FROM THE INSIDE (1978)
Taupin wrote the lyrics for all the songs on this Alice Cooper album, as well as one non-LP B-side.
From The Inside
(Alice Cooper/Bernie Taupin/Dick Wagner/David Foster)
I got lost on the road somewhere was it Texas or was it Canada
Drinking whiskey in the morning light I work the stage all night long
At first we laughed about it my long-haired drunken friends
Proposed a toast to Jimmy's ghost
I never dreamed that I would wind up on the losing end
I'm stuck here on the inside looking out
I'm just another case
Where's my makeup where's my face on the inside
All got your kicks from what you saw up there
Eight bucks even buys a folding chair
I was downing Seagrams on another flight and I worked that stage all night long
You were screaming for the villain up there
And I was much obliged
The old road sure screwed me good this time
It's hard to see where the vicious circle ends
I'm stuck here on the inside looking out
That's no big disgrace
Where's my makeup where's my face on the inside
Wish I Were Born In Beverly Hills
(Alice Cooper/Bernie Taupin/Dick Wagner)
She looked so sleek and sassy
Rolling down Rodeo Drive
She got her daddy's black Corniche
And her tennis pro by her side
And she wants her mother's lover
To exercise her skill
And if she don't score him fast she knows that her brother will
Oh I wish I were born in Beverly Hills
I swear I couldn't drink half as much as she spills
I want to live it up get my kicks and thrills
Be a gigolo lover and send her the bills
She says that she's an actress
Just never got a part
See the teenage mess with a burned out Gucci heart
She cracked one day at Cartier
When things came to a head
They put her trinkets away and wrapped her up instead
Oh I wish I were born in Beverly Hills
I swear I couldn't drink half as much as she spills
I want to live it up get my kicks and thrills
Be a gigolo lover and send her the bills
She bit like a dog and she screamed like hell
"You ain't taking me to no padded cell
You better take all your hands off my high priced tail"
Oh I wish I were born in Beverly Hills
I swear I couldn't drink half as much as she spills
I want to live it up get my kicks and thrills
Be a gigolo lover and send her the bills
The Quiet Room
(Alice Cooper/Bernie Taupin/Dick Wagner)
The California air
Your nightgown on the stairs
I remember every night
Scenes from home in the Quiet Room
How long have I been gone
Did winter kill the lawn
And all those Polaroids you sent are on the wall
In the Quiet Room
They've got this place
Where they've been keeping me
Where I can't hurt myself
I can't get my wrists to bleed
Just don't know why
Suicide appeals to me
The Quiet Room
Is sterilized and white
It's like a tomb
With just a moth stained naked light
Plastic forks and spoons
No laces in my shoes
They all know what I tried to do
Outside the Quiet Room
This quiet place
It ain't so new to me
It's haunted atmosphere
Has heard so many scream
My home from home
My twilight zone
My strangest dream
My confidant I have confessed my life
The Quiet Room
Knows more about me
Than my wife
They've got this place
Where they've been keeping me
Where I can't hurt myself
I just can't
I just can't get these damn wrists to bleed
A mattress on the floor
No handles on the door
I really need nothing here
I'm alone
Nurse Rozetta
(Alice Cooper/Bernie Taupin/David Foster/Steve Lukather)
I'm a shepherd for the Pentecost
I got my scriptures and my wires crossed
I got no kids and I got no home
They want us holy men to live alone
Since I've been here for a little stay
I see Rozetta day by day
She turns my head makes me cough
I want to tear my collar off
I just can't sleep at night
Rozetta dressed in white
She's got the Devil's light shining in her eyes
Screamed my sermon damning sin and vice
When underneath I was a regular guy
My pulpit melted like a block of ice
When a bolt of lightning hit me from the sky
From my stretcher when they wheeled me in
I stared directly in the eyes of sin
Nurse Rozetta standing over me
And I was helpless as a man of God could be
Nurse Rozetta I won't let her
Catch me peering down her sweater
Fantasizing silk suspenders on her thighs
Nurse Rozetta make me better
Secretly my eyes undress her
Let me feel your tongue depressor
I'm suddenly twice my size
My pants are all wet inside
She's so creative with a bar of soap
And so inventive with a stethoscope
To check my pulse she gotta hold my hand
I blow the fuse on the encephalogram
Satan sent her from the bowels of hell
I should have recognized old Jezebel
I surrendered to the urges felt
She popped the buckle on my Bible belt
I'd lick her nylon seams
Like a hungry cat with cream
Oh what a vivid scene
And I can't hold back no more
Millie And Billie
(Alice Cooper/Bernie Taupin/Bruce Roberts)
Billie I wonder why are we insane
Will we ever get better
Will we stay the same
Billie I'm worried
Millie don't worry
No one knows our pain
Being in love is crazy not alone that way
