music & lyrics

 After recording two 3-song demos, Gini Dodds, with the help of producer John Wright and various local musicians, put out Mellowdrama, her first full length CD, in the summer of 2000. In the fall of 2003, Gini and her band, The Dahlias, put out a second CD, Good Medicine, chock full of evocative lyrics set to a wide range of musical arragements. Cuts from her CDs have been played on local music segments of commercial and public radio stations in the Mpls/St. Paul area. Gini won the Nashville Songwriters' Association songwriting contest in February 2001 with "Sweet Christine," a track off her first CD. Gini's live performance of "Extraordinary You" on the KQ Homegrown show was included on KQ's Silage: Live Recordings from Studio B CD. Lyrics to all songs, and mp3 files for some of the tracks, are provided below.

 You can purchase Mellowdrama or Good Medicine AND help support local independent music by ordering the CD through junobeach.com, an internet radio station that plays great music by indie bands. It is also available through amazon.com or from minuszerorecords.com in London. The CD is nationally distributed and can also be ordered through local record stores.
 

GOOD MEDICINE [mp3]

We push and shove to move our little piece along
Before some wild card kicks us back where we belong
So self-directed, every person for themselves
So reconnected once you fill our empty shells

Such good medicine in each spoonful of you
Got a little bit of faith in everything from you

A sea of broken faces from each day's tragedies
Keeps pouring out the airwaves, how it's been eroding me
Just when it's looking like the world has gone insane
Your universal sun restores our battered faith

Such good medicine in each spoonful of you
I see a little bit of good in everyone from you

There'd be nothing left to fight about
If we stopped long enough to figure out
The love that we are finding
Is unconditional and binding

Such good medicine in each spoonful of you
I've got a little bit of love for everyone from you

Good medicine
Good medicine

ASTRONAUT [mp3]

Ever since we split up I've been ill-equipped to handle all of life's ordeals
Too frozen by the kind of fear that races up your shivering spine when dogs are at your heels
I was putting all my faith in numbers, but it all boiled down to one

Like an astronaut alone
Drifting out here on my own
Lost without my only friend, my only home

Circling the personals and going out on week nights for some human remedy
all the articles in magazines and well-adjusted talk show guests have good advice for me
Like how to promenade a little on a backbone when you're so low to the ground inside

Like an astronaut alone
Drifting out here on my own
Lost without my only friend, my only home

Like an astronaut alone
Drifting out here on my own
Lost without my only friend, my only home

I DESERVE MYSELF [mp3]

I spend all my time at the altar of self-expression
I pray and I pray, explaining away all my inattention
Self-absorbed and too blind to see
You were dying right in front of me

I deserve myself
I deserve myself (whoo hooo hooo)
I deserve myself
And all the trouble I've caused

When it's easy to expect your love
It's easy to disrespect your love
I missed the chance to get on my knees
Now I'm serving life with such misery

I deserve myself
I deserve myself (whoo hooo hooo)
I deserve myself
And all the trouble I've caused

I'm lonely (I deserve myself)
I'm empty (I deserve myself)
Hit me hard enough to bleed
I want the penalty

I missed the chance to get on my knees
Now I'm doing serving life with such misery

I deserve myself
I deserve myself (whoo hooo hooo)
I deserve myself
and all the trouble I've caused

CRY

The jagged edge that kills me
Sends me running towards the door
Is the very thing that thrills me
And nails my two feet to your floor
You never settle or go through the motions
Willingly facing the pleasure or pain
Living completely overcome with emotion
So attracted to the flame

Go ahead and cry
Go ahead and cry
Go ahead and cry

The tears that spring from gladness
For the new love in your life
Mix with tears that flow from sadness
For the old one left behind
Nobody ever said life would be easy
Always delivering the ups with no downs
There's no guarantee the thing that sends you spinning
Won't leave you crashing to the ground

Go ahead and cry
Go ahead and cry
Go ahead and cry

You don't need to worry or tell me you're sorry
I'm thankful for your vulnerability
Thankful for the big way that you feel
You were fearless from the very start
In opening your heart

TALKING TO YOUR BOYFRIEND

I was talking to your boyfriend yesterday
He told me he didn't know what he should do
He's noticed that ever since he met me
He isn't sure he wants to stay with you

I've been talking
Talking to your boyfriend
It's getting hard for him to pretend
That he's still in love with you

His walking into my arms was a step in the right direction
But still I can't help feeling sad for you
Cuz even though he says that he still cares about you
You gotta know he cares about me, too

