Clutching At Straws

(fish, steve rothery, mark kelly, pete trewavas, ian mosley)

Is it wrong to talk to myself even when there's nobody else
I'm just checking out that i'm not gone under the water
Thrown on the beach like a seal ready for slaughter
Can't you understand that the way things were planned
It never worked out so i just went crazy
I took to the drink, like something says its "maybe"

I ain't got no excuse and that's really the news
Got nothing else to say, that it's my way, it's always my way
I seem to be running away so often
I'll try anything once and that's the way we should be
But it's always the same getting caught up again in a habit
A habit i just can't shake off the way it always turned out
Can you understand it's the way i choose to be
Everything seems so easy this way but i'm going under fast
Slipping away
Am i so crazy

(fish, steve rothery, mark kelly, pete trewavas, ian mosley)

Read some kerouac and it put me on the tracks to burn a little brighter now
Something about roman candles fizzing out, shine a little light on me now
Found a strange fascination with a liquid fixation, alcohol can thrill me now
It's getting late in the game to show any pride or shame
I just burn a little brighter now, burn a little brighter now, yeah

Doctor says my liver looks like leaving with my lover, need another 'time out' now
Like any sort of hero turning down to zero still standing out in any crowd
Pulling seventeen with experience and dreams, sweating out a happy hour
Where you're hiding 29 you know it ain't a crime to burn a little brighter now
Burn a little brighter now, burn a little brighter now, burn a little brighter now

Dr. finlay: "and my advice is if you maintain this lifestyle you won't reach 30"

Torch: "christ -- it's a romantic way to go really, it's part of the heritage, it's your round i'n'it?

We burn a little brighter now, yeah
Read some kerouac and it put me on the tracks to burn a little brighter now
It was something about roman candles fizzing out, shine a little light on me now
Found a strange fascination with a liquid fixation, alcohol thrill me now
Getting late in the game to show any pride or shame burn a little brighter now
We burn a little brighter now, yeah

Burn a little brighter now, we burn a little brighter now

(fish, steve rothery, mark kelly, pete trewavas, ian mosley)

A hand held over a candle in angst fuelled bravado
A carbon trail scores a moist stretched palm
Trapped in the indecision of another fine menu
And you sit there and ask me to tell you the story so far
This is the story so far

Shuffling your memories dealing your doodles in margins
You scrawl out your poems across a beermat or two
And when you declare the point of grave creation
They turn round and you to tell them the story so far
This is the story so far

And you listen with a tear in you eye
To their hopes and betrayals and your only reply
Is sl

(fish, steve rothery, mark kelly, pete trewavas, ian mosley)

I was flicking through the channels on the tv
On a sunday in milwaukee in the rain
Trying to piece together conversations
Trying to find out where to lay the blame

But when it comes right down to it there's no use trying to pretend
For when it gets right down to it there's no one here that's left to blame
Blame it on me, you can blame it on me
We're just sugar mice in the rain

I heard sinatra calling me through the floorboards
Where you pay a quarter for a partnership in rhyme
To the jukebox crying in the corner
While the waitress is counting out the time

For when it comes right down to it there's no use trying to pretend
For when it gets right down to it there's no one really left to blame
Blame it on me, you can blame it on me
We're just sugar mice in the rain

'cause i know what i feel, know what i want i know what i am
Daddy took a raincheck
Cos i know what i want, know what i feel i know what i need
Daddy took a raincheck, your daddy took a raincheck
Ain't no one in here that's left to blame but me
Blame it on me, blame it on me

Well the toughest thing that i ever did was talk to the kids on the phone
When i heard them asking questions i knew that that you were all alone
Can't you understand that the government left me out of work
I just couldn't stand the looks on their faces saying, "what a jerk"

So if you want my address it's number one at the end of the bar
Where i sit with the broken angels clutching at straws and nursing our scars
Blame it on me, blame it on me
Sugar mice in the rain
Your daddy took a raincheck, your daddy took a raincheck

(fish, steve rothery, mark kelly, pete trewavas, ian mosley)

Hotel hobbies padding dawns hollow corridors
A typewriter cackles out a stream of memories

Drying out a conscience, evicting a nightmare
Opening the doors for the dreams to come home

We live out lives in private shells
Ignore our senses and fool ourselves
To thinking that out there there's someone else cares
Someone to answer all our prayers, all our prayers...

Are we too far gone, are we so irresponsible
Have we lost our balls, or do we just not care
We're terminal cases that keep talking medicine
Pretending the end isn't quite that near
We make futile gestures, act to the cameras
With our made up faces and pr smiles
And when the angel comes down, down to deliver us
We'll find out that after all, we're only men of straw

But everything is still the same
Passing the time passing the blame
We carry on in the same old way
We'll find out we left it too late one day to say what we meant to say

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the water
Those problems seem to arise the ones you never really thought of
The feeling you get is similar to something like drowning
Out of your mind, you're out of your depth, you should have taken soundings
Clutching at straws, we're clutching at straws, we're clutching at straws

And if you ever come across us don't give us your sympathy
You can buy us a drink and just shake our hands
And you'll recognise by the reflection in our eyes that deep down inside we're all one and the same

We're clutching at straws
We're still drowning
Clutching at straws
We're still drowning, yeah clutching at straws
I'm still drowning
We're clutching at straws
I'm still drowning

(fish, steve rothery, mark kelly, pete trewavas, ian mosley)

Where do we go from here?

Where do we go from here, where do we go from here
Where do we go from here, where do we go from here

They boarded up the synagogues uzis on a street corner
You can't take a photograph of uzis on a street corner
The dj resigned today they wouldn't let him have his say
Surface scratched where the needles play, uzis on a street corner

Where do we go from here

Terror in rue de st. denis, murder on the periphery
Someone else in someone else's pocket, christ knows i don't know how to stop it
Poppies at the cenotaph, the cynics can't afford to laugh
I heard in on the telegraph there's uzis on a street corner

Where do we go from here, where do we go from here

The more i see, the more i hear, the more i find fewer answers
I close my mind, i shout it out but you know it's getting harder
To me calm down, to reason out, to come to terms with what it's all about
I'm uptight, can't sleep at night, i can't pretend everything's alright
My ideals, my sanity, they seem to be deserting me
But to stand up and fight i know we have six million reasons

They're burning down the synagogues uzis on a street corner
The heralds of the holocaust uzis on a street corner
The silence never louder than now, how quickly we forgot our vows
This resurrection we can't allow, uzis on a street corner

Where do we go from here, where do we go from here

We buy fresh bagels from the corner store
Where swastikas are spat from aerosols
I sit in the bar sipping iced white russian
Trying to score but nobody's pushing
And everyone looks at everyone's faces
Searching for signs and praying for traces of a conscience in residence
Are we sitting on a barbed wire fence
Racing the clouds home, racing the clouds home

We place our faith in human rights
In the paper wars that tie the red tape tight
I know that i would rather be out of this conspiracy

In the gulags and internment camps frozen faces in nameless ranks
I know that they would rather be standing here beside me
Racing the clouds home, racing the clouds home

You can shut your eyes, you can hide it away it's gonna come back another day

Racing the clouds home, are we racing the clouds home
Racing the clouds home