B-Sides and Abandoned Tracks

He said - come on now little darling, if you love me like you say
You can just lie there and sniff the smoke, you don't have to use your vein
And you knew all the stories, but this sweet boy would never do you harm
You remember very clearly the blood with which you signed
Because the night gave you virginity was the night it took your mind
They said that you were pretty then,
In the mirror now you see this worn and greasy slut

Ch: We only get one crack at this, we only get the once
Just four score years and ten, old friend,
And yours are bleeding away with the puss that fills your veins

So now here come your customers knocking on your door
With the faces of stupid children who think they are something more
You believed the lies that brought you here
So now you pass the same lies like disease
And where are all your family to lock that waiting door?
And where are all your good friends to slap your stupid face
Instead you've got your little club who'll protect you, sure . . .
Like they'll slit your throat for a couple of quid

Ch: We only get one crack at this . . .
No matter how you kid yourself, well, you still know the truth
Just one sweet life that's it, old friend,
And yours is bleeding away with the puss that fills your veins

And your little son just two years old, comes crawling across the floor
Past the red eviction notice that lies unopened by the door
But they all live so far away and here . . . it's all OK . . .
Stinking . . . pathetic . . . filthy . . .

Walking home on a foggy night
Walking home alone
Wishing there was power in my fingertips
To burn through this solid stone
How the hell am I supposed to know what mood you're in
When you're changing all the time
I thought we were meant to be in this thing together
Like partners in the perfect crime
It's up to you, it's up to you
If you won't trust me then there's nothing I can do

Well yes I've made my fair share of mistakes
Maybe a lot more than I should
But you listen to too much of that downtown talk
And you believe a lot more than you should
Well, it's up to you, it's up to you
If you won't trust me than there's nothing I can do
There's a battle to win and if you're not in
I tell you, we'll do it on our own

The thick black smoke comes rising up, silent in these dreams
There's faces leering through the haze, that ripples in the heat
And words are just some place to hide, a wall that we can run behind
When truth is itching, twisting, turning, but locked away deep down inside
No, there's nothing wrong here, nothing at all

We sat up talking late last night, trying to make some sense
But we were just skirting round with clever words
And all the things that we pretend
There's guard dogs straining at the leash, with the soldiers standing by
Staring into empty space beyond the twisted wire
No, there's nothing wrong here, nothing at all
So when this nightmare's over, will you just rock me back to sleep
Tomorrow is another day, passive in their Brave New World

This all started the way things do
With a laugh and a cup of tea around the fire
As we sheltered from those wicked winds in front of that old TV
And we traded ideas as we watched each other with those ambitious bright eyes
Those eyes that saw every detail of the world so clear
And we bided our time impatiently until the hunger really burned
And the softest sweetest kisses were lost amidst the thunder in our hearts

We watched the people round us getting up, getting on, getting old
But the game we were going to play so well - we'd get to stay young forever
To begin with they just smiled and stepped around our little fire
But remember how pretty soon that all began to change
But now bitter in this great city all the little children should go home
Because the big men want to make deals
When they find you've got something they want
The party's gone, the party's done, the party's over children
You'd better go home

Funny how they all come running if you let your pockets jangle a little
And there's that strange queasy feeling
Every time someone holds a door open for you
Such sweetness, such kindness - while they manoeuvre you into position
And we all know how hard it is to bite the hand that feeds you
Remember all those old films we used to watch every Friday night on TV
However fast you run, however slow the Mummy walks
It always catches you in the end
The party's gone, the party's done, the party's over children
You'd better go home
This ain't no place anymore for little girls or little boys
Not unless you want them to spoon-feed you all your life
The party's gone, the party's done, the party's over children
This dream is gone, this dream is dead, this dream is over, children
You'd better go home

Ch: No, there's nothing wrong here, nothing at all

We sat up talking late last night, trying to make some sense
But we were just skirting round with clever words
And all the things that we pretend
There's guard dogs straining at the leash, with the soldiers standing by
Staring into empty space beyond the twisted wire

Ch:No, there's nothing wrong here, nothing at all

So when this nightmare's over, will you just rock me back to sleep
Tomorrow is another day, passive in their Brave New World

Down comes Moses with the Ten Commandments
Hewn on a tablet, just the bitterest pill
Breaks up the party in the valley below
Says obey my orders and you're doing God's will
And disciples of Jesus, lost and forgotten
When the brand new faith isn't doing so well
Write the Book of Revelation to terrify the people
Join our religion or you're heading for hell

Ch: I will bow to the earth, bow to the sea,
Bow to the love between you and me,
Bow to the sun, bow to the land
But never to a god made in the image of man

Here comes Mohammed, back from the desert
Another male prophet with the word of the Lord
Shut off the women, lock them in darkness
Kill all opponents in a holy war

Here is murder, here is oppression
Here is the order that the Church demands
Burn three million women, call them witches and heretics
Then change the tune when the fashion demands

