A shimmer or a shudder, a sentence or a shriek
What other languages do we speak?
I don't know what the answer is, but fair dues to you
A local lack of wisdom never stopped your being true

A drummer in the basement
A rhythm roll as each hand's turn
Finding one thing you can believe in
Could seem like so much work
You've heard the cry before
Up and away we shall go
Tearing up the town
Tearing up the town

Hurry to dinner, son, the heat is on
Your daddy's in the oven and your mamma, she's gone
She went down to the clinic, but the news was not good
They told her it was nothing much, but she'd had quite enough

The ruins of a household
A loverboy who sits and stares
"No, no" she cried, "I can't take it
I'm gonna go out somewhere"
You've heard the cry before
Up and away she goes
She's tearing up the town
Tearing up the town
Tearing up the town, oh

Now we're really with it, comrades, now we're set
Ben Dolan's right behind us with the castanets
It took a lot of pleading, but he came here after all
And Ben's the very boy to take us right to where we want

Hey, look at them couples 
Linking through the rainy streets
Someplace to be in love 
the best there'll ever be
Oh, sister sadness
Get yourself behind me
Oh brother badness
Why must you deny me?
It doesn't matter where I've gone
I'm on the run like everyone
Tearing up the town
Tearing up the town
We're tearing up the town, oh