Copyright © 1986, 1987, 1998 Jack Hardy Music (BMI)
pain farms with their non-urban romances with sonic maidens who cite rimbaud scarf-wrapped earrings without chances of restitution in the arms of the cold alone is the coyote who scratches carefully down the vacant streets of storefront tombs alone is the coyote who dances madly with anyone who ritualizes under the moon pain is lost in the womb of promise a paradise founded in the dying guilt blaming all in the tomb of compromise in the precise wound that it helped to build alone is the coyote who suffers openly vinegar to the lips of dying flesh alone is the coyote who acts majestically on the stage of count-down when his life is a mess the torch is set to the sweet pavilion where the ladies dangle their husbands on diamond-studded leashes worth millions in the fine print of contracts of understand alone is the coyote who left all behind him to chance freedom in the wisdom of the fool alone is the coyote who changes his mind when the chance comes to break all of the rules distance is a metaphor divided in ruin to the victor the ashes, to the victim the crown resistance is a luxury provided with doom where the fool-hardy fantasize all the way down alone is the coyote who thirsted so patiently for the moment of truth that betrayed so soon alone is the coyote who stalks all the graveyards digging up the promises sworn to the moon
i carried your memory on a chain around my neck as i walked the streets of dublin all alone and everywhere the people asked what was it that you fled what was it brought you here so far from home but all i could tell myself was little bits of lies and try to build myself into a man there's nothing like love to cut you down to size and show what you can do and what you can't i met a girl with green eyes who teased me for a while and showed me just how desperate i am but when all i see is blue skies for so many miles how can one cloud cause so much rain but i am clutching to a memory that has no right to live that has no right to call itself by name wanting to share my dreams with nothing left to give but love knows no alibis or shame with my hands in my pockets and my collar inside out i walked through county kerry in the rain watching the fishing boats fight an angry sea a tiny dot of strength in so much pain there is a phantom lighthouse draws the sailors to their death whatever life gives it also takes but still they find a need to sail the sea, they're just fools like me i guess we never learn from our mistakes i carried your memory like a chain around my neck as i bid farewell to dublin all alone
marlene dietrich and lilly marlene all of the girls have gone insane carson mccullers and sylvia plath how we gonna stop 'em going down that path (chorus:) eye eye eye eye eye what's a boy gonna do eye eye eye eye eye what a mulligan stew i saw her today on the avenue she was looking both ways with somebody new how many men can she go through in life when she can't hold a candle without holding a knife (repeat chorus) (bridge:) take this hunger from me it's all i've ever known she said i'm curled inside myself alone i'm calling ranting raving i'm falling and i'm aching just waiting for someone to take me home janis joplin and marilyn monroe all of the boys say what a way to go mirror mirror on the wall who is the craziest one of all (repeat chorus)
she has taken to making money again in that sacred time-honored way and all of the sainted money goes into his arms to play and i am only wishing i could guard her part of the way but all for the love of michael she won't see another day all for the love of michael i am sad to see she is pregnant again you can see it in her face so warm and pained and beautiful so pale yet full of grace but the last one they took from her and gave it another name and all for love of michael she will never be the same all for the love of michael she has cut off all her hair again that she used to dry his feet and dip the sponge in vinegar the smoke that clouds your heat and i have known some others half-naked in the unhappy truth but all for the love of michael they were never as unhappy as you all for the love of michael how she came to beg a moment crestfallen 'gainst the bar molding to the hope of finding a coup-de-grace of heart and i have known some others who would drink to abandon and dance but all for the love of michael she won't have another chance all for the love of michael those who never learn from love and fall the first time around and lean the weight of innocence on friends who drag them down you could never cure him so he has now cured you there is nothing left of virtue that time has not confused all for the love of michael
distance makes the heart grow fonder and i'm so fond of you calling out across the ocean dreaming that i flew somewhere it's the darkest midnight somewhere it is noon come back baby come back soon dún do shúile a rún it's hard to know in february the year is on the mend light a candle in the morning light it for a friend keep it burning through the nighttime on nights without the moon come back baby come back soon dún do shúile a rún so cold the wind so cold the flooring cold upon the feet draw the fire and draw the curtains crawl beneath the sheets can it be that we both see the same hard-hearted moon come back baby come back soon dún do shúile a rún trial by ice trial by fire trial by time is worse calling out an incantation to try and break the curse the memory of a stolen moment the magic of a tune come back baby come back soon dún do shúile a rún come back baby come back soon dún do shúile a rún mo chroídhe
by the stag of seven tines through the forest down to the sea the lapwing circles seven times o'er the silent nest in secrecy high and low they search the weirs for the doe the whelp he fears and for the child swept ashore in the olden times by the salmon in the pool fed on hazel for the gift of sight within the trees he hides the tools madly gazing in the starless night bless this ordinary home guess the gleeman fools who roam through the dance growing hot when the barley's sown by the merging of two streams one of silver one of gold find the merging of two dreams one is foreign one is old all the ancient clans unite for this sacred candle rite place the hand in the hand for they bond tonight
