The Common Touch

(album: Hollywood Park - 2020)

Every night I'm lying here, the world crashing through my ears
I always hear the same damn thing: "you can't you're life on a hanging string"
He's always saying, "stop complaining
You really can't ever expect too much
Boy, you were born with the common touch"

And we fall and fall and fall and fall
With our heads soaked up in alcohol
One hand on a cigarette
I swear I still got some good moves left
I've been fifty-eight since I was twenty-three
I got sixty-nine problems but one ain't me
And seriously I don't give a fuck
If my answer isn't good enough

Hey, there, tell me man
What's the answer to this riddle then?
Is it heroin?
Or Jesus Christ?
Big-ass books?
Or sleepless nights?
I had a few of those and everyone knows
That the common touch ain't worth the price

As we fall and fall and fall and fall
With our heads soaked up in alcohol
Two hands on our Juliette
I swear I still got some good moves left
And if you promise that you'll stay with me
I swear that I will always see
The best of you and me

Hey, now tell me this, how these days and nights can coexist
A million pieces in my mind, every damn thing at the exact damn time
It always seems like the same damn dream
My legs don't work and I can't sing
I swear I don't feel a god damn thing

As we fall and fall and fall and fall
With our heads fucked up on alcohol
Two hands on my Juliette
I swear, baby girl, I'm not done yet
And if you promise that you'll stay with me
I swear that I will always see
The best of you and me

And when I wake up I wonder where everyone's gone
I just can't sleep so I lay there until the dawn
And I wonder if god knows anything
Does god know what's going on?

'Cause I can't be alone just yet and you're the only good thing that I got left
I know I got these problems still but I swear it's real and I swear I will
Maybe we can't ever expect too much but we can live here with the common touch

And we'll all fall and fall and fall and fall
Get all fucked up on alcohol
We're going to have a good time yet
Some got more, but some got less
And if you promise that you'll stay with me
I swear that I will always be
Something you can believe!

Yeah, they say that Jesus saves but I couldn't write that on his grave
So I snuck his ashes through the gate and I threw them on the outside lane
Where we watched the horses going by, hoping to keep the pick-four alive
I was ten years old, he was forty-five, number nine came through and we high-fived

I know it don't amount to much but that's called love with the common touch

I lost my shit when I heard the call
Felt buried beneath the weight and all
Twenty-five tons fell on my chest
Every hour, every breath
You tell me every day that you won't leave
I'm sorry I put this at your feet
But tell me can't you see

That we fall and fall and fall and fall
We meet each other at the end of it all
We wonder where all the good time's gone
How we carried something so long
We made a little something that felt like home
So we could face the night to come
With that common touch, that common touch, that common touch
To make us feel less alone