My twin teleprompters humming in the night
Trying to send a signal I should lose this fight
But I never took a fall and you’re probably right
This bout will yield nothing but losers

I saw you breaking down in a magazine
And I never told a soul what it meant to me
Now I’m on a mission fueled by LSD
Trying to break these patterns

But I assure you
With a capital A
We’re just players in a fake play
Honey, don’t it all seem so phony?

Ladies & gentlemen, may I introduce
Some dark side of me that’s gotten loose
He’s making the rounds, yeah it’s probably true
They say he looks exactly like me

While you’re back home making real life moves
I’m in a motel outside a Baton Rouge
Reading these pages to some local girl
“Honey, won’t you read my manifesto?”

But I assure you
With a capital A
We’re just players in a fake play
Honey, don’t it all seem so phony?

I been running a marathon
It’s me vs. the hangers-on
We keep singing the same song
In the wrong key
I’m not here to deliberate
I’m not here to associate
I’m only trying to escape my fate
Though it’s not polite
It could happen tonight

But I assure you
With a capital A
We’re just players in a fake play
Honey, don’t it all seem so phony?

I’m gonna build a world that won’t fall apart
Does anybody wanna come with me?

Knock, knock here I am a civilian outpost
I’ve been dreaming for two
We look out for quicksand
Cuz we bottle and rebrand
and return nightly home to you
C’mon Ghost-o, is this your card?
I’ve been rehearsing this trick for weeks
Summoned and sunburned, enormously ticked off
I’d fade away if this wasn’t sweet

Last night I figured out how this will work
And it’s not some slight of hand
It’s a different way not to die
You could trust me and try it for awhile

Country Before Kings! And kings after:
1) This most pleasant evening
2) Your horoscope’s meaning
I finally figured it out

For Christ’s sake knock it off
The cameras are rolling
Let’s explore the least we could be Two tandem sleepers
Like twin engine heaters
Hold a light & carry this through
There is no song, there is no guide
To lend a clue where we ought to be
Exalted and poised to type out a paean
This isn’t for the king it’s for me

Country Before Kings! And kings after:
1) This most pleasant evening
2) Your horoscope’s meaning
I finally figured it out

Well I used to be a ghost
But I’m no longer a ghost
There’s a way I was told
Now I know it was true
Now I want what I had
So I’ll take it from you
On my game and off the clock
What kind of mess turns you on?
Well, I used to be a ghost

You know I can’t recall my name (trap door looming in the morning sky)
I guess I threw it all away (split like heaven in the royal night)
I got lost (hit the lights) in the woods (far away)
Sat in capital thrones
I got shot (here’s a torch) by the dunes (c’mon man)
Walked the streets like a drone
In my prime but nodding off
What kind of wreck do you recall?
You know I can’t recall my name

I’m coming back not without injuries
I’ll make my repairs up on your roof
You lost hope when you read my obituary
I’m here to tell you the papers were faked
They threw some mannequin in a lake
If you moved on well you made a mistake

I used to be a ghost
But I’m no longer a ghost

Here we go
Sno-Cone baby, I love you in the morning
Sweetest lows
KO, Uncle, I’ll meet you in the driveway

Watch this space
unseen terrors crashing into our lives
Boxes check
But no more spark than any average romance

Go ahead and hook me to the polygraph
We got a lot of people hoping for the best

I remember this!
Don’t mention the odds
Meet me in the car

I am the setting sun
You are the rising moon

Pour me a drink
Let me explain the wall paper
It’s not impossible to translate this dream
You’ve kept it afloat
Tell me about some love affair
It’s maybe the case that it won’t bother me now

We once had our best interests
Stripped and tied to some American sound

Just press record
We’ll cover mistakes with harmonies
It’s not impossible to sing what you mean
But it might be the last thing that we need

I caught some heat in the reviews
When I betrayed American sounds
I’m calling from the club’s phone
In a bad part of some American town
I met the man who played you every song
That some American found
We once had our best interests
Stripped and tied to some American sound

I’ll need about 3 minutes to explain just how I feel for you now

For the kids, at the time
These decisions all seemed right
When the militant party lines
Said, “you’re coming with us and we’ll show you how to shine a light”
So some went ahead with a certain look in their eyes

Was it me or was it you
That convinced us that we knew
Which parts we made up on the spot
Now the translator has some interesting words for the press
I’ll explain it again though I think that you all know the rest

