Del Amitri Lyrics

Fatal Mistakes: Outtakes & B-Sides (2022)

Lips Of London lyrics - Del Amitri

I thought I heard my name

On the lips of London

It might have been the rain

It might've been a dream

There's a cherry stain

On the lips of London

And a nagging pain

Everywhere I've been

There's a ring of cranes

On the lips of London

Tearing at the edges

Pulling up the dead

But I can't forget those lips of London

Say the saddest thing

They ever said

I spent a lot of time

On the lips of London

Living in a bind

And dying to be free

More than a little wine

Passed my lips in London

So when I drink I find

It all comes back to me

There's a ring of cranes

On the lips of London

Tearing at the edges

Pulling up the dead

But I can't forget those lips of London

Say the saddest thing

They ever said

You break a heart in two

You break a spell

And each one is left

With the other's half as well

Thought I heard my name

On the lips of London

But it was just the rain

It was just the wind

And the sweetest thing

About the lips of London

Was how they smiled

To the bitter end

There's a ring of cranes

On the lips of London

Tearing at the edges

Pulling up the dead

But I can't forget those lips of London

Say the saddest thing

They ever said

Gone In A Second lyrics - Del Amitri

Find something to do

Something worth playing

I'm just passing through

Don't think I'll be staying

Cos I promise you I

I'll be gone in a second

Like teardrops dry

I'll be gone in a second

Right out of the blue

Just as you're waking

I'll be there to give you

A little shoulder shaking

But I promise you I

I'll be gone in a second

Like a fleck in your eye

It'll be gone in a second

A second of love, a second of life

A second remembering it right

Watching a soul slip out of sight

Into the ether of the night

In a second...

Find something to do

Before I wander

Into your mind

Like a roll of thunder

Cos I promise you I

I'll be gone in a second

Like a flash of light

It'll be gone in a second

I promise you I

I'll be gone in a second

I promise you I

I'll be gone in a second

I'll be there for you

Cos I promise you I

I'll be gone in a second

I promise you I

I'll be gone in a second...

Shame lyrics - Del Amitri

I'm writing a poem, it's not about you

But this guy you might know him

He's a clown too

Shame, shame, shame

Well, he's got your name

Dresses the same way

And he acts like the star

Of his own play

He's a typical guy

When he has whiskey in his veins

Just like you and I he lives in shame

Shame, shame, shame

Well, he started a fight with a building

He's always looking for nights

To get killed in

And he waltzes through life

With typical disdain

Just like you and I he lives in shame

Shame, shame, shame

Shame at the states we get in

Shame at the places we've been

Shame at the wells, shame at the bells

Shit what the hell, for everything else

We'll take the blame

Without shame

Shame, shame, shame

So I'm forging ahead with or without you

Meet me at the edge of the cliff

You know you want to

Typical guys, want to go out like a flame

So much better to die

Than live in shame

Shame, shame, shame

Your Love (Is Killing Me) lyrics - Del Amitri

Your love is killing me

I wake up soaking in bed

In a monsoon of dread

Your love is killing me

I go limping around

From bar to bar in this town

Your love slowly steals

And I can't believe just how good that feels

I get sick and I get well

And I can't wait to go back to hell

Your love is killing me

There's a pain in my side

It feels like shame every night

Your love is killing me

By stealth, by design

By only inches at a time

Your love slowly steals

And I can't believe just how good that feels

I get sick and I get well

And I can't wait to go back to hell

Your love puts the fear in me

How could I ever be without

Your love never heals

And I can't believe just how good that feels

I get sick and I get well

And I can't wait to go back to hell

Your love is killing me

Your love killing me

This City Loves You Back lyrics - Del Amitri

Saw a hipster girl walking her cat

I saw a pig-masked man fall out of a flat

This city loves you back

I saw a sawn-off police officer huffing up a rail

I saw a jet-liner reverse and hoover up its vapour trail

I saw a school on fire, saw a stag-night choir

Watching a seagull and a rat fight to the death over a flyer

I saw surgeons laughing at a heart attack

Behind a poster claiming this city loves you back

This city loves you back

I saw the cavalry charging at a peacenik brigade

Down the street where all the bands play and vapers parade

I saw a bride get busted, I saw a swan get flayed

I saw a kid fly off the quay where all the battleships were made

I saw a crazy bitch flash her tits on the bonnet of a Rolls

I saw a hacksaw cut clean through the queen of souls

This city loves you back

So I met you in a nightclub full of casual amputees

Who have their heads removed like chickens on weekend sprees

I never found a home here, I played too safe to crack

I was a wolf in the basement pining for the pack

But you dogged me like a shadow now the city loves me back

This city loves you back

Some Mothers Do Have Them lyrics - Del Amitri

Some mothers do have them

Those no mum would choose

But you and I we know now

They're all sons ever lose

A little time to sleep before they die

A little time to never say goodbye

Some mothers do have them

The quiet ones the geeks

And you and I we know now

Must've come across like freaks

A lot of time alone to play guitar

A lot of nights grasping through the dark

What we were looking for was hiding in the liner sleeves

Maybe we took it all too hard or too seriously

Some mothers do have them

Now we just have you and me

You and me

Some mothers do have them

So whatcha gonna do?

They're gonna go their own way

It ain't up to you

So little time to tell them not to fear

But every mother has to disappear

Happiness Is It lyrics - Del Amitri

I'm gonna sing a happy song (everything is dying)

So kick your feet and clap along (we're all going to hell)

I'm gonna sing a happy song

Throw it on the heap of shit you're choking on

To the ever growing hill of junk

I'm gonna add another one

I'm gonna let rip a whoop of joy (everything is burning)

C'mon kill a girl, rape a boy (we're all going to hell)

I'm gonna sing a happy song

Don't give a fuck if you don't sing along

Next year this will all be gone

So hit the pedal bring it on

Hurry up don't be late the suicides start at eight

Last one alive can take some pride

In seeing the last one die

I'm gonna sing a happy song (everything is dying)

Happiness keeps us strong (we're all going to hell)

I'm gonna sing a happy song

'Til my eyes bleed and hair is gone

Main thing is to carry on into the pit

'Cause happiness is it

O My Lazy Baby lyrics - Del Amitri

O my lazy baby I still love you

In spite of all the loving you don't do

And I'm your lazy baby I admit it too

I guess I could make you happy

But don't bother to

O my lazy baby you're a train wreck

A kiss of life could save you on your craned neck

But I'm your lazy baby and I do nothing

But wait for someone stronger

To blow that breath in

I haunt the broken bed

With the force of the long dead

O my lazy baby I can't lift my head

O my lazy baby I still love you

But I don't lift a finger although I want to

'Cause I'm your lazy baby with so much work to do

I guess I could make you happy

But I'm as lazy as you

And if I don't make you happy

Someone else is going to

Do I want to make you happy?

I do, I do, I do

My Adulthood lyrics - Del Amitri

I've been living like a child all my adulthood

Waiting for a man to take my place

There's a river of denial runs through my adulthood

I don't know who owns this face

I've wasted every day of my adulthood

I've spilled it on the ground like rain

I don't know when this became my adulthood

Since I refused to change a thing

My adulthood is just a name I took

From the other adults that I saw

And little did I know, nobody ever grows

They just pretend that it's all like before

I'm way past the salad days of my adulthood

Not even mirrored shades can hide that truth

I thought I'd run away from my adulthood

Since I escaped the cage of my youth

My adulthood is a masquerade I took

From the other adults that I knew

And little did I know, nobody ever grows

They just carry on as children do

Like I've carried all my adulthood

This thing I had to do

Suspend my adulthood, so every day I could

Be free from you

At The End Of The Lightning lyrics - Del Amitri

The western approaches go by in a flash

And the joke I call home is just a party I crash

So I lie on the pillow so desperate to go

Back to the playground of the show

I look from the window, watch the world standing still

Feel the floorboards sliding with just the force of will

I taste the dirt of the cities that I thundered through

See the battalions of taxis that I fell into

At the end of the lightning is the life that I know

I hit the ground like a hailstone and melt into the flow

As you lay dying

I was coasting on a shaky stage

Living large at the end of the lightning

Tearing out another page

My five o'clock shadow has turned to midnight snow

I share laughs with your widow, but the punchline I don't wanna know

I pine for the motion and long for the van to go

Be at the other end of the lightning with the ground so far below

You Can't Go Back lyrics - Del Amitri

You can't go back

Honey, that is what they told us

You know what I think of that

Cos I'm back here at your side

Were you lonely?

