The Combo at Red Rocks

Cab City Combo: Aqualounge

908-4-6553

Lyrics:

 Words can be tough, you're never sure
 If what you say is too obscure
 But here is a song, the lyrics are dumber
 Instead of words it's just got a number
   908-4-6553
   908-4-6553
  This is all you will hear from me

 It might be the number of the tears I cried
 Or the days a week or the knocks you tried
 Or the ways to leave or the stars above
 Or the number of chapters in the book of love
   908-4-6553
   908-4-6553
  The loneliest number that you'll ever see

 It could be the number of a telephone
 In the secret vault of Al Capone
 It could be the total that died in the war
 Or Imelda's bill at the Florsheim store
   908-4-6553
   908-4-6553
  Madonna's Social Security

 It might even be your weight on Saturn's moon
 Or the number of twists in a moth's cocoon
 It might be base twelve for the speed of sound
 It might have no meaning that can be found     
   908-4-6553 
   908-4-6553 
  The license plate on a Mercury
   908-4-6553 - Rolls off the tongue so easily
   908-4-6553 - The world's largest late library fee
   908-4-6553 - What does it mean to you and me
   908-4-6553 - The number of waves in the deep blue sea
   908-4-6553 - Tell me where the decimal point should be
   908-4-6553 - The year they set Charlie Manson free

NEEDLE GIRL

Lyrics:

 I want a Needle Girl who's tops with shots
 Some sweet girl who can't eat sweets
 I need a Needle Girl - We'll make some tots
 Guaranteed to have the diabeets

The sugar really can distract
From moments you would like to share
 But we could share hypoglycemic attacks

 Needle Girl - No pump or jet
 Disposable needles by the cart
 I need a Needle Girl and I'll be set
 If she knows every food exchange by heart

We'll eat right, and Walk For The Cure
Sell raffle tickets for a cheesy cruise
 Get Medic-Alert tags in His & Hers 

 Needle Girl - One who's sick
 Alcohol towelettes by her bed
 Give me that Needle Girl and I won't kick
 If she uses Eli Lilly or Squibb instead

We'll do the daily diabetic dance
She'll take the insult out of insulin
 We'll swim to the Isles Of Langerhans

 Needle Girl - For intensive care
 Blood sugar's rising when she's kissed
 And she can needle me and I can needle her
 About how we've made up for desserts we missed

SANTA KLUTZ

Lyrics:

 Prancer coughed a hairball and Blitzen has the mange
 And then there's Chuck and Marty - The rental reindeer he arranged
 His sleigh is small and tacky - His suit is ragged too
 But still he'll get those toys out - Jeez, what else does he do?
   What's that sound like a demonic attack
   A fat man wedged in the chimney stack
   He's screaming because the soot's in his cuts
   Ho Ho Dammit - It's Santa Klutz
   Ho Ho Dammit - It's Santa Klutz

 He's really out of practice - It's tough just to survive
 But that's what comes of working one day in three sixty-five
 Imagine what a monday - What a schedule he keeps
 He's worked to death on one day and drunk for forty weeks
   At the North Pole behind his back
   The elves agree he's a tired hack
   His heart's afloat in a sea of guts
   Ho Ho Dammit - It's Santa Klutz
   Ho Ho Dammit - It's Santa Klutz

 That time you got a sweater when you'd asked for a toy
 Was just because he'd lost the list he'd made for every girl and boy
 Sometimes he knocks off shingles or sets off an alarm
 One time he flew into a lake and nearly bought the farm
   What's St. Knucklehead gonna do
   If you forget to open the flue
   Stuck there thinking he must be nuts
   Ho Ho Dammit - It's Santa Klutz
   Ho Ho Dammit - It's Santa Klutz
   "Once I crushed some native huts"
   Ho Ho Dammit - It's Santa Klutz

ON A BUS WITH BUSTER

Lyrics:

 Last night I had the strangest dream - It seemed so real to me
 I dreamt that I was on a bus alone as far as I could see
 Except the seat in front of me - Where, looking dapper at age 55
 Sat Joseph 'Buster' Keaton - We were going for a drive

