SEE ME AS A LOVER

If you don't see me as a lover
Who am I to say you're wrong?
The birds of paradise may hover
But you won't listen to their song
I thought I sent around a memo
But just in case you haven't heard
If you don't see me as a lover
You don't understand the word

You give to Caesar what is Caesar's
You give to God what should be God's
You toss what's left back in the freezer
Well I'm not crazy 'bout the odds
I had a well-established M.O.
I sent my heart up like a flare
But the way the playing field is tilted
You just might lose it in the glare

If you're unable to imagine
I'm capable of passion
Well, here's my resume:
I've been the crusher and the crushee
Marmoreal and mushy
The hunter and the prey

If you don't see me as a lover
I can't argue anymore
My wounded ego will recover
It's suffered tougher blows before
I sent a picture and a demo
They didn't generate a buzz
But if you don't see me as a lover, lover
I'll find somebody who does
I'll find somebody who does
I'll find somebody

I DON'T KNOW YOU ANYMORE

Here's a little story everybody knows
Woke up with a stranger in such familiar clothes
Recognized her hairstyle, recognized her face
But there was something more I couldn't place

Here's a little theory everybody holds
When the body is the same then so must be the soul
But theory courts revision when it don't align with fact
So come on honey, drop the act

Your voice and eyes may be just the same
You may respond to the same pet name
But you make love like you're keeping score
And I don't know you anymore

I can't believe was the experts say
'bout your fingerprints and your DNA
You wiped the disk, then you pressed "restore"
And I don't know you anymore

NOT JUST WHEN WE KISS

I feel this
I feel this
I feel it all the time now
Feel it all the time now
I feel this
I feel this
I feel it all the time now
Time now, time now

Think I have to tell you how our love has changed
Have to try to tell you how our love has changed
It isn't good, it isn't bad, it isn't even strange
But it's a different thing
It's a different thing

Say you can't remember how it felt at first
Ever cut a carotid? That's how it burst
A hatchet to hydrant just to satisfy our thirst
Now it's a constant thing
Fed from a hidden spring

And I feel this
I feel this
I feel it all the time now
Feel it all the time now
Not just when we kiss
Not just when we kiss
I feel it all the time now
Time now, time now
Time now, time now

Used to be the engine wouldn't always strike
Used to be a current that would sag and spike
Now we tune that signal in, anytime we like

And not just when we kiss
Not just when we kiss
I feel it all the time now
Feel it all the time now
Not just when we kiss
Not just when we kiss
I feel it all the time now
Time now, time now
Time now, time now

CALIFORNIA BABY

She's my California baby
She's my California doll
And whatever else she may be
She's my California baby after all

She came skipping down the alley
In her drill team uniform
Through the San Ferndando Valley
Where she's never known a night that wasn't warm

But they drove her 'cross the river
Where they knew I would not go
And they buried her in winter
Like a shoot beneath the snow

Now she greets me like a stranger
And her smile is wan and worn
But however time may change her
She's my California baby bred and born

TIMES MIRROR SQUARE

I was yours I was yours I was yours I was yours
I was yours I was yours I was yours I was yours

I was yours before the projectionist could thread a single reel
What you think you see in the light of day, in the dark you only feel
Someone up there must have missed his changeover cue
The image jumped and shuddered but my gaze was fixed on you
And I was yours

I was yours before the organist could play the overture
What you barely hear in the city noise, in the silence now you're sure
Some title cards were missing and the negative was scratched
But we never cut on motion and our eyelines always matched

And I was yours for the taking
The making and unmaking
Yours for the asking
The asking and unmasking

I staggered into the blinding light of Times Mirror Square
My eyes were shooting day for night and you were then and there
And I was yours

I was yours I was yours I was yours I was yours
I was yours I was yours I was yours I was yours

PERFECT LOVERS (SUMMATION GALLOP)

One leaf grows thick and green
One leaf turns brown
One clock keeps perfect time
One clock runs down

One bulb glows endlessly
One bulb burns out
One heart loves faithfully
One heart feels doubt

So we water the ficus and change the battery
And replace the fuses when they blow
While I wait for you to return to me
And you wait for me to go

DISASTER AREA

I'm a disaster
You're a disaster
We're a disaster area
Pull up the carpet
Tear up the plaster
Collapse into mild hysteria

The fixtures that never got polished
The splinters that never got filed
Abandoned but never demolished
'cos it's cheaper to let them run wild

We cling to each other
As still as the water
That's starting to breed malaria
Without you, I'm nothing
Without me, you're nothing
Between us, there's nothing scarier

