The Old Landlord Lyrics - Town Pants

We moved into a house 

on twelvth avenue 

it was a rising damp 

with an alley for a view 

A skin of peeling paint 

and an attic full of mice 

to turn the shower on 

you had to flush the toilet twice 

At night it creaked and groaned 

and swayed in the wind 

the bugs were drunk on mold 

and the cockroaches grinned 

With an alley full of cats 

rutting through the night 

and a front yard full of rats 

but it was home to us despite 

knocking on the door 

the old landlord came 

rotten to the core 

knocking on the door 

the first of the month 

always wanting more 

If we knew when we moved in 

what only lay ahead 

saying home sweet home 

would be be better left unsaid 

cracks in the ceiling 

whiskey stains on the floor 

the ghosts of all of those 

who had lived there before 

pigeons messed the roof 

and it leaked when it rained 

if something ever broke 

the landlord never came 

and to call him a bastard 

would be a compliment 

we'd only hear from him 

when he came to raise the rent 

and when we'd had enough 

we backed a truck on the lawn 

we loaded up the half-ton 

and by midnight we were gone 

and when the landlord came 

for his money once again 

all he heard was an echo 

and never again