Town Of Plenty

(Elton John/Bernie Taupin)

 

I'll say it again this is not my city

I don't belong looking for a town of plenty

There weren't these thieves

We had some thing in common

Goals to achieve

We had some thing in common

In a town of plenty

 

Can't you see it, this is not my writing

I only asked if this was a town of plenty

There were many archives

We had no media

Only art survived there

Yeah we had no media

In a town of plenty

 

And laid across the airstrip

Were the passports and the luggage

All that once remained

Of a rugged individual

And laid across the airstrip

Were the passports and the luggage

I came looking for a town of plenty

 

I'll say it again, this is not my city

I only asked if this was a town of plenty

There were many archives

We had no media

Only art survived there

Yeah we had no media

In a town of plenty

 

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A Word In Spanish

(Elton John/Bernie Taupin)

 

I don’t know why,

I just know I do

I just can’t explain

In this language that I use.

Something leaves me speechless

Each time that you approach

Each time you glide right through me

As if I was a ghost.

 

If I only could tell you

If you only would listen

I’ve got a line or two to use on you

I’ve got a romance we could christen.

 

There’s a word in Spanish

I don’t understand

But I heard it in a film one time

Spoken by the leading man

He said it with devotion

He sounded so sincere

And the words he spoke in Spanish

Brought the female lead to tears.

 

If you can’t comprehend.

Read it in my eyes

If you don’t understand it’s love

In a thin disguise

And what it takes to move you

Each time that you resist

Is more than just a pretty face

To prove that I exist.

 

When manners make no difference

And my gifts all lay undone

I trade my accent in on chance

And fall back on a foreign tongue.

 

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Mona Lisas And Mad Hatters (Part Two)

(Elton John/Bernie Taupin)

 

I used to think that New York City

Fell from grace with God

And innocence abroad

Waged a war for the underdog

When the snow falls

And Central Park looks like a Christmas card

I Just looked beyond the bagman

And the madness that makes this city hard.

 

I heard a basketball

Somewhere out beyond a chain-link fence

Inner city prisoners

Argue for the right of self-defense

But there’s a fast break

And every work of art wakes something in the soul

Just focus on the brush strokes

And the bouquets that the dancers hold.

 

Spanish Harlem still sounds good to me

Yeah Mona Lisa’s getting older

Standing in the shadow of Miss Liberty

While I walk along the west side

Down through Little Italy

Searching for the city that

That took away the kid in me.

 

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I Don't Wanna Go On With You Like That

(Elton John/Bernie Taupin)

 

I’ve always said that one’s enough to love

Now I hear you braggin’ one is not enough

Oh! Something tells me you’re not satisfied

You got plans to make me one of four or five.

 

I guess this kind of thing’s just in your blood

But you won’t catch me carving up my love

I ain’t no puzzle piece that needs to fit

If it takes more than me let’s call it quits.

 

‘Cause I don’t wanna go on with you like that

Don’t wanna be a feather in your cap

I just wanna tell you honey I ain’t mad

But I don’t wanna go on with you like that.

 

It gets so hard sometimes to understand

This vicious circle’s getting out of hand

Don’t need an extra eye to see

That the fire spreads faster in a breeze.

 

And I don’t wanna go on with you like that

Don’t wanna be a feather in your cap

I just wanna tell you honey I ain’t mad

But I don’t wanna go on with you like that

I don’t wanna go on with you like that.

One more set of boots on your welcome mat

You’ll just have to quit ‘em if you want me back

‘Cause I don’t wanna go on with you like that.

 

Oh! If you wanna spread it around sister that’s just fine

But I don’t want no second hand feeding me lines

If you wanna hold someone in the middle of the night

Call out the guards, turn out the light.

 

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Japanese Hands

(Elton John/Bernie Taupin)

 

Outside I can hear the fireworks

Beyond the paper walls

Where the symbols painted black and white

Run together when the rain falls.

And the wind chimes across Kyoto

Each time the earth moves,

Was it the quake that shook me

Or was it something to do with you?

 

And the hot wind heats the bamboo blinds

And your almond eyes always shine

Sitting cool behind your painted fan

All the secrets of the east

Conceal the beauty and the beast

For tender is the man in her Japanese hands.

 

Flesh on silk looks different

Than on a cotton sheet back home

Where no one wears their hair like yours

Beneath those oriental combs

And with your thirsty fingers

Running up and down my spine

You forget the western woman

When you’re sleeping on Kyoto time.

 

And the hot wind heats the bamboo blinds

And your almond eyes always shine

Sitting cool behind your painted fan

All the secrets of the east

Conceal the beauty and the beast

For tender is the man in her Japanese hands.

 

And the sky explodes

And the moon grows old

To the distant sound of drums

And the sky explodes

And the moon grows cold

As the dragons on the mainland

Wait to heat the sun.

