Eric Carmen | Boats Against The Current

Track List

Boats Against The Current
Marathon Man
Nowhere To Hide
Take It Or Leave It
Love Is All That Matters
She Did It
I Think I Found Myself
Run Away

Liner Notes

Written, arranged and produced by Eric Carmen

Mixed by Val Garay
Engineers: Kevin Beamish, David Henson, Crystal Industries • Howard Steele, Tim Kramer, Thom Wilson, Larry Erine, Studio 55 • Dennis Kirk, Mark Howlett, Sound Factory • Earl Mankey, Brother Studios

Mastered at The Mastering Lab by Doug Sax
Mixed at the Sound Factory using the Aphex Aural Exciter

Photography and Design: Ed Caraeff
Inside art painted by Norman Adams
Inside photographic effect by Benno Freidman
Calligraphy: Mike Manoogian
Art Direction: Bob Heimall

Special thanks to Porché Lottermoser, Val Garay and Robin Rinehart for their friendship and support, without which this album would not have been possible.

C.A.M. Productions
All songs ©1976 C.A.M.-U.S.A. BMI except "Boats Against The Current" ©1977 C.A.M.-U.S.A. used by permission.
All rights reserved.

Andrew Gold appears courtesy of Elektra / Asylum Records
Tom Scott appears courtesy of Ode Records.
Burton Cummings appears courtesy of Portrait Records.
Bruce Johnston appears courtesy of CBS Records.

Boats Against The Current

(Eric Carmen)

I know it's over
You know it's over
We're just goin' through the motions
But we're sailin' separate oceans worlds apart
And you know it's breakin' my heart

I was a dreamer
You were a dreamer
But perfection is consuming
And it seems we're only human after all
And we've both been takin' the fall

But tomorrow
We'll run a little bit faster
Tomorrow
We're gonna find what we're after at last
Feelings that we left in the past
There's romance in the sunset
We're boats against the current to the end

Maybe we're older
Maybe we're colder
So we disregard solutions
While we cling to our illusions once again
And we keep rememberin' when

Seasons are changin'
Reasons are changin'
But the story isn't ending
So we find ourselves pretending one more day
While the years keep slippin' away

Marathon Man

(Eric Carmen)

Twenty years with my brain in a book
Tryin' to find out who I am
Endless nights and Olympian dreams
Of a race I never ran

Someone's callin' my name
It's the crowd in the stands
Don't know how I became
What I suddenly am

Marathon man, keep a-runnin'
Marathon man, keep a-runnin'
I've been searchin' so long
But the answer is finally at hand
I'm a marathon man

Wind is gone and my head's in a haze
But I must keep up the pace
Got to think about strategy here
If I hope to win the race

Someone's callin' my name
It's the crowd in the stands
Concentrate on the pain
Put my soul in command

Marathon man, keep a-runnin'
Marathon man, keep a-runnin'
I've been searchin' so long
But the answer is finally at hand
I'm a marathon man

Wasting my youth
Chasing dreams, testing truth
Taking turns being deceived
And deceivin'
Bound with a rope
Made of heroes and hope
Till I found nothin' left
To believe in

Marathon man, keep a-runnin'
Marathon man, keep a-runnin'
I've been searchin' so long
But the answer is finally at hand
I'm a marathon man

Nowhere To Hide

(Eric Carmen)

Lovers come and lovers go
But it's never twice the same
Happiness is hard to show
When you're numb to all the pain
And I've been floatin' 'round
Like an old newspaper
Blowin' down some windy street
Feeling so alone and incomplete

But there's nowhere to hide
Where the night can't find me
Where the light of the sun can't blind me
Like the light in a woman's eyes
There's nowhere to hide
From the dream that drives me
Like a fire burning deep inside me
Oh, I know she'll be there tonight

Can the future be foretold
In a faded photograph
Can a dream be bought and sold
Well, I guess I have to laugh
Sippin' on a scotch and soda
A shadow in the corner booth
So philosophic and drunk on grown-up truth

Half-forgotten fragments
Of a high school dance
In the dead white hours of winter
When we loved so hard
That we thought it would never end
Tryin' to remember
How it used to feel
When a kiss was something special
And I wonder now
Will it ever be again

Lovers come and lovers go
But it's never twice the same
Happiness is hard to show
When you're numb to all the pain
And I've been floatin' round
Like an old newspaper
Blowin' down some windy street
Feeling so alone and incomplete

Yes, I know she'll be there tonight

Take It Or Leave It

(Eric Carmen)

Take it or leave it
Won'tcha take my love or set me free
I need to know right now
Won'tcha save me from this misery

(Listen, you better)
Take it or leave it
You've been sleepin' on it much too long
And in the bank of my love
Your account's already overdrawn

I was never a believer in synthetic affection
Love is here or it was never really there at all
But there's a rumor goin' round
While I was out on the road
You were out on the town

