1. |
You Make a Dog Out of Me
04:52
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I find it hard to believe
Just how lovely you are
I stayed awake all last night
To wait for the morning star
Have to say, I’ve seen better
Have to say, you’re the
Brighter star by far.
And I’m down here on all fours
Too ashamed to take your fair hand
In one of my hairy paws
I’m the Beast to your Beauty
Your loyal servant as well
‘Cos you see
You make a dog out of me.
You’ve got me bringing you sticks
Got me jumping through hoops
My heart is a fighter jet
Doing multiple loop-the-loops
If I don’t get to kiss you soon
I’ll wake the neighborhood
Howling at the moon.
You leave me dazzled and drunk
I’ve waited my whole life
For someone like you
And the waiting stank
I’ve no choice but to love you
I’ll never say to you
“Please, please set me free”
You make a dog, you make a dog out of me
You make a dog, you make a dog out of me
You make a dog out of me, baby.
And no matter how long I have to wait
I’m going nowhere
I’m going nowhere without you
I don’t care what I have to o
For you to feel the same
I’ll do anything a dog can do
Except drool on your knee
Or beg for a bone
And bury it under the chestnut tree
‘Cos a man must have limits
Yes, a man must
Preserve his dignity.
So, no more soppy verse
That proclaims you
The brightest, most heavenly
Star in the Universe
I must woo you and win you
Like a man, though I know
To some degree
You always will make a dog out of me
You always will make a dog out of me
You always will make a dog out of me, baby,
You always will make a dog out of me
You always will make a stupid dog out of me
You always will make a dog out of me, baby,
You make a dog out of me.
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2. |
Wolfskin Boots
04:39
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You caught me one evening as I was just leaving
And tore out half my heart.
The blood in the snow showed me where I must go
To retrieve the missing part.
At times I regret that I followed you,
Still, I’m content to toast by your fire
And the touch of your bare foot caressing my back
Helps remind me the one thing that you’ll never lack
Is desire.
And when you grew restless, I told you to “Stay!”
In that voice I’d just acquired
But a friend did a bad turn, and you came to learn
How my instincts are hardwired
You chewed off my head and declared me dead
But by then you were captured too.
Now you’ll have to unlearn all those lessons of love
All the craft of the claw in the thin velvet glove
That you taught.
I can feel your heart slowing now
I can feel your heart beating slower
I can feel your heart slowing now
And your long, tangled hair
Seems to cling to my fingers and fasten them there
Don’t mind me, just adoring you
Just adoring your
Wolfskin boots.
The winter feels warmer when we are together
It’s not so hard to bear
But we both crave a cold wind to slice through this stupor
And fresh smells in the air.
Our love is a rope that you’re whirling
Your heart is the center around which I spin.
If either of us could decide to let go
Would I fly off and free you, or would I fall
Straight back in?
I need you, and I need you now
And I need you here
And I need you like a well-hung man
Needs a noose to hang well from.
But one day I suspect you will fall out of love
Like a burning aeroplane
With some special effect proving that to select
Me to love you was insane.
Till then we’re rehearsing our paces, reversing
The dance for a change every day.
And a new sign outside on the theatre boards
Says “Two lovers are at it like knives, guns and swords
Just for play.”
I can feel your heart slowing now
I can feel your heart beating slower
I can feel your heart slowing now
And your long, tangled hair
Seems to cling to my fingers and fasten them there
Don’t mind me, just adoring you, just adoring you
Don’t mind me, just adoring you, just adoring you
Don’t mind me, just adoring you
Just adoring your
Wolfskin boots.
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3. |
Orbiting You
04:59
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Yeah, I know this is stupid and pointless
And to you it must quickly get old
There’s plenty more firesides where I’d find a welcome
Why shiver out here in the cold?
But my stupid old heart keeps defying
The will of my rational mind
Take a scan through your skies with those bushbaby eyes
And you’ll find
I’m still orbiting you like a moth
Round a candle
Though I know you’ve got more than enough
Love to handle
You’re mixed up with two guys and you’re doubtful
As to which you could stomach to lose
I’d offer myself as the compromise choice
But I’m pretty damn sure you’d refuse.
