Thea Gilmore Album

Roll that dice again, again
And once or twice you'll reel me in
What I've got is not what I came for
But I'll keep coming back for more

Come on, lay your head upon my chest
The odds are slim, but isn't that the test?
In this game you either bend or break
And I don't know what kind of mess we'll make
Come on, lay your head upon my chest

Come on, come on
Come on, come on
Spin that wheel, spin that wheel, spin that wheel.

Pull the trigger and load the gun
The journey home has only just begun
We could rise, but if we swan-dive too
Oh, I'll love going down with you
Come on, pull the trigger and load that gun

Come on, come on
Come on, come on
Spin that wheel, spin that wheel, spin that wheel
Come on, come on
Come on, come on
Spin that wheel, spin that wheel, spin that wheel
Spin that wheel, spin that wheel, spin that wheel

I'm pleased to meet you boys, you know it's been a while
Since I have had to fake delight just to raise a smile
You're squeezing hands and squeezing hits as good as anyone
And everybody's numb
Yeah, everybody's numb

And the sun's been slowly setting on your golden age
And you'll recheck the figures but you'll skip the page
Where the one thing that won't fit into your final sum
Is everybody's numb
Yeah, everybody's numb

And all the noise you're making sounds just like the rest
Salute the founders of the united states of emptiness

You can roll your eyes and write me off as paranoid
Tell me under Gucci suits lie twisted girls and tortured boys
But nothing gets my back up quite like martyrdom
When everybody's numb

And all the noise you're making sounds just like the rest
Salute the founders of the united states of emptiness

So send your armies out into the real world
Reciting lines from nursery rhymes, singing like a jailbird
‘Cause every Caesar needs a tranquiliser gun
Then everybody's numb
Yeah, every Ghandi needs his own Napoleon
Then everybody's numb
Yeah, everybody's numb
Sure, everybody's numb

Yeah, everybody's numb

Your shadow has grown longer
The wind is at your back
They dressed you up so pretty
In red, white and black

Roll the sixes gently
Consult the zodiac
The colours of the century
Are red, white and black

And we can all hear it coming
And we all know why
So gather your children
And take the last train to the sky

Call me to the promise
And call me to the track
And call me a deserter
Of red, white and black

And we can all hear it coming
And we all know why
So gather your children
And take the last train to the sky

The last tequila sunrise
The last pink Cadillac
They've painted out this rainbow
In red, white and black
In red, white and black
It's red, white and black

Well, it's hard to tell whose dream we're in
But the sky fell while we were talking
Amid the bruises and the red lights
Will you call me your darling tonight?
Call, call me your darling tonight

It's a dark wind that's been blowing
It's a steel river rolling
When the dawn cracks I will be alright
If you call me your darling tonight
Call, call me your darling tonight

We could catch the red tide in our hands
We could crack the code if we had a place to stand
Though I usually would run with rack and ruin
Just look what you've got me doing now

In the long days of confusion
In the forked tongue of Lazy Susan
I've got freedom, I've got second sight
If you call me your darling tonight
Call, call me your darling tonight

We could catch the red tide in our hands
We could crack the code if we had a place to stand
Though I usually would run with rack and ruin
Just look what you've got me doing now

In the long days of confusion
In the forked tongue of Lazy Susan
I've got freedom, I've got second sight
If you call me your darling tonight
Call, call me your darling tonight
Call, call me your darling tonight

Stretched between the lamplight and the cigarette ash
In the corner of the city where the markets crashed
There are boxes of the lonely here and fires of hope
We built a monster
We built a monster

You can take a bit of red, a bit of white and blue
From across the Atlantic laying trails to you
A little flash of lightning and some bully boy charm
We built a monster
We built a monster

This thing can cross oceans in its seven league boots
It can chew the money tree right down to its roots
The ship of a state can go under in minutes
You don't know the flood is coming until you're swimming in it.

