I think this is going to turn into the last song I’m adding to the album. I had an amazing conversation earlier with people who have seen the world, and to be frank, I’m thinking things. I’m thinking I’m the same age Hemmingway was when he was rejected by so many publishers because he hadn’t seen the world. I’m thinking that the people I know who have seen it are so much different than those who haven’t…not in a good or bad way…just different. Just changed, forever. And I’m thinking there’s a girl under my skin that’s much like the one in the song, and hopefully she’s in yours too. So here goes. Thirty minutes, got her down on paper and got to a piano…before she flew away.
“Liftoff”
She’s got a map of the world tattooed on her back
she tells people that it’s just a part of her path
to see the white crescent moon set over Bagdad
and hear the ghosts of Rome
Cause it’s not like she doesn’t know about the ways
it’s the mysteries spinning on a stranger’s face
it’s the way the coffee smells and the old stones taste
when you see them for the first time again
But it’s hard growin’ wings when it feels so good
in your plastic little cage in your neighborhood
she tilts her head back to where the wind is good
and says, “We have liftoff tonight…”
She’s got a million little stories that no one’s read
in the library of unfinished books in her head
they say it’s just a time before she’s famous or dead
unless she breaks on through the door
So she’s walkin’ in her dreams like Inanna in rags
stripped of her crown and so beautifully sad
while the goddesses in makeup look at her and laugh
but she just slowly turns away
Cause it’s hard growing wings when it feels so good
in your plastic little cage in your neighborhood
she tilts her head back to where the wind is good
and says, “We have liftoff tonight…”
Up there, in the eternal sea.
That’s where I want to be…
Walkin through the desert like Jesus with change
she sees herself being born to a different name
She sees the words that cronicle this little age
as shifting as the sand
But underneath the streets of Dallas or Rome
there are cities built with much more ancient stone
and as the desert was the ocean, she knows she’s coming home
when the worlds begin to rise…
She’s just their little scribe…
And it’s hard growin wings when it feels so good
in your plastic little cage in your neighborhood
She tilts her head back to where the wind is good
and says, “We’ve got liftoff tonight…
We’ve got liftoff tonight…”
