Me And My Friends
(Jim Cregan/Robin LeMesurier/Bernie Taupin/Dennis Tufano)
The farm dogs were barking
One March morning
As I staggered home
From a wet weekend
My old green parka
Smelled like a barnyard
We slept on the road then
Me and my friends, Me and my friends
Fourteen and fifteen
Years behind us
Fresh country kids
Apring a trend
A hobo religion
And some Dewers White Label
We thought we was pistols
Me and my friends, Me and my friends
Down by the schoolyard
The factory hummed
As the girls in class
Would dream and pretend
They were married with children
And workin’ the line
All we wanted was them
Me and my friends, Me and my friends
A crow in the distance
A black stubble cornfield
Frost on our feet
As we tasted the wind
Jealousy gripped us
We weren’t gypsy fair boys
We were much smaller fish
Me and my friends, Me and my friends
Me and my friends, Me and my friends
The old men were sitting
Like crows on a fence
In the public bar
They’d help to defend
They ragged on our hair
And said we was lucky
They’d fought the war
For me and my friends
Me and my friends
The door had to close
We were our history
Just small time legends
In our own minds
In the blink of an eye
An era was over
We were dust on the wind
Me and my friends, Me and my friends
A crow in the distance
A black stubble cornfield
Frost on our feet
As we tasted the wind
Jealousy gripped us
We weren’t gypsy fair boys
We were much smaller fish
Me and my friends, Me and my friends
Me and my friends, Me and my friends
Cinderella ‘67
(Jim Cregan/Robin LeMesurier/Bernie Taupin/Dennis Tufano)
It’s midnight Cinderella
Don’t you have some place to go
Some man to fill up your glass slipper
Some man to lay you down and let you know
That’s a hard life Cinderella
Don’t you want to run away
From a house full of ugly sisters
On a red bus to a green place
Wake up Cinderella
Hear them knocking on your door
Must be them fellas from the palace
Could be the prince has finally come to call
And all the sins in a gin house
All the fan belts and the wires
All the mysteries of childhood
Oh, they can’t put out this fire
It’s amazing, ain’t it darlin’
But we all run from something
Cinderella ‘67’s gonna be your lucky year
Don’t you want it Cinderella
Red lace and satin shoes
Better than that ragged apron
And the stink of nicotine and booze
Oh, wake up Cinderella
Hear them knockin’ on your door
Must be them fellas from the palace
Could be your prince has finally come to call
And all the sins in a gin house
All the fan belts and the wires
All the mysteries of childhood
Oh, they can’t put out this fire
It’s amazing, ain’t it darlin’
But we all run from somethin’
Cinderella ‘67’s gonna be your lucky year
And it’s a good year, ‘67
Carve yourself a slice of heaven
Cut the ties that bind
The girl in you
To your mother’s spite
And your sisters’ twisted point of view
And all the sins in a gin house
All the fan belts and the wires
All the mysteries of childhood
Oh, they can’t put out this fire
Ah, it’s amazing, ain’t it darlin’
But we all run from somethin’
Cinderella ‘67’s gonna be your lucky year
Oh, your lucky number
Cinderella, your lucky number
Beautiful (I Don’t Want To Be)
(Jim Cregan/Robin LeMesurier/Bernie Taupin/Dennis Tufano)
I don’t want to be beautiful
I don’t want to be beautiful
I don’t want to be beautiful
Beautiful, beautiful like you, beautiful like you
Good beds, bad bodies
Love takes the worst of us
Drinks us like cheap champagne
Spits us out, throws us up
And I’m Adam she’s Evelyn
We’re the new age apple eaters
We got juiced up in that garden
West of Sunset, east of Eden
I don’t want to be beautiful, beautiful
I don’t want to be beautiful, beautiful
I don’t want to be beautiful, beautiful
Beautiful like you, beautiful like you
Two heads, one neck
Sounds like a president
Store your brains in a cool dry place
But don’t forget when your brains went
And I’ll be voted cost efficient
Just the child of a cartoon bride
That got caught in a Disney twister
Wound up human on the other side
And I don’t want to be beautiful, beautiful
I don’t want to be beautiful, beautiful
I don’t want to be beautiful, beautiful
Beautiful like you, beautiful like you
Feel like Cole Younger
Must have felt in his iron vest
Every day I take one more bullet
Tough, tough livin’ in the wild, wild west
Bible beaters eat my door
Slice it up with a knife and fork
Don’t like what they’ve got to say
But hellfire, I like the way they talk
And I don’t want to be beautiful, beautiful
I don’t want to be beautiful, beautiful
I don’t want to be beautiful, beautiful
Beautiful like you, beautiful like you
Beautiful like you, beautiful like you
Shameless
(Jim Cregan/Robin LeMesurier/Bernie Taupin/Dennis Tufano)
