Standing In The Breach

1. THE BIRDS OF ST. MARKS

Oh how sad they sound the songs
The Queen must sing of dying
The prisoner upon her throne,
The melancholy sighing
If she could see her mirror now
She would be free of those who bow
And scrape the ground beneath her feet

Silently she walks among
Her dying midnight roses
And watches as each moment goes
That never really knows us
And so it seems she doesn't care
If she has dreams of no one there
Within the shadows of her room

And all my frozen words agree and say it's time
To call back all the birds I sent
To fly behind her castle walls
And I'm weary of the nights I've seen
Inside these empty halls

Wooden lady turn and turn
Among my weary secrets
And wave within the hours past
And other empty pockets
Maybe we've found what we have lost
When we've unwound so many crossed,
Entangling misunderstandings

But all my frozen words agree and say it's time
To call back all the birds I sent
To fly behind her castle walls
And I'm weary of the nights

Words and music by Jackson Browne (Open Window Music, ASCAP/ Criterion, ASCAP)
All Rights Reserved

2. YEAH YEAH

You know I don't lead you and you know I don't feed you no lies
And it's not up to me to tell you what you see through your eyes
You know girl sometimes I just don't know
Where it is you still think you can go
Without taking my world with you maybe you don't realize
Yeah yeah

That time that I met you there's something that set you apart
The smile on your face, or your lips, or the taste of your heart
You followed me away from your home
And we're out here in this world on our own
And it's too late to go back and it's too late to leave me alone
Yeah yeah

'Cause you paid for the love that we've got, you paid
And you made for the heart when we fought and you stayed
Was it strength or your pride that sent you back inside
For the love that you paid for
Or was it for the love that we've made
Yeah yeah

You know I don't lead you and you know I don't feed you no lies
Maybe I didn't come with instructions like some other guys
You see me standing at the window with our world at my back
And my eyes down the road
Staring at the wreckage of a lifetime strewn along the track
And the seeds I sowed
You think I'm wishing I was some other place but in fact
I'm right here
With my shoulder to the wheel
And my heart in the deal
Yeah yeah
And you can see it's not always easy
And maybe that makes you crazy
But can you see that I've bet all I had
That you'd go on making me glad
That I found your love in this world
After times were so bad
Yeah yeah

And you paid for the love that we've got, you paid
And you made for the heart when we fought and you stayed
Is it faith or your will
That keeps you hanging on still
For the love that you paid for
Or is it for the love that we've made
Yeah yeah

By Jackson Browne
Swallow Turn Music, ASCAP
All Rights Reserved

3. THE LONG WAY AROUND

I don't know what to say about these days
I'm seeing people changing in the strangest ways
Even in the richer neighborhoods
People don't know when they've got it good
They've got the envy, and they've got it bad

When I was a kid everything I did was trying to be free
Running up and down Tinsel Town with the fire inside of me
My planets all in retrograde, the best of all my plans got laid
I made my breaks, and some mistakes
Just not the ones people think I made

Now I'm a long way gone
Down this wild road I'm on
It's going to take me where I'm bound
But it's the long way around

It's so hard keeping track of what's gone wrong
The covenant unravels, and the news just rolls along
I could feel my memory letting go some two or three disasters ago
It's hard to say which did more ill
Citizens United or the Gulf oil spill

And I'm a long way gone
Down this wild road I'm on
It's going to take me take me where I'm bound
But it's the long way around

It's never been that hard to buy a gun
Now they'll sell a Glock 19 to just about anyone
The seeds of tragedy are there
In what we feel we have the right to bear
To watch our children come to harm
There in the safety of our arms
With all we disagree about
The passions burn, the heart goes out

And we're a long way gone
Down this wild road we're on
It's going to take us where we're bound
It's just the long way around

By Jackson Browne
Swallow Turn Music, ASCAP
All Rights Reserved

4. LEAVING WINSLOW

I'm walkin' all around lookin' up and down this railroad
I'm walkin' all around lookin' up and down this train
All I gotta see is a place for me to grab a hold of
And I'll be on this train and I won't be back again

I'm over qualified for any other ride I can think of
I got a PhD in Sun and Wind and Rain
I had a reservation 'bout every occupation
I was ever on the brink of
'Til the day my heart got given to the rhythm of the train

Station to station, coast to coast
Not that much of anything in mind
No expectations, way less than most
But I wanted to see Winslow one more time

I'm walkin' all around, lookin' up and down this railroad
I'm walkin' all around, lookin' up and down this town
I'll bid adeau to the precious few I knew here
And I'll be on my way and I won't be back around

My mother married an oxygenarian ladies man
He'd take her dancing with a tank of oxygen
The ladies kept him goin'
He'd recite for them his favorite koan
He specialized in Western Swing and Zen

