Live Acoustic Storyteller Sessions

 


then suddenly nothing less
by Johnny Lechner


i need to shave my face. i told myself that i would not cut my hair again until i saw you again at my place. i told you i needed you. i told myself that i would not fall in love again, because i'm hating it again and feeling helpless again. what are you doing tonight? can you stop? sleep well knowing you can have me if you want. as you discover yourself, i discover my fate. caught in an inward maze as i contemplate.

you're giving me more. now you say you want it to end. nothing more than just friends, then suddenly, suddenly, nothing less.

goodnight my friend, that's what i should have said. kissed you instead of leaving well enough alone again you said some things i would have never guessed. we slept and i held your back against my chest. now you're torn between two lovers, and i'm torn because you chose the other. you're asking me please set memories aside. i'm begging and pleading one more time.

you're giving me more. now you say you want it to end. nothing more than just friends, then suddenly, suddenly, nothing less.



But I miss you sometimes.
by Johnny Lechner

It’s been three months since I fell from the floor to the wall to the couch from my bed body sore, journal in hand. I’ve got to write this shit down I said. Now that it’s on paper I should feel different. If she heard these words would things change? Seems everything is just going so fast I just want it to slow down and I want to relax. I really want to pick up the phone, but I know I let her go because she was not the one. It was an interesting breakup because we broke each other down.

I’m honestly fine without you in my life,
but I miss you sometimes.
Like when it rains and I want to say
I made it rain because I was thinking of you.

I wrote this song in 32 minutes. Started 10:41 and ended 11:13. Please do not try this at home. Open it up there’s nothing in it. Read the lyrics see the appearance and then spin it. I am some kind of poetic professional. I’m torn in two on days like these, hours like the last, minutes like this, seconds like that. I’m getting sentimental, follow my gut I gotta keep up because my heart is slow and my brain is fast.

I thought it was December 29th but it’s the 12th. Actually, it’s after midnights so it’s the 13th but oh well. Tonight it was cold I saw snow and the words flow out of my mouth about some girl nobody knows in photos. You’ve got me rumblin bumblin stumblin mumbling on the mic and playing this piece of wood with the strings pulled tight. You’ve got me thinking and drinking, swinging and singing, begging and blinking, and getting all bling bling.



The complete opposite of a Boy Band
by Johnny Lechner


i think i lost it in the drunk drawer. she left me wanting less and i left her wanting more. another poem, but i'll try to keep it short, i never wrote about this girl before. and then she said to me that i am starting to sound like one of those cute boy bands. i'm not a scam, i'm not a map (a tiger beat blueprint) at a newsstand.

the pain is not painted, truth not airbrushed. scar above my lip and my hair's messed up. clothes from a thrift shop, once, twice, three. you'll never see this face on a teen magazine.

the complete opposite of a boy band, cuz i write my own words and play my own instruments. could it be somehow that this lack of choreography is somehow holding me back. you gotta believe me when i say, all of the movement is behind my eyes.

Don't get me confused with one of those five member pretty boy groups. they all seem way too contrived to be true. no not i that's not me, it's not he that she sees, she sees pirouettes caught in silhouettes. one of these days some hollywood big shot has got to write a movie about us.

 


Her curves belong to the world.
by Johnny Lechner

Everyone thinks that I’m not happy, but I’m happy.
I’m just afraid this one is gonna hurt
because this girl is such a f’ing flirt
and she can’t keep on her f’ing skirt.
Her curves belong to the world
I can’t think of the words to describe this one girl.
I’m just afraid that this one is gonna hurt.

Sweet sweet librarian please talk to me Thursday eve. You are much too young to be considered a tease and much too young to be in love with me, but now you’re older. Who’s your baby? Do you still lie to your lover between the sheets through your teeth. Come over baby, you would say to me. Luckily I was busy then or was I just afraid of falling and getting hurt with a flirt.

So you’ve moved on, so have I, and that’s fine. We had a thing, we had a fling, we had a moment in time and you were kind and you sighed and you cried and you’d write of the loneliness that was difficult to survive. I tried to be that guy. It did not fit, it was the wrong size. You could have put it in words much better than I. I would have gotten hurt much worse. The reason why? You’re a flirt.



this famous little girl.
by Johnny Lechner

Dan said I’m not motivated partly because I have been dating so many ladies to meet someone to knock me onto my ass so I can turn it into a song. It’s wrong and it’s fast, without a doubt it wont last it will crash in the grass and create a blast for the masses.

Is this what you and I were talking about?
The walls were blue and so were you trying to figure your addictions out.
The rumors they were extremely exaggerated,
but this famous little girl named Mary Kate and myself, for a while we were hanging out.

Chad said photograph it. Attach it to an email and get er’ sent because I’ve seen her on the TV, maybe her sister Ashley avoiding the paparazzi like a true celebrity. I’m thinking about when we met. I remember thinking you were cool. I remember thinking too we would be dating soon.

But then she flipped out and turned her hair from blonde to brown when that little girl found out that I don’t mess around. Tomorrow night, I’ll be in a new state of mind and it might be hers but it will probably be mine. It’s all about karma I said. It’s all about those limo rides.

