Story Behind the Song
At a dance hall one time I saw this woman sat at the bar with her eyes heavily made up in jet black mascara. The effect was mask-like. She had obviously been a great beauty, but was just at that phase where youth is fading fast.
I wondered why she felt she needed that mask. I speculated on what her life was like, but I never plucked up the courage to ask her. Walking home that night the muse told me who she was... and now you can know too.
Lyrics
Black Mascara
CHORUS
Black mascara, black mascara,
How you hide behind your mask of black mascara.
It won't keep you from the truth,
That you've left behind your youth,
On every bar stool from L.A. to Texarkana
Small town beauty left for big time games,
Leaving no address behind.
Played so many you forgot their names,
Can't bring any faces to mind.
Thought you were winning every hand you played,
But they called the shots,
Even when they paid,
Never thought of the future,
Never looked to the past,
Never thinking is a habit that lasts (x 2)
CHORUS
Friends stood you drinks when your friends could stand,
Recently they melt away.
Bottle it in till you're good and canned,
Bring it back up on the highway.
Hitch a ride to nowhere in the back of a truck,
Take it as it comes, like you're running out of luck.
Holding to a vision that you can't allow to fade,
Someone will come along and end this masquerade (x 2)
CHORUS
Nobody can blame you for living out a movie,
Especially when you didn't write the script.
Everybody told you it was "hip" or "cool" or "groovy"
To let your own identity be stripped.
You chose a path better left uncharted,
Lost the race, long before you even started,
The only excuse that in your memory remains is
Nothing happens that ain't been ordained (x 2)
CHORUS
|