The Best of the EMI Years

The Best Of The EMI Years

Days Of Pearly Spencer

A tenement, a dirty street

Walked and worn by shoeless feet

Inside it's long and so complete

Watched by a shivering sun

Old eyes in a small child's face

Watching as the shadows race

Through walls and cracks that leave no trace

And daylight's brightness shun.

Chorus:

The days of Pearly Spencer

Ahh Ahh Ahh

The race is almost run

Nose pressed hard on frosted glass

Gazing at the swollen mass

On concrete fields where grows no grass

Stumbles blindly on

Iron trees smother the air

But withering, they stand and stare

Through eyes that neither know nor care

Where the grass has gone

Chorus:

The days of Pearly Spencer

Ahh Ahh Ahh

The race is almost run

Pearly where's your milk white skin

What's that stubble on your chin

It's buried in the rot gut gin

You played and lost not won

You played a house that can't be beat

Now look your head's bowed in defeat

You walked too far along the street

Where only rats can run

Chorus:

The days of Pearly Spencer

Ahh Ahh Ahh

The race is almost run

The days of Pearly Spencer

Ahh Ahh Ahh

The race is almost run

The days of Pearly Spencer

Ahh Ahh Ahh

The race is almost run

Can I Get There By Candlelight

This is the way to the rolling drum

This is the way to go

This is where the colours run

And latic oceans flow

I'll show you how the thunder's boom

If you will come with me

I'll feed you spice on a silver spoon

Where sunshine lights the sea

Can I get there by candlelight

Tripping through this empty night

Can I get there by candlelight

Or is it much too far

Is there time to really get there

Is there time to stay

Is there very much to see there

And how much do I pay

Yes, there's lots of time to get there

And lots of time to stay

There's much for you to do and see there

If you've enough to pay

Can I get there by candlelight

Tripping through this empty night

Can I get there by candlelight

Or is it much too far

Can I get there by candlelight

Tripping through this empty night

Can I get there by candlelight

Or is it much too far

God And Country

It's just been six weeks now, since I left my home town

When they called out my number, and my turn came round

Now I've a gun in my hand, this land to set free

Told to fight till I'm dead, for god and country

Oh my father he told me, it'll be a proud day

When you fight for your country, in a land far away

He said to make all my foes, bend down on one knee

And come home a hero, for god and my country

To all your dictators, say I've had my fill

One of the commandments, is that you should not kill

And this land isn't mine, it's not hard to see

So how can I be fighting, for god and my country

Let me ask you one question and tell me no lies

Is it worth all this money, for so many to die

Or are you so blind, that you don't want to see

That I'm not really fighting for god and my country

Yes, let me ask you one question and tell me no lies

Is it worth all this money, for so many to die

Or are you so blind, that you don't want to see

That I'm not really fighting for god or my country

Leaves That Fall

To catch the wind to bind the sun

Find out where the rainbows run

Those who seek to stand so tall

Are numbered as the leaves that fall

The poet sings his dancing rhyme

Of flitting feet and churches chime

A faint reminder of the past

That stands along through winters blast

The autumn winds so cold they blow

And winter never seems to go

But yet the summer comes again

And breathes upon my window pane

Listen as the night bird cries

How every thing that lives soon dies

There's beauty in her mournful call

There's beauty in the leaves that fall

To catch the wind to bind the sun

Find out where the rainbows run

Those who seek to stand so tall

Are numbered as the leaves that fall

Harlem Lady

She walks the dirty streets, and she breaths a breath of Spring

She has bells upon her shoes, and she wears a diamond ring

Everybody passing by, says, look there goes our queen

Ain't she the prettiest thing, that you have ever seen

She is a Harlem lady

She is a Harlem lady, and she's much too good for me

Money men can't but her, her mind is all her own

She ain't got no ties to bind her, she ain't got no home

If you pass her on the street she'll smile and say hello

But don't you get too close guy, she just don't wanna know

She is a Harlem lady

She is a Harlem lady, and she's much too good for me

When she speaks the minutes stop, the hours quickly fly

When she loves it feels so good, like I'm flyin' in the sky

But don't you try to reach her, for she's too far out you

And man she gives her love, to nobody of me

