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Garbage Man
Album Produced, Arranged, and Mixed by Brent Busby
 

Garbage Man

(Based on the novel The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls)
 
What would I want to do over?
How could I stray from the plans
of those of Almighty God?
Of those of Almighty Man?
 
Worse than wet clay in their hands
More like sludge in a pan
Shaking out wet river sand
Leaving them nothing to spend
 
I’ve got the river in me
When I move I take your feet
out under you
There’s no telling me to slow down
You only get to let me take
you
Down
 
I’m not a prince I’m a monster
Made up of stitching and thread -
a body made for your daughter,
Stuffing spilling out upon her bed

I drink her money for brawling
I keep her up in the night
don’t know – you find it appalling?
That I give her something to fight?
 
I’ve got the river in me
When I move I take your feet
Out under you
There’s no telling me to slow down
You only get to let me take
You
Down
 
All this garbage, man, you wanna give me
take it from your hands…go on and give me
garbage in and out - you always give me
I don’t know what I’d do without it in me
 
 
It
 
They make you fight for it, they make you beat it out
Of every monster in the alleyway
And wield the knife for it, but you learn to keep your sight
Even when they blind you
In the marketplace
 
You can’t take my eyes away from me
My heart will see it
You can’t take my eyes away from me
From me, from me
 
You’ll take the bite for it
Go on and spread it around
Just like your city filled with ticker tape
You meet the night with it
Led by the sense of sound
Against the dying of the light you rage
 
You can’t take my eyes away from me
My heart will see it
You can’t take my eyes away from me
From me, from me
 
This is the only way – the only way to get around
Friend of all the lovely maids
Friend of all the toothy hounds
If they tie you to the bed
Or tie your laces to the ground
That’s just the way it is
That’s just the way it is
 
You can’t take my eyes away from me
My heart will see it
You can’t take my eyes away from me
From me, from me
 
 
Lighting Up an Unlivable World
 
If your soul’s been broken
If your soul’s been frayed
I pray that it returns into the way
That it was made
 
‘Cause it was made to soar and
it was made to withstand
It was made to govern heart
to govern mind
to govern man
 
I’ll cup my hands around the flicker
of your soul
You cup yours ‘round mine and
together we’ll light up all of these
Faces
 
We’ll be lighting up an unlivable world
We’ll be lighting up an unlivable world
 
We were made to be princes & princesses
and queens and kings if we could learn
To love and serve
The least of these
 
Strings of a cord and strong when together
one life that we could live
Now tell me how
could we live it better
 
I’ll cup my hands around the flicker
of your soul
you cup yours ‘round mine and
Together we’ll light up all of the dark places
 
We’ll be lighting up an unlivable world
We’ll be lighting up an unlivable world
We’ll be lighting up an unlivable world
We’ll be lighting up, lighting up, lighting up
 
When you’re like a candle in a strong wind
I’ll light you again and again and again and again and again
When you’re like a candle in a strong wind
I’ll light you again and again and again and again and again
 
This is how we lighten up an unlivable world
This is how we lighten up an unlivable world
This is how we lighten up an unlivable world
We’ll be lighting up, lighting up, lighting up
 
 
 If You Can’t Be Happy
 
Put your nose against the windowpane
Glare at your neighbors if it keeps you sane
If you can’t be happy today
then when can you?
 
No need to dress don’t need your socks or shoes
Just take your pills and read the morning news
If you can’t be happy today
then when can you
 
Living on one ton of years of trying
and I have that knowledge in my mouth for passing down
there’s you, nose down, lost inside the cell phone
barely looking up to let me help you, help you out
 
You need me more than you think you know
Told me joy was a choice you know
So if you can’t be happy today
Then when can you?
 
Giving – all gone
I’ve only tears to give you now
But how I fought them
‘cause I know you’ll live without
There’s you, nose down, lost inside the cell phone
barely looking up to see this world
for helping out
 
I know you care what I do with my day
You act like you do
And your rage
Gives you
away
 
Smush your nose against the window glass
Blind to the world when it fogs up at last
If you can’t be happy today
Then when can you
 
There’s nothing coming that’s not come before
blot out that window and walk out the door
If you can’t be happy today
Then when can you?
 
Living on one ton of years of trying
And I have that knowledge in my mouth for passing down
There’s you, nose down, lost inside the cell phone
Barely looking up to let me help you, help you out
 
 

No Lonely Love
 
I’m in love with you
far beyond any stretch of days
could contaminate
 
If they tell you that a bit of food
is the way to the heart of a man
Well to love you
is enough to consume
 
What would I do without you?
you tell me to write a happy song
I’m happy enough in the tune
But our love devastates me
 
Thinking of all that I have -
how nothing can pass the test of time,
apply that grim notion to you
and I weep in the writing…
 
I fear lonely love
No, no, lonely love
it’s my heart on the wings of a dove
Be you always returning
 
No, no, lonely love
No, no, lonely love
This is my heart on the wings of a dove
Be you always returning
 
I’m in love with you
Far beyond any stretch of days
Could contaminate
 
If they tell you that a bit of food
Is the way to the heart of a man
Well to love you
Is enough to consume
 

Sound of Mobile
 
Remember when I told you I could write a song about Mobile?
Our humble home on that brown and muddy bay that we know well?
I fought with lyrics about seagulls and the politics and the oil spill
they're like tornadoes see them swirling over scraps at the motels

But then it dawned on me
the soundtrack of this city 
is you
Every day the most perfect ditty
never off key, never pitchy in tune
You always fill up a room

You are the sound of Mobile
You are the sound of Mobile
You are the sound of Mobile

You're on repeat in my mind
a beautiful word, a beautiful rhyme...

Driving down airport and it's summer now
and it's oppressive out, and there's a traffic jam
I say that we should drive to Jackson Hole Wyoming
before the day is out

You quote your mother she says
"You should always bloom where you are planted, dear."
If you can make it here,
then I can make it anywhere...

'Cause it occurs to me
the soundtrack of any city is you
I'm talking about words so pretty -
music to drown out the heat here in June,
July and August heat too...

You are the sound of Mobile
You are the sound of Mobile
You are the sound of Mobile

You're on repeat in my mind
a beautiful word, a beautiful rhyme