Welcome to the Scores on the Doors page! Here you can find Scores on the Doors mp3s, lyrics and album artwork. We are launching the page with 7 albums for download and we will be adding more over the next few months.
Who/ what is Scores on the Doors?
Between 1990 and 2004 Alistair informally recorded 11 cheap 'n' cheerful albums of original electropop music under the moniker 'Scores on the Doors', most often solo but with intermittent contributions from, most notably, Adam Creen, Ruan Crew, Martyn Hutchings, Mark Cahill, Craig Smedley and Sarah Kent. 'Field Trip' from 2004 is the final Scores on the Doors album to date.
Take me to the Lyrics section.
I didn't ask for no scores on no doors. Return me at once to Real PD homepage.
Download this album in its entirety as a zipfile here.
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Original Lo-fi Version
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Polish Edition
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The lyrics in this section are grouped by album, with the albums in reverse order of release. Where the same song appears on multiple albums, the lyric is featured once under the most recent album.
You may also search by song title from the alphabetical index below.
All lyrics here are © Alistair Cumberford 2008.
I went on a field trip with this girl
Back in the days when I held the keys to the kingdom of Nature
She led the way until we reached a stream
And then she gave me her hand,
and it was peaches and cream.
When you’ve heard the forest speak
The sap is rising in your bones
It’s kinda hard to stay in
Your buttoned-down Sunday clothes…
Went on a field trip with this girl
To check out the flora and the fauna.
Turned down a path neither had taken before
And then she started to tell me ‘bout her love for
Some other boy, oh no no no
He sounds really sweet, I’d like to meet him one day
But there’s no one around for miles,
And he really lives such a long way away…
And she conceded, ‘yeah,
I’ve heard the forest speak
The sap is rising in my bones
And I’ve smelled the springtime seeping
Through the cracks beneath my toes
And it’s kinda hard to stay in,
Undoubtedly wrong to remain in
These buttoned-down Sunday clothes
And our stiff-starched Sunday pose…’
So I’m on a field trip with this girl,
And she and I are heirs to the myriad wonders of Nature.
So we lie on the mossy ground,
To examine all the beautiful snails.
And this is where, my fellow ramblers,
Mother Nature’s gonna draw a veil.
That was the summer I hung out with the Raketchiki;
the same summer when I met Dmitri.
He was a major player in Strategic Nuclear Forces
Ostensibly in love with the sheriff’s daughter
But something in the way he looked at me
Handed me a knot I can’t untie
A knot I can’t untie.
I was a foolish freelance hack,
Who’d hitched a ride to Kazakhstan and half-believed I’d never come back
Kazakhstan, where the horses’ heads grin for you in the market place;
You see the pigs’ heads in their deathmasks, and you find yourself searching your own face.
Anyway, I ended up trailing the missile corps
Spent a season with the warriors who were lost without their war.
We were eating out of tuna cans by the firelight,
Encamped out by the river Volga.
I said, ‘are you the thing I was so afraid of, all of those tormented teenage nights!?
You’re just khaki boys in crewcuts goofing off! Yeah, look at that, you’re just a bunch of lads, right?’
Commander Dmitri had the fervour of a preacher
And on his wall he had a painting of a rocket firing
And for him it was a question of valiantly defending, whereas for me it was a question of the world we might be ending.
Arm round the shoulder, (I was vodka-unsteady), he explained everything
So friendly!
Unlimited reach was in the hands of raketchiki:
Fearless strike power of the Megaton payload.
I said, ha, the pen is mightier than the sword
So what makes you think you can compete?
And he said, ‘I show you mine. You show me yours. And, by the way, you’ve got
a bloody cheek…’
Dmitri tried not to dwell on the thought of all the devastation.
He told me he would shoot first and ask questions later,
and I laughed to myself and thought,
now that’s too much information…
His were the tender hands that hovered over the nuclear button.
Yet there was something in the way he looked at me I’ll never put my finger on.
We showered after basketball.
He turned to me with a confession:
He played part-time in a rock band called the ‘Bering Straits’
He said ‘It takes my mind off that awful Black Briefcase.’
I said, ‘If I threaten to hide all your clothes
Will you weaken and tell me the codes?’
And something about the way he laughed
Pushed me away
And pulled me close
So that was the summer I hung out with the raketchiki;
The summer that I met Dmitri.
We couldn’t share any more
Because I wouldn’t share his religion.
I still picture him entrenched in his bunker, manning the radar.
Scanning the skies for the unknown threat;
He’ll be first in on the Doomsday secret.
Holding back the payload, the warhead and the Bomb
But firing at me with something I still can’t put my finger on.
Red on a white canvas
These are my blues.
Do you speak Eczema?
Do you speak Eczema?
Children are taught to feel repulsion for dandruff
I think of myself as flaky:
Does this reflect badly on my character?
There are pieces of me all over this equipment.
I am a fine dust between the keys.
Do you speak Eczema?
Do you speak Eczema?
Even my own body fluids
(Tears & sweat)
are perceived as a threat.
Give me an E…45
Betnovate –Hydrocortizone-Lovezone
Insects crawling under the skin
‘Love your skin’, ‘Love your skin’
Stretching, teasing
I touch myself
Epidermis, epidemic, hypodermic
Scratch, lacerate, puncture, irritate
Bleed!
If we pretend I’m the Singing Detective
Would you rub it in?
Do you speak Eczema?
Do you speak Eczema?
Southern belle,
you sang about Heaven and Hell
But really, you only knew Heaven.
Until the day your baby baby
Left you for another lady.
Now it’s your wedding day
And you adjust your veil;
You found love again.
So you sift through the morning mail
That brings well-wishers and poison pens.
Amy, what’s in your locket?
Amy, what do you keep hidden away in your pocket?
Southern ways,
lynch mobs disguised in gingham and Chantilly lace.
They were the ones who raised you high
But now they put you beyond grace!
From the playlist to the blacklist
You have been demoted
From a conqueror to a loser.
Amy, go get your man now.
Pay no mind to the voice of your accusers…
Amy, what’s in your locket?
Amy, what do you keep hidden away in your pocket?
(You have got to go to your man now.
Don’t wait for them to understand you;
They’re never gonna understand, Amy, oh no.)
I cross the sea at night.
Stood waiting under clocks.
We came to a station.
We came to a point.
I tried to cross borders.
Running up/down platforms.
I could hear the last departure,
Didn’t know that you were on it.
Euroterminal
I add mine
To a million
Hellos and goodbyes.
There’s a foreign country
At the back of your house.
Lines and signals working
I follow you inside.
You take me by the hand
Needle spins, wheels touch down
My final call is you
Others will walk the land.
Euroterminal
I add mine
To a million
Hellos and goodbyes.
Euroterminal
I add mine
To a million
Hellos and goodbyes,
…goodbyes.
(lyrics by Alistair Cumberford & Martyn Hutchings)
Haven’t heard from you in a long time baby.
I was just asking myself ‘When will you make my telephone ring?’ at the very moment when…
Bag call, bag call
That’s all it meant
Bag call, bag call
What disappointment
Yeah, your name’s flashing up as an incoming call
And my heart’s skipping a beat
I’m such an old romantic, even reading your name makes me sweet
So I answer
But I don’t hear you speak
Bag call, bag call
That’s all it meant
Bag call, bag call
What disappointment
At first, I think I hear nothing
But then, as I press my ear closer to the receiver there are muffled sounds
Maybe the swish of fabric
Or the jostling of other objects against your phone in your…
…bag call, bag call
That’s all it meant
Bag call, bag call
What disappointment
Sad fact: once we used to be so close
And now it’s only unwittingly you’ll invite me into your presence
I wonder exactly where I am;
In your bag? In your pocket?
Maybe you’re sitting on me…?
It occurs to me
If you’ve got your phone in your breast pocket
Then maybe that noise I hear is your heartbeat
Bag call, bag call
That’s all it meant
Bag call, bag call
What disappointment
Maybe I should just shout down the phone to alert you to my presence?
But no. I’d be less of a man;
I’d come out squeaking, not like a human voice
You’d think I was a fly buzzing and want to swat me
No, I think I’ll just stay here a while longer
Anonymous amongst your personal effects
Bag call, bag call
That’s all it meant
Bag call, bag call
What disappointment
…Ringing off now
Bye bye.
Words by Alistair Cumberford. Music by Ney Rossauro and Alistair Cumberford
Sleeplessness has smashed my nights.
Drowsiness dogs my days.
Lucidity eluding me;
My life lived through a haze.
You top my list of topics which
I try my damndest not to dwell upon
Fog in my brain
The sun’s a stain
And I’ve become allergic to lovesongs.
Although I know that you don’t love me anymore
I long for you to prove me wrong.
Though I was taught that it’s not right
Just to give up without a fight
I would, if you could prove me wrong.
Your email’s down
You lost your pen again
You bruised your dialling finger.
Not hearing’s hell,
So, like Kingdom-Brunel
I’m always the bridge builder.
