Heart Full of Holes

You can tell me your troubles

I'll listen for free

My regulars trust me, it seems

You can come and see Uncle

To get through the week

Leave your pledges with me to redeem

Some folk sell their bodies

For ten bob a go

Politicians go pawning their souls

Which doesn't make me

Look too bad, don't you know

Me, with my heart full of holes

All my yesterdays broken

A watch with no face

All battered and old

Bits of the movement

All over the place

And a heart full of holes

A heart full of holes

A heart full of holes

Brass knuckles and banjos

Are out on the town

At the knees-up

In Teddy Boys' Row

The gold block and tackle

Tells the time upside down

Rock n' roll - well, I don't know

Dead people's wedding gifts

Walk out the door

A clarinet squeals to be free

Accordions hop

From the shelves to the floor -

Start playing their polkas to me

There's a ringing of bells

A dunderhead's curse

Fingers are pointing at you

And you take work in hell

And be glad it's not worse

And you get to the back of the queue

Handcuffs and hunting knives

Clang on the bars

Air pistols shoot out the lights

I've a whole Wailing Wall

Of electric guitars

Could shatter the windows

Down Brick Lane tonight

If one of us dies, love

I think I'll retire

See my boys and my beautiful girls

A Garden of Eden

No gates or barbed wire

Who knows, maybe gates made of pearls

Well, if we go to heaven

And some say we don't

But if there's a reckoning day

Please God, I'll see you

And maybe I won't

I've a bag packed to go either way

Redeeming your pledge, dear

I'll keep it for you

It's not going to go anywhere

But your soul, your soul

That is not what I do

There's not a lot I can do there

I remember the officer's watch

In my hand:

'Repair it or die' I was told

It's a wonder to me -

I still don't understand

Why I ever survived to be old

With a heart full of holes

A heart full of holes

A heart full of holes