Shake The Sheets

Ted Leo & The Pharmacists Shake The Sheets Lyrics
1.Me And Mia

As I was walking through a life one morning
The sun was out, the air was warm, but oh, I was cold
And though I must have looked a half a person
To tell the tale in my own version, it was only then that I felt
whole

Do you believe in something beautiful?
Then get up and be it!

Fighting for the smallest goal, to get a little self-control
I know how hard you try, I see it in your eyes
But call your friends, 'cause we've forgotten what it's like to
eat what's rotten
What's eating you alive might help you to survive

We went on as we were on a mission, latest in a grand tradition
But oh, what did we find?
It was ego who was flying the banner, and me and Mia, Ann and
Anna
Oh, we'd been unkind

But do you believe in something beautiful?
Then get up and be it!

Fighting for the smallest goal, to get a little self-control
I see it in your eyes, I see it in your spine
But call your friends, 'cause we've forgotten what it's like to
eat what's rotten
What's eating you alive might help you to survive

And even the nights, they could get better
And even the days ain't all that bad
And after a week of fighting, as more and more it seems the
right thing
But do you believe in something beautiful? Then get up and be
it!

Fighting for the smallest goal, to get a little self-control
Won't anybody here just let you disappear?
Not doctors, nor your mom and dad, but me and Mia, Ann and Anna
Know how hard you try, don't you see it in my eyes?

Sick to death of my dependence, fighting good to find
transcendence
Fighting to survive, more dead but more alive
Cigarettes and speed for living, sleeping pills to feel forgiven
All that you contrive and all that you're deprived

All the bourgeois social angels telling you you've got to change
Don't have any idea, they'll never see so clear
But don't forget what it really means to hunger strike when you
don't really need to
Some are dying for a cause but that don't make it yours

And even the nights, they could get better


2.The Angels' Share

Oh, lonely day, oh, led astray, oh, burden on the land
Oh, always same, oh, nothing changed, oh, urge to bite the hand
Withholding on your promise to the air
Will only lead to something bad, I swear you can't escape,
escape the angels' share

Down again, it seems a losing fight
Yet down again, I sit and try to write
An open letter to a president
Or melodies to help a girl pay rent,
We saved and saved only to find them spent

When oh, the long road leads me to your door
Feed me food and heal my health and offer me your floor
There you'll find me lying in the morn
If I don't wake, you've got to let me go on, let me go on my way

'Cause on and on, the tides will surely come
And sure enough, they'll leave again as one
But you and I, we will or won't be here
And sure enough, the angels take their share,
But where, I'm not so sure I think it's fair

I'm not so sure I think they care


3.The One Who Got Us Out

I know I like doing a lot of talking
Time goes on, I'm talking still
While soldier girls are dodging grenades and rockets
Moms and dads are paying the bill

And they say it's the only way
Oh, it's the only way
And they play like it's a game
Oh, it's like it's a game

Sometimes there's something about my being
On the sidelines doesn't jibe
And I know why the millions of working people
They would fight if they had time

But they say it's the only way
Oh, it's the only way
And they play like it's a game
Oh, it's like it's a game

And what can you say to take the weight away?
I look into the endless bottom and all I want is what should be
And I'm damned ashamed to feel this rotten
Can we reclaim what's been forgotten?

The state of the state don't let me feel so safe
I want to take it to the tired and affronted and all they want
is one who'll lead
And I'll put it to you plain and bluntly
I'm worried for my tired country

That look on your face, don't let it go to waste
Take it to the floor of Congress
Look into the core of rotten
Turn into the one who got us out


4.Counting Down The Hours

Innocence, it don't come easy, in a sense, it never will
Accidents mean no one's guilty, ignorance means someone's killed
So I asked our Mr. Mellor how to get to where one's going
And he points to his survival and he points me down the road

And I go on, wondering if I've got a soul
And counting down the hours 'til it goes

On a dark, wet night in April, on a street in Jersey where
I went looking for some writing that I knew would not be there
And a punter from the Pelhams and the police in the rain
Were concerned more with a car than with the fact the light had
changed

But after listening all morning as I drove down 95
To a story of detainees who were barely kept alive
I could deal with trying to process pigeons acting like they're
doves
But not with interference from the power lines above

And I go on, wondering if I've got a soul
And counting down the hours 'til it goes

Oh, precautions, yes, precautions
But if you're playing with a gun you could kill someone
And in the dark it's hard to know a friend
But I'm not angry, I won't be forever angry

As I'm walking toward tomorrow with a rifle in my hand
And I'm thinking about New England but I'm missing old Japan
And a mountain in California where a spring runs hot and cold
And if I told you I felt ageless, would you tell me I'm not old?

