Marillion : Clutching at Straws
Las palabras
DISC 1
1. HOTEL HOBBIES
Hotel hobbies padding dawns hollow corridors
Bell boys checking out the hookers in the bar
Slug-like fingers trace the star-spangled clouds of cocaine on the mirror
The short straw took its bow
The tell tale tocking of the last cigarette
Marking time in the packet as the whisky sweat
Lies like discarded armour on an unmade bed
And a familiar craving is crawling in his head
And the only sign of life is the ticking of the pen
Introducing characters to memories like old friends
Frantic as a cardiograph scratching out the lines
A fever of confession a catalogue of crime in happy hour
Do you cry in happy hour, do you hide in happy hour
The pilgrimage to happy hour
New shadows tugging at the corner of his eye
Jostling for attention as the sunlight flares
Through a curtains tear, shuffling its beams
As if in nervous anticipation of another day
2. WARM WET CIRCLES
On promenades where drunks propose to lonely arcade mannequins
Where ceremonies pause at the jeweler's shop display
Feigning casual silence in strained romantic interludes
Till they commit themselves to the muted journey home
And the pool player rests on another cue
Last nights hero picking up his dues
A honeymoon gambled on a ricochet
She's staring at the brochures at the holidays
Chalking up a name in your hometown
Standing all your mates to another round
Laughing at the world till the barman wipes away the warm wet circles
The warm wet circles
I saw teenage girls like gaudy moths
A classroom's shabby butterflies
Flirt in the glow of stranded telephone boxes
Planning white lace weddings from smeared hearts and token proclamations
Rolled from stolen lipsticks across the razored webs of glass
Sharing cigarettes with experience with her giggling jealous confidantes
She faithfully traces his name with quick bitten fingernails
Through the tears of condensation that'll cry through the night
As the glancing headlights of the last bus kiss adolescence goodbye
In a warm wet circle
Like a mothers kiss on your first broken heart, a warm wet circle
Like a bullet hole in Central Park, a warm wet circle
And I'll always surrender to the warm wet circles
She nervously undressed in the dancing beams of the Fidra lighthouse
Giving it all away before it's too late
She'll let a lovers tongue move in a warm wet circle
Giving it all away and showing no shame
She'll take a mother's kiss on her first broken heart a warm wet circle
She'll realise that she played her part in a warm wet circle
It was a wedding ring
Destined to be found in a cheap hotel
Lost in a kitchen sink or thrown in a wishing well
3. THAT TIME OF THE NIGHT
At that time of the night
When streetlights throw crosses through window frames
Paranoia roams where the shadows reign
Oh, at that time of the night
At that time of the night
Your senses tangled in some new perfume
Criticism triggers of a loaded room
Oh, at that time of the night
So if you ask me
How do I feel inside
I could honestly tell you
We've been taken on a very long ride
And if my owners let me have some free time some day
With all good intention I would probably run away
Clutching the short straw
At that time of the night
When questions rally in an open mind
Summon all your answers with an ice cubes
chime
At that time of the night
At that time of the night
Pretend you're off the hook with the telephone
Your confidence wounded in a free fire zone
Oh, at that time of the night
So if you ask me
Where do I go from here
My next destination even isn't really that clear
So if you join me and get on your knees and prey
I'll show you salvation
We'll take the alternative way
Clutching the short straw
If I had enough money I'd buy a round for that boy over there
A companion in my madness in the mirror the one with the silvery hair
And if some kind soul could please pick up my tab
And while they're at it if they could pick up my broken heart
Warm wet circles
Warm wet circles
Warm wet circles
4. GOING UNDER
Is it wrong to talk to myself even when there's nobody else
I'm just checking out that I'm not gone under the water
Thrown on the beach like a seal ready for slaughter
Can't you understand that the way things were planned
It never worked out so I just went crazy
I took to the drink, like something says its "maybe"
I ain't got no excuse and that's really the news
Got nothing else to say, that it's my way, it's always my way
I seem to be running away so often
I'll try anything once and that's the way we should be
But it's always the same getting caught up again in a habit
A habit I just can't shake off the way it always turned out
Can you understand it's the way I choose to be
Everything seems so easy this way but I'm going under fast
Slipping away
Am I so crazy
5. JUST FOR THE RECORD
Many's the time I've been thinking about changing my ways
But when it gets right down to it it's the same drunken haze
I'm serving a sentence to write life's sentences
It's only when I'm out of it I make sense of this
Just for the record I'm gonna put it down
Just for the record I'm gonna change my life around
Just a revolutionary with a pseudonym
Just a bar room dancer on my final fling
Just another writer paying off my dues
Just finding inspiration well that's my excuse
Just for the record I'm gonna put it down
Just for the record I'm gonna change my life around
Just another empty gesture with an empty glass
Just another comic actor behind a tragic mask
But I've got no discipline got no self control
Just a little less painful here when my back's against the wall
It's too late, I found, it's too far, I'm in two minds
Both of them are out of it at the bar
When you say I got a problem that's a certainty
But I can put it all right down to eccentricity
It's just for the record it's just a passing phase
Just for the record I can stop any day
6. WHITE RUSSIAN
Where do we go from here?
