julie christensen

LYRICS FOR 

A SAD CLOWN 2018

A Sad Clown

© 2017 Julie Christensen

 

Now that you are grown

You might be considering a profession

You’ll be leaving home

It’s hard to admit you have some questions

I know that we’ve grown apart 

But I want to tell you with my heart:

Do what you love, ‘cause you only get paid in lessons.

yeah yeah

 

Your mama’s a sad sad clown

How long has she been around? 

There’s work to be done

There’s no time for her to slow down

Your mama’s just a sad sad clown

 

You’d think she’d have figured it out by now

And passed on the news to you

You’d think she’d have given it up somehow, 

But what else is she gonna do?

Your mama’s just a sad sad clown

 

When I was alone 

I never wondered about the ending

Lonely to the bone, 

Still I had no intention of bending 

They all tried to tell me what to be

I was working on trying to set it free

If push comes to shove, 

I don't wanna be caught pretending ___

yeah yeah yeah

 

Your mama’s a sad sad clown

How long has she been around? 

There’s work to be done

It’s too late for her to slow down

Your mama’s just a sad sad clown

 

There’s no joy in Mudville to be found

There’s no money in it, no reknown

No pieces to pick up off the ground 

Your mama’s just a sad sad clown

Your mama’s just a sad sad clown

 

Your mama’s a sad sad clown

How long has she been around? 

There’s work to be done

It’s too late for her to slow down

Your mama’s just a sad sad clown

 

Sad Sad Clown

Sad Sad Clown

Exile on Myrtle Beach

© Darrin Bradbury

I was countin’ roaches in a Chicken Shack

Down on Myrtle Beach

The sun to my back

Got caught stealin’ hubcaps off a Pontiac

Yeah, and here I am

 

Skippin’ stones and watchin’ birds

Headed from Albuquerque

And I made a wrong turn

So I picked up some cardboard

And I wrote down some words

Someone said it was a sign

 

Yeah well, you and me 

Yeah we’re off scot-free 

Like Bruce on a bike with some boardwalk queen

They two lanes’ll take you anywhere,

But I guess they’ll take you on down

Down past Myrtle Beach

 

I saw Richard Pryor throw a stone into the ocean

Had a couple new jokes

But none of them were worth quotin’

A couple good quips, yeah, and I guess that’s it

Nothin’ really on fire

 

I seen Elvis Presley down at the popsicle stand

Gettin’ cues from Andy Kaufman

On how to shake his ass

They’re doin’ a double header

Three night stand

At Fran’s Eastside 

 

Yeah well, you and me 

Yeah we’re off scot-free 

Like the heads that roll off the French Royalty

The Revolution was nothin’ but a strong narrative

Great publicity. Keeps the tourists in Myrtle Beach

 

Well I guess I’ll keep quiet, like Ol’ Charlie Chaplin

Didn’t like the steak,

So I spit it in the napkin

It was too well-done for anything to happen

Guess I wanted somethin’ rare

 

But the ballgame’s startin’

So everybody cheer

You know it’s a good song if it sells som beer

You held me in the nosebleeds

Sayin’ “why are we here?”

I said, “why do you care?”

 

Yeah well, you and me 

Yeah we’re off scot-free 

Like Eva and Adolf in a submarine

Some folks say they’re in Buenos Aires 

But I’ve seen ‘em both chompin’ on hot dogs

And strollin’ down Myrtle Beach

 

Yeah well, you and me 

Yeah we’re off scot-free 

Like Bruce on a bike with some boardwalk queen

They two lanes’ll take you anywhere,

But I guess they’ll take you on down

Down past Myrtle Beach

 

Honey Let’s Go To Town

©2017 Julie Christensen 

 

At the Lakewood RV and Campground

South of the Drag, Outside of town                          

We were welcome to pull in on the Yamaha for the night

So we stayed for a month and drank a bit

Saw the beach, but mostly we got lit

Not a morning went by wouldn’t one of us pick a fight.

I’d say “Honey Let’s Go To Town.”

But he would not take me there.

He bought me a new tattoo 

On the boardwalk at Wither’s Swash                              

We rode the ferris wheel and that was cool.

