See we rolled on and we rolled off And in between the lifts and the eyedrops I recall four capital times In this carousel neverland memory of mine This brown paper band has been putting vinegar on Amsterdam Why do you keep your options open? Thrown them in the quay to drown Thrown them in the quay to drown I know the numbers but who knows how we went From carpets in Mechelen to sunless Ghent? Been years without you now My friends go on living in a black canal This brown paper band has been putting vinegar on Amsterdam Why do you keep your options open? Thrown them in the quay to drown Thrown them in the quay to drown It's not where you left it It's not where you put it It's not where you thought it was The bridge back into town has washed away There's a gold and black hooped neck Upon the pictured younger me The helpful hound has scraped the day frost From the frozen Zuyden Zee And there was snowfall The night that we saw Ween playing at the Milky Way Had to run through the fair on dopey legs Floating over bridges for the Utrecht train This brown paper band has been putting vinegar on Amsterdam Why do you think their heads are swollen Under the weight of a golden crown? This brown paper band has been putting vinegar on Amsterdam Why do you keep your options open? Thrown them in the quay to drown Thrown them in the quay to drown Thrown them in the quay to drown Thrown them in the quay to drown

We are harmless our Queen and I The world can't see us for what we really are What with our ermine and our crowned heads And our long robes and the rolled gold Oh you're all alone We were faceless my Queen and I The world could not see us for what we really were We were walled up in our outer selves And we longed to escape into the outside world With its goosebumps and the bubblegum And the right from wrong where there are half measures Oh God,, I wish I could put my thoughts down Oh you're all alone in ante chambers So, you think it's like a cell It's just as well you never left home We are helpless my Queen and I The world cannot see us for what we really are On the Île-de-France and on the puppet piers My mask is white with rabbit ears And a felt nose and black clubs on my hind legs I am all yours With red hearts on my fur I am all hers I am all hers Oh you're all alone in ante chambers So, you think it's like a cell It's just as well you never left home You never left home You never left home You never left home

Heard the northern cap is melting Soon I'll be all at sea We'll hike to higher ground Haul our boats uphill Sink our oars on three What larks there are there on the wing Have never meant a thing For the love of being crude And if Hades scares you now You must be one lucky cow To choose to chew and move We'll traipse around the woods no more Or picnic on the forest floor We'll know we're insecure and know we're in for more We'll roll in the stems no more And blow through the blades of yore We'll know we're insecure and know we're in for more Heard the southern seas are swelling Soon they'll be overhead We'll get out on a rocket ship Sure it might cost a bit It's better being poor than being wet And if hell fire scares you still It'll seem run of the mill When your friends are going up in flames What larks there were there on the wing Never meant a thing If there won't be larks again We'll traipse around the woods no more Or picnic on the forest floor We'll know we're insecure and know we're in for... We'll wade in the tide no more Or sunbathe on the golden shore We'll know we're insecure and know we're in for... We'll roll in the stems no more And blow through the blades of yore We'll know we're insecure and know we're in for... We'll traipse around the woods no more Or picnic on the forest floor We'll know we're insecure and know we're in for more We'll slow down to a stop Hope it'll be enough

When will I behave like i'm not alone? When will I be tame inside the room? When will I behave like I really mean it? And not just to see it in others in movies When will I behave? When will I behave like the remains Of one thousand stories impressed in our brains? When will I behave?

In my green silk gown every morning I join the chorus as a lapwing Singing lieder in my nylon smock Heated rollers in my unfurled locks Goose liver pate & two rounds of toast I think too much but I'm the perfect host She might think I'm one of those guys that read poems aloud She might think I'm one of those guys that read poems aloud She might think I'm one of those guys that read poems aloud Well I'm not

I was palpitating in the cubicle Felt faint enough for you to say to me Are you alright? Do you want to lie down? That depends if those masts are really swaying I ask, is there a long horizon? A long lost horizon we cannot recover? She says there wasn't And I believe her I was anticipating in the cubicle And it was light enough for the light to pass through The curtain and I could see her gown The gown that she will die in And I think are you really me with me when we sleep? And do you understand when I ask Is there a long horizon? A long lost horizon we cannot recover? She said there isn't And I believed her

Ivy temple, sobbing seed Co-mingle hawthorn Dirt on my knees So many things you have to do for me Waxwork lemon in a bowl Tin of letters in a hole So many things you have to keep from me

There aren't many more like me You don't get it because I'm different and special Yeah, the inner me is a golden pasture of untold wonder O Cupid, you're part of a common dream filling my time It means I am happy waiting There aren't many more like me You can't see it because you're blind to true beauty in its purest form And not that superficial kind O Cupid, you're part of a silly dream filling my head It means I am happy waiting There aren't many more like me You can't appreciate my aura honey in such a dismal photograph I've got a better one in my bag O Cupid, you're part of a distant dream filling my head It means I am happy waiting O Cupid, you're part of a common dream filling my time It means I am happy waiting O Cupid, you're part of a distant dream filling my head It means I was happy waiting

