Alex Freeman Popshow

Coming Back

Written By: Alex Freeman

And now I think that I would like some time alone.
I'll stick around a while but then I'm going home.
You can answer
or don't answer:
Either way you think you've won.
You can stay now...
No...but... hey, now I'd prefer you go away.

And now I'm walkin' around this city
I'm thinkin' to myself how it'd be
pretty strange
if I saw you
and I called out to you
maybe we would talk about it
But I don't know
What I would say
You don't listen anyway

And that day
I thought it was all OK
But I was wrong
For the first time
Ok, not the first time
But the last time
Ok, not the last time...

But I'm not the only one.

And that's the last thing that I'd ever say to you
You think it's drastic but I think you know it's true.
You can answer
or don't answer,
but it lingers-- you know that.
And I think I'll disappear...
And I'm never coming back.

Under Water

Written By: Alex Freeman

Under Water

Words and Music by Alex Freeman

Under water, under a certain kind of duress,
Stumble, falter, you take your time to catch your breath,
But it all comes down to what you do now.
And now you’re sober in my car.

Fill in the missing bits
And I think you’d have to admit
This is the business end of a thing you
Know will have to end.

But I believe it sometimes,
But then I think I’ve seen it before,
But it’s in the way that you looked at me now.

Through it all a certain urgency to confess
No apologies you turn your back on the rest
Of us who know now
You never slowed down.
And now you’re sober in my car.

Fill in the missing bits
And I think you’d have to admit
This is the business end of a thing you
Know will have to end.

And I think it’s alright
But then I’ve felt like that before
And I believe it sometimes
But then I see that you won’t see me anymore

So I guess I’m givin’ up on givin’ up on you.

Simple As It Is

Written By: Alex Freeman

Simple As It Is

Words and Music by Alex Freeman

Sorry and I hope I didn’t wake you see I’ve been up again all night tryin’ to figure out what this whole thing was all about and it’s a simple thing but simple just ain’t what it used to be and anyway I had your number Oh, everything I think you took from me oh, when I try to get my mind around that I keep on hoping someday it might be simplified how I tried to get away from you and your lies circle all around you and this truth simple as it is eludes you still but I guess it’s alright now. That’s all I thought I had to tell you and I guess it all came out all wrong but isn’t that just the way it always goes (?) and it’s just as well you probably wouldn’t understand anyway and even if you tried the truth would only break your heart oh, what could ever be the point in that no love could ever come to light around that I’d never wish on anyone what I went through—least of all you. So goodbye. I guess that’s all there is and I’ll try no longer to make you see how easy it was for me to make this harder than it needs to be but that’s just how I do, simple as it is, but I will say this: Simple as I am I could always see that light around you. Simple as I am I’ll let it all go now and all the indifferent stars in their indifferent sky will be the only witness to the roads that I walk alone and in a thousand upon thousand years when they excavate what’s left of my soul I think they’ll know how long I tried to let it go and say goodbye. Goodbye.

Drive

Written By: Alex Freeman

We are driving away as the sun burns down the last
Fleeting moments of the day—we tore out of there so fast
‘Cause there was nothing left to say
But I still hoped that you might ask

It was half past November and the grey still held the sky
I was burned down to a cinder by the time that you arrived
There was nothing left of me
But I still hoped that you might try

I can see what I’m losing but I don’t care
I’d give it all just to run my fingers through her brown hair

So I ask myself again—just to pass a little time—
Where I am and where I’ve been but it seems tonight that I,
I can’t remember…or I can’t forget
I’ll think about it later, now just drive.

CHORUS:

Everyday seems to begin
with me waiting for the day to end
Every night I dream again
about her hair, her face, her skin
And everyday I wake up wondering
if the pain is gonna end
Everybody wants me back there
but I say to all my friends
“I could move back here to Queens, but I know that that would mean
The only place where I could see her, the only place where I could be
Where I could hope to catch a glimpse of that sweet girl I wanna see
Is the carousel of hope and sadness spinning ‘round and ‘round and ‘round in my dreams.

Night rains down and you ascend into the Carolina sky
You remember her again, yeah, you remember little moments
When she held you in her eyes
Before that last, long goodbye.

Remember summers in Manhattan when the night burned with the bright,
Incessant strains of all the Latin music rattling the night
You were someone…or someone else…but you’re somebody else tonight.

