From the recording Twelve Children (CD-quality WAV)
Waking up is hard to do. Especially in those tired, dreamy mornings after a wasted work-week in the concrete valleys of New York. I knew, when I wrote this, that i had no business suiting up to burn up my days in corporate America. But, I was poor and it was the price of admission to New York - and so many amazing friends, nights and weekends.
Sam Wagner’s rhythm work across the first three tunes on the album is phenomenal, and it shows on a song like this where the rhythm defines the number. Tim Kemp dropped perfect foundation on keys, and Joe Colgan built on the themes he set up in Paper Dolls. But, really, this song would not work without Kate Snow's clean, gorgeous, backing vocals.
Lyrics
Red Wing strikes the window pane
Broken glass and broken stain
And I am here
Waiting for my dream to pass,
Its moving words and moving paths
Going nowhere
I am reaching through the sound
Drinking touching breaking ground
In the waking world
Slowly reaching to the sky
Opening my weary eyes
Arms unfurled
Broadway looks so strange at night
Dancing fools and neon lights
Marching downtown
I'm walking in this moving rain
Of tilting stars and shifting pain
And I am
Stepping in and out of light
Pushing, rushing, taking life
From all there
Reaching in and winning free
Pulling all the things to me
That I can
Morning come the mist, burning like a fist
Encircling my song, opening its palm
Before the rain come down, the sun'll last too long
Before the rain come down, sun'll last too long
Red Wing strikes the window pane
Broken glass and broken stain
And I am here
Waiting for my dream to pass
Its moving words and moving paths
Going nowhere