From this small representative sample
I’ve decided I’m just not your sort
I’m a fish of the wrong kind been snagged on your long line
And caught
And I’m orbiting you like a moth
Round a candle
Though I know you’ve got more than enough
Love to handle
When you see me around and I stare at the ground
Or I chatter and grin like a fool
You handle it gracefully, act like you don’t know
How I long for you
Only you
Only you.
I’m a cold and a distant admirer
A pocked icy moon in the night
Your attraction has slowed my rotation right down,
So I always face into your light.
But I never will dare to move closer
To your breathtaking beauty below.
In five billion more years, when the Sun swells and sears us,
I know
I’ll be orbiting you like a moth
Round a candle
Though I know you’ve got more than enough
Love to handle
Without mine.
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4. |
Broken Biscuits
03:57
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Well, you wake up and it’s sunny
But the news just isn’t funny
On the radio.
It’s a lovely day outside
The things you do should give you pride
And yet it isn’t so.
And you try to drown that feeling
In Co-op Fairtrade Darjeeling
But surrender looks appealing
When you recollect your daily bread
Comes wrapped in evil plastic
And John Lennon’s dead
And no-one but the birds
Believed a word he said.
The news is just a token
That the human world’s been broken
All along.
CHORUS:
‘Cos it’s all just broken biscuits
Broken biscuits ever since you heard the call
But you do love broken biscuits
Don’t we all, don’t we all?
Oh, it’s all just broken biscuits
Broken biscuits, catch the pieces as they fall
But you do love broken biscuits
Don’t we all?
So you study Adam Smith
The entire capitalist myth
To know your enemy
And your self-loathing is intense
When parts of it start to make sense
You wish you couldn’t see.
But there’s always some new cause
Some despot digging in the claws
Amid the demonstration’s roars
You can feel glad that you feel troubled
That your Western life, though modest
Is quite comfortable
Compared to folks in Bangladesh
Your struggle’s dull.
You hope you’re really helping
Not just gesturing and yelping
In the dark.
CHORUS
So I’m begging you, keep fighting
Arguing, protesting, writing
All the things you do.
You are really quite sublime
I speak as someone quite supine
Who thinks the world of you.
And your doubting, though dramatic
Means you’re not just some dogmatic
Trotskyite on automatic,
You’re a thinking, feeling person
Who can rally to the flag
But gives a damn what’s true.
Your motive is compassion
Not red versus blue.
When you get that sinking feeling
Please come drink Fairtrade Darjeeling
Tea with me.
CHORUS
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5. |
Killer Zombie Days
04:27
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Another Sunday afternoon slides away
And the streets are empty, no-one left alive today.
Sunday survivor in my lonely cell
Am I the only one? It’s kind of hard to tell
I’m asking you to
CHORUS
Pick up the phone and say
The Undead haven’t claimed you yet
Killer zombie days, killer zombie days.
I’m all alone, but don’t you know
I never blamed you yet
Killer zombie days, killer zombie days.
Unanswered emails let me know who’s died.
By the waters of the River Ouse
I sat down and cried.
I’m not out playing with my friends today
Rotting zombie slaves have dragged them all away
I’m asking you to
CHORUS
…killer zombie days.
I’m sorry I could never
I’m sorry I could never
I’m sorry I could never answer you.
Let’s talk about the weather
Let’s talk about the weather
Cloud-cover charts perhaps will pull us through.
This waking world is but a dream
Of lurch and mumble, flee and scream
First I chase you, then you chase me
I’m afraid it’s just cold brains for tea.
I’m sorry I could never answer you.
Worst of all, let me confess I was a zombie too.
This curse that’s struck the entire human race
Could be broken if we just met face-to-face
I’m asking you to
CHORUS
Pick up the phone, pick up the phone
Pick up the phone and dial my number
You’re not getting through.
We walk in the shadow of the valley of Death
And we always will
For all our killer zombie days
In all our killer zombie ways.
All our killer zombie days
In all our killer zombie ways.
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6. |
Green Leafy Vegetables
05:03
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Since I got your call
Think I’ve hardly slept at all
Waiting for your sweet
Funny-looking face
To look in at my door.
I’d been feeling down
Since your circus act left town
But now Spring is green
Bursting on the scene
It’s a hard one to ignore.