Where do we go from here, where do we go from here
Where do we go from here, where do we go from here
They boarded up the synagogues, Uzis on a street corner
You can't take a photograph of Uzis on a street corner
The DJ resigned today they wouldn't let him have
his say
Surface scratched where the needles play, Uzis on a street corner
Where do we go from here
Terror in Rue de St. Denis, murder on the periphery
Someone else in someone else's pocket
Christ knows I don't know how to stop it
Poppies at the cenotaph, the cynics can't afford to laugh
I heard in on the telegraph there's Uzis on a street corner
Where do we go from here, where do we go from here
The more I see, the more I hear, the more I find fewer answers
I close my mind, I shout it out but you know it's getting harder
To calm down, to reason out, to come to terms with what it's all about
I'm uptight, can't sleep at night, I can't pretend everything's all right
My ideals, my sanity, they seem to be deserting me
But to stand up and fight I know we have six million reasons
They're burning down the synagogues, Uzis on a street corner
The heralds of the holocaust, Uzis on a street corner
The silence never louder than now, how quickly we forgot our vows
This resurrection we can't allow, Uzis on a street corner
Where do we go from here, where do we go from here
We buy fresh bagels from the corner store
Where swastikas are spat from aerosols
I sit in the bar sipping iced White Russian
Trying to score but nobody's pushing
And everyone looks at everyone's faces
Searching for signs and praying for traces of a conscience in residence
Are we sitting on a barbed wire fence
Racing the clouds home, racing the clouds home
We place our faith in human rights
In the paper wars that tie the red tape tight
I know that I would rather be out of this conspiracy
In the gulags and internment camps frozen faces in nameless ranks
I know that they would rather be standing here besides me
Racing the clouds home, racing the clouds home
You can shut your eyes, you can hide it away it's gonna come back another day
Racing the clouds home, are we racing the clouds home
Racing the clouds home
7. INCOMMUNICADO
I'd be really pleased to meet you if I could remember your name
But I got problems of the memory ever since I got a winner in the fame game
I'm a citizen of Legoland travellin' incommunicado
And I don't give a damn for the Fleet Street aficionados
But I don't want to be the back-page interview
I don't want launderette anonymity
I want my hand prints in the concrete on Sunset Boulevard
A dummy in Tussaud's you'll see
Incommunicado, incommunicado
I'm a Marquee veteran, a multimedia bona fide celebrity
I've got an allergy to Perrier, daylight and responsibility
I'm a rootin'-tootin' cowboy, the Peter Pan, the street credibility
Always taking the point with the dawn patrol fraternity
Sometimes it seems like I've been here before
When I hear opportunity kicking in my door
Call it synchronicity call it deja vu
I just put my faith in destiny - it's the way that I choose
But I don't want to be a tin can tied
To the bumper of a wedding limousine
Or currently residing in the where are they now file
A toupee on the cabaret scene
I want to do adverts for American Express cards
Talk shows on prime time TV
A villa in France, my own cocktail bar
And that's where you're gonna find me
Incommunicado, incommunicado
Sometimes it seems like I've been here before
When I hear opportunity kicking in my door
Call it synchronicity call it deja vu
I just put my faith in destiny - it's the way that I choose
Incommunicado, incommunicado
It's the only way
8. TORCH SONG
Read some Kerouac and it put me on the tracks to burn a little brighter now
Something about roman candles fizzing out, shine a little light on me now
Found a strange fascination with a liquid fixation, alcohol can thrill me now
It's getting late in the game to show any pride or shame
I just burn a little brighter now, burn a little brighter now
Doctor says my liver looks like leaving with my lover, need another time-out now
Like any sort of hero turning down to zero still standing out in any crowd
Pulling seventeen with experience and dreams, sweating out a happy hour
Where you're hiding 29 you know it ain't a crime
To burn a little brighter now, burn a little brighter now
Dr. Finlay: "And my advice is if you maintain this lifestyle you won't reach 30"
Torch: "Christ - it's a romantic way to go really, it's part of the heritage, it's your round i'n'it?"
We burn a little brighter now
Read some Kerouac and it put me on the tracks to burn a little brighter now
It was something about roman candles fizzing out, shine a little light on me now
Found a strange fascination with a liquid fixation, alcohol thrill me now
Getting late in the game to show any pride or shame
Burn a little brighter now, we burn a little brighter now
We burn a little brighter now
9. SLAINTE MHATH
A hand held over a candle in angst fuelled bravado
A carbon trail scores a moist stretched palm
Trapped in the indecision of another fine menu
And you sit there and ask me to tell you the story so far
This is the story so far
Shuffling your memories dealing your doodles in margins
You scrawl out your poems across a beer mat or two
And when you declare the point of grave creation
They turn round and you to tell them the story so far
This is the story so far
And you listen with a tear in you eye
To their hopes and betrayals and your only reply
Is Slainte Mhath
Princes in exile raising the standard Drambuie
Parading their anecdotes tired from old campaigns
Holding their own last orders commanding attention
We sit here and listen to all of the story so far
This is the story so far
Take it away, take it away, take it away
Take me away, take me away, take me away
From the dream on the barbed wire at Flanders and Bilston Glen
From a Clydeside that rusts from the tears of its broken men
From the realisation that we've been left behind
Is to stand like our fathers before us in the firing line
Waiting on the whistle to blow
We stand here waiting on the whistle to blow
They promised us miracles, and the whistle still blows
Broken promises but the whistle still blows
Waiting on the whistle to blow
We stand here waiting on the whistle to blow
10. SUGAR MICE
I was flicking through the channels on the TV
On a Sunday in Milwaukee in the rain
Trying to piece together conversations
Trying to find out where to lay the blame
But when it comes right down to it there's no use trying to pretend
For when it gets right down to it there's no one here that's left to blame
Blame it on me, you can blame it on me
We're just sugar mice in the rain
I heard Sinatra calling me through the floorboards
Where you pay a quarter for a partnership in rhyme
To the jukebox crying in the corner
While the waitress is counting out the time
For when it comes right down to it there's no use trying to pretend
For when it gets right down to it there's no one really left to blame
Blame it on me, you can blame it on me
We're just sugar mice in the rain
'Cos I know what I feel, know what I want I know what I am
Daddy took a rain check
' Cos I know what I want, know what I feel I know what I need
Daddy took a rain check, your daddy took a rain check
Ain't no one in here that's left to blame but me
Blame it on me, blame it on me
Well the toughest thing that I ever did was talk to the kids on the phone
When I heard them asking questions I knew that you were all alone
Can't you understand that the government left me out of work
I just couldn't stand the looks on their faces saying, "What a jerk"
So if you want my address it's number one at the end of the bar
Where I sit with the broken angels clutching at straws and nursing our scars
Blame it on me, blame it on me
Sugar mice in the rain, your daddy took a rain check
11. THE LAST STRAW : HAPPY ENDING
Hotel hobbies padding dawns hollow corridors
A typewriter cackles out a stream of memories
Drying out a conscience, evicting a nightmare
Opening the doors for the dreams to come home
We live out lives in private shells
Ignore our senses and fool ourselves
To thinking that out there there's someone else cares
Someone to answer all our prayers...
