"Sylvia"

   
You look just like Sylvia:
Well you look like her to me -
The way she wore her hair then.
Oh, he way she used to be.
I've not seen her for a long time
Though I've heard she's still around.
Her father's living with some girl
Who's a year younger than her.
She's living in the country now yeah.
Oh, she's trying to get better.
Her beauty was her only crime.
Yeah, I remember Sylvia.

So keep believing
And do what you do,
I can't help you but I know things are gonna get better.
And please stop asking what it's got to do with you.
Oh, keep believing cos you know that you deserve better.

Who's this man you're talking to?
Can't you see what he wants to do?
He thinks if he stands near enough then he will look as good as you.
Oh, he don't care about your problems.
He just wants to show his friends.
I guess I'm just the same as him -
I just didn't know it then.
I never understood you really
And I know it's too late now.
You didn't ask to be that way.
Oh, I'm sorry Sylvia.

So keep believing
And do what you do,
I can't help you but I know things are gonna get better.
And please stop asking what it's got to do with you.
Oh, keep believing cos you know that you deserve better.
Yeah you know that you deserve better.
Oh Sylvia.

"Glory Days"

   
Come and play the tunes of glory -
Raise your voice in celebration
Of the days that we have wasted in the cafe
In the station.
And learn the meaning of existence in fortnightly instalments.
Come share this golden age with me
In my single room apartment.
And if it all amounts to nothing -
It doesn't matter,
These are still our glory days.

Oh my face is unappealing and my thoughts are unoriginal.
I did experiments with substances
But all it did was make me ill
And I used to do the I Ching
But then I had to feed the meter.
Now I can't see into the future
But at least I can use the heater.
Oh it doesn't get much better than this
Cos this is how we live our glory days.
Oh and I could be a genius if I just put my mind to it
And I,
I could do anything if only I could get round to it.
Oh we were brought up on the Space-Race,
Now they expect you to clean toilets.
When you've seen how big the world is,
How can you make do with this?
If you want me I'll be sleeping in -
Sleeping in throughout these glory days.
These glory days can take their toll,
So catch me now
Before I turn to gold.
Yeah we'd love to hear your story
Just as long as it tells us where we are -
That where we are is where we're meant to be.
Oh come on make it up yourself -
You don't need anybody else.
And I promise I won't sell these days to anybody else in the world but you.
No-one but you.

"The Day After The Revolution"

   
The dust has settled,
Replaces the bulbs in all the lights.
I guess I'll get no sleep tonight.
A revolution happened.
Oh, sorry, you haven't heard?
We are the children of the new world.
If you're quiet you can watch if you like.
They say the future's beginning tonight.
Whole empires will crumble.
Civilisations will fall.
Lie on the bed, hear the sound of it all.
No anger, no guilt and no sorrow;
It sounds unlikely, I know, but tomorrow
You will wake up to find that your whole life has changed.
Although nothing looks different
A revolution took place.
I love the way you do it.
I love the way you put them on.
You know the answers but you get it wrong.
(Just to confuse things).
Why did it seem so difficult to realise a simple truth?
The revolution begins and ends with you.
Now all the breakdowns and nightmares look small.
Now we decided not to die after all.
Because the meek shall inherit absolutely nothing at all.
If you stopped being so feeble you could have so much more.
The answer was here all the time, you see.
Just how I missed it is a mystery to me.
I have waited and waited for this day to arrive.
The revolution was televised.
Now it's over, bye bye.
It's over, bye bye.
Yeah, we made it.
Just by the skin of our teeth.
Perfection is over
(The Rave is over)
Sheffield is over.
The Fear is over.
Guilt is over
(Please leave the building quietly)
Bergerac is over.
The hangover is over
Men are over
Women are over.
Cholesterol is over.
Tapers are over.
Irony is over.
Bye bye.
Bye bye.

"Like A Friend"

   
Don't bother saying you're sorry.
Why don't you come in?
Smoke all my cigarettes - againe.
Every time I get no further.
How long has it been?
Come on in now,
Wipe your feet on my dreams.

You take up my time,
Like some cheap magazine,
When I could have been learning something.
Oh well, you know what I mean.

