Lyrics for singles by Jackson Browne

Doctor My Eyes

Doctor, my eyes have seen the years
And the slow parade of fears without crying
Now I want to understand

I have done all that I could
To see the evil and the good without hiding
You must help me if you can

Doctor, my eyes
Tell me what is wrong
Was I unwise to leave them open for so long

I have wandered through this world
As each moment has unfurled
I've been waiting to awaken from these dreams

People go just where they will
I never noticed them until I got this feeling
That it's later than it seems

Doctor, my eyes
Tell me what you see
I hear their cries
Just say if it's too late for me

Doctor, my eyes
Cannot see the sky
Is this the prize for having learned how not to cry

Rock Me On The Water

Oh people, look around you
The signs are everywhere
You've left it for somebody other than you
To be the one to care
You're lost inside your houses
There's no time to find you now
Your walls are burning
And your towers are turning
I'm going to leave you here
And try to get down to the sea somehow

The road is filled with homeless souls
Every woman, child and man
Who have no idea where they will go
But they'll help you if they can
Now everyone must have some thought
That's going to pull them through somehow
Well the fires are raging hotter and hotter
But the sisters of the sun are going
To rock me on the water now

Rock me on the water
Sister will you soothe my fevered brow
Rock me on the water
I'll get down to the sea somehow

Oh people, look among you
It's there your hope must lie
There's a sea bird above you
Gliding in one place like Jesus in the sky
We all must do the best we can
And then hang on to that Gospel plow
When my life is over, I'm going
To stand before the Father
But the sisters of the sun are going
To rock me on the water now

Rock me on the water
Sister will you soothe my fevered brow
Rock me on the water, maybe I'll remember
Maybe I'll remember how
Rock me on the water
The wind is with me now
So rock me on the water
I'll get down to the sea somehow

Here Come Those Tears Again

Here come those tears again
Just when I was getting over you
Just when I was going to make it through
Another night without missing you
Thinking I might just be strong enough after all
When I hear your footsteps echoing in the hall
Baby here we stand again
Like we've been so many times before
Even though you looked so sure
As I was watching you walking out my door
But you always walk back in like you did today
Acting like you never even went away
Well I don't know if I can
Open up and let you in baby
Here come those tears
Here come those tears again
I can hear you telling me
How you needed to be free
And you had some things to work out alone
Now you're standing here telling me
How you have grown
Here come those tears again
Now you'll tell me how to hold them in
Here come those tears
Here come those tears again
Some other time baby
When I'm strong and feeling fine maybe
When I can look at you without crying
You might look like a friend of mine
But I don't know if I can
Open up enough to let you in
Here come those tears
Here come those tears again
Just walk away
I'm going back inside and turning out those light
And I'll be in the dark but you'll be out of sight

Running On Empty

Looking out at the road rushing under my wheels
Looking back at the years gone by like so many summer fields
In '65 I was seventeen and running up 101
I don't know where I'm running now, I'm just running on

Running on-running on empty
Running on-running blind
Running on-running into the sun
But I'm running behind

Gotta do what you can just to keep your love alive
Trying not to confuse it with what you do to survive
In '69 I was twenty-one and I called the road my own
I don't know when that road turned into the road I'm on

Running on-running on empty
Running on-running blind
Running on-running into the sun
But I'm running behind

Everyone I know, everywhere I go
People need some reason to believe
I don't know about anyone but me
If it takes all night, that'll be all right
If I can get you to smile before I leave

Looking out at the road rushing under my wheels
I don't know how to tell you all just how crazy this life feels
I look around for the friends that I used to turn to to pull me through
Looking into their eyes I see them running too

Running on-running on empty
Running on-running blind
Running on-running into the sun
But I'm running behind

Honey you really tempt me
You know the way you look so kind
I'd love to stick around but I'm running behind
You know I don't even know what I'm hoping to find
Running into the sun but I'm running behind

The Pretender

I'm gonna rent myself a house
in the shade of a freeway
I'm gonna pack my lunch in the morning
and go to work each day
And when the evening rolls around
I'll go on home and lay my body down
And when the morning light
comes streaming in
I'll get up and do it again
Amen
Say it again
Amen

I wanna know what became of the changes
we waited for love to bring
Were they only the fitful dreams
of some greater awakening?
I've been aware of the time going by
They say in the end
it's the wink of an eye
And when the morning light
comes streaming in
I'll get up and do it again
Amen

