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Lyrics to Bob’s 2016 album Magellan Was Wrong


SONGS

  1. I Don’t Know How to Love You
  2. You Are Home
  3. Never Even There
  4. Magellan Was Wrong
  5. I Turn to You
  6. Bottle of Wine
  7. My Friend
  8. From the Road
  9. You, Lola, You!
  10. The Outsider’s Dream
  11. Blind Love
  12. A Break in the Rain

I DON’T KNOW HOW (TO LOVE YOU)
Words and Music: Bob Lind

Is there a secret code that I can steal
To bring your passion back, to make you feel,
To make you see in me the man you knew?
How can I pull you back? What can I do?
‘Cause I don’t know how to reach you, I don’t know how to move you
I don’t know how to give you what you need me to.

I don’t know how to love you. (x3) Maybe I never knew.

I see the shadow box, the empty frame.
It’s not enough for me. I need the flame
I need the flesh and blood; the touch and taste.
I need the private fire that lit your face.
I don’t know how I lost you. I don’t know when I lost you.
Where is the line I crossed to stand so far from you?

I don’t know how to love you. (x3) Maybe I never knew.

[Bridge]
Did I just dream you up? You felt so warm and close?
I look with all my might to find you in this distant ghost.
I know that memories can tend to lie
Especially when you’re feeling that you’re reeling
And careening toward goodbye.

Bring back the playful smile; the charming blush.
Where is the pounding pulse, the soaring rush?
I miss the dirty talk, the tangled bed.
I hate this frozen road that looms ahead.

I don’t know how to thrill you. I don’t know how to fill you
I don’t know how to will you to let down the wall.

I don’t know how to love you
Will I ever know how to love you
Did I ever know how to love you
Maybe I dreamed it all.


YOU ARE HOME
Words and Music: Bob Lind

Who knows how bad your soul was burned by what you saw
The nights that scraped against your innocence
And rubbed it raw
The days that stretched you to the limits of your faith
The dark decisions that your battered spirit had to make

But you’re safe now back with the ones who love you
You are sheltered in our midst
You are cradled here and kissed
You’ve been salvaged and returned
We are lotion on your burns
And you are home
Home
Home

Who knows why these distortions happen as they do
The vicious twists of life
And why these claws have torn at you
I only know that there are candles in this night
They’ve led your footsteps here
With only peace and rest in sight

And you’re free now, back with your friends and family You’ve been rescued and renewed
You are tended to and soothed
You are held in our hearts and arms
In a world away from harm
And you are home
Home
Home


NEVER EVEN THERE
Words and Music: Bob Lind

A woman’s an emotional creature
She’s not a bit ashamed of her tears
She’ll give you her attention and rub your neck
And say the things you love to hear
Mild as milk soft as silk
Speaking your name like a prayer.
But once she stops believing you still care
She’ll leave you like you were never even there

Tbe woman likes to tell you her troubles.
She wants to hear what you did all day.
She talks about the little things in great big ways
And hangs on every word you say.
Leaning close, deep engrossed
In every detail you can spare
But once that heavy silence fills the air
She’ll leave you like you were never even there

Things have changed Don’t you get it yet
You’re out in that strange new cold
You’re frozen here and she’s moving on
If you still haven’t said it yet it probably won’t be told
‘Cause when she goes – believe it — she’s gone

The woman used to wait at the table
The woman used to wait in the bed
She waited so attentively for all those nights
For all the things you never said
Dawn comes down you look around
And notice her closet it bare.
It may take years but one day you’re aware
In all that time you were never even there


MAGELLAN WAS WRONG
Words and Music: Bob Lind

I can see him back in Portugal schmoozing the king
Telling colorful stories and kissing the ring
“I got a lot of balls,” he said,
“But I don’t have a ship and crew.
But my dream has wings.”
But…

(chorus)
Magellan was wrong.
This world is flat sometimes.
And you can’t get home
‘Til you turn around.
Cause if you just keep going
You’ll collide with dragons
Or fall off the rim
And keep going down.

I’ve been hearing the storyline since I was five.
By the time I was seven, I knew it was jive.
Those uphill battles kill saints and heroes
But I’m still alive.
And…

(chorus)

In Fifteen Twenty-two
His brave, triumphant crew sailed home.
But in the Philippines, they had to leave
Their captain’s bones.
And…

(chorus)


I TURN TO YOU
Words and Music: Bob Lind

I turn to you
Lost in the dark moving against the grain
Because I can’t see my way home again
Without the light you hold inside

I turn to you
Because you’re braver than I’ll ever be
Because you know this frightened heart in me
And all the places where I hide

I turn to you
You stand up strong against my dark despair
Because I’m selfish and I know you’re there
To calm the storms that rage in me
(Instrumental)
Is there a prayer
You say for soldiers who put down their guns
Still not at peace but not prepared to run
Shouting defiance from their knees

If there is
Will you say it for me now tonight
I can’t give up but I’m too weak to fight
Nobody else sees hope in me
Only with you can I be free
Only with you can I be free


BOTTLE OF WINE
Words and Music: Tom Paxton

Ramblin’ around this dirty old town
Singin’ for nickels and dimes
Times get tough I don’t have enough
To buy a little bottle of wine

(CHORUS)
Bottle of wine fruit of the vine
When ‘you gonna let me get sober
Leave me alone let me go home
Let me go back and start over

