Released December 1995

Tracks

1. No Children (1.08)
2. Cooling Towers (3.14)
3. Cool & Crazy Things To Do (2.41)
4. Bad Blood (3.55)
5. Neil Armstrong (2.20)
6. I was Never Here (3.35)
7. Saturday (2.29)
8. Goodnight (3.25)
9. I Don’t Want To Wake You up (3.27)
10. Iceberg (3.11)
11. Aluminium Beach (4.36)
12. Goddamn It,You’re A Kid (3.07)
13. Daisies (2.08)
14. Failed Old Singer (3.34)
15. Fatherhood (2.27)
16. Dustbin Liner (2.54)
17. Not About A Girl (2.32)
18. Good Weather (3.25)
19. But Love (1.58)
20. May We (3.35)

Total Playing Length: 59.59 min.

Catalogue numbers:

UK CD: BABY BIRD CD3
UK LP: BABY BIRD LP3

Sleevenotes

I REMEMBER ON THE BEACH. IT WAS THE FUTURE AND I WAS LUCKY TO FIND ONE THAT STILL HAD SAND AND NO BRICKS SLOPING INTO THE FOAM. PEOPLE ARE BORED WITH REGULAR COLOUR, SO THIS PARTICULAR SEA (OFF THE COAST OF OLD ENGLAND) HAS BEEN DYED BRIGHT YELLOW. MY UNWANTED SON DIGS A HOLE AND SOON I’M UNDER LOW TIDE SAND, WITH TWO STRAWS IN MY NOSE. FEELS LIKE I’VE BEEN HERE FOREVER LIVING OFF LUGWORM.

THE SUN IS NEVER HOT ENOUGH. IF ONLY IT COULD MELT SAND INTO GLASS. I COULD SEE ‘LITTLE ME’ RUNNING OFF. HAND IN HAND WITH A GIRL. I FEEL LIKE A WHALE IN A SHED – A SWAN IN A WORMHOLE – ALWAYS OVER-BLOWING MY SITUATION. AND ALTHOUGH I’M CONVINCED HE’LL COME BACK AND UNDIG ME, IT’S HORRIBLE BEING A FATHER SOMETIMES.

OH CHRIST IT’S CHRISTMAS AGAIN AND THE ICE HAS RETURNED TO THE RESERVOIR. I WALK OUT OF THE CITY. HITCH A LIFT IN A FORGETTABLE CAR, HOP OVER THE HINGE END OF THE FENCE AND GO DOWN TO THE WATERSIDE.

THERE’S A HUGE BREEZE BUT THE GEL HOLDS LIKE CONCRETE. THIS IS DOVEDALE AND I’M HAPPY. NO YELLOW M. NO COLA. NO BATMAN.

I LOOK OUT AT THE LAKE. PUT A TOE ON THE ICE BUT IT CRACKS. I DON’T WANT TO BE HERE. I GRAB A CHUNK AND RUN BACK TO THE ATTIC, OVERLOOKING MARK ONE AND MISS SELFRIDGE. I PULL OUT THE SLAP AND DRIP IT ON THE SPOOLS LIKE THE CLUTZ I AM. THE FOUR TRACK FIZZLES, BUT WITH TEATOVELS, TISSUE AND CHEAP ORANGE HEADPHONES, A THIRD SERIES OF SONGS TARTS ITSELF UP TO SILVER OUT ON ALMOSTEREO.

THIS IS THE THIRD COLLECTION FROM THE LAST SIX YEARS. THEY FORM NO CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER. THEY SIMPLY SIT NEXT TO EACH OTHER WITH THE EASE OF DISCOMFORT OF TOUCHING PLASTIC CHAIRS IN A FULL WAITING ROOM. THERE IS, THOUGH, NO ILLNESS OR SUFFERING IN THE TANNEYED SONGS. THEY ARE GOOD NEWS – THE GOOD NEWS THAT SAYS YOUR LEG’S NOT BROKEN BUT JUST BADLY BRUISED. SO LIMP WITH THIS NEWS FOR A WHILE – IT’LL GET BETTER.

Copyright 1995 Baby Bird Recordings

Lyrics

Complete lyrics for Fatherhood. All words here were transcriped by Mark B. for his Hate Songs website.