i watched as the sun came slowly rising laying waste all the damage from the night before a blood-red knife as it cut the horizon a warrior who can't find a war don't look for pain in the faces that love california though you know that it's there by the way that they're pacing the floor and don't look for love in the city of the fallen angels though i look for your face in every stranger who walks through the door the sailors lay drunken against the bar while the whores and the gamblers lay waste their pay but i am no better than they are tonight for misery's found company in shame don't look for pain in the faces that love california though you know that it's there by the way that they've seen it all before and don't look for love in the city of the fallen angels though i look for your face in every stranger who walks through the door such is the end of this wind-swept night in this season called winter that knows no snow a bird seeking shelter too late for flight the dawn shows us mercilessly alone don't look for pain in the faces that love california though you know that it's there by the way that they can't take any more and don't look for love in the city of the fallen angels though i look for your face in every stranger who walks through the door
as i set out across the sea my fortune for to find thoughts upon the vanity of all i'd left behind one who said she'd wait for me whenever i came home one who said she'd follow me wherever i did roam letters are the currency of hearts who are far away i waited for the longest time for what this heart would say oh and i would ne'er repeat the words that in this letter came that dashed my hopes and tore my heart each time i read again foreign tongues are curséd tongues when one is so unsure but distance is a greater cure if one can just endure for the ocean is the enemy of fire and of ice and a secret is a story that never is told twice oh the wind the changing wind that waits to bring me home upon the eve of my return i sit and drink alone and i curse the day that e'er i strayed that turned this heart to stone and i drink a toast to all who boast of living on their own
you who were the gatherer who gathered me in arms and spent the winter wandering as safe as we were warm when spring was ripe upon us you sowed your summer greed and in autumn with your sickle you took away my need gaze upon orion the hunter who's been chained and forced into the heavens the king who has been lamed for i was once the hunter and you were once my friend and you'll not have your freedom 'til i'm free to hunt again (chorus:) call down the moon if you can call it down call down the moon if you know what to say (call it down) call down the moon for a man call it down and he will be yours for a year and a day and oh what a year but oh what a day the child of the hunter they have given him my name and poisoned all his arrows to uniform his game of protecting the provisions and ownership of ground thwarted in his vision by his woman and her sound (repeat chorus) the wild grapes all are raisins the currants are rock-hard the holly bears its berries blood-red upon the yard so dream upon your pillow the omen winds of sleep that rustle through the window and hunt along with me (repeat chorus)
the swings were rusted 'cept the places worn smooth by the hands of the children with nowhere to move in the dry dusty playground in the midwestern heat where the snakeweed lies taunting and all's gone to seed it was there i first ran as a coward runs back from a bully named butch and his muscles of fat and he proved he was strong and i proved i was fast though there's nothing needs proving at all there were those who called us cowards again to the ears of the children who never have friends while the bullies marched off to a faraway land and we stayed at home to fight with our pens and the bullies are home now with stares that could bleed posing as heroes in a postcard parade with new weapons to prove they deserved what they got though there's nothing needs proving at all render caesar his violence as well as his coin the minds of the children need nothing to join time's wasted fighting a battle all won where some fight for honor and some just for fun sing softly sing softly yet carry a big song because we sing softly they think we're not strong that we won't ever prove what they're doing is wrong though there's nothing needs proving at all
it's not down by the wharf they look for jesus down the crooked streets on the misty nights where the dockmen defy the fate of photographs by looking old before their time it's not in the lonesome home that friends are found that's how the streets can lay their claims with that scratchy voice so rough and rude that takes your smile but leaves your pain (chorus:) it's not in the crystal ball that dreams are made not in the stars that shine the way not in the rainbow but in the rain not in the cards but in the game there's not any heaven for sovereign fools who squander gifts upon themselves for riches aren't always in the golden rule and gold's not worth its weight in hell so don't blame the fool for your trust in him and don't blame the rules you must play to win and don't blame the poet for his bitter words and don't blame the harlot for her sins (repeat chorus) it's not in the mountains that those ships come in 'cept in times of flooding rain and it's not in your eyes that i look for love for i've learned that much from my pain but here i stand before you love seeking refuge within your wings not in the arrow but in the feather that makes it fly not in the answer to the question why (repeat chorus) it's not down by the wharf that they look for jesus and yet they find him just the same