LYRICS

Here are Ivar’s lyrics for you to check what you heard, sing along, or sing your way… We’ll start with the most recent release and will go back step by step


ALBUM: SANTA CRUZ GOLD (MMXVIII)

Music &Lyrics by David Ivar Herman Dune
©Yaya Tova 2018


A Good Man’s Got Nothing To Prove
D/D/G/D/A/A/G/D Bm/Bm/Em/A

The world won’t abide by an unspoken rule
I gotta get my ass on the move
Riding in the sunset on a broken mule
A good man’s got nothing to prove

Say another prayer try a different tune
And meet me at the end of the record groove
They’re waiting like an Uber with a big balloon
A good man’s got nothing to prove

Just like with the Sour Patch Kids
I always got a thing for the blues
And gossip makes me exhausted
A good man’s got nothing to prove

Hear about a crime on the six o’clock news
They can’t find who did it they will pin it on the Jews
The killer is running with his big tattoos
A good man’s got nothing to prove

Chowing down a foot-long on the Berlin Wall
Sweet pickles taste better with rouge
Getting on the subway for a booty call
A good man’s got nothing to prove

Wrap your head around the credit score
Be thankful you were pre-approved
Jerry Seinfeld said it all before
A good man’s got nothing to prove

Fidel Castro surrendered
Now the world can really improve
To every Cuban a computer
A good man’s got nothing to prove
To every man a computer

Life On The Run
A/A/A/A/D/A D/E/A

Home Alone with Philip Roth
And a sweater I got from H & Moth
It’s the first day of summer and I got me a fever
Open a message from Turner and he says “Ivar
C’est Bon man” I live the life of a raconteur
I play guitar and I go on tour
It doesn’t matter that I am poor
I’m a king man

Sixteen sharks in a tidal wave
Can’t even look at a blade and so I never shave
I get irrational fears and timidity
And cold cold sweat from anxiety
Man I’m feeling like the Batman
I’m feeling like Superman
I’m feeling like a man who’s got to hide
Everything he is from the world outside
And it’s not cool

I bruised a muscle and I broke my jaw
I’m being hassled by the gd-damn law
They get away with murder and racial wars
I’m just watching Louie free of charge
And now they’re chasing my tail
They open my mail
They want my ass in jail and it seems unfair it’s out there

I’ve got a girl and she is dope
For my birthday she got me a telescope
She says it’s for the eclipse for the moon and the sun
I watch the people on the street it’s a lot more fun
See I’m a bit of a Voyeur
Or maybe weirdly wired
I rule the city from a rocking chair
State Policy is Laissez-Faire
Do it man

Crazy Blue
C/Em/F/G C/Em/F/G C/Am/Dm/G/C
F/F/C/C/G/G/G/C

Getting some on the rollercoaster
My time has come Flirting With Disaster
I’ve got a chip on my shoulder
And it’s stuck with a drop of Crazy Blue

Today’s another day it ends with Why and you’re getting high
On the Lost Highway going down for DUI
The story is uncanny
But it ends on a note of Crazy Blue

Crazy Blue
You never saw it coming but did it beat you
Punch you in the stomach to defeat you
Now your heart is bruising
And the only kind of soothing
Is Crazy Blue

It’s the birthday song that is Bringing Out The Dead
There is nothing wrong but I’m not getting out of bed
If I’m being dragged if I’m being pulled
If I’m being force-fed with a spoon of Crazy Blue

Just a Boyhood crush and a decade down the drain
With the royal trucks and now I’m weeping in the rain
With my dreams of Orange County
Where all the clementines are Crazy Blue

Crazy Blue
You never saw it coming but did it beat you
Punch you in the stomach to defeat you
Now your heart is bruising
And the only kind of soothing
Is Crazy Blue

Crazy Blue
Is filling up the spectrum of a worried mind
With a tiny little speck of dust I truly find
That the world I see is not just you and me
It’s a world that is painted Crazy Blue

