Somewhere Better

Sunday morning in the park Characters all play their parts Some of them just passing through But most have been here longer than you Oh won't you come on down to the rolling hills of Boston Town? People passing on the street Most are folks you'll never meet Don't tell them hi or try to talk Just ask them "which way's Fenway Park?" Oh won't you come on down to the rolling hills of Boston Town? Roaming up and down the road Say you've got no place to go If you got nothing, walk for free If you've got an hour, take the T Oh won't you come on down to the rolling hills of Boston Town? Now howling winds are sure to blow In summer heat or frozen snow Don't let them blow you away too far If you get lost, just find the Charles Oh won't you come on down to the rolling hills of Boston Town? Now two streets forward, one street back What square is this, what park is that? Looks like where we started at And now I've got a train to catch

Standing on the corner, filling meters up with dimes My friend's one block over working hard at writing lines I moved somewhere better, it was better for a time now I wonder what I left behind Standing on a path above a swampy autumn creek Making up some stories for an audience of trees And I moved somewhere better, it was better for a week I saw a picture, now it's hard to breathe Standing on the corner, looking back to where I came Saturday morning echoes seven blocks away I moved somewhere better, it was better for a day I often question why I moved away

I loved her because She was just like who I was And my ego felt a buzz Cos although we'd fight and fuss When something was done, it was done She would tell me if she thought she won But I never really learned much Cos in time I knew the day would come And easy went the day When we'd walk the same old way Till we felt the season change And the wind blew down that lane So down went our house of hay Aw, she knew what I was gonna say How unprepared were we to face That single track minded place And the next, well I loved her Cos she was nothing like the first Every single thought reversed To me now, is slightly worse Cos I never loved her for her It's what she didn't do that I preferred 'Tween the two, I would choose the third Aw, I guess I never really learned And yet she loved me so So I was patient saying no And where she wanted me to go Had no time for being slow So the nights I spent untangling rope Once it straightened out, it really showed If it took me that much time to know Then the doubt would never cease to grow

I really don't care 'Bout your makeup or hair The items you wear Believe you me darling no mind is put there For your breasts could be square Or barely there With all of the thought I've put toward this affair I'm honest I swear Oh, I really don't care For the only thing I'm really caring to do Is please you, please you, please you Oh, I need to, I need to, I need to Oh darling, please let me please you No I couldn't care less 'Bout your anger or stress Your town or your zip code or your home address What makes you feel depressed Or your greatest success Which coworker you're trying hard to impress Darling, give it a rest Although half said in jest I still couldn't care less Oh, the only thing I'm really caring to do Is please you, please you, please you Oh, I need to, I need to, I need to Oh darling, please let me please you I don't give a damn Whoever I am With any request I will change on command For I have no demands A positionless stand I'll change what I think with the wave of a hand I'm a malleable man A mind made of sand I just don't give a damn Oh the only thing I'm really caring to do Is please you, please you, please you Oh, I need to, I need to, I need to Oh darling, please let me please you Doesn't matter to me Which thoughts that you keep Which secrets you speak Which person or interest you're seeming to pique Which day of the week Or which havoc you wreak Which story you read Or which ending you seek Which side you believe It doesn't matter to me For the only thing I'm really caring to do Is please you, please you, please you Oh, I need to, I need to, I need to Oh darling, please let me please you

Well I read in the paper the other day That rent's been rising for six decades So to make sure I've got some job security Thought I'd look for a new opportunity Going into finance, yippee Well I've heard if I climb that corporate ladder I'll get me an office and I'll finally matter So I found over a thousand positions And to each one, gave a thorough submission Only took me two days, with some help And although I applied to a gob I only got me an interview with just one job So I walked in there, dressed up to the nines I even put an extra knot in my tie That means extra professional I met forty people that day I learned and forgot thirty-nine names The only one I remembered because He told me what his job was Senior Vice President of the Regional Department of Developmental Financial Planning and Analysis His name was Paul Johnson Well I quickly noticed, but didn't say That he'd never read my resume No matter, it seemed he was none the wiser Cos I'd not read the job description either Look at me, fitting in already Now he talked about some other candidates Some Yale and Harvard graduates He liked that I didn't come up that way Cos those folks would just agree with everything he'd say I said "no comment" He stood up, said "you're a pretty good man" I reached on out and I shook his hand He walked me out and down the hall He said "have a good one, we'll give you a call" Never did say when, though So I never did hear back from that joint And it's gotten me thinking, I mean, what's the point I'm healthy, I'm young, I'm willing, I'm able And I'm still looking for something more stable You know, at this point, I might just have to become a folk singer