And some of them we lost when the city turned its lights out
But all of them were still screaming “yeah! yeah! yeah!”
Hey Man, you’re alive

it's the memory you let go
not the stimuli of the ghost
injecting opera, in the corridor
of the queen's latest estate

and so you slip on past the bazaar
troubles d.o.a. thus far
“I'm not so criminal
in a cathedral”
you remark as the blimps fade away

“is this an epilogue?” doc asks
while the nurses 5 float past
“we'd like to regulate
but not aggravate
and bring this dance to a close”

and while you sit and think about that
something invisible falls flat
and we'll not know today
what it had to say
but I'm sure it'll be back

a bell for the brave Armenian waitress
outsourced to the heavies in the Texas sway
something drifts across the soul of September soil
I used to strip there but now I solemnly swear

I'm the one to disintegrate into your dreamscape
pushed into patchwork
with a mask with eyes cut to keyholes
believe me I'm trying

I remember the day machine wept into lakes
and poets made a plea on live TV
a semicolon inked on the governor's wrist
we all claimed we shared but it's worse than we feared

I'm the one to camp out under the flagpole
coiled up and dumb
trashing the haunted mansion
pushed into patchwork
to disintegrate into your dreamscape
with a mask with eyes cut to keyholes
believe she's lying

when you come again
tryst in the treetop
8 excuses for the mother hen
I tripped in the hall
it was a miracle stall
bought us time and we
filtered out the feelings again

we schemed at the built in bar
townie authority screaming we shouldn't go far
I copied the key
the way I mimic disease
leaving the locksmith hungry,
debating on his hands and his knees

bankrupt birdhouse the crow got the word out
we've seen this all before
and I am slouching a grown man crouching
thirty armed men at the door

the truth and the tooth came out
one in the paper and the other inside of his mouth
he left with a limp and a cut on his lip
hid the morning paper and never told his wife or his kids

now we're on our own
cutting coupons 10 dollars off
a crown and a thrown
discount royalty
high horse novelties
we'll pay full price cuz it's better
than being alone

let it wave
oh let it wave
let it wave
oh let it wave

the phone line is broken
the tapes are all erased
someone's at the door you know his wares have all been laced
you better hope you die before me

if you take it as a compliment
you're out of your tree
the horses all are ready
and they know as well as me
that you better hope you die before me

everybody knows you climb a ladder so well
impressive demonstrations of your speech and your spells
but you better hope you die before me

dress me up in wires
I'll plug into the feed
of blasted out basement shows
bursting at the seams
and you better hope you die before me

the house is infested
with pests of every kind
but at least they had the courtesy
to stay of my mind
you're broken, alone, down, and undreamed

so you can bang on every windchime
or light a torch for me
or magnify your tiny soul
with a microscope from me
but you better hope you die before me

Big time issues in air tight jars
There’s a furnace fuel that can outpace cars
We all made the cut so let’s break some laws
Can you turn me up in the speakers?

We’re amateurs but we speak like pros
If you leave by dusk can you leave me a note?
We both know the score but keep hitting the ropes
Can you deal with unconditional clauses?

No more light sources from the to and the fro
We’re coming out loud & clean
Making the most of the moves, oh

A-M-A-T-E-U-R-S

Later on we killed some time
Kicking down some doors on the company’s dime
The mystery’s here to be thrashed and mined
Can we almost hit the edge of the pulse point?

Make like millions & speak with care
There’s a suit laid out for a formal affair
They can’t spot a novice if he acts like an heir
And an heir only acts as he pleases

No more short cuts through the halls of the king
We’re coming out loud & clean
Making the most of the moves, oh

A-M-A-T-E-U-R-S

Amateurs! Amateurs! We wish you well, we wish you well

“We’re Amateurs”

A-M-A-T-E-U-R-S

gentlemen
he said forever
so we can talk about it, talk about it
talk about it 'till it's all akimbo

and if it's true that we've all forgotten something
you can take a potent memory pill
and we can reconstruct the past with a sail and a mast
and we'll float on into the sunset

our phones our wide open
introductory saints
you are the secretary of my security
and I'm the czar of whatever it takes
and darlin' one of us, one of us
one of us is one of them

watch your weapons
there are those who do covet
and the last thing we need is an obituary feed
that scrolls with names that we all know

and if it's true that we've all forgotten something
you can take a potent memory pill
and you'll remember why you're hear and you'll cry in your beer
'cause the next week is gonna be rough

our phones our wide open
introductory saints
you are the secretary of my security
and I'm the czar of whatever it takes
and darlin' one of us, one of us
one of us is one of them

