Tuesday, June 30, 1970

On the Radio

Written by: regina spektor

Available Recordings: Click to view

Lyrics (from the Begin to Hope liner notes):
This is how it works
It feels a little worse
Than when we drove our hearse
Right through that screaming crowd
While laughing up a storm
Until we were just bone
Until it got so warm
That none of us could sleep
Then all the Styrofoam
Began to melt away
We tried to find some worms
To aid in the decay
But none of them were home
Inside their catacomb
A million ancient bees
Began to sting our knees
While we were on our knees
Praying that disease
Would leave the ones we love
And never come again
And on the radio
We heard November Rain
The solo's real long
But it's a pretty song
We listened to it twice
'Cause the DJ was asleep
This is how it works
You're young until you're not
You love until you don't
You try until you can't
You laugh until you cry
You cry until you laugh
And everyone must breathe
Until their dying breath
No this is how it works
You peer inside yourself
You take the things you like
Then try to love the things you took
And then you take that love you made
And stick it into some --
Someone else's heart
Pumping someone else's blood
And walking arm in arm
You hope it don't get harmed
But even if it does
You'll just do it all again
And on the radio
You'll hear November Rain
That solo's awful long
But it's a nice refrain
You listen to it twice
'Cause the DJ is asleep
On the radio uh-oh
On the radio uh-oh


Sunday, June 28, 1970

"open" (title unknown)

Written by: regina spektor

Available Recordings: Click to view

Lyrics (fan transcription):

I am down the road and up the hill
I wait for you still
wires around my fingers

potentially lovely
perpetually human
suspended and open
open...

I am through the woods and past the trains
I wait here in vain
scrubbing out the stains again

potentially lovely
perpetually human
suspended and open
open...

open up and up your eyes and then...

in a night the snow starts falling
and everybody stares
through their windows at the streetlights
too beautiful to see

I am in a room I've built myself
four stray walls
one floor, one ceiling
and day after day I wake up feeling...

potentially lovely
perpetually human
suspended and open
open...

open up and up your heart and then...


Friday, June 26, 1970

Paris

Written by: regina spektor

Available Recordings: Click to view

Lyrics (fan transcription):
I could’ve settled down in Paris
but the man who came for me
took me by the hand
and said it was time to leave
margaret atwood, she could not stop him
virginia woolf, she could not stop him
the truth is I wanted to go
he is all I know, he is all I know…

I got back home from Paris
and he told me what I’d done was wrong
and though his speech was rather long
I listened like an obedient child
the light was coming in through the windows
it was a most familiar type of night
how I loved every streetlight
and I wanted him to kiss me

margaret atwood, she could not stop me
virginia woolf, she could not stop me
the truth is I wanted to go
he is all I know, he is all I know…

sweet, sweet forever
I’ll comfort myself in my next life…

he told me that he couldn’t live without me
and I told him the same thing too
and though we knew it wasn’t true
we both knew it wasn’t a lie
the light was coming in through the window
it was a most familiar type of night
how I loved every streetlight
and I wanted him to kiss me

margaret atwood, she could not stop me
virginia woolf, she could not stop me
the truth is I wanted to go
he is all I know, he is all I know…

sweet, sweet forever
I’ll comfort myself in my next life…


Thursday, June 25, 1970

Patron Saint

Written by: regina spektor

Available Recordings: Click to view

Lyrics (fan transcription):
She's the kind of girl who'll smash herself down in the night
She's the kind of girl who'll fracture her mind till it's light
She'll break her own heart and you know she'll break your heart too
So darling, let go of her hand

She's been skipping days, spilling her drinks in the sink
and you know, she's never coming home, never coming home again
but when when when she open her eyes eyes eyes
beyond the chipping paint through the windowpane
lies lies lies
her patron saint, broken and lame
and absolutely insane for learning that true love exists
so darling, let go of her hand...
you'll be to blame for playing this game
and learning that true love exists


Saturday, June 20, 1970

Pavlov's Daughter

Written by: regina spektor

Available Recordings: Click to view

Lyrics (as originally posted by Regina on brümstix):
The grave diggers getting stuck in the machine
pickings getting slim, slimmer
I hear them say my name
regin-ah, regin-ah, regin-a-ah

yes I'm putting the boulder to my ear
and I still can't hear
whadya think I was an amateur
playin' with my temperature...

