Richard Thompson Album

I see young girls with old faces
I see good girls in bad places
I see plain girls in finery
And every one be the death of me

Needle and Thread, Needle and Thread
Hand me down my Needle and Thread
Hey Hey Hey
Hey Hey Hey
Going to thread up my needle and then
Gonna sew my soul back together again

Now pretty Caitlin she went too far
Shaking all she had at the topless bar
Right in the face of Ben and Bob
Put a little too much into the job

Now sweet Myfanwe she took a shine
Dumped me for Dai worked down the mine
I was a temp, Dai was a keeper
He knew how to dig that little bit deeper

Now Bonnie Jean meant everything
But she threw back my hard-earned ring
Said she had other men who dig her
She was holding out for something bigger

I can't eat, I can't sleep
Knowing that you're on
your midnight creep
I can't jump. I can't jive
Knowing that you want me
dead or alive
There's no half way with you
You see red, white and blue
What holds your head on
could use another screw

Come on, do your worst, boy
That's the way, that's the way
Hit me where it hurts, boy,
That's the way, that's the way
Puff until you burst, boy
That's the way, that's the way
But I'll Never Give It Up
I'll Never Give It Up

I'll put you in my loser file
I don't need your reptile smile
I prefer you out of range
Stare at somebody else for a change
When the sky fell in, you cried
And blackness welled inside
And how your little brain
got twisted and fried

I don't run, I don't care
Some day we're going to
meet somewhere
You and me will rock and roll
When you crawl out of
your sick little hole
So give me what you got
Put your money in the pot
Let's see what you are and
what you're not

You're someone I can't help betray
Because you built me up that way

If I ever get out of these shoes
And I shrug off a skin or two
I'll come looking in the wasted places
Beat-up, last ditch rendezvous

If it had been some other place
Some other time to find me
If I had been in my right mind
Not looking for ghosts behind me

Then I'd hold you with my fingers burning
Kiss your little tears of yearning
But sometimes there's no turning
Take Care The Road You Choose

If I ever get out of my mind
Guillotine myself to stop me dreaming
And let my heart go where it will
Without those other voices screaming

Some take the high, some take the low
Some take the straight and narrow
Some still standing at the crossroads
Some fly like an arrow

With my radar I'll find you, darling
No regrets to blind you, darling
And never look behind
Take Care The Road You Choose

If I say what's on my mind, dear
The judge will slap me down
You've got me in the corner
And it's only the second round
So I'll keep my mouth shut, darling
I'll be quiet as a lamb
And I'll act just as dumb, dear
As you really think I am

I'll shake your hand like a 'Rang Utan
Be as goofy as a clown
Clear the streets and book your seats
Mr. Stupid's Back In Town
Have you seen me shoot
right through that hoop
It's a trick of great renown
Bring the crowd and laugh out loud
Mr. Stupid's back in town

When your friends point out
you're stuck with
A Neanderthal for an ex
Don't fret about it, darling
I still sign my name on cheques
I can grunt my way through questions
I can scratch myself and howl
I can numb you with my dumbness
I can lay it on with a trowel

On your 37th birthday
When he handed you that mink
Did you still feel like a victim
With your elbows in the sink
But I've said too much already
Now I think I'll step aside
'Cos my alter ego's ready
For any questions on your mind

Out in the desert there’s a soldier lying dead
Vultures pecking the eyes out of his head
Another day that could have been me there instead
Nobody loves me here
Nobody loves me here

Dad’s Gonna Kill Me
Dad’s Gonna Kill Me

You hit the booby trap and you’re in pieces
With every bullet your risk increases
Old Ali Baba, he’s a different species
Nobody loves me here
Nobody loves me here

Dad’s Gonna Kill Me
Dad’s Gonna Kill Me

I’m dead meat in my HumV Frankenstein
I hit the road block, God knows I never hit the mine
The dice rolled and I got lucky this time

Dad’s Gonna Kill Me
Dad’s Gonna Kill Me

I’ve got a wife, a kid, another on the way
I might get home if I can live through today
Before I came out here I never used to pray
Nobody loves me here
Nobody loves me here

Dad’s Gonna Kill Me

Dad’s in a bad mood, Dad’s got the blues
It’s someone else’s mess that I didn’t choose
At least we’re winning on the Fox Evening News
Nobody loves me here

Dad’s Gonna Kill Me
Dad’s Gonna Kill Me

Dawn Patrol went out and didn’t come back
Hug the wire and pray like I told you, Mac
Or they’ll be shovelling bits of you into a sack

Dad’s Gonna Kill Me.

