JETHRO TULL: Benefit (1970)

1. With You There To Help Me
2. Nothing To Say
3. Inside
4. Son
5. For Michael Collins, Jeffrey and Me
6. To Cry You A Song
7. A Time For Everything?
8. Teacher
9. Play In Time
10. Sossity; You're A Woman

WITH YOU THERE TO HELP ME
In days of peace

Sweet smelling summer nights

of wine and song

dusty pavements burning feet.

Why am I crying?, I want to know.

How can I smile and make it right?

For sixty days and eighty nights

and not give in and lose the fight.

I'm going back to the ones that I know,

with whom I can be what I want to be.

Just one week for the feeling to go

and with you there to help me, then it probably will.

I won't go down

acting the same old play.

Give sixty days for just one night.

Don't think I'd make it: but then I might.

I'm going back to the ones that I know,

with whom I can be what I want to be.

Just one week for the feeling to go

and with you there to help me, then it probably will.

I'm going back to the ones that I know,
with whom I can be what I want to be.
Just one week for the feeling to go
and with you there to help me, then it probably will.

I'm going back to the ones that I know,
with whom I can be what I want to be.
Just one week for the feeling to go
and with you there to help me, then it probably will.

NOTHING TO SAY

Everyday there's someone asking

“What is there to do?”

Should I love or should I fight

is it all the same to you?

“No”, I say, “I have the answer

proven to be true,

But if I were to share it with you,

you would stand to gain and I to lose”

Oh, I couldn't bear it

So I've got nothing to say.

Nothing to say, nothing to say

Every morning pressure forming

all around my eyes.

Ceilings crash, the walls collapse,

broken by the lies.

That your misfortune brought upon us

and I won't disguise them.

So don't ask me will I explain

I won't even begin to tell you why.

No, just because I have a name

Well, I've got nothing to say.

Nothing to say, nothing to say.

Climb a tower of freedom,

paint your own deceiving sign.

It's not my power to criticize
or to ask you to be blind

To your own pressing problem

and the hate you must unwind.

So ask of me no answer

there is none that I could give, you wouldn't find.

I went your way ten years ago

and I've got nothing to say.

Nothing to say, nothing to say

Nothing, nothing to say, nothing
Nothing to say, nothing, nothing to say
Nothing to say, nothing, nothing to say
Nothing to say, nothing, nothing to say

INSIDE
All the places I've been make it hard to begin

to enjoy life again on the inside, but I mean to.

Take a walk around the block and be glad that I've got me some time

to be in from the outside and inside with you.

I'm sitting on the corner feeling glad.

Got no money coming in but I can't be sad.

That was the best cup of coffee I ever had.

And I won't worry about a thing because we've got it made,

here on the inside, outside so far away.

And we'll laugh and we'll sing, get someone to bring our friends

here for tea in the evening

Old Jeffrey makes three.

Take a walk in the park,

does the wind in the dark sound like music to you?

Well I'm thinking it does to me.

Can you cook, can you sew

well, I don't want to know.

That is not what you need on the inside,

to make the time go.

Counting lambs, counting sheep

we will fall into sleep

and we awake to a new day of living

and loving you so.

SON
Oh, I feel sympathy.
Be grateful my son for what you get.

Expression and passion.
Ten days for watching the sunset

When I was your age
amusement we made for ourselves.

"Permission to breathe, sir,"
don't talk like that, I'm your old man.

They'll soon be demobbed son,
so join up as soon as you can.

You can't borrow that

'cos that's for the races and doesn't grow on trees.

I only feel what touches me

and feel in touching I can see

a better state to be in.

Who has the right

to question what I might do,

in feeling I should touch the real

and only things I feel.

It's advice and it's nice
to know when you're best advised.

You've only turned thirty,
so son, you'd better apologize.

And when you grow up,

if you're good we will buy you a bike.

FOR MICHAEL COLLINS, JEFFREY AND ME
Watery eyes of the last sighing seconds,

blue reflections mute and dim

beckon tearful child of wonder

to repentance of the sin.

And the blind and lusty lovers

of the great eternal lie

go on believing nothing

since something has to die.

