Private Investigations

Sound bite

Lyrics

A long time ago came a man on a track
Walking thirty miles with a sack on his back
And he put down his load where he thought it was the best
He made a home in the wilderness

He built a cabin and a winter store
And he ploughed up the ground by the cold lake shore
The other travellers came riding down the track
And they never went further and they never went back

Then came the churches then came the schools
Then came the lawyers then came the rules
Then came the trains and the trucks with their loads
And the dirty old track was the telegraph road

Then came the mines – then came the ore
Then there was the hard times then there was a war
Telegraph sang a song about the world outside
Telegraph road got so deep and so wide like a rolling river. . .

And my radio is saying tonight it’s gonna freeze
People driving home from the factories
There’s six lanes of traffic
Three lanes moving slow. . .

I used to like to go to work but they shut it down
I’ve got a right to go to work but there’s no work here to be found
Yes and they say we’re gonna have to pay what’s owed
We’re gonna have to reap from some seed that’s been sowed

And the birds up on the wires and the telegraph poles
They can always fly away from this rain and this cold
You can here them singing out their telegraph code
All the way down the telegraph road

You know I’d sooner forget but I remember those nights
When life was just a bet on a race between the lights
You had your head on my shoulder you had your hand in my hair
Now you act a little colder like you don’t seem to care

But believe in me baby and I’ll take you away
From out of this darkness and into the day
From these rivers of headlights these rivers of rain
From the anger that lives on the streets with these names

‘cos I’ve run every red light on memory lane
I’ve seen desperation explode into flames
And I don’t want to see it again. . .

From all of these signs saying sorry but we’re closed
All the way down the telegraph road

Sound bite

Lyrics

You get a shiver in the dark
It’s been raining in the park but meantime
South of the river you stop and you hold everything
A band is blowing Dixie double four time
You feel all right when you hear that music ring

You step inside but you don’t see too many faces
Coming in out of the rain to hear the jazz go down
Too much competition, too many other places
But not too many horns can make that sound
Way on down south, way on down south London town

You check out Guitar George he knows all the chords
Mind he’s strictly rhythm
He doesn’t want to make it cry or sing
And an old guitar is all he can afford
When he gets up under the lights to play his thing

And Harry doesn’t mind if he doesn’t make the scene
He’s got a daytime job he’s doing alright
He can play honky tonk just like anything
Saving it up for Friday night
With the Sultans, with the Sultans of Swing

And a crowd of young boys they’re fooling around in the corner
Drunk and dressed in their best brown baggies and their platform soles
They don’t give a damn about any trumpet playing band
It ain’t what they call rock and roll
And the Sultans, the Sultans played Creole

And then the man he steps right up to the microphone
And says at last just as the time bell rings
‘Thank you, goodnight, now it’s time to go home’
And he makes it fast with one more thing
‘We are the Sultans of Swing’

Sound bite

Lyrics

You walk out on the high wire
You’re a dancer on thin ice
You pay no heed to the danger
And less to advice
Your footsteps are forbidden
But with knowledge of your sin
You throw your love to all the strangers
And caution to the wind

And you go dancing through doorways
Just to see what you will find
Leaving nothing to interfere
With the crazy balance of your mind
And when you finally reappear
At the place where you came in
You’ve thrown your love to all the strangers
And caution to the wind

It takes love over gold
And mind over matter
To do what you do that you must
When the things that you hold
Can fall and be shattered
Or run through your fingers like dust

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Lyrics

A lovestruck Romeo sings a streetsusss serenade
Laying everybody low with a lovesong that he made
Finds a convenient streetlight steps out of the shade
Says something like you and me babe how about it?

Juliet says hey it’s Romeo you nearly gimme a heart attack
He’s underneath the window she’s singing hey la my boyfriend’s back
You shouldn’t come around here singing up at people like that
Anyway what you gonna do about it

Juliet the dice were loaded from the start
And I bet and you exploded in my heart
And I forget I forget the movie song
When you gonna realise it was just that the time was wrong Juliet?

