MARY CHAPIN CARPENTER
STATE OF THE HEART
(Columbia FC-44228)
July/1989
Produced by John Jennings & Mary Chapin Carpenter
Recorded 1989, Bias Studios, Springfield
John Jennings - guitars/synthesizer/vocals
Peter Bonta - guitar/keyboards
Mike Auldridge - dobro/steel
Tommy Hannum - steel
Robbie Magruber - drums/percussion
John Carroll - keyboards
Rickie Simpkins - fiddle/mandolin
William Zsembery - horn
Strings:
Kim Miller, David Premo, Bruce Myers, Steven Day
Shawn Colvin - vocals
Arrangements by Rico Petruccelli
1.
HOW DO
(Mary Chapin Carpenter)
« © '88 April Music, ASCAP / Get A Real Job Music, ASCAP »
Well that's a real nice jacket son it looks like it cost you too
And that car you're driving hey does that belong to you
Well you don't look familiar are you new in town
Here's a loocal girl who wants to show you around how do
Where'd you get that accent son it matches your cowboy boots
Tonight those lone star ladies must be lonesome and oh so blue
Cause we're a thousand miles from the Texas line
And if you've no objection son tonight you're mine how do
[ guitar ]
Well I've been to Paris baby I've been to Dallas too
But I didn't see no one there who looked half as good as you
So if you ain't in a hurry baby just sit tight
I'm sort of in the mood to speak some Frensh tonight et vous how do
**********
2.
SOMETHING OF A DREAMER
(Mary Chapin Carpenter)
« © '88 April Music, ASCAP / Get A Real Job Music, ASCAP »
She used to watch him from afar
She used to dream about him and she'd wish upon a star
That one day he'd want her for his own
Throw caution to the wind and with a grin he'd take her home
She's something of a dreamer something of a fool
Something of a heartbreak when she gives her heart to you
And she used to hear his voice at night
A sweet whisper from the shadows dancing with the backporch light
And she used to feel him in the wind
His warm breath upon her neck and goosebumps up and down her skin
She's something of a dreamer...
[ ac.guitar ]
Well she should have known by now but that's the foolish part of her
She should have seen somehow but a dreamer's never cured
When heartbreak fast approaches when a love ain't truly love
He promised wine and roses and she thought that was enough
She's something of a dreamer...
She's something of a dreamer...
She's something of a dreamer...
**********
3.
NEVER HAD IT SO GOOD
(Mary Chapin Carpenter - John Jennings)
« © '88 April Music, ASCAP / Get A Real Job Music, ASCAP / Obie Diner Music, BMI »
No one's got to tell me it's over I could see it from miles away
No one's got to tell me what I don't already know today
No one's got to tell me they've seen you on the town with an old girlfriend
No one's got to tell me you look like you've fallen in love again
Cause you're out of my life now with a wave of her hand
You never had it so good babe I never had it so bad
Now you can do what you want to and never feel sad
You never had it so good babe I never had it so bad
[ guitar ]
No one's got to tell me the difference between me and the one who's returned
No one's got to tell me you never really got over her
No one's got to tell me they've seen you looking like a brand new man
No one's got to tell me you look like you've fallen in love again
Cause you're out of my life now...
So you just go where you go and do what you do and be who you want to be
But when she burns you again and your phone doesn't ring baby it's me
Cause you're out of my life now...
You never had it so good babe I never had it so bad
You never had it so good babe I never had it so bad
**********
4.
READ MY LIPS
(Mary Chapin Carpenter)
« © '88 April Music, ASCAP / Get A Real Job Music, ASCAP »
A few more cigarettes now honey one more jolt of joe
A couple of hours past New York City a few more turnpike tolls
One more minute away from you is a minute that lasts too long
When I get back we're gonna lock the door baby and disconnect the phone
We could use a week to get reacquainted some time to feel it out
But leave your small talk back at home babe this ain't what that's about
Just read my lips yes I think you can just read my lips and you'll understand
Well I can see it in your eyes now honey cause I've seen it in myself
You've got a few old scars that's ancient history baby that was someone else
Well I could tell you that you're only human that you're right to be afraid
But how can you pull back on me now don't you make that big mistake
Well you could give it up or you could just give in now it's the choice between the two
But you weren't born no yesterday baby I wasn't born a fool
Just read my lips yes I think you can just read my lips and you'll understand
Just read my lips and you could read my mind just read my lips just one more time
[ guitar ]
This ain't no game of cat and mouse it ain't no truth or dare
I ain't got twenty questions for you just one thing to declare
Just read my lips...
