Unfinished Lyrics
A swag of lyrics Dave had no home for. These fragments show the
quality of Dave's second string lyrics. Most of these failed
to pass his stringent quality control checks.
Songs:
Jesus gave me nothing
Devil gave me twice as much
I know well which side I'll lean
When it's time to use my crutch
I was raised by all my lovers
All taught me in different ways
Oh but while the fine pleasures slips my mind
The bad love I remember to this day
© David McComb
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I give in easy but I play hard
I just leave them the number of my card
If it's fast or slow it's all the same to me
Well it's simply another leaf fallen from a tree
Here just pull the car to the side of the road
Can't you tell the truth by looking in my eyes
It's late in the day, my face in half shadow
But you can see the cliff face from the other side
Chorus:
Well the view it stretches for ever
and it stretches all day
How can you make love here/now
and still get away
Everyone needs a touch, everyone needs a lover
My friend fell out cold on me, he's black and blue
with not getting another
Did the crime so he's doing the time
now he's back home living with his mother
He's done fair (it's too hard)
I can't tell, only see him sometime
He's so frozen now so he can't come over
Chorus
© David McComb
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There's an angel in a blizzard
Banging on your thin window pane
You call the cops, case won't stick
The conviction slides
Maybe open the door a crack
With any luck you can hold her back
But if you can't escape her she'll come deep inside
CH:
What creature, what creature, what creature
Might she be if we take her in
If you fall by her side and lose your sight
(when you tell her all the things you know of me)
When she tells me all the things she knows of me
So I say bolt those doors and locks
Keep the wind from getting in
If this season hardens soon my hands won't move
But that angel at our door
She won't reach us any more
Since I've chained and bolted
All those locks will hold
© David McComb
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No mail now for eleven weeks
My tongue won't move when I try to speak
My remote control won't change the channel
My train broke down in the middle of the tunnel
If you think I'm joking why aren't I laughing?
It shouldn't be me that's up here singing
Chorus:
In the dark, in the dark
Trying to feel my way home in the dark
There's seven doors from which to choose
Choose all but one and you will lose
Behind each door is a different sin
One tunnel ends where another begins
A laughing girl by the name of Alice
A redhaired boy with a wicked grin
(Chorus)
Summer throwing off our clothes in the park
With our eyes wide open
The smell of new cut grass in our hair, everywhere
Rolling, everywhere
Rolling, everywhere
Night spreads out against the sky
Men and women drinking take-home pay
The harbour lights are turned up full
The freeways never close
The sun's turned off and there's a world of entertainment waiting....
(Chorus)
© David McComb
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I can see through the soles of my feet
I can draw detailed maps of the world in my sleep
I picked up Jesus last night
I gave him a ride
He asked me how fast I was driving
I asked him how far he needed to go
He said fear was the only thing that kept him alive
I was far from surprised
© David McComb
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Take the black road by the beach
Drive north all night until the car breaks down
Get out, strip, walk into the water
Keep walking 'til you like what you've found
I know what you're thinking
You thing I've gone just a little too far
I won't beg forgiveness
If you don't like it get back in the car
Evil feelings - melt in your mouth like snow in spring
Evil feelings - make a strong man weak as a bird with a broken
wing
Evil feelings - give you words to a song that you'll never
sing
Evil feelings - make you see beauty in the ugly thing
Close your eyes, clear your head
A gun in your hand is good for your health
I know the shape of your dreams
Better than you know them yourself
I know what you're thinking
You think this is all just a little too much
But that thing in your hand
Will go off with the slightest touch
© David McComb
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Let's get lost, take the black road by the beach
Drive south all night until the car breaks down
Get out, strip, walk into the water
Keep walking 'til you like what you've found
I know what you're thinking
You think I've gone just a little too far
I won't beg forgiveness
If you don't like it get back in the car
Let's get close, let's get close
Show me things
That you see in your sleep
I am a stone rippling in your pool
I melt in your mouth like snow in spring
I am the teeth tearing at your crust
I make you see beauty in the ugly thing
Let's get close
© David McComb
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Mad, bad, sad/my reputation precedes me
Pure as driven snow/ain't a sucker alive who believes me
God save your white ass boy/if ya ever deceive me
My backyard is fulla men's bones/who tried to bereave me
(Well they tried, so they died)
THIS IS A WARNING FROM THE GOVERNMENT
YOU ARE COMPLETELY SURROUNDED
GIVE YOURSELF UP OR YOU WILL BE TAKEN BY FORCE
Chorus:
My name is Girl....Trouble
My name is Betty...Rubble
My name is Alice...Dallas
My name is Girl....Trouble
Sally round the roses, come blow your noses
Little boy blue come blow out your brains
Take the bull by the horns, stick it on the plate
If ya ain't got the speed get off the fast line
Black Morticia, Narcoticia
Anastasia, Anaesthesia
Dottie Parker, Ronnoie Spector
Not Diana Ross, not fairy floss
Desdemona, Girlfriend in a coma
My name's Girl Trouble, gonna prick your bubble
Hey diddle diddle your boyfriend is a lemon
Not a chauvinist pig, just plain gammon
Calamnity Jane, Wilma Flintstone, Jessica Rabbit and Deidre
Mc?