I saw your name
on a blacklist in the city
assembled outright by committee
they play to win, they play to win
I've come around

out of my mind
out of context, on a substance
in the bathroom of your apartment
I've got a note from a doctor
that this is allowed

and all of these unbelievable villains
come my way
they hold up photos
they say they know you
you and I

and that ticking sound hear
let's pay it no mind
let's pay it no mind 

The girls are here
The rules have changed
To the streets, up the hill, over plains
Come on team
So I can feel
Lost, harassed, and new

There’s nothing
They’ve shown us
We’d kill to have
There’s nothing like this at all

Come on team
So I can feel
Lost, harassed, and new

To the trustees of a verified nation
Where have you been, what have we done?
To the old friends who scavenge for an anecdote
Rummage no more, we’ve got one for you
And here’s to the predictions of amateurs
Their net cast so wide, their Hail Mary moves
And what creeps in the dark resides in all of us
Keep transcripts and notes and meet me out back

Ooooooooh
Caress me now
And I’ll come back again

The girls are here
The rules have changed
To the streets, up the hill, over plains

Come on team
So I can feel
Lost, harassed, and new

Whatever it is in the way
Tear it down - make the time
Come on out for the week
Bring the wife - no regrets

built by science “the dysphemic alliance”
we're pumping iron down by the pier
and we're trimming the fuses on these daily abuses
there's nobody sober left to steer
we went down with intentions to climb
the eighty foot memorial pine
hey who blew the roof off?
c'mon get your boots on
we're cataloging Candy's demise

the concierge signals it seems we have a single
are you decent with a map and a flask?
I found my room and then hallucinated you
it's so useless if you have to ask
where I got this punch in the mouth
he tells the joke about the pole in the south
we were perfect and passed out when she
finally got her shout out
we're cataloging candy's demise

asleep at the spiel we tried so hard to feel
until amnesia caught us unawares
we were pulling from a pill box
when we ran into the Statie
and he brought us all in on a whim
fingerprinted but not afraid
we told the guys we were back from the grave
every moment in my life
is crawling back tonight
cataloging candy's demise

sawed off sneakers
my lifeblood in a beaker
it's so groovy when you use ESP
but frankly Rudy your brother's out of juvie
so you gotta go buy him some weed
we were absolutely upside down
when candy's sister rolled back into town
c'mon with the sportscoat
polish up the row boat
we're cataloging candy's demise
hey who blew the roof off?
c'mon get your boots on
we're cataloging candy's demise
we were perfect and passed out when she
finally got her shout out
we're cataloging candy's demise

outside nature beats the tar out of nature
an intelligent disease inside a healthy plant
I heard you were one of those homewrecking truckers, well ain't ya?
“18 wheels of terror”: the driver's union chant
turn it up on the vamp

when night falls
who picks it up?
who picks it up?
who picks it up?

stitched on the inside of his jacket is a note for the doctor:
“send my remains to a stranger picked out of a hat”
he's adept at piano but he never claimed to have rocked her
then the band took a break and went to get high in the back
but it's enough if we ask

when night falls
who picks it up?
who picks it up?
who picks it up?

a hand comes down and turns the airplane around
an alarm clock sounds and shakes the unconscious down
and then the playground hounds sniff out every drug in town
on a Friday night
in the middle of the month
in the preacher's house
at the mayor's house
in the policeman's car
in the teacher's bag
in the doctor's lab
it's enough if we ask

when night falls
who picks it up?
who picks it up?
who picks it up?

get you out of range
of my monster eyes
best thing I ever did for you
was get you out of range
of my monster eyes

before my eyes destroy you
you better run

In the haunted mansion
Where Jefferson Airplane
Use to write their hit songs
I fell in love

The future holds me hostage
The past is slightly less violent
I have issues with the present
Still, I come at it with love

It’s neverending
This rule bending
Beat Up, Blissed Out
Bruises On The Brain
They’re sending in a team
To try and write a new refrain

In a clapboard palace
Famished for something
But aiming to mingle
I build a makeshift throne

It’s like I told you
I’m coming for you
With spat out verses
Another bloody nose
The car might not make it
But I can still get us home

Portrait of the artist
As a young trash can
With a naïve game plan
Comes to me now