Released March 1996

Tracks:

1. Razorblade Shower (4.05)
2. Sundial In A Tunnel (2.51)
3. Little White Man (2.23)
4. Halfway Up The Hill (4.36)
5. Horsesugar (2.49)
6. Please Don’t Be Famous (3.30)
7. Louse (2.31)
8. Copper Feel (2.54)
9. Seagullably (3.26)
10. Dead In Love (3.49)
11. Candy Girl (3.46)
12. Gunfingers (2.44)
13. Married (0.10)
14. I Took a Drug (4.56)
15. In The Country (2.47)
16. Planecrash Xmas (3.14)
17. This Beautiful Disease (4.08)
18. You’ll Get A Slap (3.15)
19. In The Morning (2.11)

Total Playing Length: 60.14 min.

Catalogue numbers:

UK LP: BABY BIRD LP4
UK CD: BABY BIRD CD4

All songs recorded on a 4 track recorder no bigger than a vcr. No casio keyboards, no bellow-operated jazz synthesisers, no calor gas amplifiers have been used in there recordings. My attitude to resourcefulness-dictated-by-powerty never quite ran to stretching elastic bands over a washing-up bowl; though this technique, however tempting, is probably closer in spirit to babybird than to musicianship.
The happiest man alive is quality control on the grandest scale imaginable

Copyright 1996 Baby Bird Recordings

Sleevenotes

Brinkley, milkford, thymesley,
Gueastpont, gurton, stockmill,
Colesden, bullsdock, bouysea,
Swold – some of r. mcdonald’s
And b. king’s favourite places,
Where romance is still
Available. Just grab an an-to-b
german car and fill it with
cheap Russian gas. Rest your
size 42 TAIWANESE air-cushions
on the dashboard, drop a 3-hole
Blackburn brick on the
Accelerator, and hotwire your
way beyond the city limits of
invisible usa. On the way, take
time out to Polaroid the out-
skirts: a big yellow m, 3 red k’s
and the neon black tick
that swivels on the night-time
sodium orange-lit baseball cap.
Get the kids to stick the photos
on the rear window, slip the
golden Labradors a sleeping
pill, and drive beyond the
artificial fog.
Soon the sky regains her
colour, and the road is bright.
fuck nurofen, fuck alka selzer,
fuck anadin, the green grassy
aspirins, we took only minutes
ago, are working
With wd40 sticking pigskin
glover to the wheel.
Forgettable cars drive back
into the city, all the leather-
palmed and naked-knuckled
men wear peter cola virtual
reality sunglasses. The city’s
artificial fog is as thick as
scented dung, and the jesus
sunshades put bright-bright
light in their eyes, as they
highspeed the city-way home.
They pick up the glasses with
five ecu toll. Little plastic
ones for kids come free. They
close their eyes and see a man
nailed to a plane, with no
engine. They smile. As the
history of flight, from that
point unfolds, on tv retinas.

Meanwhile. We have arrived –
where swallows, humpbacks,
hedges and red phoneboxes
stand still under sea clouds.
And hailstones and snowflakes
fall like scones and double
cream. And we covered in
red, white and blueberries
blocking every hole with
sweetness.
As the car skids off the road,
we go through reels of
pleasurable suffocation – then die.
The happiest family alive.

 

Lyrics

All words here were originally transcriped by Mark B. for his Hate Songs website.

Razorblade Shower

“  -Was it a man or a woman?
- It was a man, and that’s really what shocked me.
- Ah! What are you wearing now?
- Nothing.”
There’s a radio in my head
####
I hear voices in my bed
Like a razorblade shower

Do do do do
Do do do do
Do do do do
Do do do do

I taste my ears ####(?)
’til they hear no sound.
But then there’ silence
that comes tumbling down.

Do do do do
Do do do do
Do do do do
Do do do do

Like a shower of blades,
Like a falling lead cloud,
The sound of my thinking
is getting too loud.

Like a Razorblade shower,
Like a #### without power,
Like a gun without flowers,
Like the day without hours
Like a razor blade, like a razorblade, like a razorblade shower
Like a razor blade, like a razorblade, like a razorblade shower

Sundial in a tunnel

What is this beautiful thing that we’ve found?
Is it a sundial underground
Or just a building falling down?
I’m so happy I could scream,
but when you said I dream everything’s fine.
What is this terrible thing that has gone away?
Is it a beautiful day
Or is it just OK?
You’re so happy, so why am I so sad.
You prefer tomorrow to the times that we once had.

What is this wonderful thing we once had?
Is it baby singing dad,
Or driving each other mad?

What is this beautiful thing that we’ve found?
Is it a sundial in a tunnel
Or just our home coming down?

