Oh my love I wish I were strong
To carry your pain
If my hands were of a granite
I’d take all of your needs and never bend

They say, you'll be weakness only with passion
That goodness come only through fire
My wisdom is so wild eyed
A child is still with me, so is desire

Living and loving sharing just nothing
Waiting and praying just hoping for change
It's the way of the world, so uncaring
That a bad man needs good love is hard to explain

Sacred loving, without it there’s just nothing
I feel so humbled by the ways I've lied
You ride with the winds, fly with your horses
And I hide from a devil howling inside

I am a Jeremiah Dixon
I am a Geordie Boy
A glass of whine with you, sir
And the ladies I'll enjoy
All Durham and Northumberland
Is measured up by my own hand
It was my fate from birth
To make my mark upon the earth...

He calls me Charlie Mason
A stargazer am I
It seems that I was born
To chart the evening sky
They'd cut me out for baking bread
But I had other dreams instead
This baker's boy from the west country
Would join the Royal Society...

We are sailing to Philadelphia
A world away from the coaly Tyne
Sailing to Philadelphia
To draw the line
The Mason-Dixon line

Now you're a good surveyor, Dixon
But I swear you'll make me mad
The West will kill us both
You gullible Geordie lad
You talk of liberty
How can America be free
A Geordie and a baker's boy
In the forest of the Iroquois..

Now hold your head up, Mason
See America lies there
The morning tide has raised
The capes of Delaware
Come up and feel the sun
A new morning is begun
Another day will make it clear
Why your stars should guide us here...

We are sailing to Philadelphia
A world away from the coaly Tyne
Sailing to Philadelphia
To draw the line
The Mason-Dixon line

These tables are haunted
By the ghost of Las Vegas
Their chips were once mountains
But they came here to play
They could take me if they wanted
But I have nothing worth counting
And like the sands of Nevada
They go drifting away

Lady luck's still a mystery
With her head on my shoulders
And I don't know why
I still want her to dance
I guess that's all history
What it is is I'm older
And I'm still a fool
For a one-way romance

Her dice were red rubies
They rolled and they tumbled
And I never saw time
Running out with my roll
And in a wasteland of cut glass
My dreams have all crumbled
And I've paid with whatever
I had left for a soul

Now the dawn's broken even
On an empty horizon
No reason for folding
No reason to stay
It's too soon to be leaving
Too late for criticising
And the sands of Nevada
They go drifting away

You better kiss me baby
Before you say too much
You better kiss me baby
Before you say too much

Say too much
Say too much
Say too much
Say too much

The scaffolder's wife
driving out of the yard
with a face that's as hard
as a scaffolder's bar
when she goes into town
she might take the top down
on the car

The quick little steps
in the stiletto boots
and the hair with the roots
She comes in as a rule
to get the nails done
and the tan for the sun
when the kids are in school

Don't begrudge her the Merc
It's been nothing but work
and a hard life
Losing her looks
over company books
- the scaffolder's wife

In the wicked old days
when they went it alone
kept the company going
on a wing and a prayer
They don't pay what they owe
when they have the crash flow
- they don't care

Don't begrudge her the Merc
it's been nothing but work
and a hard life
Losing her looks
over company books
- the scaffolder's wife

Above the bar the TVs are showing the game
But we're not watching it, we're hardly focussing
Through the windows in the fading day
1st Avenue is turning grey
Do you ever look at me and see another man
Let's get two more beers and try to make a plan
Sometimes it feels as though I have a key
But every time I try it it won't turn for me
Seattle - you've got to love the rain
And we both love rain
We both love rain

We watched the city skyline from the ferry deck
And you put your arms around my neck
We talked of looking just out of town
Now it's looking like a dream shot down
I still believe that there's somewhere for us
But now it's something that we don't discuss
And you're the best thing I ever knew
Stay with me, baby, and we'll make it to
We'll make it to
Seattle - you've got to love the rain
And we both love rain
We both love rain
Seattle - I want you just the same
And we both love rain We both love rain

The school Christmas party is coming
We ain't doing rugby no more
MacIntyre's teching us waltzing
out on the gymnasium floor
out on the gymnasium floor
McIntyre's out of the army
You'll be slippered if you get it wrong
And MacIntyre's din
booms loud in the gym
and we've only got our little shorts on
We've only got our little shorts on

