richard palmer james - king crimson lyrics

8/10/2019 Richard Palmer James - King Crimson Lyrics

1/7

"Book Of Saturday"

If I only could deceive you

Forgetting the game

Every time I try to leave you

You laugh just the same

'Cause my wheels never touch the road

And the jumble of lies we told

Just returns to my back to weigh me down...

We lay cards upon the table

The backs of our hands

And I swear I like your people

The boys in the band

Reminiscences gone astray

Coming back to enjoy the frayIn a tangle of night and daylight sounds...

All completeness in the morning

Asleep on your side

I'll be waking up the crewmen

Banana-boat ride

She responds like a limousine

Brought alive on the silent screen

To the shuddering breath of yesterday...

There's the succour of the needy

Incredible scenes

I'll believe you in the future

Your life and death dreams

As the cavalry of despair

Takes a stand in the lady's hair

For the favour of making sweet sixteen...

You make my life and times

A book of bluesy Saturdays

And I have to chose


2/7

"Exiles"

Now...in this faraway land

Strange...that the palms of my hands

Should be damp with expectancy

Spring...and the air's turning mild

City lights...and the glimpse of a child

Of the alleyway infantry

Friends...do they know what I mean

Rain...and the gathering green

Of an afternoon out-of-town

But Lord I had to go

My trail was laid too slow behind me

To face the call of fame

Or make a drunkard's name for meThough now this other life

Has brought a different understanding

And from these endless days

Shall come a broader sympathy

And though I count the hours

To be alone's no injury...

My home...was a place near the sand

Cliffs...and a military band

Blew and air of normality

"Easy Money"

Your admirers on the street

Gotta hoot and stamp their feet

In the heat from your physique

As you twinkle by in moccasin sneakers

And I thought my heart would break

When you doubled up at the stake

With your fingers all a-shake

You could never tell a winner from a snake

but you always make money

Easy money

With your figure and your face

Strutting out at every race

Throw a glass around the place

Show the colour of your crimson suspenders


3/7

We would take the money home

Sit around the family throne

My old dog could chew his bone

For two weeks we could appease the Almighty

Easy money

Got no truck with the la-di-da

Keep my bread in an old fruit jar

Drive you out in a motor-car

Getting fat on your lucky star just making

"The Great Deceiver"

Health-food faggot with a bartered bride

Likes to comb his hair with a dipper rideOnce had a friend with a cloven foot

Once he called the tune in a chequered quit

Great Deceiver

In the door on the floor in a paper bag

There's a shoe-shine boy with a gin-shop slag

She raised him up and she called him son

And she canonised the ground that he walked upon

Great Deceiver

Cigarettes, ice cream, figurines of the Virgin Mary


Cigarettes, ice cream, cadillacs blue jeans

In the night he's a star in the Milky Way

He's a man of the world by the light of day

A golden smile and a proposition

And the breath of God smells of sweet sedition

Great Deceiver

Sing hymns make love get high fall dead

He'll bring his perfume to your bed

He'll charm your life 'til the cold winds blow

Then he'll sell your dreams to a picture show



4/7


Cadillacs, blue jeans, dixieland playing on the ferry

Cadillacs, blues jeans, drop a glass full of antique sherry

"Lament"

I guess I tried to show you how

I'd take the crowd with my guitar

And business men would clap their hands

And clip another fat cigar

And publishers would spread the news

And print my music far and wide

And all the kids who played the blues

Would learn my licks with a bottle neck slide

But now it seems the bubble's burst

Although you know there was a time

When love songs gathered in my head

With poetry in every line

And strong men strove to hold the doors

While with my friends I passed the age

When people stomped on dirty floors

Before I trod the rock'n'roll stage

I'll thank the man who's on the 'phone

And if he has the time to spendThe problem I'll explain once more

And indicate a sum to lend

That ten percent is now a joke

Maybe thirty, even thirty-five

I'll say my daddy's had a stroke

He'd have one now, if he only was alive

I like the way you look at me

You're laughing too down there inside

I took my chance and you took yours

You crewed my ship, we missed the tide

I like the way the music goes

There's a few good guys who can play it right

I like the way it moves my toes

Just say when you want to go and dance all night...


5/7

"The Night Watch"

Shine, shine, the light of good works shine

The watch before the city gates depicted in their prime

That golden light all grimy now

Three hundred years have passed

The worthy Captain and his squad of troopers standing fast

The artist knew their faces well

The husbands of his lady friends

His creditors and councillors

In armour bright, the merchant men

Official moments of the guild

In poses keen from bygone days

The city fathers frozen there

Upon the canvas dark with age

The smell of paint, a flask of wine

And turn those faces all to me

The blunderbuss and halberd-shaft

And Dutch respectability

They make their entrance one by one

Defenders of that way of life

The redbrick home, the bourgeoisie

Guitar lessons for the wife

So many years we suffered hereOur country racked with Spanish wars

Now comes a chance to find ourselves

And quiet reigns behind our doors

We think about posterity again

And so the pride of little men

The burghers good and true

Still living through the painter's hand

Request you all to understand

"Fallen Angel"

Tears of joy at the birth of a brother

Never alone from that time

Sixteen Years through knife fights and danger

Strangely why his life not mine


6/7

West side skyline crying

Fallen angel dying

Risk a life to make a dime

Lifetimes spent on the streets of a city

Make us the people we are

Switchblade stings in one tenth of a moment

Better get back to the car

Snow white side streets of cold New York City

Stained with his blood it all went wrong

Sick and tired blue wicked and wild

God only knows for how long

Fallen angel

Fallen angel

West side skyline

Crying for an angel dyingLife expiring in the city

Fallen angel...

"One More Red Nightmare"

Pan American nightmare

Ten thousand feet fun-fair

Convinced that I don't care

It's safe as houses I swear

I was just sitting musingThe virtues of cruising

When altitude dropping

My ears started popping

One more red nightmare

Sweat beginning to pour down

My neck as I turn round

I heard fortune shouting

Just get off of this outing

A farewell swan song

See you know how turbulence can be

The stewardess made me


Reality stirred me

My angel had heard me

The prayer had been answered

A reprieve has been granted

The dream was now broken


7/7

Thought rudely awoken

Really safe and sound

Asleep on the Greyhound


"Starless"

Sundown dazzling day

Gold through my eyes

But my eyes turned within

Only see

Starless and bible black

Ice blue silver sky

Fades into grey

To a grey hope that oh years to beStarless and bible black

Old friend charity

Cruel twisted smile

And the smile signals emptiness

For me

Starless and bible black

richard palmer james - king crimson lyrics

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