Caught between the longing for love
and the struggle for the legal tender
Where the sirens sing
and the church bells ring
and the junkman pounds his fender

Where the veterans dream of the fight
fast asleep at the traffic light
and the children solemnly wait
for the ice cream vendor

Out into the cool of the evening
strolls the Pretender
He knows that all his hopes and dreams
begin and end there

Ah the laughter
Ah, the lovers as they run through the night
Leaving nothing but to choose off and fight
They'll tear at the world
with all their might
while the ships there in their dreams
sail out of sight

I'm gonna find myself a girl
who can show me what laughter means
And we'll fill in the missing colors
in each other's paint-by-number dreams

And then we'll put our dark glasses on
and we'll make love until our strength is gone
And when the morning light comes streaming in
we'll get up and do it again
Get it up again

I'm gonna be a happy idiot
and struggle for the legal tender
Where the ads take aim
and lay their claim
to the heart and soul of the spender
And believe in whatever may lie
in those things that money can buy
Oh, true love could have been a contender

Are you there?  Say a prayer for the Pretender
Who started out so young and strong . . . only to surrender

Say a prayer for the Pretender
Are you there for the Pretender?
Say a prayer for the Pretender
Oh, Are you there for the Pretender?
Are you there for the Pretender

The Load-out

Now the seats are all empty
Let the roadies take the stage
Pack it up and tear it down
They're the first to come and the last to leave
Working for that minimum wage
They'll set it up in another town

Tonight the people were so fine
They waited there in line
And when they got up on their feet
They made the show
And that was sweet
But I can hear the sound
Of slamming doors and folding chairs
And that's a sound they'll never know

Now, roll them cases out and lift them amps
Haul them trusses down and get 'em up them ramps
'Cause when it comes to moving me
You know you guys are the champs
But when that last guitar's been packed away
You know that I still want to play
So just make sure you've got it all set to go
Before you come for my piano

But the band's on the bus
And they're waiting to go
We've got to drive all night
And do a show in Chicago
Or Detroit, I don't know
We do so many shows in a row
And these towns all look the same
We just pass the time in our hotel rooms
And wander 'round backstage
Till those lights come up
And we hear that crowd
And we remember why we came

Now we got country and western on the bus, R & B
We got disco on eight tracks and cassettes in stereo
We've got rural scenes and magazines
We got truckers on CB
We got Richard Pryor on the video
And we got time to think of the ones we love
While the miles roll away
But the only time that seems too short
Is the time that we get to play

People, you've got the power over what we do
You can sit there and wait
Or you can pull us through
Come along, sing the song
You know that you can't go wrong
'Cause when that morning sun comes beating down
You're going to wake up in your town
But we'll be scheduled to appear
A thousand miles away from here

Stay

People, stay just a little bit longer
We wanna play just a little bit longer

The promoter don't mind
And the union don't mind
We can take a little time
And we'll leave this all behind
Singin' one more song

Oh, won't you stay just a little bit longer
Please, please, please
Say you will
Say you will

Oh, won't you stay just a little bit longer
Oh, please, please stay just a little bit more

Now the promoter don't mind
And the roadies don't mind
We can take a little time
And we'll leave it all behind
Singin' one more song

Thank you all again

That Girl Could Sing

She was a friend to me when I needed one
Wasn't for her I don't know what I'd done
She gave me back something that was missing in me
She could of turned out to be almost anyone
Almost anyone--
With the possible exception
Of who I wanted her to be
Running into the midnight
With her clothes whipping in the wind
Reaching into the heart of the darkness
For the tenderness within
Stumblin' into the lights of the city
And then back in the shadows again
Hanging onto the laughter
That each of us hid our unhappiness in
Talk about celestial bodies
And your angels on the wing
She wasn't much good at stickin' around--but
She could sing...
In the dead of night
She could shine a light
On some places that you've never been
In that kind of light
You could lose your sight
And believe there was something to win
You could hold her tight
With all your might
But she'd slip through your arms like the wind
And be back in flight
Back into the night
Where you might never see her again
The longer I thought I could find her
The shorter my vision became
Running in circles behind her
And thinking in terms of the blame
But she couldn't have been any kinder
If she'd come back and tried to explain
She wasn't much good at saying goodbye--but
That girl was sane