REGINA SPEKTOR – The Prayer Of François Villon (Molitva)

Poka Zemlya esche vertitsya,
poka esche yarok svet,
Gospodi, day zhe tyi kazhdomu,
chego u nego net:
umnomu day golovu,
truslivomu day konya,
day schastlivomu deneg
I ne zabud pro menya.

Poka Zemlya esche vertitsya
Gospodi, tvoya vlast!
day rvuschemusya k vlasti
navlastvovatsya vslast,
day peredyishku schedromu,
hot do ishoda dnya.
Kainu day raskayanie
I ne zabud pro menya.

Ya veryu: tyi vse umeesh,
ya veruyu v mudrost tvoyu,
kak verit soldat ubityiy,
chto on prozhivaet v rayu,
kak verit kazhdoe uho
tihim recham tvoim,
kak veruem i myi sami,
ne vedaya, chto tvorim!
Gospodi moy Bozhe,
zelenoglazyiy moy!

Poka Zemlya esche vertitsya,
i eto ey stranno samoy,
poka ey esche hvataet
vremeni i ognya,
day zhe tyi vsem ponemnogu
I ne zabud pro menya.
Day zhe tyi vsem ponemnogu
I ne zabud pro menya.

REGINA SPEKTOR – The Party

You’re like a party somebody threw me
You taste like birthday
You look like New Years
You’re like a big parade through town
You leave such a mess but you’re so fun

Tell all the neighbors to start knocking down walls
To grab their guitars and run out to the hall
And we’re coming out right along to sing them my new song

For every place there is a bus
That’ll take you where you must
Start counting all your money and friends before you come back again

For every road we can retrace
For every memory we can’t face
For every name that’s been erased
Let’s have another round
May I propose a little toast?
For all the ones who hurt the most
For all the friends that we have lost

Let’s give them one more round of applause
But you’re like a party somebody threw me
You taste like birthday
You look like New Year
You’re like a big parade through town
That leaves such a mess but you’re so fun

REGINA SPEKTOR – Small Town Moon

I must have left a thousand times
But every day begin the same
Cause there’s a small town in my mind
How can I leave without hurting every one that made me?
How can I leave without hurting every one that made me?

Oh, baby, baby it’s all about the moon
I wish you wouldn’t have broke my camera
Cause we’re gonna get real old real soon

Today we’re younger than we ever gonna be
Today we’re younger than we ever gonna be
Woo!
Today we’re younger than we ever gonna be

Stop! Stop, what’s the hurry?
Come on baby, don’t you worry worry
Everybody not so nice nice
Everybody not so nice nice
Stop! Stop, what’s the hurry?
Come on baby, don’t you worry worry
Everybody not so nice nice
Everybody not so nice nice

Thought you ought to know by now
I thought you ought to know by now
Everybody not so nice nice
Everybody not so nice nice

Oh baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby,
It’s all about the moon

I must have left a thousand times
But there’s a small town in my mind
How can I leave without hurting every one that made me?
How can I leave without hurting every one that made me?
Woo!
How can I leave without hurting every one that made me?
Uh oh
How can I leave without hurting every one that made me?
Uh oh
How can I leave without hurting every one that made me?
Uh oh
How can I leave without hurting every one that made me?

REGINA SPEKTOR – Real Love

All my little plans and schemes
Lost like some forgotten dream
Seems like all I really was doing
Was waiting for you

Just like little girls and boys
Playing with their little toys
Seems like all they really were doing
Was waiting for love

Don’t need to be alone
No need to be alone

It’s real love, yes it’s real love
oh, It’s real love, yes it’s real love

From this moment on I know
Exactly where my life will go
Seems that all I really was doing
Was waiting for love

Don’t need to be afraid
No need to be afraid

It’s real love, yes it’s real love
Oh, It’s real love, yes it’s real love

Thought I’d been in love before,
But in my heart I wanted more
Seems like all I really was doing
Was waiting for you

Don’t need to be alone
No need to be alone

It’s real love, yes it’s real love
oh, It’s real love, yes it’s real love
oh, It’s real love, yes it’s real love….

[Continues and Fades Out.....]