It ain't come from the hungry, it ain't come from the bored
It ain't tramping out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored
It spins like a tequila worm inside all of us
We built a monster
We built a monster

It can breathe its greed into innocent souls
It can raise up armies, it can blow ‘em full of holes
It can dress for occasion if occasion demands
There is power in the chase, there is power in the hand

So the city flickers on like a reeperbahn night
Hissing like a wildcat just about to fight
And it mutters that we rule by the ladders of degree
We built a monster
We built a monster
We built a monster
We built a monster

He was a clubland caller, he was younger than he felt
Settled like a moth down in the east-end neon belt
Well he used to be a believer, ‘til the city got its grip
Now if there's any holiness left, well he can't remember it
He can't remember it

She was a high-rise butterfly, crashed in ‘92
Into some veiled little suburb that they bulldozed through
Where the little fat angels guard the harvest like they should
Well its downtown now but it used to be the woods
It used to be the woods

And, oh its a lonely little town
And oh, its a lonely little tune
And if my name is on that list I guess I'll see you soon

First he heard her voice and then he saw her face
She shone just like a crucifix, an instrument of grace
And they got on like children, they got a hotel room
They got a new religion, a needle and a spoon
A needle and a spoon

And they gave thanks to the heavens, but the devil held their hands
And they walked that great divide between Disciples and partisans
And the brown and the Bible, they were never quite enough
But the life that grew inside her, well that felt a bit like love
Felt a bit like love

And oh, its a lonely little town
And oh, its a lonely little tune
And if my name is on that list I guess I'll see you soon
And if my name is on that list I guess I'll see you soon

The seasons are a metronome, the rhythm and the wild
The winter took his heart away, the spring it took her child
And the honeyed breath of summer is sweet and overgrown
But its always autumn sings “its not too late to find your way back home”
To find your way back home

And a bell sometimes reminds them, or the singing in the wind
The striking of a match, the smell of Paraffin
And some folks are drawn to the flames, and some just want to hide
But the lonely are the prettiest of all, they burn from the inside
They burn from the inside
Yeah, the lonely are the prettiest of all, they burn from the inside

Well heaven knows the way things go
With ticker tape and radios
The good fight was lost long ago
And bravery doesn't live in those
Who're going down
And I'm going down

I had less sense than a harlequin
I changed my clothes and jumped straight in
It was hotter than it should have been
Now with bloody legs and blistered skin
I'm going down
I'm going down
Give me one more heart to break
And I promise I won't make a sound

From sad refrain to sad refrain
I said you'd hear it all again
The lonely call of distant trains
I missed the point but hit the shame going down
And I'm going down
Its been there for the taking
The only journey I'll be making is down

Did you really turn the light off on your way down?
Did you really mark the mirror on your way down?

And ruin comes and ruin stays
And, Jesus Christ, the games it plays
Can't wash the smell off my skin for days
The sex, the blood, the alleyway
Going down
I'm going down
Well I got a little dizzy
Somehow things have turned me around

Well heaven knows the way things go
With ticker tape and radios
The good fight was lost long ago
And bravery doesn't live in those
Who're going down
And I'm going down

Its been a long time since I've seen you
Just like this, face to face
And I know I should have called you
But I had another ghost to chase
Should've read your letters
Should've found out how you'd been
But the truth is there was no escape
The call of whistle and steam
Of whistle and steam

There's a man down at the station
On a newspaper bed
“I just need some kind of salvation
Before I die” he said
But honey we're just passers-by
In another leaving scene
You and I are locked in tight
To the call of whistle and steam
Of whistle and steam
Of whistle and steam

It's the sleepers and the steel
Or the black-root and the vine
But my place is the space between
The past and the horizon line

Can you hear that old horn blowin'
Every time you close your eyes?
And behind every bolted door
Is there a voice you recognise?
Singing prayers, singing curses
Singing all about the dream
To everyone caught in the headlights
Caught in the whistle and steam
In the whistle and steam
Caught in the whistle and steam
In the whistle and steam
In the whistle and steam

Caught in the whistle and steam
In the whistle and steam

She's fingering the petals on her dress
It was another lesson in the rise and fall of holiness
Her hands are shaking and her hair is a mess
Oh, yeah he pulled a cheap trick

The car has come and its taken her away
And she won't tell a soul ‘cause she knows what they would say
‘Cause it gets a little tricky between blame and ricochet
Boy, it was a cheap trick
Boy, it was a cheap trick

