1. |
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You eat, sleep and drink with those invited guests.
The babble, the bluster … there’s no escape or rest.
What else is there to do when all this noise is at your door?
Switch on your TV, then decline and fall some more.
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2. |
I like your girlfriend
04:08
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Glitzy night, all the swells in the spotlight … but something just may ignite. There he goes, Mister ‘Somebody-in-the-know’. The honeys walk where money shows.
Label this, designer that, la belle beau monde of the b-list brats, I wish I could have brought my baseball bat … but I like your girlfriend. She’s got the look of a girl who knows all of the places you want to go … she squeeze it all in to a size below: I like your girlfriend.
There he goes … maybe you’ve seen one of his shows? The small talk flows, he strikes a pose. No trace of grey. Just a line or two folded away, like he’ll delay his judgement day.
They say what counts is underneath. I don’t like you, so I’ll keep it brief: keep your five grand suit and your twenty grand teeth … but I like your girlfriend. Let me just give you a clue: that one, she’s no ingénue. So why’s she hanging ‘round with a goon like you? I like your girlfriend.
Flashbulbs pop, the chatter rises … check those fashionable disguises. Look through ‘Who’s who’, see their capers, catch the pictures in the papers.
Label this, designer that, la belle beau monde of the b-list brats, I wish I could have brought my baseball bat … but I like your girlfriend. She’s got the look of a girl who knows all of the places you want to go … she squeeze it all in to a size below … I like your girlfriend.
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3. |
Angry Boy
04:23
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You don’t want to hear, you just need to bend somebody’s ear. You don’t care about the facts, you’ll just wait for the moment to attack.
Stare into the void ... maybe now it’s all just background noise? When your brain is otherwise employed, you’re just another angry boy … you’re just another angry boy.
So no-one’s heard your song; does that mean the world has got it wrong? Somebody has to pay, so you scoop up your toys and run away.
Stare into the void, maybe now it’s all just background noise. When your brain is otherwise employed, you’re just another angry boy … you’re just another angry boy.
You’re angry if they don’t, angry if they do, angry when they don’t think the same as you
You’re angry ‘bout the things you’re never gonna get, you’re angry at some guy on the internet
You’re angry ‘cos there’s things you have to live without, you’re angry ‘cos your time is running out.
You’re angry with your boss, angry with your car, angry at the queue waiting at the bar
You’re angry with the news, angry with the spin, angry that the same stuff is happening
You’re angry when they talk, especially when they say: “you’re angry ‘cos probably you’re made that way.”
Stare into the void, maybe now it’s all just background noise. When your brain is otherwise employed, you’re just another angry boy … you’re just another angry boy.
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4. |
My gang
03:23
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You seem intelligent. Is what you’re reading proof of sympatico, refinement and good breeding? Will you be one of us? Well here’s a clue: if you don’t think like us, we’ve got no use for you.
But if you don’t really get the hang, I won’t plead but I may harangue. If you don’t do what I do, say what I say … you can’t be in my gang. You’re never gonna roll with my gang, you’re never gonna hang with my gang, you’ll never shoot the breeze with my gang.
All styles are welcome here, with one disclaimer: we won’t allow dissent inside the echo chamber. Feel free to say your piece, bang on the drum. ‘Roll with the bandwagon’ is the general rule of thumb.
But if you don’t really get the hang, I won’t plead but I may harangue. If you don’t do what I do, say what I say … you can’t be in my gang. You’re never gonna roll with my gang, you’re never gonna hang with my gang, you’ll never shoot the breeze with my gang.
You don’t talk like us, you don’t think like us, you can’t roll with us. You don’t talk like us, you don’t think like us, you can’t roll with us.
And tomorrow will be like today: It will be my way or the highway, if you don’t do what I do, say what I say.
You’re never gonna be in my gang. You’re never gonna roll with my gang, you’re never gonna hang with my gang, you’ll never shoot the breeze with my gang.
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5. |
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Forty years have come and gone. He’s been there man and boy and now he’ll leave without a fuss to catch that evening omnibus. Seems like two blinks of an eye since he first stepped inside, in a suit he borrowed from his chum, with sandwiches made by his dear old mum. But now he’s obsolete, he’s done his time at last. This is his final day; he’s passing from the present to the past.
You see … Mr McIntosh has left the building, he won’t be returning anytime soon. He’s spent and used, the final piece of paperwork is filled in and he won’t be returning anytime soon.
So he shakes another hand, forces a smile and soon he’ll fade away, become a distant memory in a while.
You see … Mr McIntosh has left the building, he won’t be returning anytime soon. He’s spent and used, the final piece of paperwork is filled in and he won’t be returning anytime soon.
All the stories he could tell, they could fill a book. But one thing that is guaranteed: no-one else would want to read it. Seems like two blinks of an eye since he first stepped inside. He wonders how it all stacks up; did all his work really add up to much?
All those years ago, he’d never stopped to think that this day would arrive; the moment that he would become extinct.
You see … Mr McIntosh has left the building, the world will still be turning whatever we do. His day has come and all he feels is numb; it was a living but he won’t be returning anytime soon.
You see … Mr McIntosh has left the building, he won’t be returning anytime soon. He’s spent and used, the final piece of paperwork is filled in and he won’t be returning anytime soon.
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6. |
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We practiced hard and talked about the plan to become part of the machine. Picked up the amps and stuff and loaded up the van, then hit the road to Aberdeen.
And so we travelled on in hope about where this all might end up – you’d think that we’d be old enough to know much better.
If every step we ever take leads us to where we ought to be, shouldn’t we be smart enough to know we ought to rest there?
