Pere Ubu Lyrics
Cloudland
(1989)

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Breath

Dog day afternoon
by the sea
I think about you
I wonder what to do
Sorrow's hanging over me.

Let me walk with you because it's breaking my heart
The things that we had
The good and the bad
It's parking lots.

Don't let's talk about tomorrow
Standing at the edge of sorrow
Let's watch the whole world going slow
Let's watch the whole world going.

I know my way round town
Used to live around here
I know the sites to see
The things they mean to me
and how we tore it down.

Let me walk with you
because it's breaking my heart
The things that we had
The good and the bad
it's all parking lots.

Don't let's talk about tomorrow
Standing at the edge of sorrow
Let's watch the whole world going slow
Let's watch the whole world going.

It was a dream
No but it was a tin can
Not a dream
It was a tin can.

Had I not kicked that
Had it clattered
in the gutter
when it bounced on the sidewalk
Had I not.

Don't let's talk about tomorrow
Standing at the edge of sorrow
Let's watch the whole world going slow
Let's watch the whole world going.

Writers: Cutler - Jones - Krauss - Maimone - Ravenstine - Thomas.
©1989 Ubu Projex.

Race The Sun

I don't know what you're waiting for
Mary is out the door
Why would I lie?
Through the dust and the fading light
Shall I tell you what I spy?

Mississippi-Southern owns the train
but I know it's got another name
Why would I lie?
It's a race to the edge of the night
Hmmm! Great Sorrow's got you in its lights.

Run run!
Try to catch the sun
Don't be slack
Great Sorrow is on the track
Run run Don't look back
Great Sorrow is on the track.

I don't know what you call that train
Gone buddy that's the name.

Writers: Cutler - Jones - Krauss - Maimone - Ravenstine - Thomas.
©1989 Ubu Projex.

Cry

Cry one time for the Man in the Moon
Cry for the Old Man and the Sea
Cry once for hope
Cry once for us
and the way things turned out to be.

Cry for tomorrow
Cry for today
Cry for the lives
that we've frittered away.

Cry one time for the harvester's plight
Cry for the old man on his knees
Cry once for all
Cry for the dawn
of the day neither one of us wanted to see.

Writers: Cutler - Jones - Krauss - Maimone - Ravenstine - Thomas.
©1989 Ubu Projex.

Why Go It Alone?

I never know what to say to you
If tears were words and pigs could fly darling I'd know
I try to speak and the waves roll in.
I'm like to drown when the waves roll in
I'm not all there when the waves roll in
Another night when the waves roll in.

A couple times last week I tried hard to speak
A couple times a week I might know how to speak
I never know what to say to you
If tears were words and pigs could fly darling I'd know
I try to speak and the waves roll in
I'm not all there when the waves roll in.

I never know what to say to you
If tears were words and pigs could fly I'd know.

Writers: Cutler - Jones - Krauss - Maimone - Ravenstine - Thomas.
©1989 Ubu Projex.

Waiting For Mary

Welcome to Mars
It's open all hours
Bill's in the back
Fred's on the phone saying
You are never alone in the Twilight Zone
What are we doing here?

Waiting For Mary
Oh.

I oughta know but my memory is going
What are we doing here?
As bad as it seems maybe we're dreaming
What are we doing here?
Don't mind the stares we've paid for these chairs
and keep up that smile it might be awhile.

Oh
I wonder why she can't be
on time
Ever.

What do you know
It had to be snowing
What are we doing here?
I'm down on my knees
I'm begging you please
What are we doing here?

What do you see?
It had to be me
What are we doing here?
One at a time
Or all in a line
What are we doing here?

Waiting. For. Mary.

Writers: Cutler - Jones - Krauss - Maimone - Ravenstine - Thomas.
©1989 Ubu Projex.

Ice Cream Truck

Here it comes
Here it comes again
The ice cream truck

People flying out the doors running up the street
They really love their music
It's just my luck.

Baby Baby Come here quick
The melody's about to make me sick
Baby Baby Shut that door
I don't think I can stand anymore.

There's too much music in the land
You hear it everywhere
Everybody's in a band
Can't get enough of it.

Brother Jimmy
Cousin Ray
Mom and Dad on bass and drums
Someone here's just gotta quit.

