Shelter Hotel
Words and music by Steve Tannen

Took a pretty girl to Paris
She was a millionaire heiress
I didn’t love her and she didn’t love me
And we stayed up drinking ‘til the morning

Chorus:
Shelter hotel, shelter hotel
I love your loneliness
I hear the night’s cathedral bells
Shelter hotel

But what a bitch in the morning
And it rained every damn day
Just give me something so I have something
that I can throw away
There was a war on the TV we had it on without the sound
Go get some wine and watch the rain come down

Repeat chorus

And I want to stay but I know better than that
I've been in love so many times that now it barely makes a scratch
She was taking off her dress
We barely noticed when outside the darkness fell
Shelter hotel

©1999 Steve Tannen

Well she gave me the big see ya’ later and I don’t think I will
Cinco alli estoy* turn left at Gilroy and head up on 280

And I’m gonna stay high, lie low
San Francisco

You see I lived with an actress-to-be, she was amazingly lifelike
I spent a year in LA it’s hard to believe but I've been missing the turnpike

And I’m gonna stay high, lie low
San Francisco
I’m gonna stay high, lie low
San Francisco

Down in the Mission
And up at Half Moon Bay and Franklin Hill
I wonder if she’s still down in the Mission

And so I heard the song of the big señorita
The world it is falling by degree
Cinco alli estoy turn left at Gilroy and head up on 280

And I’m gonna stay high, lie low
San Francisco
I’m gonna stay high, stay high, stay high
San Francisco

Down in the Mission
And up at Half Moon Bay and Franklin Hill
I wonder if she’s still down in the Mission

©1997 Steve Tannen

Well I hung around like cigarette smoke on your jacket
And in the motel rooms the lullaby was the sound of traffic
And the pretty girls on the avenue they give it up for free
I stand in a streetlight so everyone can see I’m so lonely without you

Chorus:
Baby sing me to sleep turn down the covers ‘cause talk is cheap
Baby sing me to sleep ah turn out the lights
Remember the nights when the rain fell eighteen inches deep
Baby sing me to sleep

And at closing time we’re a nickel and a dime
In the deep back pocket of America
Trying to find wings or something to carry you home
Right now you better make the best of your situation
Escape through a hole in the conversation
The sun comes up like a revelation and I’m so lonely without you

Repeat chorus

But you came up like a wind came up like a weed
All black and blue all lipstick and need
To dig a hole in your heart to bury the doubts
She holds the bottle like a gun in her mouth

You head downtown in your black leather jacket
You’re getting old now but you still stop traffic
The sun comes slow like it’s thinking it over
The moon shoots a dirty look over it’s shoulder
And I’m so lonely without you

©1998 Steve Tannen

I should have called ‘cause she was awake
She opened the door and the look on her face said I got company
And at the black eyed bodega by the catholic school
I drink to get drunk on that Cuban Mule
Makes you feel like your heart is on fire

Chorus:
It’s a cold, cold night to wander around
I see my future in flights of birds
Hey hey, have you been down 'cause I've been down
I’m gonna go see my brother uptown

He slips money in my jeans and thinks I don’t see
I play along and pretend I’m asleep on the floor
It’s no more than an 8x10 sanctuary
And it’s late in the day and late in the year
And god only knows how they sky is still clear
'Cause you won’t get it back 'cause the money’s been spent
And the chances of rain are 100 percent

Repeat chorus

Who is gonna save me from everything you gave me
Everywhere I went I was sent there by you
You pray for rain then you wish it would stop
You hate your family and then they’re all that you’ve got

Unfurl in the wind you know it runs east to west
I follow his footsteps down to Amsterdam
Where the streets are so wide put the wind in your hair
And if I knew where I should go I would go there

©1999 Steve Tannen

Outside my window the traffic is diamonds
Curved in a shape like the nape of your neck
Men are collectible action toys
And pretty soon you’re gonna have the whole set

I know all there is to know about missing a train
Love in vain

I jump the railing to the Galaxy diner
With the moon in the sky I’m shining like a planet
All of your boyfriends read you like a book
Me I read it, but I didn’t understand it
Still if you want somebody to blame...
Down where you live it’s all twisted and narrow
And now your heart is too from all the justification

