The cold wind is blowing and the streets are getting dark
I’m writting you a letter and I don’t know where to start
The bells will be ringing Saint John, The Divine
I get a little lonely every year around this time
The music plays all night in Little Italy
The lights will be going up on old Rockafella’s tree
People window shoppin’ on Fifth Avenue
All I want for Christmas is you
I wanna know
Nobody ought to be alone on Christmas
Where do lonely hearts go?
Nobody ought to be alone on Christmas
Because nobody ought to be all alone on Christmas
Things are different since you’ve been here last
Childhood dreaming is a thing of the past
I hope you can bring us some cheer this year
The mothers and children in the street again
Do you remember sleigh ridin’ in the snow?
And dancin’ all night to “Baby, please come home”
Today’s celebration is bittersweet
There’s mothers and children in the street
I wanna know
Nobody ought to be alone on Christmas
Where do lonely hearts go?
Nobody ought to be alone on Christmas
Because nobody ought to be all alone on Christmas
I’m all grown up, and it’s the same you’ll see
I’m writing you this letter, ’cause I still believe
Dear Santa, I’ve been good this year
Can’t you stay a little while with me right here?
I wanna know
I wanna know
Where do lonely hearts go?
Nobody ought to be alone on Christmas
Nobody ought to be all alone on Christmas
Nobody ought to be all alone
Nobody ought to be alone on Christmas (alone on Christmas)
Nobody ought to be alone (I wanna know)
Nobody ought to be alone (Where do lonely hearts go?)
Nobody ought to be alone
Oh I, I just died in your arms tonight
It must have been something you said
I just died in your arms tonight
I keep looking for something I can’t get
Broken hearts lie all around me
And I don’t see an easy way to get out of this
Her diary it sits by the bedside table
The curtains are closed, the cats in the cradle
Who would’ve thought that a boy like me could come to this?
Oh I, I just died in your arms tonight
It must’ve been something you said
I just died in your arms tonight
Oh I, I just died in your arms tonight
It must’ve been some kind of kiss
I should’ve walked away
I should’ve walked away
Is there any just cause for feeling like this?
On the surface I’m a name on a list
I try to be discreet, but then blow it again
I’ve lost and found, it’s my final mistake
She’s loving by proxy, no give and all take
‘Cause I’ve been thrilled to fantasy one too many times
Oh I, I just died in your arms tonight
It must’ve been something you said
I just died in your arms tonight
Oh I, I just died in your arms tonight
It must’ve been some kind of kiss
I should’ve walked away
I should’ve walked away
It was a long hot night
And she made it easy, she made it feel right
But now it’s over, the moment has gone
I followed my hands not my head, I know I was wrong
Oh I, I just died in your arms tonight
It must’ve been something you said
I just died in your arms tonight
I, I just died in your arms tonight
It must’ve been some kind of kiss
I should’ve walked away
I should’ve walked away
It won’t be easy, you’ll think it strange
When I try to explain how I feel
That I still need your love after all that I’ve done
You won’t believe me, all you will see is a girl you once knew
Although she’s dressed up to the nines
At sixes and sevens with you
I had to let it happen, I had to change
Couldn’t stay all my life down at heel
Looking out of the window, staying out of the sun
So I chose freedom, running around trying everything new
But nothing impressed me at all
I never expected it to
Don’t cry for me, Argentina
The truth is, I never left you
All through my wild days, my mad existence
I kept my promise
Don’t keep your distance
And as for fortune, and as for fame
I never invited them in
Though it seemed to the world they were all I desired
They are illusions, they’re not the solutions they promised to be
The answer was here all the time
I love you, and hope you love me
Don’t cry for me, Argentina
Don’t cry for me, Argentina
The truth is, I never left you
All through my wild days, my mad existence
I kept my promise
Don’t keep your distance
Don’t cry for me, Argentina
The truth is, I never left you
All through my wild days, my mad existence
I kept my promise
Don’t keep your distance
Have I said too much?
There’s nothing more I can think of to say to you
But all you have to do is look at me to know
That every word is true
Last night you said I was cold, untouchable
A lonely piece of action from another town
I just want to be free, I’m happy to be lonely
Can’t you stay away?
Just leave me alone with my thoughts
Just a runaway
Just a runaway
I’m saving myself
Strung out below a necklace of carnival lights
Cold moon, held on the crest of the night
I’m too tired to fight
So now we’re passing strangers, at single tables
Still trying to get over
Still trying to write love songs for passing strangers
All those passing strangers
And the twinkling lies
All those twinkling lies
Sparkle with the wet ink on the paper
Oh, I remember Toronto when mylo went down
And we sat and we cried on the phone
I never felt so alone
He was the first of our own
Some of us go down in a blaze of obscurity
Some of us go down in a haze of publicity
The price of infamy
The edge of insanity
Another holiday inn, another temporary home
And an interviewer threatened me with a microphone
“Talk to me
Won’t you tell me your stories?”