Baby Baby Come here quick
The melody's about to make me sick
Baby Baby Shut that door
I don't think I can stand anymore.

It's not the sugar
It's not the sticky sludge
People want to eat that stuff I don't hold a grudge.

It's that music
There's too much of it
I wish someone had the guts to quit.

There's too much music in the land
You hear it everywhere
Everybody's in a band
They can't get enough of it.

Brother Jimmy
Cousin Ray
Mom and Dad on bass and drums
They just can't help it.

Writers: Cutler - Jones - Krauss - Maimone - Ravenstine - Thomas.
©1989 Ubu Projex.

Bus Called Happiness

One day I will say
I woke up to find a heap of a mess
Running for the bus I cry
Hold that bus called Happiness.

Why am I so slow?
If I only knew
Say it isn't so
I wonder what I'd want without you.

Through the back window
I thought I saw the color of her dress
Which way does it go?
Buddy that's the bus they call Happiness.

Why am I so slow?
If I only knew
Say it isn't so
I wonder what I'd want without you.

Writers: Cutler - Jones - Krauss - Maimone - Ravenstine - Thomas.
©1989 Ubu Projex.

Monday Night

Monday night I had a vision or two
I saw life going on without you
I fell on my knees
Scrubbed down the floor
Looked out the door
I said Baby baby please!

Monday night I had a vision or two
I wondered what I'd want without you
I fell on my knees
Scrubbed down the floor
Looked out the door
I said Baby baby please!

Monday night I had a mission to do
I took a look at my life without you
Fell on my knees
Scrubbed down the floor
Looked out the door
I said Baby baby please!

Writers: Cutler - Jones - Krauss - Maimone - Ravenstine - Thomas.
©1989 Ubu Projex.

Love Love Love

I had a plan ready
It called for common sense
How on earth it ever failed?
I want the evidence.

I can't believe that I can't believe it.

And so she cried
Had to be coincidence
How will I ever know?
I want a second chance.

I can't believe that I can't believe it.

Was that a swinging door?
Who let all the bugs in?
How can a person think?
Back to the top again.

I can't believe that I can't believe it.


Writers: Herman - Krauss - Laughner - Taylor - Thomas - Wright.
©1989 EMI Music (ROW),
©1989 Ubu Projex (USA/Canada).

Lost Nation Road

From out of the night
Into the dawn
Rose-lighted road
stretches on and on and on.

Carpenters are knocking it up
as I come into view
How this town grows!

I've been searching for them streets of gold
I don't know
This may be the day
Eldorado is paved with clay

A voice calls from the burning hot
It ain't that good
but you know what you've got.

There's always a sign
A portion that's blown away
It points the way home
I'm a pawn on the lost highway.

Right from the start
I knew I was running from you
How do I know?

Writers: Cutler - Jones - Krauss - Maimone - Ravenstine - Thomas.
©1989 Ubu Projex.

Fire

Last night the river went calling
Like a train that jumps the tracks
how it roared through the night
like a vow to never go back.

We never knew peace
Will we never know peace?
Are we like a house made of dry grass?
People pass saying It won't last.

Last night the river went calling
Howw it pushed thru the awful black
Boats of gold hanging by their fiery stacks
I heard the rivermen cry We will never know peace.

Are we like a house made of dry grass?
See the fire and smoke spitting fire and sparks
Are we like a house made of dry grass?
People pass saying It won't last.

Last night I dreamed I was falling
Where do we go I said to myself
If I call your name and you answer crying?
We never knew peace Will we never know peace?

See the fire and smoke spitting fire and sparks
Are we like a house made of dry grass?
People pass
It won't last.

Writers: Cutler - Jones - Krauss - Maimone - Ravenstine - Thomas.
©1989 Ubu Projex.

Nevada!

We've come on the sloop John B
My grandfather and me
Around Nassau Town we did roam
Through them dry sea beds and dinosaur bones.

The heat beat down fit to crack them stones
I feel so broke down I've got to go home
Hoist up the John B sails
See how the main sail sets.

I call for the captain saying I gotta go home
I call for the captain saying I wanna go home
Them good days are gone
The good days are gone.

The first mate her heart sunk
She went and cried in the captain's bunk
Don't cry baby Don't fly in a rage
I'll tell you a story about the Golden Age.

