Too Many Words

Chorus:
Perfect is the enemy
Perfect is the enemy
Perfect is the enemy of good
If I could make it better don’t you think I would
If I say it’s not good enough, I hope it’s understood
Perfect is the enemy of good

Verse 2:
Our partnership was based on love and trust and fun
But I was undecided, would she ever be the one
Was she what I wanted, was she a perfect fit
A goddess with golden hair and unrivalled wit
A libertine, a temptress, that lovely girl next door
I let her go, so I’d be free for whatever was in store
Learned a lot about loneliness, more than I really should
Perfect is the enemy of good

Bridge:
Nothing’s ever finished
Nothing’s ever done
Always trying, waiting
While the race is being run
Perfect is my enemy
It keeps me playing small
For all that I’ve attempted
There’s not much to show at all

Verse 3:
The novel I was writing spoke of sadness and regret
For a love I’d lost so long ago that I still can’t forget
With this song I’m hoping for some closure on my past
I’m trying hard – I hope I can redeem myself at last
You’ll probably never hear this song – it won’t pass the test
That just allows perfection – I give up on all the rest
But who knows maybe this time I’ll cut myself a break
And sing this song with all it’s flaws – it’s a chance that I should take
Not perfect but maybe the very best I could
Perfect is the enemy of good

Chorus:
Perfect is the enemy
Perfect is the enemy
Perfect is the enemy of good
If I could make it better don’t you think I would
If I say it’s not good enough, I hope it’s understood
Perfect is the enemy of good
Perfect is the enemy of good

Verse 1:
We started talking about nothing at all
we shared a bit of something and I started to fall
A little bit in love I guess I answered a call
Made her more than a friend

So we got married in a rush of youth
Feeling so free, playing fast and loose
I always meant well you know that’s the truth
But I stuffed it up in the end

Chorus:
Wish I could say that I did my best
But it’s simply not true
I could have done a whole lot better
If I’d known what to do
I did as much as who I was at the time would allow
I’d like to think that whatever I did I did the best that I knew how

Verse 2:
We brought you home your mum and me
You entered our house turned two into three
So I went to work thought my job was to be
Bringing home big buckets of security

Who knew back then what a father should be
Who knew what a little boy or girl might need
I learned too late what I needed to see
More than anything you needed more of me.

Chorus:
Wish I could say that I did my best
But it’s simply not true
I could have done a whole lot better
If I’d known what to do
I did as much as who I was at the time would allow
I’d like to think that whatever I did I did the best that I knew how

Bridge:
That’s not to say that I didn’t try
That’s all I ever did and that’s no lie
If I didn’t live up to the standards I had
I never thought that I was doing all that bad
The only life I’ve known has been in my own skin
I’ve never been the man I wish I’d been

Chorus:
Wish I could say that I did my best
But it’s simply not true
I could have done a whole lot better
If I’d known what to do
I did as much as who I was at the time would allow
I’d like to think that whatever I did I did the best that I knew how

Chorus 1:
Too many words
Get in the way
Of all the clever things
I was planning to say
Too many words
I’m Over the top
I know what I’m doing
But can’t seem to stop

Verse 1:
I’ve been nervous thinking
About what I’d say tonight
I rehearsed a whole lot cuz
I wanted to get it right
I was looking here and there
Through all the words I knew
To find the words to tell you
How I feel about you

Chorus 2:
Too many words
Got in the way
Of whatever it was I thought
That I wanted say
The very most important things
Are hard to convey
That’s when too many words
Get in the way

Bridge:
Long as I remember it’s always been this way
No matter what I talk about I’ve got too much to say
All my songs are far too long
All my stories are long too
I rarely choose a single word when 5 or 10 will do.

