Lyrics

Gathering Dust

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.

Reign of the stupid

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.

Chinese Whispers

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.

Less than nothing

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?

After the tide

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.

1969

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?

The things that make you happy

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.

Aggrodisiac

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.

Being There

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.

Miles until morning

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

'cos 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

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.

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.

The long way home

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.

Lighthouse

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.

Icarus succumbs

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?

Useless Love

If you don't know what it's like, you don't know what you're missing. Love is blind and sometimes dumb, you have to kill to be kissing. Sweet the pain you wallow in when she becomes essential, but sour the taste that's following all that mess potential of useless love. Hope is like a butterfly (or maybe I'm thinking of something else?) Hey, you should learn to tell the time and never mind those ringing bells. Just get real, figure it out, get your thinking into line. Or maybe you can't live without someone taking up your time with useless love? Leaving you weak and tender, leading you to surrender. Useless love ... are you finding it hard to swallow? Or maybe you'd like to wallow in useless love?

Novelty Act

To get right to the point: it's looking bad. Sorry to disappoint, or seem a little sad. It's a feeling that's worth the keeping, so I know I'm awake not sleeping. Put a hand in the fire, try feeling glad. Stand back while I strike a match ... as a matter of fact, I act this stupid for fun. Roll up, now it's time to catch the novelty act I swore I'd never become. Everything I could say is already said; maybe I should give up, just stay in bed? But like a moth to a flame I'm flying, if you're not in the game you're dying; there is nothing I'd rather do instead. So here we are again, awkward in the spotlight, waiting for the signal to go. Yes ... I'm the human cannonball, I'll do anything you dare. Let's have a blast, but keep in mind: the thing you fire will have to land somewhere.

25 o'clock

We're lying on our bed of nails to watch the time slip by. You say: "the situation's grave". In and out of sleep like someone drowning, half alive and dead, not sure if I want to be saved. Stop the clock and dim the lights. Reality is half-undressed, she says: "Don't let my timing bring you down; but you should know by now, you see, that I can tell when you're impressed. So ... let's make 25 o'clock come round." I said: "Maybe this is a moment really out of time, like a bill we'll never need to pay?" You learn from experience that you don't learn much from experience, so we'll do what we were gonna do anyway.

... and consequently

And you've been talking in your sleep, all after telling me you're not the kind to get in deep. Drifting along from A to B, the undertow was the surprise that swept you out to sea. And consequently, you seem so calculated lately; half of the pleasure now for double the pain. And consequently, you fall from grace to nowhere at all, to fix the mess you made ... then you make it again. So let me tell you how it seems. The face you name when you capsize out of another dream becomes the ghost around your house, the prize you think you need above the things you'll do without.

Let's not talk about me

Let's get right down to it and hang it up to dry. Whatever's left of it, start from a different "why". You're turning on the light, I'm howling at the moon; we're talking half the night and sleeping in till noon. Every excuse you've used before, you've got the key now find the door. Tearing each other inside out ... that's the mistake we make: right words /wrong mouth. So ... welcome to the new disease. We'll work it out, maybe. Let's talk about the weather or the TV ... let's not talk about me. Easier said than done, it's harder to believe. Look what love has become: you're absent without leave. Trying so hard to keep some dignity intact; rewind just to repeat, so long after the fact. So, just in case you haven't heard ... trust me and my big mouth: nice thought / stupid words. So ... welcome to the new disease. Some other time, maybe? Let's talk about the weather or the TV ... let's not talk about me.

The Abracadabra Man

So here's another Napoleon, selling some Eskimo snow again. That song has such a familiar ring ... some people will believe anything. He says: "Leave it all up to me ... I'll work some magic and then you'll see. But let me lay one condition down: sign on the line or get out of town." All hail the Abracadabra Man, king of the slogan. Another one-night stand to go blissfully numb when he's speaking in tongues about any old anything under the sun. So here am I, almost half-undressed; you could say I'm easily impressed. I guess I'll have something new to do when he comes round with his wrecking crew.

Jigsaw

Here is a fact about your life: consider every mistake you've ever made — you're going to make them again. Here is the message now, to be delivered from all the pieces you've misplaced: you're losing again. We fit together like a jigsaw, don't we now? Jumbled-up or re-arranged, we'll soon make sense, anyway. When we're lying skin to skin, it all seems right somehow; we're complete and feeling fine, so why can't it be like that all the time? You'll never get to where you're going (so you say) til you shake off the place you've been. You're going to learn somehow that all the stupid things you've said and done stay right with you somewhere in between (that's here and now). We fit together like a jigsaw, don't we now? So we re-arrange, assemble the pieces ... we've got trembling hands. Shall we move them all, put them all back together? (that is, if we can)

If satellites should fall

Staring at the diamond sky, she's hoping for a shooting star. Maybe it's another sign? Or maybe that's a wish too far. If satellites should fall, will love come to call? He's amazed by what he's found: the music that is in her name. Staring up from solid ground, he's going to lose his way again.