Were you eaten up inside

Thinking if only we'd tried...

You can't go back

But back then nobody could hold me

So I've come back round

And I'm holding you to this

That thing between us

That we knew was something special

Well, it seems it still is...

They can't destroy us

We put the seal on it

So be joyous

Cos once the fuse is lit

You can't go back

That thing between us

That we knew was something special

Well, it seems it still is...

You can't go back

That is what they told us

I know what you think of that

You've made it pretty clear

So, baby

Promise me forever

You will stay right here...

And you can't go back

You can't go back

That is what they told us...

(You can't go back...)

All Hail Blind Love lyrics - Del Amitri

Is this a revival

Or just the last breath

At the end of the regime?

People toast our survival

As if slogging on

Is living out the dream

So hold up your faces

Left to your devices

You'd have killed us off

We would have never kept going

If the going wasn't so damned rough

All hail blind love

Don't assume we've mellowed

We still think of one another

As a fraud

Such strange bedfellows

It's the hatred and resentment

You applaud

So fill up your glasses

Here's to another thirty years full of

Wounding each other

Like we just can't get enough

All hail blind love

All hail the trail of failures

Slights and snide remarks

Flung with a sneer

So add your wishes here

We can only hope you're both

Still blind next year

So hold up your faces

Left to your devices

You'd have killed us off

We would have never kept going

If the going wasn't so damned rough

All hail blind love

All hail, all hail blind love

Musicians And Beer lyrics - Del Amitri

God doesn't love you

God doesn't care

You lie on the slab with

Blood in your hair

And the voices of angels

Are flat and austere

Well, that's what you get if you don't book

Musicians and beer

You stand on the vanquished

Your feet on their chests

Posing like starlets

In bulletproof vests

Your wife doesn't love you

She's sick of the fear

Sick of living without

Musicians and beer

So lock up your daughters

Shit, you already did

At least Muddy Waters

Can't fuck with your kids

I'm an avid blasphemer

With a passion for queer

Cos I can't live without

Musicians and beer

My granddaddy's bible

So brooding and black

Lies like a tombstone

On my own daddy's back

And we lowered him down

Without a tear

So he died like a pauper

Without musicians and beer

So this is an order

Get yourself some

Musicians and beer

Close Your Eyes And Think Of England lyrics - Del Amitri

Day by day we're winnowing away

At the kind of world the heathens have their eyes on

Step by step the sun is gonna set

On the waves that sully the horizon

So close your eyes and think of England

That boat afloat on the ocean sets my spine a-tingling

So let the boys brigade be singing

Close your eyes, close your eyes

Blow by blow, there's gonna be a show

We're gonna teach the goons the who is who of history

Deal by deal we'll crush them on a wheel

Of progress and manifest destiny

So close your eyes and think of England

That boat afloat on the ocean with the chains of state a-jingling

And at the sight of intermingling

Close your eyes, close your eyes

Close the door behind you, I feel kinda blue

I guess I miss the time

The scapegoat was always someone new

So step up to the camera, you

And close your eyes and think of England

That boat afloat all alone on the ocean is sinking

And a telephone is ringing, the coastguard have been drinking

Nobody had an inkling 'cause they closed their eyes

Close your eyes, close your eyes, close your eyes

Losing The Will To Die lyrics - Del Amitri

I wish I could feel like people feel

I wish I didn't have a heart

That sits like a stone in its jail of bones

Ready to be ripped apart

But yesterday I felt a funny thing

Maybe you know why

I'm losing the will

I'm losing the will to die

I thought I was done, I was way beyond

The solace of the sight of land

No flash of distress in the blackness

Everything beautifully planned

But suddenly I see searchlights

Maybe you know why

I'm losing the will

I'm losing the will to die

I've got pills and poisons

Hosepipes, knives

And ropes in rich supply

But the notes I wrote are mouldy

And the inkwell's going dry

Cos I'm losing the will

I'm losing the will to die

Hooray! Hooray! It's Saturday

Time to tie the noose

All praise to you and your savagery

The rope has another use

So happy that I've got an aim in life

Maybe you know why

I'm losing the will

I'm losing the will to die

I'm losing the will

I'm losing the will to die

Otherwise lyrics - Del Amitri

Otherwise

We'd be dancing on a beach

In the starlight

With a margarita each

Otherwise

We'd be riding on a bus

Into nowhere

Babe, I wish it was

Otherwise

Not barely getting through

Another night

With the curtains drawn

To keep us from

Seeing other people's lives

Otherwise

We'd be rolling in the aisles

And kids

Would be rolling their eyes

Otherwise

We're holding on

To the lifeboat's sides

And the only thing

Keeping us afloat

Is to dream what might have been

Otherwise...

Otherwise

I'd be leaving you alone

Not watching you try

To push the blood back in a stone

Otherwise

We'd walk along the sea

Not realise

That life is going to be

Otherwise

Babe, I wish it was

Otherwise

Babe, I wish it was

Otherwise

It's Feelings lyrics - Del Amitri

All the raindrops in the air

Come make a river through my hair

Come down and drown me

I don't care

'Cause it's feelings

That cut you

It's feelings

I can't bear

But it's feelings

That put you there

All the sickness, all the bruises

All the shit that no one chooses

Bring it on in its disguises

I'll take the knockouts with the prizes

'Cause it's feelings

That cut you

And it's feelings

I can't bear

But it's feelings

That put you there

(Put you there)

Trying to make some sense of why you can't see straight

(Put you there)

While the world goes past like a pantomime behind the glass

(Put you there)

Holding a dead man's hand as his watch ticks like the rain

It's just feelings

That cut you

It's just feelings

That put you there

It's just feelings

I'm So Scared Of Dying lyrics - Del Amitri

I'm so scared of dying

And leaving you behind

Every day I try just to stay alive

So you won't be sitting by

That empty chair at night

I'm smoking like a factory

Come on, keep ahead of me

Don't wanna think of you

Happy and alone

Cos I'm so scared of dying

And leaving you behind

I put a little poison in your cup one time

So lock me up, baby if mercy is a crime

I check your breathing as you sleep

Hoping it slows and stops for keeps

Don't wanna think you might

Have to be alone

Cos I'm so scared of dying

And leaving you behind

Don't wanna think of you

Running through the worst of me

Or you to figure out

You should've long ago got free

It is better for us both if I survive

So you never know how it feels

To truly be alive

Cos I'm so scared of dying

And leaving you behind

I'm so scared of dying

And leaving you behind

I'm so scared of

I'm so scared of dying

I'm so scared of

Every day I just try to stay alive

Cos I'm so scared of dying

Mockingbird, Copy Me Now lyrics - Del Amitri

I shout it at the moon

But my love gets hit by her lampoon

I'm just waiting for

My mockingbird to copy me now

She shoots straight from the throat

Under my gate, over the moat

But I'm just waiting for

My mockingbird to copy me now

Once I get the pills inside me

She'll follow through

She'll lie like a fresh kill beside me

Swallow what I do

I'll drink this venom at my leisure

And she'll mimic me measure for measure

I'm just waiting for

My mockingbird to copy me now

Mockingbird, copy me now

Baby, copy me now

Missing Person lyrics - Del Amitri

I am lipsticked like a tart

In the cherry red of Côtes-du-Rhône

Prodding at the little fire of my phone

The lights behind the bar

Twinkle like they've always known

Only desperate little men ever drink alone

But as long as I'm here, I've disappeared

And it's vanishing

I'm a missing person doing my thing

As midnight strikes

I slip into this queen of dives

And quietly oblivion like sleep arrives

But I couldn't live without

This sewer of a place to be

Alone with my one obsession - me, me, me

Yeh, I can hear her remonstrate

You fool, that's three

What I'm doing here, ain't drinking beer

It's vanishing

I'm a missing person doing my thing

Just a missing person doing my thing

Missing the time I threw your crutch away

And ruined a perfect day

Now it's all ruins from here to daybreak

So I hang on to my chair

In this fish tank of sinking stars

Pickling their memories in Mason jars

I head out for a smoke

Leave your ghost there to hold my place

And line up with the other cheaters

In disgrace

Like runners in exile

From the human race

But as long as I'm here, this last brutal year

Is vanishing

I'm a missing person doing my thing

Just a missing person doing my thing

Second Staircase lyrics - Del Amitri

There is a second staircase

Leading from a chamber of my heart

Concealed behind a bookcase

Leading up into the dark

And the second staircase

Is tearing the house apart

There's a secret number

Written on a ticket in a drawer

I don't know if I love her

But I've been crazy since I saw her

There is a second staircase

Only I know what it's for

It is burning through my mind

I don't wanna leave this all behind

I built it all up from the ground

Why would I tear the old place down?

