(A&M Records, sp-4522, 1975)
Tous les titres sont écrits par Lewis Furey
© 1975 Irving music inc. et Late morning music (bmi)
Les paroles de chaque chanson sont précédées des propres commentaires de Lewis Furey, tirés du dossier de presse américain de A&M Records édité à l'occasion de la sortie de l'album en 1975. Merci à Leslie Radowill qui nous a fourni ce document.
"hustler's tango" opens the album. we created a legit tango incorporating a basic street roughness and raunch with a porcelain gloss from overdubbed violins and trombones. a twist on the faust legend is the overriding metaphor ; mephistopheles becomes the young streetcorner hustler and faust, the older man looking for instant gratification.
you say you want to rape
rape me bababy
and well you know you've got
you've got to pay pay
the match is fixed, setup
setup all ready
you're going to wrestle with
with an angel
do you wanna make a deal
ah c'mon my friend
do you wanna make a deal
my brother, my lover
do you wanna make a deal
wanna work with me
you say you want to rape
rape me bababy
and well you know you've got
you've got to pay pay
don't feel guilty it's quite
it's quite proprietous
you're going to get what you
whatever you deserve
do you wanna make a deal
ah c'mon my friend
do you wanna make a deal
my brother, my lover
do you wanna make a deal
wanna dance with me
c'mon decide.....enter
this is my magic circle.....enter
you say you want to rape
rape me bababy
and well you know you've got
you've got to pay pay
you're never ever again
'gain gonna make love
after twenty bucks
the money changes hands again
and again
do you wanna make a deal
ah c'mon my friend
do you wanna make a deal
my brother, my lover
do you wanna make a deal
wanna work with me
c'mon decide.....enter
this is my magic circle.....enter
you're gonna get what you deserve
do you wanna make a deal
hey baby do you want me
faustus can you hear me
do you wanna make a deal
"last night" is a kind of pop song that was written the morning after. it feeds data on the freshness and hope of a new affair. the read-out is a drum track, laid back, played with brushes, bells, and a little island horn band on the fade ending just for the fun and celebration of it all.
i've always had the feeling
i'm a tourist in town
picking up boys
faking a love
and then just letting them down
ready to give
any pretty thing a whirl
sometimes i go to thinking
i was unnatural
a mean old churl
i made out in the scenes
that i wanted to make
but i was feeling unholy
on the take
what to do
listen to the way
that i'm singing today
i met a lady last night
made me feel so loving
and so gay
i knew that she'd been
with every boy in the club
but for me it was fresher than springtime
i felt like a cherub
i really didn't care
who she'd been with before
i took her home
we closed the door
on the world
i remember
what my father used to say
son do thy will
let none say nay
i want no regrets
in the light of the day
last night
i knew that i found
my lover last night
when i saw the way her eyes
got glassy in the pale moonlight
when she took my hand
said, baby with you
i feel so good and so right
my friends said, lewis
look you're trashing around
but i feel like
your home and garden lover
i'm buoyed up
right off the ground
i remember
what my father used to say
son do thy will
let none say nay
i want no regrets
in the light of the day
last night
"the waltz" is viennese in style. the action is set in the surreal psychic landscape of unreturned love. it is a waltz of delirium and a horror song.
when she let me fall
into her arms
she let me fall
through empty space
my longing for
those charms my sweet
is going to scar my face
ah now look at my heart
my heart's going to burst
my lust is sickening thirst
baby it's all much too serious
it's three long years
since first we met
just look the tables
are turned around
once she had eyes
only for me
we had each other all over town
the carousel
spins so fast
my golden horse can't last
baby it's all much too serious
i'm not going to wait
for the lady's permission
to enter her heart
and feel the pain
i'm not going to count
on you my sweet
to share my boredom or shame
you're not a teacher
you're just a lover
if i didn't have you
you can bet i'd have another
baby it's all much too serious
am i delirious
delirious
am i delirious
delirious
"clean-up time" is a tough song and if you're feeling punky you might want to dance to it. it's an obscure invitation to suicide (remove the heart on your sleeve, bleed the heat off your soul). the banjo solos are by jeffrey layton, who realized while recording this track that there were indeed to be no guitars on the entire album, and who very bravely gave us the best mandolin and banjo we could imagine.
what is that heart that you're
wearing on your sleeve
hadn't you better have it removed
whose is the face that you
carry in your brooch
his smile don't look convincing to me
bleed the heat off your soul
carry the light from that hole
get it up roses
get it up with brand new poses
it's cleanup time again
whose is the religion
dancing on your brain
that god don't look enlightened to me
and what what what's that drug that's
coursing through your veins
that high don't seem none too serene
bleed the heat off your soul
carry the light from that hole
get it up roses
get it up with brand new poses
it's cleanup time again
your slave bracelet's got
my name engraved on it
think that it's time to wipe it clean
bleed a little heat off your soul
carry a little light from that hole
get it up roses
get it up with brand new poses
it's cleanup time again
"louise" is my first lover ; a song about the time one feels that lover is one's whole life.
