"Ladybird"

Hey, Ladybird, ain’t it just the way,

the way that love grows cold and then fades away?

Now when he touches you, make no mistake,

the fire’s long gone out and the ash has blown away.
You don’t know how to leave and you don’t know where to fly.

You don’t know what you feel
but you know it’s not satisfied today.
So many little ones, so many mouths,

you’ve got a lot to feed and you know you don’t know how.

Making the best of it, somehow you’re making do,

making the best of the days that you stay

and you wait in this cage they made for you.
You don’t know how to leave
and you don’t know where to fly.

You’ve got a lot of things to lose, 

so you’ve got a lot of things to hide.

You know you don’t believe
but you know you’ve got to try today.
You know the sweetest wine, it’s a witches’ brew,

pours like honey down and then burns a hole in you.

Yeah, you may think you’re done but you’re never through
spitting out
the bitterness to get the little sweetness you do.
You don’t know how to leave
and you don’t know where to fly.

You’ve got a lot of things to lose, 

so you’ve got a lot of things to hide.

You don’t know what you feel
but you know it’s not satisfied.

You know you don’t believe
but you know you’ve got to try today.
Feel the winter bitterness; 
it’s heavy on the wind,
coming back again.


Maybe it’s time to fly, time to fly away!

When you gonna spread your wings and fly?
When you gonna fly away?
When you gonna fly away?

"Life Is Sweet"

It's a pity
It's a crying shame
Who pulled you down again?
How painful it must be
To bruise so easily inside

It's a pity
It's a downright crime
But it happens all the time
You wanna stay little daddy's girl
Wanna hide from the vicious world outside

But don't cry
Know the tears'll do no good
So dry your eyes

Your daddy he's the iron man
A battleship wrecked on dry land
Your mama she's a bitter bride
She'll never be satisfied,
And you know
That's not right

But don't cry
Know the tears'll do no good
So dry your eyes

They told you life is hard
It's misery from the start
It's dull and slow and painful

I tell you life is sweet
In spite of the misery
There's so much more
Be grateful

Who do you believe?
Who will you listen to
Who will it be?
It's high time that you decide
In your own mind

Tried to comfort you
Tried to tell you to be patient
They are blind
They can't see

Fortune gonna come some day
All gonna fade away
Your daddy the war machine and
Your mama the long and suffering
Prisoner of what she can not see

They told you life is hard
It's misery from the start
It's dull and slow and painful

I tell you life is sweet
In spite of the misery
There's so much more
Be grateful

Who do you believe?
Who will you listen to
Who will it be?

It's high time you decide
It's time you make up your own sweet little mind

They told you life is long
Be thankful when it's done
Don't ask for more
You should be grateful

But I tell you life is short
Be thankful because before you know
It will be over

Cause life is sweet
And life is also very short
Your life is sweet

"Lulu"

They said that Hollywood was
never gonna be the same without you,
still, you’re gone.

How could we forget that face
and all that silver, flickering grace
that died with the silent age?
When everybody knew your name;
they all knew your name.

Born wild like a prairie flower,
she was sown by the wind and blown for miles.
Kansas couldn’t keep the child.

Hell-bound for the Great White Way,
for the tawdry-bawdy burlesque stage
and Wichita was miles and miles away.

Everybody knew your name.
Everybody knew your name,
they knew your name.

So you burned the candle,
burned it at both ends.
So love ends in scandal.
You burned it brief; you burned it bright.
And the light in your immortal eyes
is the light that will never die.

Christened in straight-up gin,
Pandora was born in Weimar Berlin
and that was the rise before the fall!

Everybody sat in the dark, dark, black as night.
Everybody wanted to go where the light was so bright
and your shining face was gonna lead the way.

Homecoming like a heroine-bride
but the honeymoon was over before you arrived
and now they all cursed your name.
Everybody cursed your name.

Cold winds of Gotham howled
and the princess pawned her celluloid crown
in the glass castle walls.

Where nobody knew your name.
Nobody knew your name.

"Maggie And Milly And Molly And May"

Maggie and Milly and Molly and May
Went down to the beach (to play one day)

And Maggie discovered a shell that sang
So sweetly she couldn't remember her troubles,and

Milly befriended a stranded star
Whose rays five languid fingers were;

And Molly was chased by a horrible thing
Which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and

May came home with a smooth round stone
As small as a world and as large as alone.

For whatever we lose (like a you or a me)
It's always ourselves we find in the sea

"Maggie Said"

Maggie said
Dig one more shallow grave before I'm dead
Maggie said
I'm just lookin' for a place that I can lay my weary head
There's no perfect end
Just time to leave

Maggie said
They wreck the table at the game of love
Maggie said
It's just stupid luck if you rise above
Everybody's second in death
Win or lose, my friend
It's so hard to leave

Holdin' back
What did I get for all of that?
What did it count for?
Tell me that
Nothin'
Nothin'
Oh, nothin', that's a fact

Maggie said
It's so hard to find the Golden Fleece to spin my golden thread
Maggie said
You're preachin' to the choir, girl, now
You're not stickin' out your neck
There's no risk in that
Darlin', please

Holdin' back
What did I get for all of that?
What did it count for?
Tell me that
Tell me that
Nothin'
Nothin'
Nothin', that's a fact

Maggie said
Don't let them take that halo from your head
Maggie said
I can see you're turning hard now, girl
Don't lose your tenderness
What's the use in that?
Darlin', please

Holdin' back
What did I get for all of that?
What did it count for?
Tell me that
Count for?
Tell me that
Nothin'
Nothin'
Nothin'
Oh, nothin', that's a fact

"Motherland"

Where in hell can you go
Far from the things that you know
Far from the sprawl of concrete
That keeps crawling its way
About 1,000 miles a day?

