I'm walking down Times Square in the Electric Daylight The sailors on shore leave stand out in their perfect white. I'm up here with my spying glass at the window up above For better or for worse - it's a perverse universe, my love.

Now I know, I should have never walked over the bridge I burned Now I know, somehow I don't feel so alone.

"And remember to free faraway from the unbridled, and the impudent, the malicious, and the unlucky. For these being full of bad demons or rays are maleficent, and like lepers and people striken with plague, they harm not only by touch but even by proximity and by sight." (Dig it!)

You mutter underneath your breath - it echos round the world Everybody comes from nowhere. There is hope, it loops up in the air

Now I know, I should have never walked over the bridge I burned Now I know, somehow I don't feel so alone.

You said I used to be handsome if you screwed up your eyes Professors and vampires drank up all the tears I cried. Now there's a bird at my window, he feeds upon the pane (pain) and sometimes he sings to me - a mocking bird in the twilight of infamy.

Now I know, I should have never walked over the bridge I burned Now I know, somehow I don't feel so alone. Now I know, I should have never walked over the bridge I burned Now I know, they've burned one sinner and the others are sadly following (set to follow?)

Now I know.
Now I know.
Now I know.


Veronica

Is it all in that pretty little head of yours? What goes on in that place in the dark? Well I used to know a girl and I would have sworn that her name was Veronica Well she used to have a carefree mind of her own and a delicate look in her eye These days I'm afraid she's not even sure if her name is Veronica

Chorus:

Do you suppose, that waiting hands on eyes, Veronica has gone to hide? And all the time she laughs at those who shout her name and steal her clothes Veronica Veronica

Did the days drag by? Did the favours wane? Did he roam down the town all the time? Will you wake from your dream, with a wolf at the door, reaching out for Veronica Well it was all of sixty-five years ago When the world was the street where she lived And a young man sailed on a ship in the sea With a picture of Veronica

On the "Empress of India" And as she closed her eyes upon the world and picked upon the bones of last week's news She spoke his name outloud again

Chorus

Veronica sits in her favourite chair and she sits very quiet and still And they call her a name that they never get right and if they don't then nobody else will But she used to have a carefree mind of her own, with devilish look in her eye Saying "You can call me anything you like, but my name is Veronica"

Chorus

Sulky Girl

She wears a wedding ring her sister lent To throw them off the scent Just let them guess, it's what they expect Who in the world has bitten her neck? She's discovered wearing last night's dress The carnal and cunning, she couldn't express Who do you think she's trying to impress?

CHORUS: I think you'd better hold your tongue Although you've never been that strong I'm sorry to say that I knew all along You're no match for that sulky girl

She left her European town Before she let the family down She couldn't stand the Massacre Game So she dyed her hair and adopted another name With the evidence of passing out stamped on her hand She glows in the dark He thinks she's from another planet

CHORUS

Sulky girl I'm sure you look a picture when you cry Threatening the silent treatment doesn't qualify It's like money in the bank Your expression is blank But while the chance appears You'll be nearer to tears Sulky girl [2x]

He said "Hello, my pretty flower" Just trying out his tycoon power Avoiding the mirror, her pitying stare She said "You're mistaken, your money's no good in here" Just some stupid little know-it-all Who thought she looked easy; he's not that astute He'll pay for the distance Between cruelty and beauty

CHORUS

So I won't tell you again What do you gain By blackening her name She's smarter than you Oh isn't it a shame You're gonna lose that sulky girl

Sulky girl I saw you practising your blackmail faces Suddenly you're talking like a duchess But you're still a waitress I saw through your pretence But in my defence There are a few events I think will spare the censor Sulky girl [4x]

So Like Candy

Here lies the powder and perfume The pretty clothes are scattered 'round the room And it's so like Candy

Here lies the lipstick and the face The coloured tablets keep it all in place And it's so like Candy So like Candy

CHORUS What did I do to make her go Why must she be the one That I have to love So like Candy