I know all there is to know about missing a train
Love in vain
Go ask anybody else I had and they’ll tell you the same
Love in vain

It's the same old show and you’re watching it go
Though you’ve seen it before
I was laughing how the crying had me down on the floor
It’s not funny no more

Everyone else that I meet is a sideshow
This love is like the last love only more so

I know all there is to know about missing a train
Go ask anybody else I loved they’ll tell you the same
Love in vain

©1999 Steve Tannen

Can’t Say for Sure
Words and music by Steve Tannen

Waterfall let the devil take ya’ down to the river if ya’ cannot sleep
Where the fancy boatmen with their hearts all broken they will ferry you for cheap
I’m gonna lean up against ya’ New York City
I’m gonna slip inside your coat
Couples kiss as if to tell ya’
That what they got you don’t

Chorus:
Ooh yeah don’t do this to me leave me standing at your door
I can’t say for sure it’s over I know but I can’t say it
Can’t say for sure from where I’m calling
Or why I’m falling at your feet
Ooh yeah don’t do this

Come clean you’ve been mean to me and the sweetness is a raft
The moon above me you can’t love me in the spare time that you have
Lean yourself against somebody anyone will do
Or light a candle in your window and I will come for you

Repeat Chorus

Father forgive me the end of the day
Fighting off sleep cause it’s slipping away
Jelly bean friends taste of Easter back home
They’ll do you dirty but I’ll never leave you alone goodbye
I can see it in your face and in your heart and the big old highway
That brung the bright day heads off somewhere in the dark

©1999 Steve Tannen

She gets me drunk in a taxi
She leans down in the back seat
Spend my money I don’t mind
Come on it’s closing time

Chorus:
Love stands still to catch you in a spotlight
The moon is pale like it was left on all night
Don’t go away oh no stay outside my door
Don’t you know it will be different in the light
The way the night turns into yesterday
Don’t go away

You can lie to me and I’ll be true to you
The more you fake the act the less you feel it’s true
Don’t go baby everybody does it like that
I want to see you with your head thrown back

Repeat chorus

Does she love you, you know that she does
That’s all I meant when I said heaven above
How can I believe when she leaves she leaves
Drunk in a taxi

And last night takes a back seat to the morning
Morning traffic, morning rain
And the total silence on the morning train

©1999 Steve Tannen

I drove out interstate 10 rolling east
Past a thousand windmills I may as well be a priest
'Cause I ain't been with a woman in such a long time
The sun came up on the desert town
In some easy desert heat I'm out and walking around
And it's been feeling like a desert inside of me
I come looking for water in Joshua Tree

Across the yards the wind blows hard, my skin is so pale
There's a sign on one front lot that says "New Age Books for Sale"
A woman comes to the screen door and bends down
One heel lifts off the floor she doesn't make a sound

And the black hair falls across her face
As she fools with a stocking or a hose or a lace
I would play her amazing grace if I'd only brought my harp
And there's a small motel with a vacancy
I come looking for water in Joshua Tree
I come looking for water in Joshua Tree
I come looking for water in Joshua Tree

©1994 Don Everett Pearce

Shouted for my whiskey, shouted for my wine
Shouted for my true love she used to be with me all the time
Shouted up to heaven for an answer from the sky

Chorus:
Can you hear that If Only, does the good lord call you
Will you come home to me, Ellen where are you
The road’s a long and a lonely and I pray each and every day
But nobody listens to a word I say

Everyone’s drinking with their heads in their hands
Nobody’s talking but I understand
Every word they’re saying
Like you’re whispering still in my ear

Repeat chorus

I don’t want to hear it from you
Why you got to tell me the truth
And all the words that I said, they never said what I meant
And where the time goes I guess that’s where you went

I cry to the river and the river cries back
How can you tell me he loves you like that
I’m tired of talking to you all the time
I'm gonna talk to myself
Nobody seems to mind

©1999 Steve Tannen