THE WALKABOUTS

THE WALKABOUTS

TRAIL OF STARS (1999)

  1. Desert Skies
  2. Straight To The Stars
  3. Gold
  4. Last Tears
  5. Crime Story
  6. Hightimes
  7. Harvey's Quote To Me
  8. On The Day
  9. Till I Reach You
10. Drown
11. No One The Wiser
12. Bonnie & Clyde

THE WALKABOUTS

TRAIL OF STARS

1. DESERT SKIES

Blacklight fades
Headlights switched off
The engine burns
As we're rollin' to a stop

Let's get out here
Lie down in the middle of road
Ain't no cars comin'

Only stars
And stars alone
The city at our backs
Did you really think that it would last?

Heaven's trace
A trail of starlight gone
The city best forgotten

Did the wind hit you in the eye?
Or were you just about to cry?
Desert skies...
This ain't the place to turn around
Never even said goodbye
Desert skies...

A day so hot it seemed
Like the rocks could sing
The sky so flat it seemed there was
Nothin' in the wings

Scar on your lip
A story far too long to tell
The story best forgotten

Our party in hell's been cancelled
Due to fire and thick smoke
Torched up by it's own success
Do ya' wish that we had never spoke?

Yours and yours alone
Mine everywhere thrown
Yours alone

Did the wind hit you in the eye?
Or were you just about to cry?
Desert skies...
All the stars are shaped like tears
Tears are satellites
Desert skies...

2. STRAIGHT TO THE STARS

Don't wait any longer
Not a second more
Don't wait for the century to click
Ya' never can be sure

Put my hand just where you want it
Been movin' much too slow
Move you hand just where I want it
Don't let go

And if we let this devil ride
I swear he's gonna' take the wheel and drive

Straight to the stars
Can't wait any longer
Straight to the stars
The sky is only gettin' darker now

Stars on the pavement
Stars in sad eyes
Stars are out for the hangin'
True stars never die

Put my hand just where you want it
Been movin' much too slow
Move your hand just where I want it
Don't let go

And if we let this devil ride
I swear he's gonna' take the wheel and drive

Straight to the stars
Can't wait any longer
Straight to the stars
The sky is only gettin' darker now
Only gettin' darker.

3. GOLD

See my silly watch
Every second lost, hmm
Lost in a strange arcade
Got drunk on girls night out

If they're the good years, I don't know
What you call the hard years
If they're the good times, I don't know
What you call the hard times

Just let me know
If you can see the gold
Just let me know
If can you see the gold?

Lay these knuckles bare
Strip the varnish back
Did we ever use to kiss?
Did I ever get you off?

If they're the good years, I don't know
What you call the hard years
If they're the good times, I don't know
What you call the hard times

I don't see the gold in this
I don't see the gold

The good years, I don't know
Can't hang it on a wanderin' star
Can't hide it in a wanderin' heart
Can't blind it with a wanderin' eye

The good years, I don't know
Ah ho.

4. LAST TEARS

These are your last tears for the century
Don't cry them for me

These are your last tears, before the party starts
Don't throw them away

Use em' wisely, use em' large
Use em' soft, and use em' hard

Once we're flush but now we're skint as bone
Can ill-afford to waste our tears alone

These are our last tears for this century
Don't blame them on me

This is our first, and surely, our last attempt
To earn what we've spent

Set em' up, and knock em' back
Lost in the stars, lost in the scraps

Next century will never ask you why
Cares not if you've come, or if you cried

Last tears of the century
They keep on comin'

All the revolutions, they've been here and gone
Missed everyone

Except the one that we have, yet begun
Missed everyone

Spin in circles, till we're stung
By every heart, and every gun

Put the future behind us, until we see today
Happiness can't buy ya' money, till we see today

And the only thing that's left to do
Is to see that they don't cover you...
Last tears of the century.

5. CRIME STORY

Thunder laughs and thunderclaps
The afternoons round here,
Well they're just like that

I know ya' don't spook easy
I know ya' won't up and quit
Let's keep it like that
Now don't forget

When you go and make the drop
If he don't look ya' in the eye
well ya' better just walk

Means madness is takin' over
Madness is in charge
It's come out of the woodwork
Madness-at-large

Keep things close
Keep the dogs at bay
Just walk on by
Story of a crime
Walk on by
Story of a crime

Whole thing sounds harder than it is
Timing 's everything
But then you knew that, before I did
If this turns into a circus
Too much talkin', too much noise
Walk on by
Keep holdin' on to the bag

There's a town on the Spanish border
Where you can chill
He's supposed to tell ya' about it
But if he don't, head for the hills

Find some empty olive grove
Where you can stash the car
Somewhere exotic
Somewhere obscure

Sometimes you do what is wrong
So ya' won't do what's worse
If ya' can't be righteous
At least be careful
Just cause we feed the flame
Don't mean we have to get burned.

