Caveman lyrics - Cursive

I want to live life duty free
Let my instincts take the lead
I want to take what I can get
Don't want to choose don't want to beg
I want down from this family tree
I don't need no upward mobility

I want to unlearn what I've learned
Want to unearn what I've earned
Want to burn my bridges down
Find a place I can't be found
This is my manifesto destiny
Tear down this awkward mobility

Because I'm tired of standing upright
The taller we become the more dollars we can grab from that highest branch
And then step on your back given the chance
But not me I'm a bipedal backpedaler just as sure-footed as I can

I'm no high society man
No suit and tie, no Dapper Dan
I'm no happy family man
I'm no husband, ain't no dad
I'm a goddamn caveman
This upward mobility is more than I can understand

I won't stand, no, I won't stand for it
I won't stand, no, I won't stand for it
I won't stand, no, I won't stand for it

I'd rather be all hands and knees
Yeah, I'd rather be swinging in the trees
With the monkeys and the junkies and bums and sloths and jailbird canaries
Yeah that's me I'm a bipedal backpedaler from sea to shining sea

We're Going To Hell lyrics - Cursive

Don’t tell me what you’ve done
Cus I don’t wanna know
You say it’s not so hard
Just let your conscience go

You’re flashing me that politicians grin
You got your image squeaky clean
You’ve such a fetching smile
But a maw with sharp teeth

We’re going to hell, we’re going to hell
We’re going to hell, we’re going to hell

So show me some remorse
Show me a little guilt
Don’t tell me we’re just animals
Awaiting our next kill

I’ve been disciplined by religion, by fear
So I can’t quite seem to keep my thought pure
I’ve a hunger for the deviant
And a thirst for worse

We’re going to hell, we’re going to hell
We’re going to hell, we’re going to hell my friends

So what’s that something sinister inside
We act so civilized
Devils in tuxedos
Our sordid hearts are far too hard to hide
What’s that ‘neath the floorboards?

Boom boom
Boom boom
Boom boom

We’re going to hell, we’re going to hell
We’re going to hell, we’re going to hell

Mama, I'm Satan lyrics - Cursive

You're going to do what I say
And say what I say
You stretch your peacock feathers
You're always on display
Don't act so goddamned conflicted
You wouldn't have it any other way

You're going to write down these words
And pass them along
You're going to fill your book
With your rights and wrongs
You're going to tell your lurid world
The true intentions of these songs

I'm writing out a confession
Every record I've written has left me smitten
A career in masturbation
All in all we're pawns
The ego of mankind stirs in us all

You want to wipe that slate
And start all over again
You want to hide your face
In shame of what your grandpappy did
Pretty soon here we'll all be grandfathers
And our offspring will sing the same shit

The world was built on ego
It was built on slaves
The world was built on a tickle
Between our legs
Come on, you big strong man
You wouldn't have it any other way

I'm writing out a confession
My fathers and brothers
Raped your sisters and mothers
We are the sons of butchers
All in all we're pawns
The darkness of mankind stirs in us all

I cast you out
I cast you out
I cast you out
I cast you out
I cast you out
I cast you out
I cast you out
I cast you out

I'll drag you out
I'll drive you out
I'll drug you out
I'll tear you out
I'll cut you out
I'll kick you out
I'll push you out
I'll pull you out
I cast you out
I'll curse you out
I'll shut you out
I'll shit you out
I'll clean you out
Grab a rope and hang you out to dry
Now I'll damn you out
I cast you out
I'll shove you out
I'm staying
All in all we're pawns
The darkness of mankind stirs in us all

Let Me Up lyrics - Cursive

Diseased heat
August on the 101
Let me up
The pale moon
Offers no consolations
Would you let me up?
Mosquitoes fat with our marrow
Ebb and flow through the gumbo
This humid bouillon a cesspool
Stop
Won't someone please let me up?
We're buoyed in
Atop the mercury
Let me up
We're the salt of the earth
From a cell of the surf, this universe
Well let me up
Let me up
(Why won't you let me up?)

I once had gills but they closed up
Had webbed feet but they dried up
Still have lungs but they're sewn up
Stop
Stop
Won't someone just let me up?
Oh
We don't exist
In an instant
Let me up
There's a hole in the floor
As black as my momma's womb
Those were the days
Won't you let me up?
I can't stop thinking of the time
I was swallowed in the brine
Won't you let me up?
Let me up
Mama, the planet is a placenta
Pull the plug
Let the heavens rise above
Won't you let me up?
Let me up
Let me up
Let me up
Let me up
Let me up
I can't stop dreaming of the day
I got swallowed into space
Let me up
Let me up
Let me up
Let me up
Let me up
I'm drowning in the egg
Let me up

Mama, I'm Swollen lyrics - Cursive

I was alone
I was at home
Until the fabric was torn
The cord was cut
My orbit had begun

I was a simple being
I was simply being
Until I caught my own reflection
In a spoon

