Footsteps In The Hall Woke up late in the afternoon Sat up straight and rubbed my racoon eyes Only to find the sun stopped shining down I saw the moon rise Bobby got killed last Saturday night And to most of us, it still hadn't sank in Except to Annie, his bride-to-be She sank into a bottle of gin Still waiting for the cavalry to call Living like a refugee Still listening for the footsteps in the hall When she comes back home to me Crawled to my feet and grabbed my shoes I was still in my clothes from the night before Walked through the house, it was empty and cold The floorboards creaked as I opened up the front door Stepped outside and was mystified by the countryside It seemed so out of place Cause everywhere I looked, the only thing I could see Was her face Still standing underneath the waterfall Trying to fill a cup of tea Still listening for the footsteps in the hall When she comes back home to me If time slowed down I could understand How a breath of air is like a grain of sand And why it takes so long to make love last No matter how well it's planned Given the time, the friends I left behind Would surely disappear And I'll wake up once more on the bedroom floor The way I've done after all of these years Still pounding wooden nails in the wall Still gonna paint my masterpiece Still listening for the footsteps in the hall When she comes back home to me

Well, she said she knew Elvis, said she used to be his friend Yeah she said she knew Elvis, like the back of her hand And who was I to doubt her, someone had to know the man She drove a Lincoln Continental, that she’d got in ’75 She drove a Lincoln Continental, he gave her just before he died And who was I to doubt her, she just glowed with pride She said she’d often been mistaken for Priscilla, don’t ya see Said she’d also been mistaken for Lisa Marie And who was I to doubt her, who was I to disagree I told her I knew Jimi Hendrix, and that I wrote Purple Haze Said I knew Paul McCartney, and I taught him to play bass She said she believed me, then she laughed in my face Well, she said she knew Elvis, she had the mean woman blues Yeah she said she knew Elvis, she had the blue suede shoes And who was I to doubt her, she had the photos…

Candy & I used to run around, tearing up this one horse town Everyone looked down their nose, the so-called respectable folk Too much was never enough for Candy, skulling pills & popping brandy Snorting everything in sight, shooting up anything that looked white Candy At the old park by the riverside, we'd dance & play all thru the nite She'd lift her head & laugh out loud, man that girl was awfully proud Late in May she gave me the flick, called me a worthless son-of-a-bitch She talked funny & acted strange, everyone could feel the change In Candy I'd take you back, we'd settle down All your friends could still come around Time's short, please say yes Don't tell me about your self-respect Candy Candy lost her girlish gait, her eyes grew dark & she was losing weight Her hair’d thinned & turned to straw, took both hands to hold her jaw We called the doc, he did some tests, got the news, it weren't the best Candy just said c'est la vie, it was all the French she learned from me Candy She carried on like she was made of steel, acted like she couldn't feel Greeted each new day with a smile, the doctor said she's just in denial I got a van at the trailer park, for Candy & me & me broken heart Every day I'd sit by her side, every nite she'd hear me cry For Candy I'll take you back, we'll settle down All your friends will still come around Time's short, baby please say yes Don't talk to me about self-respect Candy Candy died late last May, it was hard watching her waste away But the pride in that woman was strong, she fought so hard just to hold on Now I sit alone in that riverside park, where we used to dance & play in the dark Thinking that we'd live forever, Candy taught me to never say never Candy

Mother Mary Mary waits at the Tudor Hotel Strong and assured, yet so feminine Stands so firm, not so much for herself As for the unborn baby she carries within She’s there to decide on the right thing to do Should she run away, and never look back Or to go back home and face the truth Cause her future’s about to catch up her past Take your time, Mother Mary Step light so you don’t fall You know, life’s just like a baby We all want to walk before we crawl She looks through her bag on the marble tiles A photograph of a brown-eyed man She keeps it close, she says for her child Should he ever need to see his Dad She breathes a sigh and whispers his name Too many things still left unsaid Mostly pride, and just a little shame This world doesn’t like its mothers unwed ch An old woman stares out the window, lonely and lost An old couple sits at a table, and Mary thinks, that could be us Mary waits at the Tudor Hotel Picks up her bag, makes up her mind The doors revolve like a circus carousel Takes one last look, says goodbye ch

Well I drove into town last Sunday With one thing on my mind Get my kid and get on the road Leave the past behind We were married five long years Sometimes it don’t work out But try explaining that to a child When he asks you what it’s all about He’ll say, why can’t mommy and daddy live together Why can’t mommy and daddy get along Why can’t friends and family stick together If everybody’s right, then who’s wrong We named our boy Dylan Just like Zimmerman And tried to raise him as best we could Our folks would understand But Mary ran off late in May With some guy from a band And for eighteen months I raised my son With my own two hands Then she turned up with some lawyer He had a paper from the court Dylan had to go and live with her I paid child support Now we’re driving down the highway Just me and my boy at my side And as he’s staring out the window He hangs his head and sighs He says, why can’t mommy and daddy live together Why can’t mommy and daddy get along Why can’t friends and family stick together If everybody’s right, then who’s wrong

