I’m getting heated, I’m sorry, have another coffee
I needed to release my sparrow chest from just a piece of this pressure
Unless an escape route is found,
I’m going down underground
Into lifetimes of pain, it’s absurd
The heaviest chain is contained is the sound of one word
So I’m referred back to hell, huh
Just as well, I hate needles an’ get twinges at the thought
of syringes

J (as in Jerome), I’m going insane with shame
I dream and watch her makin’ love over and over again
With what I call a farmer’s swain
Unintelligent, pea-brained retard who’s dick is always hard
Oh God, of course I’m jealous, fellows,
oversexed flexing his pec’s
Jesus, what’s he going make her do next?
I’m mad vex, the way she gently scratches his chest
You used to do that to me back in 1253
Pity me, while you lie with your lover
I stare and suffer in despair while you ruffle his hair
Unaware of who else is there
I move quick, I want to try my trick one last time
You know it’s possible to vaguely define my outline
When dust move in the sunshine
So I’m tryin’ to change, vibrate myself to near-human pitch
Which reminds me how I used to come unstitched
And switch ’round the house in a blind rage
It took years and an ocean of tears to find the key to this
cage
And write another stage into a new age,
it’s difficult to gauge
But I know that I’ll see you again, on that you may depend
I just don’t know how or when
Sleep on, my lost love on gone

Jerome took me home under steel skies
Knowing I’m prone to dramatize but unknown for telling lies
And what I verbalize he can see behind my eyes
The why oh why’s that identify killer lullabies
And he surmised
No surprise couldn’t hear that
Closed my eyes as he steered that old black BM home again
Not knowing how and not knowing when.

I’m a slave to your outrage
Rocket box stiff shocks an’ a roll cage
Colour coded alloys, much noise, spoilers an’ poise
Exhaust notes an antidote for old age
Yes! Yes!
Who got the keys to my R.S. we goin’ on a road test
Hit the M4 and head west, forever impressed
With the sound of my two litre, we cover ground
Engine singin’ like Anita Baker
An’ iff I take a corner too quick y’ get sick
When I do my hand-bake trick, watch me ride
Mi broadside slide like a battleship

Side-slip puch out mi hip
Stick it in gear an’ give the gas a blip. It
Never fail to bring a grin to the lip, Baby’s equipped
Me an’ she gone clear I got quik rack reduction
On the under steer, I been
Fairly and squarely discribed as hairy
People say my baby is scary
Look you takes your money and you takes your schoice
I just love to hear my baby’s voice
She’s my baby

I roll up for the session, ev’rything in position
My friends demonstratin’ erudition
I listen for a minute before takin’ sides
Sleepy eyes on the limit sit down an’ spin it
Like we do every Friday down my way
Why play the fool with demon alcohol
As a rule my baby gets passed around
I don’t frown, I love to see my friends gettin’ down
When it’s just me an’ she you know it’s never precarious
But sharin’ with ya buddies is hilarious
Variously we argua an’ disagree an’ get heated
Hafta tell my people to be seated
An’ restart the anti-stress process
‘Til there’s a big mess of twigs an’ seeds to meetcha needs
An’ with that first inhaled hello…
Guaranteed mellow
She’s my baby

You say that I’m scruffy
Misguided and blue
Like a fly on a string
There’s a web that surrounds you
But I will find a way in

In you hour of need
I’ll be there
Yes I will

You lay a place at your table
Let me sleep in your bed
You hurt and confuse me
My queen for a day

I know I’m foolish
Harsh and unfair
Cos my hour of need
I know you’v always been there

In your hour of need
I’ll be there
Yes I will

I’m on lonely street age nearly three
Recently Mama’s crying all the time
is it because of me or my younger sister,
even Dad was weeping when he kissed her.
Face all puffy like a blister,
crying like he missed her.
Since we moved away from the house,
where we used to play.
They say I’ll understand one day but I doubt it,
Mama never say nothing about it.
How’d it get to be so crowded.
I found it a strain, everywhere I look I see pain.
And I can’t escape the feeling,
maybe I’m to blame. So I strain to listen,
Praying for a decision, wishing they where kissing.
This feels like extradition or exile,
Mama finds it hard to smile
So I make pretend cups of coffee in her favorite style.
She says child I’m working so there’s nothing you lack.
But she know I want my Dad I want my family back.

I’m on Lonely Street, age forty three.
Couldn’t gauge when to quit so my wife quit me.
Took offense, took the kids,
I wish that was the end.
But before she took her leave
she took care of my best friend.
Working all the hours.
God send was not the tactic
You see, because after ten years I’m left with jack shit
Wanted to make the cash quick so I had to work real late.
Bad sex, my woman’s vex, even if I stay awake.
And if I’m honest, I had a little cake at the office.
I was eating. We’d do our cheating over coffees,
making tea for the bosses.
Making free with me,
and I agree I got sleazy too easily.
But I’m forty three,
this doesn’t usually happen to me.
Now I’m lonely,
I wonder what my son’s doing today.
Suddenly I’m blinking like the screen
on my computer display.
And I’m drinking.
Concerned about what’s down the track
if I don’t get my family back.

