Bryan Tolland

I suppose love lives in a dustbin behind the garden wall
You have to grovel on the ground and be pretty disgusting
To find it at all
And I suppose that it grows on you
Standing there with no clothes on,
And I suppose because there's beautiful girls in this town
I'll stay here till I've chosen one.
I suppose life's like a hunt, really: the hounds have fun
Until the fox gets bagged
And not one girl in this town will ever fall in love with me:
They'll get dragged.

Her heart speaks to me; says the room the room the room
Beneath her dress, and I suppose that it beats for me
Like a hammering moon pulling tides through her chest
Suppose she says that she owes me
All that she owns and all that she is
It seems to me I suppose that her heart's not enough


And her love is a swizz.

So suppose love lives in a mansion
How the hell do I get over the wall?
And if my rope's not stretched the right tension
I won't cross this grand canyon at all.
And I suppose that it grows like a tumor, spreads like a rumor
Like the grass grows and inch every day
And I suppose that before I even know it, the tide will start flowing
And the drum beneath my jacket will say:

You know you need her everyday
She is the moon and she showed me her face
She is the house and she opened the gates

So who was first?
Obviously not me.
She's locked up inside herself
and I can't get anything free
So won't somebody tell me please
Why the former owner always keeps the keys.

There's no bubbles to burst
No bursting out crying nor dying of thirst
She's utterly tied to somebody else
and it seems he got there first.
And No, I'm not untying
the reins around her neck that she feels
and I won't try to prise out of her the truth anymore
when she lies about the things that she sees
Because the former owner always keeps the keys.

There's no calling
"Come here, you're necessary to me."
There's no excitement in her face when I implore
"Corrupt me and confess to me some more."
And when we hear trees falling or see people disappearing
Her emotions won't be reached or released,
Because the former owner is keeping the keys

Like a ticket inspector running for a bus
Irony's revenge surrounds us.
And it's ironic that he promised you he'd never let you go
When he's left you used-up and disturbed
And I said "Just as the early bird catches the worm
The early cat catches the bird"
But that former owner is keeping his word

Here I am, hardly breathing in at all
I cough when I can and that's about all
I am this man and though I turn the tape
To a happier song, my face can't find a smile
Because it's been looking too long

You arrive like a locust swarm
You devastated me and now when you leave the room
My heart, head, hands and all forms
Go from red hot blood to bone dry and lukewarm
You're the sticks and stones, girl
You're the fire and flames
I might be half-dead and half-born girl
But whales start singing when I hear your name.

I'm heaped with hate like acid rain, nothing can
Restrain the loathing and disgust I have and
There is no one I distrust more than the happy
Whores who buy and trade, crawling on all fours


Backwards into holes and fires that wealth and
Self-congratulations made

You're the sticks and stones, girl
You're the fire and flames
You're the punishment, the pleasure
The employment and the leisure
You're the sweet conversation and the cutting names

Heart, head, hands and all forms
Went from red hot blood to bone dry and lukewarn
Whales stopped singing and the ships were bringing in
Toadstools and moss instead of sugarbeet and corn
And all the girls in the world were distorted and deformed
When the first leech was let loose
And my jealousy was born.

You're the sticks and stones girl
You're the fire and flames

The world
And the surrounding stars
Might change completely in the space of an hour
But not an eclipse of the sky nor a colliding car
Will turn me back now that I've come this far.
Not a shotgun blast nor a shooting star
Will bring her down from her stubborn tower.

It's a kind of madness, it's a kind of sin
To live in the state of mind I've been living in
Her face imprinted on my sight
Her voice resounding in my skull at night.
If there is a living goddess on earth
It must be her from the heaven highlife
It takes this girl to realise what you're worth
And I'm worth nothing if she's worth more than my life.


But there's more to me than simple devotion
I won't just crawl at her feet and utter a plea
And if she refused I wouldn't walk into the ocean
Just because my world was left all out at sea.

So it was in this cafe when we eventually met
And I wished I had sunglasses and smoked cigarettes

The world
And the surrounding stars
They change completely in the space of an hour
When over the table and two cups of tea
She told me she felt the same way about me.
And not an eclipse of the sky nor a colliding car
Could have shaken our attention from each other's face
As we both stepped down from our stubborn towers
We jump into the ignorant heaven that is the lover's place.

Though the coffins are calling I'm not coming
I'm too young to listen and I'm still scrawling on
See-saws and slides, skipping ropes and swings,
Toothpaste and trousers, watches and wedding rings.
She shouted to me under the juggernaut roar,
"this is the bad life, what are we here for? "

And wonderful world why are you full
Of endless monotony and tiresome fools?
These people that surrounded me were damaged and done
And we were as compatible as swimming pools and slums.
And why are you grinning from ear to ear,
Isn't this the bad life?

Though there was leads in the petrol and bacteria in the beer
Though she moved away and left me hopeless, I was writing
I was here.

She said this bad life that I'm leading is deceiving and depriving me
I said why don't you try relieving me, while she was reading


I was stealing from the library.

And sweetness and sadness lived in sin
With built-in indigestion the new buildings held their stomachs in
Goodness and badness were hardly anything
I wanted to love her but she was never in

Though they were taking out tongues in the land of the gun
Though the sweating was getting near
Though her head was hung saying I did not become her, I keep writing
I was here

Though the dusts were growing in my lungs and some
Were turning backs on the babies turning blue
And I adore you but before you say "i adore you too"
Say I was here, and so were you

Making your way through an orangepeel orchard
Tracing your day from disillusioned to debauched
And spring passed quickly below the rotten elm tree
You weren't kissed there you were pissed in the lavatory
And shaving is something that you grew out of
And it would take a heat wave to get you to take your jacket off.

You hang around the square watching someone kick the boys in
With a hand through your hair as if to comb out the poison
Sing some stupid song about crows in the wheatfield
It's been so long since you saw crows in the wheatfield

And don't forget that day you remembered
When you saw fish swim in the sewage system river
And keep revising that picture in your mind


When you left home and the crow's behind
And the apples were sweet and summers were long
Digging in your bare feet on a short yellow lawn
You used to stifle a smile or forget not to yawn
Do all the things that men do when they're to the river born.

With fifty-five pense between his two fingers
And a swirling head as the feeling of hunger lingers
Sing some stupid songs about crows in the wheatfield
It's been so long since you saw crows in the wheatfield
Sing some stupid song about crows in the wheatfield
You knew all along you were a crow in the wheatfield

I have overloved you and overseen you
And now you're refusing the gifts that I bring you
My hands have been clasping my hot head and asking
"if she submits to me, will she be my property? "
You may be bleeding but you're not dying
Though you are dying to go
Stop teasing me
I'm not seeing you leaving me

Here is a party full of my friends
And here is a cup being filled up to be drunk again
We are just starting luxurious lives
To be drunkards and diddymen
Making gulf wars and battered wives.
Now I may be pleading
But there's no love nor fear in my eyes
Just greediness
I'm not seeing this sleeping dog lie.

I am the wild horses who will drag you away
I am the locked door who can make you stay
And I will act the man in almost anyway I can
So I can keep keep keep you.

So wake up you pretty thing to a wonderful home
Where we while away the happy saturdays
Between the television and the telephone
And I stroke your head just to feel what I own
Whispering
"will you be my property, and not my disability? "


And why are you craving
To be free from love's slavery
Stop teasing me
Love's not letting go.

I am the child calling you to come back and play
I am the concert hall in which you hear me say
I'll act a man in almost anyway I can
So I can keep keep keep you even though you may not understand
I am the bee and you are the pollen
I am the keeper you are the lion
I am the holes down which you would have fallen
If I had not been the hand who came and beckoned you

(and I'm not seeing this sleeping dog lie)

Maybe
You were born wrong
But why am I picking holes in you
When it's holes that we all come from?
Maybe I was born strong
To stop love from overtaking me
To stop love from living too long.
And you may be bleeding
And leading me to the blood flow
But sleep tight tonight lions
This keeper's never letting go.

Good luck and lost love's knife
Cut a path leading through my life
I weave through the gusts of change
As a kite might through the sky.
I feel down and degraded
Like I felt when you and me began to tire
And we stopped long ago
But I thought it was just ceasefire.

I can leave the past behind like any normal man can do
But what I find most of the time
Is that I have been left behind you.
I can feel time pushing me forward
So what does it matter what direction I'm pointed in?
No one else used to sing my sad chorus
Now I feel that they too have joined in.



Bad luck and lucky breaks
Cut paths right through our lives
We follow the blind man's bluff
Like lorrys follow white lines in the night.
And by our nature we are kept alone
No matter haw long your nails
You can't cut out of the womb.
And if I can't crash off-course
You must be marooned
And we will not be able to go back to
The source of this wound.

All day long, sweeping up the dead pigeons from the pavement
After the long dim dawn
He remembered how she pulled him from disaster into laughter.