 

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Goodbye Marlon Brando

(Elton John/Bernie Taupin)

 

Say goodbye to loneliness

Say goodbye to Marlon Brando

Say goodbye to latitudes

And the confusion that surrounds you

Say goodbye to misery

Say goodbye to the morning news

Say goodbye to prime time

And the fools that choose to view

Say goodbye to Wendy

Say goodbye to Rhonda

Say goodbye to the Beach Boys

From the Palisades to Kona.

 

Say goodbye to Glasnost

Say goodbye to Malathion

Say goodbye to the clowns in congress

And the belt around Orion.

Say goodbye to the tabloids

Say goodbye to diet soda

Say goodbye to new age music

From the Capa to the Coda

Say goodbye to gridlock

Goodbye to Dolly's chest

Goodbye to the ozone layer

If there's any of it left.

 

Don't it make you wanna crawl back to the womb

Find a sanitarium and rent yourself a room

This overload is edging me further out to sea

I need to put some distance between overkill and me, me.

 

Say goodbye to Jackie Collins

Say goodbye to illiterate fools

Goodbye to evangelists

And geeks with power tools

Goodbye to statuettes

Say goodbye to lists

Say goodbye to articles

On who the senator kissed

Say goodbye to hairstyles

Goodbye to Heaven's Gate

Goodbye to Rocky Five

Six, Seven and Eight

 

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The Camera Never Lies

(Elton John/Bernie Taupin)

 

I see you tempt the night

I see you take a bite

You can tell me you were home

But the camera never lies

 

You walk out in disguise

To pull the wool over my eyes

You play me for a fool

To believe your alibis

 

And you can count on being safe as houses

Underestimate my eyes

But you can't argue with the image

The camera never lies

 

There's no distance put between us

Safe enough for you to hide

I'm watching all of your secrets

The camera never lies

 

I recommend first prize

For acting so surprised

For acting like you love me

The camera never lies

 

I'll take my wounded pride

I'll take it on the chin

Your profile fills the frame

How good you look on film

 

Smoke screens and sweet deceiving

Replace the face of trust

The shutter falls each time you meet him

A negative becomes my plus

 

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Heavy Traffic

(Elton John/Bernie Taupin/Davey Johnstone)

 

Shakey wake up thirsty from a night in the bar

And snake hips Joe is Mr. Cool

Out on the boulevard

The pimp from the Jack of Diamond Just got another Jane Doe

She just got off the last bus from Montecedo.

 

Sailor boys find trouble in the alien state

It’s one on one from Los Palmas to the Golden Gate

Fly boys on the corner waiting for a ride

For twenty bucks he’ll pull in the plug on the man inside.

 

'Cause we’re rolling in heavy traffic

Judy’s in the jump seat and Jody’s in the bucket

Billy likes to drive, Jackie’s just high

Cindy thinks we’re all gonna commit suicide.

'Cause we’re rolling in heavy traffic.

 

Mack he’s got his Marlboros tucked up in his sleeve

He’s shacked up in the basement making P.C.P.

He used to shake the French fries

Down on 12th and Maine

And now he stays up nights on apple juice and cocaine.

 

'Cause we’re rolling in heavy traffic

Judy’s in the jump seat and Jody’s in the bucket

Billy likes to drive, Jackie’s just high

And Cindy thinks we’re all gonna commit suicide.

'Cause we’re rolling in heavy traffic.

 

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Poor Cow

(Elton John/Bernie Taupin)

 

There’s another one due in three months time

She’ll have to paint the spare room blue

She’ll work a little overtime

And hope it all works out with Frank and her,

If she can keep him home nights

Away from those factory girls.

 

And the gas bills come and the money burns

And Frank just keeps complainin’

How little they both earn.

And mother drops by Mondays

Just to nag about the world

Then she stays to nag at Dallas

‘Cause she hates those Texas girls.

 

Poor cow

You’ll get your dumb man

You’ll see your whole life comin’ at you

In the back of his hand.

Poor cow

It’s a monkey see town

You’ll walk down the aisle

In the hand me down gown

Of some poor cow.

 

And the gas bills come and the money burns

And Frank just keeps complainin’

How little they both earn.

And mother drops by Mondays

Just to nag about the world

Then she stays to nag at Dallas

‘Cause she hates those Texas girls.

 

Oh them rich bitch girls

Ain’t like our lass

Got no spine for labour

Like us working class.

Us gamey lot

Still got our pride

We got our health

It’s just the truth that’s died.

 

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Since God Invented Girls

(Elton John/Bernie Taupin)

 

The mother of invention made it good for me

Tighter in the rear

Longer in the seam

Kicked out yards of leather

Wrapped around her waist

Trimmed it to perfection

And left a little space

 

Yeah they got competition now

All across the world

But there ain't been no looking back

Since God invented girls

 

Now I know what Brian Wilson meant

Every time I step outside

I see what Heaven sent

There may be seven wonders

Created for this world

But one is all we need

Since God invented girls

 

Higher on the heel, paler than pure cream

Leaner on the sidewalk

Cutting through the steam

After claws and feathers

He took skin and bone

Shaped it like an hourglass

And made the angels moan

 

Oh here's a little heat boys

To straighten out them curls

Now there ain't been no angels round

Since God invented girls

 

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