1. |
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Well she’s got mineshaft eyes, hair like diamonds
And the sun don’t break across her face
And I know she kept the ticket on my heart
I know I can be replaced
Time waits for no man, but he does for her
Every street’s got catwalk lights
The fire-touched Mediterranean coast
Comes alive in the sleepless nights
Well she don’t have to worry about the taxi queues
Or the paint dripping off the walls
She came to me right out of the courtyard mist
Now I come every time she calls
Well come on, tell me, what you gonna do to me next?
I hope it’s something I don’t expect
Come here, I’ll tell you, what I’m gonna do to you now
I’ll keep you alive
Baby, you won’t be going home tonight
I don’t know just what keeps her awake at night
But it’s the same thing that haunts my room
When she puts that shell up against her ear
That ain’t the sea she’s listening to
The trees are out there swinging, on the forest path
Trapdoor lovers are waiting in the east
Where the sunlight frames the statue of Venus
She just stands amongst the falling leaves
With a smile that all the collectors want
And a heart made of liquid stone
She throws clocks and swords up into the air
Straight through the church windows
Well the lightning’s gonna strike up the band
The thunder’s picking the wine
The dust beneath her sandals is stirring up a storm
And it’s one that just suits her fine
So come on, tell me, what you’re gonna do to me next
I hope it’s something I don’t expect
Come here, I’ll tell you, what I’m gonna do to you now
I’ll keep you alive
Baby, you won’t be going home tonight
You won’t be going home tonight
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2. |
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Hang on to your hat, babe, lest it be taken by the wind
Look out across the grasslands, see the old tornadoes spin
Failure sings in the opera house, and underneath the Kingston Bridge
And if you ain’t heard failure sing, well you ain’t lived
Cast your spells on the rain, they say, or else you’d a-better start to save
Hold on to what you got, until your holding it in your grave
Seems like I can watch the sun fly, see the moon close and open wide
We’re just sand in an hourglass holding on to the sides
Happiness drives a race-car, sorrow can only crawl
You’ve cursed my life to flash by, but I don’t feel cursed at all
It don’t matter if you’re content, only that you believe that you are
Take a look around the world, don’t focus on the graveyards
Hang on tight to the sky, babe, the clouds are moving fast
Look outside my window, see the glaciers flying past
Carnations bloom in the meadow, as leaves fall on powder snow
If there’s an ice age coming, we’ll sleep through it in our bones
Dive into Old Man River; swim through all your teenage dreams
See the girl in the arms of the old king; watch the quicksand take the queen
Fortune favours the lucky; the lucky got nothing on the young
They got six numbers but no years to count them on
Happiness drives a race car, sorrow can only crawl
You’ve cursed my life to flash by, but I don’t feel cursed at all
It don’t matter if you’re content, only that you believe that you are
Take a look around the world, don’t focus on the graveyards
We’ll work until our backs hurt, burying moments in the earth
But it’s only when they’re down there with the diamonds
You find out what they’re worth
Happiness drives a race car, sorrow can only crawl
You’ve cursed my life to flash by, but I don’t feel cursed at all
It don’t matter if you’re content, only that you believe that you are
Sorrow can only crawl, happiness drives a race car
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3. |
Niagara
04:42
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I was picking through the bones of St Petersburg, like many men before me
I was flying a single-engine plane, across the Mississippi
I built myself a house at the crossroads, sometimes there’s nothing to choose
I was wearing a rain coat; I had the stock-market blues
War paint dancing on cave walls, space station coming crashing down
We’re living in a shipwreck, even the rats are getting out of town
Feel the patchwork wind, spreading across the mid-west
I’ve known gamblers and thieves, I’ve known solitude best
The web spins across the dust bowl, and through the Boston choir
Hits the city running, hits it with cold barbed wire
And its skipping chains in the schoolyard, rust on cathedral doors
People searching for paradise, paradise ain’t here no more
Oh, it’s back in the dice cup of the gods
Oh, you can’t get back what you haven’t lost
She paints pictures of Niagara, just watching the water fall
Helicopter sickness, theatre posters on the wall
Just when you’ve got it all sewn up, that’s when it falls apart
City boys just copy and paste their hearts
And they got more fashion weeks, than they got weeks in a year
The sun’s got a price on its head; even the rats are getting out of here
Oh, and it’s in the birthplace of the blues
You can’t get back what you didn’t lose
Flat cap hanging down, smoking by the train line