Verse 2:
I stumbled over adjectives
Adverbs, nouns and verbs
All I heard myself say
was a jumbled mess of words
Felt i should Apologise
For what I’d put you through
Before I could you smiled and said
You already knew

Chorus 3:
I wasn’t sure
What it was I heard
I was still caught up in
my avalanche of words
I felt so alive like I could
Laugh and dance and sing
But I couldn’t manage
to say a single thing

Chorus 4:
You taught me a lot
‘bout talking since that day
I’ve learned that what you hear
Matters more than what I say
I still got a ways to go
Before I master brevity
But I’m getting better at telling you
what you mean to me
I took some time and thought about
All the words I could do without
One by one I cut them out
‘Til the only words left numbered three

Verse 1:
I’ve got a little bit of time on my hands
Quite unexpected not a part of my plans
But just the same I’ve got nothing to do today

It’s the kind of nothing that can fill all the space
That’s always been here surrounding this place
So full of busy that is constantly in my way

Chorus 1:
I could have started on a project or two
There were a million things that I could do
Instead I stumbled into something new… appreciation

Verse 2:
Look at the sky and there sits the moon
And wonder how it found its way back so soon
It’s like its hardly even been away

I always knew there were stars in the sky
Tiny holes in the curtain- they’re hard to deny
I didn’t notice – there was always something in the way

Chorus 2:
How could I have missed it, it was everywhere
I didn’t see didn’t let myself care
But something stopped me – i discovered something rare … appreciation

Bridge:
In these quiet moments i wonder what’s true
Exploring the magic of nothing to do
It seems to me when I let myself be
I might dicover something new .. appreciation

Verse 3:
I can’t explain how my life got this way
Why do i fill every moment every day
Life so very full there’s not enough room for me
When i finally saw the value of slow
The value of finally having nowhere to go
I got a glimpse of parts of life i could never see

Chorus 3:
Dont get me wrong i like the life that i’ve got
But it wouldn’t hurt in fact it might help a lot
If Once in a while i opened my eye to see .. appreciation

Outro:
I’ve got a little bit of time on my hands
Quite unexpected not a part of my plans
But just the same I’ve got nothing to do
Oh… I got nothing to do

I added “Freely Flowing” to the list of songs in my repetoire
Back in those days I was playing quite a lot
But time plays games I guess
Over time I was playing less and less
Until I couldn’t even recall what it was that I’d forgot

Chorus:
A blue book from my younger years
Full of hope and dreams and all my personal fears
There’s no music but the words still last
Becoming part of today from the deep past

Verse 2:
Going through old stuff I happened on my blue book
Full with memories of at least some of those days
There was that song
And than a little bit later on
His name and address were sitting right there on the page

Thought these days it might be possible to find Patrick
Can’t know what you can do unless you take a chance
But I’ll admit surprise
When the story that hit my eyes
Was about a rock and roll star in France

Chorus:
A blue book from my younger years
Full of hope and dreams and all my personal fears
There’s no music but the words still last
Becomming part of today from the deep past

Verse 3:
He was a faded star cuz just like me he was old now
I figured i’d send him a message and wait and see
I’d found my words
But I had lost his tune
Who knows, maybe he might remember me

Sad to say there really isn’t a happy ending
By the time I finally looked he had drifted so very far
Why your memory goes
I guess that nobody know
In May of 21 he finally put down his last guitar

Chorus:
A blue book from my younger years
Full of hope and dreams and all my personal fears
There’s no music but the words still last
Becomming part of today from the deep past

Verse 2:
Have you heard the words that make you feel so free.
And have you got the time to spend some time with me.

Chorus:
Freely flowing
Sing a song of the river moving on
Freely flowing
Wait a while and watch the river rushing right along
The river seems to know – you’re right where you belong

Verse 3:
You know now baby pretty soon your gunna see
The same river flowing through you is flowing through me

Verse 4:
I want to know you cuz you see we have to care
We gotta lotta love and we can learn to share.

Chorus:
Freely flowing
Sing a song of the river moving on
Freely flowing
Wait a while and watch the river rushing right along
The river seems to know – you’re right where you belong

Verse 5:
Sing your songs now baby sing your soul to me
Let’s sit beside the river cuz it flows so free

Verse 2:
The notes I played were nothing like
The melody in my dream
And the words came out as doggerel
If you know what I mean
This sort of thing happens all the time
When I get a song in my head
I tried to write that song for a while
Then I got back into bed

Chorus:
I need a collaborator
To help me do what I want to do
Someone to help fill in the puzzle
Make one and one equal more than two
I need a collaborator if I’m ever going to be great
And once I find a collaborator we can collaborate

