TV On The Radio
"I Was A Lover"

I was a lover before this war
Held up in a luxury suite
Behind a well barricaded door
Now that I've cleaned up, gone all legit
I can see clearly, round hole
Round hole - square peg don't fit

I'm locked in my bedroom
So send back the clowns
My clone wears a brown shirt
And I seduce it when there's no one around
Mano y mano on a bed of nails
Bring it on like a storm
'til I knock the wind out of his sails
And we don't make eye contact
But we have run-ins in town
Just a barely polite nod
And nervous stares toward the ground

I once joined a peace class
Plastic, inert
Slow dance with commerce
Like a lens up a skirt

And we like to party
And we kept it live
And we had a three-volume tome of contemporary slang
To keep a handle on all this jive

Ennui unbridled, let's talk to kill the time
How many styles did you cycle through before you were mine
And it's been a while since we went wild
And that's all fine, but we've been sleepwalking through this trial
And it's really a crime
And it's really a crime
And it's really a crime

It's really criminal

We're busy tempting, like fate's on the nod
Running on empty, bourbon and God
It's been a while since we knew the way
It's been even longer since our plastic priest class
Had a goddamned thing to say

I was a lover before this war
I was a lover before this war
I was a lover before this war