South Ridgeway Avenue Lyrics
all songs by Ken Shane
except "Sacred Heart" by Ken Shane/Ed Hart
Summer and Smoke
Good Friday
When I Loved You
South Ridgeway Avenue
Invisible
Sacred Heart
Grace
World Without End
The Motions
Disappeared
My Grandmother's Hands
Summer and Smoke
Summer has ended again this year
The carousel's run out of steam
September is always so bittersweet
The beginning and end of a dream
And me I just missed the pageant
Miss America turned a blind eye
The world in my hand, turned into sand
I guess I'll never know why
And it's all just summer and smoke
I've been there when the lights go on
It's never the same when you're in on a joke
It's all just summer and smoke
Superstar surfers riding the crest
Of a wave that won't ever break
While back on the beach it's just history and me
And a past that continues to ache
I'm afraid the parade's passed me by this time
The boardwalk so empty and still
While these ghostly towns, all ups and downs
Sleep in the South Jersey chill
Chorus
Now I don't want to be some wounded old hero
Who never came home from the war
I'd rather lay down my guns and not get any older
In this place where the sea meets the shore
Chorus
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Good Friday
Smoke from my cigarette
Curls around the kitchen light
I'm counting all my matches
And I'm stumbling through the night
Like a pilgrim new to Plymouth
I keep foundering on the rocks
But there's a key if I can find it
That will open every lock
I'm blind and I'm ambitious
And I don't know when to quit
Some will linger for awhile
'Til they've seen enough of it
I can't pretend to be surprised
By their anger anymore
I just wish for once I'd hold on
Before love walks out the door
And it's Good Friday
I can hear the church bells ring
Someone died for all my sins
And I give thanks to him
And it's Good Friday
But I don't know what that means
Because there is no good this Friday
There's just heaven and hell
And me here in between
The fear and the fire, suspending
Like nothing in the world I've ever known
I'm out on the wire, pretending
But there's nowhere in the world to call home
I've heard about redemption
I cannot believe it's true
That every broken dream that's ever been
Can just be healed again like new
So now I sit here wide awake
Through one more endless night
Playing movies in my head
And crawling to the light
Chorus
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When I Loved You
We'll be friends again one day you said
I just need a little time to decompress
But as the years go by, it appears that I
Could not have mattered less
I know people say things carelessly
When they're caught between the devil and the deep blue sea
If you'd bothered to look, man I was really shook
But that's a story for another day
When I loved you
I felt lonely in the middle of a crowd
When I loved you
You did so well you should be very proud
So you can tell yourself and everybody else
Abou the crazy things I used to do
Oh, when I loved you
So when you tell another story about the way things used to be
How you're lucky to be out of there alive
Excuse me if I seem a little cynical
I'm just using what you left me to survive
I know people tell lies to your face
When they're trapped between a rock and a very hard place
You tried everything to change me, but nothing seemed to work
Another story for another day
Chorus
Now I can't give you all the creature comforts
And the little precious treasures you're so fond of
But just between the two of us
The truth is since you're through with us
Nothing I could could give you would have ever
Been enough
When I loved you
When I loved you
So now you can tell yourself, tell everybody else
That I was crazy with the things I used to so
Oh, when I loved you
Oh, when I loved you
Oh, when I loved you
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South Ridgeway Avenue
Beside my grandfather's chair
On a wall above the living room couch
There was a portrait of FDR
Watching over our house
And from a window on the highest floor
I could look out to the sea
Across the wide and sunswept beach
And the boardwalk revelry
She'd been the Queen of the shore resorts
'Til she stumbled along the way
But if she was finally showing her age
She must have been a beauty in her day
Because I've never felt so much alive
And I've never known the things I knew
When I was in the street, still incomplete
On South Ridgeway Avenue
Everything's gonna be alright
Everything's gonna be alright
Close your eyes and just hold on tight
Everything's gonna be alright
It was the last time I remember
That my family lived together as one
We're spread out all across this country now
And Lord, a few of us are gone
And there were friends I never saw again
When the growing up was through
But I'll see them all again, I just don't know when
On South Ridgeway Avenue
Chorus
And I know, that sometimes you're lonely
And I know, you want to stay true
So you keep on walking
Down South Ridgeway Avenue
Let me sit here on this bench awhile
And feel the sunlight on my face
You see I've held on to my memories
And nothing's ever going to take their place
And you may wonder why there are tears in my eyes
And I wish I could explain it to you
But I can't make a sound
The ghosts are wandering down
South Ridgeway Avenue
Chorus
And I know, it's hard to be lonely
And I know, it's hard to stay true
So you keep walking
Down South Ridgeway Avenue
Just keep on walking
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Invisible
Young girls turn away from me now
I guess I've lost a step or two
But it's alright
Last time I loved a young girl
It was nearly my Waterloo
And women don't come around
I could guess the reasons why
But I've become so bored and jaded
I don't even pretend to try
First there's lightning with no sound
Then the rain comes pouring down
I've disappeared I can't be found
I'm invisible
I knew all about the risk
In the days before I fell
With my heart like a big red apple
And her looking like William Tell
I thought I understood
Guess I haven't learned it yet
If you go out into the storm
The odds are pretty good you're gonna get wet
Chorus
Repeat Chorus
I'm invisible
Invisible
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Sacred Heart
Houses lining every street
Tales of triumph and defeat
Dressed up in gray and gold
Behind every single door
There is someone else's story