And I go on, wondering if I've got a soul
And counting down the hours 'til it goes


5.Little Dawn

Well, little Dawn walks on and she thinks she don't belong
Under starry heights
So take a sigh as long as the war's been going on
In your heart tonight

And if you want to make that light
Go on and swim across the ocean
And if you want to make it right
Go on and put your plan in motion

The gap is only as wide as the hollow of the sky
Between you, my dear
And the truth absolute, adding naught more profound to it
Than that you are here

And if you want to keep it bright
Well, you might have to burn a candle
And if you want to keep it tight
Well, you might have to learn to handle

But on the days and nights it's hard to breathe
And you can't believe you still walk the streets
Stretch out your weary hand to me, it's alright
And if you're not content to just believe
And if you don't consent to just let it be
Stretch out your legs and dance with me all night

'Til the end of the night tonight

But on the days and nights it's hard to breathe
And you can't believe you still walk the streets
Stretch out your weary hand to me, it's alright
And if you're not content to just believe
And if you don't consent to just let it be
Stretch out your legs and dance with me all night

It's alright
It's alright
It's alright
It's alright...


6.Heart Problems

You got a problem with your heart
Follow the line down your left arm
If there's no money in the palm of your left hand
You could be pulled apart

You think it's more than just a cold
Don't make a problem for your soul
Don't you go pulling out just yet, my friend
Everybody's getting old

Ooh, when you feel the pressure coming down
Well, I might do the same myself
Can't write a song that's gonna help your health

I got a problem with my sight
I'd like to say we'll see it right
But when you can't afford a broken nose
How can you afford to fight?

Oh, Danny boy, we'll beat them
I know we won't live forever but oh, don't you want to live them
down?
Oh, Danny boy, we'll beat them
Give up and we're going nowhere, and oh, wouldn't you like to
live them down?

You got a problem with the times
Your problems sound a lot like mine
They tell you crime it doesn't pay
But they'll make us pay to be victimized

Oh, Danny boy, we'll beat them
I know we won't live forever but oh, don't you want to live them
down?
Oh, Danny boy, we'll beat them
Give up and we're going nowhere, and oh, don't you want to live
them down?

Live them down, down and down


Ampicilin
Bepridil
Chloroquine
Cisapride
Cocaine
Desipramine
Dopamine
doxepin
Ephedrine
Ephedrine
Felbamate
Flecainide
Granisetron
Lithium
Lithium
Methadone
Methadone
Mexiletine
Midodrine
Nicardipine
Octreotide
Paroxetine
Pentamidine
Phentermine
Phenylephrine
Pimoxide
Quetiapine
Quinidine
Risperidone
Ritodrine
Salmeterol
Sertaline
Sibutramine
Sotalol
Tamoxifen
Thioridazine
Tizanidine
Vardenafil
Venlafaxine
Ziprasidone


7.Criminal Piece

There's no more bad weather underground
Yeah, it's time to settle down
And for all of the kiddies' sakes
Yeah, you'll want to be around

But who could have seen
Where everyone would go?
And what did it mean?
Not everyone can know

I grew up with no gasoline
On the darkest edge of town
I became quite the changeling
There was just so much around

So much to be seen
And no one to stop you seeing
Oh, the things that I've been
And all of the things I'm being still

And I hold onto some dreams
Though the years seem to move slow
The years have been lean
But that's how we've stayed so gold

So so long to you moderates
Yeah, it's time for getting down
Peace and quiet is criminal
While there's injustice in your town

