Said Red Molly to James that's a fine motorbike
A girl could feel special on any such like
Said James to Red Molly, well my hat's off to you
It's a Vincent Black Lightning, 1952
And I've seen you at the corners and cafes it seems
Red hair and black leather, my favorite color scheme
And he pulled her on behind
And down to Box Hill they did ride


Said James to Red Molly, here's a ring for your right hand
But I'll tell you in earnest I'm a dangerous man
I've fought with the law since I was seventeen
I robbed many a man to get my Vincent machine
Now I'm 21 years, I might make 22
And I don't mind dying, but for the love of you
And if fate should break my stride
Then I'll give you my Vincent to ride

Come down, come down, Red Molly, called Sergeant McRae
For they've taken young James Adie for armed robbery
Shotgun blast hit his chest, left nothing inside
Oh, come down, Red Molly to his dying bedside
When she came to the hospital, there wasn't much left
He was running out of road, he was running out of breath
But he smiled to see her cry
And said I'll give you my Vincent to ride
 
Says James, in my opinion, there's nothing in this world
Beats a 52 Vincent and a red headed girl
Now Nortons and Indians and Greeveses won't do
They don't have a soul like a Vincent 52
He reached for her hand and he slipped her the keys
He said I've got no further use for these
I see angels on Ariels in leather and chrome
Swooping down from heaven to carry me home
And he gave her one last kiss and died
And he gave her his Vincent to ride

(quasi-recitativo)
"From the day he was born, he was trouble
He was the thorn in his mother's side
She tried in vain.
(spoken)
But he never caused her nothing but shame.
(quasi-recitativo l'istesso tempo)
He left home the day she died.

(tempo di slow rock)
From the day he was gone
All he wanted
Was a rock'n'roll porn and a motor bike.
Shootin' up junk.
(spoken)
He was a low down cheap little punk.
(sung)
Taking everybody for a ride.

(TUTTI)
When Eddie said he didn't like his teddy,
You knew he was a no good kid.
When he threatened your life with a switch blade knife.
What a guy!
Makes you cry!
And I did.

Everybody shoved him.
I very nearly loved him.
I said "hey listen to me!
Stay sane inside insanity!"
But he shut the door and threw away the key!

(CHORUS OPTIONAL REPEAT)

But he must have been drawn into something
Making him warn me in a note which reads
(TUTTI)
("What's it say? What's it say? What's it say?")
(the voice of Eddie)
"I'm out of my head.
Oh hurry or I may be dead.
They mustn't carry out their evil deeds!

CHORUS

What a guy.
Makes you cry.
And I did."

From the dew-soaked hedge creeps a crawly caterpillar,
When the dawn begins to crack.
Its all part of my autumn almanac.
Breeze blows leaves of a mustard coloured yellow,
So I sweep them in my sack.
Yes, yes, yes, its my autumn almanac.

Friday evenings, people get together,
Hiding from the weather.
Tea and toasted, buttered currant buns
Can't compensate for lack of sun,
Because the summers all gone.

La-la-la-la...
Oh, my poor rheumatic back
Yes, yes, yes, its my autumn almanac.
La-la-la-la...
Oh, my autumn almanac
Yes, yes, yes, its my autumn almanac.

I like my football on a saturday,
Roast beef on Sundays, all right.
I go to Blackpool for my holidays,
Sit in the open sunlight.

This is my street, and I'm never gonna to leave it,
And I'm always gonna to stay here
If I live to be ninety-nine,
cause all the people I meet
Seem to come from my street
And I can't get away,
Because it's calling me, (come on home)
Hear it calling me, (come on home)

La-la-la-la...
Oh, my autumn armagnac
Yes, yes, yes, its my autumn almanac.
La-la-la-la...
Oh, my autumn almanac
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Bop-bop-bopm-bop-bop, whoa!
Bop-bop-bopm-bop-bop, whoa!
(etc.)

Some connection, plus anniversaries and all that.

Baby let me be,
Your lovin teddy bear
Put a chain around my neck,
And lead me anywhere
Oh let me be
Your teddy bear.

I dont wanna be a tiger
Cause tigers play too rough
I dont wanna be a lion
cause lions aint the kind
You love enough.
Just wanna be, your teddy bear
Put a chain around my neck
And lead me anywhere
Oh let me be
Your teddy bear.

Baby let me be, around you every night
Run your fingers through my hair,
And cuddle me real tight

Yea-a-a-ah! Yeah!

All night long, you’ve been looking at me.
Well you know you’re the dance hall cutie that you longed to be.
Oh well now, you’ve been laying it down,
You’ve got your hip swinging out of bounds,
And I like the way you do what you’re doin’ to me

Chorus
Alright.
That’s right, that’s right, that’s right, that’s right I really love your tiger light.
That’s neat, that’s neat, that’s neat, that’s neat,
I really love your tiger feet.
I really love your tiger feet.
Your tiger feet.
Your tiger feet
Your tiger feet.
Well alright

Well flash your warning lights just as long as you like.
I know you’re aching to be making me tonight.
I’ve got a feeling in my knees,
It’s a feeling only you can please,
There ain’t no way I’m gonna let you outta my sight .

