Steve Cafarelli Music

Jaded (Cafarelli)

I got nothing to do
Jaded heart and mind, bad attitude
Underneath the weather, no gig to play

Sit around in bed
Watching YouTube, old videos
The studio hasn’t been cleaned up in days

Kick the wheels off my feet
Need some medicine to stop this bleed
Let the babies have their bottles cold

Shake it off if I please
Darlin’, it’s good for you, it’s good for me
Help me out before I grow too old

Jaded, turn it upside down
Faded memories can’t be found
Tasted it and now you’re down
But you aren’t out

Turn around if you please
Jaded heart and mind left out to freeze
Do they serve the short end of the stick?

I’m gonna go away mad
or I can just go out real quietly
The reading’s cold but it’s just a parlor trick

[repeat choruses]

Pawn (Cafarelli)

World keeps on spinning ‘round every day
In my place, I stay
Worlds apart we sit, fragility out on display

Heads keep on spinning ‘round just the same
It’s a shame, they say
Wondering when it stops, what will go and what remains

In a land of kings and queens
There are different plans and different dreams
And who will fall on their sword?
And who is just a pawn on the board?

I keep on drawing cards every day in this game we play
Double down, perhaps, or play it cool and hold and stay

What does it matter much what we play? It’s no race, they say
In the end, it’s said, we’re all forgotten anyway

[repeat chorus]

Long ago, long ago, long ago from here
Long ago, long ago, long ago seems unclear
Long ago, long ago, long ago my dear
Long ago, long ago, long agos disappear

World keeps on spinning ‘round every day
In my place, I stay
Worlds apart we sit, on different cars of runaway trains

Life keeps on happening, anyway
It’s our day so crazed
When inside our minds, the distance grows most every day

[repeat chorus]

Long ago, long ago, long ago from here

The Long Way (Cafarelli)

The long way
Keeps a'winding through the next phase
And when you're dreaming of the old days
Just keep riding on the long way

The long way
Don't you know will never be the same
But if tomorrow's gonna come, you'd better run and get your gun
and find your own way

Oh, November night
Thanksgiving Eve is clearly in our siight, so
Give some thanks for rock and roll tonight
(Rock and roll tonight) x2

The long way
Is not as bad as all the people say
And when it's time to greet a new day
It's just a stop along the long way

The long way
May at times feel like the wrong way
But if you're squared up like a peg, just clear your head and find your legs
and go your own way

Oh, November night
Thanksgiving Day is clearly in our sight, so
Give some thanks for rock and roll tonight
(Rock and roll tonight) x2

[repeat verse 1]
[repeat verse 2]

Find your own way
Find your own way
(Rock and roll tonight)
Find your own way
Find your own way
(Rock and roll tonight)

Drifter (Cafarelli)

Drifting away, drifter
Living on borrowed time, borrowed time
Oh, living
on your last dime

Seasons are washing away
like the worms at the curb on a stormy old day
Raindrops keep falling on your head and
you've still got a long way to go
Ooh, shake it away
'cause if you wake up tomorrow, you're doing okay
as you wait for your day in the sun

[repeat chorus]

Your distant past is hard to survey
like the pines in the mirror on the highway
It seems like it was just yesterday
but the lines on your face never lie
On the side of the road
a younger man's thumbing, he's someone you know
but you're just, just a stranger in his eyes

In your zone and living alone
Is it more than you can stand when
you can't face it on your own
When the world has passed you by and you're feeling you could cry
so you lock it all away and you hold it all inside
And it's more than just sensation
It's a desperate situation
And where you end up now is anyone's fair estimation
Carry on, carry on, carry on

So [repeat chorus]

Your last dime, your last dime
You're drifting away, drifting drifting away
yeah, yeah, drifting drifting away
drifting drifting away

Yesterdaze (Cafarelli)

The journey, not the destination
Self-talk causes suffocation
So much personal deflation
Sucking out the air

When stage fright followed me right home
It filled my head like Styrofoam
Back to the show I go alone
Hoping no one’s there

