Carnival Of Voices

We were drunk fools in paris, stumbling on the sidewalk
That runs along the seine, and on the cathedral
All the gargoyles watched us laughing,
"two stupid americans..."

We were at the mercy of this passionate waiter
Who pulled the corks at the osterasis cafe
He kept serving us wine we hadn't ordered
Then he blamed us for the weather,
It was cold and rainy -
But we raised a glass up to him anyway

We did paris in a day,
What would marie antionette say?
We made a vow on the champs elysees
That nothing would come between us

The mona lisa, i said, "she smiles just like she knows me"
You said, "she's a woman with nothing to lose -
She gathers a crowd around her, then she
Flirts with perfect strangers, but she'll
Never take a lover in the louvre -
She will never take a lover in the louvre..."

We did paris in a day
What would quasimodo say?
Would he stand on top of notre dame
And throw down tourists to us?
A thousand stairs up the pompadou
We were gasping at the view
If we tried for jim morrison's gravesite too
We'd probably have to find a tour bus
And man, how do we find a tour bus
Without finding another day

We took the m across the seine
And headed for the eiffel tower
And there the street merchants
Called us out by name
"cool shades here for the americans"
They said in their finest hipster english
And then they told us, "every yankee looks the same"
I said, "is it the camera case, or our american grace?"
They said,
"you all just look the same..."

We lit a candle for a ghost in the notre dame cathedral
We got lost on the left bank looking for a place in which to stay
When we told the waiter there what we had done, he said,
"only an american would attempt paris in a day...
Only an american would do paris in a day..."

We did paris in a day
What would marcel marceau say?
We put up our feet at the fountain cafe
And toasted the bond between us
We drank sherry with an englishman
We caught up like long lost friends
Under the arc we watched the sunset end
And laughed at the miles that had passed beneath us
The miles that passed beneath us
You said, "that's kilometres, baby"
But i wouldn't let it come between us
Nothing will come between us
Nothing will come between us...

It's a snowy night, the cops shut down the freeway
Big men in plows are out carving up the streets
Below them, jammed on a subway,
I'm with two hundred over-dressed strangers
Brushing snow off coats and shoulders
Kicking snow off dress shoe feet

Chorus:
You live six miles down this trolley car's trail
Up above the red line, where the street musicians wail
Where baby, we used to chase down coffee
On the sidewalk take in tunes
We'd drink in the waning hours
Till we polished off the moon
Who knew the moon would fail
Above the trolley car trail

"park street, next station"
Says a voice with an accent i've heard
And i see shoppers on the platform
Where green and red lines diverge
I fight my way through the packages and the bows
To a pay phone, the operator knows
She says to me, "your nervousness shows"
I say, "'nervous' is too kind a word"

Bridge:
I think snowfall should be measured
By how much it takes a city by surprise
By how far back old timers go to remember
The last time a blizzard stung their eyes
Last time i rode a subway
You had summer in your eyes
You did

Your phone rings, but it only brings your voice
On a message machine, "i'm not here, the tape is clear"
Me, i'm off the hook it seems
"i called," i say, "to say `hello'
To coax you out where the snowmen grow
But you're not home, and hey, i gotta go,
It was good to hear your voice."

She can turn a room round on a dime
Part a crowd like the red sea
She's moses
And stranger's eyes
All fall and rise
On her length
Like they're sizing up roses

Delivery? she could deliver me
She broke her own commandment
Thou shall not steal from me
My breath is gone
That's burglary
Never trust a prophet
In a party dress

I'm here waiting on a train
There are things that i can't explain
Like how i got tied to the tracks
And why love goes down
Like some robbery

Deliver me
Deliver me

There's a punchline on the sidewalk
But the joke seems kind of cruel
It's the ones your friends aren't telling
That makes you look the fool

So you step out into traffic
Cause it's safer on the street
You react to perfect strangers
As if the world's complete

It's when you are anonymous
You can pull the wool over all of us
But when you lean
Don't fall on us
Broken more or less

Have you ever been ashamed
Have you ever been defeated
Crying, calling out her name
Like love can never be repeated
The whole worlds bringing you down
For a million different reasons
It's just the end of one more season
Where love came to run you down

In 1968, he did shots with the doors at the whiskey-a-go-go
It was on one of those hot hollywood summer nights
He says, "jimmy came in tight leather slacks, it was hot as hell
But we were drinking jack, his eyes were like quarters
Round, and black when he stepped under the stage lights..."

