Del Amitri:
Twisted (lyrics)
(1995)

There's people hauling people 
Out from under their homes 
There's people hauling people 
Out through the groaning stones 
You can see me tonight, 
I'll be shell shocked and white in the cold light of dawn 
But I ain't gonna cry just to give some guy 
Food for songs 

People going hungry, 
Stand like a sackfull of bones, 
People going hungry, feeding a billion homes 
So I put my dead child down, you put your TV on 
Well I ain't gonna cry just to give some guy 
Food for songs 

Yeah, there's people beating people, 
To keep the system strong 
People beating people, to keep the illusion going 
So I'm going to fight every day of my life 'til they're gone 
But I ain't gonna die just to give some guy 
Food for songs 

Yeah, there's people holding people, 
Making those wailing sounds, 
Yeah, there's people holding people, 
Watching them lower me down 
So I take my leave and you take what you see 
And you make it what you want 
But when I see you in hell, I will give you some 
Food for songs. 

With all the stuff they sell you night and day 
With all the trash they try to trick you with you lie to me 
Well I don't need it but I get it anyway 
With all the sadness and lunacy, 
With all the dispossessed hopeless, you're leaving me 
Well I don't want it but it's how it's going to be 

Yeah, you can try to save the world 
And baby, that's fine 
But is it such a hateful crime to start with me? 

With all the bad debts and misery 
With all the dirty tricks and hypocrites you cheat on me 
Well I don't want it but it's all that I can see 

With all the discrete obscenities 
With all the money freaks and doublespeak you turn away 
Well I don't need it, but I guess it's gonna stay 

Yeah, you can try to save the world 
Well baby, that's fine 
But is it such a hateful crime to start with me? 

Hey I'm with you, let me just get you a light 
And if we'd thought to listen 
We might have checked if the weather was right 
And I don't mind if you want to drive all day 

Hey, it's raining, I should have brought my coat 
And sometimes I could sell my soul 
Just to sit and watch you smoke 
And I don't mind if you want to break my heart 

'Cos you can burn paper 
You can turn a wheel 
But you can't change later 
Here and now just how good we can feel 

Hey, stop talking, think I can hear the sea 
And did I tell you the sound of the surf 
Makes strange things happen to me 
And I don't mind if you want to crash the car 

'Cos you turn traitor 
You can turn on your heels 
But you can't change lady 
Here and now just how good we can feel 

And hey don't worry, so that black cat's some kind of curse 
'Cos if bad times are coming up ahead, 
Just put us in reverse 

I don't want to waste time, thinking 'bout it here and now babe 
Nothing else matters but what we've got here and now babe. 

So long, hope you dreams come true 
Now I've gone i know you're gonna bloom 
And did you want me to say I'd die for you 

What you wanted I couldn't give 
I guess I needed it to live 
And did you want me to say I'd die for you 

And did you want me to give my heart to you, 
Well I wanted to but I wasn't sure who I belonged to 

And so long to everything 
Now there's only one thing left to do, 
I guess I want to prove that I'd die for you 
I don't think of you, like I used to do, 
I can't figure who, I'm writing this to 

And it's OK if you want to say I died for you. 

Tell her not to go 
I ain't holding on no more 
Tell her something in my mind freezes up from time to time 

Tell her not to cry 
I just got scared that's all 
Tell her I'll be by her side, all she has to do is call 

Tell her the chips are down 
I drank too much and shouted it aloud 
Tell her something in my heart 
Needs her more than even clowns need the laughter of the crowd 

Tell her what was wrong 
I sometimes think to much 
But say nothing at all 
And tell her from this high terrain, I am ready now to fall 

Tell her not to go 
I ain't holding on no more 
Tell her nothing if not this; all I want to do is kiss her 

Tell her something in my mind 
Freezes up from time to time. 

How are you going to pass the time of day 
In your beautiful empty shell, 
When you've shaken the hand of so many sinceroes 
You feel like a fake yourself 

How do you choose between you and me 
When we both feed on being somebody else 

So you suck on the juice of youth and use any chemical you can get 
You get deeper in debt every step you take 
On your ladder of lifelessness 
Bye bye to the boring times, 
Hello to my friend, how you been being somebody else? 

Now the troops in you head won't obey what you say 
And the mutiny seems to spread 
And all you can hear is a voice in your ear 
And it's telling you that 
you're dead 

The sun sets in a coffee cup, the moon throws up 
The flood flows over the house, 
The books start jumping from the shelf 
And the clothes horse races itself 
Now we're all so busy being somebody else. 

Look around your world pretty baby 
Is it everything you hoped it'd be 
The wrong guy, the wrong situation 
The right time to roll to me 

Look into your heart pretty baby, 
Is it aching with some nameless need. 
Is there something wrong and you can't put your finger on it 
Right then, roll to me 

And I don't think I have ever seen a soul so in despair 
So if you want to talk the night through 
Guess who will be there? 

