The Eyes Of The Thief

MP3

Written: 1996
Released: 2000 on 'Cupid Is A Drunkard'
Notes: The 'great Graham Dann' was a school
friend who played in goal. He had a heightened sense of
the dramatic, and if he didn't feel that any save he made
was acrobatic or impressive enough, once he had the ball
safely in his possession he would simply throw it into the
air and make the save again, often diving across the
goalmouth and punching the ball over the bar giving
away a corner. A true artist.

I can still see the smile in the eyes of the thief
Who stole every heart of every girl in our school
He was captain of this, headboy of that
While I was always playing the fool
But what's wrong with a fool, they never explained
They just barked their orders to 'do as I say'
The Empire wasn't dead, no, it was just laying low
Alive and well in our classrooms each day

On Sundays we walked two by two to the church
Where we gave our 2ps to the glory of God
And then sat and yawned, or pulled faces and laughed
Or prayed that Satan would make the vicar shut up

Ah those were the days, between trust and deceit
When I first joined the ranks of the lost and confused
When they first sat me down and taught me by heart
All the things that I've never used
And those were the days of dormitory nights
And matrons in blue and blankets in red
Where the fledgling dreams of train drivers became
The dreams of train spotters instead
Ah but those were the days of the great Graham Dann
A goalkeeping legend, the pick of the crop
We took to the field Saturday afternoons
When our every game was England's World Cup

We lost eighteen-nil, but still what the hell
If I learnt nothing else I learnt how to lose
And I learnt how to laugh which was just as well
For when I learnt that beggars don't choose
I stared at Suzanne, all throughout French
Through English and German and Latin and Greek
She spoke with her eyes, and though I didn't know what
It was a language I wanted to speak
Ah but love is a dream that frays at the edge
And the harder you pull the more it unwinds
And the more it unwinds the harder you pull
Just to try to make up for lost time

I can still see the smile in the eyes of the thief
Who stole every heart of every girl in our school
Now he works in a bank, he's married with kids
And me, I'm still playing the fool

© Philip Jeays 1986