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Release date:
08.06.78
Tracks:
1. Down to the Waterline (3:59)
2. Water of Love (5:22)
3. Setting Me Up (3:19)
4. Six Blade Knife (4:09)
5. Southbound Again (2:57)
6. Sultans of Swing (5:34)
7. In the Gallery (6:14)
8. Wild West End (4:42)
9. Lions (4:54)
Sweet surrender on the
quayside
You remember we used
to run and hide
In the shadow of the
cargoes I take you one time
And we're counting all
the numbers down to the waterline
Near misses on the dogleap
stairways
French kisses in the
darkened doorways
A foghorn blowing out
wild and cold
A policeman shines a
light upon my shoulder
Up comes a coaster fast
and silent in the night
Over my shoulder all
you can see are the pilot lights
No money in our jackets
and our jeans are torn
Your hands are cold but
your lips are warm
She can see him on the
jetty where they used to go
She can feel him in the
places where the sailors go
When she's walking by
the river and the railway line
She can still hear him
whisper
Let's go down to the
waterline
High and dry in the long
hot day
Lost and lonely in every
way
Got the flats all around
me sky up above
I need a little water
of love
I've been too long lonely
and my heart feels pain
Crying out for some soothing
rain
I believe I have taken
enough
I need a little water
of love
Water of love deep in
the ground
No water here to be found
Some day baby when the
river runs free
It'll carry that water
of love to me
There's a bird up in a
tree sitting up high
Waiting for me to die
If I don't get some water
soon
I'll be dead and gone
in the afternoon
Once I had a woman I could
call my own
Once I had a woman now
my woman is gone
Once there was a river
now there's a stone
You know it's evil when
you're living alone
You say I'm the greatest
bound for glory
Well the word is out
and I learned
I got the latest side
of the story
You're pulling out before
you get burned
Well your hands are squeezing
me down to the bone
I never saw you breaking
no law
Stands to reason I've
got to leave you alone
What you take me for
You're setting me up to
put me down
You're making me out
to be your clown
You're just setting me
up to put me down
You better give it up
Quit your messing around
You think I care about
your reaction
You think I don't understand
All you wanted was a
piece of the action
Now you talk about another
man
Your six blade knife can
do anything for you
Anything you want it
to
One blade for breaking
my heart
One blade for tearing
me apart
Your six blade knife-do
anything for you
You can take away my mind
like you take away the top of a tin
When you come up from
behind and lay it down cold on my skin
Took a stone from my
soul when I was lame
Just so you could make
me tame
You take away my mind
like you take away the top of a tin
I'd like to be free of
it now - I don't want it no more
I'd like to be free of
it now - you know I don't want it no more
Everybody got a knife
it can be just what they want it to be
A needle a wife or something
that you just can't see
You know it keeps you
strong
Yes and it'll do me wrong
Your six blade knife
- do anything for you
Southbound again I don't
know if I'm going or leaving home
Boy got to be moving
Seems like the boy is
bound to roam
Southbound again got no
money I've got no place to go
That woman's with her
lover boy
Never want to see her
face no more
Every single time I roll
across the rolling River Tyne
I get the same old feeling
Every time I'm moving
down the line
Southbound again last
night I felt like crying
Right now I'm sick of
living
But I'm going to keep
on trying
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 downsouth way
on downsouth 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 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'
Harry made a bareback
rider proud and free upon a horse
And a fine coalminer
for the NCB that was
A fallen angel and Jesus
on the cross
A skating ballerina you
should have seen her do the skater's waltz
Some people have got to
paint and draw
Harry had to work in
clay and stone
Like the waves coming
to the shore
It was in his blood and
in his bones
Ignored by all the trendy
boys in London and in Leeds
He might as well have
been making toys or strings of beads
He could not be in the
gallery
And then you get an artist
says he doesn't want to paint at all
He takes an empty canvas
and sticks it on the wall
The birds of a feather
all the phonies and all of the fakes
While the dealers they
get together
And they decide who gets
the breaks
And who's going to be
in the gallery
No lies he wouldn't compromise
No junk no bits of string
And all the lies we subsidise
That just don't mean
a thing
I've got to say he passed
away in obscurity
And now all the vultures
are coming down from the tree
So he's going to be in
the gallery
Stepping out to Angellucci's
for my coffee beans
Checking out the movies
and the magazines
Waitress she watches
me crossing from the Barocco Bar
I'm getting a pickup
for my steel guitar
I saw you walking out
Shaftesbury Avenue
Excuse me for talking
I wanna marry you
This is the seventh heaven
street to me
Don't be so proud
You're just another angel
in the crowd
And I'm walking in he
wild west end
Walking with your wild
best friend
And my conductress on
the number nineteen
She was a honey
Pink toenails and hands
all dirty with money
Greasy hair easy smile
Made me feel nineteen
for a while
And I went down to Chinatown
In the backroom it's
a man's world
All the money go down
Duck inside the doorway
gotta duck to eat
Right now feels alright
now
You and me we can't beat
And a gogo dancing girl
yes I saw her
The deejay he say here's
Mandy for ya
I feel alright to see
her
But she's paid to do
that stuff
She's dancing high I
move on by
The close ups can get
rough
When you're walking in
the wild west end
Red sun go down way over
dirty town
Starling are sweeping
around crazy shoals
A girl is there high
heeling across the square
Wind blows around in
her hair and the flags upon the poles
Waiting in the crowd
to cross at the light
She looks around to find
a face she can like.
Church bell clinging on
trying to get a crowd for Evensong
Nobody cares to depend
upon the chime it plays
They're all in the station
praying for trains
Congregations late again
It's getting darker all
the time these flagpole days
Drunk old soldier he
gives her a fright
He's crazy lion howling
for a fight.
Strap hanging gunshot
sound
Doors slamming on the
overground
Starlings are tough but
the lions are made of stone
Her evening paper is
horror torn
But there's hope later
for Capricorns
Her lucky stars give
her just enough to get home
Then she's reading about
a swing to the right
But she's thinking about
a stranger in the night
I'm thinking about the
lions tonight
What happened to the
lions.