How will you when you know when you know you’ve had enough?
We played and maybe 20 people came. We thought it seemed to go OK. But half-asleep next day on my commuting train, it seemed like half a world away.
And so we travelled on in hope about where this all might end up – you’d think that we’d be old enough to know much better.
If every step we ever take leads us to where we ought to be, shouldn’t we be smart enough to know we ought to rest there?
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7. |
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We picked him up on Channel 2. We listened and we watched as he showed us some new things we could do.
Was it just hazy cosmic jive? Or did he point the way to somewhere else, some new place we’d arrive?
But the universe we knew became undone when he said goodbye and flew towards the sun.
So everything got re-arranged. And all the songs we had to learn to help us turn and face the strange.
I’m happy, I hope you’re happy too. Looked out our windows and we saw his light on the new things we would do.
But the universe we knew became undone when he said goodbye and flew towards the sun.
We looked out our windows and saw his light, we saw his light.
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8. |
Wherever it lies
03:11
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There’s really nothing you can do when the universe has got it in for you. If even half of what you think is true … then we should all give up.
So now we’re cutting to the chase; you’ve always felt so out of place,
Like you’re embarrassed by the human race … have we let you down?
If you’re thinking that you’re sinking into a life that you despise
You’ll go blaming anybody, find a fool to victimise
But happiness is found wherever it lies
The King of all the optimists knows a thing is only what it is
And that was just a frog you kissed, so nothing will change now.
It’s not about what it could be, it’s as simple as the thing you see.
There’s no perfect kind of ‘you and me’ to be dreaming about.
If you’re thinking that you’re sinking into a life that you despise
Every mess you’ll ever make is in the plans that you’ll devise
But happiness is found wherever it lies
Hey, this is just a point of view: some people only ever do
The things they really wanted to and there’s no other ‘why’.
If you’re thinking that you’re sinking into a life that you despise
You’ll go blaming anybody, find a fool to victimise
If you’re thinking that you’re sinking into a life that you despise
Every mess you’ll ever make is in the plans that you’ll devise
But happiness is found wherever it lies
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9. |
Read my lips
03:08
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You know exactly what I’m trying to say, I said it already now I’ve found a new way. If I make it simple maybe you’d go away.
You need to look and listen so you’ll believe it’s true: “Read my lips, read my lips, read my lips … we’re through.”
You made excuses and you wasted my time. I tried to tell you I was drawing a line. If you want forgiveness, then I’m gonna decline.
You need to look and listen so you’ll believe it’s true: “Read my lips, read my lips, read my lips … we’re through.”
Don’t think that I’m gonna miss you when it’s so easy to resist you … go find someone else who will kiss you.
So here’s the new edition: the headline reads ‘adieu’. Read my lips, read my lips, read my lips … we’re through.
We’ll never go the distance and it’s not me, it’s you. Read my lips, read my lips, read my lips we’re through.
Don’t think that I’m gonna miss you when it’s so easy to resist you … go find someone else who will kiss you.
If anyone asks if I’m OK, “hey, it’s all good” is what I’ll say, ‘cos I never did love you anyway.
You need to look and listen so you’ll believe it’s true: Read my lips, read my lips, read my lips … we’re through. Read my lips, read my lips, read my lips … we’re through.
Read my lips, read my lips … ‘cos honey, now we’re through
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10. |
Far side of the moon
04:15
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You drink in the daytime, then cry yourself to sleep. You wonder where your summer’s gone … how come you’re in a hole this deep? So sad that only memories remain, with nothing to look forward to but something else to ease the pain.
Where is this all heading? Well, you’re going to find out soon … when you’re living on the far side of the moon.
You used to know all the things folk need to know, but nothing now makes sense to you … the who to see, the where to go? And all those things you missed that were unmissable, the keep piling up as, day by day, you become invisible.
Where is this all heading? Well, you’re going to find out soon … when you’re living on the far side of the moon.
The things that made you happy are now the things that make you sad. And you will never be happy without the things you never had.
So where is this all heading? Well, you’re going to find out soon … when you’re living on the far side of the moon.
It’s just another film and just another book … it says nothing to you, it means nothing to you.
It’s just another song and just another hook … it says nothing to you, it means nothing to you.
It’s just another quote from just another war … it says nothing to you, it means nothing to you.
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11. |
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The Joker and The Penguin were shooting the breeze. Said one to the other: “Tell me, if you please, why you had that thing for the guy in the cape? You poked him with a stick, you were driving him ape!”
Said the other to the one: “I assumed you knew? I did the things I did because I really wanted to”.
So they had another drink, talked about the old times. Said one to the other: “Our only real crime was we knew what we wanted, we knew our own minds, when most other suckers are kind of resigned”.
Said the other to the one: “I suppose it’s true; I did the things I did because I really wanted to”.
I wanted to be loved. I wanted to be good. I wanted them to think of me as someone who deserved to be understood.
Meanwhile, somewhere, a man sat alone, drinking and thinking and trying to atone.
“Maybe what I did was to fight the good fight, on the side of the angels, where justice is might? But I know that I really needed to find me a deadly enemy or two. Of all the things I’ve learned I know this to be true: I did the things I did because I really wanted to”.
(Joker and Penguin, shooting the breeze).
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12. |
3 o'clock on a Saturday
04:58
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Where your dreams can come out to play and where hope is the key. At 3 o’clock on a Saturday … that’s where we’ll be.
Will it be like we imagined it? Will they make new memories? At 3 o’clock on a Saturday, that’s when we’ll see.
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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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