Turn off the phone, disappear now and take a little time.
A little time to just forgive yourself and ease your mind.
It’s gonna be alright…

CHORUS

Summer runs out like a thief and you’re wearing a path in your room. You’re just walkin’ ‘round and ‘round and you shake just like a leaf when you hear her voice and you know it’s true:

You love this town and you love her
You don’t know why
And you can’t be sure but you know
There’s gonna come a moment when your gonna stay
Or pack your bags and fly away.

(Chorus)
Everyday seems to begin
with me waiting for the day to end
Every night I dream again
about her hair, her face, her skin
And in my dreams I see her laughing
and we’re talkin’ in the sun
Everybody wants me back there
but I say to everyone
“I got Patty Griffin tellin’ me
‘if you [ever] break down’
I’m gonna drive right out and find you
in some lonesome Finnish town
And with her voice she tries to comfort me
in the song I heard today
That it wasn’t just a dream
and all the trouble’s gone away

“I could move back here to Queens
But I know that that would mean
The only place where I could get to see her smile and hear her sing
Is the carousel of hope and sadness spinning ‘round and ‘round and ‘round in my dreams.

September

Written By: Alex Freeman

SEPTEMBER

Words and music by Alex Freeman

Alex Freeman, Piano and vocals
Tuomas Logren, Guitars
Tuuli Saarnio, Accordion
Lauri Schreck, Drums
Sara Suvela, Bass

Produced by Jon-Patrick Kuhlefelt
at the Sibelius Academy studios in Helsinki and Järvenpää

All I can say is your prayers were not wasted
And your love is not in vain
All of the roads in this world I face did
Cover this boy in seasons of rain

Gather up all your possessions
Take the river; take the road.
Gather up all you believe is precious in this life
You have got to go

Run aground forever on
The memory of an iron year
Covered up in seasons
And hoisted on the giant pier
She alone can see this but
You alone can make this real
And they just want you to come home

Voices carry over water
And all you cannot forgive
You must atone for.

Some nights spent in foreign towns I wander till I’m sure that I
Go back down the river voices cracking on the other side
Time a taker, time a giver and a soul alone to decide
To get back home

Oh September
You been gone
For such a long time
You been gone for such a long time

And every time the summer ends I think again about my friends
Warmer nights in southern towns and in my mind my mother sings
A word or two of comfort just before the river bends

All I can say is your prayers were not wasted
And love is never in vain
Gather the branches down my the lakeside.
Light the bonfires;
She is gone.

Paul Simon

Written By: Alex Freeman

When I woke
The conversation was still clear in my mind
And he sang in a voice that was yours and a voice that was mine
And I knew that somehow
I'd traveled back in time
But the song that I was singin' was mine
And I played to the end and I waited
to see what he'd say then

lie la lie lie lie lie lie lie

And when he spoke
He said, "son, I know it's hard
to get it all down the way that want it
and say what's really in your heart"

And Paul Simon
is takin' his time
And he's out there
And I know he's rhymin'
And I'm in a funk
'cause most of this junk
I write won't mean nothin' to
Nobody

And he didn't laugh
When I told him
he could call me Al
He just kind of smiled and said,
"That's a good line. Maybe use it sometime."
But I had to confess
That that line wasn't mine
But it was only 1979
I could tell that by the mustache on his face and I knew that Graceland
Wouldn't even occur to that great man
For another seven years

CHORUS

It was a Song About The Moon
Turn it on and I'm there again
In my room
Listening to the radio
And I couldn't have been no more
Than one or two
And a song about the moon
It was a song about America...

("let us be lovers, we'll marry our fortunes together")

And when I woke
The conversation was still clear in my mind.

Connected

Written By: Alex Freeman

CONNECTED

It gets so I'm so tired
It gets so I'm so lonely
You forget sometimes that I’m
I’m convinced I'm the only one
Convinced that I’m the only one
And suddenly it’s undone

September left its mark
Times you don’t know what you are
But somehow in this darkness
The witness to a billion stars

It's subtle but I won’t let you down
This time around
This time around
It’s somethin’ that I think you will find
This time around
This time around

And I guess you’re right
It’s just I can’t get these things to combine
It’s like I’m frozen in time
Inside

And you say it's your life
But I know it's not just your life
We are all connected
We are all connected

It's subtle but I won’t let you down
This time around
This time around
It’s somethin’ that I think you will find
This time around
This time around