BACK to Sound Theology page | Disc 2 lyrics SONGS AND LYRICS FOR SOUND THEOLOGY DISC 1, by JONATHAN RUNDMAN 1. Church Directory 2:28 2. Come Thou Long Expected Jesus 0:43 3. Workin' my Committee 3:33 4. Four Candles 2:22 5. Out Behind the Old Hotel 1:53 6. Cold, But I Don't Mind 3:33 7. Let Me Be Yours 2:19 8. Local Road 4:20 9. The Prophetstown Tornado 2:42 10. The Loneliness of Happiness 3:00 11. In Thee is Gladness 0:50 12. Find Your Way to Prague 3:18 13. Ashes 2:38 14. Cautious Springtime Blues 2:25 15. We're Creating Monsters 2:41 16. My Apology 3:44 17. Tired Tired Tired 2:26 18. Ah, Holy Jesus 0:39 19. A Farm in Minnesota 2:47 20. Forgiveness Waltz 3:59 21. Chopin's Heart 2:06 22. Xian Bookstore 0:53 23. A Little More Than Me 2:28 24. My Broken Heart is Miss (sic)You 3:36 25. Lord, Keep Us Steadfast In Your Word 1:23 1. CHURCH DIRECTORY tell me what's your number what's your new address you knew me so long ago still i must confess i ain't done much wandering i'm still here today so if you want to look me up this is where i'll stay in the church directory you'll know where to find me you look through the yearbooks of our early stages and you memorize the listings in the yellow pages i'll be like them photographs from 1921 where everyone's out on the stairs in the April sun in the church directory... every year they take a picture of the latest class and display it in the basement up behind the glass and after my obituary fades without a trace i won't need no newspaper because i got a place in the church directory... 2. COME THOU LONG EXPECTED JESUS 3. WORKIN' MY COMMITTEE I go out to church now workin' my committee for the Lord I go every second Tuesday night workin' my committee for the Lord Jesus called disciples workin' that committee for the Lord yeah he went down to the lakeshore workin' that committee for the Lord St. Paul hit the road now workin' that committee for the Lord he's using voice and pen and paper workin' that committee for the Lord Luther took his hammer workin' that committee for the Lord yeah he walked up to the front door workin' that committee for the Lord Mildred goes to church now workin' her committee for the Lord she got her needle and her thread now workin' her committee for the Lord 4. FOUR CANDLES we celebrate a new year a few weeks before the calendar we shovel off the sidewalks unlock all the doors we're gonna light four candles we get to hang blue paraments keep those flower vases filled put up the banner with the trumpets we serve on the altar guild we're gonna light four candles the wait is nearly over 5. OUT BEHIND THE OLD HOTEL there's a convention in town let's go out behind the old hotel there were two young lovers they went out behind the old hotel them workers quit the graveyard shift they went out behind the old hotel built that new expressway starting out behind the old hotel 6. COLD, BUT I DON'T MIND you got something you think you need you look at me like i cannot afford this but every morning and every evening i got something right outside my door i'm cold, but i don't mind yeah i'm cold, but i'll be fine cold, but it's alright i'm cold, but i don't mind you send me postcards of sunny weather you tend your flowers on new year's day i leave my gloves on the radiator thank you for asking, but i'm gonna stay cold i don't mind yeah i'm cold, but i'll be fine cold, but it's alright i'm cold, but i don't mind 7. LET ME BE YOURS you will never leave me i can never see you you have come to free me i can never break loose let me be yours i divide and blow up you arrive and fill in how i try to grow up you welcome the children let me be yours you set me in motion i don't know where to start you can still the oceans you bang around in my heart let me be yours 8. LOCAL ROAD never driven it myself but i've seen it many times driving fast alone to see my girl across the borderline up ahead i see the sign local road exits to the side i don't need to drive it i just need to pass it by local road turns off from the eastbound lane and tells me i will soon be holding her in my arms again all the yellow fields look the same dirty trucks in single file then i see the sign with basic name and it's only fifty miles until i see her smile local road exits to the side i don't need to drive it i just need to pass it by local road turns off from the eastbound lane and tells me i will soon be holding her in my arms again it's good to have a landmark on your way to watch for as you go everybody needs some ritual this i know i watch for local road local road exits to the side i don't need to drive it i just need to pass it by local road turns off from the eastbound lane and tells me i will soon be holding her in my arms again 9. THE PROPHETSTOWN TORNADO just me and God inside the car beneath the tollway overpass out in nowhere illinois sheets of rain on window glass and when it all passed before me it looked so good it was the prophetstown tornado the newsman on the FM dial signed off and ran for cover my car received the final broadcast as the twister crossed above her and when it all passed before me it looked so good it was the prophetstown tornado there was pure electric heat when the lightning struck the land