So go on with your dreams
It's silly to let them go
And say what you mean
Not everyone can know


8.Better Dead Than Lead

I had a golden ring
And I kept it with golden things
In the bank of a million dreams
That was bursting at all the seams

I had a golden ring
It was such an important thing
That I kept it beneath my bed
And I carried it in my head

I had a golden dream
And the way it came down to me
Was through captains of alchemy
Who came up through a steely sea

And I dreamt through the rainy night
And I managed to sleep alright
And my body became so light
That I managed to give it flight

'Cause I know gold is just a trick of light
And lead is light as a feather
So leave me where the kids are alright
And we will all go down together

I had a golden dream
And they took it away from me
And they pulled it out of my head
And they showed me that it was lead

But I know gold is just a trick of light
And lead is light as a feather
So leave me where the kids are alright
And we will all go down together

And that's the way
It's gonna be

And there's water in wine
And there's nickel in dimes
And they knew all the time

But gold is just a trick of light
And lead is light as a feather
So leave me where the kids are alright
And we will all go down together

Gold is just a trick of light
And lead is light as a feather
So leave me where the kids are alright
And we will all go down together

And that's the way
It's gonna be
That's the way
It's gonna be


9.Shake The Sheets

I said, 'I wonder how it is I'm standing here, while war is
raging everywhere under the sky?
I feel defeated here by everything, cheated here by everyone on
every side
I want to take you to a quiet place and never ask the
meaninglessness to reply
When will we get an hour to celebrate, find the time to breathe
a sigh?

I've been working too hard to be living, and later
Walking all night, till I'm shivering, and is it
Wasting the time I've been given, to maybe
Wait for the day of oblivion?

I want to take it to the president, him and all his cabinet,
with a broom
I want to sweep the halls of arrogance, sweep the walls of the
excrement of these baboons
But I respect and prize the covenant, I respect the process, I
respect the rules
When will we find a chord as resonant as to shake the sheets and
make us move?

You've been working too hard to be living, and later
Walking all night, till you're shivering, and is it
Wasting the time you've been given, to maybe
Wait for the day of oblivion?'

And she said, 'Roll out and make your mark, pull on your boots
and march
Then roll on and meet me where you'll find me doing my own part
Roll out your dented car, maybe it won't roll far
But if you do everything you can, well, babe, that's more than a
start'

And she said, 'Roll out and make your mark, pull on your boots
and march
Then roll on and meet me where you'll find me good and ready
Sometimes it's gonna hurt, sometimes you're gonna deserve it
But if you hold on to what you've got, I know you'll keep it
steady, keep it steady

So there's no end to work, so there's no end to murk
So everything else is dirt, but I am pure and steady
So cut out the morbid verse, I know you'll make it work
And how're you gonna save the world when the world ain't ready,
world ain't ready?'


10.Walking To Do

Won't you take me where my feet feel happy in their own time?
The cathedral of reason lets the bells chime
And the lighting is fine

I'm old enough to know that people waiting on some big sign
Should quit their waiting on the divine
Divine is what's in your mind

I've seen the cruel and hard
And I've seen them hard on you
But I'll buy you brand new shoes if you cross to my side
There's a whole lot of walking to do

And if we're near or far from our city by the seaside
Well as long as we keep our stride
I believe we'll be fine

You've seen the years roll on
And you've seen me roll with you
I see the road is long, so get on my side
There's a whole lot of walking to do

And if we stay on our feet we'll make it in our own time
And though the road has got some steep climbs
I believe we'll be fine

From your house to my house to the Mews
There's a whole lot of walking to do
Bethnal Green to the tube
There's a whole lot of walking to do

Ayoma to Shobuya
There's a whole lot of walking to do
Rock Creek Park, the Ave. and on past the zoo
There's a whole lot of walking, whole lot of walking to do

Well, I'm here and you're here and it's true
There's a whole lot of walking to do
And you're cool and I'm cool and it's true
There's a whole lot of walking to do

There's no fuss and I trust, I trust you
There's a whole lot of walking to do
And you're strong and I can be too
There's a whole lot of walking to do

And you do and I do
There's a whole lot of walking to do