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Lucky |
He met the world as a Dalkeith boy
Raised from a shaft at Monktonhall
In a well oiled cage
That locked away his dreams
An '85 veteran face from the gallery
A ghost from the civil war in the family
He stood his ground on the picketline
'Til all that he was left with
Were his father's cough
And his mother's eyes
That would hold a tear
For the very first time
When the government took his job away
Now fist in hand he'll stand in line
Declare his name and mark his time
To some the only proof that they're alive
He could have been you
He could have been me
He could have been anybody
But he was born lucky
He made his first down payment
On a sharp Italian suit
He sewed razor blades into the lapels
See him sweating on the dance floor
Cool dust oozing out of every pore
A hard man with a hard life
And that's a story that he'll tell you
Down at Easter Road till his throat is raw
On a Saturday, he knows the score
Till the whistle blows and
The colours with their tempers fade away
He could have been you
He could have been me
He could have been anybody
But he was born lucky
On the helipads at Aberdeen
Bound for platforms drilling oil rich seas
Where the trawlers are getting fewer every year
By the furnaces at Ravenscraig
By the padlocks holding John Brown's gates
In the desert, in the fields of South Armagh
Where the poppies grow
Behind the Hampden roar
Behind the drums in Genoa
On the deck that rides a South Atlantic swell
Born to figh tout of the tightest corner
You can bet on him with the odds against you
They'll not put him down
No matter how they try
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Internal exile |
Tattoo Shop
Hi, Doc
Hey Fish, what are you doin'?
If you don't mind we're gonna record this
Is that cool?
Oh, that's cooler'n hell
Hell yeah, 52's biggest dream man
You know his biggest dream was
Me and him go party with you
On the trail of torn out twisters
Two angels on a mission came
Dust devils danced before them
In the path of the hurricane
On the road to Oklahoma
Through the flatlands from L.A.
From the shadows in the valley
From a country where the lizards play
While they drove they kept the radio on
Why don't you sing along, sing along, sing along?
Tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, tattoo
Tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, Brother 52
Tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, tattoo
Tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, Brother 52
I don't think so
A man stands behind his shadow
A man stands behind his words
These men are together with family
To defend their rights in another man's world
Most people stood against them
Most people disagreed
With the need for all those weapons
In our safe, secure society
Paint the words and the pictures on another man's skin
We are lovers, warriors, magician kings
Brother 52
Tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, tattoo
Tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, Brother 52
Tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, tattoo
Tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, Brother 52
Tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, tattoo
Tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, Brother 52
Well, I don't think so, don't think so
Fuckin' brilliant, man
Okay, here's what happened
52 barred the door shut from the inside
A gunfight started on the front porch
52 shot back
You know they come into his home with it
So he's protecting himself
The guy inside the house blew his brains out
Yeah, they made it look like he killed himself
But no one believes he would
'Cause he's not that kind of man, that's all
I think, he wasn't afraid of death
You know, he believed in something to die for
That's what he did
Some say he had it coming
Others say he was sole to blame
But who says they've got the rights
If any at all to blow the brothers away
A man got a right to wonder
A man got a right to dream
Without looking over his shoulder
To choose the manner of the life he leads
One man's thoughts on another man's skin
We are lovers, warriors, magician kings
Brother 52
Tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, tattoo
Tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, Brother 52
Well, I don't think so
Tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, tattoo
Tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, Brother 52
We don't think so
Tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, tattoo
Tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, Brother 52
I don't think so
What they have done
Was they've come in and murdered him
For his bombs and his ammunition
Just like that Waco Texas
Or any of these other things
Over here in the United States
Anybody that's stockpiling firearms and ammunitions
Is a threat to the government
So the government wages war against us
They tortured him, he went out
But I'm sure he stood up
Like he was supposed to, you know?
They smashed all the rings
Shut on his fingers with a hammer
It was all an orchestrated plan, man
The more the closer I was getting to it to the truth
The more they got everybody looking at me
As being the guy that pulled the trigger
And what they did when they killed 52
Is they broke the whole family up
That's exactly what they wanted to do
They wanted to break all of us up
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Kayleigh |
Do you remember chalk hearts melting on a playground wall
Do you remember dawn escapes from moon washed college hall
s Do you remember the cherry blossom in the market square
Do you remember I thought it was confetti in our hair
By the way didn't I break your heart?
