Court and Spark
Album - 1974 - Debaser id 13761

Love came to my door
With a sleeping roll
And a madman's soul
He thought for sure I'd seen him
Dancin' up a river in the dark
Looking for a woman to court & spark

He was playing on the sidewalk
For passing change
When something strange happened
Glory train passed through him
So he buried the coins he made in People's Park
And went looking for a woman to court & spark

It seemed like he read my mind
He saw me mistrusting him & still acting kind
He saw how I worried sometimes
I worry sometimes

All the guilty people, he said
They've all seen the stain
On their daily bread
On their Christian names
I cleared myself
I sacrificed my blues
And you could complete me
I'd complete you

His eyes were the colour of the sand & the sea
And the more he talked to me, you know
The more he reached me
But I couldn't let go of L.A.
City of the fallen angels

Help me
I think I'm falling
In love again
When I get that crazy feeling
I know I'm in trouble again
I'm in trouble
'Cause you're a rambler and a gambler
And a sweet talking ladies man
And you love your lovin'
But not like you love your freedom

Help me
I think I'm falling
In love too fast
It's got me hoping for the future
And worrying about the past
'Cause I've seen some hot, hot blazes
Come down to smoke and ash
We love our lovin'
But not like we love our freedom

Didn't it feel good
We were sitting there talking
Or lying there not talking
Didn't it feel good
You dance with the lady
With the hole in her stocking
Didn't it feel good
Didn't it feel good

Help me
I think I'm falling
In love with you
Are you going to let me go there by myself
That's such a lonely thing to do
Both of us flirting around
Flirting and flirting
Hurting too
We love our lovin'
But not like we love our freedom

The way I see it
He said you just can't win it
Everybody's in it for their own gain
You can't please them all
There's always somebody callin' you down
I do my best and I do good business
There's a lot of people askin' for my time
They're trying to get ahead
They're trying to be a good friend of mine

I was a free man in Paris
I felt unfettered and alive
There was nobody callin' me up for favors
And no one's future to decide
You know I'd go back there tomorrow
But for the work I've taken on
Stokin' the star maker machinery
Behind the popular song

I deal in dreamers
And telephone screamers
Lately I wonder what I do it for
If I had my way
I'd just walk through those doors
And wander down the Champs-Élysées
Goin' café to cabaret
Thinkin' how I'd feel when I find
That very good friend of mine

I was a free man in Paris
I felt unfettered and alive
Nobody was callin' me up for favors
No one's future to decide
You know I'd go back there tomorrow
But for the work I've taken on
Stokin' the star maker machinery
Behind the popular song

All the people at this party
They've got a lot of style
They've got stamps of many countries
They've got passport smiles
Some are friendly
Some are cutting
Some are watching it from the wings
Some are standing in the center
Giving to get something

Photo beauty gets attention
Then her eye paint's running down
She's got a rose in her teeth
And a lampshade crown
One minute she's so happy
Then she's crying on someone's knee
Saying laughing and crying
You know it's the same release

I told you when I met you
I was crazy
Cry for us all, beauty
Cry for Eddie in the corner
Thinking he's nobody
And Jack behind his joker
And stonecold Grace behind her fan
And me in my frightened silence
Thinking I don't understand

I feel like I'm sleeping
Can you wake me
You seem to have a broader sensibility
I'm just living on nerves and feelings
With a weak and a lazy mind
And coming to peoples parties
Fumbling deaf dumb & blind

I wish I had more sense of humour
Keeping the sadness at bay
Throwing the lightness on these things

Laughing it all away x 4

Again and again the same situation
For so many years
Tethered to a ringing telephone
In a room full ot mirrors
A pretty girl in your bathroom
Checking out her sex appeal
I asked myself when you said you loved me
Do you think this can be real?

Still I sent up my prayer
Wondering where it had to go
With heaven full of astronauts
And the lord on death row
While the millions of his lost and lonely ones
Cali out and clamour to be found
Caught in their struggle for higher positions
And their search for love that sticks around

Youve had lots of lovely women
Now you turn your gaze to me
Weighing the beauty and the imperfection
To see if Im worthy
Like the church
Like a cop
Like a mother
You want me to be truthful
Sometimes you turn it on me like a weapon though
And I need your approval

Still I sent up my prayer
Wondering who was there to hear
I said send me somebody
Whos strong, and somewhat sincere
With the millions of the lost and lonely ones
I called out to be released
Caught in my struggle for higher achievements
And my search for love
That dont seem to cease

I've been sitting up waiting for my sugar to show
I've been listening to the sirens & the radio
(Listening to the sirens & the radio)
He said he'd be over three hours ago
I've been waitin' for his car on the hill (Waitin' for his car on the hill)

He makes friends easy
He's not like me
I watch for judgement anxiously
Now where in the city
Can that boy be?
Waitin' for a car
Climbin'
Climbin'
Climbin' the hill

He's a real good talker
I think he's a friend
Fast tires come screaming around the bend
(Fast tires come screaming around the bend)
But there's still no buzzer
They roll on
And I'm waitin' for his car on the hill
(Waitin' for his car on the hill)