I see clarity in a yesterdaze
When I walked inside a foggy haze
Concerned with the cause, ‘cause the culture was, misguided and confused
I see stability from a world so crazed
When posturing and egos raged
Getting away from an older yesterdaze

Time misspent in deliberation
Upstarts with their affectations
What a source of aggravation
It didn’t count for much

Hindsight’s always twenty-twenty
In the moment, angst a’plenty
A legacy not worth a penny
So you can be the judge

[repeat chorus]

And I can’t toe the line, wasted life is such a crime
It’s sad, it’s so so sad

Now they’re gone, and packed in
They’ve fallen out like passé fashion
Not quite such a main attraction
Their yesterdaze have flown

Keep adding to my pedigree; It’s humble, but incredibly
I nurture some longevity, If I only I had known

But now...

[repeat chorus]

I’m getting away from an older yesterdaze

Let You Down (Cafarelli)

Time, desperate times So much to do and to prove weighing on your mind
Just hanging around, feet up off of the ground
Lost on your own and you hope she won’t let you down

Take, take what you take
So many thoughts in your head of the moves you’ll make
Still hanging around, waiting for something profound
To happen again and you hope she won’t let you down

Tell me, tell me, tell me something good’ll come my way
Losing yourself in the moment can sometimes be a big mistake
By night, you’re homeward bound
Alone on your own and you hope she won’t let you down

Why, you’ll never know why
Valleys and hills will appear on the path you’ll ride
And life will confound, pain and joy both resound
You roll out the dice but you hope she won’t let you down

Show me, show me, show me something good along the way
Throw me a line in the waters to grab so I won’t slip away
And you, you won’t make a sound
Quietly wait and you hope she won’t let you down

Looking, waiting, banking on something ideal
Planning, crafting, making something more real
And it won’t matter much about your creativity
It’s only a moment of inactivity

Day, days turn to nights
Nights turn to weeks and the weeks’ll just pass you by
Just waiting around, feet up off of the ground
You’re gonna survive but you hope she won’t let you down
You’ll be alright, but you hope she won’t let you down

Stuck in a Hole (Cafarelli)

I couldn’t believe the sight when I came in the door
Do my eyes lie or is there something rotten to the core
Do you know the story, is there writing on the wall
‘cause when you lose your mind you know there’s nothing left at all

Stuck in a hole, stuck in a hole
When you’re locked up tight you’re like a fish inside a bowl
Losing control and nowhere to go, you’re stuck in a hole

She couldn’t conceive the way that I walk in a daze
Her words belie a person who is lost inside a maze
Bouncing off the walls, her thoughts are halfway gone at best
I head for isolation and a place where I can rest

Stuck in a hole, stuck in a hole
When you’re trapped inside you’re a man with no parole
Losing control and nowhere to go, you’re stuck in a hole

[repeat choruses]

Same Train (Cafarelli)

Rae’s on her way, such a pretty young thing with porcelain skin
Time is on her side, she’s gonna make old men go turn and sing
Lee’s around the bend, still paying out a dividend
I’m a’wonderin’ about the book she keeps of words she’s penned

I’m on the line, miles ahead and miles behind
On the same train, a few cars away

Rye’s got four strings, a Thunderbird with sunburst skin
He’s playing with his men, a quinquagenarian
Tyne’s a-wastin’ time, with a home spun DAW and on his dime
A poet laureate, for anyone who’s got the time

[repeat chorus]

Folks all around, speak their mind and make a sound
Trees are falling down, in the forest on the ground
I can’t take much more, of politicians, jaded whores
I’m a passenger, a traveling troubadour

[repeat chorus]

On the same train, a few cars away
We’re all on the same train, a few cars away

Personal After Dark (Cafarelli)

In your mind you recreate some kind of thing that’s nothing more than paint-by-numbers and rhyme
Set your mark, you keep me waiting after dark, I am more than just a piece of bloody flesh that’s feeding the shark
‘cause I am, I am, I am, I am, I am me; What can I be?