I know you're worried today
God made love crazy so we wouldn't feel alone
He was thinking of us he was thinking of us
God made love crazy so we wouldn't feel so alone
Billie my mind seems to wander to events of a night long ago
Driving alone with our guilt well concealed in the trunk of your '68 Olds
Millie our world's an asylum and our minds like you say ain't that straight
But you know and I know our passion's not deformed it's true I'd say
We'll love our lifetime
God made love crazy so we wouldn't feel alone
He was thinking of us he was thinking of us
God made love crazy so we wouldn't feel so alone
Billie, I dream of our children
They're frightening and gruesome and sad
And I don't want them growing inside me
They're no price for the love that we have
Oh Millie oh Billie criminally insane
Oh Billie oh Millie
Oh Billie it's fresh in my memory the night that it had to be done
You with your pick axe and scissors
And you with your shovel and gun
And I liked your late husband Donald
But such torture is never regressed
All sliced up and sealed tight in Baggies
Guess love makes you do funny things
Oh Billie oh Millie criminally insane
Oh Millie oh Billie
Serious
(Alice Cooper/ Bernie Taupin/David Foster/Steve Lukather)
When I look back at my time at the track
And I played and I played and I played and I was
Shooting the craps at the back of Fat Jack's
Come on fade me Jake
I'm a Las Vegas dreamer they took to the cleaners
A bath what a bath what a bath I'd take
A fish on a hook I was rattled and shook 'cause I lost my stake
I took that serious
All of my life was a laugh and a joke
And a drink and a smoke
And then I passed out on the floor
Again and again and again and again and again
I'm a gambling fool with a roll and a cue
Wanna play wanna play wanna play with me
Put my ass on the line rubbed my nose in the grime
And they picked me clean
The chance and the game drove Old Silkly insane
What a pain what a strain on my brain it was
A fish on a hook I was rattled and shook 'cause I lost my stake
I took that serious
All of my life was a laugh and a joke
A drink and a smoke
And then I passed out on the floor
Again and again and again and again and again
Serious it was serious oh so serious
Serious it was serious oh so serious
All of my life was a laugh and a joke
A drink and a smoke
And then I passed out on the floor
Of a friend
Again and again and again and again and again
All of my life was a laugh and a joke
A drink and a smoke
And then I passed out on the floor
Of a friend
Again and again and again and again and again and again
And again and again and again and again and again
And again and again
How You Gonna See Me Now
(Alice Cooper/Bernie Taupin /Dick Wagner)
Dear darlin' surprised to hear from me?
Bet you're sittin' drinkin' coffee, yawnin' sleepily
Just to let you know I'm gonna be home soon
I'm kind-a awkward and afraid
Time has changed your point of view
How you gonna see me now
Please don't see me ugly babe
'Cause I know I let you down
In oh so many ways
How you gonna see me now
Since we've been on our own
Are you gonna love the man
When the man gets home
Listen darlin' now I'm heading for the West
Straightened out my head but my old heart is still a mess
Yes I'm worried honey
Guess that's natural though
It's like I'm waitin’ for a welcome sign
Like a hobo in the snow
How you gonna see me now
Please don't see me ugly babe
'Cause I know I let you down
In oh so many ways
How you gonna see me now
Since we've been on our own
Are you gonna love the man
When the man gets home
And just like the first time we're just strangers again
I might have grown out of style
In the place I've been
And just like the first time
I'll be shakin' inside
When I walk in the door
There'll be no place to hide
How you gonna see me now
Please don't see me ugly babe
'Cause I know I let you down
In oh so many ways
How you gonna see me now
Since we've been on our own
Are you gonna love the man
When the man gets home
For Veronica’s Sake
(Alice Cooper /Bernie Taupin/Dick Wagner)
I got a name and number
I got my bed assigned
I got a dog in the city pound that I left behind
I'm strapped down and wild-eyed
She's locked up in a pen
She needs somebody to feed her
And I'm her only friend
So for Veronica's sake
I gotta get out of here
Yea for Veronica's sake she can get pretty weird
Yea for Veronica's sake I gotta get myself out of here
We both been put in cages
We got our shots and tags
I got my sweatin' fist to shake
She's got her tail to wag
She has to bark and whimper while I could scream and shout
The clock above the psycho ward says time is running out
So for Veronica's sake I gotta get out of here
Yea for Veronica's sake she can get pretty weird
Yea for Veronica's sake I gotta get myself out of here
And I can see her howling all night at the lonely moon
They're going to give her the gas if I don't get there soon
I gotta get there soon
For Veronica's sake I gotta get out of here