 


Potential Lover. by Johnny Lechner


i told her she's an even bigger headcase than i thought.
she laughed, laid on her back,
i've always been attracted to girls like that,
but this one is different.
she reminded me of a movie i once saw she said
i can't stop that, go fast, at last.

she's a magazine cover, curtain puller,
potential lover, compulsive liar,
tank top wearer, preview giver,
passionate kisser, poetry liver.
i can't have you, but maybe that's why i want you love to spend the night. you're so fine. i can read you like braille to the blind like the pegs of a lite brite. i know wrong from right, but maybe i lied, when i told you love that i didn't mind being the other guy.

let me rub your back and your arms let me rub your legs.
anyway, what are you thinking now?
are you thinking how did you get yourself into this?
let me put your pieces together
let me clean your mess.
lets talk about the attraction, on my bed rest.
when you're gone i wish you hadn't left.
i told you how i wished we'd never met.

she's a magazine cover, curtain puller,
potential lover, compulsive liar,
tank top wearer, preview giver,
passionate kisser, poetry liver.
i can't have you, but maybe that's why i want you love to spend the night. you're so fine. i can read you like braille to the blind like the pegs of a lite brite. i know wrong from right, but maybe i lied, when i told you love that i didn't mind being the other guy.

 


Drama. By Johnny Lechner

The time has come, but not my love.
She got married this past weekend just because.
Just because she was in love.
What a beautiful way to spend the day
unless her and I were still in love.

Do you mind if I Ride these four chords.
As you always do, May I please ask Again.
Don’t look at me that because Really I’m fine.
Always exaggerating and Making things up…Anyway.

Sometimes it’s rough, but not because I bend the truth to make it rhyme every time like a crime.
Like a criminal mind behind the bars of this song for what I’ve done wrong.
I was hers, she was mine, she was crying, I was lying
unless her and I were still in love.

Dare I say lady that I was stung.
Rarely are my actions 4 3 2 1.
One ankle bracelet, two mix CDs, three awkward silences from her for me
because her and I were still in love.


Vacations or on Trains. by Johnny Lechner

Blessing is disguise that this bottle of wine
she did not open up on the first try.
My pain killer supply has all but run dry
thinking about everything but the one thing that has been on my mind.

La la la lover. I care and I need you, but in three stops…see you.

Lover stop lover go lover slow. Don’t fall in love on vacations or on trains. Three stops away and now I’m hating that I’m leaving you this way.

Maybe it’s metaphorical when I say she thinks hard she thinks fast she thinks that I forgot.
But her thoughts are mislead and these tiny little songs are the proof to her that it was all that.

La la la lover. I care and I need you, but in three stops…see you. I believe we should wake up together even thought we don’t know each other’s name. I think yours starts with a K.


Everything Seemed Good. by Johnny Lechner

Take your time to clear your mind.
I’ll go with the flow until you drop me a line.
But what if your flow and my flow don’t go in the same direction and don’t collide?
Are you sure that you don’t have time
to sleep with me tonight?
Any other girl in the world would be right here,
but you’re tied differently, you’re in a knot.
What does that mean? Please explain that to me.

I would if I could maybe we never understood.
Maybe we’re doing everything exactly as we should.
Last Thursday afternoon after eating some food,
with snow out, chilling on my couch,
everything seemed good.

She said are you trying to seduce me with this :) ?
I said I’m writing this as we speak.
Drop me a line, I hate that line.
besides, my heart is all locked up.
That was then and this is now.
Is this the end said I.
She cried did those words come out of my mouth?
Besides, I replied, you never listen and when you do,
you don’t believe.

For some strange reason I put your CD in last evening while we were all in here partying. Forgot about my trust issues then. Maybe I’ll sneak over after everyone’s gone to bed. I’ll be beating a super model off with a stick. Your mistake and your own ass you’ll kick. It’s kinda sick this convo’ll be worth money someday so cut paste and sell it on ebay.


Left Side of my Brain. by Johnny Lechner
I can look at the parts, I can look at the whole.
I’m objective yet subjective and synthesizing.
Logical left, random right but tonight my rational seems holistic.
If these hemis and if these spheres could shift distinctly together this would all be clear.
I don’t want to get to close because every time I do it seems it somehow gets ruined.
I would rather stay friends with benefits just like this but I’m wondering how will it end.
Will it be my fault? Yes, it’ll be my fault.
Right now here today I called it!

Bar chord variation of a B then an F slide to G E flat and D minor.
Groups of 8s 16th beats extended metaphors and suspended similes.
So deep unfortunately she will never get these.
I can take a hint and now that I’ve taken it what should I do with it?
Should I add a little vodka and tonic H20?
Three pauses, 4 Chords, and another five for the chorus.



I'd Love. by Johnny Lechner
so i'm trying to go back and track through my thoughts
and figure out where this idea came from.
i think it started with you
when you dropped me a line and then i took those lines
and turned them into lines.
so much has happened since our last communication,
about a year and a half.
you're in manhattan, visiting new york city,
coming to junctures and wondering about me.

if you got the time, i'd love

i'm always traveling and slowly working on a new cd,
playing the guitar and dating 18's.
driven by a vision, sentimental to the past.
the last place you thought you'd end up,
you ended up there fast.
i needed your last name certainly,
certainly you are not the only emily.
how young we were, how old we thought.
both of our debt above your heads
when our memories crossed.

so dorothy, lion, johnny, toto, tin-man, and the scarecrow all went for a stroll down that golden road. they went to the wizard of O.Z. and said what can you do for me? he said if you believe, your wishes are easy. here's your brain, here's a heart, here's the nerve, and here's a rolls, but dorothy i don't know how to get you back home. would you stay please? would you marry me? i'd be the king of oz and you could be the queen.

if you got the time, i'd love

 


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