Ari Herstand

One Take

All words and music by Ari Herstand
Copyright 2007 ASCAP

1. Float on By

Float on by my street
Here I’ve come to meet
Why I lost my way to fear
Many hopes long ago

Float on pass the woods
Smelling nature’s goods
Lifting all them up
As they pass one by

Float on by my car
A million drives I now recall
My permit to drive back home
Has passed on by

This river I float on by
All the dreams I left behind
Regrets too tiresome
What makes sense this tune I hum

So many fears so many years
Waiting for tomorrow

Remember on back to school
How I’d been such a fool
Where are all my peers
Probably living my dreams

Now where are my dreams
That I had been so keen
On making them come true
They’ve washed all away

I waited for the way
They promised to show me some day
I waited one day too long
Now here I’m left alone

It’s a sad day that will come
When we’ll have forgotten to have fun
We’ll look back on our pictures
And we’ll laugh on by

So many fears so many years
Waiting for tomorrow

It’s time to float on to another place
I’ve gone so fast, so much is left behind
There’s nothing left for me to live by
Nothing’s here
Float on ‘till tomorrow

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2. Proud Honeybee

So here we stand we are infants so small
Dreaming that one day we’ll be on top of it all
Above the mountains above the trees
But here I sit wishing down on my knees

I’ve seen the creatures in this so-called promise land
I don’t believe that what we brag is all that grand
Yes wave them flags like a proud honeybee
Blindly working for the queen of an invisible feat 

So how do we recuperate?
Just now we emancipate
Our right to be free
With one tiny fee
We trash away
The innocent face
Of all the colors who stand in our way

America, home of the free and brave
Imperceptible to what her French statue raves
A prison cell holds on to our foreign hate
A beehive hell is fine for our conscience’s sake

Because a honeybee gives treats to the free but stings them dead if you frighten its destiny

America, home of the free and brave
Imperceptible to what her French statue raves
It’s good enough when we lock up the fear
It’s our master plan for patriot love right here

I am so fed up with the whole
Patriot scheme that’s killing the dream
Of integration with everyone
How can we preach love
When we interfere with the buzz
“With liberty and justice for all” 

America, home of the free and brave
Imperceptible to what her French statue raves
It’s good enough when we lock up the fear
It’s our master plan for patriot love right here

And this honeybee giving treats to the free, stinging them dead I feel so free
Mamma can’t you see it's time for me to teach this honeybee to see

This hive is erasing
The words of our fathers dream

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3. Intro to...

4. 35

Will I wake up in an office cube
Offer the pizza boy another I OWE YOU
My boss piles up TPS reports
He says “Son that memo was just a reminder note”

One day when I am thirty five
Will I think
How did I get here and why
Will you say
“Don’t you question why I found you
It was meant to be babe
No matter how we got here”

Will I wake up in a sewage plant
Burning my clothes to free that rancid stench
Open my lunch box to see a note you drew
Multi colors saying “I love you”

One day when I am thirty five
Will I think
How did I get here and why
Will you say
“Don’t you question why I found you
It was meant to be babe
No matter how we got here” 

Will I wake up on the softball field
My kids in the crowd leading my team’s cheer
We’re down by 6 but they don’t really care
Because their favorite player’s up to bat, Hey there!

One day when I am thirty five
Will I think
How did I get here and why
Will you say
“Don’t you question why I found you
It was meant to be babe
No matter how we got here”
If you ask me babe
I think we’ll be alright

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5. Blanket-Go-Round

The pillow loses volume
below you
I move to give it life
The blanket has now fallen
all on you
The breeze gives my mind sight

I could rest here always
Wide eyed I lie and sigh because
I know the moment our feet meet the ground
i t’s over and I’m closer to being bound to the blanket-go-round 

Timidly I whisper
I kiss her
begging for some life
Asleep she cannot hear me
or feel me
I wait and watch the sun rise

I could rest here always
Wide eyed I lie and sigh because
I know the moment our feet meet the ground
i t’s over and I’m closer to being bound to the blanket-go-round 

Last week was the dancer
Next week I’ll have my answer
how we fit inside
Blankets serve one purpose and
I am very nervous
I’ll never find the one that keeps me warm
I have fooled my brain
into thinking blankets change
with each new owner they find
I curl up underneath
this week’s blanket and I sleep
thrilled but chilled again tonight

I could rest here always
Wide eyed I lie and sigh because
I know the moment our feet meet the ground
it’s over and I’m closer to being bound to the blanket-go-round 

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6. Poster Boy Celebrity

A poster boy celebrity ahead of me is something I believe in somewhere I can dream in someone I’m a feelin

Generalize my size inside despise the lies that make me wise gimme ties that make me high and never give up and die
We try to side with the minds and kinds unite to find rewind intertwine with my line my crime what is this crime

