Stay Loose
Belle & Sebastian
Dear Catastrophe Waitress (2003)

I was choking on a cornflake
You said ?Have some toast instead?
I was sleeping maybe three hours
You said ?You should get to bed?
I was waiting at the church door
For the minister to show
I was looking at the new year
You said ?Walk before you crawl?

I was feeling like a loser
You said ?Hey, you?ve still got me?
I was feeling pretty lonely
You said ?You wanted to be free?
I was looking for a good time
You said ?Let the good times start?
With a quiver of your eyelid
You took on someone else?s part

Maybe I?m a little greedy
You said ?Think before you speak?
Sometimes I?m a little seedy
You said ?Everyone is weak?
Now I feel a little better
Is there something I can do?
But I never heard the answer
I never had a clue

But what about me
I don?t really see
How things will improve
If all you want is to stay loose

There?s a little echo calling
Like a miner trapped inside
If I tell her of this moment
She will in me doubts confide
And she?s on me like a blanket
Like a stalk of wilting grass
I?m not sure about her motives
I?m not sure about her past

But my faith is like a bullet
My belief is like a bolt
The only thing that lets me sleep at night
A little carriage of the soul
If it starts a little bleaker
Then the year may yet be gold
Happiness is not for keeping
Happiness is not my goal

But what about me
I don?t really see
How things will improve
If all you want is to stay loose
But what about them
You play mother hen
To a gaggle of gangling youth
All you want is to stay loose

I was living through the seconds
My composure was a mess
I was miles from tenderness
It was dark outside, the day it was lying in pieces
Everything is flat and dreary
I couldn?t care what?s in the news
Television is the blues
Television is hysterical laughter of people

And I know it could be me
I?m always asking for more
I keep running round in circles
I keep looking for a doorway
I?m going to need two lives
To follow the paths I?ve been taking