Guitar Thing

we’ll, I get up early, I go to bed late
seems like every day’s the same
starin’ out the window like fish eyes on a plate
I don’t even care if it rains

somethin’ on my mind, I guess it must be you
you been on my shoulder for a while
whisper in my ear, say “what are you gonna do?”
and me, well I just stutter and smile

think I’ll hit the streets, take a walk up Capitol Hill
check out all the latest facial lacerations
maybe I can get lost, I got some time to kill
feels like that kind of situation

somethin’ about a streetlight lit up so fine
makes you want to lower down and cruise
all those uptown bravados on the high hip line
wish I had some shine on my shoes

I’m talkin’ with the herbivore outside the neon cafe
I remember when this place was called Ernie Steele’s
and the old Fresh Air, well that was just down yonder way
man, those were the days for real

just then my ears implode and my head begins to fog
and I get a funny kind of vision in my eyes
good old Seattle when nobody even knew where it was
and there wasn’t no such a thing as a high rise

it was a small town, big city, wide open kind of scene
the wild west with no two minute warnin’
you had to know just how fast to walk to make all the street lights green
‘cause they’d give you a ticket at 3:30 in the mornin’

now I’m walkin’ down the rainy street and I’m turnin’ in doorway
it’s crowded dark and lit up like a jungle
there’s some wild eyes lookin’ at me, scopin’ out my state of mind
“how far you want to go?” they seem to mumble

there’s taps of the same old, there ain’t no micro-brew
and there’s enough smoke to choke a chimney
and there’s a rock and roll band playin’ with no room to move
but everybody’s movin’ anyway, believe me

you might see some dance hall queen out there struttin’
and somebody else might cut a number on the floor
and by the time it’s all over it’s too much to remember
but everybody woulda got what they came for

now I shakin’ my head, I’m comin’ to my senses
the herbivore’s off lookin’ for a vegetable bone
there’s no place to be but these present tenses
I guess I shoulda known

and I’m seein’ all those ghosts in the sidewalk lookin’ at me
you know I can almost hear ’em callin’ my name
funny how you never really lose a good connection
but I know it’ll never be the same

now I’m rollin’ up my sidewalks and turnin’ up my collar
figure I might as well go back home
got nothin’ on me but a Susan B Anthony dollar
and you can’t even use those things in the phone

so I make like to start for my cross-town drive
and there you are on the hood of my car
I say “all right, I’m glad to be alive!
let’s go play guitar”