1. Hanging By Strands

I march with you beating 2-4 time
You want me to waltz but it don't feel right
So why do I continue?

Well who said love was an arm-chair ride?
Tip me forward and let me slide
But there's no malice in you
Though it sometimes gets too hard to tell...

I couldn't believe you weren't putting me on
Cos how could I make all your demons gone?
Though the heaven's blue and it's vaulted wide
And every breath you take takes mine
You gotta see that it's no good leaving it up to me
To make you happy...

I couldn't guarantee that I wouldn't do wrong
Not sure what it is I'd be saving you from
Though the heaven's blue and it's vaulted wide
And every breath you take takes mine
You gotta see that it's no good leaving it up to me
To make you happy.

I drink with you and it all tastes fine
Say I'll be yours as long as you'll be mine
I give you clouds to cling to

And I dance with you beating 2-4 time
You want me to waltz but it don't feel right
So why do I continue?

It simply gets too hard to tell.
It simply gets too hard to tell.
It simply gets too hard to tell...



2. Bonfire

Why go counting up to ninety-nine mistakes?
Fate is set on rails 'cos one is all it takes
Something like desire but I can't find its name
I can't find its name
But while my heart outpaces words
Let this bonfire burn

Once your eyes were diamonds on a summer's day
Autumn had them grounded up and blown away
Former lovers lining up to pile disdain
How they pile disdain
With single-digit I.Q. words
Let this bonfire burn

Panaceas are pouring out and so few doubt their healing
Can't speak loud enough
Loud enough
Cancer deafens them

Take no notice what the self-appointed say
Most of them have foundered counteracting age
Set the kindling five miles high and watch it blaze
God's not out of range
Rhyme and reason undeterred
Let this bonfire burn



3. Sky-Blue Window

Sun come up
Quite vile and aimless
If a pilot in his cockpit over the earth
Could wipe out all the refuse of the world
Then he'd take my life cos nothing's all it's worth

I'm done with fighting words
It all looks hopeless down on paper
But where I'd be I wonder if you'd stayed
I still recall the offer being made
Sometimes wish it had been more overstated, overstated

Oh stay on for a little longer
These dark days will soon be gone
I'll be all right - I just need longer

God amputates
In lieu of payment
Not one in five walks upright to his grave
We break down that much further every day
He grinds us all away

And any time that I got desperate
I tried to track you down - I always fail
You vanished like a dew-drop onto a lake
It sometimes seems like the best things all get taken

Oh stay on for a little longer
These dark days will soon be gone
I'll be all right I just need longer

Debt collectors, letters, social do-gooders all come around
Strung out on this rack of ruin
Take whatever bits of me remain
Take whatever bits of me remain

On and on the Sun shines like a Cyclops, blast his eye
And stained glass windows lie
That the sky is blue
When it's always grey



4. Jailhouse 4 AM

It's four in the morning
The dogs in despondency all slip their moorings
Inside their heads they hear infernal choirs go diving and soaring
They're hoping to drift on the wide blue waters
To drift on the wide blue waters
To drift on the wide blue waters of dreaming

He bails up his conscience - it backs up
He panics when it rattles its sabre
He bribes it with drinks
It says, "Okay, but arsehole, I'll deal with you later!"
And everyone drifts on the wide blue waters.
They drift on the wide blue waters
They drift on the wide blue waters of dreaming

Money that itches inside
Pucker and kiss it good-bye
The barman ventures a smile
"Hey, do you want a new mountain to climb?
I just might've made one your size."



5. Feather Fell

When the feather fell it knocked me down
I couldn't feel much older
Then you got the gall
You call me up you tell me nothing's altered
And you can't think why
I'm not gonna stay and watch what's left of this thing fail

God you amaze me
If it takes forever I don't care
If the penny hasn't dropped by then

Part of getting old you learn to walk before you end up crawling
But I was so messed up I grabbed whatever floated on the water
Done in the eye
And you think that somehow this should not get in the way

God you amaze me
If it takes forever I don't care
There's only so far backwards I could bend
I gave you a garden then you laid it all to waste

God you amaze me
If it takes forever I don't care
If the penny hasn't dropped by then
When the feather fell it knocked me down
I couldn't feel much older...



6. Perfect Day

Caught in a spiral
Nothing I can do for it
Degrading survival
Is all there is left

To an up-country mile
I banish my too-full head
If it's only denial
Then I'll murder it yet

Guess what it means
Guess what it means
Maybe I'm falling
Maybe I'm falling in love with you
It's like a perfect day
Dear God don't louse it up
So strange, my rain clouds have all dried up
They don't dare show their faces

The pressure was minor
But I've never felt so hard-pressed
A gentle reminder
Of how burdened you get

To an up-country mile
I banish my too-full head
When you end where you started
Then you gotta address

Just what it means
Guess what it means
Maybe I'm falling
Maybe I'm falling in love with you
It's like a perfect day
Dear god don't louse it up
So strange, my rain clouds have all dried up
They don't dare show their faces

Started out a perfect day
Started out a perfect day
Started out a perfect day
Simply appalling day
Simply appalling day
Simply appalling day



7. When I Fall

Catching me when I fall
Always hoped you'd be there for me in time
Perhaps if all the planets come into line
And should I know unless I'm totally blind
I've been wasting all this time
Trying to force what ought to be easy

Seems I'm forever waiting for you to make up your mind
Will you finally inform me?
I'm burning up with sheer frustration
Oh, telephone!

I'll be your waterboy
I'll be almost anything you design
Strictly up the middle, straight down the line
I've pleaded once if not a hundred times
You still waver, I go "Fine"
You dig this hole then you climb inside.

