Crocodile Tears and the Velvet Cosh |
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(all songs published by Beggars Banquet Music)
Crocodile Tears and the Velvet Cosh
Too Clever By Half
The First Incision
Imitation Pearls
Light and Shade
Rene
Stop This City
Justine
The Ballad of Cain
The Vandal and the Saint
Boats
Slip the Rope
Crocodile Tears and the Velvet Cosh
I take it as read that the mood is blue
It's ghost written all over vour face
I read you like a book
Seeing through
Without ever losing my place
Crocodile tears falling down
That kind of water doesn't wash
You pulled the wool over my tired eyes
You beat me up with the velvet cosh
We're on the rifle range shooting moving targets in the dark
You make high drama out of soap and then you kiss me like a shark
The veneer has cracked
Now you resemble a tree stripped of its bark
My gullibility, your only hope in this dark
A string of words like a hangman's noose
Strung like a charm 'round Your swans neck
Foot in mouth and swingin' high
As Miss Goody Two Shoes leaves the deck
The play you're in is right up your street
Narrow, twisting and only one way
Your delivery line is dead on arrival
It's an apt title though
"High Infidelity"
Crocodile tears and the velvet cosh
Crocodile tears and the velvet cosh
Crocodile tears and the velvet cosh
Crocodile tears and the velvet cosh
Too Clever By Half
Sometimes I try to be too sharp
No one gets the point
Notes on a broken harp
I didn't mean to hurt you
I don't want to carp
Sometimes I try to be too sharp
Sometimes I try to be too smart
Like the times when I'm finished
Before I start
Dressing up dressing down
Malice in wonderland
I've thrown down the iron glove
Now let's go hand in hand
Don't you see?
That I'm laughing at me
Smart Alec smart Alec
What have you done?
Smart Alec smart Alec
What have you done?
Smart Alec smart Alec
What have you done?
Smart Alec smart Alec
What have you done?
If these are finger pointing songs
The finger is pointing at me
Living up to my own put downs
The sting that kills the bee
Making waves
A bully in the pool
Good intentions lost at sea
A snake venom cure
The cause is the remedy
Too clever by half
Don't you see?
That when I'm laughing
I'm laughing at me
Too clever by half
Too clever by half
Too clever by half
Too clever by half
The First Incision
Her fatal charm is a beautiful knife
How tempting to caress the blade
Your fingers touch its cutting edge
The first incision is then made
The cruel and unusual punishment
Of her dismissive smile
In her cruelty, her beauty, her indifference
Her gift to beguil
She pulls a poisoned arrow
From her quiver of disdain
She feels no shame as she takes aim
A butterfly pinned to showcase cork
It's just a game
Only a game
She strikes her matchless Garbo
She beckons as she double locks the door
Her sign says "closed" on both sides
But all the lonely boys come back for more
She gives the brush off to invisible dust
Fastidious to a fault, shows dirt the door
She is untouchable within her guilded cage
Alone but for cuttle fish to claw
Laiden with gifts
Her suitors fall in line
To suffer the inevitable "No"
With each rejection and the passing of time
These infatuations grow
The cruel and unusual punishment of her dismissive smile
In her crueltv, her beauty, her indifference
Her gift to beguil
Imitation Pearls
Ambition refused at the fence
Torn up bets, long faces
Success is a whipping horse
Sent screaming through its paces
Lucre deals a calling card
To tempt our pride away
To break bread or promises
On this blue ribbon day
They talk of a tumble
An eleventh hour dive
To kill off your integrity
In order to survive
I am not going to dive for imitation pearls
I am not going to dive for imitation pearls
They will back you to the hills
Sing aloud your praises
If you keep your blinkers on
And lose the right fixed races
Well prepared to suffer
The consequences of refusal
I won't be begging for hypocracy's approval
I am not going to dive for imitation pearls
I am not going to dive for imitation pearls
I am not going to dive for imitation pearls
I am not going to dive
Light and Shade
I remember when the rain came down
I was looking for the sun in the lost and found
Days spent in Doom's company without my complicity
Fleeing from Archilee's hound
I feel the stab of the thorny crown
A subtle shift in frequency
Making me see things differently
Light and shade
Chase and fade
My bravado shield
A fragile barricade
Waiting for the dead man's click
If the winds change will this face stick
Will I fight to live another day?
