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Lyrics

Tokyo Hotel Blues from "Postcards From The Road" © John Vaughan GEMA

A bellboy slips tomorrow's paper underneath your door

The view is very cool from the forteen millionth floor

The window it won't open so you don't hear a sound

Down below the neon glows you're miles from the ground

Lights blink on the skyline twinkle like the stars

You feel like david Bowie on the way to mars

But you can get tired of those highway things

Another night in a double room you share with Larry King

You'd like to get home to your wife and your life

What do you do two a.m. Tokyo hotel blues

The road can be a friend and it can be a bitch

Sometime it's a real fine line figuring out just which

Get this trip behind you that's what you really need

Not another smiling waitress with a menu you can't read

Jet lag is a demon it cracks the whip and grins

So you pour some more witches brew while the pill is kicking in

Yeah, you can get tired of those highway things

Another night in a double room you share with Larry King

You'd like to get home to your wife and your life

What do you do two a.m. Tokyo hotel blues

The Tomb Of Carlos Gardel from "Postcards From The Road" © John Vaughan GEMA

It's late in the evening there is music and laughter

Buenos Aires is raising a glass to the master

He'll still have here smiling long after you've left her

Yes. he sings so great and she can tango so well

Their words are but whispers their hearts start to swell

Of the secrets that night, no one should tell

So you pay your respects by the moon

And go visit the tomb of Carlos Gardel

From the windowsill the lamplight spills to the pavement

They won't leave together that's a form of enslavement

In the soft night they go to a bar they both know in San Telmo

On the Avenida urchins have things they will sell

A bandoneon plays sad the church rings a bell

The twilight is voodoo they get lost in the spell

So you pay your respects by the moon

And go visit the tomb of Carlos Gardel

Some say love got tough took a turn for the worse

What is a blessing for some for some it's a curse

No can know what the clouds were hiding that night

When she fired the shot and he died where he fell

The pickpockets blend in with the shadows so well

And the key slips into the lock of the cell

So you pay your respects by the moon

And go visit the tomb of Carlos Gardel

State Secrets from "Postcards From The Road" © John Vaughan GEMA

State secrets are simply a part of their weakness

The palace intrigues, the midnight rendezvous

When the high seas are calling, the pirates get restless

They're off on a mission, never leaving a clue

So pop goes the weasel, as mad as a hatter

Who are these Ambassadors of fun

Groove loon s in the night

Alive on the highway

As the road rolls away on the run

The ghost of marlene in a low champagne fog

Ignores all the borders as she covers the town

And the broken nosed bouncer tunnels under The Wall

All those scrapes with the law never bring the man down

He's card up his sleeve, played close to the chest

Now the roll of the dice has begun

In the luck of the draw

The odds are insane

More than a million to one

So Olga from the Volga, Wig Lady move over

Too much Ouzo is wicked it's bad for the gig

Close the taverna 'cause Athens is yawning

And please keep the state secrets hid

Plaese keep that state secrets hid

Her name it eludes you but she could play the piano

With a smile that reminds you of a misty lagoon

She left town in a hurry with a suitcase of laughter

Ad a half-assed remark she'd be coming back soon

With a badly forged passport

She jumped onto the night train

Just when the moon began to spin

You woke up in a phone booth covered in dog hair

It was one of those nights once again

The Swiss Admiral on Crete has control of her fleet

We all came from Kreuzberg, and we're glad that we did

So don't wander off we set sail in the morning

And please keep the state secrets hid

Please keep the state secrets hid

It seems so long ago and over the rainbow

In that old part of town, hanging out with The Kid

We almost got lost then and the danger's not over

So please keep the state secrets hid

Please keep the state secrets hid

When The Shadows Fly Away from "Postcards From The Road" © John Vaughan GEMA

Hey you, just want to tell you that I love you

I always have I always will do, o.k.?

