1. |
Hospital Patience
03:17
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Please just try to make it plain
Strange blood is pounding in my veins
Face-down on the street with a mouth of broken teeth
I shouldn’t have run mounting my retreat
Never fired a gun and never caused a scene
Make for the county line
Get there before daylight comes
Let me explain my bad idea again
I know your face, I know you’re not a friend
No shame anymore, death in the afternoon
Bloody trente-et-uns, I swear that I was true
A man without his hat laid out with the flu
The remedy he knows he traces to an Irish king
It’s four o’clock somewhere and
A bird can’t fly on one wing
Through the night with hospital patience
Like a saint with the hospital patience
Through the night with hospital patience
Let me explain my bad idea again
And stay with me until the very end
And take and take and take and take all ills away
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2. |
A Loaded Question
01:47
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Someone tell the invisible kid
To stop playing around with the Agent Orange
In the haze of the power grid
With the elegant weapons they hid
What I heard was like a banker’s smile
On a telephone that wouldn’t dial
Squeaking cleaner than a gurney wheel
Running free as a feral child
Even if I’m too far gone
Can I burn your name into the lawn?
I’m a third wheel without
A curfew or a place to be
Don’t feed me that American line
That the end of the world is drawing nigh
We’ve still got a couple of years
And there must be something better to fear
Even if I’m too far gone
Can I burn your name into the lawn?
I’m a third wheel without
A curfew or a place to be
Even if I’m too far gone
I don’t want to sleep till I see dawn
I’m a third wheel without
A curfew or a place to be
It’s a loaded question but I need
An answer immediately
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3. |
||||
In a junkyard seance looking for a place to stay
Asked a rooftop pigeon for the roofs he'd like to save
And if you've found yourself a room
And if there's someone there with you
Don't fall into the wrong hands
The clutches of some strange man
Make my epitaph a dirty joke
In the mother tongue that your father spoke
"Snakes walk with their hands in their pockets"
Forked tongues that they plug into sockets
Don't fall into the wrong hands
The clutches of some strange man
Don't fall into the wrong hands
The snares of his mislaid plans
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4. |
Heart's The Target
03:30
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I'm watching watching JFK
Can't tell where the shots are from
Can't tell where the shots are from
See buildings crumble every day
Broadcast on a TV screen
The image is sharp and clean
If you need me the same way I need you
Your heart's the target I'm setting the crosshairs to
The atom spies went up on trial
Let the nation's secrets leak
Russian bombs and widows peaks
Don't set your jaw, give me a smile
You just trust what you have seen
Your theories are sharp and clean
If you need me the same way I need you
Your heart's the target I'm setting the crosshairs to
Civic virtues we've been told
Civic virtues lay me low
If you need me the same way I need you
Your heart's the target I'm setting the crosshairs to
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5. |
Loose Hips Sink Ships
02:45
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Blanketful of skin, a thin heap of knees
Doing no good, Cindy and me.
I can see the writing on the wall
Waiting for the other foot to fall
Loose hips sink ships
Scratched records skip
Horny as cuckolds, everyone slips
The shelves are stacked so thick with rival brands
Every local hipster starts a band
Chasing a fast thrill, tripping on barbed wire
Smoking out the window surveying your empire
Feminine tomboy in a clawfooted bathtub
Running the taps out, starting a blood grudge
Collars get hot, arsonists fight liars
Swear words can wear swords
And polygraphs light fires
Put down your hands your gestures are obscene
Like punctured tires on a limousine
Some stand aloof
The pure and the chaste
The prudes and romantics
On a church steeple chase
Leave me be, I have nothing to give
The hard work I’d begun has all ended
Strangers kiss her feet,
Stolen jewels adorn her,
Come this time of year
No one ought to scorn her
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6. |
Nobody's Fool
02:23
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They bottled all the spirits
To give the madman back his head
To make his days less ultraviolet
And his dreams less infrared
He doesn’t want the doctor
To find out that he smokes
He’s covered up the bullet-holes
With pictures of the pope.
I’m nobody’s fool
Nobody’s fool
I’m not going to be a fool for you
Where does all my time go?
Where should it go instead?
It’s a useless business
Trying to bring back the dead.
There’s a cobra and a mongoose
In the glow of a holy flame
If you’d kill all your urges
Then I’d go do the same.
I’m nobody’s fool
Nobody’s fool
I’m not going to be a fool for you
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7. |
Bad Czech
03:19
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Batten the hatches and get telepathic
The future is vague and I can’t ration
Delirium I don’t expect
Writes me off like a bad Czech
Who will drive my car through the wall
When traffic has slowed to a crawl?