But the roller coaster, 

I didn’t like that much

It wasn’t the Skywheel or the real boardwalk

But he would not take me there.

solo ||:                              

 

Hey someday I’m gonna take a ride

Jump on your Harley and head up 95

I’m gonna know what it is to be alive  Maybe Atlantic City                          

C’mon Honey Let’s Go To Town

Hey  Honey Let’s Go To Town

Honey Let’s Go To Town

Cause he would not take me there.

 

Like Nothing Hurts

©Julie Christensen

 

Oh, I’m just having a bit of a hard day

It’s not like I’m dyin

Though we die a little bit all the time, okay?

It isn’t violent, 

Like Death walkin in with an AR-15

And opening fire

God rest all their souls

And let us pray____.

 

Oh, I just really mustn’t complain.

I’m whinin, is all.

I’m talkin about just a little pain

Makes me feel so small.

I’m not in a war zone:

No water, no electricity for days on end, 

Where my killer or rapist waits around the bend

It’s not insane_____.

 

But when I rise up from my seat, 

An invisible torturer cranks up the pliers on my knees

And I may wince when I come back to sing or talk or play

It might be that the show looks easy

And I’ll make like nothing hurts

And I’ll make like nothing hurts

I’ll just make like nothing hurts

Well I’ll make like nothing hurts

And maybe it’ll help to get through

On days like these

On days like these...

 

Burning Star

© Tim Easton 

 

I heard your voice out in the parking lot

It was 3 am — the bar doors were all locked

A bottle was passed with an old guitar

And you conjured the sound of a burning star

 

Burning Star, Burning Star

The night sky spits fire wherever you are

And wherever you are is another place 

You’ll never be again.

 

We can all see hell dancing in your eyes

As you’re crossing the pond tossing out your lines

Well you might reel one in, but you’ll never get far

Only warmed by the embers of a burning star

 

Burning Star, Burning Star

The night sky spits fire wherever you are

Burning Star, Burning Star 

Scattering ashes over battle scars

And wherever you are is another place 

You’ll never be again.

 

Listening to you now in this hotel room

Singing “Two Girls” or “Some Lonesome Tune” 

I only see the shadow of who you really are

Just ash and smoke signals from a still burning star__________!

 

Burning Star, Burning Star

The night sky spits fire wherever you are

Burning Star, Burning Star 

Scattering ashes over battle scars

And wherever you are there you go

And wherever you go there you are

And wherever you are is another place 

You’ll never be again

Burning Star, Burning Star

Burning Star.

 

Cold Tennessee Rain

© 2017 Julie Christensen

Woke up to the grey 

Of a Cold Tennessee Rain

Was steppin’ through my jeans

Full of holes and plenty of stains

Nothin about these clouds has got a silver lining

If I tried to reach you now, it’d be bad timing

In the Cold Tennessee Rain

 

You just could not stay 

In the Cold Tennessee Rain

You got good and mean

And you sold whatever you gained

Something about the wild and changeable weather

Made you wonder, child, if it’d ever get better

In the Cold Tennessee Rain

 

I just decided that I liked it here 

Without you anyway

Just figured that I’d get along

Without you anyway

I know that the sun won’t shine

Without you anyway

And I’ll have to face the day

In the Cold Tennessee Rain

 

Raised the window up

To the Cold Tennessee Rain

The night is interrupted 

By a Cold Tennessee Rain

Nothin about these clouds has got a silver lining

In the Cold Tennessee Rain.

 

Vienna, Illinois 

© 2016 Julie Christensen  

I read your letter again today 

I didn't even feel sad 

I wonder, if I picked up the pen and the paper
Could I even write you back? 

Vienna, Illinois 

Vienna, Illinois 

You never came to visit me

I never wanted your tears 

My window looks right out onto the Shawnee
I saw a sweet runnin deer

So free. 

So free. 

