20 Years of Jethro Tull lyrics

Gonna lose my way tomorrow,
gonna give away my car.
I'd take you along with me,
but you would not go so far.
Don't see what I do not want to see,
you don't hear what I don't say.
Won't be what I don't want to be,
I continue in my way.

Don't see, see, see where I'm goin',
Don't see, see, see where I'm goin',
Don't see, see, see where I'm goin' to,
I don't want to.

Going back in the morning time
to see if my love has changed her mind, yeah.
I know what I will find
that she is wasting time,
she could be picking roses.

Going back in the morning time
to see if my love has seen the light, yeah.
Oh, I told her last night
she should improve her sight,
she could be painting the roof.

Going back in the morning time
to see if my love has come around, yeah.

Don't want to be a fat man,
people would think that I was
just good fun.
Would rather be a thin man,
I am so glad to go on being one.
Too much to carry around with you,
no chance of finding a woman who
will love you in the morning and all the night time too.

Don't want to be a fat man,
have not the patience to ignore all that.
Hate to admit to myself half of my problems
came from being fat.

[Instrumental]

I said they call it stormy monday
But I said [...]
I said they call it stormy monday
[...]
Wednesday’s full of sorrow,
I said that thursday’s oh-so, it’s oh-so-sad. it’s oh-so-sad.

I said lord, lord, why don’t you have mercy,
You gotta have mercy on me.

I been trying to find my woman,
Won’t you bring her home to me?

I said they call it stormy monday.

My first and last time with you
and we had some fun.
wenT walking through the trees, yeah!
And then I kissed you once.
Oh I want to see you soon
but I wonder how.
It was a new day yesterday
but it's an old day now.

Spent a long time looking
for a game to play.
My luck should be so bad now
to turn out this way.
Oh I had to leave today
just when I thought I'd found you.
It was a new day yesterday

And ride with us young bonny lass ---
with the angels of the night.
Crack wind clatter --- flesh rein bite on an out-size
unicorn.
Rough-shod winging sky blue flight on a cold wind
to Valhalla.
And join with us please --- Valkyrie maidens cry
above the cold wind to Valhalla.
Break fast with the gods. Night angels serve
with ice-bound majesty.
Frozen flaking fish raw nerve ---

The minstrel in the gallery looked down upon the
smiling faces.
He met the gazes --- observed the spaces between the
old men's cackle.
He brewed a song of love and hatred --- oblique
suggestions --- and he waited.
He polarized the pumpkin-eaters --- static-humming
panel-beaters --- freshly day-glow'd factory cheaters
(salaried and collar-scrubbing).

Walking on velvet green. Scots pine growing.
Isn't it rare to be taking the air, singing.
Walking on velvet green.
Walking on velvet green. Distant cows lowing.
Never a care: with your legs in the air, loving.
Walking on velvet green.
Won't you have my company, yes, take it in your hands.
Go down on velvet green, with a country man.
Who's a young girls fancy and an old maid's dream.

Hello sun.
Hello bird.
Hello my lady.
Hello breakfast. May I
buy you again tomorrow

We travellers on the endless wastes in single orbits,
gliding cold-eyed march towards the dawn behind
hard-weather hoods a-hiding.
Meeting as the tall ships do, passing in the channel
afraid to chance a gentle touch ---
afraid to make the clasp.

In high-rise city canyons dwells the discontent of ages.
On ring roads, nose to bumper crawl
commuters in their cages. Cryptic signals flash

In the half-tone light of a young morning
she sighs and shifts on the pillow.
And across her face dancing, the first shadows fly
to kiss the Pussy Willow.
In her fairy-tale world she's a lost soul singing
in a sad voice nobody hears.
She waits in her castle of make-believe
for her white knight to appear.
Pusy Willow down fur-lined avenue
brushing the sleep from her young woman eyes.

Fallen on hard times --- but it feels good to know
that milk and honey's just around the bend.
Running on bad lines --- we'd better run as we go,
Tear up, tear up the overdraft again.

Oh, dear Prime Minister --- it's all such a mess.
Go right ahead and pull the rotten tooth.
Oh, Mr. President --- you've been put to the test.
Come clean, for once, and hit us with the truth.

Through long December nights we talk in words of rain or snow

while you, through chattering teeth, reply and curse us as you go.

Why not spare a thought this day for those who have no flame
To warm their bones at Christmas time?

Say Jack Frost and the Hooded Crow.

Now as the last broad oak leaf falls, we beg: consider this ---

Blew my smoke on a sunny day

when the first black powder came my way.

Hot lead ball from a muzzle cold ---

to win fair lady and take your gold.
I know it hardly seems the time ---

(I am your gun)

to talk of blue steel so sublime.

I can understand your point of view.

To tell the truth I'd scare me too.

Match, wheel and flintlock, they all caught your eye.

