Pete Atkin sings
Laughing Boy

by Clive James and Pete Atkin,
from Midnight Voices

[Much more at www.peteatkin.com]

LYRIC:

In all the rooms I've hung my hat,
                    in all the towns I've been
It stuns me I'm not dead already
                    from the shambles that I've seen
I've seen a girl hold back her hair
                    to light a cigarette
And things like that a man like me
                    can't easily forget
I've got the only cure for life, and the cure for life is joy
I'm a crying man that everyone calls Laughing Boy

A kid once asked me in late September
                    for a shilling for the guy
And I looked that little operator
                    in her wheeling-dealing eye
And I tossed a bob with deep respect
                    in her old man's trilby hat
It seems to me that a man like me
                    could die of things like that
I've got the only cure for life, and the cure for life is joy
I'm a crying man that everyone calls Laughing Boy

I've seen landladies who lost their lovers
                    at the time of Rupert Brooke
And they pressed the flowers from Sunday rambles
                    and then forgot which book
And I paid the rent thinking 'Anyway, buddy,
                    at least you won't get wet'
And I tried the bed and lay there thinking
                    'They haven't got you yet'
I've got the only cure for life, and the cure for life is joy
I'm a crying man that everyone calls Laughing Boy

I've read the labels on a hundred bottles
                    for eyes and lips and hair
And I've seen girls breathe on their fingernails
                    and wiggle them in the air
And I've often wondered who the hell remembers
                    as far back as last night
It seems to me that a man like me
                    is the only one who might
I've got the only cure for life, and the cure for life is joy
I'm a crying man that everyone calls Laughing Boy