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1. |
A Paper Gift
04:05
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Since you’ve gone missing
My daydreams have simple themes
I’m fancifully wishing
You sent adrift a paper gift
With words in your hand
Like, “Let’s make amends”
And words from your hand
Like, “On you I depend”
Are remnants of a blooming love
That you once meant
Are those paper gifts that I miss
Just nonsense?
If you’re not responding
To sentiments that I sent
Then why am I thinking
A paper gift can mend this rift?
With words in your hand
Like, “We’re more than friends”
And words from your hand
In pencil or crayon
Are remnants of a blooming love
That you once meant
Are these paper gifts that I miss
Just nonsense?
Are those remnants of a blooming love
That you once meant?
And these paper gifts that I miss
Just nonsense?
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2. |
Alida
03:59
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“Sometimes he said I love too much”
Your voice made these words sound so true
It’s another day spent at the pictures
It’s another day I dream of you
Anna Schmidt worked as an actress
Who avowed, “I don’t play tragedy”
Yes, I’ve memorized most all of your lines
Alida, Miss Valli, my sweet
As Anna you personified heartbreak
You laughed only once then proclaimed:
“There isn’t enough for two laughs”
Then a tear trickled down your left cheek
Some leaves fell during your exit
As you walked down the middle of the street
It was thirty-past-two, and all eyes were on you
Alida, Miss Valli, my sweet
You held your hands in your pockets
And stared straight ahead frigidly
It was so melancholy as you passed on by Holly
Alida, Miss Valli, my sweet
Alida, Miss Valli, my sweet
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3. |
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Are you tired Kate
Of all those boys who took my place?
Filling your dance card
Every last space
And have found your pulse
Races faster to a waltz
Than to a fox trot?
Then just please stop
So we might slip onto
The lower terrace where I’ll hold you
Sharing slow truths
To a slow tune
And if we make amends
Before the last slow song begins
Tear up your dance card
And let’s dance again
Then we can sneak down to
The flower gardens where I’ll hold you
Sharing slow truths
To a slow tune
And your voice will fill the air
And I respond and pull you near
Sharing slow truths
To a slow tune
They were nothing but just ‘show’
All those boys and girls, you know
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4. |
Twisting The Apple Stem
03:34
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You doubt our fate turns on the apple
And the stem I now hold here in my hand
But dearest Trish, I made a wish
Twisting the apple stem
You’ll change your name to ‘Madeleine’
If ‘M’ is where the game ends
You tickle my chin with dandelions
And search for a four-leaf clover all day
So dearest Pru, I’m asking you
Twisting the apple stem
If I may please call you ‘Dominique’
If ‘D’ is where the game ends
And if our fate turns with the apple
Just twist five times and you will be mine
Oh Cecily, would you humor me
When you’re twisting the apple stem?
When you reach ‘E’ wind forcefully
So that’s where the game ends
Oh Penelope, please promise me
Twisting the apple stem
You’ll change your name to ‘Angeline’
If ‘A’ is where the game ends
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5. |
A Wink And Curtsy
05:15
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When you gingerly took my hand
I might just have fainted
But until we’re more than friends
I’ll act calm and collected
“Will I see you again?”
“Well, that all just depends…
…A bow and handshake’s a start
But they won’t win my heart or my kisses
You’ve got to dally in kind
And learn how to live with near misses”
But how can I make eyes at you
When we’ve just been acquainted?
And you wink at all boys in the room
Or do you just feign it?
“I simply won’t contend
With your coterie of men…
…A wink and curtsy’s a start
But they won’t win my heart or my kisses
I’m not the dallying kind
And I think I’d prefer our near misses”
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6. |
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Funny girl with the yellow tresses
Who used to wear those sky blue dresses
Her love was unrequited
But she couldn’t hide it
She gave her heart to her brother’s friend
Who had a crush on Truffles
And then came Lydia
No Valentines sent
If you’re asking how Sally Brown’s
My favorite kid in town
Her point of view is strangely true
To the world I’ve found
Funny girl made a new playmate
In the cool brick school she used to hate
She must have been quite troubled
When she heard it crumbled
A Christmas story on Santa Claus
Is so beloved for all its flaws
Like Santa wearing slickers
And rain gear in winter
If you’re asking why I so prize
Sally Brown’s life
Her point of view is poignant too
It’s a sad ‘good-bye’
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7. |
Me In Your Past Tense
03:14
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Have you noticed the ways
Our history slowly fades?
The water in the fountain’s dim
And it’s not from the shade
But I still hear the sounds
When we danced upon this ground
So I stretch out and think about
The love we’d once found
Then you resolve
To leave no doubt:
“Investing in a pretty girl’s whim
It never pays out”
If we’ve reached that stage
Where the past tense applies to me
Please don’t dispense the present tense
To the first boy you meet
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8. |
Beside The Meadowgrass
01:00
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9. |
Winter, 1988
04:18
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On the first balmy winter’s eve
You cast a snowball and your mitten came free
And like a stray brick beside the road
It disappeared inside the snow
On the first frosted winter’s day
Our clothes wore heavy as we went out to play
The sled glides faster but you fancy the sound
Of a saucer trolled across the ground
And our great Decembers that I remember
Renewed the crush that grew within us
But those sad, sad winters that I remember
Dashed all the love and sapped all the trust
On the last frozen winter’s night
Your measured phrases seemed less polite
Than if you were unequivocal:
“It was a sad, sad winter, after all”
And our great Decembers that I remember
Renewed the crush that grew within us
But those sad, sad winters that I remember
Dashed all the love and sapped all the trust
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10. |
A Girl's Last Daydream
02:45
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Sometimes she strays to hillsides
To seclude from all the grown boys
And onto the meadow grass
She lies beside a well-worn path
It’s a perfect ending
To a girl’s last daydream
And all the restless boys felt
This was just a staged rehearsal
But all the joy at the margin
Must yield to the sadness within
It’s a perfect ending
To a girl’s last daydream
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11. |
Promising Young Actress
04:01
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Smiling through her last rendition
As Othello’s ever faithful, fated wife
She’d always learned the best way to exit
Was, for an actress, to die on the stage
When playing in the greatest tragedy
And as her lover hovers over her
The tears are real and so is the embrace
The audience could scarcely tell the difference
Until they read she was dead
On the front morning page:
‘Promising Young Actress Dies On Stage’
No legacy or resume equates
With an actress who dies from the stage
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Motion Picture Minneapolis, Minnesota
Formed in 1992, the plaintive and contemplative songs of Minneapolis' Motion Picture calls to mind the lush fragility of Belle & Sebastian, the lovelorn lyricism of Trembling Blue Stars, and the sophisticated melodic stamp of early Felt. The heart-wrenching music merges guitar and cello melodies into arrangements that are at once idyllic in essence and elaborate in structure. ... more
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