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1. |
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Picture yourself one day you’re married
With a home and job and family
And children running around
White picket fence and Reader’s Digest
A Sunday Mass to feel blessed
In this familiar town
All those things I knew so well,
All those things I lived back then
I miss those simple, carefree days,
Will I live them through again?
Picture yourself one day you’re driving
Screaming kids on the highway
On the way out of state
Not quite the trip that Kerouac spoke of
But you’ve got to take good care of
The things you wanted so much
All those things I knew so well,
All those things I lived back then
I miss those simple, carefree days,
Will I live them through again?
Picture yourself one day you’re happy
With a grand piano that will
Sit for seventy years
A portrait of Mum and Dad and Junior
Still looks young and rosy
On his wedding day
All those things they knew so well,
All those things they lived back then
I miss those simple, carefree days,
Will I live them through again?
Out on the porch there you’ll be strumming
A vintage Hohner acoustic
You picked up long ago
That you were playing since you were twenty
Songs of hope and of promise
Remember them with a smile
Remember them with a smile
Remember them with a smile
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2. |
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Twenty-five, or two and five
Spelled with two prime numbers
Twenty-five, or five times five
And sum of two square numbers
Twenty-five, la la la
Five more than a full score
If you count by fountain pen
Count five groups of tallies
Suddenly I found myself beginning to sit still
Suddenly I found that I was picking up the bill
Yet my scribbles from so long ago still send me chills
Still send me chills
Twenty-five is silver, please
When it's my anniversary
Twenty-five is manganese
If you're into chemistry
Twenty-five is a quarter of
The big old sum one hundred
Twenty-five is the quarter coin
The head of our first president
Dusting off my old Nintendo really made me feel
Like those days I weren't in charge of making any deals
They assure me, son, you ain't seen half of what is fun
They say I'm still young
Twenty-five golden rings
On five lucky hands they fit
And every year, many like
This day in December
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3. |
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I met you the day that both your parents had died
You leaned into me and told me that you’d never cry
That all that you’d ever needed you had inside
I am to admit, I certainly sounded like lies
(Chorus)
All I needed to know
And all I had left to show
Was the look in your eyes
The dream in your mind
And I wanted to be
And I wanted to see
All you could be
All that you are
Wanted you more
Than I know you are
You are the heart
You are the land
The only girl
That I could stand
I was lonely, on my own
You’re the only, one I phoned
Deep in my heart I was calling out for your love
So I wandered the streets until I had had enough.
(Chorus)
You’re the one that got this right
All we have is one more night
You and me and the out of sight
All we have is one more night
To get it right.
You were always, on your own
But when I called up, no one’s home
Nobody loves you like I said that I would
Nobody loves like that, nobody could.
(Chorus)
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4. |
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As we walk into a room of freezing cold
You laugh and say hello my friend
My fear my kind idea
And I brew a kettle drumming tea for you
Yellow foggy silver blue
I feel its sweet appeal
And you in the armchair all alone
Ooh, tell me something about the past decade
Of blue and the monochrome tube
We can swing and rock till
We both have had our fill
Of time and of space and of fun
But we know we will never be done
The nightclubs and bars and disco lights
Ooh, don’t compel us
As much as our habit of
Staying up talking all night
As I fell into your arms
Fallen out of harm
The charm of a dream of mixed rhymes
And the fancied invention of lines
Later on, the sun is in the room again
Chased away the moon again
The mirror is frosty dear
In a daze, gentle wind a warm embrace
And everything is in its place
So near come for me here
The Sunday review is on the lawn
Ooh, we should go out, see what it’s all about
The bricks in the old custom house
We can stop and wonder
In front of a window of a shop
That is closed for the day
And the sights that we’ll see on the way
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5. |
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Drawn together young embraces
Sat like loveless seeds who perish
You remember, May, when we were young
Found us in the cool November sun
I sensed something looming towards me
Vaguely, just beyond my arm’s reach
Oh, won’t you watch with me?
Oh, won’t you watch with me?