Yeah for Veronica's sake she can get pretty weird
Jackknife Johnny
(Alice Cooper/Bernie Taupin/Dick Wagner)
From his army confessions of his military days
You still carry the shrapnel you're shell-shocked and dazed
Dear Johnny have you just lost your way
Or like denim and leather are you faded and frayed
Institute lackies with hot bourbon breath
White coats and needles Johnny like to scare you to death
Dear Johnny do you feel your best
When you're strung out at night on your morphine and meth
Jackknife Johnny you're a floor moppin' flunkie
Tool of a dagger's drawn world
Jackknife Johnny them old vets gotta hate you
For bringing home that V.C. girl
Jackknife Johnny welcome to our world
From the tone deaf hearing of the draft board game
You were washing cars down in Dallas when the holocaust came
Dear Johnny your excuse was lame
All your friends sleep in boxes while you sleep in chains
Jackknife Johnny you're a bad jungle monkey
Tool of a dagger's drawn world
Jackknife Johnny them old vets gotta hate you
For bringing home that V.C. girl
Jackknife Johnny welcome to our world
Jackknife Johnny you're a floor moppin' flunkie
Tool of a dagger's drawn world
Jackknife Johnny them old vets gotta hate you
For bringing home that V.C. girl
Jackknife Johnny welcome to our world
Jackknife Johnny you're a bad jungle monkey
Tool of a dagger's drawn world
Jackknife Johnny them old vets gotta hate you
For bringing home that V.C. girl
Jackknife Johnny
Inmates (We're All Crazy)
(Alice Cooper/ Bernie Taupin/Dick Wagner)
It's not like we did something wrong
We just burned down the church while the choir within sang religious songs
And it's not like we thought we was right
We just played with the wheels of a passenger train that cracked on the tracks
One night
It's not like we ain't on the ball
We just talk to our shrinks
Huh they talk to their shrinks
No wonder we're up the wall
We're not stupid or dumb
We're the lunatic fringe who rusted the hinge on Uncle Sam's daughters and sons
Good old boys and girls congregating waiting in another world
With roller coaster brains
Imagine playing with trains
Good old boys and girls congregating waiting in some other world
We're all crazy we're all crazy we're all crazy
Lizzy Borden took an axe and gave her mother forty whacks
And don't think we're trying to be bad
All the innocent crime seemed alright at the time
Not necessarily mad not necessarily mad
We watch every day for the bus and the driver would say
"That's where lunatics stay"
I wonder if he's talking about us
It's not like we're vicious or gone
We just dug up the graves where your relatives lay in old Forest Lawn
And it's not like we don't know the score
We're the fragile elite they dragged off the street
I guess they just couldn't take us no more
Good old boys and girls congregating waiting in another world
With roller coaster brains
Imagine digging up graves
Good old boys and girls congregating waiting in some other world
We're all crazy we're all crazy we're all crazy we're all crazy
We're all crazy we're all crazy we're all crazy we're all crazy
We're all crazy
No Tricks
(Alice Cooper/Bernie Taupin/Dick Wagner)
B-side to the single"How You Gonna See Me Now"
No tricks
Up my sleeve
I kicked the downs and now I'm clean
No shakes
Up my spine
I beat the speed and I dumped the wine
No tracks
That was yesterday
I changed my style the way I play
(Don't you believe it)
No blues no depression
No more panic or obsession
Don't you believe anything he said
All them junkies talk that way
It's just as bad as it was before
I see the man knockin' at his back door
... this kid's straight and put on ice
The street corner deals at any price
Come on and check my veins and check my eyes
No tracks
That was yesterday
I changed my style the way I play
(Don't you believe it)
No blues no depression
No more panic or obsession
Some tricks just go away
And other tricks
They're here to stay
(Oh don't you know me)
Sometimes my spirit's willin'
The flesh is weak and that's what's killin'
Don't you believe anything he said
All them junkies talk that way
It's just as bad as it was before
I see the man knockin' at his back door
Hey now this kid's straight
Put on ice
The street corner deals at any price
Come on and check my veins and check my eyes
I tried so hard
But I'm hurting for another fix
It's just this habit I can always kick
What do you say there friend?
(Don't you call me..)
It's just a game
And I can beat it any day
No matter what this lovely lady say
Hey, wanna be my friend?
Some tricks they go away
And other tricks they're here to stay
(Oh don't you know me)
Sometimes my spirit's willin'
My flesh is weak and that's what's killin'
Don't you believe anything he said
All them junkies talk that way
It's just as bad as it was before
I see the man knockin' at his back door
I said this kid's straight and put on ice
The street corner deals at any price
Come on and check my veins and check my eyes