We duck under wires in the ceiling
We step over glass in the hall
In a room that's been struck by a seven point five
On a bed that's been hit by a squall

They'd better bring yellow tape
To mark off the lifeless shape
That they'll find when they mind our emergency call
And trace our embrace down the unpainted wall
When one of us stumbles, both of us fall
over each safety barrier

You're going down fast
But you're fading faster
In this disaster area

MILLIONAIRE ON PAPER

Good money after bad
Bad money's all I ever really had
The kind that won't come clean
Hold on so tight it stains your fingers green
It could be from printer's ink
Or the residue of zinc and copper
But I won't love you any less
Prosperous or penniless as a pauper

And if I were a millionaire on paper
I would gladly sign away my share
Watch my frozen assets turn to vapor
If I were a paper millionaire

Gilt-edged securities
I'd write love letters on the backs of these
Break out a block of checks
Endorse them XOXOX...OX
There's a tower we could build
From the work of highly skilled engravers
But when you kiss me sloppily
All I want's a monopoly on your favors

And if I were a millionaire on paper
I would throw up all up in the air
Watching as the growth rates swell and taper
If I were a paper millionaire

And I could state you're worth your weight
In some precious metal
But if that trade were on the table
I wouldn't settle

If I were a millionaire on paper
I would gladly sign away my share
Watch my frozen assets turn to vapor
You're the only item I'd declare
Just like Ringo Starr and Peter Sellers
In The Magic Christian, we're a pair
Setting our to show the Rockefellers
How to be a paper millionaire

SOFT GAMMA REPEATER

Everything
Exerts a pull on everything
A brick, a bean, a beehive, I mean
Everything

But you must be the densest star of all
The way that you accelerate my fall from

Everything
That seemed to matter,
Everything
The sun, the sea, the skyline, simply
Everything

And you must be the densest star around
The way that you absorb all light and sound

I tumbled from this humble patch of ground
Into a dark and silent sky
Like any foreign body, I am orbiting
Along with everything

A sock, a sink, a searchlight, I think
You must be the densest star of all
The way that you accelerate my fall
And you must be the densest star around
The way that you absorb all waves of heat and light and sound
Light and sound
Light and sound

CHEAP SUNGLASSES

Well I drove you to the drugstore
In your shiny danceclub clothes
While you tried on cheap sunglasses
Like you cared which one you chose

You wear designer watches
And you wear Italian shoes
But you still buy cheap sunglasses
That you don't care if you lose

You say "how do I look in these?"
"How do I look in those?"
you say, "how do I look?", but how can I say
how you look with the string hanging over your nose?

You may not like the color
Or the way they frame your face
But you dig those cheap sunglasses
'cos they're easy to replace

There's the pair that you left at the beach
And the pair that you left in the bar
And the pair that you didn't once wear
You just left them to melt on the hood of my car

Now you think you're in some movie
You're deflecting UV rays
But you really need protection
From the penetrating gaze
Of the friends that you abandon
And the lovers you abuse
Like a pair of cheap sunglasses
That you don't care
That you don't care if you lose

You lose

ANOTHER

If you have another
Then I'll have another
Let's toast one another again
I still run a tab here
But it's grown so drab here
Without you to gab here
Since I don't know when

If you light another
Then I'll light another
Make this night another hour long
That clock is a traitor
We'll pay the check later
And I'll ask the waiter
To mix this one strong

You say that there's someone
Waiting for you
We'll I'm keeping somebody new
Waiting too

So I'll have another
If you have another
How much harm can another one do?

We'll drink to the flashes
We fanned into flame
Then think of the ashes that flame
Soon became

Just don't ask me whether
We should be together
We've both grown to wise for the lies lovers tell
Now I have another
And you have another
And we know one another too well

LOVE-STARVED

Lust for power, wealth and fame
That drive the commonweal
Never meant a blessed thing
One desire is real
To me and that's the hunger
Nothing satisfies
Except your kiss, and so my need
Assumes a different guise

If I try to sneak a slice
Long before the cake is carved
Don't blame me for trying 'cos I'm
Love-starved

Sins of envy, sloth and pride
That others try to fight
Pale before the wailings of
A sharper appetite

When I see your face arise
Milk-complexioned, silken-scarved
There's no use denying that I'm

Love-starved, so I feed on myself
Love-starved, I'm not here for my health
So I swill and I swell and I tear with my teeth
'til you can't even tell there's a heart underneath

Let me give the pan a lick
Feed me butter by the stick
Slice my bacon double-thick, I'm
Love-starved

There's a heart underneath