REGINA SPEKTOR – Pound Of Flesh

If you’re never sorry
Then you can’t be forgiven
If you’re not forgiven
Then you can’t be forgotten
If you’re not forgotten
Then you can live forever
If you live forever
Then you’ll begin to dream
Of death…

Ezra pound sat upon my bed
Asked me which books as of late I’ve read

Ezra pound sat upon my bed
Asked me which books as of late I’ve read
Asked me if I’ve read his own
And whether I could spare a pound
Of flesh to cover his bare bones
I says, man, take a pound, take two
What’s a pound of flesh between
Friends like me and you?
What’s a pound of flesh among friends?

But if you’re never sorry…

If you’re never sorry
Then you can’t be forgiven
If you’re not forgiven
Then you can’t be forgotten
If you’re not forgotten
Then you must live forever
If you live forever
You cannot be reborn
If you’re not reborn then
You can’t be a baby
If you’re not a baby
You can’t learn how to crawl
If you cannot crawl away
Then you must stay in bed all day
If you stay in bed all day
You’re sure to have some visitors

Ezra pound’ll sit upon your bed
Ask you which books as of late you have read
Ask you if you’ve read his own
And whether you could spare a pound
Of flesh to cover his bare bones
You’ll say, man, take a pound, take two
What’s a pound of flesh between
Friends like me and you?
What’s a pound of flesh among friends?…

REGINA SPEKTOR – Patron Saint

She’s the kind of girl who’ll smash herself down in the night
She’s the kind of girl who’ll fracture her mind till it’s light
She’ll break her own heart and you know she’ll break your heart too
So darling, let go of her hand

She’s been skipping days, spilling her drinks in the sink
and you know, she’s never coming home–never coming home again
but when when when she open her eyes eyes eyes
beyond the chipping paint through the windowpane

lies lies lies
her patron saint, broken and lame
and absolutely insane for learning that true love exists
so darling, let go of her hand [x7]
you’ll be to blame for playing this game
and learning that true love exists

She’s the kind of girl who’ll smash herself down in the night
She’s the kind of girl who’ll fracture her mind till it’s light
She’ll break her own heart and you know she’ll break your heart too
So darling, let go of her hand [x2]

you’ll be to blame for playing this game
and learning that true love exists
broken and lame
and learning that true love exists

REGINA SPEKTOR – Open

I am
Down the road and up the hill
I wait for you still
Wires ’round my fingers
Potentially lovely
Perpetually human
Suspended and open
Open
Open

I am
Through the woods and past the trains
I wait here in vain
Scrubbing out the stains again
Potentially lovely
Perpetually human
Suspended and open
Open
Open

In the night, the snow starts falling
And everybody stares
Through their windows at the streetlights
Too beautiful to see

I am
In a room I’ve built myself
Four straight walls
One floor
One ceiling
And day after day, I wake up feeling
Day after day, I wake up feeling, feeling

Potentially lovely
Perpetually human
Suspended and open
Open
Open
Open

Open up
Your eyes
And then…

REGINA SPEKTOR – Old Jacket (Stariy Pedjak)

Ya mnogo let pidzhak noshu.
Davno potersya i ne nov on.
I ya zovu k sebe portnogo
I pereshit pidzhak proshu.

Ya govoryu emu shutya:
“Perekroite vse inache.
Sulit mne novyie udachi
Iskusstvo kroyki i shitya”

Ya poshutil. A on pidzhak
Serezno tak pereshivaet,
A sam-to vse perezhivaet:
Vdrug chto ne tak. Takoy chudak.

Odna zabota nayavu
V ego userde molchalivom:
Chtobyi ya vyiglyadel schastlivyim
V tom pidzhake. Poka zhivu.

On predstavlyaet eto tak:
Edva lish ya pidzhak primeryu -
Opyat v tvoyu lyubov poveryu
Kak byi ne tak. Takoy chudak.
Opyat v tvoyu lyubov poveryu
Kak byi ne tak. Takoy chudak.

REGINA SPEKTOR – Oh Marcello

Oh, Marcello
How I wonder
La Madonna she tell the truth, no?
She’s been saying I’ll have a baby
When he grow up he become a killer

I’m just a soul whose intentions are good
Oh lord please don’t let me be misunderstood
Understood?

