bobnordquist.com - main page

Chapter 1 – Nightmare In my dreams it was eerie,
It was twilight in the day
I didn't know what I was running from
But I could not get away

I tried to scream for help
Not knowing what to say
Was it some subatomic particle
Some kind of cosmic ray

Chorus
And I screamed, Mother help me
My skin is burning
Look at the way the world is turning
My thoughts are racing,
But I can't move my feet,
My soul is facing an intolerable heat
So Mother help me

In my dreams I was shaking
There were shadows in the night
The cloud of smoke in the Eastern sky
The reason for my fright

I tried to find someone
To spread a little light
But the source and explanations
Were hidden from my sight

Chorus

In my dreams I was lonely
As frightened as a child
Everything once civilized
Was slowly turning wild

Naked people freezing
Where the weather once was mild
Cellars full of savages
Not knowing how to smile

Chorus

Chapter 2 – Bombs Across the Danube

I could answer all your questions
But let's not talk here in the street
You learn to blend into the masses
You learn to stare down at your feet

It's been years since the devil ran this country
But his friends still are powerful and strong
And if you'd seen the things that people do to people
You wouldn't say that I was wrong

Chorus
You've got to find someone to trust
Only if you must
Otherwise assume you're on your own
Never have a home
Only what will fit upon your back
Anything you lack
God will grant you in His grace
If He still looks down on this place

I heard the bombs across the Danube
I saw the flashes in the night
I saw the soldiers shine their lanterns
Upon the refugees in flight

In this war I held the status of observer
But there were times when those lights shown in my eyes
And though my face would not betray my inner feelings
Inside there's still a part of me that cries

Chorus

For twenty-seven years
I toured the country in a band
At the peak of our performance
They let us play in other lands

At night we'd be locked in our hotel rooms
But that's not the part that even seemed so hard
It was the thought of our families back at home
Being watched by the elite civilian guard

Chorus

Chapter 3 – Would You Like to Buy some Candy?
The snow is more than ankle deep
It's such a long path to your door
You're nice enough to let me in
My shoes are melting on your floor
I wipe my nose with a mittened hand
I can't look into your face
There's something that I came to say
But now it seems so out of place

Chorus
Would you like to buy some candy
It's so I can go to camp
I've got dark and semi-sweet
And I've got goals I've got to meet
And I dropped them in the street
So the box is kinda damp

The kitchen heat has filled your home
And condensed upon your window panes
You baked something with cinnamon
Your kids are playing with a train
My mouth's a leaking faucet
Words are dripping to the ground
My brain has left me babbling
These unfamiliar sounds

Chorus

I don't care about the money
I don't really like the woods
I only go out camping
Because my dad thinks that I should
And I hate to talk to strangers
But I guess I have no choice
So please buy all this candy
Before I lose my voice

Your son peaks 'round the corner
He will laugh at me at school
I leave with all my candy
Once again I play the fool
I shuffle down the sidewalk
Dad watches from the van
He points to the next door
But I don't know if I can

Chorus

Chapter 4 – Best of Friends

I called you up because I missed you at the station
And I didn't have a chance to say good bye
Driving home I thought about our situation
And I watched the storm clouds building in the sky

So what's it like to be living there alone
Are you thinking 'bout the friends you left behind
You must be tired, you sound distant on the phone
Can you tell me what it is you hope to find

Chorus
I could sleep all day
'Cos I think all night about you
This won't be the end
'Cos you and I are best of friends

All my friends seem to move out of the city
I admire their resolve to get away
The taste of loneliness is dry and old and gritty
I'll have to find the strength to leave someday

I'll call you up from some sleepy fishing village
With the buildings painted Caribbean blue
I'll find the words to do justice to this image
But I know I'll just be down there missing you

Chorus

A passing thought keeps saying I might be the reason
The bonds from which you thought you must escape
Our relationship was filled with many seasons
It could never be defined by any shape

Now and then you'd introduce me to a lover
And I'd secretly regret it wasn't me
I'd do the same, we never could recover
From the simple truth of what we'd never be

Chorus

Chapter 5 – I Shoulda Cast You Away

I was walking down the dirty sidewalk, when a crow fell at my feet
He landed in a hop-scotch game of chalk, I continued 'cross the street
I felt the chill of a northern breeze
I held my coat closed with my arms
I felt a trembling in my knees
This day was sure to do me harm