I want my family back

I’m on Lonely Street, number fifty three.
Boarded up property,
I’ll probably get pulled down.
Litter all around inside there’s
no sound and no light.
But yo it gets busy at night, People creeping.
Derelicts sneaking to fix. Speaking.
On the way my timbers creaking,
Roof leaking. And bricks coming loose,
knee high in refuse.
But even though I’m a slum,
I’m still of some use.
There was a time when my walls where decorated.
And under my roof children were educated.
But now paint’s faded, windows are all smashed,
a crash in the economy robbed me of my family.
And no strategy, combats negative equity,
so that’s it. Like violence it’s drastic.
I’m freaking, and seeking to be
more than just a house for crack.
Somebody bring my family back.

Walking through the world with no pressure
Inner peace beyond measure
I was leaving, wearing what I came in
When a man said Stop.. I wanna have what you have
And get what you got

I got it sleeping rough on the streets in the rain
I got it, learning to share my people’s pain
I got it making flowers grow in hearts of stone
I got it cos I always take the long way home

I got it cos I always take the long way home

I’ve been walking through the world with no pressure
Air’s fresher, full of vigour
Life becomes my mirror
The further I go, the more I know
Oh yeah, wherever the wind blow
I’ll be there
Turned up in places that I never intended to go
And so ended my youth

I once depended on proof
Now I’m in the flow
There are things I know beyond knowing
I’ve never seen a seed growing
I was going back home
When a man said Stop… I wanna have what you have
And get what you got

I got it sleeping rough on the streets in the rain
I got it, learning to share my people’s pain
I got it making flowers grow in hearts of stone
I got it cos I always take the long way home

I got it cos I always take the long way home

It’s in the world I become
Contained in the hum
Between voice and drum
It’s in the change
The poetic justice of cause and effect
Respect, love, compassion
This is my church
This is where I heal my hurts
For tonight
God is a DJ
God is a DJ
This is my church (x3)

I’d be sitting watching TV

If there was anything decent on

If I’d missed the taxi
Or found nothing good to wear
But for some uncertain reason
Some strange uncertain reason
This is how it all
It all begun

(Chorus)
Why go?
Why go?
When you could stay a while
Why go?
Why go?
When you could stay a while

If I made some coffee
Would you sit and talk some more?
I know words are usually pointless
When you’ve used them all before

The way your smile fills the room
Stay a while kick off your shoes
Don’t go
Please stay
It always happens this way

(Chorus)

The way your smile fills the room
Stay a while
Whats there to lose?
The way you laugh
When I say
Don’t go
Please stay

(Chorus)

When you could stay with me
Tonight

Pauline:
Oh I wish I could be touched by the hem of his garment

Maxi Jazz in background: …in a dream…

Pauline:
To be proud has never been so mean, so hard, so strange, so cruel
Oh I wish I could be touched by the hem of his garment

Mmmmm, I’ve come a long way (5x)
Touch the hem of his garment

Dagger should be the tool of a clump.
I’m a fool, you see

Maxi Jazz in background: it’s not…
Pauline:
Why should such violence, such pain hang between you and me
When love should be a queen on her throne looking after her own
I wish I could be touched by the hem of his garment
Two chairs, this table, one leg, in this house
Seriously, I think we could be,
Feel we could be, touched by the hem of his garment

Pauline / chorus:
Mmmmm, I’ve come a long way (5x)
Touch the hem of his garment

Maxi Jazz:
New York, New York, temperature’s droppin’
The band’s out shoppin’, not stoppin’ ’til ears pop
Cops protect shops, lots of yellow cabs and bellhops
And it never stops
I’m waitin’ to do an interview, so much to tell you
Today I feel close enough to smell you
Additional dates they were plannin’ just fell through
Florida’s out
We fly September 22 to Heathrow,
but there’s not really long to go
Tonight will be a brilliant show
Lettin’ you know I miss you
More than four hits the floor at a party
Send my love to everybody
Please, send my love to everybody
(everybody everybody everybody…)
Send my love to everybody
(everybody everybody everybody…)

Honey, I’m writin’ from D.C., feelin’ queasy
Stayin’ healthy on the road isn’t easy
The TM recommends an antigen
One of them could resist again
I miss you like a lock in the door
What’s more, I go to sleep with my Walkman
’cause half the crew snored
Don’t mean to be a bore, everybody’s been great,
But there’s fifteen of us in a bus state-to-state
So I stay up late with a tape, or meditate
My bed is travellin’ at fifty-five m.p.h.
When we make it to LA, I’ll still be miles away
It’s not my best day
I’m a get some rest, God bless

Dido:
My love has gone
(wo wo)
My love has gone
(has has has …)
(wo wo)

Maxi Jazz:
We just stopped a diner so I’m takin’ time to write a few lines
I’m fine, sunshine, the bus driver’s
reclinin’ by the grass as the trucks pass
Gleamin’ with the flash of sunlight from the glass on the windscreen
As for us, there’s too much to relate
We’ve done five gigs, yet we’re only in our third state
America’s big, you’d love how they pile up your plate
Only place in the world even I can gain weight
Our next date is Wilmington, Delaware
Open air, there’s a rumor Melle Mel’ll be there
Anyway, all my love, God bless, I’m yawning
I really miss watching you get dressed in the morning

Dido:
My love has gone
(wo wo)
My love has gone
(wo wo)
My love has gone
No earthly ships will ever
Bring him home