Waiting to be told
But your sacred heart's still shining
Though the world may fall apart
When the road gets dark and cold
You lead me home to your sacred heart
These times are feeling pretty strange
Life is full of twists and changes
It's all part of the parade
Then angels suddenly appear
As heroes dry their tears
And the smoke begins to fade
And your sacred heart's still shining
Yeah it's shining in the night
When the road gets dark and cold
You lead me home to your sacred light
How quickly the summer ends
As the bitter wind blows into town
What made you go up there
When everyone else was coming down
Coming down
Chorus
I dreamed a dream that couldn't be
Adrift out on the open sea
And I can't even start
Without your sacred heart
Sacred heart
Sacred heart
Sacred heart
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Grace
If I
Could change
These things for you
I would
You know I would
Right now
Just holding on is all
That I
Can do
Seems like everytime I find the words
I just as quickly lose my nerve
And stare off into space
Looking for one moment
Of grace
I wish
That hearts
Wouldn't break like yours and mine
But they do
Ah you know they do
So if
Your heart breaks
You know that you'll find
Me waiting
Right here
To see you through
I know all too well what we've been through
And I know for sure that you would do
The same thing in my place
Looking for one moment
Of grace
I've heard about a mystery
From which there's no return
We don't decide our destiny
We can only hope to learn
So straps yourself into your seat
And hold on for the ride
We can't control the way hearts beat
But I'm right here by your side
So if
Someday
From someplace miles away
The road
That you're on
Has gone to ground
Just call
My name
You don't have to be afraid
You know
Where I
Will be found
And me I have these memories
The triumphs and the tragedies
That time cannot erase
But most of all one moment
Of grace
But most of all this moment
Of grace
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World Without End
I try to sleep
But sleep won't come
I reach out to hold you
Not thinking that you're gone
The walls close in
I call your name
The echoes sing
But it's not the same
But I know that there's a world without end
And it's a place, we'll all be living in
Yes I know that there's a world without end
And a chance, to begin our lives again
And I don't want to say goodbye
I don't want to have to cry
This way...not today
Cause I know that there's a world without end
For us someday
So much to say
But where to start
You knew all my changes
And you played them from the heart
So I'll say a prayer
Then walk away
And let the night take this endless day
Chorus
I found this faded photograph
I don't know the where or when
But it's you and me together
The way we've always been
And will be again
Chorus
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The Motions
I saw it coming
Like a movie or a dream
From out there in the desert
Far from where I should've been
I went down to the river
Trying to be alone
I watched that river flowing
And thought about my home
Gone, gone, gone
In the morning there's a moment
Before the memories start
Then it all comes roaring back
Like an arrow to my heart
So I pray for a diversion
To make these pictures stop
As long as I am breathing
I know that they will not
Gone, gone, gone
And trying to live without you takes a whole lot of devotion
I tell myself I'm moving on but I'm going through the motions
Time may heal us all but now this grief's as wide as oceans
I guess I'll have to be content
With going through the motions
Save me
I keep dreaming that we're falling
But we can rise again
September never looked this gray
The sky is full of rain
Looks like someone's got a plan
To wash away this pain
And when the sky is clear again
And when the rain departs
The sun will shine down on us all
And mend our broken hearts
Gone, gone, gone
Chorus
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Disappeared
These streets can look so forlorn here
Like a madonna streaked with tears
Winter isn't kind to these beach towns
So they sleep until summer draws near
But for me it's all in shadows now
Cause memory can be so weird
Those were the days leading up to the deluge
Right before it all disappeared
There was a carousel by the ocean
At a place they called the Million Dollar Pier
And it was all dressed up like New Year's Eve
In the middle of the year
And for me it's still there beyond that hill
Cause memory can be so weird
Those were the days leading up to the deluge
Right before it all disappeared
You can still encounter heroes
Out on the universal plain
And your lives can touch each others
And your chance can come again
So keep yours eyes fixed on the horizon
And your heart fixed firmly on your sleeve
Cause in the end the way you came into this world
Is the way your gonna leave
I remember the Angel of Philadelphia
Fell to earth in a shimmering light
And how the kids sang in four-part choirs
And how Jerry saved me life one night
And damn if I can't hear them singing still
Cause memory can be so weird
That was the soundtrack they played over the deluge
Then it all went quiet for a moment
Then it all disappeared
Then it all disappeared
Then it all disappeared
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My Grandmother's Hands
My grandmother's hands
Strong from the work
But soft as the fallen rain
She'd open the door
Smile up at me
Then quietly let me in
And what a world of wonder
Awaited my return
She'd sit me down and ease my pain
Without a word
Without a word
My grandmother's hands
On the rail of a ship
That brought her from miles away
The courage contained
In that tiny young frame
Is a miracle to this day
But she was just a dreamer
Adrift out on the sea
Dreaming of a new world
And a family
Her family
And on the endless motion
As I stare out to the sea
I swear that I can see that ship
And the Statue of Liberty
My grandmother's hands
Found another's to hold
And they travelled down through the years
There were children and friends
And houses and pets
And yes the occasional tear
But finally time's on no one's side
I watched her eyes grow dim
I saw her every chance I got
'Til she could no longer let me in
And oh the endless motion
As I stare out to the sea
I swear that I can see them both
And that's where I want to be
It's where I want to be
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