i wondered 'bout that tall blonde girl who put the ring upon my hand and when my lifetime passed before me it looked so good it was the prophetstown tornado 88's my favorite number 10. THE LONELINESS OF HAPPINESS people love to hear you sing the blues they want to be there for you when you lose they understand it when you pay your dues but when the world goes right your way no, they don't want to hear about your day they're quickly running out of things to say you get the loneliness of happiness yeah it's the loneliness of happiness i'm so lonely 'cause i'm happy i'm so happy but i'm so lonely you're feeling low and they get in deep 'cause the Bible says to weep with those who weep well yeah, that's a promise anyone could keep didn't it also tell us to rejoice with those who do and with one voice? well, people rarely ever make that choice you get the loneliness of happiness yeah it's the loneliness of happiness i'm so lonely 'cause i'm happy i'm so happy but i'm so lonely people love to hear you sing the blues 11. IN THEE IS GLADNESS 12. FIND YOUR WAY TO PRAGUE so you're getting old just standing in your field with many acres left behind the plow you're feeling like you've said all this before and you need to sort it out once and for all there's a place for you it's what you gotta do you gotta find your way to prague so you wanna get yourself out of the dust and you're needing some perspective on it all when you're standing in the eastern bloc the whole wide world starts looking small there's a place for you it's what you gotta do you gotta find your way to prague set out on the 50th parallel feel the change with every step down the track Czechoslavakia hello never be the same when you get back there's a place for you it's what you gotta do you gotta find your way to prague 13. ASHES i got ashes on my forehead and i'm trying hard to learn this dust that i have started from is where i shall return and i will follow out of love 'cause there is nothing i can earn i got ashes on my forehead and i'm trying hard to learn sometime in the dead of winter this Wednesday rolls around we got purple on the altar we got snow upon the ground and this world starts spinning slower and we sing some quiet songs facing our mortality and all that we done wrong i got ashes on my forehead and i'm trying hard to learn this dust that i have started from is where i shall return and i will follow out of love 'cause there is nothing i can earn i got ashes on my forehead and i'm trying hard to learn forty days in the wilderness forty days on the ark driving home this evening i can still trace the mark everybody sees the big sun setting everybody rides the hearse yeah, but you can't build up nothin' 'til you knock down somethin' first i got ashes on my forehead and i'm trying hard to learn this dust that i have started from is where i shall return and i will follow out of love 'cause there is nothing i can earn i got ashes on my forehead and i'm trying hard to learn 14. CAUTIOUS SPRINGTIME BLUES someday all my money will be guaranteed someday all my money will be sure someday all my money will come back to me and there will be no more of these cautious springtime blues someday my sweet baby will be guaranteed someday my sweet baby will be sure someday my sweet baby will come back to me and there will be no more of these cautious springtime blues someday all my daydreams will be guaranteed someday all my daydreams will be sure someday all my daydreams will come back to me and there will be no more of these cautious springtime blues 15. WE'RE CREATING MONSTERS they want an overhead projector and a las vegas chorus video collage and a bad guitarist there is nothing here you would need that hymnal for children leave your brains at the sanctuary door so we dumb this down dumb this down we're creating monsters creed and kyrie they don't know how to say take it over sixty minutes you can't make 'em stay we have an opportunity to rise to the occasion but we'd rather have capacity than a congregation so we dumb this down dumb this down we're creating monsters 16. MY APOLOGY well, it looks like the time is upon me to take an account of my acts i appreciate your attention yeah, you can sit back and relax yeah, i got a hundred sorrys and a hundred thank yous too and i'm needing a new beginning and some peace (that depends on you) so this is my confession Lord, have mercy on me so this is my confession accept my apology yeah i'm sorry for being so cynical but i'm surrounded by bigots and fools who say your love is a heavenly paycheck and faith is all about rules but i'm guilty of going the opposite way in the things i do and i say when i carelessly discount my freedom and i sit here cheapening grace so this is my confession Lord, have mercy on me so this is my confession accept my apology yeah i'm sorry for not being patient i'm sorry for falling apart and i thank you for your understanding i'm so sorry for breaking your heart and i'm sorry for being so stupid i'm just not using my head yeah the heart can get you in trouble but i'm a good few hours from dead so this is my confession Lord, have mercy on me so this is my confession accept my apology yeah 17. TIRED TIRED TIRED