Best Of Lloyd Cole - Lyrics

01. Like Lovers Do

Living on juice
Eating out of tuna cans
Mobile home
With my dairy queen
Tied me a knot
She had to cut me loose
I liked her a lot

Like lovers do

Julia came
Eating a tangerine
Friday the third
4.30
She tore out a page
Of my magazine
Then she went away

Like lovers do

Saturday girls
Kept me warm a while
Sunday sunshine
Kills all conversation
You look in her eyes
And you see circles
Then she lets you get away

Like lovers do

Everyday
Are you so sad to see me
And I'm so glad to take the blame
If it's always going to be that way

Living on juice
Eating out of tuna cans
Mobile home
With my dairy queen
Tied me a knot
She had to cut me loose
Now I'm looking at you

Like lovers do

02. Fool You Are

From Northernden to Northern California
Folk don't really change
And there's always the rain

From Southport beach to Sunday in the Hamptons
I never could complain
But there's always the rain

The fool you are in Manchester
The fool you are in Maine
The lies you tell in Liverpool
Will follow you to Spain

From Lambeth Walk to London, Ontario
We long to run away
When it looks like rain

From Sunset strip to Waterloo Underground
The stars are just the same
And it looks like rain

The fool you are in Manchester
The fool you are in Maine
The lies you tell in Liverpool
Will follow you to Spain

From the Sunshine State to Shaftsbury Avenue
Folk don't really change
And there's always the rain

And the night before in Northern California
Is dawning on the Thames
And it looks like rain

The fool you are in Manchester
The fool you are in Maine
The lies you tell in Liverpool
Will follow you to Spain
It's a fool you are
And the morning after Leicester Square
Is hung over in Rome
And never again in Newcastle
Is one more for the road
and it looks like rain

03. Jennifer She Said

Jennifer we can't go wrong let's put it in writing
Jennifer we can't go wrong let's do it right now
Maybe you were a little hasty
But they say love is blind

Now her name's on you
Jennifer in blue

Did you ever have a bad dream wake up and it not stop?
Did you ever feel for a girl for a time and then stop?
Well it's written there in blue
With a heart and arrow through

Her name on you
Jennifer in blue
Oh, forever you said that's forever you said
Forever
and forever she said that's forever she said
Forever..

But you change with the weather
And this is the rain

04. Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken

Looking like a born again
Living like a heretic
Listening to Arthur Lee records
Making all your friends feel so guilty
about their cynicism
And the rest of their generation
Not even the government are going to stop you now

But are you ready to be heartbroken?
Are you ready to be heartbroken?

Pumped up full of vitamins
On account of all the seriousness
You say you're so happy now
you can hardly stand
Lean over on the bookcase
If you really want to get straight
Read Norman Mailer
Or get a new tailor

Are you ready to be heartbroken?
Are you ready to be heartbroken?
Are you ready to bleed?

What would it take
What would it take to wipe that smile off of your face?
Are you ready to be..
Are you ready to bleed?

05. Blame Mary Jane

Blame Mary Jane
I'm drinking cheap bar rain
She's getting prettier by the shot
She says I should care more
For the rich and the poor
But I can't find the energy
Blame Mary Jane

I'm going to close my eyes to the morning papers
Shut my ears to the news
I'm going to lose my soul in the lonesome afternoons

Speak plain, Mary Jane
Could you give your hand
To a man who never gave a damn?
I swear I'd rather sleep than think
And nothing more than drink
And all I want is to blame Mary Jane

I'm going to close my eyes to the morning papers
Shut my ears to the news
I'm going to lose my soul in the long lonesome afternoons

And maybe I won't be your whipping boy
I won't be your whipping boy

Shame, baby shame
Oh shame, sweet Mary Jane
I truly do love you
She said
I should care more for that body of yours
If you carry the weight of the world

I'm going to close my eyes to the morning papers
Shut my ears to the news
I'm going to lose my soul in the long lonesome afternoons

