LEATHER JACKETS (1986)
Leather Jackets
(Elton John/Bernie Taupin)
Do you pray to someone new
When you’re locked up in the Rock?
Is the golden age dead and gone
Are the hands stuck on the clock?
Can you talk to Buddy’s bones
When you spin a forty-five
The king ain’t dead, he’s just asleep
Somewhere in the after life
And look at them boys in leather jackets
Second skin, not fade away
Danger girls love leather jackets
Play back to back, and that’ll be the day
Leather jackets, that’ll be the day
We all need to smell the heat
You know that things go better with chrome
Is Memphis real or just a song
Three thousand miles from home
Be a cool jerk, don’t work
When fashion makes you change
Keep the faith, don’t waste
Another nickel on another name
And look at them boys in leather jackets
Second skin, not fade away
Danger girls love leather jackets
Play back to back, and that’ll be the day
Leather jackets, that’ll be the day
And idolise twisted cars
Like taxi-cabs and spiders
Eternity’s just down the road
They’re looking for more riders
Hoop Of Fire
(Elton John/Bernie Taupin)
You say that all you want are the simple things –
Long walks on lonely beaches, guitars with nylon strings
But underneath you’d rather leap through a hoop of fire
You shy away from lips that want, that want to kiss you
Tongue-tied on formal evenings, wealth don’t impress you
But if you ask me you like the heat in a hoop of fire
And it’s hard to read just how you feel
Or what your dreams desire
Your pulse that races when I’m close
Reads like a hoop of fire
Your pulse that races when I’m close
Reads like a hoop of fire
No late nights making love in secret places
You feel pressure all around you, mistrust in strangers’ faces
But don’t pretend you wouldn’t spend some time in a hoop of fire
Go It Alone
(Elton John/Bernie Taupin)
It's so hard to say goodbye
When there's nothing left to give
When this house is just a hill of bones
Where you and I once lived
If we put it back together
By the skin of our teeth
You'd still pull it all apart
Bit by bit, piece by piece
And I'll go it alone
Call this house my home
Build it up again with someone new
Build it brick by brick
Till I find a girl that fits
This home's a whole lot better without you
There's no passion alive
When you count your phony schemes
And the cars you drive to buy your friends
They don't ever come back clean
If the cards on the table
Always turn up spades
The cards that always cheat the hearts
The spades you play just dug my grave
Gypsy Heart
(Elton John/Bernie Taupin)
You win again you, gypsy heart
I count the days that we’re apart
I sleep alone when you’re away
No sense in saying ‘I wish you’d stay’
It’s all the same, you never change
You come and go just like the rain
I pray each day that you are gone
This time it won’t be so long
Your gypsy heart will never find
Any arms as warm as mine
And gypsy when we meet again
I’ll play my part
And wrap you up inside my arms oh you gypsy heart
Your gypsy heart can always call
When your back’s against the wall
And darlin’ then I’ll just pretend
Right from the start
You never left me on my own oh you gypsy heart
I pray each day that you are gone
This time oh it won’t be so long
Slow Rivers
(Elton John/Bernie Taupin)
The weather man he looks confused
Shakes his fist at the sky like you used to do
But you don't remember things like that do you
The balance was uneven but I'm breaking through
Slow rivers run cold
Shallow waters never sank so low
I thought I'd drown and you'd never know
You're a slow river and you run so cold
The winter here don't believe in God
The bitter wind just bites through me like a wild dog
I still see your eyes tonight like headlights through the fog
But one foot in your door oh that's all I ever got
Chances are you'll reappear
Swim my way in a flood of tears
No place to hide your conscience so
You're a sinking ship with no place to go
Heartache All Over The World
(Elton John/Bernie Taupin)
Well I’m running away
From this house on the hill
There’s a devil inside
Sitting on the window sill
And it’s a wild Friday night
And I’m all on my own
I knocked on every door in town
There ain’t one little girl that’s home
And everybody’s got a date
And the ones that ain’t are tired
What the hell do you do on a weekend honey
When you heart’s on fire
And you can go from Tokyo to Rome
Looking for a girl
But it looks to me like the weekend means
Heartache all over the world
Girls girls girls
Have pity on me
Oh it looks to me like the weekend means
Heartache, heartache all over the world
He’s got lipstick on his collar
She’s got fishnets on her legs
I’m at home and I’ve got nothin’
Just a cold and aching head
There must be something dirty
Just blame it on the magazines
Don’t read that trash it’ll drive you crazy
‘Cause the cops invade your dreams
And everybody’s got a date
And the ones that ain’t are tired
What the hell do you do on a weekend honey
When your heart’s on fire
And you can go from Tokyo to Rome
Looking for a girl
But it seems to me like the weekend means
Heartache all over the world
Girls girls girls
Have pity on me
Oh it seems to me like the weekend means
Heartache, heartache all over the world
Angeline
(Elton John/Bernie Taupin/Alan Carvell)
Well I’m work-shy, I’m wild-eyed
So shut that door when the baby cries
And keep me well fed, gimme warm bread
Lay my body on a feather bed
And spoil me, Angeline
Get to work
When the whistle screams Angeline
Maybe someday, someway
Somewhere in the future
There’s more pay
Give me more cash, bring me sour mash
Peel me a grape and fetch my stash
And bite me, Angeline
Let me use you
Like a sex machine Angeline
You’ve got to swing that hammer
Punch that card
Angeline I love you
When you work so hard
Swing that hammer
And sew my jeans
Angeline just loves it
When I treat her mean
Well I talk tough, I act rough
Lay still honey
I can’t get enough
And keep your nose clean
Let me be
On your knees
When you speak to me
And trust me, Angeline
And talk real dirty
And I’ll make you scream Angeline
Angeline just loves it
When I treat her mean
Paris
(Elton John/Bernie Taupin)
Nobody left in the airport lounge
They cleaned the ashtrays
TV’s just wound down
I’ve gotta wait til morning
I’ve gotta last the night
I’ve only got one book
To see me through my flight
But when I get to Paris
We’ll paint all our portraits
In brushstrokes of yellow
And christen the canvas
The Left Bank is crying
For colour to crown it
Like the roof of a palace
We’ll drink in the amber
When I get to Paris
You were the best of Montmartre street life
You signed the tablecloth
Art has its price
It’s so hard to hold on
To the ghost of your breed
It takes ambition
To call the colours you need
But when I get to Paris
We’ll paint all our portraits
In brushstrokes of yellow
And christen the canvas
The Left Bank is crying
For colour to crown it
Like the roof of a palace
We’ll drink in the amber
When I get to Paris
I’ve gotta wait till morning
I’ve gotta last the night
I’ve only got one book
To see me through my flight
Like the roof of a palace
We’ll drink in the amber
When I get to Paris
I Fall Apart
(Elton John/Bernie Taupin)
Without you I no longer swim upstream
Where are you when I try to fill the spaces in-between
The red letter days and all the pain
And while I remain shipwrecked everything has changed
And I fall apart
With this threat of indecision
Hanging in my heart
This house can get so lonely
When the day grows dark
And it seems to be the night time
When I fall apart
Can’t you tell the shadows no longer comfort me
I don’t feel the need to cling to anyone I see
This fool’s suffered gladly each and every day
I don’t wish to reconsider, I wish they’d stay away
I’ve not a care to count
The stares that pity me
I’ll wash your hurt away
Just you wait and see
For every rose he gives her
I’ll give her three
But in the meantime
I’ll just wish that she was me
I fall apart I fall apart
This house can get so lonely
Oh when the day grows dark
And it seems to be the night time
That I fall apart