Allison is Crazy
Words and music by Steve Tannen

Allison is crazy in grace amazing
She’s a dreamer never came to
She’s walking on my street
Through the glass in her bare feet
You know my heart beats only for you
Monkey see monkey do I’m just trying to get on back to you

Chorus:
Water wide and starry deep
I watch her while she falls asleep
But Allison is crazy

You could take away the shotgun but that’s just a symptom
I think you better treat the whole disease
Could you fix it with the Phen-Phen
Come home in the A.M.
When the night is fait accomplis, please, please
I’m just trying to get on back to you

Repeat Chorus

Every word she says sounds like rescue me
Guilty or not you plead insanity
There is a moon over closing time
And I can’t get you out of my mind out of my mind out of my mind

You come up from a subway just before the new day
Wake me to ask if I’m awake
You think I oughta lose first to find out what love’s worth
Don’t you think I know the way the earth can shake
Monkey see monkey do I’m just trying to get on back to you

Repeat Chorus

Allison I'm crazy for you

©1997 Steve Tannen

You were doing cocaine center stage
And I was watching from the balcony
You said I never fought for you
When did you ever fight for me?

Chorus:
I know how you look in a dress of blue
What I don't need is another picture of you
Tell me love survived and whether or not it's true
I don't need another picture of you

Do I sound bitter? I'm not bitter
I'm just not sweet anymore
I see you on the magazines, I see you on the TV screens
I still see you naked stretched out on my floor

Repeat Chorus

I don't need another picture of:
Your back, your hair, your hands, your face
Your eyes, your eyes a suicidal grace
You're back, I still can hear you laugh
But I got no photographs

It's not worth saving
Love is an engraving that won't be washed away
And the past is a Polaroid and you hit what you can't avoid
I was captured by the triptych
Until I turned around and ripped it

©2000 Steve Tannen

Stop the moon in the sky
So it can't move and you can't say goodbye
The stars hung low like the sky was a tree
I'd stay here forever if it was up to me

Chorus:
I don't worry Maria
Something in the dark with you makes it OK
Oh Maria turn the light on and just say
If you don't feel that way

Late night let me in
And your corduroy pillow made a tattoo on my skin
Took me all night drinking and home on your shoulder
What I did to feel young only made me feel older

Repeat Chorus

Oh Maria come on
Why you want to be alone
With your big blue eyes and your Scorpio heart
I love you in the light, I want to love you in the dark

Sent you a dime store postcard that said "I wish I was there"
And what you never say hangs between us in the air
Cigarettes, coffee, Nabakov tattoo
If it was up to me it wouldn't be up to you

Repeat chorus

©2001 Steve Tannen

Seven times I went down
Six times I walked back
I don't fear the dark anymore
'Cause I've become all that

Chorus:
I will be rocks I will be water
I will leave this to my daughter
Lift your head up in the wind
When you feel yourself grow colder
Wrap the night around your shoulders
I will be with you even then
Even when I cannot see your face anymore

Don't forget the time I wooed him with red wine
The devil he wore such a fine, fine shirt
And it stayed so clean
While he dragged me through the dirt

Now honey don't trust anyone who looks you in the eye
Don't take any kindness, it's a demand in disguise

Repeat Chorus

I have seen such things child
On this and the other side
Words cannot show you
The midnight owl it does not know you
You will see for your sweet self by and by

Repeat Chorus

©2000 Steve Tannen and Deb Talan

Let the medicine take over
Close the blinds with my hands
I stayed in bed most of October
I thought I was well but I guess I am

Chorus:
Sick to the bone of waking lonely
And trying to keep my head from going under
I keep going so sick to the bone and still
Stuck to my guns, drinking alone, sick to the bone

The very unmarried ladies of Avenue A
Say "Spread the wealth baby spread the wealth"
Are you feeling a little unsteady today?
Sugar have I got something for you
It's something strong, like medicine
Like the beard of the old man, like you know I am

Repeat Chorus

Hey you better heal yourself
Hey you better lock your door
'Cause it's kill or cure

I thought I had the inoculation
It turns out not to be the case
And the sky is loaded like a question
Like the beard of the old man, like you know I am

Repeat Chorus

©2000 Steve Tannen

Don't forget who brought you here
Staring down the barrel of the year
Trying to find the hope despite the facts
And waiting for the night to fall like an ax

Chorus:
Colors fade away and red turns to grey
You're all right you're just stopped at a green light

A lonely year
Is love just another waste of your time?
Stopped at a green light

Now you never go nowhere
So you never get nowhere
And every road is wrong
The sun goes down, lights come on

Repeat Chorus

Maybe you will never grow old
If you go no further down the road
Friends who were familiar have all grown strange
Yes and still the light waits for you to change

©2002 Steve Tannen

Good Times
Words and music by Steve Tannen

Down in the subway out in the street
And in the eyes of everyone I meet
There is an absence that you can see
Something missing that used to be there

Chorus:
Good times now they're gone, nothing to do but carry on
It just takes so long to get nowhere
With all the stars shining bright every much too late at night
It just seems I always leave behind good times

Windows, windows, rivers of cars
This whole city is like an empty bar
With nobody dancing except for me
I hear music that used to be here

Repeat Chorus

So you can find some place and call it home
But being in love was like being along on a night that never ends
Wondering when they'll come again
Will they come again?