And maybe I will be your whipping boy
Maybe I will

06. Writer's Retreat

When you get back from the writers retreat
I won’t be waiting
When you head out to the shack in the woods
I won’t be there
I won’t be lying beside your pool
I won’t be watching the world turn blue because
I’m already gone

You can get a beat from a broken heart
You could write the book while falling apart
You can have it all save the one you want
Going for a song

Did you have nothing to do on this fine afternoon
But to write?
But you’ve got nothing today so you crank out Another screenplay
About a writer without ideas
And her lover she pushes away when he gets too near

You can get a beat from a broken heart
You could write the book while falling apart
You can have it all save the one you want
Going for a song

Who did you meet at the writers retreat?
Where did you sleep at the writers retreat?
What did you write at the writers retreat?

You can get a beat from a broken heart
You could write the book while falling apart
You can have it all but the one that you want is
Going for a song

07. Man On The Verge

Independent reader I
Looking for a better quality of life
Seeking to depart from lonely hearted page

Sensitive to greying hair
Looking for a w/sense of humour
Do you have a script
Perchance, I could rewrite?

Man on the verge
Of the nerve
For "Hello, I love your shirt"
Could it hurt?
Man on the verge

9/11 subway train
You had yellow hair and mine is grey
You half smiled
Got off at Astor Place

Man on the verge
Of the words
to "Hello, I love your shirt"
Could it hurt?
Man on the verge

Waiting for the kiss of life
seemingly lost without a TV Guide
Boyish 37
Sorely uninspired

Single melancholy male
Owning up to loneliness is no big deal
Everything is gone tomorrow miss you much

Man on the verge
Of the nerve
For "Hello, I love your shirt"
Could it hurt?
Man on the verge

Man on the verge
Mouthing the words
And the air between them
Could it hurt?
Man on the verge

08. Hey Rusty

Hey Rusty
It's a long time
Remember
It's like yesterday
Stealing cigarettes
And laughing as they chased us
Down the boulevards

Then I got a job
White collar
Turn coat
And you just spun around and walked
Said we wouldn't meet again

Hey Rusty don't hang up
I feel so young
Hey Rusty don't hang up
because we're still young
I just need one friend

She said hey
Don't take it so bad
She said hey
It wasn't so much
We just ran out of gas
Or something like that

That's when I
I crashed my car
Not by chance
And not out of love
Then i walked out of that job
You should've seen their faces

Hey Rusty don't hang up
I just need one friend
And we're not finished yet
No way

Hey Rusty
I changed my mind
What d'you say we start again
No, I mean it this time
Stealing cigarettes
And laughing as they chase us
Down the boulevards

09. Undressed

You look so good when you're depressed
Better even in your current state of undress
Tears caressing me like rain
And i'm not even thinking, I feel fine
In your pain

The coolest thing I ever saw
You were sitting there smoking my cigarettes
You were naked on the bare stone floor
You looked at me to say don't guess
I was only watching, guess I love you more
Undressed

Is it really such a sin?
Should i feel some kind of shame?
Will i truly go to hell?

You never lock the bathroom door
Should I be embarrassed when I've seen a hundred times before
How do married couples cope?
Should I say excuse me darling?
I don't know

We could disconnect the telephone
And just sit around and mess around
And tell your ma we went to Rome
Tennessee
And I'm not even drinking, I feel fine
Scary..

Is it really such a sin?
Should i feel some kind of shame?
Will i truly go to hell?

The coolest thing I ever saw
You were sitting there smoking my cigarettes
You were naked on the bare stone floor
You looked at me to say don't guess
I was only watching, is it bad that I should love you best
Undressed?

10. Lost Weekend

It took a lost weekend in a hotel in Amsterdam
and double pneumonia in a single room
and the sickest joke was the price of the medicine
are you laughing at me now may I please laugh along with you?

