A-Sides

NOTHING TO SAY
Nothing, nothing, nothing but the one thing

Someone said my words are out of balance
Nothing to say, you’ve got nothing to say
Dying words I bury everyday
Nothing to say, I’ve got nothing to say
Nothing but the one thing

You’ve got nothing, nothing to say
Nothing but the one thing

Big bad word spell it with four letters
Nothing to say, you’ve got nothing to say
Oh my God, your words are out of balance
Nothing to say, you’ve got nothing to say
Nothing but the one thing
Nothing, nothing

You’ve got nothing, nothing to say
Nothing but the one thing

Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing

Music: Thayil
Lyrics: Cornell

FLOWER
Along her vain parade
Along her veins

All of seventeen
Eyes a purple green
Treated like a queen
She was on borrowed self-esteem

She would do her dance
A painful masquerade
Spinning you into her web
Along her vain parade

In her uniform
Studded brass and steel
Kissing napkin lipstick stains
And smearing sincerity

Along her vain parade
Along her veins

Time crept up on her
She’s early gray
Her reflection looks concerned
And flowers hit her grave

Music: Thayil
Lyrics: Cornell

LOUD LOVE
There’s no time to keep it low
I’ve been deaf and now I want noise
You stay down
But I won’t be quiet
I’ll hammer on until you fight

Loud love
Loud love
Loud love
Loud love

If you’ve got some time to kill
Slow resistance wins the war
Well I know
But that’s no way to go
You can’t resist the louder pull

Well that’s right
I want something to explode
I’ve been deaf
Now I want noise

Music: Cornell
Lyrics: Cornell

HANDS ALL OVER
Hands all over the Eastern border
You know what? I think we’re falling
From composure
Hands all over Western culture
Ruffling feathers and turning eagles into vultures

Got my arms around baby brother
Put your hands away
You’re gonna kill your mother, kill your mother
And I love her

Hands all over the coastal waters
The crew men thank her
Then lay down their oily blanket
Hands all over the inland forest
In a striking motion trees fall down
Like dying soldiers

Hands all over the peasant’s daughter
She’s our bride
She’ll never make it out alive
Hands all over the words I utter
Change them into what you want to
Like balls of clay
Put your hands away
You’re gonna kill your mother
And I love her

Music: Thayil
Lyrics: Cornell

GET ON THE SNAKE
Get on the snake
With a swarm of motor flies
Get on the snake
Under the Cola colored sky

Don’t worry, everything’s clean
Road worthy, hungry and mean

Get on the snake
Where the metal river bleeds
Get on the snake
Where you never will believe
Hey baby, what’s your disease
My heart’s bleeding
I’m dying to leave

Get on the snake
Where the water turns to steam
Get on the snake
With a suicide machine

Don’t worry, everything’s clean
Road worthy, hungry and mean
Hungry and mean…
Hungry and mean…

Music: Thayil
Lyrics: Cornell

JESUS CHRIST POSE
And you stare at me in your Jesus Christ pose
Arms held out like you’ve been carrying a load
And you swear to me you don’t want to be my slave
But you’re staring at me like I need to be saved

In your Jesus Christ pose
Arms held out
In your Jesus Christ pose

Thorns and shroud like it’s the coming of the Lord
And I swear to you that I would never feed you pain
But you’re staring at me like I’m driving the nails

In your Jesus Christ pose
And you stare at me
In your Jesus Christ pose

Arms held out like it’s the coming of the Lord
And would it pay you more to walk on water
Than to wear a crown of thorns
It wouldn’t pain me more to bury you rich
Than to bury you poor
In your Jesus Christ pose

Music: Cameron, Shepherd, Thayil, Cornell
Lyrics: Cornell

OUTSHINED
I got up feeling so down
I got off being sold out
I’ve kept the movie rolling
But the story’s getting old now
I just looked in the mirror
Things aren’t looking so good
I’m looking California
And feeling Minnesota

So now you know, who gets mystified
Show me the power child, I’d like to say
That I’m down on my knees today
It gives me the butterflies, gives me away
Till I’m up on my feet again
I’m feeling outshined