See I can’t settle down
I go crazy when I stay in town
I only come to life on the run
Get me on a train man
On a bus or on a plane man
And in the morning I’ll be gone

Fake IDs and real moustache
Marijuana from a private stash
I never get high but I will give it a try
Man I’m going legal in Californi-a
I’m on my way
With a fistful of sand and an old palm tree
I close my eyes and I count to three
And it’s alright

I dig The Beatles and I dig the blues
The Moldy Peaches and The Silver Jews
I can never imagine what my life would be
If I hadn’t always had Bob Dylan with me
I mean everything he wrote
I’m strung out on heroes
My friend Jeff Lewis says Songs About Songwriting Suck
So I won’t even mention the writer’s block
I go through sometimes

See I can’t settle down
I go crazy when I stay in town
I only come to life on the run
Get me on a boat man
On a horse or on a goat man
And in the morning I’ll be gone

Lemon
They say you gotta work hard
If you’re ever gonna make it
You gotta pay for every dollar
And be willing to get naked

Sometimes you know what you’re here for
But mostly you just fake it
It hurts you more than it did before
Cause you were stronger and could fake it

All We Have Is Our Love
It’s hot I sweat my eyes are red
I see you naked as I lay my head
Lonesome in my hotel bed
I dream a dream of our love

California delirium
Paranoia on the run
They took their guns out in the sun
And all we have is our love

All we have is our love
All we have is our love

I need you now I need you here
I hope that in a thousand years
Long after we disappear
The name a star for our love

Sticks and stones and telephones
Comfort zones where we’re all alone
My home is with you my skin and bone
And all we have is our love

All we have is our love
All we have is our love

I know it can’t be over
I feel it in my blood
This war won’t last for ever
We’ll swim after the flood

 
It’s late at night the moon is blue
I drink a few beers maybe twenty-two
I feel sorry and I hope you do too
Cause all we have is our love

All we have is our love
All we have is our love
All we have is our love
All we have is our love

Now you’d never expected
That your dreams would be shattered
You went through life with G.d’s blessing
Succeeded in your endeavors

What if you never were chosen
And nothing really mattered
What if you never were a Joseph
You never were favored

I know it’s breaking your heart
But it’s better this way
See you’ll never get a real part
In this mechanical play

Sometimes the hand that you’re dealt
Is just another Lemon
You gotta buckle your belt
And bow down to a demon

What if you never existed
If you were never here at all
Just a wish on a twisted
Little note inside a wall
Just a wish on a twisted
Little note inside a wall
Just a wish on a twisted
Little note inside a wall

She Ushered Me Back Into My Grave

The weather is clear
She looks in the mirror
And feels alienated
I was biting her hear
I said have no fear
Reflections are over-rated

There’s a bug on my book
I can’t even look
It’s looking so gross and wicked
She says man up my friend
I could save you again
But I’d rather see you kick it

Undiscarded Jacaranda

I know what you’re gonna say
I don’t want to hear it anyway
I hear the mariachi play
Randy Newman’s I Love LA

You say California is just a movie
New York is real, New York is groovy
Don’t need to tell me what makes a city
What makes it pretty what makes it shitty

I’ve been in shitholes I’ve been in ghosttowns
I never felt home until I found

A beautiful Jacaranda
A beautiful Jacaranda
A beautiful Jacaranda
A beautiful Jacaranda

J’ai peur dans le noir tiens-toi près de moi
Reste avec moi ce soir prends moi dans tes bras

You dream of stories you dream of heroes
You say you worry about my ego
I get the message loud and clear
But I wish I saw you standing here
By the beautiful Jacaranda

A beautiful Jacaranda
A beautiful Jacaranda
A beautiful Jacaranda

J’ai peur dans le noir tiens-toi près de moi
Reste avec moi ce soir prends moi dans tes bras

Don’t need a reason for staying in
Can’t pick up the phone anyway it’s not ringing
I might be missing out I might be shying
Might be scared of living I’m not scared of dying
By the beautiful Jacaranda