I saw you standing in the sunlight glow, from the one break in the clouds
If I knew then what I did not know, I would have cursed your name out loud
I should have found myself a magic charm
To try to break your evil spell
Instead I let you take me by the arm
And you led me straight to hell

Chorus
I shoulda cast you away
I shoulda worn a ring of garlic 'round my neck
I shoulda cast you away
I shoulda bounced you like I bounced my last rent check
I had done nothing that would cause me trouble
Until that dark ill-fated day
And now my life is just a pile of rubble
I - I- I shoulda cast you away

If I had lived a thousand years ago, I would have known these omens well
I would have recognized the devil's show, I would have heard the warning bells
I was ensnared in your deadly trap
But you did not seem to care
You just kept looking for another snack
And you left me dangling there

Chorus

You always told me you were not to blame
And I guess you're probably right
A man would have to be a bit insane
To go down without a fight

I was sitting in a downtown bar when the bumps formed on my skin
I saw a vision of you from afar and I thought, “Oh no, not again”
But you had walked in with another fool
So I bought that man a drink
I left the bar before he lost his cool
I hope it made him stop and think

Chorus

Chapter 6 – Shadows on the Snow

I had a job, I was never lazy
But now I'm out of work
You never know from the assembly line
When unemployment lurks

There isn't much that's left for me
Buying candy with my stamps
I'm just searching for some dignity
And a sheltered place to camp

The elm tree's barren, bony fingers, point which way to go
A sign of Nature's greater plan
Or just the streetlights throwing shadows on the snow

I applied right out of school
In fact I wasn't done
But Beth was pregnant so we got married
We were both so young

I don't know how my wife can look at me
It seems I only bring her shame
She should take my child away from me
And raise him with another name

The elm tree's barren, bony fingers, point which way to go
A sign for better or a sign for worse
Or just the streetlights throwing shadows on the snow

Chapter 7 – Another Page

By the light of a glowing ember
A twisted tree where the green moss grows
In the frost of a late September
Near the lake where I always go
A whiff of smoke, I swear I lived this night before
I see my shadow, down in the bushes by the shore

Chorus
Called back from another age
Bled through from another page
I was removed from here
I have returned

My fishing boat sits upon a trailer
Behind my van in the parking lot
The evening stars used to guide the sailors
They've been replaced with a box I've bought
My steps are heavy, my feet are tender as a child's
My thoughts are cloudy, I'm like a house plant growing wild

Chorus

By the moon I walk the lake shore
In my shadow's hand I hold a spear
A canoe is beached where the feeding bats soar
A stones throw away from here
A cloud rolls in, my silent shadow slips away
On the horizon, a canoe upon the waves

Chorus

My fire's down to dying embers
I've been asleep for an hour or more
I had some dreams that I don't remember
I'm afraid to walk down by the shore
Back to my tent, my flashlight dangles at my side
I turned it off, I know this path from deep inside

Called back to another age
Bled through to another page
I was removed from here
I have returned

Chapter 8 – My Time Away from Work

I pushed my boat into the river
Twenty miles to go
The wind was blowing upstream
And the current moving slow
A driving drizzle hit my face
And collected on my chin
No place to take shelter
No one to take me in

This is where I choose to spend my time away from work
This is where my sanity and inspiration lurk

I placed my life into the hands of fate so many times
Like that time I showed up on the beach
With tequila and fresh limes
Stepped carefully around the bones
Of the sailors on the shore
And asked the tempting siren
To sing her song once more

This is where I choose to spend my time away from work
This is where depravity and desperation lurk

I climbed onto the stage under a mocking glare of lights
The spotlight seemed to punctuate
That there was no one there that night
I sang my songs as if they were
A doctor's old eye chart
And pumped into the ether
What remained inside my heart

This is where I choose to spend my time away from work
This is where my vanity and humiliation lurk

My back started to hurt again and my heart has turned to stone
I'm a two-day drive from a friendly face and I shouldn't be alone
I'd trade my songs for happiness, but they're only good for beer
That's the local currency for happiness out here

With weary eyes I drove back home
Accidentally hit a crow
I took it as an omen
For what I didn't know
I continued on at the posted speed, 'cos I didn't want to stop
And the last thing I could handle then was dealing with a cop

This is where I choose to spend my time away from work
But home is where tranquility and relaxation lurk
This is where I choose to spend my time away from work
But home is where tranquility and relaxation lurk

Chapter 9 – The Whistle

Standing on the tracks
The train is bearing down
The beads of sweat are rolling down my face
The train is up to speed
It's miles from any town
It's course is set
It's me who's out of place

Chorus
And the whistle blows. It say's, “I don't mean to hurt you.”
And the whistle blows. It say's, “Can't we just be friends?”
And the whistle blows. It say's, “You don't understand me.”
And the whistle blows. It say's, “I can't just pretend.”

