Laying On The Edge Of Forever

I swear I see galaxies forming
Shining from the blacks of your eyes
We got something between us I can't explain
But it sure feels nice
Baby, I think I love you and it's only been a night
Baby, I think I love you and it's only been a night

We got the smell of each other on the bedsheets
Clothes strewn across the floor
My heart's skipping beats like
It's never kept a rhythm before
We got streetlights reflecting off the mirror
Landing like moonlight on the bed
We got a night's-worth of sweat and a
Life's-worth of dreams in our heads
It's like we're laying on the edge of forever and I ain't even scared
It's like we're laying on the edge of forever and I ain't even scared

There's condensation on the window pane
Keeping the whole world out with just a mist
As we lay I trace the lines on your hands
With my fingertips
My body feels completely exhausted
But I don't want to rest
I want one more beautiful smile
One more kiss
I don't know a thing about love but I'm pretty sure this is it
I don't know a thing about love but I'm pretty sure this is it

Don't talk to me about tomorrow morning
I know it's coming 'round
I'm racking my brains thinking of ways
To make the Sun stay down
And don't you dare bring me coffee in the morning
Wearing my shirt and nothing else
'Cos that sounds like Heaven and men like me
Don't handle Heaven so well
For every second spent in Heaven there's a minute in Hell
For every second spent in Heaven there's a minute in Hell

So leave your number on my dresser
I promise never to call
I'll put it with all the others
In the back of my drawer
And I'll go out again tomorrow evening
Probably still a little sore
I can't even tell you what it is
That I'm looking for
But I found it with you like I found it with 100 before
I found it with you like I found it with 100 before

Lost

Summer in a small town, kids out of school
They're driving through the streets with nothing to do
But there's a kid who looks a little bit older and he'll get served
The nights are light and the air is warm
With emotions running high and feelings running strong
And you never love anybody quite like your first

It weren't like Tommy didn't like other kids
He had tons of friends and all the girls that he'd kissed
Were talking about going steady
There's a hundred lives he could have lived in that town
And most of them, honestly, probably would have worked out
But there's a restlessness in Tommy that meant he weren't ready

So he'd jump the fence to the park at night
He'd lay in the grass and stare up at the sky
Thinking nothing's worth nothing and life's too short
He's getting drunk and pushing girls too far
He's pulling their strings and breaking their hearts
And he don't even care 'til he gets caught

Until one summer night he really did fall in love
But they were kids, you know, so it all just got lost
And the summer kept going but something inside of him changed
So he packed himself a little bag and counted his cash
Tied his shoelaces up and swore he'd never come back
He put a Willy Vlautin novel in his pocket and he caught a train

You gotta climb that mountain, gotta jump that canyon
Gotta put on your cape and climb into that cannon
Cos sometimes the life you're living just ain't enough
There are fears to overcome and challenges to meet
People to become and big dreams to dream
And you can't find your own way if you ain't got lost

The road is like a best friend that pulls you aside
For a set-you-straight talk when you get a little wild
But the words that it's chosen, cut you to the bone
Love comes easier but trouble does, too
And opportunity don''t knock it comes right up to you
Reminds you that you come a long way but there's still places to go

Tommy's out on the road and he's having his fun
He sleeps when he has to, sometimes rough
But he's always sleeping with somebody when it's raining
And all them poor girls start planning their lives
Around his pillow talk and his breakfast lies
But when the road starts calling there ain't no way he's staying

You gotta climb that mountain, gotta jump that canyon
Gotta put on your cape and climb into that cannon
Cos sometimes the life you're living just ain't enough
There are fears to overcome and challenges to meet
People to become and big dreams to dream
And you can't find your own way if you ain't got lost

Tommy's skin's all scarred from a thousand fights
He's old but there's still road in his eyes
That shines for a mile whenever he bares his teeth
Everyone can fix you in this day and age
Whatever your problem whatever your pain
But if you ain't broken then you ain't free

If you ain't broken, you ain't free.