L.O.V.E. is just a construction of Roughly equal to unreasable affection of That man you had your eye on In his eyes, you were a green-eyed monster following him L.O.V.E. is an accumulation of Mushy thoughts that have no root or cause That girl you had your claws in Grew wings and never drew breath for breathing flames In love we still are stuck In love we still are stuck In love we can't clamber out of this sticky stuff In love L.O.V.E. is a distillation of Impure solutions mixed up on the job That boy of the grand obsession Is all consumed and now his name his hardly mentioned L.O.V.E. is a subtraction of The self, the sense, the doubt, the working hard That's plain in these three dimensions But we have taken shape in time and space In love In love we still are stuck In love we still are stuck In love we still persist in trying our luck In love we still are stuck In love, in love, in love, in love In love we still are stuck in love

You looked up the disease name In the boating lake of all things The library shelves were a real mess All the index cards were in my desk The mould has eaten the bindings Til c for crab of all things You read to me from the plotted verse I've won rosettes for going first I read up on the dead end In the aviary of our feathered friends So pheasant it's after five o'clock Another rub should finish you off You looked up the disease name On the bowling green of all things The library shelves need polishing The index cards from seville to siam The mould has eaten the bindings Til d for dogs of all the things

I played a suggestive cassette all night while you slept But it had no effect on you I put a snake in your laundry basket and I asked it To have some effect on you I put hashish in your corn beef hash But alas it had no effect on you I swung a pocket watch in front of you all through dinner But it had no effect on you

See, we started out young and meaning well Then, a difficult second album we couldn't sell Led to focus group meetings and divorce Yeah, we could have written songs full of remorse But instead we took more drugs and changed our ways And filed down the edges for radio play Be seeing you in bigger venues in every town Don't you hate it when your heroes let you down? Took a minor role in a major film Because I've always been an actor within It's a great little prject about some Ancient Greeks Yeah, there's Arcadia and me and a golden fleece It's in development now and will be out in the fall I am truly excited to be on board Because nobody can stand still in this town Don't you hate it when your heroes let you down? Don't you hate it when artists let you down? When you have come to rely on them Then, they will let you down I'm ashamed of those early records you love If I had my way, the tapes would be overdubbed Leaving that band was such a relief Leaving my miserable wife just to get some peace And to all my old fans who call me a fraud I am so excited to be unbored Because nobody can keep still in this town Don't you hate it when your heroes let you down? On and off again Don't you hate it when your heroes let you down? And they will again Don't you hate it when your heroes let you down?

I have written something on scraps of paper for you to find I could find no motive to leave with or to leave behind Yet I think my story is here for one another to bear in mind And I doubt my talent all the time just as you doubt your own I meant to call you but I didn't I mystify myself almost all of the time I am deep and I am shallow and I try and I don't try In equal and unequal amounts I can't help you in your sleep and I can't reach you in your grave I can't help you in your sleep and I can't reach you in your grave

Nobody is thinking about joining Joining in with her and him Well wall flowers are peeling Off the wall again this evening For her and him Coming here in winter well it's not much to look at I've been running 'round the woods with somebody stuck fast To my side there's a meadow with a brook and a bridge That I have seen once before but I can't think where now And the dream in the ward was wintry and upright So we pulled up the drawbridge and scissored our frostbite With a fire made of birch twigs, silkworms and ermine I've heard this once before but i can't think where now I'm not convinced i remain In my castle high above the town O yeah yeah yeah we're out on our own We're out on our own Everybody is feeling Feeling themselves again And it's great to have you around Ages, that's how long it's been Since you last sailed through town Being here in summer well it's not much to look at Friesan middle distance is always dead flat To our side there's an inlet with sails and peaks That I have seen once before but I can't think where now And the castle on the hill was somewhere quite different We had stones in our sandals and the sun hit the steps The black pines on the slope were always dripping with sap I'd smelled it once before but I can't think where now So cottontail don't complain when I curl up beneath your feet O yeah yeah yeah we're out on our own We're out on our own You're not convinced yet you remain In our castle high above the town O yeah yeah yeah we're out on our own We're out on our own So cottontail won't you stay In this hutch i built high above the town O yeah yeah yeah we're out on our own We're out on our own

It's been a long, long so long Au revoir, sayonara, whatever It's so tortured and prolonged And God, it's overlong Ain't so young anymore After ten years, after nightfall, after murder When we landed, we were fast asleep When we woke up, we were somewhere else When I told you, you were unimpressed When you woke up, I was with someone else We were so young, couldn't be told anything by anyone We were so young We were so young, everyone else was wrong We were so young, so young, so young We were so young, so young, so young So young, so long, so long, so long