I am the egg
I am the spark
The fire in the dark
I am fertilized, fully actualized
A loaded gun
Born near the blood red sun
Born near the blood red sun

I am not ignorant
I am intelligent
I'm not an ape
I am the way
I am the truth

I am religion
I am politics
I am a psychoanalyst
I'm an inkblot shaped like Zeus

I'm not an egg
I'm a runny yolk
Got no faith, I got no hope
I'm the joke of all existence
I am no one
Burning beneath the blood red sun
Just a burning beneath the blood red sun

I am the body and the blood
The earthquake and the flood
I am the cancer born and growing in each and everyone
To the beat of a blood red sun
To the beat of a blood red sun

What Have I Done? lyrics - Cursive

A year now and nothing much has changed
Holed up in a motel in El Paso
This was meant to be my great escape
I got lost along the way
Amongst free HBO and take out

Going to write my Moby Dick
More like scratching lyrics on paper plates
I spent the best years of my life
Waiting on the best years of my life
So what's there to write about?

What have I done? What have I done?
So is this my destiny?
From starlight into eternity
The gods must be laughing down at me
Ha, ha, ha

A traveling salesmen at twenty years old
Stranded in Ann Arbor with a flat tire
I watched the sun sadly set
Any younger, I may have wept
Much older, I wouldn't noticed

But I was out there in the world
Yeah, then the world, it passed me by
I was telling everyone back home
That I was taking it by storm
Instead, I watched it from the roadside

What have I done? What have I done?
Are these the best tales I can spin?
A boy waiting to begin
A man of no memoirs

What have I done? What have I done?
And you're young and you're gonna
You're gonna be someone

And you're old and you're
You're ashamed of what you've become
Well, take a look around you
You're preaching to the choir

Tell me darling, what have I done?
And I don't, don't know, what have I done?
What have I done? What have I done?
What have I done? What have I done?
What have I done? What have I done?

Oh, tell me darling, what have I done?
Oh, c'mon baby, now, what have I done?
Oh, what have I done? What have I done?
What have I done? What have I done?
What have I done?

"Happy Hollow" (2006)

Opening The Hymnal / Babies lyrics - Cursive

Welcome one,
And welcome all
To our small town,
The lyrics are the voice
Of the neurosis of a city
inside each house
you'll find the guilt
The fables and folly
Of the residents residing in...

[barely audible]

Fourteen hymns for the heathens…

Baby, baby, baby
This world must seem
So immense compared to the womb,
And baby baby,
Your head must seem
So much smaller than you assumed
Your whole world
Seems to center around you
Be easy to make the mistake
That maybe you’re why the world was made,

Baby, baby, baby,
You learn so fast,
You seem to carry a special gift
Maybe you’ve been given
To this world to make a difference

Such delusions we all struggle with
But the beautiful truth of it is
This is all we are,
We simply exist
You’re not the chosen one
I’m not the chosen one
But we don’t need anyone
Let’s not choose anyone

Dorothy At Forty lyrics - Cursive

Dorothy, I know you've had amazing dreams
We can't go chasing down each golden street
Each and every rainbow, each passion, each unattainable goal
We're not in dreamland anymore

Dorothy, it seems you'll never understand
This here land is everything we have
Every sweat-stained collar, every dollar,
every bent and bloodied spur
We're not the kids that we once were
We can't be the adults we want to be

Dreams are all you have, dreams have held you back
Dreamers never live, only dream of it
Dream cars, dream houses, dream jobs, dream spouses
Dreams of tornadoes, cities of emerald

And I know we swore we'd make more of ourselves
but this plot is literally our lot in life.

American dreams pollute our cities
Our piece of the pie can't fill our bellies
(More!) More square inches
(More!) Picket fences
(More!) Clothes on the line
(More!) Naps at noontime
More of our fair share
More of our birthright
More of what we're owed

More...

Paid vacation
(More!) Entertainment
(More!) Compensation
(More!) Gratuitous gratification

Dorothy, wake up, Dorothy, wake up
Dorothy, wake up, it's time for work

Big Bang lyrics - Cursive

Before we ever saw straight, we were grasping at straws
A debate was born, picket lines were drawn
There was this big bang once, now we're learning to use our thumbs

We need a purpose in life, a survival guide
We need explanations for how we arrived
There was this big bang once, now we're standing on our own two feet
There was this big bang once, we've been sharpening up our teeth

They say there was this big bang once, but the clergyman doesn't agree, oh no
There was this big bang once, but it don't jive with Adam and Eve
Original sin, idyllic garden
Some talking snake giving apples away
What would that snake say if he could only see us today?
Ha ha ha!

There was this big bang once and we were left here to fill in the blanks
There was this big bang once, now we're aimlessly drifting in space
We're gonna need an explanation for rational thought
Enlightenment and the weight of our hearts
In a world of entropy, why can't we just simply be?
And don't feed me lines, intelligent design

There was this big bang once, why are we back down on our knees, huh?