I've done this before.
And I will do it again.
Come on and kill me baby,
While you smile like a friend.
And I'll come running,
Just to do it again.

You are the last drink I never should drunk.
You are the body hidden in the trunk.
You are the habit I can't seem to kick.
You are my secrets on the front page every week.
You are the car I never should have bought.
You are the train I never should have caught.
You are the cut that makes me hide my face.
You are the party that makes me feel my age.

Like a car crash I can see but I just can't avoid.
Like a plane I've been told I never should board.
Like a film that's so bad but I've gotta stay til the end.
Let me tell you now,
It's lucky for you that we're friends.

"Weeds"

   
We came across the North Sea with our carriers on our knees
Wound up in some holding camp somewhere outside Leeds.
Because we do not care to fight, my friends - we are the weeds.
Because we got no homes they call us smelly refugees.
Ah. We are weeds, vegetation, dense undergrowth.
Thru' cracks in the pavement: there weeds will grow - the places you don't go.
This cut-price dairy produce that turns our bones to dust.
You want some entertainment?
Go on, shove it up me - if you must.
Make believe you're so turned on by planting trees & shrubs
But you come round to visit us when you fancy booze 'n' drugs.
Ah. We are weeds, vegetation, etc.
If you think it's a crime
We'd like to get you out of your mind.
It's just a matter of time, yeah
We'd like to get you out of your mind.
Gonna cut you down in your prime, yeah
We'd like to get you out of your mind.
For a little time: for all time.
Weed.

"Weeds II (Origin Of The Species)"

   
This is the true story of the weeds: the origin of the species.
A story of cultivation, exploitation, civilization.
Found flowering on wasteland unnoticed, unofficial, accidental.
A cutting was taken but weeds do not thrive under hothouse conditions & wilt when in competition with more exotic strains.
A charming naivety, very short flowering season; no sooner has the first blooming begun than decay sets in.
Bring your camera, take photo of life on the margins.
Offer money in exchange for sex & then get a taxi home.
The story has always been the same
A source of wonder due to their ability to thrive on poor quality soil offering very little nourishment
Drinking 'Nurishment'.
But weeds must be kept under strict control or they will destroy everything in their path.
Growing wild, then harvested in their prime & passed around at dinner parties.
Care for some weed?
So natural, so wild, so unrefined & someone's gonna make a fortune one day
If only they can market this stuff right.
Come on: do your dance.
Come on, do your funny little dance.
Germination. Plantation. Exploitation. Civilization.
A sensational buzz - zzzzzz.
Crop rotation. Genetic modification. The creation of expectation. Ultimate frustration.
This is the story of the weeds: the origin of the species.

"The Night Minnie Timperley Died"

   
"There's a light that shines on everything & everyone.
And it shines so bright - brighter even than the sun".
That's what Minnie thinks as she walks to meet her brother, who is nearly two years older, on a Saturday night.
He's DJ-ing at some do on the edge of town on the night that Minnie Timperley died.
It's such a beautiful world, you're such a beautiful girl.
So much that you want to try, the world wants to sleep with you tonight.
But Minnie, Minnie if I could I would give you the rest of my life.
How can a girl have sex with these pathetic teenage wrecks?
Football scarves, the girls drink halves & her brother's crying 'cos he has lost his decks.
Outside the air was cool, an older guy sitting in his car asked if Minnie needed a ride.
He thought he was still dangerous - paunchy, but dangerous - on the night that Minnie Timperley died.
It's such a beautiful world, you're such a beautiful girl.
And he only did what he did 'cos you looked like one of his kids.
But Minnie, Minnie if I could I would give you the rest of my life.
Minnie. Oh, Minnie I can feel the pain. Oh yeah.

"The Trees"

   
I took an air-rifle, shot a magpie to the ground & it died without a sound.
Your skin so pale against the fallen Autumn leaves & no-one saw us but the trees.
Yeah, the trees, those useless trees produce the air that I am breathing.
Yeah, the trees, those useless trees; they never said that you were leaving.
I carved your name with a heart just up above - now swollen, distorted, unrecognisable; like our love.
The smell of leaf mould & the sweetness of decay are the incense at the funeral procession here, today.
In the trees, those useless trees, etc.
You try to shape the world to what you want the world to be.
Carving your name a thousand times won't bring you back to me.
Oh no, no I might as well go & tell it to the trees.
Go & tell it to the trees, yeah.

