*some lines from this song are pulled from Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic as reference/wink to the book. How to Be a Winner When You Lose was a song prompt from Eagles Songwriter Jack Tempchin

​Verse: D C Bm A
Chorus: D A G A // G A D C Bm G A
 
it's not like i was asking loss to be my best friend
but she stuck around when the chips were down
i've always found her at the bitter end
it's not like i've forgotten where the doors are or how to knock them
i quite like the sound of the pavement pounding
underneath the steps of my ambition
 
i wanted big magic
the kind of life that shoots across the sky
lighting up the dark
i've got this book of matches
wet with regret, splintered with time
and I can't find the spark
seems like big magic's only big hat trick
is to go when she knows you blew a fuse
she'll leave you sitting in the dim
learning how to be a winner when you lose
 
it's not like I'm complaining about the waxing and the waning
i prefer the rise and fall of a curve ball
i'm always honored by her visitation
it's not like i am choiceless or powerless or voiceless
but i feel so weak, it gets hard to speak
in the ruthless furnace of expectation

*written to the tune of “Part of Your World” from The Little Mermaid
 
i guess it's trump, what a crushing defeat
can't believe he's allowed in the president's seat
can't everyone see he's an ass - an ass who hates everything?
look at his team, dangers untold
how many disasters can one cabinet hold?
somebody pass me a drink, at this point i’ll drink anything
 
he hates brown people, gays, the disabled
he hates women and science and more
i was sure no one thought he was able
i was wrong, now I'm scared, of what's in store
 
i wanna be where the sheeple aren't
i wanna see humanity advancing
exercising your, what do you call it? oh - brain
grabbing pussies got trump this far
not paying taxes or his employees
bragging about, what's that word again? rape
sexual assault is not fucking fun, just ask his victims, every last one
the jock gets away and the best we can say:
rape's just part of our world
 
what would i give if i could live where people were smarter?
not pray away gay, or get in the way of a parenthood planned
don't you understand this is a man who has objectified his daughter? still there are women who voted him in, it's unreal as his tan
 
i'm not ready to reap what the people sow
we've got some questions, let's find the answers
starting with lessons we've already, i don't know…learned
when's it our turn? we know what we need:
to live in a land ruled by love and not greed
out of the debris, how about you and me take charge of our world?

Verse: E B A E
Chorus: A Am E // B A E
​
sit still, don't breathe
this is how you leave, you have been deceived
nostrils flare, scared eyes
you can't event cry, you are paralyzed
 
the fleeting fox, the hunting hound
chase each other around
was it real, or just pretend?
tell me this isn't all there is to being a friend
 
deceased, you feast
tell me how i taste at least
pursed lips, time drips
what a winning waste of a losing grip
 
detect, report
truth and lies distort, where's my life support
refuge, refugee
this is how you flee - showing no mercy 

you’re the sugar coat on a bitter pill
you’re the place i go in a earthquake drill
you will walk to the porch with a bat in your hand
so i don’t have to look at the boogeyman
you flash all of the light underneath my bed
and the monsters have not found me yet
 
but they found you, they surround you
look around you, yeah they found you
 
you’re the softest nest in the highest tree
you’re a needed kiss on a wounded knee
you crack open a cactus with your bare hands
so i don’t die of thirst in a desert land
you rip all of the targets right off my head
and the arrows have not got me yet
 
but they got you, yeah they shot you
an onslaught into you, yeah they got you
 
you’re a little bird with a lion’s mane
your dreams deferred in a weathervane
i will scour the depths and the breadth of the sea
and collect all the joy that you gave up for me
to the queen with her crown i will coronate
i will bow at the feet of my surrogate
 
i will praise you, cause you raised me
my grace traced to you, thank you haley 

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Verse: C Em Dm C G
Chorus: C Dm F Fm C
Bridge: F Fm C // F Fm Em Dm C G

i might as well be a shovel the way i bury hurt
dig a hole where the pain goes then i cover it with dirt
i might as well be a faucet the way i handle pain
let it run til the hurting's done, watch it circle down the drain
til nothing remains
 
ashes to ashes, dust to dust
all my thoughts of us rot into rust
i never got my last wish, you never came around
you just vanished in the deep, dark, down
 
you might as well be a stranger in some far off galaxy
off you go in your ufo, ain't no way we're gonna meet
you might as well be a shipwreck, sinking in your fate
terrorized by the stormy skies now the waves won't hold your weight it's just too late
 
what a blurry bitter bond
what a quiet final bell
do i let go of holding on?
guess i might as well

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here comes the bride all dressed in white
and the biggest grin anyone's ever seen her wearing,
it's a million miles wide
a couple empty chairs cause you're not there
but she's brave enough to pass them up
because she knows love's waiting for her on the other side
 
you won't see her smile on her wedding day
walk her down the aisle, give her away
you won't know her joy, hear her vow
i am not a boy
that changes things somehow
 
here comes the bride, still quite surprised
that the woman waiting for me just so happens to adore me
and she wants to be my wife
those empty chairs, they're hard to bear
but there's love in the air and I'm still going to swear
to love her for the rest of her life
 
love is louder than any silencing
i am not a boy, and that don't change a thing

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​i've got a friend who thinks she's jesus
but only when she's starting to climb
if you take away the storm she's braving
i think she does enough saving on her own time
she don't need the divine
 
i've got a friend simply known as V to us
she gives music away for the joy that it brings
she lives beautiful verse after verse
and sometimes that chorus can hurt
but she's gonna play anyway
she's gonna sing
 
she's got a friend who'll stand in her corner
round after round swing after swing
i've seen some scary shit
but i'm not afraid of it
cause she gave that gift to me
 
i'm in a band with my friend veronica
sometimes she's in command
sometimes i tow the line
so V i'm gonna wait for you
in every single waiting room
i don't care how many times
cause time always takes time
 
i've got a friend
and she's got me

she is a mother who gave me a father
her name is norma jean
bill was a deacon after he quit drinking
he married her when she was sixteen
he moved her out west when the greatest depression
chased them, they escaped by the skin of their teeth
i watched him adore her, do everything for her
he carried her purse, and he watched her sleep
 
64 times they circled sun til he shot off the earth
like a rubber band gun
her soul folded up like a thin paper plane
waiting for takeoff to see him again
the man of her dreams, the man in her dreams
 
i’m a granddaughter who lost my grandfather
my name is lindsay ann
meaningless moments turn into memories
he picked me up from school in a mercury sedan
what I’ll most miss is the forehead kisses
cause I grew up taller than my family tree
he left me a lesson that kindness is best you can
survive a hard life with no enemies
 
32 times we circled the sun til he shot off the earth
like a rubber band gun i got
no right to complain, no reason to cry
he told me to relax, let the world go by
the man of my dreams (repeat)
the man in my dreams

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