So don't try to deny it pretty baby, 
You've been down so long you can hardly see 
When the engine's stalled and it won't stop raining 
It's the right time to roll to me 

Look around your world pretty baby 
Is it everything you hoped it'd be 
The wrong guy, the wrong situation 
The right time to roll to me 

Well it might not be so important to you now 
When the night is young and everyone's around 
And the music flows 
Through your doped up Disney mind. 

But you'll be crying like a baby when it comes 
And you will try it anyway you can 
To find a place to run, 'cos it ain't no fun 
In party town, when loneliness comes crashing down 

And you'll be hurting in a way you can't explain 
And all those pretty things you love will look so vain 
'Cos the laughing crowd is such a hopeless sound 
When loneliness comes crashing down 

And you might not thing about 
Just what happens now as your guests collect their coats. 
In an empty house full of ashtray doubts 
Your formless future floats 

So the bad and beautiful still remain 
With their depleted bounty of bad cocaine, we love the house 
But we can't quite place the name 

And it might not be important to you now, 
When the night is young and you are loose and loud 
'Cos there ain't no sound in party town 
Quite like loneliness crashing down 

There is nobody here tonight, who doesn't dance to the same tune as I 
Looking for that special someone new, 
And hey babe it might as well be you 

And as I fumble through my change, the dance floor illuminates 
And there you are again 
I'm looking for someone to hold on to 
And hey, babe, it might as well be you 

It might as well be you that I wake up to tomorrow 
And it might as well be you that tonight whispers my name 
And it might as well be you that I cling to, 
That I laugh with and sing to 
That I kiss good-bye to never see again 

And through the fog that love creates 
The night is filled with all the usual mistakes 
they say you're looking lonely babe, and they've been looking too 
And hey, they might well be for you 

And by the light of cigarettes, 
We introduce ourselves in a way you don't forget 
I'm looking for something and anything will do 
So, hey babe, it might as well be you 

And if we go home tonight, you might find the very thing 
That come the morning light, might well have washed your mind of him 
So let me in tonight so we two losers might start to win 

It might as well be you that I wake up to tomorrow 
And it might as well be you that tonight will call my name 
And it might as well be you that I cling to, 
That I laugh with and sing to 
Yeah babe, it might as well be you that reminds me 
It was once her here beside me 
That I kissed good-bye, to never see again 

With two hundred people in suits all the same 
You walk off that last lonely train. 

On the half finished buildings only seagulls remain 
As you try to think back to the root of this pain 

And life ain't worth living without a little love 
But a little love is never enough 

So some folks are fighting for freedom, 
But you're just fighting the flab 
And therein lies the reason that life is a drag. 

So you gaze at the television 
As some publicity goons cut loose those useless balloons. 

Down in the darkness of your lying little heart 
There's a space for you to change 
So you can take this world apart. 

And these days the morning mirror seems to say to you now, 
That you used to be pretty but you're alright now. 

And sometimes you find you're dreaming as you're late for work again 
Thinking there's not many trees you can see from this train. 

Life ain't worth living 
Without a little love 
But a little love is never enough 

Summer here is over in a million different ways 
You look like a dream sometimes, but I don't dream these days 
Yesterday the snow fell, by four o'clock it thawed 
And last night making love to you, well honey, it was such a fraud 

'Cos you can find yourself a lover 
You can find yourself a home 
You can want no other ever 
But it's never too late to be alone 

So everything is settled or so we do pretend 
From a beautiful beginning babe to a muted kind of end 
And our separate possessions are shuffled up on shelves 
Like our fingers lock together when we talk about ourselves 

You can find yourself one day staring into space 
With a suitcase waiting by the door 
You can think you've got it made 'til it hits you in the face 
That these are not the people you want to be before 

Summer here is over, you can feel it in the air 
From the down-town shells to the upland hills 
The chill is everywhere 

Driving through the long night 
Trying to figure who's right and who's wrong 
Now the kid has gone. I sit belted up tight, 
She sucks on a match light, glowing bronze, steering on. 
And I might be more of a man if I stopped this in it's tracks 
And said, come on, let's go home. But she's got the wheel, 
And I've got nothing except what I have on. 

When you're driving with the brakes on 
When you're swimming with your boots on, 
It's hard to say you love someone 
And it's hard to say you don't 

Trying to keep the mood right, trying to steer the conversation from 
The thing we've done. 
She shuts up the ashtray, and I say it's a long way back now hon 
She just yawns. And we might get lost someplace 
So desolate that no one where we're from would ever come 
But she's got the wheel and I've got to deal from now on. 

But unless the moon falls tonight, unless continents collide, 
Nothing's gonna make me, break from her side