©2001 Steve Tannen

I just dropped by to say hello
And tell you something that you may already know
I’m yours if you want me

But I tend to get addicted to anything I can get addicted to
May want to do things I don’t think you want to do
Don’t answer right away ‘cause I’m not through
It used to be someone else and now it’s you
I’m yours if you want me

Maybe I'll leave for just a minute and maybe I’ll never come back
Maybe I prefer to be by myself maybe I just don’t have the knack
I hate the rich I hate the poor and everything that I lack
I want to throw my body on the railroad tracks
I’m yours if you want me

And on the road where they killed that poor boy
Back by the shade of the trees
The subway sounds like the end of the world
Sometimes I hate this city
You're so pretty

Can’t get up in the morning can’t sleep at night
You’ll come and make it ok and then it’ll never be quite right without you
People talking bout me well I swear it’s not the truth
I want to clean you like a cat I want to give you further proof
Then you can add up all the lies upon the lies that I tell
And turn them into a road and go to hell
I’m yours if you want me

And in the bar downtown with all the chrome and the glass
I start to feel something for you
I take a minute and let it pass
I’m yours if you want me
Yours if you want me

©2000 Steve Tannen

Friday I can't see the use
Get the hell right out of Dodge
Slip the traffic like a noose
On the trail of some mirage

Chorus:
'Cause every time it comes I think my luck will stay
Drive all the way to Vegas baby

Got no aces up my sleeve
Got nowhere to rest my head
Got no money sir to lose
And the sky is turning red

And I change out of my jeans
On the road beside the lake
Like the skies that I have seen
When I have been asleep-awake

Repeat Chorus

Take the rain as a sign
Get myself dressed to the nines
And I will pay for this
Somewhere down the line

And I'm flying through the heat
And the Mexicali radio
Every car is like a prayer
Searching for somewhere to go

©2000 Steve Tannen and Greg Tannen

I think the worst things when the phone rings after 3 AM
And even far away how you get to me
What do you want baby?

Chorus:
Late night phone call with her back against the wall
Pretend you don't care at all late night phone call

You make it worthless you flunk on purpose
Below the surface baby how can you breathe?
And when you're all alone the sound of no one home
Can make you lose your faith or make you believe

Repeat chorus

You are the same old shade of blue
Curtains designed to see through
Close your eyes against the streetlight
Won’t you try to get some sleep?

©2002 Steve Tannen/Deb Talan

Black lace hard case with too much makeup on her face looking for an evening touch
Getting late soul mate she sure would be a cheap date if she didn't drink so much

And the sun came up and it did not matter
I was in your bed and the sky was red with the night in tatters
No one forgives you what you did you're just a hard luck kid

With a cold steel head reeling anywhere is better feeling stumbled out into my car
True love like a glove d. It's none of the above fades like morning star

And the sun came up and it did not matter
And the beach was bed and my eyes were red with the night in tatters
No one forgives you what you did you're just a hard luck kid

Lights on the highway and bottles in the sand
You're always a stranger always changing what you think you understand
do you understand that the wreckage is the message
You thought it meant something

And the sun came up and it did not matter
And goodbye she said and her eyes were red with her heart in tatters
No one forgives you what you did you're just a hard luck kid
Hard luck kid

©1996 Steve Tannen

Stuck in traffic trying to get to New Orleans
The further on I go the more I long for where I’ve been

You know what? Just forget it
Name something and I regret it
And the sun sets like surrender
And I guess I misremember that whole mess
And I guess you didn't love me just a little

300 miles and I still miss your stupid face
And now I’m drinking in a bar someplace
And now I’m drinking in a bar someplace
Back to my hotel like surrender
And I guess I misremember what went on
And how the whole world looked at dawn
When you were waiting by my door
I’m sure you didn't love me just a little

Why does everybody ask if I’m ok?
I probably made the whole thing up anyway

So here I am down in New Orleans
With the concrete and the broke down dreams
Kind of reminds me of every place I've ever seen

You know what? Just forget it
Name something and I regret it
The sun sets like surrender
And I guess I misremember that whole time
And what your lips felt like on mine
It was the sweetest fever dream
You probably don't know what I mean
But if you could face up to it
I would admit I didn't love you just a little

©2001 Steve Tannen

Stopped at a Green Light: All Songs ©1996-2002 Steve Tannen (BMI) except "Rocks and Water" and "Late Night Phone Call," ©2002 Steve Tannen & Deb Talan (BMI/ASCAP), and "Vegas Baby" ©2000 Steve Tannen and Greg Tannen (BMI). All rights reserved.