You Can’t Go Back
You can’t go back Honey, that is what they told us You know what I think of that Cos I’m back here at your side Were you lonely? Were you eaten up inside Thinking if only we’d tried… You can’t go back But back then nobody could hold me So I’ve come back round And I’m holding you to this That thing between us That we knew was something special Well, it seems it still is… They can’t destroy us We put the seal on it So be joyous Cos once the fuse is lit You can’t go back You can’t go back That thing between us That we knew was something special Well, it seems it still is… You can’t go back That is what they told us I know what you think of that You’ve made it pretty clear So, baby Promise me forever You will stay right here… And you can’t go back You can’t go back You can’t go back You can’t go back That is what they told us… (You can’t go back…)
All Hail Blind Love
Is this a revival Or just the last breath At the end of the regime? People toast our survival As if slogging on Is living out the dream So hold up your faces Left to your devices You’d have killed us off We would have never kept going If the going wasn’t so damned rough All hail blind love All hail blind love Don’t assume we’ve mellowed We still think of one another As a fraud Such strange bedfellows It’s the hatred and resentment You applaud So fill up your glasses Here’s to another thirty years full of Wounding each other Like we just can’t get enough All hail blind love All hail blind love All hail the trail of failures Slights and snide remarks Flung with a sneer So add your wishes here We can only hope you’re both Still blind next year So hold up your faces Left to your devices You’d have killed us off We would have never kept going If the going wasn’t so damned rough All hail blind love All hail blind love All hail blind love All hail blind love All hail, all hail blind love
Musicians and Beer
God doesn’t love you God doesn’t care You lie on the slab with Blood in your hair And the voices of angels Are flat and austere Well, that’s what you get if you don’t book Musicians and beer You stand on the vanquished Your feet on their chests Posing like starlets In bulletproof vests Your wife doesn’t love you She’s sick of the fear Sick of living without Musicians and beer So lock up your daughters Shit, you already did At least Muddy Waters Can’t fuck with your kids I’m an avid blasphemer With a passion for queer Cos I can’t live without Musicians and beer My granddaddy’s bible So brooding and black Lies like a tombstone On my own daddy’s back And we lowered him down Without a tear So he died like a pauper Without musicians and beer So this is an order Get yourself some Musicians and beer
Close Your Eyes and Think of England
Day by day we’re winnowing away At the kind of world the heathens have their eyes on Step by step the sun is gonna set On the waves that sully the horizon So close your eyes and think of England That boat afloat on the ocean sets my spine a-tingling So let the boys brigade be singing Close your eyes, close your eyes Blow by blow, there’s gonna be a show We’re gonna teach the goons the who is who of history Deal by deal we’ll crush them on a wheel Of progress and manifest destiny So close your eyes and think of England That boat afloat on the ocean with the chains of state a-jingling And at the sight of intermingling Close your eyes, close your eyes Close the door behind you, I feel kinda blue I guess I miss the time The scapegoat was always someone new So step up to the camera, you And close your eyes and think of England That boat afloat all alone on the ocean is sinking And a telephone is ringing, the coastguard have been drinking Nobody had an inkling 'cause they closed their eyes Close your eyes, close your eyes, close your eyes
Losing the Will to Die
I wish I could feel like people feel I wish I didn’t have a heart That sits like a stone in its jail of bones Ready to be ripped apart But yesterday I felt a funny thing Maybe you know why I’m losing the will I’m losing the will to die I thought I was done, I was way beyond The solace of the sight of land No flash of distress in the blackness Everything beautifully planned But suddenly I see searchlights Maybe you know why I’m losing the will I’m losing the will to die I’ve got pills and poisons Hosepipes, knives And ropes in rich supply But the notes I wrote are mouldy And the inkwell’s going dry Cos I’m losing the will I’m losing the will to die Hooray! Hooray! It’s Saturday Time to tie the noose All praise to you and your savagery The rope has another use So happy that I’ve got an aim in life Maybe you know why I’m losing the will I’m losing the will to die I’m losing the will I’m losing the will to die
