Belle & Sebastian -- This Is Just a Modern Rock Song

THIS IS JUST A MODERN ROCK SONG

Emma tried to run away
I followed her across the city
She went out to the Easter House
Because she liked the sound of it

She didn't have a single penny
She stuck her finger in the air
She tried to flag down an aeroplane
I suppose she needs a holiday

I put my arm around her waist
She put me on the ground with judo
She didn't recognize my face
She didn't even looking at me

Laura's feeling just ideal
Her horoscope was nearly perfect
She's thinking of something to do
Because she is the Birthday Girl

She walked out to the edge of town
She saw me lying in the park
She took Emma by the hand
They've got a lot in common

I'll leave them to do what they want
I'll leave them to do what they need to
I'll go and play with words and pictures
I'll admit I'm feeling strange

I'm not as sad as Dostoevsky
I'm not as clever as Mark Twain
I only buy a book for the way it looks
And then I stick in on the shelf again

I could tell you what I'm thinking
But it never seems to do you good
It's beyond me what a girl can see
I'm only lucid when I'm writing songs

This is just a modern rock song
This is just a sorry lament
We are four boys in our corduroys
We're not terrific but we're competent

Stevie's full of good intentions
Richard's into rock 'n' roll
Stuart's staying in, and he thinks it's a sin
That he has to leave the house at all

This is just a modern rock song
This is just a tender affair
I count "three, four"
And we start to slow
Because a song has got to stop somewhere


I KNOW WHERE THE SUMMER GOES

I know where the summer goes
When you're having no fun
When you're under the thumb
I know where the summer dwells
If your underarm smells
And your kitchen looks like hell

I know where the summer goes
If you're scraping a pot, and your head is hot
Put your head down, put your thumbs up girl
With the smell of hot desk
And the glitter of your step
He was right, he's the upcoming guru of the city
No on told the city councillors

I know, you can tell me again
I've got my mobile phone
Full of silicon chips
No one likes a smart arse
But I've seen a pattern emerge
I will race you up the hill
Where the boy who made records out of postcard messages
And flowering cherries rain on kids like you

Look twice at the kid with the crimped
And overheated hair
They ran a book on his looks
Odds on was the noble pose and
The denim hard riff of the Irish Troubadour
But the boy came from nowhere to
Steal the hearts of lassies in the lavvies of the club tonight


THE GATE

In the hope I'll forget I'll wait
It's a chance I'll take oh yeah
In the hope I'll forget I'll wait
For the time

In the spring I'll watch my step
While the night-time passes by
When a smile suits me all alone
I'll be fine

There's got to be a better song to sing
Before I hang upon your shoulder
Telling the truth it may be bolder this time
There's got to be a better song to sing
That makes a lonely one less cold oh
Before I hang upon your shoulder and cry

Watching friends playing in the dirt
Feeling hard but feeling hurt
By the sadness that wastes my time
It's a crime

Counting acts which I must add
To collect sad memories
From a past I'd soon forget
Swap or leave

There's got to be a better song to sing
Before I hang upon your shoulder
Telling the truth it may be bolder this time
There's got to be a better song to sing
That makes a lonely one less cold oh
Before I hang upon your shoulder and cry
At the gate I'll wave goodbye
To the friends that were my lies
And I'll see them off at dawn
Feeling wise
Feeling wise
Feeling wise


SLOW GRAFFITI

There's a portrait 
In a backroom
Which I keep for days upon which I reflect
And gaze for hours on the muscle skin and bone of some
Imaginary friend

How about it?
Show me please how I will look in twenty years
And let me please
Interpret history in every line and scar that's painted
There in front of me

It doesn't matter what I'm thinking
What I tell myself to do
I end up calling

I stay in to defrost the fridge
Now the kid has gone to bed
A feeling of dread
At least when she's around the trouble's there
It's worse to wake up with her falling round the room

Listen Johnny
You're like a mother to the girl you've fallen for
And you're still falling

Listen Johnny
You're like a mother to the girl you've fallen for
And you're still falling
And if they come tonight
You'll roll up tight and take whatever's coming to you next