Cheating the Evening (2005)

1 We Knew

2 A Prayer for Mercy

3 Take You Back

4 The Power of Son

5 Left This Town

6 Memory

7 R Down (For Paul McCartney)

8 There’s No Way

9 In and Of

10 Two is One

11 The Mutes

“We Knew” (C. Moore)

Purple skies and a brother we lost / Relationships, never knowing the cost / The fiddler praying for another god / Sending you down in a raft to be tossed / Betrayal isn’t at the stake / You’ll never know, so whatever you make… / Blue eyes and an innocent glass / Never been kissed and I hope it won’t last / Driving by when they’re having a blast / Leaves you yearning for another cast / Denial isn’t always fake / You can choose, but please for our sake…

These troubled times, don’t know what to do / Riddles and rhymes, if only we knew…

Friendship nannies seek to reconcile / But you don’t want to go the extra mile / You’re being treated like you have no style / This ignorance is adding to the pile / Nausea is induced by pain / We’ve both been pounded by the rain

This is for the guy who shared / This is for the girl that cared / Wishing them the best of days / If they do go their separate ways / Jason Robards calls you for a drink / The drinking fountains serve to make you think / Pale-faced women turning white to pink / They’ll trade allegiance at the sound of a blink / The future is never so clear / All that’s true is your love and your fear

“A Prayer for Mercy” (C. Moore)

Their silhouettes are fading / My consciousness is wading / I’m standing in the door, now / It don’t matter anyhow

So, get ready for a prayer for mercy

I followed him on the road / What slowed me down was my load / I dropped it off at your home / Then headed off so alone

I’ve heard it said that true love / Was truly sent from above / I knew that this was a hoax / You’ve got to laugh, hope, and coax

The man would gloat for hours / Defining, quoting powers / When did your life go sour? / It went down with the Towers

This band deserves respect, man / They’re doing all that they can / They play their own instruments / To another’s sentiments

So, play it loud, you don’t care / You never learned how to share / Challenge me? He wouldn’t dare / I’d break him down to a square

“Take You Back” (C. Moore)

You took him in when he could not believe you / His heart-felt manners never should deceive you / You worked on him until he could receive you / And now you’ve left him not knowing what to do

Princes on the balconies committing felonies / Kings and queens are flanked by teens resulting in a scene / The chaos is played out in your head / And the madness follows you to bed / Where once you had stood a man, instead / Emotions take you back again…

He’s a friend far beyond imagination / He gently breathes life into his creations  / Seeking, but never finding, new sensations / Suffering from wounds and scars and abrasions / Young peasants eating pheasants arguing with tenants / Princess thinks he’ll get forty winks and find his missing links

You lost your way when you could not remember / You forgot all about the last December / All that’s left of love is your burning ember / Soon to be outlined by a burning Fender / Teachers doubting church preachers sitting in the bleachers / Friends and girls disguised as fools are drowning in the pools

Dramatic arts bring you back / Sciences take you higher / People highlight what you lack / You’re brought down to the wire

I took you back, I didn’t know the danger / Maybe I didn’t think that it’d be major / A light brown baby sitting in a manger / Is the one person who is not a stranger / Princes on the balconies committing felonies / Kings and queens are flanked by teens resulting in a scene

“The Power of Son” (C. Moore)

Sunshine on a rainy day / You’re the man in the flower parade / Boxers hiding under where? / With naked ladies in the Fuhrer’s tirade

I’ve been made / Two thousand years

People in a sunset world / I’m the photo in a grandmother’s room / I’ve been sitting on a dock / With wild tears she’s weaving on the loom

It’s been said / Two thousand years

You’re drowning in your own refuted thoughts / I’m asking you to do the same for me / Brown mud on a yellow moon / As you fidget in the dark saloon / Deer tracks and a messy month / With novel natures in the sight of the world

I’m with you / Two thousand years

Blank cross in a broken world / You’re a demon on a long crusade / Forsake everyone you break / You know you’re gonna live and die by the blade

They’ve been off / Two thousand years

“Left This Town” (C. Moore)

Classroom cliques which shout dissension / Don’t take it to the third dimension / I’m far out too, you don’t understand / Not all good music is contraband / I’ve come to whisper, gain attention / Shoot for justice, push detention / She said to judge it for what it is / Her brilliance glowing, never showing

You take me in, you take me down / Smile at me and melt my crown / You hold my hand, you hold my heart / Lines in your face tear me apart / I’ve left this town

Bobby Hanson took a woman / People say he needed affection / All that was left was her kimono / The rumor is all he said was, “So?”

The lieutenant seeks his spirit / Up ‘till now he’d only feared it / To think God ain’t made of industry / Man-made shelters are the last to be

Humans lose their humanity / Children lose their virginity / Methods lose their simplicity / It’s cliched: “We’re all too blind to see.” / I’m the one and only wolverine / I’ll cut through ice and I’ll make a scene / I’ll do whatever is necessary / To strike down any adversary

“Memory” (C. Moore)

Well, my mother, she said to me / That I would soon, someday see / A dead man’s not unlike you / Your mummy’s a lot like me / And, my father, he cautioned me / That people say what they see / He ran away yesterday / Although he seemed quite okay

Don’t recall what you meant to me / Don’t recall what I’m supposed to be / But the men at the door / Say I ain’t welcome here anymore