A beautiful Jacaranda
A beautiful Jacaranda
A beautiful Jacaranda
A Beautiful Jacaranda
A beautiful Jacaranda

I Found A New Me

I used to laugh at people’s expense
Some say I was a bully, and I guess it’s true
I’d sneer and make faces whenever I’d get a chance
Now I found a new me when I found you

I found a new me
I found a new me
I found a new me
When I found you

All the wonders and all the signs
They gather like oceans whenever I’m around you
Now our love gets older but it’s not dying
And I found a new me when I found you

I found a new me
I found a new me
I found a new me
When I found you

Now the little raccoon with his little black hands
He’s digging for food he’s right by my studio
Someday soon I’ll grow up and make amends
I found a new me when I found you

I found a new me
I found a new me
I found a new me
When I found you

She ran away
There’s not much to say
I have no reason to behave
She got her way
She was OK
She ushered me back into my grave

Now I need to stay home
And I can’t be alone
It makes her feel like old people’s nurses
She gets really worked up
When I drink up her cup
She swears at my face and she curses

I couldn’t do much
Now I walk with a crutch
I was crushed by the littlest wave
She was out and about
I fell back in her doubts
She ushered me back into my grave

She ran away
There’s not much to say
I have no time on my hands
She got her way
She was OK
I’ll never understand

She ran away
There’s not much to say
I have no reason to behave
She got her way
She was OK
She ushered me back into my grave

Gatsbyfied
I was back from the country a season on a farm
I heard a siren in the distance or a burglar alarm
I thought ain’t this something the voice of the city
Is one of people hurting of crime and insanity
I lit up a fag back then I was smoking
A Band-Aid on my heart all fucked up and broken

It is all one and the same thing
The sorrow and the scars and the blues we sing
It is all one and the same thing
The sorrow and the scars and the blues we sing


I was nine years old they locked me in the basement
I was scared I was cold for their twisted amusement
I found a little prayer I guess I made up my own
I said it over and over until I got in the zone
Where the darkness around ceased to terrify me
My first mantra my first song my first ritual OCD

It is all one and the same thing
The sorrow and the scars and the blues we sing
It is all one and the same thing
The sorrow and the scars and the blues we sing

Baby say you remember when we got Gatsby-fied
I was the flavor of the summer you were the princess bride
We were shown to a corner of insignificant guests
Just a stone’s throw from Fritz and her magnificent breasts
I played for our dinner but I was just a lie
And someone touched you in the pool where we were meant to die

It is all one and the same thing
The sorrow and the scars and the blues we sing
It is all one and the same thing
The sorrow and the scars and the blues we sing
It is all one and the same thing
The sorrow and the scars and the blues we sing
It is all one and the same thing
The sorrow and the scars and the blues we sing


Man On The Road
Packed my things onto a little truck
Snuck it in the carpool lane
Picking diamonds in a state of shock
Driving families insane

They say they’re splitting the atom
And the universe shatters
Strings and dimensions at random
And the chosen don’t matter

I can never go home he says
‘Cause home is where it hurts
I once was and always will be alone
he says
In the glittering dust

All my traveling
My unraveling
The scores I’ve had to keep on
Whose floors I got to sleep on
All the meandering
And the wandering
It made me what I am now
And I am just a man on the road

Man on the road
In a three-piece suit
One last ride
With a beautiful route
He will stand tall
Stick to his opinions
Won’t take an obsolete order
From the Soviet Union

Man On The Road
He won’t look back
He’s got a dreadful ghost in the backseat
With a six-beer pack

All the mingling
All the jingling
The coins that I got tossed at
In the towns where I was stopped at
All the scrambling
All the rambling
It made me what I am now
And I am just a man on the road
It made me what I am now
And I am just a man on the road
It made me what I am now
And I am just a man on the road


 

ALBUM: NOTES FROM VINEGAR HILL (MMXX)