And the ape's curiosity

money power wins,

and the yellow soft mountains move under him.

I'm with you L.E.M.

though it's a shame that it had to be you.

The mother ship is just a blip

from your trip made for two.

I'm with you boys, so please employ just a little extra care.

It's on my mind I'm left behind

when I should have been there.

Walking with you.

And the limp face hungry viewers

fight to fasten with their eyes

like the man hung from the trapeze

whose fall will satisfy.

And congratulate each other

on their rare and wondrous deed

That their begrudged money bought

to sow the monkey's seed.

And the yellow soft mountains

they grow very still

witness as intrusion the humanoid thrill.

I'm with you L.E.M.

though it's a shame that it had to be you.

The mother ship is just a blip

from your trip made for two.

I'm with you boys, so please employ just a little extra care.

It's on my mind I'm left behind

when I should have been there.
Walking with you, with you, with you

TO CRY YOU A SONG

Flying so high, trying to remember

how many cigarettes did I bring along?

When I get down I'll jump in a taxi cab

driving through London town

to cry you a song.

It's been a long time

still shaking my wings.

Well, I'm a glad bird

I got changes to ring.

Closing my dream inside its paper-bag.

Thought I saw angels

but I could have been wrong.

Search in my case,

can't find what they're looking for.

Waving me through

to cry you a song.

It's been a long time

still shaking my wings.

Well I'm a glad bird

I got changes to ring.

Lights in the street,

peeping through curtains drawn.

Rattling of safety chain taking too long.

The smile in your eyes was never so sweet before

Came down from the skies

to cry you a song.

A TIME FOR EVERYTHING
Once it seemed there would always be

a time for everything.

Ages passed I knew at last

my life had never been.

I'd been missing what time could bring.

Fifty years and I'm filled with tears and joys

I never cried.

Burn the wagon and chain the mule.

The past is all denied.

There's no time for everything.

No time for everything

No time for everything.

Time for everything

No time for everything

TEACHER

Well the dawn was coming,

heard him ringing on my bell.

He said, "My name's the teacher,

that is what I call myself.

And I have a lesson

that I must impart to you.

It's an old expression

but I must insist it's true.

Jump up, look around, find yourself some fun,

no sense in sitting there hating everyone.

No man's an island and his castle isn't home,

the nest is for nothing when the bird has flown."

So I took a journey,

threw my world into the sea.

With me went the teacher

who found fun instead of me.

Hey man, what's the plan, what was that you said?

Sun-tanned, drink in hand, lying there in bed.

I try to socialize but I can't seem to find

what I was looking for, got something on my mind.

Then the teacher told me

it had been a lot of fun.

Thanked me for his ticket

and all that I had done.

Hey man, what's the plan, what was that you said?

Sun-tanned, drink in hand, lying there in bed.

I try to socialize but I can't seem to find

what I was looking for, got something on my mind.

PLAY IN TIME
Got to take in what I can.
There is no time to do what must be done,
While I do some thinking.
Sleeping is hard to come by,
So we'll all sit down and try to play in time,
And we feel like singing.
Talking to people in my way.
Blues were my favorite colour,
Til I looked around and found another song
That I felt like singing.
Trying so hard to reach you;
Playing what must be played, what must be sung
And it's what I'm singing.
Talking to people in my way.

SOSSITY: YOU'RE A WOMAN
Hello you straight-laced lady,
dressed in white but your shoes aren't clean.
Painted them up with polish
in the hope we can't see where you've been.
The smiling face that you've worn
to greet me rising at morning
sent me out to work for my score.
Please me and say what it's for.

Give me the straight-laced promise
and not the pathetic lie.
Tie me down with your ribbons
and sulk when I ask you why.
Your Sunday paper voice cries
demanding truths I deny.
The bitter-sweet kiss you pretended
is offered, our affair mended.
Sossity: You're a woman.
Society: You're a woman.

All of the tears you're wasting
are for yourself and not for me.
It's sad to know you're aging
Sadder still to admit I'm free.
Your immature physical toy has grown,
too young to enjoy at last your straight-laced agreement:
woman, you were too old for me.

Sossity: You're a woman.

Society: You're a woman.