Beach House on the Moon

May 18, 1999

Beach House On The Moon

Lyrics

Beach House On The Moon
Cameron's getting logical,
A Vulcan in disguise,
The mysteries of the night are
Putting sparkle in his eyes.
He's looking for sound reasoning,
But the best that I can do,
Is this transcendental story,
That I'll pass along to you.

Past the falls they call Victoria,
Down the river named the Nile,
Drifts a tiny little handmade boat,
It's shaped just like a smile.

And steered by a magician,
With the knowledge that he needs,
To keep him on his destined course,
Past the crocodiles and reeds.

He's the Admiral of the ocean,
The Lone Eagle in the sky,
He gave me my first sextant,
And he taught me how to fly.

It's been quite a lengthy passage,
From the dawn of time till now,
He has weathered the infernal storms
In his trusty petite dow.

He has soared about colossal waves,
Sailed the endless sea.
Sometimes he resembles you,
Sometimes he looks like me.

I saw him through my telescope,
On a cloudless night in June,
As he rested between voyages
At his beach house on the moon.

There are windows to the galaxies
And hallways to the past.
There are trapdoors to the future
And a splintered ancient mast.
There are relics from Apollo trips,
When the earthmen came to play,
And a hammock from a distant star,
Out in the Milky Way.

He's the Admiral of the ocean
The Lone Eagle in the sky.
He game me my first sextant
And he taught me how to fly.

I saw him through my telescope
On a cloudless night in June
As he rested between voyages
At his beach house on the moon.

A stripped bass breaks the surface
As the sunset fades away
And our journey from the Sea of Storms
Takes us home beside the bay.
We go fishing in the ocean
We go traveling back in time
Like the song says 'teach your children'
To go fishing with their minds.

Cameron's contemplating
I'm not sure just what he thinks
"Is my dad some kind of lunatic
With his stories and high hi-jinks".
Then he says when I get old and gray
And feel like I'm marooned,
He will take me in his rocket ship
To that beach house on the moon.
Permanent Reminder of a Temporary Feeling

Lyrics

Permanent Reminder of a Temporary Feeling Beach House on the Moon
She was no marine back from the Philippines
She was their pride and job, their incarnation.
Her parents viewed the chief
With shock and disbelief
Looking for some other explanation.

The Indian, her back was poised for an attack.
She said 'a tattoo is a badge of validation'.
But the truth of the matter is far more revealing.
It's a permanent reminder of a temporary feeling.
Chorus
Permanent reminder of a temporary feeling
Amnesic episodes that never go away.
It's no complex momento, it's no subtle revealing.
Just a permanent reminder of a temporary feeling.

Vegas in the rain, drunk on cheap champagne
He hears out of tune synthesized chapel bells
Painfully ringing.
Where's his limo ride? Who's this foreign bride?
Is this really Elvis spinning round the ceiling?
Chorus
Permanent reminder of a temporary feeling,
Forgotten fabrications in the chapels of love.
What is this ring on his finger? Why is he kneeling?
She's just a permanent reminder of a temporary feeling.

Chromosomes and genes, spawn these fateful scenes.
Evolution can be mean, there's no 'dumb ass' vaccine.
Blame your DNA, you're a victim of your fate.
It's human nature to miscalculate.

To make up for the fight they go out for the night.
Sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll seems like the easiest answer.
But a short nine months later, there's no way of concealing,
That permanent reminder of a temporary feeling.
Chorus
Permanent reminder of a temporary feeling
Amnesic episodes that never go away.
Complex momentos, not subtle revealings.
Just a permanent reminder of a temporary feeling.
Waiting for the Next Explosion

Lyrics

Waiting for the Next Explosion Beach House on the Moon
Missing link crouched upon a promontory rock
Tryin' to figure out his biological clock.
No one around to announce his arrival
So he's got to get to work on his sense of survival
Oh Oh, it's a dangerous world.

Over in China they got smart real fast
That's where they invented the man made blast.
They lost a few infers and some bamboo shacks,
But they gave birth to a tribe of pyromaniacs.
Chorus
Oh oh, it's a dangerous world.
Fire in the sky, lava in the ocean,
Sittin' round waitin' for the next explosion

Back in the fifties they thought it made good sense
To teach all the school children about civil defense.
Don't be scared, do not cry,
Just dive under your desk and kiss your ass goodbye.
Chorus
Oh oh, such a dangerous world.
It was a hell of a hustle, paranoia promotion
Waiting at ground zero, for the next explosion.

