the end of the innocence
Released June 27, 1989

 

The End of the Innocence :: How Bad Do You Want It? :: I Will Not Go Quietly :: Last Worthless Evening :: New York Minute :: Shangri-La :: Little Tin God :: Gimme What You Got :: If Dirt Were Dollars :: Heart of the Matter

Lyrics typed by Andrew Wilson

Andrew Wilson

The End Of The Innocence

Remember when the days were long
And rolled beneath a deep blue sky
Didn’t have a care in the world
With mommy and daddy standing by
But “happily ever after” fails
And we’ve been poisoned by the these fairy tails
The lawyers dwell on small details
Since daddy had to fly

But I know a place where we can go
That's still untouched by man
We’ll sit and watch the clouds roll by
And the tall grass wave in the wind
You can lay your head back on the ground
And let your hair fall all around me
Offer up your best defense
But this is the end
This is the end of the innocence

O’ beautiful, for spacious skies
But now those skies are threatening
There beating plowshares into swords
For this tired old man that we elected king
Armchair warriors often fail
And we’ve been poisoned by these fairy tales
The lawyers clean up all details
Since daddy had to lie

But I know a place where we can go
And wash away this sin
We’ll sit and watch the clouds roll by
And the tall grass wave in the wind
Just lay your head back on the ground
And let your hair spill all around me
Offer up your best defense
But this is the end
This is the end of the innocence

Who knows how long this will last
Now we’ve come so far, so fast
But, somewhere back there in the dust
That same small town in the each of us
I need to remember this
So baby give me just one kiss
And let me take a long last look
Before we say goodbye

Just lay your head back on the ground
And let your hair fall all around me
Offer up your best defense
But this is the end
This is the end of the innocence

Written by Don Henley and Bruce Hornsby

How Bad Do You Want It

You’re leaving tongue marks on the carpet
And I know what your looking at
You would walk on your lips through busted glass
If you could get next to that

You think this is love
You’re education starts today
So you think this is love?
So tell me
How bad do you want it?
How bad do you want it?
How bad do you want it?
Not bad enough

So you put a hold on happiness
.... a day, a week, a year
You got to bring something to this party, boy
If you party here

And if you’re looking for love
You better look some other way
If your looking for love
I have to ask you
How bad do you want it?
How bad do you want it?
How bad do you want it?
Not bad enough

She gave you love and affection
Enough to weather any season
You found an excuse to walk away
But you didn’t find no reason

And you talk about love
But you don’t know what it means
Yeah, you talk about love
So tell me
How bad do you want it?
How bad do you want it?
How bad do you want it?
Not bad enough

Written by Don Henley, Danny Kortchmar, and Stan Lynch

I Will Not Go Quietly

Woke up with a heavy head
And I thought about leaving town
I could have died if I wanted to-
Slipped over the edge and drowned
But, oh no baby, I won’t give up so easy

Too many tire tracks in the sands of time
Too many love affairs that stop on a dime
I think its time to make some changes around here

Yeah, I’m gonna tear it up
gonna trash it up
I’m gonna round it up
gonna shake it up
Oh no baby, I will not lie down

I’m brave enough to be crazy
I’m strong enough to be weak
I see all these heroes with feet of clay
Who’s mighty ships have sprung a leak
And I want you to tell me darling
Just what do you believe in now?