She is a Harlem lady

She is a Harlem lady, and she's much too good for me

How Can I Be Free

The dangling curtains at my door

Cast a shadow on the floor

Dancing visions pass my eye

Telling neither truth nor lie

Touching like a hypnotising rhyme

Everything that I once knew

Is flitting close and passing through

Faces from behind I see

They passing close and toughing me

Casting dark reflections on my mind.

Oh, how can I be free?

When the walls are closing in on me

Oh, how can I be free?

I'll raise my glass up to my face

And see if I can drown a taste

That swims inside this head of mine

Never travelling in a line

And never really close enough to see

A dream world passing through my brain

Never to return again

Shadows I can't seem to place

And every image I can't trace

Reflecting from the walls and touching me

Oh, how can I be free?

When the walls are closing in on me

Oh, how can I be free?

I'll bow my head and dry my eyes

Watch the seabird as she flies

Across the clouds encurling line

To leave the touch of time behind

Caring not for reason or for style

A dream explodes inside my head

But still I'm tied here to this bed

Of neon light and stop-watch boom

Where dreamers cannot find the room

To close their eyes and drift awhile

Oh, how can I be free?

When the walls are closing in on me

Oh, how can I be free?

I'll Be Home

I'll be home when summer leaves are green again

I'll be home when winter's long been gone

I'll be home to walk once more with Lorrie

To see again the mountains of my home

It's a long lonely feeling to be lying

In a place where no one knows my name

If I don't get home, to see once more my Lorrie

I think I'll never be a man again.

I'll be home

I'll be home, to hold you once again

I'll be home

As the spring is softly dawning on the meadow

There's just one place on earth I long to be

I can picture all the warm and smiling faces

Round my Lorrie and my mountains by the sea

I'll be home

I'll be home, to hold you once again

I'll be home

As the spring is softly dawning on the meadow

There's just one place on earth I long to be

I can picture all the warm and smiling faces

Round my Lorrie and my mountains by the sea

This Side of Heaven

This side of heaven where the serpent moves my son

There is no truth except for fact, no lies to be undone

This is no priest or pauper who can't find a place to run

No singer singing melodies a song that can't be sung

A-ah don't try too hard to loose

The die is cast before you move

Good, bad, indifferent who tells you what to be

There is no saint or sinner, who can see what he can see

The fish swim in the ocean and the eagle flies so free

What happened to the preacher boy who told lies for you and me

A-ah don't try too hard to loose

The die is cast before you move

Though your visions seem unreal

Take them where the thieves can't steal

Kings and princes do not steal

Only borrow what they feel

Fool upon a hilltop with a flower in his hand

He doesn't know what he's doing there, he just doesn't understand

Nothing in his life is his and nothings really planned

Who's to say that he's a fool at all or where sanity should land

A-ah don't try to hard to loose

The die is cast before you move.

There's No Lock Upon My Door

Close your eyes I'll tell you something

That I should have said before

If you ever feel like leaving

There ain't no lock upon my door

You think your eyes are sparkling jewels

You think that everyone should know

You think there's no one else quite like you

Thinking girl don't make it so

There ain't no lock upon my door

You can go now if you please

There ain't no lock upon my door

I'll be laughing when you leave

I gave you rings and pretty trinkets

You just took them as your due

You never ever got to thinking

That some day I might say we're through

I loved you many a winters evening

I guess I loved you just a little too much

I've held you many a summer's morning

Somehow girl we never touched

There ain't no lock upon my door

You can go now if you please

There ain't no lock upon my door

I'll be laughing when you leave

So don't you take too much for granted

You better find where you've gone wrong

And just remember what I tell you

You might not miss till me I'm gone

Yes close your eyes, I'll tell you something

That I should have said before

If you ever feel like leaving

Well, there ain't no lock upon my door

There ain't no lock upon my door

You can go now if you please

There ain't no lock upon my door

I'll be laughing when you leave

September Winds

September winds, they blow so cold

See the dancing golden leaves

Dying sadly on the breeze.

