There Will Be No Intermission – The Lyrics!

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TRACKLIST

1. All the Things
2. The Ride
3. Congratulations (Instrumental)
4. Drowning in the Sound
5. Hold on Tight, Darling  (Instrumental)
6. The Thing About Things
7. Life’s Such a Bitch Isn’t It  (Instrumental)
8. Judy Blume
9. Feeding the Dark  (Instrumental)
10. Bigger on the Inside
11. There Will Be No Intermission  (Instrumental)
12. Machete
13. You Know the Statistics  (Instrumental)
14. Voicemail for Jill
15. You’d Think I’d Shot Their Children  (Instrumental)
16. A Mother’s Confession
17. They’re Saying Not to Panic  (Instrumental)
18. Look Mummy, No Hands
19. Intermission Is Relative  (Instrumental)
20. Death Thing

THE RIDE

Everyone’s too scared to open their eyes up
But everyone’s too scared to close them
Everyone’s frightened they don’t know what’s coming
But everyone’s frightened of knowing

Everyone’s reading the rules of engagement
And everyone’s starting to doubt them
Everyone’s reaching to put on a seatbelt
But this kind of ride comes without them

I want you to think of me sitting and singing beside you
I wish we could meet all the people behind us in line
The climb to the crest is less frightening with someone to clutch you
But isn’t it nice when we’re all afraid at the same time?

And it’s just a ride It’s just a ride
And you’ve got the choice to get off any time that you like
It’s just a ride It’s just a ride
The alternative’s nothingness, might as well give it a try

Everyone’s terrified that they’ll be justified
By the collapse that will happen
Everyone’s placing their bets just in case
The whole thing’s a profound disappointment
Everyone’s trying to stay on the side
Where the water’s just boiling more slowly
Frogs in a pot, well that’s one thing I’ve got
At least some of the frogs in here know me

I want you to think of me sitting and singing beside you
The chain pulls us up and we know that we’re all gonna dive
The blur and the noise of the screaming can blind and distract you
But isn’t it nice when we all can scream at the same time?

And as we all go down
And as we all go round
And as we pitch from side to side
Everything is gonna be all right

Everyone’s getting real scared to come out,
Because coming out’s going down badly
Feel the city breaking and everybody shaking,
And I just want someone to hold me

Some are too scared to let go of their children,
And some are too scared now to have them
Suicide, homicide, genocide, man
That’s a fuck ton of sides you can choose from

I want you to think of me sitting and singing beside you
I wish we could meet all the people who got left behind
The ride is so loud it can make you think no one is listening
But isn’t it nice when we all can cry at the same time?

And it’s just a ride
It’s just a ride
And you’ve got the choice to get off any time that you like
It’s just a ride
It’s just a ride
The alternative’s nothingness, might as well give it a try

And as we all go down
And as we all go round
And as we switch from side to side
Everything is gonna be just fine
Everyone you love is gonna die
Hopefully this song will come remind you

That it’s just a ride
It’s just a ride
From the sister you miss
To the father you don’t wanna write
It’s just a ride

It’s just a ride
From the lover you left
To the one that you’re frightened to find
It’s just a ride
It’s just a ride
From the baby you lost
To the one that you’re growing inside
Come on out darling
And don’t you cry
It’s just a ride

DROWNING IN THE SOUND

You worship the sun, and you’re aching for change
But you keep starving your heart
And you used to have sisters, you don’t anymore
You worship the sun
But you keep feeding the dark

And I’m out in the yard with my son and my daughter
And the sky is all black and I think we should start running
Running from the water

And everybody’s yelling
They’re yelling that they’re coming
But I don’t see a single soul
They’re all so busy yelling
Not one of them is hearing
The hissing from the bottom of the boat

I got some feelings up my sleeve
I got a compass in my arm
I got a needle in my heart
It’s gonna tell us where we are

South by southwest, two miles from town
I can’t get out, I can’t look down
If you can hear, if you’re around I’m over here,
I’m over here I’m watching everyone I love
Drowning in the sound

You worship the sun, but the moon’s in the way
So get your armaments out She’s always looking for trouble
She’s gonna get what’s been coming to her
She’s switching the tides
And we can’t have that shit around

The television
They’re blaring out a warning
That our natural state is drowning
That our natural state is burning

And you’re trying to help
And you’re clicking for change
And you’re calling it out
And you’re adding your name
And you’re marching for peace
But you’re lynching the bitch
That got up in your face
How else they gonna take you seriously?

