will have its way,
and I will walk out of this hell one day,

Chorus

I will heed this fate, walk this road,
take this stand and the world will know.
I will heed this fate, walk this road,
take this stand and the world will know

I remembered the wind must blow,
and the river will have its way,
and we will walk out of this hell one day

Chorus

C9 Capo on 5

When I get tired, it’s like I was dropped into the sea
you could swim your whole life

and be nowhere you want to be

Everyone gets tired and the water is so wide.
Then somebody comes and shows you,
they show you the other side.

There was a little man, barefoot and frail.
He took a walk down to the Ganges
and took a lion by the tail.
He made a way out of no way.
One by one, they saw the truth.
He was ready when they told him, they said, “history chooses you.

we see so far (in the name of love)
we are standing on (in the name of love)
the shoulders of giants (one more in the name of love)

And then there was another, another lion in a lamb.
He walked into the heart of darkness,

into the streets of Birmingham.

He made a way out of no way.
One by one, we saw the truth.
He was already on the mountaintop when they said, “Memphis chooses you.”

Chorus

in the name of love
in the name of love
one more in the name of love

Early morning, April 4th,

shots rang out in the Memphis sky.

Free at last, they took your life,

they could not take your pride.

In the name of love, one more in the name of love
In the name of love, one more in the name of love.

So make a way out of no way,
make their stories live and breathe
and we will never lack for heroes,
in our darkest hour of need.