Method Acting / Cortez The Killer - Dave Rawlings Machine

There’s no beginning to the story

A bookshelf sinks into the sand

And a language learned, forgot in turn

Studied once again

It’s a shocking bit of footage

Viewed on a shitty TV screen

You can squint at it

The snow and static

To make out what it means

And keep stretching that antenna

Hoping that it will come clear

I need some reception

A higher message

Please tell me what to feel

Cause I don’t know what tomorrow brings

It’s alive with such possibilities

But I know that I feel better when I sing

Burdens are lifted from me

That’s my voice rising

So T-Bone, please keep the tape rolling

Gil, keep strumming that guitar

We need a record of our failures

We must document our love

I sat too long in my silence

Grown too old on my pain

To shed this skin, be born again

It starts with an ending

And I don’t know what tomorrow brings

It’s full of such possibilities

But I know that I feel better when I sing

Burdens are lifted from me

That’s my voice rising

It’s not a movie, no private screening

This method acting--I call it living

It’s like a fountain, the door is open

We have a problem with no solution

But to love and to be loved

So thank you friends for the time we’ve shared

Your love stays with me like sunlight and air

And though I truly wish I could keep hanging around here

My joy is covering me, soon I will disappear

He came dancing across the water

With his galleons and guns

Looking for the new world

In the palace in the sun

On the shore lay Montezuma

With his coca leaves and pearls

In his halls, he often wondered

The secrets of the world

And his subjects gathered round him

Like the leaves around a tree

In their clothes of many colors

For the angry gods to see

And the women all looked beautiful

And the men stood straight and strong

They offered life in sacrifice

So that others could go on

Hate was just a legend

And war was never known

The people worked together

And they lifted many stones

Then they carried them to the flatlands

But they died along the way

And they built up with their bare hands

What we still can’t do today

And I know she’s living there

And she loves me to this day

I just can’t remember when

Or how I lost my way