Lyrics The Robin Williams Tunnel - Mark Kozelek, Ben Boye, Jim White

The Robin Williams Tunnel

I’m writing that because I can
Because I can hold I pen in my hand
We walked along the sand yesterday and we fished on the rocky cove
Cracked mussels for days with a pocket knife
Walking on the rocks ain’t as easy as it was when I was 25
We caught no fish but that was alright
It was the most beautiful day I’ve had so far this year
My spirit was shining bright
We stopped on the way back at the Point Rey Station
I ate an enormous fresh Romaine salad with tomato and onion
I gotta say, it was a beautiful day
I gotta say, it was a beautiful northern California day
We drove back through the Robin Williams Tunnel
Came back and I opened up a Henry Miller novel
He advised to take an hour of your time each week to meditate on your life
And I did that today as I walked down the street
Am I being the best person I can be?
Am I being the best artist that I can be?
Am I being the best boyfriend I can be?
Am I taking care of my health the best that I can be?
I walked through the wharf and my ankle hurt
Walked past Robin Williams' wax figure at the wax museum
I bought jeans one size smaller than usual
Wishful thinking, I could barely even button
So much for my low carb diet
So much for my low carb diet
So much for my low carb diet
I ain’t giving up yet, gonna still keep trying
I came home, turned on the TV
Korea fires missile, Trump fires Comey
Another wonderful day in the wonderful world of TV
Caroline’s at work and the city is quiet and lonely
Was on the phone last night til four or five
Got off the phone, turned on the TV
Newsflash, Chris Cornell died
Went to sleep thinking, probably an overdose
At that point it was super unknown
Went into the studio to do a Happy Birthday video for a friend’s sixtieth
Seems like we were kids when we met and I recently had my fiftieth
By noon we all knew that Chris' death was suicide
Some people are scratching their heads out there, wondering why
George Michael, Chris Cornell, Scott Weiland, Prince
Equals rock and roll, plus drugs, plus middle age can be a lethal mix
Hemingway, Robin Williams, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Keith Emerson
Equals fame, plus aging, plus depression can fuck with your equilibrium
For some maybe life in this town ain’t so pointless
Who knows what goes on in the pits of other peoples' stomachs?
If you think rock and roll is a neverending party
Then why don’t you get that guitar out of your basement and give it a try,
buddy?
You see the performance, the adrenaline rush
But you don’t hear the fights on the phones
Through the hotel walls or on the tour bus
You see the silver screen and the perfectly edited bits
You don’t see the branches breaking off the trees
And the sticks falling into the river, floating adrift
We all want Holden Caulfield out there
Catching kids from falling off the cliff
We all want Holden Caulfield out there
Saving kids from falling off the cliffs
But Holden ain’t there and the kids are losing their kids
And the parents are losing their kids
At the Manchester Arena and the recent London stabbings
Yeah, England’s having a whole slew of bad shit
The loneliest nights can be those after shows
Staring at ceilings at faraway places all alone
Trying to figure out how to work the phone
Calling the front desk over and over asking for extra blankets
My mind gets so overloaded I try to distract myself
By tugging at my own dick to see if I can make something happen
But it usually doesn’t happen so I give up and I quit yanking it
So now I’m in Brisbane watching more shitty news
I get a hold of my girlfriend finally and I sing her the I’m Fucking Tired Blues
I’m just tired, I’m just tired, I’m just tired, I’m just tired, I’m just tired
I’m just tired, I’m just tired, I’m just tired, I’m just tired
If my girlfriend was wired one hundred dollars
For every time she heard that I was tired from an overseas hotel room
She’d receive enough wires to buy a home in Buckinghamshire
So now here I am, flying home from Hobart, Tasmania
And though I met no girls from there who for me anyhow
Displayed a penchant for nymphomania
I played no songs from Def Leppard’s Pyromania
But we did play some AC/DC, Bon Scott era
And I gotta tell ya, Tasmania was more beautiful than Erie, Pennsylvania
My view from the hotel room looked like a multitude of views from the Bay Area
I went to a park and sat on a wet bench and watched the leaves fall
It was early June but it felt like Ottawa, Ontario in the fall
My low carb diet went south down south
I arrived so fucking hungry that I just stuffed my mouth
With whatever was around
Aw, there was prawn fried rice, bread and cheese
And when food was around, I liked to wash it down
With glutinous balls with sweet coconut filling
Served with sweet vanilla ice cream
It’s a very long flight home from Australia
I had to get up and stretch now and then and adjust my genitalia
I watch Deliverance twice and a few episodes of Portlandia
And Dirty Harry and Louis CK, yeah he’s hilarious
Plane headed over Nuku’alofa
Time to Los Angeles, 11 hours and 8 minutes
1,624 miles, distance traveled
Time to Los Angeles, 11 hours and 5 minutes
Headwind, 108 miles per hour
Altitude, 35,002 feet
I don’t like looking at the flight maps
But they’re glowing on the backs of everyone around me’s seat
It’s a long way across the Pacific Ocean
When I land at LAX, I’m gonna turn on my flip phone
To a bunch of texts, it was good to escape them for a week
And when I get to San Francisco
Gonna shut the thing off, give you a kiss, and sleep
I got a few studio days and headed out to my house
Gonna trim a few trees and watch the bees buzz around the lavender
Gonna pick some tomatoes and pick some hot peppers
Gonna write a duet for me and a wonderful singer named Petra
For Via or Pia on the air of Silva Noumea
Long way to go, so I squeezed the hell out of my kitty cat on the sofa
Ground speed, 665 miles per hour
Oh, did I mention the Tasmanians love my impression of
Steven Bauer and Al Pacino, from Scarface
Al Pacino as Sosa: «I like you Tony, there is no lying in you
Unfortunately, I don’t feel the same about the rest of your organization
I’m talking about Omar Suarez
Don’t you fuck me Tony, don’t you ever fuck me»
Steven Bauer as Manny: «It's already 12% of our adjusted growth
It’s not peanuts Tony, I’m telling you man
You need to talk to this Jewish guy Seidelbaum»
«Libertad!
Libertad!
Libertad!
Libertad!»
And now here we are, passing Honolulu
Never been there in my life and honestly I have no desire to
I could spend the rest of my life in San Francisco and New Orleans
And be as happy and serene as the color lime green
I walked around the streets of San Francisco jetlagged
Knocking around like a tranquilized bear
A woman exchanged my foreign money at the bank
And a man at a barbershop cut my hair
Now I’m at home reading Henry Miller and fading in my chair
You’re on the couch with the cat and the cat is scratching her ear
We walked down to Chinatown for Chinese
I had kung pao prawns, you had family style bean curds
We opened our fortune cookies
Yours said, «A leader is powerful to the degree he empowers others»
Mine said, «A great pleasure in life is doing what others say you can’t»