Someone let the dogs out
They’ll show you where the truth is
The grass is always greener
Where the dogs are shedding
I’m feeling that I’m sober
Even though I’m drinking
I can’t get any lower
Still I feel I’m sinking

So now you know, who gets mystified
Show me the power child, I’d like to say
That I’m down on my knees today
It gives me the butterflies, gives me away
Till I’m up on my feet again
I’m feeling outshined

Music: Cornell
Lyrics: Cornell

RUSTY CAGE
You wired me awake
And hit me with a hand of broken nails
You tied my lead and pulled my chain
To watch my blood begin to boil

But I’m gonna break
I’m gonna break my
I’m gonna break my rusty cage and run

Too cold to start a fire
I’m burning diesel burning dinosaur bones
I’ll take the river down to still water
And ride a pack of dogs

I’m gonna break
I’m gonna break my
I’m gonna break my rusty cage and run

Hits like a Phillips head into my brain
It’s gonna be too dark to sleep again
Cutting my teeth on bars and rusty chains
I’m gonna break my rusty cage and run

When the forest burns along the road
Like God’s eyes in my headlights
When the dogs are looking for their bones
And it’s raining icepicks on your steel shore

I’m gonna break
I’m gonna break my
I’m gonna break my rusty cage and run

Music: Cornell
Lyrics: Cornell

SPOONMAN
Feel the rhythm with your hands
Steal the rhythm while you can, Spoonman
Speak the rhythm on your own
Speak the rhythm all alone, Spoonman

Spoonman, come together with your hands
Save me, I’m together with your plan
Save me

All my friends are Indians
All my friends are brown and red, Spoonman
All my friends are skeletons
They beat the rhythm with their bones,
Spoonman

Feel the rhythm with your hands
Steal the rhythm while you can, Spoonman

Thank you, good night people

Music: Cornell
Lyrics: Cornell

THE DAY I TRIED TO LIVE
I woke the same as any other day
Except a voice was in my head
It said seize the day, pull the trigger
Drop the blade, and watch the rolling heads

The day I tried to live
I stole a thousand beggar’s change
And gave it to the rich

The day I tried to win
I dangled from the power lines
And let the martyrs stretch
Singing

One more time around might do it
One more time around might make it
One more time around might do it
One more time around
The day I tried to live

Words you say never seem
To live up to the ones inside your head
The lives we make never seem
To ever get us anywhere but dead

The day I tried to live
I wallowed in the blood and mud with
All the other pigs

I woke the same as any other day you know
I should have stayed in bed

The day I tried to win
I wallowed in the blood and mud with
All the other pigs

And I learned that I was a liar
Just like you

Music: Cornell
Lyrics: Cornell

BLACK HOLE SUN
In my eyes, indisposed
In disguise as no one knows
Hides the face, lies the snake
The sun in my disgrace
Boiling heat, summer stench
‘Neath the black the sky looks dead
Call my name through the cream
And I’ll hear you scream again

Black hole sun
Won’t you come
And wash away the rain
Black hole sun
Won’t you come
Won’t you come

Stuttering, cold and damp
Steal the warm wind tired friend
Times are gone for honest men
And sometimes far too long for snakes
In my shoes, a walking sleep
And my youth I pray to keep
Heaven send Hell away
No one sings like you anymore

Hang my head, drown my fear
Till you all just disappear

Music: Cornell
Lyrics: Cornell

FELL ON BLACK DAYS
Whatsoever I’ve feared has come to life
Whatsoever I’ve fought off became my life
Just when everyday seemed to greet me with a smile
Sunspots have faded
And now I’m doing time
Cause I fell on black days

Whomsoever I’ve cured I’ve sickened now
Whomsoever I’ve cradled I’ve put you down
I’m a search light soul they say
But I can’t see it in the night
I’m only faking when I get it right
Cause I fell on black days
How would I know
That this could be my fate

So what you wanted to see good has made you blind
And what you wanted to be yours has made it mine
So don’t you lock up something that you wanted to see fly
Hands are for shaking
No, not tying
No, not tying

I sure don’t mind a change
But I fell on black days
How would I know
That this could be my fate