And who’s that stranger walking in my dreams
And whose that stranger cast a shadow ‘cross my heart
And who’s that stranger, I dare speak his name
Must be old Death a-walking
Must be old Death a-walking

Dad’s Gonna Kill Me

7 muzzle monkeys standing in a row
Standing waiting for The Sandbox to blow
Sitting targets in the wild west show

Nobody loves me here

Dad’s Gonna Kill Me

Another angel got his wings this week
Charbroiled with his own Willie Pete
Nobody’s dying if you speak double-speak

Dad’s Gonna Kill Me

Here my love used to lie
Like a pearl by my side
Everything sweet, everything so complete
Now my love makes her bed
Where poppies grow over her head
There in a field, there in a field
Warm and red - as the blood she shed

Now everything is Poppy-red
Poppy-red, Poppy-red
In loving memory
Now everything is Poppy-red
Poppy-red, Poppy-red
The gifts she gave to me
In loving memory, memory

She said, There's a wind that blows
And where it blows from, who knows
And if I don't go, I'll never know peace of mind'
Now everything's upside down
Everything's turned around
She was my first, she was my last
She was my friend until the end

I'll always see her that way
Dressed in the red, white and grey
Slowly she turned, slowly she turned
Into the rain and walked away

One thing always leads to another
In life and love they say
You got too close and now
That boy's gonna make you rue the day
You grab his ankles when he flies
You catch him when he falls
Here's the thing to say to him
Before you climb the walls:

Shame, shame on you, you Bad Monkey
One day you're up, next day you're down
Why do you monkey my heart around
Shame, shame on you, you Bad Monkey
I'm not coming on the roller coaster with you

I see your nerves are jangled, honey,
You're a walking emotional wreck
He's dealing you some jokers
Off the bottom of the deck
He goes from joy to suicide
About 15 times a day
Here's the thing to scream out loud
From 100 miles away

Shame, shame on you, you Bad Monkey
One day you're up, next day you're down
Why do you monkey my heart around
Shame, shame on you, you Bad Monkey
I'm not coming on the roller coaster with you

Where's the joy in a boy who dribbles
When he drinks his tea
I've seen better manners from
a baby chimpanzee
On fairground rides you grip the sides
And scream until you're blue
You'll be screaming the rest of your life
If he gets hold with you

Who shook the stars from her eyes
Who shook the stars from her eyes
Who took the shine
Made water out of wine
And left her alone in the world

Who put a cloak round her soul
Who put a cloak round her soul
Who stole the prize
That glittered in her eyes
And left her the fool of the world

O Francesca
Who's going to save you now
O Francesca
Who's going to save you now
It takes guts to put your hand up
To risk it all and stand up to the
Tongue twisters
Campaign of whispers

Who dragged her name
through the dirt
Who dragged her name
through the dirt
Trampled it down
Burned it to the ground
Left her the orphan of the world

Who put that twist in her vows
Who put that twist in her vows
Who took her speech
Bent it out of reach
Put out the light of the world

Who laid her down, took her rose
Who laid her down, took her rose
Who took her flower
Now she charges by the hour
Left her the whore of the world

When you were a vixen and I was a chump
You looked at me like I crawled from a swamp
Now things have a different complexion
I'm the object of your affection
Much as I don't doubt your expertise
Please find yourself another hunk to squeeze

It's too late to come fishing
It's too late to come fishing
It's too late, and the fish don't like your bait
Tin Pan Ellie better find your way home

I know I had the flair, the clothes
Made you look right down your nose
But now you want to make a new start
I'm so touched by your change of heart
But my diary's fit to overflow
Find yourself another gigolo

I've seen your work in that TV sketch
Playing poison women is hardly a stretch
And you were type-cast as the Stone Age charmer
In that Darwin docudrama
I'd say our time has all but disappeared
Just like the shine on your fabulous career

Sneaky Boy, Sneaky Boy
Thought you were one of us
One of our gang
Sneaky Boy, Sneaky Boy
The mole in the tunnel
The canary who sang

While we sad chums
Just scratched our bums
Your heels were pacing
While we dropped blues
And took a snooze
Your mind was racing

Sneaky Boy, Sneaky Boy

Sneaky Boy, Sneaky Boy
Your teeth and your t-shirt
were always too clean
Sneaky Boy, Sneaky Boy
They're writing your name
down in the latrine, boy

And just who chose
Your rebel clothes
Was it your mummy?
We never knew
The side of you
Behind the dummy

Sneaky Boy, Sneaky Boy

Spleen of Mammon, spleen of Midas
Now you scold us, now you chide us
Mammon lung and Midas liver
Now you sell us down the river

You had your look
Right out the book
Of weekend poses
Now we bankrupt
And self-destruct
You smell of roses

Sneaky Boy, Sneaky Boy

She charmed me from my cocoon
She eclipsed the sun and the moon
All that summer my feet never walked on the Earth