I grant a truce, give you a fresh excuse.
You squander every blank cheque that I write.
You took me to the highest height
and when you dropped me, yeah
You robbed me of the power of flight.
Although I know that you don’t love me anymore
I long for you to prove me wrong.
Although I know deep down inside
That everything we had has died
I’m glad if you can prove me wrong.
Although I know that you don’t love me anymore
I long for you to prove me wrong.
Although I know deep down inside
That everything we had has died
I’m glad if you can prove me wrong.
Although I know that you don’t love me anymore
I long for you to prove me wrong.
Though I was taught that it’s not right
Just to give up without a fight
I would, if you could prove me wrong.
Blank page
An empty stage
Time for new things.
Pull tight the latex and the apron strings.
All this, all this washing up.
All this, all this washing up.
All this washing up
Yellow gloves and suds.
The day’s laid out in dirty mugs and dishes stacking up.
Mi casa, mi casa
Tabula-bula rasa.
We made a mess so we tidied it up.
All this, all this washing up.
All this, all this washing up.
I focus on a chore
So I can numb the pain.
Scrape away a gravy stain
But it’s still sluicing round the brain.
I can’t wash you away my love
You climb back up the drain
My eyes look to the water and then
Water fills my eyes again.
Blank page, another phase
An empty stage
Tied to the kitchen sink
It frees me up to think…
With all this washing up
I perform a ritual.
I redeem the kitchenware, facilitate the meals.
I look up from the task
And lock eyes with the garden cat
A prisoner of instinct
Driven by the way he feels.
All this, all this washing up.
All this, all this washing up.
All this, all this washing up.
All this, all this washing up.
Mi casa, mi casa
Tabula-bula rasa.
Mi casa, mi casa
Tabula-bula rasa.
We were stopped at the roadside
by a cleric in a watchtower.
I was dressed as a burkha bride
Dressed as a burkha bride.
I wore layers of black
with a state-of-the –art TV camera hidden inside.
That’s when I stumbled on a stone
And exposed my microphone
But my captors are treating me well
And I have become one of them.
I was stopped at the roadside
And my hands were tied.
I was waiting for the stoning to start
To be robbed of my living heart.
But my captors were more tender
Than the press of the west had led me to suppose
In their Taleban van.
There was no torture or debasement
While I was captive in da basement
And I had a revelation
So in my postcards back home I wrote:
‘My captors are treating me well and
I have become one of them.’
Knuckle down kid, yeah
Buckle down kid
And get over it
Get over it
So, your ass got bit
Well, seal down the lid
Get on with it
Get on with it
Do as I say
And not as I did
Knuckle down, buckle down kid
Try to get over it
Knuckle down kid
Buckle down kid
Put your genitals away
And get your finger out
You’re trying on masks
And you’re always off-task
So get on with it
Get along with it
You better do as I say
And not as I did
Knuckle down, buckle down kid
Time to get over it…
Get up
Get focus
Stop all your farting around
Get real
Get focus
Stop all your fannying about
Knuckle down kid
Now’s the time for application
There’s no time for rumination
Over what someone did
Knuckle down now
Better furrow your brow
Start pulling that plough
I wanna hear you say owwww!
You better do as I say
And not as I did
You’ve got to admit that it’s time to
Knuckle down kid.
(Lyrics by Mark Cahill & Alistair Cumberford)
You think I’m one of those boys with no heart
Who only understands the things
He can take apart
Whose every breath is a cynical snort
You cite criticism as my favourite sport
But you’re wrong ‘cause
I was made for falling in love
I was made for falling in love
I was made for falling head over heels.
Maybe I have the English disease
Where I leave you to figure out
The truth from the tease
Elevating irony into a favourite kink
‘Cause everything I say is with a nod and a wink, but
I was made for falling in love
I was made for falling in love
I was made for falling head over heels.
Now you’re the one with analytical thoughts
Seeing life as a series of zeroes and noughts
Your binary logic is merely a distraction
From the serious business of social interaction
Why don’t we put more feelings on display?
Well, if I come on too intense you just run away.
I’ve had enough of all this boxing clever.
‘Cause after all, love’s been a cliché
For ever and ever and ever
And
I was made for falling in love
I was made for falling in love
I was made for falling head over heels.
(Lyrics by Alistair Cumberford, Mark Cahill & Craig Smedley)
Just for the record
I love life
I love life
Just get this down, that
I love life
I love life
Oh but I can't believe
You never ever thought about loving me
I said
Oh, I can't believe you never ever thought about love.
My friends say that I'm out of touch
Out of touch with my natural emotions
A man who gives off the coolest exterior
When his heart is feeling the deepest
Just for the record
I love life
I love life
Just get this down, that
I love life
I love life
Oh but I can't believe
You never ever thought about loving me
I said
Oh, I can't believe you never ever thought about love.
I can't help it
I just blank it out
I go numb and I'm dead to my senses
It's a trick I had to learn to survive
But I'd die to unlearn it
...Just get this down
That I love life, I love life
Oh I can't believe
You never ever thought about loving me
Just for the record
I love life
I love life
Just get this down, that
I love life
I love life
I can't believe
No no no no no I said
Just get this down
That I love life
I love life
I love life.
Aliens at the dinner party
Napkins on their laps
Talk around the issues
Then retire for a nap
Aliens playing Cluedo
Huddled in the parlour
Light the lamps at half past three
Now winter’s falling faster
Oh-oh how can I love them?
How can we live in the same small world?
Oh-oh how can I talk to them?
How can we live in the same small world?
Aliens in the master bedroom
Always locked the door
Never talked about it
They were modest and demure
Aliens on the sofa
Flicking channels on TV
See their lives reflected
In a situation comedy
Oh-oh how can I love them?
How can we live in the same small world?
Oh-oh how can I talk to them?
How can we live in the same small world?
Aliens like to keep their distance
Rarely show their feelings
Aliens fought two world wars
Guess they know what pain and grief is
Aliens feeling lonely
And living in a home
Is there anyone young out there
Who can understand the old?
She makes the sandwiches
For the boy to take with him on his trip
So she can sleep in peace and know that he will not go hungry
He takes the train again across the European Plain
Everything is different now
What I said to you
Was not to be repeated
What I said to you
Was meant for just your ears
What I said to you
Was not to be repeated
What I said to you
Was for your ears alone.
She’s in the kitchen
Listening in on foreign phonecalls
With her back turned as the knife slowly cuts the bread.
He said it could be months before he had that taste again
So she walks to the fridge and takes out spreading butter
Trying hard to translate life without losing everything
Moja mama, meine Mutter
What I said to you
Was not to be repeated
What I said to you
Was meant for just your ears
What I said to you
Was not to be repeated
What I said to you
Was for your ears alone.
I don't blame you for the way you're living
At a guess I'd say that you've been hurt
More than once in your life
By people you trusted.
I can read your story in your eyes
It makes me happy if I can make you smile
For a moment you're free
It's lovely to see
You wrap yourself in a circle of comfort,
Hide away and keep the world outside
So safe from harm
So far from everyone
Stand up straight and be a man about it
You stood up straight and then you disappeared
(and that was years and years ago)
Where did that person go?
Everyone's got a story don't they?
Those stories should be told
Take the time to think of your best friends
Ask yourself, do I really know them?
And though I smile to convince you I'm happy
Do I say how I really feel?
The only way to hold some people is at arms' length
If you overwhelm them with kindness
you only make things harder for them
Wrap yourself in a circle of comfort
Hide away and keep the wolves at bay
Behind closed doors
Building a wall
Draw me in to the circle of comfort
Draw me in and comfort me
Words by Alistair Cumberford; music by Adam Creen and Alistair Cumberford
There’s no comfort here
Plate glass and concrete
Signs and arrows and TCP
I’m stacked up high with the red brick and ivy
Mowgli and Boogaloo
Are transfers dancing on the walls of the Children’s Ward
While frail Jonny’s body
Is probed and explored
Anyone would think that this was a place for fun
‘Get your tonsils out, it’s ice cream dinners for a week’
and Kojak reruns,
But like the dinners
Experiences repeat
And after the age of about 25
You start to think that one day you might end your life in a place like this
And that’s no fun at all
And that’s no fun at all because
There’s no comfort here
Plate glass and concrete
Signs and arrows and TCP
I’m stacked up high with the red brick and ivy
Mad people look the same as everyone else at first
(the woman in the neck brace trilling to the pigeons being the obvious exception)
Until you notice the small details like the stain on the tie,
The shoelaces undone with slidden down nylon socks
And you say ‘there but for the grace of God go I’
There’s no comfort here
Plate glass and concrete
Signs and arrows and TCP
I’m stacked up high with the red brick and ivy
She was the first girl in the school to have a television wristwatch
The girls all feigned disinterest
But the boys all crowded round
To sneak a look over her shoulder and see just what was playing
She said,
‘Leave it
Leave it out’
‘I’ll leave it to your imagination’
That is what she said
‘I’ll leave it to your imagination’
‘cause she knows they’re easily led
‘I’ll leave it to your imagination’
And by the way she turned her head
I’d say she knew how to build anticipation
Put the pictures in their heads instead.