Where you gonna be
When it hits the fan
Got a plan
What you gonna do
If it lands on you
Where's your point of view.

Down at the beach club there's a sales convention
Night sky is the focus of that crowd's attention.
It's no cosmic collision just a fireworks show,
But they feel it in their hearts when those
Concussion bombs blow.

Oh oh, such a dangerous world
Gunpowder's louder than Newton's laws of motion.
Everybody's waitin' for the next explosion.

Firs in the sky, fallin' on the ocean
Sittin' round waitin' for the next explosion.
Pacing the Cage

Lyrics

Pacing the Cage Beach House on The Moon
Sunset is an angel weeping
Holding out a bloody sword
No matter how I squint I cannot
Make out what it's pointing toward
Sometimes you feel like you've lived too long
The days drip slowly on the page
And you catch yourself
Pacing the cage

I've proved who I am so many times,
The magnetic strip's worn thin
And each time I was someone else
And everyone was taken in.
Powers chatter in high places
Stir up eddies in the dust of rage
Set me to pacing the cage.

I never knew what you all wanted
So I gave you everything.
All that I could pillage
All the spells that I could sing
It's as if the thing were written
In the constitution of the age
Sooner or later you'll wind up
Pacing the cage

Sometimes the best map will not guide you
You can't see what's round the bend.
Sometimes the road leads through dark places
Sometimes the darkness is your friend.
Today these eyes scan bleached-out land,
For the coming of the outbound stage
Pacing the cage...
Flesh And Bone

Lyrics

Flesh and Bone
Beach House on the Moon
If men came from Venus
And women came from Mars,
Then I'd be lunching with my boyfriends
While you girls talked about cigars.

But that's not how it happened;
Evolution took a different turn.
We may be creatures with some unique features
But we've still got a lot to learn.

We've made it nearly twenty centuries
A bunch of monkeys with PHD's.
Spun a web of communications
But it's all still a tangle to me.

I can't tell the spiders
From the dangling flies and moths.
I fell like some outsider,
Who seems to have his wires all crossed.
Chorus
I can't fax you my love.
I can't e-mail you my heart.
I can't see your face in cyberspace,
I don't know where to start.
I'm light years behind from the age the call stone.
I'm a carbon based caveman honey, just flesh and bone.

I ain't no clone, I'm just flesh and bone
Trying to connect with you.
I ain't no clone, I'm just flesh and bone
Tryin' to get the message through.

Now we live in the age computers.
They run everything in the world.
And I'm a little behind on this technical climb
And your are an Internet girl.

I've got words but no processor.
I've got feelings but I don't know DOS.
So I just have to go back to basics
And try to get my point across.

Desperate for a glimpse of the future.,
We use crystals and cards and dice.
And that Y2K is coming our way.
They're talkin' 'bout some worldly strife.

It's time to think of simpler options.
It's time to formulate a big plan B,
So if your hard drive does crash,
I got some Krugerands stashed.
Come on and sail away with me.
Chorus
I ain't no clone, I'm just flesh and bone.
Just trying to connect with you.
I ain't no clone, I'm just flesh and bone.
Let's run away to Timbuktu
I Will Play For Gumbo

Lyrics

I Will Play For Gumbo Beach House on the Moon
I don't smoke, I don't shoot smack
But I got a spicy monkey ridin' on my back.
Don't eat beignets, too much sugar and dough,
But I will play for gumbo
Yes, I will play for gumbo

It started at my Grandma's kitchen by the sea,
She warned me when she told me "son the first one's free"
It hit me like a rock or some Taikwondo,
Cause I will play for gumbo
Oh yea, I will play for gumbo.
Chorus
A piece of French bread
With which to wipe my bowl,
Good for the body.
Good for the soul.
It's a little like religion
And a lot like sex.
You should never know
When you're gonna get it next.
At midnight in the quarter or noon in Thibodeaux
I will play for gumbo
Yes, I will play for gumbo.

I'm not talkin' quesadillas or a dozen Krispy Kremes,
Or a pound of caviar that's a rich man's dream.
No banana split or fillet of pompano.
No, I will play for gumbo,
Yeah, I will play for gumbo
Chorus
Maybe it's the sausage or those pretty pink shrimp
Or that popcorn rice that makes me blow up like a blimp.
Maybe it's that voodoo from Marie Leveaux,
But I will play for gumbo
Yeah, I will play for gumbo

The sauce boss does his cookin' on the stage,
Stirrin' and a singing for his nightly wage.
Sweating and frettin' from his head to his toe,
Playin' and swayin' with the gumbo
Prayin' and buffetin' with the gumbo
Chorus
Math Suks

Lyrics

Math Suks Beach House on the Moon
If necessity is the mother of invention
Then I'd like to kill the guy who invented this
The numbers come together in some kind of a third dimension
A regular algebraic bliss.