And it's one, two, three, two, two
we're all a disgrace
MacIntyre tore us apart
And we danced with ourselves
when he yelled 'Find a space!'
waltzing with fear in our hearts
waltzing with fear in our hearts

Comes the day of the final manoeuvres
All of our heads are awhirl
It's getting much closer to D-day
This time we're going to do it with girls
This time we're going to do it with girls
In the arena the ladies were waiting
a 12 year-old partner to guide
Some matches were fixed
the rest of us mixed
and a fat girl got left at the side
A fat girl got left at the side

And it's one, two, three, two, two
we're all a disgrace
MacIntyre tore us apart
And we danced with ourselves
when we'd all found a space
waltzing with fear in our hearts
waltzing with fear in our hearts

When you come to my fights
and I'm under the lights
and you see that my footwork is false
don't count me out
at the start of the bout
I'm just doing the Secondary Waltz
doing the Secondary Waltz

It was so late and she’d be sleeping
He came through her home town
With the moonlight on the crossroads
And the green light shining down
And the bell at the railroad crossing
And the horn from far away
And his Silver Eagle passing
Half a mile from where she lay

At his feet a sea of faces
Make devotions with their love
Clap their hands and plead their cases
Call for blessings from above
Like the rolling waves forever massing
To crash and foam and creep away
And the Silver Eagle passing
Half a mile from where she lay

Road signs flow into the headlights
Whisper names and fall behind
He finds some honor in the darkness
Hopes for grace and peace of mind
And he thinks of how they’d lay together
He’d run his fingers through her hair
And he wonders if she’ll ever
Come to know that he was there

On Silvertown way the cranes stand high
Quiet and gray against the still of the sky
They won't quit and lay down though the action has died
They watch the new game in town on the Blackwall side

From the poisonous drains a vision appears
A new circle of cranes, a new reason to be here
A big silver dome rising up into the dawn
Above the church and the homes where all the silver is gone

If I'd a bucket of gold, what would I do
I'd leave the story untold Silvertown blues
Going down in Silvertown
Down in Silvertown
Going down in Silvertown
Down in Silvertown

A silver dawn steals over the docks
A truck with no wheels up on the cinderblocks
Men with no dreams around a fire in a drum
Scrap metal schemes rusted over and done

If I'd a bucket of gold, silver would do
I'd leave the story untold Silvertown blues
And I'm going down in Silvertown
Down in Silvertown
Going down in Silvertown
Down in Silvertown

When you're standing on thin and dangerous ice
You can knock and walk in for citizens' advice
They'll tell you where you can turn, where you can go
There's nothing they can tell me I don't already know

If I'd a bucket of gold, silver would do
I'd leave the story untold Silvertown blues
And I'm going down in Silvertown
Down in Silvertown
Going down in Silvertown
Down in Silvertown

From the Canning Town train I see a billboard high
There's a big silver plane rising up into the sky
And I can make out the words 'seven flights every day'
Says six of those birds are bound for JFK

If I'd a bucket of gold, silver would do
I'd leave the story untold Silvertown blues
And I'm going down in Silvertown
Down in Silvertown
Going down in Silvertown
Down in Silvertown

There’s only sky and water
As far as we can see
You came in a dream last night
Dear heart, you spoke to me
There’s only sky and water
And never so alone
When we cut the captain loose
We cut all ties with home
Lord, we cut all ties with home

We let the tyrant drift away
In one of his own boats
I don’t know why I stopped the lads
From going for his throat
Every hand did curse the day
He signed up for the trip
And every hand did know
This was no way to run a ship
Lord, no way to run a ship

Good riddance to his bitter soul
And now we have the brig
It’s sure we’ll not be sailing home
To dance the hempen jig
There’s only sky and water
We sleep and dream of land
But free of chains of iron
And the captain’s iron hand
Lord, the captain’s iron hand

He lashed me to a grating
For the nine claws of the cat
And now I have a fever
But I give no thought to that
I am high over the water
I sleep and dream of land
Free of chains of iron
And the captain’s iron hand
Lord, the captain’s iron hand