Like Joanna Panic and her Bible Of Dreams
Double Girl Trouble on the answering machine
In the wee small hours baby makin' the scene
Marinja Tsvetayeva if ya know wara meen
Like Lou Salome, I'm a wild muse
The Singer not the song, not the spouse's excuse
© David McComb
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Come in gentlemen, the coffee's on, there's room enough here for everyone
Sit down, relax my friends, I'm not about to run - there is
no need to put those handcuffs on
I can't wait to see your gun
I've killed in passion and I've killed cold, I've wasted lives other
than my own
Even tried to do some good, even tried to live alone
But nothing became clear from it and nothing was resolved
Jesus tried to speak to me, of things I just half-heard, of how he
cast out moneylenders and their tables he overturned.
Well the only law I know of now, the only thing I learned,
is the cold steel barrel against my temple as it burns
Chorus:
Yo've never lived until you've killed someone
I have no fear of you or anyone
Some people sing about love, how it makes them cry
how it makes them happy, how it passes them by
© David McComb
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It won't take a long time baby
The street is dirty and Jesus I am lazy
My semi-detached is dug in the side of a hill
Just another hole that I borrowed into
And if I'm caught for cash or speeding
Whatever happens to me will be happening to you (X2)
Ch: But when I get to heaven
Waiting on the side of the road
Nobody you could recognise with nothing to hold on to
If I don't get a ride it won't matter
Cos I don't know where I'd go to
If I kneel before you will you still stand?
If I say I love you can I hold your hand?
If I had to rebuild your heart from the start, I'd try
If I did it might still fall apart
It made me take my life in my hands
Made the strongest one turn into a weakling
But it won't take a long time for me
Morning dogs bark soon as my shoe hits the pavement
Kissing you in the dark, I guess
We both know something is scaring me
I have paid the money and placed the bets
So is it just the devil that's daring me
Keep still, if it's dark he can't hit you
Wrap the sheets around your cold limbs
Listen for that tap on the glass
This won't last long, just say when
You'll still get to heaven if you wanted to
© David McComb
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Jimmy go fetch me some water
Fetch me some water from the stream
Bring it to me in a silver cup
And tonight you'll be in my dreams
Jimmy go fetch me some flowers
Pick them from the side of the hill
Bring them to me tied in red string
And I'll teach you to love not to kill
Jimmy go fetch me a bible
You'll find it at the bottom of the drawer
I'll read to you what you've forgotten
And I promise you won't suffer any more
INTRO:
Seven days, seven nights
against fever and madness
I fought for my life
I didn't think, didn't think, didn't think
that I would ever pull through
But when I opened my eyes you were there by my side
You said "I've got something to ask of you"
© David McComb
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If I came any closer
Close enough to kiss
Would you feel enough left (in you)?