He was the first boy in the class to have a holographic fountain pen
He used it to write her an invitation to the dance
She wrote back on Snoopy notelets saying
‘Might do; might not too – I’m not the
kind of girl who likes to plan things in advance’
He wasn’t quite the first boy
To try to understand her
To fail to recognise an unknowable mind
When she was close-up, it was impossible to focus
But then when she was distant
She would only tantalise
She said ‘I’m leaving…
I think I’m leaving now…’
And watching her go
Was like watching summer fade
Last day of the holidays
Flat lemonade
The secret garden,
The empty swing
Age and experience colour everything.
‘I’ll leave it to your imagination’
That is what she said
‘I’ll leave it to your imagination’
‘cause she knows I’m easily led
‘I’ll leave it to your imagination’
And by the way she turned her head
I’d say she knew how to play with blind frustration
Until she whipped a little storm in my head
She was the first girl in the school to get a television wristwatch…
Lyrics by Alistair Cumberford. Music by Alistair Cumberford/ Roland Smith
(I'm culturally out of step.)
I'm culturally out of step
I don't know the latest hits
My favourite characters all got killed off
and no one thought to tell me about it.
I don't read the daily news
Ignorant of the modern mood
Only the old mood serves to intrude -
The old mood will just have to suffice.
I'm happy to live on Mars
I'm happy to live on Mars
I'm happy to live on Mars
I'm happy to live on Mars
Like a snippety dog
I'll take flying leaps at passing cars;
Like someone not quite right
I'll approach complete strangers in bus station bars
And cry Huh!
I'm happy to live on Mars
The big world splits into little worlds
The little worlds splinter into smaller worlds
In my head there's a jagged fracture
Which may just be illusory
Take me back to the place of safety
But when I get to the place I find that you're not with me
And in my head there's a jagged fracture
Prising a crack into the soul
I'm happy to live on Mars
I'm happy to live on Mars
I'm happy to live on Mars
I'm happy to live on Mars
Like a snippety dog
I'll take flying leaps at passing cars;
Like someone not quite right
I'll approach complete strangers in bus station bars
And cry Huh!
I'm happy to live on Mars
I'm at the point of losing my brain
I'm at the point of going under
Oh, I'm so happy now
to live on Mars
Oui, oui, je suis content
d'habiter à Mars
Anything you say
Will be taken down
and used as evidence of love.
Anything I do
Somehow revolves round you
I can't get you off my mind
I'm digging for what I can find
Anything you say
Anything you say
I wanted to say it
You got there first and
Anything you say
Anything you say
Sounds like the best thing I ever heard.
There was once a time I was sensible
Now I've left logic very far behind.
Everywhere I go
I'm in a kind of glow
A word can free me like a bird
And silence have me fretting blind.
Anything you say
Anything you say
I wanted to say it
You got there first and
Anything you say
Anything you say
Is the next chapter,
chapter and verse.
When you're next to me
Standing close to me
When I feel alright
You really got me going!
She's a conscientious girl
She knows what to do
Gets through the working day
With the vision of a television treat or two
Let's make a date by the small screen
There await documentaries
Fantasy discoveries
We can talk about it later
She is never happier
Than when she's studying the programme guide
She is never happier
Than when she's studying the programme guide
She is never happier
Than when she's studying the programme guide
She is never happier
Than when she's studying the programme guide
Friends warn of passivity
and parents of sin
But when she's her floating in the cushions
No she will not let their voices in
This chewing gum for the eyes
Gulped down in secret
And then denounced and despised
Well she's had quite enough of all that old hypocrisy stuff
She is never happier
Than when she's studying the programme guide
She is never happier
Than when she's studying the programme guide
(She's a viewer, watch her watch)
She is never happier
Than when she's studying the programme guide
She is never happier
Than when she's studying the programme guide
She is never happier
Than when she's studying the programme guide
She is never happier
Than when she's studying the programme guide
Thunder and Lightning without Rain¯
In this town
There is often thunder and lightning without rain
You like awake
Like the parched earth waiting for refreshment
It's like a melody which never resolves
A hanging chord that only jangles your nerves
When I first came to this town
It seemed to be my energy
The air was dry and heavy and hot
I felt like I almost couldn't breathe
In this town
I first saw bananas hanging from the tree
in the old arboretum
They grew like an outstretched hand
Green fingers pointing upwards
Like an ascending scale
Like the beggar's melody
Of the beggars rocking back forward in the underpass
When I first came to this town
It seemed to be my energy
The air was dry and close and hot
I felt like I almost couldn't breathe
I got to know this place but
I still don't know if we reached equanimity
Still, it's a patch in the patchwork of my history
In this town
I learned some new songs
The squeaking tramwheels in the depot at night
The sad stench flowing from the slaughterhouse
Car alarms ricocheting around the block
After the thunderblast
When there's thunder and lightning without rain
When I first came to this town it seemed to be my enemy
The air was dry and heavy and hot
I still don't know if we reached equanimity
In this town
There is often thunder and lightning without rain
You like awake
Like the parched earth waiting for refreshment
Thunder and lightning without rain
Without rain.
It will be springtime
View after a long climb
Long climb
When we are seen
Will we be in green?
Lolling into her walk-in wardrobe
A woman of the world in late-middle age stops to stare
Will she wear red again?
Or would she not be seen dead again?
It will be springtime
View after a long climb
Long climb
When we are seen
Will we be in green?
Towel round his waist
It's a cheap motel room
Stubby hands rifling through a stolen case
He's gonna wear something that takes attention away from his face
And as for me
Shall I wear green again
Will I play go to your stop?
Will I play Peace to your War again?
And can I even let you put a root down
In a dry and dusty ground?
(I wonder...)
Seeing yourself as others see you, it's...
...getting your photos back
The passion in the attack
Then you fall serene
'Cause everything's green
It will be springtime
View after a long climb
Long climb
When we are seen
Will we be in green?
It's gonna be so fine
Making up for lost time
Lost time
Removing that screen
As we lie in green
It will be springtime
It will be so fine
Lying in green with you
Lying in green with you.
I've got my Stammtisch at Bar Hades
You know it well
Round here I qualify as regular
But don't suppose I'm raising hell
I watch the funeral cortege passing
The headscarved ladies selling candles
Down the days
and through the years
Business shows no sign of abating
Here am I in a place of waiting
Where ceremony and sorrow meet
At the end of the day when they turn out the lights
I still see your eyes before me
First you take your hero's name
And then shoot him down in flames
Film's only got so many frames
And I was trying to slow mine down
I needed a place to check my head
Where the living sip cold tea alongside the freshly dead
Down the days
and through the years
Business shows no sign of abating
Here am I in a place of waiting
Where ceremony and sorrow meet
At the end of the day when they kill the lights
I still see your eyes before me
... they still elude me, though.
Our love's a celebrity duet
We had the whole world fooled
Sure, we make a pleasant kind of noise
But actually, we never really met
The waitess picks up my coffee cup
And sprays the ring stain away
I take my coat and leave
In the knowledge I'll be back again another day
Down the days
and through the years
Business shows no sign of abating
Here am I in a place of waiting
At the end of the day
At the end of the years
Where the ceremony and sorrow meet
I still see your eyes before me
I see your eyes before me.
Some people call them the tender years
The no-man’s land beween the Child and the Man
When you’re held in the grip of a morbid fear
And you’re pulled and repelled by the force of Love
I was waiting for my heart to turn to stone
Waiting for my mind to set
Waiting not to have to constantly list
All the things I’m trying hard to forget
Waiting for the waiting to cease
Like there was something wrong with me
When I was three, the bedroom curtain folds
Suggested monsters and rooster combs
Thirteen years old, I’d lie awake
Thinking ‘bout nuclear warheads pointing from Russian silos
The metre of Hymns for Church and School
Was regular as the music was heavenly
But somewhere in the space between the notes
This pilgrim was pulled to an Unmarked territory
I was waiting for the path to clear
Waiting for the doubt to disappear
When despair became the dominant emotion
I’d take very long walks to get it out of my system
Waiting for the waiting to cease
Like there was something exceptional about me!
I still tremble as I face the truth
I’m tender when I look at you
And as I skip the cracks between desire and fear
I’m forced to conclude these are still my tender years
Tender like your shoulders bared
Tender the moon shining off your hair
Tender the wounds we live our lives around
Tender the still unspoken sounds…
And with a look now
She could overturn cars
Toy with the weather
Pluck suspension bridges like guitars
Start revolutions
And leave the government overthrown
And if I’m captured
I’d be the last one to know
He dreams he’s falling
Then wakes up
To find it’s true
She dreams the same thing
They compare notes like scholars do
She says ‘I’m weary’
Presses her face into his chest
And when I’m captured
Only then shall I rest
And she said baby
They say it’s not gonna last
And he said maybe we’ve learned nothing from all the fools of the past
But hold me tighter
Block out the world so I can’t see
And if I’m captured
I don’t want to go free
The person I am
Most of the time
Is not the person I am.