Are we too far gone, are we so irresponsible
Have we lost our balls, or do we just not care
We're terminal cases that keep talking medicine
Pretending the end isn't quite that near
We make futile gestures, act to the cameras
With our made up faces and PR smiles
And when the angel comes down, down to deliver us
We'll find out that after all, we're only men of straw
But everything is still the same
Passing the time passing the blame
We carry on in the same old way
We'll find out we left it too late one day to say what we meant to say
Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the water
Those problems seem to arise the ones you never really thought of
The feeling you get is similar to something like drowning
Out of your mind, you're out of your depth, you should have taken soundings
Clutching at straws, we're clutching at straws
And if you ever come across us don't give us your sympathy
You can buy us a drink and just shake our hands
And you'll recognise by the reflection in our eyes
That deep down inside we're all one and the same
We're clutching at straws
We're still drowning
Clutching at straws
DISC 2 (BONUS VERSION REMASTÉRISÉE)
1. INCOMMUNICADO (ALTERNATE VERSION)
I'd be really pleased to meet you
If only, I could remember your name
But I got problems of the memory
Ever since, I got a winner in the fame game
I'm a citizen of Legoland travelling incommunicado
And I don't give a damn, for the Fleet Street afficionados
But I don't want to be, the back page interview
I don't want launderette anonymity
I want my handprints in the concrete on Sunset Boulevard
A dummy in Tussauds, you'll see
Incommunicado, incommunicado
Incommunicado, incommunicado
I'm a marquee veteran, a multi-media bonafide celebrity
I've got an allergy to Perrier, daylight responsibility
I'm a rooting tooting cowboy, a Peter Pan with street credibility
Always taking the point with the dawn patrol fraternity
Sometimes it seems like, I've been here before
When I hear, opportunity kicking in my door
Call it synchronicity, call it 'Deja Vu'
I just put my faith in destiny, it's the way that I choose
But I don't want to be a tin can tied to the bumper of a wedding limousine
Or currently residing in the where are they now file, a toupet on the cabaret scene
I want to do adverts for American Express cards, talk shows on prime time TV
A villa in France, my own cocktail bar and that's where you're gonna find me
Incommunicado, incommunicado, incommunicado, incommunicado
Sometimes it seems like I've been here before when I hear opportunity kicking in my door
Call it synchronicity call it Deja Vu I just put my faith in destiny -- it's the way that I Choose
Incommunicado, incommunicado, incommunicado, incommunicado
It's the only way
Incommunicado, incommunicado, incommunicado, incommunicado
2. TUX ON
Tux on, tux on, tux on, tux on, tux on
He has eyes down at the bingo on that lucky friday night
The match was rained off Saturday but the panel came in bright
And on Sunday your mates were toasting you with champagne down the pub
And on Monday you went to London to pick the cheque up with your mum
You had a tux on, mmm, you had a tux on
The first time you had a tux on, lucky man
There's a photo on the mantlepiece, when you bought your first guitar
And your girlfriend came to see you when you were the rising star
You knew your luck was holding when you filled the local hall
The first time and the last time that you thought you had control
You had a tux on, lucky man, you had a tux on
You got a tux on, tux on
Now you're touring stadiums, you've let it go too far
Standing with your manager, your back to every bar
Blurning all your credit cards, chopping out the pain
Crowding into toilets with a host of your new-found friends
You got a tux on, nothing's changed, you got a tux on
Lucky man with a tux on, you're still the same with a tux on
It was eyes down in the parlour, they prayed it wouldn't rain
A brother pulled his cuffs down to hide the blue-black vein
His razor'd more than lines out, they found him just too late
The final performance, the main man lies in state
With a tux on, look at him now with a tux on
The last time with a tux on, take him away with a tux on
Somewhere in a tenement, in a well-thumbed magazine
Someone finds a photograph that triggers of a dream
The uniform that symbolizes the comfortable life
He's always known his luck's in but now he's found the drive
He's got a tux on, look at him now with a tux on
He's gonna get one with a tux on, free admission with a tux on
Get it anyway with a tux on
He's got a tux on the easy way with a tux on, tux on, tux on, tux on
3. GOING UNDER (SINGLE VERSION)
(See lyrics on track 4 disc 1)
4. BEAUJOLAIS DAY
I went to Morisson's grave at Pere Lachaise cemetery
The stony flowers and the matching graffiti were guiding me
To the steps inside of me
And what would you do if I got down on my knees to you
What would you do if I lied to your face
Could you still hold your dreams
Could you live with your silent face
So what would you do would you walk right through me
Would you stand in the way like the others before
Get in the way
Would you drink to me next Beaujolais day
Tell me the truth save a prayer for me
I would love to leave you but you would cry all night long
Eternal romantic victory failed on Beaujolais day
I heard a wheelchair whisper across a stale silent gymnasium
Trailing an ivy league jacket like a matador
Through the jitterbug steps of the night before
Through the chalk white chill and the tear fandango
Heading away to the inner wrangle
Do we cry for a cell
Do we need for a cell
What would you do would you cry for me
Could you set off ... could we go gently
Blame it away
Do you really want to head for the open door
Got to crack a bottle while you dream for me
Just an absent friend and a misery
Laying awake do we stay right there
'Till Beaujolais day
On Beaujolais day
So what would you do would you lie to me