South by southwest, two miles from town
I can’t get out, I can’t look down
If you can hear, if you’re around
I’m over here, I’m over here

I’m watching everyone I love
Drowning in the sound

Your body is a temple
And the temple is a prison
And the prison’s overcrowded
And the inmates know it’s flooding
And the body politic is getting sicker by the minute
And the media’s not fake
It’s just very inconvenient

Do you ever feel like this should be officially the end?
And that you should be the one to do the ending, but you can’t?
Do you ever feel like everyone is slowly letting go?
Do you ever feel that, that incredibly alone?

And they’re saying not to panic
And it’s like a broken record
As if anybody knows what that is
And they’re saying that we’ll manage
It’s the hottest one on record
And they’re saying that that’s just the way it is

Now I can taste it coming, I can taste it with my tongue
And my children are so heavy, but I pick them up and run
And I know I’ll have to swim soon, when the water gets too high
I’ll keep holding them above me, I keep holding them and crying

South by southwest, two miles from town
I can’t get out, I can’t look down
If you can hear, if you’re around
I’m over here, I’m over here

I’m watching everyone I love
Everyone I love
Everyone I love
Drowning in the sound

You worship the sun, and you’re aching for change
But you keep starving your heart
You used to have sisters, you don’t anymore
You worship the sun
But you keep feeding the dark

THE THING ABOUT THINGS

I have loaned a lot of things to a lot of friends
Like dresses, and records, and books
And a lot of the time, I never see them again
And in a weird way I think that that works

Cos the thing about things is they start to turn evil
When you start to forget what they’re for
So if you’re not sure what you did with my sweater
I’ll just have to love you a little bit more

I had a ring that belonged to my grandfather
He was a Mason and gay
And he was distant and bitter for all of my childhood
We never had much to say

He wasn’t the type to give tokens of affection
So I stole the ring when he died
And then twenty years on, when I lost it in a bar
I thought “That’s fine, I don’t want him in my life”

Cos the thing about things is that they can start meaning things
Nobody actually said
And if he couldn’t make something mean something for me
I had to make up what it meant

I can carry everything I need in one collapsing suitcase
I can carry everyone I love in one phone application
Built to maximize the face time
Of the friends I’m bent on making

Actually, I want to be alone
To mourn the loss
Of what it cost

I think it’s a poem, and I think it keeps going
And I’ve borrowed and loaned lots of things
And three nights ago, in the bar where I lost it
The bartender gave me the ring

And I lay in bed with my phone in my hand
Thinking “What can I fix with which app?”
And I call my grandfather, but he doesn’t answer
And I have to make peace with that fact

Cos the thing about things is that they can start meaning things
Nobody actually said
And if you’re not allowed to love people alive
Then you learn how to love people dead

The thing about things is that they can start meaning things
Nobody actually said
And if you’re not allowed to love people alive
Then you learn how to love people dead

JUDY BLUME

People keep asking me why I do things like I do
And in all of this measuring influence I forgot you
You and me lying behind the Monhegan Hotel
And you told me things that nobody around me would tell
That was the summer when everyone touched me at once
It was like one day they ignored me, the next, they were all down my pants
But you were in bed with me, safe, before anyone else
You open beside me and held me when I needed help
You and me lying together at night in my room
You’ve been inside me forever, Judy Blume

I couldn’t carry a tune but I thought I could sing
And no one had told me yet thoughts were a good or bad thing
But I started noticing grown-ups would smile and cringe
And you taught me that you could say anything you could think

I don’t remember my friends from gymnastics class
But I remember when Deenie was at the school dance,
Buddy feeling her up in the locker room
Margaret, bored, counting hats in the synagogue
Davey was stirring the tea that she wouldn’t drink
Tony was watching his so-called friend shoplifting
All of them lived in my head, quietly whispering:
“You are not so strange”

I don’t remember the details of seventh grade
All I remember is lying and being afraid
But I won’t forget Katherine and Michael going all the way
Steph on the scale in the bathroom alone that day
Karen pretending to puke so her dad would stay
Margaret arguing with God while she masturbated
All of them mixed up in my head like a love letter
All of them saying, “Amanda, you know better
You are not to blame
The world’s a frightening place
So go on and think how you want
You will not be alone with your thoughts
Well you will but you won’t in a way
‘Cause a girl thought it too in a book that the library bought”

