Song Lyrics

Once the days were full of laughter

Chasing dreams and mornings after

All was just as it should be

Before the crowds began to cheer

Right here, as days would turn to rain

Right here, the days all turned to rain

Kristallnacht changed all forever

With its boots and flags and terror

A new world full of fear and running

Tears and prayers and endless waiting

Here, for all the rain to stop

Right here, pray the rain will stop

Empty seats, all lined up for the absent

Each day to keep, a survivors detachment

No words to speak, better to remain silent

Those days and the violence

Open your hand for a gift here for taking

Do all you can, it’s a life you are saving

Alive is the past and your story for telling

It’s a story worth saving

I see blue skies when the others

Cry each morning sisters, brothers

Try and do the best you can

All will blend in due time while the sun,

Still shines above the rain

The sun still shines above the rain, shines above the rain, shines above the rain.

Nameless family photographs, faces with no epitaphs

People disappeared into the night

All our steps were marked with pain, teardrops on a weathervane

Emptiness unfolding in the cold light

I was just a baby boy holding to a shroud of joy

Maybe I’m the only reason we survived

When those men with angry eyes came to call before the sunrise

Left the parents and the baby boy alive

These are memories I’d rather lose

But losing all your memories

Is just some heartless ruse

Suzanne

Sunlight beaming on your face, laughter paried with matchless grace

Even now the pictures don’t compare

Here’s the little girl you carried, here we are the day we married

Sledding down that hill without a fool’s care

Black panthers, white sheets, riots in the schools and streets

You would come home with your wits all torn and frayed

And the puppy in this frame - that one! Sandy was his name

I brought him home to chase your fears away

Love is all around in endless

Life was mostly black and white until it came to you

Suzanne

(SOLO)

I am still the baby boy holding to a shroud of joy

Maybe you’re the only reason I survived

Still your eyes are soft and kind

And you never seem to mind

That you’re drifting untethered out of time

I have memories I’d rather lose

But you forgetting everything is just some heartless ruse

Suzanne

Love is all around in endless hues

Suzanne

I have memories I’d rather lose

Suzanne

Love is all around in endless hues

Suzanne

Part One:

All I remember is fire

From Romania to Belgium, we started again

My mother and father, my sister and brothers

Prayers in our house, and all of our friends

The opera, the dancing violin

My voice — a blooming flower, singing Serenade

The tides were changing as I sang Ave Maria

To a church full of those already sided with hatred

They applauded a nobody Jewish girl

Somehow, the music cut through the shadows

But they came for my brother just the same

He was young, and strong, and tall

He was young, and strong, and tall

My father told us we need to go into hiding

We stayed in the basements of the brothels and factories

I must fight — I won’t hide

My hair dyed blonde, hiding out in the open

Running through the city, rescuing children

They came for my father, they took him and killed him

A bombed out house until morning light

what went through my mind I can’t tell you

Sometimes at night

I would stand under the window

Listening to the sounds

Of music from Above

There, in disguise

In the center of the city

Sitting in the front row, risking everything

Just to take the music in

If only one finger…pointed…at me.

Part Two: Boat scene with spoken word

Part Three: Freide

We can’t ever forget

Because I can’t forget

I lost too many people

But how lucky I am

How lucky I am

How lucky I am

When my children come

When I see the flowers

Every day is new

When my friends call

“Standchen” with Rosa

The birds at my window

I am not afraid

Not afraid of anything

Every day is new

Life is always changing

Here at this moment

We have to see the positive

Every day is new

Life is always changing

Always changing

Changing

A yellow star stitched on tight

Strong boy catching trout by hand at night

Kicked out of school, unwanted Slovak Jew

Questions piling up, whispers of Auschwitz and lies

When the trains come, to the rooftops we run

See the clinging and confusion in the lines

Into the forest, we disappear like mist

All is changing, we are witness, we are life

200 days hiding in a hole in the ground

Pressed against my family, make no sound

I hear a voice from within reveal my choice

Let go the hatred and a way will be found

Stripped and robbed by thieves, left to starve and freeze

We would die beneath the bitter mountain ice

Then like my warm tears, mineral springs appear

All is changing, we are witness, we are life

Free, finally free, the Germans leave

But we see no justice

Relatives vanished in flame and smoke

Neighbors return to their day-to-day

As if nothing happened

An appetite for learning, study hard and my world opens wide

Then Soviets take control and shape my life

A fearless engineer, I transform glass, invent, make clear

Turn mystery into knowledge, in the way of my tribe

Round the world they send me with my love Noemi

Fixing factories while our every move they spy

A pair of wild horses, we defect to the west

All is changing, we are witness, we are life

Free, finally free, but childhood

Memories choke and sting

I find the easel like a sign from god

It's time, release in sparks of color

The brooding in the brow, the pleading in the hand

The terror in the open mouth

You asked me not to be angry

To forget, to forgive, well would you

At least let me sometimes be sad?

89 years through these eyes

Recognize illusions, perceive all sides

These things I share, to young and old my prayer

Is always remember and beware the creed that divides

In every moment the way is chosen

To be human is to be both shadow and light

And to choose love, the true lifeblood

All is changing, we are witness, we are life