Mr. and Mrs. Frankenstein

One flash of lightning and a thousand million dollars later, you get the face you need: smiling like an alligator. She looks at the camera with a deadly plastic smile ... they look so happy! If you're happy, will you stay a little while? Mr. and Mrs. Frankenstein say hello, leaving a little dream under your pillow. A nightmare face in wax, unholy yellow, when Mr. and Mrs. Frankenstein say: "hello." King of the universe, that's about the way he planned it. Things go from bad to worse; money talks and we understand it. Off to meet the savages with a pocketful of beads: "you can be in my video, but just try not to breathe."

If I had to make a list

I don't know much, so I'm the wrong guy to ask if you want to know how that engine goes. The speed of light makes everything freeze and gravity's law is all Japanese. I don't know much ... at least what I mean to say is, it's hard to understand these logical demands; my brain gives up on making the link, but when it comes to you my heart does the thinking. I don't know much, but I'm the right guy to ask if you need a friend on whom you can depend. Maybe the stars are painted above, but I offer unconditional love. If I had to make a list of all the things that make this life worthwhile, let me just give you the gist: your names and any chance to see you smiling.

Constantinople

Some old map you found, spread upon the table. Imagine there was somewhere we could go. We're a continent apart, but a trick of navigation keeps us close, that's all we need to know. Up and down these seven hills ... how many more days like these, to put up with the pain? Until, in Constantinople, we'll do as we please. So take us to the place, address the situation ... the right direction is so hard to find. We're a continent apart, but a trick of navigation keeps us from ever making up our minds.

Plastic Jesus

Is it much to ask, to take this stinking world to task? So much suffering and pain ... you could wipe it out and start again. Plastic Jesus, can you help them see what you mean? Then maybe I will be someone who might mean something here. Tell me, is that a tear I see, falling down for me? Maybe now I could show people around here some things I know. I'll make them listen for a change ... or maybe wipe things out and re-arrange.

I'm the Song

Upside down, back to front, inside out ... you'll come around, because you don't know how to do without. You've nowhere else to go and nothing else to do ... you're going all the way with me. I will make you do what I can make you do and this is how we'll always be. I'm the song in your head, teasing you. Before too long, reason will be leaving you. You've nowhere else to go and nothing else to do ... you're going all the way with me. I will make you do what I can make you do and this is how we'll always be. If you share you dreams with me, I will help to soothe your pain. And together we will be ... if you are lost or losing, I will find you again.

Everything's not enough

The truth is hard to measure ... how tall, how deep, how wide? How dim seems any treasure when you look from the inside. I'm sober at the moment, but it might seem that I'm drunk ... when you get all that you've wanted, that's when all your hopes are sunk. I found a gem in a little jumble ... it's in my hands, but I slip and fumble. Although I could run, I prefer to stumble. Time to own up to all my failings, I suppose ... everything's not enough and that's the way it goes. If God can do anything ... could he create a ditch so wide he couldn't jump it? Or maybe he could make me rich? I'm singing for the feeling that I'm sinking without trace. These stupid words revealing that I'm just taking up space.

X-ray eyes

Hey idiot, here comes a big surprise ... one little thing could really change your life. Could re-design, re-model or re-make your so-called "life" (it's just a dream from which you'll wake). The things I'll do man, the places I'll see man, the things I'll do ... when I get X-ray eyes. A little pain to make a little gain, a little change to tease your little brain. All your desires, all riches yours to keep ... sign on the line and you will be king of the heap. The things I'll do man, the places I'll see man, the things I'll do ... when I get X-ray eyes.

Two on the Big Wheel

Suspended in mid-air ... the last resort for love is never fair. The crowd has long gone home, so you and me and all our promises take this ride alone. I look at my watch, you study my face for tell-tale signs to some other place ... directions home now seem so confused. And we are two on the big wheel, hanging in the air to see it through. If love is just a place to hide, we'll buy the ticket and we'll take another easy ride. But high above the ground, you look around you and you see ... the only way is down. The wheel has stopped, we're hanging in space. Control has gone, this must be the place where old love dies, gives way to the new. And we are two on the big wheel, hanging in the air to see it through.