Everybody’s on Main Street, tonight
Mayor says don’t listen to your souls, follow your hearts
And the townspeople wave flags as they watch the children march
And they come back feeling invincible; sometimes invincible is as good as dead
Back out on the streets with a mine-cart rattling through your head
Oh, and it’s in the ghost of mining towns
You don’t go through you just go around
Oh, and it’s in the dice cup of the gods
You can’t get back what you haven’t lost
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4. |
Gravel + Leaves
05:32
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The leaves will still fall from the trees in that old mining town
The church bells will still ring out at midnight, same as every other hour
The rain still pours, across the doors and windows too
Whispering, baby, some day no-one’s gonna miss you
We called it the beach, but it was just gravel and leaves, by the riverside
It was there I grew up, oh the glory and love, and those winter fires
My first kiss, she stole it from me, way down in the forest’s heart
Oh to be back where it started
I can feel them about to take me now
The highway fades, and I hope that’s angels calling out
I can feel you about to leave me now
Your picture fades, and I’m praying everything evens out
I was racing home, four hours from dawn, to get back before she wakes
The working life, takes it all, takes it twice, and gives it back too late
And out of misty nowhere, headlights appeared, I flew off the side of the road
Baby, I won’t be coming home
She’ll be just twenty-three, when she lights that candle for me, still just a little girl
And I won’t say she’s wrong, if she moves on, but I’ll still wait for her
Wishing I could taste, her kiss on my lips, hear her jacket hit the floor
You say you love me, darling I always loved you more
I can feel them about to take me now
The highway fades, and I hope that’s angels calling out
I can feel you about to leave me now
Your picture fades, just pray for me everything evened out
Maybe I’ll sit, on the rooftops and whisper, to the passing cats
Maybe I’ll walk alone, towards the sun, on the railroad tracks
Maybe I’ll go, see the pyramids, like we always said we’d do
I wish I could have gone with you
I can feel them about to take me now
The highway fades, and I hope that’s angels calling out
I can feel you about to leave me now
Your picture fades, and I’m praying everything evens out
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5. |
Violins and Tip Trays
04:44
|
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Time passes quickly on an island; time lets the past drift away
Across the golden waves, into the spellbound night
And I sat on the banks of history’s coast, watched the steelworks crumble to dust
It’s all just fate and chance; you can’t cage it in plans, you can’t leave it to rust
So we cleared away memory’s cobwebs, from the windows and the cabin door
Walked back along the shore, across electric sand
That old wooden sign was just swaying in the wind, standing dark in a neon sunset
We walked in two years late; where the future was waiting, saying “don’t miss me again”
The Irish singer in the corner, and the ships on the wall
Old people in the shadows, smoke rising up from their eyes
Through the ghost of my past, climbing up on the stage
Violins and tip trays
The person I wasn’t then, I’ll always envy him
Every minute I couldn’t make mine
Every second that should have been mine
The cathedral’s lit up in the evenings, against the night clubs and the cruise ships
A perfect mix, of who I am and what I was
She said “All I can see, is the best of you boy; I won’t romanticize what I didn’t love”
But why shouldn’t I babe? There can be peace in mistakes that led me to us
The angel in my wallet, the band around my wrist
The bench by the fountains, on my balcony kissing her
The blood of the sunrise, like the wine still in my glass
The winter coming up fast
Oh her stories of her lovers, well I never wanted them
I’d listen but I’d try not to hear
Every word as they burned in my ears
Now I’m not saying if I go back I would, but I’d consider it
I don’t know if I could trust myself to find my way back here
I could be somewhere else
Oh maybe somewhere without…
The Irish singer in the corner, the ships on the wall
My jacket round her shoulders, hers waiting for her on the bed
The handwritten ticket, to the look on her face
Well I missed her all three of those days
The people in her past, I’ll always envy them
Every minute that was never mine
Every second that should have been mine
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6. |
Comet
04:48
|
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You’re a scarecrow baby, standing with open arms
Got myself a scarecrow; put in it my crow farm
Making statues of your family, in clay and paste
Drifting from the front to the back, never quite in the right place
And jealousy is just another word for insecurity
I don’t have to talk about the past any more
I’m not sleeping in prison but I’m sleeping in the city
You’re fighting sleep, darling, what are you fighting for?
