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DEATH OF A LADIES` MAN / 1977

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True Love Leaves No Traces


As the mist leaves no scar

On the dark green hill

So my body leaves no scar

On you and never will

Through windows in the dark

The children come, the children go

Like arrows with no targets

Like shackles made of snow

True love leaves no traces

If you and I are one

It's lost in our embraces

Like stars against the sun

As a falling leaf may rest

A moment on the air

So your head upon my breast

So my hand upon your hair

And many nights endure

Without a moon or star

So we will endure

When one is gone and far

True love leaves no traces

If you and I are one

It's lost in our embraces

Like stars against the sun



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Iodine

I needed you, I knew I was in danger

of losing what I used to think was mine

You let me love you till I was a failure,

You let me love you till I was a failure --

Your beauty on my bruise like iodine

I asked you if a man could be forgiven

And though I failed at love, was this a crime?

You said, Don't worry, don't worry, darling

You said, Don't worry, don't you worry, darling

There are many ways a man can serve his time

You covered up that place I could not master

It wasn't dark enough to shut my eyes

So I was with you, O sweet compassion

Yes I was with you, O sweet compassion

Compassion with the sting of iodine

Your saintly kisses reeked of iodine

Your fragrance with a fume of iodine

And pity in the room like iodine

Your sister fingers burned like iodine

And all my wanton lust was iodine

My masquerade of trust was iodine

And everywhere the flare of iodine



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Paper Thin Hotel

The walls of this hotel are paper-thin

Last night I heard you making love to him

The struggle mouth to mouth and limb to limb

The grunt of unity when he came in

I stood there with my ear against the wall

I was not seized by jealousy at all

In fact a burden lifted from my soul

I learned that love was out of my control

A heavy burden lifted from my soul

I heard that love was out of my control

I listened to your kisses at the door

I never heard the world so clear before

You ran your bath and you began to sing

I felt so good I couldn't feel a thing

I stood there with my ear against the wall ...

And I can't wait to tell you to your face

And I can't wait for you to take my place

You are The Naked Angel In My Heart

You are The Woman With Her Legs Apart

It's written on the walls of this hotel

You go to heaven once you've been to hell

A heavy burden lifted from my soul

I heard that love was out of my control



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Memories

Frankie Lane, he was singing Jezebel

I pinned an Iron Cross to my lapel

I walked up to the tallest and the blondest girl

I said, Look, you don't know me now but very soon you will

So won't you let me see

I said "won't you let me see"

I said "won't you let me see

Your naked body?"

Just dance me to the dark side of the gym

Chances are I'll let you do most anything

I know you're hungry, I can hear it in your voice

And there are many parts of me to touch, you have your choice

Ah but no you cannot see

She said "no you cannot see"

She said "no you cannot see

My naked body"

So We're dancing close, the band is playing Stardust

Balloons and paper streamers floating down on us

She says, You've got a minute left to fall in love

In solemn moments such as this I have put my trust

And all my faith to see

I said all my faith to see

I said all my faith to see

Her naked body



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I Left A Woman Waiting

I left a woman waiting

I met her sometime later

She said, I see your eyes are dead

What happened to you, lover?

What happened to you, my lover?

What happened to you, lover?

What happened to you?

And since she spoke the truth to me

I tried to answer truthfully

Whatever happened to my eyes

Happened to your beauty

Happened to your beauty

What happened to your beauty

Happened to me

We took ourselves to someone's bed

And there we fell together

Quick as dogs and truly dead were we

And free as running water

Free as running water

Free as running water

Free as you and me

The way it's got to be

The way it's got to be, lover



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Don't Go Home With Your Hard-On

I was born in a beauty salon

My father was a dresser of hair

My mother was a girl you could call on

When you called she was always there

When you called she was always there

When you called she was always there

When you called she was always there

When you called she was always there

Ah but don't go home with your hard-on

It will only drive you insane

You can't shake it (or break it) with your Motown

You can't melt it down in the rain

You can't melt it down in the rain

You can't melt it down in the rain

You can't melt it down in the rain

I've looked behind all of the faces

That smile you down to you knees

And the lips that say, Come on, taste us

And when you try to they make you say Please

When you try to they make you say Please

When you try to they make you say Please

When you try to they make you say Please

When you try to they make you say Please

Ah but don't go home with your hard-on ...