A half empty dream filled with heavy rain
She lent herself out
She moved without shame
Along the street where we lived
All of us, calling out her name
Her grey pleated skirt flying high like a flag
They said she was a loose bitch
She was that cheap looking slag
Slippin’ along she couldn’t of cared less
This was her town, it was her drag
And everybody said
She was blood stained red
Redder than a rage
She was shameless
Starring in a street play
Starring her name
Starring shameless, shameless
She warmed the engines of them leather boys
Played the sex kitten
But they’re the ones on all fours
Crawling along pullin’ her carriage
Like she was a queen, some Babylonian whore
Back then blondie it was all aces and eights
We was just getting by
Out on that council estate
Our lies were just our dreams
And in our dreams it was always your face
And everybody said
She was blood stained red
Redder than a rage
She was shameless
Starring in a street play
Starring her name
Starring shameless, shameless
That dirty little town
Had a dirty little mind
And dirt was deep, deep in the cracks
She was frayed around the edges
A tall tale at breakfast
A headline always lying on her back
And everybody said
She was blood stained red
Redder than a rage
She was shameless
Starring in a street play
Starring her name
Starring shameless, shameless
Burn This Bed
(Jim Cregan/Robin LeMesurier/Bernie Taupin/Dennis Tufano)
What’s outside
We don’t need in here
Trash the headlines, smash the T.V.
Get rid of everything ‘cept you and me
I’ve had it up to here
Too many workin’ hours
Haulin’ crates, takin’ shit
Being just a brick in an ivory tower
But they can’t take this, babe
This time is ours
Let’s make love rough
Let’s fight back
Let’s get naked
Let’s attack
Let’s bite and scratch
Flesh on flesh
We can love each other both to death
Set each other both on fire
Let’s burn this bed
Burn this bed
Steel skies
Are crashing overhead
Lead us to temptation, arch your back
Strike a match along your beautiful leg
There are some things
They can’t make me do
No man can, when I’m home
Stayin’ up all night to work on you
But they can’t take this, babe
This time is ours
I’ll rock an’ roll ya
I’ll kiss your eyes
Run my hands
Up and down your thighs
Hour for hour
Let’s sweat for sex
We can love each other both to death
Set each other both on fire
Let’s burn this bed
Burn this bed
Color Bar
(Jim Cregan/Robin LeMesurier/Bernie Taupin/Dennis Tufano)
I remember waking in a Memphis morning
In an old motel off a southern highway
I was a pale poor kid from an English city
She was a coal black dancer from Mississippi
Rita Jean and her British bobby
Well they turned some heads in that motel lobby
In the heat of the night that’s the way things are
When you cross that line on the color bar
You gotta hold fast to the hungry years
You gotta know just who you are
You gotta hold fast to the hungry years
Break down the color
Break down the color
Break down, break down the color bar
Well, she lay like midnight on a pale moon
In the skinny arms of my uncool youth
Oh, the summer rain and our sweat poured down
I was born dumb and poor but I’m all grown now
Local steam and them flashin’ lights
Put some heat in the morning when reality bites
In a cold red face I saw the sign of the times
I saw a hundred mean years
At the back of his mind
You gotta hold fast to the hungry years
You gotta know just who you are
You gotta hold fast to the hungry years
Break down the color
Break down the color
Break down, break down tha color bar
Long distance calling America
I’m driftin’ like a fog on the Mississippi Delta
After all these years
I know what they’re talkin’ about
I know just what they’re hiding
In the deep, deep south
You gotta hold fast to the hungry years
You gotta know just who you are
You gotta hold fast to the hungry years
Break down the color
Break down the color bar, break down
You gotta hold fast to the hungry years
You gotta know just who you are
You gotta hold fast to the hungry years
Break down the color
Break down the color
Break down, break down the color bar
Pretty Bombs
(Jim Cregan/Robin LeMesurier/Bernie Taupin/Dennis Tufano)
Mama someone spoke to me
From across a crowded street
Cold as bricks, cold as meat
Mama see those loaded boys
All come undone
New lives for pretty bombs
Come on load these boys
Into their wooden ships
Blue dreams, blue lips
Let’s go to a whip crack city
Where we come from
Think I’ll pull the pin on this pretty bomb
‘Cause when you’re dead it’s safe to sleep
When you’re dead it’s safe to sleep
When you’re dead it’s safe to sleep
That’s the one good thing about it
Mama no one talks to me
They’re all so full of grief
Dumb sons, dumb needs
Let’s dive down real deep
Where we belong
