Late Night Grande Hotel




Track Listing:


It's Just Another Morning Here

Words & Music By Nanci Griffith
© 1991 Ponder Heart Music/Irving Music Inc. (BMI)

The telephone is ringin' in the middle of the night
And I pull the bed clothes higher
Will it stop calling out if I turn on the light?
I'm afraid of these shadows here
'Cuz my past is truly frightening
And I'm afraid of the warmth in the down
of a feathered heart in flight


Chorus:
It's just another morning here (it's morning)
It's just another morning here
It's just another morning here (it's morning)
And it's a miracle that it comes around
every day of the year

The neighbors scream and their baby cries
I'm hiding in the corner
I won't be them, pray I won't be them one day
Maybe it's just the breath of August
so hot upon my shoulder
Or an open window for a winged heart
to fly away

(Repeat chorus)

The telephone is ringin' in the middle of the night
I pull the bed clothes higher
Will it stop calling out if I turn on the light?
I'm afraid of these shadows here
'Cuz my past is truly frightening
And I'm afraid of the warmth in the down
of a feathered heart in flight

(Repeat chorus twice to fade out)

Back to Track Listing:

Late Night Grande Hotel

Words & Music By Nanci Griffith
© 1991 Ponder Heart Music/Irving Music Inc. (BMI)

I'm working on a morning flight to anywhere but here
I'm watching this evening fire burn away my tears
All my life I've left my troubles by the door
Leavin' is all I've ever known before

Chorus:
It's not the way you hold me
when the sun goes down
It's not the way you call my name that left me
stranded on the ground
It's not the way you say you hear my heart
when the music ends
I am just learning how to fly away again
It's not the way you say you hear my heart
when the music ends
I am just learning how to fly away again

And maybe you were thinkin'
that you thought you knew me well
But, no one ever knows the heart of anyone else
I feel like Garbo in this late night grande hotel
Cause living alone is all I've ever done well

(Repeat chorus twice)

Back to Track Listing:

It's Too Late

Words & Music By Nanci Griffith
© 1991 Ponder Heart Music/Irving Music Inc. (BMI)

You pace the pool and talk about it
I read my book and think about it
You've walked on water
as I'm turning the page
You say, "What's the intrigue here...
in reading when the sky is clear?"
You are in the sun
and I am always in the shade


Chorus:
It's too late to leave you
you know that I will never leave you
It's too late to know you
you don't like to be known
You would never hold me
I don't like to be held
I will always love you
in spite of myself

I can feel the weather changing
The leaves are tired and turned with anger
They fall around us like a veil
of golden tears
You have never needed me
and I'm not good at being needed
This season will be leaving us
but we will still be here

(Repeat chorus)

Do you miss me when I'm far away?
Do you save me for your rainy days?
Is my picture on the mantle...
or is it in the fire?
It's odd the way the years fly by
They leave us standing side by side
You have been my mystery
And I've been your desire

(Repeat chorus)

Back to Track Listing:

Fields Of Summer

Words & Music By Nanci Griffith
© 1991 Ponder Heart Music/Irving Music Inc. (BMI)

I am fragile in the morning
I grow stronger in the day
I can sprint like a new spring doe
by the fall of the night
Love has chased me down
Through the cities and the towns
Until I stood beside the road
and let it pass me by
Like a fool I've missed the rain
cuz I was crying

Chorus:
Then you are calling
call my heart awake from years of slumber
And then I'm falling
like a child head over heel
in fields of summer
Can you hold me?
Though I am inclined to
leave my home and wander
Can you keep me...
Like a child head over heel
in fields of summer?
Fields of summer
Fields of summer
I am falling
like a child head over heel
in fields of summer

Now that you have caught me
Are you sure you really want me?
Though I'm fragile as December
on your shoulder in the dawn
And when the day has made me stronger...
Can you satisfy my hunger?
When the night has come and I would race the moon
across the sky...
Would you chase me through
those open fields of summer

(Repeat chorus)

Can you hold me?
Hold me?
Hold me?
Because I'm falling,
like a child head over heel
in fields of summer

Back to Track Listing:

Heaven

Words & Music By Julie Gold
© 1988 Julie Gold Music (BMI)

I think I'll go to Heaven
There I will lay me down
Leave all the pain behind me
I'll bury it in the ground
Maybe they'll talk about me
I pray it won't be lies
I think I'll go to heaven
Heaven is in your eyes

I think I'll go to Heaven
I heard it's peaceful there
They don't allow your troubles
Everyone's had their share
And if I can be someone who
never needs a disguise
Then maybe I'll go to Heaven
Heaven is in your eyes

People in Heaven never look back
Higher and higher
the past fades to black

I think I'll go to heaven
I'll sail on into the night
I'll watch as I set my soul free
Watch as my heart takes flight
Maybe I am too simple
Maybe I am too wise
And maybe I'll go to Heaven
Heaven is in your eyes

Back to Track Listing:

The Power Lines

Words & Music By Nanci Griffith & Pat Alger
Additional Music By James Hooker
© 1991 Ponder Heart Music/Irving Music Inc. (BMI)
Bait and Beer Music
Forerunner Music, INC.
Rick Hall Music, INC. (ASCAP)

Nobody seems to care about you
with your tool case by the roadside
there beneath the power lines
Or the pallor of your skin
paled beneath fluorescent lights
in a Greyhound station's cruel midnight
where you can't afford the ride

Chorus:
Oh, the power lines
they go from sea to sea
they carry voices
love from him to me
The power lines you fall beneath
are the rainbows you can't climb
and you will not climb the power lines
You are lost beneath the power lines