The person you are
When you leave your door ajar
And the person I am
Are similar
and
My love for you is beautiful
Can't see it any other way
Our love is beautful
Can't see it any other way.
A coat on a peg
The tread of old shoes
The air we displace
Your fingertip grooves...
New skin grows over scars
Still I leave the door ajar
Cover cobbles in tar
Hope is very far
and
My love for you is beautiful
Can't see it any other way
Our love is beautiful
Can't see it any other way
Drawing slow breath
and letting it go
Describing the arc
of a double rainbow
Which hangs in the sky
Till its moment passes by
Well I swear it was there
You can still see it if you try
and
My love for you is beautiful
Can't see it any other way
Our love is beautiful
Can't see it any other way
I approve of the moon
Our mutual moon
In your sky
And my sky
I approve of the sun
Our mutual fun
In your mind and my mind
I approve of you
And if you didn't exist
I'd have to invent
And invent is what I do
In my head
In my heart
With my hands
When you're far away
You were with me today.
Talked to you as I walked
Had you with me
When I stopped to wash
and eat
and dress
I hope you don't mind
but
I must confess.
Mr Frost
It’s a case of love’s labours lost
And I really don’t wanna cross
I don’t wanna cross my path with yours again
(here we go)…
We all walk the same Earth
Why d’ya have to be so rude?
Mr Frost when you smile you’re all candy floss
With a bite like a scouring pad
Oh you’re really bad
I don’t recall that we were ever friends, y’know
Mr Frost, guess I should know that you’re the boss
…an imposter who merely mocks
All he comes across
Is it true you can be loving or sincere?
We all breathe the same air
All raised on the same food
You act like you don’t care
Why d’ya have to be so rude?
Oh Mr Frost, oh Mr Frost
Why must I work so hard for the likes of you?
Oh Mr Frost, oh Mr Frost
When you don’t give a damn about what I do
We all breathe the same air
All raised on the same food
You act like you don’t care
Why d’ya wanna be so rude?
We’re pupils from the same school
We walk in the same shoes
You act like you don’t care
Why do YOU have to make the rules?
We’re pilgrims on this one earth
We walk in the same shoes
You act like you don’t care
Why d’ya have to be so rude
…so rude?
Now that you’ve left my room
The planets tilt alarmingly in their orbit
Out of sync with their moons
When someone hurts you
They really hurt you
You don’t say nothing at first
Reclaim your dignity
Remake the jigsaw
Make a mental list of situations to avoid
I don’t wanna be somebody you avoid
Forget the things I said
I didn’t mean to hurt you
No one deserves this less
That was the last thing on my mind
Have we come so far
To be so far apart now?
It’s ironic and it’s perverse
I’ve got a lot to say
But I push each word through checks and filters
Fearful of making things worse
A hostile climate
The creeping jungle
Am I the snake in the tree?
The constellations, heavenly bodies
Are all waiting for a sign from you and me
And we don’t wanna end the world today,
Do we?
Forget the things I said
I didn’t mean to hurt you
No one deserves this less
That was the last thing on my mind
(Oh my baby…)
Forget the things I said
Forget the things I said
I didn’t mean to hurt you
No one deserves this less
That was the last thing on my mind.
For the first fifteen years of my life
I thought that I was living in the past
In a town of old ladies
Where the only illumination
Came in the sweep of a laser
Advertising the Blackpool lights
Walking at night
Round the estate
In every window a blue TV light
Watching George and Mildred
watching George and Mildred
Sing that song to me
Sing it in my ear
Sing that song to me
Song to soothe my fear
For the next fifteen years of my life
I thought that I was living in the future
In a giddy daze of change
In my body and my circumstances
Boy from the backwater
ponders the geopolitical
Read in a book
'We're in Rats Alley
Full of dead men's bones'
And music = love = home
Sing that song to me
Sing it in my ear
Sing that song to me
Song to soothe my fear
Being loved
is like the painting of the Forth Bridge
We paint meaning over our pain
But before we're done
Meaninglessness starts to show again
So that's why I come to you
And ask you once again
Sing that song to me
Sing it in my ear
Sing that song to me
Song to soothe my fear
And I'll sing back
I'll sing back
I'll sing back to you.
Every tourist has a similar snapshot
In the background
Some famous monument,
landmark of civilisation
…and in the foreground?
That’s me in my shades and shorts
This is more than just casual graffiti, scrawl on the wall to say ‘I-woz-here’
It’s a yearning from deep in the psyche
That maybe some magic will rub off on me
And I’ll be
Immortalised
By association
Immortalised by association
…That’s how I feel when I’m with you.
That’s how I feel when I’m by your side: touched by greatness,
Immortalised
Immortalised
….Can you feel it too?
I don’t think you do
1989 in the Chinese capital
Some holy idiot stood in the path of a tank
Armed with only a plastic bag
And though I dread to think about what fate befell him later
His actions posed a question still waiting to be answered
Like the faces in the crowd scenes in a Biblical epic
In their insignificance they had a kind of dignity
Immortalised
By association
Immortalised by association
…That’s how I feel when I’m with you.
That’s how I feel when I’m by your side: touched by greatness,
Immortalised
Immortalised
...Can you feel it too?
I don’t think you do
Some days, I feel like your lens is trained on me
Other days I feel like I’m lost in the detail
Trying to warm my hands at your fire
If I make myself really vulnerable to you
Would the tank roll on and would I be gone?
Is it better not to risk losing my dignity?
And just live vicariously – is that really healthy?
Immortalised
By association
Immortalised by association
…That’s how I feel when I’m with you.
That’s how I feel when I’m by your side: touched by greatness,
Immortalised
Immortalised
...Can you feel it too?
I don’t think you do
Some people make me feel so claustrophobic
Make it hard to breathe
I wanna get away
But you make me feel
Like I'm lying in a rain-blessed pasture
That stretches on and on for miles
With no need of anything to say
You're like a wide-open space
You're like a wide-open space
You're like a wide-open space
And I'm glad that you came
Some people make me feel so claustrophobic
Make it hard to breathe
I wanna get away
But you make me feel
Like I'm lying in a rain-blessed pasture
That stretches on and on for miles
With no need of anything to say
You're like a wide-open space
You're like a wide-open space
You're like a wide-open space
And I'm glad that you came
(I'm glad).
There's an urgency in everything I feel
I am revisiting a place I thought I'd left for good
And as I write my diary
The first detective on the scene
I got a single line of questioning...
...why do I love you
when you don't care about me?
Why do I love you
when you don't feel the need?
Wanna have words with the person who wrote the book about love
The person who wrote the book about love
Friend came to see me, he was blinking like a child newborn
He said 'romance is just a silly dream from days of princesses in castles!'
And many generations had been fooled into thinking
All those 'I love you's were necessary, real and true.
I tried to imagine a world before the myth took hold
Where no-one knew the players,
the grooms, the brides, lovers and cuckolds
It's a fiction, it's a phase
It's a bourgeois malaise
So why do I repeat this phrase
So obsessively?
Why do I love you
when you don't care about me?
Why do I love you
when you don't feel the need?
Wanna have words with the person who wrote the book about love
The person who wrote the book about love
The book about love
Is written on our minds
We just follow the script
We're just off-the-peg dramatis personae
I wish I'd never heard
That 'unrequited' word
Then I wouldn't know exactly what was required of me
In the next scene.
Why do I love you
when you don't care about me?
Why do I love you
when you don't feel the need?
Wanna have words with the person who wrote the book about love
The person who wrote the book about love
There were no storms in Africa
No flood for 40 days
No mighty guns and cannons
No royal firework displays
Yes the choir of heaven came right down
But only shepherds saw
and it changed their life because they knew
What he had come here for
No flags hoisted high in triumph
No newsflash on TV
The subtlest invasion of human history
Well they looked in halls of riches
and they searched every king's court
But God wrapped in a nappy was too shocking a thought
Can it really be that he gave up heaven to come here?
Can it really be that he gave up heaven to come here?
Wise men with high & mighty minds
Still scorn this non-event
They don't believe a baby's hands
Could smash the chains of death
And turn the cosmos upside down
This king who came to serve
All we least expected when God came down to earth
Can it really be that he gave up heaven to come here?
Can it really be that he gave up heaven to come here?
Can it really be that he gave up heaven to come here?
Can it really be that he gave up heaven to come here?
Things change
I wanna say 'c'est la vie'
But I have no idea what that means
I need to smell the smell of the sea
High tide -
It's useless now to resist
As I watch everything I ever slaved for
Slowly and inexorably float out of the door
'Cause we're here for a day
And we're gone for a season
If I say 'be my fixed point'
do you swear you won't move?
'Cause they're taking away all I ever believed in
But when we collide
Yeah, the balance is good.