Oh, Marcello
Never thought I’d really love you but I do so
My headwaiter’s head on your platter
Just say the word and so I’ll make him kiss my gutters

I’m just a soul whose intentions are good
Oh lord please don’t let me be misunderstood
Understood
Understood

Una mille, una mille, una mille, una mille
Una mille, una mille, una mille, una mille

I’m just a soul whose intentions are good
Oh lord please don’t let me be misunderstood
Understood
Understood

Oh, Marcello
How I wonder
La Madonna when she speak she tell the truth, no?
She’s been saying I’ll have a baby
When he grow up he’ll become a killer and kill everybody

I’m just a soul whose intentions are good
Oh lord please don’t let me be misunderstood
Understood
Understood

Oh, Marcello!
Oh, Marcello!

REGINA SPEKTOR – Musicbox

Life inside the music box ain’t easy
The mallets hit the gears are always turning
And everyone inside the mechanism
Is yearning
To get out
And sing another melody completely
So different from the one they’re always singing
I close my eyes and think that I have found me
But then I feel mortality surround me
I want to sing another melody
So different from the one I always sing

…but when I do the dishes…

I run the water very very very hot
And then I fill the sink to the top with bubbles of soap
And then I set all the bottle caps I own afloat
And it’s the greatest voyage in the history of plastic
And then I slip my hands in and start to make waves
And then I dip my tongue in and take a taste
It tastes like soap but it doesn’t really taste like soap
And then I lower in my whole mouth and take a gulp

…and start to…

Feel mortality surround me
I close my eyes and think that I have found me
But life inside the music box ain’t easy
The mallets hit the gears are always turning
And everyone inside the mechanism
Is yearning to get out…

REGINA SPEKTOR – How

How can I forget your love?
How can I never see you again?
There’s a time and place
For one more sweet embrace
And is time, ooh
when it all, ooh
Went wrong
I guess you know by now
That we will meet again somehow

Oh baby
How can I begin again?
How can I try to love someone new?
Someone who isn’t you
How can our love be true?
When I’m not, ooh
I’m not over you

I guess you know by now
That we will meet again somehow

Time can come and take away the pain
But I just want my memories to remain
To hear your voice
To see your face
There’s not one moment I’d erase
You are a guest here now

So baby
How can I forget your love?
How can I never see you again?
How can I ever know why some stay and others go?
When I don’t, ooh
I don’t want you to go

I guess I know by now
That we will meet again somehow

Time can come and wash away the pain
But I just want my mind to stay the same
To hear your voice
To see your face
There’s not one moment I’d erase
You are a guest here now

So baby
How can I forget your love?
How can I never see you again?

REGINA SPEKTOR – Firewood

The piano is not firewood yet
They try to remember but still they forget
That the heart beats in threes
Just like a waltz
And nothing can stop you from dancing

Rise from your cold hospital bed
You’re not dying
Everyone knows you’re going to live
So you might as well start trying

The piano is not firewood yet
But the cold does get cold
So it soon might be that
I’ll take it apart, call up my friends
And we’ll warm up our hands by the fire

Don’t look so shocked
Don’t judge so harsh
You don’t know
You are only spying
Everyone knows it’s going to hurt
But at least we’ll get hurt trying

The piano is not firewood yet
But a heart can’t be helped
And it gathers regret
Someday you’ll wake up and feel a great pain
And you’ll miss every toy you’ve ever owned

You’ll want to go back
You’ll wish you were small
Nothing can slow the crying
You’ll take the clock off of your wall
And you’ll wish it was lying

Love what you have and you’ll have more love
You’re not dying
Everyone knows you’re going to love
Though there’s still no cure for crying

REGINA SPEKTOR – Dusseldorf

In Dusseldorf I met a clown
His nose, it was red
In Gelterkinden I forgot to frown
Then remembered again
In Paris I saw a big fish
Swimming slow in the Siene
It made me hopeful that someday our water
Would be breathable again…

In Frankfurt I heard eins zwei drei
Counting cookies and no one was shot
In Berlin stopped by the Polizei
For drunk driving and everyone smiled
In Prague I knew I’d been a witch
Burnt alive, a pyre of Soviet kitsch
It made me miss my Moscow muttdom
It made me miss my New York nothing…