Here lies a picture of a girl Her arms are tight around that lucky guy And it's so like Candy

And in her eyes a certain look I thought I'd seen the last of long ago And it's so like Candy So like Candy

CHORUS

I remember the day that picture was taken We were so happy then But that's so like Candy She seemed so sweet to me I was mistaken Oh no not that again But that's so like Candy She just can't face the day So she turns and melts away

Here lie the records that she scratched And on the sleeve I find a note attached And it's so like Candy "My Darling Dear it's such a waste" She couldn't say "goodbye", but "I admire your taste" And it's so like Candy So like Candy

13 Steps Lead Down

When nobody knows she puts on secret clothes And lies in the meadow with her hands tied behind her back I won't refuse if you know how to use it Just stop playing that ugly drug music

CHORUS: Thirteen steps lead down Thirteen steps lead down There's commoners and kings And everyone's a prisoner of Paper and glue And a decent pair of scissors So tonight I'm drinking to your health Because I just can't stand myself

Thirteen steps lead down [4x]

She stands and fails On fashion fingernails Her lovers have her walking 'round On instruments of torture And one of them is poisonous The other is a thief they say So what one could give to her The other cannot take away

When nobody knows she puts on secret clothes And lies in her splendour for a picture opportunity Cover up that bruise, put on patent leather shoes Just stop playing that bad mood music

CHORUS

Thirteen steps lead down [4x]

All This Useless Beauty

It's at times such as this she'd be tempted to spit If she wasn't so ladylike She imagines how she might have lived back when legends and history collide So she looks to her prince finding he's so charmingly slumped at her side Those days are recalled on the gallery wall And she's waiting for passion or humour to strike

What shall we do, what shall we do with all this useless beauty? All this useless beauty

Good Friday arrived, the sky darkened on time 'Til he almost began to negotiate She held his head like a baby and said "It's okay if you cry" Now he wants her to dress as if you couldn't guess He desires to impress his associates But he's part ugly beast and Hellenic deceased So she finds that the mixture is hard to deny

Chorus

She won't practice the looks from the great tragic books That were later disgraced to face celluloid It won't even make sense but you can bet If she isn't a sweetheart or plaything or pet The film turns her into an unveiled threat

Nonsense prevails, modesty fails Grace and virtue turn into stupidity While the calendar fades almost all barricades to a pale compromise And our leaders have feasts on the backsides of beasts They still think they're the gods of antiquity If something you missed didn't even exist It was just an ideal -- is it such a surprise?

Chorus [x2]

My Dark Life

She says nobody wants to believe You're the same as everyone. What makes me unique? My Dark Life.

There was a kink in the world Sent that statue tumbling An invitation east So we can watch it all crumbling

She came off like light and so softly she spoke: "You don't know, no you don't know about my dark life" And you think you're a guest, you're a tourist at best Peering into the corners of your dark life Now that you tear your dreams from consumptive ballerinas She'd stand on tiptoes for you in a grey and tattered tutu She stays where she is because of voyeurs like these With an accusative look that says My Dark Life.

Robber men await you then in each beguiling alley To shake you and to pierce you and remind you of My Dark Life.

Enter the pious elite, in their preening finery And bang the tambourine They're dining on rice paper scenery See how the villian attracts envious glances from everyone She's waitressing by day It doesn't bring in much money now

And his strong concealed arms set off bells and alarms In the strangest locations of My Dark Life But the fantasy slipped as he tipped her in ciragettes She tries to smile very graciously when she wants to kill him Now the victory is sweet, you'll get down on your knees It's the perfect position for kissing western leather

So they came from Ugly Texas and from Nameless Tennassee From Peculiar Missouri and from places closer to me. All the cream of heartless England, cheered the carnival is over There are remnants of red army bandsmen Played "America The Beautiful"

The Other Side of Summer

The sun struggles up another beautiful day And I felt glad in my own suspicious way Despite the contradiction and confusion Felt tragic without reason There's malice and there's magic in every season