She sang angels to rest
She sang angels to rest
How do you fall when you already fell for the best
(How do you love when your heart isn't well)

She had that smile on her face
When her thoughts were some other place
All that summer my feet never walked on the Earth

She had that look in her eyes
Like she'd seen a ghost walking by
All that summer my feet never walked on the Earth

Johnny's joined a ceilidh band,
They're known quite well throughout the land, The Drones
The Drones are signed up on a cruise
While Tracey's laying in the booze back home
She's got herself another man, a smoothie
While the kids are in the front room watching movies
She's got him in a head lock, in an arm lock, in a jam
She says, I can't express myself with my old man

While Johnny's Far away on the Rolling, Rolling
Johnny's Far Away On The Rolling Sea

Johnny's cruising out to sea
And he believes in chastity - for some
The wealthy widows bill and coo
He fends off one or two, and then succumbs
As they're turning hard-a-port in the Bahamas
He's turning her right out of her pyjamas
He's turned her every which way to the rhythm of the sea
He says, I can't express myself with my old lady

While Johnny's Far away on the Rolling, Rolling
Johnny's Far Away On The Rolling Sea

Johnny's home, he opens up his door
While someone's sneaking out the back
And Tracey says, you look so poorly
Sores and all, you need to see the quack
She wipes the snot from off the kiddies' noses
He charms her with eleven battered roses
And by and by they get down to the job of man and wife
Back to the old comforts of the missionary life

While Johnny's Far away on the Rolling, Rolling
Johnny's Far Away On The Rolling Sea

Carrie ran a murderous crew
Dedicated through and through
And the chance to prove
they never squandered
And they liked to kill so clean
Save the innocent, kill the mean
But from time to time,
a bullet wandered

Carrie kept her souvenirs
Kept her scrapbook down the years
Of her brave boys, how she cried to read it
And a few fell by the way
Or lost the stomach for the fray
So young blood was always needed

Carrie noticed him right away
The way his whole body would sway
Like a trawler boy
Finding his legs ashore
They said he was just nineteen
A head case but his record was clean
Just the kind
They were looking for

Carrie watched him through the crack
As they teased him behind his back
They called him Little Joe
'Cos he scraped the ceiling
And when he was the worse for wear
She took him up the stair
And soon he fell
For her brand of healing

She said, I'll lie like a rose on your pillow
Let me twine the laurel in your hair
I want to smell my love on your fingers

If you want to be mine, Little Joe
You must harden your mind, Little Joe
We've got to fight for what is ours
Bring peace to the grave of my brother
Bring peace to the grave of my father
Dry the old eyes of my mother
Little Joe

There's a roadblock down the way
Thick with soldiers night and day
They'll hear the noise
All the way to Glengarry
If you show you've got the stuff
That you're sworn and brave enough
Then you'll stand tall
In the eyes of your Carrie

And I will lie like a rose on your pillow
And I'll twine the laurel in your hair
I want to smell revenge on your fingers

Guns are the Tongues, Little Joe
The only words we know
The only sound that'll reach their ears
Bring peace to the grave of my brother
Bring peace to the grave of my father
Dry the old eyes of my mother
Little Joe

Now Little Joe would've jumped clear
But for the awful fear
Of scraping his knees there on the gravel
The car was a rolling bomb
Blew all to Kingdom Come
They marvelled how far
His boots had travelled

Another hero snatched from my pillow
I used to twine the laurel in his hair
I want to smell sacrifice on my fingers

Guns are the Tongues, Little Joe
The only words we know
The only sound that'll reach their ears
Bring peace to the grave of my brother
Bring peace to the grave of my father
Dry the old eyes of my mother
Little Joe

With you or without you, love,
I must be moving
Never meant to linger here so long
With you or without you,
though it breaks my heart
To hear the Sunset Song

Wasn't that a time we had,
and bless you for it
But I'm a stranger here, I don't belong
The band's down on the jetty,
if you cup your ear
You'll hear the Sunset Song

You said, if I hold my breath
Dive down deep enough
I might grow fins
Seems to me I've held my breath
Held my breath to please you
ever since

Early morning, that's the time
for fare-thee-wells
Slip out of the warm sheets and gone
But I want to hear it as I walk along
Hear the Sunset Song

In your waking, in your dreams,
I won't be martyred
On that cross where some say
I belong
Opinions are coffins, I'll just trust my feet
To find the Sunset Song

Every day I'll wear your memory
Like a favourite shirt upon my back
In the hallway, there's my suitcase
By the door, I never did unpack

With you or without you, love,
I must be moving
Never meant to linger here so long
With you or without you,
though it breaks my heart
To hear the Sunset Song