The Town
There's a cone in the river
and a Safeways trolley overturned | By the
pre-postmodern business centre someone forgot to burn down
| The town
was where we met but it could all have been so different |
Well I'd been here for ever - sixteen years that felt like more | And
you'd
think it was clever not to venture far from your front door round here
| Wait for the afterlife, sing up in church and drown out all the
voices that say | "I'm ok and how d'you do and what was it
I meant to
do, well what are you supposed to do but give the kids something to do
but hang around" | She was
there in the fun bar - no-one goes expecting
fun | Don't
recall why I went there - no-one goes for just the one
round here | They
put a brave face on, commiserate, reflect on their
bad choices and say | "I'm ok and how d'you do and what
was it I meant
to do, well what are you supposed to do but give the kids something to
do but hang around"
Like Straw Dogs
All I have is words, words
that don't obtain | And I feel I'm a stain
on your horizon | So
I stay away - it's easier that way | And there
won't be no-one I need to rely on | Is it him, is it me
| Or is there
something only I can see | How did I get here, why do we blow around
like straw dogs on the breeze | I'm a special one, what they used to
say | But
I've to stay on, finish levels-A | You don't need exams when
you've read John Gray | But
you look like you know the way to stop
these colours turning into grey | All my brilliant friends stuck in
shitty jobs | All
the lizard men inheriting the earth | Nature's gonna
get you, nature's gonna get you | We don't have much time
| They can't
hear you Sarah, I can't see you now sir | Here comes wintertime,
comedown in our prime |
Just as you get started, everyone you trusted
ready for the new wave | Ready for the new wave
I'll Stay Next To You
Sometimes you've got to get away | If I had a car I'd drive
it | To a place where they don't know my face | Change my clothes, my
shoes, my hair and my name | But I'll stay next to you | Not sure what
happens when we get there | We're just in love with going somewhere |
And it's easy to grab fifteen seconds of fame | But the last nine or
ten get so hard to sustain | I'll stay next to you | So long to
princess mourners | Farewell you fuel protesters | And future
generations will not appreciate your miniscule improvements to the
living standards index that you earned at the expense of all their
lives and all their children | Oh, we're not getting any younger | No,
it's not getting any better | And if life's like a road full of hazards
and bends why do we act surprised when it comes to an end | I'll stay next
to you | So we leave the car
and take the train and set off in the
pouring rain | Travel
light, standard class | Half
the legroom, twice
as fast | Look
at the world that flashes by | The countryside, the
power lines that seem to race along with you | Well it's near
the end
of the school day so I send a text back home to say | Sorry mum and dad
and bro, I couldn't stay, I had to go | To London with someone
| Before
I come undone | Cos where I'm from's a
humdrum town and I don't want to
die | We're
gonna work our way into the centre of the crowd | And I for
one will be appalled if I'm not shocked at what's allowed
| Disculture,
so jammin' | No need to examine no magazine or tv screen to know what's
going on
The Hive
You can see the future | Just stop and look around yer | Oh, this
impossible world was never meant to be | And maybe we get what we
deserve | I've seen the evidence | Packaged experience, things I want
but know I'll never need | No way, no way | The fame economy | Doll
choreography the culture of complaint won't seek to understand | The
daisies in the sun mutate but still stay beautiful | Always looking
forward to a time when you'll look back on this and smile | No way, no
way | City comedown | Same as our town | With this ring I see through
every ocean rising, advertising they won't stop until it's all in bits
upon the ground | Screensave faces, Chinese walls divide | Monitors
flicker but I only saw the light behind your eyes | We're part of a
problem with no solution | Everywhere you go, everything so cheap |
Someone's gonna pay | From the daily rail to the NME, sing the same old
song | "They build you up they knock you down. Fifteen minutes counting
down. Changes like the weather. You built me up you won't knock me down
- I'm keeping both feet on the ground. And it's getting better!" | Too
much time's gone past | It's winter, summer, spring | Short sleeves in
March | Wake up, forage, eat, sleep and make it better | A little
better | Always better | And then some more | Solemnly we piss away the
peace before the war that always comes |
What if I could take you back
to yesterday again | Away
from Kajadoodoo clerks and crazy frogs and
optimists making poverty history | And was there anything else?