I've been talking
Talking to your boyfriend
It's getting hard for him to pretend
That he's still in love with you

Oh, I don't want to be nice, no
Don't want to give you advice, no
But if I were you
This is what I'd do

I'd get down on my knees and beg for eyes to see
Cuz you must not know what it is you've got
The boyfriend you so cherished has grown close to me
Cuz you never really took the time to talk

I've been talking
Talking to your boyfriend
It's getting hard for him to pretend
That he's still in love with you

ENGLISH TEACHER

Living isolated in the city
All her closest friends and family moved away
But the more she is surrounded, the more she feels alone
Like a fifth wheel at the neighbor's holiday

Dreaming of her English teacher
How his passion is revealed in every page
His chosen words so deeply reach her
And hold her in their magical embrace

She's had bad luck with the few men whom she's trusted
When the promises get made, she's never sure
But she refuses to surrender to the safety of her room
When she knows there's someone out there just for her

Falling for her English teacher
How his passion is revealed in every page
His chosen words so deeply reach her
And hold her in their magical embrace

Every Tuesday evening he administers the cure
Making human contact through the English literature
From behind the ruffled pages of their trembling books
Two desperate pairs of eyes engage in longing looks

Though it's true that fiction's often thought of
As a method for distraction and escape
It worked to bring two lonely souls together
Left them standing on the alter face to face

How she loves her English teacher
How his passion is revealed in every page
His chosen words so deeply reach her
And hold her in their magical embrace

UNTIL

All day long I pinch myself to go on
A part of my body's gone
I am walking wounded left without
My only one

Look at the tragic case that I've become
Still devastated when each day is done
Until I'm with my only one

Lost identity, there's obvious space in me
Emotional amputee,
I've had to bury things to live without
My only one

Look at the tragic case that I've become
Still devastated when each day is done
Until I'm with my only one

I see everybody chasing down the next big thing
In such a hurry to discover the unknown
Wide-eyed and wondering what new fun life will bring
But I just wanna stay home

I realize that pain can't be denied
It seeps in and occupies,
Rearranges senses, lost without
My only one

Look at the tragic case that I've become
Still devastated when each day is done
Until I'm with my only one

I won't feel the summer sun
Until I'm with my only one
Until I'm with my only one

ONE MORE DAY

Love never ends abruptly
It slowly dies and falls away in little pieces
Good intentions get corrupted
By selfish people for a million foolish reasons

Don't walk out on us
I really want to save this love
Let's wait until the morning comes
And give it one more day

How can such lonely people beg and pray
Then end up squandering the fortune they were handed?
Tossed off along the highways
The scattered vestiges of all we took for granted

Don't walk out on us
I really want to save this love
Let's wait until the morning comes
And give it one more day

Nobody moves me on the inside like you do
Must be some way our special love can pull us through

Don't walk out on us
I really want to save this love
Let's wait until the morning comes
And give it one more day

JOY'S MYSTERY

Wrinkled shirts are hanging on a twisted piece of chrome
Living out of boxes, there's been some trouble at home
50 years of secrets stored deep down in his bones

He was haunted, damaged and forsaken
Just the thought of it sets my poor heart to breakin'

She was pretty as a picture, but she's aged before her time
Cleaning rooms in exchange for rent down beneath the neon sign
Drives from one end to the other just to keep some kind of life

She was haunted, damaged and forsaken
Just the thought of it sets my poor heart to breakin'

Hired hands in beat up vans, loners every one
Drinking off the VA check until their minds go numb
Looking down that highway for a chance that never comes

They were haunted, damaged and forsaken
Just the thought of it sets my poor heart to breakin'
All of the vacancies at the Sterling have been taken

OVER AND OVER

You discover then ignore
Fascinated, then you're bored
Disassemble then adore
Swear off losers, then want more

With all the moving around you do
You make it hard to keep a handle on you
And the answer to the question
Of why you can't ever get ahead is that

You keep changing your mind
Over and over, over and over
Falling further behind
Over and over, over and over

First you're leaving, then you stay
You're committed, then you stray
Motivated, then dismayed
You are fearless, then afraid

With all the moving around you do
You make it hard to keep a handle on you
And the answer to the question
Of why you can't ever get ahead is that

You keep changing your mind
Over and over, over and over
Falling further behind
Over and over, over and over

You're avoiding the pain in your life
By inventing distractions to take up your time
A little trouble keeps you occupied
You can't deny it, you can't deny it

With all the moving around you do
You make it hard to keep a handle on you
And the answer to the question
Of why you can't ever get ahead is that

You keep changing your mind
Over and over, over and over
Falling further behind
Over and over, over and over
Over and over, over and over

A MILLION LIKE ME

I am the youngest, the thinnest, the sexiest little angel
I'm a hot commodity
Cameras and carpets signal and market
The arrival of my midriff on the scene

How did I know there were a million like me?
How did I know?