Well it didn't take long for him to be consumed
And he turned around and said as her caressing resumed
"we once were close but now we're both marooned,
And what was once a stirring melody is now a distant tune."
She said "you angel, you flower, you're powerful."
But he felt no feelings but his head hot and belly full
And basking in the sun he only feels a gas fire


And he sees no apparent difference between the chimney and the church spire
He says: "this garden of roses, is overgrown with weeds,
And where the great west river flows I can see nothing but pebbles and reeds."

All day long she stuck his nose into siberia
And dragged him through hong kong
Till she said "you carrier, you coward, you're pitiful,
Feeling less and less is just an easy way of doing more wrong."

The bus is pulling out and I guess I'd better go
Before I make a grave mistake and let my feelings show
And twenty miles away she waits alone for me
But when I try to picture her you're the one I see
And in another situation I could put up a fight
But you will be my downfall tonight

So the night is coming down, drowning us in blue
And it all points towards the things we know we shouldn't do
And as I look at you and I fall under your spell
Well I know I should be thinking of her lying there herself

And when faced with temptation you know a man should stand and fight
But you will be my downfall tonight

Be my downfall be my great regret be the one girl
That I'll never forget
Be my undoing be my slow road to ruin tonight

So the bus is pulling out and I'm grounded here with you
And I want to say the sweet things babe I've always wanted to
So tell me now the tail-lights have gone out of sight
Baby won't you be my downfall once again tonight

I still don’t believe it, how much we lied
Last night you made it with him now I’m supposed to be dignified
Just like a man

Well I spend my night times drinking and you spend your days in bed
And I guess it’s up to us to choose the methods by which we forget

And just like a man he holds you gently
And just like a man he strokes your hair
And just like a man I still pretend that I’m
Immune to the whole affair

But I wanna die, I wanna cry, I wanna tell you I was wrong
Yeh I wanna die, I wanna cry but it’s too late
So I soldier on just like a man

I don’t believe it, you were easy to leave but now
I do my best to relieve it the only way I know how
Just like a man

And I don’t wanna possess you, I don’t wanna take his place
But I don’t wanna see my last few pleasures written all over his face

And just like a man he holds you gently
And just like a man he strokes your hair
And just like a man I still pretend that I’m
Immune to the whole affair

But I wanna die, I wanna cry, I wanna tell you I was wrong
Yeh I wanna die, I wanna cry but it’s too late
So I soldier on just like a man

And I have something to tell you but it doesn’t matter now
I’ll stick to small talk and leave the little bits of flattery to him
And I could call you but why would I bother to
You might not be in or he might misunderstand
Just like a man

Look at the fool you have been
They drained the pool while you drowned in the dream
They bought your beauty and your soul
Then softly sold you back what they stole

So look into the mirror do you recognise someone
Is it who you always hoped you would become
When you were young

The disappointment of success
Hangs from your shoulders like a hand-me down dress
And down nostalgia’s rocky road
You watch your former lovers growing old

So look into the mirror do you recognise someone
Is it who you always hoped you would become
When you were young

Sometimes your lack of sympathy gets hard to explain
So on your mask of make up just paint
A little parody of pain

So I look into the mirror and I recognise someone
It is who you always hoped you would become
When you were young

Snow in a soulless city covers up the cracks in the road
As a wastrel buys her cigarettes and wipes her pretty nose
Like a part-time Elvis imitator these streets I knew so well
Have been pasted beyond recognition with a temporary smell

Now the midnight train eases out leaving everyone marooned
And without her it might as well be the surface of the moon

From the well-swept streets of Jackson Heights to the dockside drudgery
Everything's now a replica of what it used to be
And since they tarted up the trenches and painted the bridges blue
It seems less like a home to me than just a place they bury you

Now we're lit up like a cathedral in our frozen concrete ruin
And without her it might as well be the surface of the moon

So I need her and I love her that is true
But I'm stuck here like some shipwreck still holding on to you
So when they beat out the tramps and patch up the slums
Everything will be fine
There'll be a new facade for us to hide behind

So on the ancient trails of our coupling in the places we used to meet
I am amazed by the lack of memories that I thought would flood through me
And the riverside where we first kissed has now been reduced
To a phoney old world market where only shoppers get seduced

Now your arms embrace me strangely in your unfamiliar room
And for all I care it might as well be the surface of the moon
Yeh for all I care it might as well be the surface of the moon

Daylight comes with such surprising speed
Yesterday you talked of love and now you want to leave
But don't expect me to stand in your way
I am powerless to alter any action you might take

And I won't take the blame
I was not the one who played the joker in this game
I was not the one who feels nothing anymore
So if you walk out that door, I won't take the blame

And as I look at the girl I once adored
You tell me that I hold you back you tell me that you're bored
So like a pair of clowns we stand around and fight
Why can't you get it over with and walk out of my life?

And I won't take the blame
I was not the one who played the joker in this game
I was not the one who feels nothing anymore
So if you walk out that door, I won't take the blame

And the steps of this old church are peppered with confetti hearts
Like a million little love affairs waiting to fall apart

You'll get hooked, you'll get drugged
She'll be your essence she'll be your blood
And you'll want her so much but you'll never get enough
And that's the first rule of love

She'll smell so sweetly in the morning
She'll make you feel so good inside
And you'll want her so much you'll give everything else up
And that's the first rule of love

You'll grow comfortable together
You'll start to fit like hand and glove
And then you'll start to hate the men she used to dream of
And that's the first rule of love

You'll miss her madly, when you're apart
Love is like gravity holding down your heart

You'll grow envious and bitter
She'll be enquiring and concerned
And you'll feel so close to her but never close enough
To get past the first rule of love
And with the awkwardness of strangers
You will finally give up
No exceptions to the first rule of love

Go and tell your mother, go and tell your friends
You've been fooled again
He appeared like magic and he left you on a late night train
Yeh, some things never change

Cos baby the ones that you love lead you nowhere
Yeh baby the ones that you love lead you nowhere

If you could just be patient, pretty soon you would forget his name
And face this world again
If you could just stop looking for someone special
You might save yourself some pain

Cos baby the ones that you love lead you nowhere
Yeh baby the ones that you love lead you nowhere

Every little lie makes you look so dumb
They tell you nobody has ever come as close as you've come
So baby tonight you've got the right to feel so numb

Cos baby the ones that you love lead you nowhere
Yeh baby the ones that you love lead you nowhere

So you’re in love with someone else
Someone who burns within your soul
And it looks like I’m the last to know
I hear you’ve never felt so alive
So much desire beyond control
And as usual I am the last to know
The last to know how you’re feeling
The last to know where you are
The last to know if you’re happy now
Or if he’s treating you like I treated you
Or if he’s cruel I’ll be the last to know
We spent summers up beyond the bay
And you said these are such perfect days
That if the bomb drops baby, I want to be the last to know
But now you’re living up behind the hill
And though we share the same city and feel the same sun
When your winter comes
I’ll be the last to know
Always the last to know how you’re feeling
The last to know where you are
The last to know if you’re happy now
Or if he’s pleading with you like I pleaded with you
If you go don’t let me be the last to know
Don’t let me be the last
To know
Creation’s gone crazy, the TV’s gone mad
Now you’re the only sane thing that I have
The last to know how you’re feeling
The last to know where you are
The last to know if you’re happy now
Or if he’s cheating on you like I cheated on you
And you were the last to know

Roll down the window, let me hear the rain
Let me hear her whispering, honey everything is OK

Cos I've had enough bad news
To last a lifetime
I've had enough bad news
To last a lifetime

Well I drove all night under a seasick sky
And I made it my mid-afternoon
And I hope she's home so she can hold me tight and tell me
Everything is alright

Cos I've had enough bad news
To last a lifetime
I've had enough bad news
To last a lifetime

And I was struck by how much I remembered
And how everything sill looked the same
When a neighbour I met in her hallway said
"Looks like loverboy's too late again"

So take your troublesome baggage
And put it on the next train home
Cos you can guess somewhere else in the world right now
Someone else feels just as alone

Cos I've had enough bad news
I've had enough bad news
I've had enough bad news
To last a lifetime
To last a lifetime
To last a lifetime
To last a lifetime

You'd better get some sleep for a change
Before tomorrow brings you down
By three o'clock they'll both be sitting on that plane
Hopelessly honeymoon bound
And I hope no one asks you to kiss this bride
Or tie tin cans to the car
And if friends and relations mingle outside
You can linger at the bar

So bring on the rainclouds and block out the moon
Let the action begin

You'll feel like some soap opera star
Predictably hitting the booze
With your standard issue broken heart
You step into your Saturday shoes
And you might feel better if you slapped her face
Or slipped some pills in his wine
But instead some voice in your head keeps saying
You'll look back and laugh sometime