No Children

Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba
Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba
Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba
Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba
Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba
Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba

Cooling Towers

Get outside into the sky and listen to the showers, and listen to the showers.
Get outside into the showers and listen to the showers, and listen to the showers.
Ba ba ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba ba ba ba.

Get outside into the sky and listen to the showers, and listen to the showers.
Get outside into the sky and listen to the flowers, and listen to the flowers.

Ba ba ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba ba ba ba.

Get outside into the sky and listen to the showers, and listen to the showers.
Get outside into the sky and listen to the flowers, and listen to the flowers.
Get outside into the sky and listen to the showers, and listen to the cooling towers.
Get outside into the sky and listen to the showers, and listen to the showers.

Ba ba ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba ba ba ba.

We got all the time in the world, we got all the time.
We got all the time in the world, we got all of the time.
We got all of the time in the world, we got all of the time.
We got all of the time in the world, we got all of the time.

Cool and Crazy Things to Do

We are not cool, we are not crazy,
we only steal cars because we’re lazy.
We are not good, we are not bad,
we only burn down houses to make us sad.
Because it was a cool and crazy thing to do, it was a cool and crazy thing.

We are not cool, we are not crazy,
we’re like an egg that falls into a daisy.
Little fools for the sun, little fools for the sun,
oh little children, oh little children look what we’ve become.

Because it was a cool and crazy thing to do, it was a cool and crazy thing.
It was a cool and crazy thing to do, it was a cool and crazy thing.

Bad Blood

Touch thumbs and it becomes, two bright suns in the same sky.
Bad blood lighting the flood with red dye, spreading so slowly over God’s eyes.
And it never dries it keeps on going, never slowing,
’til it’s showing in every multiplex across the country (kiss your country).
Bad blood’s everywhere, it’s in the flex of ten fingers,
like the singers on the Larry Grayson show.
It’ll run and run like red snow, until the world blows,
splitting LCD’s into pop songs that put the atom back where it came from.

Bad blood, what’s wrong with the bridge from here to Hong Kong,
with the bridge from here to Hong Kong,
with the bridge from here to Hong Kong?

Bad blood, bad blood, bad blood. Bad blood, bad blood, bad blood.

Tom X steals a million wheels, to cut paddy fields into big deals,
like boiled onions and jellied eels,
gets the country onto an even keel.

Bad blood like love is a good feel with an asbestos glove run along the thigh containing bad blood.
Cries out for love because all you believe in is love.
Cries out for love because all you believe in is love.

Bad blood in a white dove flies way above the shovel and spade.
I’m not afraid of bad blood.

Bad blood buried in the ground like a sound you’ll never hear again.
Bad blood in your ink pen writes the words ‘not now but when?’

Bad blood, bad blood, bad blood. Bad blood, bad blood, bad blood.

Neil Armstrong

The world such a funny place I laugh every day,
my body won’t move and my mind won’t stay, my mind won’t stay.
I’m floating out now, until my body’s gone.
I’m so far away like Neil Armstrong, like Neil Armstrong, Buzz, John, (?), Uri Gagarin.
There’s time to be free, it’s too short to be lonely.
Accost someone you like in a lift or a street,
let them burn right through you with their eyes
because they know you’re spineless and that you would flop under pressure.
And you used to have all these ideas about love and waste and the end of the world and how to do things,
and to look at you now and feel good that I’m me has to be the best feeling I’ve ever had,
the best feeling I’ve ever had, the best feeling I’ve ever had.

I’m floating out now, ’til my body’s gone
I’m so far away like Neil Armstrong.
Now I’m in the middle of a hole in the sky.
I must be dead ’cause I never used to fly.

I was Never Here

I won’t say goodbye, because I was never here.
And I won’t say hello, because it wouldn’t be true, it wouldn’t be true.
And the rain comes down, and makes a fool out of us.
No-one sees it coming except the animals.
We rely on the TV so what does that say about us, what does that say about us?
I won’t say goodbye, because I was never here.
Mmmm and I won’t say hello, because it wouldn’t be true.
And if I told you that the sky was green today,
lying upside down looking at the grass,
would you believe me, would you understand why I told you what I did?
Would you understand me or just put me down as another fool?
Or just put me down as another fool?