So I blocked the second staircase

Behind some old junk we never use

I threw the ticket in the fireplace

Forgot everything I knew

Cos beyond the second staircase

Is life without you

I can't take the second staircase

It's all too much to lose

Lonely lyrics - Del Amitri

Lonely I have been without her

Lonely I have been so long

The only thing that keeps me going is

I know she's wrong

Wrong to think I wouldn't miss her

Wrong to think I'd be alright

And wrong is all I feel

In bed at night

I listen out for the bell to ring

In the chapel on the hill

The crowd of sound from the streets around

Is a howl of sadness still

I don't think I could ever wander

I don't think I could ever stray

The mark she left on my heart

Is gonna stay

I walk my rumour through the city

To fill the empty afternoon

And turn for home

Under the mocking of the moon

The crazy thing about a golden ring

Is it will melt in any fire

But I didn't think for a minute

She would simply melt at his desire

Nation Of Caners lyrics - Del Amitri

We're a nation of caners

Excusers, explainers

We're wasting away every night, every day

Assuring ourselves we're blameless

Of everything heading their way

We use and we use, throw away and away

Caning the plains, planing the cane

Jetting the snuff and snuffing the pain

Nothing's enough, nothing's enough

A sniff on a cuff and a fag to a flame

Downing the foam and filling the drain

Ravenous men, ravenous girls

Ravage it all until nothing remains

Blue yonder, the wonder

Of getting beyond the pale

Slipping out of the jailed brain to a cage

We made in a rage of thirst

Thirst for ease, thirst for plunder

Thirst for junk and speed and candour

Thirst for splendour, a binge, a bender

Return to sender

Burn the canopy churn the blender

Rape the barley, bend the fender

Burn the embers, burn the embers

Cane and cane and cane dissenters

Ream the renters, shame the campers

Stamp the punters through

Members get a tent to hurl into

We all know where we're going to

We're a nation of caners

Who could blame us –

Have you seen the state of what

They left for us to use?

Have you seen the place

They think is fit for humans, fit for purpose?

Purpose being caning, caning

Purges in the virgin forest

Urges in the depth of dreaming

Muffled screaming coming from the cane

Desperate praying underneath the rain

Consume it all you must

Or there'll be never ending pain

A future filled with cesspits of the slain

A future that we never could

Explain for all the world

The caner boys, the caner girls

Buried in their shame

Nation against nation

Never sickening of the game

We're a race apart of caners

Floggers, torturers in trainers

Ostrich headed party planners

Carry-onners, carry-outers

Flat denial earthers, science doubters

Flabby thinkers, shabby lovers

Anti-social fatal drinkers

Shirkers, duckers, divers, wankers

Blissed and pissed within our blinkers

A caning nation

An acidic aberration

A full-force pillage through

The gifts of the creation

Heaven was our source

The underworld our destination

There are worthless whirls of bank notes

Floating through the station

Can you hear the desperate praying

Underneath the rain?

Can you feel the past

Shoving us on to the train?

We're a nation of caners

And who can blame us?

Mamma lets us follow

Anywhere our nature takes us

Fruit loop blitzers

We've got a taste for space

And need to fill the void with chasers

Need to drink to our disgraces

Peak grease racers

We can't stop until we die

Pull me back into the bar

Before I see the sky

Baby, you're working for the man

You're doing everything you can

The weight of shit you carry round

One day you're gonna just derail

Every time I pick you up

It's like I'm springing you from jail

We're a nation of caners

Who can blame us?

A nation of caners

Who can blame us?

We're a nation of caners

Who can blame us?

A nation of caners

Who can blame us?

Can you hear the desperate praying

Underneath the rain?

Can you feel the past

Shoving us on to the train?

Who can blame us?

Who?

Who can blame us?

Who?

Just Before You Leave lyrics - Del Amitri

Does your appetite for novelty still burn?
And do you pick a fight just to feel the heat of his concern?
Do you still misbehave, then beg for his reprieve?
And do you love to feel his needy hands pulling at your sleeve?

Don't you always fall in love again
Just before you leave?
Don't you always fall in love again
Just before you leave?

Do you still storm away? Do you slap him just to see
If he hits you back or backs away, or panics just like me?

Don't you always fall in love again
Just before you leave?
Don't you always fall in love again
Just before you leave?

Don't you cry
'Cos you know that's the one thing he hates
Don't you try
To bend him until he breaks
Like you broke me

Do you still turn in a second into stone?
And do you pepper him with petty threats of letting him alone?

Don't you always fall in love again
Just before you leave?
Don't you always fall in love again
Just before you leave?

Cash And Prizes lyrics - Del Amitri

I've got cash and prizes more than a man could dream
I've got a hundred houses, some that I've never seen
I've got walls of paintings high as the Hoover Dam
I've got cash and prizes, but I don't know who I am

I've got a thousand people act on my every word
Point at the sky above me, and I own every bird
I've got a wife who holds me in her diamond-studded hands
I've got cash and prizes, but I don't know who I am

I've got buildings, I've got planes

That light the skyline with my name
I am everywhere but here
A colossus on the index, but touch the cancel key and I just disappear

I've got cash and prizes 'cause I've got the stuff it takes
I've got a Rolls-Royce running just 'cause I love the sound it makes

But cash and prizes I guess is all that they can see

Drunk In A Band lyrics - Del Amitri

Pat is the guy with the record shop
And John sells fruit but wants to be a cop
And Paul deals speed in a Celtic top
But I'm just a drunk in a band.

Jo does tele-sales and martial arts
And Gill pushes patients round the public parks
And Nancy makes sculptures out of hoover parts
But I'm just a drunk in a band.

Danny puts the cones on the motorway
And Donna dances tables in her lingerie
And Gerry, Dave and Billy, man, they're puttin' on a play
But I'm just a drunk in a band.

I could be a soldier, I could drive a van,
Guide rivers of pain into little red cans
Walk rich men's dogs, bring 747s into land
But I'm just a drunk in a band.

One More Last Hurrah lyrics - Del Amitri

One more last hurrah
One more fearless stand at some nightclub bar

One more last hurrah
Gonna kiss our friends and then crash our cars
Crash our cars

One more last hurrah
Before we knuckle down and button up
and figure out that fading out's the statement we've been looking for
The state that we've been looking for

Hold on, I wanna say,
"My life looks okay"
Okay

One more last hurrah
Whatever else is waiting for us one last waste of time is all we're asking for
All we're asking for

One more last hurrah
One more chance to forget who our enemies are

Hold on, I wanna say,
"My life looks okay"
"My life looks okay"
Okay

Buttons On My Clothes lyrics - Del Amitri

I've been drinking all through summer
I guess I've had a laugh
I've had every kind of fun I could have had

Looking at my crowd tonight
There's a sober kind of sparkle in their eyes
That I don't like

'Cause everybody knows she ain't coming back
The buttons on my clothes are as plain to see as that

I'm a man of reputation in this rocker's town
I have lived it up so long I'll never live it down
Every back room bet I've made
Every all night thrill room-service bill I've paid
Looks cheap today

'Cause everybody knows she ain't coming back
The buttons on my clothes are as plain to see as that

I took a chemical vacation in my head
But now I'm back here at the station with a trunk of regret

Thought I found myself a frequency beyond her voice
But the memories keep breaking through the noise
So brother, send a ship for me before I wash upon the shore of clarity
I can see

That everybody knows she ain't coming back
The buttons on my clothes are as plain to see as that

Yeah, everywhere I go, there are ghosts of what I had
Like the buttons on my clothes, they are everywhere I'm at

Baby, It's Me lyrics - Del Amitri

Who's gonna call you up every single day?
Who's gonna hold you hard when stuff gets ugly?

Cause baby if you wanna find someone
As big as a door that fits in your palm
A wall of support as small as a gun
Can't you see?
Baby it's me

Who's gonna miss you just cause you leave the room?
Who's gonna kiss your brow when your dreaming haunts you?