Screw the world
With our pretty bombs
‘Cause when you’re dead it’s safe to sleep
When you’re dead it’s safe to sleep
When you’re dead it’s safe to sleep
That’s the one good thing about it
This weight’s all over me
This weight’s on you
We’re under pressure now
We’re unglued
We used to stick together
Right or wrong
We used to be so shattered
I miss them pretty bombs
‘Cause when you’re dead it’s safe to sleep
When you’re dead it’s safe to sleep
When you’re dead it’s safe to sleep
That’s the one good thing about it
‘Cause when you’re dead it’s safe to sleep
When you’re dead it’s safe to sleep
When you’re dead it’s safe to sleep
That’s the one good thing about it
Barstool
(Jim Cregan/Robin LeMesurier/Bernie Taupin/Dennis Tufano)
The jukebox cranks out "Ring of Fire"
And the old black waitress she mutters
"It's so hot outside and that big old sun
It's gonna melt you just like butter"
So park it on a barstool, anyone that's free
And find yourself a story, who do you wanna be
Four fingers and the Captain
Louie, Shadow and his son
Play dominoes in the corner
Of the Hondo One on One
Some folks call 'em regulars
And some folks call 'em trash
But honesty don't haunt the night
Making diamonds out of glass
This is not the genteel room
Of the Crystal Ball hotel
There's spittin' room for everyone
And cheap shots from the well
There's a big old nurse from gin town
And a scarred up vet on gold
And there's something about a barstool
Takes hold and won't let go
There's a throne in limbo
A smoke ring halo
Saints in every color sitting there
There's a soul revival
A sweet survival
A port for every storm you've ever known
There's something about a barstool
Takes hold and won't let go
Mickey the Dwarf and Hot Dog
Hang out by the slot machine
Hot Dog holds old Mickey up
So he can see those cherries spin
Boy they love these yellow walls
Of this barroom's sad complexion
It's the only tree in the jungle
Guarantees their protection
There's a throne in limbo
A smoke ring halo
Saints in every color sitting there
There's a soul revival
A sweet survival
A port for every storm you've ever known
There's something about a barstool
Takes hold and won't let go, takes hold and won't let go
Takes hold and won't let go
The Ballad Of Dennis Hopper & Harry Dean
(Jim Cregan/Robin LeMesurier/Bernie Taupin/Dennis Tufano)
It was down in a bar in the barrio
Not more than a couple of years ago
I seen 'em sittin' on a couple of stools
Slicked back hair lookin' two ton cool
Two desperadoes of the silver screen
A couple of legends lean and mean
I thought I'd died I thought it was a dream
But it was Dennis Hopper and Harry Dean
They was chain smokin' Camels and throwin' back shots
While a go-go girl peeled her fishnets off
They was talkin' 'bout life and the things they'd seen
They rapped about Peckinpah and Jimmy Dean
Them sons-o-bitches had up and died
But hell these two were still alive
Well, Hopper wigged out but he'd come to grips
From "Giant" to "Apocalypse"
And Harry Dean he'd poured his guts
Into blue collar roles for all of us
Hollow and haunted you could read his face
From "Cool Hand Luke" to outer space
Well, they'd seen it, been there, done it all
Necks in a noose, backs o the wall
It's a straight "A" line, no in between
For Dennis Hopper and Harry Dean
And the drinks kept comin' thick and fast
As their cinematic eyes relived the past
And those gnarly faces told a tale
Of innocence lost along the trail
They'd bonded, hung in tooth and nail
Through Peruvian nights and Mexican jails
They'd felt the dust and the dirt and the sun
They'd beaten the jungle and slept with a gun
The mood in that place was thicker than sin
Like bacon grease on a trucker's chin
There's no one like 'em but there's those that try
There's the great and the good and the ones that die
There's the straight and the gay and the bad and the bi
There's the ones that stall and the ones that fly
Well they fall over backwards for the big fat man
But Brando's lookin' like he ate Japan
And Bobby DeNiro, well he's too fuckin' weird
And Pacino's all method up to his ears
Jack's real cool but he's too laid back
And the Brat Pack sucks but ya all know that
Well, they'd seen it, been there, done it all
Necks in a noose, backs to the wall
It's a straight "A" line, no in between
For Dennis Hopper and Harry Dean
It was way past midnight maybe one or two
When they grabbed their smokes and slid off them stools
And as the neon hit 'em with reds and blues
I could see in their eyes that slow burnin' fuse
No pissy damp cracker no sad little flame
Just a couple of missiles on a downtown train
There's two-fisted fighters and two-fisted drinkers
There's the ignorant masses and the competent thinkers