6. HIGHTIMES

Hightimes, undermine
Tell me somethin' I don't know

Hightimes, can chase em' till you're blind
Tell me somethin' I don't know

Now you're lyin' next to me
The one place that you shoulda' stayed
Lyin' next to me

Now you're lyin' next to me
The place I said you'd always be
Hightimes, gone away

Let go
Hit it on the money
Let it go, let it go, let it go
Let go
Hit it closer than you wanted
Let it go, let it go, let it go

Them hightimes forgave
Rips and tears
Them hightimes forgave
But I don't care
Hightimes have strayed
Them hightimes have strayed

We drove to the top of Castle Hill
The lights of the town below

We drove, you were almost still
The lights of the town below

You said things look twice as small
When you have been livin' tall
Things look twice as small

You said things look twice as far
When you have been gone so long
Things look twice as far

Them hightimes forgave,
But look at you now.

7. HARVEY'S QUOTE TO ME
(No Text)

8. ON THE DAY

Behind the bric and brac
There will be no lookin' back

And between hell and hello
There will be no lettin' go
No there won't

And you can't be serious
No you can't
You won't really do him in
Well you might

Hey this all seems like a joke
Yes it does, but it's not
Where I laugh before you've spoke
Stuttered words
Poisoned love

And the trumpets lean and barren
And the sirens shrill and darin'

On the day that I...

And your people all will say
What they want, what they will

And the tower bells will rage
From the top of the hill

And the crows they all will crow
What they crow
What they know
And the crows they all will crow
"Gotta go"
"Gotta go"

And the trumpets lean and barren
And the sirens shrill and darin'
On the day that I...

The day that I stop carin'.

9. TILL I REACH YOU

I don't care how long it might last
I don't care anymore
I don't care about that

I don't care how long it might take
I'm still wide awake
Out walkin' late

Till I reach you
Wait until I
Till I reach you
Wait until I
Till I reach you

I don't care if it takes half the night
Or a life
Or if it's all a slow dream
Ain't no answers in me

Every slight of the hand
Every brick
Every stone
I can face it alone
Walkin' alone

Don't care anymore
If it's short, fast, or blind
The chalk lines are drawn
I'm walkin' all night
Caressed and caroused
Don't care what it takes
I'm still wide awake.

10. DROWN

Somethin' of a shambles
Another wicked tangle
Still I believe that love is drawn
From the emptiest of wells

A shadow of a mystery
The way you can't forget me
Still I believe that love is drawn
From the emptiest of wells

I wanna' drown again
I wanna' drown
Till my thirst is full
My lips are cool
Drown

Nothin' is forgiven
Nothin' reaches heaven
Nothin' evens out
And nothin' crawls away

But I believe that lightning strikes
I believe that fate has pull
I believe that love is drawn
From the emptiest of wells

The water's clear
I hope you stay.

11. NO ONE THE WISER

Our healin' mark was reached
Above this floodlit street
Beneath a silver moon
Undone

Leaning with intent to fall
Your gaze a perfect blade
My hand, a shadow
Drawn

These secrets come and go
But every secret knows
It's better to ravish
Than to hold

Are we right back where we were?
Or just right where we are?
Can't see it for the stars
But we'll know it when it's gone

No one the wiser
No one the wiser

The healin' deals been struck
Pain is shit-out-o'-luck
Neither one of us, too tired to love

Just tired of bleedin' stones
Just tired of crashin' slow
Forever shoulda' know

No one the wiser
No one the wiser
No one the wiser

Do ya' feel our ghost in every stitch?
Do ya' hear our ghost in every word?
Are you my ghost?
Or am I yours?
One thing for sure
Time is gonna' soothe these shattered eyes
Time is gonna' heal things out of turn
Time is gonna' mark the place to start
But leave the ending for yourself

No one the wiser
No one the wiser.

12. BONNIE & CLYDE
(No Text)

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