So bring on the rainclouds and block out the moon
Let the action begin

Cos it's as sure as sunrise and as sure as time
The bride will be changing and you will be crying
And it will be raining as soon as the tide comes in

So put on your lipstick and check that you hat's straight too
Cos if they can go through with it you can do it too

So bring on the rainclouds and block out the moon
Let the action begin

Cos it's as sure as sunrise and as sure as time
The bride will be changing and you will be crying
And it will be raining as soon as the tide comes in
And it will be raining as soon as the tide comes in

Don't tell her that you want her
Don't ask her to be yours
Don't tell her she is everything

Or she might see the fool behind the frown
And then the heart behind the fool

Don't tell her that you need her
Don't tell her that you care
Don't ask her to hold you

Or she might see the fool behind the frown
And then the heart behind the fool

Behind the cool, there's a dreading that
Someday she'll betray you
Someday she will dispose of
All her photographs of you

So don't tell her when you're lonely
Don't tell her when you're blue
Don't tell her she means everything to you

So don't tell her that you need her
Don't tell her that you care
Don't ask her to hold you

Or she might see the fool behind the frown
And then the heart behind the fool

With the sweet drip of every raindrop
Time brings you closer to me
And with each new sign at every train-stop
Another hour without you is consigned to history

And with each tick of my alarm clock
I get crazy for the days to get to you
When I can hold you and kiss you have you
Instead of staring at some photo like a fool

But as day turns to night there's this hopelessness to fight
When I think that I might not make it through

But honey, sometimes I just have to say your name
To hear it hanging in the air, to know it sounds the same
And sometimes when I'm blue, I know just what to do
To keep the blues at bay you know I only have to say your name

So this morning I picked up a paper
In the useless descent of the rain
While partners in heartbreak the whole world over
Lie and cheat just the same
And the headlines proclaim everything has changed
Love can't save you now
As each little motion of my wristwatch
Holds up my faith somehow

But as day turns to night there's this hopelessness to fight
When I think that I might not make it through

But honey, sometimes I just have to say your name
To hear it hanging in the air, to know it sounds the same
And sometimes when I'm blue, I know just what to do
To keep the blues at bay you know I only have to say your name

When I've used up all my patience
When your letters have been read twenty times through
I can drink all the wine in this place of mine
But it ain't no replacement
It ain't no replacement for you

Does your appetite for novelty still burn?
And do you pick a fight just to feel the heat of his concern?
Do you still misbehave, then beg for his reprieve?
And do you love to feel his needy hands pulling at your sleeve?

Don't you always fall in love again just before you leave?

Do you still storm away, do you slap him just to see
is he hits you back or backs away or panics, just like me?

Don't you always fall in love again just before you leave?



Don't you cry, 'cause you know that's the one thing he hates
Don't you try to bend him until he breaks
Like you broke me

Do you still turn for a second into stone?
And do you pepper him with petty threats of letting him alone?

Don't you always fall in love again just before you leave?

I've got cash and prizes more than a man could dream
I've got a hundred houses, some that I've never seen
I've got walls of paintings high as the Hoover Dam
I've got cash and prizes, but I don't know who I am

I've got a thousand people act on my every word
Point at the sky above me, and I own every bird
I've got a wife who holds me in her diamond-studded hands
I've got cash and prizes, but I don't know who I am

I've got buildings, I've got planes

That light the skyline with my name
I am everywhere but here
A colossus on the index, but touch the cancel key and I just disappear

I've got cash and prizes 'cause I've got the stuff it takes
I've got a Rolls-Royce running just 'cause I love the sound it makes

But cash and prizes I guess is all that they can see

Pat is the guy with the record shop
And John sells fruit but wants to be a cop
And Paul deals speed in a Celtic top
But I'm just a drunk in a band.

Jo does tele-sales and martial arts
And Gill pushes patients round the public parks
And Nancy makes sculptures out of hoover parts
But I'm just a drunk in a band.

Danny puts the cones on the motorway
And Donna dances tables in her lingerie
And Gerry, Dave and Billy, man, they're puttin' on a play
But I'm just a drunk in a band.

I could be a soldier, I could drive a van,
Guide rivers of pain into little red cans
Walk rich men's dogs, bring 747s into land
But I'm just a drunk in a band.

One more last hurrah
One more fearless stand
At some nightclub bar

One more last hurrah
Gonna kiss our friends
And then crash our cars
Crash our cars

One more last hurrah
Before we knuckle down and button up
And figure out that fading out's
The state that we've been looking for
The state that we've been looking for

Hold on, I wanna say
"My life looks okay"
Okay

One more last hurrah
Whatever else is waiting for us
One last waste of time is all we're asking for
All we're asking for

One more last hurrah
One more chance to forget
Who our enemies are

Hold on, I wanna say
"My life looks okay
My life looks okay"
Okay

One more just one more
Last hurrah

Buttons on My Clothes

I've been drinking all through summer
I guess I've had a laugh
I've had every kind of fun I could have had

Looking at my crowd tonight
There's a sober kind of sparkle in their eyes
That I don't like

'Cause everybody knows she ain't coming back
The buttons on my clothes are as plain to see as that

I'm a man of reputation in this rocker's town
I have lived it up so long I'll never live it down
Every back room bet I've made
Every all night thrill room-service bill I've paid
Looks cheap today



'Cause everybody knows she ain't coming back
The buttons on my clothes are as plain to see as that

I took a chemical vacation in my head
But now I'm back here at the station with a trunk of regret

Thought I found myself a frequency beyond her voice
But the memories keep breaking through the noise
So brother, send a ship for me before I wash upon the shore of clarity
I can see

That everybody knows she ain't coming back
The buttons on my clothes are as plain to see as that

Yeah, everwhere I go, there are ghosts of what I had
Like the buttons on my clothes, they are everywhere I'm at

Who's gonna call you up every single day?
Who's gonna hold you hard when stuff gets ugly?

Cause baby if you wanna find someone
As big as a door that fits in your palm
A wall of support as small as a gun
Can't you see?
Baby it's me

Who's gonna miss you just cause you leave the room?
Who's gonna kiss your brow when your dreaming haunts you?

Cause baby if you wanna find someone
With all that they need but nothing they want
Full of themselves but with a hole where you aren't
Can't you see?
Baby it's me

Baby it's me

Living in the lining
Where your coins are chiming
When we drive at night it's my eyes you're shining

Who's gonna call you up every single day?
Can't you see
Baby it's me

Eyes like a slash across her face
Lips I'd kill a man to taste
Whatever this stuff is, I'm buying
Whatever it does, I'll do it 'til I'm dying

I can't wash her away
It's getting under my skin
I can't wash her away
I can feel her closing in

Hands like a carnival of queens
Hair like a heart attack of dreams
A voice so soft you could cut it with a kiss
Screams so small you could hold them in your fist
Little white fingertips running up your back
Little needling scores where her nails leave a track

I can't wash her away
She's living in my skin


I can't seem to wash her away
I can feel her closing in

Eyes like a slash across her face
Lips so damn sweet you'd cut your tonuge out for a taste
Whatever this stuff is, I'm buying
If she's nothing but a coffin least she's good enough to die in
She's a ballroom full of dancing chairs
She's a child in disguise hiding bullets in her hair
A voice so soft you could cut it with a kiss
Screams so small you could hold them in your fist
Every one night stand is a six week stretch
Craving her arms twisted up around your neck
Skin so white, a heart so pure
If you opeden up her veins you'd see the light run through her

I can't look into the future, but I can't cheat the past
I will wipe away my memory, I will find freedom at last
I will walk away from everything that I used to want so bad
I can't look into the future, but the future is the only thing I have
The only thing I have

I am standing on the pavement, I am staring at a sign
A cheaper flight to paradise I am told I'll never find
There are cameras on the rooftops, there are crazies on the green
I will jump a plane to any place far enough away to get me out of who I've been
Get me out of who I've been

I have shaken, never bitten, every hand that ever hit me
Time has taken what it wanted, now I'm gonna get my victory
With my last cheap shot at the dream

I can't look into the future, but I can't cheat the past
I will wipe away my memory, I will find freedom at last

I can't look into the future, but I know I don't wanna see
Another day in Hell with all the mediocrities
I will walk away from everything that the world wants me to do
I can't look into the future, but the future's where I'm walking to
I'm walking to

You hold the key to whether we will ever last
I know I can't forever hide behind this mask
'Cause everytime I fall in love, out falls the past

You'll hear my reputation anywhere you ask
They'll say I'm always chasing, so the die is cast
'Cause everytime I fall in love, out falls the past

Everytime I find somebody, the whispering begins
About how I change my women like traffic switches lanes
But girl, believe me, I'm the one that's changed

Back then, the girls, I guess, I kissed and got out fast
But that's all you need to know then girl, you should have asked