Please excuse me, I never meant to break your heart
So sorry, I never meant to break your heart
But you broke mine
Kayleigh is it too late to say I'm sorry?
And Kayleigh could we get it together again?
I just can't go on pretending that it came to a natural end
Kayleigh, oh I never thought I'd miss you
And Kayleigh I thought that we'd always be friends
We said our love would last forever
So how did it come to this bitter end?
Do you remember barefoot on the lawn with shooting stars
Do you remember loving on the floor in Belsize Park
Do you remember dancing in stilettoes in the snow
Do you remember you never understood I had to go
By the way, didn't I break your heart
Please excuse me, I never meant to break your heart
So sorry, I never meant to break your heart
But you broke mine
Kayleigh I just wanna say I'm sorry
But Kayleigh I'm too scared to pick up the phone
To hear you've found another lover to patch up our broken home
Kayleigh I'm still trying to write that love song
Kayleigh it's more important to me now you're gone
Maybe it will prove that we were right
Or ever prove that I was wrong
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Fortunes of war |
Rosebuds scattered across the lawn like the squares at Waterloo
With bayonets of thorns repelling small children in search of lost tennis balls
Imaginary cannonballs that were fired at the legs of galloping cavalry
Resting their dreams in the shade of the apple trees
Toy soldiers drunk on warm lemonade
And the children dream of glory and Fortunes of War
Safe in bed with stories of Fortunes of War, Fortunes of War
As the sun sets low on these playing fields
An army returns bearing swords and shields
Dustbin lids and raspberry canes they'll live to fight another day
For warriors medals, milk bottle tops
Battle flags fashioned from mother's old table cloths
Bright colours run in the summer rain
Sometimes when they fall they will pretend that their hankie is a bandage to stop the bleeding
And imagine city streets and desert storms and foreign fields
There's bullets flying, these are the Fortunes of War
I heard a wheelchair whisper across a stale, stagnant gymnasium
Trailing an ivy league jacket like a matador
Through the jitterbug steps of the night before
I followed him down to the church parade
Where he makes his peace every armistice day
I watched him fade away, melt in the autumn rain
For sometimes when they fall they can't pretend
That the hankie is a bandage that can't stop the bleeding
They're out in city streets and desert storms or foreign fields
With bullets flying, these are the Fortunes of War
While their children dream of glory and Fortunes of War
Safe in bed with stories and Fortunes of War
Of uniforms and glory, Fortunes of War, Fortunes of War
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Dear friend |
Dear friend, it's been a long, long while
I've been meaning to write you
But it was never my style
But what is these days now I'm a family man.
Do you blow sincere kisses to mistresses
Secrets in afternoons?
Do you wear your disguises, feign the surprises,
At the questions she asks when she dares to accuse?
Does your past lie under a dustsheet,
In the corner of a musty garage?
That's where I keep mine, now I'm a family man.
Are your horses still running when
The bookies shop close?
Is the band still together, did you ever
Get on the road?
We chased the same women, we drank
The same beer.
We came as a pair when we ran around here
How are you these days, now you're a family man?
Buy a drink for the boy in my place
At the end of the bar
Give my regards to Nina, slam a tequila,
I'll write you at Christmas or I'll send you a card,
And if you pass by you're welcome to drop in
And see me 'cause it's unlikely
I'll be round your way, 'cause I'm happy to be,
Where I am, living life as a family man
Do you still have your leathers,
Or did you give them away?
Do you still dream of Joni and sidewalk cafes?
Is your Norton still running, is the old man still alive?
Do you still get to Dalkeith, is your rent still as high?
But I suppose you've a mortgage, now you're a family man.
Dear friend, it's been a long, long while
I've been meaning to write you,
But it was never my style.
But what is these days, now I'm a family man.