I won’t say goodbye, because I was never here.
Mmmm and I won’t say hello, because it wouldn’t be true.
And the rain comes down, and makes a fool out of us.
We wet our hair and murder the raindrops,
Oh but we don’t hear it coming, we don’t hear it coming.
We don’t hear it coming.
But the cats and the dogs do, what does that say about us?

Saturday

All the love in the world won’t make things better.
All the love in the world won’t make things better, better, better, better.
Why don’t you love me? I ask you out each day.
Why, when I do this, do you say:
“OK, I’ll go out with you if you stop pestering me.”
So I say “OK” and we go out Saturday.
We go out Saturday. We go out Saturday.
Saturday. Saturday. Saturday. Saturday. Saturday. Saturday. Saturday. Saturday. Saturday. Saturday. Saturday.

And before we go out the man on the radio sings:
“All the love in the world won’t make things better.
All the love in the world won’t make things better.
All the love in the world won’t make things better. Even on Saturday.”

Goodnight

I hold you close, you push me away,
I want forever, you just want today.
But I don’t blame you, you’re always right.
I’m a bad day, you’re a good night.
Ba ba ba, ba ba ba, ba ba ba ba ba.
Ba ba ba, ba ba ba, ba ba ba ba ba.

Give me my fingers, wash out your mouth,
bite off my tongue on this bloody couch.
I hold you closely, you push me away,
I want forever, you just want today.
But I don’t blame you, you’re always right.
I’m a bad day, you’re a good night.

Goodnight, a good night, a good night on a bad day.

I hear the tick of a bomb, all your hair in a fuse,
you ask for a light to blow away these blues.
But I don’t blame you (I don’t blame you), you’re always right (always right).
I’m a bad day, you’re a good night.

Ba ba ba, ba ba ba, ba ba ba ba ba.
Ba ba ba, ba ba ba, ba ba ba ba ba.

But I don’t blame you, but I don’t blame you, I don’t blame you, I don’t blame you.

I hold you close, you push me away,
I want forever, you just want today.
But I don’t blame you, you’re always right.
I’m like a bad day, you’re a good night, you’re a good night.

Good night sweetheart.

I Didn’t Want to Wake You Up

The other night I saw you lying there, I didn’t want to wake you up.
The other day I saw you lying there, I didn’t want to wake you up.
The next night I saw you lying there, you hadn’t moved an inch.
The next night I saw you lying there, I didn’t want to wake you up.

The next day I shouted in your ear, “I don’t want to wake you up”.
The next night I kicked you in the head, I didn’t want to wake you up.

Three days later, you’re underground, I wish that I could wake you up.
Three years later, you’re underground, I wish that I could wake you up.

I wish that I could wake you up. I wish that I could wake you up.

The other evening I had a dream, you came into my head.
I tried to touch you, I tried to kiss you, I couldn’t wake you up.
My hands went through you, I grabbed the pillow, I cut the fucker up.
I really miss you, I really need you, I want to wake you up. I want to wake you up.

Iceberg

I found an iceberg floating in my soul.
It was always there until the sun went up my hole,
to find a little warmth from the cold, cold world,
to find a little warmth from the cold world.
On the ice, I skidded and swirled,
until my toes curled up around the idea that I’m a boy and you’re a girl.
I found a house falling down inside your head.
I picked up a brick and made sugar flow from my head.

It’s hard to know what I mean when you’re so damnably sweet.
I miss you like madness and happy feet.
The feet that danced, skipped and skated,
every time we interrelated.

Aluminium Beach

There’s a highway in the sky, and the people drive their Buics to the moon.
I remember the good old days up, up in my beautiful balloon,
my beautiful balloon, my beautiful lead balloon, my beautiful balloon.
On Aluminium Beach where the preachers preach.
On Aluminium Beach where the teachers teach,
and the magnet of truth pulls out your teeth,
on Aluminium Beach, on Aluminium Beach,
on Aluminium Beach, on Aluminium Beach, on Aluminium Beach.

