Lyrics

Juvenilia

Including Earlobe Holistics (2000)

Livsey Street

It's late you turn the TV off and go to bed
No-one there beside you and a silence in your head
And your skin is white your nails are blue your eyes are just so red
Oh this street will be the death of you
The neighbours howling in the middle of the night
Suspected for a long time that they weren't exactly right
And there's him across the road – watch another car explode tonight

I never knew why you came here
I never knew why you stayed
But I know you'll soon be going
Death will never be delayed on Livsey Street
On Livsey Street – ohh woh woh oh woh

Seven in the morning and a knock upon the door
Journalists are digging dirt about some local whore
Then the landlord turns around and he wants a tenner more
Oh this street will be the death of you
A tragic phone call from your Auntie in Brazil
Your mother's dead, your father's dead but grandad's just alive – still
Oh and your friend's been stabbed
Going up to pay his water bill

I never knew why you came here
I never knew why you stayed
But I know you'll soon be going
Death will never be delayed on Livsey Street
On Livsey Street – ohh woh woh oh woh

Every house is burgled, every window smashed
And every flower dies, every pet is dinner for the flies
Oh won't you realise this street is cursed
It's only gonna get worse
(Kill yourself on Livsey Street)

You cut your wrists and then you cut them once again
Swallowed half a vat of pills, curled up in a ball and waited
Five days later, oh what a gruesome sight
For the vandals who broke in and found you
And the neighbours who killed themselves too
It was so very tragic, someone even wrote a poem
But no-one heard it cos the very next day he got run over

All this is happening on Livsey Street
Oh what is wrong with Livsey Street?
Council meeting – confirm what they already know
Livsey Street must go
Send the bulldozers in
The foreman grinned a grin
As the workmen were about to begin
But suddenly the pavement opened up and swallowed everyone.

On Our Big Travel

One day when we woke up the sky was full of thunder
We decided to take a trip in search of wonder
The first place that we came to was Melton on the Mowbray
The people were all nervous, for them it was a bad day
Signs up in the sky meant some dogs would start to moult
And all the local papers were wrong because of faulty
Appliance of science
We just looked on and laughed
With heather and a feather
Tramps on the loose - meanwhile on our big
Travel we arrived at a village full of yokels
They were rather frisky because we were not local
and then we went to Reading but found it rather soulless
Pleasures of the flesh and the library was hopeless
Along a street secluded we ran into a vicar
Who drank to save himself from the love of his paritioners
Our pockets were all filled with
Several dozen lucky charms
We pondered how to make them
Work for our swift advance
We came up to a farmhouse
And by the strangest chance
The couple were from Mowbray Melton
And they did the strangest dance
To ward off evil they gave us some pastilles
We made a time capsule of everything we'd found
And then we put it into the ground
Well there's so many more to be found

It's A Cliché

I used to know you
Do you recall how I loved your nails
as you file your papers away? (x2)
I hear things are good
in the water industry
Well you extracted water from me
Ridiculously

I'd tell you I loved you
But I'm painfully aware
It's a cliché
I'd ask you out
but there's a dullness in your eye
And I'm afraid I don't have to wonder why
My lmbs are binded to the chair
My heart is grinding -
You're so unaware
Don't you even know what year it is?

Well yes I admit I loved you
But I soon realised the idiocy
of clinging to such a regressive mindset
And you and your sister
Well it was like the difference between a BBC
and an Acorn Electron
I recall sitting on your lawn
Eating cornflakes, discussing sci-fi
Picking holes in model spaceships
But you were not so impressed
by my fondness for 1980s Doctor Who
so I guess it serves you right
that your current boyfriend is shite
and derivative.

Drowning In Melodrama

Do you remember of a night long ago
Must be twelve months, maybe eighteen
When we walked through the fields and the bus lanes
With a temper and a headcold that would not go
This overrides my mind

(Pathetic. And all they do is plan; someone lost the connection)

And we fell on another as I saw that you were all I ever wanted
As I saw you draw blood
In a daze that lasted days
I could not forget your suicidal ways
This overrides my mind

But I loved you and I loved everything you say and do
When you said you were through and you would cut your wrists in two
Holding out for a saviour, a poet or a priest or just a joke
These things are for keeps

So unlucky the hero born in this dying town
For no-one wants to be saved, so he goes on to a city
Where the people are more grateful and are richer
Though they pay him in kind
Shortchanging their lives

But back to our tale of the wretches in the rain
And I gave you a tattoo of my blood
And then I gave you roses red
You threw them back, you said:
“Screw the roses, send me the thorns”
This overrides my mind

So we grew close together and we pulled further away
As I cut you and you bit me -
well there wasn't all that much to say
but I loved you, I still loved you
but you said that I was too long dead
in the soul

So I joined a band and we toured the land
Blackpool Pier and here
But you fight me, to spite me
But despite me I know you like me
Oh you always said that I was too melodramatic

I am drowning, I am drowning, I am too far out to sea (oh no you're not)
I am drowning, I am drowning, I am too far out to sea (oh no you're not)
I am drowning, I am drowning, I am too far out to sea (oh no you're not)
I am drowning, I am drowning, but you needn't try to save me (alright I won't)
...unless you want to

Cheesewire

Did I... bleed?