Come up on different streets they both were streets of shame
Both dirty both mean yes and the dream was just the same
And I dreamed your dream for you and now your dream is real
How can you look at me as if I was just another one of your deals?

When you can fall for chains of silver you can fall for chains of gold
You can fall for pretty strangers and the promises they hold
You promised me everything you promised me thick and thin
Now you just says oh Romeo yeah you know I used to have a scene with him

Juliet when we made love you used to cry
You said I love you like the stars above I’ll love you till I die
There’s a place for us you know the movie song
When you gonna realise it was just that the time was wrong Juliet?

I can’t do the talk like they talk on TV
And I can’t do a love song like the way it’s meant to be
I can’t do everything but I’d do anything for you
I can’t do anything except be in love with you

And all I do is miss you and the way we used to be
All I do is keep the beat and bad company
All I do is kiss you through the bars of a rhyme
Julie I’d do the stars with you any time

Juliet when we made love you used to cry
You said I love you like the stars above I’ll love you till I die
There’s a place for us you know the movie song
When you gonna realise it was just that the time was wrong Juliet?

A lovestruck Romeo sings a streetsuss serenade
Laying everybody low with a lovesong that he made
Finds a convenient streetlight steps out of the shade
Says something like you and me babe how about it?

Sound bite

Lyrics

Getting crazy on the waltzers but it’s the life that I choose
Sing about the sixblade sing about the switchback and a torture tattoo
And I been riding on a ghost train where the cars they scream and slam
And I don’t know where I’ll be tonight but I’d always tell you where I am

In a screaming ring of faces I seen her standing in the light
She had a ticket for the races just like me she was a victim of the night
I put a hand upon the lever said let it rock and let it roll
I had the one arm bandit fever there was an arrow through my heart and my soul

And the big wheel keep on turning neon burning up above
And I’m just high on the world
Come on and take a low ride with me girl
On the tunnel of love

It’s just the danger when you’re riding at your own risk
She said you are the perfect stranger she said baby let’s keep it like this
It’s just a cake walk twisting baby step right up and say
Hey mister give me two give me two ‘cos any two can play

And the big wheel keep on turning neon burning up above
And I’m just high on the world
Come on and take a low ride with me girl
On the tunnel of love

Well it’s been money for muscle another whirligig
Money for muscle and another girl I dig
Another hustle just to make it big
And rockaway rockaway

And girl it looks so pretty to me just like it always did
Like the Spanish city to me when we were kids
Oh girl it looks so pretty to me just like it always did
Like the Spanish city to me when we were kids

She took off a silver locket she said remember me by this
She put her hand in my pocket I got a keepsake and a kiss
And in the roar of the dust and diesel I stood and watched her walk away
I could have caught up with her easy enough but something must have made me stay

And the big wheel keep on turning neon burning up above
And I’m just high on the world
Come on and take a low ride with me girl
On the tunnel of love

And now I’m searching through these carousels and the carnival arcades
Searching everywhere from steeplechase to palisades
In any shooting gallery where promises are made
To rockaway rockaway from Cullercoats and Whitley bay out to rockaway

And girl it looks so pretty to me like it always did
Like the Spanish city to me when we were kids
Girl it looks so pretty to me like it always did
Like the Spanish city to me when we were kids

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Lyrics

I seen a girl on a one way corridor
Stealing down a wrong way street
For all the world like an urban toreador
She had wheels on on her feet

Well the cars do the usual dances
Same old cruise and the kerbside crawl
But the rollergirl she’s taking chances
They just love to see her take them all

No fears alone at night she’s sailing through the crowd
In her ears the phones are tight and the music’s playing loud
Hallelujah here she comes queen rollerball
Enchanté what can I say don’t care at all

You know she used to have to wait around
She used to be the lonely one
But now that she can skate around town
She’s the only one

No fears alone at night she’s sailing through the crowd
In her ears the phones are tight and the music’s playing loud
She gets rock n roll a rock n roll station
And a rock n roll dream

She’s making movies on location
She don’t know what it means
But the music make her wanna be the story
And the story was whatever was the song what it was

