Rosanne Cash - The River & The Thread Album Lyrics

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A Feather's Not A Bird

(Verse)
I'm going down to Florence, gonna wear a pretty dress
I'll sit on top the magic wall with the voices in my head
Then we'll drive on through to Memphis, past the strongest shores
And on to Arkansas just to touch the crumbled soul

(Chorus)
A feather's not a bird
The rain is not the sea
A stone is not a mountain
But a river runs through me

(Verse)
It's never any highway when you're looking for the blast
The land becomes a memory and it happens way too fast
Yea the moneys' home in Nashville, locked inside my gift
So I'm going down to Florence just to learn to love a friend

(Chorus)
A feather's not a bird
The rain is not the sea
A stone is not a mountain
But a river runs through me

(Verse)
I've burned up 7 lives and I've used up all my charms
I took the long way home just to end up in your arms
That's why I'm going down to Florence, now I got my pretty dress
(Going down to Florence, got a pretty dress)
I'm gonna let the magic wall put the voices in my head

(Chorus)
A feather's not a bird
The rain is not the sea
A stone is not a mountain
But a river runs through me

A feather's not a bird
The rain is not the sea
A stone is not a mountain

(Chorus)
A feather's not a bird
The rain is not the sea
A stone is not a mountain
But a river runs through me

 

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The Sunken Lands

Five cans of paint in the empty fields
The dust reveals

The children cry, the work never ends
There's not a single friend

Who will hold her hand in the sunken lands?

The mud and tears melt the cotton balls
It's a heavy toll
Oh oh

His words are cruel and they sting like fire
Like the devil's choir
Oh oh

But who will hold her hand in the sunken lands?

The river rises and she sails away
But she could never stay
Oh oh

Now her work is done in the sunken lands
There's five empty cans

 

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Etta's Tune

(Verse)
What's the temperature darling? 100 and more
The horses pawing out the dust, but it's Wilton by the door
But you pour your strongest coffee and I'll take back of the wheel
We'll drive straight down the river road, spread a blanket on the hill

(Verse)
What's the temperature darling? I don't stare into the past
There was nothing that we could change or fix, it was never gonna last
Now don't stare into those photos, don't memorize my eyes
We're just a mile or two from Memphis in the rhythm of our minds

(Chorus)
A mile or two from Memphis
And I must go away
I tore up all the highways
Now there's nothing left to say
A mile or two from Memphis
And I finally made it home

(Verse)
There were days you paced the kitchen, there were nights that felt like jail
When the phone rang in the dead of night you'd always throw my veil
No, you never touched the whiskey and you never took the pills
I travelled for a million miles while you were standing still

(Verse)
What's the temperature darling as the daylight fades way?
I'll make one last rehearsal with one foot in the grave
We kept the house on all the corners, we kept the polished bass guitar
We kept the tickets and the wheels of tape to remember who we are

(Chorus)
A mile or two from Memphis
And I must go away
I tore up all the highways
There's nothing left to say
A mile or two from Memphis
And I finally made it home

What's the temperature darling?

 

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Modern Blue

(Verse)
I went to Barcelona on the midnight train
I walked the streets of Paris in the pouring rain
I flew across and island in the Northern Sea
And I ended up in Memphis, Tennessee

(Chorus)
I keep my head down, I keep my eyes on you
It's a big wide world with a million shades of modern blue

(Verse)
Everybody round here runs too fast
And it feels so good but it's never gonna last
Everything I have for us what I knew
But I don't have nothing if I don't have you

(Chorus)
I keep my head down, I keep my eyes on you
It's a big wide world with a million shades of modern blue

(Verse)
Will you still be there when I round the curve?
Will you hold my hand when I lose my nerve?
Oh I went to Barcelona and my mind got changed
So I'm heading back to Memphis on the midnight train

(Chorus)
I keep my head down, I keep my eyes on you
It's a big wide world
I keep my head down, I keep my eyes on you
I keep my head down, I keep my eyes on you
It's a big wide world with a million shades of modern blue

 

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Tell Heaven

When you're like a broken bird tell heaven
Battered wings against the dark and day
When your worries won't let you sleep tell heaven
When the tears won't ever go away

If you got no one to love tell heaven
There's no one on the telephone today
When every story falls apart tell heaven
Nothing good seems like it will come your way

Tell heaven
Tell heaven

Heavy hearts in empty rooms, tell heaven
You don't have to know what you will say
The empty sky will never take our burdens
Something good will someday come our way

So tell heaven
Tell heaven

 

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The Long Way Home

(Verse)
Dark highways and the country roads
Don't scare you like they did
The woods and winds, they'll welcome you
To the places you once hid

(Verse)
You grew up and you moved away
Across a foreign see
And what was left was what was kept
That's what you gave to me

(Chorus)
You thought you left it all behind
You thought you'd up and gone
When all you did was figure out
How to take the long way home

(Verse)
The southern rain was heavy
Almost heavy as your heart
A cavalcade of strangers came
To tear your world apart

(Verse)
The bells of old Saint Mary's
And now the cling of charcoal hill
And you took the old religion folk
I won't be home again

