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LYRICS: NONSENSE PARADE

FAME'S AROUND THE CORNER

Hear rap music on the radio
Got no place to go
Eatin' bad food, smokin' and drinkin'
Always trying to steal the show
Waitin' for the big break, baby
When I win the lottery
My closest friend likes all my tunes
And here's what she says to me
She says that

Fame's around the corner, babe
Around the corner, babe
I'm tellin you
But the song's been bruised, battered
Back when it mattered
It told the truth

I tried to tame the Mississippi
Because it seemed beautiful to me
But when I learned the ways of the river
It lost all its mystery
The songbird got paid by the word
Right as she shut the door
While you and I danced a Broadway show
Across the kitchen floor

Fame's around the corner, babe
Around the corner, babe
I'm tellin you
But the song's been bruised battered
Back when it mattered
It told the truth

The world's been bruised and battered, babe
Radios shattered
Under this roof
The song is all that matters, babe
I'll write a song for you
And I swear, I'll tell the truth

BEAUTIFUL SOON

Fitting in with a crowd of the like-minded
I feel stuffy in my coat and tie
Mingling in a sea of restless fools
I'd like to have seat and wrestle out a sigh

And stare at all the beautiful women
They're to look at and to want, but not to touch
I hear mumbles all around me on the patio
Till the lady's yellow dress interrupts

She's over at the top of the stairs
Past the waves of motivation and perfume
And I think "Maybe, I'll be beautiful soon"

If she catches on to me
And carries me away

This is significant nothing
Fate has brought me here to deal me a good hand
She says, "Would you like to dance to the champagne jazz?"
She could sense I was a dancin' man

I said, "No I'd rather watch the rest of them
Imitate each other tirelessly"
And she says, "Baby, you're beautiful enough for me"

She's catchin' on to me
She's gonna carry me away
To some faraway place
For all these eyes to see
Me as I wanted to be seen

This is now elemental, brother
I had come here as a matter of routine
All the regulars have measured up to expectations
Except this girl up in the mezzanine

She has seen me here, for once
As I wanted to be seen
While the others took no notice at all
She looks at me
Says, "You're beautiful enough to be
Comin' home with me"

Not to some faraway place
I'm the only one who needs to see
You as you want to be seen"

GET WHAT YOU DESERVE

Baby wants her childhood back and
Mother, mother picks up the slack
She went out too far and the world
Threw it back
Whoa, child

Well, the tide is rising up on you
Think of all the ones that have been misused
Maybe now, one can see, there's a man in black staring back at me
Hey says, "Hey, you're gonna get what you deserve"

There's no excuse for who you've become
When you gamble what you have has not been earned
But the luck runs out
By the time it's done
Whoa, child

Well, the tide is rising up on you
Think of all the ones that have been misused
Maybe now, one can see, there's a man in black staring back at me
Hey says, "Hey, you're gonna get what you deserve"

You're gonna get what you deserve
You're gonna get what you deserve

Oh, baby don't give up on me
I'm the only one I can be
The path goes on like a dream
And it's littered with the souls of the ones who seem to say
"We all get what we deserve"
I hope I get what I deserve

SOME PEACE TONIGHT

When the feeling's holdin' you
And you're tired of what you're supposed to do
And your clothes don't hang the way they used to
Honey chase the dying light
Gonna find some peace tonight

Well, I built this world for you
And I'm sorry that it's not the truth
It's now a strange place you thought you knew
Honey chase the dying light
Gonna find some peace tonight

Well, I'm feeling down and dead broke
Stumbling down along the avenue
Well, I've never felt so lonesome
I've never felt so close to being through

Someone's at your door
I think you've met him once before
And he's not angry anymore
We're gonna be what we're gonna be
We're gonna find some peace you and me

SINNERS AND LOVERS

Lookin' back, those were better times
A young man walks the street to where the old man pines

Sayin', you gotta know it don't change
And the things you've known remain, they've just been rearranged

