Permanent

Lady Be Good was a bomber
U.S. Air Force, 1943
She crashed into the dunes of the Libyan desert
And wasn't seen 'til '58
The crew had crawled to the north
Starved and baked
While a cold oasis lay behind them
A couple of miles the other way

Listen to the sand, listen to the ground
There's always gonna be another way out
I am your shade in the morning
You are my shadow at dusk
And the music our footprints write is permanent
More permanent than sound

Listen to the sand, listen to the ground
There's always gonna be another way out
I am your shade in the morning
You are my shadow at dusk
And the music our footprints write is permanent
More permanent than sound

Deborah Knapp, she and I were in eighth grade together
We were learning how to flirt and I remember
How her friends all told me
"Ask her out and she'll fly over the moon"
But I didn't, and she shot herself that June

This is not where the song was going
This is not what I meant to write
But all at once, the worm is hatched
The apple turns and the orchard dies
And your heart is full of something, thick and uninvited
The fever of another heart hatching deep inside it

Listen to the sand, listen to the ground
There's always gonna be another way out
I am your shade in the morning
You are my shadow at dusk
And the music our footprints write is permanent
More permanent than sound

Listen to the sand, listen to the ground
There's always gonna be another way out
I am your shade in the morning
You are my shadow at dusk
And the music our footprints write is permanent
More permanent than sound

Listen to the sand, listen to the ground
There's always gonna be another way out
I am your shade in the morning
You are my shadow at dusk
And the music our footprints write is permanent
More permanent than sound

Let the violins forgive their bows
And the marching drums forgive their drummer
And let the song forgive the singer (forgive me)
And let love forgive the lovers
No need to be good now