The Proclaimers

You need to harness pain
To raise yourself up again
You need to harness pain
And tell the truth about love

You need to break your heart
Before you can really start
You need to break your heart
And tell the truth about love


Then you need to set a goal that you can't reach
Then you have to attack defenses you can't breach
Then you need to lose and lose and lose again
If you want to hold the flame
You harness pain
You harness pain

You need to take your doubts
And spread them all about
You need to face your doubts
To tell the truth about love

You know the cliche's wrong
Hatred is just as strong
You know it's just as strong
Just as strong as love

So you need to take your hate and doubt and fear
Distill them through your word 'til they run clear
'Til they run right through your heart like Highland rain
If you want to hold the flame
You harness pain
You harness pain

Do you want to be the best or be well known?
Do you want to repeat lines or write your own?
Do you want to follow paths or blaze a trail?
When you try to succeed, You mostly fail
And you're gonna lose and lose and lose again
If you want to hold the flame
You harness pain
You harness pain

Here he comes again
on the radio, another misogynist
calling her a bitch, calling her a whore
and then he'll use a big word,
use a big word some of the time
just to make it rhyme
just to make it rhyme.

Here it comes again
got to keep it real, another hymn to violence
suffocating joy, draining all ideals
another hymn to violence,
give me silence some of the time
just to make it rhyme
just to make it rhyme.

So words are thrown to waste,
and women are debased for fun
and as they start to sing
I can't help wondering
what we've become?

Oh, here it comes again,
on my new TV, another well-fed schoolboy
saying he's a man, but what kind of man,
puts down women, puts down women
all the time
just to make it rhyme,
just to make it rhyme?

Here it comes again, x4
on the radio,
calling her a bitch, x2
calling her a whore. x3

Here it comes again, x4
on the radio,
calling her a bitch, x2
calling her a whore. x3

Here it comes again. x10
radio/radios. x16
Here it comes again. x2

If there's a God
Where does He go to
When disease and hunger
Knock on the door?

And if there's a God
How does He decide
That she'll be born rich
But he'll be born poor?

I don't know
Can you tell me? Oh
Can you tell me? Oh

If there's a God
Why does He let
People die slowly
Racked by pain?

And if there's a God
Who blesses with children
Why does He steal
Some back again?

I don't know
Can you tell me? Oh
Can you tell me? Oh

If there's a God
Why is He letting
Violence and murder
Be done in His name?

But if there's no God
Why am I lying
Here in the dark
Saying his name?

I don't know
Can you tell me? Oh
Can you tell me? Oh

I don't know
Can you tell me? Oh
Can you tell me? Oh

In Recognition of your 100 million album sales
In Recognition of your popularity
You take your gaudy prize from people you said you despised
You wear your self-respect upon your bended knees.

In spite of all your claims
It looks like you're just the same
As every other clown, who likes put the crown
Before or after their name.

In Recognition of your service to the working class
In Recognition of your party loyalty
You get an ermine robe and you declare when you are probed
You only took it so the missus would be pleased

In spite of all your claims
It looks like you're just the same
As every other clown, who likes put the crown
Before or after their names.

Ohhhhhh Vanity
It gets them one by one
Patronage and Monarchy
And all they entail, rarely fail

In Recognition of your bravery up on the stage
In Recognition of your bank ability
You get to wait in lines with soldiers crippled by land mines
And you think it's the yanks that don't get irony

In spite of all your claims
It looks like you're just the same
As every other clown, who likes put the crown
Before or after their names.

In spite of all your claims
It looks like you're just the same
As every other clown, who likes put the crown
Before or after their names.

Their name
Their name
Their name

When I was a younger man
When I was a silly boy
I didn't need a thing
I was strong as anything
I viewed solitude as a joy

But since I met you I'm distraught
You wandered in and now I'm caught
I never thought I would see
Someone so truly good
Someone who's so everything I'm not

I want to spend my life with you
Don't want to live all alone
I can't conceive of the years left to me
Without you in our home

But what if what if what if what
If it's not perfect then it's not
But every care I take
Nothing I won't forsake
To dwell beside what you've got

Every time I think about you
I think I can't live without you
I tell you something I am nothing without you

I want to spend my life with you
Don't want to live all alone
I can't conceive of the years left to me
Without you in our home

I want to spend my life with you
Don't want to live all alone
I can't conceive of the years left to me
Without you in our home

Without you in our home

Evidence of a new religion
I'll spare you the details
Effluent from a bloated business
With replica shirt sales
Two for the kids, one for the wife
Indicating a stunted life
Didn't know gullibility was so rife?
Well you do know now?