Station to station, coast to coast
Not that much of anything in mind
No expectations, way less than most
As long as I got oxygen and wine

I keep on hearing 'bout the disappearing ozone layer
I keep on hearing 'bout the disappearing Greenland Shelf
I keep hearing all about the disappearing middle class
I figure I'll be doing some disappearing myself

By Jackson Browne
Swallow Turn Music, ASCAP
All Rights Reserved

5. IF I COULD BE ANYWHERE

Sliding on the shimmering surface between two worlds
Standing at the center of time as it uncurls
Cutting through the veil of illusion
Moving beyond past conclusions
Rendering all doubt and confusion clear

If I could be anywhere
If I could be anywhere
If I could be anywhere right now
I would want to be here

Searching for the future among the things we're throwing away
Swimming through the ocean of junk we produce every day
You have to admit it's clever
Maybe the pinnacle of human endeavor
When things are made to throw away but never made to disappear

If I could be anywhere
If I could be anywhere
If I could be anywhere in time
I would want to be here

The Romans, the Spanish, the British, the Dutch
American exceptionalism - so out of touch
Successions of empire repeating its course
Extracting the wealth and ruling by force
On and on through time

But the world can't take it very much longer
And we won't make it 'less we're smarter and stronger
The world's going to shake itself free of our greed somehow

If I could be anywhere
If I could be anywhere in time
If I could be anywhere and change things
It would have to be now

They say nothing lasts forever
But all the plastic ever made is still here
And no amount of closing our eyes will make it disappear
And the world can't take it very much longer

And we won't make it 'less we're smarter and stronger
The world's going to shake itself free of our greed somehow
And the world can't take it, that you can see
If the oceans don't make it neither will we
The world's going to shake itself all the way free somehow

If I could be anywhere
If I could be anywhere in time
If I could be anywhere and change the outcome
It would have to be now

By Jackson Browne
Swallow Turn Music, ASCAP
All Rights Reserved

6. YOU KNOW THE NIGHT

You know the night I met you
My eyes had been looking for you
All over everywhere
Over low roads, down highways, and bald deserts

You know the night
You know the night

Your eyes had this same shine about 'em, I noticed
And when I first looked through the wild, wayward mist
I felt such a warm friendly, cool sunny smile
That I wanted to look in your eyes for all time

And I felt like you feel
When you feel like the angels are curling your hair
And you feel like the devil is scratching your heel
I just felt like you feel
When you feel like the angels are curling your hair
And you feel like the devil is scratching your heel

Did you feel this way too when I met you?
You know the night I first met you
Did you look at me and think
Here's this guy who hopes like I hope
And sees the same kind of dreams I see
'Cause you wondered, I know
If your hopes could find shape
In the words that we used there to work back the fog
Your hopes and your plans for the good of the people
Could all of your hundred and one
Dreams just as bright as the sun
And all your wants and your hottest desires
Find shape in the flow of my talk?
You know the night
You know the night

And if my jellied brain turns to ashes and sand
There will still be such night smiles across all the land
There will still be such faces meeting here in the dark
And there around the corner, or maybe in the park
It's when we meet this way and we look at each other
We get a hold of our scattered aims and we bring em'
And beat them and wrestle and fight them and heat them
And beat them and weld them together
Like iron from the valley and fire from the sky
Like iron from the valley and fire from the sky
Like iron from the valley and fire from the sky
This blast furnace heat burns in our people's eyes

You know the night I met you
My eyes had been looking for you
All over everywhere
Over low roads, down highways, and bald deserts

And I felt like you feel
When you feel like the angels are curling your hair
And you feel like the devil is scratching your heel
I just felt like you feel
When you feel like the angels are curling your hair
And you feel like the devil is scratching your heel
Words written by Woody Guthrie and music written by Jackson Browne and Rob Wasserman (Woody Guthrie Publications, Inc., BMI/ Swallow Turn Music, ASCAP/ Steep Music, BMI)
All Rights Reserved

7. WALLS AND DOORS

Ever since the world's existed
There's one thing that is certain
There are those who build walls
And those who open doors
Ah but this my love I'm thinking you already knew

For some it's always winter
While others have the spring
Some people find good fortune
While others never find a thing
Ah but this my love is something you already knew

That's how it's always been
And I know you know it
There can be freedom only when nobody owns it
I'm going to say that again
Because I know you know it
There can be freedom only when nobody owns it

Of what use is the moon if you don't have the night?
Of what use is a windmill with no Quixote left who'll fight?
Ah but this my love is something you already knew
At some point on the horizon
Sky can be confused with earth
Some people dream of God
While others dream of wealth
But of course my love this is what you see out on the street

It's how it's always been
And I know you know it
There can be freedom only when nobody owns it
Let me say that again
Because I know that we both know it
There can be freedom only when nobody owns it
When nobody owns it
When nobody owns it

Ever since the world's existed
There's one thing that is certain
Some people build walls
Others open doors

Written by Carlos Varela, English translation by Jackson Browne (Graffiti Music Group, Ltd, SGAE)
All Rights Reserved

8. WHICH SIDE?

You might be a young man with the mountain in his step
In search of El Dorado, but you haven't found it yet
Or you might be an old man with his whole life at his back
And you can hear eternity whispering down the track
Or maybe you're a woman, or just about to be
And you can feel the generations swimming in your sea
But you know that it's coming, as surely as the dawn
The battle for the future, baby, which side are you on?

