"No Rider" Lyrics
©2011, Brian Martin

Tale Of A Boy

Your phone rang as I was singing you my brand new tune, and when you answered it you know I fell out of love with you.
You don't look so pretty to me anymore. Your eyes don't blind me like before. 
Well girl you know I'm sensitive, and I'm so tired of feeling like a fool. 

A good friend of mine always says to me, she's happy when I'm heart broke and alone, says I write better songs in misery.
Well I don't wanna be a martyr for a song. But I don't mind if you all wanna sing along.
Man you know I'd lay it all on the line, If I wasn't so afraid of getting it wrong. 

You said you were leaving me then you asked me for a kiss, and I still can't believe that I caved in to your request. 
I can't believe you cashed your chips in on me. Cause all I've known you do is let it ride.
Guess you were tired of me trying to get close to you, like I was so tired of you pushing me to the side. 

I shed a tear this morning as I crawled out of my bed. Last nights alcohol was still pounding in my head.
And I thought of you for just one second. And I blurred the line of just who is to blame.
Well girl if you're waiting on me to say the perfect things, don't waste your time or your shackles or your chains.

Your phone rang as I was singing you my brand new tune, and when you answered it you know I fell out of love with you.

 

Kerosene Dream

Oh mothers don't you fear, they ain't gonna drop no bomb over here.
Won't be a bang, won't be a boom, just a TV set in your living room.
It's coming in loud, coming in clear, coming like a freight train through your ear. 
What you gonna do, what you gonna say, when they take your boys, take your boys' bones away? 

Feeding us lies, preaching us fear, oh my child the end is near.
Now now widows don't you cry you know all God's children one day gotta die. 

Everybody's chasing American dreams, soaked in blood and kerosene.
Hoping for a flame, waiting on a spark, hoping nobody's gonna blow them all apart.
Well all I ask and all I crave, is a lonely walk to a noisy grave.
Cause in the end we'll separate the rags we wear, from the rags we wave. 

Spoon fed head, your thought's been bled, you cry out to God from the devils' bed.
Knick knack paddy whack throw a bum a bone I can chew or spew your views on my own.
Teacher wrote me a history, Doctor cook up a new disease
Preacher man make a shiny new lord and Mr. President well, he built me a war.
Don't know what I'm fighting for.


Say it ain't so the levee won't hold, the sea's spilling over like an oil well blows
They're heading for the raft, heading for the roof, heading for the water man they're heading for the loot
Not enough rich in a poor black town, not enough dead to get the white house down
Not enough help, not enough hope, not enough hands to plug this here hole.
To plug this here hole

 

Dogs

All our words are heavy, all the meaning lost, I'd trade flesh for soul no matter what it cost
All our lies are new, all our tears are old, all the nights are long, when all the roads back home are closed

All our saving graces, all our hidden fears, all our holes revealed when the light shines down here
I won't cave in easy but I'll cave in just the same, won't crash into your body like I'll crash into your brain

I ain't gonna call the dogs off of you and me just yet. We made this bed of lies and now we gotta sleep on it. 
We dig our holes deeper just to bury more regret. I ain't gonna call the dogs off of you and me just yet. 

There's dreamers quitting dreams, strangers loving blind. Lonely hearts unguarded creeping through that firing line
We've no commitment needed, let em all label us. Watch em gather round as we paint this town with a brand new coat of dust

Got no patience for your pleading. Got no time for your tears. You cry out for forgiveness. But it sounds like a whisper to my ear.

 

Mud On My Boots

Got mud on my boots, I got mud on my memory, mud on my thoughts on this world I don't know
You tell all your tales and you sell all your secrets, when all eyes are on you you've nothing to show

Love is a blind man, love is a poor girl, love is discretion being tossed to the wind
A face full of hard times, a head full of gray skies, a day without echoes and a night that won't end

But where's the emergency exit door. The loves of my life are crumbled up on the floor
You tell me you love me I tell you what for, cause once I am gone I'll be gone for good.
Once I am gone it's for good

Youth's on the corner, he gives me the finger, death's at my door step preaching heaven and hell
Hopes in a trash bag, down by the curbside, health's in the mailbox and wishing me well

 

County Fair

If all of the roads go the same direction and all of the signs give the same reflection
why, why do I sit here alone
If the stars in the skies of her eyes are crying and everything alive is slowly dying
what's the use in pushing on
If the pain don't sting and the blood don't flow, if the wounds don't seal and the scars don't show
then how we gonna learn to move on
If ya get lost or led astray and all the dead ends start to look the same
I hope my love will lead you home

Maybe letting go is the only way we can hold on
Maybe we gotta lose our way just to find where we belong
Maybe moving on is the only way to bring you home
But it's probably gonna be another long cold night alone

Well if the day slips by and the sun drips low and a little more dough in your hand is all you got to show
you've got nothing to show
Well it seems these days in our wants and our ways, we're two rats racing through the craze of a cruel world's maze

Running till we fade away
And the struggles we consume keep us quick on the go, and the love we hide gets lost in the love we show
There ain't no room for love to grow
I need a mountain to love you need a mole hill to leave, we dove into a puddle and we found it was as deep as the sea
But not the one that swept you from me

 

A.M.

