Released July 1995

Tracks:

1. Blow It To The Moon (2.40)
2. Mans Tight Vest (2.14)
3. Lemonade Baby (4.36)
4. C.F.C (3.30)
5. Cornershop (3.09)
6. Kiss Your Country (4.05)
7. Hong Kong Blues (3.33)
8. Dead Bird Sings (4.06)
9. Baby Bird (3.34)
10. Farmer (2.58)
11. Invisible Tune (3.55)
12. Alison (3.43)
13.Love Love Love (2.27)

Total playing length: 46.31 min.

Catalogue Number:

UK CD: BABY BIRD CD1
UK CD: CMYBX560/1 (Original Lo-Fi Box)

Released on CD only

What you have here are the first thirteen songs taken from over two hundred four-track tapes. They are musically illiterate, computer-free and way beyond the cleanliness of sound and hi-fidelity. Spliced together in an attic with weak walls and a paper thin slate roof these songs are already survivors. Scapegoats for the English rain, sex next door, cheap orange headphones and taxi interference. This is quite simply the world of Baby Bird. One man, ten fingers, great songs

I remember being small and looking up at the trees
I’d carved my initial on.
Out there I could forget everything,
Even the hole in the sole of my left shoe.
Back then I was happy
I had nothing but the wind in my knees.
Then I felt something wet through my sock;
Picked up my heel and looked at it.
Stuck to the hole was a half-moving and featherless
baby bird
In panic I kicked my foot like a mad person
Till it flupped off into the bushes…

BEHIND THE CLUMPSY CLICKING PLASTIC OF THIS CD LIES THE SPIRIT OF BABY BIRD. THE SPIRIT OF THINGS THAT NEVER GO AWAY.
THINGS THAT GET IN THROUGH A HOLE IN THE SHOE AND MAKE A NEST IN YOUR HEAD.

Copyright 1995 Baby Bird Recordings

Lyrics

Blow it to the Moon

Got myself a cigarette, took a puff too soon,
got a light off the sun and blew it to the moon, blew it to the moon.
A hundred thousand light years drifting through my head,
saving up this crazy stuff for when I’m good and dead, when I’m good and dead.

What’s the point of keeping all the things I know?
So when I’m on the other side they start to take control.

Fade out and blow, fade out and blow, fade out and blow (?)

Now that I am dead, rising long ago (?)
all the stuff I learned ain’t even a distant glow, glow.

Fade out and blow, fade out and blow, fade out and blow. (?)

A hundred thousand light years through my head,
saving up this crazy stuff when I’m good and dead.
Lay down and blow, lay down and blow, fade out and blow. (?)

Man’s Tight Vest

Man’s tight vest, I can’t get in, can’t make a nest for myself, yeah. Mmmm yeah. Mmmm yeah.
I feel like a woman, yet I was born a man.
Wished I’d been christened Valerie instead of Stan.
In a man’s tight vest I don’t fit into this world.
I was born a boy and I wish I was a girl.

No-one understands in this sceptical world
Why I walk like a girl when I talk like man.
Sometimes I feel like a pony, but my feet have ten toes not hooves,
I have stubble on my chin, and a big feminine button nose.

In a man’s tight vest, I don’t fit into this world.
I was born a boy child, but I wish I’d been a girl.

Am I drawing you a picture, a photograph for your mind,
I’m shaped like a knocker, on the door of mankind.
Bang me once or twice (bang bang bang bang bang bang)
And I’ll take off the chain,  (bang bang bang bang bang bang)
I answer through the crack to Stanley (?), but if you like you can call me Jane.
I’m so terribly confused (like a swan in a wormhole (?))
Which shoes for what dress?
I’m happy with my nails (even Jesus wasn’t jealous) and my hair’s a mess.
Bang me on the backside, bang me on the chest,
I’m a woman inside a man, thirty-six in a Man’s tight vest.

Lemonade Baby

If you were an angel,
I’d shoot you out of the sky.
With a tear made of sugar
shot from the apple of my eye.
Do do do do do do do.
Do do do do do do.

Oh how I wish you would stay for a while
A bird without wings swinging around in my smile.

If heaven’s a place
then we’re in the middle of nowhere.
With you I’m totally free,
like a man without underwear.

Just like a world,
I feel I’ve got too much on.
Oh sweet lady
singing her pretty song.

If you were a devil,
I’d tear you up from your grave
with a hand made of treacle,
just to make sure you were safe.

Do do do do do do do.
Do do do do do do.

Lemonade baby,
You just melt on my lips.
Oh you’re so sweet,
I choke on the pips.

Seven up girl.
You melt in my mouth.
I’m so lucky
just like Kylie.