Evidence of a new rligion
Some hippy with a gripe
Strikes a blow with his census form
By summoning Star Wars tripe
Here's a thing I'd love to say
Lynndie England walks free today
If she'll only agree to play
With every Jedi Knight

An Lo! My faith it was honed
We can't be alone
Don't say we're alone

Give me ancestry that's inbred
Give me wit that's completely dead
Give me a zip for the back of my head
I want to join in too

Evidence of a new religion
Meeting a human need
fertiliser for the brain
Feeding the weakest seeds

You're a modern individual
With a mind that's strong and free
And it got you what you wanted
From the day you came to be

But when you got what you wanted
It could never quench your thirst
So you blamed the ones around you
For not warning you first

But now the ones around you
Are going and of no use
'Cuz as the last one vanishes
She takes the last excuse

There's no one left to blame
You're the cause of your pain

Love made you forget it
Love of every hue
A mother's love, a father's love
A lover's love, a child's love

But it came back again
And you felt like you'd lived through
An almighty deception
Designed just for you

But the almighty deception
Gives while you just take
It's living all around you
While you're holdin' its wake

There's no one left to blame
You're the cause of your pain

You blamed it on the market
For burdening you with wealth
You blamed it on the whisky
As if it poured itself

Dive into the mystic
So you don't have to think
Find another suspect
Find another shrink

There's no one left to blame
You're the cause of your pain
There's no one left to blame

There's no mystery
Not even the one that you see

There's no mystery
Not even the one that you see

There's no mystery
Not even the one that you see

When I was a young boy
My mama said to me
There's only one girl in the world for you
But she probably lives in Tahiti

I'd go the whole wide world
I'd go the whole wide world
Just to find her

Or maybe she's in the Bahamas
Where the Carribean sea is blue
Weeping in a tropical moonlit night
Because nobody's told her 'bout you

I'd go the whole wide world
I'd go the whole wide world
Just to find her
I'd go the whole wide world
I'd go the whole wide world
Find out where they hide her

Why am I hanging around in the rain out here
Trying to pick up a girl
Why are my eyes filling up with these lonely tears
When there're girls all over the world

Is she lying on a tropical beach somewhere
Underneath the tropical sun
Pining away in a heatwave there
Hoping that I won't be long

I should be lying on that sun-soaked beach with her
Caressing her warm brown skin
And then in a year or maybe not quite
We'll be sharing the same next of kin

I'd go the whole wide world
I'd go the whole wide world
Just to find her
I'd go the whole wide world
I'd go the whole wide world
Find out where they hide her

I'm on my way from misery to happiness today
I'm on my way from misery to happiness today
I'm on my way to what I want from this world
And years from now you'll make it to the next world
And everything that you receive up yonder
Is what you gave to me the day I wandered

I took a right, I took a right turning yesterday
I took a right, I took a right turning yesterday
I took the road that brought me to your home town
I took the bus to streets that I could walk down
I walked the streets to find the one I'd looked for
I climbed the stair that led me to your front door

[Chorus]
And now that I don't want for anything
I'd have Al Jolson sing "I"m sitting on top of the world."

I'll do my best, I'll do my best to do the best I can
I'll do my best, I'll do my best to do the best I can
To keep my heart from jumping through my mouth dear
To keep the past, the past and not the present
To try and learn when you teach me a lesson

[Chorus]

I'm on my way from misery to happiness today
I'm on my way from misery to happiness today
I'm on my way to what I want from this world
And years from now you'll make it to the next world
And everything that you receive up yonder
Is what you gave to me the day I wandered

I took a right, I took a right turning yesterday
I took a right, I took a right turning yesterday
I took the road that brought me to your home town
I took the bus to streets that I could walk down
I walked the streets to find the one I'd looked for
I climbed the stair that led me to your front door

[Chorus]
And now that I don't want for anything
I'd have Al Jolson sing "I"m sitting on top of the world."