Remember when the spring was here

Summer didn't stay too long

Now I hear a sadder song

I met a man just yesterday

He did not move or give command

He had a time glass in his hand

3 O'Clock Flamingo Street

Empty sound, deserted town

Beneath the silvery feathered down

Of morning's waking breath

Forgotten tunes and silver spoons

Goes to deeply shadowed gloom

And dies a silent death

Junkered peers through plastic ears

Holds his bottle heaven near

And dimly strange to rise

Unreal, can't feel

His dagger dangling band of steel

Through plastic coated eyes

Don't turn away, there ain't no need

It's just 3 o'clock Flamingo Street

Big band show an hour ago

I saw the laughing doorman show the stairway to the crowd

Yellow girls

Hair uncurled

Swaying in a rhythmic world

To the music playing load

Close light, shines bright

Pierces through the yielding night

And hides the shadows deep

Feeling free should be

No time to turn the door to see

Where morning widows weep

Don't turn away, there ain't no need

It's just 3 o'clock Flamingo Street

Pains begun bottle done

No place where a man can run

To shield his shaking brain

Head down round and round

Hold on harder to the ground

Untouched by the rain

Flesh cold, young or old

Who cares if the truth be told

Is only him to blame

Jack and Jill, had their fill

Begin to walk the day

Until it all begins again

Don't turn around there ain't no need

It's just 3 o'clock Flamingo Street

Poverty Street

Down on poverty street, names don't mean a thing

The clock doesn't chime, and the bells they don't ring

And the masks some call faces, are withered and black

When you look down this road, it's too late to turn back

Down on poverty street, the days they are long

And you start wondring where and to who you belong

But there's no sense in wondring, cause I think you will find

That by all of the masters, you've been left far behind

I can't move my feet, from the place that they stand

I'm chained to this coffin, by the master's command

So I sit here alone, till my life is complete

Till death comes and takes me from poverty street

Reflections

Hear the raindrops boom, at the window of my room

Watch the strands of life as they unravel

See the shapes of night, slip quietly from side

Beneath the flickering streetlamps quickly travel

Girls sighing, girls crying, my eyes can't see so clear

Girls singing, bell ringing, but I'm just standing here

The image on the wall, isn't really me at all

It's just somebody's strange unknown reflection

Passing through the night, as a sunbeam through the light

Wandering without reason or direction

Girls sighing, girls crying, my eyes can't see so clear

Girls singing, bells ringing, but I'm just standing here

Though it caused me pain and strive I have tried through all my life

To pierce the void between real and illusion

But through all that I have been, and through all that I have seen

I still find I cannot reach a conclusion

Girls sighing, girls crying, my eyes can't see so clear

Girls singing, bells ringing, but I'm just standing here

The Stranger

He passed us as we laughed

The stranger talking of our memories

We drank a while, and didn't even see him

The conversation drifted on

To he who was to die next morning

Leave his mark on life to be forgotten

And as we talked he watched and listened

To the words that poured out hated

From the garbage of our bellies so long hidden

We curst and swore & damned

The very body that gave breath

To such a man who's very name we could not utter

And the stranger came and joined us

He sat dawn at our table

Wished us all good evening, and he smiled

He joked and sang us songs

Of life and love and even dying

And no shadow passed before us all the while

We talked long through the midnight

And then far into the morning

Till the light crept through the shutter casting shadows

Till once again the conversation turned

To he who was to die

And every decent soul might sleep in peace again

The stranger smiled a little sadly

And said not to judge our knowing

That a story told too often, is told too well

That situations make a man

And not man a situation

And we nodded though we couldn't understand

Then he wished us all good luck

And he stepped out in the morning

Where the mist was slowly laughing at the dawn