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Sugar mice |
I was flicking through the channels on the TV
On a Sunday in Milwaukee in the rain
Trying to piece together conversations
Trying to find out where to lay the blame
But when it comes right down to it there's no use trying to pretend
For when it gets right down to it there's no one here that's left to blame
Blame it on me, you can blame it on me
We're just sugar mice in the rain
I heard Sinatra calling me through the floorboards
Where you pay a quarter for a partnership in rhyme
To the jukebox crying in the corner
While the waitress is counting out the time
For when it comes right down to it there's no use trying to pretend
For when it gets right down to it there's no one really left to blame
Blame it on me, you can blame it on me
We're just sugar mice in the rain
'Cos I know what I feel, know what I want I know what I am
Daddy took a raincheck
' Cos I know what I want, know what I feel I know what I need
Daddy took a raincheck, your daddy took a raincheck
Ain't no one in here that's left to blame but me
Blame it on me, blame it on me
Well the toughest thing that I ever did was talk to the kids on the phone
When I heard them asking questions I knew that you were all alone
Can't you understand that the government left me out of work
I just couldn't stand the looks on their faces saying, "What a jerk"
So if you want my address it's number one at the end of the bar
Where I sit with the broken angels clutching at straws and nursing our scars
Blame it on me, blame it on me,
Sugar mice in the rain, your daddy took a raincheck
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Somebody special |
She's got a photograph of David Bowie
In a Victorian hand made frame
Signed backstage by a roadie in his name
She's got hemingway in her bedside table
And a pistol under a pillow beside her head
The bullets round her neck
She wants to wear suits
A cocktail waitress smokes gauloises blondes
She's been taking tips from tables for too long
She drinks frozen stolichnaya
She likes powders from Peru
She don't like no one to tell her what to do
She wants to be somebody, be somebody, be somebody, somebody special
She wants to be somebody, be somebody, be somebody, somebody special
She wants to wear suits
She's got a nasty reputation as a cruel dude
She likes japanese movies, she likes chinese food
She's got handmade patent leather shoes riding on her feet
She knows the lifestyle that she wants and she's willing to compete
She wants to be somebody, be somebody, be somebody, somebody special
She wants to be somebody, be somebody, be somebody, somebody special
She wants to wear suits
She put her mind to the classroom but outside
She learned more from giving head
She gave her innocence to someone that she once considered a close friend
She gave her hand to the quarterback on loan to the local football team
He gave his world as security, his heart as deposit on the dream
But, she wants to wear suits
She wants to be somebody, be somebody, be somebody, somebody special
She wants to be somebody, be somebody, be somebody, somebody special
She wants to wear suits
She's got a wedding ring
That's Cartier as far as you can tell
She threw it down the local wishing well
She'd lost it in the kitchen sink
Or in a desert motel room
The insurance claim just couldn't come too soon
She wants to be somebody, be somebody, be somebody, somebody special
She wants to be somebody, be somebody, be somebody, somebody special
She's somebody special
Do you want to be somebody special
Could you be somebody special
Somebody special
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Jumpsuit city |
All the way from Bucharest your skin crawled on the way to Hollywood
Through a whole in the wall
You saw the free world trading in bones
There's a guardian angel at the window
Staring at the corner
She's nowhere to go
She's in the free world trading her bones
Chorus
But if your mother didn't like it she don't need to know
As long as your sending the money home
What happened to the body of the child she bore
Answers on a postcard from Jumpsuit City
Sprayed by a moonbeam through the Linden leaves
Cast in a shadow in anonymity
He found the free world and sucked on their bones
Performing for animals he's dressed to thrill
High on a pedestal see the surgeon's skill
He lets the free world feast on his bones
Chorus
Behind the curtains there's a sanctuary
For the businessman and the refugee
This is the free world and they trade with their bones
A dead flower from a buttonhole
Lies in the gutter with a million souls
It's the free world, and they're only trading in bones
Chorus
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Lady let it lie |
You should have listened to what your mother said
You should have listened to what your father told you to do
But you always did just what you always wanted to do
Now you end up here singing in a gilded cage
And for half your life you were wishing you were half your age
Lady let it lie
It's hard putting down your family roots when you're living in
A mobile home, but there's always blood even in a rolling stone
You squeezed me hard for the white collar dream
But you woke up to a tie dye lifestyle and its choking me
Lady let it lie
All the boys want to be all the girls want to be all the boys
I don't want to be me no more
All the boys want to be all the girls in this turnaround world
I don't want to be me no more
They once said I was a rising star declaring me a bright contender
When it all worked out I was just a pretender
I could never disagree if you said you were dissatisfied
But why you got to take it out on a guy that tried
But surely there's something left, something worth fighting for
Something out of all this mess that's worth building on
Maybe we can start again, maybe give it one more try
Or do we just walk away, and maybe fade and die
All the boys want to be all the girls want to be all the boys
I don't want to be me no more
All the boys want to be all the girls in this turnaround world
I don't want to be me no more
I don't want to be me no more
Me no more
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