| Back
in 1980s | First thing you see | Where are all the dandies | And you
shouldn't trust your memory | So banal and real and like it never went
away | Banned from the bookies - "Hey, mister, we got lucky!" | "Two
for The Smiths, please. And a can of Quatro." | Starring in a film
no-one will ever see | But you can see the future
Danger In The Past
Careless memories always lie | Times and places you can't buy from
years ago | Boys and girls that you once knew all grown up and over you
won't let you go | Photographs are bittersweet | Future plans are in
retreat before too long | Don't look back | There's danger in the past
| Don't go back | You knew it couldn't last | Life moves pretty fast |
But there's danger | Danger in the past | Hearts once broken never
mend, stay infected to the end | They never heal | Souvenirs that you
can feel won't give up what they reveal | They never will | Everything
that you pursue one more step ahead of you| Don't look back | There's
danger in the past | Don't go back | You knew it couldn't last | Life
moves pretty fast | But there's danger | Danger in the past | So sad to
tell you that you won't belong | You can't turn back the clock and see
the world anew | Did everybody change but you | Careless memories
always lie | Scentless traces you can't hide | The years ago | Boys and
girls that you once knew all grown up and over you won't let you go |
Everything that you pursue one more step ahead of you | But you don't
know | Don't look back | There's danger in the past | Don't go back |
You knew it couldn't last | Life moves pretty fast | But there's danger
| Danger in the past
Back To The Present
Someone's gone and I'm
unbelieving | Dreaming,
thought I still heard
you breathing | Then, when
I wake, it's just the rain | '85, a beautiful
morning | Read
the note I should have seen coming | Knew what I must
do | I
understand you had to go | There's
nowhere here that feels like
home | Nothing
compares to now | It
all feels wrong somehow | One
last
look around and I'm leaving | Back to when we were just beginning
|
We'll make it work in the now
and here | We
could have a car and a
family | Live
off all my almanac gambling | Do just as we please | When
I got back something had changed | I wandered staring | Like an
accident survivor | But
couldn't find her | I
just want to let you know
how very much I miss you | My
travelling companion, there's so much I
meant to say
The Way She Walked Out The Door
Pennies on the pavement for Jim and Wayne and Rose | Tattered flyers
beg our help in tracing some of those lost and lonely fractured souls
who vanished long ago | Where you find them, sad to say, it's true God
only knows | You linger late in cafes, look back on future days when
your dreams were like miracles | Now you can only pray | For the laugh
you heard last night | For the face that was there the week before |
The tears you shed when she walked out the door | You know | She's been
there before | You know she's walked out a thousand other doors |
You've never needed no-one, no-one's ever needed you | But you've lived
the life and played the game, what more can people do | You wake in the
early hours | Do you think you'll find her there | She packed her bags
late one night | Skipped out without a care | Now you seize on certain
gestures | Scraps of sentence overheard | But the memory that stays
longest is how she left without a word | Oh the laugh you heard last
night | The face you saw the week before | The tears you shed when she
walked out that door | You know, she's been there before | You know
she's walked out a thousand other doors | Pennies on the pavement, for
Jim and Wayne and Rose | For those who know which way the wind blows |
Which way the river flows
Goodbye Lennon
It's thirty years
since '85 | Robbie's
dead but Pete's alive | Or so
the weblogs say | But no-one's reading them
| Today my past
caught up
with me | And
you were standing over there | You asked me what's the
time | You
asked me what's the year and smiled the saddest smile I'd
ever seen | I
heard the same, can it be true | The bad die old, the
good pass through | Or
so the people say | But
look where they got us |
The cars lie all around | The city's useless now | We took on the world
and lost | But everyone's a loser now | But
you | I never
thought you'd
end up here | With
all that you were running from | But when the chips
are down | I
only wish I'd been around | As if you needed me at all
| I
couldn't stay, just had to go | I waited years for you to
show | But
that's all in the past |It happened oh so fast
| The cars lie all
around | The city's useless now | We took on the world and lost | But
everyone's a loser now | Thinking
what I should have done |
There are things you
shouldn't touch | And
so much you can't control |
I didn't find myself back
there | But I
lost myself in you | And
it
felt so... | It
doesn't have to end this way | Cos you can always start
again | It's
just a possible world | The cars lie all around | The
city's useless now | We took on the world and lost | But everyone's a
loser now | But you
| You saw it coming, didn't
you
If You Fall
Look at the stars | They don't care about you or anything we do | They
burn so bright | So turn away next time they say | Here's something new
you'll never see, could never do | When you read the news remember | If
you fall for this you'll fall for anything | You got the job so go back
to school where everything you do just kills dead time | The useless
deeds the business needs | And never stops to wonder what's
the
reason why | On your way to work remember | If you fall for this you'll
fall for anything that passes by you | If you fall for this you'll fall
for anything