Classics

(difford/tilbrook)

He's taking her away
He's acting like a general
Generally his game is so familiar
He wants her to play
With a toaster and a kettle
While he spends his day
Miles from the prisoner
She reads the stars he reads the sun
No wonder his iq is below 21

He's helping her to see
How happy she is looking
Take it that he'll be
No icing on her cake
O how happy she would be
If someone did the cooking
He's helping her to see
How a marriage can be baked

Baked like a cake but without the file
The tool that she needs to make her life worthwhile

She's not a prisoner alone doing time
To love and to cherish for all of her life
To have and to hold, to lock up inside
What can this man know about her heart
To love,

(difford/tilbrook)

She left her school for the factory
From pocket money to a salary,
From a pac-a-mac to a compact case
And every morning she inspects her face.
She discovers pulling pints in pubs
That the good looks will never cover up for
Her dumbness in taking the stock
Sees her reflection in a butcher's shop.
She finds it all quite rare
That her meat's all vanity fair.

She has her eyes on medallion men
Who get her home on the dot at ten,
She combs her hair when she gets excused
The deal she wants always ends up screwed.
Paints her nails on the bathroom scales
Gargles her breath like a landed whale,
Her beauty is as deep as her skin
Keeps her eyebrows in a tobacco tin.
She poses foot on the chair
Coconut shy but vanity fair.

In her vanity case her compact case
In her compact case her eyes,
Not bad for a sister
But her vanity's fair and her sense of humour's dry.
She comes home late with another screw loose
She swears to have had just a pineapple juice,
Falls asleep fully clothed in her bed
With her makeup remover by her head.
And she might not be all there
But her dream's all vanity fair.

(difford/tilbrook)

Striking matches and i'm smoking cigarettes
Putting on the kettle, playing a cassette
Folding up the papers rubbing my eyes
Thinking of all that had happened last night
The passion, the feelings that soaked in her love
And the pools of silence when kisses were sprung
Her love levitates me, i'm walking on air
Two feet from the carpet, i'll always be there
Oooh i'm striking matches it's morning again
I look in the mirror i still look the same
I'm striking matches it's morning again
I look in the mirror i go up in flames

Striking matches getting a flame on the stove
There's some of her in the teeth of my comb
Dirty clothes piled up on the bathroom floor
She's silently sleeping, i half close the door
I see her beauty laying on my bed
I'm warm from within me with what she has said
Her love is my balloon, i won't let it down
For ever and ever i'll always be proud.

I'm a director casting for a part
(turn on the light)
It's for a soap set here right in my heart.
(leave her alone)
Shuffle to the window shuffle to the door
(don't wake her up)
She gets the part i don't want to see anymore
(unplug the phone)

(difford/holland)

The saddest thing i've ever seen
Was a starving face on my tv screen
The desperate face that i saw
Had my disbelief hanging from my jaw
Our harvest could be shared around
Instead it's buried in the ground
The saddest thing i've ever seen
Was a football fan dying for his team
The toughest thing i have ever known
Was a soldier boy who never made it home
It's fiction live before our eyes
It leaves me cold and my heart cries

The greatest thing i've ever seen
Was a newborn child looking up at me
The greatest sound i've ever heard
Was a baby's cry in this wicked world
The innocence of that cry
Leaves me cold and my heart cries

It's a heartbreaking world if you want it to be
It's a heartbreaking world if you want it to be
It's a heartbreaking world if you want it to be
And you're the one that breaks it for me

(difford/tilbrook)

I spent too much money, i looked far too glad
Now i have so little of what i once had
I had too many parties i had too much time
I got so lazy and fell well behind
Now the summer is over i can count the cost
Footprints on the beaches are now
Footprints in the frost
The summer is over i can count the cost
Footprints on the beaches are now footprints in the frost

We did so much damage deep in our insides
The party's over it's going home time
The cathedral is empty, no one's at home
Winter's approaching paradise postponed

Now the summer is over i can count the cost
Footprints on the beaches are now footprints in the frost,
The rain won't stop falling and the people look lost
Footprints on the beaches are now footprints in the frost.

