10000 Maniacs - Jezebel lyrics

[ merchant ]<br><br>[ cello: larry corbett/violin: bruce dukov/viola: pamela goldsmith/violin: ralph morrison (quartet arranged and conducted by paul buckmaster) ]<br><br>To think of my task is chilling.<br>To know I was carefully building the mask I was wearing for two years, swearing I'd tear it off.<br>I've sat in the dark explaining to myself that I'm straining too hard for feelings I ought to find easily.<br>Called myself jezebel.<br>I don't believe.<br><br>Before I say that the vows we made weigh like a stone in my heart.<br>Family is family, don't let this tear us apart.<br><br>You lie there, an innocent baby.<br>I feel like the thief who is raiding your home, entering and breaking and taking in every room.<br>I know your feelings are tender and that inside you the embers still glow.<br>But I'm a shadow, I'm only a bed of blackened coal.<br>Call myself jezebel for wanting to leave.<br><br>I'm not saying I'm replacing love for some other word to describe the sacred tie that bound me to you.<br>I'm just saying we've mistaken one for thousands of words.<br>And for that mistake, I've caused you such pain that I damn that word.<br>I've no more ways to hide that I'm a desolate and empty, hollow place inside.<br><br>I'm not saying I'm replacing love for some other word to describe the sacred tie that bound me to you.<br>I'm not saying love's a plaything.<br>No, it's a powerful word, inspired by strong desire to bind myself to you.<br>How I wish that we never had tried to be man and his wife, to weave our lives into a blindfold over both our eyes.