Do do do do do do do.
Do do do do do do.
Do do do do do do do.
Do do do do do do.

CFC

“Oh yeah!”
Have you ever the golden mile?
Have you ever driven someone wild?
Have you ever wanted to kill a screaming child?
Have you ever taken the mean out of meanwhile?
Oh I hope so, oh I hope so, oh I hope so.

I look up at the sky, and the planes flying by,
smoking around the loops of your nickname.
I used to call you CFC,
it used to rhyme with happy,
but now I’m sad,
I’ve got no-one to blame except myself,
and that’s offish*,
and that’s bad.

So I’m going out with my suitcase and my kiss curl
and I’m going out to change the world, to change the world.

But it’s so easy for me to say when I sit on my butt all day,
so angry and clenching my fist,
crossing the word ‘selfish’ off my list, off my list.

Have you ever sat down and started to smile
at the old man that got up and danced his way for a good cause to France?
Oh I hope so, oh I hope so, oh I hope so.

“- We go to the beach and I wear my bikini if he wears his.
- He wears a bikini?
- Kind of a lycra type bikini
- Oh yeah!”

Cornershop

What is this beautiful thing we’ve found?
It’s so shiny, bright and round.
So I went into town and bought myself a patch of ground.
And I put a shop on top and bought myself some stock.
Oh my little cornershop.
I’m so happy I could scream,
in my little store of green,
where everything is fine.

I found some corrugated steel
and banged it to the window with my heel.
Now nobody’s going to get in after half past ten in the evening, in the evening, in the evening.

What is this beautiful thing we’ve found? (What is this beautiful thing we’ve found?)
It’s so shiny, bright and round. (It’s so shiny, bright and round.)
So I went into town and bought myself a second patch of ground.
And I put a shop on top and bought myself some stock.
Oh my second little, oh my second little, oh my second little corner shop.
Oh my second little, oh my second little, oh my second little corner shop.

Kiss your Country

When you kiss me, kiss me.
When you kiss me you take my breath away.
When you kiss me you take my life away.
Like a navaho with a buffalo,
like Kansas and a tornado,
like a Marlborough man and a lasso,
like little baby Jesus and a pot of glue.
When you kiss me you take my breath away.
When you kiss me you take my breath away,
and you won’t give it, and you won’t give it, and you won’t give it, and you won’t give it back.
You won’t, won’t, won’t, won’t, won’t, won’t give it back.

Kiss your country, kiss your country and it’ll make you happy.
Oh yeah.
Like a navaho with a buffalo,
like Kansas and a tornado,
like a Marlborough man and a lasso,
like little baby Jesus and a pot of glue.

Kiss your country goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye.
Kiss your country, kiss your country goodbye.
Kiss your country, kiss your country goodbye.
Goodbye. Goodbye. Goodbye.
Kiss your country Goodbye.

Like a navaho with a buffalo,
like Kansas and a tornado,
like a Marlborough man and a lasso,
like little baby Jesus and a pot of glue.

Your kiss takes my breath away.
I love you.

Hong Kong Blues

“Oh God save our gracious queen, long may she rule over me”
Pull your pants down and dance around completely naked in the middle of China town.
Get arrested, get tested, stripped, whipped, lie detected, to see if you’ve defected from your senses,
or from China, or from Russia or from here.

One thousand pounds on a flight to pull my English colonial pants down in the middle of china town.
Yeah, but it was worth it.

Can’t sleep can’t snooze soon the dogs will kill the dues. (?)
Menuit blood will start the ooze. (?)
Goddam the reds I got the blues,
I got the blues, I got the Hong Kong blues,
I got the Hong Kong, Hong Kong blues.
I got the Hong Kong blues.
And come 1997 the reds will be under my futon again.

Pull your pants down and dance around completely naked in the middle of China town.
Get arrested, get tested, stripped, whipped, lie detected, to see if you’ve defected from your senses,
or from Russia, or from China or from here.

One thousand pounds to pull your pants down in the middle of China town.
Well, yeah, but it was worth it.

Can’t sleep can’t snooze soon the dogs will kill the dues. (?)
Menuit blood will start the ooze. (?)
Goddam the reds I got the blues I got the blues,
I got the Hong Kong, Hong Kong blues.
I got the Hong Kong blues.
Let me get them before I lose the right to choose the little Hong Kong, Taiwanese Shoes.

This ain’t no laughing matter,
no, I don’t mean to be funny when I say,
come out from Beijing, get your tea caddy out and play the Hong Kong blues
and together in our Nissan shoes we’re going to kick the Ming dynasty into touch,
once and for all, kick it into touch.

