Health-food faggot with a bartered bride Likes to comb his hair with a dipper ride Once had a friend with a cloven foot Once he called the tune in a chequered quit
Great Deceiver
In the door on the floor in a paper bag There's a shoe-shine boy with a gin-shop slag She raised him up and she called him son And she canonised the ground that he walked upon
Great Deceiver
Cigarettes, ice cream, figurines of the Virgin Mary Cigarettes, ice cream, figurines of the Virgin Mary
Cigarettes, ice cream, cadillacs blue jeans
In the night he's a star in the Milky Way He's a man of the world by the light of day A golden smile and a proposition And the breath of God smells of sweet sedition
Great Deceiver
Sing hymns make love get high fall dead He'll bring his perfume to your bed He'll charm your life 'til the cold winds blow Then he'll sell your dreams to a picture show
Cigarettes, ice cream, figurines of the Virgin Mary Cigarettes, ice cream, figurines of the Virgin Mary
Cadillacs, blue jeans, dixieland playing on the ferry Cadillacs, blues jeans, drop a glass full of antique sherry
Shine, shine, the light of good works shine The watch before the city gates depicted in their prime That golden light all grimy now Three hundred years have passed The worthy Captain and his squad of troopers standing fast The artist knew their faces well The husbands of his lady friends His creditors and councillors In armour bright, the merchant men Official moments of the guild In poses keen from bygone days The city fathers frozen there Upon the canvas dark with age The smell of paint, a flask of wine And turn those faces all to me The blunderbuss and halberd-shaft And Dutch respectability They make their entrance one by one Defenders of that way of life The redbrick home, the bourgeoisie Guitar lessons for the wife
So many years we suffered here Our country racked with Spanish wars Now comes a chance to find ourselves And quiet reigns behind our doors We think about posterity again And so the pride of little men The burghers good and true Still living through the painter's hand Request you all to understand
If I only could deceive you Forgetting the game Every time I try to leave you You laugh just the same 'Cause my wheels never touch the road And the jumble of lies we told Just returns to my back to weigh me down We lay cards upon the table The backs of our hands And I swear I like your people The boys in the band Reminiscences gone astray Coming back to enjoy the fray In a tangle of night and daylight sounds
All completeness in the morning Asleep on your side I'll be waking up the crewmen Banana-boat ride She responds like a limousine Brought alive on the silent screen To the shuddering breath of yesterday There's the succour of the needy Incredible scenes I'll believe you in the future Your life and death dreams As the cavalry of despair Takes a stand in the lady's hair For the favour of making sweet sixteen You make my life and times A book of bluesy Saturdays And I have to chose
I guess I tried to show you how I'd take the crowd with my guitar And business men would clap their hands And clip another fat cigar And publishers would spread the news And print my music far and wide And all the kids who played the blues Would learn my licks with a bottle neck slide But now it seems the bubble's burst Although you know there was a time When love songs gathered in my head With poetry in every line And strong men strove to hold the doors While with my friends I passed the age When people stomped on dirty floors Before I trod the rock'n'roll stage
I'll thank the man who's on the 'phone And if he has the time to spend The problem I'll explain once more And indicate a sum to lend That ten percent is now a joke Maybe thirty, even thirty-five I'll say my daddy's had a stroke He'd have one now, if he only was alive
I like the way you look at me You're laughing too down there inside I took my chance and you took yours You crewed my ship, we missed the tide I like the way the music goes There's a few good guys who can play it right I like the way it moves my toes Just say when you want to go and dance all night
Now...in this faraway land Strange...that the palms of my hands Should be damp with expectancy
Spring...and the air's turning mild City lights...and the glimpse of a child Of the alleyway infantry
Friends...do they know what I mean Rain...and the gathering green Of an afternoon out-of-town
But Lord I had to go My trail was laid too slow behind me To face the call of fame Or make a drunkard's name for me Though now this other life Has brought a different understanding And from these endless days Shall come a broader sympathy And though I count the hours To be alone's no injury...
My home...was a place near the sand Cliffs...and a military band Blew and air of normality
Health-food faggot with a bartered bride Likes to comb his hair with a dipper ride Once had a friend with a cloven foot Once he called the tune in a chequered quit Great Deceiver In the door on the floor in a paper bag There's a shoe-shine boy with a gin-shop slag She raised him up and she called him son And she canonised the ground that he walked upon Great Deceiver Cigarettes, ice cream, figurines of the Virgin Mary Cigarettes, ice cream, cadillacs blue jeans In the night he's a star in the Milky Way He's a man of the world by the light of day A golden smile and a proposition And the breath of God smells of sweet sedition Great Deceiver Sing hymns make love get high fall dead He'll bring his perfume to your bed He'll charm your life 'til the cold winds blow Then he'll sell your dreams to a picture show Cigarettes, ice cream, figurines of the Virgin Mary Cadillacs, blue jeans, dixieland playing on the ferry Cigarettes, ice cream, figurines of the Virgin Mary Cadillacs, blues jeans, drop a glass full of antique sherry Cigarettes, ice cream, figurines of the Virgin Mary Cadillacs, blues jeans, drop a glass full of antique sherry Cigarettes, ice cream, figurines of the Virgin Mary Cadillacs, blues jeans, drop a glass full of antique sherry
Shine, shine, the light of good works shine The watch before the city gates depicted in their prime That golden light all grimy now Three hundred years have passed The worthy Captain and his squad of troopers standing fast
The artist knew their faces well The husbands of his lady friends His creditors and councillors In armour bright, the merchant men
Official moments of the guild In poses keen from bygone days The city fathers frozen there Upon the canvas dark with age
The smell of paint, a flask of wine And turn those faces all to me The blunderbuss and halberd-shaft And Dutch respectability
They make their entrance one by one Defenders of that way of life The redbrick home, the bourgeoisie Guitar lessons for the wife
So many years we suffered here Our country racked with Spanish wars Now comes a chance to find ourselves And quiet reigns behind our doors We think about posterity again
And so the pride of little men The burghers good and true Still living through the painter's hand Request you all to understand