There's no place that you haven't been
and no place that you call your home
There's no place that you cannot go
with the gift within your hands
and the tools to build another's dream
that connects them to the power lines
You do not feel you need

(Repeat chorus twice)

Back to Track Listing:

Hometown Streets

Words By Nanci Griffith
Music By Nanci Griffith & James Hooker
© 1991 Ponder Heart Music/Irving Music Inc. (BMI)
Rick Hall Music, INC. (ASCAP)

Everybody packs their goals
and sails away for better shores
I have seen times
my sails have held a brilliant shine
I hear tell that dreams come true
along these crowded avenues
but, my peace of mind
is a place I go when I close my eyes

Chorus:
I need a hometown street where the boys are pretty
and a friend is still a friend
I need a hometown street where the love you're given
surely comes back 'round again

Hometown streets are paved in gold
with faces that you've always known
But, you'll never see them
until you pack your dreams and leave them
The one I loved has moved away
It's hot in this city
Hey, it's always late
Here in this place
love doesn't get the time of day

(Repeat chorus)

Bridge:
I can't remember
what I came here for
I'm gonna pull up my anchor
and sail for shore

(Repeat chorus)

Back to Track Listing:

Down 'N' Outer

Words & Music By Nanci Griffith
© 1991 Wing and Wheel Music
Administered By Irving Music Inc.

I once was a lot like you
We share a dream I couldn't make come true
I was a child who wrote my name
across a frosted window pane

And there are jobs that I might hold
if they'd just let me through the door
without a shower and new clothes
that I can ill afford

Chorus:
Can you spare the time?
Can you spare a dime?
Can you look me in the eye?
I'm down 'n' out
and I am lonely
Do you ever think of me on
Sunday?
No. I don't live
across the water
Hey, I live right here
on this corner
...just a bank account away from
America

I won't hurt your family
I don't want a house there on your street
And I know you think that I'm...
as lazy as a hobo's sigh
Now, you call me down 'n' outer
if there's a way out...
I've not found 'er
I only want to earn my piece of America

(Repeat chorus)

Tag:
I'm just a bank account away from
America

Back to Track Listing:

One Blade Shy Of A Sharp Edge

Words & Music By Nanci Griffith
© 1991 Ponder Heart Music/Irving Music Inc. (BMI)

You honk the horn on your Mercedes Benz
I've rolled up my window so you're honkin' again
Your stereo could drive the devil out
Hey, you drink too much and you talk too loud
But you think you got it made
Think you got it made
Think you got it made
When you're one blade shy of a sharp edge

Republican is the way you vote
You've got a sticker on your bumper that's how I know
And you think true love is around this bend
You've been around the bend since the age of ten
But you think you've got it made
think you've got it made
think you've got it made
When you're one blade shy of a sharp edge

Now, I'm a little too old for your toupee curls
I'm a full grown woman and you're lookin' for girls
Hey, it's Saturday night so go on down the road
I'll cancel you out when I go to the polls
But you think you got it made
think you got it made
think you got it made
when you're one blade shy of a sharp edge

Hey, hey...

Back to Track Listing:

The Sun, Moon, And Stars

Words & Music By Vince Bell
© 1977 Bug Music/Black Coffee Music Inc. (BMI)

The sun, the moon and the stars
they make the wind blow
It took me twenty years to understand
Lost to me are how the lives of friends go
like autumn leaves in Oklahoma wind
But it made me strong to be on my own
It never did me no harm to live all alone
Oh, but now and then
in the color of the evening
Drunken in a barroom
with a fan turning
I've come to miss a few

This afternoon was cloudy and the rains came
Third day of my first day San Miguel
Seems lately that I'm doubling as Storm bait
I've been followed like a shadow through the dell
But it made me strong to be on my own
It never did me no harm to live all alone
Oh, but now and then
in the color of the evening
Drunken in a barroom
with a fan turning
I've come to miss a few

Dear friends and relations
see what I have done
I've gathered all my fingers in one place
They breathe a breath that's deadly stale
since they tooled a song for me
I guess mechanics never really set the pace
Cause I'm back and I'm strong
I'm here on my own
It never did me no harm
to live all alone
Oh, but now and then
in the color of the evening
Drunken in a barroom
with a fan turning
I've come to miss a few

The sun, the moon and the stars
they make the wind blow
It took me twenty years to understand
But lost to me are how the lives of friends go
like autumn leaves in Oklahoma wind
...oh, but now and then
it's in the color of the evening
Drunken in a barroom
with a fan turning
I'll come to miss a few

Back to Track Listing:

San Diego Serenade

Words & Music By Tom Waits
© 1974 Fifth Floor Music Inc. (ASCAP)

Never saw the morning till I stayed up all night
Never saw the sunshine till I turned out the light
Never saw my home town till I stayed away too long
I never heard the melody till I needed the song

Never saw the white line till I was leavin' you behind
Never knew I needed you till I was caught up in a bind
And I never spoke I love you till I cursed you in vain
Never felt my heart strings until I nearly went insane

Never saw the East coast until I moved to the West
I never saw the moonlight till it shone off your breast
And I never saw your heart till someone tried to steal it away
Never saw your tears till they rolled down your face

I never saw the morning till I stayed up all night
Never saw the sunshine till you turned out the light
Never saw my home town till I stayed away too long
I never heard the melody till I needed the song

Back to Track Listing:

  Back to the album - Late Night Grande Hotel