Bespoke Songs Lost Dogs Detour

Almost blue
Almost doing things we used to do
There's a girl here and she's almost you
Almost all the things that your eyes once promised
I see in hers too
Now your eyes are red from crying

Almost blue
Flirting with this disaster became me
It named me as the fool who only aimed to be

Almost blue
It's almost touching it will almost do
There's a part of me that's always true...always
Not all good things come to an end now it is only a chosen few
I've seen such an unhappy couple

Almost me
Almost you
Almost blue

I want to vanish
This is my fondest wish
To go where i cannot be captured
Laid on a decorated dish
Even in splendor this curious fate
Is more than i care to surrender
Now it's too late

Whether in wonder or indecent haste
You arrange the mirrors and the spools
To snare the rare and precious jewels
That were only made of paste

If you should stumble upon my last remark
I'm crying in the wilderness
I'm trying my best to make it dark
How can i tell you i'm rarer than most
I'm certain as a lost dog
Pondering a sign post

Chorus

I want to vanish
This is my last request
I've given you the awful truth
Now give me my rest

You should hear the things that they say about me
They're saying "she's no better than she needed to be"
They don't know that he was kind and strong and tender
And now i'll never be another unwanted number
Unwanted number
How can i tell them?
How can i express?
How it felt to step out of this life and into his embrace

How can i tell them?
How can i explain?
All the love that i never had i found in him

There may be a stain on the family name
And if my father was here i think i know who he'd blame
Mama says that he just doesn't care to remember
And all he thinks of me is another unwanted number
Unwanted number

(how can i tell her?
How can i express?
How it felt when he came to my room
And helped me to undress
What can she tell me?
How can i believe
That she really didn't hear me cry
When he wouldn't leave?)

There's a local game where they whisper my shame
They say "he gave her his child
He wouldn't give her his name"

They will torture me from january till september
And soon there's going to be another unwanted number
Unwanted number
Unwanted number

And i will give my love to another unwanted number
Unwanted number
Unwanted number

I see those newly weds
Their eyes wide and believing
They bill and coo at the mention of chez nous
Appearances can be deceiving

It's just a door and a window
Four walls and a roof
But a home of your own would be shatterproof
A door and a window
Four walls and a roof
But a home of your own would be shatterproof

We papered over all the cracks
And painted a cat's lick and a promise
The landlord was a man of few words
And most of them were ominous

It's just a door and a window
Four walls and a roof
But a home of your own would be shatterproof
A door and a window
Four walls and a roof
But a home of your own would be shatterproof

It was nothing really to write home about
Then one day it all appears too much
Here comes my little hammer and its shatterproof touch

He said, "be practical,
These are most unreasonable demands.
Forget about the broken spectacles
And the damage to your hand."

It's just a door and a window
Four walls and a roof
And the doctors say i'm almost shatterproof

(words macmanus/o'riordan, music: costello)
I favour a good punishing kiss
It helps pass the lonely afternoon
Another stiff drink, wipe off that lipstick
For when you reach a certain age
All the most villainous men can be found on channel ten
I make them dance in attendance
'we will be back in a minute or two'
And he will punish that girl
Oh forget the reason
Just look at me i'm lost in a social whirl
She was never so witty
Always struggling to be full of fun
'on weekdays
From mid-day to one'
In a little black cocktail dress everyone hates
She'll be saving the world inbetween fashion plates
I know what she gets up to in the back of that blacked out limousine
And i catch myself shouting at the screen
I think that it's time to turn over
They say it's harmless i know
A hundred and ten percent certain
Virtually real
If you need something to feel
Then favour a punishing kiss
It helps chase the wasted afternoons
The flowers and pearls
The long lost relations
That love sick tom-boy comes in bloom
The pointless heartache
That seems to belong in my blue room
Can't stand the suspense
The endless embraces
Each episode lends the silly pretence
Say i can look away when i will never miss it
Starts with a joke
And ends with a punishing kiss

I'm sorry to say that you don't know me
I'm sad in ways you never understood
Each time i try to tell the ugly truth
You always let it pass you by
You said i 'd never tell you a lie
Just because i could
Did you really think i was a bad man?
You always said that that should be my middle name
But you don't know the half of it
You don't know how that name fits
You don't know my hidden shame

Hidden shame, shame, shame
That i can't get free
From the blame and the torture
And the misery
Must it be my secret for eternity?
Till you know my hidden shame you really don't know me

Well, there's a different kind of prison
And it don't even have to look much like a cell
It's already on your mind
Boy, we can see it in your eyes
So, here's the bars and walls as well

Well, you know i'm never coming home, babe
You said you'd stand by me until i cleared my name
Sure it's easy to be strong
When you know the charge is wrong
But the days and weeks get long
When you've got a hidden shame