This morning I woke up from a deep unquiet sleep
with ashtray clothes and miss lonleyheart's pen
with which I wrote for you a love song in tatoo upon my palm
'twas stolen from me when Jesus took my hand

You see I, I wouldn't say it if i didn't mean it
Drop me and I'll fall to pieces
Too easily

I was a king bee with a head full of attitude
wore my heart on my sleeve like a stain
and my aim was taboo, you
could we meet in the market place
did I ever hey please, did you wound my knees?

You see I, I wouldn't say it if i didn't mean it
Drop me and I'll fall to pieces
Yes it's too easy

There's nobody else to blame
Will I hang my head in a crying shame
There's nobody else to blame
Nobody else except my sweet self again

It took a lost weekend in a hotel in Amsterdam
twenty four gone years to conclude in tears
that the sickest joke was the price of the medicine
are you laughing at me now may I please laugh along?

I was a king bee with a head full of attitude
with an ashtray heart on my sleeve, wounded knees
and my one love song was a tatoo upon my palm
you wrote upon me when you took my hand

You see I, I wouldn't say it if i didn't mean it
Drop me and I'll fall to pieces
Too easily

11. So You'd Like To Save The World

So you'd like to save the world
I suggest you take one person at a time
And start with me

Not an ordinary girl
Not someone that I should hit upon
And ask, "Hey, what's your sign, babe?"

Have you been reading my mind ?
(What did you find?)
Nothing more or less terrestrial
Could I keep you in mine?

Did you really cry
When you saw the hole in the sky ?
Did you really hold your head and hide your eyes ?
Well, that's all right
You might call it ultraviolet radiation
It's only sunlight

So you'd like to save my world
If you could free my inner child
Then I could free your inhibitions, baby
Or would you like to mother me
I love the way you wear
That Motorola generation chic, mama

Have you been reading my mind ?
(What did you find?)
Nothing more or less terrestrial
Could I keep you in mine?

Did you really cry
When you saw the hole in the sky ?
Did you really hold your head and hide your eyes ?
Well, that's all right
You might call it ultraviolet radiation
It's only sunlight

So you'd like to save the world
I'd really like to help you
I'd really like to be you for a while
Is that all right ?
And I could call it ultraviolet radiation
It's only sunlight..

12. Don't Look Back

When you're nothing to no one
And you're less to your kin
And you're looking for someone
Who won't cling to anything

So you're stuck in some motel
With the sound of her sleeping
Don't you feel kind of old now
Well, ain't that a funny thing

I used to wake up early
I used to try to believe
But life seems neverending
When you're young

So you're back on the highway
And there's wind in her hair
And you know that it's no time for thinking
About somebody up there

Beause you'll turn her to drinking
And you'll lead her to hell
With her bible beside her
She surely looks like an angel

I used to wake up early
I used to try to believe
But faith is never easy
When you're young

I used to wake up early
Now it's hard, hard enough to sleep
But life seems neverending
When you're young

13. Weeping Wine

If every lover that you'd ever known
Could turn around would you take one?
Or would you really rather be alone
And fool around if and when you might please

Well, I don't know babe if you ever have been told
But you're a tough one to play for
I tried to be what you were looking for
Now I'm not sure if you ever really knew

You know the world won't wait, babe, you're crying too late
And you're drinking on borrowed time
And the last thing you need is me and my weeping wine

You sit around sticking pins in dolls
What's there to fall down and die for?
You're looking fine baby it's well known
Why does your story have to be so short?