Music &Lyrics by David Ivar Herman Dune
©Yaya Tova 2020


Freak Out ‘til the Morning Dew
G/C/D/G C/Cm/G/D
It’s 2:37 AM I’m reading the news in the dark
The hills are burning but from where I am I can’t even feel a spark
My lipstick is spitting rage
My cat’s eyes are going blind
Feel like Betty Draper or Bettie Page
Insane of body and mind
I know what I’m gonna do
Freak out ‘til the morning dew
I know what I’m gonna do
Freak out ‘til the morning dew
I know what I’m gonna do
Freak out ‘til the morning dew
I know what I’m gonna do
Freak out ‘til the morning dew
The piano won’t take my notes
There’s white shooting out of my pink
Can’t read a song I wrote
My eyes are too heavy to blink
My car’s spent the week in the shop
I can’t even look at the bill
The country’s too crazy to stop
And talking’s just making me ill
I know what I’m gonna do
Freak out ‘til the morning dew
I know what I’m gonna do
Freak out ‘til the morning dew
I know what I’m gonna do
Freak out ‘til the morning dew
I know what I’m gonna do
Freak out ‘til the morning dew
I know what I’m gonna do
Freak out ‘til the morning dew
I know what I’m gonna do
Freak out ‘til the morning dew
I know what I’m gonna do
Freak out ‘til the morning dew

Ballad of Herman Dune (High on Rye and Lost at Sea)
D/G/A/D

The old Main Street is fumes and vapes
I’ve been driving Downtown with the Basement Tapes
There is nowhere else I’d rather be
Except for being here if you’d be with me
There’s a guy on the corner of Pacific and 8th
He spins all day in his roller skates
Carries a Chihuahua in a pink backpack
And he’s giving me a heart-attack
Someone asks me what it is I do
And I say Moby Dick what is it to you?
My job is just to drive around
Like an Uber around town
Picking words along the way
Take them to my piano at the end of the day
Hope they line up into a tune
Good enough for Herman Dune
Now I’m doing 90 on the express lane
I’m going to Carls and so I can’t complain
I can’t exit ‘cause no one blinks
Now I’m starving and my hair is pink
I’m looking out for the yellow star
I’ve got no GPS in my car
My tooth is rotten like Harley Quinn
You can only lose if you’re trying to win
I use to dream of the LBC
Watching Snoop Dogg on the MTV
Now I miss my youth and I miss my tooth
But I’m cruising and sipping on Gin&Juice
Going over the bridge and Eva Green
The cherry boats and the sweet sixteens
You just can’t count on experience
They’ll go for your neck if they’re given a chance
Throw a buck and get in line
You’ll get a piece of me for your piece of mind
I hate the sound of the ghetto birds
But I’ll dig your song if you dig your words
Terminal Island is the place to be
If you really really really wanna be like me
High on rye and lost at sea
Coming up the LBC

Vinegar Hill
D/G/A/D

I took my baby to Vinegar Hill
She planted a kiss on me and it gave me a thrill
I said I’ll keep you in my pocket like a two-dollar bill
She said alright I’ll make you lucky and I know she will
We passed the halfway house and the Italian store
She was tiny as a mouse and pretty as the shore
I said I’ll keep you in my pocket like a handkerchief
A secret in my heart a true belief
Down by the beacon where the walrus sleeps
I sounded like a promise and she sure looked like keeps
I said I’ll keep you in my pocket like an M&M
A fine cut poem or a stolen gem
No money no crime no crime no money
All I got is time and you my honey
I’ll keep you in my pocket like an antidote
A cigarette butt or a Kinky quote
It’s the fancy car that won the war
Not tequila and beer not my local bar
I’ll keep you in my pocket like a pair of dice
A shot of libation a sacrifice 