Would you sit right back in a victory
Would you play for me
Could you die for me
So what would you do would you walk right through me
Heading away saying it's just another victory
This is Beaujolais day
5. STORY FROM A THIN WALL
I heard the battle raging on the other side of the wall
Buried my head in a pillow and tried to ignore it all
Every night when I hear you I dream of breaking down your door
An avenging knight in shining armour to rescue you from it all
From the family business
When I see you in the supermarket
With sunglasses in the shade
Averting your eyes from the staring questions
How were those bruises made
It's family business
Children clutching to your legs
They've got so much they want to say
But daddy's sitting home drunk again
So they bite their lips and pray
And daddy don't like no strangers prying
And noses in his private affairs
And if anyone asks from the social
Well you fell down the stairs
It's family business
So I'll become an accessory
And I don't have an alibi
To the victim lying on my doorstep
The only way I could justify
It's family business
'Cos every day it's getting harder
Try to see to go away
To all the people that surround you
You have to sit down and explain
To be the writing on the wall inside
To be the pledge you call your own
And if you run into the day
You sure you know you'll find a home
You sure you know you'll find a home
The traffic lights shine upon
... And the broken home
Everyone could be so far away
... And the white lines lead the way
The writing on the wall
They're carving out the martyrs
Could've been the same this way
Could've been the same this way
Tell them I'm the same today
We could have been much younger
It could have been much longer
Until the real time
Too far
You run away today
Tomorrow
You take away the time
You took away a mind
Something to the light she said
Everyone's burning
We could have been much younger
6. SHADOWS ON THE BARLEY
Storm clouds cruising cross the blue skies
Shadows float across the fields of barley
I find myself an island in an island
I have to sort things out just my way
And all I find is my bar
To laugh to me I say
Like all you know is true
Is for every time we know it's mine
I saw clouds cruise floating cross the blue sky
Shadows float across the fields of barley
Hero down the right ... way
Everything will come out my way
Now I know, I see, I find
It's the only way I ever felt the way I do today
All I say, I play the game
I know I never could be sure of all the places that I've seen
Clouds cruising cross the blue skies
Shadows float across the fields of barley
Every self an island in an island
Working every problem out my way
Now I see, I feel, I know
It's the only way that anything could sort out to the way
I say you'll find it's out of mind
It's the only way I could have been
It's the only way I stand
Clouds cruise
Float upon the barley
7. SUNSET HILL
Everything to decide
It's time I came up with some answers before I can carry on
It's time I made my mind up before we can go along
And I thought it was so simple
And I knew that it could be so fine
I know that the places that everything comes
Rose beds scattered across the lawn
Like the squares at Waterloo
With the bayonets of thorns repelling
Small children in search of lost tennis balls
Seeing everything and giving their all
I used to be scared of heights
I used to get dizzy
I never felt safe with my feet on the ground
They said that up there the air would be clearer
They said more space and more room to breathe
Everything to the side
I knew that something would happen
It's better off than being alive
I knew the standards decline
I knew that we had to decide
All the places that all we'd ever seen
And the place that we thought about
And the road that you travel has never been seen
Rose beds scattered across the lawn
Like the squares of Waterloo
With the bayonets of thorns repelling
Small children in search of lost tennis balls
Giving everything and giving it all
I used to think everything was coming up roses
But I couldn't see the weeds that entangled my feet
I couldn't see the trees
'Cos my forest was burning
I couldn't see the bridges the fire in my eyes
They sold me the view from the hill
They sold me the view from the hill
They said that up there the air would be clearer
They said more space and more room to breathe
I used to be scared of heights
I used to get dizzy
They sold me the view from the hill
8. TIC-TAC-TOE
We are led by the light at the end of the tunnel
We are guided by the fires of our burning dreams
We're inspired by our ideals and driven by conscience
To cross what the cynics perceive as naive
We the people want it straight for a change
We the people are getting tired of your games
We the people want the answers laid out on the lines
No more of your cheap propaganda
And stop talking tic-tac-toe
We the people fight your arms dealers wars
We the people want our futures secure
We the people want a peace staying all the way
So cut out your message
And take all your talking tic-tac-toe
Everyone needs a symbol ...
If you don't know of the reason
Well how can you take a stand ...
You need to be sure
You need to return to an open ...
Take a lesson from me
Take a lesson from me
That children play tic-tac-toe
9. VOICE IN THE CROWD
There's something I have to tell you
Before it's too late
There's someone needs a timing
I could be the same
Got to listen to you clearly
Would you understand it all
Would you hold it all together
Do we run up in the bar
Everyone needs someone to listen to
If you don't want to shine on
Could you know it all
And if someone lay before you know it could be true
A voice in the crowd
You came upon an ...
Just an alibi
Did you have to go do it
To feel you want to try
If you'd only see the reason ...
Someone came, someone rose, someone left
I don't know if you could be sure
You don't understand
And if the days were good
You never know the way we planned
And if the time is there ...