I rang lots of numbers and walked many miles
I watched the flintstones and i turned my dial
To a brand new station where the beat comes in
Now it's all over the winter begins

The summer is over i can count the cost
Footprints on the beaches are now footprints in the frost
People with umbrellas disappear in the fog
Footprints on the beaches are now footprints in the frost

(difford/tilbrook)

The crown of the kingdom is given to the woman
The kingdom of the kitchen where she says she shouldn't,
There on the stainless steel her cigarettes and matches
Whistles to the radio to every hook she catches,
But the frowns
Eider downs,
Tie her down
But she likes to wear the crown of the kingdom.
She like the recipes a touch of oriental
Steaming up the windows burning egg on metal,
Sees in a catalogue a shiny new appliance
Another role swallowed by the wonders of science,
Lobster hands
Omelette pans,
Understand
How the crown can stick like jam in her kingdom.

He's been so busy and she's been neglected,
The problem is computed and always it's rejected,
Out of her heart i catch a spark,
And being smart
The crown is left out in the dark now there's no kingdom.

Fed up with the glory she abdicates her title
Sitting at a bar stool she gives her day's recital,
The family watch in horror
As she staggers up the hallway
Makes herself a sandwich
As they're looking through the doorway,
She goes to bed
Leg by leg,
Nothing's said
There's no crown upon her head there's no kingdom.

Press the button on the toaster
It's a woman's world,
Tuck the sheets in on the bed
It's a woman's world,
Take your apron from your holster
It's a woman's world,
Shoot the crown off of your head
It's a woman's world.

(difford/tilbrook)

When the hangover strikes
And i open my post
And the coffee is on
And i'm burning my toast
I let the battle commence
I see a sun in the trees
And a draught at the door
With my head in my lap
There's a day to explore
But i'm left without sense
As the hangover strikes
And i turn on the tap
But the water's too loud
And i'm caged by the fact
That the battle's not lost
Is it the hair of the dog
Or the baa of a lamb
In a sheepish attempt
To be half of the man
That i might be or was

When the hangover strikes
And a mirror reveals
That it's midnight or bust
And a drink does appeal
Now the battle is won
So the cure of the can
Pours its heart out on me
Though i'm feeling locked up
But i can't find the key
Well no damage was done

Poor poor poor, poor shaken one
Pour pour pour, pour me another one

(difford/tilbrook)

She goes for her medical
She's passed, it's a miracle
She's up over the moon
She whistles nonsense tunes
She wants drinks for everyone
She's found a chord that she can strum
Emotions leaking out
Her paint's all over town
What's that she's playing?
(annie get your gun)
What's that she's taking?
(the song has to be sung)
She's gone electric
(annie wipe them out)
That's unexpected
(strum that thing and shout)
Don't pull that trigger
(annie get your gun)
Don't shoot that singer
(you're shooting number one)

He's not into miracles
Sees life all too cynical
The cat has got his tongue
Now she bangs on his drum
He says pull the other one
Bells ring, look what you have done
Emotions leaking out
Her paint's all over town

(difford/tilbrook)

I've come across the desert
To greet you with a smile
My camel looks so tired
It's hardly worth my while
To tell you of my travels
Across the golden east
I see your preparations
Invite me first to feast
Take me i'm yours
Because dreams are made of this
Forever there'll be
A heaven in your kiss

Amusing belly dancers
Distract me from my wine
Across tibetian mountains
Are memories of mine
I've stood some ghostly moments
With natives in the hills
Recorded here on paper
My chills and thrills and spills

It's really been some welcome
You never seem to change
A grape to tempt your leisure
Romantic gestures strange
My eagle flies tomorrow
It's a game i treasure dear
To seek the helpless future
My love at last i'm here