Who are you and do you even know the truth? You can’t be just anybody that you can choose
Stuck in my ways, I guess I have something to say. How ‘bout you? Don’t you want to play this, too? And say I am, I am, I am, I am, I am me

Personal after dark, personal after dark
Personal after dark, getting personal after dark
Getting personal after dark, yeah, yeah, yeah

Clones abound and copycats surround us because the others left a trail blazed along the ground
Count your stars and be your heroes from afar, I am more than just a footnote tribute playing homage guitar
I am, I am, I am, I am, I am me

[repeat chorus]

Personal, I’m getting personal

[repeat chorus]

Bell Curve (Cafarelli)

I’ve got a mind of my own, got a way to explain
I’m not just a truck from the line with all the pieces the same. And it’s good to be
We all know it’s so overrated, this normality

But there’s always a friend or two Telling lies just to make it on through
Another night
What we got, is it what we deserve
There’s always a heart that aches
Looking at life and comparing our stakes
To another one, Wondering if we’re in the bell curve
Getting what we deserve

We all see ourselves, as the one that should be
Living a life that’s charmed, someone to be envied
Desperately hope we’ll win
We’re the only person that we have ever been

[repeat chorus]

Oh my my, the pit in your stomach makes you want to die
So you die for a while just a trifle inside
Never knowing that life is always blind leading the blind

[repeat chorus]

In the End (Cafarelli)

You’ve time on your side, and a lot on your mind
And you’re waiting
Does there come a time when the well has run dry
And you’re waiting
You’ve been there before, will you be there once more
You are waiting, mmm
You’re good as your last, but that’s all in the past
And you’re waiting

Darling, bear in mind
There’s much to say about humankind
Friends we keep and emotions spent
It all comes out in the end

It cuts like a knife, it’s a cold kind of life
And you’re waiting
Who can you blame, when you carry the pain
And you’re waiting
There’s no time for tears, ‘cause the days turn to years
You are waiting, mmm
It’s par for the game, the contentment you feign
And you’re waiting

[repeat chorus]

Things you misread, it’s a trip in your head
And you’re waiting
Life’s not a race, still there’s lines on your face
And you’re waiting
Will you hear the call and be there if I fall
You are waiting, mmm
You run out of steam, ‘fore the end of the dream
And you’re waiting

[repeat chorus twice]

You're Gonna Make It Alright (Cafarelli)

Stuck in a rut, spinning ‘round like a wheel
Monday through Friday’s all part of the deal
I could sigh, I could cry, then I see you walk by
You’re gonna make it alright

Trapped like a fish with a hook through my lip
Tossed on the floor, bouncing all ‘round the ship
A sign I’m alive done all by your design
You’re gonna make it alright

A thing to caress, you’ve got hips to impress
I like how you walk, I like how you dress
You may not be perfect, you’re fine in my eyes
You’re gonna make it alright

Hot summer rays burning down like a flame
Beaches and sun wear me out just the same
A bite on the line, oh how you mystify
You’re gonna make it alright

Bagel and coffee, Wi-Fi in a booth
Try to relax, getting long in the tooth
Come by, beautify, and I detoxify
You’re gonna make it alright

A thing to caress, you’ve got hips to impress
I like how you walk, I like how you dress
You may not be perfect, you’re simply divine
You’re gonna make it alright (x4)

Personal After Dark (Cafarelli)

In your mind you recreate some kind of thing that's nothing more than paint-by-numbers and rhyme

Set your mark, you keep me waiting after dark, I am more than just a piece of bloody flesh that's feeding the shark

'cause I am, I am, I am, I am, I am me; What can I be?

Who are you and do you even know the truth? You can't be just anybody that you can choose

Stuck in my ways, I guess I have something to say. How 'bout you? Don't you want to play this, too?

And say I am, I am, I am, I am, I am me

Personal after dark, personal after dark
Personal after dark, getting personal after dark
Getting personal after dark, yeah, yeah, yeah

Clones abound and copycats surround us because the others left a trail blazed along the ground

Count your stars and be your heroes from afar, I am more than just a footnote tribute playing homage guitar

I am, I am, I am, I am, I am me

[repeat chorus]

Personal, I'm getting personal; [repeat chorus]

Circle (Cafarelli)

Close my eyes, go back in time to a place that I knew
But we were without a clue and the times seem far removed
Under a star with an acoustic guitar, feeling young and strong
From the heart we sang our song and in hindsight it didn’t last long

And I’m wondering now if the circle’s coming ’round again
Will I be left holding empty reins when I meet up with
my long-lost friend?
Don’t they say that what comes around goes around once a...