So my mother was a-calling I told her I was doing fine So my mother was a-calling She turned to a familiar line "you've got time to do nothing, but nothing's just a waste of time" So he handed me a camera Said "thank me when you're sixty-five" So he handed me a camera Said "thank me when you lose your mind" Well I took some time for pictures But they wound up just taking mine So I shared some time with them Said I'd see them all around So I shared some time with them Said I'd see them when I'm back in town Now the only thing I'm seeing are the reasons I was getting out So I heard the room a-clapping I thanked them all for stopping in So I heard the room a-clapping And I told them they should come again Well I heard them all leaving but the silence, it was deafening So she handed me a jacket Said "wear it, it'll keep you warm" So she handed me a jacket Said "you'll need it for the snowflake storm" Now I'm standing here freezing Wondering what I would've been before

Just because something is acceptable Doesn't make it founded in principle It just makes you feel more comfortable to be unethical Intolerably radical Honorably hypocritical You elected this new president With an old kind of rhetoric Saying "hey, I'll make it great, the same as days when we could safely state our hatred 'gainst a race, cos it's okay now to be prejudiced xenophobic nationalists racist segregationists" Oh just because you have more power than I Doesn't mean you earned the right To control anybody else's life And I know you'd agree Cos if I told you who to be You'd make me bend upon my knees The barrel pointed down at me And wait for my apology To come before you count to three Seething with your liberty

Good luck, Carolina For I've been newly smitten And I don't expect that I'll be coming home So don't ask again tomorrow Set down your stone When you left it all behind you Well, it could be rewritten And to others, you had never been alone For all your wrongs could be righted Or requited Good luck, dear my darling The moment that it hit me I was heading on and wasn't turning back Well, I fell into a-dreaming The sky was gleaming Suzie-Day, I'm a-starting Since I moved to the city Just to count the windows, I keep losing track But each time that I try it The sun shines brightest Good luck, dear, my honey With everything I'm seeing Well, it's no surprise that we've grown apart Though the lyrics now are fading Your song keeps playing Cos you're still hearing from me For everything I'm being Wouldn't be at all if you didn't start So thank you for your history I know you'll miss me

Misery is trying to control what we have Fooled ourselves into thinking we can So I'll make it up as I go along And I'll look back to the vacuum And thank my lucky stars I'm here Indifference negates the point of existence Curiosity's creativity is the skill of man So I'll make it up as I go along And I'll look towards it, the darkness And thank my lucky stars I'm here Happiness is taking credit for coincidences What we attribute to our mortal hand So I'll make it up as I go along And I'll begin to continue And thank my lucky stars I'm here

I saw beauty the other day I let her in, but she could not stay So I let her go, a memory The vision of her, it quickly fades And mere words cannot simply say So I revel in the feeling till it, too, leaves I met silence a time ago She's not one to say much, you know So I sat with her We watched the water flow down the creek We heard the birds singing in the trees And now, whenever I see her, I kiss her Time, old Time, she's got a plan And I, oh, I'm nothing but a mortal man So here I sit, and I thank her all I can I saw darkness just yesterday He was leaning in over my doorway So I tipped my cap, said goodbye He followed, said "you don't understand" "you reach out and I grab your hand" I said "no, I think I've got it this time" I saw a wave a time before Reeling round, heading for the shore Frantic, worried he was soon to be nothing But the wave behind him, she calmed him down She said "honey, won't you look around" "We are not even waves, we're the ocean" Time, old Time, she's got a plan And I, oh, I'm nothing but a mortal man So here I sit, and I thank her all I can