Everytime I fall in love, out falls the past

Everytime I find somebody, the whispering begins
About how I change my women like traffic switches lanes
But girl, believe me, I'm the one that's changed

You hold the key to whether we will ever last
But I hold when we're together; I ain't ever held on another so fast
'Cause everytime I fall in love, out falls the past

She's passing this way
And if you're looking for love, she'll give it away
Yeah, we've all drunk from that cup
You'll be hooked within minutes of tasting a drop

'Cause she is something, that is true
But just a kiss, my friend, you're through
'Cause when she walks and leaves you blue
You'll look like the junkies standing here in front of you

But hey, you should follow your heart
Maybe she won't desire for just pulling apart
And I don't care if she does
Once she's got you in deeper, there'll be one more of us

'Cause she is something, that is true
But just a kiss, my friend, you're through
'Cause when she walks and leaves you blue
You'll look like the junkies standing here in front of you

Jesus saves, saves little children in distress
Jesus saves, He saves the sick, the penniless
Jesus saves, He saves the dying in their beds
Jesus saves, He saves the drowning, saves the wrecks
Jesus saves, He saves the pure and leaves the rest

Jesus saves, He saves the homeless on the streets
Jesus saves, saves the afflicted, saves the meek
Jesus saves, He saves the hungry, saves the weak
Jesus saves, saves every soul that He can reach
Jesus saves, He saves the useful, leaves the obsolete

Jesus loves, He loves the underdog, he does
Jesus loves downtrodden sinners just like us
Jesus loves, He loves to hear the sound of pain
Just because, well, He can't save you if you ain't one of us
The damned, the blind, the deaf, the never walk again

Jesus gives to the lame, He gives their limps
Jesus gives to the prostitutes, their pimps
Jesus gives, gives us the crack head's crying wince
Jesus gives, He gives the derelicts their drinks
Jesus gives, so He can watch the swamp of people squirm and sink

'Cause Jesus craves, He craves the brotherhood of man
Jesus craves the bony gripping of its hands
Jesus craves, He craves the cross, He craves the nails
Jesus craves, He craves the pain the mortal feels
Jesus craves all the cruelty that ever made Him real

Jesus saves, saves every sinner you can see
Jesus saves, saves even amateurs like me
Jesus saves, saves a men of evil, men of greed
Jesus saves, saves you from thinking
Just believe that Jesus saves and you can lemming
Like go walking to the cliffs of eternity

Look at me, I'm the one who got away, the one who could've shone
I tried to do my best, but I guess your best don't last for long

Look at me, standing with my tattered pride of toothless little lions
We try to make a difference, do something no one else had tried

But if you see me walking and you're wondering why
Well it's just the business of life
If you're not getting lucky, you're just getting by

Look at me, is it written on my face, the luxuries I've known?
Am I a foreign presence, someplace that used to be my home?

So if you see me walking, just a regular guy
Well it's just the business of life
If you're not getting lucky, you're just getting by

And in that weightlessness that comes with good luck
The one thing you don't expect is feeling the drop

Look at me, I'm the one who got away, and then came crawling back
I try to do my best, but I guess I never had the knack

So if you see me walking, and you're wondering why
Well it's just the business of life
If you're not getting lucky, you're just getting by

There's people hauling people
Out from under their homes
There's people hauling people
Out through the groaning stones
You can see me tonight,
I'll be shell shocked and white in the cold light of dawn
But I ain't gonna cry just to give some guy
Food for songs

People going hungry,
Stand like a sackfull of bones,
People going hungry, feeding a billion homes
So I put my dead child down, you put your TV on
Well I ain't gonna cry just to give some guy
Food for songs

Yeah, there's people beating people,
To keep the system strong
People beating people, to keep the illusion going
So I'm going to fight every day of my life 'til they're gone
But I ain't gonna die just to give some guy
Food for songs

Yeah, there's people holding people,
Making those wailing sounds,
Yeah, there's people holding people,
Watching them lower me down
So I take my leave and you take what you see
And you make it what you want
But when I see you in hell, I will give you some
Food for songs.

With all the stuff they sell you night and day
With all the trash they try to trick you with you lie to me
Well I don't need it but I get it anyway
With all the sadness and lunacy,
With all the dispossessed hopeless, you're leaving me
Well I don't want it but it's how it's going to be

Yeah, you can try to save the world
And baby, that's fine
But is it such a hateful crime to start with me?

With all the bad debts and misery
With all the dirty tricks and hypocrites you cheat on me
Well I don't want it but it's all that I can see

With all the discrete obscenities
With all the money freaks and doublespeak you turn away
Well I don't need it, but I guess it's gonna stay

Yeah, you can try to save the world
Well baby, that's fine
But is it such a hateful crime to start with me?

Hey I’m with you, let me just get you a light
And if we’d thought to listen
We might have checked if the weather was right
And I don’t mind if you want to drive all day
Hey, it’s raining, I should have brought my coat
And sometimes I could sell my soul
Just to sit and watch you smoke
And I don’t mind if you want to break my heart
’Cos you can burn paper
You can turn a wheel
But you can’t change later
Here and now just how good we can feel
Hey, stop talking, think I can hear the sea
And did I tell you the sound of the surf
Makes strange things happen to me
And I don’t mind if you want to crash the car
’Cos you turn traitor
You can turn on your heels
But you can’t change lady
Here and now just how good we can feel
And hey don’t worry, so that black cat’s some kind of curse
’Cos if bad times are coming up ahead,
Just put us in reverse
I don’t want to waste time, thinking ’bout it here and now babe
Nothing else matters but what we’ve got here and now babe.

So long, hope you dreams come true
Now I've gone i know you're gonna bloom
And did you want me to say I'd die for you

What you wanted I couldn't give
I guess I needed it to live
And did you want me to say I'd die for you

And did you want me to give my heart to you,
Well I wanted to but I wasn't sure who I belonged to

And so long to everything
Now there's only one thing left to do,
I guess I want to prove that I'd die for you
I don't think of you, like I used to do,
I can't figure who, I'm writing this to

And it's OK if you want to say I died for you.

Tell her not to go
I ain't holding on no more
Tell her something in my mind freezes up from time to time

Tell her not to cry
I just got scared that's all
Tell her I'll be by her side, all she has to do is call

Tell her the chips are down
I drank too much and shouted it aloud
Tell her something in my heart
Needs her more than even clowns need the laughter of the crowd

Tell her what was wrong
I sometimes think to much
But say nothing at all
And tell her from this high terrain, I am ready now to fall

Tell her not to go
I ain't holding on no more
Tell her nothing if not this; all I want to do is kiss her

Tell her something in my mind
Freezes up from time to time.

How are you going to pass the time of day
In your beautiful empty shell,
When you've shaken the hand of so many sinceroes
You feel like a fake yourself

How do you choose between you and me
When we both feed on being somebody else

So you suck on the juice of youth and use any chemical you can get
You get deeper in debt every step you take on your ladder of
lifelessness
Bye bye to the boring times,
Hello to my friend, how you been being somebody else?

Now the troops in you head won't obey what you say
And the mutiny seems to spread
And all you can hear is a voice in your ear and it's telling you that
you're dead

The sun sets in a coffee cup, the moon throws up
The flood flows over the house,
The books start jumping from the shelf
And the clothes horse races itself
Now we're all so busy being somebody else.

1-Look around your world pretty baby
Is it everything you hoped it'd be
The wrong guy, the wrong situation
The right time to roll to me

Roll to me

Look into your heart pretty baby
Is it aching with some nameless need?
Is there something wrong
And you can't put your finger on it?
Right, then roll to me

2-And I don't think I have ever seen
A soul so in despair
So if you want to talk the night through
Guess who will be there?

So don't try to deny it pretty baby
You've been down so long you can hardly see
When the engine's stalled and it won't stop raining
It's the right time to roll to me
Roll to me
Roll to me

(rpt 2)

So, (rpt 1)
The right time to roll to me
The right time to roll to me...oooh

Well it might not be so important to you now
When the night is young and everyone's around
And the music flows
Through your doped up Disney mind.

