The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly
A musical opus by C. Kinchla & Blues Traveler

Just Wait
Words & Music by J. Popper


If ever you are feeling like you're tired
And all your uphill struggles leave you headed downhill
If you realize your wildest dreams can hurt you
And your appetite for pain has drinken its fill

I ask of you a very simple question
Did you think for one minute that you are alone
And is your suffering a privilege you share only
Or did you think that everybody else feels completely at home

Just wait
Just wait
Just wait
And it will come

If you think I've given up on you you're crazy
And if you think I don't love you well then you're just wrong
In time you just might take to feeling better
Time is the beauty of the road being long

I know that now you feel no consolation
But maybe if I told you and informed you out loud
I say this without fear of hesitation
I can honestly tell you that you make me proud

Just wait
Just wait
Just wait
And it will come
Just wait
Just wait
Just wait
And it will come

If anything I might have just said has helped you
If anything I might have just said helped you just carry on
Your rise uphill may no longer seem a struggle
And your appetite for pain may all but be gone

I hope for you and cannot stop at hoping
Until that smile has once again returned to your face
There's no such thing as a failure who keeps trying
Coasting to the bottom is the only disgrace

Just wait
Just wait
Just wait
And it will come
Just wait
Just wait
Just wait
And it will come
Just wait
Just wait
Just wait
And it will come

Brother John
Words by J. Popper & B. Sheehan
Music by C. Kinchla


Are you sleeping
Brother John
If you feel like weeping
Brother John
Please won't you hear me
Brother John
Just wait and see
Brother John

Can't you see by the will of your hand
You can give it a try and just name your price
And everybody in this rock & roll band
Don't wanna preach don't wanna give advice
But the music's playing and all we're saying
Is come along and jam
And it's hard to be believed what can be achieved
With an outstretched hand

Are you sleeping
Brother John
If you feel like weeping
Brother John
Please won't you hear me
Brother John
Just wait and see
Brother John

The things that hurt just won't go away
But neither will we
Doesn't really matter either way cause you're all you need
To set yourself free
It may sound hard but it's just a start
To ride that wind
And you ain't Peter Pan you're just a man
You'll get there again

Are you sleeping
Brother John
If you feel like weeping
Brother John
Please won't you hear me
Brother John
Just wait and see
Brother John

Are you sleeping
Brother John
If you feel like weeping
Brother John
Please won't you hear me
Brother John
Just wait and see
Brother John

Just wait and see
Just wait and see
Just wait and see
Just wait and see

Won't you rise and shine
Won't you rise and shine
Won't you rise and shine
Won't you rise and shine
Won't you rise and shine
Won't you rise and shine
Won't you rise and shine

Won't you wait and see

Runaround
Words & Music by: J. Popper


Once upon a midnight dearie
I woke with something in my head
I couldn't escape the memory
of a phone call and of what you said
Like a game show contestant with a parting gift
I could not believe my eyes
When I saw through the voice of a trusted friend
Who needs to humor me a tell me lies
And I'll lie too and say I don't mind
And when you're feeling open I'll still be here
But not without a certain degree of fear
Of what will be with you and me
I still can see things hopefully

But you
Why you wanna give me a runaround
Is it a sure fire way to speed things up
When all it does is slow me down

And shake me and my confidence
About a great many things
But I've been there I can see it cower
Like a nervous magician waiting in the wings
Of a bad play where the heroes are right
And nobody thinks or expects too much
And Hollywood's calling for the movie rights
Singing hey babe lets keep in touch
Hey baby lets keep in touch
But I want more than a touch I want you to reach me
And show me all the things no one else can see
So what you feel becomes mine as well
And soon if we're lucky we'd be unable to tell
What's yours and mine the fishing's fine
And it doesn't have to rhyme so don't you feed me a line

But you
Why you wanna give me a runaround
Is it a sure fire way to speed things up
When all it does is slow me down

Tra la la la la bomba dear this is the pilot speaking
And I've got some news for you
It seems my ship still stands no matter what you drop
And there ain't a whole lot that you can don
Oh sure the banner may be torn and the wind's gotten colder
Perhaps I've grown a little cynical
But I know no matter what the waitress brings
I shall drink in and always be full
My cup shall always be full

Oh like coffee
And I like tea
I'd like to be able to enter a final plea
I still got this dream that you just can't shake
I love you to the point you can no longer take
Well all right okay
So be that way
I just hope and pray
That there's something left to say

But you
Why you wanna give me a runaround
Is it a sure fire way to speed things up
When all it does is slow me down

But you
Why you wanna give me a runaround
Is it a sure fire way to speed things up
When all it does is slow me down

Trust In Trust
Words by: J. Popper
Music by: C. Kinchla


Set your sights on my corner of time
I hear truth but I just speak the rhyme
Fear knows no one if he hasn't met me
I got to know him well and only now do I see

You can run where you wanna run when you wanna hide
Feels like you are driving but you're just on a ride
The truth shall set you free is what I hear them say
And to my sweet surprise it does work out that way

Blame yourself blame the way you were raised
And if you need to blame you could blame your own rage
Or you could trust yourself and trust others too
And trust your trust in trust and then they'll trust you

You can run where you wanna run when you wanna hide
Feels like you are driving but you're just on a ride
The truth shall set you free is what I hear them say
And to my sweet surprise it does work out that way

A radical concept I know I'm laying down
But try it just once and take one more look around
I spoke not in haste till I said to my fear
One of us must leave and look I'm still here

You can run where you wanna run when you wanna hide
Feels like you are driving but you're just on a ride
The truth shall set you free is what I hear them say
And to my sweet surprise it does work out that way
And to my sweet surprise it does work out that way
And to my sweet surprise