I am your neighbor. I seem most respectable,
But underneath I’m an iniquitous toad.
So many dreadful mishaps have befallen you ---
Down at the end of your road.
And I live down the end of your road.

I’m working on ways to remove you from paradise ---
From your striped lawn and your new swimming pool.
I place broken bottles in your geraniums ---
Sabotage your gardening tools.

(words and music by david palmer)

Grey the mist --- cold the dawn;
Cruel the sea and stern the shore.
Brave the man who sets his course
For albion.

Sweet the rose --- sharp the thorn;
Meek the soil and proud the corn.
Blessed the lamb that would be born
Within this green and pleasant land.
Hi-o-ran-i-o
Hi-o-ran-i-o

Brown furrow shine
Beneath the rain washed blue.
Bright crystal streams

I once met a girl with the life in her hands
And we lay together on the summerday sands.
I gave her my raincoat and told her, ``lady, be good!’’
And we made truth together, where no one else would.

I smiled through her fingers and ran the dust through her hands ---
The hour-glass of reason on the summerday sands.

We sat as the sea caught fire.
Waited as the flames grew higher

Too many drivers in too many cars.
Too many lost souls drinking in too many bars.
Too many heroes stepping on too many toes.
Too many yes-men nodding when they really mean no.
Too many lives each cat can lose ---
We’ve got too many too.
Too many too.

Too much sunshine. too many drops of rain.
Too many equal and average children who will all grow up the same.

What would you like for christmas ---
A new polarity?
You’re binary, and desperate to deal
In high figures
That lick us with their hotter flame ---
Lick each and everyone the same.
And march, the mad scientist,
Rings a new change
In ever-dancing colours.

He rings it here and he rings it...
But no one stops to see
The change of fate and the fate of change
That slips into his pocket ---

[Instrumental]

Fish and chips, sandpaper lips and a rainy pavement.
Soho lights, another night --- thinking of you.
Black cat, sat on a wall, winks at me darkly.
Suggesting ways and means that I might win a smile ---

As you leave the place where you work until 12.30
And the policemen nods as you pass along his beat.
Sweaty feet, troubled brow -- we’re all in the same game, lady.

[Instrumental]

I work in dark factories --- a cog in the big wheel
Driving grey satanic mills and weaving sad stories.
And faceless masters --- oh, they pay me plenty ---
Crumbs from their luncheon packs, harsh wine from
Bottles halk empty.

A stitch in time saves nine.
Said cock robin from the wall.
It’s an early bird catches the worm.
Show a little pride before you fall.

Sitting on a park bench --
eyeing ittle girls with bad intent.
Snot running down his nose --
greasy fingers smearing shabby clothes.
Drying in the cold sun --
Watching as the frilly panties run.
Feeling like a dead duck --
spitting out pieces of his broken lung
Sun streaking cold --
an old man wandering lonely.
Taking time
the only way he knows.
Leg hurting bad,
as he bends to pick a dog-end --

[Instrumental]

Sitting on a park bench --
eyeing little girls with bad intent.
Snot running down his nose --
greasy fingers smearing shabby clothes.
Drying in the cold sun --
Watching as the frilly panties run.
Feeling like a dead duck --
spitting out pieces of his broken luck.

Sun streaking cold --
an old man wandering lonely.
Taking time
the only way he knows.
Leg hurting bad,

You'll hear me calling in your sweet dream

can't you hear your daddies warning cry.
You're going back to be all the things you used to be

while in sweet dreams you softly sigh.

No one can see us in your sweet dream

don't hear you leave to start your car.
All wrapped up thightly in the coat you borrowed from me

your place of resting is not far.

R E F R A I N :

Lick Your Fingers Clean

I�ll see you at the weighing-in when you�re life�s sum-total�s made
And you set your wealth in godly deeds against the sins you�ve laid
So, you place your final burden on your hard-pressed next of kin
Send the chamber pot back down the line to be filled up again
Take your mind off your election and try to get it straight

a) Scenario

In long years of ancient time, stood alone a friend of mine.

Reflected by the ever-burning sigh of a god who happened by.

And in the dawn, there came the song of some sweet lady singing in his ear.
Your god has gone, and from now on, you'll have to learn to hate

the things you fear.

We want to know, are we inside the womb

Have you ever stood in the april wood
And called the new year in?
While the phantoms of three thousand years fly
As the dead leaves spin?
There’s a snap in the grass behind your feet
And a tap upon your shoulder.
And the thin wind crawls along your neck ---
It’s just the old gods getting older.
And the kestral drops like a fall of shot and
The red cloud hanging high ---

Walking on air, shoulder and head above you.
Down in the street, black canyons walking through.
Hooded sad eyes, fixed on your shuffle shoes.
Life is a clue in your crossword.

Typewriter turk. telephone terror takes time to wind down.
Push-button finger shakes.
City of dreams. back to your quiet nightmare.
Your life is a clue in the crossword.