CHORUS From the foaming breakers of the poisonous surf The other side of Summer To the burning forests in the hills of Astroturf The other side of Summer

The automatic gates close up between the shanties and the palace The blowtorch amusements, the voodoo chalice The pale pathetic promises that everybody swallows A teenage girl is crying 'cos she don't look like a million dollars So help her if you can 'Cos she don't seem to have the attention span

CHORUS

Was it a millionaire who said "imagine no possessions"? A poor little schoolboy who said "we don't need no lessons"? The rabid rebel dogs ransack the shampoo shop The pop princess is downtown shooting up And if that goddess if fit for burning The sun will struggle up the world will still keep turning

Madman standing by the side of the road saying "Look at my eyes, look at my eyes, look at my eyes, look at my eyes" Now you can't afford to fake all the drugs your parents used to take Because of their mistakes you'd better be wide awake

CHORUS

The mightiest rose The absence of perfume The casual killers The military curfew The cardboard city An unwanted birthday The other side of summer

The dancing was desperate, the music was worse They bury your dreams and dig up the worthless Goodnight God bless And kiss "goodbye" to the earth The other side of summer

Kinder Murder

Here in the bar, the boys like to have fun There's a wager lost and an argument won There's a stone-washed damsel on a junk food run

It's a kinder murder

There's a ladder to heaven from a battered stiletto Spitting out the words that he put into her mouth See her in silhouette going down south

It's a kinder murder It's a kinder murder

She could have kept her knees together Should have kept her mouth shut

It's a kinder murder It's a kinder murder

Jimmy took her down to the perimeter fence He was back in half an hour, he said he left her senseless Then he went back to his regiment

It's a kinder murder

The officer said it has to be denied There's a tear-stained would-be teenage bride All the family pride in the little ram-rider

It's a kinder murder It's a kinder murder

She could have kept her knees together Should have kept her mouth shut

It's a kinder murder It's a kinder murder

The child went missing and the photo fit his face Dishonoured Jimmy just read about the case He said that he was just taking up space

It's a kinder murder

Jimmy took his best friend's keys from the pile on the table in a flash He was dreaming of the pigskin seats and the walnut dash The knickers in her handbag and the one false eyelash

It's a kinder murder It's a kinder murder

She could have kept her knees together Could have kept her mouth shut

It's a kinder murder [4x]

Deep Dark Truthful Mirror

One day you're going to have to face A deep dark truthful mirror And it's going to tell you things that I still love you too much to say The sky was just a purple bruise, the ground was iron And you fell all around the town until you looked the same

Chorus:

The same eyes, the same lips, the same lie from your tongue trips Deep dark, deep dark truthful mirror Deep dark, deep dark truthful mirror

Now the flagstone streets where the newspaper shouts ring to the boots of roustabouts But you're never in any doubt, there's something happening somewhere

You chase down the road 'til your fingers bleed On a fiberglass tumbleweed

You can blow around the town, but it all shuts down the same

Chorus

So you bay for the boy in the tiger-skin trunks They set him up, set him up on the stool He falls down, falls down like a drunk And you drink 'til you drool And it's his story you'll flatter You'll stretch him out like a saint But the canvas that he splattered will be the picture that you never paint

Chorus

A stripping puppet on a liquid stick gets into it pretty thick A butterfly drinks a turtle's tears, but how do you know he really needs it?

'Cos a butterfly feeds on a dead monkey's hand, Jesus wept he felt abandoned You're spellbound baby there's no doubting that Did you ever see a stare like a Persian cat?