Well, c’mon over here baby
You ‘bout to give me a heart attack
I wonna wrap my loving arms
Around the small of your back
Yeah, and I’m gonna pull you, pull you, pull you
Pull you right up close to me

Yeah, we’re gonna tear it up
we gonna trash it up
gonna round it up
gonna shake it up
Oh, no no no, I will not lie down

Turn this thing around
I will not go quietly
I will not lie down
I will not go quietly
I will not lie down
I will not go quietly
I will not lie down
I will not lie down

Well, don’t you ever get lonely?
Don’t you ever get down?
Don’t you ever get tired
Of all the wicked tongues in this town?
Oh baby, I just wanna take you away from here

I ain’t no tiger
I ain’t no little lamb
Suppose you tell me momma
Who do think I think I am
And oooh baby, don’t you give a damn
Yeah, I’m gonna tear it up
gonna trash it up
gonna round it up
gonna rip it up
I will not lie down
Yeah, I’m gonna tear it up
gonna trash it up
gonna round it up
gonna shake it up
Oh baby, I will not lie down
Turn this thing around
I will not go quietly
I will not lie down
I will not go quietly
I will not lie down
I will not go quietly
I will not lie down
I will not lie down

Written by Don Henley and Danny Kortchmar

The Last Worthless Evening

I know you broke up with him
And your hearts still on the shelf
Its been over two years for me
And I’m still not quite myself
You can’t be with someone new
And you can’t go back to him
You’re beginning to realize
That its sink or swim

I see you around sometimes
And my heart just melts
Your looking like if you had your wish
You’d be somewhere else
And it just breaks my heart
To see you here this way
Someday I’ll get the nerve
To walk up to you and say

This is the last worthless evening
That you’ll have to spend
Just gimme a chance
To show you how to love again
This is the last worthless evening
That you’ll have to spend
Cause, I’ll be there
When your broken heart is on the mend

Every night its the same old crowd
in smokey rooms
You catch a faint glimpse of love sometimes
But it never blooms
I’ve been around this block a time or two
And I’ve mad some big mistakes
But girl I promise you, I promise you

This is the last worthless evening
That you’ll have to spend
Just gimme a chance
To show you to love again
This is the last worthless evening
That you’ll have to spend
Cause it won’t be long
Til your little heart is on the mend

People inside their houses
With the shades pulled down
God knows, we could use some romance
In this sleepy bedroom town
I know you’re still afraid to rush into anything
But there’re just so many summers
And just so many springs

And this is the last worthless evening
That you’ll have to spend
Just gimme a chance to show you how
to love again
This is the last worthless evening
That you’ll have to spend, baby
Cause I’ll be there when your broken heart
Is on the mend
This is the last worthless evening
That you’ll have to spend
Just gimme a chance, gimme a chance
To show you love again
This is the last worthless evening
That you’ll have to spend’ cause it won’t be long
Til your little heart is on the mend

Written by Don Henley, John Corey, and Stan Lynch

New York Minute

Harry got up
Dressed all in black
Went down to the station
And he never came back
They found his clothing
Scattered somewhere down the track
And he won’t be down on Wall Street in the morning

He had a home
The love of a girl
But men get lost sometimes
As years unfurl
One day he crossed some line
And he was to much in this world
But I guess it doesn’t matter anymore

In a New York Minute
Everything can change
In a New York Minute
Things can get pretty strange
In a New York Minute
Everything can change
In a New York Minute

Lying here in the darkness
I hear the sirens wail
Somebody going to emergency
Somebody’s going to jail
If you find somebody to love in this world
You better hang on tooth and nail
The wolf is always at the door

In a New York Minute
Everything can change
In a New York Minute
Things can get a little strange
In a New York Minute
Everything can change
In a New York Minute

And in these days
When the darkness falls early
And people rush home
To the ones they love
You better take a fools advice
And take of your own
One day they’re here;
Next day they’re gone

I pulled my coat around my shoulder
And took a walk down through the park
The leaves were falling around me
The groaning city in the gathering dark
On some solitary rock
A desperate lover left his mark,
“Baby I’ve changed. Please come back”

What the head makes cloudy
The head makes very clear
The days were so much brighter
In the time when she was here
But I know there’s somebody somewhere
Make these dark clouds disappear
Until that day, I have to believe
I believe, I believe

In a New York Minute
Everything can change
In a New York Minute
You can get out of the rain
In a New York Minute
Everything can change
In a New York Minute