**********
5.
THIS SHIRT
(Mary Chapin Carpenter)
« © '87 April Music, ASCAP / Get A Real Job Music, ASCAP »
This shirt is old and faded all the color's washed away
I've had it now for more damn years than I could count anyway
I wear it beneath my jacket with the collar turned up high
So old I should replace it but I'm not about to try
This shirt's got silver buttons and a place upon the sleeve
Where I used to set my heart up right there where anyone could see
This shirt is the one I wore to every boring high school dance
Where the boys ignored the girls and we all pretended to like the band
This shirt was a pillow for my head on a train through Italy
This shirt was a blanket beneath the love we made in Argeles
This shirt was lost for three whole days in a town near Buffalo
Till I found the locker key in a downtown Trailways bus depot
[ piano ]
This shirt is the one I lent you and when you gave it back
It had a rip inside the sleeve where you rolled your cigarettes
It was the place I put my heart now look at where you put a tear
I forgave your thoughtfulness but not the boy who put it there
This shirt was the place your cat decided to give birth to five
And we stayed up all night watching and we wept when the last one died
This shirt is just an old faded peace of cotton
Shining like the memories inside those silver buttons
[ piano ]
This shirt is a grand old relic with a grand old history
I wear it now for Sunday chores cleaning house and raking leaves
I wear it beneath my jacket with a collar turned up high
So old I should replace it but I'm not about to try
**********
6.
QUITTIN' TIME
(Robb Royer - Roger Linn)
« © '83 Robroy West Music, BMI »
Hey baby tell me what we're gonna do
It's gettin' crazy and I need some help from you
We were so connected that you were a part of me
Now I feel an emptiness right to the heart of me
But you pretend and I pretend that everything is fine
And though we should be at an end
It's so hard admittin' when it's quittin' time
Hey baby I'm running out of things to say
Please don't hate me this feeling just won't go away
Now we're spending all our time caught in a fantasy
Just trying to keep in mind the way it used to be
But you pretend and I pretend...
[ guitar ]
Hey baby I'm running out of things to say...
But you pretend and I pretend...
It's so hard admittin' when it's quittin' time
**********
7.
DOWN IN MARY'S LAND
(Mary Chapin Carpenter)
« © '88 April Music, ASCAP / Get A Real Job Music, ASCAP »
Fields of green by the side of the road going down to Mary's land
Roll down the window feel the cool of a grove hit the palm of your outstretched hand
Radio's playing a tune from the country fiddle and an old time band
Race with the moon to the edge of the water down in Mary's land down in Mary's land
[ fiddle ]
East of Virginia where the bay meets a river down in Mary's land
The wind pulls your sleeve like a long lost lover whose heart can't understand
How you ever could leave the view you behold ain't it fine and ain't life grand
When you don't need nothin' but some beer and a bushel down in Mary's land
Gonna sleep with the stars and a slice of the moon hanging right above my bed
Gonna dream not of things that I've left behind
But those I've found instead down in Mary's land
[ fiddle ]
Radio's playing a tune from the country fiddle and an old time band
Race with the moon to the edge of the water down in Mary's land
Gonna sleep with the stars and a slice of the moon hanging right above my bed
Gonna dream not of things that I've left behind
But those I've found instead down in Mary's land
**********
8.