Today I read an aquarium burnt down It's what they said, but I'm holding on some doubt Cos in my head, the water put it out But they wrote it, so it must be true And then today, on a normal traffic stop Instead of tazed, this kid was murdered by a cop Is that the way police are slowing people up? Cos they wrote it, but it can't be true Now a disease, I read, is coming to attack I don't believe some random guy just ate a bat, Or the Chinese took time to make it in a lab But they wrote it, so it must be true And now a man who used to be our president Got reprimanded for taking files when he went And then he plans to be the nominee again So they wrote it, but it can't be true I heard the news say that the earth is cooling down They said it used to be much hotter all around What we produce has no effect upon us now So they wrote it, so it must be true And now I saw a man had walked into a school Within in the law, he bought a gun, but he was cruel As they were drawing he shot kids right off their stools, So they wrote it, but it can't be true

I hear some people say That I'm wasting my day Thinking too much about How I'm trying to change And there's no need to figure it out I must've fallen asleep Cos it seems I agreed To what I've got to now Feels like a bad dream I'll admit I was kind of tuned out So they tell me I'm young Don't know what's yet to come Just because I've been learned Doesn't mean I'm not dumb Or that my voice is meant to be heard So I go for a walk Getting air down the block And to clear up my head I would rather have talked But I guess I'll stay silent instead So I put on the mask And I do what they ask But I can't keep it on I'm not up to the task Cos with each day a part of me's gone And in my weakest hour I wilt and I cower Got no strength for myself All I wish for is power So I find it in somebody else

Well I woke up one morning, my head feeling heavy And I felt that way till my coffee was ready And I went on about my life It was a normal day You know those mornings kept happening, you see And soon even coffee was no remedy So the only logical conclusion that I could come to was that I was going insane So I called my mom and dad on the phone And they said I was just doing too much sitting at home And if I found myself a girlfriend, I could be less bored You know, they say mother and father know best So I found me a girl in a very nice dress And it was then I remembered My parents are divorced So I went to my grandpa, a wise man of age And I asked him "Grandpa, why am I feeling so strange?" And he said "son, you've just gotta cherish what you have in this moment" Now that was pretty profound advice And I was gonna tell him I thought he was right But he said "Cooper, why is Boston protecting all those job-stealing immigrants?" Now maybe my folks are too old to understand Wanted someone younger to give me a hand Found the number of a lady With a pair of glasses Three degrees So many plants The fuzziest rug east of the Mississippi And a very nice couch And she asked me for my purpose and view And I said "that's why I came to see you" And she just smiled at me and said "yeah, we've got a lot to talk about" Now I quite enjoyed that hour of talking I said "see you next week" and she sent me a-walking And soon I was surrounded by steel going up to the sky Steel moving beneath my feet And I was so distracted by my city inspection That I walked right out into an intersection And a very nice gentleman rolled his window down and said "What the — do you think you're doing? I'm driving my car here, you can't just walk into the intersection like that! Trying to get to the Sox game, come on!" Yeah, that's what he said, he said that So I hopped on the subway and away I flew Dashing fast under Mass Avenue Heard "Next stop, Park Street" And followed the crowd off the train Now I sat on the Common, sun shining real strong And thought maybe this is where I should've been all along When seventeen and a half minutes later, it began to rain Now to dodge the storm, I saw a church and stopped in Thinking maybe I could repent for my sins And that way, I could exchange my repentance with God for a sign Now for an hour I stayed and I prayed in that church I came out not feeling better, but not feeling worse When I walked to the station and I saw there were delays on the Red Line Ha, figures Now I was waiting for that rusty red train to arrive And I was approached by a rather ragged looking guy Who asked me "is there any way you could help me out?" I said a quick "sorry, man" and I turned the other way I thought he was gonna leave but he decided to stay And he looked me up and down and he said "Have you eaten today?" I said "yes" "Got a place to live?" I said "of course" "Got a job?" "Yeah" "Got a girl?" I said "it's complicated" "Then what the hell do you have to be sorry about?" Now for a while I've been seeing that lady I've let her in, let her evaluate me And now she tells me all about how I think How I speak, how my actions influence others Real scary And now when I wake up and my head's feeling heavy I just take a few seconds and I get myself steady And I go on about my life It's a normal day, after all