I drift like a ghost through a fate that I keep holding on
Long nights we stayed up in sentry
Gazing, playing, side by side we
Saw the joy that passion could have brought
Lost the joy that passion would have sought
May, now I feel you, my tears fall in vain on your tomb
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6. |
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Smile, Sylvia
I don’t know when I’ll love again
But smile as you fly around the planet smile
As you count another year
Smile, Sylvia
The books I’ve read will come again
Alive, curious and waiting to be
Know your letters A to Z
Baby
Life, Sylvia
Won’t be so bad, won’t be so sad
Life if you stop and play in the middle of strife
If you sing a song when something’s awry
Sing
If they hurt you no matter how they try
If they push you there’s no need to comply
Turn the world upside down
And then you’ve found it
Go to sleep and
Smile, Sylvia
I don’t know when I’ll love again
But smile as you fly around the planet smile
As you count another year
Smile, baby, smile
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7. |
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A wintry day of dismal rain,
Falala, it falls against
The window panes, the withered stains,
Tralala, the spark of feeling anew!
I have been waiting all this time to make you mine,
I have been waiting all this time.
So young and fine, sublime, divine
Are the words I’d use to tell
About my pride, synthetic bride--
Weialala, a portrait of my mind!
I have been waiting all this time to make your face come alive,
I have been waiting all this time as time goes by.
Everyday I live to bring me closer to you,
And through the window nature looks so heavenly,
But nothing compares to the beauty of my dream.
I have been waiting (all this time)
I have been waiting (all this time)
I have been waiting all this time. (I have been waiting.)
I have been waiting (all this time)
I have been waiting (all this time),
I have been waiting all this time to make you mine.
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8. |
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The night I wasn't home
I was a little stoned
I was tripping out to the beat of a disco
Whatever happened next
I bet it was complex
I woke up in the heart of San Francisco
With me and you and everyone we know
From all of the places we've found
All the smiles and eyes and sparks from long ago
They spun like a merry-go-round
I walked along the shore
I walked along some more
I found it hard to talk and hard to swallow
With me and you, and people I don't know
We played on this big haunted ground
All the smiles and eyes and sparks from long ago
They spun like a merry-go-round
Yodel lay ee ooh
Yodel lay ee ooh
Yodel lay ee ooh
Yodel lay ee ooh
Yodel lay ee ooh
Yodel lay ee ooh
So then I reached the park
As it was getting dark
I was introduced to a stomach in peril
My senses came to light
As the world sank out of sight
I found my rented home in a street oh-so-narrow
Oh me and you and everyone we know
Flew out of the old lost and found
All the smiles and eyes and sparks from long ago
They spun like a merry-go-round
Yodel lay ee ooh
Yodel lay ee ooh
Yodel lay ee ooh
Yodel lay, yodel lay ee ooh
Yodel lay ee, yodel lay ee ooh
Yodel lay ee, yodel lay ee ooh
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9. |
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Oh love affair, sweet love affair
Oh what a pretty holiday
Oh caramel, sweet caramel
Chocolate and taffy apples
The antique shop with silver things
And figurines who dance and sing
We’ll look into their globe so clear
And feel we’ve gone back twenty years
Oh love affair, sweet love affair
Let’s go and ride the Ferris wheel!
High, little ones, low, little ones
Look at the tiny people
The tracks and gears, and ramps and beams
Are all my childhood plans and schemes
The strange contraption on the walk
Fascinates the old and young
The clock strikes nine and from the poles
The bubbles fall as if they’re snow
We’ll watch the lights light up the town
And then we’ll skate beneath the palms
Oh love affair, sweet love affair
Oh what a pretty holiday
Oh caramel, sweet caramel
A tall caffe macchiato
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Band Practice/Party is a shabby and chic acoustic rock band from Oakland with a predilection for playing in the out of doors: accordion, banjos, bicycle bells, guitars, mandolins, recorder, shaker eggs, sleigh bells, trumpets, ukuleles, violin, &c. Vladimir and the Curiosity Shoppe is a collection of our original songs.
Originally released in 2009, this album was re-issued on Bandcamp in 2017.