The coast is clear, lighthouse keeper’s on the run
He said, “Hand me a stencil, I’ll show you the shape of things to come”
He’ll beg you for money, out in the midnight gloom
He says “show me where you were born, and I’ll show your tomb”
He’s pale like the moon, dragging in front of his chains
He warns “they’ll take from you what you love the most”
I’ve been haunting this island for years, I see my chains
But we ain’t the same man, I’m not a ghost
I saw a comet last night
Did you see it?
Did you point your guitar at the sky, wishing you could be it?
Or did you just blink, and miss it?
You ain’t a slave girl, but I know your back still hurts
You’re out working; I’m here chipping away at frozen words
You were my first love, and I’m in love with you now
It’s just everybody in between, I want to forget about
Who’s that guy over there looking at you funny?
He just made a copy of your credit card
It’s time like this I’m glad we ain’t got no money
All of the other times, it’s just hard
I saw a comet last night
Did you see it?
Did you stand on your porch with my letters, wishing you could be it?
Or did you blink, and miss it?
You can’t hear a pin drop in the middle of storm
Why would anyone want to hear a pin drop? I just want to hear the storm
Went to a drive-in cinema, wanted to watch the past
It wasn’t the past I wanted; it was just you, back here with me at last
Memories are like diamonds, until they get stolen
From that safe that you keep in the back of your mind
Show me a man who ain’t afraid of time
I’ll show you a man that’s truly alive
I saw a comet last night
Did you see it?
Did you stand there with your urn in your hands, wishing you could be it?
Or did you just blink, and miss it?
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7. |
Pitchfork Lover
04:59
|
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She’s always been a pitch-fork lover, comes a-banging on the door
Well I don’t mind you coming over, but what do you gotta bring that pitchfork for?
And whatever happened to your peace of mind?
She said, “That peace of mind, wasn’t mine”
“It’s like my heart baby, it was always yours”
See those planes criss-crossing the sky, all up above the fields in a grid of smoke
See those wicker-basket thieves, escaping down the river in a boat
Didn’t have a poster, didn’t have a reward
So I just nailed her perfume on the door
Everybody just drags themselves back in by the nose
And the sun splits the apple trees, and the breeze
Blows down from a cottage on the hill
She says, “I think I’m in love again”
Throwing up stones on a window until
I’m sitting on her porch with the stars
She says “I won’t be a fool again”
I said “Just don’t fool me”
Well I’ve spent some time in England, I was far from impressed
And I went to Argentina, they’re friendly but they got no depth
The only lesson I learned, is what I already knew
You can’t really love someone, unless they want you to
You shouldn’t not make a move because you’re used to not making it
And now the waiter’s got no clothes on, the menus are hanging from the chairs
She says “Where’s the menu?” I say, “Can’t you see it, it’s right there!”
I scream at her, “How come you can’t see it, are you blind?”
She says “Yeah, and I’ll be blind until the end of time”
“And even if I could see, I couldn’t see a threat to you”
Then the sun splits the battlefield, and the breeze
Blows down from the general’s tent
She says, “I don’t want to fight again”
On the bridge on the river, he’s broken and bent
He says “I got no regrets but I’m tired”
“I just can’t fight again”
She says “I promise you won’t have to”
I just met your sister’s husband, sitting on the kerb in lover’s lane
He doesn’t want freedom; just a different cage
Oh but you, just you try and get some beauty sleep
The kind of rest only the rest of us need
I’ll wake you up in an hour; you can put your new waistcoat on
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8. |
Take Me As I Am
05:55
|
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Spiders spin their webs, across the tower gates
At the top the princess’s hair, still doesn’t reach her waist
At the end of the pier, staring out across the moonlit bay
There’s an old man dressed in rags, trying to remember every wave
Liza’s on the street, waiting for an actor to call
Swallows fly past an abandoned city hall
She says when I fell for him, I broke my neck
And now he’s sleeping; now he’s sleeping in somebody else’s bed
They’ve boarded up the coal mines early, gone into town for a drink
When there’s worse than being out of work, nobody cares what the foreman thinks
Washing lines hang across the city, grapes drying in the midday sun
Let off some steam in the bathhouse, or in the ruins of one
Kings on his throne, shifting under death’s hard glare
But you can’t hide in a palace, you can’t hide anywhere
And every hand you’re ever dealt was already fixed
By the man with the expensive shoes, expensive shoes, and cheap tricks
Take me as I am, you say, but I don’t know what you are
Take me for a ride on the back of your horse-drawn star
And we’ll take it as we find it; I ain’t saying I’ll be your man
Fate put us together, fate put us together, but I got my own plans
Planets and stars spinning, like on a ballroom floor
Comet coming down the stairs, got nothing but fire on
Across the busy marketplace, urchin with a two-tailed coin
Sweeping up glass outside a pharmacy, until the glass is gone
Liza’s on the street, throwing love letters in the wind
She doesn’t know how to stop; she only knows how to begin
She says, that it was Judas taught the world to kiss
How could he leave me, how could he leave me, alone like this?