Vienna, Illinois 

Vienna, Illinois 

I hardly talk to the other man who shares my cell 

I try not to think too much in between the bells 

It don't feel like livin any more than it feels like I'm dyin 

It just feels like I'm shufflin' through hell

It just feels like I'm shufflin' through hell 

Vienna, Illinois 

Vienna, Illinois 

Downwind from trouble at the swamps at Grantsburg 

Murderers out walkin after eighteen years 

Then there are those of us whose lives changed forever 

Due to blindness from the beer 

And I've never even seen the town 

No I've never even seen the town 

Vienna, Illinois 

Vienna, Illinois 

So free (We're not that different, you and I) 

So free (I think about that all the time) 

Vienna, Illinois 

Vienna, Illinois 

Vienna, Illinois 

Vienna, Illinois 

 

Slow Blue Fly 

©Julie Christensen and Laura Mayo        

Slow blue fly in the living room hummin’                                

Sky so quiet like a dark storm comin’

Out the window's a world unknown            

All's I know is the curtain's torn 

Send me down a stronger dream

(Cause) The ones I got___ are losin steam___

Broken sign by the Trinity Southern                           

Never been changed by the drunken breth’ren

I sure hope that message lasts

Says "Every Saint Has A Worried Past."

It's half a mile out of my way

But I drive by there every day

A woman came by work today

Asked if I knew how to pray____

She had something in her eyes

Something I don't recognize

(solo over verse)

Slow blue fly in the living room hummin

Sky so quiet like a dark storm comin

Out the window's a world unknown                         

All's I know is the curtain's torn          __________

Send me down a stronger dream______                                                                        

(Cause) The ones I got___ are losin’ steam___

                                                                            :||     ___________.

Anything Like Home 

© Julie Christensen 2017

 

Then came the cataclysm of the words 

No one had to tell us what we heard 

They fell in my ears

They fell in your ears

I waited in a twisted knot for you to hear In vain

Til it was over.

Is it over?

We are broken

On the Inside

By the window

Like a war bride

And it doesn't feel 

Anything Like our home

You had a secret moment all alone

No one else to whom you'd need atone 

Not on my side

Not on your side

I waited for you out across the great divide In vain

Til it was over.

And it's all over.

We are broken

On the Inside

By the window

Like a war bride

And it doesn't feel 

Anything Like our home 

Like Our Home.

Are you sleeping soundly there upon your bed? 

Are you still believing something that he said? 

I'll be on your side

You be on my side

I'll be waiting for you here across the great divide 

Til this is over,

'Cause We are broken

On the Inside

By the window

Like a war bride

And it doesn't feel

Anything Like our home

We're only broken on the inside 

Open the window

Raise your voice and fight 

If it's gonna be

Anything Like Our home.

Like Our Home

Like Our Home.

 

Sunday

© 2016 Julie Christensen

 

Bare Trees in a sunlight crown

White patent leather shoes on the cold hard ground

In the dry brown grass of early spring

Out there in the yard beyond the swings

 

Mother Mary Open Arms

I am raising up my palms

Sunday

Praying to make sense 

Of where the Fridays went

Sunday

 

I smiled but the camera knew

Little cat-eye glasses hid my eyes so “blue”

Grandma’s daffodils came up in time

For April First Communion in Oelwein

 

Mother Mary Open Arms

I am raising up my palms

Sunday

Praying to make sense 

Of where the seasons went

Sunday

 

All my people left that town

Got married or they died or they’re not around

Used to be a homemade grotto there

That my daddy built for the Virgin Mary

 

But I don’t see her now

I can’t feel this place any more

I close my eyes just like before

 

Mother Mary Open Arms

I am raising up my palms

Sunday

Praying to make sense 

Of where the decades went

Sunday

Sunday

Sunday

 

Hold On

Written by Kathleen Brennan, Thomas Alan Waits •  © Peermusic Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group

They hung a sign up in our town

"If you live it up, you won't live it down"

So she left Monte Rio, son

Just like a bullet leaves a gun

With her charcoal eyes and Monroe hips

She went and took that California trip

Oh, the moon was gold, her hair like wind

Said, "don't look back, just come on, Jim"

Oh, you got to hold on, hold on

You gotta hold on

Take my hand, I'm standing right here, you gotta hold on

Well, he gave her a dimestore watch

And a ring made from a spoon

Everyone's looking for someone to blame

When you share my bed, you share my name

Well, go ahead and call the cops

You don't meet nice girls in coffee shops

She said, "baby, I still love you"

