Artist: Pete Townshend Album: All The Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes {1982}

A love born once must soon be born again
A spark that burned, then died
Leaving cinders to be fanned by the wind and thrown to flame
Flames like tongues impassioned in a moments burst
Tell me my friend - why do you stand aloof from your own heart

The truth confronts you
The truth confronts you as the sea crushing with out detail
Impassioned and detached
Killing with love and power in God's name

People stop hurting people
People stop hurting people

Love conquers poses, love smashes stances
Love crushes angles into black
So you, without question, know your first love is your last
And you will never, you'll never, never, you'll never love again

I always wished to walk with her into restaurants it's a clammy tale
To be seen beside her at the public bar footrail
I always wanted to be matched with her
Yet her beauty was so different to mine
My beauty needs an understanding and a knowledge of what I am
Hers is enough, earned thru eons, for that is what true beauty is
Time's gift to perfect humility

May I be matched with you again
I know the match is bad
But God help me
May I be matched with you again
I know the match is bad
But God help me
May I be matched with you again
I know the match is bad
But God help me
May I be matched with you again
Without your match there is no flame

People stop hurting people
People stop hurting people
People stop hurting people
People stop hurting people
People stop hurting people
People stop hurting people
People stop hurting people
People stop hurting people

I remember being richer than a king
The minutes of the day were golden
I recall that when the joint passed round
My body felt a little colder
But now I'm like a sewer channel running lime and scag
Let me get at the master panel, let me at my stack

The sea refuses no river
And right now this river's banks are blown
The sea refuses no river
Whether stinking and rank or red from the tank
Whether pure as a spring, there's no damned thing stops the poem
The sea refuses no river
And this river is homeward flowing

I have seen a trace of strain
In other's eyes not spoken
I must admit that I enjoyed their pain
But this time it's me that's broken
I demand for you and His, this must be the time
When we decide what freedom is, turn water into wine

For the sea refuses no river
We're polluted now but in our hearts still clean
The sea refuses no river
We tried not to age but time had it's rage
We're washed over stones from babes into clones of the mean
The sea refuses no river
Won't deny this sulfurous stream

There was a fool in a dressing robe
Riding out the twilight hour
Lonely and cold in an empty home
Trying to assess his power
But now he's like a stream in flood swollen by the storm
He doesn't care if he sheds his blood, let him be reborn

The sea refuses no river
Remember that when the beggar buys a round
The sea refuses no river
And rain fills the gutters, no time for stutters
This is our chance to sing and to dance and to clown
The sea refuses no river
And rivers were sprung to drown

The sea refuses no river
No pecking code respected for the damned
The sea refuses no river
Whether starving and ill or strung on some pill
Just cos you own the land there's no unique hand plugs the dam
The sea refuses no river
And the river is where I am

The river is where I am

Sometimes walking thru the streets of this city
I see all the faces of the winners and the losers

Oh why can't I see a change, just one sign
Before I say goodbye
Before I say goodbye

I watch you sit and twitching
With a match between your teeth
You seem to have a knack of moving it
It's in time to the beat

Face dances tonight, fate chances moonlight
Face dances tonight, fate chances moonlight

I can't be distracted by the stuttering of the kids
I just sit enraptured by your fluttering eye lids

Face dances tonight, fate chances moonlight
Face dances tonight, fate chances moonlight

I can only stare
You make me feel like I don't care
I can only stare
You make me feel like I don't care

I can only stare
You make me feel like I don't care

Your eyes explain a story that never had a start
Your brow reveals the glory that's hidden in your heart

Face dances tonight, fate chances moonlight
Face dances tonight, fate chances moonlight

Your skin is fine china, white as winter snows
Your lips are always shining turning up your nose

Face dances tonight, fate chances moonlight
Face dances tonight, fate chances moonlight

Face dances tonight, fate chances moonlight
Face dances tonight, fate chances moonlight
I can only stare
You make me feel like I don't care

The tissue box is empty
No coffee for my cream
Dogs howl in the alley
Crazy women scream
Some kids shout from there pick up truck
There stoned on life and beer
Fifty radios playing in this street
But I'm still hardly here

Exquisitely bored in California
We take our trouble to the crest
Exquisitely bored in California
Exquisitely bored, just like all the rest

When the sun shines things'll get moving
You feel close to the stars
There are good times walking in Laguna
But it rains in my heart

The peasants here are starving
They look out there barrels out in space
Pray TV looks like pay TV to me
It's just a curse on the human race
I take a drive up to L.A.
In my gas guzzling limousine
There's a whole lot of crazy people up there
Living out a life in sweet ennui

Exquisitely bored in California
We take our trouble to the crest
Exquisitely bored in California
Exquisitely bored, just like all the rest

When the sun shines things'll get moving
You feel close to the stars
There are good times walking in Laguna
But it rains in my heart

Exquisitely bored in California
We take our trouble to the crest
Exquisitely bored in California
Exquisitely bored, just like all the rest