People change, and they're subtle about it
These diary entries written in another hand
Retelling passions which now only make me laugh
All my triumphs and disasters have diffused like so much gas.
When I navigate I need a star to guide me home
Well, I know it's late
And the night sky is rather cold -
I can't expect you to hold on.
(I guess what I'm saying is, we all need a fixed point
In a world of relentless change
Maybe sometimes we create our own rules for each other
'You have to stay just like that
Just the way I want you
Just the way I understand you
Be my fixed point'
If you love somebody, set them free...
maybe that's the way it has to be.)
'Cause we're here for a day
And we're gone for a season
If I say 'be my fixed point'
do you swear you won't move?
'Cause they're taking away all I ever believed in
But when we collide
Yeah, the balance is good.
If You Come with Guns and Bombs¯
Exactly what do you mean by nuclear-tipped missiles?
We’re not talking featherlite condoms or cotton buds
This is millions of lives
Billions of babies
Millions of lives
Billions of babies
Baby
If you come with guns and bombs
You can head straight back where you belong
If you come with guns and bombs
You can head straight back where you belong
If you come with guns and bombs
You can head straight back where you belong
If you come with guns and bombs
You can head straight back where you belong
Don’t come to me with all of that justified violence sh*t
I’m not a fool and I’m not taking any of it
I may have been on this planet only since 1970
But I have read my history and all of this seems mighty familiar to me
If you come with guns and bombs
You might just see the kingdom come
If you come with guns and bombs
You might just see the kingdom come
If you come with guns and bombs
You might just see the kingdom come
And woe to you, you newsreaders!
With your 'and we'll be back with more incalculable human suffering after the break,
and meanwhile here's a potato that looks like a ****'
with your slick little logos for crisis and war
You are grinning skulls in the wreckage of pseudo-civilisation
So get out
Insert your obscene missiles
In the gaping hole in your education budget
Fighting war with war
Injustice with injustice
Never did solve much
What goes around comes around
Bout time for you to take shelter underground
If you come with guns and bombs
You might just see the kingdom come
If you come with guns and bombs
You might just see the kingdom come
If you come with guns and bombs
You might just see the kingdom come
Yeah yeah get back where you belong!
No
no
no
no
no
no
NO!
Neil Armstrong was a dirty liar
Nero never set Rome on fire
The crackpot theories of evil men
Turn history into let’s pretend
Don’t be a revisionist.
Don’t say it never happened
It happened
It happened
And you are who you are
Don’t be a revisionist –
Denial is for liars
‘Cause if it happened
Then it might happen again.
You try so hard to be smooth, unruffled
The truth shall suffer
The facts get muddled
Erase the tracks your own feet have made
Burn all your bridges to yesterday
'Cause
That wasn’t true love
Or true belief
It’s only real if you feel it this week!
Your former self is a kid
Who’s bent on showing you up in embarrassment
Don’t be a revisionist
Don’t say it never happened
It happened
It happened
And you are who you are
Don’t be a revisionist –
Denial is for liars
‘Cause if it happened
Then it might happen again.
Don’t be a revisionist
Don’t say it never happened
It happened
It happened
And you are who you are
Don’t be a revisionist –
Denial is for liars
‘Cause if it happened
Then it might happen again
...it might happen again.
I'm not amazing
I am not Kreskin
That means I cannot read no minds
But
Give me a sign
Give me a sign
Give me a sign
Give me a sign
Of life
And if you're talking about emotional landscapes then get this...
The landscape shifts for just a little while
And then everything begins to shift again
That's when a voice speaks to me and says
Stop what you're doing
And wisen up to what you have
'Cause there's a road of destiny
Rolling like a carpet out from underneath my feet
And when it reaches the horizon
It's just a Safety Curtain
And the mountains and the trees
Are just so much stage scenery.
Give me a sign
Give me a sign
Give me a sign
Give me a sign
Of life
Beginning with
I
Ending in
You
and with
Love
Love
Love
In the middle
In the middle
Driving into Las Vegas in the Fog¯
I’ve got the personality test blues
They told me there was no way I could fail
So how come I still feel
So … and deranged?
Yeah sometimes I still feel … and deranged
I’m driving into Las Vegas in the fog
The
I will claim sleep as my prize
Claim sleep as my prize.
Usually when I come home
I run straight to the record box
And choose myself a song
To reflect my mood
But tonight there’s nothing high enough
Nothing makes-me-wanna-cry enough
To echo back my feelings
Or even to contain them
‘Cause tonight I’ve got my own music in my mind
And if you keep on looking long enough you find
And I guess it’s you not me who wrote this song
It passed between our lips
I caught it when we kissed
An open car at the traffic lights
Scatters beats onto the street
A passer-by receives it as a symphony
vibrating the piano strings
It's pounding through the circuitry
Heaven knows why you chose to share
Your melody with me
Tonight I’ve got my own music in my mind
'Cause if you keep on looking long enough you find
And I guess it’s you not me who wrote this song
It passed between our lips
I caught it when we kissed
No photographs exist to keep this escapade
Imprisoned in a glossy cage of light and shade
But I only have to look inside
And my emotions recollect and re-collide
You're breathing in
The music in my mind
Usually when I come home
I run straight to the record box
And choose myself a song
One to suit my mood
Tonight I’ve got my own music in my mind
'Cause if you keep on looking long enough you find
And I guess it’s you not me who wrote this song
It passed between our lips
I caught it when we kissed
Yes tonight I’ve got my own music in my mind
It passed between our lips
I caught it when we kissed
It passed between our lips
I caught it when we kissed.
Not now; don’t be sad
All gloom is disallowed
Don't you know if I ever see you smiling
Inexplicably it always makes me feel kind of proud
So promise me that even in your sleep
You won't let your dreams alarm you
Are you still waiting for day to come?
Are you still waiting for time to heal?
I wish I could give you a miracle
But miracles aren’t mine to give
So until the day of miracles don’t be sad
Some things are slow to change
Put paid to panicked thoughts
Live from day to day
Keep leaning on your faith
Leaning on your friends
Are you still waiting for day to come?
Are you still waiting for time to heal?
I wish I could turn the world upside down and inside out
Now tell me where's that kind of wishing
Gonna get us to?
Not now, don't be sad
Some things might never change
As the heart moves on from stage to stage
The tree rings stay inside
Which document your age, your rage
Everything unwritten on the page
You'll find the love you seek now.
Do you know if I ever see you smile
It makes me feel proud?
The world is upside down
The world is inside out some days
Maybe your prayers got answered
Just in a different way
...you're not alone.
Princess in a tower block
I came clutching your address
The streets of your kingdom
Are much of a muchness
But I found you princess
Świat jest tak wspaniały
This is a wonderful creed
It's good we're agreed on how to be happy
Princess
Once we just imagined
Now we now
Hopes are high
The ceiling's low
We fall into a new phase of dreaming
It's the pull of an uninvited tide
Tanks moved in
Not at your behest
The kingdom fell
Still you dreamed on of conquest
Riding a black horse
Daydreaming about sex
Let down your hair
Your eyes have seen what mine haven't seen
Chernobyl explodes you drink iodine
Only experience can teach you these things
Once we just imagined
Now we now
Hopes are high
The ceiling's low
We fall into a new phase of dreaming
It's the slipstream of an uninvited tide
When you've just broken free from the starting block
Everybody strains to see how you've changed
Like you've just come back from outer space
With honeymoon dust
And honeymoon rocks
I dreamt that roots spread from the tower blocks
We dream sentimental on a hot-and-cold theme
Half-baked Alaska dreams
Once we just imagined
Now we now
Aspirations high
But the ceiling's low
We fall into a new phase of dreaming
It's the pull of an uninvited tide
Princess in a tower block
I came clutching your address
The streets of your kingdom
Are much of a muchness, princess
(This is a new phase of dreaming
The pull of the tide
Never say goodbye.)
Sitting staring at our navels
I'll admit yours is prettier by far
Much as I hate to break this to ya
That don't get us very far
And now you say you might be different
From the other girls and boys
'Cause in your head
There's sometimes music
And sometimes there is only noise
Why are we whispering
When we're face to face?
Why are we whispering
Today of all days
Why are we whispering
When we're face to face
Why are we whispering
Isn't this a safe enough place?
Sure, there's something to be said for not
Drawing attention to yourself a lot
Subtlety might help you keep your friends
Too much restraint never hurt anything
But you see...
...that's not me
From the table spread out before you and me
Let's resolve not just to choose the things we know
Do you think we got the guts for glory?
And when they call us are we gonna go?
Why are we whispering
When we're face to face
Why are we whispering
Today of all days?
Yeah we should be laughing out loud and drinking champagne
Why are whispering?
It's a crying shame
Yeah, you could be raising your voice
Above the crowd
Why are we still whispering
For crying out loud?
