LYRICS LIFE IN A BEACH TOWN

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LIFE IN A BEACH TOWN The tourist traps are hopping/ The bayfront bars are rocking and it's barely even noon / Won't you listen to the tunes/ The bands all sound like Buffett / The out of towners love it when that steel drummer takes the stage / He's a legend in this place / The whole crowd is swaying to a reggae song / Life in a beach town

The local folks have seen it all / They remember when this place was small but now all that's changed / So they grumble and complain about the college kids with fake IDs / The traffic jams and the crowded streets and those high rise hotels / But that's what pays the bills / And come Monday morning they'll go back home / Life in a beach town

So hang a closed sign on the door / They're locking up this little store 'cause outside it's 85 degrees / Grab my fins and my fishing gear / Let's hit the beach and get out of here / I feel the need for sand beneath my feet

Pete breaks out an old guitar / He bought it from a guy in a bar by the name of Shrimper Joe / For twenty bucks and a six to go / A crowd starts forming / They've got Coke and Captain Morgan / Pete's known to have a few / Hey fire up the barbecue / It's volleyball and blenders all day long/ Life in a beach town

Now the pelicans are putting on a show for the big yachts and the charter boats and the sailors out harnessing the breeze / And all the sunburned fishermen trying to reel that big one in / It's a crazy life out past the reef / Now there's a painted sky beyond the pier / So before we head on out of here let's raise our glasses to the sea / And make a toast to you and me / We all applaud as the golden sun goes down / Life in a beach town

 

HOME AGAIN There's a hammock / There's a woman / There's a baby / And there's me / And there's a seagull sitting on a half sunk fishing boat / And there's a sail sliding across the sea / It's good, good to be home again / And feel the sunshine on my skin / And listen to the sound of the wind / It's nice knowing you'll be here for a while / So kick your shoes off and smile / Ain't it good to be home again

There's moonlight and there's laughter / There's a song, a seaside lullaby / And there's a feeling like I don't need a rhyme or a reason / So pleasing to be back by your side / It's good, good to be home again / And hear those waves rolling in / Where in the world have I been / It's funny how the seasons just disappear a little faster every year / Ain't it good to be home again

It's amazing how it suddenly seems so clear / The reason that I'm here / Ain't it good to be home again / Just for a moment the world doesn't know where I am / No needs and no demands / Ain't it good to be home again / There's a hammock / There's a woman / There's a baby / And there's me /

 

EVEN THE BAD DAYS ARE GOOD My first moment as a member of the human race / They spanked my butt and told me “Welcome to this place” /I kicked and screamed but what could I do /When the doc said we're gonna circumcise you /No doubt I could have had a better day / I turned five and they sent me off to school / Where I memorized prayers and I thought I was pretty cool / Until one day in the middle of the Our Father I couldn't hold back a trickle of water / Please God, get me out of here, Amen

You could say I've hit some bumps along the road / But why complain ‘cause that's just the way it goes / Even the bad days are good / I wouldn't change a thing even if I could / Sure every now and then life drags me down / But here I am still hanging around / There was this nun back in first grade who said wipe that silly grin off your face / Hey tell me why I should If even my bad days are good

Went off to college and I got that business degree / ‘Cause I heard that the corporate world was the place to be / But I soon found out that I didn't fit in and swore I'd never wear that tie again / So much for my future as a CEO / So I bought a guitar and I figured out how to play

Walked into a bar and I wound up on a stage / Singing James Taylor, Croce and Buffett / And all the drunks threw dollars in the bucket / And the boss said “See you next Saturday night” / Thank God that tie fit a little too tight or I might not be standing here singing this song tonight / Now even the bad days are good / I wouldn't change a thing if I could / Sure every now and then life drags me down but here I am still hanging around / There was this nun back in first grade / Who said wipe that silly grin off your face / Hey tell me why I should / If even my bad days are good

I'll be that old guy on the stage who's still got that silly grin on his face like everybody should / ‘Cause even the bad days are good / My first moment as a member of the human race / They spanked my butt and told me “Welcome to this place”