Chorus

I had a friend when i was just a boy
We were like brothers, we would run and hide
And we went walking on a high hillside
And i really don't how it happened
He turned to me and had this strange look in his eye
And not a single word was spoken
I must have pushed him, but i don't remember why
And all at once, he lay there broken
And i walked down without him and i didn't even sigh

Chorus

They say you always hurt the one you love
And i'm not saying if i did or if i didn't
But like my shame, that kind of love is always hidden
They locked me up here for the ideas in my head
They never got me for the thing i really did

Chorus

We play these parlour games
We play at make believe
When we get to the part where i say that i'm going to leave
Everybody loves a happy ending but we don't even try
We go straight past pretending
To the part where everybody loves to cry

(chorus)
Indoor fireworks
Can still burn your fingers
Indoor fireworks
We swore we were safe as houses
They're not so spectacular
They don't burn up in the sky
But they can dazzle or delight
Or bring a tear
When the smoke gets in your eyes

You were the spice of life
The gin in my vermouth
And though the sparks would fly
I thought our love was fireproof
Sometimes we'd fight in public darling
With very little cause
But different kinds of sparks would fly
When we got on our own behind closed doors

(chorus)
It's time to tell the truth
These things have to be faced
My fuse is burning out
And all that powder's gone to waste
Don't think for a moment dear that we'll ever be through
I'll build a bonfire of my dreams
And burn a broken effigy of me and you

(chorus)

I recall the good old days
But thankfully, they've gone
Now the ponies all are broken nags
That stumble as they groan
And throw the jockeys from their throne
When there are pitches left to dodge
And lions left to tame
But it's nothing but a dirty rotten shame
It's a dirty rotten shame
That when you're frivolous and strong
It isn't youth, its fearlessness
That has been wasted on the young
The cruel are in the cradle
And the bishop's in the bag
It's nothing but a dirty rotten shame

Now i find life a millionaire
That brags for rags and jewels
A snarling pup is wild enough
But as his anger proves
He's left to sharpen useless tools
That tear and graze and finer phrase
But few are worth the name
It's nothing but a dirty rotten shame

It's a dirty rotten shame
And that is not an idle boast
When all your courage and your strength
Will leave you as you need it most
When there are lamps to dampen
And cauliflowers to flip
It's nothing but a dirty rotten shame

"i'm trouble" she said
Spread out on the floor of her father's house
Her promise was almost undone
Under her tongue, dissolving her responsibilities
To finally deny everyone with unflattering comparison

Chorus
All grown up
And you don't care anymore
And you hate all the people that you used to adore
And you despise all the rumors and lies of the life you led before

Did i hear you right?
You're feeling hounded and pushed around
You want to just lay down and die
If all of this life has been such a big disappointment to you
Why don't you stop blaming some guy
And go give the next one a try

Chorus

But look at yourself
You'll see you're still so young
You haven't earned the weariness
That sounds so jaded on your tongue

"i'm weak" she says
And blesses herself and gets into bed
Clutching the covers to her throat
"so punish me now and let me go back to the sham of my life"
"this night is the perfect antidote for all of the poison that
You wrote"

Chorus

Shadow and jimmy were always yesterday's news
Jimmy's a bowler, shadow rents out his green bowling shoes
Late friday night when the bars are all shuttered and dark
He shadows back jimmy to the lot in the lost trailer park
For shadow and jimmy all the weekends end up the same
If it's saturday night, then it must be the hockey game
After cold beer and barbecued ribs the night is complete
With wrestling stories and elegant bones
That are tired of walking and on their way home

Chorus
And they talk about the women
And they look at the girls
They'll never know the ways of the world
They've got a mouthful of much obliged
And a handful of gimme
And the love for each other
Of shadow and jimmy

For shadow and jimmy now the story is told
There's nothing to hold on to and no one to hold
Men without women are like fish without
Water to swim in
With their eyes bugging out
They flop on the beach
And look up at the girls
Who are just out of reach

(mccartney/macmanus)
My brave, my brave, my brave face

I've been living in style
Unaccustomed as i am
To the luxury life
I've been hitting the town
And it didn't hit back
I've been doing the rounds
Unaccustomed as i am
To the time on my hands
Now i don't have to tell anybody
When i'm gonna get back
Ever since you went away i've had the sentimental inclination not to change a single thing
As i pull the sheet back on the bed i want to go bury my head in your pillow

Now that i'm alone again
I can't stop breaking down again
The simplest things set me off again
Take me to that place
Where i can find my brave face
Where i can find my brave face
My brave, my brave, my brave face

I've been living a lie
Unaccustomed as i am
To the work of a housewife
I been breaking up dirty dishes
And been throwing them away
Ever since you left i have been trying to compose a "baby, would you please come home" note meant for you
As i clear away another untouched tv dinner from the table i made for two

Now that i'm alone again
I can't stop breaking down again
The simplest things set me off again
Take me to that place
Where i can find my brave face
Where i can find my brave face
My brave, my brave, my brave face