They got seaweed up in the taverns, flood coming in from the east
Mother Nature cares nothing for war, but neither nothing for peace
Some take pleasure in sorrow, others in winter bliss
It’s all about the life you hit boy, and not the life you miss
Town crier’s in the rain, dreaming of the end of days
Nobody’s listening, but he’ll shout it anyway
And every card he was ever dealt, had the devil’s mark
Burning diamonds, burning diamonds, and broken hearts
Take me as I am she said, but I didn’t know what she was
The world doesn’t revolve around me, but my world does
And I take it and I leave it, and maybe I leave you too
But I wanted you then, I wanted you then, ain’t that good enough for you
Lets just take it as we find it; I ain’t saying I’ll be your man
Fate put us together, fate put us together, but I got my own plans
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9. |
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The grace and poise of a desert snake
Sliding across the sand
Spitting poison onto red rocks
And into my open hands
Colouring up the wood-painted sky
A sunset cherry-red
Throw yourself into the wishing well
Don’t wish that you were dead
And she’s out hunting bandits in the hills
Playing piano in the old mill
Chasing scarecrows through the mine
Dancing on frozen lakes
But only in the summertime
She’ll touch you like a graveyard, she’s so cold
Blessed with wings and a curse that she won’t unfold
The moon lashes out with her silver whips
Driving waves against the rocks
Smashing the ghosts of pirate ships
And the hands of broken clocks
The ocean’s tense like a chessboard
Waiting for her next move
But she can go forward, or she can go back
Some bridges are fireproof
She’s still got the ocean in her veins
But her skin got tough in the dust of the interstate
Oh and now the rain hits black and smoke bleeds out from the factory’s mouth
Oh, the shipyards burn, taste the hot wind, see the blowtorch clouds
She’s scraping the sky on a street downtown
And all the city dogs howl
Beneath panama hats
Paintbrushes trailing behind her
But I don’t think about that
She’ll touch you like a graveyard, she’s so cold
Blessed with wings and a curse that she won’t unfold
Playing piano in the old mill
Chasing scarecrows through the mine
Dancing on frozen lakes
But only in the summertime
She’s still got the ocean in her veins
But her skin got tough in the dust of the interstate
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10. |
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I look at a golden throne, I see a diamond shine
I look at your coffee cup, sitting next to mine
I look at lies baby, I look at the truth
Nothing’s as beautiful as you
I look at shipwrecks, I look at waterfalls
I look at a snowflake, I look at them all
I look at the future baby; I know you see it too
Nothing’s as beautiful as you
Nothing’s as beautiful as you in your new clothes
Draped in bangles, your face lighting up my soul
Nothing’s as beautiful as you on your own
No-ones good enough for you
I look at the desert, freezing stars at night
I look at the fairground, all those neon lights
I look at the leaves baby, floating in a forest pool
Nothing’s as beautiful as you
I look at all the faces, in those magazines you read
I look what you think you love, what you think you need
I look at the past baby; I kow you say it’s all I do
Nothing’s as beautiful as you
Nothing’s as beautiful as you in your new clothes
The whole world just a-catching its breath, at what you never show
Nothing’s as beautiful as you on your own
No-one’s good enough for you
I look at the devil mama; I know what it is he sells
I look up at heaven, I see the angels
I look at a world’s that bad baby, you make it seem so good
Nothing’s as beautiful as you
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