Perfume Garden

(album: What Does Anything Mean? Basically - 1985)

You can shake your hips, you can seal your lips
I can make that trip
And all life's fears could invade my ears
I can handle it
I can call on a friend and remember the faces
We wore at school
Making the madness and solitary sadness
A friendly fool

I thought of stories they told us long ago
Of how the world was a perfume garden
I haven't yet learned to tame the creature there
And that at least I think is something good

All across the town and across the street
You could feel the heat
Let me tell you, friend, they could hardly wait
To mark your sheet
It was maximum joy for the men they employed
To hold you down
Well, I hope now you know that this isn't the bliss
That you thought you'd found

Endless emptiness, endless ringing bells
I couldn't show you but I'd hoped to one day
A pretty promise to teach the tender child
To welcome madness every Monday

Beck-beck-beckon the call
Didn't seem to matter at all
Beck-beck-beckon the call
Told us how to conquer it all
Beck-beck-beckon the call
Didn't seem to matter at all
Beck-beck-beckon the call
Told us how to conquer it all

You can shake your hips, you can seal your lips
I can make that trip
And all life's fears could invade my ears
I can handle it
I can call on a friend, I can laugh with friends
That I've known since school
Making the madness and solitary sadness
A friendly fool

Beck-beck-beckon the call
They taught us how to conquer it all
Beck-beck-beckon the call
These children have nothing at all

Listening hard for the voice of the child
I thought I heard an alarm bell ringing
Pulled from my sleep by invisible hands
The gentle sound of a lady singing
Listening hard for the voice of the child
I thought I heard an alarm bell ringing
Pulled from my sleep by invisible hands
The gentle sound of a lady singing