Billy Joel Album

Some people think that she's one of those mink-coated ladies
They say she wakes up at one
And makes the paparazzi run till dawn
She wines and dines with Argentines and Kuwaitis
After she sips maragaritas on the White House lawn

CHORUS
That's not her style I can tell you
That ain't my woman
It's just not her style I can tell you
Because I'm her man

The papers say she was seen in L.A. with a stranger
She found a perfect body with aa Maserati right outside
And then she chartered a Lear
When she heard her career was in danger
And the gave the pilot somethin' extra for a perfect ride

CHORUS

Not that she's never done something crazy or done somethng wild
It's just that she's better at doing whatever suits her style
And that's not her style

I've read where it's said that she sleeps in a bed made of satin
She's had her face done in every place you can try
They say she gets a piece of every lease in Manhattan
And says she's thirty when she's really pushing forty-five

CHORUS

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray
South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio

Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe

Rosenberg’s, H-Bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom
Brando, "The King and I" and "The Catcher in the Rye"

Eisenhower, Vaccine, England's got a new queen
Marciano, Liberace, Santayana Goodbye

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Joseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev
Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc

Roy Cohn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, Dacron
Dien Bien Phu Falls, Rock Around the Clock

Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn's got a winning team
Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland

Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Khrushchev
Princess Grace, Peyton Place, Trouble in the Suez

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac
Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, Bridge on the River Kwai

Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California Baseball
Starkweather Homicide, Children of Thalidomide

Buddy Holly, Ben Hur, Space Monkey, Mafia
Hula Hoops, Castro, Edsel is a No-Go

U-2, Synghman Rhee, Payola and Kennedy
Chubby Checker, Psycho, Belgians in the Congo

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Hemingway, Eichmann, Stranger in a Strange Land
Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs Invasion

Lawrence of Arabia, British Beatlemania
Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston Beats Patterson

Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British Politician Sex
JFK, blown away, what else do I have to say?

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again
Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, Punk-Rock

Begin, Reagan, Palestine, Terror on the airline
Ayatollah's in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan

Wheel of Fortune, Sally Ride, Heavy Metal, Suicide
Foreign Debts, Homeless Vets, AIDS, Crack, Bernie Goetz

Hypodermics on the shore, China's under martial law
Rock and Roller Cola Wars, I can't take it anymore

We didn't start the fire,
It was always burnin',
Since the world's been turnin'
We didn't start the fire,
But when we are gone
Will it still burn on, and on, and on, and on...

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't...

Well I'm on the Downeaster Alexa
And I'm cruising through Block Island Sound
I have chartered a course to the Vineyard
But tonight I am Nantucket bound

We took on diesel back in Montauk yesterday
And left this morning from the bell in Gardiner's Bay
Like all the locals here I've had to sell my home
Too proud to leave I worked my fingers to the bone

So I could own my Downeaster Alexa
And I could go where the ocean is deep
There are giants out there in the canyons
And a good captain can't fall asleep

I've got bills to pay and children who need clothes
I know there's fish out there but where God only knows
They say these waters aren't what they used to be
But Ive got people back on land who count on me

So if you see my Downeaster Alexa
And if you work with the rod and the reel
Tell my wife i am trolling Atlantis
And i still have my hands on the wheel

Now I drive my Downeaster Alexa
More and more miles from shore every year
Since they told me I can't sell no stripers
And there's no luck in swordfishing here

I was a bayman like my father was before
Can't make a living as a bayman anymore
There ain't much future for a man who works the sea
But there ain't no island left for islanders like me

Call me a joker, call me a fool
Right at this moment Iґm totally cool
Clear as a crystal, sharp as a knife
I feel like Iґm in the prime of my life
Sometimes it feels like Iґm going too fast
I donґt know how long this feeling will last
Maybe itґs only tonight

Refr.:
Darling, I donґt know why I go to extremes
Too high or too low there ainґt no in-betweens
And if I stand or I fall
Itґs all or nothing at all
Darling, I donґt know why I go to extremes

Sometimes Iґm tired, Sometimes Iґm shot
Sometimes I donґt know how much more Iґve got
Maybe Iґm headed over the hill
Maybe Iґve set myself up for the kill
Tell me how much do you think you can take
Until the heart in you is starting to break?
Sometimes it feels like it will

Refr.:


Out of the darkness, into the light
Leaving the scene of the crime
Either Iґm wrong or Iґm perfectly right every time
Sometimes I lie awake, night after night
Coming apart at the seams
Eager to please, ready to fight
Why do I go to extremes?

Refr.:

Well I'm shameless
When it comes to loving you
I'd do anything you want me to
I'd do anything at all

And I'm standin
Here for all the world to see
There ain't that much left of me
That has very far to fall

You know I'm not a man who's ever been
Insecure about the world I've been livin in
I don't break easy
I have my pride
But if you need to be satisfied

I'm shameless
Baby I don't have a prayer
Anytime I see you standing there
I go down upon my knees

And I'm changin
Swore I'd never compromise
But you convinced me otherwise
I'll do anything you please

You see in all my life
I've never found
What I couldn't resist, what I couldn't turn down
I could walk away from anyone I ever knew
But I can't walk away from you

I have never let anything have this much control over me
I worked too hard to call my life my own
I made myself a world, and it worked so perfectly
But it's your world now, I can't refuse
I've never had so much to lose

Well I'm shameless...

You know it should be easy for a man who's strong
To say he's sorry or admit when he's wrong
I never lost anything I ever missed
But I've never been in love like this
It's out of my hands

I'm shameless
I don't have the power now
But I don't want it anyhow
So I've got to let it go

I'm shameless
Shameless as a man should be
You could make a total fool of me
I just wanted you to know

I am shameless
Shameless...

