Andy Sneed

(Copyright 2007 Andy Sneed)

Feel like I just learned to talk yesterday
Like I got sixteen or seventeen words I might say
And though I put them together every possible way
Still can’t communicate

Like when I bought a guitar, didn't know how to play
I had exactly two chords, very little to say
And the guy in the store could've been Jimmy Page
When he played Stairway and Dancing Days

Everything I say sounds stupid
Everything I write reads wrong
I was making perfect sense till you came along
Tied up my tongue
Now every sentence seems so stilted
Every paragraph feels forced
And when it comes to spoken language I’m even worse
It’s like I’ve been cursed

I had a perfect brainstorm late last night
So I roused myself and turned on the light
Filled up every scrap of paper in sight
And my logic was tight

Then I met you this morning intending to show you
The eloquent thoughts I so feverishly wrote you
But as I reviewed them a lump in my throat grew
What was this tripe? Could this be right?
 

You know, I could be a preacher or I could be a teacher
The most extroverted creature, motivational speaker or
I could be a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer
So highly sought after but that wouldn’t matter
‘Cause I’m convinced you’d have the same effect on me

See, I feel like I just learned to talk yesterday
Like I got sixteen or seventeen words I might say
And though I put them together every possible way
Still can’t communicate

(Copyright 2006 Andy Sneed)

Sometimes at night, I have a dream
About a problem I’m working on
And I can see things when deep asleep
That I could not see when wide awake
How to solve the problem, fix it right up
And by the way, did I mention

That I – I also dream of you
And I wish I could fix this too

Like every morning, in the paper
The crossword puzzle is what I love
I check the clues, I find the key
I fill in all the ones that jump out at me
And when I get hopelessly stuck
Just come back later, pick it back up

Well I – am puzzled over you
And I wish I could pick this up too

I see somebody out in the street
I used to know him, by chance we meet
I can’t remember his name just then
I think of tricks to introduce him
Not till the next day on that same street
Not thinking of it, comes back to me

Well I - am (not) thinking about you
And I wish this would come back too
Wish I could pick back up with you
Wish I could fix this too

(Copyright 2007 Andy Sneed)

How is Mom
How is Tom
How are you
What is this job you got
You've been back east
Twenty years at least
Now you’re moving on
Can I come along?

One night in Topeka
"Dressing on the side"
I’m trying to reach you
But this state’s too damn wide

(Copyright 2006 Andy Sneed)


I remember sitting in my yellow-painted bedroom
Listening to the Cars album "Panorama"
I was working late on a social studies project
So I had it playing over and over and over
On the white plastic General Electric turntable
I inherited from my big sister Julie
It was a white plastic General Electric hand-me-down turntable
 

She broke it in on her Elton John records
Like "Caribou" and "Tumbleweed Connection"
"Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy"
And she nearly wore out "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road"
On that white plastic General Electric turntable
She got it from Santa when she was 13 years old
It was a white plastic General Electric stereo turntable (with FM radio!)

She taught me "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"
And how to sing harmony at the piano
Then came that big day out at Rose’s
When she bought her a new Soundesign stereo
And I got me a white plastic General Electric hand-me-down turntable

Christmas ’82 I was into Van Halen
So my bearded cousin Graham got me "Diver Down"
The square package under the tree was "Fair Warning"
So by my birthday me and my friends were rocking out
To the white plastic General Electric turntable
I inherited from my big sister Julie
It was a white plastic General Electric hand-me-down turntable

The next year it was spinning U2 at Red Rocks
And a little bit later "Zen Arcade" by Husker Du
When my first girlfriend Susanne broke up with me
Just about the only thing that got me through
Was the white plastic General Electric turntable
I inherited from my big sister Julie
It was a white plastic General Electric hand-me-down turntable

She took me to my first REM concert
She let me come to parties at her apartment
It all started that one day at Rose’s
When she bought her a new Soundesign stereo
…And I got me a white plastic General Electric hand-me-down turntable