Working to rule in your own time.

They left me, leaving my house on fire, me running round ---
Got out through the window.
While clinging to the skirts of fate
Was not my idea of fun
I’ll jump to it gladly.
The town was filled with smoke and hate.
Came to my senses just too late
To realize that all I ever owned
Was borrowed. I thanked them for having shown
Me that nothing ever really belongs to anyone.

Cold aeroplanes, slow boats, warm trains
Remind me of jack-a-lynn.
Lush hotels and pretty girls
Won’t cheer the misty mood I’m in.
Silly, sad --- I’ve never had to write this before ---
Oh, jack-a-lynn.

Funny how long nights allow
Thoughts of jack-a-lynn.
When phantoms tread around my bed
To offer restless dreams they bring.
And it’s just the time and place to find

Out on the fast and free way,
Humming along through a build-up ad-man’s dream.
Steaking past in a cloud of spray
Goes the high-performance motor queen.
And she looks round at me
Reflecting neon in her motoreyes.
And now the chase is on.
I know who’ll be the loser --- me.

See the end curve coming, then we’re
Back on the street through the late theater crowds.

[Instrumental]

I have to call you up. think I’ve seen a vision of rhythm in gold.
No cat could ever move that way. no puss would dare to be so bold.
Must tell the boys to follow you.
Catch you where you go to ground.
A lady of means, I can see. rhythm in gold is getting to me.
What’s your name, and where can I find you?

Are you just a rich man’s friend,
Or was it always in the family?

Everybody’s jumping on the circus train.
Some jump high, some jump off again.
And the razzmatazz is rolling, women folk unveiled.
All truths to light, all crosses nailed.
Aiming high where the eagle circles ---
Where he keeps his tail feathers clean.
And wonders ``am I still a free bird?
Or just a part of the machine.’’

They hitch their coverd wagons and they roll out west.

When we’re working nights, the village round
The old church becomes scary town.
All curtained windows and bolted doors
But never a eye to see
As us fairy folks sweep from the hill
Never caught us and never will.
Pulling roses and daffodils ---
Mayhem in the high degree.

The blacksmith chased us all to ground.
They searched all night --- we were never found.

Good morning, gentlemen. why the uneasy frowns?
Too much everything and I can’t recall. did I let you down?
Nobody will answer me. makes me feel that I want to die.
My mind is inclined to lie.
Oh, no --- think I did it last night again.
Oh, no --- been out on the overhang again.

My hotel room was a battleground.
How did I find my way?

There was a warm wind with the high tide
On the south of the hill.
When a young girl went a-walking
And I followed with a will.
``good day to you, my fine young lady
With your lips so sweetly full.
May I help you comb your long hair ---
Sweep it from that brow so cool? ’’

Up, ride with the kelpie.
I’ll steal your soul to the deep.

The bomb’s in the china. the fat’s in the fire.
There’s no turkey left on the table.
The commuter’s return on the six o’clock flyer
Brings no bale of hay for the stable.
Well, the light, it is failing along the green belt
As we follow the hard road signs.
Semi-detached in our suburban-ness ---
We’re living in these hard times.

Paparazzi

Paparazzi, can't make the man.
Paparazzi, can't break the man.

Next to the transit lounge
see the Paparazzi tears.
No-one came in today
from Boston or Tangiers.
And in departures ---
only faceless trippers trip,
loaded with duty free
held in white knuckle grip.

Snap it up, flash away ---
steal a camel for a day.
Break the story in heavy type ---
the news is running late tonight.

Come, let me play with you, black satin dancer.
In all your giving, given is the answer.
Tearing life from limb and looking sweeter than the
brightest flower in my garden.
Begging your pardon --- shedding right unreason.
Over sensation fly the fleeting seasons.
Thin wind whispering on broken mandolin.
Bending the minutes --- the hours ever turning on that
old gold story of mercy.

Brain-storming habit-forming battle-warning weary
winsome actor spewing spineless chilling lines ---
the critics falling over to tell themselves he's boring
and really not an awful lot of fun.
Well who the hell can he be when he's never had V.D.,
and he doesn't even sit on toilet seats
Court-jesting, never-resting --- he must be very cunning
to assume an air of dignity

On Preston platform
do your soft shoe shuffle dance.
Brush away the cigarette ash that's
falling down your pants.
And you sadly wonder
does the nurse treat your old man
the way she should.
She made you tea,
asked for your autograph --
what a laugh.

Wond'ring aloud --
how we feel today.
Last night sipped the sunset --
my hands in her hair.
We are our own saviours
as we start both our hearts beating life
into each other.

