The Robin Williams Tunnel

Lyrics

I'm writing that because I can Because I can hold I pen in my hand We walked along the sand yesterday and we fished on the rocky cove Cracked mussels for days with a pocket knife Walking on the rocks ain't as easy as it was when I was 25 We caught no fish but that was alright It was the most beautiful day I've had so far this year My spirit was shining bright We stopped on the way back at the Point Rey Station I ate an enormous fresh Romaine salad with tomato and onion I gotta say, it was a beautiful day I gotta say, it was a beautiful northern California day We drove back through the Robin Williams Tunnel Came back and I opened up a Henry Miller novel He advised to take an hour of your time each week to meditate on your life And I did that today as I walked down the street Am I being the best person I can be? Am I being the best artist that I can be? Am I being the best boyfriend I can be? Am I taking care of my health the best that I can be? I walked through the wharf and my ankle hurt Walked past Robin Williams' wax figure at the wax museum I bought jeans one size smaller than usual Wishful thinking, I could barely even button So much for my low carb diet So much for my low carb diet So much for my low carb diet I ain't giving up yet, gonna still keep trying I came home, turned on the TV Korea fires missile, Trump fires Comey Another wonderful day in the wonderful world of TV Caroline's at work and the city is quiet and lonely Was on the phone last night til four or five Got off the phone, turned on the TV Newsflash, Chris Cornell died Went to sleep thinking, probably an overdose At that point it was super unknown Went into the studio to do a Happy Birthday video for a friend's sixtieth Seems like we were kids when we met and I recently had my fiftieth By noon we all knew that Chris' death was suicide Some people are scratching their heads out there, wondering why George Michael, Chris Cornell, Scott Weiland, Prince Equals rock and roll, plus drugs, plus middle age can be a lethal mix Hemingway, Robin Williams, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Keith Emerson Equals fame, plus aging, plus depression can fuck with your equilibrium For some maybe life in this town ain't so pointless Who knows what goes on in the pits of other peoples' stomachs? If you think rock and roll is a neverending party Then why don't you get that guitar out of your basement and give it a try, buddy? You see the performance, the adrenaline rush But you don't hear the fights on the phones Through the hotel walls or on the tour bus You see the silver screen and the perfectly edited bits You don't see the branches breaking off the trees And the sticks falling into the river, floating adrift We all want Holden Caulfield out there Catching kids from falling off the cliff We all want Holden Caulfield out there Saving kids from falling off the cliffs But Holden ain't there and the kids are losing their kids And the parents are losing their kids At the Manchester Arena and the recent London stabbings Yeah, England's having a whole slew of bad shit The loneliest nights can be those after shows Staring at ceilings at faraway places all alone Trying to figure out how to work the phone Calling the front desk over and over asking for extra blankets My mind gets so overloaded I try to distract myself By tugging at my own dick to see if I can make something happen But it usually doesn't happen so I give up and I quit yanking it So now I'm in Brisbane watching more shitty news I get a hold of my girlfriend finally and I sing her the I'm Fucking Tired Blues I'm just tired, I'm just tired, I'm just tired, I'm just tired, I'm just tired I'm just tired, I'm just tired, I'm just tired, I'm just tired If my girlfriend was wired one hundred dollars For every time she heard that I was tired from an overseas hotel room She'd receive enough wires to buy a home in Buckinghamshire So now here I am, flying home from Hobart, Tasmania And though I met no girls from there who for me anyhow Displayed a penchant for nymphomania I played no songs from Def Leppard's Pyromania But we did play some AC/DC, Bon Scott era And I gotta tell ya, Tasmania was more beautiful than Erie, Pennsylvania My view from the hotel room looked like a multitude of views from the Bay Area I went to a park and sat on a wet bench and watched the leaves fall It was early June but it felt like Ottawa, Ontario in the fall My low carb diet went south down south I arrived so fucking hungry that I just stuffed my mouth With whatever was around Aw, there was prawn fried rice, bread and cheese And when food was around, I liked to wash it down With glutinous balls with sweet coconut filling Served with sweet vanilla ice cream It's a very long flight home from Australia I had to get up and stretch now and then and adjust my genitalia I watch Deliverance twice and a few episodes of Portlandia And Dirty Harry and Louis CK, yeah he's hilarious Plane headed over Nuku'alofa Time to Los Angeles, 11 hours and 8 minutes 1,624 miles, distance traveled Time to Los Angeles, 11 hours and 5 minutes Headwind, 108 miles per hour Altitude, 35,002 feet I don't like looking at the flight maps But they're glowing on the backs of everyone around me's seat It's a long way across the Pacific Ocean When I land at LAX, I'm gonna turn on my flip phone To a bunch of texts, it was good to escape them for a week And when I get to San Francisco Gonna shut the thing off, give you a kiss, and sleep I got a few studio days and headed out to my house Gonna trim a few trees and watch the bees buzz around the lavender Gonna pick some tomatoes and pick some hot peppers Gonna write a duet for me and a wonderful singer named Petra For Via or Pia on the air of Silva Noumea Long way to go, so I squeezed the hell out of my kitty cat on the sofa Ground speed, 665 miles per hour Oh, did I mention the Tasmanians love my impression of Steven Bauer and Al Pacino, from Scarface Al Pacino as Sosa: "I like you Tony, there is no lying in you Unfortunately, I don't feel the same about the rest of your organization I'm talking about Omar Suarez Don't you fuck me Tony, don't you ever fuck me" Steven Bauer as Manny: "It's already 12% of our adjusted growth It's not peanuts Tony, I'm telling you man You need to talk to this Jewish guy Seidelbaum" "Libertad! Libertad! Libertad! Libertad!" And now here we are, passing Honolulu Never been there in my life and honestly I have no desire to I could spend the rest of my life in San Francisco and New Orleans And be as happy and serene as the color lime green I walked around the streets of San Francisco jetlagged Knocking around like a tranquilized bear A woman exchanged my foreign money at the bank And a man at a barbershop cut my hair Now I'm at home reading Henry Miller and fading in my chair You're on the couch with the cat and the cat is scratching her ear We walked down to Chinatown for Chinese I had kung pao prawns, you had family style bean curds We opened our fortune cookies Yours said, "A leader is powerful to the degree he empowers others" Mine said, "A great pleasure in life is doing what others say you can't"