A voice in the crowd
A voice in the crowd
10. EXILE ON PRINCES STREET
I saw a blue umbrella in Princes Street Garden
Heading out west for the Lothian Road
An evening news stuffed deep in the pocket
Little did I know that even a heavy load
I found us walking Grierson's dockyards
Where the only thing working was foreign film crews
Making an impressive documentary
For the big news
To the satellite
And all we're left with is the black black oil
With a sense of pride and identity
The waters left behind we shouldn't forget
Laid low in the books of history
I saw the starlings wheel round Georgian spires
Gathering on patrol in the skies
In the distance burns the flame of Grangemouth
And the dream is lost
Everything what it could inspire
From the take you know there is no distance
How we talk about in the secret affairs
Taking our ride into the distance
To be what it was or could have been
What I should have said
And all we're left with is the black black oil
With a strong sense of national pride
'Till we take some more steps to unity
Take it back to me
Take it back
In a city run out of luck
And all we're left with is the black, black oil
With a strong sense of national pride
Calling the ... for identity
What it meant to me, what I said
What we could have had
I saw a blue umbrella in Princes Street Garden
Heading out west for the Lothian Road
An evening news stuck deep in the pocket
Little did I know that he'd fall
Carrying a heavy load
And all we're left with is the black black oil
With a strong sense of national pride
Calling a name in the sake of unity
What it means to me you'll never know
You'll never know
I see myself forced in servant exile
Turning around at another's command
All I want to see is identity
What I could have been
What I did
Could have been
Internal exile
Internal exile
11. SUGAR MICE IN THE RAIN
(See lyrics on track 10 disc 1)
1. HOTEL HOBBIES
Hotel hobbies padding dawns hollow corridors
Bell boys checking out the hookers in the bar
Slug-like fingers trace the star-spangled clouds of cocaine on the mirror
The short straw took its bow
The tell tale tocking of the last cigarette
Marking time in the packet as the whisky sweat
Lies like discarded armour on an unmade bed
And a familiar craving is crawling in his head
And the only sign of life is the ticking of the pen
Introducing characters to memories like old friends
Frantic as a cardiograph scratching out the lines
A fever of confession a catalogue of crime in happy hour
Do you cry in happy hour, do you hide in happy hour
The pilgrimage to happy hour
New shadows tugging at the corner of his eye
Jostling for attention as the sunlight flares
Through a curtains tear, shuffling its beams
As if in nervous anticipation of another day
2. WARM WET CIRCLES
On promenades where drunks propose to lonely arcade mannequins
Where ceremonies pause at the jeweler's shop display
Feigning casual silence in strained romantic interludes
Till they commit themselves to the muted journey home
And the pool player rests on another cue
Last nights hero picking up his dues
A honeymoon gambled on a ricochet
She's staring at the brochures at the holidays
Chalking up a name in your hometown
Standing all your mates to another round
Laughing at the world till the barman wipes away the warm wet circles
The warm wet circles
I saw teenage girls like gaudy moths
A classroom's shabby butterflies
Flirt in the glow of stranded telephone boxes
Planning white lace weddings from smeared hearts and token proclamations
Rolled from stolen lipsticks across the razored webs of glass
Sharing cigarettes with experience with her giggling jealous confidantes
She faithfully traces his name with quick bitten fingernails
Through the tears of condensation that'll cry through the night
As the glancing headlights of the last bus kiss adolescence goodbye
In a warm wet circle
Like a mothers kiss on your first broken heart, a warm wet circle
Like a bullet hole in Central Park, a warm wet circle
And I'll always surrender to the warm wet circles
She nervously undressed in the dancing beams of the Fidra lighthouse
Giving it all away before it's too late
She'll let a lovers tongue move in a warm wet circle
Giving it all away and showing no shame
She'll take a mother's kiss on her first broken heart a warm wet circle
She'll realise that she played her part in a warm wet circle
It was a wedding ring
Destined to be found in a cheap hotel
Lost in a kitchen sink or thrown in a wishing well
3. THAT TIME OF THE NIGHT
At that time of the night
When streetlights throw crosses through window frames
Paranoia roams where the shadows reign
Oh, at that time of the night
At that time of the night
Your senses tangled in some new perfume
Criticism triggers of a loaded room
Oh, at that time of the night
So if you ask me
How do I feel inside
I could honestly tell you
We've been taken on a very long ride
And if my owners let me have some free time some day
With all good intention I would probably run away
Clutching the short straw
At that time of the night
When questions rally in an open mind
Summon all your answers with an ice cubes
chime
At that time of the night
At that time of the night
Pretend you're off the hook with the telephone
Your confidence wounded in a free fire zone
Oh, at that time of the night
So if you ask me
Where do I go from here
My next destination even isn't really that clear
So if you join me and get on your knees and prey
I'll show you salvation
We'll take the alternative way
Clutching the short straw
If I had enough money I'd buy a round for that boy over there
A companion in my madness in the mirror the one with the silvery hair
And if some kind soul could please pick up my tab
And while they're at it if they could pick up my broken heart
Warm wet circles
Warm wet circles
Warm wet circles
4. GOING UNDER
Is it wrong to talk to myself even when there's nobody else
I'm just checking out that I'm not gone under the water
Thrown on the beach like a seal ready for slaughter
Can't you understand that the way things were planned
It never worked out so I just went crazy
I took to the drink, like something says its "maybe"
I ain't got no excuse and that's really the news
Got nothing else to say, that it's my way, it's always my way
I seem to be running away so often
I'll try anything once and that's the way we should be
But it's always the same getting caught up again in a habit
A habit I just can't shake off the way it always turned out
Can you understand it's the way I choose to be
Everything seems so easy this way but I'm going under fast
Slipping away
Am I so crazy
5. JUST FOR THE RECORD
Many's the time I've been thinking about changing my ways
But when it gets right down to it it's the same drunken haze
I'm serving a sentence to write life's sentences
It's only when I'm out of it I make sense of this
Just for the record I'm gonna put it down
Just for the record I'm gonna change my life around
Just a revolutionary with a pseudonym
Just a bar room dancer on my final fling
Just another writer paying off my dues
Just finding inspiration well that's my excuse
Just for the record I'm gonna put it down
Just for the record I'm gonna change my life around
Just another empty gesture with an empty glass
Just another comic actor behind a tragic mask
But I've got no discipline got no self control
Just a little less painful here when my back's against the wall
It's too late, I found, it's too far, I'm in two minds
Both of them are out of it at the bar
When you say I got a problem that's a certainty
But I can put it all right down to eccentricity
It's just for the record it's just a passing phase
Just for the record I can stop any day
6. WHITE RUSSIAN
Where do we go from here?
