Day For Night (1994) Lyrics And Backing Vocals

Museum Entrance

Lyrics &
Backing Vocals

Hip Directory

One Stop
Reference Shop

Unreleased
Song Info

Exhibit Hall

Hipstories

Grace, Too
Reference Window

He said I'm fabulously rich
Come on just lets go
She kind of bit her lip
Geez, I dont know

But I can guarantee (I can guarantee)
There'll be no knock on the door (I can guarantee)
I'm total pro here (There'll be no knock on the door)
That's what I'm here for (Here for)

I come from downtown (I...)
Born ready for you (I...)
Armed with will and determination (I...)
And grace, too

The secret rules of engagement
Are hard to endorse
When the appearance of conflict
Meets the appearance of force

But I can guarantee (I can guarantee)
There'll be no knock on the door (I can guarantee)
I'm total pro here (There'll be no knock on the door)
That's what I'm here for (Here for)

I come from downtown (I...)
Born ready for you (I...)
Armed with skill and it's frustration (I...)
and grace, too

Daredevil
Reference Window

I can't imagine how you feel and this is how you feel
You say your name like your no longer convinced
But now they're strapping you in and closing the lid
And they're dropping you in what's done you did
The bell's picking up speed there's water leaking in
That ol' equilibrium just starts to spin and spin

Do you like to be judged or liked (Do you like to be judged or liked)
Do you like it inside a barrel (Do you like it inside a barrel)
Plunging over the falls (Plunging over the falls)
Curious and grim we wrestle at the rim (Curious and grim we wrestle at the rim)
We wonder all about him and the point of it all (We wonder all about him and the point of it all)

I'll be short and brief (I'll be short and brief)
And to the point (And to the point)
The fighting has resumed (The fighting has resumed)
In that tone of voice (In that tone of voice)
The plague is exhumed (The plague is exhumed)
He said "what I'm going through (He said "what I'm going through)
Is essentially all true (Is essentially all true)
Made no less amazing (Made no less amazing)
By the fact that it's see-through" (By the fact that it's see-through")
You like to be judged or liked (You like to be judged or liked)
And you like it inside a barrel (And you like it inside a barrel)
Plunging over the falls (Plunging over the falls)
Strong and green and dim it wrestled him like nuthin' (Strong and green and dim it wrestled him like nuthin')
Out out out (Out out out)
And into the thrill of em all

And the real wonder of the world is that we don't jump too
(And the real wonder of the world is that we don't jump too)

Greasy Jungle
Reference Window

Greasy jungle metropolis noir
Easy tangles the easiest so far
Ah

I drove down your road
to Hazeldean where I tasted
your funeral home's sandwiches and coffee
I saw your hands melt into one another
I saw you grieve and grow
care alot about one another
I stood at your sink
and I felt your warm water
I washed your dishes
and I looked out your kitchen window where I
saw a soulful gymnast
melt in the air and shudder
just above the snow
making moves that just weren't there
Ah (Ah)

Velvet callow with wet hands
I turned out the lights and
breathing shallow hesitated
then went upstairs where
I picked up your housecoat
dried my hands and
touched your hair
and just then you awoke
you could never really barely care
Ah (Ah)

Greasy jungle metropolis noir

Yawning Or Snarling
Reference Window

One day in El Paso
The cops go into the crowd
Under a glaring bladder of light
And the music is so loud
And the tourists take their T-Shirts off
A busload of kids gives you the finger
Afternoon when the sidewalk's hot
And the shadow's too chilly to linger
Walk past damaged goods and ugly trends
Past a strawman making a purchase (purchase)
Downtown where the river bends
They're just waiting for you to resurface (resurface)
Take a look at this photograph (Take a look at this photograph, Snarling)
Clearly his teeth were bared (Clearly his teeth were bared, Snarling)
He coulda been yawning or snarling (He coulda been yawning or snarling)
The story was never clear

One night in El Paso
The cops go into the crowd
Under a throbbing bladder of light
And the music is just so loud (so loud)
And the tourists turn their T.V.'s off
And a bat sees a bug with the sound of a linger
Night time when the shadows cough
And you're chilled to the tips of your fingers
Walk past damaged goods and ugly trends (Past damaged goods and ugly trends)
Past ol' strawman making a purchase (Purchase)
Downtown where the river bends (Downtown where the river bends)
They're just waiting for you to resurface (Resurface)
Take a look at this photograph (Take a look at this photograph, Snarling)
Clearly his teeth were bared (Clearly his teeth were bared, Snarling)
He coulda been yawning or snarling (He coulda been yawning or snarling)
He coulda been anywhere (He coulda been anywhere, Snarling)