Rollergirl don’t worry DJ play the movies all night long
She tortures taxi drivers just for fun
She like to read their lips
Says toro toro taxi see ya tomorrow my son

I swear she let a big truck graze her hip
She got her own world in the city
You can’t intrude on her
She got her own world in the city

‘Cos the city’s been so rude to her
No fears alone at night she’s sailing through the crowd
In her ears the phones are tight and the music’s playing loud
She gets rock n roll a rock n roll station

And a rock n roll dream
She’s making movies on location
She don’t know what it means
But the music make her wanna be the story

And the story was whatever was the song what it was
Rollergirl don’t worry DJ play the movies all night long
Come slippin’ and slidin’
Life’s roller ball
Slippin’ and a slidin’

Skateaway that’s all
Shala shalay hey hey skateaway
She’s going singing shala shalay
hey hey Skateaway

Sound bite

Lyrics

It’s a mystery to me – the game commences
for the usual fee – plus expenses
confidential information – it’s in a diary
this is my investigation – it’s not a public inquiry

I go checking out the reports – digging up the dirt
you get to meet all sorts in this line of work
treachery and treason – there’s always an excuse for it
and when I find the reason I still can’t get used to it

And what have you got at the end of the day?
what have you got to take away?
a bottle of whiskey and a new set of lies
blinds on the window and a pain behind the eyes

Scarred for life – no compensation
private investigations

Sound bite

Lyrics

Here I am again in this mean old town
And you’re so far away from me
And where are you when the sun goes down
You’re so far away from me

So far away from me
So far I just can’t see
So far away from me
You’re so far away from me

I’m tired of being in love and being all alone
When you’re so far away from me
I’m tired of making out on the telephone
And you’re so far away from me

So far away from me
So far I just can’t see
So far away from me
You’re so far away from me

I get so tired when I have to explain
When you’re so far away from me
See you been in the sun and I’ve been in the rain
And you’re so far away from me

So far away from me
So far I just can’t see
So far away from me
You’re so far away from me

Sound bite

Lyrics

Now look at them yo-yo’s that’s the way you do it
You play the guitar on the MTV
That ain’t workin’ that’s the way you do it
Money for nothin’ and chicks for free

Now that ain’t workin’ that’s the way you do it
Lemme tell ya them guys ain’t dumb
Maybe get a blister on your little finger
Maybe get a blister on your thumb

We gotta install microwave ovens
Custom kitchen deliveries
We gotta move these refrigerators
We gotta move these colour TV’s

See the little faggot with the earring and the makeup
Yeah buddy that’s his own hair
That little faggot got his own jet airplane
That little faggot he’s a millionaire

We gotta install microwave ovens
Custom kitchens deliveries
We gotta move these refrigerators
We gotta move these colour TV’s

I shoulda learned to play the guitar
I shoulda learned to play them drums
Look at that mama, she got it stickin’ in the camera
Man we could have some fun

And he’s up there, what’s that? Hawaiian noises?
Bangin’ on the bongoes like a chimpanzee
That ain’t workin’ that’s the way you do it
Get your money for nothin’ get your chicks for free

We gotta install microwave ovens
Custom kitchen deliveries
We gotta move these refrigerators
We gotta move these colour TV’s

Lord, now that ain’t workin’ that’s the way you do it
You play the guitar on the MTV
That ain’t workin’ that’s the way you do it
Money for nothin’ and your chicks for free

Money for nothin’ and chicks for free

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Lyrics

Here comes Johnny singing oldies, goldies
Be-Bop-A-Lula, Baby What I Say
Here comes Johnny singing I Gotta Woman
Down in the tunnels, trying to make it pay

He got the action, he got the motion
Yeah, the boy can play
Dedication devotion
Turning all the night time into the day

He do the song about the sweet lovin’ woman
He do the song about the knife
He do the walk, he do the walk of life

Here comes Johnny and he’ll tell you the story
Hand me down my walkin’ shoes
Here come Johnny with the power and the glory
Backbeat the talkin’ blues

He got the action, he got the motion
Yeah, the boy can play
Dedication devotion
Turning all the night time into the day

