Listen to me just hear me out, if I could have your
attention
just quieten down for a voice in the crowd.
I get so confused I don't understand
I know you feel the same way you've always wanted to say
but you don't get the chance, just a voice in the crowd.
I don't know the score anymore it's not clear anymore
I can't tell right from wrong anymore
I just don't understand.
I was just sitting here thinking of exchanging a new world for old
like changing the channels on tv, or the dirt that we
stand in to gold
When I was young my father told me just bad guys
die at that time just a little white lie
it was one of the first but it hurt me the
most and the truth stung like tears in my eyes that even the good guys must
die there's no reasoning no crimes and I never knew why even now it still
makes me cry.
If there's somebody up there, could they throw me down a
line just a little helping hand just a little understanding
just some answers to
the questions that surround me now if there's somebody up there, could they
throw me down a line just a little guiding light to tell wrong from right
just
some answers to the questions that I'm asking you I keep a vigil in a wilderness of
mirrors where nothing here is ever what it seems you stand so close but
never understand it for all that we see is not all that it seems
am I blind
And you sit there and talk revolution but can you tell me just
who's in command? when you tell me the forces we're fighting then I'll join
you and gladly make plans but for now just our t-shirts cry freedom
and our
voices are gagged by our greed our minds are harnessed by knowledge by
the hill and the will to succeed and if that's not what you believe, would you
just let me know I'm not standing alone, that I'm not just a voice in the
crowd
If there's somebody up there would they throw me down a
line just a little helping hand just a little understanding just some answers to
the questions that I'm asking you! If there's somebody up there just throw me
down a line just a little guiding light to tell wrong from right just some
answers to the questions that I'm asking you I'll keep a vigil in a wilderness of
mirrors where nothing is exactly how it seems you're reaching out, you're so
close you can touch it but it all disappears when it's always so near but one
day we will find, that we stand in the light until then I'll keep a vigil in a
wilderness of mirrors nothing here is ever what it seems I'm scared to shout
in case I draw attention from the powers that preside over our minds and our
lives when they find what I want is the deadliest weapon, that is
truth
Day by day it's getting louder and day by day it's getting
stronger but when I can't scream no more and I need reassurance, I listen to
the crowd
And the boy stood and stared at the hill and the hill - it stared
back
Big Wedge
I found a new religion yesterday I'd just
cleared immigration JFK a priest got in a cadillac the shoeshine boy sang
gospel as God and his accountants drove away. You'll see him coast to coast
on live tv in a stadium
rocked by Satan just the night before the collection
from the faithful it is tax free it'll pay for his presidential campaign and his
yacht.
And we all bow down, we bow down to the big wedge and we'll
buy ourselves some heaven here on earth we sell our souls, sell our souls for big
wedge are we selling out tomorrow for today.
A surgeon checks your
plastic on the phone a casio concerto entertains you while you hold Your
credit rating's good for a Madonna or a Bardot a Dali or Picasso for his
wall.
You're looking good, you're looking good with big wedge are you
holding back tomorrow for today they're driving in, driving in the big
wedge are we selling out tomorrow for today.
You'll sell the ground
beneath your feet you'll sell your oil you'll sell your trees your ideals and
integrity your culture and your history your children into slavery to labour in
their factories your mother and your family, you'll sell the world
eventually The IMF and CIA there's just no difference they're all the same! It
all depends on what's your point of view
America, America the big
wedge and they're buying your tomorrow up today with promises
the
promises of big wedge and they'll break them
like your hearts another
day when you find out that you've left it just too late and you find that you're
the only one to blame that you sold out your tomorrow yesterday
for Big
Wedge
State Of Mind
I don't trust the government
I don't trust alternatives it's not that I'm paranoid it's just that's the way it is.
Everyday I hear a little scream inside
everyday I find it's getting louder
I just want to reach out and touch someone
cos I find I need a friend in this dark hour.
We the people are getting tired of your lies
We the people now believe that it's time
We're demanding our rights to the answers
We elect a precedent to a state of mind.
I trust in conspiracies in the power of the military
in this wilderness of mirrors here not even my speech is free.
Everyday I hear a little scream inside
everyday I find it's getting louder
I just want to reach out and touch someone
cos I find I need a friend in this dark
hour.
We the people want it straight for a change
Cos we the people are getting tired of your games
If you insult us with cheap propaganda We'll
elect a precedent to a state of mind.
Everyday I hear a little scream
inside everyday I find it's getting louder I just want to reach out and touch
someone Cos I find I need a friend in this dark hour.
When we the
people have our backs to the wall do we the people then assume control
When it's too late to stop our own execution
when we're faced with the final solution
You can't elect a dream revolution
when you've a bullet in the back of your mind
it's just a state of mind.
