I am cold, distant, increasingly resistant to your smile
And this I don't deny
You are bold, beautiful, I'm always going to be in love with you
Amphetamines or none
You say - Give it to me straight
Well I already did
There isn't any more
And what pale fire I ever had is gone
But you don't want to hear that in a song
Music in a foreign language
Words that we don't understand
Melodies won't come between us
And even if you wanted - we can't sing along
La la la...
I heard a voice - resonant, born of Scandinavian descent
I didn't comprehend a single word, sentence
My stunted sensibility content
To listen without words
I'll try to give it to you straight
My heart is almost full - there's not a lot of space
And so forgive me if I'm less than awed
By your world weary twenty-six year old
Music in a foreign language
Words that we don't understand
Melodies won't come between us
And even if you wanted - we can't sing along
La la la...
You say I'm dry - a scientist
No mate for the lioness you are
Yes - I can hear you roar
Clearly you can see that I am bleeding
Clearly you can see my clothes are torn
Clearly this demands an explanation
Only I can offer none
My other life
Witnesses have placed me at the crime scene
Forensic evidence concurs
Samples taken from under my fingernails
Support the prosecution's case
My other life
Analysis has failed to find a motive
Hypnotists have failed to beak the code
Journalists are camped out on my doorstep
Perchance that I might slip and drop the key
My other life
Welcome to my made for TV movie
I look strangely placid on the stand
You can be the judge and you the jury
Consider please the allegations
My other life
I slip away to my other life
With no regret or remorse
Happy and gay in my other life
No need to wake me Monday morning
From my other life
Late Night, Early Town
Just another bunch of torn down college graduates
Trying to find a place to set down for a while
Too pumped up to fake it
Too belligerent to take it sitting down
Early town
Just another bunch of would be desperadoes
Failing to pace themselves against the grain
Strung out on semantics
Holiday Inn vigilantes
Late night, early town
Oh, Los Angeles
How do you sleep?
You seem so full of cocaine
and self belief
If I could get me some
I'd take it and I'd run
Oh, but it's just another
Late night, early town
Is t too late to be post modern lovers?
Is it too late to straighten out the show?
The sky is turning grey
and now the afterparty fades
We're coming down
on an early town
Oh, Los Angeles
How do you sleep?
You seem so full of cocaine
and self belief
If I could get me some
I'd take it and I'd run
Oh, but it's just another
Late night, early town
Late night, early town
Am I supposed to sleep
Here all alone?
Beneath the shadow of the minibar
With the promise of a Spectravision girl
A Spectravision girl
Oh, those Spectravision girls...
Cutting Out
Lying here between your progeny and your Visa card statement
Beside the coffee stained torn envelope
We took your facsimile and we pinned it to the wall
Here on the other side of the world
You call here when it's 3 AM and we hear music playing
You call here and you don't have time to talk
You call in on your cell phone but you're cutting out
Here on the other side of the world
You send in electronic mail transmissions
Dispatches from your colonies - your Commonwealth
But your syntax is distracted and your sideways happy face
Is not on the other side of the world
from the girl
with the starry eyes
and the easy smile
she's just sitting there
Could I stay a while?
Lying here between your progeny and your Visa card statement
Beside the coffee stained torn envelope
We took your facsimile and we pinned it to the wall
Here on the other side of the world
No More Love Songs
Rather than you, she said
I prefer solitude
Rather than company
I prefer cigarettes
Even Los Angeles
suffers occasionally
Do you have somewhere to stay?
But no more love songs
Not for me
I gave her whisky
and she gave me everything
There was a boy, she said
Beautiful, eloquent
He went to Spain
and where he went, she went
No Joan of Arc
She was broken, discarded
And that was a long time ago
Still, no more love songs
No more love songs
Still, you might as well live
I'll drink to harmony
Peace and disarmament
I'll dance the victory waltz
But no more love songs
No more
Today I'm Not So Sure
Didn't I promise always to
Shelter and protect you
Didn't I answer - Yes I do
Well, today I'm not so sure
Didn't the stars shine awful bright then
Didn't I look into your eyes and
Didn't I swear I'd always be there
Well, yeah, yeah, yeah
Today I'm not so sure
Today I'm not so sure
Wasn't the world much younger then
Isn't the word indifferent
Which best describes this man in descent
Caught between love
and what I meant
Didn't I promise always to
Shelter and protect you
Didn't I answer - Yes I do
Well, today I'm not so sure
Didn't the stars shine awful bright then
Didn't I look into your eyes and
Didn't I swear I'd always be there
Well, yeah, yeah, yeah
Today I'm not so sure
My Alibi
I'm freezing cold because I've been out all night
I guess I left without my coat
I just got to walking round and round your block
Very, very rock and roll
Remember when you said you're my best friend
If that's the best that I've got
And any time I needed anything
Well, I guess I need to cash that cheque
I guess I had another bright idea
Why don't I share it with you
I went right up and knocked on Trouble's door
And they said - Mister, we've been waiting for you
Could you be my alibi
Could you drive my getaway car?
Get me out of jail free
Baby, you and me?
I'm freezing cold because I've been out all night
I guess I left without my coat
I just got to walking round and round your block
Very, very rock and roll
Could you be my alibi
Could you drive my getaway car?
Get me out of jail free
Baby, you and me?
People Ain't No Good
lyrics by Nick Cave
Brazil
I hear they have the good drugs in Brazil
Maybe I'll take some
Maybe I'll feel better if I do
In Brazil
I hear they're pretty laissez-faire down there
But me I'm so uptight
Taken unaware - well, I just might
In Brazil
I hear they have the good drugs in Brazil
Maybe I'll take some
Maybe I'll feel better if I do
In Brazil
Shelf Life
I am consumed by delusions of grandeur
I'm fallen prey to the beautiful girl
I have seen romance in the obvious quarters
And I have painted myself into that world
I have constructed my own personal Babel
But many passages remain out of print
Leaving me in an unresolved sentence
Without an idea of where it went
I have developed an unnatural candour
In contradiction to all I hold dear
I think of myself as tall and silent
This little voice is all that I hear
Now the night's drawing in
I'm your unworthy friend
At the untimely end of a lifetime
Thinking I might hold on to my first marriage
I learned the language of the self obsessed
It was only later at the post-grad parties
That it rewarded me with great success
No longer waiting for my prayers to be answered
No longer waiting for my publisher's call
No longer charming in my reminiscence
Only immersed in a faint afterglow
Now the night's drawing in
I'm your unworthy friend
At the ungodly end of a lifetime
ClaireFontaine
ClaireFontaine
French film paper girl
Crying on a sunny day
ClaireFontaine
Even continents drift apart
And fade away
18th century boy
Could never never dream
Colours could fade away
Into volcanic ash
Just sitting on a sunny day
ClaireFontaine
French paper girl
Sitting on a sunny day