Whippet Fanciers

I took the paternoster lift to the fourteenth floor

And I couldn't help despairing over what I saw

Thousands of whippets were running around

And not one of them belonged to me

I don't know if you've heard the news by now

But they're planning on pulling all our old haunts down

Not that it'll matter too much to you

But I have to live with the consequences

Without you I'll still be smiling

But I won't be having fun

I laid awake in my flat pack bed

And all I heard was one pair of lungs

I wasn't always stuck in this state of affairs

He and I lorded it for two or three years

He said, "don't get me wrong love, I've had a good time

But the concrete gets me down"

We talked for a while and we occasionally met

Just to keep up the pretence that it could happen again

But now all I've got is a postcode to go on

And that won't get me laid

Without you I'll still be smiling

But I won't be having fun

I laid awake in my flat pack bed

And all I heard was one pair of lungs

And there are things you won't forget

4711 at the nape of the neck

Swallow tattoos and cameo brooches

Applying eyes on southbound coaches

Raiding skips of next-door neighbours

Piles of unread Sunday papers

Stealing from cosmetics counters

And all the things I'll never, ever do again

Now that you've gone

And all the whippets, all the whippets

Pass me by, pass me by

Without you I'll still be smiling

But I won't be having fun

I laid awake in my flat pack bed

I had a spinning headache

And all I heard was one pair of lungs

I need to hear two pairs of lungs