Lyrics – I Don’t Have Friends Anymore CD

All lyrics copyright Scott Malyszka

1. Valentine

I heard Joni Mitchell singing this song

I just had to write it down for you

You’ve been a pillar for me

Yes, you have kept my walls from crashing down

I just wanted to tell you some of the things I’ve never said

Like I love the way you kiss

And how nice it would be to wake up next to you

I just couldn’t resist

Snow outside is froze to the ground

All the birds have left

there’s no other sound on a morning like this

Joni says, Go get your mandolin

I say, You know I could never play like that again

Well maybe you should write it down for her

And give it as your valentine

So by now you’re thinking to yourself

Man, I love this guy but don’t he ever back off?

I know that you’re right, sure enough

Because there’s nothing that’s true that time won’t tell

2. I Don’t Have Friends Anymore

I come hear just to talk

A soft, warm chair and a quiet light

I do the same with my guitar

Behind the mike on Friday nights

Talk about the best times

We had our best rhymes

We wrote our songs and we shared guitars

Now I don’t know you like I did before

And I don’t have friends anymore

My neighbor knocked to let me know

My new siding is the wrong color

I don’t know her first name

And we’ve lived ten years here together

I take the bus, I take the train

I go to work and I come back

Monday nights my insurance pays

for you to meet me hear so I can talk

I spend days just reading books

With the jazz station playing low

I feel sad when I forget

Just what to do when someone calls to say hello

3. Corporation Blues

Well I got a job at the office place

Got a boss staring in my face

Got a little desk and a little chair too

A little telephone so I can talk to you

I don’t know what to do

We’re in the black but I’m feeling blue

I don’t know how to act

Corporation blues are on my back

They’re paying that guy twice as much as me

They’re giving me twice responsibility

Got another meeting at half past two

Just another reason for nothing to do

I don’t know what to do

My day is done, I want to have some fun

Don’t know how to act

Corporation blues are on my back

They’re paying that guy twice as much as me

They’re giving me twice responsibility

Don’t none of you people ever play guitar

Singing “Brown-Eyed Girl” at the corner bar?

4. I Got Stoned At Work Today

I got stoned at work today

People, I was flying

I got stoned at work today

right next to the no-smoking sign

Rolling papers from the copy machine

It was the best use of paper they’d ever seen

And I got stoned at work today

I got stoned at work today

I walked up to the boss

I got stoned and I explained the difference

Between a profit and a loss

Productivity went through the roof

Everybody was believing in the gospel truth

And I got stoned at work today

I got stoned at work today

so they made me the chief

I got stoned, and I must admit

I felt a little like a thief

This working easy isn’t so hard

When you’ve become the chairman of the board

And that’s what happened to me

When I got stoned at work today

5. The Note

Little boy said to me

Can we go out for a walk?

Can we go out in the street?

Can we have a little talk?

So I got up from my chair

And I climbed into my coat

And as we walked on down the stair

Little boy handed me this note

It said, I’d rather sing a song

I’d rather dance along

And I don’t mind saying that

I don’t want a baseball cap

I don’t like my daddy’s car

And my hair, it likes to curl

Do you think that I’m a girl?

I don’t know just what to say

Like I know anything

You got to be who you must be

I guess that’s the only thing

And as I looked back at the note

I thought I saw him smile

He was trying not to laugh

As I read his words awhile

6. Graven Image

Walking backwards down a one-way street

You’re not the kind I like to meet

You don’t know what’s good or bad

You don’t know just what I have

I don’t know what to say to you

About what’s fair or right or true

I don’t know what to say to you

About the lies that I see through

You can keep your graven image

I’ll go my way

I’ve been in your churches too

You all left me black and blue

Taught me how to pay my way

Under the table on judgment day

I got nobody to impress

I’m nothing more than a tired mess

I don’t know what to say to you

About the lies that I see through

You can keep your graven image

I’ll go my way

You can tell all your friends what you say is true

But a humble person knows that he’s a sinner too

God is closer than you think

You can keep your graven image

I’ll go my way

7. Everyone’s Just a Little Bit

We tried for fifty years

To make Kinsey disappear

Now we’re starting to hear

Mama, can’t you hear me say

We’re just finding our way

Mama, can’t you hear me say

Everyone’s just a little bit gay

I’m talking about sex out loud

And I’m standing in the middle of a crowd

It’s almost like coming out

I treat the girls like toys

And I know that it’s not fair

I should do the same to the boys

8. Tree

I put my arm around a tree

It has become a friend to me

It does not work, it does not try

It does not fear, it does not sigh

We share the bliss of knowing

Our roots are daily growing

I shed a tear the day I found

That tree had fallen to the ground

But someone said, Don’t cry, my friend

This is a start and not an end

I will decay, I will return

This is the path that I must learn

Learn to provide, learn to give

Let others take my place to live

9. Cold And Empty Night

Can you hear me crying in the cold and empty night?

Why does everything feel wrong when I try to do it right?

I don’t know where I’m going

I thought I knew I had it all

But I lost it in the end

I tried to buy some peace with you

And earn another friend

But that’s no way to do it

Why do I feel I have to find

Another way to walk through this dark world

When I have you?

Friends are only friends

They don’t see the bitter end

But you are all the world to me

And where my heaven begins

And I know that you know me

10. Is Pity Still A Sin?

There’s a stranger crying, someone I don’t know

Dirty clothes and pavement in the rain and snow

There’s a stranger crying so far away

There’s an angel trying to come my way

There’s a woman sleeping in an empty room

I could try to see her tomorrow afternoon

Do I have a heart for her? Well I think I do

But if I try to steal her love, I would lose mine too

I could stay in my empty room, I could hide away

Read a lot about history and sleep through the day

But I want to get close to you, I want to let it show

The future’s not for me to say, it’s out of my control

Is charity a crime for you? Is pity still a sin?

There’s a world that’s living outside my skin

Is charity a crime for you? Is pity still a sin?

Is it still a sin?

11. Hazardous

Wasteland in the dirty south

Dust and sweat come out my mouth

Hauling trash is what I do

Nothing I would wish on you

It’s hazardous

I dropped out for feeling mean

Little boy at seventeen

Two more kids by twenty-three

Nothing ever goes right for me

Empty bottle stole my life

Empty shot glass beat my wife

Empty thoughts bought me a trip

Out the door and back again

Ten-cent women cost more than dimes

Job to job and barroom times

Sitting in a jailhouse stay

Understand, if you walk my way

It’s hazardous

So don’t you do the things I’ve done

Don’t give up on anyone

Don’t lose sight of God above

Or you’ll end up in places that are hazardous