TEARSTAINED LYRICS

1. The Old House On The Mountainside

The old house on the mountainside
Wooden porch and peeling white
Creaky floors, windows long and tall
Steep narrow stairway to the cellar

The old house on the mountainside [x2]

The first bedroom had an aura of gloom
The portrait's eyes followed you 'round the room
Dark closet which was never closed
A dark hallway from which shapes evolved
And the portrait of Jesus on the wall
It's eyes follow you around the room
That catholic icon, it creeped me out
It's eyes follow you around the room

The old house on the mountainside [x4]

[Solo]

When the trains passed everything trembled
The view from the porch - opposite mountainside
Divided by the Allegheny River
This old house occupies so many of my dreams

[Solo]

I can walk through this house in my mind
The dream is different every time

But in this house I seem to be
Time and time again
Time and time again [x4]

[Solo]

2. Crawling With Tarantulas

Driving in a car
I'm with Evil Eye
On a lonely stretch of highway
In the middle of the day
We're in a convertable
Top is up, windows are down
The music is loud
It's a beautiful day

The interior of the car
It's moving like it's alive
The roof - the dash
It's moving, something is underneath

[Solo]

They are tarantulas
Dozens of them within the car
Clawing their way through
the fabric and the dashboard
We are suddenly
Covered with tarantulas

[Solo]

Travelling at high speed
Spiders erupt all over the car
And then.....I awake!

[Solo]

[ending riff written in 1989]

3. The Coffin

A dream of my grandmother's house (again)
She had a baby that died
Corpse placed in a coffin
Buried in the cellar
And someone else died
A second coffin was filled
Then my brother was talking
to the baby's living corpse
A strong scent of rot
As the dead cried

The family is perverse
Basement burial plots
My brother is hallucinating
Or is the corpse crying
He opens the lid
And starts to inscribe
On the inside of the coffinlid
He writes strange symbols
I then come upstairs
And I looked outside
Rose bushes were coming alive
I've seen this before

[Solo]

Grandfather's corpse is buried
Along with more rotting caskets
Revisit the dead downstairs
Why are these coffins there?

[Solo]

Remove the wallboards
Behind the walls
Are more remains
And strange inscriptions
Grandmother explained
These burials are special
We watch over
Our own dead

The baby's name was Chrissa
Wrapped in a blanket
With a note within
Such strange visions

4. When The Sun And Moon Share The Sky

In so many dreams the sky is shared
The sun is in the east, moon to the west

A scarlet horizon looms overhead
A growing storm approaches, the clouds are red
I soon take notice and I wonder why
When the sun and moon share the sky

The sun's a perfect orb, the moon is full
What do these symbols mean? They're multiple

The sun is rising, cradled in the east
The moon is setting into the cloudless west
This seems pertinent and I wonder why
When the sun and moon share the sky

Something is going to happen, I don't know what
All the signs are there, feel it in my gut

[Solo]

5. Mesta Mansion

This big old and creepy mansion at the end of the road
It is old and deteriorated
Inside is a labyrinth, can not find my way around
Lost and wandering, doors and stairways everywhere

I am in my own dream

[Solo]

I can't seem to find my way out
Wandering the halls in the dark

One room leads to another room and another room
I seem to be going in circles
So many winding stairs and balconies
The furniture is nineteenth century

[Solo]

The rooms all change in different dreams
Always a labyrinth or a maze
Elaborate and extremely real
This old house is seductively surreal

6. The Plague Dream

Those first pink blemishes are the first sign of infection
Within hours they blister and the pustules erupt with blood
Pain, agony, screaming for mercy, the body begins to seize
Choking on blood and cringing in horror, a victim of this disease

The plague is spreading, quarantine the uninfected
Clinics full of the diseased and dying, panic takes control
In this hospital room I see them, victims die in blood
People in various stages as ripened pustules erupt

The plague is spreading, quarantine the uninfected
Clinics full of the diseased and dying, paranoia takes control
Men, women and children, none are spared weak or strong
Try to stay isolated when I notice a blemish on my arm

[Solo]

I'm working in this clinic and patients keep coming in
Bodies are marked up with these blemishes on their skin
Contagious and infectious, how does this thing spread?
Once the pink dots arrive it's not long until you're dead

Mankind has no defense, we each just wait to die
White coats are sprayed with blood as fevers running high
Clinics overflowing and we are all soon dead
Relentless spread of this plague and I am infected

The Plague Dream [x4]

7. The Porcelain Doll

I am very young (2 or 3) and with my mother
We went next door to the neighbors
My mother was ill, she laid down inside
As she slept, my eyes open wide

Something is scurrying along the roof
Two windows seem to terrify me
A porcelain doll peering in from above
It is alive and up on the roof

[Solo]

Looking at me....Letting me know it sees me
Mother is asleep
Looking at me....Letting me know it sees me
Mother is asleep

[Solo]

Back and forth, taunting me with an empty gaze
Terror and fear, helpless and scared
This cold pale white face with empty eyes
This image is meant to terrorize (me)

[Solo]

That porcelain doll is looking at me
Taunting me, watching me

8. Not Quite Awake

Slowly waking, that moment awaking
Unconscious fading, conscious awakening
But I can't move - I'm frozen in place
I feel paralyzed - Body unresponsive

What is it?

Cannot move, cannot seem to wake up
Cannot seem to get my body to react
Heart rate climbing, chest is pounding
Pulse is racing, between conscious states

What is it?
Something hypnogogic?
What is it?

What she did to me had some effect on me
I seemed to achieve some sort of lucidity

Fading out of sleep and slowly coming awake
Being conscious and unable to move my body

What is it? Something hypnogogic?

Not Quite Awake [x4]

[Solo]







TEARSTAINED LYRICS