How they run to you now, how they grovel to you now
I think they're mad
How they subjugate their pride as if it's a sin to be alive
I think that's sad

Down with Moses and his Ten Commandments
Deader than deadest of the Dead Sea Scrolls
Back to the desert with Jesus and Mohammed
Kick out the prophets and save our souls

We walk every morning in silence
Past the mills on Whetley Lane
Where the lights went out for the very last time
And they never came on again
The spokesman all shred crocodiles tears
In the glory of the News at Ten
But the proudest eyes are long since dry
And they're never going to cry again

Ch: Dear Friend, I salute your courage and I toast to your health
And I wish you all the luck in the whole wide world
May you never be broken like they say you will

Waking up sudden from a nightmare - you were walking the line in pain
With a shaven head to the slaughterhouse and you never came back again
But she took me in her arms and she held me
Close tight for a minute or two
And we laughed and smiled and closed our eyes
Slept again thinking of you

And the way that it is, the way that it really is
With the money talking and a scapegoat lover
With the painted face of a scolding mother
And I salute your courage and I toast to your health
And I wish you all the luck in the whole wide world
May you never be broken like they say you will be

Now lost in time, cut off from history
This is not knowledge, this is information

I went to my mother, said - please make me king
I went to my mother, said - I've got to be king
She said son - well you've got to wait your turn
Patience is a virtue that you never seemed to learn
You were born with nothing, to nothing you'll return

Ch: Now, now the lights go out - there's no warning
Now, now the lights go out - there's no reason
Now, now the voices cry - we don't need you now

I went to my father, said - please make me king
Went to my father, said - I've got to be king
He said son - you've got to do your time
I've done fifty-three years and I haven't yet done mine
You're just one of the millions waiting in line

Ch: Now, now the lights go out - there's no warning
Now, now the lights go out - there's no reason
Now, now the voices cry - we don't need you now

History gave us meaning, gave us a place
Gave my father reasons for the lines on his face
But we asked for the money and money they gave
And God, how that made us easy to enslave
So today at the office, we picked up the cheque
The handshake of gold, the stab in the back
The old men went home silent and bowed
The young men went drinking, drowning it out
So in every street, in every town, comes some young pretender
Just gunning for a crown - take it- take it all

Ch: But now, now the lights go out . . .

Sometimes they ask me why I don't sit with you
I guess they'll never understand
I don't need to have my heart broken another time
Or to have to shake your useless wasted hand

So tell me - what do you dream about?
And tell me - how do you shut it all out?
And how do you live with yourself now?

And I hope that she's really happy now
Now she's got her cake and she went and ate him too
Heads down, out on 47 Poison Street
With all the ghosts just sitting there with you

Beethoven - he was a deaf man
And Jesus Christ was a Jew
But of all those little twists of irony -
My favourite one is you

And if our eyes ever have to meet for more than just one second
Then if you weren't already there, I would tell you to go to hell
But if I spent my whole damn life trying to think of a curse for you
It would never be as bad as the curse that you dealt to yourself

It took fourteen hours to hitch from London to Portsmouth
I can picture you in your battered old coat
Blown by the trucks on the side of the road
Cursing the world just until one pulls over
The cab is warm, the driver is talking
And oh if he had his time over again
And you laugh with the man, but you think of another
Stealing away around each darkened corner
The ghost of your father always, always watching
And he waits for you when the black tide comes
And you feel the ghost of your father waiting

An unbearable stillness hangs over these days
Humming with the promises broken
The bewildered watch from behind misted-up glass
As the ambitious and lucky get to feed on the carcass
When you feel so much in such a small space
Do you think you can keep on running
Like the papers that blow down your empty street
Outside in the dark when you cannot sleep
The ghost of your father always, always watching
And he waits for you when the black tide comes
Do you feel the ghost of your father waiting?

It seems strange to write about these things now
but the time has probably come when we should
accept whatever is past and gone and never will return.
Looking back to the beginning
I see a flood of painful memories
and the bitter hurt and wounded pride that comes with our defeat
We set out with our heads held high,
so sure our ground, our righteousness,
the new Jerusalem to be built with love and guts and truth
But in the end we surrendered easily.
It's no use pretending otherwise . . .
well most of us had a little something to lose, enough to break our nerve.

Well, some of us made an easy peace and moved into the Brave New World;
it's hard for the true believers to look back now and realise
that for many of the crowd it was just the fashion, the cause of the moment,
well we if anyone should know that you can look pretty dumb
standing in last year's clothes.
And some of us, shell-shocked still, ran for shelter and do the rituals
the same old way pretending that someone out there cares
And some of us live in the modern world.
We give unto Caesar what is due
and harbour the bitterness of defeat and daydreams of revenge.

Now nothing you see out there is real,
It matters not what you believe in.
It matters less what you say but only what you are.
It matters what you are. It matters what you are.