Come on come on come on if you're coming
Come on come on come on
Come on come on come on if you're coming
Which side are you on?
Come on come on come on if you're coming
Battle lines are drawn
Come on come on come on if you're coming
Which side - which side are you on?

Which side?
The corporations attacking
The natural world - drilling and fracking
All done with the backing of the craven and corrupt
Or the ones who fight
For the Earth with all their might
And in the name of all that's right
Confront and disrupt

There's a restlessness out in the street there's a question in the air
How long if this theft goes on will our country still be here?
People know the game is rigged even as they play
They see their expectations slowly slip away
They've got subsidies for billionaires, there's a bailout for the banks
A monopoly on medicine, and a sale on armored tanks
The whole damned country's being sold - out that revolving door
Between Washington and Wall Street like it's one big Dollar Store

Come on come on come on if you're coming
Come on come on come on
Come on come on come on if you're coming
Which side are you on?
Come on come on come on if you're coming
Battle lines are drawn
Come on come on come on if you're coming
Which side - which side are you on?

Which side?
The bankers and their special friends
Who rob you time and again
Who like to pretend they're the only game in town
Or the people who
Hope with everything they do
They can build something new
And turn this world around

Who owns the elections? Who profits either way?
Who ends up with all that money politicians pay?
To be the fearless leader, to put themselves across
To be the one entrusted with the profit and the loss
You try hard to believe that when you cast your vote it counts
But elections are won with money in ever larger amounts
Take the money out of politics and maybe we might see
This country turn back into something more like democracy

Come on come on come on if you're coming
Come on come on come on
Come on come on come on if you're coming
Which side are you on?
Come on come on come on if you're coming
Battle lines are drawn
Come on come on come on if you're coming
Which side - which side are you on?
By Jackson Browne
Swallow Turn Music, ASCAP
All Rights Reserved

9. STANDING IN THE BREACH

And though the earth may tremble and our foundations crack
We will all assemble and we will build them back
And rush to save the lives remaining still within our reach
And try to put our world together standing in the breach

So many live in poverty while others live as kings
Though some may find peace
In the acceptance of all that living brings
I will never understand however they've prepared
How one life may be struck down and another life be spared

And though the earth may tremble and cast our works aside
And though our efforts resemble the fluctuating tide
We rise and fall with the trust and belief
That love redeems us each
And bend our backs and hearts together standing in the breach

You don't know why it's such a far cry
From the world this world could be
You don't know why but you still try
For the world you wish to see
You don't know how it will happen now
After all that's come undone
But you know the change the world needs now
Is there, in everyone

The unpaid debts of history
The open wounds of time
The laws of human nature always tugging from behind
I want to think that the earth can heal
And that people might still learn
How to meet this world's true challenges
And that the course we're on could turn

And though the earth may tremble and the oceans pitch and rise
We will all assemble and we will lift our eyes
To the tasks that we know lie before us
And the power our prayers beseech
And cast our souls into the heavens, standing in the breach

You don't know why it's such a far cry
From the world this world could be
You don't know why but you still try
For the world you wish to see
You don't know how it's going to happen now
After all that's come undone
And you know the world you're waiting for may not come
No it may not come
But you know the change the world needs now
Is there, in everyone
By Jackson Browne
Swallow Turn Music, ASCAP
All Rights Reserved

10. HERE

You wait for the tears to fall but they won't
You think you should know what to say but you don't
Here at the break of day
The world moving on its way
Without her

You're sitting there staring into the distance
Like you're putting up some kind of resistance
But you barely see the dawn
It's like this river that you're on
Here where the sorrows flow
And all you will never know about her

Here
You're here

The city waking up off in the distance
They're all working on some other existence
But you don't quite seem to care
It's like you know they're not going anywhere
Here where the sorrows flow
Here where the questions grow
And all you will never know about her

You wait for the tears to fall but they won't
You think you should know what to say but you don't
Here at the break of dawn
The world moving on
Without her

By Jackson Browne
Swallow Turn Music, ASCAP
All Rights Reserved

Discography

Standing In The Breach