Hey, my teacher, he talked to me / Told me all that I could be / Neglected to mention how / With the money I got now / My employers, they scoffed my shoes / I asked them to pay my dues / ‘Cause everyday work exudes / The “blend-in-the-background” blues

My friend now has told me so / That I may not ever know / The meaning of happiness / If I never take the test / Well, my heart just told myself / That I won’t stay on the shelf / I’m soaked, I cherish the rain / As I step on down the lane

“R Down (For Paul McCartney)” (C. Moore)

I’m gonna laugh today / If you wanna, take it all the way / Lovely lady, come ride in my car / We’re gonna go too far

R down, carry it away / R down, carry it away / That’s what I say

McCartney in the Beatles / And McCartney in Wings / I tremble when he plays the bass / He laughs, he screams, he sings

“Hey, Baby,” a thing of the past / I’ve found that nothing will last / I’m gonna, gotta let it ride / I turn to Another Side

Come down, baby, follow me / I’m down, but I’m getting back / Get back what I lacked / When I was so down

Not anymore

“There’s No Way” (C. Moore)

I knew you far before we met / I’d seen you on the TV set / They’ve called you money, / They’ve called you lust / They’ve called your numbers, / Said you’re a “must”

There’s no way to get around you / I want to do whatever you do / And when you do it, I’ll do it, too / With you

I felt you’d never come around / And thought that I’d be sorrow-bound / They’ve called you “winner” / They’ve called your loss / “Hey, I’m not kidding, / Forget your boss”

When I meet you, I’ll fix my do / You’ll trace the floor and I’ll pursue / Take turns leading, I’ll fall back / We’ll learn to make up for what we lack / I felt that you could not exist / Now I know you’re the one I missed / They’ve called you “instant” / They’ve called you “rare” / Yet all I know now / Is that you care

With you, love you, need you, want you, got you, hear you, with you

“In and Of” (C. Moore)

Refugees are in the hall of fame / Pharisees look into hollow hell / I thought this would only last a month / Titanic isn’t faring well / Rutabagas in season / Aren’t subject to reason

The only thing which keeps me here / Is sex and hate and all that beer

Ramblin’ men belong to garden clubs / Empire will in the dark invade / Lanky twins will fall down from the sky / But no one really wants to know why / Stubborn suspects are better / Than your “it’s not right” letter

Piano is on the fallen shore / “Dynomite” is on the TV show / Gonna teach you not to be a bore / And you don’t even know what you know / My silence is fine for now / You married me anyhow

My silence is fine for now / My silence is fine for now

“Two is One” (C. Moore)

Left his home in 1942 / Went abroad, not knowing what to do / Met a broad, and took her as his wife / Loved to love, but maybe not for life / Robbed a bank, took future in his fist / Met a man who forced him to enlist / War is war, you’ve seen it on the screen / Unless you’ve been, you won’t know what it means / Cleaned his gun, and strapped it to his belt / Never knew, the hand that he’d been dealt / Killed a man, it phased him not a bit / He’s a man, who survives on his wit / Gained a stripe, he wrote home to his folks / They were proud, yet knew it was a hoax / We’ve all heard a battle leads to death / That’s not worth, risking your every breath / He felt bad, when his best friend lost blood / Far too much, they left him in the mud / Took to bed, each woman he could find / Lost his mind, when one nurse robbed him blind / Love and theft, they follow hand in hand / Lost his leg, where landmines had been banned / On the field, a soldier holds his own / Yet inside, most wish that they were home / Took a train, met John Brown in his seat / Talked to him, heard of his great defeat / Mom and dad, they saw that he was fed / At first thought, humanity was dead / Siddhartha, the Bible found their way / To his desk, he read in later days / Now you ask, the name of this soldier / He’s still alive, though now he’s quite older / Lest you think, he’s much different than us / Breathes your air, he learned to laugh and cuss / Look into, a mirror on the wall / Could be you, could be he’s been us all.

“The Mutes” (C. Moore)

Every morning when I wake up / I float downstairs and drink from the cup / I read the headlines, torch the front page / The burning bush heats men in a cage

The Congress is in on the mutes / And all that they start are disputes

Evening comes down leaving me to decide / If I should stay home or go for a ride / I choose the latter, tell her the same / Then I remember she don’t have a name

For a while I called Rachel my own / Then I realized what no one could condone / I live as pure as salt on the ice / And with my women I clench on my dice

When the river replenished itself / I found that raindrops were the key to the wealth / The streets are empty and oft without name / You can count me out in this cruel, sick game

Bubba’s baby had held tight by May / And, yet, for now, oh, that’s all I will say / Naked farmers they strip the land clean / Now, in mathematics, you learn from the mean

This induction was all just a show / I got to tell you straight from the go / But hang your head high as though from a string / You’ve covered mountains and learned how to sing

I’m painting rainbows and sculpting the moon / For all these people who won’t find out soon / The Lord’s not weaker than upheld icons / In fact, He’s richer than business tycoons

You never speak now until they have left / You won’t make sense now, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba / Please pass the phone, babe, it’s not worth the chance / When you’ve got the time, girl, let’s dine and let’s dance

Don’t block my way, now, I’ll grind you to bits / I’ll take down your status when you throw your fits / I’ll write you a rhyme, man, that rips through your soul / Collects all your lovers, discards all your goals

Guess you’re on the brink here towards laughter and death / I’ll defend your thoughts, woe, until my last breath / So leave me alone now and turn off the sky / Caress my emotions then breathe a long sigh…