Let's start with something simple, like one and one ain't three
Any two plus two will never get you five.
There are fractions in my subtraction and x don't equal y
But my homework is bound to multiply.

Math suks math suks
I'd like to burn this textbook, I hate this stuff so much.
Math suks math suks
Sometimes I think that I don't know that much
But math suks.

I got so bored with my homework, I turned on the TV.
The beauty contest winners were all smiling through their teeth.
Then they asked the new Miss America
Hey babe can you add up all those bucks?
She looked puzzled, then just said
"Math Suks".

Math suks math suks
You don't even have to spell it,
All you have to do is yell it...
Math suks math suks
Sometime times I think that I don't know that much
But math suks.

Geometry, trigonometry and if that don't tax your brain
There are numbers to big to be named
Numerical precision is a science with a mission
And I think it's gonna drive me insane.

Parents fighting with their children, and the Congress can't agree
Teachers and their students are all jousting constantly.
Management and labor keep rattling old sabers
Quacking like those Peabody ducks.

Math suks math suks
You don't even have to spell it,
All you have to do is yell it...
Math suks math suks
Sometime times I think that I don't know that much
But math suks.
Spending Money

Lyrics

Spending Money
Beach House On the Moon
Now I'm not talking 'bout excessive greed.
The kind that puzzled the scribes and Pharisees.
I don't worship it like a golden calf,
But change in my pocket is always good for a laugh.

I've seen it brighten up the eyes of a child
It even makes the Dali Lama smile.
It's no relation tot he meaning of life,
It's a dang fool husband doesn't spring for his wife.
Chorus
A little spending money.
Money to burn.
Money that you did not necessarily earn.
Rainy days seem to wind up sunny,
Long as you got a little spending money.

I got no financial conscience.
Can't worry where it went.
A lasting treasure or a moment of pleasure
Worth it every cent.

Coin or paper baby,
Silver or gold.
All denominations, nouveau or old.
Can't have a turkey without oyster dressing,
It's the root of all evil, the sum of your blessings.

Don't need no armored car or time locked vault,
Don't need no shaker full, just a few grains of salt.
You may get by lookin' good and being funny,
But life's a little less restrained.
Chorus
With a little spending money.
Money to burn.
Money that you did not necessarily earn.
Rainy days seem to wind up sunny,
Long as you got a little spendin' money...
Long as you got a little spendin' money...
Semi-True Story

Lyrics

Semi-True Story Beach House on the Moon
With his head out the sunroof
And his heart in the right place
Plan B was fool proof.
He drove off to her place,
And yelled out his feelings
Among other stuff.

It was too much tequila
Or not quite enough
It was too much tequila
Or not quite enough.

It's a semi-true story
Believe it or not
I made up a few things
And there's some I forgot.
But the life and the tellin'
Are both real to me
And they all run together and turn out to be
A semi-true story.

Well, the picture is fuzzy,
And the details are sordid.
It was on the same day
God's Own Drunk was recorded.
A walkin' tall sheriff
And a big Cadillac
And me and my golf shoes
On the hood makin' tracks.
This daring young singer
Was under attack.

It's a semi-true story
Believe it or not
I made up a few things
And there's some I forgot.
But the life and the tellin'
Are both real to me
And they all run together and turn out to be
A semi-true story.

Well, the things that I've lived
And I've dreamed
And I've seen
And I've heard
You take the good with the bad
And be glad to have every word.

It's a semi-true story
Believe it or not
I made up a few things
And there's some I forgot.
But the life and the tellin'
Are both real to me
And they run like the rain
All the way to the sea.
Semi-true stories.
Lucky Stars

Lyrics

Lucky Star
Beach House on the Moon
Woke up just the other day
Fell out of bed and my dog ran away.
The car won't start and the weather was cold and gray.
I got stuck in a traffic jam,
My major meeting didn't go as I planned.
Looks like it's gonna be another one of those days.

I got a roof over my head,
Someone to love me in a four poster bed,
And I can play this here guitar
I thank my lucky stars.

Politicians speak and it makes me ill...
People are dyin' just for a thrill.
Maybe it's just evolution gone astray.

