Before This World

1. Today Today Today

   Today Today Today

   X

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   Today, today, today
   I’m finally on my way
   The time has come to say
   Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye

   The bird is on the wing
   The bell is about to ring
   The big girl she’s about to sing
   Today, today, today

   The world will open wide
   And I’m running with the tide
   It’s time to cut this side
   And I must not miss my ride

   Somehow I haven’t died
   And I feel the same inside
   As when I caught this ride
   When first I sold my pride

   The way ahead is clear
   My heart is free from fear
   I’ll plant my flag right here
   Today, today, today

2. You And I Again

   You And I Again

   X

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   You and I again
   These days go by
   And I wish that I could slow the whole thing down
   And have it back again
   Just one more time
   Then again, maybe we can
   ‘Cause I can’t escape this feeling
   That we’ve been this way together you and I

   There you are again
   I climbed so high
   High enough to finally see your sign
   Shining in the distance
   You were tending your own fire
   We were biding our time
   We were both waiting for the moment
   When our paths would come together you and I

   I see how fierce you are
   Whenever the world would drag us down
   How serious you are
   Standing on holy ground

   And so although I know we’re only small
   In the time we have here
   Surely we have it all

   I see how fierce you are
   Whenever this world would drag us down
   How serious you are
   Standing on holy ground

   And so although I know we’re only small
   In the time we have here
   This time we have it all

   You and I again

3. Angels of Fenway

   Angels Of Fenway

   X

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   86 summers gone by
   Bambino put a hex on the Bean
   We were livin’ on a tear and a sigh
   In the shadow of the Bronx machine

   Man, you could feel it smolder
   Whole town had an attitude
   Tend to get a little chip on your shoulder
   Say something that’s downright rude

   Damn them Yankees
   Outspending everybody 2 to 1
   Picking up on the cream of the crop
   Stealing everyone’s favorite son

   Angels of Fenway – hear our prayer
   We have been chastened
   We have been patient

   Grandmama was a Fenway fan
   Even after grandad died
   I still remember her holding my hand
   Takin’ me along for the ride
   She was born in 1918
   Last year that the Red Sox won
   Back then when they sold the Babe
   Something that they never should have
   Ever have done

   “Hey Nanna can I have another Coke
   Here comes the hot dog man
   Look at that! His bat just broke
   Gee, that’s got to kill his hand”

   Riding home on the Green Line
   Watching the town go by
   Nanna made another Red Sox fan
   ‘Til the day I die

   That was back in ’65
   Doesn’t seem like a long time ago
   Grandmama keeping hope alive
   Watched them win in ‘004

   Oh my god, it was beyond belief
   Down 3 needing 4 in a row
   Holding on by the skin of our teeth
   Like a hungry dog on a bone

   Angels of Fenway – give them peace
   They have been patient
   Red Sox Nation

   The whole world held its breath
   People got down on their knees
   Ready for the sudden death
   Praying to heaven for hell to freeze

   Nanna watched from her hospital bed
   She was there ’til the end of the race
   I couldn’t hear the last words she said
   But she was lying there with a smile on her face

   Just a little smile on her face
   Doesn’t feel like a long time ago

4. Stretch Of The Highway

   Stretch Of The Highway

   X

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   I was born singing yes I am
   Grew up some kind of travelin’ man
   Sunday morning, pack my things
   Say so long sweet potato
   I’m on the road again

   CHORUS
   Oh it’s a lovely stretch of the highway
   Leading me on
   And my favorite thing is to miss my home
   When I’m gone, soon as I’m gone

   Chi-Town baby, that’s my town too
   People pick it right on up, do the looma lamaloo
   Just for example, look at ye yonder
   Chicago’s got the finest high-test first-class
   Poontang anywhere

   CHORUS

   I want to thank the man that planed the land
   I want to thank the man that towed the load
   In the burning sun and the freezing cold
   I want to thank the man that made this road

   Eisenhower
   Mr. Dwight D.
   General Motors
   Big Ol’ GMC
   They saw the future
   Yes, indeed
   Eternal combustion
   That’s what the country’s gonna need

   CHORUS

   Tomorrow
   Same as today
   One more time
   Mama that’s ok
   Shake your head “yes”
   Shake your head “no”
   Keep it straight and level
   And steady as she goes

5. Montana

   Montana

   X

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   I’m not smart enough for this life I’ve been living
   A little bit slow for the pace of the game
   It’s not I’m ungrateful for all I’ve been given
   But nevertheless just the same

   I wish to my soul I was back in Montana
   High on my mountain and deep in the snow
   Up in my cabin, over the valley
   Under the blankets with you

   Over the ocean from here
   Over the mountains from there

   Who can imagine the scale of the forces
   That pushed this old mountain range up in the sky
   Tectonic creation, erosion, mutation
   Something to pleasure God’s eye

   The world is a wonder of lightning and thunder
   The green of the ground as we fall from the sky
   The old and new faces the tribes and the races
   The thousands of places to try

   Over the ocean from here
   Over the mountains from there

   One sits and waits while the other one wanders
   And squanders his time with a life on the road
   Down from the mountain, across the wide ocean
   The world is in motion and cannot be slowed

   Enough for the day, the demands of the moment
   The thing on my mind is the work in my hand
   Wood for the wood stove and water for coffee
   Something I can still understand

   We’ve got a few friends but not many neighbors
   The trip into town takes us most of the day
   And after “Hello” and “It’s sure good to see you”
   It seems like there’s nothing to say

   Over the ocean from here

6. Watchin’ Over Me

   Watchin’ Over Me

   X

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   Watchin’ over me when I was high
   Holdin’ my hand and wipin’ my eye
   Watchin’ me cheat, watchin’ me lie
   Oh watchin’ over me