Verse 3:
I’m not too proud to tell you I’m
Not the world’s most talented guy
I guess that’s just the way it is
No point in asking why
But maybe with the right kind of help
I could do more with the talent I’ve got
The right sort of partnership
Could take me straight to the top

Chorus:
I need a collaborator
To help me do what I want to do
Someone to help fill in the puzzle
Make one and one equal more than two
I need a collaborator if I’m ever going to be great
And once I find a collaborator we can collaborate

Bridge:
I can do a lot of things
But I can’t do it all
If I found me a number
I just might make a call
Maybe there’s somebody out there
Who could fill in the missing bit
and if they’re looking for someone
We just might be a perfect fit

Verse 4:
My whole life my tendency has been
to do everything on my own
That’s meant there’s a whole lot of things
that somehow never get done
No one really makes it alone
They get a little help on the way
Maybe if I find a collaborator
Everything will work out Ok

Chorus:
I need a collaborator
To help me do what I want to do
Someone to help fill in the puzzle
Make one and one equal more than two
I need a collaborator if I’m ever going to be great
And once I find a collaborator we can collaborate

Chorus:
I couldn’t have been more mistaken
I was travelling on a road I never should have taken
It’s my own damn fault that my heart is breaking
I’m never going to do it again

Verse 2:
Fake it ’till you make it, they said to me
Never pass up an opportunity
The point of the process is how much you can make
It’s a zero sum game a little give a lot of take
Get a lot of money then make a little more
After all it’s only a way of keepin’ score
Gonna find my happiness in wealth and fame
Going figure out the rules of the game

Chorus:
I couldn’t have been more mistaken
I was travelling on a road I never should have taken
I see what I did and my confidence is shaken
I’m never going to do it again

Bridge:
Mistakes are made
Life’s like that
But mostly we recover
We find our way back
But you never know
If one day or another
We’ll screw up so badly
We’ll never recover

Verse 4:
Uncovered this stuff, burned real good
Used it to power anything we could
It looked to be something that could satisfy
A hunger for power that would never run dry
All we had to do was drill and dig
Power would be cheap, profits would be big
We’d never have to worry about expenses
Cuz there’d never be any consequences

Chorus:
We couldn’t have been more mistaken
We’re travelling down a road we never should have taken
It’s our own damn fault that our world is breaking
We’re Never going to do it again

Chorus:
But it’s all right
It doesn’t matter
Been a long night
For the mad hatter

Verse 2:
Morning takes his head and hides it in the corner
But that can’t conceal the fact that he’s been heading for the border
So he takes a couple pills just to prove he’s not a purist
Puts a wig hat on his head so he looks just like a tourist

Chorus:
But it’s all right
It doesn’t matter
Been a long night
For the mad hatter

Verse 3:
Paradise is just a place he touches on the run
The loving and the living give him strength for moving on
The world’s out there waiting but it always strikes him funny
When he ends up in some hell hole and he’s just run out of money

Chorus:
But it’s all right
It doesn’t matter
Been a long night
For the mad hatter

Verse 4:
Can’t tell you bout his future, can’t tell you bout his past
Sometimes he says he’s happy and hopes that it’ll last
More often in the night in his hotel all alone
He wonders what he’s doing why he hasn’t got a home

Chorus:
But it’s all right
It doesn’t matter
Been a long night
For the mad hatter

Verse 2:
That was a lot of years ago I was only nine or ten
Pretty soon my own hormones decided to kick in
Boobs loomed large in those years, but I guess that’s no surprise
Testosterone had direct control over both my eyes.

Bridge 1:
Curiosity’s normal
But it’s kinda hard to hide
If you’re caught there is no way
It can ever be denied
So I pretend that I don’t notice
I don’t pay ’em any mind
I simply wear dark glasses
And act as if I’m blind

Verse 3:
As an adolescent boy I’m sure I had no choice at all
I remember Farah Fawcet in a swimsuit on my wall
She added a couple details that brightened up the joint
Everything was new to me but i still got the point

Verse 4:
But even while my hormones were distorting what was true
I learned that there were rules about what I could say or do
It seemed that staring at a woman’s breasts always annoys
And I should never talk about boobs except with other boys