Music: Cornell
Lyrics: Cornell

PRETTY NOOSE
I caught the moon today
Pick it up
And throw it away all right
I got the perfect steal
A cleaner love
With a dirty feel all right
Fallout and take the bait
Eat the fruit
And kiss the snake goodnight

Common ruse dirty face
Pretty noose is pretty hate
And I don’t like
What you got me hanging from

Let your motor race
Pick it up
And get this mother gone
Out from and far away
The wooden stake
This thing has got me on

Diamond rope silver chain
Pretty noose is pretty pain
And I don’t like
What you got me hanging from

I don’t care what you got
I don’t care what you need
I don’t want anything
And I don’t like what
You got me hanging from

Music: Cornell
Lyrics: Cornell

BURDEN IN MY HAND
Follow me into the desert
As thirsty as you are
Crack a smile and cut your mouth
And drown in alcohol
Cause down below the truth is lying
Beneath the riverbed
So quench yourself and drink the water
That flows below her head

Oh no there she goes
Out in the sunshine the sun is mine

[Chorus]
I shot my love today would you cry for me
I lost my head again would you lie for me
I left her in the sand just a burden in my hand
I lost my head again would you cry for me

Close your eyes and bow your head
I need a little sympathy
Cause fear is strong and love’s for everyone
Who isn’t me
So kill your health and kill yourself
And kill everything you love
And if you live you can fall to pieces
And suffer with my ghost

(Chorus)

Just a burden in my hand
Just another anchor on my heart
Just a tumor in my head
And I’m in the dark

So follow me into the desert
As desperate as you are
The moon is glued to a picture of heaven
And all the little pigs have gone

Oh no there she goes
Out in the sunshine the sun is mine
Sun is mine

(Chorus)

Would you cry for me

Music: Cornell
Lyrics: Cornell

BLOW UP THE OUTSIDE WORLD
Nothing seems to kill me no matter how hard I try
Nothing is closing my eyes
Nothing can beat me down for your pain or delight
And nothing seems to break me
No matter how hard I fall nothing can break me at all
Not one for giving up though not invincible I know

I’ve givin’ everything I need
I’d give you everything I own
I’d give in if it could at least be ours alone
I’ve given everything I could
To blow it to hell and gone
Burrow down in and
Blow up the outside world

Someone tried to tell me something
Don’t let the world bring you down
Nothing will do me in before I do myself
So save it for your own and the ones you can help

Want to make it understood
Wanting though I never would
Trying though I know it’s wrong
Blowing it to hell and gone
Wishing though I never could
Blow up the outside world

Music: Cornell
Lyrics: Cornell

TY COBB
I’m sittin’ in a magic hat
With smoke and mirrors
And tire rubber fires
Watch me disappear
What made it slow you down
Sucking on a ball and chain
Another motherfucker goes down the drain
Hard headed fuck you all
Just add it up to the hod rod death toll

Sick in the head sick in the mouth
And I can’t hear a word you say
Not a bit, and I don’t give a shit
I got the glass, I got the steel
I got the love to hate
All I need is your head on a stake
Hard headed fuck you all
Just add it on the hot rod death toll

Music: Shepherd
Lyrics: Cornell

BLEED TOGETHER
I know you’re half awake
And no hate and I know how to do it
Hold the door and let it out
Don’t get it right or wrong
No I don’t get it

I know you’re half afraid
Half amazed, all insane
I know it’s all a cage
And all the rage
And all together gone

You and me we’re average
With simple minds and lungs, eyes and skin
You and me we’re hopeless
We’re nowhere hearts so tear it out
And open it

I’m giving blood tonight
I don’t care how, don’t care why
I’m giving blood tonight
I’m feeling just like I could give it all

[Chorus]
I know you’re sick and alone
Mothers and suckers alike
We can bleed together

Show me and hand me down
And hang me up alone and cold and bury me
Show me and throw me out
And hold me down, air me out
And wear me

(Repeat verse 2)

(Chorus)

Too altogether cool/cold
Too altogether numb

I know you’re sick and alone
I know you’re sick and alone

(Chorus)

Come away and come with me
And come around and come and see
And cover up and come along
Before race before the calm
And he walks out and fires the gun
Happy with the things he won
The head of God on the wall
Ahead of us the heads of us

Music: Cornell
Lyrics: Cornell