I'll do my best, I'll do my best to do the best I can
I'll do my best, I'll do my best to do the best I can
To keep my heart from jumping through my mouth dear
To keep the past, the past and not the present
To try and learn when you teach me a lesson

[Chorus]

Yesterday arrived too quickly
Caught me right off guard
My defence moved in too slowly
Missed it by a yard
I'd just settled down
With a bottle of gin
So I moved on to whiskey
And it hit me again
Memories were raining punches
Down on my head
Knocked me into the past so quickly
They almost raised the dead
So I dranks some more booze
And it helped me to sleep
Where I dreamed of my youth
And the secrets I keep

Oh, history is a friend of mine
She comes over to my place
And we have a good time
But the memories
She sometimes brings with her
Get out of line
They're out of line

*Show me things I don't want to see
(Wanna see, wanna see, wanna see)
Remind me of who I thought I was gonna be
(Gonna be, gonna be, gonna be)
Take me places I used to go
(Used to go, used to go)
A long, long, long time ago

When I woke i remembered nothing
Suppose that's just as well
And although my head was aching
I could hear a bell
So I put on some clothes
And I reached my front door
When I pulled it white open
She joined me once more

Oh, history is a friend of mine
She comes over to my place
And we have a good time
But the memories
She sometimes brings with her
Get out of line
They're out of line

*Repeat

A long, long, long time ago

You're a grown woman
Good at what you do
I'm happy as hell
When I'm alone whit you
As you stroke my body
And soothe my brow
With everything
That the law will allow
I pray "Don't turn out like your mother"

Im a grown man
Over 21
I've got an ugly face
But I have a lot of fun
So if spill a glass
Or break a dish
I hear your voice
And I make this wish
Please "Don't turn out like your mother"

Don't turn out
Don't turn out
Don't turn out like your mother
I couldn't stand it
And I'll be damned if
I'm gonna live with another

So many woman
Give you so much
Civilized ways
And a gentle touch
A different perspective
That's as bright as a button
But then you wake up one morning
And it all counts for nothing
Cos she's turned into her mother

Don't turn out
Don't turn out
Don't turn out like your mother
I couldn't stand it
And I'll be damned if
I'm gonna live with another

It's not the way she looks
It's not the food she cooks
Her kind of indignation
Don't cause me trepidation
But to live with a woman like this
Would take a masochist
Or someone who could get and could stay permanently pissed

You're a grown woman
Good at what you do
I'm happy as hell
When I'm alone with you
As you stroke my body
And soothe my brow
With everything
That the law will allow

Im a grown man
Over 21
I've got an ugly face
But I have a lot of fun
So if spill a glass
Or break a dish
Don't get on to me
Like some haranguing witch

Don't turn out like your mother
Don't turn out
Don't turn out
Don't turn out like your mother
I couldn't stand it
And I'll be damned if
I'm gonna live with another

It's not her looks
Or the way she cooks
That wakes me up in a cold sweat
It's just the knowledge
That if it happened
I couldn't drink enough to forget

Don't turn out (etc)
Don't end up (etc)

I've got to follow the money
Gotta go to work
Gotta make a living
Till my body hurts
Gotta bite my lip
Gotta wreck my health
Gotta break my back
For my share of wealth

I've gotta the follow money
Gotta earn my pay
I spent everything
I earned yesterday
Gotta find the cash
'Cos it won't find me
So I can feed myself
And my family

When I left school I was bummin' around
I'd smoke and drink and let my mind wander
I'd roll out of bed about twelve o'clock
I can't do that any longer

I've gotta folow the money
Gotta go to work
Gotta make a living
Till my body hurts
Gotta bite my lip
Gotta wreck my health
Gotta break my back
For my share of wealth

Now I need to toil 'cos it's good for my soul
I feel clean when I'm working
You drop all the mystical celtic bull
'Cos that stuff's just jerking

I'm not saying that I work like my dad
I know I don't work like my mum
But I'm made of the same stuff and I'm six feet tall
Gimme the tools I'll get the job done

Gotta follow the money
Gotta go to work
Gotta make a living
Till my body hurts
Gotta bit my lip
Gotta break my back
For my share of wealth
I've gotta follow the money
Gotta earn my pay
I spent everything
I earned yesterday
Gotta find the cash
'Cos it won't find me
So I can feed myself
And my family
Feed myself and my family
That's why

I'm working
I'm working
I'm working
I'm working
I'm working
I'm working now