"and you know me," he says, "i had pawned my only camera
I had no way to record these fleeting kodak moments
That sprung to life each and every saturday night
I was too far gone back then to have known it..."

Chorus:
He says, "all my heroes were junkies,
Now all my heroes are dead
I say, "hey tony, consider yourself lucky
To be a junkie in a hospital bed"

He says, "you know judy garland never showed up when i took my walk in the land of oz
Though a cop did on a purple horse one morning
He asked me why i was staggering
I said, `because - because, because, because
The wizard never gave me no surgeon general's warning"

Chorus

Bridge:

"who rolled the joint when bob dylan
Got high with the beatles?" he says,
"who put my world on pins and needles?"

He tells the nurses they should do something
With the ceiling in the rehab ward
Like paint a fresco to the late-great betty ford
They come in and make their jokes about
Pulling out all his power chords
He tells them, "could you come up with
Something i didn't already know?"

Chorus

In the city by the river
A man is standing on a bridge
His eyes to heaven to the forgiver
Who flips the coins on who should live

A naked lightbulb in the corner
Naked mary's in an unmade bed
Spilling champagne on her lover
Forgot his name
"what had he said?"

Chorus: it's new year's eve
Tonight in the city
They're tearing the chandeliers down
Boys and girls
All dressed up pretty
The bartenders buying the round

You count your blessings,
You say your prayers
Kiss an acquaintance
The ball is coming down
The ball is coming down

Sadie hawkins
She left the ballroom
Mascara running
From a fight
She slaps the doorman's face
In the lobby
He'd only asked her,
"are you all right?"

Charlie jenkins
Makes resolutions like
"do not drink," and
"do not fight"
His conscience needs absolution
It keeps him up when it's late at night

Chorus

Cathy's hailing a cab like she's hailing a storm
Unto the streets of new york city
Once we're inside, it's a carnival ride
That brings a white knuckle kind of dizzy

She takes me up on her rooftop,
Framed by a backdrop of watertanks and chimneys
She's wrapped round a cigarette,
Lecturing etiquette, while i look in the windows
Beneath me

We took in saturday and it was medicine
And when nighttime came the skyline just swallowed
The moon
Cathy lays the blame on thomas alva edison
And 60 million lightbulbs telling new york that
It's noon
Ah, midnight strikes too soon
Midnight strikes too soon

She says, "in new york city, they throw their
Wishes into wells
'cause you can't see a star, unless one hit you when
It fell -- "
"and if even you caught one," i say, "who
Could you tell in this whole damn town who'd
Believe you?"

She smiled like a cat would to a pigeon on the roof
She says, "i look into windows for universal truths"
And we drank in the moment like whiskey hundred
Proof
"but if orion fell," she said, "i'd tell you"

The view from her roof could make your head
Just spin
It was like holding up the world in a tablespoon
And we drank it down,m every light in town
Like the sweetest, kindest medicine
I made my wish on a satellite dish
But still midnight strikes too soon
Midnight strikes too soon

Cathy never seems to slow down
She's a hurricane working a skyscraper town
She laughs at me, says i'm suburban bound
But the truth is i live on a highway

I come to this city for the solace of her roof
Every window tells a story in cold hard truth
As the world spins beneath me, i ask it for proof
That i'm living my life in my own way
Or will time just have its own say

Midnight strikes too soon
Midnight strikes too soon
Midnight strikes too soon
Midnight strikes too soon