Fire In The Hole
Reference Window

You triumphed over will
You had immunity to kill
You had your dreams fulfilled
And I love you still
But there's a power beyond control
There's a fire in the hole
Ah the nights are getting cold
All your secrets will be told
Turn your lanterns low

As long as you can dig up proof
As cold as water through the roof
Brutal as depicted truth
That kid's a fuckin' goof
Turn your lanterns low
But there's a power beyond control
There's a fire in the hole
Yeah the nights are getting cold
All his secrets will be told
Turn your lanterns low
Alright

I'd like to stand up soon and show
I'd like to let some people know
I'd turn my bucket over
I'd turn my lantern low
But there's a power beyond control
There's a fire in the hole
Yeah the nights are getting cold
All my secrets would be told
Turn your lanterns low
Alright
Alright

So Hard Done By
Reference Window

Interesting and sophisticated
refusing to be celebrated
it's a monumental big screen kiss
it's so deep it's meaningless
one day you'll just up and quit
and that'll be it
just then the stripper stopped in a coughing fit
she said sorry I can't go on with this

yeah that's awful close
but that's not why
I'm so hard done by

It was true cinema a clef
you should see it before there's nothing left
in an epic too small to be tragic
you'll have to wait a minute
cause it's an instamatic

yeah that's awful close
but that's not why
I'm so hard done by

Just then the room became more dimly lit
as the emcee carried on with it
and now that I got you all strangely compelled
I'm afraid Candy's not feeling well

Close, but that's not why
I'm so hard done by

Nautical Disaster
Reference Window
Full Nautical Disaster Exhibit

I had this dream where I relished the fray
and the screaming filled my head all day.
It was as though I'd been spit here, settled
in, into the pocket of a lighthouse on some
rocky socket, off the coast of France, dear.

One afternoon, four thousand men died in
the water here and five hundred more were
thrashing madly, as parasites might in your
blood. Now I was in a lifeboat designed for
ten and ten only, anything that systematic
would get you hated. It's not a deal nor a
test nor a love of something fated. The
selection was quick, the crew was picked in order
and those left in the water got kicked off our
pantleg and we headed for home.

Then the dream ends when the phone rings,
you doing alright he said it's out there most
days and nights, but only a fool would
complain. Anyway Susan, if you like, our
conversation is as faint a sound in my (Faint a sound in my memory)
memory, as those fingernails scratching on my hull. (As those fingernails scratching on my hull)

Thugs
Reference Window

Everyone's got their breaking point, with me it's spiders
And with you it's me, thugs in perpetuity
When we're excited little birds, around the feeder
The cat's indifferent or he's just furious, it seems that he's never neither

I do the rolling you do the detail (I do the rolling you do the detail)
I do the rolling you do the detail (I do the rolling you do the detail)

Hairbird plucks a hair from a sleeping dog
To build her nest, she said I've looked around and I like your hair the best (Your hair the best)

I do the rolling you do the detail (I do the rolling you do the detail)
I do the rolling you do the detail (I do the rolling you do the detail)

Ruby, honey are you mad at your man? (Honey are you mad at your man?)

Inevitability Of Death
Reference Window

Puffy lips glistening skin
And everything comes rushing in
We don't go to hell
memories of us do

I get a sense of connectedness
Exclusive tight but nothing dangerous
We don't go to hell memories of us do
And if you go to hell
I'll still remember you

But I thought you beat the death of (I thought you beat...)
inevitability to death just a little bit (I thought you beat...)
I though you beat the inevitability (Yeah...)
of death to death just a little bit (Yeah...)

Terry's gift is forever green
It got me up and back on the scene
We don't go to hell
just our memories do

Fantastic gap common space (Fantastic gap common space)
Open concept in your smiling face
we don't go to hell memories of us do

And if you go to hell I'll still remember you

Scared
Reference Window

I could make you scared
if you want me to
I'm not prepared, but if I have to
He said, I can make you scared,
it's kinda what I do
If you're prepared,
here's what I propose to do
You're in Russia
and more than a million works of art
are whisked out to the woods
So when the Nazis
find the whole place dark
They'd think god's
left the museum for good

I make you scared, if that's what I do
If you're prepared, if I have to
If I make you scared and you pay me to
If that's the deal
now here's what I can do for you

Now there's a focus group
that can prove
this is all nothing
but cold calculation

Tests have shown
that suspicious or hostile
Their lives need not be shortened
truth be told
they can live a long, long while
Tickled to death by their importance

If you make me scared,
if that's what you do
If I'm unclear can I get out of this thing
with me and you
If you feel scared, a bit confused,
I gotta say
this sounds a little beyond
anything I'm used to

Now there's a precious few
that can prove that at the root
This is all nothing but a cold calculation

Clearly entranced,
you're leaning back now
Defanged destroyer limps into the bay
Down at the beach
it's attracting quite a crowd
As kids wade through blood
out to it to play

OK you made me scared,
you did what you set out to do
I'm not prepared, really had me
going there for a minute or two
He said, you made me scared too,
I wasn't sure I was getting through
I gotta go, it's been a pleasure
doing business with you.

