Richard Thompson

I feel for you, you little horror
Safe at your mother's breast
No lucky break for you around the corner
'Cause your father is a bully
And he thinks that you're a pest
And your sister she's no better than a whore.
Life seems so rosy in the cradle,
But I'll be a friend I'll tell you what's in store
There's nothing at the end of the rainbow.
There's nothing to grow up for anymore
Tycoons and barrow boys will rob you
And throw you on the side
And all because they love themselves sincerely
And the man holds a bread knife
Up to you throat is four feet wide
And he's anxious just to show you what it's for.
Your mother works so hard to make you happy
But take a look outside the nursery door
There's nothing at the end of the rainbow.
There's nothing to grow up for anymore
And all the sad and empty faces
That pass you on the street
All running in their sleep, all in a dream
Every loving handshake
Is just another man to beat
How your heart aches just to cut him to the core
Life seems so rosy in the cradle,
But I'll be a friend I'll tell you what's in store
There's nothing at the end of the rainbow.
There's nothing to grow up for anymore

High up above the crowd
The great Valerio is walking
The rope seems hung from cloud to cloud
And time stands still while he is walking
His eye is steady on the target
His foot is sure upon the rope
Alone and peaceful as a mountain
And certain as the mountain slope

We falter at the sight
We stumble in the mire
Fools who think they see the light
Prepare to balance on the wire
But we learn to watch together,
And feed on what we see above
Till our hearts turn like the seasons
And we are acrobats of love

How we wonder, how we wonder
Watching far below
We would all be that great hero
The great Valerio

Come all you upstart jugglers
Are you really ready yet?
Who will help the tightrope walker
When he tumbles to the net
So come with me to see Valerio
As he dances through the air
I'm your friend until you use me
And then be sure I won't be there

How we wonder, how we wonder
Watching far below
We would all be that great hero
The great Valerio

This cruel country has driven me down
Teased me and lied, teased me and lied
I've only sad stories to tell to this town
My dreams have withered and died

Once I was bending the tops of the trees
Kind words in my ear, kind faces to see

Then I struck up with a boy from the west
Played run and hide, played run and hide
Count one to ten and he's gone with the rest
My dreams have withered and died

Silver moon sail up and silver moon shine
On the waters so wide, waters so wide
Steal from the bed of some good friend of mine
My dreams are withered and died

If I was a butterfly, live for a day
I could be free, just blowing away

This cruel country has driven me down
Teased me and lied, teased me and lied
I've only sad stories to tell to this town
My dreams have withered and died

I know the way that I feel about you
I'm never gonna run away, I'm never gonna run away
Never knew the way when I lived without you
I'm never gonna run away, I'm never gonna run away

I came to you when no one could hear me
I'm sick and weary of being alone
Empty streets and hungry faces
The world's no place when you're on your own
A heart needs a home

Some people say that I should forget you
But I'm never gonna be a fool, I'm never gonna be a fool
Better life, they say if I'd never met you
But I'm never gonna be a fool, no, I'm never gonna be a fool

Tongues talk fire and eyes cry rivers
Indian givers, hearts of stone
Paper ships and painted faces
The world's no place when you're on your own
A heart needs a home

I'm beating my retreat
Back home to you
I'm beating my retreat
Back home to you
I'm burning all my bridges
I'm burning all my bridges
I'm burning all my bridges
I'm running back home to you

I'm trailing my colors
Back home to you
I'm trailing my colors
Back home to you
This world is filled with sadness
This world is filled with sadness
This world is filled with sadness
I'm running back home to you

I'll follow the drum
Back home to you
I'll follow the drum
Back home to you
There was no joy in my leaving
There was no joy in my leaving
There was no joy in my leaving
I'm running back home to you

See the boys out walking
The boys, they look so fine
Dressed up in green velvet
Their silver buckles shine

Soon they?ll be bleary eyed
Under a keg of wine
Down where the drunkards roll
Down where the drunkards roll

See that lover standing
Staring at the ground
He?s looking for the real thing
Lies were all he found

You can get the real thing
It will only cost a pound
Down where the drunkards roll
Down where the drunkards roll

There goes a troubled woman
She dreams a troubled dream
She lives out on the highway
She keeps her money clean

Soon she?ll be returning
To the place where she?s the queen
Down where the drunkards roll
Down where the drunkards roll

You can be a gambler
Who never drew a hand
You can be a sailor
Who never left dry land

You can be Lord Jesus
All the world will understand
Down where the drunkards roll
Down where the drunkards roll

It seems like a lifetime since I saw you
Lover lover I've been away too long
When I see lovers holding hands and sighing
I hang my head for shame of doing wrong

Bus wheels spinning, song birds singing break my heart
Take me back to old remembered days
Remind me of the times we spent together
Times before we went our separate ways

I wish I was a fool for you again
I wish I was a fool for you again
I wish I was a fool for you again

I'm sorry for the things I've said, the things I've done
I'm sorry for the restless thief I've been
Please don't make me pay for my deceiving heart
Just turn up your lamp and let me in

I wish I was a fool for you again
I wish I was a fool for you again
I wish I was a fool for you again
I wish I was a fool for you again

I wish I was a fool for you again
I wish I was a fool for you again
I wish I was a fool for you again
I wish I was a fool for you again

I wish I was a fool for you again
I wish I was a fool for you again
I wish I was a fool for you again

O who will remember, o who will be sure
And still feel the silence as close as before
And was there a season without any rain,
And never, o never, o never again?

