I Can't Turn It Off

Basement babies strangling saxophones

They got twisted motives, they got eyes of stone

And it's a terminal condition that is tattooed on their shoes

It's not that they don't need you

They're too mixed up to choose

Broken noses hung up high on the wall

Back-slapping drinkers cheer the championship brawl

But they're so punch drunk they don't understand the word defeat

They can take you out and shoot you

They can't confiscate that beat

Steam engineer breaks down in the newsreel

He's seen the future of the diesel wheel

Listen to the hammers falling in the breaker's yard

When you're used to the glamour it comes at you twice as hard

Sometimes I think that I have had enough

Sometimes I scare myself by giving up

Oh you know that I can't turn it off

Young girl rehearses all her blackmail faces

She's looking for a love that lasts

She'd never break the heart of any aces

But she's learning pretty fast

I've seen those clowns running all over town

Trying to satisfy all of their carnival desires

They start out looking for their own melody

They end up in the closing time choirs

All you lucky people crying in your beer

When it comes down to silence not even tears

You're in real trouble between the two

When it comes down to me

When it comes down to you

But there must be something you're allowed to keep

In between all of these pantomimes

Oh it's very easy to let love fall asleep

When you are worrying about hard times

Sometimes I think that I have had enough

Sometimes I scare myself by giving up

Oh you know that I can't turn it off

Oh you know that I can't turn it off