Sometimes there's nothin' left to do

Oh, but you got to hold on, hold on

Babe, you gotta hold on and take my hand

I'm standing right here, you gotta hold on

Well, God bless your crooked little heart

St. Louis got the best of me

I miss your broken China voice

How I wish you were still here with me

Oh, you build it up, you wreck it down

Then you burn your mansion to the ground

Oh, there's nothing left to keep you here

But when you're falling behind in this big blue world

Oh, you've got to hold on, hold on

Babe, you gotta hold on

Take my hand, I'm standing right here, you gotta hold on

Down by the Riverside motel

It's ten below and falling

By a ninety-nine cent store

She closed her eyes and started swaying

But it's so hard to dance that way

When it's cold and there's no music

Oh, your old hometown's so far away

But inside your head there's a record that's playing

A song called "Hold On", hold on

Babe, you gotta hold on

Take my hand, I'm standing right there, you gotta hold on

You gotta hold on, hold on

Babe, you gotta hold on

Take my hand, I'm standing right there, you gotta hold on

You gotta hold on,

hold on

Babe, you gotta hold on

And take my hand, I'm standing right here, you gotta hold on

You gotta hold on, hold on

Babe, you gotta hold on

And take my hand, I'm standing right here, you gotta hold on

You gotta hold on

 

The Sun

© Julie Christensen, Mary  Bragg

 

Long nights when you were mine

Might rain but it would clear up

We bathed in love and moonshine

No reason not to stay up

And holler at the dawning day

To just come on      Just come on _____

 

And the sun________was shinin' down on me

For a little while

Some kind of heaven was smilin' down on me

Felt like I was a little child

Yeah, the sun____ was shinin down on me

For a little while

For a little while

 

Now days are full of rain

There's no sign of a let up

These days it's hard to name

A good reason just to get up    

And face down every cloud                    

And darkness comin' on    It's comin' on_____

 

But the sun________was shinin' down on me   

For a little while

Some kind of heaven was smilin' down on me

Like when I was a little child

Yeah, the sun________was shinin' down on me

For a little while   

For a little while

For a little while

For a little while_________.

 

Getting Through

© 2018 John Hadley, Sergio Webb, and Julie Christensen

                    

Maybe it's just the coffee talkin

Maybe it's all of the money walkin                                    

Sure am tired of dancin on this wire                                        

Got a few new irons in the fire                                                    

It's good to have 'em now that I have learned                                                                                     

How to pick 'em up without getting burned___

                                     

Sailin'                                             

Navigatin through the tribulation                      

Sailin'                                                              

The stars will take me to my new destination

___And I'm gettin through

And I'm gettin through___

 

Interlude:                                                                        

                              

Standin by an old highway sign                                

I've driven by 'em all a thousand times                                      

Down to where the ocean meets the land                         

To bury yesterday in the sand                            

Endless sky out beyond my bow                                                                               

The wind is with me and I'm movin__now

                   

Sailin'                             

Navigatin through the tribulation                  

Sailin'                                                             

The stars will take me to my new destination   

And I'm gettin through                     

And I'm gettin through___                                                                                                              

Am I gettin through___?

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

LYRICS FOR 

THE CARDINAL 2016

The Cardinal

© Julie Christensen

Oh the cardinal he's a red red bird

Up there in my hickory tree

Singin' too---purty purty purty purty purty 

And a-callin' back to me.

 

I danced at the home games in crimson velvet

I always wore black whenever they played away

I fell for a boy with a bird on his helmet

And I wonder about him to this very day

 

Oh the cardinal he's a red red bird

Somewhere he is a-flyin' free

Singin' too---purty purty purty purty purty 

Never comin' back to me.

 

Under the stands, we stole a kiss

To the strains of the band, I tore my dress____

 

I traveled the world, I sang hundreds of places

I'd sing it all again if I had one more go

Yet I still see the boy in the thousands of faces

For I have not forgiven him, God only knows

 

Oh the cardinal he dives way down hill

Down where I can barely see

Singin' I’m— purty purty purty purty purty 

But I'm scarlet as can be. 

 

Oh the cardinal he's a red red bird

Oh the cardinal he's a red red bird

Oh the cardinal he's a red red bird.

