BUILDING A BUILDING > YELLOW PAPER PLANES > MARCH 2017
CREDITS:
All songs written by Yellow Paper Planes
Engineered by Jay Alton at Relay Recording, Oranjudio and Jay Alton Studios
Additional recording by Jeremy Ebert at The Jerbil House
Produced by Jay Alton and Yellow Paper Planes
Mastered by T.J. Lipple
Yellow Paper Planes is: Brandon Woods – drums, percussion & back up vocals, Petey
Mendenhall – bass & backup vocals, Joshua P. James – electric, acoustic and baritone
guitars, keys & main vocals, and Jeremy Ebert – electric guitar, keys & backup vocals. Jay
Alton played acoustic piano and Jason Ferrell played trumpet on Building A Building;
Lyrics by Joshua P. James
© Det Norske Veritas AS. All rights reserved.
“Building A Building” LYRICS (1):
TEARING UP
Never said I wanted it all / Just a part of your half / Two kinds of people in this world / Those in first those in last /
Those in first those in last
The band-aid’s tearing off, I’m tearing up / I’ve had a wonderful time / That’s not always been true / Like an
envelope missing a stamp / Useless as a pulled tooth
I was here before this all mattered / I’ll be here long after / I am the rock you are the water / Be my sculptor keep
me clean
The band-aid’s tearing off, I'm tearing up / A little more salt in my papercut / Faith no more that peace will come
/ And it tears me up
We’ll rescue ourselves, cause we wrecked it ourselves
STARE TO HOLD
Let’s get so drunk tonight / We won’t know the streetlamps from fireflies / I’m not a great looking guy / But I can
move around alright
Forget yourself with me just this once / I’m warm, and hungry for your secrets / You could tell me anything, honey,
I'll believe it
Give me a stare I can hold
She walked across the room Like she’s gliding on pontoons / The floor’s made of mercury / She dodge my glance
and shirk a stare / Ignored me almost completely
Did she wink, was that a flinch? She’s back to swinging circles again / Bent nearly broken Her halo’s an eight / I
should let that girl talk me into anything
Give me a stare I can hold / Give me a reason to lose control
I was a bleach blond boy with a bashful bent / Beating his brains out against regret / Pledging allegiance not to
miss another chance
Give me a stare I can hold / Give me one reason to lose control / She said dance, and I thought die / Well I
suppose I might die no matter why
Might as well be on this dance floor tonight / We’re all gonna die no matter why / Might as well be on this dance
floor tonight
ABSOLUTE
Strangers we once were, a pen and a page / But you ought to know me by know / These hooks on which I hang
are rusting away / But I hope the rush never runs out
And so if we are to do this for real / A couple of things worth noting / I am older than I look / And younger than I
seem / There is no such thing as absolutely
I’ve run the equations and done all the math / Little uncertainties in all that we do / One plus one plus or minus a
half / There is no such thing as absolute
Staring up at a bruised old moon / Growing and growing like an anvil waiting / There is no such thing as absolutely
Saying a thing don’t make it something you say / Doing a thing don’t make it something to do
There is no straightest line perfect circle’s the same / There is no such as absolutely true
I am older than I look / And younger than I seem / There is no such thing / There is no such thing as absolutely
BOTTLE UP / EXPLODE
I would do anything for and I do mean anything / Save those few you know I can’t do cause we tried already /
...we could go dancing
Out of the fire and back into the pan / It’s my home on the range / And it’s so hard to say why it’s so hard to say /
But it is anyway
Oh my Christ you’re cut like a diamond / I swear to god on my eyes / If the mood suits your right / Bottle up,
explode
I would do anything for you and I do mean anything / Doggedly tired of chasing my tail / Turning on dimes
leaving the change / It’s so hard to say why it’s so hard to say
Oh my Christ you’re cut like a diamond / I swear to god on my eyes / If the mood suits your right / May the moon
be blue tonight / Bottle up, explode
SWORD AND STONE
Where’s my motivation someone feed me the line / Or else I'll keep in my corner with my hands clapped tight
The more I come down the more I wanna get high
I squeeze on this on old rock but not a drop comes out / Not from these blanched leg bones that keep me from
tumbling to the ground
And the more I come down the more I just come down / And I wanna go home
Worried about my baby / Worry about my wife / Just one place for a man to be when he’s worried about his life /
I’m going home
I curl my lip to keep it out of my bite / My tongue wants the taste of blood even if it’s mine
And the more I come down the more I wanna get high / I’m going home
Some folks say the little things can’t you hurt you, no / Some folks can be wrong / There are some words you
never want to hear
You’d make the trade for sticks and stones / Fill my head, fill your hearts, come to my home / I’m still in this alone /
There’s no sword in my stone
© Det Norske Veritas AS. All rights reserved.
