Winds howled. Rains spit down.
All these nights playing precious games.
Cheap hotel in some seaboard town
closed down for the winter and whispered names.
Puppy-dog waves on a big moon sea
snap our heels half-heartedly
and how come you know better than me
that this is not love.
No, this is not love.
Empty drugstore postcards freeze
sunburst images of summers gone.
Think I see us in these promenade days
before we learned October's song.
Out on the headland, one gale-whipped tree;
curious, head-bent to see.
How come you know better than me
that this is not love.
Down to the sad south, smokey plumes
mark that real world city home.
Broken spells and silent gloom
ooze from that concrete honeycomb.
Puppy-dog waves on a big moon sea
snapped our heels half-heartedly
and how come you know better than me
that this is not love.
Well, you got a big-jib crane waiting to pick you up.
Mmm, you see those snakes that crawl, they're just dying to trip you up.
Live out in sad shacks at the back of town.
Hold your breath while we do you down
'cos we're all kinds of animals coming here:
occasional demons too.
Well, you got a nice apartment here with appliances and CD.
We're gonna leave your stereo, but we'll have your soul for tea.
I'm not speaking of material things.
Gonna chew you up, gonna suck you in
'cos we're all kinds of animals coming here;
occasional demons too.
Smokestacks, belching black, we're the have-nots in your shade.
How about a slice of life, how about some human trade?
Eat at the best restaurants in town.
No headwaiter going to turn us down
'cos we're all kinds of animals coming here;
occasional demons too.
Roll yer own. Don't mean you got no money.
Only that you got no opportunity to shake it with that friend of mine.
Roll yer own if you can't buy readymade;
if you won't be satisfied when you feel the sudden need to unwind.
You know what moves you in the wee hours
when there's nothing on the answerphone.
And if you don't get enough of that electric love
don't try to get by -
Roll yer own, when there's no-one listening;
when those re-runs play on the late-night black and white TV.
Roll yer own, when there's something missing
and those wild cats howl, running in the moonshine.
Roll yer own: got to hit that spot
Roll yer own when your hands are hot.
There's a black cat down on the quayside.
Ship's lights, green eyes glowing in the dark.
Two young cops handing out a beating:
know how to hurt and leave no mark.
Down in the half-lit bar of the hotel
there's a call for the last round of the day.
Push back the bar stool, take that elevator ride.
Fall in bed and kick my shoes away.
Rocks on the road.
Can't sleep through the wild sounds of the city.
Hear a car full of young boys heading for a fight.
Long distance telephone keeps ringing out engaged:
wonder who you're talking with tonight?
Rocks on the road.
Tired plumbing wakes me in the morning.
Shower runs hot, runs cold playing with me.
Well, I'm up for the down side, life's a bitch and all that stuff:
so come and shake some apples from my tree.
Have to pay for my minibar madness.
Itemised phone bill overload.
Well now, how about some heavy rolling?
Move these rocks on the road.
Crumbs on the breakfast table.
And a million other things to spoil my day.
Now how about a little light music
to chase it all away?
To chase it all away.
You want to be a bookworm? You wanna be aloof?
You wanna sit in judgement, looking down from the roof?
Try a wee sensation; but first you have to want to join in.
You should be, should be raging down the freeway
with some friends from the mall.
Don't stay forever in your limbo: fly before you fall
little sparrow on the schoolyard wall.
So dress a little dangerous and modify your walk.
There's nothing wrong with sparrows but try to be a sparrowhawk.
Hunting in the evening and floating in the heat of the day.
You might, might acquire some predatory instinct.
Do the wolf pack crawl.
Don't stay forever in your limbo: fly before you fall
little sparrow on the schoolyard wall.
Well, I don't want to be your daddy.
Don't want to be your engineer of sin.
And I don't want to play the piper here.
I'm only banging on a mandolin
and anyway, you're just a little sparrow
on the schoolyard wall.
There's nothing wrong with learning. Nothing wrong with your books.
So exercise some judgement. Too much broth can spoil the cook.
Feel a little sensation and know when it's time to join in.
You should be, should be raging down the freeway
with some friends from the mall.
