Rufus Wainwright Album

I don't want to hold you and feel so helpless
I don't want to smell you and lose my senses
And smile in slow motion with eyes in love

I twist like a corkscrew, the sweetness rising
I drink from the bottle weeping
Why won't you last?
Why can't you last?
So I will walk without care,
beat my snare
Look like a man who means business
Go to all the poshest places
with their familiar faces
Terminate all signs of weakness

Chorus: Oh, all for the sake, all for the sake
of a foolish love 

I will take my coffee black, never snack
hang with the wolves who are sheepish
Flow through the veins of town, always frown
Me and my mistress the princess

Chorus 

So the day Noah's Ark floats down park
My eyes will be simply glazed over
Or better yet
I'll wear shades on sunless days
And when the sun's out I'll stay and slumber

Chorus

Your skin is cold, but
the sun shines within your hold
Your hair is gold, but you see through a goldfish bowl
I feel old, sick and tired
We walk the streets, gently staring, wondering what to do
The sun in sheets, pouring down those streets to eyes green and blue
And a ship with eight sails could come 'round the bend
Or a herd of bulls charging stop lights red
I'd be blind

Chorus: You broke my heart Danny Boy
Not your fault Danny Boy

I was hanged at the doorstep, played like a two to a fourset
Had like poor Job in the bible by God
Day comes I wake, I wake with a hard heartache
I go down to your place
We sit and chat, chat about New York
and trips to the bayou
My smile a trick, tricking me and trying not to scare you
And a ship with eight sails could come 'round the ben
Or a herd of bulls charging stop lights red
I'd be blind

Chorus

Oh what a shame that your 
pockets did bleed on St. Valentine's
And you sat in a chair thinking
"Boy I'm such a Prince!"
Well life's a train that goes 
from February on day by day
But its making a stop on April First

Chorus: And you will believe in love
All all that its supposed to be
But just until the fish start to smell
And you're struck down by a hammer

Sure you were swift when
the handsome Greek Boys 
dropped by with gifts
You are suave thanks to 
ribbons that opened sesame
But in the stars and closer
to home in every planet 
It ain't hard for me and
dear JoJo to see

Chorus 

So let it all go by looking at the sky
Wondering if there are clouds and stuff in hell

You gave me all your love in one day
You gave it all and almost faded away
Well I'm gonna take this sad unread issue
In my arms tonight
Looking at hospitals Victorian
Feeling as helpless as the Elephant Man
Wish you were here
to chain you up without shame
In my arms tonight

So if you should feel a bit out of place
This vision not unlike a shooting star
I have embraced
'Cause
You gave me all your love in one day
You gave it all and almost faded away
Well I'm gonna take this sad unread issue
In my arms tonight
Looking at hospitals Victorian
Feeling as helpless as the Elephant Man
Wish you were here
to chain you up without shame
In my arms tonight

I ain't a soft and saccharine
wannabe
Still I pray to God
this song will end happily
So I offer you a place to rest
and forget yourself
In my arms tonight

The boys and girls of Millbrook
Are on a train from New York
Wearing new hats 
Shooting the shit
Deep in the heart of Dutchess County, Bounty

And all the evening breakdowns
Will soon be washed from their hands
The next very day,as they make way
Eating the apple to the chapel, Holy

Don't even try, they'll get away with murder
Sure as the rain washes away and brings thunder
Oh tell me can you see it
The gentle tower rising
Over the pines, out of a book
Zion mistaken for the state of Millbrook

Nothing so bright, nothing so smooth,
nothing so pure
As my baby

All of my life days into night, all I did dream Was my baby 

Until the days darkness entwined
with silver eyes
Was my baby staring at me

And since then I can't see straight
And since then my smile's been fake
Funny I know the troubles I've seen
But through one eye only that's clean

If you bring along your needles
Then I'll bring my sharpened pencils
And draw one more comic tragedy
My baby

So call up the child players
From madam we'll 
rent the parlor
And dance to death
till I can't see
My baby

I never had it, I never
wanted it, I never had your
Beauty mark 

Nor did I have your black hair and hazel eyes
My early childhood was not as simple as yours
set in the country
No I did not have a fears of nuns who dressed in black

But I do have your tastes
I had no radio show, nor did I have
Home-made clothes, home-made curtains
Of the same material

I never had it, I never wanted it, I never had your Beauty Mark 

But I do have your tastes
And I do have your red face and long hands
I think Callas sang a lovely "Norma"
You prefer Robson on "Deep River"
I may not be so manly,
but still I know you love me
Even if I don't have your
Beauty Mark!

