Choose the track to display lyrics.
I choose my friends only far too well
I'm up on the pavement they're all down in the cellar
with their government grants and my IQ
They brought me down to size academia blues
Louise is a girl I know her well
She's up on the pavement yes she's a weather girl
And I'm staying up here so I may be undone
She's inappropriate but then she's much more fun and
When she smiles my way
My eyes go out in vain
She's got perfect skin
Shame on you you've got no sense of grace Shame on me just in case I might
Come to a conclusion other than that which is absolutely necessary
and that's perfect skin
Louise is the girl with the perfect skin
She says turn on the light otherwise it can't be seen
She's got cheekbones like geometry and eyes like sin
And she's sexually enlightened by Cosmopolitan and
When she smiles my way
My eyes go out in vain
for her perfect skin
Yeah that's perfect skin
She takes me down to the basement to look at her slides
of her family life pretty weird at times
At the age of ten she looked like Greta Garbo and I loved her then
But how was she to know that
When she smiles my way
My eyes go out in vain
She's got perfect skin
Up eight flights of stairs to a basement flat
Pretty confused huh being shipped around like that?
Seems we climbed so high now we're down so low
Strikes me the moral of this song must be there never has been one.
Julie said we're drinking far too much coffee
wine and cigarettes and we'll never get no sleep
I first met them at a riverboat party
both of them were speeding I would say
I lived on the edge of all this indulgence
taking notes and trusting in prudence
Julie said to Jim why don't we jump in
while the water is cool and we are still friends
Some say that they o.d.'d on Leonard Cohen
Well, I can see that river whenever I think about them
The river is cruel and the water is deep and blue
I was working then on my great unfinished novel
Please let me introduce myself my name is Ronald
I was okay there until I lost my cool
Now let me introduce you to the rest of the crew
It wasn't my style to find surf in my eye
It was much more my style to find sand in my eye
Though there is absolutely no truth to be discovered
Albeit true that there is nothing to be found
We academics are not easily discouraged
Lord, you know wits they come three to the pound
Julie said to Jim look at the state we're in
It was never her intention to conclude anything
It wasn't my style to find surf in my eye
It was much more my style to find sand in my eye
It was just not my style to find surf in my eye
It was much more my style to get sand kicked in my eye
Sand in my eye...
Jodie wears a hat although it hasn't rained for six days
She says a girl needs a gun these days
Hey, on account of all the rattlesnakes
She looks like Eva Marie Saint in On the Waterfront
She reads Simone de Beauvoir in her American circumstance
She is less than sure if her heart has come to stay in San Jose
And her neverborn child still haunts her
As she speeds down the freeway
As she tries her luck with the traffic police
out of boredom more than spite
She never finds no trouble she tries too hard
She's obvious despite herself
She looks like Eva Marie Saint in On the Waterfront
She says all she needs is therapy yeh all you need is love is all you need
Jodie never sleeps because there are always needles in the hay
She says that a girl needs a gun these days
Hey, on account of all the rattlesnakes
She looks like Eva Marie Saint in On the Waterfront
As she reads Simone de Beauvoir in her American circumstance
Her heart.. her heart is like crazy paving
Upside down and back to front
She says ”Ooh it's so hard to love
when love was your great disappointment.”
Some say that you may soon be leaving town
Do you tire of chasing all the women around?
Will you never be contented with your life
Will you always be the one who won't think twice?
When you go down on your knees
You're so hard to please
When you go down on your knees
You're so hard down on Mission Street
God only knows how you can hurt her
When you know that's what you do
How does it feel to be so cruel?
Will you never be contented with your life
Will you always be the one who won't look back?
When you go down on your knees
You're so hard to please
When you go down on your knees
It feels like up down on Mission Street
Julie said your eyes are blue
Your lips are cold as stone
She picked you up and you put her down
And messed her place around
Will you never be contented with your life
Will you always be the one who won't think twice?
When you go down on your knees
You're so hard to please
When you go down on your knees
You're so hard down on Mission Street
When you go down on your knees
You're so hard to please
When you go down on your knees
It feels like up down on Mission Street
She crossed herself as she put on her things
She has promised once before not to live this way
If she don't calm down she will burn herself out
Like a forest fire well doesn't that make you smile
If you don't slow down I swear that I'll come round
and mess up your place let's go for a spin
They say we shouldn't even know each other
and that we'll be undone
Don't it make you smile like a forest fire
I believe in love.. I'll believe in anything
That's going to get me what I want and get me off my knees
And then we'll burn your house down
Don't it feel so good?