 

THAT SEPTEMBER Doesn't seem like all that long ago / I was a skinny kid so far away from home / I was out to solve life's big mysteries / Searching for a clue down by the sea / Me I was running from it all / And you were skipping out of school as I recall / That sandy shore seemed to stretch forever / Out to places we'd never been before / Until that night we disappeared together / And suddenly we weren't strangers any more / Do you remember that September / Was it friendship or loneliness or love / Whatever it was was good enough that September

I'd spent all summer working on the dock / My skin was brown from days out in the sun / I still recall the first time that we talked / Think I told you I was 21 / We sat out on the beach with my guitar / And played a midnight serenade under the stars / Those endless nights in the back of my old truck / We took those roads as far as they would go / On an empty tank of gas and a little luck / It's amazing we ever got back home / REPEAT CHORUS

Now another summer's coming to an end / And autumn lies just around the bend / And I'm taken back in time once again / 'Cause I still remember that September / When whatever we had was good enough / That September

 

THE WHOLE NINE YARDS (Stone/Royster) The slam of the gavel set me free / She got all she ever needed / All I asked to judge to give to me was tied up down at the marina / 27 feet, white sails, and polished fiberglass / I christened her "Island Time" and set sail for paradise

CHORUS She got the house on the lake / And her own live-in maid / A swimming pool and a new corvette / A savings account and alimony checks / But I got the ocean near St. Barts / The trade winds and the stars / When I raise my sails on island time / 27 feet of waterline / I got the whole nine yards

7AM I bet she's in her car bumper to bumper in traffic / I just woke up and went up on deck and fell back to sleep in my hammock / She's got all the toys and all the noise wrapped up in a city crowd / While I'm down here on Island Time all stretched out on the bow (REPEAT CHORUS)

 

THE HARBOR Long ago and far away / Back on graduation day they say he had this wild little scheme / To haul a boat down to the bay / Hop aboard and sail away / Chance it all and chase that crazy dream / No house, no wife, no kids / No better time than this / But they shook their heads and said what's wrong with you / So the story goes that boat sailed on / And left him on the dock alone / He watched as it faded out of view / It all looked so good there on that resume when he told them all just what they want to hear/ Now it's Monday morning 8AM / He sits there in that traffic jam / Brake lights as far as he can see / Just to walk into some cubicle with eight hours of time to kill / Where every day is just the same routine / They all say he made the right decision / On the day he watched that boat disappear/ But in a conference call one day it finally hit him / What in the world am I still doing here?

CHORUS Sometime I feel like a fish out of water/ Baby can't you see / That the safest place for a boat is in the harbor / But that's not the place where boats were meant to be

After 20 years he's thinking about / Cashing in and getting out but the wife says hey buddy, not so fast / This big house is comfortable / To quit now ain't practical / Let's pay some bills and make that money last / He said I'm tired of putting dreams on hold / I'm getting bored and I'm getting old / I'm in the mood for a little mystery / We're surrounded by so much stuff / Don't you think we've had enough / Let's do something stupid, you and me / She looked at him and said you're going crazy / He answered I've been saying that for years / Then she said there's just one thing could you explain to me / What in the world are we still doing here? / REPEAT CHORUS

On the day they put that boat into the water / Before they left the whole world in their wake / He took one last long look over the harbor / And said this is one chance I just gotta take/ REPEAT CHORUS

A WAY WITHOUT WORDS She talks to me in a voice nobody else can hear / Funny how I read her loud and clear though she hasn't made a sound / It's a crazy world / On the talk shows everybody screams and shouts / Seems they all want to drown each other out / As the audience goes wild / I shut it off, turn around and see her smile

CHORUS She's got a way without words / To tell me when she's happy / To show me when she hurts / She doesn't need to make a scene / 'Cause she says it best when she doesn't say a thing / Every thought unspoken is heard / She's got a way without words

Crazy me/ How did it take so long to figure out / That I love you isn't really said out loud / It's in the little things you do / And it's a mystery how two hearts can share one single state of mind / And communicate in a way words can't define / I can read her like a book / And she can say it all with just one look / REPEAT CHORUS

