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lyrics

Oh, the songs I could have given you, sweet thing,
if it’d seemed like the thing to do;
if I’d have written down everything,
oh, the shit I’d have put you through.
One on the wonderful in we,
and two about the same in you.
Three, the flame you put in me;
Four more, nothing I couldn’t do.

But I never did; never could keep away from you,
not even to make something you could take away with you,
to stay with you. The way other things stay with you,
the way I can’t stay with you.

Oh, that scare that you gave me there, sweet thing—
and I know that you didn’t mean to—
well, I wish I could say it was fleeting,
but it’s still there, between me and you.
Oh, that the flame’s gone out in thee,
that you’d taken it out of me too.
That you’re moving on to sweeter things,
but for me, are there sweeter than you?

It just keeps getting harder to pretend
that this love will live to see a different end.
I keep wondering if this is too much to spend,
but I spend anyway. And I spend ‘til I’m spent.
So it’s hard, just to know I don’t know where it went.

Oh, the fool you must think of me, lover;
some crazy bat taken with fear.
But dementia is more than just shudders,
and I don’t think I’m making it clear.
Oh, the wishes I had for us, doll;
well, I knew they’d crumble like sand.
But before my infection could madden us all,
I dreamed we’d start a rock and roll band!

So we never did. Still, we know that there’s songs to sing,
sittin’ to get written, the potential in everything.
If you write one, you could call me darling,
and I’d write back, and I’d call you sweet thing.
Like Jeff would say, if he sang to Debbie,
in another world, where I was dead instead of he;
or if she sang to him, like blue-eyed you to brown-eyed me.
Oh, sweet thing. Oh, darling.

credits

from The Once & Future Boyfriend, track released June 22, 2010

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Amina Shareef Ali Oakland, California

Based in Oakland, California, Amina Shareef Ali performs songs of love and struggle, of pain and wonder, of loss and redemption. Lyrics by turns poignant and sardonic are set against a backdrop of American music both traditional and modern, from folk to punk to country to jazz to rock and roll. ... more

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