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Doesn't Lenny Live Here Anymore Lyrics
You laugh at the people who walk outside on the sidewalk
And you talk to yourself so much
when you see other people you can't talk
This time it's true
The charade is through
And you can't seem to run away from you
Away from you
And the haggard ex-lover of a long-time loser
Stands rejectedly by the door
Doesn't Lenny live here anymore?
Are you sure?
You sit at the desk
To lose your life in a letter
But the words don't seem to come and you know that they're(?) better
and it's all so strange
Pictures lose their frame
And I'll bet you never guessed
There was so much pain
So much pain
Until the haggard ex-lover of a long-time loser
Stands rejectedly by the door
Doesn't Lenny live here anymore?
Are you sure?
The moon, she shines too soon and simply sadly
You loved your love so much that you'd strangle her madly
And it's all so slow
Time has ceased to flow
And the whistling whore knows something you don't know
And the haggard ex-lover of a long-time loser
Stands rejectedly by the door
Doesn't Lenny live here anymore?
Are you sure?
You swore you'd store your love for one time only
Now you searched the books in vain for better word for lonely
And you're torn apart
No other love will start
And you, you'd like to steal a happy heart
A happy heart
Then the haggard ex-lover of a long-time loser
Stands rejectedly by the door
Doesn't Lenny live here anymore?
Are you sure?
The fat official smiles at the pass on the border
And the hungry broom makes sure that the room is in order
You pull the shade
All the beds are made
As your lips caress the razor of the blade
Of the blade
And the haggard ex-lover of a long-time loser
Stands rejectedly by the door
Doesn't Lenny live here anymore?
Are you sure?
The soul of the sun shines just outsde of the winter
The shoulders charged, the boards of the barricade is splintered
Now at last alone
The flashlight is shown
Hello inside is there anybody home?
Anybody home?
It's the haggard ex-lover of a long-time loser
Standing rejectedly by the door
Doesn't Lenny live here anymore?
Are you sure?
Are you sure?
Are you sure?
And you talk to yourself so much
when you see other people you can't talk
This time it's true
The charade is through
And you can't seem to run away from you
Away from you
And the haggard ex-lover of a long-time loser
Stands rejectedly by the door
Doesn't Lenny live here anymore?
Are you sure?
To lose your life in a letter
But the words don't seem to come and you know that they're(?) better
and it's all so strange
Pictures lose their frame
And I'll bet you never guessed
There was so much pain
So much pain
Until the haggard ex-lover of a long-time loser
Stands rejectedly by the door
Doesn't Lenny live here anymore?
Are you sure?
You loved your love so much that you'd strangle her madly
And it's all so slow
Time has ceased to flow
And the whistling whore knows something you don't know
And the haggard ex-lover of a long-time loser
Stands rejectedly by the door
Doesn't Lenny live here anymore?
Are you sure?
Now you searched the books in vain for better word for lonely
And you're torn apart
No other love will start
And you, you'd like to steal a happy heart
A happy heart
Then the haggard ex-lover of a long-time loser
Stands rejectedly by the door
Doesn't Lenny live here anymore?
Are you sure?
And the hungry broom makes sure that the room is in order
You pull the shade
All the beds are made
As your lips caress the razor of the blade
Of the blade
And the haggard ex-lover of a long-time loser
Stands rejectedly by the door
Doesn't Lenny live here anymore?
Are you sure?
The shoulders charged, the boards of the barricade is splintered
Now at last alone
The flashlight is shown
Hello inside is there anybody home?
Anybody home?
It's the haggard ex-lover of a long-time loser
Standing rejectedly by the door
Doesn't Lenny live here anymore?
Are you sure?
Are you sure?
Are you sure?
Add your song meanings, interpretations, facts, memories & more to the community.
I always thought Lenni was a girl and the haggard ex-lover is a guy who misses her after he kills himself.
Phil wrote this song soon after Lenny Bruce died, possibly performing it for the first time in October 1966. Lenny Bruce accidentally killed himself via overdose, but Phil still used it as inspiration.
Obviously the song switches times, counting down the final days of a suicidal man's life in the verses and the discovery by a former lover of this fact. There are a couple of additional verses that didn't make the studio recording, for fairly good reason, as they're pretty messy.
The deep sea diver ignores the shark-skinned warning And the empty mailbox chews on your hand every morning The buzzards bend to fly, and you don't know why And the tears cannot appear so you can cry away The haggard ex-lover of a long-time loser Standing rejectedly by your door Doesn't Lenny live here anymore? Are you sure?
Fiddler takes a sniff and picks up the fiddle As you race from wall to wall, stumble down in the middle Such a shadow scene from your movie dream When the silence of the load explodes the screen And the haggard ex-lover of a long-time loser Stands rejectedly by your door Doesn't Lenny live here anymore? Are you sure?
The 3rd and 4th lines of that second verse actually went with the "You swore you'd store..." verse, though, with that verses 3rd and 4th lines with the "fiddler" verse.
@cgraham That is interesting. My favorite version is
@cgraham That is interesting. My favorite version is
Fiddler takes a sniff and picks up the fiddle As you race from wall to wall, stumble down in the middle And you’re torn apart No lower point to start And you feel you’d like to steal a happy heart
Fiddler takes a sniff and picks up the fiddle As you race from wall to wall, stumble down in the middle And you’re torn apart No lower point to start And you feel you’d like to steal a happy heart
before the swore verse as he did it in Montreal.
before the swore verse as he did it in Montreal.
He mentions in the interview with Studs Terkel in '71 that it is about himself with "offshoots" of Lenny Bruce. I think that is the only way it makes sense coming at the end of Rehearsals with Retirement, even if the cause was worth fighting for he might not be in a position to be that champion for other reasons.