Standing in your hall
On the wrong side of the door
Just as far apart as we were when it was shut
I can picture your apartment
I was welcome here before
A wounded heart still beats when freshly cut.

Chorus

Standing on the tracks
Is no way to catch a train
And jumping in the river
Won't protect you from the rain
When it came to breaking hearts
It was either mine or yours
And you must have learned a lesson
From a choice you made before

I came here for adrenaline
I came to feel alive
I'm not feeling self-destructive, though it's not something I'm above
I feel the train move past
As I'm landing from my dive
This game was instructive, we played chicken with our love

Chorus

And the whistle blows, “I don't feel that you respect me.”
And the whistle blows, “And I don't care much for your friends.”
And the whistle blows, “Don't try to use my words against me.”
And the whistle blows, “Just accept that it's the end”
And the whistle blows....

Chapter 10 – Kalahari

Elders tell the stories of the night
Of cheetahs chasing down the fastest game
Stories meant to teach the wrong from right
Tales of how the creatures got their names

Chorus
See the sun go down on the Kalahari plain
See the Bushmen getting ready for the night
Watch the children listen to the stories that explain by firelight

There's a boy who's lived here all his life
Never seen a zebra on the plain
The time has come that he will take a wife
To celebrate the coming of the rain

Chorus

There's a place where man still lives by instinct and tradition
There's a place where man can be, just what he was meant to be
There's a place where man survives the harshest of conditions
By counting on his family and even living peacefully today

We come with jeeps we come with ammunition
We're raising clouds of dust up to the sky
We've come to learn their ways and their traditions
We've come to meet the Bushman before he dies

Chorus

Chapter 11 – The Animal Within

The conference was a big affair
The leaders in his field were there
Discussing all the latest trends
Strangers shaking hands like friends
He fidgets through a boring talk
The animal would like to take a walk
Through the courtyard garden trees
To feel the sun and smell the breeze
The human concentrates and wins
Defeats the animal within...

He's unaware that he caught a scent
He can't control where his mind just went
It's natural that he's attracted
He suddenly becomes distracted
It's not like she is unaffected
But this is not what she expected
She feigns attention to the speaker
Turns her head so his eyes can't reach her
He thinks about the trees again
To sooth the animal within...

Living in the dry savanna, In the ghettos of Havana
In a gleaming office tower, In the reeds and in the flowers
Living in a modern way, Feeling the old fashioned way
Denying every basic passion, Keeping up with trends and fashions
In a body meant to climb, To fight, to hunt, to swing from vines
Bristled hair upon his skin
And an animal within

Twenty thousand years ago
Before the gun, before the bow
Our family was a close knit tribe
Needing each other to stay alive
Our lives were formed by evolution
That's the natural solution
And everything that's here today
Is here because it's natures way
We haven't aged a day since then
We've got an animal within...

Chapter 12 – The Eyes of the Rest of The World

There's a chill in the air and the first birds have started to sing
It's still a few minutes before the alarm starts to ring
The breeze carries traces of lilacs a sure sign of spring
Tucked safely away from the eyes of the rest of the world

A TV is perched on the dresser across from the bed
When turned on it assails you with news of the sick and unfed
And you don't think there's any room left for that in your head
Tucked safely away from the eyes of the rest of the world

And you dreamt of the faces from impossible places
That watched you in bed in the carnival streets
Something was wanting it was you they were haunting
Their twisted hands tore at your sheets

The music plays loud in the cab of a big S.U.V.
As it idles in front of a house in the hills and the trees
Your job is an hour away from where you want to be
Tucked safely away from the eyes of the rest of the world

And you dreamt of the faces from impossible places
That watched you in bed in the carnival streets
Something was wanting it was you they were haunting
Their twisted hands tore at your sheets

In the park there's a mattress that's stuck in a thick grove of trees
An old pair of dress pants worn through with holes in the knees
A white plastic bucket and a sign that simply says, “please”
Tucked safely away from the eyes of the rest of the world
Tucked safely away from the eyes of the rest of the world
Tucked safely away from the eyes of the rest of the world