So I talked about conscience and I talked about pain
And he looked out the window and it started to rain
I thought maybe
I’ve already gone crazy
So I reached for a bottle and he reached for the door
And I picked up the sleeping pills crushed on the floor
Inviting me
To a casual obscenity
It would be incredible
If we could retrace all the times that we lived here
All the collisions
Wasted, I’ve never been so wasted
I’ve never been this far out before
Perimeter walk
There’s a presence here
I feel could have been ancient
Could have been mystical
There’s a presence
Childhood, my childhood
Childhood
A misplaced childhood
My childhood, a misplaced childhood
Give it back to me, give it back to me
A childhood, that childhood
That childhood, that childhood
That childhood
Oh, please give it back to me
I saw a war widow in a launderette
Washing the memories from her husband’s clothes
She had medals pinned to a threadbare greatcoat
A lump in her throat with cemetery eyes
I see convoys curbcrawling West German autobahns
Trying to pick up a war
They’re going to even the score
Oh, I can’t take any more
I see black flags on factories
Soup ladles poised on the lips of the poor
I see children with vacant stares
Destined for rape in the alleyways
Does anybody care? I can’t take any more
Should we say goodbye?
Hey
I see priests, politicians
The heroes in black plastic body-bags under nations’ flags
I see children pleading with outstretched hands
Drenched in napalm, this is no Vietnam
I can’t take any more
Should we say goodbye
How can we justify?
They call us civilised!
Times have changed
And we’ve often rewound the clock
Since the Puritans got a shock
When they landed on Plymouth Rock
If today, any shock they should try to stem
‘Stead of landing on Plymouth Rock
Plymouth Rock would land on them
In olden days, a glimpse of stocking
Was looked on as something shocking
But now, God knows anything goes
Good authors too who once knew better words
Now only use four-letter words
Writing prose
Anything goes
If driving fast cars you like
If low bars you like
If old hymns you like
If bare limbs you like
If Mae West you like
Or me undressed you like
Why, nobody will oppose
When every night the set that’s smart
Is intruding at nudist parties in studios
Anything goes
When the Missus Ned McLean, God bless her
Can get Russian reds to yes her
Then I suppose anything goes
When Rockefeller still can hoard enough money
To let Max Gordon produce his shows
Anything goes
The world has gone mad today
And good’s bad today
And black’s white today
And day’s night today
And that gent today
You gave a cent today
Once had several chateaux
When folks who still can ride in jitneys
Find out Vanderbilts and Whitneys
Lack baby clothes
Anything goes
When Sam Goldwyn can with great conviction
Instruct Anna Sten in diction
Then Nana shows
Anything goes
When you hear that Lady Mendl standing up
Now does a handspring landing upon her toes
Anything goes
Just think of those shocks you’ve got
And those knocks you’ve got
And those blues you’ve got
From those news you’ve got
And those pains you’ve got
If any brains you’ve got
From those little radios
So Missus R, with all her trimmin’s
Can broadcast abed from Simmons
‘Cause Franklin knows
Anything goes
We are jigsaw pieces aligned on the perimeter edge
Interlocked through a missing piece
We are renaissance children becalmed beneath the Bridge of Sighs
Forever throwing firebrands at the stonework
We are Siamese children related by the heart
Bleeding from the surgery of initial confrontation
Holding the word scalpels on trembling lips
Stand straight, look me in the eye and say goodbye
Stand straight, we’ve drifted past the point of reasons why
Yesterday starts tomorrow, tomorrow starts today
And the problem always seems to be we’re picking up the pieces on the ricochet
This is the ricochet
Drowning tequila sunsets, stowaways on midnight ships
Refugees of romance plead asylum from the real
Scrambling distress signals on random frequencies
Forever repatriated on guilt laden morning planes
We are pilots of passion sweating the flight on course
To another summit conference, another breakfast time divorce
Screaming out a cease fire, snow-blind in an avalanche zone
Stand straight, look me in the eye and say goodbye, say goodbye
Stand straight, we’ve drifted past the point of reasons why
Yesterday starts tomorrow, tomorrow starts today
And the problem always seems to be we’re picking up the pieces on the ricochet
This is the ricochet
Are we trigger happy? Russian roulette in the waiting room
Empty chambers embracing the end
Puzzled visions haunt the ripples of a trevi moon
Dream coins for the fountain or to cover your eyes
We reached ignition point from the sparks of pleasantries
We sensed the smoke advancing from horizons
You must have known that I was concealing an escape
Stand straight, look me in the eye and say goodbye, say goodbye
Stand straight, we’ve drifted past the point of reasons why
Yesterday starts tomorrow, tomorrow starts today, starts today
And the problem always seems to be we’re picking up the pieces on the ricochet
This is the ricochet
In the corners of my mind
Long forgotten, lost in time
Turning stones to look for light
It’s dark out here in the dead night
Pull me back, out of my body
I’m tied to my limbs
They’re spinning me out of control
Tether me
Tether me
Tether me
For a moment I was gone
Speed of light into the red dawn
In this space, do I belong?
It’s dark out here in my own thoughts
Pull me back, out of my body
I’m tied to my limbs
They’re spinning me out of control
Tether me
Tether me
Tether me
Spinning, I’m spinning out of control
Spinning, I’m spinning out of control
Tether me
Tether me