Punch The Clock

(alternate slower version, submitted by craig ciccone)

The family circle gathers 'round from very far and near
To pass around the same remarks they passed away last year
The little girl you dangled on your knee without mishap
Stirs something in your memory and something in your lap

(chorus)
The juniper berry has a very deadly kiss
I would say that something here is very much amiss
But it's a living and this is the life
For the world and his wife
The world and his wife

The kissing cousins step outside to cuddle and confess
She says sweet nothing at all, it's much more of a mess
She says, "our mother and someone else's father
Went for two weeks holiday in tarmasalata."
Daddy went out the rubbish and he kept on walking
Between mum and the walls, god only knows who does the talking

Chorus

The conversation melts like chocolate down our open jaws
Through the loud appeal of laughter and the counting of [?]
And later on in the evening, through the tears and fol de rol
Come the sentimental feelings for the lure of vitriol
Longing thoughts go hankering for the old home overseas
With a blindfold and a national anthem sung in different keys

Chorus

Is it worth it
A new winter coat and shoes for the wife
And a bicycle on the boy's birthday
It's just a rumour that was spread around town
By the women and children
Soon we'll be shipbuilding
Well i ask you
The boy said 'dad they're going to take me to task
But i'll be back by christmas'
It's just a rumour that was spread around town
Somebody said that someone got filled in
For saying that people get killed in
The result of this shipbuilding
With all the will in the world
Diving for dear life
When we could be diving for pearls
It's just a rumour that was spread around town
A telegram or a picture postcard
Within weeks they'll be re-opening the shipyards
And notifying the next of kin
Once again
It's all we're skilled in
We will be shipbuilding
With all the will in the world
Diving for dear life
When we could be diving for pearls

They talked to the sister, the father and the mother
With a microphone in one hand and a chequebook in the other
And the camera noses in to the tears on her face
The tears on her face
The tears on her face
You can put them back together with your paper and paste
But you can't put them back together
You can't put them back together

What would you say?
What would you do?
Children and animals two by two
Give me the needle
Give me the rope
We're going to melt them down for pills and soap
Give me the needle
Give me the rope
We're going to melt them down for pills and soap

Four and twenty crowbars, jemmy your desire
Out of the frying pan into the fire
The king is in the counting house
Some folk have all the luck
And all we get are pictures of lord and lady muck
They come from lovely people with a hard line in hypocrisy
There are ashtrays of emotion for the fag ends of the aristocracy

The sugar coated pill is getting bitterer still
You think your country needs you but you know it never will
So pack up your troubles in a stolen handbag
Don't dilly dally boys rally round the flag
Give us your daily bread in individual slices
And something in the daily rag to cancel any crisis

Men made out of monkeys
Men made into mice
Happy days are here again
And all the drinks half price
A girl with a trick and a man with a calling

Trying to make a living out of your downfalling
Trying to make a living out of anything at all
Didn't they teach you anything except how to be cruel
In that charm school

You and i as lovers
Were nothing but a farce
Trying to make a silk purse
Out of a sow's arse
Saying 'why don't you watch me'
Hardly speaking sotto voce

I've got a notion
I've got an angle
Take your dreams and promises
And put them through the mangle
They say it's hell to finance too
And i just want to romance you

In this perpetual nightclub
I'll be yours eternal
Though the hours are long
And the noise infernal
Just one shameful act or sometimes two
We make believe we're making do

Hear what i say
See what i do
Believe me now i'm all over you
All over you
I know a place
A certain very tender spot
To have and to hold
To have and have not
Listening to the sad song that the radio plays
Have we come this fa-fa-fa to find a soul cliche
Let them talk
Let them talk
Let them all talk
Oh yeah we're killing time
Just to keep you clocking on
These are the best years of your life
Now they're here and gone
Do the world a service
And you could do yourself a favour
Whose tongue now is tasting last week's flavour
Our day will come
When you have squandered all your youth
To have and to hold
A stranger to the truth
Listening to the sad song that the radio plays
Have we come this fa-fa-fa to find a soul cliche
Let them talk

I had forgotten all about 'the case of the three pins'
They said i must be cracked
Until the brown paper parcel landed on my welcome mat
Even the pretty secretaries who wouldn't even
Let me hang my hat
All recognize my handwriting
And return to sender as a matter of fact

If i were you i'd change my name again
They don't care what they do to you believe me
This is the coronation of the king of thieves
His occupation is the king of thieves
He can steal more than you can save
You can take him on, but you're not that brave

I'll tell your fortune in a minute or two
I might even tell you what comes next
The moguls want a human sacrifice
And look at that girl, young hungry and perplexed
They took away the best years of her life
Ah but it's all in good fun
And if you kept you nose clean
You can laugh now at the caring things they've done

I'll write this story down, but you'll never guess the
Final twist
Blow the whistle on the whole design
As they find my name on that fatal mailing list
I hear the clatter of a typewriter
Another rookie eating up the reams
I think it's time to place my feet under the desk
And put my mark on another man's dreams
This is the coronation of the king of thieves
And look at that girl
Look at that girl
Look at that girl

Walking on thin ice, i'm paying the price.
I'm throwing the dice in the air.
Why must we learn it the hard way
And play the game of life with our hearts?

I gave you my life, you gave me your life.
Like a gush of wind in my hair.
Why do we forget what's been said
And play the game of life with our hearts?

I may cry someday. a kiss will dry whichever way.
And when my heart returns to ashes, it will be just a story.
It will be just a story.

And you go and try to walk across the lake
Crossed it with winter and all of this is ice
A terrible thing to do. they say the lake is as thick as the ocean.
I wonder if she knew?

The family circle gather round from very far and near
To pass around the same remarks they passed away last year
The little girl you dangle on your knee without mishap
Stirs something in your memory
And something in your lap

But it's a living
This is the life
For the world and his wife
The world and his wife

The kissing cousins slip outside to cuddle and confess
She says sweet nothing at all it's much more of a mess
The conversation melts like chocolate down their open jaws
As the juniper berry slips down just like last night's drawers

To tell the truth our mum ran off with someone else's father
Went for two weeks' holiday in taramasalata
Daddy went out with the rubbish and he kept on walking
Between mum and the walls
God only knows who does the talking

But later on in the evening through the tears and fol de rol
Come the sentimental feelings for the lure of vitriol
Longing thoughts go hankering for the old home overseas
With a blindfold and a national anthem
Sung in different keys

I was committed to life and then commuted to the outskirts
With all the love in the world
Living for thirty minutes at a time with a break in the middle for adverts
But it's a wonderful world within these cinema walls
Where a shower of affection becomes niagara falls
And you wish she could step down from the screen to your seat in the stalls

But if stars are only painted on the ceiling above
Then who can you turn to and who do you love
I want to get out while i still can
I want to be like harry houdini
Now i'm the invisible man

My head is spinning round faster and faster
Here i stand on the edge of disaster
I'm shattered like a piece of crystal porcelain or alabaster
Crowds surround loudspeakers hanging from the lampposts
Listening to the murder mystery
Meanwhile someone's hiding in the classroom
Forging books of history
Never mind there's a good film showing tonight
Where they hang everyone everybody who can read and write
Oh that could never happen here but then again it might