Living on cheesewire has never been easy
Touch me again and you'll spoil your dress
I'm not going to stay up all night for you
Or plead the way you want

Did I... bleed?

Living on cheesewire has never been easy
Open a gash, I taste the blood
Prepare to feel the flood
The salt in your tears bites hard into me
Tonight I confront my fears with only a scalpel
And your legs to hide behind

Did I... bleed?

Scraping my veins out has never been easy
Offer it up on an analogue plate
It has to be mangled for general consumption
Or that's the popular assumption

Blood streamed as my heart screamed
But did I bleed, did I bleed
enough for you to keep me on
Did I bleed, did I bleed
enough for you to beat me more
Did I... oh did I even bleed?
Oh but I'll be okay if you cast me away
Cos I've learnt how to play so many waifs and strays
I can drink from my veins until I throw it all up
into myself again
but now the blood is in my eyes
I don't quite know if I'm even seeing you right (living in your eyes)
I don't know if I'm even seeing you right (living in your eyes) I
don't remember you being so white (living in your eyes) (you know it's
strange)

Angry

Pent-up aggression
Builds up until the person snaps

Angry! (Angry!) Angry!
I'm so pissed off (Angry)
Don't feel like a little girl anymore (Angry)
You've changed – I've changed (Angry)
We've all changed (Angry)
We don't stay little (Angry)
No we don't stay

Ground Control To Susan (also see “Ground Control To Tony”, Sop chapter)

Ground control to Susan
won't you come down from wherever the hell you've been?
Everyone's been laughing
at the things you wrote
the thousand ways you found to choke
on indignity and twisted purity

Ground control to Susan
The runway's clear and we are ready for touchdown
We've been so patient
all through the show
though why you bothered we still don't know

I guess what I'm saying
is I love you far too much
but I could never tell you when you wanted me to
It's just the way I am
it's just the way we are
since you ascended to the stars

Let's go on a holiday
not as far as outer space
but somewhere where you can get lost
just finding yourself inside yourself

Ground control to Susan
Your uncle's given you a cheap cassette machine
Now you can record yourself
and play it back
oh can't you hear the goodness in that voice
remember - you have a choice

I guess what I'm saying
is I love you far too much
to let you get so very out of touch
You've got nothing to fear
it's just the atmosphere
Take my hand and we're back on solid land

There is a Third Way
- no it's not just empty rhetoric
but it's much too hard to describe
and we've kept all your records for you
that's no mean feat in itself

Ground control to Susan
won't you come down from wherever the hell you've been?
Everybody's been laughing
at the things you wrote...

Plastic And Glass

Tranquil now on medication
Try to keep from old temptation
Nobody deigns to come near
The people are all made of glass here
I'm miles from civilisation
Seeking love or re-education
The only feelings come
Plugged into the wall

Who made my life so sterile?
We talk through plastic and glass
Your pixels filter through to me
Who made my life so sterile?
We talk through plastic and glass
You are my only reality

I had a dream this morning
You captured me in cotton
And though I squirmed excuses
I knew to fight twas useless
You knit my thoughts together
You lick my sick mind better
If you only felt like I yearn to touch

Who made my life so sterile?
We talk through plastic and glass
Your pixels filter through to me
Who made my life so sterile?
We talk through plastic and glass
You are my only reality

in high fidelity
and god bless AOL

Rent Song

Peering through the window to the street below
The sleet and snow are slow to go
Sludge under people's feet

The street so white and grey and black
and taking me back in my mind
more than a decade - cracked old paint
The floor so scuffed and bare and brown
and dragging me down to inspect
scraps of paper - tapes in a crate

Keep the heating low - I'll wear another jumper
Keep the heating low

Is it my imagination or is the furniture shrinking?
Is it my imagination or is that floorboard sinking?
I'd give you a call but I'm trying to save the money
I'd give you a call - please don't think I'm being funny

The winter scarf wrapped round my throat
and over the road there's the man
on the postbike - needs a rest
I'm sending letters postage paid
they've gone and delayed my loan
for another fortnight - and the rest

Keep the heating low - it makes such funny noises
The smell of damp won't go

I'd accept an invitation to share your lovely heating
In the room where your sofa is covered in orange sheeting
I'd give you a call but I'm trying to save the money
I'd give you a call - please don't think I'm being funny

Comfy radio, a novel and a flapjack
Candles in a row

Someone's got to pay the rent (x3)