THE CRASH OF ANGEL WINGS

Here she comes like rumbling drums
swinging her skirts and talking in spurts
sailing high in her ship of the sky
being found broken on the ground
but when she sings I hear the crash of angel wings
When she sings I hear the crash of wings
On Sundays she walks on cut glass and rocks
On Monday she falls from the sheerest of walls
On Tuesday she screams black words in her dreams
On Friday she lies and a part of her dies
but when she sings I hear the crash of angel wings
When she sings I hear the crash of wings
Here she comes like rumbling drums
She’s swinging her skirts, she’s talking in spurts
Now she’s reading my books,
now she’s giving me looks
as she slips and sways through murmering days
and when she sings I hear the crash of angel wings
When she sings I hear the crash of angel wings
When she sings I hear the crash of wings
Here she comes like rumbling drums
Here she comes like rumbling drums
like rumbling drums

LOVE WILL SHOOT YOU DOWN

Ain’t you hard to beat after all this time,
still standing on your feet somehow,
way beyond your prime?
Well, love will shoot you down, will shoot you down
Love will shoot you down, will shoot you down
You believe you were The One but it was only grace
and when your hour is done and somebody
takes your place
love will shoot you down, will shoot you down
Love will shoot you down, will shoot you down
Time, old Time, King Time is moving back and forth
like a backlit dancer on a pale white horse
On a mad racecourse in a hungry land
you will be forced to play your secret hand
and love will shoot you down, will shoot you down
Love will shoot you down, will shoot you down
Fate is driving like a vigilante through the crowd,
hot coals on his feet, bullets on his brow
Power will spit you out, grief will leave you stunned
A camera will pick you out, a thief will cock the gun
and love will shoot you down, will shoot you down
Love will shoot you down, will shoot you down
Time, old Time, King Time is moving back and forth
like a backlit dancer on a pale white horse

NOBODY’S BABY ANYMORE

Once I was cherished, treasured as a prize
Guardian angels flew upside my head,
peacocks danced behind my eyes
A brass band played a serenade on my parade,
my splendour was adored
Now I’m nobody’s baby anymore
I’ve stepped out on highways that were
studded with jewels
I rode into the City of Kings
on the back of a mule
I kissed riches, strode tall in my britches,
I knew esprit de corps
Now I’m nobody’s baby anymore
I’ve had love and I’ve had love
too much or not enough
Both the famine and the feast
have gone to make my beast
I went to the river and I sucked the river dry
I swallowed Eden whole,
I rolled and smoked the sky
drank my skinful, slaked my thirst,
from shore to barren shore
Now I’m nobody’s baby anymore

STRANGE ARRANGEMENT

It’s a strange arrangement
I don’t claim to understand it
I know I created it
but I never planned it
It’s a strange arrangement
and I’m not proud
Well perhaps a little ashamed
if ashamed is allowed
At the death of the year, in a crucial hour
I exchanged the power of love for the love of power
The invisible captain must be laughing out loud
I feel as if I’m wrapped inside a cloud within a cloud
It’s a strange arrangement
and it’s fascinating to see
which way the worm turns
especially when the worm is me
Runaway child I wish you were here
The weather is uncommonly mild for this time of year
But it’s no cause for pity and it’s no reason to weep
Worse things can befall a man when he’s in his bed
counting sheep
It’s a strange arrangement
an accommodation deluxe
I’ll send you a postcard
when I’ve had enough

SHE TRIED TO HOLD ME

She tried to hold me
She tried to hold me
She didn’t know
love is letting go
She said ‘I’m looking for perfection’
as she strode in my direction
She cast her mantle round me,
said ‘I’m completed since you found me’
She executed her enchantment
secreted me in her encampment
With diversions and pretences
she dismantled my defences
She tried to hold me
She tried to hold me
She didn’t know
love is letting go
She told me I was unrealistic
and then she went ballistic
in her powder blue pajamas,
me some flotsam in her drama
She said “love’s what I believe in”
but inside she was seething
with a cyclone raging under
like she was skin surrounding thunder
She tried to hold me
She tried to hold me
She didn’t know
love is letting go
I made it to the stairwell
in the street I muttered farewell
with a driving wind agin me
and shame exploding in me
It took me six years to begin again
to feel secure in my own skin again
for she lingered like uranium
like a demon in my cranium
She tried to hold me
She tried to hold me
She didn’t know
love is letting go
All this was long ago now
and if I knew then what I know now
I’d have deployed a little patience
I’d have laughed at all her stipulations
but I was young and I fumbled
a boy-fool whose castle crumbled
I couldn’t save her
though I forgave her
She tried to hold me
She tried to hold me
She didn’t know
love is letting go