Where do we go from here, where do we go from here
Where do we go from here, where do we go from here
They boarded up the synagogues, Uzis on a street corner
You can't take a photograph of Uzis on a street corner
The DJ resigned today they wouldn't let him have
his say
Surface scratched where the needles play, Uzis on a street corner
Where do we go from here
Terror in Rue de St. Denis, murder on the periphery
Someone else in someone else's pocket
Christ knows I don't know how to stop it
Poppies at the cenotaph, the cynics can't afford to laugh
I heard in on the telegraph there's Uzis on a street corner
Where do we go from here, where do we go from here
The more I see, the more I hear, the more I find fewer answers
I close my mind, I shout it out but you know it's getting harder
To calm down, to reason out, to come to terms with what it's all about
I'm uptight, can't sleep at night, I can't pretend everything's all right
My ideals, my sanity, they seem to be deserting me
But to stand up and fight I know we have six million reasons
They're burning down the synagogues, Uzis on a street corner
The heralds of the holocaust, Uzis on a street corner
The silence never louder than now, how quickly we forgot our vows
This resurrection we can't allow, Uzis on a street corner
Where do we go from here, where do we go from here
We buy fresh bagels from the corner store
Where swastikas are spat from aerosols
I sit in the bar sipping iced White Russian
Trying to score but nobody's pushing
And everyone looks at everyone's faces
Searching for signs and praying for traces of a conscience in residence
Are we sitting on a barbed wire fence
Racing the clouds home, racing the clouds home
We place our faith in human rights
In the paper wars that tie the red tape tight
I know that I would rather be out of this conspiracy
In the gulags and internment camps frozen faces in nameless ranks
I know that they would rather be standing here besides me
Racing the clouds home, racing the clouds home
You can shut your eyes, you can hide it away it's gonna come back another day
Racing the clouds home, are we racing the clouds home
Racing the clouds home
7. INCOMMUNICADO
I'd be really pleased to meet you if I could remember your name
But I got problems of the memory ever since I got a winner in the fame game
I'm a citizen of Legoland travellin' incommunicado
And I don't give a damn for the Fleet Street aficionados
But I don't want to be the back-page interview
I don't want launderette anonymity
I want my hand prints in the concrete on Sunset Boulevard
A dummy in Tussaud's you'll see
Incommunicado, incommunicado
I'm a Marquee veteran, a multimedia bona fide celebrity
I've got an allergy to Perrier, daylight and responsibility
I'm a rootin'-tootin' cowboy, the Peter Pan, the street credibility
Always taking the point with the dawn patrol fraternity
Sometimes it seems like I've been here before
When I hear opportunity kicking in my door
Call it synchronicity call it deja vu
I just put my faith in destiny - it's the way that I choose
But I don't want to be a tin can tied
To the bumper of a wedding limousine
Or currently residing in the where are they now file
A toupee on the cabaret scene
I want to do adverts for American Express cards
Talk shows on prime time TV
A villa in France, my own cocktail bar
And that's where you're gonna find me
Incommunicado, incommunicado
Sometimes it seems like I've been here before
When I hear opportunity kicking in my door
Call it synchronicity call it deja vu
I just put my faith in destiny - it's the way that I choose
Incommunicado, incommunicado
It's the only way
8. TORCH SONG
Read some Kerouac and it put me on the tracks to burn a little brighter now
Something about roman candles fizzing out, shine a little light on me now
Found a strange fascination with a liquid fixation, alcohol can thrill me now
It's getting late in the game to show any pride or shame
I just burn a little brighter now, burn a little brighter now
Doctor says my liver looks like leaving with my lover, need another time-out now
Like any sort of hero turning down to zero still standing out in any crowd
Pulling seventeen with experience and dreams, sweating out a happy hour
Where you're hiding 29 you know it ain't a crime
To burn a little brighter now, burn a little brighter now
Dr. Finlay: "And my advice is if you maintain this lifestyle you won't reach 30"
Torch: "Christ - it's a romantic way to go really, it's part of the heritage, it's your round i'n'it?"
We burn a little brighter now
Read some Kerouac and it put me on the tracks to burn a little brighter now
It was something about roman candles fizzing out, shine a little light on me now
Found a strange fascination with a liquid fixation, alcohol thrill me now
Getting late in the game to show any pride or shame
Burn a little brighter now, we burn a little brighter now
We burn a little brighter now
9. SLAINTE MHATH
A hand held over a candle in angst fuelled bravado
A carbon trail scores a moist stretched palm
Trapped in the indecision of another fine menu
And you sit there and ask me to tell you the story so far
This is the story so far
Shuffling your memories dealing your doodles in margins
You scrawl out your poems across a beer mat or two
And when you declare the point of grave creation
They turn round and you to tell them the story so far
This is the story so far
And you listen with a tear in you eye
To their hopes and betrayals and your only reply
Is Slainte Mhath
Princes in exile raising the standard Drambuie
Parading their anecdotes tired from old campaigns
Holding their own last orders commanding attention
We sit here and listen to all of the story so far
This is the story so far
Take it away, take it away, take it away
Take me away, take me away, take me away
From the dream on the barbed wire at Flanders and Bilston Glen
From a Clydeside that rusts from the tears of its broken men
From the realisation that we've been left behind
Is to stand like our fathers before us in the firing line
Waiting on the whistle to blow
We stand here waiting on the whistle to blow
They promised us miracles, and the whistle still blows
Broken promises but the whistle still blows
Waiting on the whistle to blow
We stand here waiting on the whistle to blow
10. SUGAR MICE
I was flicking through the channels on the TV
On a Sunday in Milwaukee in the rain
Trying to piece together conversations
Trying to find out where to lay the blame
But when it comes right down to it there's no use trying to pretend
For when it gets right down to it there's no one here that's left to blame
Blame it on me, you can blame it on me
We're just sugar mice in the rain
I heard Sinatra calling me through the floorboards
Where you pay a quarter for a partnership in rhyme
To the jukebox crying in the corner
While the waitress is counting out the time
For when it comes right down to it there's no use trying to pretend
For when it gets right down to it there's no one really left to blame
Blame it on me, you can blame it on me
We're just sugar mice in the rain
'Cos I know what I feel, know what I want I know what I am
Daddy took a rain check
' Cos I know what I want, know what I feel I know what I need
Daddy took a rain check, your daddy took a rain check
Ain't no one in here that's left to blame but me
Blame it on me, blame it on me
Well the toughest thing that I ever did was talk to the kids on the phone
When I heard them asking questions I knew that you were all alone
Can't you understand that the government left me out of work
I just couldn't stand the looks on their faces saying, "What a jerk"
So if you want my address it's number one at the end of the bar
Where I sit with the broken angels clutching at straws and nursing our scars
Blame it on me, blame it on me
Sugar mice in the rain, your daddy took a rain check
11. THE LAST STRAW : HAPPY ENDING
Hotel hobbies padding dawns hollow corridors
A typewriter cackles out a stream of memories
Drying out a conscience, evicting a nightmare
Opening the doors for the dreams to come home
We live out lives in private shells
Ignore our senses and fool ourselves
To thinking that out there there's someone else cares
Someone to answer all our prayers...