Bridge 2:
I know they’re just a body part
Let me say in my defense
I recognise this obsession
Don’t make any kind ofsense
When I go to the beach, watch a movie
Or see anything on the tube
I get to see that it’s not just me
The whole wide world loves boobs

Verse 5:
These days I’m much older my reactions more sedate
I’ve seen so many breasts over so many years that their power is not so great
Still if I met young Annette simply out there on a stroll
My eyes might take a short detour – it’s not in my control

Outro
Trust me, it’s not intentional it’s simply out of my control

Verse 2:
22 is just a number it’s not even prime
But 22 years is a big part of my whole lifetime
Our love has grown deeper that I thought it could ever be
I’m not surprised but I’m astonished we reached our 22nd anniversary

Bridge:
Arbitrary numbers we use to measure our lives
Counting up then counting down until the final day arrives
22 is just a number and I think I’ll let it be
At least until the number finally reaches 23

Verse 3:
Now after 22 years I want to celebrate this day with you
Let’s re- read our vows and see which ones we’re living up to
I tell you how deep is my love and admiration for you
You’ll say as much and the magic is that I’ll believe it’s true

Outro
So let’s raise a glass to 22
A number, just a number, but it will have to do.
Somehow it says a whole lot, about me and you
And I’ll end this song with my favourite words “I love you”

Chorus
I think I’ve lost you again
As you drift ever further away
I’m shocked by the depth of the pain
I felt on that November day

Verse
I thought I’d finally moved on
The past was simply the past
The life I had then was all gone
But today life is moving so fast
I felt certain that I was quite free
You were hardly a part of my life
But the news was so shocking to me
It cut with the heat of a knife

Chorus
I guess I’ve lost you again
As you drift ever further away
I’m shocked by the depth of the pain
I felt on that November day.

Bridge
That early November no one could foresee it
I watched as you stumbled and couldn’t believe it
You gave all you had for something much stranger
You must have known something but ignored the danger

Verse
I always knew you had madness inside
But somehow you kept it in check
So it pains me to say that I cried and I cried
As I watched you lose all self respect
I fear for the people who live with you still
How can they know what to do
If it’s this hard for me I just can’t conceive
What they must be going through

Chorus
Now that I’ve lost you again
And you drift ever further away
I’m shocked by the depth of the pain
I felt on that November day

Verse 2:
Way back in the day
I thought I knew an awful lot
I guess I got away with it
At least i didn’t get caught
I was lucky, hanging by a thread
I lived to tell the tale, I didn’t end up dead
I suppose I became a man, you see
By surviving, my immortality

Chorus:
I lived through the never dying
Not for the lack of trying
But I got older and the time got short
Life got a hold on me
Years went by when I wasn’t looking
They got away from me
Then one day like it or not I lost
… My immortality

Verse 3:
It’s not what you remember
About me when I’m gone
It’s not about living
On and on and on and on
It’s the way I found myself living
It seemed there wasn’t any other way to be
If life was only going to be temporary
Why should I give up… my immortality

Chorus:
I lived through the never dying
Not for the lack of trying
But I got older and time got short
Life got a hold on me
Years went by when I wasn’t looking
They got away from me
And one day like it or not I lost
… My immortaliy

Verse 4:
Every year there are new immortals
Following in my wake
I watch take some silly risks
And make the same mistake
That I made back when the whole world
Seemed a risk free place to be
I really hope that they survive
… Their immortality

Verse 2:
I sometimes think I know how I got from there to here
I think that I remember and my memory is clear
But Then I notice something’s else I never knew about
No one ever told me and I never quite found out

Chorus 1:
I might love my lady
Might make her my wife
I might love my children
For my entire life
I hope and try to pray
That there’s someplace left to go
Where they keep all of the answers
To the endless I don’t know

Verse 3:
Reality is a fox that’s out to swindle me
An illusion, a distortion of what I wish I’d see
The picture watches while I think I’m watching you
But illusion doesn’t help me when I don’t know what to do

Verse 4:
In these times that we all share it’ll come as no surprise
That I wonder what is true and what are simply lies
The truth no longer counts, it doesn’t matter anymore
All I learned I’ve now forgotten – can’t recall what it was for

Chorus 2:
I might love my lady
Might make her my wife
I might love my children
For my entire life
All the days and the years
I’ve been living with you all
Have taught me many things
that I wish I could recall