People will keep asking me why I do things like I do
And from now on I’ll tell them Nick Cave, and I’ll talk about you
Judy, I can’t believe sometimes that I’m an adult
And the girls like I was think that I have this shit figured out
You and me lying together at night in my room
You’ll be inside them forever, Judy Blume

BIGGER ON THE INSIDE

You’d think I’d shot their children
From the way that they are talking
And there’s no point in responding

Cos it will not make them stop

And I am tired of explaining
And of seeing so much hating
In the very same safe haven
Where I used to just see helping

I’ve been drunk and skipping dinner
Eating skin from off my fingers
And I tried to call my brother
But he no longer exists

I keep forgetting to remember
That he would have been much prouder
If he saw me shake these insults off
Instead of getting bitter

I am bigger on the inside
But you have to come inside to see me
Otherwise you’re only hating
Other people’s low-res copies

You’d think I’d learn my lesson
From the way they keep on testing
My capacity for pain
And my resolve to not get violent

But though my skin is thickened
Certain spots can still be gotten
It is typically human of me
Thinking I am different two
Friends hooked up to hospital machines
To fix their cancer
And there is no better place than
From this waiting room to answer

The French kid who sent an email
To the website late last night
His father raped him and he’s scared
He asked me “How do you keep fighting?”

And the truth is I don’t know
I think it’s funny that he asked me
Cos I don’t feel like a fighter lately
I am too unhappy

You are bigger on the inside
But your father cannot see
You need to tell someone, be strong
And somewhere, some dumb rock star truly loves you

You’d think I’d get perspective
From my view here by the bedside It is difficult to see the ones I love
So close to death

All their infections and prescriptions
And the will to live at all in question
Can I not accept that
My own problems are so small?

You took my hand when you woke up
I had been crying in the darkness
We all die alone
But I am so, so glad that you are here

You whispered we are so much bigger on the inside
You, me, everybody
Some day when you’re lying where I am
You’ll finally get it, beauty

We are so much bigger than
Another one can ever see
But trying is the point of life
So don’t stop trying, promise me

MACHETE

I have never liked the box of knives
You said was a paradox because you’re kind
But withstood a childhood that robbed you blind
Of love that was safe and so you learned to fight

What do I do with this stuff?
It seems like yesterday I called you up
I had a terrible case of the past
I didn’t know how to get it off
I didn’t know how to get it off

And you took your machete
And you sliced through the vines that wrapped around me
And you said, “I don’t know what I’m doing
So I’ll just keep on cutting
It’s worth a little blood to get your arms free”

I have never liked the box of knives
You said was a paradox because you’re kind
But withstood a childhood that robbed you blind
Of love that was safe and so you learned to fight

What do I do with this stuff?
It seems like yesterday I was in love
I kept on hardening the soft spots up
I didn’t know how to get them off
I didn’t know how to get them off

And you took your machete
And you hacked through the wood in the surrounding
And you said,
“I don’t know where I’m going
I just know that I’m heading
From the dead things piling up behind me”

And you took your machete
And you carved out a path to my chest
And you said, “See?
There’s nothing not worth keeping
You’ve felt so many beatings
But nothing’s gonna work if you believe me
Nothing’s gonna work if you believe me”

I have never liked the box of knives
You said was a paradox because you’re kind
But withstood a childhood that robbed you blind
Of love that was safe and so you learned to fight

I have never liked the box of knives
I took it to the oceanside the day you died
I stood out on the dock, no matter how hard I tried
I couldn’t drop it in and I collapsed and cried

What do I do with this stuff?
It seems like yesterday you were alive
And it’s as if you never really died
And it’s as if you never really died

And you took your machete
You said, “Boo, guess who
But seriously, beauty”
You said, “See?