You know he seemed so righteous at the start
When there's so much laughter
When there's so much spark
When there's so much sweetness in the dark
Waitin' for a car
Climbin'
Climbin'
Climbin' the hill

everything comes and goes
marked by lovers and styles of clothes
things that you held high and told yourself were true
all start changing as the days come down to you

down to you, constant stranger
you're a kind person you're a cold person too
its down to you

you go down to the pickup station craving warmth and beauty
you settle for less than fascination,
a few drinks later you're not so choosy
and the closing lights strip off the shadows on this strange new flesh you found
clutching the night to you like a fig leaf
you hurry
to the blackness
and the blankets
to lay down
an impression
and you're lonely

in the morning there are lovers in the street
they look so high
you brush against a stranger and you both apologize
old friends seem indifferent, you must have brought that on
old bonds are broken down
love is gone

ooh, love is gone
written on your spirit the sad song
love is gone

everything comes and goes
pleasure moves on too early and
trouble leaves too slow
just when you're thinking you've finally got it made
bad news comes knocking at your garden gate
knocking for you, constant stranger
you're a brute, you're an angel
you can crawl, you can fly too
it's down to you
it all comes down to you

I'm always running behind the time
Just like this train
Shaking into town
With the brakes complainin'

I used to count lovers like railroad cars
I counted them on my side
Lately I don't count on nothing
I just let things slide

The station master's shuffling cards
Boxcars are banging in the yards
Jealous lovin'll make you crazy
If you can't find your goodness
Cause you lost your heart

I went looking for a cause
Or a strong cat without claws
Or any reason to resume
And I found this empty seat
In this crowded waiting room
Everybody waiting

Old man sleeping on his bags
Women with that teased up kind of hair
Kids with the jitters in their legs
And those wide wide open stares
And the kids got cokes & chocolate bars
There's a thin man smoking a fat cigar
Jealous lovin'll make you crazy
If you can't find your goodness
Cause you've lost your heart

What are you going to do now
You've got no one to give your love to

Well I've got this berth & this roll down blind
I've got this fold up sink
And these rocks
And these cactus going by
And a bottle of German wine to drink
Settle down into the clickety clack
With the clouds & the stars to read
Dreaming of the pleasure I'm gonna have
Watching your hairline recede, my vain darling

Watching your hair & clouds & stars
I'm rocking away in a sleeping car
Cause this jealous lovin's bound to make me
Crazy
I can't find my goodness
I lost my heart
Oh sour grapes
Because I lost my heart

He was sitting in the lounge of the Empire Hotel
He was drinking for diversion
He was thinking for himself
A little money riding on the Maple Leafs
Along comes a lady in lacy sleeves
She says...
"Let me sit down you know
Drinking alone's a shame
It's a shame, it's a crying shame
Look at those jokers
Glued to that damn hockey game
Hey honey - you've got lots of cash
Bring us down a bottle
And we'll have some laughs
Gin's what I'm drinking
I was raised on robbery

I'm a pretty good cook
I'm sitting on my groceries
Come up to my kitchen
I'll show you my best recipe
I try and I try but I can't save a cent
I'm up half the night cooking
Trying to make my rent
I'm rough but I'm pleasin'
I was raised on robbery

We had a little money once
They were pushing through a four lane highway
Government gave us three thousand dollars
You should have seen it fly away
First he bought a '57 Biscayne
He put it in the ditch
He drunk up all the rest
That son of a bitch
His blood's bad whiskey
I was raised on robbery

You know you ain't bad looking
I like the way you hold your drinks
Come home with me honey
I ain't asking for no full-length mink
Hey, where you going...
Don't go yet...
Your glass ain't empty and we just met
You're mean when you're loaded -
I was raised on robbery"

Up in a sterilized room
Where they let you be lazy
Knowing your attitude's all wrong
And you got to change
And that's not easy
Dragon shining with all values known
Dazzling you-keeping you from your own
Where is the lion in you to defy him
When you're this weak
And this spacey...

So what are you going to do about it
You can't live life and you can't leave it
Advice and religion-you can't take it
You can't seem to believe it
The peacock is afraid to parade
You're under the thumb of the maid
You really can't give love in this condition
Still you know how you need it

They open and close you
Then they talk like they know you
They don't know you
They're friends and they're foes too
Trouble child
Breaking like the waves at Malibu

So why does it come as such a shock
To know you really have no one
Only a river of changing faces
Looking for an ocean
They trickle through your leaky plans
Another dream over the dam
And you're lying in some room
Feeling like your right to be human
Is going over too
Well some are going to knock you
And some'll try to clock you
You know it's really hard
To talk sense to you
Trouble child
Breaking like the waves at Malibu

My analyst told me
That I was right out of my head
The way he described it
He said I'd be better dead than alive
I didn't listen to his jive
I knew all along
That he was all wrong
And I knew that he thought
I was crazy but I'm not
don't know

My analyst told me
That I was right out of my head
He said I need treatment
But I'm not that easily led
He said I was the type
That was most inclined
When out of his sight
To be out of my mind
And he thought I was nuts
No more ifs or ands or buts

They say as a child
I appeared a little bit wild
With all my crazy ideas
But I knew what was happening
I knew I was a genius...
What's so strange when you know
That you're a wizard at three
I knew that this was meant to be

Now I heard little children
Were supposed to sleep tight
That's why I got into the vodka one night
My parents got frantic
Didn't know what to do
But I saw some crazy scenes
Before I came to
Now do you think I was crazy
I may have been only three
But I was swinging

They all laugh at angry young men
They all laughed at Edison
And also at Einstein
So why should I be sorry
If they just couldn't understand
The idiomatic logic
That went on in my head
I had a brain
It was insane
Oh they used to laugh at me
When I refused to ride
On those double decker buses
All because there was no driver on the top

My analyst told me
That I was right out of my head
But I said dear doctor
I think that it's you instead
Because I, I got a thing
That's unique and new
To prove it I'll have
The last laugh on you
'Cause instead of one head
I got two
And you know two heads are better than one.