It's true, after all that we have been trough

I'm so happy that we are still two today

Remember the nights

We watched the moon and stars

Dance upon a million oceans

Sapphires glitter on the saddle

Marco Polo on a Himalayan Range

They say, "All you need is love"

Why does it take so long to understand that

To have it jump right up and punch you in the face

I'll be there for you when the shadows fly away

You'll be there for me when the shadows fly away

We'll both be there together when the shadows all fly away

Oh yeah

Sikinos Island from "Postcards From The Road" © John Vaughan GEMA

The moon peaks over the mountain

The village it is asleep

Petra and me sit on the balcony

The wine here it's not weak

Sikinos Island

Floating on the midnight sea

Breezy Conditions from "Postcards From The Road" © John Vaughan GEMA

These clouds are true majestic peaks

Magical mountains that can fly

Turquois smooths to Prussian blue

Where the ocean meets the sky

A rainbow eyelash glass like sunshine

Viewed through squinted eyes

Drowsy dreams on a sleepy beach

I see movies in my mind

My emotions thumb a ride

Roller coaster indecisions

While my soul blows out to sea

Under these breezy conditions

Phone poles throw long shadows

While twylight oilpaints the shore

Pine trees seem like Chinese curtains

Floating down to a sandy floor

The evening star snaps on bright

Mysteries hide in the surf

Shipwrecks of old some pirates gold

A skull and crossbones curse

My emotions thumb a ride

Roller coaster indecisions

While my soul blows out to sea

Under these breezy conditions

The Ghosts Of Marrakech from "Postcards From The Road" © John Vaughan GEMA

The Ghosts of Marrakech at dawn, they're just like clouds you one time saw

They disappear but they're not gone, the Ghosts of Marrakech at dawn

I remember one he was hiding from Uncle Sam, he was strung out on the lam

A kid on the run who needed a meal, a man on the move who knew how to feel

And what finished him was a lethal syringe in a Paris back alley, it was 1970 in the spring

I wonder if he ever new what hit him and I hope it was quiet in the end

The Ghosts of Marrakech at dawn, they're just like clouds you one time saw

They disappear but they're not gone, the Ghosts of Marrakech at dawn

The Hotel Agdal the opium tea, The Hotel De France playing music until three

And all those friends where did we go, I guess we all just blew on down the road

We travelled to the palace ruins in Deeabet and we did the shopping in Essaouira at the market

Being alive and being young, the Ghosts of Marrakech had fun

So you're leaning on the railing of a Spain bound boat, knowing in your heart you'll never return

But that's alright 'cause sometimes it's asin to go back to some places where you've been

And as you're sailing away on slate grey Moroccan seas and the African coastline receeds

You realize you're just one more fate that goes unsealed

But then you always knew that was part of the deal

The Ghosts of Marrakech at dawn, they're just like clouds you one time saw

They disappear but they're not gone, the Ghosts of Marrakech at dawn

The Sweetheart Of Iwo Jima from "Postcards From The Road" © John Vaughan GEMA

He said, "Hi there,my name is Raymond Green

Master GunnerySergeant Retired, United States Marines."

"Howdy Gunny, my name is Johnnie."

We were eating pie and drinking coffee

Sitting at the counter in the cafe by the highway

A few miles south of Cape Pendleton late in July

"Some people are special it's kind of funny

I'd like to tell you a story son, won't you listen to me?"

"Hey, hey, hey be proud you meet her

She's the Sweetheart of Iwo Jima

Hey, hey, hey be proud you meet her

She's the Sweetheart of Iwo Jima."

"The lady who took your order her name is Betty

It's hard to believe she's almost eighty

In 1944 she started work here as a waitress

To all of us Fifth Marines she was a princess

Some nights she'd even get up for us and sing

She was a friend, a sister, a mother, a lover

Somehow she was all of them things."

"Hey, hey, hey be proud you meet her

She's the Sweetheart of Iwo Jima

Hey, hey, hey be proud you meet her

She's the Sweetheart of Iwo Jima."

"When we shipped out for the Pacific

Our destination was not specific

Betty came down to the wharf

She was waving, she was crying, she was shining like a torch

The men and the boys standing at the railing

Came to attention, saluted her, then we sailed far away."

"Back in the states she saw that famous photo

The flag was raised at Mout Suribachi

We kicked ass on Tojo

Heroes and sweethearts will meet

Somewhere between the Halls of Montezuma

And the Shores of Tripoli."