He do the song about the sweet lovin’ woman
He do the song about the knife
He do the walk, he do the walk of life

Here comes Johnny singing oldies, goldies
Be-Bop-A-Lula, Baby What I Say
Here comes Johnny singing I Gotta Woman
Down in the tunnels, trying to make it pay

He got the action, he got the motion
Yeah the boy can play
Dedication devotion
Turning all the night time into the day

And after all the violence and double talk
There’s just a song in all the trouble and the strife
You do the walk, you do the walk of life

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Lyrics

All the late night bargains have been struck
Between the satin beaus and their belles
And prehistoric garbage trucks
Have the city to themselves
Echoes roars dinosaurs
They’re all doing the monster mash
And most of the taxis and the whores
Are only taking calls for cash

I don’t know how it happened
It all took place so quick
But all I can do is hand it to you
And your latest trick

My door was standing open
Security was laid back and lax
But it was only my heart got broken
You must have had a pass key made out of wax
You played robbery with insolence
And I played the blues in twelve bars down Lover’s Lane
And you never did have the intelligence to use
The twelve keys hanging off my chain

I don’t know how it happened
It all took place so quick
But all I can do is hand it to you
And your latest trick

Now it’s past last call for alcohol
Past recall has been here and gone
The landlord finally paid us all
The satin jazzmen have put away their horns
And we’re standing outside of this wonderland
Looking so bereaved and so bereft
Like a Bowery bum when he finally understands
The bottle’s empty and there’s nothing left

I don’t know how it happened
It was faster than the eye could flick
But now all I can do is hand it to you
And your latest trick

Sound bite

Lyrics

Calling Elvis – is anybody home
Calling Elvis – I’m here all alone
Did he leave the building
Or can he come to the phone
Calling Elvis – I’m here all alone

Well tell him I was calling just to wish him well
Let me leave my number – heartbreak hotel
Oh love me tender – baby don’t be cruel
Return to sender – treat me like a fool

Calling Elvis – is anybody home
Calling Elvis – I’m here all alone
Did he leave the building
Can he come to the phone
Calling Elvis – I’m here all alone

Why don’t you go get him – I’m his biggest fan
You gotta tell him – he’s still the man
Long distance baby – so far from home
Don’t you think maybe you could put him on

Well tell him I was calling just to wish him well
Let me leave my number – heartbreak hotel
Oh love me tender – baby don’t be cruel
Return to sender – treat me like a fool

Calling Elvis – is anybody home
Calling Elvis – I’m here all alone
Did he leave the building
Can he come to the phone
Calling Elvis – I’m here all alone

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Lyrics

There’s gotta be a record of you someplace
You gotta be on somebody’s books
The lowdown – a picture of your face
Your injured looks

The sacred and profane
The pleasure and the pain
Somewhere your fingerprints remain concrete
And it’s your face I’m looking for on every street

A ladykiller – regulation tattoo
Silver spurs on his heels
Says – what can I tell you, as I’m standing next to you
She threw herself under my wheels

Oh it’s a dangerous road
And a hazardous load
And the fireworks over liberty explode in the heat
And it’s your face I’m looking for on every street

A three-chord symphony crashes into space
The moon is hanging upside down
I don’t know why it is I’m still on the case
It’s a ravenous town

And you still refuse to be traced
Seems to me such a waste
And every victory has a taste that’s bittersweet
And it’s your face I’m looking for on every street

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Instrumental

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Instrumental

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Lyrics

We had no way of staying afloat
We had to leave on the ferry boat
Economic refugees
On the run to Germany

We had the back of Maggie’s hand
Times were tough in Geordieland
We got wor tools and working gear
And humped it all from Newcastle to here

Why aye man, why aye, why aye man
Why aye man, why aye, why aye man

We’re the nomad tribes, travelling boys
In the dust and dirt and the racket and the noise
Drills and hammers, diggers and picks
Mixing concrete, laying bricks

There’s English, Irish, Scots, the lot
United nation’s what we’ve got
Brickies, chippies, every trade
German building, British-made