Are we too far gone, are we so irresponsible
Have we lost our balls, or do we just not care
We're terminal cases that keep talking medicine
Pretending the end isn't quite that near
We make futile gestures, act to the cameras
With our made up faces and PR smiles
And when the angel comes down, down to deliver us
We'll find out that after all, we're only men of straw
But everything is still the same
Passing the time passing the blame
We carry on in the same old way
We'll find out we left it too late one day to say what we meant to say
Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the water
Those problems seem to arise the ones you never really thought of
The feeling you get is similar to something like drowning
Out of your mind, you're out of your depth, you should have taken soundings
Clutching at straws, we're clutching at straws
And if you ever come across us don't give us your sympathy
You can buy us a drink and just shake our hands
And you'll recognise by the reflection in our eyes
That deep down inside we're all one and the same
We're clutching at straws
We're still drowning
Clutching at straws
DISC 2 (BONUS VERSION REMASTÉRISÉE)
1. INCOMMUNICADO (ALTERNATE VERSION)
I'd be really pleased to meet you
If only, I could remember your name
But I got problems of the memory
Ever since, I got a winner in the fame game
I'm a citizen of Legoland travelling incommunicado
And I don't give a damn, for the Fleet Street afficionados
But I don't want to be, the back page interview
I don't want launderette anonymity
I want my handprints in the concrete on Sunset Boulevard
A dummy in Tussauds, you'll see
Incommunicado, incommunicado
Incommunicado, incommunicado
I'm a marquee veteran, a multi-media bonafide celebrity
I've got an allergy to Perrier, daylight responsibility
I'm a rooting tooting cowboy, a Peter Pan with street credibility
Always taking the point with the dawn patrol fraternity
Sometimes it seems like, I've been here before
When I hear, opportunity kicking in my door
Call it synchronicity, call it 'Deja Vu'
I just put my faith in destiny, it's the way that I choose
But I don't want to be a tin can tied to the bumper of a wedding limousine
Or currently residing in the where are they now file, a toupet on the cabaret scene
I want to do adverts for American Express cards, talk shows on prime time TV
A villa in France, my own cocktail bar and that's where you're gonna find me
Incommunicado, incommunicado, incommunicado, incommunicado
Sometimes it seems like I've been here before when I hear opportunity kicking in my door
Call it synchronicity call it Deja Vu I just put my faith in destiny -- it's the way that I Choose
Incommunicado, incommunicado, incommunicado, incommunicado
It's the only way
Incommunicado, incommunicado, incommunicado, incommunicado
2. TUX ON
Tux on, tux on, tux on, tux on, tux on
He has eyes down at the bingo on that lucky friday night
The match was rained off Saturday but the panel came in bright
And on Sunday your mates were toasting you with champagne down the pub
And on Monday you went to London to pick the cheque up with your mum
You had a tux on, mmm, you had a tux on
The first time you had a tux on, lucky man
There's a photo on the mantlepiece, when you bought your first guitar
And your girlfriend came to see you when you were the rising star
You knew your luck was holding when you filled the local hall
The first time and the last time that you thought you had control
You had a tux on, lucky man, you had a tux on
You got a tux on, tux on
Now you're touring stadiums, you've let it go too far
Standing with your manager, your back to every bar
Blurning all your credit cards, chopping out the pain
Crowding into toilets with a host of your new-found friends
You got a tux on, nothing's changed, you got a tux on
Lucky man with a tux on, you're still the same with a tux on
It was eyes down in the parlour, they prayed it wouldn't rain
A brother pulled his cuffs down to hide the blue-black vein
His razor'd more than lines out, they found him just too late
The final performance, the main man lies in state
With a tux on, look at him now with a tux on
The last time with a tux on, take him away with a tux on
Somewhere in a tenement, in a well-thumbed magazine
Someone finds a photograph that triggers of a dream
The uniform that symbolizes the comfortable life
He's always known his luck's in but now he's found the drive
He's got a tux on, look at him now with a tux on
He's gonna get one with a tux on, free admission with a tux on
Get it anyway with a tux on
He's got a tux on the easy way with a tux on, tux on, tux on, tux on
3. GOING UNDER (SINGLE VERSION)
(See lyrics on track 4 disc 1)
4. BEAUJOLAIS DAY
I went to Morisson's grave at Pere Lachaise cemetery
The stony flowers and the matching graffiti were guiding me
To the steps inside of me
And what would you do if I got down on my knees to you
What would you do if I lied to your face
Could you still hold your dreams
Could you live with your silent face
So what would you do would you walk right through me
Would you stand in the way like the others before
Get in the way
Would you drink to me next Beaujolais day
Tell me the truth save a prayer for me
I would love to leave you but you would cry all night long
Eternal romantic victory failed on Beaujolais day
I heard a wheelchair whisper across a stale silent gymnasium
Trailing an ivy league jacket like a matador
Through the jitterbug steps of the night before
Through the chalk white chill and the tear fandango
Heading away to the inner wrangle
Do we cry for a cell
Do we need for a cell
What would you do would you cry for me
Could you set off ... could we go gently
Blame it away
Do you really want to head for the open door
Got to crack a bottle while you dream for me
Just an absent friend and a misery
Laying awake do we stay right there
'Till Beaujolais day
On Beaujolais day
So what would you do would you lie to me
Would you sit right back in a victory
Would you play for me
Could you die for me
So what would you do would you walk right through me
Heading away saying it's just another victory
This is Beaujolais day
5. STORY FROM A THIN WALL
I heard the battle raging on the other side of the wall
Buried my head in a pillow and tried to ignore it all
Every night when I hear you I dream of breaking down your door
An avenging knight in shining armour to rescue you from it all
From the family business
When I see you in the supermarket
With sunglasses in the shade
Averting your eyes from the staring questions
How were those bruises made
It's family business
Children clutching to your legs
They've got so much they want to say
But daddy's sitting home drunk again
So they bite their lips and pray
And daddy don't like no strangers prying
And noses in his private affairs
And if anyone asks from the social
Well you fell down the stairs
It's family business
So I'll become an accessory