The climate's too hot, music's gotten cold,
I've livin' like a health nut but I still grow old.
You do what you can on the edge of the Milky Way.

Got a roof over my head,
Someone to love me in a four poster bed,
And I can play this here guitar
Gonna thank my lucky stars.

Wrapped up in the problems of the day,
Just remember there's no rewind and no replay.
Don't you worry cause it ain't gonna fix a thing.

Woke up just the other day,
Thought that maybe I'd be OK,
Cause the story I've been getting
Ain't written anywhere.

Got a roof over my head,
Someone to love me in a four poster bed,
And I can play this here guitar
Gonna thank my lucky stars.

Got a roof over my head,
Someone to love me in a four poster bed,
And I can play this here guitar
I thank my lucky stars.
Gonna thank my lucky stars.
Thank you stars.
You Call It Joggin'

Lyrics

You Call it Joggin'Beach House on the Moon
You call it joggin' , I call it runnin' around
You say you're losing weight but you ain't lost a pound.
While you're out joggin' with your other friends,
I'm home feeding the kids again.
You call it joggin', I call it runnin' around.
You call it joggin', I call it runnin' around,
It's the best release you say you've ever found.
Your friends all smile and agree
Yeah, you were runnin' around on me.
You call it joggin', I call it runnin' around.
Somebody said they saw you down at the corner
Getting out of some strangers car.
You come home after runnin' for hours
Ain't even breathing hard.
You call it joggin', I call it runnin' around.
The soles of your runnin' shoes they ain't wearing down.
While you're out runnin' up and down the streets
I'm tryin' to get the kids to sleep.
You call it joggin', I call it runnin' around.
You've been out since five p.m.
It's now thirty minutes past ten.
You blow in all out of breath,
Honey, you've been drinking gin again?
You call it joggin', I call it runnin' around.
Draggin' that silly old towel all over town.
You come home grinning with your hair all wet,
Smelling like shampoo instead of sweat.
You call it joggin', I call it runnin' around
Oh yeah,
You call it joggin', I call it runnin' around.
I Don't Know And I Don't Care

Lyrics

I Don't Know and I Don't Care
Beach House on the Moon
Why does the sunset in the west?
And why does my heart keep beating in my chest?
What ever happened to the Duke of Earl?
I got a PBS mind in a MTV world.
Is it ignorance or apathy
I forgot these lessons taught to me.
Some say life isn't fair,
Hey, I don't know, I don't care.
Ambivalent, well, yes and no.
Hey where did all the hippies go?
Our conversation sounds like actors' lines.
Is it time for your medication or mine?
Is it ignorance or apathy
I forgot these lessons taught to me.
Some say life isn't fair,
Hey I don't know, I don't care.
Therapy is extremely expensive.
Poppin' bubblie wrap is radically cheap.
You choose which one helps with your problem.
I'm gonna get some sleep.
I'm gonna get some sleep.
Sandy beaches in distant reaches
And oh those lovely Georgia peaches.
It's never too much and never too late
To pack your bags and get out of state.
Is it ignorance or apathy
The worried will all disagree.
Some say life isn't fair,
Hell, I don't know and I don't care.
If you're looking for a quote from me
I'll be under the mango tree.
Just can't say how I'll get there
Hey, I don't know and I don't care.
I don't know and I don't' care.
I don't know and I don't care.
At his beach house on the moon
Oysters and Pearls

Lyrics

Oysters and Pearls
Beach House on the Moon
Lindbergh left Long Island in 1927
Thumbed his nose at gravity
And climbed into the heavens.
When he returned to earth that night everything changed,
For the pilot and the planet, everything was rearranged.
We're a pretty mixed up bunch
Of crazy human beans
It's written on our rocket ships
And in early cave wall scenes.
How does it happen,
How do we know,
Who sits and watches
Who does the show?

Chorus
Some people love to lead
And some refuse to dance.
Some play it safely, other take a chance.
Still it's all a mystery
This place we call the world
Where most live as oysters
While some become pearls.
Elvis was the only man from Northeast Mississippi
Who could shake his hips and still be loved by rednecks, cops and hippies.
It's something more than DNA that tells us who we are
It's method and it's magic, we are of the stars.

Chorus
Some never fade away, some crash and burn
Some make the world go round, other watch it turn.
Still it's all a mystery
This place we call the world.
Most are fine as oysters
While some become pearls.

Beach House on the Moon

Beach House on the Moon Tracks