Why aye man, why aye, why aye man
Why aye man, why aye, why aye man

Nae more work on Maggie’s farm
Hadaway down the autobahn
Mine’s a portacabin bed
Or a bunk in a nissen hut instead

There’s plenty deutschmarks here to earn
And german tarts are wunderschoen
German beer is chemical-free
Germany’s alreet with me

Sometimes I miss my river tyne
But you’re my pretty fraulein
Tonight we’ll drink the old town dry
Keep wor spirit levels high

Why aye man, why aye, why aye man
Why aye man, why aye, why aye man

Sound bite

Lyrics

I am Jeremiah Dixon
I am a Geordie Boy
A glass of wine with you, sir
And the ladies I’ll enjoy

All Durham and Northumberland
Is measured up by my own hand
It was my fate from birth
To make my mark upon the earth…

He calls me Charlie Mason
A stargazer am I
It seems that I was born
To chart the evening sky

They’d cut me out for baking bread
But I had other dreams instead
This baker’s boy from the west country
Would join the Royal Society…

We are sailing to Philadelphia
A world away from the coaly Tyne
Sailing to Philadelphia
To draw the line
The Mason-Dixon line

Now you’re a good surveyor, Dixon
But I swear you’ll make me mad
The West will kill us both
You gullible Geordie lad

You talk of liberty
How can America be free
A Geordie and a baker’s boy
In the forest of the Iroquois…

Now hold your head up, Mason
See America lies there
The morning tide has raised
The capes of Delaware

Come up and feel the sun
A new morning is begun
Another day will make it clear
Why your stars should guide us here…

We are sailing to Philadelphia
A world away from the coaly Tyne
Sailing to Philadelphia
To draw the line
The Mason-Dixon line

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Lyrics

The drinking dens are spilling out
There’s staggering in the square
There’s lads and lasses falling about
And a crackling in the air

Down around the dungeon doors
The shelters and the queues
Everybody’s looking for
Somebody’s arms to fall into

And it’s what it is
It’s what it is now

There’s frost on the graves and the monuments
But the taverns are warm in town
People curse the government
And shovel hot food down

The lights are out in city hall
The castle and the keep
The moon shines down upon it all
The legless and asleep

And it’s cold on the tollgate
With the wagons creeping through
Cold on the tollgate
God knows what I could do with you

And it’s what it is
It’s what it is now

The garrison sleeps in the citadel
With the ghosts and the ancient stones
High up on the parapet
A Scottish piper stands alone

And high on the wind
The highland drums begin to roll
And something from the past just comes
And stares into my soul

And it’s cold on the tollgate
With the Caledonian Blues
Cold on the tollgate
God knows what I could do with you

And it’s what it is
It’s what it is now
What it is
It’s what it is now

There’s a chink of light, there’s a burning wick
There’s a lantern in the tower
Wee Willie Winkie with a candlestick
Still writing songs in the wee, wee hours

On Charlotte Street I take
A walking stick from my hotel
The ghost of Dirty Dick
Is still in search of Little Nell

And it’s what it is
It’s what it is now
Oh it’s what it is
What it is now

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Lyrics

We’re taking on water
Diesel and stores
Laying up awhile
Before I’m back on board
They’re patching her up
To go fishing again
They’re welding her rudder
Scrubbing her keel
Scars on her belly
Need time to heal

In the dock
With the trawlermen I know all the people
There’s nobody new
Soon we’ll be leaving
With the same old crew
On the green water
The tumbling sea
They ain’t running
Like the good old days
Time’s just slipping
Down the old slipways

In the dock
So dear to me
Dark is the night
I need a guiding light
To keep me
From foundering
On the rocks
My only prayer
Is just to see you there
At the end
Of my wandering
Back in the dock

I could use a layoff
Getting my strength back
But there’s a loan to pay off
And a few skipjack
So it’s a turnaround
Back in the southerly wind
Pirates coming in
To steal our gold
You can count yourself lucky
With a profit in the hold

In the dock
When we come in
Dark is the night
I need a guiding light
To keep me
From foundering
On the rocks
My only prayer
Is just to see you there
At the end
Of my wandering
Back in the dock