(Chorus x2)
You thought you left it all behind
You thought you'd up and gone
When all you did was figure out
How to take the long way home

The long way home…

 

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World Of Strange Design

(Verse)
Well you're not from around here
You're probably not our kind
It's hot from March to Christmas
And other things you'll find

(Verse)
Won't fit your old ideas
Their line is shifting sands,
You walk across a ghostly bridge
To a crumbling promise land

(Chorus)
If Jesus came from Mississippi
If tears began to rise
I guess I'll start at the beginning
The world of strange design

(Verse)
Well I'd like to have the ocean
But I'd settle for the rain
Humbly as for true love
There was such a price to pay

(Verse)
This room was filled with trouble
And sacraments deceived
And I'm with you, we're in the shade
Of his weeping willow tree

(Chorus)
If Jesus came from Mississippi
If tears began to rise
I'll have to go back to the beginning
In this world of strange design

(Verse)
We talk about your drinking
But not about your thirst
You set off through the mine field
Like you were round in first

(Verse)
So open up their window
And hand the baby through
Point up towards the ghostly bridge
And she'll know what to do

(Chorus)
If Jesus came from Mississippi
If tears began to rise
They'll have to go back to the beginning
In this world of strange design

 

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Night School

(Verse)
Morbid like a mystery town
Water, heat and moon
Steam under magnolia trees
Never-ending roads

(Verse)
What happened to that other life?
We thought we lived we too
We travelled like spies in paradise
The time, it felt so true

(Chorus)
In night school
In night school

(Verse)
What about this big old house?
Tell me all the news
What's became of all those years?
Whatever will we do?

(Verse)
I'm hoping there's a mystery town
Water, heat and moon
And steam lines over battle fields
And all I see is you

(Chorus)
In night school
In night school

(Verse)
The hungry ghosts still tap the walls
Where once there was a door
I've given everything to them
Still they wanted more

(Verse)
Steam lines on the window panes
We acted like such fools
But like in everything to be
Lying in mystery

(Chorus)
In night school
In night school

 

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50,000 Watts

(Verse)
It's a hard road but it fits your shoes
Son of rhythm, brother of the blues
The sound of darkness, the pull of the oak
Everything is broken and painted in smoke

(Pre-Chorus)
But there's a light on Sunday, a new design
The sound of the whistle, those radio wires
Love in your future, I'll wait for you there
Put 50000 watts of a common prayer

(Chorus)
50000 watts of common prayer
50000 watts of common prayer

(Verse)
To be who we are and not who we were
A sister to him, a brother to her
We'll live like kings without any sin
Redemption will come, just tune it all in

(Pre-Chorus)
But there's a light on Sunday, a new design
The sound of the whistle, those radio wires
Love in your future, I'll wait for you there
Put 50000 watts of a common prayer

(Chorus)
50000 watts of common prayer
50000 watts of common prayer

My common prayer
Your common prayer
50000 watts of common prayer

 

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When The Master Calls The Roll

(Verse)
Girl with hair of flaming red
Seeking perfect lover
For to lie down on her feather bed
Soul secrets to uncover

(Verse)
Must be gentile, must be strong
With disposition sunny
Just as faithful as the day is long
And careful with his money

(Verse)
And so the open letter read
The news boy did deliver
Three months later plans were made to wed
Down by the King James river

(Chorus 1)
Know the season may come
Know the season may go
When love is joined together
With whoever be made whole
When the master calls the roll

(Verse)
Oh my darling will you leave?
Take me to the altar
I don't have strength to watch you as you leave
But my love will never fault her

(Verse)
Oh my darling Marry Anne
The march to war is calling
Somewhere far across these southern lands
The bands of brothers falling

(Verse)
My tender bride, the tides demand
That I leave you with your mother
With my father's riffle in one hand
Your locket in the other

(Chorus 2)
Know the season may come
Know the season may go
Beware the storm clouds gather
Take heat in warm of soul
When the master calls the roll

(Verse)
But can this union be preserved?
The soldier boy was crying
I will never travel back to her
But not for lack of trying

(Verse)
It's a love of one true heart at last
That made the boy a hero
But a riffle ball and a cannon blast
Cut him down to zero

(Verse)
Oh Virginia once I came
I'll see you when I'm younger
And I'll know you by your hills again
This town from 6 feet under

(Chorus 3)
Know the season may come
Know the season may go
A man is torn asunder
But someday we may know
When the master calls the roll

(Verse)
Though the storm clouds gather
Let the union be made whole
When the master calls the roll

 

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Money Road

I was dreaming about the town of Hutchy bridge
A thousand miles from where we live
But the long mine at the pearly gate
The keepers of our fate
None of them will congregate
Out on money road

A lonesome boy in a foreign land
Out on money road
And a voice we'll never understand
Out on money road

One lies in the Zion yard
And one sleeps on the river bar
Neither one got very far
Out on money road
Out on money road

I was dreaming about the deepest blue
But what you seek is seeking you
You can cross the bridge and carve your name
But the river stays the same

We left but never went away
Out on money road
Out on money road
Out on money road
Out on money road