Useful Chamber

Most lyrics here are transcriptions, not guaranteed correct.  Please send any corrections, suggestions to u$efulchamb3r at gma1l d0t c0m

Thanks to Matthew Olmos, for sending “lyrics for Morning Better Last! (which have been verified by Dave himself), as well as Dave’s own lyrics to Fucked For Life“.

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Cannibal Resource

Look around at everyone
Everyone looks alive and waiting
The wind is up, the stars are out
The sun is gone, the light is fading
But we are

Still counting on cannibal resource
Ok, open your eyes
I think you’re more than a terrified witness
Behind the arbitrary line

Can it ask a question
Can it sing a melody
Can it be interpreted
And is it more than what the eye can see
Maybe not

Still counting on cannibal resource
Ok, open your eyes
I think you’re more than a terrified witness
Behind the arbitrary line

I’m cryin’, I’m cryin’

———————————————

Temecula Sunrise

I live in a new construction home
I live on the strip beyond the dealership, yeah
I live in a greenhouse and I am getting baked, wasted yeah

Temperature rising
I can feel it all the way down
And what hits the spot yeah
Like Gatorade
You and me baby, hittin’ the spot whoa-all night

Up in the light of the high Temecula sunrise

Definitely you can come and live with us
I know there’s a space for you in the basement, yeah
All you gotta do is help out with the chores and dishes
And I know you will

Rest assured, comfortable
You have nothing
The face of earth will be white
And after all, yeah, on the hill
Indian paintbrush and a couple of brown finches

Right there in the light of the high Temecula sunrise

I work on the new construction roads
I see that my silhouette is golden, yeah
I know the horizon is flat and motionless
Like EKG of a dying woman

Far away from the light of the high Temecula sunrise

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The Bride

An anonymous bouquet
Raised a longing in my bride
Beckoning everyone in for the good news that
No-one has any good reason to live

Tears of laughter did pervade
Your ambivalent behavior
Where was your diamond engaged that an instinct
Could be written over like a page
In a date book, yeah

Whose cascading empathy
Could really reach beyond tomorrow
And when the tear ducts dry up
When the clarion calls
Will be anyone listening at all

———————————————

Stillness Is The Move

When the child was just a child
It did not know what it was
Like a child it had no habits
No opinions about anything

Maybe I will get a job
Get a job as a waitress
Maybe waiting tables in a diner
In some remote city down the highway

After all that we’ve been through
I know we’ll make it, I know the way
The question is it true
There is nothing we can’t do
I see you along the way baby
The stillness is the move

On top of every mountain
There was a great longing
For another even higher mountain
In each city longing for a bigger city

After all that we’ve been through
I know that I will always love you
From now until forever baby
I can’t imagine anything better

Isn’t life under the sun just a crazy dream
Isn’t life just some mirage of the world before the world
Before the world
Why am I here and not over there
Where did time begin
Where does space end
Where do you and I
Where do you and I begin

———————————————

Two Doves

Geranium kisser
Skin like silk and face like glass
Don’t confront me with my failure
Kiss me with your mouth open
For your love, better than wine
For your cologne is sweetly fragrant
Call on me, call on me, call on me

Your hair is like an eagle
Your two eyes are like two doves
But our bed is like a failure*
All day up in the valley
At the waning of the light
To the chamber that conceived me
Call on me, call on me, call on me

Geranium killer
Throat of soil and mind like stone
Please don’t defend a silver lining
Around the halo of what is already shining
When all the planets are aligning
For an afternoon that’s never ending
Call on me, call on me, call on me

*Owen Pallett tells us, “Dave asked her specifically to sing ‘feath-ure’ “

———————————————

Useful Chamber

She is an emerald
In a shining, shining winter
Russet in a snow globe
Right up, clean and gold
That’s my girl

She is anticipating
Only magic and all invention
Leanin’ out the window
Callin’ out to all who know
She sees what no-one sees

Far away, with you
Water beneath and water blue
We’ll sail away, all of these motives
I thought at least knew

Who made loss or whatever alone
I know I cannot wait that long
I don’t know what I should be lookin’ at
But I will look wherever I’m told

