Vermin In Ermine

Oh i bet your life
You're sick of the sight
Of those eat in, take out, throw up pizza bars
Love's just got to pass your way in time
You smell of prison, smell of crime
I just didn't want to say i told you so

Someone called "hey yesterday boy!"
Take your well worn body away from my sight
Friends run like rats from a sinking ship
Leaving you naked to the night
Now you're known as the last resort
By the vultures on the make
They say
'you have to eat the hamburger
To appreciate the steak'

You always feel the sting of words
As children are so cruel
They called you ugly, ugly head
When you were at school
You've tried to make the best of things
But it seems you've given in
They call you ugly, ugly head
Something makes you feel the living sin

Things must feel so insecure
When you're on your last legs
You're swimming in the coffee pot
Drowning in the dregs
But you haven't got the sense to die
(or get a decent job)
To look into a mirror
Or at the very worst some kind of god
You need something to believe in
I just wish it was yourself
Try to summon up the guts
To rectify your ailing health
For there's something round the corner
Waiting just out of sight
That'll stop you feeling low and limp
And naked to the night

You always feel the sting of words
As children are so cruel
They called you ugly, ugly head
When you were at school
You've tried to make the best of things
But it seems you've given in
They call you ugly, ugly head
Something makes you feel the living sin

Ugly, ugly, ugly
Ugly, ugly, ugly
Ugly, ugly, ugly
Ugly head!

Well i'm walkin' blind down danger street
The street where eyes don't dare to meet
Dirt-doorways frame silhouettes
A teeth-grind-grinning smile of threat
Down here you ask for all you get
These east side angrys'll getchoo yet
Ignore the cat calls look straight ahead
You could wind up the other side of dead
(if you're lucky)

Well i took a glance sideways
Straight into some chicano chick's eyes
They were pretty wild
Like she'd been snortin' some of that cocaine
She was mean for trouble
Boilin' for blood
But i had to say she was stacked
>from the tip of her toes
To her flaming red hair
She's gonna drag me up to her carnal cage of no way out desire

Help, help
You gotta help yourself
Help me, help me
You son of a gun
You gotta run muchacho run

Well i was getting to know the neighbourhood
Getting to know how it looked and smelled
Watching the windows
In tenement hell
Love was rape
And love for sale
And death a fact of life
Love was rare
But who cares, who cares
When you're living by the knife
Well i took a slug of bitter coffee
Pulled a face as bitter hit me
End up with a new mouth
Carved where my throat used to be
And then i saw him
Tall and proud
Wearing the entire city garbage dump
Around his neck and wrists

And then i saw him
Dirty red chicano sweat bandanna
And colours
Held together by filth and fury
Oh wow-ee-ow
The leader of the shining sinners
The leader of the shining sinners

And she was by his side
This vampira i'd seen earlier
She looked at me the look of scum
Help, help
You gotta help yourself
Help me, help me
You son of a gun
You gotta run muchacho run

He walked
Did i say walked?
Well i mean waaalked
Right up to me at a slow pace
He looked down at me and said
"shee-it!"
My knees were bucklin'
My brow was sweatin'
I stared straight ahead at his knee cap
I had to strike soon

The leader of the shining sinners
Sweet 'n' sharp and
Cool 'n' calm
He lives for them
They die for him
Bitten through with nails of hatred
He takes his band of laughing dead
To gather up the wages of skin

Keep my eyes upon the pavement
Nothing else could save me
In this battlefield of blood and bruises
I'll take this brave stiletto
And with all the courage left in my heart
I'll . . . i'll take the life of the leader of the shining sinners

He lay upon the ground
Coughing up blood
He looked up at me
Yes i was the big one now
And said
"i wanted to shake your hand
You little runt
For having the guts to walk into my neighbourhood
I liked you!"
And with that he died

Leaderless and laughless
The wastrels of the shining sinners
Lay me out like some dead cat on the ground
I taste the taste of human filth
My courage caves in on itself
Now no-one's leading anyone anymore
And i wondered what i did it for
And i wondered what i did it for

Why did i do it?
Why?
Why did i do it?
Why - why did i do it?
Why?
Why?
Why?