All the sinners and all the lovers
Say, "Goodbye Jesus"
They're promised by their mothers
You're at the heart of what you believe

On Christmas Eve

Smoke gets in your eyes
Throw a log on the fire while the street choir, they harmonize

It's just a cold winter's day (it don't change)
And that fir tree will grow weak and its branches strained

All the sinners and all the lovers
Dust off the choir books and throw open the shutters
Feelin' like a newborn

On Christmas morn

You gotta know, it don't change (it don't change)
When the white street lights go out but the shadows remain

All the sinners, grab your lovers
Flash that innocent smile at one another
No one can take that away

On Christmas day

NOBODY LOVES YOU

Well I snuck right through the back
She had on a red dress and her pumps intact
I nearly had my first attack
I saw another man and her shoulders went slack

That is a crime
Not covered in the New York Times
That nobody loves you when you're gone

Seven years
We had our fun
I remember the bedroom
The way the clock would hum

I guess you better live fast
And you better love young
You don't remember the morning
When the evening comes

So I slip to the side
Keepin' what was inside
But nobody loves you when you're gone
And that is a crime
Not covered in the New York Times
That nobody loves you when you're gone

You promised me
And I took your word
Said, "Don't be foolish
Don't be absurd"

You left my faith in God
And mankind shaken
Said you didn't have a heart
Till it was breakin'

And so I work and I pray
To remain a cut above the fray
Because nobody loves you when you're gone
I'm not a casualty you'll find
Covered in the New York Times
Nobody loves you when you're gone

EVERYBODY

You never give yourself away
When there are words left to say
You kiss the child while it's sleeping
The way you never do while it's awake

Everybody needs somebody
We don't have a choice
Everybody needs somebody
To help them find a voice

All your fathers went dry
You had the veil over your eyes
You made the vow and the promises
And then you bid the family goodbye

Everybody needs somebody
To stand out in the hall
Everybody needs somebody
To come each time you call

So much that you give away
When you fall in love in the hardest way
But I hope you don't wish you were back there
Down with the street tramps
Under the street lamps
You know that you got so much to lose

But I saw you there
Sittin' on your rickety stairs
The orchestra played in a far-away room
And you wished that you could be back there

Everybody needs somebody
It's not up to us
Everybody needs somebody
We all need someone

WAIT TILL THE MORNING TIME

The vulnerable hours of the morning
Never last into the day
Sometimes at night the sky is too bright
As if it's burning away

Throw a party for your friends
Set the decorations right
Next thing you know, nobody showed
Where are all your friends tonight?

Well, he's just a poor man
Nobody loves him
Wait till the morning time

When the heart is protected
It's the love that's making you wait
Till the morning time

I know, you kick it off with a shrug
As you head to the door
Take a shot, it's all that you got
As you fall to the floor

Well, he's just a poor man
Nobody loves him
Wait till the morning time

When the heart is rejected
It's the love that makes you hold out
For the morning time
For the morning time

Gonna be all right
In the morning time
When the fall street shakes
And the midnight quakes
It'll be all right
If you make it through the night

It gonna be all right
It gonna be all right
If you can just make it through the night
When the fall street shakes
And the midnight quakes

It gonna be all right
Oh, baby

It gonna be all right
In the morning time
It gonna be all right
In the morning time
When the fall street shakes
And the midnight quakes
It gonna be all right
Oh, baby

Well he's just a poor man
Nobody loves him
Wait till the morning time

AFRICAN SUN

Oh darlin' where do we go when the laughter ends
And our holiday dreams are photos on the shelves of friends?
Oh, but now, lost in the African sun
We make sense of accolades that tell exactly what we've done

There's a sign up ahead, come this way, come this way
All your fine accolades slip way, slip away
You have all that you ever could need
But you go and ask for more

Oh darlin' tell me would it be worthwhile
If we dined on the banks of some half-deserted isle?
Your mink stole, your capped teeth gleaming in the African sun
The sea washes away your footprints, they have come undone

