Generator
Cities need a powersource
More than the elements provide
Since we built the generator
Power's been supplied

I stood on a Hilltop
A million lights burned below
People hate the generator
But we love its flow

Generator generator
Atoms burst and boil water
Steam rises up
Steam turns the turbine
And the power moves
Down the power line

We can talk we can shout
But the plug is in or the plug is out
You try to live the things you talk about
It's hard to live without the generator

If you're anything like me
You breathe hypocrisies and lie
People hate the generator
But love to light up the sky

Words and music by Jeff Davis


She Doesn't Work Here
There was a girl behind the counter
Who would give away her smile
Your could stand and watch her from the stationery asile
I found myself returning everyday after awhile
For the torture that I knew would be in store

Then I was kept away for a week or maybe two
The wind came off the lake
And drove the pigeons from the zoo
I finally made it back to that familiar avenue
I shivered as I pushed in through the door

She doesn't work here anymore
The clerk explained to me as he swept the floor
I always meant to talk to her before
She doesn't work there anymore

A blizzard after midnight
Blankets everything with snow
Esalators empty out their cargo down below
This city swallows people
And they never even know
Or if they do it's easy to ignore

I used to like to think that I might see her on the El
My thoughts would turn to words
Would turn to crutches as we fell
But there are few surprises
When you know yourself too well
There is nothing else in store

She doesn't work here anymore
I should have talked to her before
I wonder what it was I waited for
She doesn't work there anymore

Words and music by Steve Wanger


Lost in The Mail
I wrote you a valentine
I sent it to you in jail
One or two days late's no crime
But the valentine's lost in the mail
The valentine's lost in the mail

I wrote you a letter
To say that justice would prevail
I knew this would help you feel better
But the letter got lost in the mail
The letter got lost in the mail

And I dream of you
Until I am delirious
Civil disobedience 
Is serious
You were a passion flower
Wilting on that prision bus
While the system 
Is crumbling all around us

I wrote you a letter
To say I'd love you without fail
I knew this would help you feel better
But the letter got lost in the mail
The letter got lost in the mail

And I dream of you
Until I am delirious
My words are all dissected
By the curious
You're a passion flower
And that can be dangerous
When the system 
Is crumbling all around us
The system 
Is crumbling all around us

I wrote you a valentine
I sent it to you in jail
One or two days late's no crime
But the valentine's lost in the mail
The valentine's lost in the mail

Words and music by Jeff Davis


Red Pants And Romance
I dredged the silt of memory
Days passed into history
And found that under scrutiny
Most are best left mystery

Selections of past incidents
For reviewing in the present tense
Can be done in ways which will omit
Mistakes of heart you've paid for since

If life's just a linotype lodged in your head
Each day's an edition of things done and said
And if love me nots are all that's expfessed
Edit the flower and re-ink the press

Day one we kissed in verdant spates
Day three I had her slinging plates
Days four through eight for peace I'd wait
But would these , too, be deleted dates

Months later when by chance we met
The plates I'd managed to forget
But a quick right hook sealed the bet
That she could not forgive me yet

If life's just a linotype lodged in your head
Each day's an edition of things done and said
And if love me nots are all that's expfessed
Recycle the paper and question the quest

Words and music by Robert Blackmon


Dangerous Roof
It's a dangerous roof
When the wind blows
With a shaky ladder
And a street below
But the drunks
And the lovers
Climb up six flights
To see the city
From above the skylights

It's a slippery roof
That's a magnet
For drunks and lovers
The daring walk to the edge
And jam a foot
In the gutter
A tragic lover
Said she'd show me how
She's way out ther, man
She's an angel now
She's way out there, man
She's an angel now

We were strung out
And wired up
Like kites
People are into
All different kinds of flights
When the wind is up there man,
Stay off of that roof
Unless you want
To be an angel too
Unless you want
To be an angel too

Words and music by Jeff Davis


Can You Get To That

Words and music by George Clinton and Ernie Harris


Understanding Furniture
Mason was a soldier once but he won't tell you any tales
He lives in the place out back but no once sends him any mail
A private, driven man, he has no parts to spare
I try to catch his eye as he goes down the stairs

In the basement he makes furniture
While he's talking to himself
When he talks to the furniture
Sometimes we send fo rhelp
He lets his secrets go with a mallet and some pegs
A chair that has one arm or a table with no legs

He never speaks to me
He'll never speak to you
Mason understands furniture
Is that enough?