i'm so tired of songs about drinking i don't care to ever hear it again i'm so bored by your self-pity call me when you got something new to sing 'cause i'm tired tired tired and i've had it up to here tired tired tired you got me covering my ears i'm tired tired tired i've had just about enough of you i'm so tired of teenaged smokers standing on the corner going nowhere slow passing 'round a lighter cussing and complaining i don't wanna hear it i don't wanna know 'cause i'm tired tired tired and i've had it up to here tired tired tired you got me covering my ears i'm tired tired tired i've had just about enough of you i'm so tired of idiot parents tearing their children down every day it's no wonder they grow up smoking and singing about drinking their lives away i'm tired tired tired and i've had it up to here tired tired tired you got me covering my ears i'm tired tired tired i've had just about enough of you 18. AH, HOLY JESUS 19. A FARM IN MINNESOTA (by J. Rundman, Bruce Rundman, with text by Louis Simpson) the corn rows walk the earth crowding like mankind between the fences feeding on sun and rain are broken down by hail or perish of incalculable drought and we who tend them from the ground up lieutenants of this foot cavalry leaning on fences to watch our green men never move an inch who cares for us? our beds are sold at an auction the Bible and the sword, these are bequeathed to children who prefer a modern house our flesh has been consumed only to make more lives but when our heads are planted under the church from those empty pods we rise in the fields of death and are gathered by the angels and shine in the hands of God 20. FORGIVENESS WALTZ it's like a dance it's like a wheel less like math less like a deal more like a heartbreak beginning to heal we can start over we know forgiveness these are hard words to hear in a world where nothing is free and it's hard to trust in a promise that sounds too good to believe but know that it's true this is for you it's like a dance it's like a wheel less like math less like a deal more like a heartbreak beginning to heal we can start over we know forgiveness it's so easy to drown in the numbers and judgements and earnings keeping score, keeping track, keeping time as the hours keep turning but you can turn a new way it's a new day it's like a dance it's like a wheel less like math less like a deal more like a heartbreak beginning to heal we can start over we know forgiveness 21. CHOPIN'S HEART sometime after the funeral they took his heart back East but those greedy Nazis would not let it be that, there, is Chopin's heart the Nazis brought his heart West where this had all begun it got home to Warsaw when the war was done that, there, is Chopin's heart you stand in that cathedral you learn about it all you see where Chopin's heart is buried in the wall that, there, is Chopin's heart yeah, Frederick Chopin's heart 22. XIAN BOOKSTORE at the xian bookstore there is product to be sold so over there in China there's some little 8-year-old working in a factory and rarely going home she's assembling plastic pencil cases with the words to that "Footprints" poem well, i wonder if the kids who buy those Bible action playsets ever stage a "cleansing of the temple" re-enactment? now no one knows for sure but i think it's safe to say if Jesus hadn't risen he'd be rolling in his grave 23. A LITTLE MORE THAN ME i knew the laws of the church and the laws of the land and the laws of this world like the back of my hand i try to do what's good i try to do what's clean i try to live like a righteous man but something kept me up night after night i broke a hundred laws for every one i kept right it's gonna take a little more than me yeah, to get me free it's gonna take a little more than me to get things right yeah, to get things right i searched all over the world and the back of my mind i searched so hard but i could not find a sure escape from my great distress and i was in one helluva mess then i came to realize nothing i do is gonna get me by it's gonna take a little more than me yeah, to get me free it's gonna take a little more than me to get things right yeah, to get things right then i came to realize only you are gonna get me by take me high let me fly yeah, it took a little more than me yeah, to get me free oh yeah, it took a little more than me to get things right yeah, to get things right it's gonna be alright 24. MY BROKEN HEART IS MISS (SIC) YOU (by J. Rundman, David Casimir) you have you life and i bent it is very busy too my heart say yes but soul does know my broken heart is miss you anyway was i hoping to write you to tell you i'm getting married but were broke up now because i want you to write a song for us but that is not going to happen now 25. LORD, KEEP US STEADFAST IN YOUR WORD Lord, keep us steadfast in your word curb those who by deceit or sword would wrest the kingdom from your son and bring to naught all he has done Lord Jesus Christ your power made known for you are Lord of Lords alone defend your Holy Church that we may sing your praise triumphantly O comforter of priceless worth send peace and unity on earth support us in our final strife and lead us out of death to life