she’s sitting in her favourite chair look at all that land out there homemade wine in her hand she don’t go for the fancy brands another day’s work is done another evening soon to come silver clouds in an angry sky she drains her glass looks like it’s gonna rain tonight he’s riding on a dusty track thinks he should be heading back too little hours in the day too many bills left still to pay one man against the earth one dream left in the dirt pulls his hat down against the sun he saddles up looks like it’s gonna rain tonight running down an alley lane he finds an empty doorway he crouches down against the wind pulls a shoestring under his chin thinks about ‘em on the farm rolls his sleeve up his tortured arm lights a match, heats a dirty spoon til the needle fills looks like it’s gonna rain I think it’s gonna rain

I first met Louie in 1986 he was hanging around St. Kilda, down by the pier We got to talking about politics and injustice Louie said let’s go across to the Esplanade and have a beer The barmaid was Annie, at least I think that was her name I ordered a VB stubby, Louie ordered the same Then he turned to me with a crazy grin And said, man, I’m gonna tell you something I ain’t told nobody Louie gazed around the bar, slowly, like he was looking for someone he knew And then lowered his voice and spoke without moving his mouth much The way Humphrey Bogart used to do He said, everybody got a secret, they got something to hide But me, I’m a little different, you see, I just killed this guy And then our eyes met for just a second, and I knew he was serious I knew I was a little scared I whispered, so why’d you kill him anyway And then I looked around to see if anyone had heard Louie said, it was over this gambling debt thing, he got all my money And all I got was his word Cause they’ll always rip you off, it’s just a matter of when Some do it with a gun, man, some do it with a pen Louie put down his beer and smiled And said, you shoulda seen the look on that guy’s face And I was glad I hadn’t I finished my beer and said, look, I gotta run Louie said, hey, can I get a lift, there’s some people I gotta meet So we walked out and got in my old Falcon Started it up and headed up Fitzroy Street Louie pulled out a matchbook, on the back someone drew A map and an address, somewhere out in Kew And Louie said, I’ll bet we can get there in ten minutes I said, no thanks, I don’t bet, not anymore So we pulled up to this house, there were no lights on, it was all black And Louie opened the car door and said come on in for a minute You gotta see this talking dog they got out back And I said, what? He said, they got a talking dog out back So I forgot about that other thing and got out of the car And followed Louie up to the house Louie knocked on the heavy old door, slowly creaked open like it wasn’t latched We went inside a couple of steps, it was pitch black, Louie said, you got a match And I gave him one Then he lit it up, I could see the back door Just getting a look at that dog was all that I came for So I left Louie in the hallway and went out to check out the back yard Then I stepped out in the grass It looked like it hadn’t been mowed in at least a year And out in the middle sat this old spotted mongrel With three legs and one ear I knew right then I’d been taken for a fool Why this dog couldn’t talk, it just sat there and drooled just then I heard a couple voices coming from inside the house And one of them was Louie’s So I listened closely, trying to hear what was being said But all I could make out was something about not really being dead And then I heard a shot, something hit the floor Man, I ain’t ever been this scared before Then a deep voice behind me said, come on, there’s a gate around the side Let’s get out of here – and I ran like hell Then I jumped in my old Falcon, fired it up and put the pedal straight to the floor Man, I did a hundred and ten through Hawthorn, through Caulfield Hit the Princes Highway, I didn’t stop til I got to the ocean shore Then I let out a sigh, sat back in the seat Almost jumped through the roof when I saw that dog at my feet And that dog just looked at me with a funny look on its face and said nothing I wasn’t surprised Anyway, I eventually moved back to Sydney and got a job selling newspapers Down at Central Station I read them everyday but I never read anything about Louie I guess he never got a mention So the moral of the story is, never be too sure Check out all the facts and don’t be too premature And remember what Louie said about secrets, and about pens By the way, the dog’s name is Freddie And he really does talk

In a French café, under the moonlight Feel like I’m living in a Truffaut film In a French café, under the moonlight And I can’t walk away again I spent a year or three or four astray But it still feels like yesterday How do you know when you’ve done the right thing Can you feel, with a heart of steel For all the miles that I’ve crawled this year I never expected to see you quite so clear Spent too many nights making my home at the bar But here we are Still got that feeling, I swear it’ll never end Dragging me down, down, down It’s like a scene in a magazine Like a postcard from a town

Well, she married a millionaire by the time she was seventeen But she soon got tired of competing with the bourgeois scene For her twenty-first birthday, he bought her a French resort The very next day, she spent in divorce court Now she’s living like a queen, in her dirty blue jeans She started hanging out with a shady mob Who always seemed to have lots of money But none of them had jobs She’d only read about drugs in the magazines But once she got a taste of this expensive cuisine She had to sell most everything, except her dirty blue jeans They sent her to some bar that she’d never been before It was the only place that time of day she could score The cops busted in and caught her trying to leave With five grams of smack stuffed up inside her sleeve And an ounce of mescaline in her dirty blue jeans Six months at the clinic like some derelict drunk A thousand bucks a day to get her off that junk Spent all the cash that she’d won in the divorce But she could always marry another rich boy, of course Now she’s living real clean in her dirty blue jeans