(You better)
Take it or leave it
Won'tcha take my love or set me free
I need to know right now
Won'tcha save me from this misery

I used to think that you and me
Were different from all the rest
Well I'm a jealous man
Don't you put me to the test

I doubt there ever was a woman
That was sheer perfection
But I never wanna see you with another man
You better make your mind up fast
'Cause I'm in love with you now
But it ain't gonna last

(You better)
Take it or leave it
Won'tcha take my love or set me free
I need to know right now
Won'tcha save me from this misery

Take it or leave it
Take it or leave it
You better take it or leave it

Love Is All That Matters

(Eric Carmen)

Lost in a dance
Waiting for the chance
All I really needed was to love you
Night after night
Searchin' for the light
You saved me
You gave me something I could feel

Love is all that matters
Faithful and forever
Keepin' us together
Love is all we need
Prisoner of illusion
Sentence is suspended
Loneliness is ended
Love has set me free

Dreams from the past
Comin' true at last
Never noticed how my life was changing
Now I can see
All that love can be
You saved me
You gave me
Something that was real

Love is all that matters
Faithful and forever
Keepin' us together
Love is all we need
Prisoner of illusion
Sentence is suspended
Loneliness is ended
Love has set me free

She Did It

(Eric Carmen)

I set to sea on a ship called Emptiness
Cast away on the Island of Loneliness
Lookin' for love
Oh, and I was lookin' for love

(You know)
I didn't think she could hear my S.O.S.
But she appeared like an angel of tenderness
Sent from above
Oh, and she was bringin' me love

Oh mama, she did it
Oh mama, she did it, yeah
Ooh, she did it
Oh mama, she did it, yeah

Lookin' back, makin' love was meaningless
'Til she touched me with her warmth and a gentleness
I'd never known
Oh, and she was guiding me home

(Now I)
Now I see all the things in life I missed
'Til she opened up my eyes to the limitless
Wonder of love
Oh, and now I'm ready for love

Oh mama, she did it
Oh mama, she did it, yeah
Ooh, she did it
Oh mama, she did it, yeah

I never knew what love was about
'Til she came and stole away my heart
Now I'm alive and I know it
And all I ever wanna do is show it
(Oh yeah)

Oh mama, she did it
Oh mama, she did it, yeah
Ooh, she did it
Oh mama, she did it, yeah

I Think I Found Myself

(Eric Carmen)

It's been a long time comin'
But I think I've got it figured out
Sometimes the easiest things are still
The hardest ones to learn about

Well I was strugglin' so hard for my freedom
And it was there all the time
But I just couldn't see it

I think I found myself
I think I found what I'm lookin' for
I think I found myself
(Don't you know)
I think I found what I'm lookin' for

Well I got sidetracked somewhere
Though I really can't recall just when
I lost my inspiration
And I couldn't get it back again
(No)

I trusted everyone else so completely
Well I was deaf, dumb and blind
But I'll be damned if I'll let 'em defeat me
I think I found myself
(Don't you know)
I think I found what I'm lookin' for
I think I found myself
(Don't you know)
I think I found what I'm lookin' for

I'm tired of tricks and politics
And futures burning bright
I'm on the line and out of time
For once in my life
I'm gonna do what I think is right

I think I found myself
(Don't you know)
I think I found what I'm lookin' for
I think I found myself
I think I found what I'm lookin' for

Run Away

(Eric Carmen)

She was just an average blue-eyed
Golden high school dream
An illusion nothing real could ever touch
Funny love seemed so much more intense
At seventeen
When I knew she'd never love me
Half as much

I recall the desperate vow I made
I must find a way somehow to win her heart
I've got to make her mine

Gonna run away
Till I prove that I'm a man
Gonna run away
Be the best I know I can
Got to run away
Got to find my space and time
And I cannot rest a day until I make her mine

Trades were made for promises
Of a timeless memory
And I knew but still refused to comprehend
The fantasy more glamorous
Then she could ever be
Was the course of least resistance
In the end

I recall the desperate vow I made
I must find a way somehow to win her heart
I've got to make her mine

Gonna run away
Till I prove that I'm a man
Gonna run away
Be the best I know I can
Got to run away
Got to find my space and time
And I cannot rest a day until I make her mine

Long ago an innocence
Lived deep within my soul
In a yesterday where love
And dreams remain
But disillusion clouds my eyes
And the winter takes it's toll
For the spring has gone
And will not come again

I recall the desperate vow I made
I must find a way somehow to win her heart
I've got to make her mine

Gonna run away
Till I prove that I'm a man
Gonna run away
Be the best I know I can
Got to run away
Got to find my space and time
And I cannot rest a day until I make her mine

Got to run away
Got to find my space and time
And I cannot rest a day until I make her mine