I love you when you're black and blue
I love you when you're sad
Love like sparks flies out of you
The best love that i ever had

Could this be a crime
To feel so sublime?

My heart cries like the sea at night
For love crimes thrown away
And though i pray with all my might
I know you'll never, ever stay

Could this be a crime
To feel so sublime?

Come to me my pale face baby
Come to me and don't be pale
Just two minutes silence
For my dead heart

Could this be a crime
To feel so sublime?

Oh you have the saddest eyes
That i have ever seen
Secret sorrows of a heart
That breaks so easily
Don't let me catch you crying
Don't let me catch you crying

Watching through the pane of glass
The final silent scenes
You became a fading face
In morning's half forgotten dream
Don't let me catch you crying
Just hear the sad breeze sighing

You have
You have

You have the first ice of winter
I have the first rain of summer
You have the sad signs of sorrow
I have to leave you tomorrow
Words on a torn piece of paper
Escape from the window forever
Memories don't seem to matter
When crushed under heel in the gutter

Oh you have the saddest eyes
That i have ever seen
Secret sorrows of a heart
That breaks so easily
Don't let me catch you crying
Just hear the sad breeze sighing

You have
You have

I wander out along the rain washed streets
Blinded with tears
And kicking cans
Wrecked and wild
With an ever-crushing loneliness
Feverish and tousled
With an ever-crushing love
I know i won't find any answers here
I know my pleading voice bounds back an echo
It ricochets back down the cavernous alley
Hey don't be a stranger
Sad how misguided and confused
We suffer inside
Stumbling from one shaky stepping stone
To another
Reaching out for a blind, blind love
Reaching out for a blind, blind love

Small we fall easy prey to self-pity
Wishing i was with you on the other side
Maybe tomorrow i'll join you in paradise
Maybe tomorrow i'll join you in paradise

Sitting on the kerb
You wipe the tears away again
The gutter holds your sallow hearts
That wash down with the rain
Barbed and brittle hands that push
The hair out of your eyes
Pavement fires a-flicker
Like a host of fire flies

My song calls from the gutter
And the gutter sings to me
A roundabout of down and outs
In cardboard box city
My song calls from the gutter
And the gutter sings to me
A roundabout of down and outs
A dark cacophony

The wolven of the orphan gangs
Take turns to search and steal
They splash about the puddles
And are trodden under heel
They bathe their pearly faces
In the lights of chinatown
And they lick their pearly fingers
When the street lamps flicker down

My song calls from the gutter
And the gutter sings to me
A roundabout of down and outs
In cardboard box city
My song calls from the gutter
And the gutter sings to me
A roundabout of down and outs
A dark cacophony

All night i've been up
With the bitterest of thoughts
I can't seem to throw
All my cares to the wind
Makes me sleep feverish
Makes me sleep scared
Pillow of secrets
And blanket of sins

Found me out drunk and abandoned
All my horizons in flame
Crying tell all my friends to forget me
'cause i'll never see them again

Oh go tell them all to forget me
There's no love left in me for them
Something is stirring deep inside of me
And i'll never see them again

How long do you think that you're going to lick
All of the boots that kick you?
You've had your face in the dirt for too long
Sweet revenge long overdue

Oh go tell them all to forget me
There's no love left in me for them
Something is stirring deep inside of me
And i'll never see them again

I looked at the manhattan skyline
The bitterest tears in my eyes
A big ball of slime in the cesspool of life
Under an open sore sky

Oh go tell them all to forget me
There's no love left in me for them
Something is stirring deep inside of me
And i'll never see them again

It took me all this time to realise
That hell was a city on earth
And jesus died for me to despise
The pitiful waste of his birth

I craved for the filth of the city
Gold pathway of dreams from my heart
But acid of misery ate up the gold
And sent me right back to the start

Oh go tell them all to forget me
There's no love left in me for them
Something is stirring deep inside of me
And i'll never see them again