1. |
Chinese whispers
03:48
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The Chinese whispers said: “things are going to change soon”.
But the words change meaning as they travel from room to room.
Even a scream of desperation will get lost in the translation, until a word or two takes you all the way from riches to ruin.
So tell it all, tell it all ... how he’s going to take another fall.
The Chinese whispers said: “it has to be some kind of a sign”.
But sometimes people only look for what they want to find. Even the simplest explanation gets complicated in translation until the long walk home ends with a crawl along the bottom line.
So tell it all, tell it all ... now you’re going to take another fall.
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2. |
Gathering Dust
04:09
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Your life seems aimless and you feel pretty useless, but you think that you’re blameless for the mess you’re in. When I met you, you were drunk in the kitchen, milking the crowd for applause, love and sympathy gone missing; your future ain’t what it was.
You’ll only talk about folk who never work it out; I guess that makes you feel better? And so you disappear behind another sneer - you’re going to look that way forever and ever.
Gathering the dust until the evening comes around,
gathering the dust until the evening comes around,
gathering the dust until somebody comes to turn the big light out.
There’s nothing that you value and nothing can excite you, so cheap laughs seem a little like a big reward. You’re stuck with an imagination that can’t imagine anything to do. But you know that life is still out there and everyone’s happier than you.
You’ll only talk about folk who never work it out; I guess that makes you feel better? And so you disappear behind another sneer - you’re going to look that way forever and ever.
Gathering the dust until the evening comes around,
gathering the dust until the evening comes around,
gathering the dust until somebody comes to turn the big light out.
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3. |
Reign of the stupid
03:12
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Let’s make a film we can show our friends; we don’t need a meaning, we’ll just pretend. We can mix up the middle, the intro and the end.
And once we’ve agreed it’s the greatest thing, we’ll give ourselves prizes and everything. Then when the show is over, we’ll start again.
I guess you’ve become somewhat blissfully dumb,
a position to which you are suited.
You can give it your best, but you’ll fail like the rest …
Learn to live through the reign of the stupid.
We’ve got a theory for everything,
just click and go play in the trafficking …
then open your mouth little one and keep swallowing.
Ten million monkeys with fingers poised
couldn’t give Humpty a better voice,
because it’s much ado about background noise.
I guess you’ve become somewhat blissfully dumb,
a position to which you are suited.
You can give it your best, but you’ll fail like the rest …
Learn to live through the reign of the stupid.
We have attractions to make you stay
Just let your brain take a holiday
We wouldn’t have it any other way
I guess you’ve become somewhat blissfully dumb,
a position to which you are suited.
You can give it your best, but you’ll fail like the rest …
Learn to live through the reign of the stupid.
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4. |
Less than nothing
03:46
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In the countdown to the end, you think you’ll achieve survival lording it over your friends, a step ahead of all your arrivals. But this is how the story goes: every life’s a brief exhibit, and if you had a brain you’d know that if you blink you might just miss it.
Get a grip, face the facts, turn around and do something.
Just grow up … don’t you see that all this means less than nothing?
Every man will have his vice and every priest believes in voodoo. What’s the point when you know the price, but you don’t have a clue about the value?
Get a grip, face the facts, turn around and do something.
Just grow up … can’t you see that all this means less than nothing?
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5. |
After the tide
02:43
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There, on display: you and your brave face. If you called it a day, there would be no disgrace. Seems like everyone else knows what is best for you, as the pink and the green and the brown and the red turn to black and blue.
And you smile and you wave and you try to behave like you’re strong and you’re brave, as if you might win. But you’ll bend and you’ll break if the movements you make are all part of the fake after the tide comes in.
You’re working so hard for the perfect life as you’re playing the role of the perfect wife. But the weather will change whatever you do, then the pink and the green and the brown and the red become black and blue.
So you smile and you wave and you try to behave like you’re strong and you’re brave, as if you might win. But you’ll bend and you’ll break, if the movements you make are all part of the fake after the tide comes in.
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6. |
1969
06:17
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We held our breath to watch them go, a sense of wonderment and show, a signpost to the future don’t you know? Adventures would be infinite on interplanetary trips, the universe all at our fingertips.
I’d be some rocket billionaire, the champion of everywhere and nothing could be better to declare. But now I’m drunk and I’m depressed, a lecherous disheveled mess, trying more than I should to impress.
Because I am tethered to the ground, gravity can hold me down when I’ve lost the feeling things will all be fine. Do I overstate the deal that nothing else will make us feel like they made us feel in 1969?
We talked of this and maybe that, just some inconsequential chat; libido makes a willing diplomat. Then she said: “hey, before we go … I’m like totally y’know, so into this crazy TV show.”
But was there something that I missed, these superstars on the d-list with the kind of charm that’s easy to resist?
I said: “We went to the moon and now we’re watching these buffoons? Or honey ... maybe that’s inopportune?”
I am tethered to the ground, gravity can hold me down when I’ve lost the feeling things will all be fine. Do I overstate the deal that nothing else will make us feel like they made us feel in 1969?
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7. |
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One and one is two, two and two is four … it’s better to be rich than poor. “Talk is cheap” he said, “actions work instead … when you get some power, you’ll want more.”
Will heaven hold it’s breath as the great man chokes on his final sentence?
“I’ve cooked the books, but I’m damned if I’m going to taste all the consequences.”
Money can’t buy happiness, but it can buy the things that make you happy. If you don’t grab all that you want, you’ll get all you deserve and be unhappy … without the things that make you happy.