Otherwise
Otherwise We’d be dancing on a beach In the starlight With a margarita each Otherwise We’d be riding on a bus Into nowhere Babe, I wish it was Otherwise Not barely getting through Another night With the curtains drawn To keep us from Seeing other people’s lives Otherwise We’d be rolling in the aisles And kids Would be rolling their eyes Otherwise We’re holding on To the lifeboat’s sides And the only thing Keeping us afloat Is to dream what might have been Otherwise… Otherwise I’d be leaving you alone Not watching you try To push the blood back in a stone Otherwise We’d walk along the sea Not realise That life is going to be Otherwise Babe, I wish it was Otherwise Babe, I wish it was Otherwise
It’s Feelings
All the raindrops in the air Come make a river through my hair Come down and drown me I don’t care 'Cause it’s feelings That cut you It’s feelings I can’t bear But it’s feelings That put you there All the sickness, all the bruises All the shit that no one chooses Bring it on in its disguises I’ll take the knockouts with the prizes 'Cause it’s feelings That cut you And it’s feelings I can’t bear But it’s feelings That put you there (Put you there) Trying to make some sense of why you can’t see straight (Put you there) While the world goes past like a pantomime behind the glass (Put you there) Holding a dead man’s hand as his watch ticks like the rain It’s just feelings That cut you It’s just feelings That put you there It’s just feelings
I’m so Scared of Dying
I’m so scared of dying And leaving you behind Every day I try just to stay alive So you won’t be sitting by That empty chair at night I’m smoking like a factory Come on, keep ahead of me Don’t wanna think of you Happy and alone Cos I’m so scared of dying And leaving you behind I put a little poison in your cup one time So lock me up, baby if mercy is a crime I check your breathing as you sleep Hoping it slows and stops for keeps Don’t wanna think you might Have to be alone Cos I’m so scared of dying And leaving you behind Don’t wanna think of you Running through the worst of me Or you to figure out You should’ve long ago got free It is better for us both if I survive So you never know how it feels To truly be alive Cos I’m so scared of dying And leaving you behind I’m so scared of dying And leaving you behind I’m so scared of I’m so scared of dying I’m so scared of Every day I just try to stay alive Cos I’m so scared of dying
Mockingbird, Copy Me Now
I shout it at the moon But my love gets hit by her lampoon I’m just waiting for My mockingbird to copy me now She shoots straight from the throat Under my gate, over the moat But I’m just waiting for My mockingbird to copy me now Once I get the pills inside me She’ll follow through She’ll lie like a fresh kill beside me Swallow what I do I’ll drink this venom at my leisure And she’ll mimic me measure for measure I’m just waiting for My mockingbird to copy me now Mockingbird, copy me now Baby, copy me now Baby, copy me now
Missing Person
I am lipsticked like a tart In the cherry red of Côtes-du-Rhône Prodding at the little fire of my phone The lights behind the bar Twinkle like they’ve always known Only desperate little men ever drink alone But as long as I’m here, I’ve disappeared And it’s vanishing I’m a missing person doing my thing As midnight strikes I slip into this queen of dives And quietly oblivion like sleep arrives But I couldn’t live without This sewer of a place to be Alone with my one obsession - me, me, me Yeh, I can hear her remonstrate You fool, that’s three What I’m doing here, ain’t drinking beer It’s vanishing I’m a missing person doing my thing Just a missing person doing my thing Missing the time I threw your crutch away And ruined a perfect day Now it’s all ruins from here to daybreak So I hang on to my chair In this fish tank of sinking stars Pickling their memories in Mason jars I head out for a smoke Leave your ghost there to hold my place And line up with the other cheaters In disgrace Like runners in exile From the human race But as long as I’m here, this last brutal year Is vanishing I’m a missing person doing my thing Just a missing person doing my thing
Second Staircase