The summer sun sets a vicious circus
when shadows held the world in place
But today I felt a chill in my apartment's 
coolest place
"Fuggi Regal Fantasima"
The village larks cannot be heard
'cause all the crows got panderers
I can't escape these velvet drapes,
don't want my rings to fall off
my fingers
"Fuggi Regal Fantasima"

The mirror I find hard to face
'Cause I fear its a long way down

Got to get away from here, I think I know
which hemisphere
Crazy me don't think there's pain in Barcelona
They dance you 'round a waltz confound
But I fear it's a long way down
Even if that straw I pull
and I got to fight that bull
Nothing really compares to Barcelona
Besides in Spain Don Juan's to blame
But I fear it's a long way down
And I fear I won't be around
Make sure I have all my papers
laying out my summer clothes
Search for traps in vain like scratching
so my suitcase I can close
"Fuggi Regal Fantasima"

This is the day
The day of the death
The death of the matinee idol

Still so beautiful as the angels
as the angels came down from on high
So sweet and so soft
So charmingly daft
So young was the matinee idol
Lips of crimson slightly open
As the flash and all fame put to rest

Chorus: Walk, walk along that wall
No it is not from the academy
Walk, walk along that wall

From this moment you'll cease to be
The undying love of the public eye
And so goes one more
Away from the maze
Away for to sit at the table
Above Babel, far from this world
While standing on the boulevard

Chorus:
But still, whomever has looked at
Looked at beauty is marked out
Is marked out already by death
Still so beautiful as the angels
As the angels came down from on high

Desdemona do not go to sleep
Brown-eyed Tosca don't believe the creep
I see it in his eyes

Chorus:And why don't you ladies
Believe me when I'm screaming
I always believe you
Violetta keep your man locked up
Or like Cio-Cio you will end up
Burned by love or sickness

Chorus: There is a knock at the door, tell me it's not Mimi again
Or is it Gilda's waiting passion to
be stabbed and killed again
Katya Kabanova, why did you marry him?
You knew his mother
was a bitch and would
keep hold of him
Oh Pamina got away
from mama
Before the age
of Rambo Opera
Damned ladies of Orpheus
Your arias cause a stir in my sad
Sad and lonely heart

My true love did breathe by the Sally Ann
just barely
That while walkin' through the town only my heart
did hear him
In views of the city
There ain't many folks by the
Sally Ann so pretty
That while walkin' through town,
many a twisted features
Made a terrible beauty
And then I knew
And then I knew, I'd been there before

One thing you must know by the
Sally Ann directly
Is that the pockets
don't hold any more sunken treasures
After baptism by whiskey

But when leavin' the bar by the Sally Ann
just barely 
The old angel may allow light from above
the mountain
And red brick walls blooming, you may see 

And then you'll know
And then you'll know, you've been there before

Every kind of love, or at least my kind of love
Must be an imaginary love to start with
Guess that can explain the rain, waiting
walking game
Schubert bust my brain to start with

Hoped to look at you in a cab
Back of your head across my lap
Oh what grace, green back seat against the
red of your face
Hoped to look at you in any old grand hotel
Drunken demands gave way to reservations
Oh what a room, champagne brings such happy
faces, happy faces

'Cause every kind of love, or at least my kind of love
Must be an imaginary love to start with
Guess that can explain the rain, waiting
walking game
Schubert bust my brain to start with

A bit of you the only drug I must abuse
A bit of you is the only substance I cannot refuse
When I walk on Spring
Beneath the stench a bit of you is all I smell
Upon the shelves a bit of you I ask "they sell?"
When I walk on Spring

Cause there ain't no style
No there ain't no style
Cause there ain't no style
And in fact there is just one other problem
You live up in Harlem

Of course I had no knowledge of this at the time
That came après July on the Upper West Side
Waiting for the fall
When from the Battery on up to your front door
From mother ship the rocket launching twister whores
Would blow up it all

Cause there ain't no style...
And in fact there is just one other problem
I would have spared Harlem

Affections sent, straight to Chekov, say you need me
Don't you need me, wait I thought we're on Broadway
No, my daddy said so: "still outside of Moscow"

And so the days creep up to my big final show
And not a word from you, an hour I must blow
So I walk and see
Upon the streets a faded island, press on eyes
A big old pool of you's, zillions I realize
And just one of me

Cause there ain't no style...
You've infected Harlem
Guess I won't be waiting several hours
Before nightfall for that A train,
just the hiss of the dumes band play.