30 cents a gallon The superhighway
You could fly like the wind through the hollow of the day
John Stone would leave you alone
You'd never get broke down Never go home.

Hoist up the John B sails
See how the main sail sets
Call for the captain saying I gotta go home
I call for the captain saying I wanna go home

Them good days are gone.
Nevada!
Baby don't go to bits
We get to Reno and we call it quits.
We get to Reno and we call it quits.

Writers: Cutler - Jones - Krauss - Maimone - Ravenstine - Thomas.
©1989 Ubu Projex.

The Wire

Baby you worry too much about me
You know I get by
I know all of the tricks of the trade
and I love the high wire.

Walking in air is suited to me
Walking in air is suited to me
Bye bye baby goodbye
Bye bye baby goodbye.

I don't look around and I don't look down
I've got no wandering eye
I keep my mind on the line all of the time
and I love the high wire.


Writers: Cutler - Jones - Krauss - Maimone - Ravenstine - Thomas.
©1989 Ubu Projex.

Flat

In the early part of the 20th Century
Deep inside the American wilderness
In the state of Kansas
82,000 square miles of flat
There were two automobile cars
On July 5th 1904 they ran into each other
Hey-ho What do we know?
I thought I heard Stop but I might've said Go.

Some reason I thought about you and me
I remember the day as if my life was flat
I looked up
There you were
I said to myself Look out honey
Here I come
Hey-ho What do we know?
I thought I heard Stop but I mighta said Go.

Flat is all that I see
Flat is all that I see
The train came back
It swallowed up the track
Now flat is all that I see
Flat is all that I see
What do we know?
I thought I heard Stop but I might've said Go.

In the days you been gone
I thought about them two cars
Weather conditions had been reasonable
Visibility fine
I said to myself What was it?
An idea whose time had come?
Or maybe it had just seemed
like a good idea at the time?

Hey-ho What do we know?
I thought I heard Stop but I might've said Go.

Writers: Cutler - Jones - Krauss - Maimone - Ravenstine - Thomas.
©1989 Ubu Projex.

The Waltz

The bride swayed barefoot
There on the sidewalk
you could fry an egg.

Not a shade of a cloud
Not the breath of a breeze
disturbed her dress or hair.

Round at her feet
burst by the dust
a ghost rain dropped like tears.

We waltzed across Texas
We waltzed by the sea
We waltzed through the tears
and it seemed like a good idea.

The bride swayed barefoot
there by the sidewalk
while the day stood still.

Not a shade of a cloud
Not a breath of a breeze
played on her face as she said
We can't go on
like nothing is wrong
Don't be that cruel to me.

We waltzed across Texas
We waltzed by the sea
We waltzed through the tears
and it seemed like a good idea.

The bride swayed barefoot
There on the sidewalk
you could fry an egg.

Writers: Cutler - Jones - Krauss - Maimone - Ravenstine - Thomas.
©1989 Ubu Projex.

Pushin'

I don't want you to go
A hundred ways that I don't know
I don't want you to go.

We'll go to Paris
We'll go to France
See the Eiffel Tower
I'll learn to dance
and every day will be a holiday.

I don't want you to go
Happiness will be my goal
I don't want you to go.

We'll go out west for to banish sorrow
We'll drive and drive like there's no tomorrow
We'll see the sights
We'll walk the walks
The mostly thing is we'll have to talk.

I know you know
but I wanted to say
Every day will be a holiday.

Writers: Cutler - Jones - Krauss - Maimone - Ravenstine - Thomas.
©1989 Ubu Projex.

Wine Dark Sparks

Every once in a lifetime
Every once in a blue moon
There's something happens that
Here comes that tune.

I oughta know
Nothing's worth the half
of half of what it used to.

Everybody looks happy
Comes a knock on the door
It's that kid with the quarter
come running back for more.

I oughta know
Nothing's worth the half
of half of what it used to.

Writers: Cutler - Feldman - Jones - Krauss - Maimone - Thomas.
©1989 Ubu Projex.

Bang The Drum

Don't cry when you see me going
Don't cry when you see me go
Like a house on a hill I remember you still.

Writers: Feldman - Jones - Krauss - Thomas.
©1989 Ubu Projex.


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