"Hey, hey, hey be proud you meet her

She's the Sweetheart of Iwo Jima

Hey, hey, hey be proud you meet her

She's the Sweetheart of Iwo Jima."

Deep In A Dream from "Postcards From The Road" © John Vaughan GEMA

Small talk is so tiny, the best lemons are sour

Wax candles melt always, Burning soldiers bright

Tommy's congas dance softly, the water's not salty

There's enough here for everyone

Won't you come for a swim

The moon and stars are circling, nocturnal clouds were boiling

Rousseau's clowns go clowning by a forest in the night

The stopwatch has stopped

Everything turns out right

A figurine is yawning, the lifeboat is full of holes

Buddha is grooving in the garden, he's breathing deep and slow

Through the cactus and the bush Pancho drug his pack

But when his conscience nagged at him he dragged the saddle back

Ans the donkey then knew where Pancho's head was at

Yeah, when his conscience nagged at him he dragged the saddle back

While just outside my window the moon is halfway home

Halfway home

It's five a.m. it's still dark and snowing

You leave the bar because it is closing

And the look out on the canal where the garbage is floating

Where only an oil spill slips through undetected from the East

It glides by the guard tower with the ease of a thief

While search lights turn the ice in the water into gems on a beach

It's five a.m. it's still dark and snowing

The barbed wire looks like icicles in the foggy Berlin morning

It's much too late and you must be going

It's five a.m. it's still dark and snowing

Ahmed sells kebabs he's got a job at the grill stand

His sister Ayse has a dream of becoming a dancer

They were only small children when the family left Ankara

But make no mistake they grew up here in the West

They got the accent to prove it they can speak it the best

Despite all the facts they don't know where they belong

Whether you win or you lose depends on which side you're on

The gang jumped Ahmed on a night so quiet you could've heard a moth cough

It happened in an alley behind the Görlitzer Bahnhof

When the skinheads put the boot in he went down like a dervish

They never understood his last words 'cause he was praying in Turkish

It's five a.m. it's still dark and snowing

You leave the bar because it is closing

The last of the whores throw in the towel for the evening

It's much too late and you must be leaving

It's five a.m. it's still dark and snowing

A lot of lives here run out of gas, you can focus in with a zoom

The unknown is looking over their shoulder, the witch is mounting her broom

The glas, the bottle, the broken homes, the tears, the fears, The Twilight Zone

Knocked out teeth in a gutter, freezing backstreets and cobblestones

The flash of a knife in a streetlight, the slice to the bone

The dog chases it's tail but can't win the battle

When the horse is dead you better sell the saddle

A close shave with eternity, the spell cast by the spoon

Some people on the street look like horrible cartoons

The steps to the stairs take you down to the station

Where a ride on the subway can be a nightmare vacation

It's five a.m. it's still dark and snowing

You leave the bar because it is closing

And the look out on the canal where the garbage is floating

Where only an oil spill slips through undetected from the East

It glides by the guard tower with the ease of a thief

While search lights turn the ice in the water into gems on a beach

It's five a.m. it's still dark and snowing

The bum at the bomb site is drunk and he's moaning

It's much too late and you must be going

It's five a.m. it's still dark and snowing

Hey T.M. you slipped around the bend

Bye, bye I miss you dear friend

Hey T.M. you're on the ocean you're in the wind

We'll be laughing when we meet again

The bartender's name is Jimmy

He's got a tattoo of a dragon

From his elbow to his wrist

A pack of Luckies, a G.I. Zippo

Some gold teeth, white shoes and a cellular phone

A Hawaiian shirt, a greaser haircut and a shoulder holster

The two of you drink ice-cold Heineken

He's a Burmese version of Tony Curtis

And the whore by the door looks like Ho Chi Minh

So when your beach turns into quicksand

And you're sinking in the gloom

As distant thunder rumbles

On a humid afternoon

When the back of your neck starts crawling

With a pending sense of doom

Get out as quick as you can ole' buddy

'Cause it won't be a moment too soon

Because you can lose much more than your money

In a poolhall in Rangoon

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