The time for dividing and no-one will speak
Of the sadness of hiding, and the softness of sleep
O will there be nothing of peace 창??till the end,
Or never, o never, o never again?

Old man how you tarry, old man how you weep
The trinkets you carry and the garlands you keep
For the salt tears of lovers and the whispers of friends
Come never, o never, o never again

High up above the crowd
The great Valerio is walking
The rope seems hung from cloud to cloud
And time stands still while he is walking

His eye is steady on the target
His foot is sure upon the rope
Alone and peaceful as a mountain
And certain as the mountain slope

We falter at the sight
We stumble in the mire
Fools who think they see the light
Prepare to balance on the wire

But we learn to watch together
And feed on what we see above
'Till our hearts turn like the seasons
And we are acrobats of love

How we wonder, how we wonder
Watching far below
We would all be that great hero
The great Valerio

Come all you upstart jugglers
Are you really ready yet?
Who will help the tightrope walker
When he tumbles to the net

So come with me to see Valerio
As he dances through the air
I'm your friend until you use me
And then be sure I won't be there

How we wonder, how we wonder
Watching far below
We would all be that great hero
The great Valerio

I was nineteen when I came to town
They called it the Summer of Love
They were burning babies, burning flags
The hawks against the doves
I took a job in the steamie
Down on Cauldrum Street
And I fell in love with a laundry girl
Who was working next to me

Oh she was a rare thing, fine as a bee's wing
So fine a breath of wind might blow her away
She was a lost child, oh she was running wild
She said, "As long as there's no price on love, I'll stay
And you wouldn't want me any other way"

Brown hair zig-zag around her face
And a look of half-surprise
Like a fox caught in the headlights
There was animal in her eyes
She said, "Young man, oh can't you see
I'm not the factory kind
If you don't take me out of here
I'll surely lose my mind"

Oh she was a rare thing, fine as a bee's wing
So fine that I might crush her where she lay
She was a lost child, she was running wild
She said, "As long as there's no price on love, I'll stay
And you wouldn't want me any other way"

We busked around the market towns
And picked fruit down in Kent
And we could tinker lamps and pots
And knives wherever we went
And I said that we might settle down
Get a few acres dug
Fire burning in the hearth and babies on the rug

She said "Oh man, you foolish man
It surely sounds like hell
You might be Lord of half the world
You'll not own me as well"

Oh she was a rare thing, fine as a bee's wing
So fine a breath of wind might blow her away
She was a lost child, oh she was running wild
She said, "As long as there's no price on love, I'll stay
And you wouldn't want me any other way"

We was camping down the Gower one time
The work was pretty good
She thought we shouldn't wait for the frost
And I thought maybe we should
We was drinking more in those days
And tempers reached a pitch
And like a fool I let her run
With the rambling itch

Oh the last I heard she's sleeping rough
Back on the Derby beat
White Horse in her hip pocket
And a wolfhound at her feet
And they say she even married once
A man named Romany Brown
But even a gypsy caravan
Was too much settling down

And they say her flower is faded now
Hard weather and hard booze
But maybe that's just the price
You pay for the chains you refuse

Oh she was a rare thing, fine as a bee's wing
And I miss her more than ever words could say
If I could just taste all of her wildness now
If I could hold her in my arms today
Well I wouldn't want her any other way

In my nightmare everything's wrong
I'm waiting for love, but you come along
You smile, you wave, you great me, Ciao!
But you seem too happy to see me somehow

Then the sky falls in on my head
Your nails grow long, your eyes turn red
You say, forever dear and a day
You promise you're never going to go away
And my feet won't move when I run the other way

[Chorus]
I can't wake up to save my life
I can't wake up to save my life

In my nightmare you forgive me
The cruellest gift you could ever give me
You say that you understand me now
But your eyes say, brother, I'll get you somehow
Then the lightning streaks across the room

You smell like something fresh from the tomb
You squeeze too hard, you iinsist on kissing
When it seems like half your face is missing
And your hair's turned into reptiles hissing

[Chorus]

Things I done make my dreams go bad
Like Borstal boys coming home to Dad
What ye reap so shall ye sow
Now shake me, wake me, go man go

