Jackson Browne Lyrics

The Pretender I’m going to rent myself a house In the shade of the freeway I’m going to pack my lunch in the morning And go to work each day And when the evening rolls around I’ll go on home and lay my body down And when the morning light comes streaming in I’ll get up and do it again Amen Say it again Amen I want to know what became of the changes We waited for love to bring Were they only the fitful dreams Of some greater awakening I’ve been aware of the time going by They say in the end it’s the wink of an eye And when the morning light comes streaming in You’ll get up and do it again Amen Caught between the longing for love And the struggle for the legal tender Where the sirens sing and the church bells ring And the junk man pounds his fender Where the veterans dream of the fight Fast asleep at the traffic light And the children solemnly wait For the ice cream vendor Out into the cool of the evening Strolls the Pretender He knows that all his hopes and dreams Begin and end there Ah the laughter of the lovers As they run through the night Leaving nothing for the others But to choose off and fight And tear at the world with all their might While the ships bearing their dreams Sail out of sight I’m going to find myself a girl Who can show me what laughter means And we’ll fill in the missing colors In each other’s paint-by-number dreams And then we’ll put out dark glasses on And we’ll make love until our strength is gone And when the morning light comes streaming in We’ll get up and do it again Get it up again I’m going to be a happy idiot And struggle for the legal tender Where the ads take aim and lay their claim To the heart and the soul of the spender And believe in whatever may lie In those things that money can buy Thought true love could have been a contender Are you there? Say a prayer for the Pretender Who started out so young and strong Only to surrender (c) 1976 SWALLOW TURN MUSIC

Call It A Loan In the morning when I closed my eyes You were sleeping in paradise And while the room was growing light I was holding still with all my might Oh - what if it’s true ...What my heart says Oh - what’ll I do What if this feeling becomes hard to part with You were meant to play your part In the design of a desperate heart And while you gave your love to me I was betting I was getting it free Oh-- If I’d only known ...What your heart cost Oh-- can we call it a loan And a debt that I owe On a bet that I lost In the evening when you see my eyes Looking back at you, no disguise I’m not sure who you think you’ll see I’m just hoping you’ll still know that it’s me Oh-- what if it’s true ...Better ask the man inside Oh, oh - there seem to be two One steals the love, and the other one hides. Yeah - can we call it a loan Till I’m paid in full for the seeds I’ve sown Yeah - can we say that I’ve grown In someway that we may have yet to be shown Oh - if I’d only known ...What your heart cost Oh - can we call it a loan And a debt that I owe On a bet that I lost (c) 1980 SWALLOW TURN MUSIC & NEUOLEUM MUSIC / ASCAP

Say It Isn’t True In the still of the night Lying in the darkness I listen to my heart Say it isn’t true In the dark and the quiet The movements of my love And the breathing of our children Say it isn’t true In the streets and the buildings The people in their lives And the jobs they do for a living Say it isn’t true And when you think of all the people In the cities of the world Who could vanish in a moment Say it isn’t true Say it isn’t true That there always has been and always will be war Say it isn’t true And apart from all the fine things that men have struggled for Say it isn’t true There always has been and always will be war Say it isn’t true I’m alive in a city In a country of the world And I want to go on living I want to see my life unfold You know it’s hard to go on looking At the stories of our day And the dangers we’re all facing Growing worse in every way And you would think with all of the genius And the brilliance of these times We might find a higher purpose And a better use of mind Say it isn’t true That there always has been and always will be war Say it isn’t true And apart from all the fine things that man has struggled for Say it isn’t true There always has been and always will be war Say it isn’t true Say it... Say it isn’t... (c) 1983 Night Kitchen Music ASCAP

Lawyers In Love I can’t keep up with what’s been going on I think my heart must just be slowing down Among the human beings in their designer jeans Am I the only one who hears the screams And the strangled cries of lawyers in love God sends his spaceships to America, the beautiful They land at six o’clock and there we are, the dutiful Eating from TV trays, tuned into to Happy Days Waiting for World War III while Jesus slaves To the mating calls of lawyers in love Last night I watched the news from Washington, the capitol The Russians escaped while we weren’t watching them, like Russians will Now we’ve got all this room, we’ve even got the moon And I hear the U.S.S.R. will be open soon As vacation land for lawyers in love (c) 1983 Night Kitchen Music ASCAP

Lawless Avenues (by Jorge Calderon and Jackson Browne) Papa hit him, Mama kissed him Made him go to Catechism With the sisters in their black and white And all the time those city streets Were teaching him another kind of wisdom When to run and when to fight Up at the playground after school Listening to tales of the prison system And those lawless avenues Dawn on a half darkened street A child's footsteps repeat And something there turns them Down those lawless avenues Silent Joe went down so bad He was the strongest fighter the avenues had Stabbed in the chest--he went down swinging Someone from some other part of town No one even seen it coming down And you don't hear no church bells ringing And in the violent night the police light Sweeps across the lots and the yards Following those lawless avenues Down on a half darkened street Armies advance and retreat And struggle to take control From those lawless avenues Manuelito's sister Rosa Ran away with a surfer from Hermosa Manuelito, cuida a Rosa, Hay mira como estan las cosas! (Manuelito take care of Rosa --Look at how things are) But who could blame her after she saw Every boy die who could have gotten close to her Rosa es joven u solo quiere ver la belleza del mundo (Rosa is young and only wants To see the beauty of the world) Manuel said-- "You gotta fight for what you want in this life" Just before they shipped him overseas to 'Nam Otra guerra sin razon Otra guerra sin fin, sin honor (Another war without reason, Another war without end, without honor) And she was fighting to understand When they shipped Manuelito's body home All she heard was one more shot Echoing down lawless avenues Hoy amigo, tal igual como ayer, La lucha en el barrio no cambia Nuestros hijos son los que han de crecer Por ley de la calle, viviendo entre abrazos Y chingazos (Today my friend, just like yesterday, The struggle in the barrio doesn't change. Our children are the ones to grow up By the law of the street Living between hugs and blows) Down on a half darkened street Fathers' and sons' lives repeat And something there turns them Down those lawless avenues En el calor de la calle (In the heat of the street) Buscan valor en la calle (Looking for valor in the street) Hasta final de la calle (Till the end of the street) (c) 1986 SWALLOW TURN MUSIC, ASCAP and Googolplex Music, BMI

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