   I was on a bus with Buster - I still can't tell you why
   I was sitting right behind him and trying to catch his eye

 I asked how he was doing - I know I called him sir
 We talked about his silent films and how much fun they were
 But when I mentioned Big Joe Roberts - He took my arm to say
 "Joe grabbed so hard with his big hands that it still hurts today"

   I was on a bus with Buster - I still can't tell you why
   I was sitting talking to him as the miles rolled on by

 What could it mean, this stupid dream - What was my mind trying to say
 The busride seemed completely real but it's meaning just drifts away
 But I can still remember all of my meeting with the man
 And so I'm thankful for the time I heard about Joe Robert's hands

   I was on that bus with Buster - I still can't tell you why
   On a dark green nauga bus seat as we rode into the sky

PINBALL WIZARD IN 7 SECONDS

LOVE MAKES ME SICK

Lyrics:

 I'm not a lover - I'm sure not a hunk
 But I get lonely and all of that junk
 I hope for romance - I'd like things to click
 I got a little problem
 Love makes me sick

 My stomach's twitchin' - Composure goes out
 I lose my reason and I'm full of doubt
 I sweat my shirt through - My tongue's getting thick
 I got a little problem
 Love makes me sick - Love makes me sick

   Love makes me sick - Love's making me tense
   Love makes me sick - I'm on the defense
   Love makes me sick - It's true
   And I'm so sick of lovin you

 I don't know why my adrenaline flows
 I'm such a jerk when I'm led by the nose
 I'm acting suave when my neck gets a crick
 You know my little problem
 Love makes me sick - Love makes me sick - Love makes me sick

 Though I'm excited I wish that I weren't
 I play with fire and know I'll get burnt
 Then I'll stop trying and that does the trick
 It's just that little problem
 Love makes me sick - Love makes me sick
 Love makes me sick - Love makes me sick

AFTER YOU ALPHONSE

Lyrics:

 After you - after you - after you Alphonse
 After you - after you - after you Alphonse

  No, be my guest I must insist
  My courtesy you can't resist
  I'll stand back as you pass on through
  Then rush to get ahead of you

  Those jokers who are so polite
  Pretending that you're always right
  Would stab you in the heart so long
  As they could show it's you that's wrong

  It's deeds not words that I respect
  So don't try that politeness drek
  Just say up front who is a jerk
  And you can save us both some work

MONKEY KING

Lyrics:

 When we last left the Monkey, he was journeying to the west
 On the road with the Holy Priest - Listen now, I'll tell you the rest
 Born from a stone - 500 years old - He learned 72 transformations
 He fights off demons to help the Priest as they travel across the nation

  Long live the Monkey King
  Hear his monkey laugh
  With his fiery eyes and his iron staff
  The Emperor of Heaven fears his wrath

 He has two friends who aren't much help when demons are defiant
 Pig, a liar who likes to snooze and Sand, a glum blue giant
 But if a mountain looms ahead and spirits cause delay
 Monkey, Pig and Friar Sand are there to save the day

 The White Bone Lady and Red Boy too - They think that they can win
 By eating the flesh of the priest although he's the chosen of KUAN-YIN
 But Monkey's more than a match for them - We knew it all along
 He'll save the land and end up a god - But that is another song

ANOTHER CHRISTMAS SONG

Lyrics:

 Your nuts roasting on the subway seat
 All the people looking grim
 Rushing about, putting merchants to rout
 These folks would trample Tiny Tim (So don't slip as)
 You go rushing on the grimy ice
 Don't let slush get in your shoe
 And don't forget, when you're tired and you're wet
   Merry Christmas - Fuck You

 See the windows with the sales displays
 Stuff that flashes through the night
 Been up so long, since the seasons were wrong
 And sickly trees bound up with lights (Everybody)
 Knows that people just don't give a damn
 What each other think or do
 So let me say, in a big city way
   Merry Christmas - Fuck You

INSULIN

Lyrics:

 Don't say a word against science and expect me to agree
 I would have checked out in '88 without the thing that set me free
   It's the juice that gives a boost - Insulin
   It's the thing that makes me sing - Insulin