The black dog standing on the bridge is every suicide's ghost
It's choke chain held by Vertigo
Temptress and perfect host
Light and shade
Chase and fade
My bravado shield
A fragile barricade
You say...
The gravy train has missed your stop
Top under dog
You can't make this drop
Don't despair now
Dancing to a different drum
I feel my senses over run with waves of joy
Spray on my face
The world becomes a better place to be
Sorrow shot by joy
Sorrow shot by joy
Sorrow shot by joy
Sorrow shot by joy
Rene
Recalling past years
He would talk into the moon
Sink some coffee
Carnation and Apostle spoon
Spider webs strung on the walls
Old stories
White gulls crying
Dav break soon
I slept on my elbows
He told his tales
A chain of Black Cats smouldering
Staining his fingernails
Told me of Pavlova, Chekhov, Berlin and Brecht
He handed me a photo
His wife on a sailing boat's deck
A fallen leaf in Winter
An artist, a shot down star
He resembled one of his paintings
A vagabond from travels afar
His face, yellow
Against the cobalt blue of the bed
A monk at peace and sleeping still
An escapee from dread
Somewhere a dancer
Steps on a starry floor
The music is silver bird song
A light glows from behlnd a door
The dancer becomes the music
He becomes the stars in the floor
Opens the door
Becomes the light
The light lasts forever more
Everything in his room
Had turned to gold with age
Dusting of a manuscript
Reading from the fading page
Like hungry birds free'd from a cage
His words would fill the air
Goodbye Chapel Street
I remember you from Seventy Nine
A place by the sea
A catch of dreams
Caught by the painted line
The doctor said it was cancer
Rene just said it was time
Time for a graceful exit
Told in a letters last line
The season of darkness is changing
To the season of rebirth and rhyme
''Waiting for new creatlon"
Stop This City
A man is warming his hands over the ashes of a man
Who has just set fire to himself
On Avenue A in Alphabet Land
Where walking can seriously damage your health
Where snake eyes pour over passers-by
For the slightest indication of wealth
Where the burnt out shell of a mobile
Is home for a family of six
Where once there was seven
'Til a midnight dip in a concrete suit in the Styx changed that
Now daddy's in heaven
Where things that go up never come down
Where it's too sharp to be a dream
Where citizens count their curses
Pray for silence, turn, and then scream
Stop this city
I want to get off
Stop this city
I want to get off
Stop this city
I want to get off
Stop this city
I want to get off
Belisha beacons are like punchlines
To some long forgotten visual joke
Orange illuminating red paint peeling from buses
That make a bee-line for the smoke
Where the streets are paved with fools gold
And the health fanatics jog, cough and choke
Where rush hour turns to happy hour
Then back again before you've noticed it
And it's always returning to the same place
At the same time but you know you can't quit
The sugar hill where the money is
Where the two car family is made or broken
On the tube with Daily Mirror masks
Shielding those too scared to say...