But you'll be crying like a baby when it comes
And you will try it anyway you can
To find a place to run, 'cos it ain't no fun
In party town, when loneliness comes crashing down

And you'll be hurting in a way you can't explain
And all those pretty things you love will look so vain
'Cos the laughing crowd is such a hopeless sound
When loneliness comes crashing down

And you might not thing about
Just what happens now as your guests collect their coats.
In an empty house full of ashtray doubts
Your formless future floats

So the bad and beautiful still remain
With their depleted bounty of bad cocaine, we love the house
But we can't quite place the name

And it might not be important to you now,
When the night is young and you are loose and loud
'Cos there ain't no sound in party town
Quite like loneliness crashing down

There is nobody here tonight, who doesn't dance to the same tune as I
Looking for that special someone new, and hey babe it might as well be
you

And as I fumble through my change, the dance floor illuminates
And there you are again
I'm looking for someone to hold on to
And hey, babe, it might as well be you

It might as well be you that I wake up to tomorrow
And it might as well be you that tonight whispers my name
And it might as well be you that I cling to, that I laugh with and sing
to
That I kiss good-bye to never see again

And through the fog that love creates the night is filled with all the
usual mistakes
they say you're looking lonely babe, and they've been looking too
And hey, they might well be for you

And by the light of cigarettes, we introduce ourselves in a way you
don't forget
I'm looking for something and anything will do
So, hey babe, it might as well be you

And if we go home tonight, you might find the very thing
That come the morning light, might well have washed your mind of him
So let me in tonight so we two losers might start to win

It might as well be you that I wake up to tomorrow
And it might as well be you that tonight will call my name
And it might as well be you that I cling to, that I laugh with and sing
to
Yeah babe, it might as well be you that reminds me
It was once her here beside me
That I kissed good-bye, to never see again

With two hundred people in suits all the same
You walk off that last lonely train.

On the half finished buildings only seagulls remain
As you try to think back to the root of this pain

And life ain't worth living without a little love
But a little love is never enough

So some folks are fighting for freedom, but you're just fighting the
flab
And therein lies the reason that life is a drag.

So you gaze at the television
As some publicity goons cut loose those useless balloons.

Down in the darkness of your lying little heart
There's a space for you to change
So you can take this world apart.

And these days the morning mirror seems to say to you now,
That you used to be pretty but you're alright now.

And sometimes you find you're dreaming as you're late for work again
Thinking there's not many trees you can see from this train.

Life ain't worth living
Without a little love
But a little love is never enough

Summer here is over in a million different ways
You look like a dream sometimes, but I don't dream these days
Yesterday the snow fell, by four o'clock it thawed
And last night making love to you, well honey, it was such a fraud

'Cos you can find yourself a lover
You can find yourself a home
You can want no other ever
But it's never too late to be alone

So everything is settled or so we do pretend
>From a beautiful beginning babe to a muted kind of end
And our separate possessions are shuffled up on shelves
Like our fingers lock together when we talk about ourselves

You can find yourself one day staring into space
With a suitcase waiting by the door
You can think you've got it made 'til it hits you in the face
That these are not the people you want to be before

Summer here is over, you can feel it in the air
>From the down-town shells to the upland hills
The chill is everywhere

Driving through the long night
Trying to figure who's right and who's wrong
Now the kid has gone. I sit belted up tight,
She sucks on a match light, glowing bronze, steering on.
And I might be more of a man if I stopped this in it's tracks
And said, come on, let's go home. But she's got the wheel,
And I've got nothing except what I have on.

When you're driving with the brakes on
When you're swimming with your boots on,
It's hard to say you love someone
And it's hard to say you don't

Trying to keep the mood right, trying to steer the conversation from
The thing we've done.
She shuts up the ashtray, and I say it's a long way back now hon
She just yawns. And we might get lost someplace
So desolate that no one where we're from would ever come
But she's got the wheel and I've got to deal from now on.

But unless the moon falls tonight, unless continents collide,
Nothing's gonna make me, break from her side

With some girls it don't matter who you hang with
With some girls it don't matter how you talk
And some girls they are easy to be yourself with
But the one girl that I want, ain't easy to please with what I've got

With some girls it don't matter where you're aiming
With some girls it don't matter how you act
And some girls they don't care what car you came in
But the one girl that I want, she wants that one bit of geography I lack

Yeah, she don't want me 'cos I'm not where it's at

And some girls they will worry about reactions
And some girls they don't give a damn for that
But somehow I ain't ever in on the action
'Cos the one girl I want, she wants that one little quality I lack

Yeah, she don't want me 'cos I'm not where it's at

I don't have my finger on the pulse of my generation
I just got my hand on my heart, I know no better location

I must've had a million damn unlucky days
But there ain't no cloud that a bottle can't chase away
I've done my deal of living, ran from place to place
But when the roof comes in I don't wanna take it straight

They say with faith any soul can make it
But hell, why should I wait
'Til the clouds go rain on some other sucker's parade

I've had my share of heartaches, let downs and tricks
But the everyday blues is the one thing I can fix
I've heard those holy brethren muttering my name
But it ain't no sin to drink when you're suffering

Patience, they say, is a saintly virtue
But hell, why should I wait
'Til the clouds go rain on some other sucker's parade
When every heavy sky just empties on your fate
Sometimes keeping dry's something to celebrate

So if the road of sin is the one I'm taking
I ain't gonna stray
'Til the clouds go rain on some other sucker's parade

So you say you are sick of love
Got a mind to give the damn thing up
Got a housefull of stuff your lovers left
Gonna take a bus to the city dump with it

So you want to throw away the old you
But the old you's old enough to know
It won't make it better

Sick of being a loser, so you say
Gonna go out and choose a new personality
Ain't gonna look at her pictures, lie awake all night
You're gonna dazzle the future with your inner light

So you want to throw away the old you
But the old you's old enough to know
It won't make it better

I've set out on that mission too
A little revolution to forget her
Trying to make it better

I've been in this place many times before
With my baby's things among my shoes and strings and clothes
But just because I'm here
Don't mean I can't run out that door
Ain't that what those running shoes are for?

Baby likes to sleep on floor boards bare
And just to keep the peace, well I join her there
And she might say to me
'A better man I can't recall'
But what I think she sees ain't me at all

It ain't me at all to need somebody
Like some lovestruck casualty
It ain't me at all to feel so ready
To be what I think she sees

Baby claims I kiss like I really care
Well, I guess I'd say I don't but the truth ain't fair
And sometimes she looks at me and says
'Babe, my heart just stalled',
But what I think she sees ain't me at all.

You can find another country if you want
Somewhere you can hide yourself away
Find yourself another set of holes to haunt
Get yourself another debt that you can't pay

Yeah, you can try to run for cover everywhere
Add another letter to your name
Burn everything you ever used to wear
Get yourself another lover that looks the same

But sometimes it's the medicine itself that makes the pain

Well, you can always make another move again
Another set of keys, a different town
And you can try to lose yourself in them
'Till the truth it catches up and cuts you down

'Cos sometimes it's the medicine itself that makes the pain

And you can always hide the wreckage that you come from
But every new disguise is just another lie to run from.

You can only try to fool yourself so long
With any kind of measure you can find
'Cos every phony pleasure you've been on
Has lifted off and left the pain behind.

'Cos sometimes it's the medicine itself that makes the pain

Little snow white, she is sleeping 24 hours a day
She's got a right to be lazy, flat out of reasons to breathe
And it's cold baby, yes it's cold
But everything is relative can't you see we're living in

High times, dig the new domain
Living through high times, just don't crash my spiritual plane

Little snow white, she was hungry
Told to go out and graft for it
At the end of the rainbow she was mind blown
To be staring at a crock of shit
And it's hard baby, yes it's hard
But with a little intuition you can shift position in the

High times, touch the magic stone
Living through high times, pick up that spiritual phone.

Frittering packs of refuseniks, too drunk to muster any contempt
10 ways to relax on a cruise ship, one way to cover the rent
I've whored myself around enough to know, baby
You don't come with the customers and smile when you're spoken to in

High times, catch the cosmic vibe.
Living through high times, hey, has Ginger Baker died?
Living through high times, my planet's all out of line
Living through high times, man, just like '69

Open up your eyes,
Everything is crying out this could be your time
She fell out of the sky,
Must every star been working on
Heavenly designs

A crooked line of lightning, a silent movie moon
Mother nature's writing to you

So button up your lip
You don't get many chances in the time between the tides.
The weather's rolling in
In a minute flat you'll be soaking wet
So kiss her while it's dry

A crooked line of lightning, a silent movie moon
Mother nature's writing to you

Well, I talk like a boy to my baby sometimes
And you talk like a baby when your boy is crying
You made something to love but I love what I am
No family man

So don't tell me you've got something better than me
Don't say that it's a great mystery
It's just making love what you want it to be,
That's why I am no family man

And that is why all that I have in the world
Is an ocean of time with this beautiful girl

Have you got something to prove with your own little you
Have I wasted my time, cut through the family line
In the race to life, I am an also-ran
But I've run enough to know
I'm no family man.
Yeah I've done enough to know I'm no family man.

Someone's opening up for business
The morning rings the same old way
But someone should've taught me forgiveness
Now I see it in the cruel light of day

Tell him he's done me a kindness
She was going to leave anyway
But love is such sweet blindness
'Til you see it in the cruel light of day

Last night was just a comedy
And I woke up like a walking tragedy
And it was right in front of me
But I just laughed and turned my eyes away.