There's a sign up ahead, come this way, come this way
All your fine accolades slip way, slip away
You have all that you ever could need
But you go and ask for more

Oh darlin', tell me when you board the plane
Do you bring with you the luxury of all you have or does it remain?
You heard a dog start to growl, howlin' at the African moon
Everywhere you go it's still the same sun and it starts fading soon

There's a sign up ahead, come this way, come this way
Watch your fine accolades slip way, slip away
You have all that you ever could need
But you go and ask for more
You go and ask for more
You always ask for more

BORN ON NEW YEAR'S DAY

Did you know it shook me when you turned your face away?
Did you think you had the time to make it up some other day?

This kind of love is hard to find
Well, I guess time will come at you baby
And you'll forget who was ever really wrong or right
Yet you'll remember tonight

Well I was born on New Year's Day
When all the past just melts away
If you wander down this way
To the bed where you used to lay
Well, the bed won't be empty and the moon won't miss you anyway

Do you know it kills me to be compromised this way?
A champagne glass and you hold the past at bay

Well you won't know me till I'm gone
So go swimming through the back rooms
Where the lonely women go to hide their eyes
What a lovely disguise

Well I was born on New Year's Day
And all the cold nights they melt away
If you wander back this way
To the bed where you used to lay
Well, put the past in front and the future behind
Anyway you got a reason
It'll hurt you every time

But I don't mind
Not this time

Well, I was born on New Year's Day
And every memory melts away
But don't come wandering back my way
You've got your own bed now
Where you've got to lay

SONG FOR SADIE

Mama's movin'
Never stopped groovin'
Clickity-clack in the family room every night
She prayed the newborn would do that family right

Mama loves Sadie
Such a talented baby
She said, "You prove that God has a conscience and you just might
Free me from the man and the pain that split the night"

Mama loved to go
Watch Sadie put on a show
"Put your head upon my chest
And pray someday you'll use the gifts that you possess"

Sadie's movin'
She never stopped improvin'
She brought the trophies home but saw the dishes hit the floor
Mama watched in horror as he took the gun from the drawer

Daddy's no heartbreaker
Not much of a love-maker
But the screams soared like a saxophone through the pines
Run fast through the grass where Sadie can ease her mind

Mama had to go
And Sadie let her go
Put her head upon her chest
And said someday she'd use the gifts that she possessed

Beyond the shadows of the night
Where the trash cans rattle and the hoodlums fight
A young boy strikes a pose
Sadie holds him, but he knows
There are places that she'll never let him go

Mama's portrait adorns the room where
Daddy hangs his hat upon a chair
He reads Rimbaud and Beaudelaire
The TV drones as he declares
"I've squandered the greatest gift I'll ever know"

Well, Sadie's comin' back
To the corner of the cul-de-sac
Put the gun up to his chest and says
"I'll never use the gifts that I possess

I'm just like the rest
Oh, and it hurts"

NONSENSE PARADE

Ride with me this way
I'll show you how wars are won
Follow me like we've just
Follow me like we've just begun
But treat me like you would if, in the end, I was unsung

Walk along through the pantomime
Sweat on your neck, it's a blue charade
"Is it all just a racket?" he asks
"Is it all just a nonsense parade?
All the things that you've known
All the ideas you embraced and then forbade"

The experience you've had
Throw it all into a pot
But where's the truth, boy
When you try to see the world as it is not?
It's just a nonsense parade

Crawling in the hot desert
Panama hat down paradox way
Stop to know what we all strive to know
Every moment of the day
Before the victory parade catches you in its graceless sway

Oh, maybe I should buy an easel
And settle down by a sea of blue
Bring some order to the sea
In a greener shade, in a more personal hue
Paint a picture of the world
Bursting in colors, Pony Boy, all over you

The experience you've had
Throw it all into a pot
But where's the truth boy
When you try to see the world as it is not?
You know it's just a nonsense parade
Just a nonsense parade

 

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