Method Acting / Cortez the Killer Songtext
von Dave Rawlings Machine

There′s no beginning to the story
The bookshelf sinks into the sand
And the language learned and forgotten turned
Is studied once again

It's a shocking bit of footage
Viewed on a shitty TV screen

You can squint at it through snowy 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 fear
′Cause I don't know what tomorrow brings
It's alive with such possibility
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 loves
I′ve sat too long in my silence
I've grown too old in 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 possibility
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 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


Came dancing across the water
With his galleons and guns
Looking for the new world
And 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 the subjects gathered 'round him
Like the leaves around the tree
In their clothes of many colors
For the angry gods to see
And the women all were beautiful
And the men stood straight and strong
They offered life in sacrifice
So that others could go on

Hate was just a legend
War was never known
People worked together
And they lifted many stones
And 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