Bitte Orca, Orca bitte
Bitte Orca, Orca bitte
Bitte Orca, Orca bitte
Bitte Orca, Orca bitte

I’m caught up in a storm
That I don’t need no shelter from
All I want and all I need
Right here with me
You’re right here with me

Call to me soft and sweet
Cool the fire that burns in me
Catch me when I lose control
Look into my eyes
Look into my eyes

I’m caught up in a storm

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No Intention

The renegade feeling satisfied
You blinked and closed your eyes
You like the feeling of Saturday
You love the danger in the night

The restless corpse is collapsing wind
Their breath is daffodil
What not becoming is lapsing
Into the universal fill

Or maybe just no intention

When I am full with endeavour
Nothing can stop Gestalt
The freshness of my reality
Makes me feel tingling and hot

When you wake up shouting “ideal”
Is that a punishment
You represent saying “unreal”
But is that what you meant

Maybe you meant no intention

———————————————

Remade Horizon

In the backyard
In the living room
Residential neighborhood
I’ve come for you

In the margins
Of the freeway
I have sat alone and wondered
Where are you

Yeah I wanna
Remake the horizon

In the medicine
In the wetland
Like the cormorant at evening
I see your silhouette

In the market
In the parking lot
In the uniform you’ll know
Where now

Yeah I wanna
Remake the horizon

Cast aside the mirror light
Echo it out

———————————————

Fluorescent Half Dome

When I’ve had enough
When I’ve heard enough from police and protests
When I’m ready for my whole world to open up and surrender
I’ll look for you
I will be searching the garden and the street
I will look into the eyes of everyone I meet
And when I finally find you will I know

Fluorescent half dome

Far beyond here
Far removed from the sneering of the crowd
My eternal love sits smiling, sphinx-like and proud
Cross that disguise
I am glancing with needles in my eyes
Birds of infinity glisten
Shimmering for the rest of my life
And I conceived them, not what they mean

Fluorescent half dome

———————————————

Ascending Melody

Two businessmen corralling life
Restrain yourself, you both must hunger properly
Unfathomable enigma
Repine unfathomable enigma

Ascending melody, rise above
Ascending melody, stronger than all concern

Are you happy to repeat yourself
For a minute then, I thought I was someone else
Ask the world for the right release
Reciprocity, the hungry souls go away from greed

Ascending melody, rise above
Ascending melody, stronger than all concern

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Emblem Of The World

Hold into light the image that you drew for me
In it no defeat, in it there is no victory
There is no ceiling, all is just a great expanse
There are no rules, there is only coincidence

And it looks good from a distance
(I believe what I see, ooh)
You give a pose and it’s different
(We agree and we choose to)
A beautiful detail and very dense
(Take my hand when the day is through)

Why should we choose another useless metaphor
Without a regard or a passionate need
I am in your eyes, you have always been in mine
You are the bird singing while it is recognised

And it looks good from a distance
(I believe what I see, ooh)
You give a pose and it’s different
(We agree and we choose to)
A beautiful detail and very dense
(Take my hand when the day is through)

We’ll share an emblem of the world

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When The World Comes To An End

When you say you know what you know
How do you know
And when you move
How do you move nowhere backward

When the world comes to an end
I will have loved you for all time
For all time

When I see your light shine
I want to know you
Until the day that I die
I want in love with you

When the world comes to an end
I will have loved you for all time
For all time

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Knotty Pine (lyrics by David Byrne)

Here is the sound that photographs make
When I see them
When I hear them
I see regions of sharp precision
Over abundance
Over indulgence
Tied together with rope and twine
Stuck together with paste and glue
Two old planks of knotty pine
And a couple of nails that poke right through

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Imagine It

Throw it inside your friend’s head
No caffeine pills on prescription
Just you and simple mud that you’ve tracked in there
What slips between the creases
Could easily fool or bamboozle you
The oriental rock of the colonialist
Stolen out from under his big brass desk
For a street parade to the community college
Or a magic carpet ride on Broad Street