[Instrumental]

Churus 3:
I might love my lady
Might make her my wife
I might love my children
For my entire life
I’ll try to learn to live
until i finally learn to die
And for my entire life
I’m sure I won’t know why

Verse 5:
The illusion of my life and how it makes me feel
Leave me wondering why I care if any of it’s real
But on the face of never really knowing what is true
I find that I’m still thankful for the gift of knowing you

I know that it’s hard
To explain why I’m here
I complain though I know
There is nothing to fear
But the fear and the doubt
That wind through my mind
Are inventions of mine
That help pass the time

Chorus:
So here is my song
I wrote it for me
I need to recall
That it’s easy to be
The times that I’ve faced
My life as a trial
Have taught me to see
That it’s easy to smile

Verse 2:
I’m more than a child
But less than a man
I know where I’ve been
But not who I am
I’ll say that I’m strong
I’ll tell you I’m free
But none of that’s true
I just want it to be

Once I entered a room
I pulled down the shade
I turned out the lights
I wanted to fade
But I noticed the wall
Right there looking at me
Pretending to be blind
I really wanted to see

Chorus:
So here is my song
I wrote it for me
I need to recall
That it’s easy to be
The times that I’ve faced
My life as a trial
Have taught me to see
That it’s easy to smile

Verse 3:
It all seemed to happen
A while ago
At a time I was lost
I just didn’t know
That doubting was simply
A game that I had
It gave me a reason
For feeling this bad

There are times there are changes
My memory moves
Preaching the patterns
I’ve worn into grooves
Repeating mistakes
I made in my youth
Learning the lines
And calling them truth
I can’t help but change
Can’t help but survive
I might drown in doubt
But I’ll still be alive

Chorus:
So here is my song
I wrote it for me
I need to recall
That it’s easy to be
The times that I’ve faced
My life as a trial
Have taught me to see
That it’s easy to smile

I started writing songs some time ago
Don’t know why I guess that I just decided to give it a go
I would write about this or that anything i could
I didn’t know and hardly cared if it was any good
But I never touched the theme of love, I really don’t know why
It occurred to me I might not be a love song kind of guy

Verse 2

At first that didn’t bother me, I had a lot to say
Just me and this old guitar, I was still learning to play
But as I learned to weave my words between and around a tune
I’d try my hand at a song of love but it always seemed too soon
Over time it became a missing piece – something I could not deny
By and by I decided I’m not a love song kind of guy

Bridge
I’m inclined to write a line to make you think or smile
Or find something in my words that’ll make my song worthwhile
But when it comes to you and me all my words run dry
I guess I’m not a love song kind of guy

Verse 3

It all changed a while ago when everything turned real
Now it’s important to me to express the way I feel
But I don’t know how to say that your smile lights up my day
Or how much love I feel for you but don’t have the words to say
I can’t make the words work no matter how I try
I have to face that it’s not my place to be a love song kind of guy

Chorus:
Watching my love grow every day
She takes a few wrong steps along the way
If my love lies bleeding I’ll always say
I will kiss it better in every way
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Verse 3:
At 7 love’s a thing to behold
No longer young but hardly old
She wants to get around
And she’s harder to hold down
At 7 love won’t do what she’s told
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Verse 4:
A teenage love is hard to explain
At times a teenage love forgets its name
By the time that you’re fifteen
You’d think you’d know what love should mean
But love will keep you guessing just the same

Chorus:
Watching my love grow every day
She takes a few wrong steps along the way
If my love lies bleeding I’ll always say
I will kiss it better in every way

Verse 1:
I started off going to church
They taught me how to pray
I did research in a big old book
I’d believe whatever they’d say

I don’t go to church no more
No one tells me what to believe
It’s up to me and so you see
I believe whatever I please

Verse 2:
I believe in science
But not like they teach in school
All them scientists got an agenda
They’re trying to play me for a fool

I’ve gotten good at finding the truth
It doesn’t really take very long
Just a couple of hours on Google
I can prove all the scientists wrong

Chorus:
Doing my own research looking high and low
Following the breadcrumbs wherever they go
I’m doing my own research
It’s obvious to me
That everywhere I look I see another conspiracy

Verse 3:
I already know a whole lot
‘Bout things they don’t want us to know
And I’m never going be a sheeple
And go wherever they want me to go

I’ve found my very own tribe.
We’ve got a very independent way
All we talk about is conspiracy
And I believe whatever they say

Long bridge:
It happened to me after Kennedy
Was assassinated that I started to see
The official story it just couldn’t be
And in a flash of light I saw conspiracy
I opened my ears to what everybody said
Pretty soon I figured out that Paul was dead
I was bound to find the truth cuz I found the key
And I wasn’t going to let ’em keep lying to me.