Don't stay forever in your limbo: fly before you fall
little sparrow on the schoolyard wall.
All of you sit up in bed. Don't think in straight lines ahead.
Can't sleep? Head spin? Don't think in circles, it'll do you in.
Think back to the dream you had; no sense of being good or bad.
Jump to the left, jump to the right. Think round corners into night.
Let's go in wet corridors: dive down drains
Draw strength from machinery, it's all the same.
Thinking round corners. Think round corners, I say.
Pretty girl with neon eyes: best man between white thighs.
Bridegroom didn't know a thing: got his love in lights, she wears two rings.
Think back to that dream you had. Blue boy sorry, pink girl sad.
Yellow cow, big-eyed moon all coming round the corner soon.
Let's stand in rapids: cling to carnivals.
Spit life from the maypole in savage ceremony.
Let's go in wet corridors: dive down drains.
Draw strength from machinery, it's all the same.
Thinking round corners. Think round corners, I say.
Paper cowboys, tin drums banging where the white man comes.
Landowners with whips and chains but soft in bed amidst warm rains.
Thinking back to the dream they had. Jack and Jill. Jack the lad.
Homestead. Home free. How about leaving some for me?
Let's bathe in malt whisky: covet gold finery
through the eyes of a Jackdaw, dressed to the nines.
Let's go in wet corridors: dive down drains.
Draw strength from machinery, it's all the same.
Thinking round corners. Think round corners, I say.
Thinking round corners.
It's a lonely life I life and I life this life to go
and if I leave you with one thing it's just that I want you to know
I'll still be loving you tonight.
I left flowers on your table, left the lock on your door.
Staked a claim in your heartlands, put grain in your store.
I'll still be loving you tonight.
Got fingers on the button of that telephone dial.
Call in and move your mountains, fill your spaces while
I'm still loving you tonight.
You want to know how I can leave you?
How I can move along this way?
Too much of a good thing can make you crazy
and it's a good thing that happened to me today.
I'll still be loving you tonight.
I've been treated for mild depression
and I've been treated for growing pains.
I've been treated for hallucinations;
now I can see it all coming again.
Well, you can wind me up. Yeah, you can slow me down.
You can dig a little, and you can mess me around.
But there's one thing I should tell you, to which you must agree:
There's no use you playing doctor to my disease.
Said it's no use you playing doctor to my disease.
I got no cure for this condition
that you've been causing me tonight.
Well, you put my heart in overdrive:
hand me the bullet I must bite.
You can stir me up and you can cut me down.
You can probe a little, push that knife around.
But there's one thing I should tell you, to which you must agree:
It's no use you playing doctor to my disease.
Do you have to break my engine
so you can fix it up again?
Tuned to crazy imperfection
just to score me out of ten.
Well, you can wind me up. Yeah, you can slow me down.
You can dig a little. Yeah, you can mess me around.
But there's one thing I should tell you, to which you must agree:
that it's no use you playing doctor to my disease.
Well, I don't care to eat out in smart restaurants.
I'd rather do a Vindaloo: take away is what I want.
I was down at the old Bengal, having telephoned a treat
when I saw her framed in the kitchen door.
She looked good enough to eat.
(And I mean eat.)
She was a tall thin girl. She looked like a tall thin girl.
She said, "Whose is this carry-out?" My face turned chilli red.
Well, I don't know about carrying out, but you can carry me off to bed.
(And I mean bed.)
She was a tall thin girl. She moved like a tall thin girl.
Maybe I can fetch for it, and maybe I can stretch for it.
I may not be a fat man and I'm not exactly small
but when it all comes down, couldn't stand my ground
This girl was tall.
(And I mean tall.)
Big boy Doane, he's a drummer. Don't play no tambourine
but he's Madras hot on the bongo trot, if you know
just what I mean.
Stands six foot three in his underwear;
going to get him down here and see
if this good lady's got a little sister 'bout the same size as me.
She was a tall thin girl. She looked like a tall thin girl.
Well, can I fetch for it? Well maybe I can stretch for it?
Well, am I up for it? Or do I have to go down for it?