We Don't Have To Take Off Our Clothes

We don't have to take off our clothes to dip our toes in the sea
You don't need to go to the bottom of the ocean to know what's deep
I'd go on my own but I can't stand that company
So if you're ready for the road, honey, let's go you'll be all that I need

I don't wanna be in love
I just wanna fall in love

Have you ever driven off a horizon into a sunset before?
Where it's never really night but there ain't light enough to call it morn
It's magic for a few hundred miles but then we'd both get bored
So let's pull over to the side of the road and let the night take hold

I don't wanna be in love
I just wanna fall in love

There's an awful lot of kissing let the spit do it's mixing that's the fun
Just a couple of kids in the back seat with the seatbelts undone
Don't you rap on the windows now just let them young lovers be
The handbrake'll come off with their clothes and they'll be scramblin' for the keys

Cos they don't wanna be in love
They just wanna fall in love
None of us wanna be in love
We just wanna fall in love

We don't have to take off our clothes to dip our toes in the sea...

Poor Boy's Blues (Nothing Lasts Forever)

I wake up in the morning and I'm getting on the bus
Before the dawn has made it into day
I'm sweating out the night before, it's like 18 degrees
Outside it's about minus the same

Nine hours later and it's time for clocking-off
I'm out the door in less than a minute
I hit the bar with all my friends when I can afford to
My life's a dream, gotta be asleep to live it

They say nothing lasts forever
Nothing is sure
But they ain't ever worked a dead-end factory job before
When every time the pay goes up
My rent it goes up too
The blues that don't die with you are these poor boy's blues

I want to take the waitress home, she knows my friend, Marie.
Marie says that she's got a boyfriend
She says she likes the finer things and that's why she works two jobs
I ain't fine at all but I can pretend

She's stunning in the morning, naked as the dawn
I kiss her hair and leave her there to sleep
She never could have loved me, but she's never gonna know
I hope that I'm a secret she can keep

They say nothing lasts forever
Nothing is sure
But they ain't ever loved someone who don't love them before
When every time your heart swells
It bleeds a little, too
The blues that don't die with you are these poor boy's blues

I'm losing at whatever game we're playing
I could win if I could find a way to cheat
But I don't know the rules or which rules I should be breaking
And I'm pretty sure that every one of these rules is breaking me

I like coffee in the morning, any thing at night
I like spending time in other people's beds
You know when someone smiles at you right after they've cried?
That's how I feel when the sun comes up and I haven't even slept

They say nothing lasts forever
Nothing is sure
But they ain't ever been so tired they cannot sleep before
And even when your dreams do come
You know they won't come true
The blues that don't die with you are these poor boy's blues

All of My Old Friends

All of my old friends were early risers
They'd be sitting there at breakfast with their girls
When I'd come down hungover, my dressing-gown half-open
With make-up on and my hair still up in curls

I'd have pulled myself up hard off of the sofa
Sucking coffee straight out the machine
I'd be a mess, half-dressed but never the less, these girls that were sleeping with my best friends
Would all tell me sometimes they 'thought' of me

It's Ok if you don't believe me
Most of what I say up here ain't true
But don't say I didn't warn you
In the morning when she calls you
And says something about me reminds her of you

They said if I repeat it they'll deny it
So I promise I won't mention any names
Recounting tales of youthful misadventure when you're old
Either evokes a sense of pride or sense of shame

And shame has always held the door out for me
Whereas pride ran out on me when I was young
I pretended to be you without all your imperfections
And to perfection it's the closest thing I've come

It's Ok if you don't believe me
Most of what I say up here ain't true
But don't say I didn't warn you
In the morning when she calls you
And says something about me reminds her of you

One time I fell in love
But it didn't last too long
See, I got an honest gypsy's heart but a serpent's tongue
I hope you never set
But if you do I pray regret
Don't find you telling misadventure you were wrong

All of my old friends are late for breakfast
This is their alarm call ringing now
It's always morning somewhere to somebody and strong coffee
Can make broken hearts and heads and fists just pound

It's Ok if you don't believe me
Most of what I say up here ain't true
But don't say I didn't warn you
In the morning when she calls you
With a voice that starts to crack
As if she's holding something back
As if all truth's been held to ransom
When she says she finds me handsome
And says something about me reminds her of you

I Was a Young Man's Son

I was a young man’s Son
He’d just got out of jail and he was probably drunk
When he laid his eyes
On them green eyes staring back above a vodka, lime and ice

I am a cheater’s son
He was sleeping ‘round, my mother pregnant 6 months
When she needed him around
She tell him so and he’d yell at her and then he'd just stay out