After a detour to learn about karma
I turned my attention to big pharma
Them people cured cancer a long time ago
But you think they ever plan to let anybody know?
Turns out there’s money in keeping people sick
They invented vaccination as a money making trick
If we’re sick and alive – they can always make us pay
But I’d rather catch a real disease any day

A false flag is planted by a crisis actor
Everything’s a clue or another risk factor
I’m always looking to see the man behind the curtain
You can never fool me, I’ll tell you that much for certain
Q’s got the answers – it’s totally plain
Everything is obvious when you got a trained brain
So many secrets and all of them hidden
I have all this knowledge they tell me is forbidden

Someone from the deep state wants to make me vaccinate
and make me drink the water that they intend to fluoridate
The birthers and the truthers are a practical mob
The showed me 911 was an inside job
The Rothschilds run the chemtrail show
Maybe the Illuminati, bet you don’t know
Maybe George Soros and maybe Bill Gates
Only a few of us know the whole truth – just me and a few of my mates

Chorus:
Doing my own research looking high and low
Following the breadcrumbs wherever they go
I’m doing my own research
It’s obvious to me
That everywhere I look I see another conspiracy

That everywhere I look I see another conspiracy

Verse 1:
We started talking about nothing at all
we shared a bit of something and I started to fall
A little bit in love I guess I answered a call
Made her more than a friend

So we got married in a rush of youth
Feeling so free, playing fast and loose
I always meant well you know that’s the truth
But I stuffed it up in the end

Chorus:
Wish I could say that I did my best
But it’s simply not true
I could have done a whole lot better
If I’d known what to do
I did as much as who I was at the time would allow
I’d like to think that whatever I did I did the best that I knew how

Verse 2:
We brought you home your mum and me
You entered our house turned two into three
So I went to work thought my job was to be
Bringing home big buckets of security

Who knew back then what a father should be
Who knew what a little boy or girl might need
I learned too late what I needed to see
More than anything you needed more of me.

Chorus:
Wish I could say that I did my best
But it’s simply not true
I could have done a whole lot better
If I’d known what to do
I did as much as who I was at the time would allow
I’d like to think that whatever I did I did the best that I knew how

Chorus:
Wish I could say that I did my best
But it’s simply not true
I could have done a whole lot better
If I’d known what to do
I did as much as who I was at the time would allow
I’d like to think that whatever I did I did the best that I knew how

So we got married in a rush of youth
Feeling so free, playing fast and loose
I always meant well you know that’s the truth
But I stuffed it up in the end

Chorus:
Wish I could say that I did my best
But it’s simply not true
I could have done a whole lot better
If I’d known what to do
I did as much as who I was at the time would allow
I’d like to think that whatever I did I did the best that I knew how

Verse 2:
We brought you home your mum and me
You entered our house turned two into three
So I went to work thought my job was to be
Bringing home big buckets of security

Who knew back then what a father should be
Who knew what a little boy or girl might need
I learned too late what I needed to see
More than anything you needed more of me.

Chorus:
Wish I could say that I did my best
But it’s simply not true
I could have done a whole lot better
If I’d known what to do
I did as much as who I was at the time would allow
I’d like to think that whatever I did I did the best that I knew how

Bridge (omitted from this version):
That’s not to say that I didn’t try
That’s all I ever did and that’s no lie
If I didn’t live up to the standards I had
I never thought that I was doing all that bad
The only life I’ve known has been in my own skin
I’ve never been the man I wish I’d been

Chorus:
Wish I could say that I did my best
But it’s simply not true
I could have done a whole lot better
If I’d known what to do
I did as much as who I was at the time would allow
I’d like to think that whatever I did I did the best that I knew how