"Wickerman"

   
Just behind the station, before you reach the traffic island, a river runs thru' a concrete channel.
I took you there once; I think it was after the Leadmill.
The water was dirty & smelt of industrialisation
Little mesters coughing their lungs up & globules the colour of tomato ketchup.
But it flows. Yeah, it flows.
Underneath the city thru' dirty brickwork conduits
Connecting white witches on the Moor with pre-raphaelites down in Broomhall.
Beneath the old Trebor factory that burnt down in the early seventies.
Leaving an antiquated sweet-shop smell & caverns of nougat & caramel.
Nougat. Yeah, nougat & caramel.
And the river flows on.
Yeah, the river flows on beneath pudgy fifteen-year olds addicted to coffee whitener
And it finally comes above ground again at Forge Dam: the place where we first met.

I went there again for old time's sake
Hoping to find the child's toy horse ride that played such a ridiculously tragic tune.
It was still there - but none of the kids seemed interested in riding on it.
And the cafe was still there too
The same press-in plastic letters on the price list & scuffed formica-top tables.
I sat as close as possible to the seat where I'd met you that autumn afternoon.
And then, after what seemed like hours of thinking about it
I finally took your face in my hands & I kissed you for the first time
And a feeling like electricity flowed thru' my whole body.
And I immediately knew that I'd entered a completely different world.
And all the time, in the background, the sound of that ridiculously heartbreaking child's ride outside.

At the other end of town the river flows underneath an old railway viaduct
I went there with you once - except you were somebody else -
And we gazed down at the sludgy brown surface of the water together.
Then a passer-by told us that it used to be a local custom to jump off the viaduct into the river
When coming home from the pub on a Saturday night.
But that this custom had died out when someone jumped
Landed too near to the riverbank
Had sunk in the mud there & drowned before anyone could reach them.
I don't know if he'd just made the whole story up, but there's no way you'd get me to jump off that bridge.
No chance. Never in a million years.

Yeah, a river flows underneath this city
I'd like to go there with you now my pretty & follow it on for miles & miles, below other people's ordinary lives.
Occasionally catching a glimpse of the moon, thru' man-hole covers along the route.
Yeah, it's dark sometimes but if you hold my hand, I think I know the way.
Oh, this is as far as we got last time
But if we go just another mile we will surface surrounded by grass & trees & the fly-over that takes the cars to cities.
Buds that explode at the slightest touch, nettles that sting - but not too much.
I've never been past this point, what lies ahead I really could not say.
I used to live just by the river, in a dis-used factory just off the Wicker
The river flowed by day after day
"One day" I thought, "One day I will follow it" but that day never came
I moved away & lost track but tonight I am thinking about making my way back.
I may find you there & float on wherever the river may take me.
Wherever the river may take me.
Wherever the river may take us.
Wherever it wants us to go.
Wherever it wants us to go.

"I Love Life"

   
Here comes your bedtime story: Mum & Dad have sentenced you to life.
Don't think twice; it's the only reason I'm alive.
I feel alright as long as I don't forget to breathe.
Breathe in, breathe in, breathe out.
Look at all these buildings & houses
I love my life. I love my life.
Hey now, slow down a minute.
Take my arms & fill them full of life.
Don't think twice.
Does it ease the pain of being alive?
Or is it why - why you keep nodding out on me?
Breathe in, breathe in, breathe out.
Another day, another major disaster
I love my life. I love my life.
You got a problem.
I lost my keys when I stayed at your place.
On the floor of your living room, you made the scene but it'll never get shown on TV.
So tonight prepare to kiss goodbye to my lovelife.
So get this right- I love my life; it's the only reason I'm alive.
It's mine, all mine - as long as I don't forget to breathe.
Breathe in, breathe in, breathe out.
Corny I know, but you had better believe it
I love my life. I love my life. I love my life. God, how I love my life.
That's right: you've got to fight to the death for the right to live your life.
Alright: I'm gonna fight to the death 'til they give me back my life.
That's right: you're in the land of the living but there's so few signs of life.
Alright.
Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe out.