I don't need a credo, my hot pink crushed velvet bell-bottoms
Are all I have to say
I take my direction from billboards,
The bibles of modern civilization

How did I know there were a million like me?
How did I know?

In magazine interviews I am the rebel,
A real handful of brooding individual

How did I know there were a million like me?
How did I know?

A LITTLE FORGIVENESS

You've been too narrow in your living
Carrying your burdens and transgressions to your grave
Cast off the weight and be forgiven
When you've done something wrong
Here's a few words to help you along

Instead of beating up on yourself
Try a little forgiveness, try a little forgiveness
Everybody has a story they don't want to sell
Try a little forgiveness, try a little forgiveness

Don't be defeated by damnation
There's such a fine line between the jury and accused
We hate in others what we hide most in ourselves
That finger pointing at you
Belongs to somebody who's been there, too

Instead of beating up on yourself
Try a little forgiveness, try a little forgiveness
Everybody has a story they don't want to sell
Try a little forgiveness, try a little forgiveness

You know the face of a sinner
Is just the back of a saint
So let a little forgiveness come your way
Next time you feel like dying
Look at all the people behind you in line

Instead of beating up on yourself
Try a little forgiveness, try a little forgiveness
Everybody has a story they don't want to sell
Try a little forgiveness, try a little forgiveness

EXTRAORDINARY YOU [mp3]

As you drifted through your school days all the cruelty was collected
And directed at your tender shins
You stood up for the poor boys with bad hair cuts and the bad girls in the hand-me-downs
Wrapped tight around their cellophane skin
Prepare the guardian for a life of social solitaire
It's just the ordinary world politely choking on a piece of extraordinary you

If you're caught in small talk sparring you will crawl back to the corner
It's too hard to make it through
When you're so caught up in a color that you jump right in a painting
Like it's part of you
You're not a loser just because you're left alone
It's just the ordinary world politely choking on a piece of extraordinary you

You're like a scrapbook with all the images and sentiment you keep
Pulled from the shelf because your pages got too deep

Through your expressionistic lenses you're oblivious to solid matter remedy
The steel machines that shock you in the groove
You're living in the music, the movie scenes, the poetry
The supernatural medium that take you to what's true
Don't change your channel if the stabilizers trip the wire
It's just the ordinary world politely choking on a piece of extraordinary you

Choking on a piece of extraordinary you
Choking on a piece of extraordinary you

DEEP [mp3]

Look at the wasted people going through the motions
Side stepping circumstance, avoiding all commotion
Strong opinions folded, sentiment withdrawn
People loving people who look good on their arm
I need the chaos and the heat within the core
All night investigation, I will learn the secret of the fork
That feeds your hungry soul

I'll turn you over
Pull you in two
Push back the skin
Get to what's you
I wanna go deep
I wanna go deep

The morning after you have rained upon my bed
Don't leave me dry against the rampart of your shoulders
Pour on the pillow talk I'm ready to drown

I'll turn you over
Pull you in two
Push back the skin
Get to what's you
I wanna go deep
I wanna go deep

If the connection is lost that runs under the surface
We'll stumble along on emotional cruise control
I wanna go deep
I wanna go deep
I wanna go deep

SWEET CHRISTINE [mp3]

When you play the next record club album you get
Can I come in, sister, sneak a cigarette
Blow the smoke out your window, blow the smoke out your window
There's been some new stuff in with your hand-me-downs
Since the OJT got you work downtown
Money of your own, put aside a little money of your own
I'm a regular intruder when you're mapping out your future

Sweet Christine
Sweet Christine
Sweet Christine
Sweet Christine

When you throw your head back over your shoulder
Makes your high school picture look older
Gets the dangerous guys, the dangerous guys
Take your hairdo down change out of your dress
Sneak out in jeans to match your backyard guest
He came casual, a little too casual
The lovers of your dreams were never what they seemed

Sweet Christine
Sweet Christine
Sweet Christine
Sweet Christine

Even though you're ten years out I can feel you here with me
I lie back in your teenage bedroom and call up your history
Slicker lipstick, psychedelic posters, magazines of London town girls
Old singles in a carrying case that had you dancing in electric curls