Stop this city
I want to get off
Stop this city
I want to get off
Stop this city
I want to get off
Stop this city
I want to get off
Justine
Justine Justine
Phantom of the trail
I cast you as the love interest
An unwitting portrayal
If fate decrees reunion
Then how, where and when
A part of me was lost to you
For me to find again
I'm riding on the back of luck
Luck's an empty shirt
Lost my ring in a handshake
Those sharks know how to hurt
I hit the bottle
The bottle hit back hard
I played the joker
You played the winning card
Justine
On a bus or on a train
The heart rules the head
Leads me down a winding lane
I lost a dream in London Town
In Holland Park
Tears and a paper crown
Justine
Justine
I call you Justine
Sometimes you're in the country
MOstly in the town
On the Up-Escalator as I am going down
I never catch your name
So you're always called Justine
Always longed for fleeting beauty often seen
You are omnipresent
London, Paris, Rome
And in a way
Transience is your home
So it's a fond farewell
Maybe never more
on that sad independence day
I'll knock on wood and it will be your door
The Ballad of Cain
Eloquent, she would chatter in her sleep
The untended splinter sinks in deep
Betrayed a hole and corner secret
Let the cat out of her mouth
Subconscious confession
Resulting in her facing south
The beast lay between them
He picked a bloody bone
Stalemate, scissors, paper, stone
He beat her hands down
Cupid died from heartache
He blew out the candles as the gunsmoke made a snake
It would never stand up in court
They could shoot peas through his story
Thay say an alibi can be bought
But it won't save the day
Between the Devil and the deep blue sea
A prayer on the cuff of his shirt
In need of a miracle doctor
In need of a balm for the hurt
He left hope buried with his victim
In unmarked dirt
Days of wine and roses
Days of winter and thorn
He fingers spilt salt on the table
Thinking of something to say
Will throwing it over his shoulder keep the hangman away?
When he stood up in court
They shot peas through his story
The Vandal and the Saint
Shielding my eyes against the shatterlight dawn
As inviting as the wrong end of a gun
Reluctant farewells
Then a taxi ride back to the lonesome hotel
Sharing a room with the Butcher
Looking for her street on the map
I had half a mind to go back there
I had to choose between the vandal and the saint
She looked like a German film star
Dressed in limousine black
A dancer portraying a waitress
Both ballet and burlesque
I couldn't take my eyes off her
She said she liked the soft songs best
Oh, Elvira
A kiss for the vandal and the saint
I felt like butter on a knifes edge
In love with the handsome beast
And the line between life and stupid glory
That sets the wicked pace
I am serving a residency
Here with the Franfurt blues
The ghosts of conquests past
Walking in a dead man's shoes
I believe in the happy idiot
In the international free state
I believe in the truth behind the paint that roars
I believe in the vandal and the saint
Oh Elvira
Boats
A saxophone plays on the radio
Smokey notes echo these feelings
Is this your happy face?
Is this your sad face?
It's hard to tell
The magazine lies open on the floor
Your heart is a closed book
Give me carte blanche
To turn those pages
They're not as heavy as they seem
Now we're alone
The poolside is deserted
Four o'clock shadows have repaired to lonely rooms
The dumb waiters sing songs from the loveless hotel
It doesn't have to be that way
Pay the piper and cll the tune
Light shimmers on the surface of a pale blue pool
Paper moon cut into pieces
And scattered here
I set these boats to sail
They float to your side
They are made from pages torn from my soul
Please except these gifts
For tommorow we part
Tommorow we part
Tommorow we part
Tommorow we part
Slip the Rope
The gift, a hard taskmaster
Shakes me out of bed
All hands on deck but one hand's in my head
Pushing in pushing out
Hear the silent shout
Home is where the heart is
Though sometimes it bleeds
I would open a window but the air is too rare to breath
Breathing out breathing in
This oxygen is thin
Wrapped up in this envelope
Where is it to go?
Wherever it is
It's getting there
But the getting there is slow
Going out, coming in
This letter is my twin
I'll sleep on it tonight
Hope it will be alright
In the morning
If I seem so distant
It's because I'm getting close
Closer to this beating
Heart of the searchers ghost
Looking out looking in
Forgive this sin
If it is a sin
Slip the rope
Set adrift and sail away
Sail away
I'm not puttinq myself on a pedestal
Or in the egotist's high chair
It's just that sometimes you have to be selfish
In order to share
A slave to this runaway horse
I can't dismount
How can I explain this feeling inside
It's so hard to pin down
Compare it to the tide
Rolling out rolling in
Our ship will come in
One day our ship will come in
Our ship is coming in
Sleep on it tonight
Sleep on it tonight
Sleep on it tonight
Sleep on it tonight