...gain we make a brand-new start of it
It’s funny how we left off, funny all this shit
that went down, spun ’round, left us on the ground
feeling aged and cynical, jaded, typical

We find ourselves together again
Baggage in mirror, sitting on a fence of
love/hate, a love song, can’t leave it alone
I’m older and fearful, fragile and tearful

[repeat chorus]

...gain we reassess just where we stand
Taking inventory for a brand-new plan
with meaning and reason we open up the season
Optimistic and weary, eager and leery

Again we take out pointless points of view
Try to make it work and try to see it through
We’re caught up with caution, headed for exhaustion
I’m older but wiser, wearing a disguise

And I’m wondering now if the circle’s coming ’round again
Will I be left holding empty reins when I meet up with
my long-lost friend?
Don’t they say that what comes around goes around once again?
And I’m wondering now if the circle’s coming ’round again

Never Enough (Cafarelli)

Watching the waves, crash upon the evening tide
Lost and afraid a true love might just be in your mind
You are a light, a beacon shining through the trees
But are you surprised what it’s come to be?

Did you ever wonder why the best that we become will never be enough?
And did you ever contemplate why things seem to disintegrate when times get tough?
It’s never enough, never enough, mmmm

December days, leaves all fallen off the trees
A lonely bouquet of flower stems left out to freeze
into the ground, to become a part of earth’s veneer
It’s just a sign that winter’s near

Did you ever wonder why the best that we become will never be enough?
And can you find a reason to be hopeful in a season where the water’s rough?
It’s never enough…. seems never enough
But are you surprised what it’s come to be?

Dance (Cafarelli)

Come on, baby, don’t you tell me maybe
Just think another way
Square peg meet round hole, my pick fell in the sound hole
and this old man’s turning gray

Shake it around, turn it upside down
Watch it fall between the strings
Pick it up, poet, don’t look back and go, it’s
about time you’re learning a brand-new thing

And when you find a new way
You’ll understand why you just plug in and play
And then you’re taking the chance; I bet you never
thought you’d wanna see the people get up and dance

So there, amigo, what’s the word contigo?
Don’t fret another day
Lay in the groove now, the kick is under shoe now
Just believe in what you say

Don’t worry what you play now, don’t waste another day now
Get up, get out, and along
It’s too much pep talk, shut your mouth and get lost
I’m just gonna go on singing my song

[repeat choruses]

On the Edge (Cafarelli)

Running all around as though her hair’s afire
Living so reactively
It’s just her way of living each day

Sizing situations in chaotic fashion
becomes conventionality
She’s on the brink, no time to think

On the edge, It doesn’t matter what you allege. I’m
On the edge, sanity’s hanging by a thread
On the edge, dancing so close to the ledge, I’m
On the edge, on the edge

What do they say when expectation’s high?
A recipe to be let down
It’s better to crawl, less room to fall

Think I should just give up, bang my head on the wall
Join the circus and be a clown
Tell me again what you recommend

[repeat chorus]

People come and people leave, you wear emotions on your sleeve
Keep it up, the bets that you hedge
Lost for words but maybe someday, find those who don’t
drive you crazy and pull you in from the edge

Running all around just like a chick with no head
Crashing into walls as she goes
What’s her defense? It hardly makes sense

Guess I’ll find myself someone a little more grounded
Living in reality
I’ll try anyhow, wipe the sweat from my brow

[repeat chorus]

The End Game (Cafarelli)

Lost on my way, I got the music in my veins
I’ve got so many things to say
I’ve got to make her come around my way, I’m

Lost like a child, like a teen out running wild
I’d like to wow her with my style
I got to get this reconciled; ’cause

All that’s great, I’m foolish just the same
What’s the end game? Nothing’s gonna change

What can I say? I don’t like feeling second-rate
With her I’d like to acclimate
Don’t wanna watch it all just dissipate