Oh, lower than lonely
Slower, girl, slowly
You can just break them down
Oh, lower than lonely
Slower, girl, slowly
You can just turn them round
And all their cheap tricks

She smiles as she fumbles for the keys
And she won't look back up into that window when she leaves
If it's a choice between a martyr or a refugee
Oh, yeah she knows some sweet tricks
Yeah she knows some sweet tricks

Oh, lower than lonely
Slower, girl, slowly
You can just break them down
Oh, lower than lonely
Slower, girl, slowly
You can just turn them round
And all their cheap tricks

The night falls like a satin petticoat
And the bare bulb glows onto the letter that she wrote
‘Cause it takes a lot of oxygen to help you stay afloat
That or one more cheap trick
That or one more cheap trick

And oh, lower than lonely
Slower, girl, slowly
You can just break them down
Oh, lower than lonely
Slower, girl, slowly
You can just turn them round
Turn them round
And all their cheap tricks
And all their cheap tricks
And all their cheap tricks
And all their cheap tricks

Contessa, Contessa, oh please leave your hat by the door
Well, I thought I told you, you couldn't call round anymore
And outside in the street and the rains turning tricks on the day
Contessa, I've told you so why do you come anyway?

Well, ten years ago by the motorway bridge with a smile
And your red lacquer shoes, oh you lived inside me for a while
I had an old cow bone that I used to draw hearts in the dust
Oh, Contessa please tell me just what the hell happened to us

‘Cause I've gone
Gone, run that road
I've gone
Gone, run that road
Run that road home

I was a scared little kid with a head full of hormones and holes
With one eye on atonement and a body already grown old
There you were with your secrets and your notebook of genuine lies
Saying “girl, its your party but you sure as Hell don't wanna cry, don't wanna cry”

I've gone
Gone, run that road
I've gone
Gone, run that road
Run that road home
Yeah, run that road home

So I was the black sheep, yeah, I was the lone cavalier
But with a face like stone, oh Connie its lonely out here
I've taken some pills and I've played with the hand I was dealt
And you saved me that time but now I've learned to save myself

And I've gone
Gone, run that road
I've gone
Gone, run that road
Run that road home
Oh, run that road home
Yeah, run that, run that, run that, run that, road home
Yeah, run that road home

Well I dreamt about you
About leaving without you
And going on a slow journey
Where no roads are marked and
A black dog is barking
Going on a slow journey
And the neon will light my face
Like a ghost girl
Like an empty space
In the trip and the trigger
This world's getting bigger
Going on a slow journey

Did you think you could hear me?
Or see me more clearly
Going on a slow journey
‘Cause I've walked so long I
Know what trail I'm on
I'm going on a slow journey
And that old crow
Is gonna rise up soon
And peck out
The eyes of the moon
And I'm not gonna see those
Million souls in the shadows
Lost in the slow journey

Play something that we need to hear
Play to make the ghosts appear
Play until the bottle's gone
Play, play because your heart's at stake
Play enough to liberate
Play until the bottle's gone

Well, did you hear them quote the Bible
See them hands on hearts
Not a soul between ‘em
But don't they look the part
But I don't need triggers
Don't need swords
There's a tool of revolution there in every single chord

C'mon and play something that we need to hear
Play to make the ghosts appear
Play until the bottle's gone
Play until the bottle's gone

I've got an old Neil Young record and a bottle of red
I know he'll still be saying just what needs to be said
But all you others what is there to lose?
Just pick up your plywood and learn to sing the blues

And play, play the life out of that steel
Play to halt the winding wheel
Play until the bottle's gone

Play it in the streets, play it in the schools
Play it for the ones out there who've never seen what playing can do
Play until the bottle's gone

Well the clock's tick-tocking until the fun begins
And no amount of love songs tell the mess we're in
And I'd like answers but a question'd do
Or old tides turning, the sound of something new

So play something that we need to hear
Play to make the ghosts appear
Play until the bottle's gone
Play, play it just to make your mark
Play it just to light the spark
Play until the bottle's gone
Play until the bottle's gone
Play until the bottle's gone