   Lookin’ back over on the damage I done
   Made no kind of plan to be carryin’ on
   Thought I might ought to been dead and gone
   I said oh the damage done

   How’m I gonna pay that debt I owe
   Big red Jesus on the radio
   Down on my knees after the show
   I said oh the debt I owe

   I learned my lesson again
   Well, I learned my lesson again
   Only one way to surrender
   Learned my lesson again
   Got to return it to sender
   Leave a little light in the window
   Got to remember my friend

   Guess I got to say it’s a lovely day
   Nice enough to know it could ever be so
   Ready man, steady man, here I’m gonna go
   I said, oh, the lovely day

7. SnowTime

   SnowTime

   X

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   Oleana, via Del Norte, O Canada
   It was snowtime, it was showtime, it was no time
   To be lost in downtown Toronto
   It was wintertime, ‘round dinnertime
   I’m beginning to see that the sunshine just doesn’t want to

   From a side street come a backbeat
   Pulling on me like the moon pullin’ on the tide
   Ay caramba, one-note samba, la la la la bamba
   Lighting me up inside

   CHORUS
   They had the heat of the sun in the beat of the talking drum
   The light of a tropical moon on a night to remember
   Someone summoned up summer just strumming on an old guitar
   And every note was the antidote to December

   My first impression, some kind of procession
   Pulling on a long line of fancy dancers
   A band stuck up on a flatbed truck
   They were raising a ruckus swinging for the fences

   Exiled Mexican textile working
   Punching two clocks, sending two paychecks home boys
   Hard working law ‘biding bus riding people
   Celebration on wheels destination unknown

   CHORUS

   Rio Grande
   Oleana
   Via Del Norte
   Oh Canada

   There was a lifeline south in the song coming from her mouth
   It swallowed me up and I followed it on downtown
   In the light of dawn the message that life goes on
   For the frozen man an invitation to live again

   Chorus

   They were shakin’ it loose with the juice from the mambo man
   Long lanky Yankee boy, Buckwheat and Spanky my my

   Santiago de Cuba
   Belo Horizonte
   Cartagena
   Guaguancó Canada
   Guaguancó Canada

8. Before This World / Jolly Springtime

   Before This World / Jolly Springtime
   

   X

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   Before this world was as we know it now
   Before the land and sea were formed at all
   Before the stars were made to burn and shine
   Little love of mine, darling one

   Who can pretend to understand at all
   No one can both inside and outside be
   Who can suppose he knows the way this goes
   Little lamb, never mind

   So let us love and let us not delay
   The world is old and it will never last
   Our share of joy is in this moment past
   Will you come away, come away

   Fall into Jesus baby child
   Give up the love that takes and breaks your heart
   Let go the weight of all that holds you here
   Little love of mine, darling one

   Oh the jolly springtime
   In the merry month of May
   Oh the heavenly hours
   Oh the come again day

   Let the day run long
   Let the river run high
   That tomorrow may live
   So must yesterday die

   Let the resin risin’ up in the tree
   Make the green leaf bud
   The bird and the bee and the fish in the sea
   Feeling it in my blood

   Oh the jolly springtime
   All in the merry month of May
   Oh the heavenly hours
   Oh the come again day

   Yes the winter was bitter and long
   So the spring’ll be sweet
   Come along with a rhythm and a song
   Watch creation repeat

   Thin thin the moment is thin
   Ever so narrow the now
   Everybody say got to live in today
   Don’t nobody know how

   Oh the jolly springtime
   In the merry month of May
   Oh the heavenly hours
   Oh the come again day

9. Far Afghanistan

   Far Afghanistan
   

   X

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   Back home Indiana, we just learn to get along
   Civilized and socialized they teach you right from wrong
   How to hold your liquor and how to hold your tongue
   How to hold a woman or a baby or a gun

   But nothing will prepare you for the far Afghanistan
   You can listen to their stories and pick up what you can
   You listen to their stories maybe read a book or two
   Until they send you out there, man you haven’t got a clue

   Oh the Hindu Kush, the Band-e Amir, the Hazara

   They tell you a tradition in the hills of Kandahar
   They say young boys are taken to the wilderness out there
   Taken to the mountain alone and in the night
   If he makes it home alive they teach him how to fight

   They fought against the Russians, they fought against the Brits
   They fought old Alexander, talking ‘bout him ever since
   And after 9/11 here comes your Uncle Sam
   Another painful lesson in the far Afghanistan

   I was ready to be terrified and ready to be mad
   I was ready to be homesick, the worst I’ve ever had
   I expected to be hated and insulted to my face
   But nothing could prepare me for the beauty of the place

   No matter what they tell you all soldiers talk to God
   It’s a private conversation written in your blood
   The enemy’s no different, badass holy wind
   That crazy bastard talks to God and his God talks back to him

10. Wild Mountain Thyme

    Wild Mountain Thyme

    X

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    Oh the summertime is coming
    And the trees are sweetly blooming
    And the wild mountain thyme
    Grows around the purple heather
    Will you go, lassie, will you go

    And we will all go together
    To pick wild mountain thyme
    All around the purple heather
    Will you go, lassie, will you go

    I will build my love a bower
    By yon pure and crystal fountain
    Yes and on it I will lay
    All the flowers of the mountain
    Will you go, lassie, will you go

    And we will all go together
    To pick wild mountain thyme
    All around the purple heather
    Will you go, lassie, will you go

    If my true love won’t come with me
    I will surely find another
    To pick wild mountain thyme
    All around the blooming heather
    Will you go, lassie, will you go

    And we will all go together
    To pick wild mountain thyme
    All around the purple heather
    Will you go
    Will you go, lassie, will you go