Chorus

Hurry Down Doomsday (The Bugs Are Taking Over)

The man in the corner of this picture has a sinister purpose In the teeming Temple of the Railroad Kings He's planting a trashy paperback book for accidental purchase Containing all the secrets of life and other useless things

But I can't bring myself to look Wake up Zombie write yourself another book You want to scream and shout my little flaxen lout Hurry down Doomsday the bugs are taking over

She sleeps with the shirt of a late, great country singer Stretched out on her poor jealous husband's pillow In time you can turn these obsessions into careers While the parents of those kidnapped children start the bidding for their tears

But I can't bring myself to look Wake up Zombie Get yourself off the book You want to scream and shout my little waxen lout Hurry down Doomsday the bugs are taking over

Forget about Beethoven, Rembrandt and rock and roll Forget about Mickey Mouse, Marlboro and Coca Cola Forget about Cadillac, Mercedes and Toyota Forget about Buddha, Allah, Jesus and Jehovah Hurry down Doomsday the bugs are taking over

Any day now a giant insect mutation Will swoop down and devour the white man's burden Starting out with all of the sensitive ones Better make like a fly if you don't want to die Look out there goes Gordon

But I can't bring myself to think Wake up Zombie Kick up a big stink You want to scream and shout my little Saxon lout Hurry down Doomsday the bugs are taking over

Poor Fractured Atlas

He's out in the woods with his squirrel gun To try to recapture his anger He's screaming some words at the top of his lungs Until he begins to feel younger But back at his desk in the city we find Our trembling punch-drunken fighter Who can't find the strength now to punish the length Of the ribbon in his little typewriter

Poor Fractured Atlas Threw himself across the mattress Waving his withering pencil As if it were a pirate's cutlass I'm almost certain he's trying to increase his burden He said "That's how the child in me planned it; A woman wouldn't understand it"

I believe there was something that I wanted to say Before I conclude this epistle But you would forgive me for holding my tongue 'Cause man made the blade and the pistol Yes man made the waterfall over the dam To temper his tantrum with magic Now you can't be sure of that tent of azure Since he punched a hole in the fabric

Chorus

A woman wouldn't understand it
A woman wouldn't understand it

The Birds Will Still Be Singing

Summertime withers as the sun descends He wants to kiss you. Will you condescend? Before you wake and find a chill within your bones Under a fine canopy of lover's dust and humourous bones

Banish all dismay Extinguish every sorrow Eternity stinks, my darling. That's no joke Don't waste your precious time pretending you're heartbroken There will be tears and candles Pretty words to say Spare me lily-white lillies With the awful perfume of decay Banish all dismay Extinguish every sorrow If I'm lost or I'm forgiven The birds will still be singing

It's so hard to tear myself away Even when you know it's over It's too much to say. Banish all dismay Extinguish every sorrow If I'm lost or I'm forgiven The birds will still be singing

London's Brilliant Parade

Outside my window Not long before sleep arrives They come with their sirens And they sweep away all the boys Busy draining the joy from their lives They never said their prayers out loud

And while I'm dreaming There's a passing motor car That broadcasts a popular song And a girl appears to be saying "Do you think that I'm going to go far?"

FIRST CHORUS: Just look at me I'm having the time of my life Or something quite like it When I'm walking out and about In London's brilliant parade

She's one of those girls that you just can't place You feel guilty desiring such an innocent face But of course they knew that when they cast her Along with the red Routemaster And the film takes place in an MGB And a perfect re-creation of "The Speakeasy" Everybody looks happy and twisted Though she probably never existed For old times' sake Don't let me awake

I wouldn't want you to walk across Hungerford Bridge Especially at twilight Looking through the bolts and the girders Into the water below You'll never find your answer there

They sounded the "all-clear" in the occidental bazaar They used to call Oxford Street Now the bankrupt souls in the city Are finally tasting defeat

SECOND CHORUS: Don't look at me I'm having the time of my life Or something quite like it When I'm walking out and about In London's brilliant parade When I'm walking out and about In London's brilliant parade

From the gates of St. Mary's, there were horses in Olympia And a trolley bus in Fulham Broadway The lions and the tigers in Regents Park Couldn't pay their way And now they're not the only ones