Bad Sects lyrics - Cursive

For 20 years I've held this pulpit
Preached the word, served the Eucharists
Gained the trust of the townsfolk
Made every football game, never missed a social
Last week a boy I taught theology
Came back in town with a new ideology
Those feelings I tucked away
Threaten the sanctuary
A lifetime of burning culminated in one innocent forbidden touch
I know this is wrong
Cause I'm taught this is wrong

A new recruit, 25 years old
He joined the habit with a chip on his shoulder
Some nights he'd proclaim his preference
But only flat back drunk on a bottle of Jameson
One of those nights we stayed up, the two of us
Singing our lives, just the two of us
We were hiding in the dark
I fell asleep by his side
We woke to the chimes of the bells in the steeple, and ran off to separate rooms
They can't know what we've done
Our whole world would come undone

You'll never live this down
You'll never live this down
You'll never live this down
You'll never live this down

They're gonna find you out
And when they find you out
They're gonna drag you out! Don't let them find you!

I know this is wrong
Cause we're told this is wrong
A lifetime of burning culminated in one innocent forbidden touch
I know this is wrong
Cause we're told this is wrong

Flag And Family lyrics - Cursive

Your daddy and my daddy had a drink at the bar
Talking about what was best for me
Without an aim or a degree,
Stubbornly holding on to you
And you pulling away from me

The best that they could say
For my restless teenage ways
Was some time in the service might serve me well,
Even if it’s just servicing the latrines

Lucy my love, don’t go sending me off to war

I put up with your family,
Full of bigots and fanatics,
Just to get a little closer to you,
Now you’ve turned on me too
You have turned on me too.

Go hide behind your flag and family
This town has nothing left for me
This town is nothing more
Than a fundamentalist penitentiary

When you’re down on your knees
Are you praying for holy war?
When you’re down on your knees
Are you praying for oily war?
Lucy my love, don’t go sending me off to war

We must live,
We must true to our childhood dreams,
Or they’re worthless and our youth is insincere

So where do we find worth?

I put up with your family,
Full of bigots and fanatics,
Just to get a little closer to you,
Now you’ve turned on me too
You have turned on me too.

When you’re down on your knees
Are you praying for holy war?
When you’re down on your knees
Are you praying for oily war?
Lucy my love, don’t go sending me off to war

We must live,
We must true to our childhood dreams,
Or they are worthless and our youth is insincere

So where do we find worth?

Dorothy Dreams Of Tornadoes lyrics - Cursive

You said we'd leave next year
Each year for thirteen years
Each year, it gets harder to hear
It's getting hard enough just to stay in love

And now our roots grow deep
Beneath these barren streets
I've had the darkest dreams
The city's pipes and wires
Run through our nerves and veins

And those nights, after a double shift, I feel it
The dashed plans you never dared to live
They used to light up your eyes
Those bulbs have long burned out

Let a tornado tear through
Let it tear straight through our roof
And let the rain pour in
I'll scream, "Babe, this is it!
We'll leave the house in ruins
If we escape right now, we just might make it out"

This city, this city's killing us
This city, this city's killing us
This city, this city's killing us
It's killing us

It's killing us

This city, this city's killing us
This city, this city's killing us
This city, this city's killing us
It's killing us
It's killing us
It's killing us

Retreat!! lyrics - Cursive

They checked the shrine and the temple,
But he wasn't there.
They checked the mosque and the chapel,
Nope, not there.

Since you've been away on holiday,
The natives are all nightmares.
Since you've been away on holiday,
I daydream you'll disappear.
You keep us on a leash we can't conceive,
But still must adhere to.

The natives are whipping each other,
Over which god they prefer.
I wish you'd do us all a favor,
And just differ.

Since you've been away on holiday,
We don't know which god is which.
And since you've been away on holiday,
It's getting harder to give a shit.

So if you stayed away on holiday,
We could get on with it.
I mean, we could evolve like this,
If you'd just call it quits.

Since you've been away on holiday,
We've stomached your archaic rule.
And since you've been away on holiday,
We've hosted some wars over you.

So stay away on holiday, my friend,
We don't need your services;
Your excuses --
Your "mysterious ways" [x4]

What a mysterious way to behave.
What a mysterious way to just go away.

Lord let us go! [x16]

The Sunks lyrics - Cursive

Surrender your furniture
push the television out the window
overmedicated, this must be the sunks
if you can't understand the blues you don't know much

With much love for science and a youthful defiance
we struck blindly at the roots of this tree
whose branches got broken, pissed on and trampled

O please forgive us o mighty shady tree
O please forgive us o mighty doomsday tree

It's time to stick your branches
in the merciless wheel of Time
It's time to stick your branches
in the merciless spokes of Time
It's time to stick a fork in the merciless socket of Time
It's time to be sewn into the limitless fabric of Time

They'll call you a wash up
when you can't stay sunk
it's a shame to be so wet so young
living your life with much love for science