to give of me what was left
Like the smile of a stranger
or the snarl of a chained dog
There's never trust enough
I could promise to let go of
You could still keep your distance
I would understand
Nobody wants to be pulled dowm
by the weight of a drowning man
Now that the fire is cold blown out
Winds circle from north to south
Cold comes with time that burns out
these words from my mouth
If I came any closer
close enough to see my lips move
I swear I'll tell the truth
and if I'm lyin' when I say there's love left
you'll see my lips move
© David McComb
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The bodies of the lovers were lying in an inch
of dirty water, I couldn't tell which was which
Murder weapons tight like precious jewellry in their hands
The moment of their struggle recorded there in the sand
The safety-catch released, the marriage finally arranged
The fingerprints and credit-card signatures were changed
The points of entry burned into the neck, into the back
Don't let sentimental feeling get in the way of the facts
There's a million ways to tell the truth
The boardroom is full and the deal's going through
The secretary's saying, can we get back to you
We founf the perfect method, we're just covering the clues
It's a license to print money, it's too good to be true
In the back of my mind, something's gone wrong
I've been having dizzy spells, I can't think for too long
But I pour myself a drink and tell myself I'll pull through
I thank God for giving me beauty, talent and youth
And a million ways to tell the truth
And I stammer my words, and I break into a sweat
When I think of the bodies so warm and so wet
One of them was Jacob and one of them was Jude
The case was almost closed but I needed more proof
The Christian killed the Muslim, the Muslim killed the Jew
And the blood was on the hands of everyone who told the truth
And every soul that's searching has a special place to fill
And if it isn't me who kills her, I know someone else will
There's a million ways to tell the truth
The bodies on the slab, Doc Price hunched over his blade
The killer's taped confession erasing as it's played
The witness was hysterical, and all the women screamed
The coroner's report was stolen when we cleared the scene
The original's still missing but we've found a substitute
We can't pronounce it yet but we're working on that too
Once you've gotten used to it, it trips right off your tongue
You forget what it was you did before you had this much fun
There's a million ways to tell the truth
Well I swear I love you baby and I will forever more
But I don't think I'm the person you first mistook me for
You only recognised me when I was down upon my knees
Now I move in higher circles and you can't afford my fee
The story of my life is so strange I have to lie
And the pleasures that you worship are the ones I despise
I need you as my proof I need you as my alibi
But you don't believe I'm here unless I'm right before your
eyes
And yours to suck the goodness from, and yours to buy and sell,
Contaminate and criticise, as though you knew sick from well
Yours to bend or twist or sweeten, yours to falsify
And if this new dance is a hit, well no one said you lied
So work upon your image then we'll listen to your song
We'll eliminate the problem area between right and wrong
But there's seven doors from which to choose, and seven ways
in which to lose
And the seven words that damn you are the seven words you'll
use:
A million ways to tell the truth
© David McComb
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I can't shake this murderous plot from my bones
I can't wash this dangerous wine from my veins
I was a young fellow so restless and fine
But the ways of a mind made me old 'fore my time
In the darkness of mind I dwelt deep in my thoughts
I never sought kindness or friendship or talk
I churned over and over the same fallow ground
I dealt myself blows but I made not a sound
The laughter(singing) of children meant nothing to me
The colours of a sunrise I could not see
I may have known love from sweetheart or family
But the ways of a mind were more real to me
I knew not my body, I felt no sense in my flesh
The rays of the sun never played on my skin
I lived against nature, I never even knew
Why there'd be some pleasure holding one close to you
© David McComb
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Rock and stone and ironstone and sand
Never have I seen such a threadbare land
Where no green buds are formed and nothing new gets born
I feel I've aged a year for every day I've been gone
But the bad years are behind me now I'm finally home
Tell me dear why is your face so white?
Yes it's me , I'm finally home,
the one who loves you the most.
Pardon me dear, did I give you such a fright?
You look like you've just seen a ghost
© David McComb
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Well there isn't much left, but we still do our best
Wake up feeling finely, when we know we've not slept
Don't know which road to turn in next
I could ask you for the second, still don't know which is first
Third from the left
There's a turn you take just third from the left
Then you're clean as a whistle
Nobody squealed and nobody whispered
Nobody screamed and nobody whispered
All the others still ask after you
If I knew I would let you know first
Well of all simplest things in the world
I forget them first, I remember them last
Ch:
There isn't much left, just the ends of the day (X2)
If I could put it a nicer way
Well for you I would put it that way
They say I'm still with you, we both know it's half true
Seems these days I'm losing my sight
Cos there's not much in view
I've got all your best regards, keep 'em close to my heart
And the one you sent last Christmas
I keep that one so safely apart
Well there's Jack and her good looking friend
I see them most every day
But the one who can make me laugh loudest
Doesn't pass much this way
There isn't much left, just a good way to spend the day
And I guess if it had to end
It all helped taking up time and pain
But that's the long way (X2)
I have been there before
Now I'm too tired to do it that way
© David McComb
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Peel Back The Night (working title) A country bumpkin goes
out to a nightclub
Peel back the shadows
Peel back the air
layers of night
with choirs of angels -
Picture yourself there
Tender bodies
Slender possibilities
An ocean of new faces
- young men and women -
eager as puppies
to be buried in each other's beauty
Peel back the shadows
Peel back the air
Layers of night
with choirs of angels -
assembled for you there
When the smoke clears
a face in the light
It's so late dear
- but this feels right
Peel back the clothes
Pin back the hair
What were the chances
of finding someone like you here?