Mookie Mookie
A/A/D/A/E/D/A
Mookie Mookie you’re making me say please
Pretty as a doll prettier than Dita Von Teese
Mookie Mookie you got me on my knees
You say I’m a monster you say I’m mean and cruel
But the way I see it you’re playing me for a fool
Mookie Mookie making me lose my cool
I’ve got my mind on the whiskey I’m drinking 5 Jessica Jones
I feel it in my body feel it in my sour mash bones
Mookie Mookie leaving me on my own
Sometime I feel stuck sometimes I get out of line
I get on my truck and drive towards the Hollywood sign
Mookie Mookie making me lose my mind
I’ve got a chip on my shoulder driving on the 101
Making me do things that I never ever would have done
Mookie Mookie the end has only begun
In the wee small hours tomorrow when the rooster crows
I’ll go down to the harbor honey where the foghorn blows
Get on that ship Mookie Mookie wherever she goes
I try my best but everything I do is wrong
I thought I could make it but maybe I’m not that strong
So goodbye Mookie Mookie
Mookie Mookie so long 

Birds Of Prey
F/F/Bb/F/F/F/Bb-C/F
I wish I was a bird of prey
I wish I talked New York
I hope that at the end of days
Our lives won’t seem too short
Going through the Park on my roller skates
Going through the Park on my roller skates
Going through the Park on my roller skates
Oh what a lonesome fate
I wish I was a bird of prey
I wish I talked New York
I hope that at the end of days
Our lives won’t seem too short
Now I’m going through Red Hook with a pink bouquet
Now I’m going through Red Hook with a pink bouquet
Now I’m going through Red Hook with a pink bouquet
My robin is running away
I wish I was a bird of prey
I wish I talked New York
I hope that at the end of days
Our lives won’t seem too short
Our lives won’t seem too short
Our lives won’t seem too short


Say You Love Me Too
F/Am/B/F

Remember what I said if it wasn’t much
I said it yesterday lying in the couch
You sang a Lucinda with your ruby mouth
I went and kissed you by the window then it all went South
Somewhere in all the noise I uttered a word
You weren’t entirely poised but I could tell you’d heard
Some dreams vanish at dawn and others stick with you
Now I hope you’ll wake up and run and say you love me too
Say you love me too
Say you love me too
Now I’m going through the tapes scattered in my car
And my black cat’s sleeping in the case of my guitar
I come across Car Wheels On a Gravel Road
And I think now I know how it feels when your heart explodes
Say you love me too
Say you love me too
Say you love me too
Say you love me too
Now I’m a man of patience I was taught how to count the dates
But the stronger the passion the harder the wait
You know what I’m saying but I’ll give you a clue
I told you I loved you baby now say you love me too
Say you love me too
Say you love me too
Say you love me too
Say you love me too
Say you love me too
Say you love me too
Say you love me too
Say you love me too


Heartbroken & Free
D/B7/Em/A D/F#/Bm/G/Em/D/D/A/D
When I fold please carry me
Under the yellow peach-tree
Where bad omens stop scaring me
And I’m home heartbroken and free
If you see my neighbor
Tell her I drove down
To the LA River
Where the waters are brown
When I fold please carry me
Under the yellow peach-tree
Where bad omens stop scaring me
And I’m home heartbroken and free
And in the evening
The last remaining hue
As the sun is sinking
Is of the deepest blue
When I fold please carry me
Under the yellow peach-tree
Where bad omens stop scaring me
And I’m home heartbroken and free
I’m going home to my baby
To Los Angeles (where)
Some are bound to suffer
Others aim to please
When I fold please carry me
Under the yellow peach-tree
Where bad omens stop scaring me
And I’m home heartbroken and free
Heartbroken and free
Heartbroken and free

LA Blues
D/BM/Em/A G/F#/Bm/Bm-A/Em/A/F#
G/F#/Bm/Bm-A/Em/Em/F#

People don’t apologize
When I stand in loneliness
The minute I open my eyes
I can’t unsee the phoniness
I try to stay up but
I can’t I fall asleep to fireworks
My name under a sycophant
On the marquee at the Echoplex
I forget all about you
There’s more important things to do
I forget all about you
There’s more important things to do
Someone always wants something from you
When you live in Hollywood
Line up at your door to inform you
That everything you do is good
Now where is my entourage
When I’m at the end of my rope
I’m looking for Nicki Minaj
Down by the slippery slope
I forget all about you
There’s more important things to do
I forget all about you
There’s more important things to do