[Chorus]

Let me rock you in my arms
I'll hold you safe and small
A refugee from the Seraphim
In your rich girl rags and all

Did your dreams die young? Were they too hard won?
Did you reach too high and fall?
And there is no rest for the ones God blessed
And he blessed you best of all

Your eyes seem from a different face
They've seen that much that soon
Your cheek too cold, too pale to shine
Like an old and waning moon

And there is no peace, no true release
No secret place to crawl
And there is no rest for the ones God blessed
And he blessed you best of all

If tears unshed could heal your heart
If words unsaid could sway
Then watch you melt into the night
With Adieu, and rue the day

Did your dreams die young? Were they too hard won?
Did you reach too high and fall?
And there is no rest for the ones God blessed
And he blessed you best of all

Here I am in your room going through your stuff
Said you'd be gone five minutes, that's time enough
Here in your drawer there's lacy things
Old credit cards and beads and bangles and rings

But I think I've found what I'm looking for
Hidden away at the back of the drawer
Here's the life that you led before

Old photographs of the life you led
Arm in arm with Mr. X why and Z
Old boyfriends big and small
Got to see how I measure up to them all

There is a place we all must start love
Who were you holding in that fond embrace
I've found a door into your heart love
And do you still feel the warmth of cold kisses?

Here I am behind enemy lines
Looking for secrets, looking for signs
Old boyfriends, big and small
Got to see how I measure up to them all

This one's handsome, not too bright
This one's clever with his hands alright
Tougher than me if it came to a fight

And this one's a poet, a bit of a wet
Bit of a gypsy, a bit of a threat
I wonder if she's got over him yet

Old passions frozen in the second
Who were you holding in that fond embrace
Hearts have a past that must be reckoned
And do you still feel the warmth of cold kisses?

Time to put the past away
That's your footstep in the street I'd say
Tie the ribbon back around it
Everything just the way I found it

And I can hear you turn the key
And my head's buried when you see me
In a Margaret Miller mystery

And do you still feel the warmth of cold kisses?
Do you still feel the warmth of cold kisses?

If that was our goodbye kiss
Seems a habit too good to miss
Once more for the memory

Hit the heights too well that time
To leave it there would be a crime
Seems more like beginning to me

At least we tried, took the biggest bite
Least we did it right
With all our souls and all our might

Blue murder on the dance floor, French kisses in the rain
Blood wedding in the water till I see you again
Dutch courage is the game and the ghost of you walks
The ghost of you walks, the ghost of you walks

The ghost of you walks right through my head
Sleepwalks at the foot of my bed
Sends old shivers over my skin

Love like that, won't let go
It's got some kind of a mind of its own
I can't break out and I can't break in

At least we lived, took it all at a rush
At least we loved too much
Felt too much, cared too much

Blue murder on the dance floor, French kisses in the rain
Blood wedding in the water till I see you again
Dutch courage is the game and the ghost of you walks
The ghost of you walks, the ghost of you walks

If she knew what I've seen while I'm watching
Would she know where to smile, what to say?
When she leaves from her book to be with me
Where's her mind as she stands while I play?
She left behind names in the pages
And the time she took out, they stayed in
Now she thinks that she maybe should tell them
Of my book and the places she's been
Now she's looking at me while I'm writing
Does she know where to smile, what to say?
When she leaves from her book to be with me
What's she thinking about while I play

Farewell, farewell to you who would hear
You lonely travellers all
The cold north wind will blow again
The winding road does call

And will you never return to see
Your bruised and beaten sons?
"Oh, I would, I would, if welcome I were
For they love me, every one"

And will you never cut the cloth
Or drink the light to be?
And can you never swear a year
To anyone of we?

"No, I will never cut the cloth
Or drink the light to be
But I'll swear a year to one who lies
Asleep along side of me"

Farewell, farewell to you who would hear
You lonely travellers all
The cold north wind will blow again
The winding road does call

My father he rides in your ships
And I know he would never mean harm
But to see both sides of a quarrel
Is to judge without hate or love

Oh, oh, helpless and slow
And you don't have anywhere to go

You take away homes from the homeless
And leave them to die in the cold
The gypsy who begged for your presents
He will laugh in your face when you're old

Oh, oh, helpless and slow
And you don't have anywhere to go

Well, one man he drinks up his whiskey
Another he drinks up his wine
And they'll drink till their eyes are red with hate
For those of a different kind

Oh, oh, helpless and slow
And you don't have anywhere to go

When the rivers run thicker than trouble
I'll be there at your side in the flood
It was all I could do to keep myself
>From taking revenge of blood

Oh, oh, helpless and slow
And you don't have anywhere to go

Oh, oh, helpless and slow
And you don't have anywhere to go

We used to say
That come the day
We'd all be making songs
Or finding better words
These ideas never lasted long