Instead I dread my bed each night my head is fed with meds to make me numb and misled
unsettling
treading water in my sleep every chance I get to weep I fall deep into another painted dream

It seems I run a street team regime but my massive scheme that others seldom see is it’s all me

Yes the posters and website the might it takes to hold it up and win this fight is to pretend I am a hundred men in the end no one knows the work and dirt I perk up to greet each jerk that gives me shit for my perks
It works it hurts but I’ll never lose my quirks and smirks

I love my work

So I’m a poster boy celebrity ahead of me is something I believe in somewhere I can dream in someone I’m a feelin

This is how I choose to peruse the news I lose a minute to misuse the clues from beneath the cover page
The haunted age of rage of sage that clobbers me with scents and I repent to turn the page
I meant to bring you flowers but he cowers at the powers that showers the hours as monotony sets in
Too weak to ask if I’ll ever meet the task that is deep inside the flask of liquid hope
I joke my cries will open up my eyes and my size will be the ultimate prize

I'm just a Poster boy celebrity ahead of me is something I believe in somewhere I can dream in someone I’m a feelin

Another day we will wait around and ask a friend
To play a game that will bring us back to the day we were sane

We aim for the same justifiable gains
We love to be loved and we thrive on shame from those we see succeeding without blame

Is it our duty to destroy the strongest of the pact
When they show weakness only then we turn our back
I like to say I thrive to stay inside the lives of the masses
fastest as molasses is the only way to last as the passes to the classes
Generalize my size inside despise the lies that make me wise gimme ties that make me high and never give up and die
We try to side with the minds and kinds unite to find rewind intertwine the line it’s time to find a rhyme undo this crime a dime
a lime a rhyme a find a sign a sonic whine a tonic kind a trickling pickling tickling panoramic sign

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7. A Smile

A girl walks mother by her side
An ice cream cone and four years on her own
Reminisce the nightly gifts and the musical riffs
From holiday rhymes to the New York Times
Simple toys have their simple joys
There's happiness in the simple little gifts
Piece together one remaining smile
It's free for just this while

A picket fence ‘round a luminescent dream
Look at me and my fancy little scene
Porsche away a rainy day with an extra little pay
Mend the time with a line from a formulated script
Feel the breeze without please, there's no treasure in the whether
Where's my smile?! Yes it's been a while
Please come out and skip away to the blithe encompassed day

I can't remember my plans from yesterday
I can't remember why I walked outside today
The darkening clouds and the piercing sounds
There's a smile within the gray
The smiling town and the sunset's found
I'll find somewhere to play here

It's a complicated smile when there's so much to hide
A toothless perk is so much work
Hide away frustrate undefined underlined
The grin of sin never wins
Look around I have found the perfect smile to make my trial
It's a gift to be simple it's a gift to be free
When I grin at the smile I can truly see
There's so much behind the teeth let them glow they will show
There's no pain when we're the same
Yeah it's ok fake the day

I came out of this bubble blesséd shell
To find glory and pride were an inadvertent hell
Preach the words of the profit from the holy book
Well, books ain't my thing but I still like to look
It's a game when I aim for that infinite bliss
But you play in my way and I don't think I'll miss
When you stand in my light and eclipse my favorite site
Of the smiles and trials mango lusse delight

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8. Beneath the Moon

My sheets are tangled
around my legs inside my room
I twist my angle
to free my thoughts and lose this tune
that’s been tugging from that night I left
my necktie in your room
that’s been humming in the air each night
I lay awake
beneath the moon

A different battle
Every night a tangle war
My thoughts are shadows
darkened by your light with more
sleepless nights staring at the moon
The same light that once lit the hammock
where we first kissed that June
beneath the moon

If you could feel the loss that has been blinding me
You wouldn’t be so quick to make me lose my sleep
But you don’t help me hold onto that night
I lost my sight
beneath the moon

I bought a new necktie
the first since I lost the last for good
I made it a black tie
This won’t stain like the last one could

The moon is falling sun’s coming up
Another night I lost looking up
I can’t let go of your melting smile
I can’t let go of my inner child
I lie
Awake I try
Too late to cry
Away you fly

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9. So Fantastical

Hello Mr. Ordinary, I don’t believe we’ve met
But I can see this is going to be a little strange
You see I am very compatible but also simply fallible
And corky little necessities make up what I affectionately call me

A giant wallet helps me organize with a
Monster change pouch that’s just my size
It’s all I need to keep down my flaws
Plus maybe a hundred or two chewing straws

Snow is so fantastical
Dancing’s irresistible
Children are adorable
And I am clearly irrational

I am running around in circles, it’s just my thing
I am humbly thanking the architect of my fantasies
I am down stage center and a summertime camper jungle gym
But spinning around on my head and chasing the stars till I am dead makes me me