Idon't mind the noise he makes,
It's because of where he's been
It's his right to shut me out, still I wish he'd let me in
If he were a friend of mine he might help me to know
All the places that he's been not where I can go

Mason was a soldier once, now he just takes medicine
It leaves him speechless, it leaves me wondering
About his shining path, the pictures on his shelf
Anything to keep me from wondering about myself

He never speaks to me
He'll never speak to you
Mason understands furniture
Is that enough?

Words by Steve Wagner
Music by Willie Aron


Sleep On The Trusty Floor
Who has been between these sheets
No one that I've known
People that I'll never meet
Slept here once and then moved on

Roll away to sleep
For the night
Behind this motel door
Leave this strange bed undisturbed
Sleep on the trusty floor
Sleep on the trusty floor
Sleep on the trusty floor

A thousand strangers
Have rested here
A thousand in one bed
I'd feel so vunerable and weird
I'd rather sleep where
Souls have tread

Roll away to sleep
For the night
Behind this motel door
Leave this strange bed undisturbed
Sleep on the trusty floor
Sleep on the trusty floor
Sleep on the trusty floor

All floors are about the same
Every floor has got it's dust
When sleep pulls me
Like an Anchor
The floor is easy to trust
'Cause people lived and died
Beneath these covers
And I feel their presence still
I feel rooted to the ground
And I always will

Some have sunk
Into this mattress
Like a bad dream
Every one of them
Left something behind
I've shared strange beds before
But with people
I could see
Tonight my
Blankets on the floor
And I don't mind

Words and music by Jeff Davis


Fishing In Your Eye
Creases crawl across my brow
I don't feel too good right now
Fingers fumble at your chin
So you've spread your words too thin
And when you don't reply
I catch what you mean as it slips by
I'm fishing in your eye

There's a speech at midday
Try to picture hair that's gray
Children cheer on his knee
Flags wave in this recipe
A sideshow that I don't buy
I catch what he means as it slips by
I'm fishing in your eye

Hunger we can't contain
Though we don't make it plain
You took my hand, took my seat
Anticipation's high
I catch what you mean as it drifts by
I'm fishing in your eye

Words by Steve Wagner
Music by Willie Aron


Between Two Oceans
The national product
Flows across the water
In comes the tanker
And out goes the dollar

There's rice and tools and textiles
I walk around and try to smile
She's been on the ship meanwhile
Temporarily forever

The docks breathe rhythmically
The docks breathe
Rhythmically

Impore export
Impore export
Goods move back and forth
Ships sail from the north
Ships depart
Without emotion
And I'm stuck here
Between two oceans

I watch the metals shipping out
She has copper through her hair
She's breathing in pure atmosphere
I smell diesel in the air

Exports see the world
But I'm domestic product
And I'm of no great import
To this girl across the dateline

The docks breathe rhythmically
The docks breathe
Rhythmically

Impore export
Impore export
Goods move back and forth
Ships sail from the north
Ships depart
Without emotion
And I'm stuck here
Between two oceans

If you see a girl
Clutching a passport
Up on the top deck
Holding a hand rail

Tell her I'm going blind
Salt water in my eye
Since her ship curved out of sight
Over the horizon

Words and music by Jeff Davis


Learning How To Cheat
I'm learning how to cheat death, I just live like I'm dead
I feel like a newspaper nobody had read
I think of things I used to understand

All the flowers turn black at night
And the moonshine's in my mouth
Heat like a longsome gravestone if there's any doubt
I think of things I used to understand

The roads converge and then they scatter
It's hard to see how some things matter
Is there a lot that you would rather not know?

I'm a tour guide on the beaten path
Let me show you around
Everything is easy, here let me help you down
No one will over wonder where you went

Everywhere the ruins are in disrepair
But unless somebody told you
You'd never know they were there
No one will ever wonder where they went

The roads converge and then they scatter
It's hard to see how some things matter
Is there a lot that you would rather not know?

Words by Steve Wagner
Music by Steve Wagner, Willie Aron and Robert Blackmon