I was sucked out by a leech on Aluminium Beach
and I cleared out my throat with Vodka and bleach.
I sung like a goat on Aluminium Beach.
I found my niche just out of reach on Aluminium Beach,
on Aluminium Beach, on Aluminium, Aluminium, Aluminium Beach.

There’s a highway in the sky, and the people drive their Fords to the moon.
I remember the bad old days when you burst my balloon,
when you burst my balloon, my balloon, my balloon, my balloon, my balloon on Aluminium Beach, on Aluminium Beach, on Aluminium Beach, on Aluminium Beach, on Aluminium Beach, on Aluminium Beach, on Aluminium, Aluminium Beach.

The sunshine in your eyes, it withers like bluebottle flies coming out of cans on the beach.
They’ll beseech you, they’ll bewitch you, they’ll beseech you, they’ll bewitch you they’ll beseech you
to come on down to Aluminium Beach, Aluminium Beach, to Aluminium Beach, Aluminium, to Aluminium , Aluminium, Aluminium Beach. Aluminium Beach.

Goddam it You’re a Kid

Big yellow M, three K’s on a pack,
Black tick on a shoe in the red sack.
Wrapped up in newspaper, chucked under a twig.
Try to look happy, goddam it you’re a kid.
Goddam it you’re a kid.
Fuck you Father Christmas, watch the snowman blow.
Fuck you Father Christmas, sayonara Nintendo.
Boom bang, boom ba boom bang, boom bang,
boom ba boom bang, boom bang, boom ba boom bang,
boom bang, boom ba boom bang. boom bang,
boom ba boom bang. boom bang, boom ba boom bang,
boom bang, boom ba boom bang. boom bang,
boom ba boom bang. boom bang, boom ba boom bang,
boom bang, boom ba boom bang.

Batman on a pencil case, Super Mario on my soap,
popcorn in the microwave, Miss Selfridge under my coat.
Invisible USA, Pepsi cola fridge.
Father Christmas waving us over Golden Gate Bridge.

Fuck you, fuck me, fuck you, fuck you, fuck you Father Christmas, watch the snowman blow.
Fuck you Father Christmas, sayonara Nintendo, sayonara Nintendo, sayonara Nintendo, sayonara Nintendo, sayonara, sayonara, sayonara, sayonara, sayonara, sayonara, Nintendo, Nintendo, Nintendo.

Fuck you Father Christmas, watch the snowman blow.
Fuck you Father Christmas, sayonara Nintendo.
Fuck you Father Christmas, watch the snowman blow.
Fuck you Father Christmas, sayonara Nintendo.

Daisies

Little daisies in my garden. Little daisies growing in my garden.
I’m going to grow them up to be sunflowers.
I’m going to grow them up to be sunflowers.
The bills on my doormat. The bills piling on my doormat.
I’m going to make a paper tree.
I’m going to make a paper tree.

The car in my driveway, the car bricked up with no wheels.
I’ll get the bastards if it kills me.
I’ll get the bastards if it kills me.

So who will miss me when I’m gone, who will write the words on my gravestone.
That’s if there’s room in forty years.
That’s if there’s room in forty years from now.

I hope I’ll live that long to prove myself wrong
but just for now I’ll sing this song,
just for now I’ll sing this song about how bad things are.

Failed old Singer

Little bird that sings, watch me on the swings.
You’re too small to fly, but I wish I had your wings.
Little girl that swings, watch me through your fingers,
holding on like murder to this failed old singer.
Woah, I love you. I love you. I love you.
Woah, I love you. I love you. I love you.

I dream (I dream) everyday (everyday) that you’ll put your wings away (wings away),
I’ll cut off my feet (off my feet) and take the sky away (away)
Sad as that seems, with a voice like double cream.
Singing out of tune to strangle all my screams.

Woah, I love you. I love you. I love you.
Woah, I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you.

Hey little screamer, my fingers in your ears.
Singing like an onion bringing out your tears.
Beautiful iceberg nose, a face like a lake.
Hey little dreamer, don’t you ever wake.

Fatherhood

There’s glass melting around my head, like skin that’s rippled but clear.
I can breathe but walking’s dead hard.
Dark clouds are beginning to steer me towards fatherhood, me towards fatherhood.
I hope my son will not scream if he wants ice cream.
I hope all little girls will be safe when he starts to dream about fatherhood, about fatherhood.