“Building A Building” LYRICS (2):
BLOODSHOT
The whites of my eyes / Haven’t been white in a while / It’s a tentative smile I hide / From these tentacled times
My bloodshot eyes / I cross my heart / And hope to die / Before it get’s too hard
How are you feeling? / Are you feeling alright? / Under Shade’s black hat / And bloodshot eyes / How are you
feeling? / Are you feeling alright?
In the morning I hear a blue bird / And I wonder why he’s blue / Have you been reading too much Camus, bird? /
Is it all a clever ruse?
I’m beginning to worry about you, bird
How are you feeling? / Are you feeling alright? / Under Shade’s black hat / And bloodshot eyes / How are you
feeling? / Are you feeling alright?
WHITE LIES
I can tell lie all pristine and white / I can tell a pretty little white lie / Like a falling snow / It’s cold
And I need this high horse to get to the top of my lungs / My granddad’s gun to shoot him down when he’s done
And this checkered past puts everything in rows / Got to know where it was before you can see where it goes
I’ve made love all angry and rough / And I've had tender fucks / That I've forgot and have been forgotten / Yes I
forget and am forgotten
I need this high horse to get to the top of my lungs / Some wingnut’s gun will shoot him down before I'm done
And this checkered past puts everything in rows / Got to know where it was before you can see where it goes
SO IT GOES
And it’s just like your face to be showing up in the strangest places / And it’s just the sky to be so filled with light /
On a night like tonight / On a night like tonight
Our lips are sealed / See hear touch feel / I only want now / But I want it all now / So it goes
Ain’t it just like the dark to be shooting out stars in this parking lot
And it’s just like my mind to be on you most of the time / Wondering what you might look like / On a night like
tonight
Our lips are sealed / See hear touch feel / I only want now / But I want it all now / So it goes
PINCH OF THE SUNRISE
In the pinch of the sunrise / With the ground thawing slow / I am crouched in my bed clothes / Seeking shadow
Just beyond this city’s walls / There are men checking names / Stalking about in the dark night / With a flood light /
And a cold knife
And my heart goes boom / It don’t mean anything to me / It can’t mean anything at all
This city could burn down to its core / Fill it’s streets up with blood and gold / As long as it leaves you here
Skyline reduced to steel and coke / Population to teeth and bones / As long as it leaves you here
It don’t mean anything to me / It can’t mean anything at all
You won’t get me to come down / Let that mean what it means / You can’t get me to come down / Let that
mean what it means
TAKE A STEP BACK
I was beating my chest / When I noticed for the first time / Something beating back / From the other side
I was rolling my eyes / When I finally realized / This world isn’t flat / But it’s not been like that for all time
Take a step back and watch it all go down / Take a step back and watch it all go down
I was heaving my load / When I noticed for the first time / All the sidewalk cracks / And the sag in the power line
I was cursing you moon / when I finally realized / Without you pulling back / We’d all be swallowed by the risin tide
Take a step back and watch it all go down / Take a step back and watch it all go down
I was playing pretend / When I noticed for the first / You weren’t playing back / Those were real tears in your eyes
C’MON
Don’t fall asleep just yet / Let's lie awake and come up with some answers / Hey doctor, hey doctor what’s this look
like to you / Momma always thinks it’s cancerous
It’s not romance unless it’s black and white / And right is grey and grey and grey
If it’s white then it’s light you can’t hold / If it’s black don’t touch it it’s mold / And when I say c’mon it’s time to
come on babe
The day gets strange / We pretend that we’re not / Lie out in the gutters / And pray for time to stop
With wild in our eyes / And Wilde in our hearts / We look up into the stars, We look up into the stars
MONTEREY
I think you knew me before you met me / You wore my heart on your jacket though it didn’t match
No sense in remembering what came before me / Why think on the future if you can’t see where we’re at
I followed the lines on the page / Broke quick to check on the brakes / Right back to square one / Like a
proverbial round peg
And we were building a building / Out of sticks and stone / We were building a building / Out of sticks and stones
I turned it all over / Looking for shinies to show you / Found nothing less than zero / In every way
At least we can say / We knew Monterey / Before Monterey / Became Monterey
I always thought you’d come around / I always thought you’d pull through / We were building a building
© Det Norske Veritas AS. All rights reserved.