Comma, comma, comma, cacaca
Commai, commai, commai, cacaca
Commu, commu, commu, commu, communicate

Selbstdarstellung
Gay Talese
Ronald Rocking
Euthanasia

Use the words like flowing river touches
Embraces parting hard steel surfaces reveling pages
Beneath the water skin broken like ice flows
Smashed by iron bows on the back of a whale

Comma, comma, comma, cacaca
Commai, commai, commai, cacaca
Commu, commu, commu, commu, communicate

Selbstarstellung
Open hearted
Soon forgotten but never parted

Com, com, com, communicate
Communicate, communicate

Communicate, communicate
Via satellite and solid state
Never, never hesitate
Communicate, communicate
Communicate, communicate
Never, never hesitate

Reaching, leaning, scratching vainly
Faces dancing, locked lipped, between thigh secret
Briolette tears drip from frozen masks
As all those death row questions don't get asked

Comma, comma, comma, cacaca
Commai, commai, commai, cacaca
Commu, commu, commu, commu, communicate

Communicate
Communicate, communicate
Via satellite and solid state
Never, never hesitate
Communicate
Communicate, communicate
Never, never hesitate

Communicate, never hesitate
No, no, no never ever hesitate
Communicate, communicate, yeah

Comma, comma, comma, cacaca
Commai, commai, commai, cacaca
Commu, commu, commu, commu, communicate
Cacacaca

Communication

Stardom in Acton that's all they got
Stardom in Acton that's all they got
Stardom in Acton that's all they got

Just like the grub that wriggles to the top of the mass
I'm the first to get hooked
Just like the stub of that long cigarette full of hash
I'm the last to get booked
But I'm capable, my loves inescapable
Conquering lethargy, I've got energy

Stardom - I want a hit
Want my tan, want my cash, want my innocence
Stardom - I want a script
Want my band, want my stash, want omnipotence

I'll go where the senescent soldier retires
And shiver in south California
Watching the storms and tangled wires
And rivers that meet on the corner
Like some prostitute handing round the loot
I am not ashamed, I will stake a claim

Stardom - born in a trunk
Got my home, got my car, got stability
Stardom - I'm Hollywood's son
All alone, don't admire anonymity

I'm so angry that you turned me on
I didn't remain your friend for too long
I'm so angry that you turned me on
I didn't stay your friend for too long
I'm so angry that you let me see
My totally futile destiny
I'm so angry you interrupted my dream
Now I know that the power rests in me

Stardom - I want a hit
Want my tan, want my cash, want my innocence
Stardom - I want a script
Want my band, want my stash, want omnipotence
Stardom - born in a trunk
Got my home, got my car , got stability
Stardom - But I'm Hollywood's son
All alone, don't admire anonymity

Stardom in Acton that's all they got
Stardom in Acton that's all they got
Stardom in Acton that's all they got
Stardom in Acton that's all they got
Stardom
Stardom

I don't matter, you don't matter
Neither does this mindless clatter
It don't matter where you're from
What matters is your uniform
Wear your braces round your seat
Doctor Martens on your feet
Keep your barnet very neat
For credibility on street

We are marching as to war
We won't be obscure no more
In uniform, in uniform

I am really living life inside a jar, I'm all alone
So I feel forgiven if I'm under par, a fallen clone
Only in the river can I claim a star to call my own
I'm newly born, in uniform I'm up on the throne

I am frightened, you are frightened
Should we get our trousers tightened
Where in Brighton is your norm
Who wears enlightened uniform
On my Parka is some band
I don't really understand
Perry is my guiding hand
Scooter polo sweeps the land

We are marching as to war
We won't be obscure no more
In uniform, in uniform

People think we dress alike to segregate identities
Pills or drink or puffing pipes in integrated entities
Then they wink and snort their line and say how great their Bentley is
They feel so warm when they conform

They say that nakedness is what our Lord intended
When we stand naked then we all appear the same
But it's just faking it if we all try pretending
Are we just making all our prayers in the rain
Heaven knows I need new clothes

We are marching as to war
But we're really fighting for
Our uniform, our uniform

When I contemplate my future I go numb, don't feel a thing
I don't overrate my suitors, number one, I always sing
But the State and their computers make me run for comfort in my uniform
In uniform I feel like a king

They say that nakedness is what our Lord intended
If we stand naked then we all appear the same
But it's just faking it if we all try pretending
Are we just making all our prayers in the rain
It seems insane
But heaven knows
It's all the same
And I need new clothes

When you travel to the green hills of Ayr
Where the sea breaks windows on the border line
Remember me to a girl who lives there
For she once was a true love of mine

Please see for me that her red hair is long
And flows and curls down her back and breast
Please see for me that her red hair is long
For that's the way I remember her best

North Country girl, oh oh
North Country girl, oh oh
North Country girl, oh oh
North Country girl

See that she's warm when the summer ends
When trees are bare and the rivers freeze
She washes clothes where the river bends
She's working on her knees