I’ve been banned from every racecourse in the country
There’s something about the unsure thing
Like scoring with a beauty of the county
It always makes the old bell ring

I like to go for broke and I’ll be randy
It’s got to be the unsure thing
In the Bentley Continental with the brandy
It always makes the old bell ring

And when it’s gone, all gone
I’ll stand on a hilltop and sing
I go where I want, I do what I want
And I don’t give a damn about a thing

Skydiver

Today I lost a packet at Wincanton
Dive Bomber in the 2.15
All on the nose and no-one counting
Nothing wishy-washy in between

Back when I made the pivotal decision
To take a winding road that I could see
It was just like being given an incredible permission
The rules don’t apply to me

And when it’s gone, all gone
I’ll stand on a hilltop and sing
I go where I want, I do what I want
And I don’t give a damn about a thing

Skydiver

I’m not being brave, it’s my money, not my life
When I need to take a break from the brushes and the knife
And I always took a fancy to the ones
Heading straight into the teeth of the guns

Skydiver

People say ‘Where have you been?’
Or ‘Where did you go?’
I’m a slow learner
It’s my way, has to be true
The world goes by me fast
But where you’re concerned
I like good things to last
Where’s the point in worrying
If we should start a little late
Where’s the point in hurrying
When waiting feels so great?
I’m a slow burner
My last train left a while ago
I’m a slow learner
I do everything slow

So where’s the point in worrying
If we should start a little late
And where’s the point in hurrying
When waiting feels so great?
I’m a slow burner
My last train left a while ago
I’m a slow learner
I do everything slow

Yeah, I’m a slow burner
My last train left a while ago
I’m a slow learner
I do everything slow

You can hire and fire, wheel and deal
Run your streets with a fist of steel
But you're small potatoes
Strictly nickel and dime, nickel and dime
Small potatoes, small time

You can raise an army on a town
Be the rent collector, come around
Yeah, but you're small potatoes
Strictly nickel and dime, nickel and dime
Small potatoes, small time

If you take your leave of reality
You have to believe in your own publicity
But you get yourself and agent
Hire the Albert Hall
Make like humpty dumpty and look down on it all
But you're small potatoes
Strictly nickel and dime, nickel and dime
Small potatoes, small time

Out on the town for your charities
Hanging in around with the VIPS
They say the duke of York took his men
Marched them up a hill of beans and down again
He was small potatoes
Strictly nickel and dime, nickel and dime
Small potatoes, small potatoes
Small potatoes, small time

They had a last supper
the day of the beaching
She’s a dead ship sailing
- skeleton crew
The galley is empty
the stove pots are cooling
with what’s left of a stew

Her time is approaching
The captain moves over
The hangman steps in
to do what he’s paid for
With the wind and the tide
she goes proud ahead steaming
and he drives her hard into the shore

so far from the Clyde
together we’d ride
we did ride

As if to a wave
from her bows to her rudder
bravely she rises
to meet with the land
Under their feet
they all feel her keel shudder
A shallow sea washes their hands

Later the captain
shakes hands with the hangman
and climbs slowly down
to the oily wet ground
Goes bowed to the car
that has come here to take him
through the graveyard and back to the town

so far from the Clyde
together we’d ride
we did ride

They pull out her cables
and hack off her hatches
Too poor to be wasteful
with pity or time
They swarm on her carcass
with torches and axes
Like a whale on the bloody shoreline

Stripped of her pillars
her stays and her stanchions
When there’s only her bones
on the wet, poisoned land
steel ropes will drag her
with winches and engines
‘til there’s only a stain on the sand

so far from the Clyde
together we’d ride
we did ride
so far from the Clyde
together we’d ride
we did ride

So many mouths
To feed on the farm
Sonny was the second
To the last one born
His mamma ran away
And his daddy beat him bad
And he grew up wild
Good love he never had

He had a left
Like Henry's hammer
A right like Betty Bamalam
Rode with the muggers
In the dark and dread
And all them sluggers
Went down like lead

Well he hung with the hoods
He wouldn't stroke the fans
But he had dynamite
In both his hands
Boom bam
Like the slammer door
The bell and the can
And the bodies on the floor

Beware the bear's in town
Somebody's money says
The bear's going down
Yeah, the bear never smiles
Sonny's going down
For miles and miles
Sonny's going down
For miles and miles

