Harry's House / Centerpiece Lyrics

Heatwaves on the runway

As the wheels set down

He takes his baggage off the carousel

He takes a taxi into town

Yellow schools of taxi fishes

Jonah in a ticking whale

Caught up at the light in the fishnet windows

Of Bloomingdale's

Watching those high fashion girls

Skinny black models with Raveen curls

Beauty parlor blondes with credit card eyes

Looking for the chic and the fancy

To buy



He opens up his suitcase

In the continental suite

And people twenty stories down

Colored currents in the street

A helicopter lands on the Pan Am roof

Like a dragonfly on a tomb

And business men in button downs

Press into conference rooms

Battalions of paper-minded males

Talking commodities and sales

While at home their paper wives

And paper kids

Paper the walls to keep their gut reactions hid



Yellow checkers for the kitchen

Climbing ivy for the bath

She is lost in House and Gardens

He's caught up in Chief of Staff

He drifts off into the memory

Of the way she looked in school

With her body oiled and shining

At the public swimming pool



The more I'm with you, pretty baby

The more I feel my love increase

I'm building all my dreams around you

Our happiness will never cease

'Cause nothing's any good without you

Baby you're my centerpiece



We'll find a house and garden somewhere

Along a country road a piece

A little cottage on the outskirts

Where we can really find release

'Cause nothing's any good without you

Baby you're my centerpiece



Shining hair and shining skin

Shining as she reeled him in

To tell him like she did today

Just what he could do with Harry's House

And Harry's take home pay