GOODBYE AGAIN
(Mary Chapin Carpenter)
« © '88 April Music, ASCAP / Get A Real Job Music, ASCAP »
Every night she sleeps alone and by her bed she puts the phone
And every morning after that she takes the phone and puts it back
He's got a wife back home and three kids up and grown
But these are things that go unsaid he might call her from the road
Just in time to say hello and goodbye again
She keeps his picture tucked away she thinks she'll have it framed one day
And maybe he'll come see it there hanging by her rocking chair
In a corner of her room on a Sunday afternoon when all the world is dull and grey
She might close her eyes and sit rocking gently for a bit
Till all the bad thoughts go away
[ piano ]
Back when children played their games London Bridge and Jesse James
She captured flags she bounced the ball and every time she beat them all
And now she comes home to a cat in a three room walk up flat
And plays a game of solitare
Well she made a fist last night and she broke the hallway light
And the pieces scattered everywhere
He's got a wife back home and three kids up and grown
But these are things that go unsaid he might call her from the road
Just in time to say hello and goodbye again
**********
9.
TOO TIRED
(Mary Chapin Carpenter)
« © '88 April Music, ASCAP / Get A Real Job Music, ASCAP »
Too tired of fight so I just gave in last night I slept in your arms again
And I felt my heart next to your skin beatin' like crazy
Been running from something I can't explain it ain't just anger it ain't just pain
But it goes away when you call my name calling me baby
But you ain't no good for a girl like me
Well I was doing fine when I first met you swept me off my feet next thing I knew
I was wondering where you'd gone off to leaving me lonely
This town's too small for your kind of games pointing fingers and naming names
But I'm so far gone I'll take anything that you can give me
But you ain't no good for a girl like me
Last night I felt that I couldn't stand no more
But I found myself standing right here by your door
Too tired to care that you're bad for me my heart says stay but my head says leave
But I can't get far when I'm on my knees begging you baby
You ain't no good for a girl like me
[ guitar ]
Last night I felt that I couldn't stand no more
But I found myself standing right here by your door
Too tired of fight so I just gave in last night I slept in your arms again
And I felt my heart next to your skin beatin' like crazy
Beatin' like crazy beatin' like crazy hey hey
**********
10.
SLOW COUNTRY DANCE
(Mary Chapin Carpenter)
« © '88 April Music, ASCAP / Get A Real Job Music, ASCAP »
Out on the floor the couples are swaying
To one Faded Love on the jukebox tonight
You slide in your coins and the music keeps playing
A slow country dance on a Saturday night
Sweethearts in love and others just lonely
Searching for someone to waltz with tonight
In a smoky old bar you know that it's only
A slow country dance on a Saturday night
And love's never easy or ever as true
When the changing of partners is no longer new
You lead with your heart and closing your eyes
Dance just to dance in three quarter time
[ guitar ]
Down at the bar a woman tells stories
Batting her eyes to someone not there
Her glass is half full or maybe half empty
Like the jokes told about her when they think she can't hear
And now the perfume is cheap and the makeup is careless
And the dress out of fashion for a woman her age
But she don't give a damn for those who would cherish
A much lighter step and a much younger face
And love's never easy...
[ piano - steel ]
Out on the floor the couples are swaying
To one Faded Love on the jukebox tonight
**********
11.
I DON'T BRING YOU
(Mary Chapin Carpenter)
« © '88 April Music, ASCAP / Get A Real Job Music, ASCAP »
Well I know it ain't been roses lately baby it's just been thorns
And no matter what we do nothing seems to change
Love has always been my shelter for you it's been a storm
But for awhile I thought we'd almost beat the rain
Now there's a hole here in my pocket where all my dreams have gone
Falling out like so many nickels and dimes
And last of all you you'd always been my good luck charm
I should've known that luck's a waste of time
Cause it don't bring you love if you don't love
And it don't bring you time if you ain't got time
And it don't bring you strenght baby if you ain't strong
And it won't bring you kindness if you ain't kind
Now there's a whole lot in life to be unsure of
But there's one thing I can safely say I know
That of all the things that finally desert us
Pride is always the last thing to go
But it don't bring you love...
[ guitar ]
And now I wish you only roses without the thorns
And I hope your dreams are always within reach
And I wish you shelter baby from all your storms
They scared you but they'd never seemed to teach
But I can't bring you love...
And I ain't bring you kindness if you ain't kind
**********