Looking For You (2005)

1 These Simple Chords

2 Looking For You

3 Reality Blues

4 Morgan Rhey

5 Words

6 River Bed

7 Christmas Cards

8 Shut Up, Bob

9 My Michelle

10 Not Today

11 Linger

12 My Hero

“These Simple Chords” (C. Moore)

How am I supposed to write you a song / When I don’t even know your genre? / We ate lunch one afternoon / In that place called the Silver Spoon / You had scrambled eggs / I ate chicken legs / Then you told me ‘bout your boyfriend, Tom / You know, the one that you met yesterday / He said he would spend his life with you / There’s only one thing that you’d have to do / Now that you’re looking back / You’re feeling down at that

With these simple chords / I can change the world / Make it safe for love / And all we’re thinking of…

When last we talked again the other week / And you said Tom was gone, I couldn’t speak / He’d always had his arms around your waist / A waste of space when you could buy a belt / I said he was wrong / Then I wrote this song

These simple chords; you know you were the one / These simple chords; you know you had me won / These simple chords; you know you were the one / These simple chords; you know you were the one

Nothing that’s come down on us up to now / Has ever approached the weight of the thought on your brow / Who wants to live a life of dishonesty / Well, cast it all aside and you can have me / Then you sat with me / We drank iced tea

“Looking For You” (C. Moore)

Cooler than cool, sexier than sex / Is that even possible? / Picking on fingering, figured I’d be picking / On a guitar, not a humble man / All the nights we’d spend, sharing our new songs / We didn’t have anywhere to be / Even in spite of this, we would go anyway / We knew there were people to see

We were on a journey / We were looking for you / Knew we had to find you, couldn’t / Wait ‘til the afternoon / First thing in the morning / We’ll be looking for you / Too often the tides of the time we’ve walked / Weren’t for you

The dawn is here, it’s easy to fear / Preconceptions we’ve been writing for you / Now that I’ve laid it out, I will help hold you up / I’m vague with “it” because I mean everything / Now I can see her, and she’s beauty / Even Plato would have to agree / Seems I’ve been chained to a wall in a cave for years / Can’t relate all the shadows I’ve seen

Keeping up with the Joneses and Hesiod / They understand the strife in my life / Whenever I find that I don’t know what to do / I remedy it by looking for you

“Reality Blues” (C. Moore)

Remember when I saw you on Thursday morn’ / With your hair a mess and clothes you’d worn / For thirty hours since you came to me / To say Clark Kerr’s who you’d wanna be / We drove to D.C., looked around the place / At memorials and in Lincoln’s face / I turned my head when you flipped me off / For standing up for the views you scoff

Hanging out, with a gun in your hand / Trying to decide whose words to ban

I sat at home, my guitar in hand / Trying to convey all the words I can / “Free the slaves,” fight for the woman / “Stop the war,” and the e-mail spam / “Peace and love,” well that’s not enough / Sometimes you gotta be tough / I’m gonna pump iron, start praying, too / Create a slogan I know is new

Talk to myself, organize a crowd / That can wave signs and shout real loud / We’ll sit in the street, we’ll burn our bras / And, if we get bored, we can drop our drawers / Moon the actors and the actresses / Who took away our reality / Taught our children to reach for the stars / Not in the sky, but in the merchandise / As for me, I’m breaking the rules / I’d make that rhyme if I had the tools / I’ve shown you I don’t have to make sense / Throw in a third verse without pretense

I found my friend, I played him this song / And he refused to sing along / Guess he was mad that there wasn’t a “middle” / He also claimed it should’ve been on fiddle / The point of this song lies somewhere between / Placing blame and the doctrine of the mean / I’m protesting protesting protesting / Or something like that…

“Morgan Rhey” (C. Moore)

You are a star-lit baby doll / Crawling up my wall / With no one to hear you cry / And nobody asks you, “Why?” / You’re on a one-way motor cross / Running for the toss / With no man to be your boss / You’re raising up your cost / You never uttered a word / And nothing you muttered was heard / We’ve both screamed into the fight / Into the dark, wintry night / I held you in my arms / And you fell for my charms / I took you calm and slow / There was nowhere we couldn’t go / Your lips were glossy and smooth / Your eyeglasses, you did remove / Your arms were strong and swift / There was no heart you couldn’t lift / I hope to see you again / As a soul mate or as a friend / I’ve always got the love to lend to you / And, most of the time, I’ve got a heart to mend by you / Morgan Rhey, everyday

“Words” (C. Moore)

Eli’s on his own tonight / He picked up the wrong fight / Gone pickin’ on people he don’t even know… / He smiles and riles his brain / Telling himself it’s not mundane / To compose some prose about thoughts we’ve all had

Eli, belie / What you’re gonna feel / With words / (That you never knew, so…)