So pour me another cup of coffee
I ain't ever seen the city look so grey
And those pretty little diamonds in the darkness
They ain't no jewels in the cruel light of day.

No I ain't some accessory
She can slip off from her back and just fold away
I don't need no one undressing me
When I wake up in the same suit everyday.

So someone's opening up for business
The shutters roll so familiarly
And out of darkness comes relief sing the witless
But I don't see it in the cruel light of day.

So you want me to play the bleeding role
Just so he can know how I needed you.
Well that's okay with me, it's a part I think I know
God knows he won't need to suspend belief.

I know it's just a game and losing you's
How it just begins...ain't that a funny way to win

So I run around dragging people down
Holding my broken heart like a cheap cartoon
Just so he can see it's a sucker who
Does to you what you did to me

I know it's just a game and losing you's
How it just begins...ain't that a funny way to win

So if there's another need that I can still serve
I'm low on self esteem but I'm high on nerve

Honey, sometimes those big blue eyes
Can make me fall out of bed in surprise
In the bright morning sun,
In the howling wind, in the shirt you sleep in,
You're the one

'Cos it's you, that I tried to find
Every day and every night through all that nothing

The hands of fate, couldn't have done it all
As if the rain ever cared where it falls
And there were times when I know that I
Just fell in love to give myself an alibi.

'Cos it's you I was waiting for
Every day and every night through all that nothing

So it's true now, I can see
All that nothing that I knew
Was so something like you'd
Come to me...

Through all that nothing.

People say you are a stand up guy
You'd never hurt no one and you'd never try
And you laugh and you cry
And you do all the things that anybody does to show they are alive.

Friends say you are a careful man
You always favour reason where you can
And you laugh and you cry
And you do all the things that anybody does to show they are alive.

But wherever you go, whatever you do
You know that they won't find a fool quite like you.

Yeah life is full (of easy choices)
Yeah life is full (of simple rules)
But when love comes you don't have no room
When life is full.

People say you are a patient guy
You'd never rush something if it ain't right
And you make those mistakes that everybody does
And you deal with them as you go
From tripping on a shoelace to falling in love
You keep things under control

Baby, hold it, just let me try
For just one minute be this other guy
Live his life
With my home and my faithful wife
And your pretty face to kiss some nights

Ain't I a lucky guy, I get what I want
Ain't I a lucky guy, unlucky for some.

Baby, I like it, it feels alright
Now that I see it through his cheating eyes
I can't stop smiling
How could I not be satisfied
So glad I ain't the one on the losing side

Ain't I a lucky guy, I get what I want
Ain't I a lucky guy, unlucky for some.

No need to feel guilty baby
I'm happy to be
The one that you come to babe, instead of me

So I don't know where tonight
Love will lead me but that's alright 'cos

Ain't I a lucky guy, I get what I want
Ain't I a lucky guy, unlucky for some.

What I want is everything to clear
So let the clocks be wrong
Let the evening be longer let me drown in here
What I want gets clouded by the sun
I can't see beyond
The petty things that living here brings everyone.
So get lost with me, let the whole world wait
Make it always be too late

What I want is right before my eyes
So set me up a drink
Pull the shutters down on all those prying satellites
'Cos what I want is everything to be clear
So if you stop your watch
You might stop the morning's cruel hammer falling here

So get lost with me, let the whole world wait
Make it always be too late

it seems like weeks since you looked at me baby
without that look of distaste
i don't know why your feelings are changing
but i've seen it in your face
all those times when our lips were kissing
our tongues were telling lies
and all those signs that i've been missing
were right there in your eyes
so come on babe let's kiss this thing goodbye

i sometimes feel when we're together baby
everything has turned out wrong
and i know you feel exactly the same way
but still we carry on
i've been waiting up by the window
watching these cars go by
and i tell myself that i'll go through the motions
for the last time tonight

so come on babe let's kiss this thing goodbye

now i'm watching the fumes foul up the sunrise
i'm watching the light fade away
and i'm hoping tonight that i'll open the door
and you'll stand here and say

come on babe let's kiss this thing goodbye
better make it sooner than later
before it all turns sour
we'd better kiss this thing
goodbye

We could be away from here
By ten o'clock tonight
Pennies won't get us to heaven, I know
But a borrowed car just might
Look through my wallet
There's enough for a hotel room
But no, no, no, you say
"I wanna stay in and get wet with you".

Why do you take the opposite view?

We could be different people tonight
Who do you want to choose?
I'll book a table in a suit and tie
And you can wear your sister's shoes
Look through my wallet
Which cities will we travel through?
But no, no, no, you say "You just got paid,
Money's not for wasting it's for holding onto".

Why do you take the opposite view?

Is it something in your nature
That makes it hard to say, "Baby, I do".
You don't have to agree
When someone says they love you
But you don't have to take
The opposite view

We can walk on the roofs tonight
And watch the midnight traffic flow
Unscrew the lightbulbs babe,
And we'll throw them from the 14th floor
I say we're yellow
If we don't do something new
But you just laugh and start filling up my glass
As if it's not true.

Why do you take the opposite view?

Every precious second is a chance to change
The present tense is perfect baby,
Let's rearrange it.

A struck match faded like a nervous laugh
Beyond the halo of a naked bulb
Your low voice mingles with your other half's;
School friends in second-hand clothes
Eventually your world will shrink within four walls
Of neglected debts and stolen stereos.

So move away jimmy blue
Before your small, small town turns around
And swallows you

A drunk mother was the cue
For the legendary things that you do
Behind a carnival tent with mud on your face
Behind the old glue factory too.

So move away jimmy blue
Before your small, small town turns around
And swallows you

Wet feet visit the same old places
Finding nothing new
It's a binful of tissues from made-up faces
In a townful of nothing to do
A love match with the moon
In a lay by, while insects hum and
You got put in the darkness of a woman's womb
Jimmy blue.

So move away, yeah,
Move away jimmy blue
Before your small, small town
Turns around and swallows you.

Everybody in the funhouse
Says they want out
But we’re taking our time
’Cos we’re in love with time
Whole generations thinking of themselves
As infidels and pop stars
While the bomb loses patience
We line up and just lean against the bar
Stone cold sober, looking for bottles of love.
Caught in the headlights
Wide-eyed and ready to receive
We are the dead life
Locked in dogfights, lost in disbelief
And these dark days
Make the nights seem brighter than they are
So while Fleet Street rolls and the moon glows
In the funhouse the fun starts
Stone cold sober, looking for bottles of love.
Born in the half-light
Of threats and bribes
In a hopeless porn parade
We get the dog’s life, tidbits train us
What to wear, what not to say
When you’re footloose but you just feel limbless
Life gets in the way
So we get loaded or totally legless
But stay the same
Stone cold sober, looking for bottles of love.

I turned on a T.V. station and
Lip-read with the sound turned down
It was Pro-Celeb mouth-to-mouth resuscitation
With Esther Rantzen
Playing the one who's drowned

In a room next door a couple is fighting
But isn't that just one of love's charms
When moods change as fast as lightning
And fifteen minutes later you're
Lying in each other's arms

And you're gone

They say that it's better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all
But if you sit down and count the cost of
All those losses
There's no profit at all

This city gets crazy at Christmas
Glitter guards the crucifix all over the place
Its head gets too big for its body
And its mouth gets
Too big for its face

And you're gone

Never throw away an old newspaper
Everyday's rich with its current accounts
Prince visits Philippines and parliament debates it
Back page, column five
Somebody's wedding's announced

Sunday night's the night for loving
And squeezing out the weekend's last drops
Sunday night's the night for forgiving
maybe that's why
They shut the shops

And you're gone

One day you wake up
And all the pain you've given out gets returned
But I'm not sorry now
I've payed for what I've learned

And you're gone

I turned on a T.V. station and
Lip-read with the sound turned down
It was the Church of Christ playing the Price Is Right
Where everybody starves
While Leslie Crowther counts.

You sent greetings from Liverpool
and I took the next train
Passed by people putting flowers on graves and
We got delayed
When I arrived you had vanished like steam
and left me in a diesel day
So I walked around and spent ten pounds
in amusement arcades

Felt like I was in a field
looking for a pin

It's a kind of loneliness
It's a kind of emptiness
But I'm not trying I'm just rehearsing
For the perfect day

When I want you, I'll come looking for you
Yes I will, yes I will, yes I will.

I took a spoon to the swimming pool
to drain your trace away
And I changed my name so only my looks remain
And if looks could kill I'd need a license for my face
'Cos where his fists put bruises
A scheming smile now takes their place

Felt like I was in a field
looking for a pin

It's a kind of loneliness
It's a kind of emptiness
But I'm not trying I'm just rehearsing
For the perfect day

When I want you, I'll come looking for you
Yes I will, yes I will, yes I will.