If I hear another song about angels
if I see another feather on the dumb-box
I'm gonna go to Babylon and get me some whiskey
Gonna get me some whiskey now...
If I hear another song about angels
if I see another feather on the dumb-box
I'm gonna go to Babylon and get me some whiskey now

My name is Lucille and I know how you feel
I live downstairs
I hear you taking out your garbage
I hear you loving your girlfriend
I hear you loving yourself too
I hear you turning your thoughts off
I turn mine off too
The only thing I hear is you
and you don't sound good and you don't sound nice
and you don't sound good and you don't sound right

and it get's quiet...

Pavlov's daughter woke up in the morning
Heard the bell ring
And something deep inside of her made her want to salivate
So she lay there drooling on her pillow
So she lay there, the sun skimming her skin, and drooling on her pillow
Pavlov's daughter
And it was far away and hazy like a dream
not a dream, but the ocean,
not the ocean, but forever...

The grave diggers getting stuck in the machine...
...And it gets quiet...
As quiet as an ambulance checking out the neighborhood, waiting for the blade to slip and that final blow, but nothing happens, it's a cruel joke
as ironic as a ticker tape parade over the rain forest,
as ironic as a ticker tape parade over my head,
as ironic as a ticker tape parade over my head going down stream... to where...it isn't... even... real...rain... at...all...


Monday, June 15, 1970

Poor Little Rich Boy

Written by: regina spektor

Available Recordings: Click to view

Lyrics (from the Soviet Kitsch liner notes):
Poor little rich boy
all the couples have gone
You wish that they hadn't
you don't want to be alone
but they want to kiss
and they got homes of their own
poor little rich boy
all the couples have gone have gone have gone

and you don't love your girlfriend
you don't ♥ your girlfriend
and you think that you should but she thinks that she's fat but she isn't but you don't love her anyway
and you don't love your mother
and you know that you should
and you wish that you would
but you don't anyway...

poor little rich boy
oh the world is okay
the water runs off your skin
and down into the drain
you're reading Fitzgerald
you're reading Hemingway
they're both super smart
and drinking in the cafes

but you don't love your girlfriend
you don't ♥ your girlfriend
and you think that you should but she thinks that she's fat but she isn't but you don't love her anyway
and you don't love your mother
and you know that you should
and you wish that you would
but you don't anyway

you're so young you're so god damn young
you're so young you're so god damn young
and you don't love your girlfriend


Wednesday, June 10, 1970

Pound of Flesh

Written by: regina spektor

Available Recordings: Click to view

Lyrics (fan transcription):

if you're never sorry
then you can't be forgiven
if you're not forgiven
then you can't be forgotten
if you're not forgotten
then you can live forever
if you live forever
then you'll begin to dream
of death...

ezra pound sat upon my bed
asked me which books as of late I've read

ezra pound sat upon my bed
asked me which books as of late I've read
asked me if I've read his own
and whether I could spare a pound
of flesh to cover his bare bones
I says, man, take a pound, take two
what's a pound of flesh between
friends like me and you?
what's a pound of flesh among friends?

but if you're never sorry...

if you're never sorry
then you can't be forgiven
if you're not forgiven
then you can't be forgotten
if you're not forgotten
then you must live forever
if you live forever
you cannot be reborn
if you're not reborn then
you can't be a baby
if you're not a baby
you can't learn how to crawl
if you cannot crawl away
then you must stay in bed all day
if you stay in bed all day
you're sure to have some visitors

ezra pound'll sit upon your bed
ask you which books as of late you have read
ask you if you've read his own
and whether you could spare a pound
of flesh to cover his bare bones
you'll say, man, take a pound, take two
what's a pound of flesh between
friends like me and you?
what's a pound of flesh among friends?...


Friday, June 05, 1970

Prisoners

Written by: regina spektor

Available Recordings: Click to view

Lyrics (fan transcription):
all of the prisoners serving life sentences
wait for the earth to suddenly shake
for the walls to somehow suddenly come crumbling, tumbling and
for the bars to somehow magically break

there's nothing wrong with them
that a thousand bucks can't fix
that a thousand arms can't hold down
in the ground they're tattooing the stones with
cusses like cavemen - your mama was here

but they want to run through the air with no barriers or obstacles
gunmen or guard dogs or priests
and to rise from the mud and start over and over
with the people all dead

if hans christian andersen could've had his way with me then
none of this shit would have ever gone down
in my cell I'm tattooing myself with
mermaids and swallows and though I do swallow
my mama thinks I'm grown but I'm really just little
and someday I will remember