Only told one good friend of mine
He’s promised me his lips are sealed.
CHORUS
And the green leafy vegetables
Are singing in the field.
Singing in the field
Singing in the field.
It’s been quite a while
I’ve learned how to fake a smile
But I swear that I’ll
Never use that crocodile
Smile on you.
There’s good news and bad
But I wouldn’t want to make you sad
So let’s take a walk
Laughing as we talk
About people we knew.
Telling tall tales of shocking things
That time and circumstance revealed
CHORUS
Since you left, this old town’s altered
New friends have come and old friends bolted.
Half our favorite drinking spots
Have turned into souvenir shops
Where I walked these streets with you
Where I walked these streets with you.
Life does funny things,
Sometimes butterflies have stings
Sometimes great big snakes
Sing to sooth our aches
In a pleasing soprano.
We just have to dance
Away our existential angst
Sometimes cheek to cheek
Buddhist, Jew and Sikh,
Sometimes mano-á-mano.
Till the day when the laws of Man
And Nature all shall be repealed.
CHORUS
Since you left, this old town’s altered
Many times my feet have faltered
When I saw a house I used to know
Seen out shoots and start to grow
Where I walked these streets with you
Where I walked these streets with you.
Walked these streets with you
Walked these streets with you
Since I got your call
Think I’ve hardly slept at all.
We’re green leafy vegetables
Perched upon the edge
Of the Creator’s great
Gravy-sticky plate
Oh, he won’t eat us just yet.
Some of us may wilt
Like a moth-infested quilt
While we hold the line
Weather turned out fine
There’s no need to adjust it.
And the hand that we’ll play is not
The scabby hand that we were dealed.
CHORUS
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7. |
Seven Black Swans
03:42
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I have no more use for my shoulder-braid and shiny buttons
I have no more use for a feather in my cap.
Weapon for the weather is a rifle, not a rapier
Stringing up a snare as I’m sitting in a trap.
I am not afraid of the wailing wolf so wild and wicked
I am not afraid of the witches in the wood.
Yes, I am afraid of the malice of my fellow man
I am so afraid, and it’s no more than I should.
Seven black swans in the sky today
Saw them in the marsh where the corpse-lights play
Seven black swans and I heard them say
“Hey ho, freedom.”
Saw them as I lingered by the lake to shoot myself some supper
Something from a story I once heard as a child:
Seven royal brothers had a wizard for an enemy
Turned them into waterfowl to wander through the wild.
Tell me, was I free as a bird before they sent me here?
Tell me, was I free when I was an officer?
Tell me, is it not so that those enchanted Russian princes
Baffled all attempts to put them back the way they were?
CHORUS
Seven black swans in the sky today
Saw them in the marsh where the corpse-lights play
Seven black swans and I heard them say
“Hey ho, freedom.”
Seven black swans by the setting sun
Seven Russian princes a long time gone
Passing through my gunsight one by one
Hey ho, freedom.
I am better off than the convicts in the labour camp,
Have a certain freedom, although I cannot leave.
Hunting not for fun, but for flesh and fur to eat and barter
Writing to my parents, who prematurely grieve.
If I could survive an infinity of frozen forest
If I could survive, and I do not think I could
I would strike my camp, like the Nennetsye who herd the reindeer
Leave the human world to be a creature of the wood.
CHORUS
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8. |
Orpheus in the Underlay
02:35
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He loves to hear her talking
But he can’t really understand yet.
He’s just a baby crying in the night.
Like Orpheus in the underlay
Singing songs to tame the dust-mites
She talks until the dawning of the light.
The East Coast wears a sheet and chains,
The North Pole comes from Warsaw,
Indoors it’s impolite to wear a hat
And if you rub your eyes, you’ll only
Make them even more sore.
A draught is an uncanny kind of bat.
And of all the curious hybrids
Between animal and vegetable
The Holly Bears must surely bear the crown.
The polite way to address a policeman
Isn’t “Pig,” it’s “Constable.”
Though pigs are great, their mention makes him frown.
Sometimes she’s shocked to notice
She’s been babbling like a baby.
She’s forming her own company in him.
And if their mutual babbling
Ran dry some sorry day, she
Fears silence would divide them, cold and grim.