Don’t need road maps to tell me where to go Don’t need postcards from people I should know Don’t need lawyers to plead insanity Take ‘em all away, they don’t mean a thing to me Cause I don’t need nothing, I don’t need anyone But you can find me at the river, where the still waters run Don’t need memories of lovers I have lost Don’t want pleasure, cause I can’t afford the cost Don’t want lessons that I got no chance to learn Take me to the river, I got a bridge I gotta burn Don’t ask questions that I got no right to know Don’t ask favours from people I still owe Don’t ask why it’s got to be this way Cause in this great big ocean, I’m the original castway

My family ain’t got money, I still wear hand-me-downs We live in a shack by the freight train track In the low rent part of town My girl that I wanna marry, she’s from a wealthy background She can’t date or associate with a boy From the low rent part of town Some day we’ll be together, she’ll wear that wedding gown Until then I’ll spend my days, in the low rent part of town I got me a job with the circus, working the merry-go-round It’s the best I can do cause they closed all the schools In the low rent part of town I saved up all my money, so I could take her for a big night out But her dad said go back to my own kind In the low rent part of town Some day we’ll be together, she’ll wear that wedding gown Until then I’ll spend my days, in the low rent part of town In this world, there’s two kinds of people, those with money and those without And I’ll scrimp and scrape so I can escape, From the low rent part of town I hope we’ll be together, I hope she’ll wear that gown I’ll spend my days and my lonely nights In the low rent part of town Some day we’ll be together, she’ll wear that wedding gown Until then I’ll spend my days In the low rent part of town

Johnny lives on a corner in Angeltown In a house that his grandad built, they nearly tore it down To make way for the freeway and the shopping mall He heard it was something called the urban sprawl The more things change, the less they stay the same In Angeltown, in Angeltown Living in A….. living in Angeltown Johnny loved his hometown, he didn’t like the change Daddy said, now ain’t that progress, but don’t those words sound strange Johnny walked thru Angeltown with his last five bucks Bought a ticket in the lottery trying to buy some luck The more things change, the less they stay the same In Angeltown, in Angeltown Living in A….. living in Angeltown It’s a strange old world, no reason or rhyme It’s a strange old world, where things work out sometimes So Johnny won the lottery, became a billionaire, and he said, There’s things in Angeltown that need repair So he bought up the freeways, he bought the shopping malls Tore ‘em down, turned ‘em back into grounds where they still play ball And the more things change, the more they stay the same In Angeltown, in Angeltown Living in A….. living in Angeltown

The old man wore a grey uniform I recognized from the war He just sat there in that old armchair, drenched right to the bone A woman’s voice called from the other room, I think it’s time for you to go I mumbled something underneath my breath, turned and walked out the door And the fire, the funeral pyre, burning all night long There’s no turning back anymore, it’s just rain Down came the rain, on the streets of shame Rain, smothering the flames, on the streets of shame I walked out on a dusty road filled with traffic lights Jesus Christ got into a cab and said, take me to the Israelites And there sitting at a sidewalk café, looked like Arthur C. Clarke He said, sit with me and dine, have a glass of wine, don’t be afraid of the dark And the fire, the funeral pyre, burning all night long There’s no turning back anymore, it’s just rain Down came the rain, on the streets of shame Rain, smothering the flames, on the streets of shame The old man was there, still sitting in his chair in the middle of the road He didn’t speak for a very long time, then he just said hello He held out his arms and in his hands was an old grey uniform And on the collar was a medal that read, sheltered from the storm And the fire, the funeral pyre, burning all night long There’s no turning back anymore, it’s just rain Down came the rain, on the streets of shame Rain, smothering the flames, on the streets of shame Rain, hey look at all that rain, on the streets of shame Rain, falling down like flames, on the streets of shame

Strangers come and strangers go, I guess that’s strange enough They say don’t ever trust a stranger, and never call his bluff The cards on the table, they’re dealt by Cain and Abel A stranger once taught me about all that stuff Strangers look like you and me, or at least I think they do Strangers speak Swahili, and they live in Kalamazoo They’ll tell you that the anecdote is just a technicolour raincoat And if you can afford it, you can always get the tattoo Strangers everywhere, strangers by the pair All around town and across the nation It’s an alarming situation, strangers, everywhere Strangers live on tree-lined streets and sleep on park benches Strangers walk on wooden feet and sit on picket fences Some strangers have their own TV shows and watch their dough And trade their bungalow for big palacial residences A stranger is a friend you’ve never met I read that on a bus, I couldn’t say who wrote it That’s be impetuous Strangers just might change, ah wouldn’t that be strange And one day, they might become one of us Strangers everywhere, strangers by the pair All around town and across the nation It’s an alarming situation, strangers, everywhere