The Company
Where beggars take cheques and children steal credit cards
from the pockets of wrecks that lie in the road
I came to in my future and that was just yesterday
unsure of my past, that's a knot in my gut
You buy me a drink then you think that you've got the right
to crawl in my head and rifle my soul
You tell me I'm free and you want me to compromise
to sell out my dreams you say you'll make it worthwhile
Oh boys would you drink to me now
here on the hill, halfway up halfway down
You tell me I'm drunk then you sit back and smug a while
convinced that you're right that you're still in command
of your senses. I laugh at your superior attitude
your insincere platitudes make me throw up
The sooner you realise I'm perfectly happy
if I'm left to decide the company I choose
Oh boys would you drink to me now
here on the hill, halfway up halfway down
Oh boys would you drink to me now
here on the hill, halfway up halfway down
Oh for the company born to the company
live for the company until I die
The sooner you realise I'm perfectly happy
if I'm left to decide the company I choose
The company I choose is solidly singular
totally trustworthy, straight and sincere
polished, experienced, witty and charming
so why don't you push off this company's my own
Oh boys would you drink to me now
here on the hill, halfway up halfway down
Oh boys would you drink to me now
here on the hill, halfway up halfway down
Oh for the company, dream of the company
live for the company until I die
Oh for the company dream of the company
drink to the company until
we die until we die until we die
A Gentleman's Excuse
Me
Do you still keep paper flowers in the bottom drawer
with your Belgian lace, taking them out every year to watch the colours fade away
Do you still believe in fairy tales, in battlements of shining castles
safe from the dragons that lie beneath the hill
Are you still a Russian princess rescued by a gypsy dancer
to anyone who'll listen is that a story you still tell
You live a life of fantasy, your diary romantic fiction
Can't you see it's hard for me, can you see what I'm trying to say.
It's a gentleman's excuse me so I'll take one step to the side
can you get it inside your head I'm tired of dancing
for every one step forward we're taking two steps back
can you get it inside your head I'm tired of dancing.
I know you still like old-fashioned waltzes
your reflection in the mirror that you flirt with as you glide across the floor
but if I told you the music's over would you want to hear
that your dance card is empty, that there's no-one really there.
Do you still believe in Santa Claus, that there's a millionaire
looking for your front door
with a key to a life that you'd never
understand
All I have to offer is the love that I have, it's freely given
you'll see its value when you see what I've tried to say.
It's a gentleman's excuse me so I'll take one step to the side
can you get it inside your head I'm tired of
dancing for every one step forward I'm taking two steps back
can you get it inside your head that from this one step forward
there's no turning back can you get it inside your head I'm tired of dancing
we're finished
dancing.
The Voyeur (I Like To Watch)
Track down a satellite, beam in the action,
life lies bleeding
live in your living room,
our senses on remote control overkill on overload
from Lockerbie to Lebanon's getting closer every day
Hollywood to Hungerford's an impression away.
I like to watch implausible pledges of polite politicians
I like to watch them even more than my video nasties
I like to watch.
The bleating of a bimbo, a backstabbing beauty queen
titillating tabloids trigger off a wet dream into action
a fatal
attraction, private lives are up for auction A cupboard full of skeletons are
coming out to play.
I like to watch disasters in replay and rerun in
slow mo I like to watch on the spot interviews kicking in front doors
I like to
watch.
To watch as my face is reflected in blank tv screens when
the programmes are over I like to pretend that that's
me up there making headlines, camera closeups
catching my right side,
I don't care if it's only a moment
as long as it's peaktime
just as long as all of
my friends and family
see me, the world
will know my name - Come on down.
I like to watch
psychologists speculate, analysts analise
I like to watch my methods and motives,
the topic of talkshows I like to watch Switch off turn
on.
Family Business
I heard a battle raging on the other side of
the wall I 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 this family business, family business
how long does it stay, family business.
It's nobody's business, this family business
but tell me how long it remains family business.
When I
see you at the supermarket sunglasses in the shade
averting your eyes from those
staring questions, how were those bruises made
the children clutch tight 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
cos daddy don't like people, poking in
his private affairs and if anyone asks from the social, well
you tripped and fell down the
stairs
It's family business, keep it in the family business
can you tell me how long it remains family business
it's nobody's business, this family business.
But tell me how long it should stay family business
She's waiting at the bus stop at the bottom of the hill
she know's she'll never catch it, she knows she never will
the kids are all she lives for, she's got nothing left to lose
nowhere to escape to, but she knows she's got to move
cos when daddy tucks the kids in, it's taking longer every night
and the heaven that she's
waiting for through the hell, it lasts all night.
It's family business, keep it in the family business
can you tell me how long it remains family
business it's nobody's business this family business.
But tell me how long it
should stay family business.