Can’t sleep can’t snooze soon the dogs will kill the dues.
Men with blood will start the ooze.
Goddam the reds I got the blues I got the blues,
I got the Hong Kong, Hong Kong blues.
I got the Hong Kong blues.
And come 1997 the reds will be under my futon again.

Dead Bird Sings

Take me in your arms again
Wash me in your eyes
Tie me to the house again
Love me ’til love dies
Love me ’til love dies
Blame me for everything
Not just for the bad signs
Whispering sweet nothings in your ear
Just like a dead bird sings

Look into my face again
Between us there’s a mile
I can see a hole in the sky
As wide as your smile
As wide as your smile

It’s not that you’ve gone away
It’s that I’ve never met you
But I wish that you’d come back to me
Just like the night turns blue

Take me in your arms again
Blame me for everything
Whisper sweet nothings in your ear
Just like a dead bird sings

Baby Bird

Baby bird don’t you cry, don’t you fly, don’t you cry
Baby bird don’t you cry
La la la, la la la la , la la la, la la la la

Baby bird don’t you cry, don’t you fly away from me
Don’t you fly
I gift wrapped you a tiny tree with golden leaves for you and me
I set up a home in a beautiful nest
You can lie here in my soft red chest
My soft red chest
My soft red chest

La la, la la la la, la la la, la la la

Baby, baby bird I’m so lonely
and the sky is so cold and unstable
Baby bird don’t you cry don’t you fly away from me

Baby bird, let me lie down, let me lie down
with the horses and the cows and the sheep and the flowers
Baby don’t you cry, baby don’t you fly

Farmer

I’m always happy, I’m never sad.
The world’s a wonderful place and I’m glad.
On every corner on every street,
everyone I see I’d love to meet
Farmer, farmer, play your guitar
lead your sheep with every bar*
let them graze on heaven’s grass
make sure they hear you as you pass, as you pass.

People look so beautiful
I feel in step with their happy feet
Can’t you see this wonderful thing
That links us all like a wedding rong.

Farmer, farmer, play your guitar
lead your sheep with every bar*
let them graze on heaven’s grass
make sure they hear you when you pass away, when you pass away

I’m always happy, I’m never sad.
The world’s a wonderful place and I’m glad.
I’m married to you you’re married to me
With a billion people in our family.

Farmer, farmer, play your guitar
lead your sheep with every bar*
let them graze on heaven’s grass
make sure they hear you as you pass

Farmer, farmer, play your guitar
lead your sheep with every bar*
let them graze on heaven’s grass
make sure they hear you when you pass away, away, pass away.

Farmer, farmer, play your guitar
lead your sheep with every bar*
let them graze on heaven’s grass
make sure they hear you as you pass away.

Invisible Tune

Walk to your house
As the sun hit the moon
My hand touched the doorbell
And I heard this tune.
Pop a balloon underwater
Can you hear the invisible tune ?
Throw another into the sky
Watch it eclipse the moon.

I hear your father screaming
’til the house is leaning on the side
Through the keyhole your mother twists her heel,
Like the spire in Chesterfield*

He wouldn’t let me see you
Like an angel swimming in Hell
Now I know the reason why
Wish I’d pushed the doorbell
Tie you father up, let your mother go
Take you in my arms
We could disappear for ever and ever
to a safe house without alarms.

Pop a baloon underwater,
and you’ll hear an invisible tune
Throw another into the sky
Watch it eclipse the moon.

Alison

Oh Alison, oh Alison, Alison, oh Alison, Alison, Alison,
Oh Alison Don’t think me a fool for loving you
I can’t go to school to unlearn this feeling.
There is no tool to chisel, to sand, to undo this reeling.
Ring back, ring back.

Oh Alison, oh Alison,
Don’t think me dumb for loving you.
There’s no rule of thumb to go by to get through.
And the days go by but don’t let them take you away.
But I know you won’t because you’re strong, and I was wrong, so Alison, here’s your song.

Oh Alison, Oh Alison, oh Alison
Oh Alison, Oh Alison, oh Alison
Oh Alison, Oh Alison, oh Alison
Oh Alison, Oh Alison, oh Alison
Oh Alison, Oh Alison, oh Alison
Oh Alison, Oh Alison, oh Alison

Love Love Love

Love love love love love
Where have you gone?
Love love love love love
Where have you gone?
Love love love love love
Love love love love love
Where have you gone?
Where have you gone?
Love love love love love
Love love love love love

Love love love love love
Where have you gone?
Where have you gone?
Love love love love love love
Where have you gone?

Love love love love love
Where have you gone?
Love love love love love
Where have you gone?