Lyrics – A Good Bad Road

Saw you down on that dusty road
With hair all tangled and free
You just turned and gave me a greasy smile
On your way down to Tennessee

Oh oh oh oh oh oh
It don’t take a village
To get you what you need

Red moon over smoky sky
Makes it hard to see
But you’ve got an edge on that rocky ledge
Where you know misfortune be

Oh oh oh oh oh oh
You can pay for all of Virginia
But these dogs will howl for free

You can pay for all of Virginia
But this dog will howl for free

I’m thinking about ragged jeans and coyote dreams
Out in the weeds where livin’ is free
I think I’ll buy an old truck and with a little luck
I’ll find a little edge for me

Oh oh oh oh oh oh
If you pave over Virginia
These dogs will go to Tennessee

If you pave over Virginia
This dog will go to Tennessee

© 2003 Randy Riviere

Born in good grass and fields of stone
To me and the javelina this is our home
Where the air is blue and the sky is high
You can take a long walk and never say goodbye

Chorus

You won’t see me on your holiday
I’m out here in this silver sage alone
And all there is between us my friend
Is a good bad road

Raised on waves of sun unkind
Had to grow thorns just to survive
Where the sand can blow like a driving snow
I’ve never heard a sound that I don’t know

Hear the thunder
And I wonder
If I’m gonna make it home

Grown old on time I used for free
And giving back something is all right by me
Where the wind and raven touch the ground
There’s a place not needing another town

© 2003 Randy Riviere

Little bird sitting on the window sill
In that hard north wind there’s a bitter chill
You were fledged young and now out on your own
Has the air gotten colder now that you’re grown?

Hey hey, you’re out on your way
Can’t keep this world from turning
You’d better get down south today

There’s a ribbon of highway on the edge of town
Where you can hear the engines whining and see the wheels roll around
And inside there’s only concrete and buildings so tall
They keep the sun from shining and the trees don’t grow at all

Hey hey, you’re out on your way
Can’t keep this world from turning
You’d better get down south today

Chorus

Trouble’s not something you want
Trouble’s not something you need
No one gave you nothing to start
No one gives you nothing for free

Little bird you got away
From that iron hand of winter and all the crows that came your way
Outside there’s fields that grow
Seeds of truth and timber to stop the winter when it blows

Hey hey, you’re out on your way
Can’t keep this world from turning
You’d better get down south today

© 2003 Randy Riviere

I’m standing on top of the world
I’m standing on top of the world

I worked all day and schemed all night
Gotta get their ground just to get it all right
Have an ocean of cars to get through too
I’d have a notion for Mars if it would pencil out too

I’m standing on top of the world
I’m standing on top of the world

Chorus

Now I’m headed out through Needles
To light the desert night

I’m standing on top of the world
I’m standing on top of the world

If we build the supply we’ll create the need
And it will trickle on down to you and me
We’ll butter our bread while we make them go lean
My American dream is red, white, blue and green

I’m standing on top of the world
I’m standing on top of the world

A river runs wild if you let it go free
And if you take it all then there’s none for me
But the grass is green and the blades are long
And I aint feeling all right because it’s all gone wrong

I’m standing on top of the world
I’m standing on top of the world

© 2002 Randy Riviere

Little eyes see
When it is that I go
Little eyes need
What it is that I know

Chorus

I’m tired of all the running
What I need I can’t get with their money
I’ve got to find some time

A ranger walks the line
From the anger of his time
The crusader looks ahead
For what it was he left behind

The wind took down our oak
Up on the hill the other day
I tried to count the rings
But got lost along the way

© 2003 Randy Riviere

Faces that you’ll never know
Places that you’ll never go
A stranger is standing in the morning haze
Is he coming to end your days?

Chorus

In Idaho … where the tired old warrior sleeps
In Idaho … with his anger down at his feet
In Idaho … through these snows he’s marched in time
In Idaho … it’s how he feels about human kind

The children are playing in the city square
And tomorrow will be only theirs
Yesterday’s glory is barely known
But now it’s all you own

I don’t want to talk about it
Don’t even want to think about it
And I don’t ever want to die

I can regain that feeling
My arms, legs and hands are tingling
If I could only tell you why

I’ve given my blood for leaving
But only my heart is bleeding
Does it really hurt to say goodbye?

© 2003 Randy Riviere

Seventy five miles from my prairie home
Where I packed up one winter and left alone
Her eyes were tender as the morning sun
One look and I knew that she was the one

Chorus

Time has got to get along
And it won’t make way for the weak or the strong
But I still miss my prairie home…its home…its home

Mother’s coffee and a fresh made bed
The sound of the chickens from the corner shed
But father’s plow had turned to rust
‘Cause his father’s ground had turned to dust

© 2001 Randy Riviere

It’s good to see you my old friend
They’re waiting at the gates out front again
What they’re after I don’t know?
This is just Camp Disappointment

We left smoke in the valley at Rimrock Bend
We took blood on that prairie in a driving wind
What can I tell them to make them know?
This is just Camp Disappointment

We polled up that river to an open land
To watch them fill it up with their hopes of man
What can I say to make them understand?
This is just Camp Disappointment

It’s good to see you my old friend
But those days gone by can’t come again
What can I tell you that you don’t know?
This is just Camp Disappointment

© 2001 Randy Riviere

We came the way our mothers came
And we’ve run from the son’s of the older ones
We see what’s been seen by those shackled & free

We dream like our fathers dreamed
And we make with our hands tools
To move the sea and the sand
Like a gun in their hands

Our children run on roads undone
That were carved from hills that went to the sun
When you blow them away
It makes it harder to stay

Silver cars and fancy bars
You can get blinded by the light in the darkest night
We can drive to the Keys
And be there by three

In the pounding rain the levee holds
‘Cause it’s built from the blood of our young & old
Put a stone in for me
And I want it for free

Sell it high and buy it low
Melt all your gold just to watch it flow
It’ll flow & flow
So you can grow & grow

We dream like our fathers dreamed
And we make with our hands tools
To move the sea & the sand
Just like a gun in their hands

© 2001 Randy Riviere

Trouble down the road at Sante Fe
Trouble up the coast at Redwood Bay
There’s a fire on the ridge and we better run
They’ve got a big hunger and it’s just for fun
Trouble down the road at Sante Fe

Chorus

I’ve got a hold of a live wire

I’ve gotta pretty girl and she knows just what to do
I’ve gotta pretty girl and she knows just what to do
When the lights go out we get amused
As the world goes by outside our view
I’ve gotta pretty girl and she knows just what to do

Met the devil on the banks of the Rio Grande
Met the devil on the banks of the Rio Grande
I tried to speak but was unaware
I tried to sing but it wasn’t there
Met the devil on the banks of the Rio Grande

© 2002 Randy Riviere

The scene was a land
Where the sun gave life to man
And love was their need
But they came in from the sea

Chorus

For thirteen strips of iron
They’d throw you down
In that hell hold

For six thousand miles
In a five by five
In that hell hold

If you want day light
You’d get it over the side
From that hell hold

Seeds only grow
In the ground where they are sowed
They need warmth from the sky
And the care of a watchful eye

Greed only knows
What it is that will make you grow
You’re free from day to day
Since you know that there’s a better way

© 2003 Randy Riviere