Lost My Touch

Kilbey, Willson-Piper, Goudenov
(Sony/ATV Music Publishing Pty Limited and Universal/MCA Music Publishing Pty Limited)

Appears On:

All releases prior to the 2016 Plain Recordings 2LP of Sometime Anywhere that list track times erroneously list this track with a running time of 5:40 instead of the actual 6:31 length.

Lyrics (unofficial)

[rev. June 18, 2021]

Streets of burnt-out shells, insurance jobs
A temporary spell in hell and it throbs
It throbs like hell in some divine comedy
It won't sell and that's a tragedy
But I know my way home I can get there alone
The day I need you they can feed me to the lions
They can stop trying to get it started
Its heart is gone, its shone for the last time
It's past time, it's mean time
Held over in-between time
It's like Halloween time

I don't owe you anything
Now I'm out of power
Now I've lost my touch
Please don't touch anything
Every passing hour
Overcomes too much
I don't owe you anything

There's a weaker weaker in the other speaker
A weaker echo of my own voice
Reproduced mechanically and electronically
A symphony of frequencies
Delivering a slithering sound
A pound of flesh caught in the mesh, a fresher
A special deluxe, de-essed* it, you guessed it
Undress it

I don't owe you anything
Now I've lost my power
Now I'm out of touch
Please don't touch anything
Every passing hour
Overcomes too much
I don't owe you anything
Now I've lost my power
Now I'm out of touch

Should you would you could you could
Could you look good back on the street
Your feet get cold and you're too old you've been told
You should've sold your soul
It's not worth anything out here
Not worth the earth you're standing on
Earth, Mother Earth
Earth, sweet Mother Earth
What are you worth

I don't owe you anything
Now I'm out of power
Now I've lost my touch
Please don't touch anything
Every passing hour
All becomes too much
I don't owe you anything
Now I've lost my power
Now I'm out of touch
I don't owe you anything (ahh)
Please don't touch anything (ahh)
I don't owe you anything (ahh)
I don't owe you anything (ahh ahh)
Please don't touch anything (ahh ahh)

They say his name is Ray
He was a dominating, woman-hating SSOB
1 2 3, that's how easy it's gonna be
Everything is complete
You need to cheat
You want to eat
Even the air, once free
You now pay the fee
You now pay a fare if you want air
It's not really fair
Fair enough, it's tough stuff
It's tough to get enough
And you laugh, you laugh
But you can't get the staff
Hold onto the raft
It's my craft
It's finished, it's kaput
It's over, finito Benito
Dead Fred
Gone for a song like old Hong Kong
Gone for a song

*Some people create loud "sss" or other sibilant sounds when speaking or singing. A de-esser is an audio tool (often a combination audio compressor and parametric equalizer) which attenuates this signal while leaving the original character of the signal untouched. Today this is usually accomplished through the use of de-essing software, but not long ago it was often no more than simply a screen placed in front of the mic. In this song, Steve seems to be stream-of-conscious riffing off of the fact that he is, at that very moment, recording his voice and probably using a de-esser screen.