Translucent Soul

Seven times i traced your number
Just one finger to your voice
Seven times i put the receiver down
Seven times i tried to write you
But i cannot make your choice
Your lips they move,
But they make no sound


And what the cost
What the price
I'm the brunt of friends' advice
Don't look up till you feel the ground . . .


I'm letting go 'cause holdin' on is killing me
My timing can be criminally slow
Too little too late
Criminally slow


Seven times i asked forgiveness
Seven times i'll wait you out
Seasons will change before words come round
And in my search for reasons
I will wash away the doubt
That came wrapped inside a wedding gown


And what the price
What the cost
Is this the poetry of loss
The past we build is all torn down?


I'm letting go 'cause holdin' on is killing me
My timing can be criminally slow
Is it never too late?
Criminally slow

I get a call from vance he's an old friend
He's got some you-won't-believe-story to share
He's the place that i go when i need someone who knows me
He brings the smile of a billionaire

And i laugh when he pretends he's a white guy
'cause he knows how bad i fail playing black
He says, "if even you could, i don't advise that you should
'cause once you go there you might not want to turn back"


(chorus)
There isn't a thing
In this god-all-mighty world that i wouldn't do
To help him outta trouble
Seein' as how we're friends and
That goes deeper than skin can go
To a translucent soul
Deeper than color will show
Translucent soul


He says, "now, you and i, i know we look a little different,
But, i was raised middle class, same as you.
But, let's make it clear even on the way here,
I had to watch for blue lights in the rear view "
He says, "last week, i was visiting l.a.,
Walking the streets where the riots went down.
You got black killing black killing black killing black,
While all the whites were sweating bullets across town"


(chorus)


He says, "in l.a., they're whispering race war,
Like it's something that has yet to begin
Like they can plug up the cracks
In four hundred years of history
And prove that the melting pot's not broken"
He says, "in the event of some unlikely disaster,
We find ourselves armed, and face to face "
I said, "i'd turn around, i would protect your ground"
He said, "i'd do the same thing for you at your place"


(chorus)


There isn't a thing
In this god-all-mighty world that he wouldn't do
To help me outta trouble . . .

Embrace what you have in common,
Celebrate what sets you apart
It takes more than the color
That you find on a palate
To turn humanity into an art
Into the form of an art
Translucent soul
Translucent soul
Soul

You grew up thinking you knew her
Nothing could keep you apart
You remember nothing peculiar
She always spoke from the heart

You took your parents' religion
And you drank it down like a coke
It helped to quench your confusion
Now look who's heart that it broke


(chorus)
She loves a girl
She loves a girl
She loves a girl
What are you gonna do --
If you love her too?


A gold and white invitation
Your parents will not attend
They put a knife to the blood line
When the couple became more than friends


The preacher sang "hallelujah"
But it rang more like a curse
One love at the cost of another
Man, that's when love really hurts


(chorus)


So take a seat
In the world of the open minded
And when you speak, tell them
Even love can be blinded


You think more of the future
When change brings your past to an end
Use your love like a suture
That's a good place to begin


(chorus)

Tell the man who repairs the wings for angels
That one has fallen among the mortals on bleeker street
I lent a hand, she looked up at the steeples
As if to blame them for the pavement beneath her feet
She said, "i never much liked flying, but the job requires trying
The hard part's avoiding buildings and concrete"

(chorus)
Spread the news, 'cause there's an angel in manhattan
Call out the paparazzi and the television crews
Let the people choose
Would a little faith come to harm them?
Print the headlines up in the new york daily news
It was just another day
Like any other, other day


A tuesday afternoon
I hailed a cab, a crowd gathered as it pulled beside us
And somebody tore at her wings, but i helped her safely inside
"i'm much obliged," she said, but the driver he looked shaken
He said, "you're fakin', lady, who's taking who for a ride"
But then we floated up over the traffic, she turned the radio to static,
And she sang to him in billy holiday's sweet voice
(chorus)
Spread the news, 'cause there's an angel in manhattan
Call out the paparazzi and the the television crews
Hey if you choose
Would a little faith come to harm you?
Print the headlines up in the new york daily news
It was just another day
What will the mayor say?
"good afternoon"


We flew down the length of fifth avenue
She threw out miracles, it was a hysterical ride
And if the crowd on the sidewalk looked skeptical
She took the blue right out of their cynical eyes
"it's all in what you feel inside"


She shook the mayor's hand, and he declared
That he'd hold a press conference,
The fans and protesters blocked the stairs to city hall
"i'd like to thank you all," he said
And when she stepped before the cameras
It felt like a trial, but she smiled as the questions were called,
"what do you say to detractors, who claim you're just some actor?"


She said, "the question here, is 'do i believe in you?'"
It was just another day
Like any other, other day


(chorus)


Spread the news, i saw an an angel fly from manhattan
In front of paparazzi, in front of television crews
And me i choose
I know a little faith wouldn't harm me
Despite what they print in the new york daily news


It was just another day
Like any other, other day
Like any day

So you found yourself a corner apartment
With a view of the town all your own
All your friends say
The city's gonna kill you or cure you
Five flights of stairs to your home

And even now,
It's changed how you walk in the street
Past cabbies and chimney sweeps
Be careful with strangers you speak to


(chorus)
What has this city done to you?
Has it taken the small town out of you
And turned you into someone i never knew?


When we were kids
In the warmth of a porch light
You'd smuggle out twin cigarettes
We'd blow smoke in the air
With typical hometown flair
Two futures we could not predict


And look at you now,
The dreamer with the back porch plan
For the writer and the music man
Our faces on magazine stands


(chorus)


What has this city done to you?
Has it taken the innocence out of you
And turned you into someone i never knew?
Did i ever know you?


Do you know how you light up these buildings?
You can turn the head of a man whose grown old
You're a candle when the streets grow cold


I can hear a cricket in your fifth floor apartment
It's 3 am
Back home he'd put me to sleep
But he's fighting to be heard
He can't get in a word
'cause there's a fool
Laughing outside in the street


Where are you now?
I lost you outside on montague street
To the city that never will sleep
Is it the sideshow in you
That it speaks to?


(chorus)


Hey did i ever know you?
Did i ever know you?

Street corner, cityside lane
People cross borders
When green lights change
And isn't that strange
A face on someone
I almost said your name
Can you blame me?
But i was foiled again

(chorus)
Bring me backwards
I can't fool time
I'm walking in circles
I've committed no crime
Bring on the witness
The truth is divine
You stand there bleeding
But the blood is mine


And you'd say,
"pain is just a relative thing"
I'd say, "thank you, mr. einstein"
You go on about space,
This place in time
But that's no way to explain it
Believe me,
When you're mining it


'cause it's all feel


Not thought
But there i'm caught
Trying to untangle it


(chorus)