The girl on the door
said they don't usually let
country folk (fall in love)
in here anymore
But they don't know about us
And they've never heard
of love
© David McComb
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A tiny place, a secret song
A special place with nothing wrong
A certain young girl, not yet grown up
Just as she grows to run
She soon learns to stop
Counts every sound, single whisper she hears
Until it breaks morning, after that it's hers
And she learns every simple fine and
Mindless song in her sleep
And she learns every note made for every one beat
Next morning she wakes it's still black
And upon the window she hears a slight tap
Some little friend
Has come so far for her
Not a tap for just someone
But a tap just for her
Just one mousey fringe
Hung limp across a face
And with a lip rimmed with that milk
A lack of grace
Now their town it is sleeping to wireless words
And nothing has risen but the dogs and the birds
© David McComb
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Like a night watch over water
or a car turning around a narrow bend
Arms wrapped around your shoulders,
like words spoken by a friend
When I awoke and I heard you call
I thought every tongue in town would bend
But silence gets to those that deserve it
what remains is words spoken by a friend
There isn't any castle to live in
Everything you see here you can barely grow or mend
But between Hoddle Street and the river
you can hear words spoken by a friend
Like a night watch over water
or a car turning around a narrow bend
Arms wrapped around your shoulders,
like words spoken by a friend
Spoken Just Like A Friend
© David McComb
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Sunday night through Monday morning
Leave me the number of someone good
Put me in touch....don't take forever baby/with that special
feeling
I'd do the same for you now if I could
I went back again to the town of my childhood
Where once we ran like devils from tree to tree
I looked for my friends but I never did see one
Seems they were all rank strangers to me
C'mon cab driver I'm good for the fare
And you know a boy like me deserves a break
Hey mister turn off the meter - that ticking
is just making my whole body ache
I used to be the name on every pair of lips
I was who the kids always wanted to be
Now I'm sitting here listening to the rain outside
Talking to these folks I just met on TV
crossed out:
Picking up where we left off
This is where I left you
Between your second marriage and the bus stop
Someone already wrote that song
And it already lasted too long
© David McComb
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Terry went to the boss, asked him if he could take off some time
Boss said "Why?"; Terry said "Well there's just something
on my mind"
It was the tenth of May, the air was sticky as he walked from the bus
stop
Terry didn't check the mail, he just felt the key turn in the
front door lock
There was nothing in the fridge. Donahue was talking to people on TV;
Testimony from a man in a wheel chair, a faith healer and a
blue haired divorcee.
Donahue said: "Can the act of love be so terrible as to bring
a grown man to his knees?"
Terry smashed a piece of Dresden china. The blue haired divorcee
agreed.
Terry went into the bedroom slowly, being careful where he stepped.
The first thing he saw was the mirror where he and his wife
slept.
Terry turned off the lights, drew the blinds, shut the bedroom door.
He'd once seen naked bodies in this mirror, he didn't want
to see naked bodies in his head anymore.
TERRY DIDN'T WANT TO
(Donahue kept talking. Terry couldn't hear a word he said)
TERRY DIDN'T WANT TO
(Terry walked into the bedroom slowly, being careful where
he stepped)
TERRY DIDN'T WANT TO
The first thing he saw was the mirror by the bed where he and
his wife slept)
TERRY DIDN'T WANT TO
(Donahue just kept talking, Terry couldn't hear a word he said)
© David McComb
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I got a patch of sand under a stretch of sky
a little sunlit strip you and me
could come and kill time
wind in the alley calls us by name
finger of chalk on the slate of days
on our little street on a peeling window frame
we scratch the emblem of love erase our family shame
no date of birth, lost in
a sense of place
the sun's black rag wipes out our names
down by the river we dive in the water
we feel it take our body so
everything we dream of passes through our fingers
every law, every fear, our song dissolves
rock and stone ironstone and sand
never was there such a threadbare land
© David McComb
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$50 room on the 21st floor
Do Not Disturb sign hanging on the door
Think of giving up, maybe settling down
Thinking what it would be like: Homeward Bound
Wake up late in the afternoon
Wearing someone else's shirt and some cheap perfume
Blanket on the window, ashtray in the bed
You can't remember what you did or said
A lotta people tumble and a lotta people fall
But they pick themselves up, they don't eat off the floor
whydjadoit, why you want to fade away
whydjadoit, do it baby to yourself
Some people want your blood
Some people want to help
Things you do scare me to death
Helplessness is on your breath
© David McComb
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