Ben Harper - Call It What It Is Album Lyrics

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When Sex Was Dirty

To all the sons and daughters
Of the boulevard
Who learned to go without sleep
And to hide all the scars
Who believed in the vagrant
On Hollywood and vine
When he said a mile of gold
Won't buy you an inch of time

We made everything we have
Out of nothing at all
Way back when marijuana
Was against the law
We were always outnumbered
We were always outmanned
Went down a road of ruin
But here we stand

I remember when sex was dirty
And the air was clean
And everything worth knowing
Was in a magazine

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Deeper And Deeper

Deeper and deeper until I drown
Hard going under without a sound
I try to run but you hold me down
Deeper and deeper until I drown

Longing is a ghost
When the one you love the most
No longer has you on their mind

Deeper and deeper until I drown
Hard going under without a sound
I try to run but you hold me down
Deeper and deeper until I drown

Hell or high water
And hold on tight
And if you're not mine
I'll wait all night

The branches are black
And the tree stands bare
Haunted by the bloom
That's no longer there
Clinging to the ground
To grow another ring around

Deeper and deeper until I drown
So hard going under without a sound
I try to run but you hold me down
You've got me deeper and deeper until I drown

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Call It What It Is

They shot him in the back
Now it's a crime to be black
So don't act surprised
When it gets vandalized

Call it what it is
Call it what it is
Call it
what it is
Murder

There's good cops
Bad cops
White cops
Black cops

Call it what it is
Call it what it is
Call it
what it is
Murder

Trevon Martin
Ezel Ford
Michael Brown
And so many many more

But call it what it is
Call it what it is
Call it
what it is
Murder

Government, ain't easy
policing, ain't easy
hard times, ain't easy
Oppression, ain't easy
racism, ain't easy
fear, ain't easy
suffering, ain't easy

But call it what it is
Call it what it is
Call it
what it is
Murder

Gun control
Mind control
Self-control
We've dug ourselves a hole

But call it what it is
Call it what it is
Call it
what it is
Murder

Call it what it is
Call it what it is
Call it
what it is
Murder

Call it what it is
Call it what it is
Call it
what it is

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How Dark Is Gone

Aren't you glad you can still feel pain
Aren't you glad you still feel anything
Aren't you glad you can still complain
Aren't you glad you're still the same
Make you run through life when you could walk
Make you scream when you wanted to talk

Would you rather wave a flag
Or wave goodbye
Would you rather flood your heart
Or dare let them see you cry
Rather fight a war or live in fear
Aren't you glad to be here

You can't know till you do
By then lesser thieves have spoken for you
With their quiet demands
In a whispered hush
You may have to lie
When the truth hurts too much

As life traces the lines in our faces
I won't look away
Some die too young
Some live too long
How dark is gone

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Shine

We shine like a new tattoo
Scarred on skin bright as day
Across my heart
There is no other way

Give me tomorrow
And I'll give you today
In the end
There is no other way

We are like two roads
That lead to the same place
Won't leave a trace
There is no other way

If you were all I had
I would have it all

Soul to soul we roam
Aimlessly astray
That's over now
There is no other way

Some days will be lost
We run out of words to say
We both know
There is no other way

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All That Has Grown

After the storm
And the lightning fires
And the last bird
Has flown from the wire
After the rain
The wind dries us cold
After the storm
Just you and me growing old

After the storm
And the skies are blue
After everything
We put each other through
The dust and the mud
Have become stone
After the storm
Just you and me on our own

Our choices and our words
Like that bird have flown
After the storm
Look at all that has grown

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Pink Balloon

She walks around
With a pink balloon
And if you try to take it from her
Your end will come too soon

She dreams about
Her pink balloon
Carrying her higher and higher
Up to the moon

She ties it to her waist
She ties it to her wrist
And if you're lucky she might let it go for you
And make a wish

First thing she wakes up
Pours herself a cup
Before she's out the door
She stops to blow it up
Sometimes she carries it high
Sometimes she carries it low
People point at her
And say there she goes

She don't worry about danger
She don't worry about doom
And she don't give a damn what you think
About her pink balloon

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Finding Our Way

Damn all the judges who once thought they knew
Those free of grudges I fear are too few
And less still is many and some far too much
Limping along on a gold plated crutch

How does one listen when deafened by you
How does one wisen in the absence of truth
How does on strengthen in the age of the meek
When the dams and the walls that you build
Start to leak

Let every moment be filled with grace
Don't let tomorrow just be another day
We've come too far to suffering fools
And we're much too young for these old rules

God knows what's in your heart
So you can stay home from church
Who will survive the end of the world

We have a way of finding our way home

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Bones

When the writing's on the wall you better read it
Make your bones
When the moment comes around you gotta
Seize it
Take your bones
Pain comes do your best to ease it
Throw your bones

A hundred people got a hundred problems
In their bones
Hard not to feel like the odd one in my bones

Every now and then I get so tired
I rest my bones
Sitting alone with my desires
In my bones

A hundred people got a hundred problems
Making bones
Hard not to feel like the odd one in my bones

I get to pick my poison
You get to pick your poison
I get to pick my poison
And I pick you

When the writing's on the wall best get reading
Make your bones
Sometimes it's hard to know just what you're
Needing
To make your bones
Go thank your mom and dad for breeding
They made your bones

A hundred people got a hundred problems
In their bones
Hard not to feel like the odd one in my bones

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Dance Like Fire

It takes four men to carry a coffin
But just one to carry across
Takes a lifetime to find yourself
A split second to be lost

The real revolutionary
Won't hide in his home
The real prophet
Dies poor and alone

If we could dance like fire
We'd never get burned

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Goodbye To You

I wake up feeling like i've aged a year
'cause I go to sleep in fear of the dawn
Head full of dreams unclear
Make the days seem twice as long

After all we've been through
I don't know how to say goodbye to you

Passed by where we used to go
Where I now go alone
Everything we had to brave
I'm left here to face on my own

Maybe tomorrow I can start anew
I don't know how to say goodbye to you

Shattered and chained to our past
Battered and too proud to ask
Walked a razor's edge poisoned by degrees
Create each other's voids fill each other's needs

My options are plenty
But my choices are few
I don't know how to say goodbye to you