Cause baby if you wanna find someone
With all that they need but nothing they want
Full of themselves but with a hole where you aren't
Can't you see?
Baby it's me

Baby it's me

Living in the lining
Where your coins are chiming
When we drive at night it's my eyes you're shining

Who's gonna call you up every single day?
Can't you see
Baby it's me

Wash Her Away lyrics - Del Amitri

Eyes like a slash across her face
Lips I'd kill a man to taste
Whatever this stuff is, I'm buying
Whatever it does, I'll do it 'til I'm dying

I can't wash her away
It's getting under my skin
I can't wash her away
I can feel her closing in

Hands like a carnival of queens
Hair like a heart attack of dreams
A voice so soft you could cut it with a kiss
Screams so small you could hold them in your fist
Little white fingertips running up your back
Little needling scores where her nails leave a track

I can't wash her away
She's living in my skin
I can't seem to wash her away
I can feel her closing in

Eyes like a slash across her face
Lips so damn sweet you'd cut your tongue out for a taste
Whatever this stuff is, I'm buying
If she's nothing but a coffin least she's good enough to die in
She's a ballroom full of dancing chairs
She's a child in disguise hiding bullets in her hair
A voice so soft you could cut it with a kiss
Screams so small you could hold them in your fist
Every one night stand is a six week stretch
Craving her arms twisted up around your neck
Skin so white, a heart so pure
If you opened up her veins you'd see the light run through her

Last Cheap Shot At The Dream lyrics - Del Amitri

I can't look into the future, but I can't cheat the past
I will wipe away my memory, I will find freedom at last
I will walk away from everything that I used to want so bad
I can't look into the future, but the future is the only thing I have
The only thing I have

I am standing on the pavement, I am staring at a sign
A cheaper flight to paradise I am told I'll never find
There are cameras on the rooftops, there are crazies on the green
I will jump a plane to any place far enough away to get me out of who I've been
Get me out of who I've been

I have shaken, never bitten, every hand that ever hit me
Time has taken what it wanted, now I'm gonna get my victory
With my last cheap shot at the dream

I can't look into the future, but I can't cheat the past
I will wipe away my memory, I will find freedom at last

I can't look into the future, but I know I don't wanna see
Another day in Hell with all the mediocrities
I will walk away from everything that the world wants me to do
I can't look into the future, but the future's where I'm walking to
I'm walking to

Out Falls The Past lyrics - Del Amitri

You hold the key to whether we will ever last
I know I can't forever hide behind this mask
'Cause everytime I fall in love, out falls the past

You'll hear my reputation anywhere you ask
They'll say I'm always chasing, so the die is cast
'Cause everytime I fall in love, out falls the past

Everytime I find somebody, the whispering begins
About how I change my women like traffic switches lanes
But girl, believe me, I'm the one that's changed

Back then, the girls, I guess, I kissed and got out fast
But that's all you need to know then girl, you should have asked
Everytime I fall in love, out falls the past

Everytime I find somebody, the whispering begins
About how I change my women like traffic switches lanes
But girl, believe me, I'm the one that's changed

You hold the key to whether we will ever last
But I hold when we're together; I ain't ever held on another so fast
'Cause everytime I fall in love, out falls the past

She's Passing This Way lyrics - Del Amitri

She's passing this way
And if you're looking for love, she'll give it away
Yeah, we've all drunk from that cup
You'll be hooked within minutes of tasting a drop

'Cause she is something, that is true
But just a kiss, my friend, you're through
'Cause when she walks and leaves you blue
You'll look like the junkies standing here in front of you

But hey, you should follow your heart
Maybe she won't desire for just pulling apart
And I don't care if she does
Once she's got you in deeper, there'll be one more of us

'Cause she is something, that is true
But just a kiss, my friend, you're through
'Cause when she walks and leaves you blue
You'll look like the junkies standing here in front of you

Jesus Saves lyrics - Del Amitri

Jesus saves, saves little children in distress
Jesus saves, he saves the sick, the penniless
Jesus saves, he saves the dying in their beds
Jesus saves, he saves the drowning, saves the wrecks
Jesus saves, he saves the pure and leaves the rest

Jesus saves, he saves the homeless on the streets
Jesus saves, saves the afflicted, saves the meek
Jesus saves, he saves the hungry, saves the weak
Jesus saves, saves every soul that he can reach
Jesus saves, he saves the useful, leaves the obsolete

Jesus loves, he loves the underdog, he does
Jesus loves downtrodden sinners just like us
Jesus loves, he loves to hear the sound of pain
Just because, well he can't save you if you ain't one of us
The damned, the blind, the deaf, the never-walk-again

Jesus gives to the lame, he gives their limps
Jesus gives to the prostitues, their pimps
Jesus gives, gives us the crackhead's crying wince
Jesus gives, he gives the derelicts their drinks
Jesus gives, so he can watch the swamp of people squirm and sink

'Cause Jesus craves, he craves the brotherhood of man
Jesus craves the bony gripping of its hands
Jesus craves, he craves the cross, he craves the nails
Jesus craves, he craves the pain the mortal feels
Jesus craves all the cruelty that ever made him real

Jesus saves, saves every sinner you can see
Jesus saves, saves even amateurs like me
Jesus saves, saves men of evil, men of greed
Jesus saves, saves you from thinking, just believe
That Jesus saves, and you can lemming-like go walking, to the
Cliffs of eternity

Just Getting By lyrics - Del Amitri

Look at me, I'm the one who got away, the one who could've shone
I tried to do my best, but I guess your best don't last for long

Look at me, standing with my tattered pride of toothless little lions
We try to make a difference, do something no one else had tried

But if you see me walking and you're wondering why
Well it's just the business of life
If you're not getting lucky, you're just getting by

Look at me, is it written on my face, the luxuries I've known?
Am I a foreign presence, someplace that used to be my home?

So if you see me walking, just a regular guy
Well it's just the business of life
If you're not getting lucky, you're just getting by

And in that weightlessness that comes with good luck
The one thing you don't expect is feeling the drop

Look at me, I'm the one who got away, and then came crawling back
I try to do my best, but I guess I never had the knack

So if you see me walking, and you're wondering why
Well it's just the business of life
If you're not getting lucky, you're just getting by

"Some Other Sucker's Parade" (1997)

Not Where It's At lyrics - Del Amitri

With some girls it don't matter who you hang with
With some girls it don't matter how you talk
And some girls they are easy to be yourself with
But the one girl that I want ain't easy to please with what I've got

With some girls it don't matter where you're aiming
With some girls it don't matter how you act
And some girls they don't care what car you came in
But the one girl that I want, she wants that one bit of geography I lack

Yeah, she don't want me 'cos I'm not where it's at

And some girls they will worry about reactions
And some girls they don't give a damn for that
But somehow I ain't ever in on the action
'Cos the one girl I want, she wants that one little quality I lack

Yeah, she don't want me 'cos I'm not where it's at

I don't have my finger on the pulse of my generation
I just got my hand on my heart, I know no better location

Yeah, she don't want me 'cos I'm not where it's at
No I'm not where it's at

Some Other Sucker's Parade lyrics - Del Amitri

I must've had a million damn unlucky days
But there ain't no cloud that a bottle can't chase away
And I've done my deal of living, ran from place to place
But when the roof comes in I don't wanna take it straight

They say with faith any soul can make it
But hell, why should I wait
Till the clouds go rain on some other sucker's parade

I've had my share of heartaches, let-downs and tricks
But the everyday blues is the one thing I can't fix
And I've heard those holy brethren muttering my name
But it ain't no sin to drink when you're suffering

Patience, they say, is a saintly virtue
But hell, why should I wait
Till the clouds go rain on some other sucker's parade

When every heavy skyline just empties on your fate
Sometimes keeping dry's something to celebrate

So if the road of sin is the one I'm taking
I ain't gonna stray
Till the clouds go rain on some other sucker's parade

Won't Make It Better lyrics - Del Amitri

So you say you are sick of love
Got a mind to give the damn thing up
Got a house full of stuff your lovers left
Gonna take a bus to the city dump with it

So you want to throw away the old you
But the old you's old enough to know
It won't make it better
It won't make it better

Sick of being a loser, so you say
Gonna go out and choose a new personality
Ain't gonna look at her pictures, lying awake all night
Got a dazzling future with your inner light

So you want to throw away the old you
But the old you's old enough to know
It won't make it better
It won't make it better

I've set out on that mission too
A little revolution to forget her
Trying to make it better

So you want to throw away the old you
But the old you's old enough to know
It won't make it better
It won't make it better

What I Think She Sees lyrics - Del Amitri

I've been in this place many times before
With my baby's things among my shoes and strings and clothes
But just because I'm here
Don't mean I can't run out that door
Ain't that what those running shoes are for?