I don’t pretend to be machine washed
I like to find those who deny they’re lost
I leave a smile when I see a child
I disregard the word bizarre
I chase after buses and make restaurant fuses
It’s who I am

Snow is so fantastical
Dancing’s irresistible
Children are adorable
I am simply irrational

I am running around in circles, it’s just my thing
I am humbly thanking the architect of my fantasies
I am down stage center and a summertime camper jungle gym
But spinning around on my head and chasing the stars till I am dead makes me me

Snow is so fantastical
Dancing’s irresistible
Children are adorable
And I am clearly irrational

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10. The Photograph

Hi, hello again
I can’t believe it’s been four years since
Your smile, I know it sounds dumb but back at home I have
This photo of the two of us standing with a boy I don’t remember
But this picture, I’ve kept for simply one reason
Your smile

Hi, hello again. I see you but I’m afraid to leave
What do you say that you and me go someplace far away
Like Paris or Rome or Barcelona
I mean
Just kidding how about we go for coffee instead and

I’ll find that picture that I’ve waited to share
We’ll lay down I’ll stroke the curls in your hair
I’m racing too quickly but I’ll return revived
Here I sit wishing hope in your smile

Hi, hello again. Please pinch me I need to wake up
What do you say -  I was just thinking let’s get married
I mean
Just kidding that’s a little quick and what I meant to say was
How are you
I’m happy now let’s start with that.

You are that picture that I’ve waited to share
We’ll lay down I’ll stroke the curls in your hair
I’m racing too quickly but I’ll return revived
Here I sit wishing hope in your smile

Hey I almost forgot to say
Your beautiful, so beautiful, your beautiful
Just like in that photograph

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11. Itch Inside Your Ear

In the town of the street
where I keep a parking place for me to sleep
I wake up look around
Something’s changed and something’s frayed the city sound
Walk outside watch the trees
and their whispering a message to me

They say “follow the sound of peace
Return to the road where you used to sleep
In seconds that last for many years
sounds will fade to an itch inside your ear”

As I climb to the top
of my telling tree I see the city stop
I call out I need some help
I am stuck in a tree and nobody can hear me yell
I give up, sink back down
to my branch and I block out the city sound

Singing “follow the sound of peace
Return to the road where you used to sleep
In seconds that turn to many years
sounds will fade to an itch inside your ear”

And a leaf has fallen down
It’s blowing all over town
It’s looking for a home to feel comfortably sound
But the buses and the cabs blow the leaf into the crowd it loses coloring
Afraid and decayed the leaf rests in dismay
only to be joined by a million more the same
getting raked up in the crowd

Then I hear an angel sing
She is singing a faint sweet melody
I tune her in tune my thoughts out
She is far from where I stand but still I shout
“Come to me set me free
I am stuck in a tree and my city’s turned on me"

She sings “follow the sound of peace
return to the road where you used to sleep
In seconds that turn to many years
Your city sound was that itch inside your ear”

Inside my ear
My city sound was that itch inside my ear

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12. Center of a Kiss

So much is in the center of a kiss
It doesn’t matter whether it exists
An optimistic wish is the sentimental basis of the kiss   

A piece of a sentimental wish
sinks the calm - this hormonal driven bliss
And incandescent eyes stare at my grieving little smile

But we go
And I know
the treading in the water
I’ll be drowning in the water

We say goodbye

I have yet to find that special kiss
where I will build up the sentimental wish
and grinning little eyes will meet a gazing simple smile
But we go
And I know
the treading in the water
I’ll be drowning in the water

We say goodbye

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13. Air Cries Wind

A gorgeous stream where the turtles wade
My eyes found a lovely flower one day
With petals of red and ripples of blue floating past my toes
I washed my heart with the turtles and froze

Some time when the air cries wind
I'll rise up high and breathe all of you in
A cool breeze of empathy for love

In paradise there are lovers who swim
in the stream with the absence of everything
Splashing free with an intent of nonentity
With everything between two hearts they sing
Love will run down your cheek
Love will put your mind to sleep
I will catch your love and run away for...
...please say forever

Next week when the sun warms the wind
I'll lie outside and feel that breeze rush in
It carries life from another sunset around
And as I feel the stories of the other lovers I'm found

Some time when the air cries wind
I'll rise up high and breathe all of you in
A cool breeze of empathy for love

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Baby Eyes

All words and music by Ari Herstand
Copyright 2005 ASCAP

Lyrics Coming Soon!

1. Air Cries Wind

2. A Smile (I Can't Remember)

3. Baby Eyes

4. Proud Honeybee

5. Rose Stained Red

6. Mr. Saltzman

7. Most Beautiful Girl of All

8. The Photograph

9. Liberty Bell

10. Bond Between Lovers

11. Who's Deciding

12. Most of All (My Brother)

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