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CANNIBAL QUICKSTEP Welcome to the world. I hope you like the show. There's lots of things to see and do, and places you can go. When you get to the jungle, keep one eye out behind. Watch out for the cannibals, they're hungry all the time. Listen to those native drums calling to your feet. Don't it make you want to go dancing in the street? Just one word of warning - you better pray that you don't fall. One wrong step and there won't be nothing left of you at all. CHORUS 'Cause it's hang him high, lay him low, Grab him where it hurts and don't let go. Back him up against the wall, raise the axe and let it fall. Sell him out, steal him blind, Run off with his wife if you've got the time. Do anything that you have to do, And do it before he can do it to you. Come and choose your partner, they're striking up the band. The music you're about to face don't wait for any man. When things start getting hot, try to keep your cool, And try to stay one jump ahead, that's the golden rule. (CHORUS) Isn't this exciting? Ain't you glad you came? Once you learn to dance your life will never be the same. The music never stops and everybody knows Dancing with the cannibals sure keeps you on your toes. (CHORUS) GIRL OF MY DREAMS The girl of my dreams the year I turned sixteen Was an angel sent to Kansas to be our homecoming queen, But just to prove how cruel love can sometimes be, She thought she was too good to even look at me. Oh, but I didn't blame her none. I knew that she was right. I knew she was too pure for the things I thought at night. I tried to pray to Jesus to cleanse my wicked mind, But when I wrestled with the Devil, he threw me every time. CHORUS Girl of my dreams I always think of you Whenever I've got a dream I'm hoping will come true. Girl of my dreams, thanks for the memory; If it hadn't been for you I don't know where I'd be. In the romance of my mind I was the hero of the day. She'd fall into my arms and I'd carry her away. But the daydream always ended And I never got the chance to do Any of the things I did in my dreams to prove my love was true. (CHORUS) So I loved her from afar and I suffered love's despair And I waited for the miracle that would somehow make her care, But it was all for naught and I lost her in the Spring When I heard she had to get married to the captain of the baseball team. Girl of my dreams I guess I always knew The dream would have to end if it ever did come true. Girl of my dreams, I hope you're happy where you are, I hope your dreams did not end in the backseat of that car. (CHORUS) DEAR JANE I hope you won't consider me to be unkind. Don't think I haven't had a wonderful time being with you, But it's over now, there's nothing we can do. Love has gone to hell but it's just as well. Hell won't be so bad for the kind of love we had, considering what it's just been through. For as long as it lasted it was sure great fun, But now I get the feeling I'm just someone You're keeping around For company when better friends are out of town. I'd have to be blind to miss seeing the signs That indicate my ration of your red-hot passion Is starting to cool down. CHORUS Dear Jane, So long. I'm gone. Love, John. Dear Jane it's easy to see The kind of game you've been playing with me; And now that I know the score, I'm not playing anymore. I don't exactly know how to tell you this, But good-bye is a word I just can't resist saying to you. It'll probably break your heart for a minute or two; But you're a big girl now and I know somehow Your heart will mend, we can both laugh then At the joke love turned into. (CHORUS) THOSE PEOPLE It's a quiet little street in a quit part of town. It was a nice place to live until those people came around. Now mister you get nervous when the kids go out to play And you worry about the wife who's home alone all day. You pay your taxes and you don't bother anyone. You go to church on Sunday and to ball games with your son. You vote the party ticket, tend to business like you should, And it burns you to see what's happened to the neighborhood. CHORUS Those people, they've started moving in. There's no place you can go to get away from them. Those people, they're living right next door, And thing's ain't gonna be the same around here anymore. They're always looking at you with those silly little grins. They're always coming on like we're all the best of friends. They wear those funny clothes and they talk funny, too, And when your back is turned, God knows what else they do.(CHORUS) Someone oughta tell them their kind ain't welcome here. Someone oughta pull a few strings downtown And make them just disappear. There oughta be a law against those people coming in To bother folks like you who don't want any part of them. There oughta be a law against the weirdoes and the freaks. There oughta be a law against the screwballs and the creeps. There oughta be a law against everyone but you. Mister, then the world might stay the way you want it to. (CHORUS) HAPPILY EVER AFTER She goes to her room, she sits at the window, Watching the street from behind a closed curtain. Afraid of the strangers, afraid of the future, Afraid of whatever she can't know for certain. In her lap is the shoe box, inside are the letters, Cracked at the creases and yellow with age. And not a day passes she doesn't go through them Gazing at ghosts past the words on the page. CHORUS It isn't at all like she thought it would be. Where is the sunshine and laughter? And where are the love songs and rainbows Happily ever after? Endlessly blaming herself for the failure She calls the pain to her again and again. And it comes in the night like that long ago lover Who slipped away taking tomorrow with him. (CHORUS) Now the long years have turned to unwatered flowers, Dead from neglect where she just let them stand, And drowning in memories behind a locked door She clutches the letters like straws in her hand. (CHORUS) EMPTY PAIR OF SHOES His plane went down in the mountains. He did not walk away. The story made the local papers, But it was shoved aside the next day. He was no one special, just a number in the news. Now his memory walks with those who knew him In an empty pair of shoes. He never got where he was going. He never made it home again. He never got a chance to tell them one last