How Long Is Too Long Wasn't Long Enough

[Nearly Sane]

I heard you on the wireless back in '52
Lying awake intently tuning in on you
If I was young it didn't stop you coming through
Oh-a-oh

They took the credit for your second symphony
Rewritten by machine on new technology
And now I understand the problems you can see

Oh-a-oh
I met your children
Oh-a-oh
What did you tell them?

Video killed the radio star
Video killed the radio star
Pictures came and broke your heart
Oh-a-a-a oh

[Robbie]

My job is to help destroy
What's left of your imagination
By feeding you endless doses
Of sugar-coated mindless garbage

So don't create
Be sedate
Be a vegetable at home
And thwack on that dial

If we have our way even you will believe
This is the future of rock and roll
How far will you go
How low will you stoop

To tranquilize our minds with your sugar-coated swill
You've turned rock and roll rebellion
Into Pat Boone sedation
Making sure nothing's left to the imagination

M.T.V. Get off the
M.T.V. Get off the
M.T.V. Get off the air
Get off the air

[Nearly Sane]

Twenty-twenty-twenty four hours to go
I wanna be sedated
Nothin' to do, nowhere to go
I wanna be sedated

Just get me to the airport
Put me on a plane
Hurry hurry hurry, before I go insane
I can't control my fingers
I can't control my brain, oh no

Twenty-twenty-twenty four hours to go
I wanna be sedated
Nothin' to do, nowhere to go
I wanna be sedated

[Robbie]

Well you didn't wake up this morning 'cause you didn't go to bed
You were watching the whites of your eyes turn red
The calendar on your wall was ticking the days off
You've been reading some old letters
You smile and think how much you've changed
All the money in the world couldn't buy back those days

You pull back the curtain
And the sun burns into your eyes
You watch a plane flying
Across a clear blue sky
This is the day, your life will surely change
This is the day, when things fall into place

[Udayana]

I've seen your picture
Your name in lights above it
This is your big debut
It's like a dream come true
And when you smile for the camera
I know they're love it

I got your pin shot
I keep it with your letter
Done up in blueprint blue
It sure looks good on you
So won't you smile for the camera
I know I'll love you better

...

[Nearly Sane]

I see you tempt the night
I see you take a bite
You can tell me you were home
But the camera never lies

You walk out in disguise
To pull the wool over my eyes
You play me for a fool
To believe your alibis

And you can count on being safe as houses
Underestimate my eyes
But you can't argue with the image
The camera never lies

[Robbie]

Judy in disguise, well that's what you are
Lemonade pies with your brand new car
So, cantaloupe eyes come to me tonight
Judy in disguise, with glasses

Keep a-wearing your bracelets and your new rara's
And cross your heart, yeah, with your livin' bra
Chimney Sweep Sparrow with guise
Judy in disguise, with glasses

Come to me tonight, come to me tonight
Taking everything in sight
Except for the strings on my kite
Judy in disguise, hey that's what you are
A lemonade pies, hey, got your brand new car
So cantaloupe eyes come to me tonight
Judy in disguise, with glasses

[Nearly Sane]

Now, as the ladder of life has been strung
You may think a sweep’s on the bottommost rung
Though I spend my time in the ashes and that hm-hmm
In this whole wide world there’s no happier cat

Chim chim chim-in-ey, chim chim chim-in-ey

I choose me bristles with pride, yes, I do
A broom for the shaft and a brush for the flute
Though I’m covered in soot from my head to my toe
A sweep knows he’s welcome where’er he goes

Chim chim chim chim-in-ey, chim chim chim chim-in-ey
Chim chim chim chim-in-ey, chim chim chim chim-in-ey

[Robbie]

You got it on the side
A little one night thing
I've bought it over and it's time that
I'll forgive youWell, I'm not letting go
But don't forget I know
You made your bed and she was in it

No no noWhat's she gonna look like with a chimney on her
What's she gonna look like with a chimney on her
What's she gonna look like with a chimney on her
What's she gonna look like with a chimney on her

[Nearly Sane]

Whattaya mean?!
You've seen one crowded, polluted, stinking town

Tea, girls, warm and sweet, sweet
Some are set up in the Somerset Maugham suite

Get Thai'd, you're talking to a tourist
Whose every move's among the purest
I get my kicks above the waistline, sunshine!