And I don't have an alibi
To the victim lying on my doorstep
The only way I could justify
It's family business
'Cos every day it's getting harder
Try to see to go away
To all the people that surround you
You have to sit down and explain
To be the writing on the wall inside
To be the pledge you call your own
And if you run into the day
You sure you know you'll find a home
You sure you know you'll find a home
The traffic lights shine upon
... And the broken home
Everyone could be so far away
... And the white lines lead the way
The writing on the wall
They're carving out the martyrs
Could've been the same this way
Could've been the same this way
Tell them I'm the same today
We could have been much younger
It could have been much longer
Until the real time
Too far
You run away today
Tomorrow
You take away the time
You took away a mind
Something to the light she said
Everyone's burning
We could have been much younger
6. SHADOWS ON THE BARLEY
Storm clouds cruising cross the blue skies
Shadows float across the fields of barley
I find myself an island in an island
I have to sort things out just my way
And all I find is my bar
To laugh to me I say
Like all you know is true
Is for every time we know it's mine
I saw clouds cruise floating cross the blue sky
Shadows float across the fields of barley
Hero down the right ... way
Everything will come out my way
Now I know, I see, I find
It's the only way I ever felt the way I do today
All I say, I play the game
I know I never could be sure of all the places that I've seen
Clouds cruising cross the blue skies
Shadows float across the fields of barley
Every self an island in an island
Working every problem out my way
Now I see, I feel, I know
It's the only way that anything could sort out to the way
I say you'll find it's out of mind
It's the only way I could have been
It's the only way I stand
Clouds cruise
Float upon the barley
7. SUNSET HILL
Everything to decide
It's time I came up with some answers before I can carry on
It's time I made my mind up before we can go along
And I thought it was so simple
And I knew that it could be so fine
I know that the places that everything comes
Rose beds scattered across the lawn
Like the squares at Waterloo
With the bayonets of thorns repelling
Small children in search of lost tennis balls
Seeing everything and giving their all
I used to be scared of heights
I used to get dizzy
I never felt safe with my feet on the ground
They said that up there the air would be clearer
They said more space and more room to breathe
Everything to the side
I knew that something would happen
It's better off than being alive
I knew the standards decline
I knew that we had to decide
All the places that all we'd ever seen
And the place that we thought about
And the road that you travel has never been seen
Rose beds scattered across the lawn
Like the squares of Waterloo
With the bayonets of thorns repelling
Small children in search of lost tennis balls
Giving everything and giving it all
I used to think everything was coming up roses
But I couldn't see the weeds that entangled my feet
I couldn't see the trees
'Cos my forest was burning
I couldn't see the bridges the fire in my eyes
They sold me the view from the hill
They sold me the view from the hill
They said that up there the air would be clearer
They said more space and more room to breathe
I used to be scared of heights
I used to get dizzy
They sold me the view from the hill
8. TIC-TAC-TOE
We are led by the light at the end of the tunnel
We are guided by the fires of our burning dreams
We're inspired by our ideals and driven by conscience
To cross what the cynics perceive as naive
We the people want it straight for a change
We the people are getting tired of your games
We the people want the answers laid out on the lines
No more of your cheap propaganda
And stop talking tic-tac-toe
We the people fight your arms dealers wars
We the people want our futures secure
We the people want a peace staying all the way
So cut out your message
And take all your talking tic-tac-toe
Everyone needs a symbol ...
If you don't know of the reason
Well how can you take a stand ...
You need to be sure
You need to return to an open ...
Take a lesson from me
Take a lesson from me
That children play tic-tac-toe
9. VOICE IN THE CROWD
There's something I have to tell you
Before it's too late
There's someone needs a timing
I could be the same
Got to listen to you clearly
Would you understand it all
Would you hold it all together
Do we run up in the bar
Everyone needs someone to listen to
If you don't want to shine on
Could you know it all
And if someone lay before you know it could be true
A voice in the crowd
You came upon an ...
Just an alibi
Did you have to go do it
To feel you want to try
If you'd only see the reason ...
Someone came, someone rose, someone left
I don't know if you could be sure
You don't understand
And if the days were good
You never know the way we planned
And if the time is there ...
A voice in the crowd
A voice in the crowd
10. EXILE ON PRINCES STREET
I saw a blue umbrella in Princes Street Garden
Heading out west for the Lothian Road
An evening news stuffed deep in the pocket
Little did I know that even a heavy load
I found us walking Grierson's dockyards
Where the only thing working was foreign film crews
Making an impressive documentary
For the big news
To the satellite
And all we're left with is the black black oil
With a sense of pride and identity
The waters left behind we shouldn't forget
Laid low in the books of history
I saw the starlings wheel round Georgian spires
Gathering on patrol in the skies
In the distance burns the flame of Grangemouth
And the dream is lost
Everything what it could inspire
From the take you know there is no distance
How we talk about in the secret affairs
Taking our ride into the distance
To be what it was or could have been
What I should have said
And all we're left with is the black black oil
With a strong sense of national pride
'Till we take some more steps to unity
Take it back to me
Take it back
In a city run out of luck
And all we're left with is the black, black oil
With a strong sense of national pride
Calling the ... for identity
What it meant to me, what I said
What we could have had
I saw a blue umbrella in Princes Street Garden
Heading out west for the Lothian Road
An evening news stuck deep in the pocket
Little did I know that he'd fall
Carrying a heavy load
And all we're left with is the black black oil
With a strong sense of national pride
Calling a name in the sake of unity
What it means to me you'll never know
You'll never know
I see myself forced in servant exile
Turning around at another's command
All I want to see is identity
What I could have been
What I did
Could have been
Internal exile
Internal exile
11. SUGAR MICE IN THE RAIN
(See lyrics on track 10 disc 1)
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