No doubt she can chew me out / She can sure get on my case / When I'm way way out of line she's the one who can put me in my place / She can yell at the ump, call him a chump / She can laugh til she can't quit / But when I turn around and she's not there / I can still hear her whisper in my ear / REPEAT CHORUS

 

A FISHERMAN'S DAUGHTER That little diamond is way too tiny / She said is this the best ring you could buy me / Don't you know this is her big day / And daddy's girl always gets her way / But little does she know that not so long ago / On that weekend they didn't talk / It's not quite what she thought / Three days on a desolate coast / South of the border down in Mexico / A sleeping bag and an old guitar / Camping out under the stars / A quick flight away from one angry fiancée / You should have heard her girlfriends talking while on that first night he went walking past a shack down by the water / That's when he first saw the fisherman's daughter

It wasn't planned, it just kind of happened / He waved at her and she smiled at him / Her daddy didn't like that much / He turned around and went back in the hut / But later on that night between dusk and morning light / I guess Spanish class paid off / They laughed and joked and talked / Not like the babe in Bride Magazine / A ragged shirt and some worn out jeans / Big brown eyes and skin so tan / Kind of shy kind of innocent / And he told her about his girl in her “gotta have it” world / The credit cards, the catalogs / The nose job and the spas / And the night got dark and the fire grew hotter / Hanging out with a fisherman's daughter

For a girl raised on nothing she sure was something else / For the first time in ages he could simply be himself / They spent that weekend all alone together and wished somehow the now could last forever

Somebody's having a real bad hair day freaking out and fighting with the bridesmaid / The church is packed, it's half past noon / Nobody's seen or heard from the groom / But just down the street he stumbles to his feet / Lays down a tip of fifty bucks / The bartender says “good luck” / He made it there in the nick of time / Her dad was mad and her mom was crying / Before he had a chance to say a thing / He heard those church bells ring / Here comes the bride marching down the aisle / He could hear his own heartbeat / Was it the booze or just cold feet? Then the best man grinned and the bride got ill / When he looked at her and said “I gotta bail” / I really hate to stand you up at the altar / But I'm in love with a fisherman's daughter

 

THE WIND A little boy sitting on the shore with his father / Throws a pail of sand straight into the water / He says daddy I'm filling up the sea / Funny how that little guy sounds like me / Neither of us fathom what's beyond our control / But I remember this story that an old sailor once told / He said

CHORUS I can build myself a boat, I can sail away / I can plow through storms, I can cut through waves / I can chart my course according to my plan / I can name my final destination / I can head my bow in that direction / But will I reach that port? / Can't say if or when / 'Cause I can trim my sails but I can't control the wind

Sometimes I get caught up in complexities / And think that I can solve all of life's mysteries / But every time I come up with an answer it's just another pail of sand in the sea / Sooner or later it washes up on the beach / And this ocean of questions remains ever so deep REPEAT CHORUS

A little boy playing on the shore with his father / Throws a pail of sand on the water

TURN AROUND AND RUN (K. McGuire) From a week in paradise I got used to holding you close every night / As we come down from the clouds and touch the ground / You're holding my hand so tight / But if paradise is behind us / Where we learned less is really more / And all we needed was each other / Then what are we coming back for

CHORUS Let's turn around and run back to the sea and the sun / Don't need much to have fun / Just some lotion and some rum / We could snorkel for free / And just hang out on the beach / Lay around in the sun, smartest thing we've ever done / Let's turn around and run

This big old city is so full of people buzzing around like flies / All stressed out in their everyday world / Dressed up in their suits and their ties / Trying to achieve the next level / With a bonus they can buy a new car / Or a big house just to keep their family / They think those things are who they are / REPEAT CHORUS

We were suffering from an illusion we could leave all this behind / No choice but collect our baggage / Get ready for that eight to five grind / As we lugged our way to the exit I could see the question in her eyes / So I anwered with a smile and took her hand / Next plane back to paradise / REPEAT CHORUS

 

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