Scorpio Rising
A/A/A/E/A/D A/E/D/A/A/E/D/A
I’m going to the ocean baby riding on my bike
I’ve got jailbird trunks and lifeguard fins – the only kind I like
And if the swell is right I’ll get in line for a barrel or five
And if it flatlines I’ll go swimming for a mile of butter fly
If it flatlines I’ll go swimming for a mile of butterfly
If you’ve got water You got me baby
If you’ve got water You got me baby
The starfish and the Garibaldis show their colors bright
The stingrays and the sea-slugs are just picking up a fight
The dolphins are a ganging in the early morning light
And I’m breathing in the marine breeze higher than a kite
I’m breathing in the marine breeze higher than a kite
If you’ve got water You got me baby
If you’ve got water You got me baby
There’s a mailman in a sugarcube waving me hello
There’s Jimbo in his auto-shop fixing up a GTO
Tamale Guy push your cart trying to make a little dough
And I’m riding on my bike singing Yodelayheeho
I’m riding on my bike singing Yodelayheeho
If you’ve got water You got me baby
If you’ve got water You got me baby
I’ve got a hazelnut brew in my cup and I hope that it won’t spill
I’ve got a plastic bag in the back of my trunks for a twenty-dollar bill
I put a U-Lock on the fence at the bottom of the hill
And I’m going out in the morning light like a California seal
I’m going out in the morning light like a California seal
I’m going out in the morning light like a California seal
I’m going out in the morning light like a California seal

Hawaii Morning
Intro A
E/A/E/A/D/A/E/A

Hawaii morning the air is soft and grey
Down in the harbor the ships are on their way
It’s been raining the green field’s unscorched
The rooster is crowing on the neighbor’s porch
Wake up now with the light of day
Put a shawl and bow take a minute to pray
A childhood’s blessing underneath a shroud
A rainbow is showing through a big old cloud
Hawaii morning the air is soft and grey
From the Rolling Hills to the San Pedro Bay
The cat is meowing he says it’s time for chow
He’s been roaming and moaning to the break of dawn
I get a feeling that my baby waits
I can hear her tapping on the kitchen plates
Coffee’s brewing newspaper’s on the stoop
Go straight to the funnies and the horoscope
Hawaii morning the air is soft and grey
I’ve been recording singing everyday
Sometimes my voice is broken sometimes it’s really low
Sometimes it takes me a second sometimes it’s really slow
See the humming bird by the lemon tree
Hovering over it’s elementary
Me and my baby stay local we stay in bed all day
Hawaii morning the air is soft and grey
Hawaii morning the air is soft and grey
Hawaii morning the air is soft and grey

PS I Could Have Done Great Things
E/E/A/E E/E/B/B E/E/A/A E/B/E/A/E/B/E
Meet me in the morning show me Your Name
Make me feel like I’m not the same
Like I fought with the Man with a broken wing
People say I could have done great things
People say I could have done great things
Well I’ve been on the air and on the TV screen
Played like a jester even once for a queen
I Might have wrote a few songs that my daughter will sing
People say I could have done great things
People say I could have done great things
Fell for the cover of a beautiful book
Now it sits like a lover with an unread look
I don’t want something that’s written I want something you said
I don’t owe you a word I’ve already paid
I just want to stay home and hold my cat
Drinking beers in the sun with a big straw hat
Make way for the sorrow that tomorrow may bring
People say I could have done great things
People say I could have done great things
People say I could have done great things
People say I could have done great things
People say I could have done great things

 

All songs Music &Lyrics by David Ivar Herman Dune
©Yaya Tova 2020