 

 

Shed My Skin

©Dan Navarro

 

Come on and take a ride

Across the border

To a place that once was mine

Out of focus

Out of order

Pictures from another time

 

On the outside

Turning lighter

So much darkness in my eyes

Gas or water

On the fire

Makes no difference

Something dies

 

So I take a piece of who I am

And stretch it thin

Every time I start to feel the walls 

Closing in

I Shed My Skin

 

Come on and take a ride

On the dragon

Hiding out behind the lines

Piling bodies 

On the wagon

Everyone's a friend of mine

 

But when I feel that bitter chill

In the wind

I swear that I can feel the room

Start to spin

So I Shed My Skin

I Shed My Skin, Oh

 

Through the smoke

Through the rubble

Through the crossfire - friends in need

On the inside

Of the bubble

We see what we choose to see - yeah.

 

Heart of Darkness

Hope and anger

The road to freedom paved with fear

Lead me back to

Where I came from

Somewhere far away from here

 

But the light to find my way back home

Is growing dim

And the sirens from behind my walls

Draw me in

So I Shed My Skin

I Shed My Skin

I Shed My Skin

 

Riverside 

©Julie Christensen and Laura Curtis

 Stone Cupid Music BMI, Laura Curtis ASCAP

 

Bought a beater from John Morrow

It was thirty-five dollars without tags

Grabbed the keys

Climbed in through the window,

Goin' down to Riverside

 

I did something

I don't remember

So I can't apologize

In that red dress, she kicked in the fender

Sat down on the road and cried

 

I will get release

I will make my peace

Hit the mud and fly

Demolition time

When the flag goes down

 

In between jobs for building silos

I just barrelled through my pay

Tired of waiting for a sure thing

Goin' down to Riverside

‘Cause they get bored down in Winterset Iowa

Come around to watch us drive

Gonna floor it out onto the highway

Goin’ down to Riverside

 

Bridge: 

Nothin' in this world is made to last

Gas tank under me, window’s got no glass

Safer than a race, 'cause you don't go too fast

When you know you're gonna crash

 

I will get release

I will make my peace

Just like you and I

It’s demolition time

When the flag goes down

 

I ain’t waiting

For a sure thing

Goin' down to Riverside

So grab the keys and climb in through the window

We’re goin' down to Riverside.

 

Broken Wing 

©Laura Curtis and Julie Christensen

Stone Cupid Music BMI, Laura Curtis ASCAP

I see a hologram of us 

Dance across the table

When I rub my eyes

It's just the empty bottles

Like the knowing in your bones

Right before the rain

I could feel the storm coming

In the quiet of your pain

 

Broken Wing

There's no moremedicine
We both knew this kind of hurt

And we went after it again

Broken Wing

Driftin in the wind

When we watched each other fall

It felt like fly____ing

 

I have a photograph of us 

And we're laughing at the sky

But now I can see the hollow aching in our eyes

I can't save the part of you

That doesn't see a way to be

And it's killin me to leave you

But staying here is gonna be the death of me

 

Broken Wing

There's no more medicine

We both knew this kind of hurt

And we went after it again

Broken Wing

Drifting in the wind

When we watched each other fall

It felt like fly____ing

Felt like fly_____________ing

Felt like fly_____________ing

 

Girl In The Sky  © Amelia White

 

It's a long way down when you're standing on a high wire

every tide of the wind can shake you to the bone

lose your focus and the ground will surely break you

 

you asked for the danger, you had to try

you passed on a simple life, your father cried

you wanted to get that high, but it's a long way down

 

Im so lonely I"m only a Girl in the Sky

Far from holy I'm only a dreamer

 

Everybody thinks your life is so exciting 

they'd love to taste the altitudes they' ve never known

when the birds sing out they think of you and wonder

 

how you came to that leap of flight and passed them by

why you changed to a different girl who had to try

how dare you to get so high, but it's a long way down

 

I"m so lonely I'm only a girl in the sky 

far from holy I"m only a dreamer

everyone walked away when they saw that I knew that I might fall

OH I MIGHT FALL…. LORD I MIGHT FALL

 

I'm so lonely I"m only a girl in your eyes

far from holy I"m only a dreamer…….