If you can imagine it
Imaagine it

Burning the midnight oil
So fierce it’s trucked in the lap of the powerful
Maybe that’s part of your resource
And just as nervous
She’s demure as milk
Blank as a bamboo casket
She’s a basket of good will
Two red brows, two proud rows
The talking breakfast full of shit blues
The detail’s what you lose
In the Peking sunset
To which we pitch our trash dreams
And our friends sit back/zip by
Abiding the only practice with traditious sounds
Or the psychopath among us
Like a serendipis with anti-fashion
A rainbow quilt frayed around the edges is charismatic

[Got grease on my hand like arab oil
Plants my seeds in arid soil
Give me some frown in my terrible toil]

But I’ll look after you
I’ll look after you

[---] New Attitude EP version only

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Fucked For Life

In the gray mesh shorts of my alma mater
And in the see-through teal of the chlorinated water
My salmon pink body like a marlin that was lucky
Ordered a series of futures that’ll maybe never stick

I can’t imagine what ordered fortune might send me off like this
A little glazed wave with a right hand that cups the silt that counts all my days

And all the punks with their bikes and their mfas are getting legible, eligible
And at that moment when my forlorn body leaned into hers
I say it now and you won’t believe me but i knew i was fucked for life.

———————————————

//

MORNING BETTER LAST! – The Lyrics

The Softer Shell
Instrumental

My Brother Had A Birthday
My brother
Had a birthday.
He is twenty-five.
My brother
Had a birthday.
He is twenty-five.
Ba da da da da da da
Ba da da da da da da da da da da da
My brother
Had a birthday.
He is twenty-five.

The Enterprising Catalyst
Tell us a little
Or tell us not too much.
Tell us carefully,
Understatedly.
What will be your
Word choices
And tone?
Who’ll come out on top?
Who is the enterprising catalyst?
Who is the enterprising catalyst?
Who is the enterprising catalyst?

Grandfather’s Jacket
I remember winter
When I wore my grandpa’s jacket.
I remember some time
When I wore no jacket at all
Ah
(And now) And now in the deepest embrace of summertime
And now in the deepest embrace of summertime
Under layers and layers of onionskin
Under layers and layers of onionskin
I remember wintertime
When I wore my grandpa’s jacket
I remember the springtime
When I wore no jacket at all
Ah
And here in the deepest embrace of summertime
And now in the deepest embrace of summertime
Under layers and layers of onionskin
Only layers and layers of onionskin
Only layers and layers of onionskin
Only layers and layers of onionskin

After Santa Monica Boulevard
Does Sheryl Crow know
After Santa Monica Boulevard she had not to give?
And I don’t believe her when she says it’s time to lighten up
Not the way that I believe Don Henley when he tells me
Not the way that I believe Don Henley when he tells me
And I don’t believe her when she says it’s time to lighten up
Not the way I believe Don Henley when he tells me
Not the way I believe Don Henley when he tells me
Ah

Dahlonegabhama
Oh la pee-ay mah pah pah
Oh la pee-ay mah mah mah
[Repeat for entire song]
[The vocals are too muffled to make out any words]

Further on Down The Strip
One two
What’s me is me, me, me
Stranger is what I see, see, see
Further
On down the strip
I can see I can see
Further
On down the strip
I can see I can see
Aaaah

Katydids Calling
The bugs are crowning me
In a halo ‘round my head
And the katydid is calling all around the field
And I’m trying to fall away
Fall away
Fall away
The bees are crowning me
In a halo ‘round my head
And the air conditioner’s on
I will talk about it
But I’m trying to fall away
Falling away
Falling
Falling away
Away

Twenty-Foot Stalks
I go out to the shopping mall
Parking lot
At four in the morn
All you can hear is sprinklers
On pavement and lights overhead
On twenty-foot stalks
But I wanna go
And climb some trees
Out in the woods
So fuck the police
They’re checking emissions
Down by the onramp at Exit 14

We Could Cling
We could cling
Cowering
To one another
We could cry
You and I
But OH
But I wonder
Is OH
Is, baby, be friends with you
We could cling
Cowering
To one another
We could cry
You and I
But OH
But all I wanna do
Is OH
Is, baby, be friends with you
Is, baby, be friends with you