In Montpelier I stayed in a chateau
A boy climbed into my bed and he knew no boundaries
In Amsterdam I got quite crazy
It might have been all the tulips and canals
Or it might have been all that hash, and in
Barcelon, buenos dias, chocolato, le Picasso
And in Brussels, clean-cut hostel
And in London, me and the French existentialists…

In Corsica I floated away, all the way to Marseilles
I should have held an after party for all the thoughts I didn’t say
In Dusseldorf I met a dwarf
With bad breath and a really good tan
In Gelterkinden I remembered how to laugh
And I never ever forgot it again

REGINA SPEKTOR – Don’t Leave Me (Ne Me Quitte Pas)

Down on Bowery they lose their
Ball-eyes and their lip-mouths in the night,
And stumbling through the streets they say,
“Sir, do you got a light?
And if you do then you’re my friend,
And if you don’t then you’re my foe,
And if you are a deity of any sort
Then please don’t go.”

Ne Me Quitte Pas, Mon Chere
Ne Me Quitte Pas
Ne Me Quitte Pas, Mon Chere
Ne Me Quitte Pas

And down on Lexington they’re wearing
New shoes stuck to aging feet,
And close their eyes and open,
And I recognize the aging street,
And think about how things were right
When they were young and veins were tight
And if you are the ghost of Christmas Past
Then won’t you stay the night?

Ne Me Quitte Pas, Mon Chere
Ne Me Quitte Pas
Ne Me Quitte Pas, Mon Chere
Ne Me Quitte Pas
Ne Me Quitte Pas, Mon Chere
Ne Me Quitte Pas
Ne Me Quitte Pas, Mon Chere
Ne Me Quitte Pas

Down in Bronxy-Bronx the kids go
Sledding down snow-covered slopes
And frozen noses, frozen toes
And frozen city starts to glow
And yes, they know that it’ll melt
And yes, the know New York will thaw
But if you are a friend of any sort
Then play along and catch a cold!

Ne Me Quitte Pas, Mon Chere
Ne Me Quitte Pas
Ne Me Quitte Pas, Mon Chere
Ne Me Quitte Pas
Ne Me Quitte Pas, Mon Chere
Ne Me Quitte Pas
Ne Me Quitte Pas, Mon Chere
Ne Me Quitte Pas

[x2]
I love Paris in the rain.
I love Paris in the rain.
I love, I love, in the rain…

[x3]
I love, I love, in the rain…

REGINA SPEKTOR feat. Only Son – Call Them Brothers

That’s it, it’s split – it won’t recover
Just frame the halves and call them brothers
Find their fathers and their mothers
If you remember who they are

Over and over they call us their friends
Can’t we find something else to pretend?
Like nobody’s won and we’re safe at the end

In the darkness the film machine’s spinning
So let’s leave it on
We’ll be out in the street
before anyone knows that we’re gone

That’s it, it’s split, it can’t recover
Just frame the halves and call them a whole
And chip at the bricks and fill up your pockets
With the pieces of the wall that you stole

The hunt is on, everyone’s chasing
Everyone’s chasing a shot
A shot rings out, nobody wants it
Nobody wants it to stop

That’s it, it’s split, it won’t recover
Just frame the halves and call them brothers
Find your fathers and your mothers
If you remember who they are
If you remember, if you remember,
if you remember who they are

REGINA SPEKTOR – Baobabs

You have tamed me
Now you must take me
How am I supposed to be
I don’t have my thorns now
I feel them sprouting
They’ll grow right though if I don’t watch it
They’ll grow right through even if I watch it
And a sunset couldn’t save me now

These baobabs and baobabs and baobabs some more
But you can’t outwait fate

And you have tamed me
Now you must take me…
taa-tt-ttaa-ttt-taa-tt-taake

And I wouldn’t raise my child inside this city anyway
They grow up too savvy and they grow up too fast
And they know about buying shit and they know about sex
And they know about investment banking and also about brokerage firms
And they know about the numbers and they know about the words
And they know about the bottom line and also about stones
And they know about careers and about the real deals
And they all grow up and become people’s people with people skills

But you have tamed me
Now you must take me
How am I supposed to be
I don’t have my thorns now

But you have tamed me
Now you must take me
How am I supposed to be
I don’t have my thorns

REGINA SPEKTOR – Ballad Of A Politician

A man inside a room is shaking hands with other men
This is how it happens
Our carefully laid plans

