All These Strangers Lyrics
Upon freighter running dark out of Algiers
Put tiny grains in children's tears
While taking twenty five percent of all those flashbulbs and mementos
From the mechanized divisions rolling over your frontiers
Speaking softly in a confidential way
I saw her shadow pull his glove off
As a bluebird flew over
Life's is no pleasure
When you doubt the one you love
Go back into the past
The flood is rising fast
You can break a window and look down
Into a muddy glass
It's mirror or lens to burn
Upon a scimitar or other crooked blade
Ransacks and loots, vacated suits
And a pistol points but never shoots,
Army sitting in a locomotive yard without their boots
Imagines woman that he's destined still to meet
He's trying sidetrack, one to count on
Caught somewhere between a countess and a courtesan
And it's only love to feign and then it's gone
A brigand after dark, his victim lined with chalk
A corsair, filled with horsehair to the core
Dashed on eyes of adamantine, you despised his stripling whine
Using his claws just like a practiced fingersmith
I dreamed I took his digit prints
And then I sewed then on a villain's hands
Watched him ransom and demand
And then called the flatfoots in
Go back into the past
The flood is rising fast
You can break the window and look down
Into the muddy glass
For it's a mirror or lens to burn
All these strangers
I thought about the things she said
All these strangers
Tried to stop the days ahead
I'd carve her name down in the wood
Some small remembrance if I could
Jealousy is aroused in the second verse when he sees his lover with another man. And he studies the strangers that he sees from his window as he paints. Some of the above words are wrong. Here is a careful transcription of the lyrics.
"Mistreat me darling and I might just disappear Upon a freighter running dark out of Algiers Put tiny grains in children's tears While taking 25% of all those flashbulbs and mementoes From the mechanized divisions rolling over your frontiers.”
I saw my baby talking to a man to day Speaking softly in a confidential way I saw a shadow pull his glove off As a bluebird flew over Life's no pleasure When you doubt the one you love Who Are All These Strangers? I never will go back again Go back into the past The flood is rising fast You can break the window and look down Into the muddy glass Where it's mirror or a lens to burn...
Now there was a deal done in Benghazi and Belgrade... Upon a scimitar or other crooked blade Ransacks and loots, vacated suits And a pistol points but never shoots, an army sitting in a locomotive yard without their boots Upstairs your man is painting rain out in the street Imagines women that he's destined still to meet He's trying to sidetrack one to count on Caught somewhere between a countess and a courtesan There’s only love to feign and then it's gone. Who Are All These Strangers? He's a privateer as dusk gets near A brigand after dark, his victim lined with chalk A corsair, filled with horsehair to the core There’s ? eyes on Adamantine, you despised this stripling whine
That little smudger and the mouthpiece that he's with Using his claws just like a practiced fingersmith I dreamed I took his digit prints And then I sewed them on a villain's hands and Watched him ransom and demand and then called the flatfoots in I never will go back again Go back into the past For the flood is rising fast You can break the window and look down Into the muddy glass For it's a mirror or a lens to burn... Who Are All These Strangers? All These Strangers Sat down on a narrow bed Thought about the things she said All These Strangers How I wished the night would end Try to stop the days ahead I'd carve her name down in the wood Some small remembrance if I could.