Here come's your bride with her veil on

Approach her, you wretch, if you dare

Approach her, you ape with your tail on

Once you have her she'll always be there

Once you have her she'll always be there

Once you have her she'll always be there

Once you have her she'll always be there

Once you have her she'll always be there

Ah but don't go home with your hard-on ...

So I work in that same beauty salon

I'm chained to the old masquerade

The lipstick, the shadow, the silicone

I follow my father's trade

I follow my father's trade

Yes I follow my father's trade

Yes I follow my father's trade

Yes I follow my father's trade

Ah but don't go home with your hard-on

It will only drive you insane

You can't shake it (or break it) with your Motown

You can't melt it down in the rain

You can't melt it down in the rain

You can't melt it down in the rain

You can't melt it down in the rain

You can't melt it down in the rain

You can't melt it down in the rain

You can't melt it down in the rain

You can't melt it down in the rain

You can't melt it down in the rain



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Fingerprints

I touched you once too often

Now I don't know who I am

My fingerprints were missing

When I wiped away the jam

Yes I called my fingerprints all night

But they don't seem to care

The last time that I saw them

They were leafing through your hair

Fingerprints, fingerprints

Where are you now my fingerprints?

Yeah I thought I'd leave this morning

So I emptied out your drawer

A hundred thousand fingerprints

They floated to the floor

You know you hardly stopped to pick them up

You don't care what you lose

Ah you don't even seem to know

Whose fingerprints are whose

Fingerprints, fingerprints

Where are you now my fingerprints?

And now you want to marry me

You want to take me down the aisle

You want to throw confetti fingerprints

You know that's not my style

O sure I'd like to marry you

But I can't face the dawn

With any girl who knew me

When my fingerprints were on

Fingerprints, fingerprints

Where are you now my fingerprints?

Fingerprints, oh fingerprints

Where are you now my fingerprints?



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Death of a Ladies' Man

Ah the man she wanted all her life was hanging by a thread

"I never even knew how much I wanted you," she said.

His muscles they were numbered and his style was obsolete.

"O baby, I have come too late." She knelt beside his feet.

"I'll never see a face like yours in years of men to come

I'll never see such arms again in wrestling or in love."

And all his virtues burning in the smoky Holocaust

She took unto herself most everything her lover lost

Now the master of this landscape he was standing at the view

with a sparrow of St. Francis that he was preaching to

She beckoned to the sentry of his high religious mood

She said, "I'll make a place between my legs,

I'll show you solitude."

He offered her an orgy in a many mirrored room

He promised her protection for the issue of her womb

She moved her body hard against a sharpened metal spoon

She stopped the bloody rituals of passage to the moon

She took his much admired oriental frame of mind

and the heart-of-darkness alibi his money hides behind

She took his blonde madonna and his monastery wine --

"This mental space is occupied and everything is mine."

He tried to make a final stand beside the railway track

She said, "The art of longing's over and it's never coming back."

She took his tavern parliament, his cap, his cocky dance,

she mocked his female fashions and his working-class moustache.

The last time that I saw him he was trying hard to get

a woman's education but he's not a woman yet

And the last time that I saw her she was living with some boy

who gives her soul an empty room and gives her body joy.

So the great affair is over but whoever would have guessed

it would leave us all so vacant and so deeply unimpressed

It's like our visit to the moon or to that other star

I guess you go for nothing if you really want to go that far.

It's like our visit to the moon or to that other star

I guess you go for nothing if you really want to go that far.

It's like our visit to the moon or to that other star

I guess you go for nothing if you really want to go that far.

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