See for me that her coat's pulled up close
And her beret frames her sweet pretty face
See that she's warm and drink her a toast
For I am exiled in a lonely place

Please let me know if she remembers me at all
A hundred times I've hoped and prayed
That way up there near the Roman wall
She didn't suffer when the fallout sprayed

North Country girl, oh oh
North Country girl, oh oh
North Country girl, oh oh
North Country girl

I stood at the door beside her
But she wouldn't let me pass
I was such a bore and I lied to her
I said I didn't really want her ass
I went away in the mud and rain
The gang became snide and laughed
I was slayed, but I smiled and the pain
Began to subside at last
And when I got back to my hotel
I wondered if the thunder meant I'd landed in hell
And on the forecourt I slipped and fell
I cracked my stupid head and I heard a bell, I thought, hey

Somebody saved me, it happened again
Somebody saved me, I thank you my friend
Somebody saved me from a fate worse than heaven
Cos if I'd had her for just an hour
I'd have wanted her forever
Somebody saved me

You would have thought that I'd have learned
Twenty years ago or more
A beautiful girl raised her mouth and yearned
But I didn't know what lips were for
I ran away in the mud and rain
The weather here is never too bright
She'd had an affray with her man and came
For solace and the means to fight
She finally bored with seducing me
And took up with some geezer from the Ealing scene
It nearly killed him like it would've killed me
When her original man snapped his fingers and she obeyed, she obeyed

But somebody saved me, it happened again
Somebody saved me, yeah, I thank you my friend
Somebody saved me from a fate worse than heaven
Cos if I'd had her for just an hour
I'd have wanted her forever

I don't know about guardian angels
All I know about's staying alive
I can't shout about spiritual labels
When little ones die and big ones thrive
All I know is that I've been making it
There've been times that I didn't deserve to
Every show there's been more faking it
But right at the point of no return

Somebody saves me again and again
Somebody saves me, I thank you my friend
Somebody saves me from a fate worse than heaven
Cos if I blew it for a single moment
I'd blow it forever
But somebody saves me

I took up the connection once
Made me feel quite aloof
I never could queue to collect my lunch
While I was pursuing the truth
So I left my folks in the mud and rain
It always rains in Sunnyside Road
I lived hippy jokes, getting stoned insane
Till the rain looked just like snow
But there was a soul in whom I could depend
He worked himself crazy while I laid in bed
I never leaned on a person like I leaned right then
And when I finally woke up clean
My friend was dead, stone dead

Somebody saved me, it happened again
Somebody saved me, I thank you my friend
Somebody saved me, I ain't ready for heaven
Cos if I'd seen you for a second 
I'd have wanted to see you forever
Somebody saved me

Somebody saved me

I was just thirty-four years old and I was still wandering in a haze
I was wondering why everyone I met seemed like they were lost in a maze
I don't know why I thought I should have some kind of divine right to the blues
It's sympathy not tears people need when they're the front page sad news

The incense burned away and the stench began to rise
And lovers now estranged avoided catching each others' eyes
And girls who lost their children cursed the men who fit the coil
And men not fit for marriage took their refuge in the oil
No one respects the flame, quite like the fool who's badly burned
From all this you'd imagine that there must be something learned

Slit skirts, Jeanie never wears those slit skirts
I don't ever wear no ripped shirts
Can't pretend that growing older never hurts
Knee pants, Jeanie never wears no knee pants
Have to be so drunk to try a new dance
So afraid of every new romance

Slit skirts, slit skirt
Jeanie isn't wearing those slit skirts, slit skirt
She wouldn't dare in those slit skirts, slit skirt
Wouldn't be seen dead in no slit skirt
Romance, romance, why aren't we thinking up romance
Why can't we drink it up, true heart romance
Just need a brief new romance

Let me tell you some more about myself, you know I'm sitting here at home just now
The big events of the day are passed and the late TV shows have come around
I'm number one in the home team, but I still feel unfulfilled
A silent voice in her broken heart complaining that I'm unskilled

And I know that when she thinks of me, she thinks of me as him
But unlike me she don't work off her frustration in the gym
Recriminations fester and the past can never change
A woman's expectations run from both ends of the range
Once she walked with untamed lovers' face between her legs
Now he's cooled and stifled and it's she who has to beg

Slit skirts, Jeanie never wears those slit skirts
And I don't ever wear no ripped shirts
Can't pretend that growing older never hurts
Knee pants, Jeanie never wears no knee pants
We have to be so drunk to try a new dance
So afraid of every new romance

Slit skirts, slit skirt
Jeanie isn't wearing those slit skirts, slit skirt
She wouldn't dare in those slit skirts, slit skirt
Wouldn't be seen dead in no slit skirt
Slit skirts, slit skirt
Jeanie isn't wearing those slit skirts, slit skirt
She wouldn't dare in those slit skirts, slit skirt
Wouldn't be seen dead in no slit skirt
Romance, romance, why aren't we thinking up romance
Why can't we drink it up, true heart romance
Just need a brief little romance