So grab your toe and listen
As she slyly misinforms you
About the secret history of mice
And Orpheus fights Pluto
In his lair beneath the carpet
To save an astronaut called Yuri Dice.
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9. |
The Dead
02:43
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The dead are at peace now
Are at peace now, are at peace.
Reprieved and released now,
All released now and at peace.
With no need to rattle at your window
Or scrabble at your door
As you’ve heard them do before
And no need to whisper when the wind blows
Or with a finger score
Words across the dusty floor
The dead are at peace now
Though at first, they would not budge.
They wanted to stay and watch you
To watch over you, watch and judge.
For under the new life you have built
Memory lies soft as silt
Full of grubbiness and guilt
Where all your misdeeds lie fossilising
From them, there’s no disguising,
No scales upon their eyes.
The dead are at peace now.
Like I said, my fee is flat.
Reprieved and released now,
Trust me, I’ve seen, seen to that
I’ve seen to that.
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10. |
Tripping Over Everything
04:14
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Sometimes I can not protect myself
From being badly beaten by a shelf
‘Cos I’m the dreaming sort
And I’m often caught
Off guard.
Living this way has its consolations:
Flat upon your face you get good vibrations
Watching sunlight shimmer
In a broken mirror
Shard.
CHORUS
‘Cos I don’t need your LSD
Your mushrooms are no use to me
I get all my kicks for free, just
Tripping over everything.
Half-grown apples on the tree
The smell of spices fried in ghee
Look around and soon you’ll be just
Tripping over everything like me,
Tripping over everything you see.
Passers-by who infect you with a song
Compliments that somehow come out wrong
Planet Venus smile
Ninety million miles
Away.
No need to stop if you want to get ahead
Rivals to be stabbed and left for dead
If it’s all the same
I’ve a different game
To play.
CHORUS
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11. |
Sloth Moth
02:50
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Sloth moth, sloth moth
Sloth moth, sloth moth
Well, you’ve been living on a sloth
Who is living in a tree.
You make your home on the road
In the slow lane crawling free.
Though your sloth is laid back and lazy
All the other moths call you crazy
They call you
Sloth moth, sloth moth
Sloth moth, sloth moth
No point in living in the past
Give no thought to where you’ve been,
Not when the world is rolling past
In a blaze of brown and green.
Wouldn’t swap it for a wardrobe, would you,
Or hitting on a traffic light? No, it’s good to
Be a
Sloth moth, sloth moth
Sloth moth, sloth moth
For this is home
Where the mold is growing green
On fuzzy fur so coarse and warm,
Where friendly fleas
Are leaping here and everywhere.
This is your front-row seat
Your hideout from the storm
You lucky sloth moth.
Sloth moth, sloth moth
Sloth moth, sloth moth
Well, you’ve been living on a sloth
And your friends all live there too.
You fly down to lay your eggs
When the sloth climbs down to
Use the facilities.
Though I wouldn’t try it if I could, me,
Your life is everything it really should be
You lucky
Sloth moth, sloth moth
Sloth moth, sloth moth
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12. |
Lean In To Me
03:59
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You do what you do
I’ll be here when
You come down at last
Lean in to me.
I know how to give
You peace when you’re
Living hard and fast
Lean in to me.
And who did he
And why did I
And how did they know?
It’s all right, you
Can stop here
I love you.
You do what you do.
These moments are
Few but oh, so fine
Lean in to me.
So let’s watch the sun
Depleted and done
Sink out of mind
Lean in to me.
And who did he
And why did I
And how did they know?
It’s all right, you
Can stop here
I love you.
Lean in to me
Lean in to me
Lean in to me.
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13. |
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I’m not a gambler, I’ve
Just got one life to gamble with,
One me.
I do not leap, I amble,
Select my options from the sieve
Of certainty
But I’m on a sci-fi binge,
With Gibson, Egan, Stross and Vinge
Their books suggest some possibilities:
There must be ways to have it all
To take the risk and take the fall
While safer paths are trod by other me’s.
I want to
Explore the country of the Possible Future
All of the paths into the Possible Future.
I could upload my whole brain
Onto the Internet, not once,
But many times,
Or synthesise some clones with
All of my memories ensconced
Inside their minds
And then there’s quantumness,
The Many-Worlds kind is a mess
Of branching Universes with us all in.