It's hard these days to spot the real thing
But in that downtown bar I saw a couple of kings
And while money and crap go hand in hand
And bigger is better is the law of the land
There's still some men with guts and roots
Who can sniff out a weasel in a three piece suit
So you can build your screens the size of a field
Make the volume knob the width of a wheel
'Cause for power and presence there's no damn screen
Big enough for Dennis Hopper and Harry Dean
Well, they'd seen it, been there, done it all
Necks in a noose, backs to the wall
It's a straight "A" line, no in-between
For Dennis Hopper and Harry Dean
And the two just vanished the way they came
Like a couple of chainsaws in a hurricane
Bone Of Contention
(Jim Cregan/Robin LeMesurier/Bernie Taupin/Dennis Tufano)
Oh the prairie’s red and all I see are stars
There's a hundred million strong all the way to Mars
That big black colt he's a taker for the chaser
Like a desert wind blowing high along the mesa
West of here there's a home up in the hills
Where I've got three hundred and sixty five nights to kill
That red-tailed hawk he's falling like the hours
As a shadow crawls across the cactus flowers
And there will be no bone of contention
This must be the wisdom that we seek
All I've got is time and imagination
All I need is you lying next to me
There's a big blue moon hanging in a yucca tree
I got a big red heart thumping loud inside of me
And my old six-string she's seen some better days
But she still sounds sweet on a sunset serenade
And there will be no bone of contention
This must be the wisdom that we seek
All I've got is time and imagination
All I need is you lying next to me
It's time to leave now this desert's getting cold
I got an old red Ford and a fifth of Cuervo gold
I'm a tongue-tied fool just looking for a line
I wanna rope you in with these two arms of mine
And there will be no bone of contention
This must be the wisdom that we seek
All I've got is time and imagination
All I need is you... All I need is you
All I need is you... Lying next to me
In Paradise
(Jim Cregan/Robin LeMesurier/Bernie Taupin/Dennis Tufano)
All the Baptists pray
And the blue-haired ladies sing
For the crazy angels in paradise
Stripped of their wings tonight
All the shady cops
And the big-hipped girls parade
On a moonlight mile here in paradise
Where shadows and hearts collide
And I found out it's hard to make a living
Oh, in paradise the heart is unforgiving
This L.A. story
These L.A. times
That L.A. freeway
Flying by
This race is run
And we've paid the price
For losing faith
In paradise, in paradise, in paradise
All the souls in chains
And the slaves to love and pain
They sell sex and cars here in paradise
Flesh and wheels at any price
All your newsprint crawls
And your purists criticize
Here's the latest take on paradise
A singer burns his songs alive
And I found out it's hard to make a living
Oh, in paradise the heart is unforgiving
This L.A. story
These L.A. times
That L.A. freeway
Flying by
This race is run
And we've paid the price
For losing faith
In paradise, in paradise, in paradise
Last Stand In Open Country
(Jim Cregan/Robin LeMesurier/Bernie Taupin/Dennis Tufano)
I was looking for America
In a western movie
Saw a young gunslinger
Without something to prove
And I came lookin'
Like anybody else
I came searching
Like anybody else
Lookin' for the golden calf
And I came shooting for the stars
Like any young blood
I found a fat cat city
And a crooked judge
I killed anything
Standing in my path
I killed anything
Till I laid my hands
Laid 'em on that golden calf
Now it's our last stand in open country
This is my last chance to be with you
This is the last dance for this kind of man
I'm still lookin' for something to prove
I come around full circle
Aged like an old dog
Lookin' at them young bucks
Just green as frogs
I ain't layin' back
No time to laugh
I ain't layin' back
There's new kids-a-comin'
Gunning for that golden calf
I was looking for America
in a western movie
I saw Pike Bishop
Striding through Aqua Verde
He was heading down that dusty path
Heading down to that blood bath
He was running from his crooked past
He was looking for another life
Sick of chasing down that golden calf
Now it's our last stand in open country
This is my last chance to be with you
This is the last dance for this kind of man
I'm still lookin' for something to prove
But there's always someone faster
Someone quicker on the draw
Someone with a hunger, closing in
Someone younger
Steppin' up to be the next outlaw
Now it's our last stand in open country
This is my last chance to be with you
This is the last dance for this kind of man
I'm still lookin' for something to prove
LAST STAND IN OPEN COUNTRY (1996)