MTV Unplugged

[ springsteen/smith ]



Take me now, baby, here as i am
Hold me close, try and understand
Desire is hunger is the fire i breathe
Love is a banquet on which we feed

Come on now, try and understand
The way i feel under your command
Take my hand, come under cover
They can't hurt you now

Because the night belongs to lovers
Because the night belongs to lust
Because the night belongs to lovers
Because the night belongs to us

Have i doubt, baby, when i'm alone
Love is a ring on the telephone
Love is an angel, disguised as lust
Here in our bed 'til the morning comes

Come on now, try and understand
The way i feel under your command
Take my hand, come under cover
They can't hurt you now

Because the night belongs to lovers
Because the night belongs to lust
Because the night belongs to lovers
Because the night belongs to us

With love we sleep, with doubt the vicious circle turns, and burns
Without you, i cannot live, forgive the yearning burning
I believe in love too real to feel, take me now, take me now, take me now

Because the night belongs to lovers
Because the night belongs to lust
Because the night belongs to lovers
Because the night belongs to us

[ robert buck/natalie merchant ]



Hey jack kerouac, i think of your mother
And the tears she cried, she cried for none other
Than her little boy lost in our little world that hated
And that dared to drag him down. her little boy courageous
Who chose his words from mouths of babes got lost in the wood.
Hip flask slinging madman, steaming cafe flirts,
They all spoke through you.

Hey jack, now for the tricky part,
When you were the brightest star who were the shadows?
Of the san francisco beat boys you were the favorite.
Now they sit and rattle their bones and think of their blood stoned days.
You chose your words from mouths of babes got lost in the wood.
The hip flask slinging madman, steaming cafe flirts,
Nights in chinatown howling at night.

Allen baby, why so jaded?
Have the boys all grown up and their beauty faded?
Billy, what a saint they've made you,
Just like mary down in mexico on all souls' day.

You chose your words from mouths of babes got lost in the wood.
Cool junk booting madmen, street minded girls
In harlem howling at night.
What a tear stained shock of the world,
You've gone away without saying goodbye.

[ merchant ]


[ cello: larry corbett/violin: bruce dukov/viola: pamela goldsmith/violin: ralph morrison (quartet arranged and conducted by paul buckmaster) ]

To think of my task is chilling.
To know i was carefully building the mask i was wearing for two years, swearing i'd tear it off.
I've sat in the dark explaining to myself that i'm straining too hard for feelings i ought to find easily.
Called myself jezebel.
I don't believe.

Before i say that the vows we made weigh like a stone in my heart.
Family is family, don't let this tear us apart.

You lie there, an innocent baby.
I feel like the thief who is raiding your home, entering and breaking and taking in every room.
I know your feelings are tender and that inside you the embers still glow.
But i'm a shadow, i'm only a bed of blackened coal.
Call myself jezebel for wanting to leave.

I'm not saying i'm replacing love for some other word to describe the sacred tie that bound me to you.
I'm just saying we've mistaken one for thousands of words.
And for that mistake, i've caused you such pain that i damn that word.
I've no more ways to hide that i'm a desolate and empty, hollow place inside.

I'm not saying i'm replacing love for some other word to describe the sacred tie that bound me to you.
I'm not saying love's a plaything.
No, it's a powerful word, inspired by strong desire to bind myself to you.
How i wish that we never had tried to be man and his wife, to weave our lives into a blindfold over both our eyes.

[ buck/merchant ]


[ percussion: paulinho da costa ]

These are days you'll remember.
Never before and never since, i promise, will the whole world be warm as this.
And as you feel it, you'll know it's true that you are blessed and lucky.
It's true that you are touched by something that will grow and bloom in you.

These are days you'll remember.
When may is rushing over you with desire to be part of the miracles you see in every hour.
You'll know it's true that you are blessed and lucky.
It's true that you are touched by something that will grow and bloom in you.

These are days.

These are the days you might fill with laughter until you break.
These days you might feel a shaft of light make its way across your face.
And when you do you'll know how it was meant to be.
See the signs and know their meaning.
It's true, you'll know how it was meant to be.
Hear the signs and know they're speaking to you, to you.

[ robert buck/natalie merchant ]



That young boy without a name i'd know his face.
In this city the kid's my favorite.
I've seen him. i see him every day.
Seen him run outside looking for a place to hide from his father,
The kid half naked and said to myself "o, what's the matter here?"
I have heard the excuses everbody uses, he's your kid do as you see fit,
But who gave you the right to do this?

We live on morgan street;
Just ten feet between and his mother, i never see her,
But her screams and cussing, i hear them every day.
Threats like: "if you don't mind i will beat on your behind,"
"slap you, slap you silly."
Made me say, "o, what's the matter here?"
I have heard the excuses everybody uses, he's your kid, do as you see fit,
But get this through that i don't approve of what you did to you own flesh and blood.

"Well, if you don't sit in your chair straight
I'll take this belt from around my waist and don't think that i won't use it!"

Answer me and take your time,
What could be the awful crime he could do at so young an age?
If i'm the only witness to your madness offer me some words to balance out what i see and what i hear.
All these cold and rude things that you do i suppose you do because he belongs to you
And instead of love, the feel of warmth you've given him these cuts and sores don't heal with time or with age.

I want to say "what's the matter here?"
But i don't dare say.

[ natalie merchant ]



The color of the sky as far as i can see is coal grey.
Lift my head from the pillow and then fall again.
With a shiver in my bones just thinking about the weather.
A quiver in my lips as if i might cry.

Well by the force of will my lungs are filled and so i breathe.
Lately it seems this big bed is where i never leave.
Shiver in my bones just thinking about the weather.
Quiver in my voice as i cry,

"what a cold and rainy day. where on earth is the sun hid away."

I hear the sound of a noon bell chime.
Now i'm far behind.
You've put in 'bout half a day
While here i lie
With a shiver in my bones just thinking about the weather.
A quiver in my lip as if i might cry,

"what a cold and rainy day. where on earth is the sun hid away?"

Do i need someone here to scold me
Or do i need someone who'll grab and pull me out of this four poster dull torpor pulling downward.
For it is such a long time since my better days.
I say my prayers nightly this will pass away.

The color of the sky is grey as i can see through the blinds.
Lift my head from the pillow and then fall again
With a shiver in my bones just thinking about the weather.
A quiver in my voice as i cry,

"what a cold and rainy day. where on earth is the sun hid away?"
I shiver, quiver, and try to wake.

[ merchant ]


[ bassoons: kim laskowski & atsuko sato ]

It crawls on his back, won't ever let him be.
Stares at the walls until the cinder blocks can breathe.
His eyes have gone away, escaping over time.
He rules a crowded nation inside his mind.

He knows that night like his hand.
He knows every move he made.
Late shift, the bell that rang, a time card won't fade.
10:05 his truck pulled home.
10:05 he climbed his stair, about the time he was accused of being there.

But i'm not the man.
He goes free as i wait on the row for the man to test the rope he'll slip around my throat...
And silence me.

On the day he was tried no witnesses testified.
Nothing but evidence, not hard to falsify.
His own confession was a prosecutor's prize,
Made up of fear, of rage and of outright lies.

But i'm not the man.
He goes free as the candle vigil glows, as they burn my clothes.
As the crowd cries, "hang him slow!" and i feel my blood go cold, he goes free.

Call out the kkk, they're wild after me.
And with that frenzied look of half-demented zeal,
They'd love to serve me up my final meal.
Who'll read my final rite and hear my last appeal?
Who struck this devil's deal?