Little hotel older than hell
As dark and as cold as the mines
Blankets so think I just lay here and grin
I got a little bottle of wine

(chorus)

Bugs in my bed pain in my head
These pants are so old that they shine
Out on the street ask the people I meet
To buy me a bottle of wine

(instrumental)

Preachers can preach teachers can teach
Miners can dig in the mines
I ride the rods trusting in God
Holding my… Hugging my… Clinging to my…


MY FRIEND
Words and Music: Bob Lind

Oh my friend
This wall between us stands in both our ways
We’re not here long
Must we be strangers in these candle days
I still recall a time the slate was clean
Two souls who dared to hitchhike on their dreams
You were always grounded
Centered and well-rounded
And I was always somewhere in the clouds
Back then it didn’t matter
And somehow that makes it sadder
To see it drive a wedge between us now

Oh my friend
Once it was easy to forgive mistakes
But hearts grow hard
The years leave disappointments in their wake
And when that final darkness starts to fall
These bitter monuments to pride
Will look so small
Wars don’t start with nations in global confrontations
They begin when conversation closes down
And it’s not so much the violence
As the cold and awful silence
That drives our dreams of peace into the ground

(Piano break)

Oh my friend
This wall between us stands in both our ways
We’re not here long
Must we be strangers in these candle days
And when that final darkness starts to fall
These bitter monuments to pride
Will look so small


FROM THE ROAD
Words and Music: Bob Lind

Shine on my little galaxy while I’m gone
Through days and distances and nights alone
The fires of home
Will light my highway back to you

You know it’s not just memories that bind us
These threads of sunlight stitching through our days
Your words your ways your smile
Make every moment new

You think the real adventures thrive
Out here
The precious crowds the gold career
But I know where the quiet treasures are
Beside you on the sofa or the movies
Or the car
In moments others call mundane
My soul is warming by your flame

Turning just like a sailor to the harbor
And I will carry back my songs and tales
Of calms and gales
And sing and tell them all
To you


YOU, LOLA, YOU!
Words and Music: Bob Lind

At the end of a ragged day
Who’s making the night okay?
It’s you, Lola, you.
I’m stretching it way too thin.
It changes when who walks in?
It’s you, Lola, you.

Who brightens the darkest night?
Who’s shining like firelight?
Who’s making the world all right?
It’s true! Yes, you do!
There’s nobody north or south
Who knows how to kiss my mouth
Like you. Only you, Lola, you.

(spoken)
Now nobody has to tell me this song is stupid. Man, I know that! But this is a love song.
And, you know, love makes you stupid.
You screw up when you’re in love.
You say all the wrong stuff but that’s okay.
Love isn’t something you’re supposed to do good and cool and perfect. That’s the fun of it.
In fact the more in love you are, the dumber you’re likely to play it,
Just like this song. I’m not playing it good. But I’m alive in it. I’m crazy in it. I just can’t stop playing it.
Just like I can’t stop loving you
You Lola, you.

When I’m losing and going to waste
Who deals me another ace?
It’s you, Lola, you.
I feel like a million bucks
And being without you sucks.
It’s You, Lola, you.
I’d sleep with fire ants.
I’d swim all the way to France.
I’d iron your underpants
For you. Just like new.
I’m looking you up and down
And nobody else around
Will do. Only you, Lola you!


THE OUTSIDER’S DREAM
Words and Music: Bob Lind

There was a man who dreamed a dream
It was a hard dream to forget about because
He was so different in the dream from who he really was
He had a knack for how to live
He learned early how to give
He felt safe inside his skin
He passed no judgment on his friends
And he cared

There was a wedding in the dream
He found a girl and loved her honestly and well
There were no lies and doubts and angry nights of living hell
They took a sweet and simple oath
And life was tender to them both
He gave her home and peace of mind
She gave him children trust and time
That they shared

And from some place outside himself
He saw his funeral passing by
Mourned by the souls he mattered to
He saw his absence in their eyes

The night passed by and took the dream
And when the morning pressed the sun against his face
He woke to find his fingers clutching at the pillow case
Like there was something more to get
Than tiny tinges of regret.
And though he keeps the world at bay
He feels those tinges to this day


BLIND LOVE
Words and Music: Bob Lind

Blind love rides the streams that rush into tomorrow
Never knowing where those streams may go
At least pretending not to know

Out on that Colorado road where we had trouble with the car
Some goddamn warning light was on
And Denver seemed so far away
You were so beautiful and strong that day
That every doubt I had dissolved into
The vast enormity of you.

Blind love we watched the rapids thrusting down the mountain
You said the sun would light our way
And I knew we’d be okay.

That day is lost in time
But that’s the day that I’m remembering
The years have wiped that slate
Twisting and complicating everything
But I remember you
And the precious blindness that we knew.

Blind love never seems to see that stream start bending
Though the ending is so clear and real
Love can see only what it feels.

But if I live to ninety-nine I’ll never know a sweeter time
I will recall your reckless grace,
Your fearless face and how that sunlight shone
Driving into the unknown.


A BREAK IN THE RAIN
Words and Music: Bob Lind

There will be a break in the rain
Sun in our windows gardens and lanes
Indigo skies

Dawn will break and light our way home
Clearing away this darkness we’ve known
Mending our lives

We will be strong in homes we belong in
Behind these dissolving clouds
We will be standing proud

There will be – I promise – the lifting of pain
The drying of tears a joy that remains
Alive in our eyes

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