Baby likes to sleep on floorboards bare
And just to keep the peace, well I join her there
And she might say to me
'A better man I can't recall'
But what I think she sees ain't me at all

It ain't me at all to need somebody
Like some lovestruck casualty
It ain't me at all to feel so ready
To be what I think she sees

Baby claims I kiss like I really care
Well, I guess I'd say I don't but the truth ain't fair
And sometimes she looks at me and says
'Babe, my heart just stalled'
But what I think she sees
What I think she sees
What I think she sees ain't me at all

Medicine lyrics - Del Amitri

You can find another country if you want
Somewhere you can hide yourself away
Find yourself another set of holes to haunt
Get yourself another debt that you can't pay

Yeah, you can try to run for cover everywhere
Add another letter to your name
Burn everything you ever used to wear
Get yourself another lover that looks the same

But sometimes it's the medicine
Sometimes it's the medicine
Sometimes it's the medicine itself that makes the pain

Well, you can always make another move again
Another set of keys, a different town
And you can try to lose yourself in them
Tell the truth, it catches up and cuts you down

'Cos sometimes it's the medicine
Sometimes it's the medicine
Sometimes it's the medicine itself that makes the pain

And you can always hide the wreckage that you come from
But every new disguise is just another lie to run from

You can only try to fool yourself so long
With any kind of measure you can find
'Cos every phony pleasure you've been on
Has lifted off and left the pain behind

'Cos sometimes it's the medicine
Sometimes it's the medicine
Sometimes it's the medicine itself that makes the pain

High Times lyrics - Del Amitri

Little Snow White, she was sleeping 24 hours a day
She's got a right to be lazy, flat out of reasons to breathe
And it's cold baby, yes it's cold
But everything is relative can't you see we're living in

High times, dig the new domain
Living through high times, just don't crash my spiritual plane

Little Snow White, she was hungry
Told her, 'Go out and graft for it'
At the end of the rainbow she was mind-blown
To be staring at a crock of shit
And it's hard baby, yes it's hard
But with a little intuition you can shift position in the

High times, touch the magic stone
Living through high times, pick up that spiritual phone

Frittering packs of refuseniks, too drunk to muster any contempt
Ten ways to relax on a cruise ship, one way to cover the rent
I've whored myself around enough to know, baby
You don't come with the customers and smile when you're spoken to in

High times, catch the cosmic vibe
Living through high times, hey, has Ginger Baker died?
Living through high times, my planet's all out of line
Living through high times, man, just like '69

Mother Nature's Writing lyrics - Del Amitri

Open up your eyes,
Everything is crying out 'This could be your time'
She fell out of the sky
Must every star be working on heavenly designs

A crooked line of lightning
A silent movie moon
Mother nature's writing to you

So button up your lip
You don't get many chances in the time between the tides
The weather's rolling in
In a minute flat you'll be soaking wet, so kiss her while it's dry

A crooked line of lightning, a silent movie moon
Mother nature's writing to you

Open up your eyes, mother nature's writing to you

No Family Man lyrics - Del Amitri

Well I talk like a boy to my baby sometimes
And you talk like a baby when your boy is crying
You made something to love but I love what I am
No family man

So don't tell me you've got something better than me
Don't say that it's a great mystery
It's just making love what you want it to be
That's why I am no family man

And that is why all that I have in the world
Is an ocean of time with this beautiful girl

You got something to prove with your own little you
Have I wasted my time, cut through the family line
In the race to life I am an also-ran
But I've run enough to know I'm no family man
Yeah I've done enough to know I'm no family man

Cruel Light Of Day lyrics - Del Amitri

Someone's opening up for business
The morning rains the same old way
But someone should've taught me forgiveness
Now I see it in the cruel light of day

Telling me he's done me a kindness
She was going to leave anyway
But love is such sweet politeness
Till you see it in the cruel light of day

Last night was just a comedy
And I woke up like a walking tragedy
And it was right in front of me
But I just laughed and turned my eyes away

So pour me another cup of coffee
I ain't ever seen the city look so grey
And those pretty little diamonds in the darkness
Ain't no jewels in the cruel light of day

No I ain't some accessory
She can slip off from her back and just fold away
I don't need no-one undressing me
When I wake up in the same suit every day

So someone's opening up for business
The shutters roll so familiarly
And out of darkness comes relief, sing the witless
But I don't see it in the cruel light of day
No I don't see it in the cruel light of day

Funny Way To Win lyrics - Del Amitri

So you want me to play the bleeding role
Just so he can know how I needed you
Well that's OK with me, it's a part I think I know
God knows he won't need to suspend belief

I know it's just a game
And losing you's how it just begins
Ain't that a funny way to win
Ain't that a funny way to win

So I run around dragging people down
Holding my broken heart like a cheap cartoon
Just so he can see it's a sucker who
Does to you what you did to me

I know it's just a game
And losing you's how it just begins
Ain't that a funny way to win
Ain't that a funny way to win

So if there's another need that I can still serve
I'm low on self esteem but I'm high on nerve

I know it's just a game
And losing you's how it just begins
Ain't that a funny way to win
Yeah, that's a funny way to win

Through All That Nothing lyrics - Del Amitri

Honey, sometimes those big blue eyes
Can make me fall out of bed in surprise
In the bright morning sun
In the howling wind, in the shirt you sleep in
You're the one

'Cos it's you that I tried to find
Every day and every night through all that nothing

The hands of fate couldn't have done it all
As if the rain ever cared where it falls
And there were times when I know that I
Just fell in love to give myself an alibi

'Cos it's you I was waiting for
Every day and every night through all that nothing

So it's true now, I can see
All that nothing that I knew
Was so something like you'd come to me

Life Is Full lyrics - Del Amitri

People say you are a stand-up guy
You'd never hurt no-one and you'd never try
And you laugh and you cry
And you do all the things that anybody does to show they are alive

Friends say you are a careful man
You always favour reason where you can
And you laugh and you cry
And you do all the things that anybody does to show they are alive

But wherever you go, whatever you do
You know that they won't find a fool quite like you

Yeah life is full
Of easy choices
Yeah life is full
Of simple rules
When love comes you don't have no room
When life is full

People say you are a patient guy
You never rush something if it ain't right
And you laugh and you cry
And you do all the things that anybody does to show they are alive

But wherever you go, whatever you do
You know that they won't find a fool quite like you

Yeah life is full
Of easy choices
Yeah life is full
Of simple rules
When love comes you don't have no room
When life is full

And you make those mistakes that everybody does
And you deal with them as you go
From tripping on a shoelace to falling in love
You keep things under control

But wherever you go, whatever you do
You know that they won't find a fool quite like you

Yeah life is full
Of easy choices
Yeah life is full
Of simple rules
When love comes you don't have no room
When life is full

Lucky Guy lyrics - Del Amitri

Baby, hold it, just let me try
For just one minute to be this other guy
And live his life
With my home and faithful wife
And your pretty face to kiss some nights

Ain't I a lucky guy
I get what I want, yeah
Ain't I a lucky guy
Unlucky for some

Baby, I like it, it feels all right
Now that I see it through his cheating eyes
I can't stop smiling
How could I not be satisfied
So glad I ain't the one on the losing side

Ain't I a lucky guy
I get what I want, yeah
Ain't I a lucky guy
Unlucky for some

No need to feel guilty baby
I'm happy to be
The one that you come to baby, 'stead of me
You'd better believe it, baby

So I don't know where tonight
Love will lead me but that's all right, 'cos

Ain't I a lucky guy
I get what I want, yeah
Ain't I a lucky guy
Unlucky for some

So lucky, baby
So lucky, baby

Make It Always Be Too Late lyrics - Del Amitri

What I want is everything to clear
So let the clocks be wrong
Let the evening be longer, let me drown in here

'Cos what I want gets clouded by the sun
I can't see beyond
The petty things that living here brings everyone

So get lost with me
Let the whole world wait
Make it always be too late

What I want is right before my eyes
So set me up a drink
Pull the shutters down on all those prying satellites

'Cos what I want is everything to clear
So if you stop your watch
You might stop the morning's cruel hammer falling here