Wond'ring aloud --
will the years treat us well.
As she floats in the kitchen,
I'm tasting the smell
of toast as the butter runs.
Then she comes, spilling crumbs on the bed
and I shake my head.
And it's only the giving

Clear light on a slick palm
as I mis-deal the day
Slip the night from a shaved pack
make a marked card play
Call twilight hours down
from a heaven home
high above the highest bidder
for the good Lord's throne
In the wee hours I'll meet you
down by Dun Ringill ---
oh, and we'll watch the old gods play
by Dun Ringill
We'll wait in stone circles
`til the force comes through ---

Salamander ---
born in the sun-kissed flame.
Who was it lit your candle ---
branded you with your name
I see you walking by my window
in your Kensington haze.
Salamander, burn for me
and I'll burn for you.

The leaded window opened
to move the dancing candle flame
And the first Moths of summer
suicidal came.
And a new breeze chattered
in its May-bud tenderness ---
Sending water-lillies sailing
as she turned to get undressed.
And the long night awakened
and we soared on powdered wings ---
Circling our tomorrows
in the wary month of Spring.
Chasing shadows slipping
in a magic lantern slide ---

Tip-toes in silence `round my bed
and quiets the raindrops overhead.
With her everlasting smile
She still my fever for a while.
Oh, nursie dear,
I'm glad you're here
to brush away my pain.

When you're falling awake and you take stock of the new day,
and you hear your voice croak as you choke on what you need to say,
well, don't you fret, don't you fear,
I will give you good cheer.

Life's a long song.
Life's a long song.
Life's a long song.

If you wait then your plate I will fill.

As the verses unfold and your soul suffers the long day,

There's a haze on the skyline, to wish me on my way.
And there's a note on the telephone --- some roses on a
tray.
And the motorway's stretching right out to us all,
as I pull on my old wings --- one white duck
on your wall.
Isn't it just too damn real
I'll catch a ride on your violin --- strung upon your bow.
And I'll float on your melody --- sing your chorus soft
and low.

Let me bring you songs from the wood:
to make you feel much better than you could know.
Dust you down from tip to toe.
Show you how the garden grows.
Hold you steady as you go.
Join the chorus if you can:
it'll make of you an honest man.
Let me bring you love from the field:
poppies red and roses filled with summer rain.
To heal the wound and still the pain
that threatens again and again

Happy and I'm smiling,
walk a mile to drink your water.
You know I'd love to love you,
and above you there's no other.
We'll go walking out
while others shout of war's disaster.
Oh, we won't give in,
let's go living in the past.

Once I used to join in
every boy and girl was my friend.
Now there's revolution, but they don't know
what they're fighting.
Let us close out eyes;

Well the dawn was coming,
heard him ringing on my bell.
He said, ``My name's the teacher,
that is what I call myself.
And I have a lesson
that I must impart to you.
It's an old expression
but I must insist it's true.

Jump up, look around,
find yourself some fun,
no sense in sitting there hating everyone.
No man's an island and his castle isn't home,

In the shuffling madess
of the locomotive breath,
runs the all-time loser,
headlong to his death.
He feels the piston scraping --
steam breaking on his brow --
old Charlie stole the handle and
the train won't stop going --
no way to slow down.
He sees his children jumping off
at the stations -- one by one.
His woman and his best friend --
in bed and having fun.
He's crawling down the corridor

Lend me your ear while I call you a fool.
You were kissed by a witch one night in the wood,
and later insisted your feelings were true.
The witch's promise was coming,
believing he listened while laughing you flew.

Leaves falling red, yellow, brown, all are the same,
and the love you have found lay outside in the rain.
Washed clean by the water but nursing its pain.

Walking through forests of palm tree apartments ---
scoff at the monkeys who live in their dark tents
down by the waterhole --- drunk every Friday ---
eating their nuts --- saving their raisins for Sunday.
Lions and tigers who wait in the shadows ---
they're fast but they're lazy, and sleep in green meadows.

Let's bungle in the jungle --- well, that's all right by me.

Nine miles of two-strand topped with barbed wire
laid by the father for the son.
Good shelter down there on the valley floor,
down by where the sweet stream run.
Now they might give me compensation...
That's not what I'm chasing. I was a rich man before yesterday.
Now all I have got is a cheque and a pickup truck.
I left my farm on the freeway.

They're busy building airports on the south side...

Really don't mind if you sit this one out.
My words but a whisper -- your deafness a SHOUT.
I may make you feel but I can't make you think.
Your sperm's in the gutter -- your love's in the sink.
So you ride yourselves over the fields and
you make all your animal deals and
your wise men don't know how it feels to be thick as a brick.
And the sand-castle virtues are all swept away in

You'll hear me calling in your sweet dream,
can't hear your daddy's warning cry.
You're going back to be all the things you want to be,
while in sweet dreams you softly sigh.

You hear my voice is calling
to be mine again,
live the rest of your life in a day.
Get out and get what you can
while your mummy's at home a-sleeping.
No time to understand