To sit back and think on your life / You could’ve been someone’s wife / Eli wouldn’t let that happen to you / He sits at his desk near the light / Remembering that day with the kite / He and his father out In the field

“River Bed” (C. Moore)

Some days, I know / You were the one who told me not to worry / Wednesdays I know are bad / Never knew what to do with them or what I had / Today, I knew / I had good friends, even though they were few / Please, don’t make me think / You have been insulted every time I blink

We’ve gone walking on the river bed / We’ve known it, each time that we’d lost our heads / And I can’t tell you now / But I’ve known it all somehow / That we’ll keep walking / That river bed

Problems have come / But none that couldn’t carefully be handled / Differences / Are what give us somewhere that we could speak from / None of these men / Could ever understand when we were praying / Thank you, my friend / For giving me someone to run to saying

“Christmas Cards” (C. Moore)

You know, you were the one / You know, you had me won

Christmas cards and alibis / Always knowing just when to lie / When  you write me, leave out the part / When you tell me I stole your heart

You know, we had some fun / You know, I’m almost done

Well, Merry Christmas / And a happy New Year / I wish you’d known me / When I was more sincere

I know, we’re coming close / I hope this wasn’t all some kind of a little hoax

“Shut Up, Bob” (C. Moore)

In a classroom setting / And I’m sitting at a desk / The guy across from me / Is making a mess / He doesn’t even know you / He’s making up for lost time / He shouldn’t have found it / He knows that it’s mine

“No, it’s not.” / “Shut up, Bob!”

Won’t you buy my CD / It’s written for you / I’d tell you where I’m selling it / But then Bob would want it, too (It’s mine!)

I had hoped to sit alone / Yet I did not know what to say / Then Bob came by and he sat down / He knew what to say

It’s our class reunion / We’ve been married ten years / Then Bob sat down across from you / He’s wearing my tears, he’s wearing my tears

“My Michelle” (C. Moore)

I’ll bend your tune I’ve known since June / While we strummed ‘neath the moon and sung of the afternoon / You are the best, so unlike the rest / In your wonderful ways you fall for my cliches

My Michelle, bring me back / To the days that I knew / My Michelle, take me back / To the days when you’d write me a tune…

I sat inside “The Spirit Room” / It felt like an afternoon / And, once inside, I came up bright / Something told me this had to be right

“Not Today” (C. Moore)

Don’t look down / Not today and never again / Know you’re bound / To recall, to understand when

You shouldn’t be hanging around / With those guys who hate this town / They’d like to know where you gravitate / To and pull you ‘round, oh / There’s a time for being let down / There’s a time for wearing a frown / There’s a time for writing funny lyrics / Not today

Cassidy / Your narration is perfect to me / Tell me how / You’re heroic and tragic and free / I never could understand / How your lies add up to be / The quintessential portrait of all / Femininity

Talkin’ how, talkin’ now how your lies displeased him / You never did know when to quit / Feelin’ low, feelin’ no lower as you teased him / You never did know when to quit

Don’t look down / Not today and never again / You’re renowned / For breaking, remaking your life

You shouldn’t be hanging around / With those guys who hate this town / See now you’re better without them / Your interest compounds

“Linger” (C. Moore)

One day I woke up, / My life was gone / I said, “Oh well, / My spirit’s still strong…” / And then I woke up / My day was dead / I said, “I know / It’s in my head…”

Linger / For now and when / I never / Would have been

Just now I spoke up, / “It’s love we feign” / While drenched with sweat / I’m standing in the pain / Today I woke up / My hair was red / I couldn’t find the wound / From which I’ve bled

Some days I wake up / And I move on / Don’t even think about / The way she’d gone / Some days I wake up / And I’m still here / I say, “I can’t have / The love I fear…”

I never want to hurt you / You feel the grip-marks every time you go

I fear I’ll wake up / To find they’ve left / My heart inside me cries, / “What mindless theft!” / I find I wake up / By God’s good hand / I never could swim, / He gives me dry land

One day I woke up / My life was gone / I said, “Oh well, / My spirit’s still strong…”

“My Hero” (C. Moore)

(I’ve learned the cost)

He came out of obscurity, He came from a humble home / Where the people all believe that there ain’t nowhere to roam / Never got to buy a car, always had to hitch a ride / He went to learn, He came to know all that was, before Him, said / And He knew that there was more, the needle was His to thread / Never earned a GED, He always knew more than me

He established major credit / He bought my life from me / I can say that I know / He’s my hero

He shut out corporations, He sold how the people’d get by / Set up His operations, making plans for the day that He’d die / He overturned the tables, the Establishment said He was mad

You might say I don’t know / Why this guy’d be my hero / Well, jeez, I just don’t know / Sometimes you got to follow your heart

He saw as He did fit, through all the earth He’d trod / Picking up some reputations; some said He even prayed to God /Never had a wife or kid, though He did in the life He spoke of

(I once was lost)