I am a liar’s son
A childhood of promises he never came through on
Just to see my dad
It’s hard being a boy not knowing how to be a man

He didn’t know what he was doing back then
Outside the moment and he still can’t tell me yet
If he has an idea he just ups and runs with it
And I’m the Son of him

Scuffed-up Shoes

Scuffed-up shoes from running loose
She's been living on the streets again
Knocking back the hardest drinks in the bar
Where she can pretend she's got friends
This guy compliments her and buys her a drink
But she blocks out what he says
She watches him slip off his wedding ring and thinks to herself
'Oh, man, here we go again...'

She drinks to forget how lonely she is
But only the lonely will buy her a drink
She looks around
And slams another glass down

With holes in the soles of her shoes she goes
Back to this married man's house
Up into his marital bedroom
The kids' pictures face-down
She closes her eyes as he touches her thighs
And she wonders what his wife must be like
If this is how a man treats his spouse and she's alone
Maybe she's doing alright

There's only so many men in this world
And none of them know how to treat a girl
She waits for him to sleep
And then she quietly leaves
Stealing some money from the side and flirting wild
With the driver of the taxi

She refuses his advances so he pulls her out of the car
He leaves her in a heap beside the bar

Talking to a stranger from out under her hair
He asks her 'Why you drinking?', she says 'Why do you care?'
And with a casual reply
He says, 'Some men are just nice'

She didn't believe him but what's another beating
So she went back to his place
She still didn't believe him but when they were finished
He wanted her to stay
So they talked all night about their lives
And in the morning stayed in bed all day

Maybe this one will work out alright
'Hey, baby, slide over, come on, hold me tight'
That itch that used to burn underneath her skin
The itch that she could only scratch with drink
Is all at once soothed by him
When he says,
'I love you'.

Black Halo

Sixteen years old and the world is barely hers
The universe revolves around the lipstick in her purse
Her daddy went to jail and her mother something worse
So she moves away
She finishes her make-up with her head up in the clouds
Looking out for love but it was solitude she found
She makes herself the princess when she's already been crowned
As the queen

This world won't let her live
It beats her down while she sleeps
An angel trying to be a girl
A beauty trying to be a beast

Fallen from heaven, she paints her halo black
And tucks her feathered wings in tight behind her back
A tear runs down her blushered cheek and leaves her make-up cracked
As she screams again
She turns the corner sullenly on to Reliever Street
Where every patch of light is filled with sailors on relief
She wipes the tear off with her sleeve, leaves lipstick on her cheek
But, still, she charms them

And she's not getting any sleep tonight
This wingless heaven's just in reach
But she'll move on again tomorrow
Treating love like disease

She's not the prettiest but she's pure and soft as snow
She sheds her dove wings for the black ones she has borrowed
The crows are so cool but they're so shallow
She won't fit in
She's so much better than them, there's poetry in her soul
Half-and-half, these kings and queens, our princess is a whole
With perfect love and perfect mind but how can she be told
If nobody knows?

Nobody knows she's an angel
And only God could work it out
She's fighting for a dream that's useless
The things that matter here don't count

She could recreate anything that's been destroyed
But she's so God-damned paranoid
Trying to be another fashion-focused android
She wipes her feet before she steps inside her own mind

Nobody knows she's an angel
She tramples the flowers that she breathes
But on the day she gives her life for no reason at all
She'll be released
She'll be free
She'll be an angel
Again.

A Beautiful Whore

empty hand on empty hand your empty eyes are sullen, glazed and grey
broken heart on broken heart, a promise lying broken in its grave
hearts lying broken in the chests of every man you made
and every one woke up alone wishing you had stayed

no money for the heating bill and your bedroom gets real cold
a boxful of bruises drenched in tears from all the hearts you stole
scars on the insides of men from all the lies you told
asking me for money once again, but i'm so broke

a beautiful whore put on this earth
to take this desperate man for everything he's worth
so why does he come 'round
when he could just desert?
it's nothing more than he deserves

quiet steps down quiet roads these quiet streets don't offer up much change
a party-piece at someone else's party, at least everybody came
you must have put yourself somewhere else, i could see it on your face
asking them all for their money but no one's got that kind of change