I won’t say this twice, we all have a price – problems don’t stay long with me. We’ll give the dog a bone, we’ll put it in a sack, we’ll drop it somewhere out at sea.
Will heaven clear a space for the great man to walk among his equals? I’ve made my peace, now I’ve done all that I can do for the little people.
Money can’t buy happiness, but it can buy the things that make you happy. If you don’t grab all that you want, you’ll get all you deserve and be unhappy … without the things that make you happy.
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8. |
Aggrodisiac
02:30
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Nothing against your argument – the pleasure might be heaven sent, but I’ve no use for punishment and how it makes me feel. People-tying people tying people tied to crazy dreams of people-tying people tying people up for real.
Whatever happened to you then to make it so?
You need an aggrodisiac to make you go.
Some ugly men in uniforms got used to whipping up a storm, and now you want to do your turn and you say it’s no big deal.
There are people-tying people tying people tied to crazy dreams of people-tying people tying people up for real.
Whatever happened way back then to make it so?
You need an aggrodisiac to make you go.
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9. |
Being there
03:24
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Sick and tired of me; that’s the excuse, it will always be. Up in my balloon, feeling that maybe I was immune to all the crap around.
Thought I could fly, guess I was spellbound, because now I’ve found my fall is broken by the ground.
For the dream millionaire, Shangri-La is somewhere out of reach, never here … it could be anywhere. But should the sky ever fall, all I’ll need to recall is the thrill of it all, just being there.
Back when I was blind, what I was missing was well defined; always needing more, I was willfully dumb, now I know the score. This is how it goes: when you get caught by the undertow, you may find there’s no better place for you to go.
For the dream millionaire, Shangri-La is somewhere out of reach, never here … it could be anywhere. But should the sky ever fall, all I’ll need to recall is the thrill of it all, just being there.
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10. |
Miles until morning
02:41
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We can’t see a future, so we live in the past.
And we talk about something, as if something will last
if we keep it alive in our heads.
Guess you misunderstood what I said?
Well, it’s all we can do to survive,
hit the floor with the pedal and drive,
‘cos it’s miles until morning,
miles until morning,
miles until morning arrives
It’s a fixed destination on a cruel twist of fate;
we don’t speak the same language, so we have to translate
and our hearts are now fit to explode,
as we head for the end of the road
And it’s all we can do to survive,
hit the floor with the pedal and drive,
‘cos it’s miles until morning,
miles until morning,
miles until morning arrives
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11. |
Janine
04:05
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Janine … I think you know just what I mean. Maybe one day this will all seem just like dream; it looks like we’ve blown it, Janine.
It’s true … love can surprise or frighten you. Sometimes it picks you up for something else to do, then spits you out when it is through.
Remember the afternoon we stole off in your brother’s car? It’s like we were high on oxygen. Flicking through stations for songs that were familiar, we turned the music up and then drove to the coast and back again. You said ‘forever’ started when you looked in my eyes and you saw no intent to be someplace away from you and me, somewhere the grass is such a vivid shade of green. It looks like we’ve blown it Janine.
Janine … I think you know just what I mean. Maybe one day this will all seem just like dream; it looks like we’ve blown it, Janine.
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12. |
The long way home
03:16
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Some people impress you, they know from the start that they’re going to get what they deserve. I don’t know if it’s best to be stupid or smart, so I keep a little in reserve for the long way home.
On the long way home, are the rules that we play by our own? People need to believe that they’ll always find the long way home.
Maybe I’d be happy without all the strife, the tears and the bitterness and pain. Was that a rehearsal, or was it my life? Will I get to do some things again?
On the long way home, are the rules that we play by our own? People need to believe that they’ll always find the long way home.
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13. |
Lighthouse
03:33
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He set sail for a new destination, no plan for a particular place. The wind pushed him in the kind of direction guaranteed to amaze.
I guess you’d say it was kind of hypnosis – one look and he was under a spell. At that moment, he was as close as he’d ever be to heaven or hell.
There should have been a lighthouse in her eyes to warn about the rocks around … sailor boy, your heart has run aground.
Every sailor boy afloat on the ocean, every fool who has ever put out to sea – they all believe they plot their own destination; there’s a long list of casualties. The wind pushes in any direction, takes over the heart and the soul; it’s hard to think about the location when you’ve lost all control.
There should have been a lighthouse in her eyes to warn about the rocks around … sailor boy your heart has run aground.
With no hope to navigate out of danger, it’s too late to say: “I’m all at sea – could this really happen to me?”
Hug the shore, or you will find that your travelling state of mind will love the fact that worse things happen at sea.
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14. |
Icarus succumbs
06:43
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Are you thinking what I’m thinking now? Will you find your way to me? Can you taste what I am tasting now … is it medicine or mercury?
Icarus flew too close to the sun; everything he was became undone.
After all, I guess that he was dumb, thinking he’d do anything but succumb.
Maybe we should find another turn, take it down a different street?
Maybe we are going to crash and burn, but the taste could be so sweet.
Icarus flew to close too the sun; everything he was became undone.
After all, I guess that he was dumb, thinking he’d do anything but succumb.
And how could he do anything but succumb?
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The Eisenhowers Glasgow, UK
The music of The Eisenhowers presents an eclectic mix, inspired by the likes of Elvis Costello, David Bowie, The Kinks and Steely Dan. Following 2021's critically-acclaimed 'Judge a man by the company he keeps', the new album. 'Nudge Unit Blues', represents something of a departure, featuring, as it does, a somewhat dystopian take on recent events. It's still about the tunes, though! ... more
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