She drifted from some minor festival.
Didn't look like any summer of love:
just a thousand weekend warriors in a muddy field.
She was the hand to fit my glove.
Funny thing, the innocence of the lonely.
Funny thing, the charm of the young.
See how she moves just like two angels (in white innocence).
Yet one of them is on the run.
The other's tapping at my car window
and I'm squinting through the sun
trying to see if she's some child of the nineties:
or just another dangerous fantasy of mine.
Yeah. White innocence.
She was white innocence.
A perfect hole was in her stocking:
it made a perfect window to her heart.
I could have moved among her waterfalls:
her misty curtains drawn apart.
Did she see warm safety in my numbers
to want to hitch a ride this way?
Felt like I was taking her to market now
to be sold as the last lot of the day.
Funny thing, the distance of the lonely.
Funny thing, the charm of the young.
White innocence.
She pressed the button, lowered the window:
let her hand trail in the slipstream of the night.
A frost from nowhere seemed to lick her fingers:
I could have warmed them, but the moment wasn't right.
Obvious, she was headed nowhere special:
Yes, well it was even obvious to me.
I was doing some, some watching, some waiting:
she'd been here before, most definitely.
There was the promise of early bed-time.
There was the promise of heaven on earth.
Think I was sending out low-voltage electricity:
played it right down for what it was worth.
She turned and looked at me in white innocence
and with the clearest eyes of forever grey
she rested one small hand for a second on my knee:
I stopped the car. She walked away.
Funny thing, the wisdom of the lonely.
Funny thing, the charm of the young.
Away you go, now.
White innocence.
Her love is like a candle: you light it up at night.
Her heart is like a pack of cards: one chance to guess it right.
Sometimes I do.
She's got a tongue like a viper but she can whisper like a dove.
Soft touch like brushed velvet; till she hits you from above
and sometimes she does.
She leaves me breathing: down like a fallen log.
Just when I feel like dancing, I wake up sleeping with the dog.
And it goes (woof) sleeping with the dog.
I have to guess at the mysteries of her unfathomable soul.
Guess when the time is right to make a broken spirit whole
and that time is due. C'm'on.
She leaves me breathing: down like a fallen log
and just when I feel like dancing, I wake up sleeping with the dog.
And it goes: (woof) sleeping with the dog.
I'm battered and bruised. I got lines I can't use.
My head won't deliver. Well, I'm sold down the river.
But I'm turning again.
And I'm turning again.
Wearing gold-tipped boots, black jacket and tie.
Well, I've been second to none:
this horse was ready to run.
Now I'm has-been and used:
disarmed and de-fused
but I'm turning again.
Yes, 'n' I'm turning again.
I'm turning again.
Wearing gold-tipped boots, black jacket and tie.
I'm egg over-easy
and I'm washing-up squeezy.
Appliance for sale:
fat wind in your sail
and I'm turning again.
Well, I'm turning again.
Yes, 'n' I'm turning again.
Wearing gold-tipped boots, black jacket and tie.
Well, I'm turning again.
I was in my watering-hole with some ugly friends of mine
when the door came off its hinges like a cork from fizzy wine.
He said, "My name is Jesus: I'm the leader of the band.
Got to set up my equipment, if you boys can lend a hand."
Oh yeah. When Jesus came to play.
He set that bandstand jumping. Yeah, and he cranked it up so loud.
And he moved up to the microphone: had the attention of the crowd.
He said, "My name is Jesus: going to turn your head around.
I'm going to make this easy. Got no time to mess around."
Oh yeah. When Jesus came to play.
"I got no twelve disciples, and I got no cross to bear.
If you thought you had me crucified, I guess you weren't there."
Oh yeah. When Jesus came to play. When Jesus came.......
He sang about three or four numbers but we'd heard it all before.
We boys were getting restless: no girls were moving on the floor.
Those parables, they were merciless and the tables overturned.
And there were no minor miracles but false prophets, they were burned.
Well, maybe he was Jesus; but his hair could have used a comb.
Long before he hit the last notes, we boys had all gone home.
Oh yeah. When Jesus came to play.
Catfish Rising