Written by Don Henley, Danny Kortchmar, and Jai Winding

Shangri-la

Everyday is a new day
That’s what I’ve been told
Try to hold your head high
The world runs hot and cold

It’s hard to follow footprints
In the shifting sand
Another thirsty rider
Behind the caravan

You had no idea
Just what was waiting out there
You never thought you would carry the weight
of the world
On your pretty blond hair

This ain’t no Shangri-la
To you, no Shangri-la
This ain’t now Shangri-la
Nobody knows no Shangri-la

Hey! there’s a whole lot of people
Wondering who you are
They think you walk without a care in the world
But they’ve been wrong so far

This ain’t no Shangri-la
To you, no Shangri-la
This ain’t no Shangri-la
Nobody knows no Shangri-la

No one can decide
What we all must outrun
Who’s gonna carry the weight of the world
Until we learn to stop
And do what must be done?

This ain’t now Shangri-la
To you, no Shangri-la
This ain’t no Shangri-la
Nobody knows no Shangri-la

Written by Danny Kortchmar, Steve Jordan, and Don Henley

Little Tin God

“A new age is dawning
On fewer than expected
Business as usual”
That's how the headlines read
Some shaky modern saviors
Have now been resurrected
In all this excitement
You may have been mislead

People want a miracle
They say “Oh lord, can’t you see us”
“We’re trying to make a living down here
And keep the children fed”
But from little dark motel rooms
To “Six Flags over Jesus”
“How are the mighty fallen”
So the bible said

You don’t have to pray to a little tin god
Step out of the way for a little tin god
You might fear reaper, fear the rod
But you never have to get down on your knees
You don’t have to holler, “please, please”
No, you never have to get down on your knees
For a little tin god

The cowboys name was “Jingo”
And he heard that there was trouble
So in a blaze of glory
He rode out of the west
No one was ever certain
What it was that he was saying
But they loved it when he told them
They were better then the rest

But you don’t have to pray to a little tin god
Step out of the way for a little tin god
You might hate the system, hate the job
But you never have to get down on your knees
You don’t have to holler, “please, please”
No, you never have to get down on your knees
For a little tin god

Throw down a rope from heaven
And lead the flock to water
The man in the middle would have you think
That you have no other choice
But to wonder in the wilderness
Of all the upturned faces
If you stop and listen long enough
You will hear your own small voice

But You don’t have to pray to a little tin god
Step out of the way for a little tin god
You might fear reaper, fear the rod
But you never have to get down on your knees
You don’t have to holler, “please, please”
No, you never have to get down on your knees
Never have to holler, “please, please”
You never had to get down on your knees
You never had to holler, “please, please”
You never had to get down on your knees for a little tin god

Written by Don Henley, Danny Kortchmar, and J.D. Souther

Gimme What You Got

Baby picks off your plate-yours looks better
And she throws hers on the floor
Here, in the home of the brave
And the land of the free
The first words that baby learns is “more”

So your out there floating like a big puffy cloud
With the pool and the charcoal
And the kids and the wife
Til the reruns of your dreams are interrupted
And you step out into life

And its steel gimme, gimme what you got
Gimme, gimme what you got
I said gimme, gimme what you got
(I want it, I want it)
Gimme, gimme what you got

Now its take and take and takeover, takeover
Its all take and never give
All these trumped up towers
They’re just golden showers
Where are people supposed to live

You can arm yourself, alarm yourself
But there’s nowhere you can run
Cause a man with a briefcase
Can still more money
Than any man with a gun

I said gimme, gimme what you got
Said gimme, gimme what you got
Gimme, gimme what you got
Gimme, gimme what you got

You got the price of admission
You don’t have to ask permission
To take something from another man
You cross a lawyer with the godfather, baby
Make you an offer that you can’t understand

From Main Street to Wall Street to Washington
From men to women to men
Its a nation of noses pressed up against the glass
They’ve seen it on TV
And they want it pretty fast