Nobody's perfect
And that's something that I'm sure she'll know
'Cos trying to tell her lies from the truth at times
Is like trying to divide ice from snow
And when I knew it was over
I jumped into a taxi and said, "Just guess where to go"
And the driver turned about and said,
"Finding what you want is like
Trying to divide ice from snow"

So here I sit, rolling back to bed
Knowing love's a hazard that I'd never guessed
But from this side of the morning I couldn't care less
I couldn't care less

Nobody's helpless
Although I've never felt this helpless before
And trying to persuade myself not to think about her
Is like trying to tell the clouds not to pour
So I'll put down the bottle
While in my head time is collapsing and the currents run cold
So I'll curse her memory
But don't try telling me that she was not the emerald in a mountain of coal
Or there's a crock of cures for cancer at the end of the rainbow

So here I sit, rolling back to bed
Knowing love's a hazard that I'd never guessed
But from this side of the morning I couldn't care less
I couldn't care less

She's the kind of girl who won't forgive but will forget
So take me from this party, driver, put me back to bed
I wanted to be loved but just got laughed at instead
So if this taxi's for hire
I'll get in the back just to feel the friction of the tarmac and the tyres

So nobody's perfect
And that's something that I'm sure she'll know
But trying to persuade myself not to think about her is like
Trying to tell the cockerels not to crow
Or like trying to tell the striker not to think about the goal

So here I sit, rolling back to bed
Knowing love's a hazard that I'd never guessed
But from this side of the morning
Yeah, from this side of the morning
Yeah, from this side of the morning
I couldn't care less

Don't get so distressed
If the good life won't arrive
You've been reading S.O.S.
When it's just your clock reading 5:05
And why are you so possessed
By the thought that she got free
And why are you figuring who's the best
When just your luck ran out
and she chose me

We do not lie side by side
and mock the thought of you
And I don't take her hand and ask
Is this what he used to do?
'Cos I just want to free her from
Your jails of jealous dreams
'Cos at least a house when it's empty
Stays clean

I won't pretend
That I was simply swayed
It was a two way thing not a
Three day fling
No secrets kept, no truth betrayed
And here's the house that held
The nightmare that went on
And you're sitting there wishing you'd never been born
With that self-inflicted crown of thorns

We do not lie side by side
and mock the thought of you
And I don't take her hand and ask
Is this what he used to do?
'Cos I just want to free her from
Your jails of jealous dreams
'Cos at least a house when it's empty
Stays clean

I won't pretend
That I'm the saviour of the innocent and bad
But put two withered old blooms in a couple of rooms
And they'll behave like lunatics
and crave what makes them sad

So here's a card that says
Happy twenty-second birthday and I wish you were dead
And here's a house that held
a bevy of devils and an angel as well
And you want what I've got
When all I've got is guilt
And a room that won't stay still
Filled with pockets full of crumpled up money and
a mantelpiece littered with bills
'Cos at least a house when it's empty
Stays clean

Lovehearts on an old stone building
Have no relevance now
Sherry bottles in a bus-stop litter bin
Remind me of you somehow
You look so young it’s frightening
Life’s been good to you
But strike me down with bolts of lightning
If I wasn’t good to you too
Throw me away, throw me away again
’Cos I don’t mind, I’m still satisfied
With just a hatful of rain
Merry widows in stock gloss magazines
Dumbstruck open their mouths
And out comes some old jackpot philosophy --
Everything must pay somehow
And I’ve heard you say that he just works for me,
Doing things that you can’t do
But grease my palms with a hatful of currencies
I don’t belong to you
Throw me away, throw me away again
’Cos I don’t mind, I’m still satisfied
With just a hatful of rain

Post office clerks put up signs saying position closed
And secretaries turn off typewriters and put on their coats
Janitors padlock the gates
For security guards to patrol
And bachelors phone up their friends for a drink
While the married ones turn on a chat show
And they’ll all be lonely tonight and lonely tomorrow
Gentlemen time please, you know we can’t serve anymore
Now the traffic lights change to stop, when there’s nothing to go
And by five o’clock everything’s dead
And every third car is a cab
And ignorant people sleep in their beds
Like the doped white mice in the college lab
Nothing ever happens, nothing happens at all
The needle returns to the start of the song
And we all sing along like before
And we’ll all be lonely tonight and lonely tomorrow
Telephone exchanges click while there’s nobody there
The Martians could land in the carpark and no one would care
Close-circuit cameras in department stores shoot the same video every day
And the stars of these films neither die nor get killed
Just survive constant action replay
Nothing ever happens, nothing happens at all
The needle returns to the start of the song
And we all sing along like before
And we’ll all be lonely tonight and lonely tomorrow
Bill hoardings advertise products that nobody needs
While angry from Manchester writes to complain about
All the repeats on T.V.
And computer terminals report some gains
On the values of copper and tin
While American businessmen snap up Van Goghs
For the price of a hospital wing
Nothing ever happens, nothing happens at all
The needle returns to the start of the song
And we all sing along like before
Nothing ever happens, nothing happens at all
They’ll burn down the synagogues at six o’clock
And we’ll all go along like before
And we’ll all be lonely tonight and lonely tomorrow

With some girls it don't matter who you hang with
With some girls it don't matter how you talk
And some girls they are easy to be yourself with
But the one girl that I want, ain't easy to please with what I've got

With some girls it don't matter where you're aiming
With some girls it don't matter how you act
And some girls they don't care what car you came in
But the one girl that I want, she wants that one bit of geography I lack

Yeah, she don't want me 'cos I'm not where it's at

And some girls they will worry about reactions
And some girls they don't give a damn for that
But somehow I ain't ever in on the action
'Cos the one girl I want, she wants that one little quality I lack

Yeah, she don't want me 'cos I'm not where it's at

I don't have my finger on the pulse of my generation
I just got my hand on my heart, I know no better location

I must've had a million damn unlucky days
But there ain't no cloud that a bottle can't chase away
I've done my deal of living, ran from place to place
But when the roof comes in I don't wanna take it straight

They say with faith any soul can make it
But hell, why should I wait
'Til the clouds go rain on some other sucker's parade

I've had my share of heartaches, let downs and tricks
But the everyday blues is the one thing I can fix
I've heard those holy brethren muttering my name
But it ain't no sin to drink when you're suffering

Patience, they say, is a saintly virtue
But hell, why should I wait
'Til the clouds go rain on some other sucker's parade
When every heavy sky just empties on your fate
Sometimes keeping dry's something to celebrate

So if the road of sin is the one I'm taking
I ain't gonna stray
'Til the clouds go rain on some other sucker's parade

So you say you are sick of love
Got a mind to give the damn thing up
Got a housefull of stuff your lovers left
Gonna take a bus to the city dump with it

So you want to throw away the old you
But the old you's old enough to know
It won't make it better

Sick of being a loser, so you say
Gonna go out and choose a new personality
Ain't gonna look at her pictures, lie awake all night
You're gonna dazzle the future with your inner light

So you want to throw away the old you
But the old you's old enough to know
It won't make it better

I've set out on that mission too
A little revolution to forget her
Trying to make it better

I've been in this place many times before
With my baby's things among my shoes and strings and clothes
But just because I'm here
Don't mean I can't run out that door
Ain't that what those running shoes are for?

Baby likes to sleep on floor boards bare
And just to keep the peace, well I join her there
And she might say to me
'A better man I can't recall'
But what I think she sees ain't me at all

It ain't me at all to need somebody
Like some lovestruck casualty
It ain't me at all to feel so ready
To be what I think she sees

Baby claims I kiss like I really care
Well, I guess I'd say I don't but the truth ain't fair
And sometimes she looks at me and says
'Babe, my heart just stalled',
But what I think she sees ain't me at all.

You can find another country if you want
Somewhere you can hide yourself away
Find yourself another set of holes to haunt
Get yourself another debt that you can't pay

Yeah, you can try to run for cover everywhere
Add another letter to your name
Burn everything you ever used to wear
Get yourself another lover that looks the same

But sometimes it's the medicine itself that makes the pain

Well, you can always make another move again
Another set of keys, a different town
And you can try to lose yourself in them
'Till the truth it catches up and cuts you down

'Cos sometimes it's the medicine itself that makes the pain

And you can always hide the wreckage that you come from
But every new disguise is just another lie to run from.

You can only try to fool yourself so long
With any kind of measure you can find
'Cos every phony pleasure you've been on
Has lifted off and left the pain behind.

'Cos sometimes it's the medicine itself that makes the pain

Little snow white, she is sleeping 24 hours a day
She's got a right to be lazy, flat out of reasons to breathe
And it's cold baby, yes it's cold
But everything is relative can't you see we're living in

High times, dig the new domain
Living through high times, just don't crash my spiritual plane

Little snow white, she was hungry
Told to go out and graft for it
At the end of the rainbow she was mind blown
To be staring at a crock of shit
And it's hard baby, yes it's hard
But with a little intuition you can shift position in the

High times, touch the magic stone
Living through high times, pick up that spiritual phone.