There is a second staircase Leading from a chamber of my heart Concealed behind a bookcase Leading up into the dark And the second staircase Is tearing the house apart There’s a secret number Written on a ticket in a drawer I don’t know if I love her But I’ve been crazy since I saw her There is a second staircase Only I know what it’s for It is burning through my mind I don’t wanna leave this all behind I built it all up from the ground Why would I tear the old place down? So I blocked the second staircase Behind some old junk we never use I threw the ticket in the fireplace Forgot everything I knew Cos beyond the second staircase Is life without you I can’t take the second staircase It’s all too much to lose
Lonely
Lonely I have been without her Lonely I have been so long The only thing that keeps me going is I know she’s wrong Wrong to think I wouldn’t miss her Wrong to think I’d be alright And wrong is all I feel In bed at night I listen out for the bell to ring In the chapel on the hill The crowd of sound from the streets around Is a howl of sadness still I don’t think I could ever wander I don’t think I could ever stray The mark she left on my heart Is gonna stay I walk my rumour through the city To fill the empty afternoon And turn for home Under the mocking of the moon The crazy thing about a golden ring Is it will melt in any fire But I didn’t think for a minute She would simply melt at his desire
Nation of Caners
We’re a nation of caners Excusers, explainers We’re wasting away every night, every day Assuring ourselves we’re blameless Of everything heading their way We use and we use, throw away and away Caning the plains, planing the cane Jetting the snuff and snuffing the pain Nothing’s enough, nothing’s enough A sniff on a cuff and a fag to a flame Downing the foam and filling the drain Ravenous men, ravenous girls Ravage it all until nothing remains Blue yonder, the wonder Of getting beyond the pale Slipping out of the jailed brain to a cage We made in a rage of thirst Thirst for ease, thirst for plunder Thirst for junk and speed and candour Thirst for splendour, a binge, a bender Return to sender Burn the canopy churn the blender Rape the barley, bend the fender Burn the embers, burn the embers Cane and cane and cane dissenters Ream the renters, shame the campers Stamp the punters through Members get a tent to hurl into We all know where we’re going to We’re a nation of caners Who could blame us – Have you seen the state of what They left for us to use? Have you seen the place They think is fit for humans, fit for purpose? Purpose being caning, caning Purges in the virgin forest Urges in the depth of dreaming Muffled screaming coming from the cane Desperate praying underneath the rain Consume it all you must Or there’ll be never ending pain A future filled with cesspits of the slain A future that we never could Explain for all the world The caner boys, the caner girls Buried in their shame Nation against nation Never sickening of the game We’re a race apart of caners Floggers, torturers in trainers Ostrich headed party planners Carry-onners, carry-outers Flat denial earthers, science doubters Flabby thinkers, shabby lovers Anti-social fatal drinkers Shirkers, duckers, divers, wankers Blissed and pissed within our blinkers A caning nation An acidic aberration A full-force pillage through The gifts of the creation Heaven was our source The underworld our destination There are worthless whirls of bank notes Floating through the station Can you hear the desperate praying Underneath the rain? Can you feel the past Shoving us on to the train? We’re a nation of caners And who can blame us? Mamma lets us follow Anywhere our nature takes us Fruit loop blitzers We’ve got a taste for space And need to fill the void with chasers Need to drink to our disgraces Peak grease racers We can’t stop until we die Pull me back into the bar Before I see the sky Baby, you’re working for the man You’re doing everything you can The weight of shit you carry round One day you’re gonna just derail Every time I pick you up It’s like I’m springing you from jail We’re a nation of caners Who can blame us? A nation of caners Who can blame us? We’re a nation of caners Who can blame us? A nation of caners Who can blame us? Who can blame us? Who can blame us? Who can blame us? Who can blame us? Who can blame us? Who can blame us? Who can blame us? Who can blame us? Can you hear the desperate praying Underneath the rain? Can you feel the past Shoving us on to the train? Who can blame us? Who can blame us? Who? Who can blame us? Who?