So get lost with me
Let the whole world wait
Make it always be too late

compilation: "The B-Sides: Lousy With Love" (1998)

Scared To Live lyrics - Del Amitri

Walk into the lightning of a midnight bulletin
Our brave new world sits smiling with egg on its chin
And love gets so lazy, love gets so slow
We stopped making love in the hours of daylight too many moons ago

But now that we've given all that we have to give
Maybe we're just scared to live

Since I go so blinkered to nothing else but you
I've been playing for each cheap reward like game show gluttons do
And love's the honest truth Babe
And love's such a beautiful lie
So don't look so confused Honey, know it's true tonight

But now that I've given all that I have to give
Maybe I'm just scared to live

Why can't I wake up and make something of my life
Why can't I wake up to this life

How can you have no faith in this your own home town?
Can't you practice a little discretion, play the whole thing down
And since you got so blinkered to the highs and lows of a hopeless thing
Maybe you can take this heart and pass it on to him

Now that I've given all that I have to give
Maybe I'm just scared to live

Maybe you can take this heart and pass it on to him

The Return Of Maggie Brown lyrics - Del Amitri

She stepped off the bus with a burst suitcase and a frown
And she could smell the breweries and abattoirs on the edge of town
And the man who owes her money won't even lend her an ear
When she phones to demand his answer's vague;
He says, "I'll get back to you but right now I've got to catch the plague."

Down in a bargain basement she goes to shuffle through careers
When all they offer her is friendship and peace souvenirs
And the receptionist was playing with a pencil at her lip
She asked her if she knew a place to sleep
She says, "I'll get back to you but now I've got appointments to keep."

There was a shop called B.J.'s that she stepped into to get out of the gale
They sold only British manufactured, lifetime guaranteed to fail
And a store detective asked her what she had under her coat
"It's just a little something that I wrote;
It says, 'I'll get back to you unless first your girlfriend slits your throat.'"

And by the time the sun set she was penniless and frozen to the core
The Salvation Army girls refused her on the grounds they didn't know her
So she asked some whino for advice, but it turned out to be
A Sunday sport reporter who was following his nose
He said, "I'll get back to you but first we need a picture without clothes."

So she stepped back on that bus with a burst suitcase and a frown
She had come to the conclusion that this was not the place for Maggie Brown
And it was 6 in the morning when she telephoned me;
Until then I'd been living on my knees,
But I got back up when she got back to me

In The Frame lyrics - Del Amitri

Put me in your pocket now, put me in your dress
I will remain the one you love best
Don't try to rip me up
If I hurt you when
Everything is fowled up at the end

Let me always stay now
Laughing as you say, "How
Do I always look like I'm in pain?"
And you always get your finger in the frame

Put me in your bottom drawer under old exams
There I will be always your cheating hand
Don't try to send me back in some maudlin phase
What has developed here you can't erase

Let me always stay now
Laughing as you say, "How
Do I always look like I'm in pain?"
And you always get your finger in the frame

And maybe all the fights will never happen
Maybe nothing's going to change
Maybe I'll be always laughing
Nothing standing in the way
Nothing clouding up the future
Not the faintest threat of rain
Nothing clouding up the picture
But a finger in the frame

So put me in the pocket of this very dress
And I will remain the one you love best

And I will always stay now
Laughing as you say, "How
Do I always look like I'm in pain?"
And you will always have your finger in the frame

Sleep Instead Of Teardrops lyrics - Del Amitri

Cry. Cry out your eyes forever
It wont go away
I. I'm just a dumb observer
It's so stupid what I say

Like everyone else will do
I'm gonna lie to you
Tell you that life is cruel
But someday you're gonna wake up
With sleep instead of teardrops in your eyes

An so
Nobody lives forever
The crassest of clichés
Like time
Time is the greatest healer
But it's a murderer today

Like everyone else will do
I'm gonna lie to you
Tell you that life is cruel
But someday you're gonna wake up
With sleep instead of teardrops in your eyes

You know my holding you won't change, anything
I can't stop this whole charade, continuing
As each consoling kiss remains, on your face, like a stain

So cry
Cry out those tears an let them
Succumb to gravity
And try
Try as I might I'll never
Fill that vacancy

Like everyone else will do
I'm gonna lie to you
Tell you that life is cruel
But someday you're gonna wake up
With sleep instead of teardrops in your eyes

Someday you're gonna wake up
With sleep instead of teardrops in your eyes

Long Journey Home lyrics - Del Amitri

By the time you get to hear this I'll be long gone down the road
Without a toothbrush or a suitcase in a world I didn't know
By the time you get through college, by the time you learn to drive
I'll be picking thought the garbage of my life

By the time you get adjusted to your objectionable role
I'll be deleted, deselected from that very long street you know
When you've lost your sense of direction and burned every happiness you know
I'll have made my last connection on the long journey home

By the time you get to hear this you'll be completely alone
Counting down the hours to your destination on your long journey home

Paper Thin lyrics - Del Amitri

He was a self made man
Made a killing on copper mines
He loved beautiful girls
Got a taste for fancy wines
And the suits he wore were paper thin

He built a big white house
In the valley of the kings
Took a beautiful wife
Bought her every possible thing
And the silk she wore was paper thin

Well, they travelled in style
Paid cash for everything
Had a beautiful child
Had a champagne christening
But as they raised their glasses in toast to him
He saw the crystal was paper thin

So the shadows came
Whispering words to him
He sold the company out
And cashed all those futures in
But it all still looked so paper thin

Well, it was late one night
And the rain was streaming down
He called his wife's name out
Said honey, it's over now
I'm gonna burn it all
I can't take this any more
But as he struck the match
She took a pistol from the drawer
She said I ain't going down with you
Pulled the trigger in
And the bullet it passed right through
Like he was paper thin

The Last Love Song lyrics - Del Amitri

This is the last love song we'll sing
Now that the death of our dreams
Has poisoned everything
The shadow of the squaw shades our door
And grayness invades our every pore

This is the last love song we'll sing
This is the last chance we have to say absolutely nothing

This is the last movie we'll see
While our country's sleep walking through every major scene
Our age of convenience becomes
A state that don't care for anyone

This is the last love song we'll sing
This is the last chance we have to do absolutely nothing

This is the last love song we'll sing
This is the last chance we have to do absolutely nothing

The Verb To Do lyrics - Del Amitri

If you or I don't say it who's going to
We can dance around it or dance for the truth
We sit here conjugating every variation through
Of the verb to do

Now I don't want to hang it all on you
If blame must be allotted, I'll take some too
But someone just say "Damn it, I need to be tonight with you"
The verb to do

If I don't seem to want it, if it won't show through
It's only because it has me paralysed for want of loving you

So if you and I don't make it, well who's going to
Why can't we just state it bold as blue
Look out over this city - the first word they're taught to use
Is the verb to do

In The Meantime lyrics - Del Amitri

Maybe you are crying now
Or maybe you're relieved
I guess we both stopped trying Baby to believe

And maybe you are hurting badly
Or maybe you feel free
Taking one last journey with me away from you and me

But who is there to go to now
And what are we to do
Living in the meantime until we find somebody new

Maybe this will help you now
Give you room to breathe
Or maybe all the pain you feel will never ever leave

And who is there to turn to now
Who can help us make it through
Living in the meantime until we find somebody new

So you said you loved me baby
For the last time now it seems
And I said I loved you baby, but I don't know what that means

And who is there to lie to now
How do I survive this without you
Living in the meantime until we find somebody new

Long Way Down lyrics - Del Amitri

Its been a long way down...
From what I was then, to what I'm now.
I was up there, and baby you were proud.
Yeah its been a long way down.

Yeah its been a slow road back.
To havin' nothing again, from having it.
You were mine babe, and we were right on track.
Yeah its been a slow road back.

Yeah its been a long way down.
I was high, but you were right about how,
The higher you get on love, the longer it takes to forget...
and get out of.

Yeah its been a hard trail home.
We went somewhere I'd never known,
From livin it up babe to waking up alone,
Yeah its been a hard trail home.

Its been a long way down.
I was high, but you were right about how,
The longer the dream goes on, the harder the fall will seem
When it has gone.

Yeah its been a long way down
We had everything heaven would allow.
From the desert heights to the life I'm livin' now,
yeah its been a long way down.