One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble
Not much between despair and ecstasy
One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble
Can't be too careful with your company
I can feel the devil walking next to me

[Aruntraveller]

One night in Paris
Is like a year in any other place!
One night in Paris
Will wipe the smile off your pretty face!
Try a girl in Paris
But try one of mine

Each night in Paris
Each night in Paris
Each night in Paris
Each night in Paris
May be your last!!!

Forty-Two, Quarante-Deux
Rue de Saint Jacques
All our girls are how you say
Good in the sack
I was a stripper
On the Champs Elysees
He was a gendarme
In the gendarmerie
Going Oh La La La
Oh La La La La

He was a pimp
In a black beret
But he was an artiste
In his own way
Going Oh La La La
Oh La La La La

When they raided my club that night
They ruined my act with the leather umbrella
The Chief de Police got a fright
He was up in my boudoir with some other fella

[Nearly Sane]

The can can's such a pretty show
They'll steal your heart away
But backstage, back on earth again
The dressing rooms are gray

They come on strong and it ain't too long
Before they make you feel a man
But love is blind and you soon will find
You're just a boy again

When you want her lips, you get a cheek
Makes you wonder where you are
If you want some more and she's fast asleep
Then she's twinkling with the stars

Poor young grandson, there's nothing I can say
You'll have to learn, just like me
And that's the hardest way
Ooh la la, ooh la la la yeh

I wish that I knew what I know now
When I was younger
I wish that I knew what I know now
When I was stronger

[Robbie]

We had that one not long ago I'm sure.

You wind me up
Like a clockwork orange
Then you hide the key
To my destination
No satisfaction its all frustration
The times are changing
They're changing me
Open the cage
Let free the animals
Running wild
With hardened criminals
No satisfaction it's all frustrations

The times are changing when you're
13, 14: It's a teenage warning
15, 16: But nobody's listening
17, 18: Who takes the blame
19, 20: The twentieth century

[Nearly Sane]

You wait, little girl, on an empty stage
For fate to turn the light on
Your life, little girl, is an empty page
That men will want to write on
To write on
You are sixteen going on seventeen
Baby, it's time to think
Better beware, be canny and careful
Baby, you're on the brink
You are sixteen going on seventeen
Fellows will fall in line
Eager young lads and roués and cads
Will offer you food and wine
Totally unprepared are you
To face a world of men
Timid and shy and scared are you
Of things beyond your ken
You need someone older an wiser
Telling you what to do
I am seventeen going on eighteen
I'll take care of you

[Aruntraveller]

I learned the truth at seventeen
That love was meant for beauty queens
And high school girls with clear skinned smiles
Who married young and then retired

The valentines I never knew
The Friday night charades of youth
Were spent on one more beautiful
At seventeen I learned the truth

And those of us with ravaged faces
Lacking in the social graces
Desperately remained at home
Inventing lovers on the phone

Who called to say "Come dance with me"
And murmured vague obscenities
It isn't all it seems
At seventeen

[Nearly Sane]

I love Janis Ian!


Seventeen
And not yet a woman
So-ho clean
Thought that you were never coming
Seventeen
Completely new sensations
Someones dreams
Created your perfection

All the girls
(all the girls just love to hate her)
And all the boys
(all the boys they wanna make her)
They want you
(seventeen)

A permanent reaction
(reaction)
Makes your scene
Now you're caught in her reflection
(reflection, reflection)
Seventeen
She a beautiful mutation
(mutant)
We sow the seeds
(ooh eeooh, ooh eeooh)
Of a future generation

[Udayana]

Well, she was just seventeen
You know what I mean
And the way she looked
Was way beyond compare
So how could I dance with another
Ooh, when I saw her standing there?

