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Straight Line Lyrics

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Bicycle
Straight Line
Beating Heart
Main Street
Fishing
Graceful One
Water Moves Me
Secret Rebellion
Special Girl
Something to Believe



Bicycle

words and music by Katherine Wheatley

Sometimes I think I've forgotten how to ride a bicycle
I see the young girls pulling wheelies and tight corners
I used to pull wheelies myself a long time ago
I used to ride double with Jani
Triple with Lee on the handle bars
Lee's 28 now, she wants to play baseball
First, she's got to lose 20 pounds

Sometimes I think I've forgotten how to ride a bicycle
We used to put envelopes between the spokes
Rev' it up just like a motorcycle

Jani and I are going to find her old green bicycle
With a seat like a banana and hiked up handles
We'll cycle straight down to the shore
Then we'll ride double on top of the water
Over the waves and the diamonds
Because Jani and I can do anything we want

Sometimes I think I've forgotten how to run as fast as I can
It's been 15 years since I've run between lamp posts
15 years since I played tag
I used to run on the rocky shore
With no fear to make me fall
Believing if you give me a rocky shore
I could run faster than anyone at all

I dream that I'm running on the rocky shore
I've got no chains to slow me down
No fear to make me fall
I dream that I'm running as fast as I can
From boulder to boulder
I can jump over anything I want




Straight Line

words Katherine Wheatley & Liisa Kyl-Heku
music Katherine Wheatley


Looking out of my window
Leaning hard on a cigarette
I've got something I want to forget
My eyes cross the line of the railroad

I dream that I'm running along the railway line
I am all that's between what's ahead and behind me
I feel like the sleeper laid down for the first time

If I could walk forever
I would walk until my thoughts are through
But I hear my duties calling
I feel the ties beneath my city shoes

I stand at an empty station
Waiting for the late night train
The dreamers in the town wake up just a bit
But the 3:29 won't be back again

Fools get crushed by what they do not dare
Pay your dues, pay the devil
Play the game, pray to god
I always thought that a straight line would get me there

There's no better lullabye
Than the rhythm of the wheel against the rail
On time every night without fail
We'd count on that train
Just as sure as I'm standing here…




Beating Heart

words and music by Katherine Wheatley

I'm looking at my feet
You're looking at yours
Funny that we're so shy after all these years
Turning red
Trying not to cry
There are no words exchanged between us
Wondering what it is about each other we still fear

I know that you know
By looking in your eyes
I can tell
You know that I know
By looking in my eyes
You can tell
We both know
We've got to part
Don't say anything
I want to hear
Your beating heart

Maybe it's better if we don't try to explain
Maybe we're better left feeling so close
In this silence space
One last memory of the intimacy we share
Knowing that we've got to part
Knowing that we've got to find
A better way




Main Street

words and music by Katherine Wheatley

The cool kids at the corner
Spit at cop cars and green hornets
Sit on things they're not supposed to
And they show off their tattoos

The new girl at the drug store
Brings back coffees from the Three Star
Cool kids whistle at her leotards
And her spongy white shoes

Down on Main Street
There are lots of things going on
It's getting so busy that
They're talking about making this
A two stop light town
Down on Main Street

The fountain's got four drinking holes
One for the tall, one for the short
One for the dog, one for the horse
They're all plugged up with gum of course

The firefighters know what to do
When the fat lady's stuck in the phone booth
Put a cop at the corner to keep the crowd back
They shout and they pull
And they get to use the brand new jack

You can tell a mile away
The tourists from the USA
Great big cars taking all the space
Got the skis on the roof and it's 98

Just outside of Bargain Barts
The kids are trading hockey cards
Chewing bubble gum that's pink and hard
Saying "Got 'im, got 'im, need 'im, got 'im
I'll give you 5 Maple Leafs for 1 Bobby Orr"




Fishing

words and music by Katherine Wheatley

Old steel thermos of sweet hot tea
A thin plastic cup passed between you and me
Burning lips, warming fingertips
Two small souls on the big blue sea
Our hearts are warm as our hands are cold
We built this boat with pictures you sold
As we wait we listen to the slow wind
The fish wait too

