"The Great American Novel" genre: Acoustic
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	Desperate, yet hopeful
	CD: Man with a Mission Credits: D. Scherrer
	Story Behind the Song This is the first song I ever finished and kept. It is a sort of caricature of my own struggle to find an artistic voice. It is the song of the writer who spends day after day in front of a blank piece of paper, knowing that he wants to transform the whole world with his ideas, but terrified that he's going to ruin the page with the first word he puts there. It's also about the tension that exists between the legitimate, altruistic desire to contribute something meaningful to the world and the vanity and egoism of wanting the recognition for it. Lyrics My day turns to ashes But never seems to generate a flame My precious visions Flood and stream away Like August rain Without no buckets Inspiration Won't you come by And let me lay with you Just like you do Those other Guys? Seems I'm stumbling while I sit I want the words to wake the world with But when I think of all the things I want them to hear me say My precious visions flood and stream away I wrote my autobiography It's two stout pounds In patient hand And on every labored line I wrote the same damn thing I planned and planned But never moved nobody But oh, I know If I could just get it underway I know they'd hear me They'll hear and say "This changes everything" Be my Valentine, coy muse Let me be the one to biggest use you There were nights when I could swear You were there, next to me And I felt how full my arms could be Is everybody listening? Listening for my message? I'll have it for you any day now And when I take my bow You'll call my visions precious Lover Teach me to make them shiver Help my message to deliver 'Cause if they're crying out their eyes At the truth of it I can revamp my drying youth This is my message Is everybody listening? This is what you're secretly starved to hear So let your tears all run Is everyone listening?

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