Regarding Steven
Words & Music by: J. Popper


Well I've guessed your name and I'm sure you know mine
I'd like to discuss our mutual friend
I can't help but feel that I left him behind
Does he still stay with you or did his pain ever end

I guess
I don't deserve to know
If he ever let go
I guess
I don't really need to see
If he wound up with you or did he ever break free

When we were both young, you took us in
And taught us to play survival games
He'd lost so much that you let him win
But I had a home so it just wasn't the same

I had the strength
To look you in the eye
And say goodbye
I was lucky
And I didn't have to play
Does he still stay with you or did he get away

I used what I had and I escaped
I smelled something good and I followed it's track
But all he could smell was the world that you shaped
It took all my strength and I just couldn't look back

I remember him
Calling after me
I keep that memory
The last thing he screamed aloud
Was "Hey don't you leave me alone"
Yeah he might live with you but he called me his home
Yeah I guessed your name
And someday so will he
Cause one of these ides he's gonna break free
Cause one of these ides he's gonna break free
Cause one of these ides he's gonna break

The Poignant and Epic Saga Of Featherhead And Lucky Lack
Words by: J. Popper
Music by: C. Kinchla


I remember hearing a story
About a girl who wanted to fly
Something about dreams as fragile a bubbles
Well perhaps it won't apply
It seems she'd flap her arms everyday and every night
As hard and as long as she could
She knew her dream needed all the love she could give it
For it to do her any good

One night her heart spoke in a dream
It told her if you really love this believe, because...

It takes the Guiltiest of eyes
To condemn the man who dies
It takes a thousand of his best spies
To expose as many lies
It could take weeks for me to say
How It'll take forever to go away
And it takes everything you have
... to be in love

Well across the street there lived a little boy
Sad disfigured child with two humps on his back
Pitiful autistic little mess in a wheelchair
The other kids all named him "lack"
But Lack started to take interest
In that girl across the way
He'd watch in amazement from his window
While she flapped her arms
And that's how they'd spend their days

She'd soon inspire him to stand
That girl everyone called featherhead
Made him clearly understand
That...

It takes the Guiltiest of eyes
To condemn the man who dies
It takes a thousand of his best spies
To expose as many lies
It could take weeks for me to say
How It'll take forever to go away
And it takes everything you have
... to be in love

Soon Lack could walk and talk and hide his humps
And people realized how clever he could be
Feather still dreaming about the skies
Unaware of how in love Lack was with she
One day she quit flapping her arms at last
Convinced that she'd accomplished nothing at all
When Lack heard this he ran, not walked over to her house

And he begged her, yes he begged her not to let Rome fall
He said everything I am now is for and because of you
You see I understand your secrets and I swear to God it's all true

It takes the Guiltiest of eyes
To condemn the man who dies
It takes a thousand of his best spies
To finally realize
That it takes the strength of Sampson's hair
To enter if you dare
And it takes Icarus in flight
To provoke the gods to fight
It could take weeks for me to say
How It'll take forever to go away
And it takes everything you have
... to be in love

Well time wears on, and soon featherhead and Lack had to grow
up
Feather didn't quit and would be finishing school soon
She works for NASA exploring space
Flying regularly to Jupiter's 7th moon
Lack defying all law of gravity and otherwise, flew away
You see those lumps on his back grew into great big gossamer wings
He changed his name to Luck because he had so much
He flies where he's needed, doing all sorts of nifty and amazing
things

From time to time they meet up in the sky to celebrate
Tax dollars and miracles can let the weirdest people date

But it takes the guiltiest of eyes
To condemn the man who dies
It takes a thousand of his best spies
To finally realize
It could take weeks for me to say
How It'll take forever to go away
And it takes everything you have
... to be in love

I remember hearing a story...

Escaping
Words & Music by: J. Popper


Come with me and take my hand don't look back just let it end
Walk with me for one more mile
And think this over for a while
And decide

I've been thinking for some time
Of escaping
More than once it's really crossed my mind
Escaping

Just a little bit further left to go
We're not too fast and we're not too slow
The deadline's ours we're doing fine
I'm not yours and you're not mine
Please decide

Come see what the madman sees
In escaping
The endless possibilities
Of escaping
I'm escaping

When you try to look around but the walls are closing in
And you've got just enough strength to think of starting again
But you don't have the time you cannot think or hesitate
Because the bus just left and you're seven hours late
And all you can see is the sun going down
In some faraway land in some faraway town
And all of a sudden you find you just don't care
And you'd give everything you had if you could be over there
And even though you don't know how but you think you know why
You could be full of shit but you could give it a real good try
Try try
Please try please try

I see the decision in your eyes
No It's okay and I'm not surprised
You see just like you I'm not afraid
Of being scared of the choice you made
So did I
You see Nobody said that your life is fair
So turn around now you know your home's back there
I've gotta find out what I can see
I love you and remember me
Please don't cry
Don't cry

I'll say goodbye my friend
I'm escaping
I guess all I can do is recommend
Escaping
Try escaping
Try escaping
Try escaping

Hook** - Live from New York
Words & Music by J. Popper

Carolina Blues
Words by J. Popper
Music by C. Kinchla


Trying to make a train at sunrise gonna have to run a red light
Trying to make a train at sunrise gonna have to run a red light
Tangling with my Carolina you know the girl kept me up all night
And when my Carolina throw down you know the girl knows how to fight

Don't think we're gonna make it there's nothing else that anyone can do
Don't think we're gonna make it nothing else that anyone can say
Almost got the feeling that Carolina's liking it that way
I'm waiting on the train man, to wait and take the pain away

All aboard
All aboard
Wait for me
Wait for me

Train man kept his promise gonna try and go on back to bed
Train man kept his promise gonna try and go on back to bed
Can't sleep anyway thinking 'bout what my Carolina said
And oh my Carolina running like a freight train through my head