Drops glisten on the line
Like the morning dew

Some learn patience from tales they've been told
Some learn patience from growing old
I learn my patience from fish in the sea
And the miles and miles ahead of me

The streets of heaven are paved with gold
I don't care, I prefer a dusty road
A one lung engine and two long oars
Keeping me off of this rocky shore

A tug on the line
Could be weeds, maybe a keeper
A hook that won't let go
An anchor to the distant shore
The end of the line
May be seeds, maybe a sleeper
The hardest row to hoe
Is the slowest row to grow
The toughest line to tow
Is the straightest line I know




Graceful One

words by Katherine Wheatley & Gaye Facer
music by Katherine Wheatley


I'll dance around you in the morning mist
And tantalize you with a lover's kiss
But look out man, it won't last that long
In the morning light I'll be gone

Why don't you just take a photograph
Get me to sign my name on the back
Before the warmth of the morning sun
Lights me up, spins me around
Breaks me down and drives me away

Hey, it's just no use you know
I'll have to turn you loose tomorrow
And be warned from the start
I'll take your heart

I've heard you're still a good man
Steady and warm as the sun
Do you still remember me
I'm the graceful one




Water Moves Me

words and music by Katherine Wheatley

There's a place where I go
Nobody but me will ever know
There's a tree there that lends its' bough
That's where I hang out

There's a river running fast
Rivers make me cry
Rain and snow and rivers and the ocean
Water always moves me

There the water's running down
That's just about my favourite sound
There's a raft that never broke free
Guess it's hanging on just like me

There's a place where I grew up
Guess that's why I like the water so much
There's a rock there that I dive from
You know I like to take the plunge

Some people prefer air
Some people prefer fire
Some people prefer earth for their identity
But water moves me




Secret Rebellion

words by Chris Wheatley; music by Katherine Wheatley

I got my first job when I was 16
Boss introduced me to the machine
For the next 20 years work did consist
Of a twist, only one twist of the wrist

Then my job disappeared
I was never let go
I walk around, my eyes on the ground
Hoping no one would notice

I talk of movies
State of the art
But a secret rebellion
Has captured my heart

I'm swelling up inside
With the emptiness I hide
I'm the eye of a hurricane
I want to die and be born again

There are papers and wires and invisible waves
Telling you what to do and how to behave
Why do you judge yourself by the things you lack
When they take away way more dreams
Then you can buy back

I put in my time
I feel like a food
I don't speak out of line
I never break any rules

You'd never believe this
Unless it happened to you
I heart ancient voices
They come at me out of the blue
I walk around every day
Feeling something's not right

I have the same god damn dream
Almost every night

I'm at the edge of a carnival
Where I squandered my earnings
Across an open field
I can see my house burning




Special Girl

words by Melanie Lovell & Katherine Wheatley
music by Katherine Wheatley


I have known you around a thousand years
Funny how we always knew
I see your gentle smile
That I love so well
Nobody knows me like you do

I feel like a special girl
When you hold my hand
It sends me around the moon
And back again, and back again

I have known you since I was just a child
I could see you smiling at me
Through my father's eyes
You push back my hair
And point towards the sun
You're watching me
So you can see my joy
You can see my love




Something to Believe

words and music by Katherine Wheatley

You can't find yourself these days
You try, you ask "where am I?"
As if by asking that simple question
A door will open and you'll be there hiding
Just a small ball, curled up
You'll be there hiding

You are unhappy with where you are
But you could be anywhere
You don't like my company
But I could be anyone
It seems you're impatient
With the what, who, where, when and
Why do you do nothing?
"Nothing's wrong" you say
"No one died
The only thing wrong is nothing
And the nothing ain't right"

You are too tired to believe
Too tired to hope
Too tired to love
Too tired to take love
Too tired to fake love

You're drifting high like a seagull lost in the desert
You're like a fish that's been tossed from the sea
You're so dry I have cried you a river
If you find that river will you take it back to me

I recall a happier man
He was smiling holding his best girl's hand
Surely you can find something to believe
There were days when you laughed and you cared
And when you were with me
You were really with me.





All songs (c) 1995 The Hoot Music Company (SOCAN)
All songs published by The Hoot Music Company