I don’t want him when I’ve given up.
I want to drink from the same glass.
I hope you won’t catch anything or regard me as something from his past, from his past, from his past, from his glorious past.

Fatherhood, fatherhood.

Dustbin Liner

You’ve gone away, don’t know where you are.
It’s like this hole is floating over my head.
Like a dustbin liner, black dustbin liner, like a dustbin liner.
Jingle jangle hell,
Jingle jangle hell,
Nothing lies between us.
Nothing that feels swell.
Nothing but feels swell.

Sing it like the Byrds chewing on the Beatles
Stupid little pop songs booming from cathedrals

Jingle jangle heaven,
Jingle jangle hell,
Nothing in between us,
Nothing that sounds swell
You’ve gone away, don’t know where you are
It’s like this hole, has been dropped over my head.
Like a dustbin liner, like a dustbin liner, like a dustbin liner, like a dustbin liner.

Not About a Girl

I’d forgotten how to breathe ’til you came back,
I’d forgotten how to breathe ’til you came back,
I’d forgotten how to breathe ’til you came back, ’til you came back,
I’d forgotten how to breathe ’til you came back, ’til you came back, ’til you came back, ’til you came back, ’til you came back.
I’d forgotten how to breathe ’til you came back,
I’d forgotten how to live when you went away,
I’d forgotten how to breathe ’til you came back,
I’d forgotten how to live when you went away,

Come back, come back, scumbag
Come back, scumbag, come back, scumbag, come back.

You’re mistaken if you think this song’s about a girl.
You’re mistaken if you think it’s about a girl.
It’s about myself, not that I’m self-obsessed,
but I went away as well as stay here at the same time.
When I came back I held out my arms and I said “Stephen I love you.”
Like a moment on American TV I became hysterical.
Hysterically happy with myself, and I became more hysterically happy
until the TV blew up and left a hole where my heart used to be.
Now I can breathe now I’ve come back,
I can breathe now I’ve come back,
I can breathe now I’ve come back.

Good Weather

Oh I don’t know where I’m going to
Oh the veins in my arms are like a road map.
I’m going to cry until the world changes, changes.
I can’t feel the rain if it rains on the window pane, window pane.
I can feel the hail banging round the pale I left outside.
The world is turning, my heart is churning,
Oh why why why why is nobody learning that warmth comes from burning the past,
I’m holding the ashes in the sunbeam at last, forever, not never, but forever.

You don’t need to be clever to enjoy the good weather but it helps, it helps.

I can hear the rain beating on my window pane.
I can hear the hail banging round in the pale I left outside.
‘Til the indians come back from decline (?)
I won’t stop crying.

You don’t need to be clever to enjoy the good weather but it helps, it helps.

I can hear the rain beating on my window pane but I…

But Love

Feelings come and go, come and go,
but love stays forever, but love stays forever, forever, forever, forever.

May We

It’s funny how love goes,
when you’re in the old music biz.
Some write from what they know,
others take a little Billy Whizz.*
Oo la la, mais oui, c’est moi, tout la monde, c’est la vie, ca va. ~1

On the big road to success,
I completely lost my way.
I forgot that I was blind
as seven on Thursday.

Oo la la, mais oui, c’est moi, je suis plein d’amour pour toi. ~2

I couldn’t believe that I missed it,
so I took my watch and I kissed it goodbye.
The only turn-ups I refuse,
are the ones above my shoes.

Oo la la, mais oui, c’est moi, tout la monde, c’est la vie, ca va.

Bloody Hell and Heaven’s above!
It serves me right for singing about love.
Give me an ark, I’d sail away,
but Paul Daniels* stole the dove.

Oo la la, c’est la vie, ca va, tout la monde, mais oui, c’est moi.
Oo la la, mais oui, c’est moi, je suis plein d’amour pour toi.

Oo la la, mais oui, c’est moi, tout la monde, c’est la vie, ca va.
Oo la la, mais oui, c’est moi, oo la la d’amour pour toi.
Oo la la, mais oui, c’est moi, tout la monde, c’est la vie, ca va.
Oo la la, oo la la, oo la la, oo la la.