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