Frittering packs of refuseniks, too drunk to muster any contempt
10 ways to relax on a cruise ship, one way to cover the rent
I've whored myself around enough to know, baby
You don't come with the customers and smile when you're spoken to in

High times, catch the cosmic vibe.
Living through high times, hey, has Ginger Baker died?
Living through high times, my planet's all out of line
Living through high times, man, just like '69

Open up your eyes,
Everything is crying out this could be your time
She fell out of the sky,
Must every star been working on
Heavenly designs

A crooked line of lightning, a silent movie moon
Mother nature's writing to you

So button up your lip
You don't get many chances in the time between the tides.
The weather's rolling in
In a minute flat you'll be soaking wet
So kiss her while it's dry

A crooked line of lightning, a silent movie moon
Mother nature's writing to you

Well, I talk like a boy to my baby sometimes
And you talk like a baby when your boy is crying
You made something to love but I love what I am
No family man

So don't tell me you've got something better than me
Don't say that it's a great mystery
It's just making love what you want it to be,
That's why I am no family man

And that is why all that I have in the world
Is an ocean of time with this beautiful girl

Have you got something to prove with your own little you
Have I wasted my time, cut through the family line
In the race to life, I am an also-ran
But I've run enough to know
I'm no family man.
Yeah I've done enough to know I'm no family man.

Someone's opening up for business
The morning rings the same old way
But someone should've taught me forgiveness
Now I see it in the cruel light of day

Tell him he's done me a kindness
She was going to leave anyway
But love is such sweet blindness
'Til you see it in the cruel light of day

Last night was just a comedy
And I woke up like a walking tragedy
And it was right in front of me
But I just laughed and turned my eyes away.

So pour me another cup of coffee
I ain't ever seen the city look so grey
And those pretty little diamonds in the darkness
They ain't no jewels in the cruel light of day.

No I ain't some accessory
She can slip off from her back and just fold away
I don't need no one undressing me
When I wake up in the same suit everyday.

So someone's opening up for business
The shutters roll so familiarly
And out of darkness comes relief sing the witless
But I don't see it in the cruel light of day.

So you want me to play the bleeding role
Just so he can know how I needed you.
Well that's okay with me, it's a part I think I know
God knows he won't need to suspend belief.

I know it's just a game and losing you's
How it just begins...ain't that a funny way to win

So I run around dragging people down
Holding my broken heart like a cheap cartoon
Just so he can see it's a sucker who
Does to you what you did to me

I know it's just a game and losing you's
How it just begins...ain't that a funny way to win

So if there's another need that I can still serve
I'm low on self esteem but I'm high on nerve

Honey, sometimes those big blue eyes
Can make me fall out of bed in surprise
In the bright morning sun,
In the howling wind, in the shirt you sleep in,
You're the one

'cos it's you, that i tried to find
Every day and every night through all that nothing

The hands of fate, couldn't have done it all
As if the rain ever cared where it falls
And there were times when i know that i
Just fell in love to give myself an alibi.

'cos it's you i was waiting for
Every day and every night through all that nothing

So it's true now, i can see
All that nothing that i knew
Was so something like you'd
Come to me...

Through all that nothing.

People say you are a stand up guy
You'd never hurt no one and you'd never try
And you laugh and you cry
And you do all the things that anybody does to show they are alive.

Friends say you are a careful man
You always favour reason where you can
And you laugh and you cry
And you do all the things that anybody does to show they are alive.

But wherever you go, whatever you do
You know that they won't find a fool quite like you.

Yeah life is full (of easy choices)
Yeah life is full (of simple rules)
But when love comes you don't have no room
When life is full.

People say you are a patient guy
You'd never rush something if it ain't right
And you make those mistakes that everybody does
And you deal with them as you go
From tripping on a shoelace to falling in love
You keep things under control

Baby, hold it, just let me try
For just one minute be this other guy
Live his life
With my home and my faithful wife
And your pretty face to kiss some nights

Ain't I a lucky guy, I get what I want
Ain't I a lucky guy, unlucky for some.

Baby, I like it, it feels alright
Now that I see it through his cheating eyes
I can't stop smiling
How could I not be satisfied
So glad I ain't the one on the losing side

Ain't I a lucky guy, I get what I want
Ain't I a lucky guy, unlucky for some.

No need to feel guilty baby
I'm happy to be
The one that you come to babe, instead of me

So I don't know where tonight
Love will lead me but that's alright 'cos

Ain't I a lucky guy, I get what I want
Ain't I a lucky guy, unlucky for some.

What I want is everything to clear
So let the clocks be wrong
Let the evening be longer let me drown in here
What I want gets clouded by the sun
I can't see beyond
The petty things that living here brings everyone.
So get lost with me, let the whole world wait
Make it always be too late

What I want is right before my eyes
So set me up a drink
Pull the shutters down on all those prying satellites
'Cos what I want is everything to be clear
So if you stop your watch
You might stop the morning's cruel hammer falling here

So get lost with me, let the whole world wait
Make it always be too late

Cry
Cry out your eyes forever
It wont go away
I
I’m just a dumb observer
It’s so stupid what I said
Like everyone else will do
I’m gonna lie to you
Tell you that life is cruel
But someday you’re gonna wake up
With sleep instead of teardrops in your eyes
An so
Nobody lives forever
The crassest of clichés
Like time
Time is the greatest healer
But it’s a murderer to do
Like everyone else will do
I’m gonna lie to you
Tell you that life is cruel
But someday you’re gonna wake up
With sleep instead of teardrops in your eyes
You know my holding you wont change, anything
I cant stop this whole charade, continuing
As each consoling kiss remains, on your face, like a stain
So cry
Cry out those tears an let them
Succumb to gravity
An try
Try as I might I’ll never
Fill that vacancy
Like everyone else will do
I’m gonna lie to you
Tell you that life is cruel
But someday you’re gonna wake up
With sleep instead of teardrops in your eyes
Someday you’re gonna wake up
With sleep instead of teardrops in your eyes

SOSP, UK Version of the album

He was a self made man
Made a killing on copper mines
He loved beautful girls
Got a taste for fancy wines
And the suits he wore were paper thin

He built a big white house
In the valley of the kings
Took a beautiful wife
Bought her every possible thing
And the silk she wore was paper thin

Well, they travelled in style
Paid cash for everything
Had a beautiful child
Had a champagne christening
But as they raised ther glasses in toast to him
He saw the crystal was paper thin

So the shadows came
Whispering words to him
He sold the company out
And cashed all those futures in
But it all still looked so paper thin

Well, it was late one night
And the rain was streaming down
He called his wife's name out
Said honey, it's over now
I'm gonna burn it all
I can't take this any more
But as he struck the match
She took a pistol from the drawer
She said I ain't going down with you
Pulled the trigger in
And the bullet it passed right through
Like he was paper thin

So long, go on and do your best,
Let all friends have whiskey on it's breath,
The world may not be shaking yet
but you might prove them wrong,
Even long shots make it

So go then, out into history,
And show them how easy it can be,
You might not believe it yet
but pretty soon you'll see,
Even long shots make it,

Just don't come home too soon,
Just don't come home too soon,

And I don't care what people say,
We can laugh it all away,
But if I have a dream at all
For once you won't be on that stupid plane

And the world may not be shaking yet,
But you might prove them wrong,
Even long shots make it

Just don't come home too soon,
Just don't come home too soon,
I don't care what people say
(just don't come home too soon)
We're gonna laugh it all the way
(just don't come home too soon)
I don't care what people say
(just don't come home too soon)
We're gonna laugh it all the way
(just don't come home too soon)
I don't care what people say
(just don't come home too soon)
We're gonna laugh it all the way
(just don't come home too soon)
I don't care what people say
(just don't come home too soon)
We're gonna laugh it all the way
(just don't come home too soon)

Look around your world pretty baby
Is it everything you’d hoped it’d be?
The wrong guy, the wrong situation
The right time to roll to me
Roll to me
Look into your heart pretty baby
Is it aching with some nameless need?
Is there something wrong and you can’t put your finger on it
Right then roll to me
And I don’t think I have ever seen
A soul so in despair(ooooooooooo)
So if you want to talk the night through
Guess who will be there?(yeahhhhhhhhhhhh)
So don’t try to deny it pretty baby
You’ve been down so long you can hardly see
When the engine’s stalled and it won’t stop raining it’s the
Right time to roll to me
Roll to me
Roll to me
And I don’t think I have ever seen
A soul so in despair
So if you want to talk the night through
Guess who will be there?
So look around your world pretty baby
Is it everything you’d hoped it’d be?
The wrong guy, the wrong situation
The right time to roll to me
The right time to roll to me
the right time to roll to me...ooohhh