All through my childhood
wisdom I gleaned
in an institution close by the sea
Went in a young…
and came out old
I went in breathing
And came out cold
I catch a snatch and then
it disappears again
This buzzing noise in my soul
I wanna reach out
I wanna reach up
If I could I would scream
I’m a machine
You do as you're told
You strip in the cold
You're forbidden to dream
You're a machine
Classroom and sportsfield
Teach you your worth
An accident of money
And noble birth
I catch a glimpse and then
It disappears again
this tinnitus in my soul
I wanna reach out
I wanna reach up
If I could I would scream
I’m a machine
You do as you're told
You strip in the cold
You're forbidden to dream
You're a machine
Now, I'm not saying that
I can't see other sides, but
hey, Mr Chinaman, if you're looking for the perfect test site
for your superbomb
I can name you one
All through my childhood
I just grew old
I went in breathing
And came out steely cold
I wanna reach out
I wanna reach up
If I could I would scream
I’m a machine
You make me a man
Is that what I am?
What the hell did that mean?
I'm a machine!
I did like I was told
I stripped in the cold
I was forbidden to dream
I'm a machine
I'm a machine.
I’m on the train
I’m coming back again to Summertown
You may be gone
But life still goes on
And now I see my old ambitions
Fading in the winter’s light
If the world is wrong
Then I am in the mood to put it right
Amidst my doubts
I know that Summertown is where I want to be
Amidst my doubts
I know that Summertown is where I want to be
Feel the sun and the breaking waves in Summertown
I may be alone but life still goes on
And I just need some space now
just for a little while
If you have someone It only cramps your style
Amidst my doubts
I know that Summertown is where I want to be
Amidst my doubts
I know that Summertown is where I want to be
The hurt has been and gone
The winter's over
Bye-bye pain
Hello happiness
Amidst my doubts
I know that Summertown is where I want to be
Amidst my doubts
I know that Summertown is where I want to be
With his old hands
he unfolds the map
asks the child 'where shall we go?'
to the mercy seat by Merseyrail
with his every word a world is named
Let’s go to Green Lane!
Where it looks just like a cave
Let's go to Green Lane!
where your breath makes wet clouds
Let's go to Green Lane!
where the moss grows up the walls
that’s how Green Lane got its name
Now when I think of you
I think about your hands
How if I slipped my hand in yours
I could be a stronger man
With my rough hands I caress her face
and your picture’s looking down from the shelf
And you’re smiling going up to someone
with your Bible in your hand
Let’s go to Green Lane!
Where it looks just like a cave
Let's go to Green Lane!
where your breath makes wet clouds
Let's go to Green Lane!
where the moss grows up the walls
that’s how Green Lane got its name.
In the top right-hand corner of our century
On a sunny central European afternoon
The fates conspire to bring you to me
And you aspire to put me in the mood
Make time stop like you did before
When we were just beginning
Make time stop like you did just then
It is your greatest trick, yeah
You stirred up a flame
And burned your name
Into my mind and heart
Now in everything I think and feel
You somehow play a part
Sometimes sad sometimes happy
Always beautiful
The moment’s sacred when two downcast pairs of eyes look up and meet
When the hand that seeks to comfort
Begins to ask deeper questions
Questions which were not designed to be answered with words
And then both of us go racing to see
Who can think the same thought first
Make time stop like you did before
When we were just beginning
Make time stop like you did just then
It is your greatest trick, yeah
Make time stop
How do you do that?
Make time stop
Like you did just now
You only have to hold me
You stirred up a flame
And burned your name
Into my mind and heart
Now in everything I think and feel
You somehow play a part
Make time stop like you did before
When we were just beginning
Make time stop like you did back then
It is your greatest trick, yeah
Make time stop like you did before
When we were just beginning
Make time stop
Like you did just now
You only have to hold me
You only have to hold me
As I was looking at the paintings in Valerie's gallery
I fell under the shadow of my mortality
And in that moment I saw the sun rise without me
People I love learning to get along without me
As the sun illuminates dust hanging in the air
Just remember - that's you and me and everything we treasure hanging there
But anyway, I'm digressing from my story
About the paintings hanging in the gallery
Bodies posed at labour and at rest
In moments of passion
In war's madness
Bare limbs reach out, proportioned and fine
And though I never see a body like mine
I feel empathy as I look into their faces
The passage of time
Squeezed in an abstract space
The garden's unlocked
Inviting you to trespass
When you're here
You're the morning sun
When you're gone
You're the evening
Don't you know you're my heart's true home
You're the one I believe in
I wanna talk about it
But I can't talk about it
I wait for words
But only pictures come
I was looking at the pictures in Valerie's Gallery
Feeling screwed up
About my sexuality
What does it really mean to be a man?
Does it mean that you do all that you can?
Or is a pose of never quite connecting
Never standing too close to anything affecting?
If all of this true, then life seems very long
Me, I'd rather be weak
Than spend my life pretending I was strong
I see male, female
In images and symbols
Comforting
Threatening
Soothing
Seducing
Pupils of their eyes like dark pools of night
Into which the artist flicks the vital prick of light
Which shows they are alive
And their eyes reflect the world
Like my eyes reflect the paintings
As I stand here with my girl
When you're here
You're the morning sun
When you're gone
You're the evening
Don't you know you're my heart's true home
You're the one I believe in
I wanna talk about it
But I can't talk about it
I wait for words
But only pictures come
When you're here
You're the morning sun
When you're gone
You're the evening
Don't you know you're my heart's true home
You're the one I believe in
I wanna talk about it
But I can't talk about it
I wait for words
But only pictures come
There's a world I'm dreaming of
And it's miles from here
Where we finally know we're free
From our private fears
When I reach up high enough
To believe I'm nearly there
That I'm leaving this sad world behind
Just at that moment I find...
Creepers and vines
All of the time
Twisting round my heels and dragging me down
Creepers and vines
All of the time
I think they call it paranoia
Keep on looking up
Stop looking down
Keep on looking up
Don't look down
I was living on my own
And I knew the answer
Was to find someone to love
To soothe my anxious mind
So I find someone to love
Now when she walks out alone
I pray to the Lord to protect her
Pray that nobody will take her from me
Creepers and vines
All of the time
Twisting round my heels and dragging me down
Creepers and vines
All of the time
I think they call it paranoia
Whatcha gonna do when the rain comes down
Pouring through the roof
Think you're gonna drown
Whatcha gonna do when you read the news
And you know the next victim's going to be you?
Just leave me alone
Leave me alone yeah yeah
Leave me alone
Creepers and vines
All of the time
Twisting round my heels and dragging me down
Creepers and vines
All of the time
I think they call it paranoia
Creepers and vines
All of the time
Twisting round my heels and dragging me down
Creepers and vines
All of the time
I think they call it paranoia
I think they call it paranoia
Before you die
Give life another try
Don't shut the shutters tight
Breathe in the air and purge the night
Drive out of town
and spread a blanket down
Beside a field of hay
Kick off your shoes and learn to play
Don't waste it
Just taste it
Life is sweet
Small things
Make me happy make me happy
Small things
Lift me high above
Small things
Make me so happy
Like when you say words of love
Life is a road
You wonder where is home
It's OK not to know
It's OK not to have the answers
And if it's all you can do
To find just one person who believes in you
Then that is no small thing
It's worth celebrating
So wrestle to express all that you feel
Small things
Make me happy make me happy
Small things
Lift me high above
Small things
Make me so happy
Like when you say words of love
Like when you say words of love
Small things
Make me happy make me happy
Small things
Lift me high above
Small things
Make me so happy
Like when you say words of love
Like when you say words of love
See the mouse on his wheel
Running after something
Captivity cannot provide
Food and bedding and toys litter the cage floor
Still he keeps on running after something more
I turn to face the sun
The voice behind the cloud says
‘are you sure?’
yes, I’m sure
yes, I’m sure
See me running again
Between ecstacy and despair
I enter your embrace
The voice behind your face says
‘are you sure?’
yes, I’m sure
yes, I’m sure
It wouldn't be hope
Were there not a nagging bit of doubt
There wouldn't be mystery
If someone let the secret out
We couldn't be quiet
If we'd no idea of what it was to shout
I wouldn't be me
if you didn't love me
I just couldn't be
Had you never thought of me
I'd not be there
Just be thin air
If you didn't care
Love has put the skin and bones on me
It wouldn't be faith
If we were certain 100%
How could we be living
Except under the shadow of our death?
You've never known courage
Until you've felt the icy hand of fear
It wouldn't be love
If she approved of everything I did
I wouldn't be grown up
If I had never learned to be a kid
I wouldn't be me
if you didn't love me
I just couldn't be
Had you never thought of me
If you didn't care
I'd not be there
Just be thin air
Your love has put the skin and bones on me
If I'd never known happiness
How could I ever hope to sing the blues?