You get the drill now, don’t you
It’s not a will or won’t you
Can’t keep making symbols out of nothing”

So I took your machete
And I sliced off your head
And you laughed, and you said, “See?
It’s just like anti-matter
It’s Dumbo’s magic feather
You don’t need me here to cut you
You don’t need me here to cut you
You don’t need me here to cut you
You don’t need me here to cut you
You don’t need me here to cut you free”

VOICEMAIL FOR JILL

Jill, it’s Amanda, just waving from London
I know that you’re going tomorrow, the hardest decision
And I’ve been on the side of the phone for a month
And I know you’re in hell and you know that I know what you’re feeling

Life’s such a bitch isn’t it?
When you have a baby, they throw you a party
And then when you die they get together for a cry

But no one’s gonna celebrate you
No one’s gonna bring you cake
And no one’s gonna shower you with flowers
The doctor won’t congratulate you
No one on that pavement’s gonna
Shout at you that your heart also matters

I’m not sure that you’ll get this in time,
I don’t know if you’re checking your voicemail at all, but in case it’s the morning
And you’re off of the green line and walking through Copley
I want you to stop for a second, I want you to listen
You don’t need to offer the right explanation
You don’t need to beg for redemption or ask for forgiveness
And you don’t need a courtroom inside of your head
Where you’re acting as judge and accused and defendant and witness

It’s a strange grief but it’s grief
Look at all the women in the street
You know the statistics, Jill
Even though they may not help Isn’t it amazing
How we can never tell
Who is in an identical hell

No one’s gonna celebrate you
No one’s gonna bring you cake
And no one’s gonna shower you with flowers
The doctor won’t congratulate you
No one on that pavement’s gonna
Shout at you that your heart also matters

No one’s gonna compliment you
No one’s gonna nod their heart
And wink in league with what you are pursuing
No one’s gonna tie surprise balloons
Onto your desk at work
And no one’s gonna ask you how you’re doing

But I’ll be back in Boston by next Thursday
Why don’t I come over?
I can bring some friends if you want us to come
We can bring you cake and we can bring you flowers
We can bring you wine and we can talk for hours
Ukulele by request
We’ll throw you the best
Abortion shower

A MOTHER’S CONFESSION

Our son is four months old, his name is Anthony, or Ash for short
And he’s too small to do things by himself
We were in L.A. over Christmas in a rental and we jury-rigged
A place to change his diapers on a shelf
I was peeing in the bathroom and had left for just a second
Cos I thought he couldn’t move and he was safe
As I came out I saw him falling in slow motion to the floor
It was probably the worst moment of my life

And then I accidentally stole a thing of ChapStick from the Safeway
I didn’t see it ’til we got out to the car
I would have usually returned it
But I was overwhelmed and late to take the baby to my cousin’s
Up in Carmel Bay

In my defense I’d bought like 87 dollars worth of groceries
And the ChapStick was a dollar ninety-nine
I know it wasn’t the right thing to use my newborn child as an excuse
But it felt like a good reason at the time

And as I pulled out of the parking lot I cried
And as I pulled on the highway I said, right
At least the baby didn’t die
At least the baby didn’t die

And then we went to Sarasota
To see Neil’s cousin Helen for her birthday
She’d just turned ninety-nine
We were also there for Sidney, who was ninety-four two days before
But he was sick so mostly it was Ash and Helen time

She survived the Warsaw ghetto, and she always says “I love you”
When she sees you cos she knows you never know
She’d worked for months while I was pregnant
On a gorgeous handmade blanket
Her almost-hundred-year-old hands crocheting every row

I’d been emailing her pictures of the baby and the blanket
Every day since she had sent it in the mail
But they were of one that someone else had knitted
She was really nice about it
Then I went and shoplifted a pair of ugly sunglasses from Goodwill
They were on my head I’d tried them on and left them there
But that’s not really bad compared to
When we left the baby in the car
At least he wasn’t in there very long
And not directly in the sun
And thank God no one walking by happened to notice what we’d done
I’m even scared to put these lyrics in a song

But everything is relative
And everyone’s related
I can’t do that much right now
But take care of this baby
I figure everything is technically all right
If at least this baby doesn’t die

And then I took a plane to Washington alone so we could visit
Jason Webley who’s his godfather and plays a mean accordion
I couldn’t wait to see him and share tales of our disasters
Over dinners in his houseboat
When I saw I’d lost my passport

So I got a rush appointment
At the place where you replace them
And I drove the baby in
And on the way I got a speeding ticket

When the cop came to the window
I was shaking and I said, “I’m sorry” but you couldn’t hear me
That’s how loud the sound of screaming was
Cos he was hungry and I think that I was speeding
Cos I panic when I hear him cry
My God, what kind of mother am I?