In your army jacket with fierce determination
Write out your paper on a trouble nation
You're changing, everything is changing
No more suntan, beach blanket, radio days
When the rich men talk and the poor boys pay
Life is serious, you had to get serious
Goodbye to innocent fun, goodbye unfortunate ones

Sweet Christine
Sweet Christine
Sweet Christine
Sweet Christine

LOVE OF MY LIFE

I'm having trouble navigating I'm so blinded by your sun
If I conjure up your school boy face end up back where I'd begun
You distract me, steal my time, keep me nervous, blow my lines

It's the love, it's the love, it's the love, it's the love, love of my life
It's the love, it's the love, it's the love, it's the love, love of my life

When I first heard your leading sentence, I knew the ending half way through
Familiar ground, I dropped my guard, had nothing left to prove
You complete me, fill my space, share the same remote location in this wide open place

It's the love, it's the love, it's the love, it's the love, love of my life
It's the love, it's the love, it's the love, it's the love, love of my life

I never though I'd meet someone who'd separate me from my darker days
You made me look beyond my fingertips, now I'm in love with everyone and everyday
You renewed me, changed my strings, made me part of, everything

It's the love, it's the love, it's the love, it's the love, love of my life
It's the love, it's the love, it's the love, it's the love, love of my life

CAN'T TELL ME NOTHIN'

I had a big, bad wolf who was coming by
Blowing down my fences, tearing up my hide
Mama said those good-lookers bleed you dry

But she can't tell me nothin'
She can't tell me nothin'
She can't tell me nothin' I don't know

Met a mover with a ponytail and a feel for things
Said I can put you places where the world will hear you sing
Lawyers said come see us before you sign anything

But they can't tell me nothin'
They can't tell me nothin'
They can't tell me nothin' I don't know

I'm like a gambler with an entourage of fair weathered friends
Who love you through your winning streak then leave you when it ends
I pick up on the signals that pretenders send but I love the company

Look at all the strangers claim to know me well
They're jumping out the woodwork with some mystery to sell
The preacher said a big name rides you straight into hell

But he can't tell me nothin'
She can't tell me nothin'
They can't tell me nothin' I don't know

You can't tell me nothin'
You can't tell me nothin'
You can't tell me nothin' I don't know

CELEBRITY PICTURES

Stuck in the ordinary, going nowhere
There's a world with parties in it and I wanna be there
I can starve myself, stick to a plan
End up victimized, get me a hairdresser
Celebrity pictures, Celebrity pictures

Gonna go to the movies, not gonna wait in line
Gonna move some knee-length silk on these shaky heels of mine
I will circulate, put myself out there
Get my hair cut short, like Sharon Stone did
Celebrity pictures, Celebrity pictures

I know the tricks of the trade employed to keep one's distance
If you give your hand to the crowd keep your eyes to yourself

Picture me with that guy from Tibet, I'm a philosopher
Stacking cans at the new food shelf, humanitarian
Picture me with my hair dirty, I'm an intellectual
Picture me with the camera rolling, like everyone I'm a comedian
Celebrity pictures, Celebrity pictures
Celebrity pictures, Celebrity pictures

SAVE ME

Your mama wouldn't want you to chase tail around
Disrespect and play me
Running girls out the back of the house
Boy, you humiliate and shame me
"There's really nothing wrong here, baby
It's not what it looks like
You're the only girl in the world for me, honey"

I ate it up, ate it up, ate it up
Save me, Save me, Save me, Save me

Your fast motion, hot treatment
Was original and exciting
Steamy cha-cha, sidewalk sashaying
Lingo so inviting
"Girl, you're my candy lipstick
Creamy blue eye shadow on a hot Supreme
You're the only girl I will ever let deep"

I ate it up, ate it up, ate it up
Save me, Save me, Save me, Save me

My bold impulsive side breaks free, ready for playing
Shaky residue down on my knees better be praying

It's getting kinda crowded
All this company you're keeping
Getting kind of loud
Once your paramours stopped creeping
"Women are like art to me
There's nothing sexual
I'm just comfortable around them
They really fascinate me"

Save me, Save me, Save me, Save me

QUIET GIRLS

Little girls grow up too fast
When their mothers are distracted by such pain
That they drink away the nighttime, sleep across the days
Leaving little strangers to remain
But you'd slip in bed beside her and you'd whisper tenderly
A message for the broken part inside
Quiet girls don't get the life that they should
But they love their mamas just the same
This world's tender-hearted fools
Are heaven's mighty Charlemagnes