Whiskey Remorse lyrics - Del Amitri

There is a girl I used to know
She had a hundred ways of hurting and so
I packed my bags and left her as she watched some TV show
There is a girl I used to know

There is a town I used to love
It once contained most everything I'd ever dare dreamed of
Me and my baby in the basement whilst the traffic trawled above
There is a town I used to love

There is a bar I used to know
I still sometimes drop by when I have no place left to go
It's where the kings of comedy compare their tattered souls
There is a bar I used to know

So buy me one more drink before you go
Or lend me a twenty and I'll get drunk on my own
You always find some company, who come in to use the phone
Someone who can't stand to see a friend go home alone

There is a joke I used to tell
Some guy who gets three wishes, ends up wasting them to hell
And in the end in misery, he tells the joke himself

There is a guy I used to know
He once had everything that any man could hope
Now he sits here drinking with a tale that always goes
'There is a girl I used to know'

Before The Evening Steals The Afternoon lyrics - Del Amitri

Lovers they walk on the bright side of the street
And the city it shines in surprise in the ice cream heat
And I want to be kissed in the haze of this hotel room
Before the evening steals the afternoon

And the traffic it shakes as my travel shaver drones
And the maid she mistakes my 'come in' for a 'please leave me alone'
But I want to be held in the swell of her sweet perfume
Before the evening steals the afternoon

Before the daylight dies and the dusty sky gets rusted up with tungsten
Before the phony night stakes its claim on walkers waiting at the junction

From the blue shade of the park, couples emerge
Dropping hands like they're still scared to get caught
But I want to be caught in their rage of embraces too
Before the evening steals the afternoon

So Many Souls To Change lyrics - Del Amitri

As the sun rises over Mexico
And sets on the African plains
On a tourist jet, the in-flight magazines
Sets out your rate of exchange

While the unhealed and homeless are wondering
If they will ever feel safe again
They give you drinks and show you sailors
Dancing in the warm New York rain

So many souls to change

So mother and child while travelling to Deli
Have to jump off a burning train
While the puppet rich bible class third world society
Meets to discuss it's slogan campaign

You are complicit in this conspiracy
You are unable to get free
They send the rich ones to University
And the rest get comics and TV

So many souls to change

You are shocked with shots of corpses
And seduced by scenes of greed
So your overloaded conscience
Goes out looking for some kind of relief

And the church, the government and charity
They collectively agree
You cannot simply print more money
Just to save some poor country from disease

So many souls to change

So when you die and go to heaven
Looks like there could be hell to pay
As the saints and angels ask how anyone
Could treat mortals that way

The Whole World Is Quiet lyrics - Del Amitri

Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse seem stuck for what to say
Even the presence of Jesus in this house couldn't chase those demons away
The whole world is quiet

And Charlie Brown with his big baseball glove finds it hard to keep the blush upon his face
When only an uncle knows the secret of the stolen drops of pearl on your pillowcase
The whole world is quiet

Look who's got a present for sweet little you
You'd better button up about it or he'll cry
Someone's in the kitchen mixing biscuits in a bowl
You can hear it if you lie completely quiet
Just like Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse
The whole world is quiet

"Twisted" (1995)

Food For Songs lyrics - Del Amitri

There's people hauling people
Out from under their homes
There's people hauling people
Out through the groaning stones
You can see me tonight,
I'll be shell shocked and white in the cold light of dawn
But I ain't gonna cry just to give some guy
Food for songs

People going hungry,
Stand like a sackfull of bones,
People going hungry, feeding a billion homes
So I put my dead child down, you put your TV on
Well I ain't gonna cry just to give some guy
Food for songs

Yeah, there's people beating people,
To keep the system strong
People beating people, to keep the illusion going
So I'm going to fight every day of my life 'til they're gone
But I ain't gonna die just to give some guy
Food for songs

Yeah, there's people holding people,
Making those wailing sounds,
Yeah, there's people holding people,
Watching them lower me down
So I take my leave and you take what you see
And you make it what you want
But when I see you in hell, I will give you some
Food for songs.

Start With Me lyrics - Del Amitri

With all the stuff they sell you night and day
With all the trash they try to trick you with you lie to me
Well I don't need it but I get it anyway
With all the sadness and lunacy,
With all the dispossessed hopeless, you're leaving me
Well I don't want it but it's how it's going to be

Yeah, you can try to save the world
And baby, that's fine
But is it such a hateful crime to start with me?

With all the bad debts and misery
With all the dirty tricks and hypocrites you cheat on me
Well I don't want it but it's all that I can see

With all the discrete obscenities
With all the money freaks and doublespeak you turn away
Well I don't need it, but I guess it's gonna stay

Yeah, you can try to save the world
Well baby, that's fine
But is it such a hateful crime to start with me?

Here And Now lyrics - Del Amitri

Hey I'm with you, let me just get you a light
And if we had thought to listen
We might have checked if the weather was right
And I don't mind if you want to drive all day

Hey, it's raining, I should have brought my coat
Sometimes I could sell my soul
Just to sit and watch you smoke
And I don't mind if you want to break my heart

'Cos you can burn paper
You can turn on a wheel
But you can't change later
Here and now just how good we can feel

Hey, stop talking, think I can hear the sea
And did I tell you the sound of the surf
Makes strange things happen to me
And I don't mind if you want to crash the car

'Cos you can turn traitor
You can turn on your heels
But you can't change lady
Here and now just how good we can feel

And hey don't worry, so that black cat's some kind of curse
'Cos if bad times are coming up ahead
Just put us in reverse

I don't want to waste time thinking 'bout here and now
Nothing else matters but what we've got here and now

One Thing Left To Do lyrics - Del Amitri

So long, hope you dreams come true
Now I've gone i know you're gonna bloom
And did you want me to say I'd die for you

What you wanted I couldn't give
I guess I needed it to live
And did you want me to say I'd die for you

And did you want me to give my heart to you,
Well I wanted to but I wasn't sure who I belonged to

And so long to everything
Now there's only one thing left to do,
I guess I want to prove that I'd die for you
I don't think of you, like I used to do,
I can't figure who, I'm writing this to

And it's OK if you want to say I died for you.

Tell Her This lyrics - Del Amitri

Tell her not to go
I ain't holding on no more
Tell her something in my mind freezes up from time to time

Tell her not to cry
I just got scared, that's all
Tell her I'll be by her side, all she has to do is call

Tell her the chips are down
I drank too much and shouted it aloud
Tell her something in my heart
Needs her more than even clowns need the laughter of the crowd

Tell her what was wrong
I sometimes think too much
But say nothing at all
Tell her from this high terrain, I am ready now to fall

Tell her not to go
I ain't holding on no more
Tell her nothing if not this: all I want to do is kiss her

Tell her something in my mind freezes up from time to time

Being Somebody Else lyrics - Del Amitri

How are you going to pass the time of day
In your beautiful empty shell,
When you've shaken the hand of so many sinceroes
You feel like a fake yourself

How do you choose between you and me
When we both feed on being somebody else

So you suck on the juice of youth and use any chemical you can get
You get deeper in debt every step you take on your ladder of lifelessness
Bye bye to the boring times,
Hello to my friend, how you been being somebody else?

Now the troops in you head won't obey what you say
And the mutiny seems to spread
And all you can hear is a voice in your ear and it's telling you that
you're dead

The sun sets in a coffee cup, the moon throws up
The flood flows over the house,
The books start jumping from the shelf
And the clothes horse races itself
Now we're all so busy being somebody else.
roll to me

Roll To Me lyrics - Del Amitri

Look around your world, pretty baby
Is it everything you'd hoped it'd be?
The wrong guy, the wrong situation
The right time to roll to me
Roll to me

And look into your heart, pretty baby
Is it aching with some nameless need?
Is there something wrong and you can't put your finger on it
Right then, roll to me

And I don't think I have ever seen
A soul so in despair
So if you want to talk the night through
Guess who will be there?

So don't try to deny it, pretty baby
You've been down so long you can hardly see
When the engine's stalled and it won't stop raining, it's the
Right time to roll to me
Roll to me
Roll to me

And I don't think I have ever seen
A soul so in despair
So if you want to talk the night through
Guess who will be there?

So look around your world, pretty baby
Is it everything you'd hoped it'd be?
The wrong guy, the wrong situation
The right time to roll to me
The right time to roll to me
the right time to roll to me

Crashing Down lyrics - Del Amitri

Well it might not be so important to you now
When the night is young and everyone's around
And the music flows
Through your doped up Disney mind.

