Lyrics Method Acting / Cortez The Killer - Dave Rawlings Machine

Method Acting / Cortez The Killer

There’s no beginning to the story
A bookshelf sinks into the sand
And a language learned, forgot in turn
Studied once again
It’s a shocking bit of footage
Viewed on a shitty TV screen
You can squint at it
The snow and static
To make out what it means
And keep stretching that antenna
Hoping that it will come clear
I need some reception
A higher message
Please tell me what to feel
Cause I don’t know what tomorrow brings
It’s alive with such possibilities
But I know that I feel better when I sing
Burdens are lifted from me
That’s my voice rising
So T-Bone, please keep the tape rolling
Gil, keep strumming that guitar
We need a record of our failures
We must document our love
I sat too long in my silence
Grown too old on my pain
To shed this skin, be born again
It starts with an ending
And I don’t know what tomorrow brings
It’s full of such possibilities
But I know that I feel better when I sing
Burdens are lifted from me
That’s my voice rising
It’s not a movie, no private screening
This method acting--I call it living
It’s like a fountain, the door is open
We have a problem with no solution
But to love and to be loved
So thank you friends for the time we’ve shared
Your love stays with me like sunlight and air
And though I truly wish I could keep hanging around here
My joy is covering me, soon I will disappear
He came dancing across the water
With his galleons and guns
Looking for the new world
In the palace in the sun
On the shore lay Montezuma
With his coca leaves and pearls
In his halls, he often wondered
The secrets of the world
And his subjects gathered round him
Like the leaves around a tree
In their clothes of many colors
For the angry gods to see
And the women all looked beautiful
And the men stood straight and strong
They offered life in sacrifice
So that others could go on
Hate was just a legend
And war was never known
The people worked together
And they lifted many stones
Then they carried them to the flatlands
But they died along the way
And they built up with their bare hands
What we still can’t do today
And I know she’s living there
And she loves me to this day
I just can’t remember when
Or how I lost my way