The Love-Prayer Book
Oh-oh wa-ah
Oh-oh-oh wa-ah

To Give It Weight
Then he gave it cartilage
To give it shape
Then he gave a heart to it
To give it weight
Then he gave it cartilage
Then he gave it cartilage
Then he gave it cartilage
Then he gave it cartilage
To give it shape
Then he gave a heart to it
To give it weight
Then he gave it cartilage
Then he gave it cartilage
Then he gave it cartilage

Here Comes The Summer King
Three blocks west
At the edge of the lot
Three brown finches
Know a special spot
Feathers ruffle
To protect slender throats
And there is no wind there
Hey!
Here comes the summer
In a week of rain
Put it in your pocket
All is living again
Here comes to summer
Here comes the sizz-ummer
Here comes the summer
Here comes the summer

Her Freezings And Thawings
Last time
The flowers are all blooming
In the cemetery
Very fertile things are buried
Very fertile are rising to the surface
And their heads now break the soft new ground
Penetrating icebergs
And their crests are dawning
By her freezings and thawings
The roses that lay in memoriam
They
They lay wilted
But look what supple die for
Dill did
She looks just like a drawing
Of an areola
Hey!
In my 7th grade anatomy textbook
And this college smells like vomit
‘Cause some puked up on it
In the stairwell last night
Many times
But it’s probably gonna be alright
From England’s soil new rocks fruit each spring
Her soil cleaves and out she brings
Her soil cleaves and out she brings
Like a once ago
Like a once swallowed bowling ball
Like a long ago once swallowed bowling ball
And their heads are brought to the surface
Penetrating icebergs
And their crests are dawning
By their freezings and thawings
By her freezings and thawings

Hildegard Vs. Beach Boys
Ooooh
Oooh-oooh-oooooh
Oooh-oooh-oooooh-oooh-oooooh
Oooh-ooh
Oooh-ooh-ooooooooooh
Oooh-ooh
Oooh-oooh-oooooooooh
(Ah) Oooh-oooh
Oooh-oooh-oooh
(Ah) oooh-oooh-oooh-oooh
(Ah) Oooh—ooh-oooh-ooooh
(Ah) Oooh—ooh-oooh-ooooh
(Ah) Oooh—ooh-oooh-ooooh
Oooh—ooh-oooh-ooooh
Oooh—ooh-oooh-ooooh

We Two Feared The Storm
(We two feared…)
I fled
I don’t know why
I fled
I don’t know why
We two feared the storm
I don’t know why
We two feared (I fled) the storm
I don’t know why
We two feared (I fled) the storm
I don’t know why
We two feared the storm
We two feared the storm

How Does My Mind Work?
Instrumental

I Am Going To See It
I go
To the place
Where no one goes
Today
I go
To a place
Where no one goes
Today
And when I go out
I am going to see
Said I am going to see it
Said I am going to see it through
Said
And when I go out
I am going to see it
Yeah I am going to see it
I am going to see it through

Fake Folks
I nearly lost it
Around the bend
How can you hold on to something
That can’t be held?
And when I look at water
I think that it should be still
How can you think that water
Should be still?
Water’s not gonna be still
And when I go outside
And when I go outside
When I go for a ride
And when I go out
Side
When I go for a ride
Something catches me
Something catches me
Something catches me
Something catches me
Something catches me

The Disordered Sprawl
Instrumental

Like Once-Heated Milk
With eyes like once
Heated milk
With a film of skin
In the simplicity
Of your need
You live all over me
You
Climb me like a tower in something like certainty
You climb me like a tower in something like certainty
You
Tables turning
I’m in the cold
I’m left out in the cold
With
With eyes like once
Heated milk
With a skin of film
You
Climb me like a tower in something like certainty
You climb me like a tower in something like certainty
They admire you like a tower in something like your simplicity
They admire you like a tower in something like that

O! You Hungering Infants
With all the ire
Of the dispossessed reclaiming
I starved you
Those hurdles are not open windows
You’ll probably kill yourself doing that
And he’s hot on tested blood
And inspires you so
Not under my roof
But not under this roof
With all the ire
Of the dispossessed reclaiming
I scold

Morning Better Last!
(One, two, three)
That idea’ll go nowhere fast
I’ll not follow it down
I’m not leaving ‘til morning
And morning better last
I’m not leaving ‘til morning
And morning better last
I’m not leaving ‘til morning
And morning better last
//