And as I pulled out of the breakdown lane I cried
And as I pulled out on the highway, I said, right
At least the baby didn’t die
At least the baby didn’t die

While I was waiting for my passport I was hungry so I twittered
For a coffee in the neighborhood, and there I saw a woman
Who was sitting at the bar
And it was noon and she was drinking

And she called across the diner to me, “How old is your baby?”
And she smiled at us nursing and she said she had a daughter
Who was grown and then she paused and said she also had a son

And when I’d paid and was about to leave
I picked him up and crossed the room and touched her sleeve
I said, “Hey, this baby wanted to say hi”
And she held him tight and started to cry

And I’m sorry that this story’s gotten long
And that everybody’s crying in this song

And then I got back to the car and I turned the radio and heater on
And sat there with the baby in the back
And they were talking about Syria and climate change and ISIS
And the candidates’ positions on Iraq

I feel so useless in this universe
I know I could be doing worse
I’m trying hard to stay at peace inside
I know it’s hard to be a parent
But this mess is so gigantic
I wonder if I should have had a child

And as I pulled out of the parking lot, I cried
And as I pulled out on the highway I said, right

At least the baby didn’t die
Right, at least the baby didn’t die
At least the baby didn’t die
At least the baby didn’t die

I may not make it to the passport place on time
(At least the baby didn’t die)
And they might revoke my license for a while
(At least the baby didn’t die)

And I might get caught for retroactive theft
(At least the baby didn’t die)
And I might get turned into the DSS
(At least the baby didn’t die)

But at least the baby didn’t die

LOOK MUMMY, NO HANDS

Remember the fair, mum?
The two of us there, mum
By the merry-go-round

I stood there entranced
As the bright horses danced
To a magical sound

Just a dollar for pleasure untold
And I rode in a whirl of scarlet and gold

Look mummy, no hands
I’m riding the roundabout all by myself
Look mummy, no hands
I called as I passed her, faster and faster
Hold on tight darling, she called out in fear
But I laughed and pretended that I couldn’t hear
How careless we are when we’re young

Remember the years
Of the sulks and the tears?
Do you recall?

I hated you when you said
Be back by ten
I knew it all

Always asking to know what I’d done
When as far as I knew, I was just having fun

Look mummy, no hands
I know how to take good care of myself
Look mummy, no hands
Please don’t be a bore, cos I know the score
She tried to warn me, but I didn’t heed her
I was grown up, and I didn’t need her
How careless we are when we’re young

Remember the daughter?
And all that you taught her?
She’s grown up at last

With a child of her own
She struggles alone
As the years all rush past

But now you’re not there to answer her call
You’re not there to catch her when she stumbles and falls

Look mummy, no hands
I’m having to do it all by myself
Look mummy, no hands
I used to dismiss you, now I just miss you
As my child grows away from me, I feel my heart sinking
I look back and smile, and I find myself thinking
How careless we are when we’re young

DEATH THING

Let’s try to end on a pleasant note
You’ve ended endless things, and you know how it goes
You lick your wounds, put them in a jar on a shelf
You lick a stamp on a letter to your old self

You always liked being good at things, didn’t you?
Isn’t it funny what a person can get used to?
And now, just look what you’ve done
I hope you’re happy, you’ve beaten everyone
I think it’s fair to say the word is all over town

Did he answer? No
Did he answer? No
Did he answer? No

Not even a whisper, no
So it’s over, yes
So you know the drill
You’re the expert
You’re the expert
You’re the expert

Congratulations
You’ve really got this death thing down

You’re really good at making introverted people calm
First grade fourth place standing broad jump
Violent and velvet painting, slaughtering an ego taming
You clocked a thousand hours baby, you can master all of them

You can take an everlasting love and you can have it
You don’t always get to pick what you get good at
Now, look how far you’ve come
You used to need them, and now you could lose everyone
Without even blinking an eye

So go on, put on your crown

Did she answer? No
Did she answer? No
Did she answer? No
Not a single heartbeat, no
So it’s over, yes
So you know the drill
You’re the expert

Congratulations
You’ve really got this death thing down
You’ve really got this death thing down
You’ve really got this death thing down
You’ve really got this death thing down

Jai guru deva om
Yeah, you’ve really got this death thing down