Shake it, shake it baby
Shake your ass out in that street
You’re gonna make us scream someday
You’re gonna make it big

You love so deep, so tender
Your people and your land
You love ‘em ’til they can’t recall
Who they are again

Work it, work it baby
Work your way ’round that room
You’re gonna make it big one day
You’re gonna make a boom

But I am
But I am
But I am not a number, not a name

But I am
But I am
But I am a carefully laid plan

Shake what your mama gave you
You know that it won’t last
You’re gonna taste the ground real soon
You’re gonna taste the grass

A man inside a room is shaking hands with other men
This is how it happens
Our world under command

Shake it, shake it baby
Shake your ass out in that street
You’re gonna make us scream someday
You’re gonna make us weep

You’re gonna make us scream someday
You’re gonna make it big

REGINA SPEKTOR – Another Town

In another town
Don’t let me forget
In another town
Mouth full of regrets
In another town
Please place final bets
In another town
But I know I know I know
In another town
My fingers so cold
In another town
My soul feels so old
In another town
I’ve sold all my gold
In another town
But I know I know I know
I love you…
In another town
They’ve given me the key
In another town
I’m drinking for free
In another town
A girl just like me
In another town
But I know I know I know
In another town
The light fills my room
In another town
They’re painting my moon
In another town
I won’t see it soon
But I know I know I know
I love you…

REGINA SPEKTOR – All The Rowboats

All the rowboats in the paintings
They keep trying to row away
And the captains’ worried faces
Stay contorted and staring at the waves
They’ll keep hanging in their gold frames
For forever, forever and a day
All the rowboats in the oil paintings
They keep trying to row away, row away

Hear them whispering French and German
Dutch, Italian, and Latin
When no one’s looking I touch a sculpture
Marble, cold and soft as satin
But the most special are the most lonely
God, I pity the violins
In glass coffins they keep coughing
They’ve forgotten, forgotten how to sing, how to sing

First there’s lights out, then there’s lock up
Masterpieces serving maximum sentences
It’s their own fault for being timeless
There’s a price to pay and a consequence
All the galleries, the museums
Here’s your ticket, welcome to the tombs
They’re just public mausoleums
The living dead fill every room
But the most special are the most lonely
God, I pity the violins
In glass coffins they keep coughing
They’ve forgotten, forgotten how to sing

They will stay there in their gold frames
For forever, forever and a day
All the rowboats in the oil paintings
They keep trying to row away, row away

First there’s lights out, then there’s lock up
Masterpieces serving maximum sentences
It’s their own fault for being timeless
There’s a price to pay and a consequence
All the galleries, the museums
They will stay there forever and a day
All the rowboats in the oil paintings
They keep trying to row away, row away
All the rowboats in the oil paintings
They keep trying to row away, row away…

REGINA SPEKTOR – A Cannon

A cannon was fired by the light of the moon and
Waiting the boat should be here very soon and
I mind less and less all the silly pictures that hang ’round my room, for now

I write you a letter, I hope you feel better
I hope you forgive the transgressions
I’ve given you love and I’ve given you anger as well
And I mean them both

I always knew it was coming this way
It was coming this way
I always knew a big boat would come,
Take me away, take me away

I stood in my bed
Then I slipped in my dress
Then I ran through the halls like a ghost
And in case someone heard me
I grabbed up a dagger that I’d never used, unless

Bare feet on the cobblestone street,
Then a beach
Then a splash
Then my ankles, my knees,
Then my thighs and my eyes open wide
I threw myself right into the sea

Then I could see it was coming my way
It was coming my way
I always knew a big boat would come and take me away
Take me away, take me away

I’ve woken up once
And I’ve woken up twice
And I’ve woken up millions and millions of times

Somebody’s got to tell all the people to be like the water
Somebody’s got to tell all the people to be like the water
I would if I could
But I can’t, so I don’t
My heart breaks too easy, my words get all jumbled
And when I wear lipstick,
No one understands me at all

They think I’m saying hello and goodbye and hello and goodbye
But what I’m really saying is
They think I’m saying hello and goodbye and hello and goodbye and hello
But what I’m really saying is

I’ve woken up once
And I’ve woken up twice
And I’ve woken up millions and millions of times