The way is up
Along the road
The air is growing thin
Too many friends who tried
Were blown off this mountain with the wind

Meet on the ledge
We're gonna meet on the ledge
When my time is up I'm gonna see all my friends
Meet on the ledge
We're gonna meet on the ledge
If you really mean it, it all comes round again

Yet now I see
I'm all alone
But that's the only way to be
You'll have your chance again
Then you can do the work for me

Meet on the ledge
We're gonna meet on the ledge
When my time is up I'm gonna see all my friends
Meet on the ledge
We're gonna meet on the ledge
If you really mean it, it all comes round again

Meet on the ledge
We're gonna meet on the ledge
When my time is up I'm gonna see all my friends
Meet on the ledge
We're gonna meet on the ledge
If you really mean it, it all comes round again

When the stone is grown too cold to kneel
In crystal waters I'll be bound
Cold as stone, weary to the sounds upon the wheel

Now be thankful for good things below
Now be thankful to your maker
For the rose, the red rose blooms for all to know

When the fire is grown too fierce to breathe
In burning irons I'll be bound
Fierce as fire weary to the sounds upon the wheel

Now be thankful for good things below
Now be thankful to your maker
For the rose, the red rose blooms for all to know

When the stone is grown too cold to kneel
In crystal waters I'll be bound
Cold as stone, weary to the sounds upon the wheel

Now be thankful for good things below
Now be thankful to your maker
For the rose, the red rose blooms for all to know

Rise for the hangman
His pleasure is that you should rise
He's the judge and the jury
At the jester's assize

Poor Will on the gallows tree
Never a cruel word did say
Oh that a good man
Should be treated this way

Run to me mother of anyone's child
And tell me the revelry planned
Judges and barristers, clerks at the law
His show is the best in the land
Here's a toast to the Jolly Hangman
He'll hang you the best that he can
Here's a toast to the Jolly

No purse for a ???
No true love come over the stile
The debt of a poor man
He'll pay in awhile
Poor ladies, poor gentleman
Born of a sorry degree
Will you laugh with the hangman
When he comes for his fee?

Run to me mother of anyone's child
And tell me the revelry planned
Judges and barristers, clerks at the law
His show is the best in the land
Here's a toast to the Jolly Hangman
He'll hang you the best that he can
Here's a toast to the Jolly

Rise for the hangman
His pleasure is that you should rise
He's the judge and the jury
At the jester's assize

Just a roll, just a roll
Just a roll on your drum
Just a roll, just a roll
And the war has begun
Now the right thing's the wrong thing
No more excuses to come
Just one step at a time
And the war has begunShe's run away, she's run away
And she ran so bitterly
Now call to your colours, friend
Don't you call to meDon't you cry, don't you cry
Don't you cry upon the sea
Don't you cry, don't you cry
For your lady and me

Take the sun from my heart
Let me learn to despise
I'll show you another who cannot tell lies
The blind man can't see
Who demands to his eyes
I'll show you another who sings as he cries
I cannot be whole
As the beggar who sighs
I'll show you another who knows as he dies

Someone told me there's a grace that leads you straight from place to place
And you always leave the road behind you
You don't need your horses shod, just a dowser and his rod
Leave your mistress, she won't need to find you

Oh please, journeyman, help me on my way
Oh please, help me please, I won't be afraid
Oh please, journeyman, help me on my way
Oh please, help me please, I won't be afraid
Leave my weary flesh and bone to a circle made of stone
Take me to the mountains for my pleasure
And if the dead man won't depart, drive a stake into his heart
And let me ere deliver him his leisure


When you see the race is run and the dark has just begun
Come on with the few and leave the many
There you'll find the journeyman with a lantern in his hand
He'll show you a good time for a penny

Walk awhile, walk awhile,
walk awhile with me
The more we walk together,
love, the better we'll agree
We'll agree
One hand in your mouth
and your finger in your eye
Undertakers bow their heads
as you go walking by
Walk awhile, walk awhile,
walk awhile with me
The more we walk together,
love, the better we'll agree
We'll agree

Here comes another Sunday,
ringing on the bell
And here comes a wounded child,
another tale to tell
Walk awhile, walk awhile,
walk awhile with me
The more we walk together,
love, the better we'll agree
We'll agree

Bring along," the brewer said,
bring the cuckoo tree
Bring your lady mother along
to keep us company
Walk awhile, walk awhile,
walk awhile with me
The more we walk together,
love, the better we'll agree
We'll agree

Two miles down the road,
Henry Tompkins wife
Three miles down the road
and he's running for his life
Walk awhile, walk awhile,
walk awhile with me
The more we walk together,
love, the better we'll agree
We'll agree
Walk awhile, walk awhile,
walk awhile with me
The more we walk together,
love, the better we'll agree
We'll agree