If we could only get in touch, then
Some could not do very much, while
Others could be dashing or appalling
I want to
Explore the country of the Possible Future
All of the paths into the Possible Future.
This little piggy went to market
This little piggy stayed at home
This little piggy runs a start-up
This little piggy is a Cardinal in Rome.
This piggy eats roast beef often
This piggy is a vegan monk.
This piggy is lying in a coffin
This little piggy is a sailor on a junk.
And there’d be times
When we’d all reunite
To say “This worked out fine”
Or “This just wasn’t right.”
We’d swap our memories,
Swap our mad ideas,
Salute the ones who’d died
Then always without fear
Go forth and
Explore the country of the Possible Future
All of the paths into the Possible Future.
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14. |
Alligator Underground
03:02
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Alligator underground
Won’t you tell me what you’ve found
Riding in the sewer’s flow
Must be secrets that you know.
Down to you the secrets seep
Some are terrible
And some are so, so, so deep
Shielded by eternal smell
Smile so widely, but you never tell.
CHORUS
Alligator underground
When you spin these questions round
Are there answers that astound
Beyond belief?
Are you subtle as the asp?
Does your reach exceed your grasp?
Are there truths you strive to clasp
With tender teeth?
With tender teeth.
Traveling through depths profound
On the Alligator Underground
Carriages all skinned with scales
Half the passengers have bristly tails
Window show us stranger scenes
Brutal truths are hard to tell
From fevered daydreams
Racing through the realm below
Where the roots of our experience grow
CHORUS
Alligator underground
Won’t you tell me what you’ve found?
Alligator, alligator,
Alligator underground
CHORUS
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15. |
Fellow Travelers
04:55
|
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Lean with me a while and watch the rafts
Of branches drifting by.
All around the river rises up
To meet the velvet sky.
I hear you sigh.
Can’t pretend I know the pain you feel
I’ll take all you can share.
Do whatever I can do to help you
Bounce back from despair
And this I swear:
CHORUS
Never let you go alone
Never let you take that road alone
Never let you go alone
Never let you take that road alone
Less guardian angel, more your guardian gnome
I try to raise a smile
We’ll strut and fret our merry hour across
This stage of tilting tile
In fine old style
CHORUS
I’ll be your fellow traveler
We all need our fellow travelers
‘Cos it’s a tough old world out there.
Stick with me and maybe we shall float
Not sink beneath the flood.
Hands are made for holding other hands
A raft of flesh and blood
I know you would
Never let me go alone
Never let me take that road alone
Never let me go alone
Never let me take that road alone
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16. |
Like a Frog in the Rain
04:34
|
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You were there on the morning
That smashed and went everywhere
Piece of it went in your wine.
You downed it in one
And through some kind of alchemy
Found out you’re yours and not mine.
And who would have thought,
Who’d have pictured you smiling
So wide,
With nothing to lose
And nothing, oh nothing
To hide?
Where I saw disaster,
You saw opportunity.
Must have a different-shaped brain.
When air turns to water,
Then you’re in your element.
Kick off your high heels and dance
Like a frog in the rain.
Did I tell you I grew up
In thunderstorm territory?
May meant a black sky at noon.
We sweated and swore
And we rolled up our sleeves
And we prayed for the rain to hit soon.
And when it cut loose,
When the ocean flashed down
On the lawn,
The frogs on the patio
Sang like bullfinches
At dawn,
Leaping on high
For sheer animal happiness.
Strange, but you strike me the same.
When air turns to water,
Then you’re in your element.
Kick off your high heels and dance
Like a frog in the rain.
Well, the die has been cast
And the Rubicon crossed
Though your friends think you’re lost
And you’re raving.
But I won’t say go slow
Just ‘cos I would go slow
When for you, there’s a world
Still worth saving.
And I cannot hold on
With one leap you are gone.
It’s to swim in dark waters
You’re craving.
As you waved from the window
The wheels started turning,
Wheels of a Stanstead-bound train.
When air turns to water,
Then you’re in your element.
Kick off your high heels and dance
Like a frog in the rain
Like a frog in the rain
Like a frog in the rain.
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