The writers didn't like him
The fight game jocks
With his lowlife backers
And his hands like rocks
They didn't want to have
A bogey man
They didn't like him
And he didn't like them

Black Cadillac
Alligator boots
Money in the pockets
Of his sharkskin suits
Some say the bear
Took a flop
They couldn't believe it
When they saw him drop

He had a left
Like Henry's hammer
A right like Betty Bbamalam
Rode with the muggers
In the dark and dread
And all them sluggers
Went down like lead

Joe Louis was his hero
He tried to be the same
But a criminal child
Wears a ball and chain
So the civil rights people
Didn't want him on the throne
And the hacks and the cops
Wouldn't leave him alone

Beware the bear's in town
Somebody's money says
The bear's going down
Yeah, the bear never smiles
Sonny's going down
For miles and miles
Sonny's going down
For miles and miles

At the foot of his bed
With his feet on the floor
There was dope in his veins
And a pistol on the drawer
There was no investigation
As such
He hated needles
But he knew too much

Criss-crossed
On his back
Scars from his daddy
Like slavery tracks
The second-last child
Was the second-last king
Never again was it the same
In the ring

He had a left
Like Henry's hammer
A right like Betty Bamalam
Rode with the muggers
In the dark and dread
And all them sluggers
Went down like lead

They never could be sure
About the day he was born
A motherless child
Set to working on the farm
And they never could be sure
About the day he died
The bear was the king
They cast aside

Beware the bear's in town
Somebody's money says
The bear's going down
Yeah, the bear never smiles
Sonny's going down
For miles and miles
Sonny's going down
For miles and miles

London City's Southside Tenements
Rusty cans, broken cars, cracked cement
Someone blocked the drains, someone's smashed a vent
In a southside. . . A Southside Tenement

London City's Southside Tenements
Flags are flying for some royal event
People hanging out the St. Paul's windows
Linin' up on the pavements and on The High Street
And on City Road and from Crossfields
And the Southside Tenements

I get restive, I got to leave
Take the shortcut home,
Past the arches, by the railway
Where an' old friend swears that he could save me
For a crazy boy he's okay
For a southside. . . A southside cavalcade
Hear the haunted. . . the haunted serenader
Just a memory a-fadin' on The Broadway
Fading from the southside
The Southside Tenements

Sleepwalkin' to The Oxford Arms
No-one noticing warehouse alarms
Slamming dominoes in the back bar
Safe from harm, by The Tenements The Southside Tenements

London City Southside Tenements
Cops say my kids are thieves
They say "The Bill are bent"
I dunno, I'm only sharin' rent
In a southside
A Southside Tenement

London City's Southside Tenements
Broken parts, broken hearts, cracked cement
Some spray-can words 'bout love an' gold - remember them?
And a madman cryin' "Nobody's condemned"
Not even Southside, Southside Tenements
And I remember Southside Tenements

After two thousand came two thousand and one
To be the new champions we were there for to run
From springtime in Arizona 'til the fall in Monterey
And the raceways were the battlefields and we fought 'em all the way

Was at Phoenix in the morning I had a wake-up call
She went around without a warning put me in the wall
I drove Long Beach, California with three cracked vertebrae
And we went on to Indianapolis, Indiana in May

Well the Brickyard's there to crucify anyone who will not learn
I climbed a mountain to qualify I went flat through the turns
But I was down in the might-have-beens and an old pal good as died
And I sat down in Gasoline Alley and I cried

Well we were in at the kill again on the Milwaukee Mile
And in June up in Michigan we were robbed at Belle Isle
Then it was on to Portland, Oregon for the G.I. Joe
And I'd blown off almost everyone when my motor let go

New England, Ontario we died in the dirt
Those walls from mid-Ohio to Toronto they hurt
So we came to Road America where we burned up the lake
But at the speedway at Nazareth I made no mistake

Brew the coffee in a bucket
Double straight man and banjo
If you don't got the snake oil
Buster, you don't got a show
Who puts the doh-re-me
In our pockets
Keeps the party going on?
It's the man
Who sells the potions
I'm just one who plays the songs
Now they generally buys
The bigger size
They usually rub it in
I drank it once, it tasted
Like grease and paraffin
It's mostly alcohol, okay
You can't deny it's strong
We was going through the motions
'til the doctor came along

