David Thomas Lyrics
Blame The Messenger
(1987)



My Town

All the dreams are paper crown
Scraps of which thrown in the wind
Fall down
Round the wind corner
Tumble down
Scatter by
Fall round
My town.

Shadows sweep a tumbledown
Paper birds blown in the wind
Fall down
Round the wind corner
Tumble down
Scatter by
Fall round
My town.

Birds having a party when the sun goes down
My town.

Writer: Thomas.
© 1986 Hearpen Music


A Fact About Trains

Comes the dawning light
Don't it seem strange
Nothing ever runs on time
We need a change
Now I go by
Now I'm heard to say
When times are hard
Don't find yourself too far away.

A fact about trains
Heading down railroad tracks
No matter the head of steam
It's not true they don't come back.
Now I go by
Now I'm heard to say
When times are hard
Don't find yourself too far away.

Writers: Thomas-Cutler-Jones-Maimone-Ravenstine
© 1987 Hearpen Music / Arcades Music


King Knüt

There's a story about a King Knüt
How all the gladhanders he rebuked.

Down to the sea we must go says he
There to see if the waves will know.

The clouds are mighty and the sea is firm
He makes a stand on the shingled berm
Turn away! Turn away! Turn away he cries
Tell me says he How the tide replies.

Say what you will and do as you must
Deeds are alive when the man turns to dust.

Writers: Thomas-Cutler-Jones-Maimone-Ravenstine
© 1987 Hearpen Music / Arcades Music


When Love Is Uneven

When love is uneven it increases a burden.
It lessens a share.
It makes the strong ones cry and the hands hang weak with despair.
It makes the bones ache & hollow.
It makes the bride cease to care.
It makes a life not worth living.
It makes a life not worth living.
Writers: Thomas-Cutler-Jones-Maimone-Ravenstine.
© 1987 Bug Music / Arcades Music.
Lyrics by David Thomas.



The Storm Breaks

Darkened dawns
Some days the storm breaks
Early in the morning.

Up again
Early in the morning
So early in the morning.

In my ears I heard a hurricane blow
Early in the morning
Up again so early in the morning.

I rush to know
I need to see
Early in the morning.

Up again!
Early in the morning
Up again so early in the morning.

Writers: Thomas-Cutler-Jones-Maimone-Ravenstine
© 1987 Hearpen Music / Arcades Music


The Long Rain

Like the tears falls the rain
I heard a hurricane.

Like the blood falls the tears
Thick drops for all the years.

One day we'll say
Rain rain go away
The way it is is bound to change
The way it is is bound in chains.

Like the rain falls the blood
Till one day comes a flood.

Writers: Thomas-Cutler-Jones-Maimone-Ravenstine.
© 1987 Hearpen Music / Arcades Music


Havin Time

I'm lonesome me.

The wind
The rain
The Why
The Wherefore-art-thou.

Havin time.

Writers: Thomas-Cutler-Jones-Maimone-Ravenstine
© 1987 Hearpen Music / Arcades Music


Friends Of Stone


Cross the blue-darkened ice
Lightning and sunsets abound
Faces aglow
That's how we welcome winter home
Winter Comes Home
That's how we welcome it home.

Love those friends made of stone
Braving the Big Blue alone alone
Windows on fire
That's how it happens to be
Happens To Me
That's how it happened to me.

Songs we sing of long nights
Wait till the strangers go home
Whistling the tunes of their own
Leave us to learn the songs that call
Cry From The Heart
That call from the heart of the wind.

Writers: Thomas.
© 1987 Hearpen Music


The Velikovsky 2-Step

(The Wooden Birds laugh at the Theory of Uniformitarianism)
Fish leap out of the fossil record
Fully formed and happy to be here
Birds fly out of the binding rocks
Fully formed and happy to be here.

Here come the dinosaurs
Homes all around the world
We like it here
We got stuff to eat and room with a view
We got a reason to be and plenty to do
Tell me what more's a fellow need
Than somewhere to go and somewhere to be?
Yeah we like it here.

Call it out for all it's worth
Nothing changes on this earth
All the years all things remain the same
The way it is it was and will remain.

Here come the dinosaurs.

Take a flesh from off of the bone
Chuck a word about willy-nilly
Make your mind up here and now
Shoulda coulda so it had to be.

Bones all around the world
Gathered up and put in halls
Daylight crawls up and down the walls
Strangers fixed in a strange land
Debris found on a foreign sand
The evidence is there to see
The old world simply ceased to be.

Here come the dinosaurs
Here come the...
Whoops!
They're gone.

Think about the thing revealed
Suddenly what a change can come
Say about how I feel
Oh oh so strange.

Writers: Thomas-Cutler-Jones-Maimone-Ravenstine
© 1987 Hearpen Music / Arcades Music