Take one last look behind
Commit this to memory and mind
Don't miss this wasteland, this terrible place
When you leave
Keep your heart off your sleeve

Motherland cradle me
Close my eyes
Lullaby me to sleep
Keep me safe
Lie with me
Stay beside me
Don't go, don't you go

O, my five & dime queen
Tell me what have you seen?
The lust and the avarice
The bottomless, the cavernous greed
Is that what you see?

Motherland cradle me
Close my eyes
Lullaby me to sleep
Keep me safe
Lie with me
Stay beside me
Don't go

It's your happiness I want most of all
And for that I'd do anything at all, o mercy me!
If you want the best of it or the most of all
If there's anything I can do at all

Now come on shot gun bride
What makes me envy your life?
Faceless, nameless, innocent, blameless and free,
What's that like to be?

Motherland cradle me
Close my eyes
Lullaby me to sleep
Keep me safe
Lie with me
Stay beside me
Don't go, don't you go

"My Skin"

Take a look at my body
Look at my hands
There's so much here
That I don't understand

Your face-saving promises
Whispered like prayers
I don't need them

'Cause I've been treated so wrong
I've been treated so long
As if I'm becoming untouchable

Well, contempt loves the silence
It thrives in the dark
With fine winding tendrils
That strangle the heart

They say that promises
Sweeten the blow
But I don't need them
No, I don't need them

I've been treated so wrong
I've been treated so long
As if I'm becoming untouchable

I'm a slow-dying flower
I'm a frost-killing hour
Sweet turning sour
And untouchable

Oh, I need
The darkness
The sweetness
The sadness
The weakness
Oh, I need this

I need
A lullaby
A kiss goodnight
Angel-sweet love of my life
Oh, I need this

I'm a slow-dying flower
Frost-killing hour
The sweet turning sour
And untouchable

Do you remember the way
That you touched me before?
All the trembling sweetness
I loved and adored?

Your face-saving promises
Whispered like prayers
I don't need them

I need
The darkness
The sweetness
The sadness
The weakness
I need this

I need
A lullaby
A kiss goodnight
Angel-sweet love of my life
Oh, I need this

Well, is it dark enough?
Can you see me?
Do you want me?
Can you reach me?
Or I'm leaving

Better shut your mouth
And hold your breath
You kiss me now
You catch your death
Oh, I mean this

Oh, I need this

"Nursery Rhyme Of Innocence And Experience"

I had a silver penny
And an apricot tree
And I said to the sailor
On the white quay

Sailor O sailor
Will you bring me
If I give you my penny
And my apricot tree

... fez from Algeria
An Arab drum to beat
A little gilt sword
And a parakeet?

And he smiled and he kissed me
As strong as death
And I saw his red tongue
And I felt his sweet breath

You may keep your penny
And your apricot tree
And I'll bring your presents
Back from sea.

O the ship dipped down
On the rim of the sky
And I waited while three
Long summers went by

Then one steel morning
On the white quay
I saw a grey ship
Come in from sea

Slowly she came
Across the bay
For her flashing rigging
Was shot away

All round her wake
The seabirds cried
And flew in and out
Of the hole in her side

Slowly she came
In the path of the sun
And I heard the sound
Of a distant gun

And a stranger came running
Up to me
From the deck of the ship
And he said, said he

O are you the boy
Who would wait on the quay
With the silver penny
And the apricot tree?

I've a plum-coloured fez
And a drum for thee
And a sword and a parakeet
From over the sea.

O where is the sailor
With bold red hair?
And what is that volley
On the bright air?

O where are the other
Girls and boys?
And why have you brought me
Children's toys?

"Ophelia"

Ophelia was a bride of god
A novice Carmelite
In sister cells the cloister bells
Tolled on her wedding night

Ophelia was a rebel girl
A blue stocking suffragette
Who remedied society
Between her cigarettes

Ophelia was a sweetheart
To the nation over night
Curvaceous thighs
Vivacious eyes
Love was at first sight...

Ophelia was a demigoddess
In pre war Babylon
So statuesque a silhouette
In black satin evening gowns

Ophelia was the mistress to a
Vegas gambling man
Signora Ophelia Maraschina
Mafia courtesan

Ophelia was a circus queen
The female cannonball
Projected through five flaming hoops
To wild and shocked applause...

Ophelia was a cyclone, tempest
A god damned hurricane
Your common sense
Your best defense
Lay wasted and in vain

Ophelia'd know your every woe
And pain you'd ever had
She'd sympathize
And dry your eyes
And help you to forget...

Ophelia's mind went wandering
You'd wonder where she'd gone
Through secret doors
Down corridors
She'd wander them alone
All alone...

"Owensboro"

Well, I lived in a town
Way down south
By the name of Owensboro
And I worked in a mill
With the rest of the "trash"
As we're often called
As you know

Well, we rise up early
In the morning
And we work all day real hard
To buy our little meat and bread
Buy sugar, tea, and lard

Well, our children
Grow up unlearned
With no time to go to school
Almost before they learn to walk
They learn to spin and spoon

Well, the folks in town
They dress so fine
And spend their money free
But they would hardly look
At a factory hand
Who dresses like you or me

Would you let them wear
Their watches fine
Let them wear their gems
And pearly strings

But when that day
Of judgement comes
They'll have to share
Their pretty things