I’ll go the extra mile, I’m gonna sidle up in style
I wanna win her with my smile
I’m grinnin’ like a crocodile; and

[repeat chorus]

It’s all insane—that is what they say when you repeat yourself
and think that things won’t be the same
You’re telling lies, so don’t you be surprised, when you learn
your way of thinking’s ill-advised

Lost on my way, I’ve got to shake it off my plate
I’ve gotta drink the tonic straight
I’ve got so much that I should contemplate

But still, I’m a liar, I daydream and I conspire
A romantic falsifier, so let us see just what transpires; ’cause

[repeat chorus]

Sabbatical (Cafarelli)

The man in demand’s on a bridge over quicksand
Old wooden planks hanging down from the trees
Each step that he takes, it contracts and it sways
It blows in the wind and the jungle remains

The man in demand knows the grind, seen it first-hand
He travels along, moving fast, moving on
Tomorrow’s a new day, you make it you play
Time doesn’t stop, it just goes away

And hear me all around the land
You can’t build a castle from a grain of sand
The man in demand’s only practical
He’s gonna go on a sabbatical

The man in demand’s got the rope in his thick hands
He’s ready to pull in the great tug-of-war
His fingers get chafed and it seems a disgrace
The blisters are signs of a life he’s embraced

So hear me all around the land
You can’t hold a gallon in a half-pint pan
The man in demand’s only pragmatical
He’s gonna go on a sabbatical

Two-fisted times; Too, too much confined
Read between the lines

The man in demand trudges on through the wasteland
Cuffs rolled up high as he steps through debris
He’s headed unseen for a world full of green
The footprints he leaves are all part of a scene

The man in demand, he parades on the bandstand
Bathed in the lights of a new medium
He looks for support, ’cause he knows time is short
The judge and the jury are left at the court

So hear me all around the land
You can’t move a mountain with just sleight of hand
The man in demand’s only admirable
He’s gonna go on a sabbatical

He’s gonna go on a sabbatical (x4)

Pretty Goodbyes (Cafarelli)

The knife may be dull but it’s still serrated
Inter-dynamics become complicated, like
Constellations we drew
Lines we made up of the things we construe

But Pretty Goodbyes, they cut all the time
Pretty Goodbyes tell a lie
Pretty Goodbyes, they don’t need a reason
Pretty Goodbyes on my mind

Thoughts that we have, the plans we conspire
Those circumstances so rarely transpire, like
Resolutions we make
Anticipation’s sometimes a mistake

[repeat chorus]

Lines on the road, headlights in the rear view
Cognitive thoughts that we try to adhere to, just
Float away in the wind
Leaving a trail of regret and chagrin

[repeat chorus twice]

A Perfect Life (Cafarelli)

You’ve got the music playing, the people are swaying
to the sound of electric guitar
You got your high heels kickin’, a-pickin’ and a-grinnin’
Tonight you’re gonna be a star

The taste of wine, ambrosia divine
And your pretty, pretty face of surprise
It’s all in reach, like a sermon you preach
It’s there for us to read in your eyes

But not you, baby
The face you hide disguises the lies of a world
That looks a lot like my own, my own
Cryin’, Believin’, Laughin’, Deceivin’
We dream all day and night of a perfect life

Holiday, nerves are gonna fray
But you raise a glass to the sky
Toast with cheer, magic is near
’cause everybody thinks you can fly

[repeat chorus]

A perfect life for you and me
Dreaming and dreaming and dreaming a pure fantasy

[repeat chorus]

Highlight Reel (Cafarelli)

When I was a younger man,
playing drums in a rock and roll band
Trying to make my statement like the thinkers always do

I’ve done so much I’m turning gray
I still have a whole lot more to say
I wish I could inspire like my heroes always do

When you compare your life to a highlight reel
It doesn’t make much sense
One life to live, one love to give
On your side of the fence

Stuck at home and you’re crying now
Everybody gets that way somehow
Trying to make your mark while life’s passing you by

Look around and dry those tears
One man’s promise is another man’s fears
I wish I could inspire like you inspire me

[repeat chorus twice]