Blood & Chocolate

The landlady's husband came up to town today
Since he left them both ten years ago to serve the ministry
The dark down road of his approach in constant rain was drenched
The tenant's boy said "how d'ya do" then swore in french
Did you teach this little child these curses on my soul
You should both be shut down in the coal-hole
That's the way to treat a child who cries out in the night
And a woman who teaches wrong from right

Chorus: he's a battered old bird
And he's living up there
There's a place where time stands still
If you keep taking those little pink pills

"hush your mouth you hypocrite"
His humour cut her deep
The tight lipped leer of judgement
That had seen her love desert her just like sleep
"filthy words on children's lips are better, my dear spouse
Then if i were to speak my mind about this house"

Chorus

On the first floor there are two old maids
Each one wishing that the other was afraid
And next door to them is a man so mild
'til he chopped off the head of a visitor's child
He danced upon the bonfire
Swallowed sleeping pills like dreams
With a bottle of sweet sherry that everything redeems

Chorus

And on the second floor is the macintosh man
He's in his overcoats more than out of them
And the typewriter's rattling all through the night
He's burgundy for breakfast tight
He says "one day i'll throw away all of my cares
And it is always christmas in a cupboard at the top of the stairs"

Chorus

"well here's a boy if ever there was
Who's going to do big things
That's what they all say and that's how the trouble begins
I've seen them rise and fall
Been through their big deals and smalls
He'd better have a dream that goes beyond four walls"
You think he should be sent outside playing with the traffic
When pieces of him are already scattered in the attic

i want you


Oh my baby baby i love you more than i can tell
I don't think i can live without you
And i know that i never will
Oh my baby baby i want you so it scares me to death
I can't say anymore than "i love you"
Everything else is a waste of breath
I want you
You've had your fun you don't get well no more
I want you
Your fingernails go dragging down the wall
Be careful darling you might fall
I want you
I woke up and one of us was crying
I want you
You said "young man i do believe you're dying"
I want you
If you need a second opinion as you seem to do these days
You can look in my eyes and you can count the ways
I want you
Did you mean to tell me but seem to forget
I want you
Since when were you so generous and inarticulate
I want you
It's the stupid details that my heart is breaking for
It's the way your shoulders shake and what they're shaking for
It's knowing that he knows you now after only guessing
I want you
It's the thought of him undressing you or you undressing
I want you
He tossed some tatty compliment your way
I want you
And you were fool enough to love it when he said
"i want you"
I want you
The truth can't hurt you it's just like the dark
It scares you witless
But in time you see things clear and stark
I want you
Go on and hurt me then we'll let it drop
I want you
I'm afraid i won't know where to stop
I want you
I'm not ashamed to say i cried for you
I want you
I want to know the things you did that we do too
I want you
I want to hear he pleases you more than i do
I want you
I might as well be useless for all it means to you
I want you
Did you call his name out as he held you down
I want you
Oh no my darling not with that clown
I want you
You've had your fun you don't get well no more
I want you
No-one who wants you could want you more
I want you
Every night when i go off to bed and when i wake up
I want you
I want you
I'm going to say it once again 'til i instill it
I know i'm going to feel this way until you kill it
I want you
I want you

I can't lie on this bed anymore it burns my skin
You can take the truthful things you've said to me
And put them on the head of a pin

Poor napoleon

You always look so disappointed when i take my stockings off
Don't you know the facts of life, boy
Don't you know what these things cost
She was selling stolen kisses to travelling salesmen and minstrel singers
You put a penny in the slot
She called you her magic fingers

Poor napoleon

I bet she isn't all that's advertised
I bet that isn't all she fakes
Just like that place where they take your spine
And turn it into soapflakes

So good night little school boy, you'd better learn some self control
Did you mess up your hairstyle, pour scorn in your begging bowl

Bare wires from the socket to the bed where you embraced that girl
Did you ever think there's far too many people in the world?
One day they'll probably make a movie out of all of this
There won't even have to be a murder just a slow dissolving kiss

As i stepped out upon the landing my heart was already down the stairs
She's in the bedroom with that boy of hers
Though her face is creased and her eyes seem strange

There's a second-hand emotion on battered forty-five
My tears were never enough to keep that girl alive
Now she seems contrite will she make the change

Chorus: the next time 'round
The next time 'round
You'll be someone else's baby
But i'll be underground
The next time 'round

Then you took two steps forward and then one step on your back
Now it's a future for me and you that i lack
You'll be the one who'll stands out in the dark
Even when you're all dressed in black

Chorus

You've got something i want now
And i've got something i can't hide
I've got too much love for you now
Have you got too much pride
Sometimes i name and number all the things you gave to me

Your elastic love, this velvet-line purgatory
You used to take the breath out of me
Now i think you'll be the death of me