You spend your whole life
Just pilling it up there
You got stacks and stacks and stacks
Then, Gabriel comes and taps you on the shoulder
But you don’t see no hearses with luggage racks

Gimme, gimme what you got
I said gimme, gimme what you got
I said gimme, gimme what you got
(I want it, I want it)
Gimme, gimme what you got

Written by Don Henley, Stan Lynch, and John Corey

If Dirt Were Dollars

Walking like a millionaire
Smiling like a king
He leaned his shopping cart against the wall
He said, “I been a lot of places
And I seen a lot of things
But sonny, I seen one thing beats them all
I was flying back from Lubbock
I saw Jesus on the plane
.... or maybe it was Elvis
You know, they kind of look the same
Hey, look out Junior. You’re stepping on my bed”
I said, “I don’t see nothing”
He just glared at me and said,

If dirt were dollars
If dirt were dollars
If dirt were dollars
I wouldn’t worry anymore

Looking like a beauty queen
Loyal as a wife
She raised her little voice and testified
“I am a good girl
I’ve been all my life”
But her virtue was as swollen as her pride

She should’ve had the Oscar
She must have been miscast
Her fifteen minutes went by so fast
I said, “Now baby have you got no shame?”
She just looked at me uncomprehendingly
Like cows at a passing train

If dirt were dollars
If dirt were dollars
If dirt were dollars
I wouldn’t worry anymore

We got the bully pulpit
And the poisoned pin
We got a press no better
Than the public men
This brave new world
Gone bad again

God’s finest little creatures
Looking brave and strong
Whistling past the graveyard
Nothing can go wrong

Quoting from the scriptures
With patriotic tears
We got the same old men
With the same old fears

Standing at attention
Wrapped in stars and stripes
They hear the phantom drummers
And the nonexistent pipes

These days the buck stops nowhere
No one takes the blame
But evil is still evil
In anybody’s name

If dirt were dollars
If dirt were dollars
If dirt were dollars
We’d all be in the black

written by Don Henley, Danny Kortchmar, and J.D. Souther

The Heart of The Matter

I got the call today, I didn’t want to hear
But I knew that it would come
An old true friend of ours was talking on the phone
She said you found someone
And I thought of all the bad luck,
And the struggles we went through
And I lost me and you lost you
What are these voices outside loves open door
Make us throw of our contentment
And beg for something more?

I’m learning to live without you now
But I miss you sometimes
And the more I know, the less I understand
All the things I thought I knew, I’m learning again
I’ve been trying to get down
To the heart of the matter
But my will gets weak
And my thoughts seem to scatter
But I think its about forgiveness
Forgiveness
Even if, even if you don’t love me anymore

These times are so uncertain
There’s a yearning undefined
..... people filled with rage
We all need a little tenderness
How can love survive in such a graceless age?
The trust and self-assurance that leads to happiness
There the very things they kill, I guess
Pride and competition
Can not fill these empty arms
And the work I put between us
Doesn’t keep me warm

I’m learning to live without you now
But I miss you baby
The more I know, the less I understand
All the things I thought I figured out
I have to learn again
I’ve been trying to get down
To the heart of the matter
But everything changes
And my friends seem to scatter
But I think its about forgiveness
Forgiveness
Even if, even if you don’t love me anymore

There are people in your life, who’ve come and gone
They let you down and hurt your pride
Better put it all behind you; life goes on
You keep carrying that anger, It’ll eat you up inside

I’ve been trying to get down
To the heart of the matter
But my will gets weak
And my thoughts seem to scatter
But I think its about forgiveness
Forgiveness
Even if, even if you don’t love me anymore

I’ve been trying to get down
To the heart of the matter
Because the flesh will get weak
And the ashes will scatter
So I’m thinking about forgiveness
Forgiveness
Even if, even if you don’t love me anymore

Written by Mike Campbell, Don Henley, and J.D. Souther