Give me the fix from a medicine show
I lost my bearings a long time ago
I’m tired of acrobatics
All they’ve done is left me hatless
We’re not getting any younger
And I have got this awful hunger
Landmark the pitch dark, I can’t stand it
The moon is a hoax and we’re here stranded
Delirium I don’t expect
Writes me off like a bad Czech
She and I don’t see eye to eye
We owe debts on borrowed time
Notch a new notch on a tightening belt
I know that it’s a hard sell
I’m tired of acrobatics
All they’ve done is left me hatless
We’re not getting any younger
And I have got this awful hunger for you
Who will drive my car through the wall?
When traffic has slowed to a crawl
Give me the fix from a medicine show
I lost my bearings a long time ago
You know it’s just how it goes
Just how it goes
Who will drive my car through the wall
When traffic has slowed to a crawl?
Baby, here’s something that I didn't expect
Write me off just like a bad Czech
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8. |
Seven Dials
03:23
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There’s no net overhead
Go tell it to the Commodore
Put it out of mind if your nerves are shot
And the clock moves slow
When the blitzenkreig broke
St. Paul’s stood through the smoke,
From the Dizzy Block to the Seven Dials,
It won’t last all year
95 midnights
Waiting for some news
Radio’s out of tune
Come raining down
My window’s open to to the sound
A thousand bombshells pounding down
Hear a dog whistle blow
It’s loud but nobody knows.
We’ll imitate the head of state
And don’t say a word
Now don’t make strange
All I want is your intangibles
Cardiac arrest in our Sunday best
It won’t be long
95 midnights
Throwing around elbows
Pretending she is here
Come raining down
Let the V2s drop all around
And light the cigarettes all littered on the ground
Come raining down
My window’s open to to the sound
Of a thousand bombshells bombshells bombshells Pounding down
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9. |
Boston Brahmin
03:55
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I was convinced of a crime
The irrational thoughts of an unsound mind
Joan combed the hairs on my head, fed me
Crumbs of bread until I was bled dry
The climate here is getting stale
This country is going to hell
Expedite my passport, put me on the next plane
Leave all debts outstanding under a false name
Make it quick, knock me out cold
Let the autopilot get it under control
Mistakes were made by the street patrol
Explain it to me when we’re all older
The lines are tapped
Cross it out in black
No more heart attacks
I hope she has the finer things
A brownstone downtown
Fit for some Boston Brahmin
Stand tall, stand tall
Don’t think of the fall
Like the Great Charles Blondin
This shape we’re in at 3AM,
Drunk on common sense and gin
Plead the fifth amendment and forget about last year
Long days under a dull grey heatless sun
Make it quick, knock me out cold
Let the autopilot get it under control
Mistakes were made by the street patrol
Explain it to me when we’re all older
The lines are tapped
Cross it out in black
No more heart attacks
Lift your eyes to meet me
Just a glance discreetly
Just a glance could make such a fool out of me
You know it all could come tumbling down in an instant
Things can get a little severe following instincts
You know it all could come tumbling down
Make it quick, knock me out cold
Let the autopilot get it under control
Mistakes were made by the street patrol
Explain it to me when we’re all older
The lines are tapped
Cross it out in black
No more heart attacks
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10. |
Parties Unknown
03:21
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I’m just a key on your chain
a guest who can’t stay
I’m a stone’s throw away
It’s just a matter of pride
For the new young threats
Who come veiled like a bride
Airtight as a Ponzi scheme
Send me up the ladder
To some captain of industry
Consorting with parties unknown
You know that no one wants to be alone
All the people that you meet
Out there on the hot concrete
All getting nostalgic for simpler times
If everyone knows, don’t call it a secret
Let me in on the gory details
Go call a reporter to spin
The physics of impossible things
O these endless days
Lurching forward in runaway parade
Patience is wearing thin
The tap keeps dripping
As a pendulum swings
Even if we’re not at war
If it’s all just conquest
I need a little victory
Come on, hold me close again
These are the glory days
In your cold extremities.
All the people that you meet
Out there on the hot concrete
All getting nostalgic for simpler times
If everyone knows, don’t call it a secret
Let me in on the gory details
Go call a reporter to spin
The physics of impossible things
Pressure going to break my bones
Surrounded by parties unknown
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11. |
Animal Lover
01:52
|
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Tell me all about yourself
I bet you’re an animal lover
Strays hang around your door
Bloodthirsty vultures hover
Even if we had tried
She and I would never survive
With all of the problems of distance,
Old flames, doldrums, strange dreams
And her father’s collection of knives
Sabres rattled, tempers seethed
as we spoke of millionaire thieves
If she had stayed
I’d have showed her the ocean,
Blasphemous notions,
And kept her kettle boiling for tea
Because I’m all love, love
No turtleneck or leather glove
It’s not enough, no
It's not enough...
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