There stands the bottle
Ladies and gentlemen
All these bottles
Don't have to tell you, friends
These days miracles
Don't come falling from the sky
Raise your glasses to the doctor
To a stand up guy

When the monkeyshine is flying
And he's promising the cure
He says the french
For your lovesick blues
La maladie d'amour
He gets the chumps all laughing
But he gets a few to buy
Here's to beefsteak
When you're hungry
And whiskey when you're dry
Now the band'll blow their moolah
Like sailors gone ashore
Now we're going to West Helena
To gamble, drink and whore
Let's you and me
All make whoopee
Here's mud in your eye
Here's to all the gals you ever want
And heaven when you die

There stands the bottle
Ladies and gentlemen
All these bottles
Don't have to tell you, friends
These days miracles
Don't come falling from the sky
Raise your glasses to the doctor
To a stand up guy

There's a big cheese with a cigar
Been sizing up the show
He wants to get the doctor
Pitching on the radio
I will make a switch to guitar
But the rules all still apply
They want to trust somebody
Yeah, they want a stand up guy

There stands the bottle
Here's to absent friends
All these bottles
Dead soldiers in the end
These days miracles
Don't come falling from the sky
Raise your glasses to the doctor
To a stand up guy
To the doctor
A stand up guy

sucker for punishment
unreleased

I see you in the alley
I see you in the hall
Rolling back like a bowling ball
So I picked you up and threw you on the floor
And all you say is do me some more
Your eye's black, your nose is bent
Have you been in an accident
You gotta be a sucker for punishment

That's what you're
You like it ready
You like it rough
You're one of these people
You can never get enough
You're all punched in
You're all punched out
You're the one they're laughing about
You're just an embarassment
You must know it's time to go went
You gotta be a sucker for punishment

That's what you're
I wouldn't call you a fancy free
I wouldn't call you a frigid
It wouldn't be so bad for me
If you didn't pull me rigid
So only walk in the name of love
Straight into my box you'd love
You ring me up and say hi
You bring me down and I say goodbye
Now I'm not too intelligent
But it's you that I resent
Because you're just a sucker for punishment
That's what you are

Somebody's gotta crack
A whip around here
Who's
Minding the store?
Shake it up
Sell some beer
What's your
Money maker for?
Pay day
We're packin' 'em in
Six-gun Annie
And Buffalo Jill
But who's to say
They'll be back again
For a refill?
Honey, you know the drill
Ain't no left turn
Down sleepy time street
You gotta be fast
But you gotta stay loose
Thinking
On your feet
Slick as grass
Through a goose
We gotta
Rationalise
The payroll
Is giving me chills
You and me's
Getting organised
It's kill or be killed
Honey, you know the drill

Well they can all look down
On sucker row
But they all forget
The tallest trees
From acorns grow
Though they ain't yet
I never look down
On a sucker stake
They all pay the bills
I never gave a sucker
An even break
And I never will

A beautiful vision
Keeps coming to me
I see
A miracle mile
Flying in for free
Service
With a smile
High rollers
Fancy hotels
Big time singers
Topping the bill
You gotta have a feel
For the stuff that sells
Call it a skill
Honey, you know the drill
Somebody's gotta crack
A whip around here
Who's
Minding the store?
Shake it up
Sell some beer
Money walking
Through the door
Annie's arriving
At a dangerous age
Don't you
Go getting ill
Get another woman
Up in the cage
Who ain't over the hill
Honey, you know the drill

Daddy says I'll never get the roadster
What does he know
I just can't make it here in Squaresville
Daddy-O
Pretty on the inside and the out
She's the ride I'm wild about
The only one I'm dreaming of
Summer of love

Daddy says I'll never get the roadster
What does he know
We drive to where the sky is wide
And the moon is low
When I shut her down the night feels cool
I tell her she's beautiful
A million stars all swarm above
Summer of love
Whoa, summer of love

Summer days hot and dry
Hot as firecrackers on the Fourth of July
Summer nights passing slow
Gas her up Daddy I'm ready to go

Repeat 2nd verse