At the Hammersmith Palais In Kensington and Camden Town There's a part that I used to play; The lovely Diorama is really part of the drama, I'd say

FIRST CHORUS [2x]

Tramp The Dirt Down

I saw a newspaper picture from the political campaign A woman was kissing a child, who was obviously in pain She spills with compassion, as that young child's face in her hands she grips Can you imagine all that greed and avarice coming down on that child's lips

Well I hope I don't die too soon I pray the Lord my soul to save Oh I'll be a good boy, I'm trying so hard to behave Because there's one thing I know, I'd like to live long enough to savour That's when they finally put you in the ground I'll stand on your grave and tramp the dirt down

When England was the whore of the world Margeret [sic] was her madam And the future looked as bright and as clear as the black tarmacadam Well I hope that she sleeps well at night, isn't haunted by every tiny detail 'Cos when she held that lovely face in her hands all she thought of was betrayal

And now the cynical ones say that it all ends the same in the long run Try telling that to the desperate father who just squeezed the life from his only son And how it's only voices in your head and dreams you never dreamt Try telling him the subtle difference between justice and contempt Try telling me she isn't angry with this pitiful discontent When they flaunt it in your face as you line up for punishment And then expect you to say "Thank you" straighten up, look proud and pleased Because you've only got the symptoms, you haven't got the whole disease Just like a schoolboy, whose head's like a tin-can filled up with dreams then poured down the drain Try telling that to the boys on both sides, being blown to bits or beaten and maimed Who takes all the glory and none of the shame

Well I hope you live long now, I pray the Lord your soul to keep I think I'll be going before we fold our arms and start to weep I never thought for a moment that human life could be so cheap 'Cos when they finally put you in the ground They'll stand there laughing and tramp the dirt down

Couldn't Call It Unexpected No. 4

I saw a girl who'd found her consolation She said "One day my Prince of Peace will come" Above her head a portrait of her father The wilted favour that he gave her still fastened to the frame "They've got his bones and everything he owns I've got his name"

Well you can laugh at this sentimental story But in time you'll have to make amends The sudden chill where lovers doubt their immortality As the clouds cover the sky the evening ends Describing a picture of eyes finally closing As you sometimes glimpse terrible faces in the fire We'll I'm the lucky goon Who composed this tune from birds arranged on the high wire

Who on earth is tapping at the window? Does that face still linger at the pane? I saw you shiver though the room was like a furnace A shadow of regret across a young mother's face So toll the bell or rock the cradle Please don't let me fear anything I cannot explain I can't believe, I'll never believe in anything again

I Want to Vanish

I want to vanish This is my fondest wish To go where I cannot be captured Laid on a decorated dish Even in splendor this curious fate Is more than I care to surrender Now it's too late

Whether in wonder or indecent haste You arrange the mirrors and the spools To snare the rare and precious jewels That were only made of paste

If you should stumble upon my last remark I'm crying in the wilderness I'm trying my best to make it dark How can I tell you I'm rarer than most I'm certain as a lost dog Pondering a sign post

Chorus

I want to vanish This is my last request I've given you the awful truth Now give me my rest

All The Rage

1-2-3,2-2-3

The twitching impulses to speak your mind I'll lend you my microscope and maybe you will find it Is it in that ugly place that's just behind your face Where you keep my picture still despite the fact That you had me replaced

CHORUS: Say "Goodbye" Baby can't you act your age? You know why I'm going to give it to you straight Although I'll never be Unhappy as you want me to be Still it's all the rage

I'll probably play along Left to my own devices Spare me the drone of your advice The sins of garter and gin Confession may delay You know the measuring pole The merry boots of clay I've heard it all before You'll say it anyway

CHORUS

Alone with your tweezers and your handkerchief You murder time and truth, love, laughter and belief So don't try to touch my heart, it's darker than you think And don't try to read my mind because it's full of disappearing ink

CHORUS

Although I'll never be Unhappy as you want me to be Still it's all the rage