I couldn't be faithful
If I didn't know anyone
Besides you
I wouldn't be me
if you didn't love me
I just couldn't be
Had you never thought of me
If you didn't care
I'd not be there
Just be thin air
Your love has put the skin and bones on me
Let the sun come out for Billie
Let it shine on her all day
Let its loving fingers draw her from the shade
As she's looking in the mirror
As she's brushing back her hair
May she just this once be taken unaware
As she stares at her reflection
With her eye so critical
May she know that she is young and beautiful
As she's swimming in the sunlight
And it's pouring from above
May her heavy heart go free and embrace love
Let the sun come out for Billie
Let it shine on her all day
Let its loving fingers draw her from the shade
Indecision land
Curved like the dunes
Spiked like marram grass
Male and female in its clothes
Like terror in repose
When we awake tomorrow
The earth is flat
The hills are gone
When we awake tomorrow
The earth is flat
The hills are gone
All that beauty framed
In the softest face
And the smoothest skin
Inviting me in
To your corner of the globe
Where all these lines and strokes
Which excite me most
Rise and fall and play all day
When we awake tomorrow
The body's cold
And passion's gone
When we awake tomorrow
The body's cold
And passion's gone
Undecided world
Which places pines beside the sea
For blue beside the green
Makes me sad and greedy
For the past inside the present
Is there a future in all, in all these memories?
When we awake tomorrow
We shall see
We shall see
Don't speak with your mouth full, son
Never go to work with your jim-jams on
Always wash between your toes
And don't get let down by your clothes
Always look 'em in the eye
Delivering the power handshake
That says 'buddy, I'm control'
If you wanna wisen up you better listen
I ain't telling you twice
You better watch your step
I hear it rumbling along
A trailerload of good advice
Don't stand still and admire the view
Work those PC's in the queue
'Cause there's more to love
Than a job to be done
Don't make a sprint out of a marathon
Don't recycle chat-up lines
Like 'what's a nice girl like you
doing in a sad life like mine?'
If you wanna wisen up you better listen
I ain't telling you twice
You better watch your step
I hear it rumbling along
A trailerload of good advice
If you wanna wisen up you better listen
I ain't telling you twice
You better watch your step
I hear it rumbling along
A trailerload of good advice
I hear it now
Rumbling
Rumbling along
Trailerload of good advice
One of Life's Little Problems¯
Oh I need a friend
Oh I really need a friend
Seeing you every day
Is more than my heart can stand
'Cause seeing you every day
Brings those wicked thoughts to mind.
Oh I need a friend
To stop me going down that lonely road again
Oh I need a friend
To bring some perspective back into my life again
Seeing you every day
Is more than my heart can stand
'Cause seeing you every day
Brings those very wicked thoughts to mind.
Agony aunts are a thing of the past
Now who's there left to turn to?
Doorstep deliveries are consigned to history
Television's golden age is over
We can't uninvent the bomb
But we sure uninvented love
Thought we were made of stronger stuff
That's the trouble with life
You'd die to get advice but you can't
'Cause there are no more agony aunts
You can pop next door for a cup of sugar
If you know the combination of their burglar alarm
You can put your arm around my shoulder
And start the rumours spreading
That we must be lovers
We can't uninvent the bomb
But we sure uninvented love
That's the trouble with life
You'd die to get advice but you can't
'Cause there are no more agony aunts
Wish I had someone else's footsteps to walk in
Instead of always trying to make my own
Lamplighters and gasmasks
Policemen calling round
To say 'why don't you lock your door?'
Summer - barefoot on the flagstones
Scrubbing the porch
Day trips to Blackpool
Two up two down
In a charabanc
I fell under the donkey
I staggered in the rain up to the taxi rank
Yeah now I remember,
Now I remember
The world ended
At the bottom of my street
Where the dunes began
When I was a lad
The yellow paving stones suddenly gave way to
Rolling hills of sand
I lay - a summer's day -
on my back in marram grass
Watching the ladybirds climb the fine hair on my arms
I saw it
Cloudless and falling on for evermore
I wanted someone to cling to
But that isn't a boy thing
Despite how it may look
Despite what you may think
I still need you to love me
Despite how it may look
Despite what you may think
I still need you to love me
The icecream van was playing Greensleeves
The sun was beating down
When Mel went missing
And the mothers huddled round
And when she came back she was different
She had met a funny stranger
And from that time the dunes were out of bounds
We had to play at home, away from danger.
Blue blue forever
Afraid of the sky
Your beautiful face makes me lonely inside
Despite how it may look
Despite what you may think
I still need you to love me
Despite how it may look
Despite what you may think
I still need you to love me
Every morning I get off the train
I'm jammed up against all the suits and the ties
At the station I gulp in the air
And then as the door slides
I am closing my eyes
Wild and free
That's how my heart goes
That's how my blood flows
Straight to my head and
Wild and free
Cut loose from the reins
It's out of the stable
onto the plains and
All I can see
for miles and miles
Are open fields and clear blue skies
Friends say to me 'Don't you fly too high'
I guess that they don't wanna be
Wild and free tonight
Take a tiger, a boxer, a bear
A crazed ballerina with flying black hair
Take a taxi to Nagasaki
Hear a choir of infants sing Dies Irae
See a boy rush rush headlong into fight
To the left
To the right
He is smashing his fists
Later on as a man preaching peace
'Cause he knows there's a point where you snap when they twist ya
Wild and free
That's how my heart goes
That's how my blood flows
Straight to my head and
Wild and free
Cut loose from the reins
It's out of the stable
onto the plains and
All I can see
for miles and miles
Are open fields and clear blue skies
Friends say to me 'Don't you fly too high'
I guess that they don't wanna be
Wild and free tonight
Taking the time to fly away
Dreams take me high above
People and cars below appear so small
Where are we in it all?
All I can see
for miles and miles
Are open fields and clear blue skies
Friends say to me 'Don't you fly too high'
I guess that they don't wanna be
Wild and free tonight
This sure beats hanging around
But the falling of the nighttime makes an ugly sound
Did you see my mind slip out of the room
As she pulled the rollerblind?
Take all the money
And don't look back at the Suitcase
Take all your money and don't go back for the Suitcase
Streetlight plays off a pool of water
The sun stays in
And somebody's daughter
Is trying to think of nothing
But something always comes
Take all the money
And don't look back at the Suitcase
Take all your money and don't go back to the Suitcase
Signed, sealed and delivered
Tell me who's the victim here
Scan this cast of characters
For who'll be here next year?
Take all your money
And don't look back for the Suitcase
Take all your money and don't go back for the Suitcase
Take all the money
And don't look back at the Suitcase
Take all your money and don't go back to the Suitcase
All's fair in love and war
That's how we've heard it said
But tempers lead to tantrums
And burning of our beds
So when I'm going on
Putting patience to the test
She'll look at me with longing
and say just give it a rest
And we'll have
Less of your lip
and more of your lips
Less of that tongue
And more at the same time
Don't say a word
I already heard
Less of that cheek
And more at the same time
I remember when we met I followed all the rules
I opened all the doors for you
You always saw me through
But passion and politesse
Don't always connect
Let's bury etiquette
I fought for you
I'll fight you too
Less of your lip
and more of your lips
Less of that tongue
And more at the same time
Don't say a word
I already heard
Less of that cheek
And more at the same time
And I don't mind if we seem sometimes to be rude
And I would rather darn your tights than wrestle in the nude
But then I might just change my mind
If that's alright with you
Less of your lip
and more of your lips
Less of that tongue
And more at the same time
Less of that cheek
And more at the same time
Less of your lip
And more at the same time
Less of your lip
And more at the same time
Less of your lip
And more at the same time
Less of your lip
And more at the same time
Less of your cheek
And more at the
More at the
More at the same time
Oh, we'll have less of that lip of yours.
It's happened again
I dreamt of a twin
In my waking hours
He's bringing me flowers
And their faces are laughing
And nothing but kind
Creased at the corners
And nothing but kind.
It's crazy
Can't handle
The words I choose to use
to think of you.
The words I choose to use to think of you
The words I choose to use
To rest my head
To rest my head
Moving we're dancing
Moving we're dancing
Now
Want to lay my head down now
It's crazy
Can't handle
The words I choose to use
to think of you.
The words I choose to use to think of you
The words I choose to use
You live just down the corridor
We meet at the mailbox at the trashcan at the store
Sometimes I come round and drink tea
and go home in a daze
where I sit and think of your face
I’ve been to heaven
it’s not far from where I live at all
it’s just round the corner
just round the corner and across the hall
Sometimes there’s nothing worth watching on TV
and those are the times I'm visited by my favourite memories
of all the times you were kind to me
Just in little things
that’s where hope eternal springs
I’ve been to heaven
it’s not far from where I live at all
it’s just round the corner
just round the corner and across the hall
Everyone's searching, they're too blind to see
That heaven's the time
and heaven's the place where you can be with me
Floating out into the universe
Spread my arms wide
float on a tide of hope
a lovers’ boat
was that you that spoke?
my hope against hope
say it’s just round the corner
just round the corner, please
take me to heaven
I’ve been to heaven
it’s not far from where I live at all
it’s just round the corner
just round the corner and across the hall
At 10.45 the bats all stir
And fly in a circuit
Over the playing fields
Their holly-leaf wing sillhouettes
Casting shadows on the roof of the pavillion
Before returning to the eaves of the bell tower
By 10.51 a crow has perched on the roof
The slate roof of the science block.