Sound bite

Lyrics

I’m going to San Bernardino
Ring-A-Ding-Ding
Milkshake mixers that’s my thing now
These guys bought a heap of my stuff
And I gotta see a good thing sure enough now
Or my name’s not Kroc,
that’s Kroc with a K
Like crocodile but not spelled that way now
It’s Dog eat dog, rat eat rat
Kroc style
Boom, like that

Folks line up all down the street
Now I am seeing this girl devour her meat now
And then I get it, Wham
As clear as day
My pulse begins to hammer
And I hear a voice say:
‘These boys have got this down
Oughtta to be a one of these in every town’
‘These boys have got the touch
It’s clean as a whistle and it don’t cost much
Wham bam you don’t wait long,
shake, fries patty, you’re gone
How about that friendly name
heck, every little thing oughtta stay the same’

Or my name’s not Kroc,
that’s Kroc with a K
Like crocodile but not spelled that way now
It’s Dog eat dog, rat eat rat
It’s Dog eat dog, rat eat rat
Kroc style
Boom like that

You gentlemen ought to expand
You’re gonna need a helping hand, now
So gentlemen well, what about me?
We’ll make a little business history now
Or my name’s not Kroc,
Call me Ray
Like crocodile but not spelled that way now
It’s Dog eat dog, rat eat rat
Kroc style
Boom like that

Well we build it up and I buy ‘em out
But man they made me grind it out now
They open up a new place flipping meat
So I do too, right across the street
I got the name I need the town,
they sell up in the end and it all shuts down
Sometimes you gotta be an S.O.B.
You wanna make a dream reality
Competition send ‘em south,
If they’re gonna drown put a hose in their mouth
Do not pass ‘go’ go straight to hell
I smell that meat hook smell

Or my name’s not Kroc
that’s Kroc with a K
Like crocodile but not spelled that way, now
Ohh it’s dog eat dog, rat eat rat
Dog eat dog, rat eat rat now
Ohh it’s dog eat dog, rat eat rat
Kroc style – Boom like that

Sound bite

Lyrics

These mist covered mountains
Are a home now for me
But my home is the lowlands
And always will be

Some day you’ll return to
Your valleys and your farms
And you’ll no longer burn
To be brothers in arms

Through these fields of destruction
Baptisms of fire
I’ve watched all your suffering
As the battles raged higher

And though they did hurt me so bad
In the fear and alarm
You did not desert me
My brothers in arms

There’s so many different worlds
So many different suns
And we have just one world
But we live in different ones

Now the sun’s gone to hell
And the moon’s riding high
Let me bid you farewell
Every man has to die

But it’s written in the starlight
And every line on your palm
We’re fools to make war
On our brothers in arms

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Lyrics

A million miles our vagabond wheels
Clocked up beneath the clouds
They’re counting down to show time
When we do it for real with the crowds
Air miles are owing but they don’t come for free
And they don’t give you any for pain
But if it’s all for nothing
All the roadrunning has been in vain

The rim shots come down like cannon fire
And thunder off the wall
There’s a man in every corner
And each one is giving his all
But this is my piper and this is my drum
So you never will hear me complain
And if it’s all for nothing
All the roadrunning has been in vain

All the roadrunning
All the roadrunning

Well if you’re inclined to go up on the wall
It can only be fast and high
And those who don’t like the danger soon
Find something different to try
And when there is only a ring in your ears
And en echo down memory lane
Then if it’s all for nothing
All the roadrunning has been in vain

All the roadrunning
All the roadrunning

The show’s packing up, I sit and watch
The carnival leaving town
And there’s no pretending that I’m not a fool
For riding around and around
Like the pictures you keep of your old wall of death
You showed me one time on a plane
But if it’s all for nothing
All the roadrunning has been in vain

I’ve a million miles of vagabond sky
Clocked up above the clouds
I’m still your man for the roaming
For as long as there’s roaming allowed
There’ll be a rider and there’ll be a wall
As long as the dreamer remains
And if it’s all for nothing
All the roadrunning has been in vain

All the roadrunning
All the roadrunning