Your husband goes for days without talking
Safe behind the paper in his chair
Sophisticate children so wrapped up in lifestyle
That birthday cards and letters disappeared
But even though they all turned dead around the edges
You're living on the sweet part left behind
Quiet girls don't get the life that they should
But they love their mamas just the same
This world's tender-hearted fools
Are heaven's mighty Charlemagnes

And if the heartache gets too much
Your willing sacrifices all tapped and bled
You'll lie down waiting for the good lord's touch
To put things quiet in your head
Quiet girls don't get the life that they should
But they love their mamas just the same
This world's tender-hearted fools
Are heaven's mighty Charlemagne

IN THE PICTURE

Picture perfect baby doll you could pull my strings before you crawled
Read the hunger in my face
Every little trinket that you wanted, every little privilege you flaunted
Was delivered from my empty space

Look at me (Am I in the picture?)
Notice me (Am I in the picture?)
Recognize me (Am I in the picture?)

All your glamour girl reactions found their place with yearbook captions
Put some mileage on the name
Blonde, shiny prima donna, high school lead, I'm your front row mama
Basking in your spotlight's gaze

Look at me (Am I in the picture?)
Notice me (Am I in the picture?)
Recognize me (Am I in the picture?)

I could have been the favorite Hollywood actress on my own
I had the talent, special glow that captivated
I lost the luster when I sacrificed it all for you

In magazine after magazine, handing thank you's out in your limousine
Like you don't owe me
All of the pictures in your interviews of the forces that had a hold on you
Never show me

Look at me (Am I in the picture?)
Notice me (Am I in the picture?)
Recognize me (Am I in the picture?)
I could have been the favorite Hollywood actress on my own

DRY GROUND

Down a poor country road you won't find a love affair
Just a plate on the table and a clean shirt to wear
Face in the window when you plow through the night
Hand on your back when you turn out the light
Say your tired amens, face the battle again
(With the) Dry ground
Dry ground

Beg some time from the lender get some gas from her kin
Take the hits off the old man who won't let you win
The only thing harder than the dead, split-up ground
Is the way that your bad luck keeps dragging her down
But she stuck right by your side
Your straight, unbreakable bride
(Through the) Dry ground
Dry ground

When row after row turns you over and over
All through the night
(she whispers) take a deep breath, my darling
Things will work out right

The dark, stubborn sky let the rain down at last
Now the babies get lost in the tall flowing grass
You'll put the last of her perfume on her tired, beat-up skin
And buy her a new dress when the milo comes in
All that glitters is green
In this American dream
Dry ground
Dry ground

OUT OF MY HEAD

I'm an urbanite girl, I'm a hip raconteur
A million stories up my slickery sleeves
The trouble begins when you're under my skin
I get to jumbling my A-B-Cs
And in my desperate attempts to turn your head my way
My sentence comes out sideways, the acrobat jumps early
Reaching for the sequined ring, but falling to the net below
I'm going out of my head, baby
But it's my head I'm going out of

Tried to look cool in the bookstore de jour
When I saw you sauntering my way
Struck me a pose in the rock and roll prose
And took a tumble with the Davies display
Every time I open up to take my chances
My little bit of style flies south for the winter
Sucking up true fiction magazines and margueritas on the beach
I'm going out of my head, baby
But it's my head I'm going out of

I try to hide my temperature rising
The weakness in my knees, the strength of this disease
But the psychosomatic symptoms
Advertise my love, advertise my love
Out of my head
Out of my head
Out of my head
Out of my head

I'LL STOP BY

People driving by you every minute every day
Wrapped up in their work-a-day lives
Pushing past the limit, racing for the deadlines
So unaware they've ever passed you by
I'll take the detour just to keep you company
As you're looking at your little piece of sky
I'll never, ever need a reason why
I'll stop
I'll stop by

Sifting through the traces in your empty rooms
I'm a prisoner of history
All the laughter, the safety, the day to day attention
It's the little things that leave their mark so deep
I'll never try to fill the hole you left behind
It's the emptiness that keeps you by my side
A hand across the seasons that divide
I'll stop
I'll stop by

I walk a little slower added weight in my step
I toss a little more in my sleep
I feel a little guilty if I laugh too much
It looks a little better when I weep
And though it seems I'll never pick up all the pieces
It always sends a little sun my way
To know that I'll be seeing you again someday
I'll stop
I'll stop by