"2020 Vision" by Danny Schmidt - Set 1 / Song 2 from Artichoke Music

These songs are from a live solo Danny Schmidt concert at Artichoke Music in Portland, OR in mid-2023. See the full setlist below. Enjoy!

Set One:
1. Words Are Hooks
2. 2020 Vision
3. A Prayer For The Sane
4. Bank Robber's Lament
5. Midsummer Hail Storm
6. Last Man Standing
7. Firestorm
8. Standard Deviation
9. Stained Glass

Set Two:
1. Paper Cranes
2. Just Wait Til They See You
3. The Thing About Motherfuckers
4. Swing Me Down
5. This Too Shall Pass
6. Company Of Friends
7. Faith Will Always Rise
8. Cleopatra

Thank you to Artichoke Music for simulcasting the concert online and for making the videos available. Artichoke one of the great intimate singer/songwriter venues in the country.

For more info about Danny's music, please visit:
https://www.dannyschmidt.com

For more info about Artichoke Music, please visit:
https://www.artichokemusic.org

LYRICS:

There’s a face in the distance, they’re all distant now
She’s holding her breath and she’s hiding her mouth
We’re walking on opposite sides of the lonely divide
The closer we came the further it felt
Until I crossed the road and then she crossed herself
I waved as we passed and she smiled with the bags of her eyes

Chorus:
Oh 2020, you’re fading away
Your weeks into months and your months into days
As they all blur together like tears on the page
As if the angels were writing it down

A party’s a cocktail we drink all alone
Our friends are a movie we watch on our phone
Our parents are teenagers sneaking around in the night
Our children are monkeys that are tied to our wrists
Our houses are wrecking balls tied to a list
A plan is a guess where the jester insists that he’s right

Chorus

The shelves are as empty as people are scared
Our hands are as clean as the fear in the air
Our trust is as blind as the packages left on the porch
We’re lucky if somehow we still have some work
Where all that’s required is wearing a shirt
We’re so nonessential, at last we can laugh til it hurts

Chorus

I think of my grandparents’ time in the war
That it’s never the same as the same was before
If they bomb your cathedral, forever the treasure is gone
At night I hear sirens and songs in the dark
And the roar of propellers like heaves of dry coughs
In the heart of the city, there’s a hole where John Prine still belongs