1. THE NIGHT WATCH

Shine, shine, the light of good works shine
The watch before the city gates depicted in their prime
That golden light all grimy now
Three hundred years have passed
The worthy captain and his squad of troopers standing fast
The artist knew their faces well
The husbands of his lady friends

His creditors and councillors
In armour bright, the merchant men
Official moments of the guild
In poses keen from bygone days
The city fathers frozen there
Upon the canvas dark with age
The smell of paint, a flask of wine
And turn those faces all to me
The blunderbuss and halberd-shaft
And dutch respectability

They make their entrance one by one
Defenders of that way of life
The redbrick home, the bourgeoisie
Guitar lessons for the wife
So many years we suffered here
Our country racked with spanish wars
Now comes a chance to find ourselves
And quiet reigns behind our doors

We think about posterity again
And so the pride of little men
The burghers good and true
Still living through the painters hand


2. THE GREAT DECEIVER

Health-food faggot with a bartered bride
Likes to comb his hair with a dipper ride
Once had a friend with a cloven foot
Once he called the tune in a chequered quit
Great deceiver

In the door on the floor in a paper bag
Theres a shoe-shine boy with a gin-shop slag
She raised him up and she called him son
And she canonised the ground that he walked upon
Great deceiver

Cigarettes, ice cream, figurines of the virgin mary
Cigarettes, ice cream, figurines of the virgin mary
Cigarettes, ice cream, cadillacs blue jeans
In the night hes a star in the milky way

Hes a man of the world by the light of day
A golden smile and a proposition
And the breath of God smells of sweet sedition
Great deceiver

Sing hymns make love get high fall dead
Hell bring his perfume to your bed
Hell charm your life til the cold winds blow
Then hell sell your dreams to a picture show

Cigarettes, ice cream, figurines of the virgin mary
Cigarettes, ice cream, figurines of the virgin mary
Cadillacs, blue jeans, dixieland playing on the ferry
Cadillacs, blues jeans, drop a glass full of antique sherry