IT’S GONNA RAIN

It’s gonna rain
It’s gonna rain
A time is coming when you’re
gonna have to taste your pain
It’s gonna break
It’s gonna break
from the cities of the poor
all the way to your front gate
You’re golden
You’re so high
You’re beautiful
- but you’re a lie
It’s gonna crash
It’s gonna crash
like a feather in a landslide
like a piece of trash
It’s gonna fall
It’s gonna fall
It’s gonna tumble, crumble
wasn’t built to last at all
You’re golden
You’re so fine
You’re beautiful
- but you’re out of time
It’s gonna burn
It’s gonna burn
How will you eat your words
when it comes to be your turn ?
It’s gonna rain....
It’s gonna rain....

SUSTAIN

Blues are falling like showers of rain but I don’t feel like crying
Death is abroad this day but I don’t feel like dying
I learned how to sustain myself how to sustain myself in storms
Her tongue was like a scythe and all her bones were haunted
A scapegoat for her life was all she ever wanted
I learned how to sustain myself in storms
Sir Bedivere slept in the field his armour strewn around him
curled foetus-like beneath his shield,
still weeping when we found him
I teetered on the edge of doom degenerate and broken
She sucked the poison out of my wounds
and spoke the great unspoken
I learned how to sustain myself in storms
His monstrous ego, whipped and driven
raged beneath his clothing
The compliment he paid was given
not with grace but loathing
Deliverance is at the gate with arms and gold in store
She apologises for being late but I don’t need her anymore
I learned how to sustain myself how to sustain myself in storms

Scoured and stripped of all pretence
shorn of all illusion
I offer nothing in my defence
- you may draw your own conclusions
I learned how to sustain myself in storms

YOU IN THE SKY

You alone of all
You in the sky
I wanna know why clouds come in between you and I
You alone of all
You in the sky
I wanna know why clouds come in between you and I
Let me know you
Lover woo me
Open up my heart and sing your song right through me
Let me know you
Lover woo me
Open up my heart and sing your song right through me
You alone of all
You in the sky
I wanna know why clouds come in between you and I

EVERYBODY TAKES A TUMBLE

To break your heart into pieces
is what I’m here to do
I’ve got nothing but trouble
in store for you
I’ve got one eye fixed on the main chance
one hand behind your back
and you just stumbled blind, babe
right into my track
And that’s when you fell so low
Everybody takes a tumble, don’t you know ?
That’s when you fell so low
Pick yourself off the floor before you go
There’s vengeance in my belly
slime on both my shoes
and everything bad that you ever heard
about little old me is true
My trigger finger is itchy
my humour is black
and you just stumbled blind, babe
right into my track
And that’s when you fell so low
Everybody takes a tumble, don’t you know ?
That’s when you fell so low
Pick yourself off the floor before you go
Now the devil drives a hard bargain
preacher burns his hands
fireman makes a sermon
lord surveys his lands
Huck Finn just went out for sticks
he ain’t coming back
and you just stumbled blind, babe
right into my track

And that’s when you fell so low
Everybody takes a tumble, don’t you know ?
That’s when you fell so low
Pick yourself off the floor before you go
Brush is back in the ballrooms
Philo’s M.I.A.
Sinead O’Connor is the guest of honour
and The Blades are going to play
Old Van Morrison’s moanin’
something ‘bout a copycat
and you just stumbled blind, babe
right into my track
And that’s when you fell so low
Everybody takes a tumble, don’t you know ?
That’s when you fell so low
Pick yourself off the floor before you go
Faces start-a shining
flags begin to sway
Would you believe I came a long distance
to be with you today
Your crooked partner
he just got the sack
and you just stumbled blind babe
right into my track
And that’s when you fell so low
Everybody takes a tumble,
don’t you know ?
That’s when you feel so low
Pick yourself off the floor before you go

THE MAN WITH THE WIND AT HIS HEELS

There’s a day for the king in his counting house
There’s a day for the fool at the wheel
There’s a day for the ships to go slouching south
and a day for the man with the wind at his heels
a day for the man with the wind at his heels
There’s a day to ride thumb on a thunderhead
There’s a day to make fantasy real
There’s a day to deny and a day to decry
and a day for the man the wind at his heels
a day for the man with the wind at his heels
Sing one for the clown in his wintermind
Sing one for his loathesome ordeal
Sing one for the deed and the fate entwined
and sing one for the man with the wind at his heels
one for the man with the wind at his heels