Well, she looked at me
And I, I could see
That before too long
I'd fall in love with her
She wouldn't dance with another
Ooh, when I saw her standing there

...

[Nearly Sane]

You could never know what it's like
Your blood like winter freezes just like ice
And there's a cold lonely light that shines from you
You'll wind up like the wreck you hide behind that mask you use

And did you think this fool could never win
Well, look at me, I'm a-coming back again
I got a taste of love in a simple way
And if you need to know while I'm still standing you just fade away

Don't you know I'm still standing better than I ever did
Looking like a true survivor, feeling like a little kid
And I'm still standing after all this time
Picking up the pieces of my life without you on my mind

[Udayana]

He was standin' by the highway
With a sign that just said "Mother"
When he heard a driver comin'
'Bout a half a mile away
Then he held the sign up higher
Where no decent soul could miss it
It was ten degrees or colder
Down by bolder dam that day

He was raised up in Milwaukee
Though he never was that famous
He was just a road musician
To the taverns he would go
Singin' songs about the ramblin'
The lovin' girls and gamblin'
How the world fell on his shoulders
Back in Boulder I don't know

...

[Nearly Sane]

Now Paul is a real estate novelist
Who never had time for a wife
And he's talking with Davy, who's still in the Navy
And probably will be for life

And the waitress is practicing politics
As the businessmen slowly get stoned
Yes they're sharing a drink they call "Loneliness"
But it's better than drinking alone

Sing us a song you're the piano man
Sing us a song tonight
Well we're all in the mood for a melody
And you've got us feeling alright

It's a pretty good crowd for a Saturday
And the manager gives me a smile
'Cause he knows that it's me they've been coming to see
To forget about life for a while

[Udayana]

...

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 shores, China's under martial law
Rock and roller cola wars, I can't take it anymore

[Nearly Sane]

First we got the bomb and that was good,
'Cause we love peace and motherhood.
Then Russia got the bomb, but that's O.K.,
'Cause the balance of power's maintained that way!
Who's next?

France got the bomb, but don't you grieve,
'Cause they're on our side, I believe.
China got the bomb, but have no fears;
They can't wipe us out for at least five years!
Who's next?

Then Indonesia claimed that they
Were gonna get one any day.
South Africa wants two, that's right:
One for the black and one for the white!
Who's next?

Egypt's gonna get one, too,
Just to use on you know who.
So Israel's getting tense,
Wants one in self defense.
"The Lord's our shepherd," says the psalm,
But just in case, we better get a bomb!
Who's next?

[Robbie]

Don't you hear the H-bomb's thunder
Echo like the crack of doom?
While they rend the skies asunder
Fall-out makes the earth a tomb
Do you want your homes to tumble
Rise in smoke towards the sky?
Will you let your cities crumble
Will you see your children die?

Chorus:
Men and women, stand together
Do not heed the men of war
Make your minds up now or never
Ban the bomb for evermore

Tell the leaders of the nations
Make the whole wide world take heed
Poison from the radiations
Strikes at every race and creed
Must you put mankind in danger
Murder folk in distant lands?
Will you bring death to a stranger
Have his blood upon your hands?

[Aruntraveller]

Come you masters of war
You that build all the guns
You that build the death planes
You that build all the bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks

You that never done nothin'
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it's your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly

[Nearly Sane]

Ninety-nine Decision Street
Ninety-nine ministers meet
To worry, worry, super scurry
Call the troops out in a hurry
This is what we've waited for
This is it, boys, this is war
The president is on the line
As ninety-nine red balloons go by

Ninety-nine knights of the air
Ride super high-tech jet fighters
Everyone's a Super Hero
Everyone's a Captain Kirk
With orders to identify
To clarify and classify
Scramble in the summer sky
Ninety-nine red balloons go by