An Inch An Hour
Reference Window

I want a book that'll make me drunk
full of freaks and disenfranchised punks.
No amount of hate no load of junk
no bag of words no costume trunk
could make me feel the same way (The same way)
an inch an hour two feet a day (Two feet a day)
to move through night
in this most fashionable way.

There's this fuckin' band you gotta see
they used to scare the living shit outta me.
No frothing dog no cool insanity
no "rock n' roll" no Christianity
makes me feel the same way (The same way)
an inch an hour two feet a day (Two feet a day)
to move through night
with very little else to say
but I'm helpless less with the people
than the space

No struggletown no bemused Trudeau
no solitary walks through vacant lots
in moonglow

Tonight the winter may have missed its mark
you can see your breath in Springside Park
coffee-coloured ice and peeling birch bark the
sound of rushing water in the dark
makes me feel the same way (The same way)
an inch an hour two feet a day (Two feet a day)
to move through life
with very little else to say
but I'm helpless more with the people
than the space (Than the space)
I mean I'm helpless less with the people
than the space (Than the space)

You see, I don't know Neil
I don't know Neil

Emergency

I've often dreamt of a conversation
that just keeps on coming up again and again.
We're sitting in the Baby Bar bereft
at a shadowy table out past the sentences end.
It's an emergency without end

From until it's no longer fun (Until it's no longer fun)
to that's no longer relevant.
From until we're no longer one (Until we're no longer one)
to the bona-fide embodiment of an endless (To the bona fide)
emergency without end.
We're an endless emergency without end

We often stop in these conversations,
things we say here stay here forever amen.
When everything seems either funny or lousy,
funny or lousy, that's where it usually ends.
An emergency without end

From until it's no longer fun (Until it's no longer fun)
to that's no longer relevant.
From until we're no longer one (Until we're no longer one)
to that's no longer permanent.
From the last survivors of those terms (Last survivors of those terms)
to the bona-fide embodiment (bona fide)
of an endless emergency
without end. (Landscapes emerge)
We're an endless emergency
without end. (Landscapes emerge)
We're an endless emergency
without end (Landscapes emerge)

but your finger starts to wiggle (Your finger starts to wiggle)
and landscapes emerge (Landscapes emerge)

Titanic Terrarium
Reference Window

Growin' up in a biosphere
with no respect for bad weather
there's still roaches and ants in here
so resourceful and clever.
Her great grandfather saw the future
didn't know nothing bout panic,
he certainly probably thought
that it was unthinkable.
There's a trace o mint
wafting in from the north
so we don't fuck with the 401
it's bigger than us or
larger than we bargained
I guess it's just not done.
His great grandfather worked for Goodyear
he'd see the blimp on Sundays
wonder what the driver knew
about making rubber tires.
Terrarium, O Terrarium

There's submarines out there under the ice
avoiding and courting collision
an accident's sometimes the only way
to worm our way back to bad decisions,
My great grandfather was a welder
he helped to build the Titanic
he didn't certainly think
that is was unsinkable.
Building up to the larger point
with an arrogance not rare or pretty
we don't declare the war on idleness
when outside it's cold and shitty.
We stay inside and try to conjure the fathers of
the injured and faking
if there's glory in miracles
it's that they're reversible
Terrarium

Impossibilium

I love you even when I don't even know I'm doing it
and dismiss it out of hand cause I don't even know
I'm doing it
but your finger starts to wiggle and landscapes emerge
Can you spare some change dear, we've only got three
hundred feet to go

Roses are worth more dried than alive
such a thing to say
O how I adore you
when you reinvent a rosy clich�
Can you spare some change dear
we've only got three hundred feet to go
and with impossibilium for a payload (Impossibilium for a payload)
we lift the rocket (we lift the rocket)
out of the pocket (out of the pocket)
nothing can stop it (nothing can stop it)

Roses are difficult everywhere
you must promise me you'll stay
these longstems are freakish if anything
but we can cut em down for the vase
Can you spare some change dear
we've only got three hundred feet to go
and with impossibilium for a payload (Impossibilium for a payload)
we lift the rocket out of the pocket (we lift the rocket out of the pocket)
nothing can stop it (nothing can stop it)
we can only watch it

All non-lyric content and Hip photographs � 2006 Stephen Dame
Lyrics are the property and copyright of The Tragically Hip, Gordon Downie and Stripper's Union respectively.
Lyrics are provided for reference, education and personal use only.