Seems I'm forever waiting for you to make up your mind
Will you finally inform me?
You've got a standing invitation
Oh, telephone!

I'll still be waiting, calmly anticipating
Your deep sea swell, will it hold me up or will it roll me under
Catching me when I fall?
I guess I've fallen...



8. Uncle Big Jaw's Late-Night Farewell

So I'll say goodnight and I'll be gone
If I'm in love
If I'm drunk and under the table
Then it's all bought and paid for with painful
Circles on the carousel

Miss Aphrodite walks on in and blows a golden trumpet
You better put your best foot forward or you may go under
Slung out on love's own skid row
Hey buddy can you spare me a few...
No I don't think so

...Ignore me I'm unstable
My usual behaviour
When it stops I might as well
Let all the scandal mongers starve to death with no compassion

I got the liable and the joke is on the one who's laughing
Ten out of ten times I know
What they'll probably be saying of me is inconsequential
So I'll say goodnight and I'll be gone
If I'm in love
Well ten out of ten times I won't say



9. Dunderhead

Heave away tote that lode
Indulge all your feeble antidotes
Grieve no more, feel the poison's course quicken
The fly yells up to the spider
"You won't take me alive"

Dunderhead in a mirrored cell
In vain, blows his mind to save himself
What a wreck, wish he weren't so hard driven
The fly yells up to the spider
"You won't take me alive"

Herculean thrash and burn
The very juice of life in return
Wounded on the run
Wounded on the run
Prey to airborne netters
Condescended in all respects just plain dumb



10. Dawdling on the Bridge

Fending off bouts of rage, letting my boredom yawn
Living out rainy days in no hurry to report home
Stars above won't help me none
Sailing on air
Sailing on air, with the things I should've said
Left stranded on the tip of my tongue

Getting caught in a shower
Feeling sicker by the hour
It's like wading in Valium

Minus ten going down
My aspirations were groundless
So why did I wait so long?

You cut me wide open
It was so unpredictable
It's grinding me down, grinding me down...

Mountains of mounds I've made
Nothing unusual
Nothing too dangerous
Nothing new to report home
Stars above, make fools of us
But today I don't care
Today I don't care
It's as if I were deaf to all your calls and the beat of your drum

Here in darkness surrounded
No-one's making a sound
And my heart's in a maelstrom
Dragging memories round
We have to live like clowns
Happy faces are painted on

Sooner or later
Love's gonna change it all
Why can't it be now
Can't it be now, can't it be now, can't it be now?

Feel the dark night with its cold eyes
It'll take more than this to finish me I know...



11. Writing on the Wall

Ain't no doubt, ain't no doubt about it I'm in love forever
It came about, came about I don't care how or
Who pulls the levers
Any day I might with bloodshot eyes
A frightened child awake from dreaming
So what! Do you want me to be sad and depressed
About it all?
It's just the writing on the wall

You came around to buoy me up or bum me out
I don't remember
Lay on down, grass heads swayed, above my head
The blue of heaven
I'm better now, each time I fall apart
I pull myself together
Ends up, in all honesty if they don't give a penny
For your thoughts
I guess the writing's on the wall

Don't say it's over
Don't say it's over
I'd be overwhelmed
Truth to tell there's not much else
Was there ever?

Sad old town, mercy-drowning rain
Might end it - who would ever take my side?
Take my side well I'll take yours,
Move earth to heaven
Today I might with bloodshot eyes
So what! Who's gonna guarantee
Just what the future's got in store?
Looks like the writing on the wall
I guess the writing's on the wall
Close up my eyes and carry on.



12. Reasons For Leaving

Sharp as a pinstripe
He grins like a leach upon a whale
But don't take the trouble
His double's completely off the rails

His anger creeps like cancer
Don't you know defiance only feeds it?
Seems you ain't got a leg to stand on,
You ain't got a leg to stand on anymore
There's no point hanging around here
There's no point hanging around here anymore

He plots like the devil
He levels most everything you do
Takes all the glory
And puts all the garbage down to you

And while he's claiming sainthood
You alone knows what lies underneath it
But you ain't got a leg to stand on
You ain't got a leg to stand on anymore
There's no point hanging round here
While ignorance is nine-tenths of the law

Yes and I saw it coming
I saw the whole sordid thing unfold
I stayed for all I could
I stayed for all I could
In the vain hope that time was gonna stand still

You can paint by numbers
'Til you're in some corner no-one reaches
When you don't have a leg to stand on
You don't have a leg to stand on anymore
I won't be hanging around here
I won't be around to pick you off the floor.



13. Coming Back to You

Well maybe I'm not as bright as I seem to be but
Not one of six million lines I've been through
Strikes the right sort of tone; I feel stone cold and uneasy
Like a fire burning low, a feeble glow, hardly breathing

The same thing most every night here greets you
Oppressive heat, insects bite
And I seem to fall behind
On the one thing I thought was worth achieving
And I swore blind and dumb before I'd jump I'd break even

What I'm looking for I don't know
What I'm looking for I don't know
What I'm looking for I don't know
But I've got nothing to show for it,
I've got nothing to show for it
And I keep falling down - I can't get up
I'm aching more each day I find myself
Counting down my love coming back to you.

Let the still of the night come sweep you
And simply let caution slide
While I drink to all the times
When I was but one day west of Eden
With a song in my heart and that was all I needed.

What I'm looking for I don't know
What I'm looking for I don't know
What I'm looking for I don't know
But I've got nothing to show for it,
I've got nothing to show for it
And I keep falling down - I can't get up
I'm aching more each day I find myself
Counting down my love coming back to you.