Misplaced Childhood

(fish, steve rothery, mark kelly, pete trewavas, ian mosley)

You pick out your credit cards and check into the night
A dozen tequilas and you're feeling all right
So you swim to the disco, out of your depth jaded gigolo
Your lucky charms are tarnished so you leave alone
But there's one place left to go before the taxi home
After all you've made your marks

One night you'll play elizabeth taylor
The next night you're marilyn monroe
Forever kissing frogs that think they're princes
Oh, lady nina, where did all the romance go?

Your little sister babysits, your husband picks you up at six
The make-up hides the bruises and the tears so they never show
'cos your beauty is the only thing you've ever owned
It's the only way you've ever known to make your marks
You made your marks, you made your marks
We believe it's for real

Ich liebe dich, liebst du mich

Lady nina, i'd love to take you home with me
But i love my wife and i love my family
I've got a good job, responsibilities
And i need to keep respect from society
I know you'll never act with me, i know that you're in love with me
So how do i compare to the sailors of the ships of the night?
Was i all right?
Did you come tonight, lady nina?

You made your marks, you made your marks
Ebony flowers pinned to a velvet cushion in a red light
And edith piaf sings a lullaby for the night
Just making marks, just making marks
Just making marks, just making marks

You made your marks
Ebony flowers pinned to a velvet cushion in a red light
And edith piaf sings a lullaby for the night
Just making marks, just making marks

You made your marks
And you made your mark
Just making marks
And you made your mark
Just making marks

(derek dick, steve rothery, mark kelly, pete trewavas, ian mosley)

On the outskirts of nowhere
On the ringroad to somewhere
On the verge of indecision
I'll always take the roundabout way

Waiting on the rain
For i was born with a habit
From a sign
The habit of a windswept thumb
And the sign of the rain

Rain on me! {it started to rain}

A) wide boy

Wide boys, wide boys, wide boys
Born with hearts of lothian
Wide boys, wide boys
Born with hearts of lothian
Wide boys, we were wide boys
Born with hearts of lothian
These hearts of lothian

It's six o'clock in the tower blocks
The stalagmites of culture shock
And the trippers of the light fantastic, bowdown, hoe-down
Spray their pheremones on this perfume uniform

And anarchy smiles in the royal mile
And they're waiting on the slyboys, flyboys, wideboys
Rooting, tooting cowboys
Lucky little ladies at the watering holes
They'll score the friday night goals

I was born with a heart of lothian
I was born with a heart of lothian
I was born with a heart of lothian
I was born with a heart of lothian
I was born with a heart of lothian, with a heart of lothian.

(derek dick, mark kelly, steve rothery, peter trewavas, ian mosley)

Have you ever met a lady, screaming angst potential?
Have you ever dreamed of romance, no matter how experimental?
Have you ever felt an alien drifting back into your hometown?
Did you think you were buying safety when you bought that piece of ground?

She said all the best freaks are here
She said all the best freaks are here, please stop staring at me
So i said all the best freaks are here
All the best freaks are here, please stop staring at me

Have you ever woke up, sweating in the middle of the night?
You search the darkness and you're scrambling for the light
Have you ever walked down the street, heard bootsteps following you?
Don't worry my son, you've got the spook squad looking after you

He said all the best freaks are here
He said all the best freaks are here, please stop staring at me
So i said all the best freaks are here
All the best freaks are here, please stop staring at me, stop staring at me

Airport terminal, patiently waiting on the last call
You feel the eyes burn the back of your head
Sign the autograph, get out of the picture, gonna have the last laugh
Feel the whispers as you head for the plane
Stop staring at me

Love and linen sheets seem so very far away
You save your pennies and you buy another day
But after all it's only hide and seek, just another game
There's so much fun to be had when you're living with a name

All the best freaks are here, all the best freaks are here
Please stop staring at me, all the best freaks are here
All the best freaks are here, please stop staring at me
Oh, stop staring at me, oh, stop staring at me

They said all the best freaks are here
All the best freaks are here, please stop staring at me
All the best freaks are here
All the best freaks are here, please stop staring at me

(fish / marillion)

When the taxis gather in mock solemnity
Funeral hearses court the death of virginity
Was it paradise lost or paradise found?
Did we gain respect or were we holding ground?
You had found true love, or so you believed
And the wideboys tattooed your hearts upon their sleeves

So when you think it's time to go, when you think it's time to go
Don't be surprised, the heroes never show

And the patter merchants selling false impressions
Tipping eyes at the waitress with american expressions
Tie angels to the bar with sweet martini's and their charms
They're lying on every word and every arm
They're turning down their noses to the best lines
And the cheap wines

And the wideboys
They wear their lovebites for their crimes

So when you think it's time to go, when you think it's time to go
Don't be surprised, the heroes never show

(fish / marillion)

A) vocal under a bloodlight

Last night you said i was cold, untouchable
A lonely piece of action from another town
I just want to be free, i'm happy to be lonely
Can't you stay away?
Just leave me alone with my thoughts
Just a runaway, just a runaway, i'm saving myself

B) passing strangers

Strung out below a necklace of carnival lights
Cold moan, held on the crest of the night
I'm too tired to fight

So now we're passing strangers, at single tables
Still trying to get over, still trying to write love songs for passing strangers
All those passing strangers

And the twinkling lies, all those twinkling lies
Sparkle with the wet ink on the paper

C) mylo

Oh i remember toronto when mylo went down
And we sat and we cried on the phone
I never felt so alone
He was the first of our own
Some of us go down in a blaze of obscurity
Some of us go down in a haze of publicity
The price of infamy, the edge of insanity

Another holiday inn, another temporary home
And an interviewer threatened me with a microphone
'talk to me, won't you tell me your stories.'

So i talked about conscience and i talked about pain
And he looked out the window and it started to rain
I thought maybe i've already gone crazy
So i reached for a bottle and he reached for the door
And i picked up the sleeping pills crushed on the floor
Inviting me to a casual obscenity

D) perimeter walk

It would be incredible if we could retrace all the times that we lived here
All the collisions
Wasted, i've never been so wasted
I've never been this far out before

Perimeter walk
There's a presence here
I feel could have been ancient, i could have been mystical

There's a presence
A childhood, my childhood
My childhood, childhood
A misplaced childhood
My childhood, a misplaced childhood
Give it back to me, give it back to me
A childhood, that childhood, that childhood, that childhood, that childhood
Oh please give it back to me

E) threshold

I saw a war widow in a launderette
Washing the memories from her husband's clothes
She had medals pinned to a threadbare greatcoat
A lump in her throat with cemetery eyes

I see convoys curbcrawling west german autobahns
Trying to pick up a war
They're going to even the score
Oh... i can't take any more
I see black flags on factories
Soup ladies poised on the lips of the poor
I see children with vacant stares, destined for rape in the alleyways
Does anybody care, i can't take any more!
Should we say goodbye?
Hey

I see priests, politicians?
The heroes in black plastic body-bags under nations' flags
I see children pleading with outstretched hands, drenched in napalm, this is no vietnam

I can't take any more, should we say goodbye
How can we justify?
They call us civilised!

(fish / marillion)

Huddled in the safety of a pseudo silk kimono wearing bracelets of smoke
Naked of understanding
Nicotine smears, long, long dried tears, invisible tears
Safe in my own words, learning from my own words
Cruel joke, cruel joke

Huddled in the safety of a pseudo silk kimono a morning mare rides
In the starless shutters of my eyes
The spirit of a misplaced childhood is rising to speak his mind
To this orphan of heartbreak, disillusioned and scarred
A refugee, refugee