When It Gets That Way lyrics

Song information

Artist: Dar Williams
Album: All My Heroes Are Dead

Lyrics

When I want to go somewhere, I don't ask forgiveness
I just go where I like, and he knows that
I walk alone into any party, I'm alone tonight
In that high-heeled ego old hat
Oh blue night, laughter at the bell toll
People move like streaks of charcoal
Someone found a prince in the punchbowl
But high times fizzle out in a change of heart
And we know things fall apart
The morning's off to a bad start
It's raining. have you had nights like this?
I run miles to his place, wake him up to look at his face
I feel astray, and I love it when it gets that way

The child is so young, they say that child is truly free
And with a mind of perpetual invention
So why is it now I'm a grown-up, all grown up
And yet now I fly through the ceilings of convention?
Oh new friend, borne out of a mind-cloud
Make believe and yet I laugh aloud
I've cried when you have stood ground
But sometimes playtimes are a ghost I've faced
In that room that I've erased
The air is empty and druglaced
I am completely gone. are you still with me, then?
With my head so big and awfully
Take my hand and lead me softly
And then you stay, and I love it when it gets that way

And when I was crazy maybe I wanted, I wanted, I wanted to be steady as an iceberg
And with nowhere fast a-going
Now, now I can handle the danger zone with hailstones all a-flying
And the crazy winds a-blowing
These days I haven't been smoking my lungs brown
Have that itch to turn my life around
Maybe move on to a new town
Cause good friends lifted me out of an early tomb.
Pulled my life out from its doom
Like sun into a big room
And where my roots have grown
I really can't let go
Through the woods and through the fields climb
Up the mountain into nighttime
Into the day, and I love it when it gets that way