Safe at harbor, everything is easy
Off to starboard, daylight comes up fast
Now I'm restless for the open water
Red flags are flying from the Coast Guard mast

They told me to stay, I heard all the information
I motored away and steered straight ahead
Though the weatherman said

There's a storm front coming (mood indigo)
White water running and the pressure is low
Storm front coming (mood indigo)
Small craft warning on the radio

I've been sailing a long time on this ocean
Man gets lonesome, all those years at sea
I've got a woman, my life should be easy
Most men hunger for the life I lead

The morning was grey, but I had the motivation
I drifted away and ran into more
Heavy weather off shore

There's a storm front coming (mood indigo)
White water running and the pressure is low
Storm front coming (mood indigo)
Small craft warning on the radio

We've got a low pressure system and a northeast breeze
We've got a falling barometer and rising seas
We've got the cumulonimbus and a possible gale
We've got a force nine blowing on the Beaufont scale

I'm still restless for the open water
Though she gives me everything I need
She asked me to stay, but I'd done my navigation
I drove her away, but I should have known
To stay tied up at home

There's a storm front coming (mood indigo)
White water running and the pressure is low
Storm front coming (mood indigo)
Small craft warning on the radio

Viktor was born in the spring of ґ44
And never saw his father anymore
A child of sacrifice, a child of war
Another son who never had a father after Leningrad
Went off to school and learned to serve the state
Followed the rules and drank his vodka straight
The only way to live was drown the hate
A Russian life was very sad
And such was life in Leningrad

I was born in ґ49
A cold war kid in McCarthy time
Stop ґem at the 38th Parallel
Blast those yellow reds to hell
And cold war kids were hard to kill
Under their desk in an air raid drill
Havenґt they heard we won the war
What do they keep on fighting for?

Viktor was sent to some Red Army town
Served out his time, became a circus clown
The greatest happiness heґd ever found
Was making Russian children glad
And children lived in Leningrad

But children lived in Levittown
And hid in the shelters underground
Until the Soviets turned their ships around
And tore the Cuban missiles down
And in that bright October sun
We knew our childhood days were done
And I watched my friends go off to war
What do they keep on fighting for?

And so my child and I came to this place
To meet him eye to eye and face to face
He made my daughter laugh, then we embraced
We never knew what friends we had
Until we came to Leningrad

There you go, slipping away into a state of grace
I know the look that comes across your face
It's so familiar to me
Here I am, trying to keep you in my line of sight
I'm never certain that you read me right
Sometimes you don't want to see
Here we are, both of us know we're in love
But that isn't always enough
I never could rise above it all, down I fall

But darling there you go, slipping away into a state of grace
Granted, this world is not a perfect place
Still it's the world that I'm in
Here I am talking while you don't hear a word I say
Knowing you're watching me from far away
Somewhere that I've never been

Don't you see, you lived a different life than me
It doesn't mean you have to be afraid of how
We're not the same, don't leave me now

But darling there you go, slipping away

How can I get you to stay where you are
Keep you for going too far
Holding you here is so hard to do...I'm losing you

And darling there you go, slipping away into a state of grace
Drifting away into your sacred place
Someplace that I've never been
There you go, slipping away, slipping away, into a state of grace
There you go, slipping away into a state of grace
There you go...drifting away...

Well I see you in the morning
Putting on your pretty clothes
And I watch you do your makeup
LIke they do in all those fashion shows
Then you trun to me so that I can see
If you put yourself together right
Then you go away and you're gone all day
But I know you're coming home tonight
And when you're home, darling all you've got to be is you
But when in Rome, do as the Romans do

Well it's alright if you're tired when your day is done
You can see when you look at me, you're not the only one
It's a cold, cruel world for a working girl
But you can't let them see you cry
It's a fact of life, now man and wife
Work full time to just get by
And when we're home all it's gonna be is me and you
But when in Rome, do as the Romans do

I've done some strange thngs I never thought I'd do before
But if the strain brings happiness, more or less...
More or less...

Then I don't mind masquerading with all those other fools
I don't mind the games I'm playing,
Because I've learned the rules
And when tims are tough, I've got just enough
If you're standing right by my side
Darling more and more I get hungry for
All the ways you keep me satisfied
On our own there ain't nothing we can't get thru
But when in Rome, do as the Romans do

Then I don't mind masquerading with all those other fools
I don't mind the gmes I'm playing,
Because I've learned the rules
It doesn't matter when we're home, all alone
Al we've got to be is me and you
On our own there ain't noghint that we can't get thru
But when in Rome, do as the Romans do

Swing that hammer and break that stone
Push those buttons and answer that phone
Coffee in the morning and martinis at night
Everybody's working up a big appetite
Do as the Romans do...

In every heart there is a room
A sanctuary safe and strong
To heal the wounds from lovers past
Until a new one comes along

I spoke to you in cautious tones
You answered me with no pretense
And still I feel I said too much
My silence is my self defense

And every time I've held a rose
It seems I only felt the thorns
And so it goes, and so it goes
And so will you soon I suppose

But if my silence made you leave
Then that would be my worst mistake
So I will share this room with you
And you can have this heart to break

And this is why my eyes are closed
It's just as well for all I've seen
And so it goes, and so it goes
And you're the only one who knows

So I would choose to be with you
That's if the choice were mine to make
But you can make decisions too
And you can have this heart to break

And so it goes, and so it goes
And you're the only one who knows