A gull circles the pool at 11.13
And is hit by a waft of warm chlorinated air from the extractor vent.
At 11.30 a cat scrapes the outer wall of the music centre
Its tail erect
Its body tense and bristling
I lie on the cold ground
Hugging the tarmac
The grit is burying itself into my stomach
Like a kick in the gut from a prefect
By the bin there's a stray
Sniffing the stink of last Tuesday's dinner
Suet roll and kidney
Diced carrots on the turn
Scraped from the plates
Licked by the dinner ladies
An acrid malodour squats in the changing rooms
The rugby bath is clogged with hair
Standing in the corridor of the old school at midnight
Reading the list of the names of the boys
(Yes, they were only boys)
Who died for England
Name after name after name
Hulme
Bickerstaff
Howarth
Dawson
McKinley
Finn
Lucas
Field
Shining my torch into the eyes of the portraits of the headmasters
Face after face after face after face
I see a stack of splintering chairs
I hear the screaming of a chalk
I feel the slamming of a desk and the trapping of a finger
A book bending out of shape inside a bag
A body bending out of shape inside its clothes
House tie
Privileged elite
Figgy pudding
Absentee
Detention
Expulsion
Double games
The cane, the bat, the ruler, the slipper
The plimsoll left in the locker
Lead us not into temptation
May love alone prevent us
From going back to school at night
WIth petrol and Swan Vestas.
Stop me dreaming
I'm frightened my hopes will never emerge
Stop me dreaming
You're the realist around here
after all
So lay your hand on my shoulder
And gently remind me that we're no more than grains of sand
Minute drops in the ocean
Tiny blades grass in magnificent mountains
And I might believe you
I might believe you after all
I might believe you
I really think I might believe you after all
Stop me dreaming
I'm frightened my hopes will never emerge
Stop me dreaming
You're the realist around here after all
But instead I realise
That we're here and it's now so
What does it matter?
Insignificance could be fame
If you look at it through the mirror
Well
Do you believe me?
I think you might believe me after all
Do you believe me?
I really think you might believe me after all
It'll be all right
It'll be all right
It will be all right
It will be all right
It'll be all right
It'll be all right
It'll be all right
It'll be all right
Stop me dreaming
Remember when the future seemed so distant
we walked down that road and now we’re in that far-off land
The past comes to haunt you
like a ghost you embrace
Traces of old times
Laugh lines are goldmines
you wear on your face
Memory lane beckons again
won’t you come
and waltz the waltz of memories with me?
it’s such a blast
feelings don’t last
you can’t live the future in the past
You can't get up and paint the world
The colours you like it
You can't make things the way they were
With nostalgia
Don't be surprised
at the speed that we're travelling
Concorde's in the sky
Calendar pages fly
Sing along a happy song
No I don't wanna forget it
And I don't regret it
But this is tonight.
Memory lane beckons again
won’t you come
and waltz the waltz of memories with me?
it’s such a blast
feelings don’t last
you can’t live the future in the past
You can't get up and paint the world
The colours you like it
You can't make things the way they were
With nostalgia
Think of the past
And then tell me what you've done.
Thrilled to be young, so eager to be someone
But the roads you chose to take
And the choices that you'd make
Were meant for only you
No no one else but you
Life's a gift that's given - and that's understood by few
Memory lane beckons again
won’t you come
and waltz the waltz of memories with me?
it’s such a blast
feelings don’t last
you can’t live the future in the past
You can't get up and paint the world
The colours you like it
You can't make things the way they were
With nostalgia
¯
She doesn't wanna talk
and I don't blame her
they're ganging up to tease
in giggles by the lockers
She must be very brave
but gets no credit
School is just the cruellest place of all
I'm starting to believe
Normal is weird
and weird is normal
I'm starting to believe
Normal is weird
and weird is normal
Normal
Weird, you're weird, you're weird, you're weird
Now as a woman she's alone
At the office party
She thinks she's looking through a window
at people having fun on the other side
It's a window she can't open
But I don't think she needs to
Insinuations sting but, after all,
She probably has better things to do.
I'm starting to believe
Normal is weird
and weird is normal
I'm starting to believe
Normal is weird
and weird is normal
Normal
Weird, you're weird, you're weird, you're weird
I'm starting to believe
Normal is weird
and weird is normal
Normal
Weird, you're weird, you're weird, you're weird
Am I normal?
Am I normal?
Oh....
How the Summer Makes You Feel¯
The summer makes me feel
And almost too much, she said
I recall a child on yellow sand
A painful shade of freckled red
The heat presses my chest
And coaxes into life
That well hidden doubt inside
Which still prefers to hide
The longer evenings stretch before me
I pretend to stretch and yawn at them
Spread out like a map of time
I'm watching the birds fly off the rooftops
And they're not scared of falling down
So why is it gentle conversation seems such a threatening sound?
The summer makes me feel how sweet trust could be
Like waking up to find you
Waking up to find you
Waking up to find you
Waking up to find you there
The summer makes me feel
The sweetest aching of desire
I only know I want you when you're gone
I'm reaching high
But somehow you are always higher
Was it sitting in the sun
Which made your face so red?
Or were you smiling at the clumsy way
The most important things get said?
I've heard it said it can do strange things
Staring for too long in the heat haze
Thank God this is no mirage
I'm watching the birds fly off the rooftops
And they're not scared of falling down
So why is it gentle conversation seems such a threatening sound?
The summer makes me feel how sweet trust could be
Like waking up to find you
Waking up to find you
Waking up to find you
Waking up to find you there
A satellite, out of control
Will crash to earth next week, they said
I felt a kind of righteous duty
To bear it all
And bring it down on my own head
Rehearsed that scene a hundred times -
Could I be the holy fool
The only one to hear it falling
I'd preach repentance to my school
It was a Saturday phase
Long were the days
We were saving the pier
If we couldn't spare the whales
Branded by sun
I was coming undone
There was fire behind the most innocent skies.
'Blondie is a group, and not a person' she explained
As we sat in her back garden
Listening to tapes as she painted her nails
Lying together in her bed
When the parents were away
At once I knew that she was Blondie
Only going by another name
It was a Saturday phase
Slow were the days
We were saving the pier
If not the whales
Branded by sun
I was coming undone
What's that behind green-shadowed eyes?
That satellite came down in some forgotten sea
And soon nobody mentioned it
But it meant something to me
The urgency of panic
A substitute security
A Saturday phase
Gone are those days
They closed down the pier
And they saved all the whales
Less of your lip
And more at the same time
Less of your cheek
And more at the same time
Less of that tongue
And back in the knife draw
All at the, all at the, all at the same time
A Saturday phase
(But Sunday comes tomorrow)
A Saturday phase
(Oh the standing heat of sorrow)
A Saturday phase
(The fire and the horror)
(An afternoon so hollow!)
A Saturday phase
(But Sunday comes tomorrow)
A Saturday phase
(Oh the standing heat of sorrow)
A Saturday phase
(The fire and the horror)
(An afternoon so hollow!)
Oh, Blondie, what did you make of me?
Oh, Blondie, what did you make of me?
In those days
In my Saturday phase.
Corrugated iron
Corporation bus-stop
Is where you alight
For the collonaded chapel
In the shadow of the gas-tower
In the street where no one takes the times
Mind you're quiet as you enter
They keep a velvet hush inside
Best jackets
Bows and bonnets
Some prefer to take the veil
Hearts and voices joined together
In selections from the hymns of faith
We shall commence our service on this, the Lord's own day
With Frances Ridley Havergal - 'Lord Have Thine Own Way'
There'd been rallies in the early 1950's
Teenage rebels turned around and found a faith
Strong together, they bonded and got married
And then as one they forgot the life they left behind
Over the years the fire faded
And they turned inward
The wider world became a threat
Barricaded in the gasworks chapel
'Brethren, the world will slowly gas us yet!
It'll gas us yet!'
Wiry preachers in their wire-framed glasses
Dogtooth check and brylcreemed hair
Left my soul's life hanging in the balance
Just prior to Sunday dinner every week
For close on seven years
For some years later I felt superior to the Gasworks Chapel
Winced at their timidity -
Walled in, and mumbling at shined shoes!
I found faith in celebration
Emotional liberation
I spurned their very silence
In a cul-de-sac of piety
Percy fought the Somme and spoke about it every Sunday
Gladys as a girl could sing like an angel
But felt unworthy of the fame
A joy buried so deep inside
It was very nearly undetectable
A soured life in monochrome
You toss the fruit and eat the stones.
But now I'm older and I've fallen
And I know the feel of brokenness
I hope I'm not so quick to despise
All that I perceive as weakness
Collonaded chapel in the shadow of the gas tower
You can find salvation there
Lord, have thine own way
Have thine own way.