time How much he loved the people close to him. And all the things he left unfinished, All the dreams he'll never use, They all got lost inside his empty pair of shoes. Now there's his widow in the doorway, She looks out across the hills, Still waits for her man to come home, Can't quite believe he never will. And there's a baby in the bedroom, Lots of toys that he could choose, But all he wants to play with Is Daddy's empty pair of shoes. JOHN LOVES MARY Mary was the blushing bride. Handsome John stood by her side. A picture of sweet wedded bliss, seal it with a kiss. After the honeymoon love sang a little bit different tune; It started chewing off their ears. Here comes the tears. CHORUS When the red, red roses and blue skies Turn to bloody noses and black eyes, And love's soft whisper turns into a scream. When the rainy day walks and satin sheet nights Turn into knock-down, drag-out fights, Maybe it's time to wake up from the dream. Mary's got a new black eye. Invent another alibi. Not the one about the door. It's been used before. This morning Mary felt all right, But she don't look so good tonight. Must've caught a germ this afternoon. Mary, get well soon. (CHORUS) Johnny Boy's got a heavy hand. He just can't understand How his Mother ever raised a son Who could do what John has done. And Mary plans to run away. She packs her suitcase every day. But she just can't get it out the door. What is she waiting for? The neighbors look the other way Their best friends don't know what to say. It's better just to play along and pretend that nothing's wrong. John loves Mary, she loves him, But they've both been looking a little bit grim. Neither wants to be the first to admit the worst. (CHORUS) IT AIN'T THE GAME In the empty late night hour at the Koffee Kup Kafe I was scrubbing down the dishes that had piled up during the day, Counting all the ways that my misery was complete When the door let in another down-and-outer from the street. Well any other time I would have shown a bum the door But this one had a look that I had never seen before. It said he'd seen the best and worst and everything between And it made me reach him down a bowl and dish him up some beans. He looked me over good and said, "Son, I've been around. I've seen lots of people whose luck has let them down, And you look like a kid who's got his back against the wall So listen to someone who's learned how to take a fall." CHORUS "It ain't the game, it's how you play. It's laughing through the tears when things don't go your way. It's looking on the bright side of every cloudy day. It ain't the game, it's how you play. Well he said, "I learned the hard way what life is all about. What you put into it is what you get back out. And time's too short to waste on wishes or regret. The best that you can do is make the most of what you get." (CHORUS) He finished off the beans and disappeared into the night. I locked up after him and started turning out the lights, But his words kept coming back and I can hear them to this day And I use them as my own every time there's hell to pay. (CHORUS) TOO-LOOSE LUCY There was a girl named Lucy in the town where I come from. And she had a reputation for being lots of fun. She wasn't very pretty, but the boys didn't seem to mind. They used to joke among themselves about how love is blind. It was a well-known secret that she would not say no. Lucy let the boys take her just as far as they could go. And the girls who kept their noses clean By waving them in the air Called her Too-Loose Lucy and froze her with an icy stare. CHORUS Where has Too-Loose Lucy gone, we don't see her anymore. Grass has overgrown the path the boys beat to her door. The hometown girls are nervous in the long, hot summer nights. Love ain't been quite the same for them Since she dropped out of sight. Lucy never saw herself crowned Princess Of The Prom. A boy who got her never brought her home to meet his Mom. There are girls that people talk to and girls they talk about, One kind of love for fairy-tales and one for when the lights go out. (CHORUS) Lucy left without a word, where she went is anybody's guess. She left all the boys restless, and the girls in a hell of a mess. Who're they gonna look down their noses at Now that Lucy ain't around, And who's gonna save them from the sins That can stain a wedding gown? (CHORUS) MIDNIGHT RENDEZVOUS She was standing at the window, staring out into the rain. The clock in the empty station sounded Just like a blind man's cane. Midnight arrived on the hour, but the train was overdue, And I was trying not to think about What the night was coming to. CHORUS Another midnight rendezvous. Another good-bye coming true. One more good idea gone bad. One more happy ending up for grabs. She sat down on her suitcase, and I leaned against the wall. There was nothing left to talk about, the silence said it all. She lit another cigarette and stared down at the floor, And I swear she looked exactly Like someone I had never seen before. (CHORUS) I stepped out on the platform, and I looked off down the tracks. In the dark a dog was barking And a lonesome echo answered back. I asked the night a question it's heard a million other times: How come we never see it coming Until it's already left us behind? (CHORUS) EASY COME; EASY GO Easy come, easy go, rolling with the punch will soften the blow Of seeing your best-laid plans fall through the floor. When bad gets worse and you find your dreams coming apart on you at the seams, Could be a sign it might be time to start shopping around for more. Some days you've got the magic touch, other days your efforts don't amount to much. You simply do as well as you can do. All you can give it is all you've go so cross your fingers and take your best shot And hope that it's enough to pull you through. Heads it's yes and tails it's no; There's rags and riches in every throw, And the odds haven't changed since the game of chance began. Give a little ground, gain it back; It's no great loss if you don't keep track. One look at your feet will show you where you stand. So make your peace the best you can between Lady Luck and the Bogey Man And learn to live with your heart pinned to your sleeve. Life is short and time rolls on and all that remains when you've come and gone Is the crooked line of footprints that you leave. |