Chorus

You'll be in some sputnik baby
But i'll be underground

The next time 'round

(written by elvis costello, transcribed by craig ciccone w/ bolan's corrections)

Oh, a tv went off like three day old milk
That shook this town down better than most
And it always was less of idea and more of a boast
Oh, you're burning in the bloom of life
'til you're powder in the grave
Or you're pounding in the counter beggin' for more
'til you evaporate


You'd forgive her anything
If you look like you, my pretty miss
I wonder where you are tonight
And this place becomes pityless


Oh, i couldn't sleep, but i can't complain
Oh, this won't hurt a bit, oh, this won't hurt again
When the roof comes down and the walls move in
Oh, he didn't know it could feel like that
And your face turned away and the day turned black
And the rain fell like a curtain
Oh, it's my turn to begin
To forgive her anything


You'd forgive her anything
If you knew what i know
You'd forgive her anything
So where did all my pride go?


Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh


Oh, oh, oh, oh, you'd forgive her anything
If you knew what i know
You'd forgive her anything
So where did all my pride go?

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.
Monday's calling you too early when you're sound asleep
Bells are ringing by your bedside and out in the street
Usually monday's long enough, but this is just the start
Tuesday's just the same as monday without the surprising part

Wednesday's point of no return
When you've squandered all you've earned
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, seven day weekend. (x2)

This is all i'm thinking about as the days go by
Spend your life on holiday and even when i die
There could be but one inscription: "this was not his day"
If it isn't thursday anymore, it must be friday

I can't wait until i maybe
Get off work and see my baby
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, seven day weekend. (x2)
I can't wait until i maybe
Get off work and see my baby
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, seven day weekend. (x8)

I thought it was you and your optimist's view of the clock
And how it's always another day
Just after twelve o'clock's struck
You said "now i only want you so i don't have to promise"
But tiny children in grown-up clothes whispered all the crimes of paris

Chorus: you're not the girl next-door or a girl from france
Or the cigarette-girl in the sizzle hot-pants
All the words of love seem cruel and crass
When you're tough and transparent as armoured glass
You're everywhere girl in an everyday mess
Who'll pay for the crimes of paris

I heard that you fell for the "hell or to hammersmith blues"
In the tiny torn up pieces of his mind he's irresistible too
Now it's hard to say now if he's only stupid or smart
When he crawled through the door
And poured out more of his creeping-jesus heart

Chorus

And it's all here and now
She hit him with that paper-weight eiffel tower
And i tried to hold on to you but i don't know how
And i find it hard to swallow good advice
Like going down three times to only come up twice

She's so convenient, he's always stiff as hair-lacquer
It's hard to discover now he's in love with her
It was her way of getting her own back
You never did anything she couldn't do on her own
You're as good as your word and that's no good to her
You'd better leave that kitten alone

Chorus

The sky fell over cheap korean monster-movie scenery
And spilled into the reservoir of the crushed capsule hotel
Between the disney abattoir and the chemical refinery
And i knew i was in trouble but i thought i was in hell

So you look around the tiny room and you wonder where the hell you are
While the k.k.k. convention are all stranded in the bar
They wear hoods and carry shotguns in the main streets of montgomery
But they're helpless here as babies 'cause they're only here on holiday

Chorus: what do we care if the world is a joke
(tokyo storm warning)
We'll give it a big kiss
We'll give it a poke
(tokyo storm warning)
Death wears a big hat 'cause he's a big bloke
(tokyo storm warning)
We're only living this instant

The black sand stuck beneath her feet in a warm sorrento sunrise
A barefoot girl from naples or was it a barcelona hi-rise
Whistles out the tuneless theme song on a hundred cheap suggestions
And a million false seductions and all those eternal questions

Chorus

So they flew the super-constellation all the way from rimini
And feasted them on fish and chips from a newspaper facsimile
Now dead italian tourists bodies litter up the broadway
Some people can't be told you know they have to learn the hard way

Holidays are dirt-cheap in the costa del malvinas
In the hotel argentina they can hardly tell between us
For teresa is a waitress though she's now known as juanita
In a tango bar in stanley or in puerto margarita
She's the sweetest and the sauciest
The loveliest and the naughtiest
She's miss buenos aires in a world of lacy lingerie

Chorus

Japanese god-jesus robots telling teenage fortunes
For all we know and all we care they might as well be martians
They say gold paint on the palace gates comes from the teeth of pensioners
They're so tired of shooting protest singers
That they hardly mention us
While fountains fill with second-hand perfume
And sodden trading stamps
They'll hang the bullies and the louts that dampen down the day

Chorus

We braved the cold november air and the undertaker's curses
Saying "take me to the folies bergere and please don't spare the hearses"
For he always had a dream of that revolver in your purse
How you loved him 'til you hated him and made him cry for mercy
He said "don't ever mention my name there or talk of all the nights you cried
We've always been like worlds apart now you're seeing two nightmares collide"

Chorus