But you'll be crying like a baby when it comes
And you will try it anyway you can
To find a place to run, 'cos it ain't no fun
In party town, when loneliness comes crashing down

And you'll be hurting in a way you can't explain
And all those pretty things you love will look so vain
'Cos the laughing crowd is such a hopeless sound
When loneliness comes crashing down

And you might not thing about
Just what happens now as your guests collect their coats.
In an empty house full of ashtray doubts
Your formless future floats

So the bad and beautiful still remain
With their depleted bounty of bad cocaine, we love the house
But we can't quite place the name

And it might not be important to you now,
When the night is young and you are loose and loud
'Cos there ain't no sound in party town
Quite like loneliness crashing down

It Might As Well Be You lyrics - Del Amitri

There is nobody here tonight, who doesn't dance to the same tune as I
Looking for that special someone new, and hey babe it might as well be you

And as I fumble through my change, the dance floor illuminates
And there you are again
I'm looking for someone to hold on to
And hey, babe, it might as well be you

It might as well be you that I wake up to tomorrow
And it might as well be you that tonight whispers my name
And it might as well be you that I cling to, that I laugh with and sing to
That I kiss good-bye to never see again

And through the fog that love creates the night is filled with all the usual mistakes
they say you're looking lonely babe, and they've been looking too
And hey, they might well be for you

And by the light of cigarettes, we introduce ourselves in a way you don't forget
I'm looking for something and anything will do
So, hey babe, it might as well be you

And if we go home tonight, you might find the very thing
That come the morning light, might well have washed your mind of him
So let me in tonight so we two losers might start to win

It might as well be you that I wake up to tomorrow
And it might as well be you that tonight will call my name
And it might as well be you that I cling to, that I laugh with and sing to
Yeah babe, it might as well be you that reminds me
It was once her here beside me
That I kissed good-bye, to never see again

Never Enough lyrics - Del Amitri

With two hundred people in suits all the same
You walk off that last lonely train.

On the half finished buildings only seagulls remain
As you try to think back to the root of this pain

And life ain't worth living without a little love
But a little love is never enough

So some folks are fighting for freedom, but you're just fighting the flab
And therein lies the reason that life is a drag.

So you gaze at the television
As some publicity goons cut loose those useless balloons.

Down in the darkness of your lying little heart
There's a space for you to change
So you can take this world apart.

And these days the morning mirror seems to say to you now,
That you used to be pretty but you're alright now.

And sometimes you find you're dreaming as you're late for work again
Thinking there's not many trees you can see from this train.

Life ain't worth living
Without a little love
But a little love is never enough

It's Never Too Late To Be Alone lyrics - Del Amitri

Summer here is over in a million different ways
You look like a dream sometimes, but I don't dream these days
Yesterday the snow fell, by four o'clock it thawed
And last night making love to you, well honey, it was such a fraud

'Cos you can find yourself a lover
You can find yourself a home
You can want no other ever
But it's never too late to be alone

So everything is settled or so we do pretend
From a beautiful beginning babe to a muted kind of end
And our separate possessions are shuffled up on shelves
Like our fingers lock together when we talk about ourselves

You can find yourself one day staring into space
With a suitcase waiting by the door
You can think you've got it made 'til it hits you in the face
That these are not the people you want to be before

Summer here is over, you can feel it in the air
From the down-town shells to the upland hills
The chill is everywhere

Driving With The Brakes On lyrics - Del Amitri

Driving through the long night
Trying to figure who's right and who's wrong
Now the kid has gone
I sit belted up tight
She sucks on a match light, glowing bronze
Steering on

And I might be more a man if I stopped this in its tracks
And said, come on, let's go home
But she's got the wheel,
And I've got nothing except what I have on

When you're driving with the brakes on
When you're swimming with your boots on
It's hard to say you love someone
And it's hard to say you don't

Trying to keep the mood right
Trying to steer the conversation from
The thing we've done
She shuts up the ashtray, I say it's a long way back now, hon
She just yawns

And we might get lost some place
So desolate that no one where we're from would ever come
But she's got the wheel and I've got to deal from now on

When you're driving with the brakes on
When you're swimming with your boots on
It's hard to say you love someone
And it's hard to say you don't

But unless the moon falls tonight
Unless continents collide
Nothing's gonna make me break from her side

'Cos when you're driving with the brakes on
When you're swimming with your boots on
It's hard to say you love someone
And it's hard to say you don't

It's hard to say you love someone
And it's hard to say you don't

"Change Everything" (1992)

Be My Downfall lyrics - Del Amitri

Well the bus is pulling out
And I guess I'd better go
Before I make a grave mistake and let my feelings show
And twenty miles away
She waits alone for me
But when I try to picture her you're the one I see

And in another situation I could put up a fight
But you will be my downfall tonight

So the night is coming down
Drowning us in blue
And it all points towards the things we know we shouldn't do
And as I look at you
And I fall under your spell
Well, I know I should be thinking of her lying there herself

And when faced with temptation you know a man should stand and fight
But you will be my downfall tonight

Be my downfall
Be my great regret
Be the one girl
That I'll never forget
Be my undoing
Be my slow road to ruin tonight

Well the bus is pulling out
And I'm grounded here with you
And I want to say the sweet things babe I've always wanted to
So tell me now the tail-lights have gone out of sight
Baby won't you be my downfall once again tonight

Just Like A Man lyrics - Del Amitri

I still don't believe it, how much we lied
Last night you made it with him now I'm supposed to be dignified
Just like a man

Well I spend my night-times drinking and you spend your days in bed
And I guess it's up to us to choose the methods by which we forget

And just like a man he holds you gently
And just like a man he strokes your hair
And just like a man I still pretend that I'm
Immune to the whole affair

But I wanna die, I wanna cry, I wanna tell you that I was wrong
Yeah I wanna die, I wanna cry but it's too late
So I soldier on just like a man

I don't believe it, you were easy to leave but now
I do my best to relieve it in the only way that I know how
Just like a man

And I don't wanna possess you, and I don't wanna take his place
But I don't wanna see my last few pleasures written all over his face

And just like a man he holds you gently
And just like a man he strokes your hair
And just like a man I still pretend that I'm
Immune to the whole affair

But I wanna die, I wanna cry, I wanna tell you I was wrong
Yeah I wanna die, I wanna cry but it's too late
So I soldier on just like a man

And I have something to tell you but it doesn't matter now
I'll stick to small talk and leave the little bits of flattery to him
I could call you but why would I bother to
You might not be in or he might misunderstand
Just like a man

When You Were Young lyrics - Del Amitri

Look at the fool you have been
They drained the pool while you drowned in the dream
They bought your beauty and your soul
Then softly sold you back what they stole

So look into the mirror do you recognise someone
Is it who you always hoped you would become
When you were young

The disappointment of success
Hangs from your shoulders like a hand-me-down dress
And down nostalgia's rocky road
You watch your former lovers growing old

So look into the mirror do you recognise someone
Is it who you always hoped you would become
When you were young

Sometimes your lack of sympathy gets hard to explain
So on your mask of make-up you just paint
A little parody of pain

So I look into the mirror and I recognise someone
It is who you always hoped you would become
When you were young

Surface Of The Moon lyrics - Del Amitri

Snow in a soulless city covers up the cracks in the road
As a wastrel buys her cigarettes and wipes her pretty nose
Like a part-time Elvis imitator these streets I knew so well
Have been pasted beyond recognition with a temporary smell

Now the midnight train eases out leaving everyone marooned
And without her it might as well be the surface of the moon

From the well-swept streets of Jackson Heights to the dockside drudgery
Everything's now a replica of what it used to be
And since they tarted up the trenches and painted the bridges blue
It seems less like a home to me than just a place they bury you

Now we're lit up like a cathedral in our frozen concrete ruin
And without her it might as well be the surface of the moon

So I need her and I love her that is true
But I'm stuck here like some shipwreck still holding on to you
So when they beat out the tramps and patch up the slums
Everything will be fine
There'll be a new facade for us to hide behind

So on the ancient trails of our coupling in the places we used to meet
I am amazed by the lack of memories that I thought would flood through me
And the riverside where we first kissed has now been reduced
To a phoney old world market where only shoppers get seduced

Now your arms embrace me strangely in your unfamiliar room
And for all I care it might as well be the surface of the moon
Yeah for all I care it might as well be the surface of the moon

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