The moon in the sky's gonna save me tonight, the moon in the sky's gonna save me tonight
Feeling kind of lost, looking for some light, the moon in the sky's gonna save me tonight
The song on the radio's coming through smooth and slow. The song on the radio's coming through smooth and slow
Feeling washed up, kind of feeling low. The song on the radio's coming through smooth and slow

Loneliness is setting in again, and it's been so long since I seen my friends
They've all moved on, and time moved in
That old blacktop road gets me feeling fine, listening to the wind and the engine whine
Life becomes a whisper in the tunnel of time again
But it only gets to feeling like this in the early A.M.

The chill of the night gonna cut me to the bone, the chill of the night gonna cut me to the bone
I'm feeling more alive, feeling more alone, the chill of the night gonna cut me to the bone

 

Glass Half Fool

Let us finish off this half empty glass, I think it's finally sprung a leak on us at last, oh at last, oh at last
Let us pose for love's photograph, I think I blinked, and I think that you laugh, oh I think that you laugh

Well I write softly blue to you but you always read in red, no matter what I said, no matter what I said

Let us take the ornaments from this tree, well this season tried to save us, but the year is fading fast for you and me
Let's not hide behind this same old song and dance, cause our four left feet are aching, and this record skips at every chance it gets

And nothing done can't be undone, but sometimes it's best to cut your losses and run

Let us finish off this half empty glass, I think it's finally sprung a leak on us at last, oh at last, oh at last

 

Right Road Soon

Well the bottom's falling out and the country's full of doubt, and both birds are singing me a tune
I don't care what it takes, I don't care what ties will break, I just wanna be on the right road soon
Well I'm tired of pointing fingers, and I'm tired of laying blame, and it's time I let my free voice ring
I'm tired of empty promises and I'm tired of this old game, and I'm tired of hearing those caged birds sing

Well I wanna be on the right road soon, I wanna be on the right road soon
Well I'm cashing in your promises so deliver me some truth, cause I wanna be on the right road soon

Trade back my education for the arm and leg it cost, while we're broke down on this road to nowhere
I'd rather keep on moving even if it gets me lost, hell I'd probably learn a little more while I'm there
Who's gonna right the wrong, when their holding all the guns, and they're giving us and eye for an eye
And who's gonna hear our song, when the words all come out wrong, and who's gonna share our battle cry

Hypocrisies, monopolies, and bureaucratic policies, well there spinning smoke and mirrors round my head
They rot the roots, and starve the seeds, and hide the forest in the trees, all to keep there machines well fed. 

 

Memphis

I wanna sleep inside your thoughts, rest my head on the words you said, understand the stones that break you
I wanna feel the pain you feel, wanna crawl the roads you walk, I wanna talk the talk you talk
I've seen a flame dance in your eyes, heard a whisper in your cries, begging for a new disguise
You bring a taste I can't resist, I'll bring a face no one will miss, and we'll slowly burn into the night

I wonder if they'll pray for me and dream the dreams that I'll never reach
I wonder if they'll carry on the loneliness crowded on that city street
What do you see from the outside looking in on me, cause I don't think I'll wear this skin again
I hope you think of me when I'm closer to the love I seek cause I'll never be back this way again

I felt the storm closing in, saw the crowd raging on, watched the moon dance to a song
I wanna go but don't wanna ride, wanna run don't wanna hide, one of these days I'll get it right
I wanna see but I'm scared to look, wanna shake but not be shook, wanna know the things that shake you
I wanna turn you inside out, pull the words out of your mouth, I wanna be the one to break you

 

Mile Markers

Give your love to God cause I don't want it anymore. Give your lips to someone new and the smile they once wore.
Give your heart a memory let it know what we once had. Give your hate to me, cause this indifference drives me mad


Give your mind to drugs, you know they'll teach you how to cry. Give your bones to earth, you know it bathes you when you die.
Give your lies to me, just like you've done all along. Give me back my wasted time, and I'll unwrite this song

We ain't gonna get out of this alive. When all is said and done, they'll just be you and I, 
going our own ways, like two strangers passing by.

Give your words to books, no one reads them anymore. Give your thoughts to youth, watch them spit em on the floor.
Give your wings to worry, teach it how to fly away. Give your life to death, you know that you do it everyday.

We ain't gonna get out of this alive. When all is said and done, they'll just be you and I,
going our own ways, like two strangers passing by. 

And I earned every single tear that I shed for you. For all of the things that you said to me and all of the pain that you put me through.
And as I drive this point across and I resurrect your memory. I can't quit thinking bout the love I lost and how you got the best of me.
But now the mile markers are flying by and the road ahead is getting clear. And heartache in the rear view mirror seems smaller than it once appeared.
And I begin to open my blind eyes wide for the first time...
I begin to finally realize a few things for the first time, in a long time...
I start to see things a little clear for the first time
And it's time...
To move on.