There's a forest fire every time we get together
We're going to pick you up - put you down
rip you up and spin you round
Just like we said we would
Because we're a forest fire
Believe we be - We'll tear this place down
If we get caught in this wind then we could burn the ocean
If we get caught in this scene we're going to be undone
It's just a simple metaphor it's for a burning love
Don't it make you smile like a forest fire?
I was looking for a rhyme for the New York Times
when I sensed I was not alone
She said "do you know how to spell audaciously?"
I could tell I was in love
And so I forced a smile contrary to my style
and she looked into my eyes
She said "do you want to go heaven
or would you rather not be saved?"
Here comes my train
I'm on my way
Will you not see
I don't need your sympathy
I won't read your poetry
Oh, Sweetness please
So she took me back to her basement flat
which was down on Charlotte Street
Though it was never my intention
No, we were not intense not least because
"Well, if you must just take then I'm a piece of cake"
That is what she said to me
And so I gave myself to her charity
Well, at least that's how it seemed
Here comes my train
I'm on my way
Will you not see
I don't need your sympathy
I won't read your poetry
Oh, bittersweets
I was looking for a rhyme for the New York Times when I was distracted
Yes, those were precious times together that we wasted
Now I'm working hard for my union card
I must be leaving Charlotte Street
Though it was never my intention to stay so long
So long
She drove her mother's car it was a 2CV
I was most impressed by her casual dress
I was most impressed
Inside a rented room coloured deepest blue
I suppose we found some kind of happiness
To fill the emptiness
We were simply wasting precious time
Hiding from the cruelest summer sky
She took her mother's car to get away from me
Heaven knows that I.. I can sympathize
Oh, I can sympathize
For we were never close if the truth were told
All we ever shared was a taste in clothes
No, we were never close
We were simply losing everything
Underneath the cruelest London sun
We were simply wasting precious time
We were simply wasting precious time
We were simply wasting precious time
I was woken up at 4 AM by your screams and anguished cries
Your mother was singing in the bathroom
He will never be my child
Oh, baby talks in her sleep so loud
We're living four flights up but I swear right now it feels like underground
You have absolutely no common sense yes I know that's your charm
You spend the whole day on the phone you say well it helps you stay calm
You cling to my arm yes I know that's your charm
And when I ask you what you want you say a diamonte crocodile
Well then could you give me some peace you say Well maybe for a while
Sometimes you know you could almost be a child
Oh, must you tell me all your secrets
When it's hard enough to love you knowing nothing
We're living four flights up but I swear right now it feels like underground
You are your own worst enemy
So don't expect my sympathy
Oh, go back to your mother's house
And cry your little heart out
You came driving back to town in a beat up Grace Kelly car
Looking like a friend of Truman Capote looking exactly like you are
Yes, I know that's your charm
So don't ask if I still want you only ask me if I must
I've been blown around so long don't know which senses to trust
Oh no.. but I know that I must
Oh, must you tell me all your secrets
When it's hard enough to love you knowing nothing
We're living four flights up but I swear right now it feels like underground
Early in the morning just by the break of day
That's when my Patience went away
She took her bags but she left all her clothes
She took her keys and left me out in the cold
Wearing a plastic coat
And the pressures of life
Through lack of Patience
I get the pressures of love
Patience is a girl that I hate to love the way I do.. but I do
She wakes me up in the morning through screaming in my dreams
She took her bags but she left all her clothes
She took her keys and left me out in the cold
All because of Patience
I get the pressures of life
Through lack of Patience
I get the pressures of love
She beat me up and left me out in the pouring rain
Without no keys without no reason to go back again
She left me empty-handed she left me empty-hearted
Not no money not nothing but the blues
All because of Patience
I get the pressures of life
Through lack of Patience
I get the pressures of love
She said the one thing that she needs is happiness
I don't believe that she's happy until she sees that I'm in distress
No.. All because of Patience
I get the pressures of life
Through lack of Patience
I get the pressures of love
...and I swoon
Looking like a born again
Living like a heretic
Listening to Arthur Lee records
Making all your friends feel so guilty
about their cynicism
And the rest of their generation
Not even the government are going to stop you now
But are you ready to be heartbroken?
Are you ready to be heartbroken?
Pumped up full of vitamins
On account of all the seriousness
You say you're so happy now
you can hardly stand
Lean over on the bookcase
If you really want to get straight
Read Norman Mailer
Or get a new tailor
Are you ready to be heartbroken?
Are you ready to be heartbroken?
Are you ready to bleed?
What would it take
What would it take to wipe that smile off of your face?
Are you ready to be..
Are you ready to bleed?
