Solving 17

hey girl whatcha doing down there
dancing alone every night while I live right above you
i can hear your music playing
i can feel your body swaying
one floor below me you don’t even know me
I love you

Oh my darlin
knock three times on the ceiling if you want me
mmmm twice on the pipe if the answer is no
oh my sweetness
means you’ll meet me in the hallway
oh twice on the pipe means you ain’t gonna show

if you look out your window tonight
pulling the string with the note thats attached to my heart
read how many times i saw you
how in my silence i adored you
and only in my dreams did that wall between us come apart

New to town with a made up name in the angel city,
Chasing fortune and fame.
And the camera flashes, make it look like a dream.
You had it figured out since you were in school.
Everybody loves pretty, everybody loves cool.
So overnight you look like a sixties’ queen

It was a few years later, I showed up here.
And they still tell the legend of how you disappeared,
How you took the money and your dignity, and got the hell out.
They say you bought a bunch of land somewhere,
Chose the Rose Garden over Madison Square,
And it took some time, but I understand it now.

‘Cause now my name is up in lights, but I think you got it right,

When you’re alone and life is making you lonely
You can always go - downtown
When you’ve got worries, all the noise and the hurry
Seems to help, I know - downtown
Just listen to the music of the traffic in the city
Linger on the sidewalk where the neon signs are pretty
How can you lose?

The lights are much brighter there
You can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares
So go downtown, things’ll be great when you’re
Downtown - no finer place, for sure
Downtown - everything’s waiting for you

Set fire to your hair
Poke a stick at a grizzly bear
Eat medicine that’s out of date
Use your private parts as piranha bait

Dumb ways to die,
so many dumb ways to die,
dumb ways to die,
so many dumb ways to die

Get your toast out with a fork
Do your own electrical work
Teach yourself how to fly
Eat a two week old un-refrigerated pie

Invite a psycho-killer inside
Scratch a drug dealer’s brand new ride
Take your helmet off in outer space
Use your clothes dryer as a hiding place

Keep a rattlesnake as pet
Sell both your kidneys on the internet
Eat a tube of superglue
“I wonder what’s this red button do?”

Dress up like a moose during hunting season
Disturb a nest of wasps for no good reason
Stand on the edge of a train station platform
Drive around the boom gates at a level crossing
Run across the tracks between the platforms
They may not rhyme but they’re quite possibly

Sugar, ah, honey, honey
You are my candy girl
And you got me wanting you
Honey, ah, sugar, sugar
You are my candy girl
And you got me wanting you

I just can’t believe
the loveliness of loving you
I just can’t believe
the wonder of this feeling

Ah, sugar, ah, honey, honey
You are my candy girl
And you got me wanting you
Oh, honey, ah, sugar, sugar
You are my candy girl
And you got me wanting you

When I kissed you girl
I knew how sweet a kiss could be
like the summer sunshine,
pour your sweetness over me

She was born on a brightened pier
To a gypsy mother and a bucket of tears
Her good looks coulda sailed a ship
But her will alone coulda sunk it

Funny thing about money for sex
You might get rich
But you die by it

It’s gonna be a close call
Gonna be a close call

Tell me now what would you do
Hanging back with the brutes
Hustlin’ a pickpocket
That’s no way to get rich