louise
the name
i feel the blade in my back
how come everyone
talks 'bout the girl
who left my heart a mess of tracks
i love her
yea i love her
it's all of my life
and everybody's known her
known what's all of my life
one fine morning
i found out she was gone
we'd never had a fight
she told me i was learning
things that were wrong
do you think she had the right
sure i taught him things he never
should have known
if i could change what's been done
he'd never left home
i wish i never had a lover
louise
the name
why must i hear that name
everyone's
talking about the girl
i feel her fame is my shame
i loved her
yea i loved her
love was all of my life
and everybody's known her
known what's all of my life
one fine morning
i found out she was gone
we'd never had a fight
she told me i was learning
things that were wrong
do you think she had the right
bien sûr je t'ai appris
des choses qu'il ne fallait
jamais que tu apprennes
si je pouvais changer
ce qui est fait tu n'aurais jamais
jamais jamais quitté ta maman
louise... i wish i never had a lover
"kinda shy" is the entr'acte. the singer in his obtuse manner has admitted to unlimited ambition and some slight trepidation as he balances on the cusp of the abyss. the song is a mrch. the drum track, three snares, and the mandolin played with a slide. cat stevens and tim curry perfectly clockwork orange as english firefly-thug back-up vocalists.
here we come
'round again
everyone wants to be friends
with the firefly babies
...so brave
we're so very wonderful
bouncing off the proverbial wall
better take two man
we're small
sometimes we feel so dismissed
just like peanuts in the old abyss
but then we see it coming through
we know just what we can do
on a limb, hanging ten
here we come, 'round again
ooh mymy, ooh mymy
are you the diamond in my sky
...so brave
ooh mymy, ooh mymy
am i the apple in your eye
am i your firefly
we want what we want and we want it fast
any old thing for a laugh, ha ha
we want what we want and we don't care how
we're ready to do it with any old cow
the stage is set, take a bow
feeling like the cat's meeow
"lewis is crazy" is a cabaret-styled song with the basic little band : banjo, string bass, trap set, piano, trombone. a further film/dream kinf of element was added by the toy mellodium at the beginning, the castanets, and the little german reed band on the fade ending. lewis assumes you will not take him at his word, but will generously treat this dance of desertion as a metaphor for what we all must feel sometime.
when she left me for billy
did you think i was silly
when i chased her all around town
didn't give a damn who was
hanging around telling me i was crazy
everybody's saying
that i'm crazy crazy yea
they're saying
look at that boy
he's crazy crazy yea
sure sure billy's pretty
he's the only cowboy in the city
never really seemed to matter
that his mind was in tatters
she shot me down
maybe it's the way
i've patterned my days
after her smiles
but when she calls me
says she wants to ball me
i'm a sucker to her wiles
when she left me for billy
did you think i was silly
anyplace i would take her
anywhere i would make her
mine.....lewis is crazy
everybody's saying
that i'm crazy crazy yea
they're saying
look at that boy
he's crazy crazy
yea
crazy crazy
yea
crazy crazy crazy
yea
lewis is crazy
"closing the door" is a country song in form done in a style unrelated to country music. when opting for the piano, handbell and trombone orchestration, the producers were reminded of an answer salvador dali once gave a student who asked why the watches in his famous painting were limp. "limp or hard", the master replied, "that is not important. the important thing is that they keep the right time." the restraint illustrated by john lissauer's hold on the string orchestra until the last measures is what one can at some very few moments feel in the thick of a difficult affair. it usually comes after the excess, that glimpse over the shoulder at one's limits. it occurred to the author, at this point, that he was dwelling excessively on the particular stamp of his own particular pain, but who doesn't. and anyway, he promised us a simple love song to end the album.
when you go
i want you to know
you're closing the door
behind you
if i see you again
try not to pretend
we've lost anything
of value
my generosity, generosity
is fading fast for you babe
i don't want to hear'bout tomorrow
curiosity, curiosity
is not going to be
the undoing of me
i'll carry my own tiny sorrow
like the hawk
who yearn to lock
his claws into every sparrow
you're the one
who loves to run
the needle through the bone
to the marrow
twenty lovers in a week
you can get them
sure you can
there's lots of geeks
and every mother one of them wants
to get lucky
maybe you need more than one man
probably a legion, everyone a fan
i'm trying to find it in me to hope
you're happy
but when you go
i feel you should know
you're closing a door
behind you
and if i see you again
promise not to pretend
we've lost anything
of value
"caught you" is another terrible horror song inspired by a quote from jean genet : "the child invents symbols of fear for himself using as materials what we clumsily refer to as reality".
caught you
poking through my disguise
did you
think you'd find human insides
cold as the winter's rain
private as a junkie's veini yours truly remain
caught you
investigating my mask
did you
find any traces from my past
the guns bark, the geese take flight
a starving man loses his appetite
my lips and my ass are shut tight
caught you
mining for gold in my eyes
why now
this look of shocked surprise
did you find the horny toad
while excavating the mother load
you're on the old bus
and the old bus is on
the old road
"love comes" is the promised simple love song. the ugly duckling makes a regal entrance in the guise of a bassoon to close the record.
love comes
and takes you
by your hand again
did you think
you'd remain
melancholy baby
the watermelons
are tasting so sweet
this year...
it's got to be
your year
it's got to be
my year
did you ever think you and me
were going to end up happy
can it be true ?
it's got to be true
i'm sending my love
out there to you
love comes
and takes me
by my hand again
i never thought i'd
feel the same
but here i am beside you
the watermelons
are tasting so sweet
this year...
it's got to be
your year
it's got to be
your year
did you ever think you and me
were going to end up happy
can it be true ?
it's got to be true
i'm sending my love
out there to you