So I become an accessory and I don't have an
alibi to the victim on my doorstep the only way I can justify it's family
business, family business How long do we keep it family
business.
View From The Hill
You sit and think that everything
is coming up roses but you can't see the weeds that entangle your feet You
can't see the wood for the trees cos the forest is burning And you say it's the
smoke in your eyes that's making you cry.
They sold you the view from a
hill They told you that the view from the hill would be further than you have
ever seen before They sold you a view from a hill
They sold you a view from
a hill.
You were a dancer and a chancer a poet and a fool
to the royalty of mayhem you were breaking all the rules your decadance outstanding your
hopes flying high
one eye looking over your shoulder
one eye on the
hill.
You used to say you were scared of heights - you said you got dizzy
you said you didn't like your feet being too far off the ground
but they said that up there you'd find the air would be clearer
promised you more space to move and more room to breath
They sold you a view from a hill
and they told you that the view from the hill
is further than you'd ever seen before.
You were holding out forever - thought they'd never turn your mind
your ideals they were higher than you ever could have climbed
we thought they couldn't buy you that the price would be too high
that the riches there on offer they just wouldn't turn your eyes
But your conscience it was locked up in the prisons of your schemes
your judgement it was blinded by your visions and your dreams
praying and hoping that the view from the hill
is wider than you've ever seen before
for the view from the hill well we held our heads high.
(smell the roses)
All the loved ones that you lied to are strangers left behind
all the ones that really mattered well you stood on as you climbed
you were holding out forever for your fathers and your peers
holding out for everyone that ever walked in here
the edge was inside and you rode it all the way
you were playing the games that you learned yesterday
hanging around like a fool with a name
you are holding your place for the view
the view from a hill.
They sold you the view from a hill
Look it all for a view from a hill
and you find the views no further than you've seen before
They sold you the view from a hill
They sold you the view from a hill
and you stood and took it all for the view from a hill.
It's simply coming up roses.
Cliché
I've got a reputation of being a man
with a gift of words a romantic poetic type or so they say
but I find it hard to express the way I feel about you
without getting involved with the old clichés.
In the old clichés, it's an old cliché
This song's begun so
many times but never
in a way that you won't consider to be an old cliché
I want to say that I need you, I miss you when you're away
and how it seemed like fate - o here we go - the same old clichés.
It's the same old
cliché.
It's not that I'm embarrassed or shy, well you know me too well
but I want to make this song special in a way that you can tell
that it's solely for you and nobody else
for my best friend, my lover, when I need help - cliché - cliché?
Everything I want to say to you is wrapped up in an old cliché.
I'd waited so long to find you, I'd been through the heartbreak and
pain, but of course you already know that cos you've been through the same.
That's why I'm trying to say with my deepest sincerity
that's why I'm finding it comes down to basic simplicities
the best way is with an old cliché
it's simply the best way is with an old cliché
always the best way is with an old cliché
I'll leave it to the best way it's an old cliché.
I love you.
BONUS TRACKS:
Jack And Jill
Me and
my old lady we got a dream coming true Me and my old lady just bought some
room with a view We kept our options open it was the only way we could
deal Living life on our own terms we took a house on the hill
But if it all
comes tumbling down, a dream get broken But souls stay sound, we can hold our
heads high And look back with no shame With a conscience as clear as our
ideals and aims Cos where do you go at the end of the day When your world
comes tumbling down Can you climb to your feet, wipe the tears from your
eye cos its only the foot of a hill.
Some people take a mortgage down
on memory lane Hide their heads in the sand and hope their troubles go
away Detach themselves from living a life that they can never afford Lock
their hearts and their spirits behind heavy golden doors
But if it all comes
tumbling down, a dream gets broken But do your souls stay sound, Can you hold
your heads up And look back with no shame? With a conscience as clear as
your ideals and aims Where will you go at the end of the day When your
world comes tumbling down Can you climb to your feet, wipe the tears from your
eye? Can you climb your way back up the hill?
Whiplash
Hang a left, turn a
right We're driving through the night We're on the road with
Fred Anytime, anywhere but he's sure to get you there That's the road with
Fred With his foot right to the floor There's a corner coming
on Whiplash!
He'll overtake anywhere he doesn't really care That's
the road with Fred Through rain and snow and fog You sit and pray to God
and place your faith in Fred You gotta close your eyes So you never get
surprised by whiplash!
Chew your nails right to the bone You're on the
wrong side of the road On the right side of Fred A collision coming
on You pray the brakes are gonna hold on the road with Fred
The nut is
loose behind the wheel Hear that rubber squeal whiplash!
Hang a left,
turn a right Driving through the night On the road with Fred Anytime,
anywhere he's sure to get you there On the road with Fred He's got a mobile
telephone But you pray that no-one calls for whiplash