Well, pretty soon babe you're gonna show your age
Because you're drinking on borrowed time
And then the last thing you need is me and my weeping wine

You know the world won't wait, babe you're crying too late
You're drinking on borrowed time
And the last thing you need is me and my weeping wine

14. Perfect Skin

I choose my friends only far too well
I'm up on the pavement they're all down in the cellar
with their government grants and my IQ
They brought me down to size academia blues

Louise is a girl I know her well
She's up on the pavement yes she's a weather girl
And I'm staying up here so I may be undone
She's inappropriate but then she's much more fun and

When she smiles my way
My eyes go out in vain
She's got perfect skin

Shame on you you've got no sense of grace Shame on me just in case I might
Come to a conclusion other than that which is absolutely necessary
and that's perfect skin

Louise is the girl with the perfect skin
She says turn on the light otherwise it can't be seen
She's got cheekbones like geometry and eyes like sin
And she's sexually enlightened by Cosmopolitan and

When she smiles my way
My eyes go out in vain
for her perfect skin
Yeah that's perfect skin

She takes me down to the basement to look at her slides
of her family life pretty weird at times
At the age of ten she looked like Greta Garbo and I loved her then
But how was she to know that

When she smiles my way
My eyes go out in vain
She's got perfect skin

15. Rattlesnakes

Jodie wears a hat although it hasn't rained for six days
She says a girl needs a gun these days
Hey, on account of all the rattlesnakes

She looks like Eva Marie Saint in On the Waterfront
She reads Simone de Beauvoir in her American circumstance

She is less than sure if her heart has come to stay in San Jose
And her neverborn child still haunts her
As she speeds down the freeway
As she tries her luck with the traffic police
out of boredom more than spite
She never finds no trouble she tries too hard
She's obvious despite herself

She looks like Eva Marie Saint in On the Waterfront
She says all she needs is therapy yeh all you need is love is all you need

Jodie never sleeps because there are always needles in the hay
She says that a girl needs a gun these days
Hey, on account of all the rattlesnakes

She looks like Eva Marie Saint in On the Waterfront
As she reads Simone de Beauvoir in her American circumstance
Her heart.. her heart is like crazy paving
Upside down and back to front
She says"Ooh it's so hard to love
when love was your great disappointment."

16. From The Hip

This one's from the hip
Oh mother you have sorely misjudged me
It should have been whipped
out of me
Without a father figured I
Yes, I concluded then that I'm not for spitting on

This one's from the hip
My love I should have warned you about me
It never got whipped
out of me
Me and my modesty and
Mother, your wretched son won't take his medicine

Not I
I don't care anymore
I'm sick and I'm tired
And I don't care anymore
This one's from the hip
Why should I know why
It's a wicked world?

I've had it up to here
Sweet Jesus I should have warned you about me
It's sure to end in tears
and misery
Without a father I figured I
yes I concluded then that I'm not for spitting on

Not I

Why should I know why should I care?
Who's telling me what I should wear?

Mother, your wretched son is hooked on his medicine

I don't care anymore
I'm sick and I'm tired
And I don't care anymore
This one's from the hip
Why should I know why
It's a wicked world?

17. Trigger Happy

I love your head
I love the way you hold your head
Because you’re young
And you know it
Because you’re young
There ain’t nothing you can’t do
Because you know
There ain’t nothing you can’t do

I love your head
I love the way you hold your head
Because you know
There is no connection between old
And what’s new
And there ain’t nothing you can’t do

Oh, nothing at all
And you know that gun is loaded
Sure you do
Summertime blue
Summertime blue
Yes you know that gun is loaded
Sure you do
If not for you

The way you walk
I love the way you wear contempt
For my sort
Oh, should I give you my money?
A steady hand
A little trigger happy
Angry little man
Oh, pull the trigger take it all

And you know that gun is loaded
Sure you do..