 The best hormone I've ever known - It makes me feel secure
 I used to make it myself, but now I buy it at the store
   It's the mix, the morning fix - Insulin
   It's the fact my islets lacked - Insulin

   It's the goo I need to do - Insulin
   It's alright when I'm a sight - Insulin

 A bottle of throttle - I shoot it in the gut
 Produced by some E. coli and there to save my butt
   It's the way I play today - Insulin
   In the end a trusted friend - Insulin
   It's the drink I need to think - Insulin
   The sauce it took once my goose was cooked - Insulin

BIG UMBRELLA

Lyrics:

   If there's one thing that pisses me off it's BIG UMBRELLAS.
 You know when you're walking down the street on a rainy day and the
 sidewalk's crowded and some urban suit-wearing scumbag comes walking
 towards you with one of those BIG UMBRELLAS.  I mean a BIG UMBRELLA.
 It might have brightly colored panels, or a wood handle or a corporate
 product logo or even a strap that wraps around the end, but mostly it's
 a BIG UMBRELLA.  We're talking 3 to 4 feet wide.

   And this rat-bastard idiot - this moron who hasn't yet worked out the
 mathematics of a city sidewalk is happily taking up half the available
 space and crowding the remaining people into the street or the shopfront.
   I mean, maybe you can use a BIG UMBRELLA at the beach, or on a golf
 course.  I wouldn't mind if a BIG UMBRELLA was providing shade for a
 one-piece chipped circular white table complete with Cinzano ashtray.
  Hell, maybe in Indiana people can use an umbrella that keeps not only
 their shoulders dry, but also a foot on either side of them, but this
 here -- this is a city.

   A city with a population, all trying to walk on the sidewalk.
 Is it because they have such fat heads that these people need umbrellas
 large enough to protect a combination washer/dryer, or is it some obscure
 form of personality-envy?  Who in their right mind would choose to look
 like a Dr. Seuss character?  These BIG UMBRELLA people are probably
 responsible for colorization and everything else that's bad in the world!
   Can't we pass a law to ban these BIG UMBRELLAS?
   We need a BIG-UMBRELLA-AMENDMENT so that offenders can be jailed and
 beaten savagely.  Torquemada had the right idea --
   Stuff those umbrellas down their throats and OPEN THEM UP

AQUALOUNGE

Lyrics:

 Sitting on a park bench - Eyeing little girls with bad intent
    Hey Aqualung
 Snot is running down his nose - Greasy fingers smearing shabby clothes
    Hey Hey Hey Aqualung
 Drying in the cold sun - Watching as the frilly panties run
    Chill out Aqualung
 Feeling like a dead duck - Spitting out pieces of his broken luck 
    Hey Aqualunger

   Feeling alone - The army's way up the road
   Flamenco a la mode and a cup of tea
   Aqualung my friend - Don't you start away uneasy
   You poor old sock, you see it's only me 
   Do you still remember - December's frosti-freeze
   When the ice that clings onto your beard
   With itsy bitsy teeny weeny screaming agony
   And you swatch your rattling last breaths
   With dipsy doodle sounds
   And the flowers bloom like magnets on the fridge

 Sitting on a park bench - Eyeing little girls with bad intent
    Hey Aqualung
 Snot is running down his nose - KFC fingers smearing shabby clothes
    Shop the Gap Aqualung
 Drying in the cold sun - Watching as the frilly panties run 
    Hey - Pedophilia's not funny Aqualung
 Feeling like some cold duck - Spitting out pieces of his broken luck
    Have a nice day Aqualung

 Oh oh oh - that's Aqualounge
Words & Music: Paul Rubin, except "Pinball Wizard" (Townshend), "Another Christmas Song" (Torme/Wells & Rubin), "Big Umbrella" (Music: the Combo) and "Aqualounge" (Anderson/Anderson & Rubin). All arrangements: Paul Rubin & the Combo. Engineer: Jim Fourniadis. Recorded: Sep 94-Mar 95 at Waterworks. Thanks to: Greg Talenfeld and Tom Cassar. Copyright 1995 Rubin Brothers Audio

Cab City Combo (cabcitycombo AT nyc.rr.com)