The Childcatcher

Lush

"Baby," he says,
"You are like the clean white page and I the pen.
The innocence I find between your girlish thighs
is like the fountain of youth to my old bones."
And she replies,
"Daddy's little girl's a precocious child
I love to please, I'll do anything that you ask of me
Eager to fulfill all of Daddy's needs."

"Baby, he says,
"I can never love older girls like I love you.
You're easier to please and you never give me grief
'cause you accept everything I say and do."
And she replies,
"I'm in no position to make demands.
I have no past, no one else has done to me what you do.
I've got no one else to compare you to."

[Bridge]
"And as you grow older,
try to stay sixteen all your life,
Old women grow bitter,
don't let that happen to you."

(Instrumental Break)

[Philip King reads the poem "The Bloom of Youth" by Billy Childish in background]
"And why is it charming
pretending I'm younger than my years?
Why can't I grow up with dignity?
Set me free."

"Baby," he says,
"Now that you're older I feel our love has died.
Once upon a time you never criticised me.
Oh, I much preferred you as a child."
And I reply,
"Everything you said to me was a lie.
I know your kind,
you just want a daughter without the wife.
You don't need a girlfriend you need a life."