And we’ll tell you how to live
And we’ll take away the reason
And we wonder why we wonder
How you’re not the way that we were

18. Impossible Girl

So she lay down on the floor
Couldn't stand it anymore
She said so
Another planet for the girl
Another boy against the world
Who almost prayed

And when she says
I want you, boy
Don't lose your head
It couldn't possibly be true

She's the impossible girl
Girl impossible

Bloody Monday afternoon
You want to blame it on the moon
But she says "No, no"
Because there isn't any fair
Because there is no antidote
To her

She calls collect
You cancel everything and yet
Friday she's not there

She's the impossible girl
Girl impossible

She's impossibly beautiful
And she's impossibly something else
Is that her lipstick on your shirt?
Hell, your so mannish, it must hurt

..Another planet for the girl
Another boy against the world

Who almost said
I think I fell in love with you
And then again, my friend
It couldn't possibly be true

She's the impossible girl
Girl impossible
Absolutely sweet impossible girl

Another planet for the girl
Another boy against the world

19. Another Lover

She's calling up her old boyfriends
I'm falling in love with her again
She's looking for a change of pace, she says
I can see that old look on her face

She says it takes an open mind
I think she means an open relationship
She says I can be so unkind
All I said was

Don't think twice
If you've got to go
Mary, it's alright
How much love can one man need?
Don't change your mind
Because true love is hard to find
But I'll find another lover

She says it isn't wrong or right
And me I'm emotionally colour blind
She's waking me, it's half past four
I'm sleeping on the bathroom floor again

She's falling for his new age verse
I'm holding back her level of consciousness
I know it isn't wrong or right
All I said was

Don't think twice
If you've got to go
Mary, it's alright
How much love can one man need?
Don't change your mind
Because true love is hard to find
But I'll find another lover

I ran into an old girlfriend
On the corner of Varrick and Vandam
She said she had to change her address
What a strange coincidence

20. Antidepressants

I’m serving 12 to 15 working the coffee machine
I’ve got a licence to fly underneath the radar
She’s about 50 feet north As Seen On TV store
I know she’s going to tune me in sooner or later

With my medication I will be fine

I said I’m trying to write my novel
She said Neither am I
And either way I saw you reading No Depression
You’re doing nothing I’ll come over
We’ll watch 6 feet Under
And then we’ll maybe get around to your condition

With my medication I will be fine

First she’s going to tire of my fixations
Then she’s going to tire of my face
I’m going to need a new affectation
I’m going to need a new one everyday

With my medication I will be fine

21. My Alibi

I'm freezing cold because I've been out all night
I guess I left without my coat
I just got to walking round and round your block
Very, very rock and roll

Remember when you said you're my best friend
If that's the best that I've got
And any time I needed anything
Well, I guess I need to cash that cheque

I guess I had another bright idea
Why don't I share it with you
I went right up and knocked on Trouble's door
And they said - Mister, we've been waiting for you

Could you be my alibi
Could you drive my getaway car?
Get me out of jail free
Baby, you and me?

I'm freezing cold because I've been out all night
I guess I left without my coat
I just got to walking round and round your block
Very, very rock and roll

Could you be my alibi
Could you drive my getaway car?
Get me out of jail free
Baby, you and me?

22. Downtown

I want to take you down underside of the city
Where the sun doesn't shine and the moon isn't pretty
And the slow train crawls in the nights and the days
are as one as the smoke and the heat haze
Yes, it's neon here twenty four hours of the day
And you're sure looking pretty when it's hitting on your face
Looker on the corner take a dollar for a daughter
Well, she's only doing what her mother taught her

I want to take you down
I want to take you right down

I want to see a touch of evil in your eye
But all that I'm getting babe is sweetness and light
I want to see something that I might desire
I want to take you down, babe, into the mire
Deals going down no cheques, no plastic
One thing's for sure, never get what you're asking
They're cutting with Johnsons, they're cutting with knives
They're robbing your boots when they're giving you a shoe shine

I want to take you down
I want to take you right downtown

Slow train down, babe, track 29
There's no looking back when there's no sense of time
Beause it's neon here twenty-four hours of the day
And you're sure looking pretty when it's hitting on your face
With a touch of evil in your eye
With a touch of evil in your eye
I want to take you down underside of the city
I want to take you down to the underside

I want to take you down
I want to take you right downtown

DOWNLOAD the compilation HERE [100 MB]

His biography and discography at allmusic.com