Chorus

Break

Chorus

Well now you’ve been laying it down.
You’ve got your hips swinging out of bounds
and I like the way you do what you’re doin’ to me.

Repeat Chorus to fade

Not that record but I do have an LP of George Baker singing that song! (He of G&S recording fame, who was briefly married to my great great aunt Lily.)

If you wanted that star that shines so brightly
To match the star dust in your eyes
Darlin', I would chase that bright star nightly
And try to steal it from the skies

'cause I would give sweets for my sweet, sugar for my honey
Your perfect kiss thrills me so
Sweets for my sweet, sugar for my honey
I'll never ever let you go

And if you needed a dream to keep you smiling
I'll tell the sandman you were blue
And I'd ask him to keep that sand a-piling
Till your dreams would come true

If you wanted a love to last forever
Then I would send my love your way
And my love would only last forever
But forever and a day


Your teddy bears are very sweet! 

I bet that would be:

Now listen, Baby,
And try to understand
That tying you is fine
And whipping you is grand.
Now I just can't tell you how much fun it's been.
You make me feel twenty-five again.

But I can't leave my wooden wife for you, sugar
I got a split level house with a wonderful view, sugar,
A couple next door who do the things we do, sugar,
And every Saturday we sit around the pool.

If I should meet you on the street someday,
I hope you'll understand me if I look away,
It isn't that I'm ashamed about you and me
But I've got to consider my morality.

And I won't leave my wooden wife for you, sugar,
I got a split level house with a wonderful view, sugar,
Three sweet kids and Yorkshire terrier, too, sugar.
And I just couldn't stand it when you come home late from school.

Those lyrics sound decidedly dodgier than they did in 1968.

I was severely warned by the forum software against resurrecting this thread but just wanted to post this and thought that there would be objections if it was posted on the poetry thread on the grounds that it isn't poetry.

They're selling postcards of the hanging
They're painting the passports brown
The beauty parlor is filled with sailors
The circus is in town
Here comes the blind commissioner
They've got him in a trance
One hand is tied to the tight-rope walker
The other is in his pants
And the riot squad they're restless
They need somewhere to go
As Lady and I look out tonight
From Desolation Row

Cinderella, she seems so easy
"It takes one to know one," she smiles
And puts her hands in her back pockets
Bette Davis style
And in comes Romeo, he's moaning
"You Belong to Me I Believe"
And someone says," You're in the wrong place, my friend
You better leave"
And the only sound that's left
After the ambulances go
Is Cinderella sweeping up
On Desolation Row

Now the moon is almost hidden
The stars are beginning to hide
The fortunetelling lady
Has even taken all her things inside
All except for Cain and Abel
And the hunchback of Notre Dame
Everybody is making love
Or else expecting rain
And the Good Samaritan, he's dressing
He's getting ready for the show
He's going to the carnival tonight
On Desolation Row

Now Ophelia, she's 'neath the window
For her I feel so afraid
On her twenty-second birthday
She already is an old maid

To her, death is quite romantic
She wears an iron vest
Her profession's her religion
Her sin is her lifelessness
And though her eyes are fixed upon
Noah's great rainbow
She spends her time peeking
Into Desolation Row

Einstein, disguised as Robin Hood
With his memories in a trunk
Passed this way an hour ago
With his friend, a jealous monk
He looked so immaculately frightful
As he bummed a cigarette
Then he went off sniffing drainpipes
And reciting the alphabet
Now you would not think to look at him
But he was famous long ago
For playing the electric violin
On Desolation Row

Dr. Filth, he keeps his world
Inside of a leather cup
But all his sexless patients
They're trying to blow it up
Now his nurse, some local loser
She's in charge of the cyanide hole
And she also keeps the cards that read
"Have Mercy on His Soul"
They all play on penny whistles
You can hear them blow
If you lean your head out far enough
From Desolation Row

Across the street they've nailed the curtains
They're getting ready for the feast
The Phantom of the Opera
A perfect image of a priest
They're spoonfeeding Casanova
To get him to feel more assured
Then they'll kill him with self-confidence
After poisoning him with words

And the Phantom's shouting to skinny girls
"Get Outa Here If You Don't Know
Casanova is just being punished for going
To Desolation Row"

Now at midnight all the agents
And the superhuman crew
Come out and round up everyone
That knows more than they do
Then they bring them to the factory
Where the heart-attack machine
Is strapped across their shoulders
And then the kerosene
Is brought down from the castles
By insurance men who go
Check to see that nobody is escaping
To Desolation Row

Praise be to Nero's Neptune
The Titanic sails at dawn
And everybody's shouting
"Which Side Are You On?"
And Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot
Fighting in the captain's tower
While calypso singers laugh at them
And fishermen hold flowers
Between the windows of the sea
Where lovely mermaids flow
And nobody has to think too much
About Desolation Row

Yes, I received your letter yesterday
(About the time the door knob broke)
When you asked how I was doing
Was that some kind of joke?
All these people that you mention
Yes, I know them, they're quite lame
I had to rearrange their faces
And give them all another name
Right now I can't read too good
Don't send me no more letters no
Not unless you mail them
From Desolation Row