Little white man

Hey you, hey you
Hey you, hey you
Hey you, hey you
Hey you
Hey little white man trying to sing the blues
’bout as much soul as second-hand shoes.
Under black clouds where the dark trees bend.
You’ll never go into the woods again.
You’ll never go into the woods again.
You’ll never go into the woods again.
You’ll never go into the woods again.
You’ll never go into the woods again.
Never go into the woods again.
You’ll never go into the woods again.

Hey little green man trying to stop the world
Spinning like balls under the dress of your girl.
Oh cloudless sky where have you gone?
You’re too damn white to sing this song.

Never go into the woods again.
You’ll never go into the woods again.
You’ll never go into the woods again, again.
You’ll never go into the woods again.
You’ll never go into the woods again.
You’ll never go, never go, never go, never go, never go, never go into the woods again, woods again, woods again.
Little white man. Little white man. Little white man. Little white man. Little white man.

Halfway up the hill

Halfway up the hill I nearly lost my mind.
Like an alka-seltzer I could sleep forever.
The tip of the mountain’s cloudy.
I can’t see the top.
I’m practically there but I can’t stop.
I’m practically there but I can’t stop. (Can’t stop)
Halfway down the hill I nearly found my feet.
Although there’s nothing down there, I could run forever.
Halfway up the hill, walking one foot up and one foot down.
Halfway up the hill, my toes pointing to heaven and to hell.

Feeling blue ­ just like the sky.
Feeling green ­ just like the grass.
Feeling yellow ­ just like the sun.
Feeling red ­ just like your face.
Just like your face kissing mine.
Just like your face kissing the grass.
Just like your face kissing the hill.
Halfway up the hill, halfway up the hill.
Halfway up the hill, halfway down.

The sun’s up. It’s clearing the grass. (The sun’s up)
I could see the light  (The sun’s up) if I could only look up  (The sun’s up)
But if I did that, then I’d have everything
And there would be nothing left to live for. To live for, to live for, to live for.
And there would be nothing to live for. To live for, to live for, to live for.

Halfway up that hill

Halfway up that hill,
There is nothing to live for
There is nothing to live for

Halfway up that hill,
I nearly lost my mind
Like an alkaseltzer…

Horsesugar

Gonna get drunk, gonna get tight.
Gonna find out where I live tonight.
Make my legs dirty, make my head light.
Do a glass like shepherd’s delight. (??)
Took a lot of drugs, drank a lot of beer.
Went up to heaven where the sky was clear.

I never heard so much bullshit in all my life,
I never heard so much horseshit in all my life,
I never heard so much sheepshit in all my life,
I never heard so much dogshit in all my life.

Took a lot of drugs, drank a lot of beer.
Went up to heaven (hic) where the sky was clear.
Gonna get drunk, gonna get tight.
Gonna find out where I live tonight.

Count this sheep dye (??)
Loose a lot of brain cells.
Blow my mind like oil wells.
Gonna get drunk, gonna get tight.
Gonna find out where I’m sleeping tonight.
Make my legs heavy, make my head light.
Do a glass like shepherd’s delight. (??)

Took a lot of drugs, drank a lot of beer.
Went up to heaven where the sky is clear.

Oh yeah
I never heard so much bullshit in all my life,
I never heard so much horseshit in all my life,
I never heard so much horseshit in all my life,
I never heard so much bullshit in all my life.

Please don’t be famous

I wanna make out with mothers, single-parent mothers.
I wanna take out my brother and tell him that I love him.
I wanna tell all my lovers that I’m a bigamist under cover.
Making life a better place to be.
Like Venus, or Neptune, or Mars or Burnley.
Like Venus, like Neptune, like Mars or even Burnley.

“With all the young kids out there who want to be famous.
Do you think it would be wise to recommend them to forget that dream, (erm) forget that dream (erm)”

Oh, I wanna make out with mothers, single-parent mothers.
I wanna take out my brother and tell him that I love him.
I may be a bigamist under cover but at least I’m somewhere

Like Venus, or Neptune, or Mars or Burnley.
Like Venus, like Neptune, like Mars and Burnley.

I wanna be inconceivable, irretrievable, undeceivable
????? that makes me think I can sing about anything I like, anything I like, anything I like, anything I like.

“- With all the young kids out there who want to be famous.
Do you think it would be wise to recommend them to forget that dream, forget that dream
- erm”

“I advise everybody to try to be a pop star, because it’s a wonderful, it’s a wonderful. Erm, I mean I left school at thirteen and a half, I couldn’t read and write. Erm, There was only one thing I wanted to do in life and that was to get into the music business, and coming from Coventry in 1974, I think, something like that, it was hard to, but it wasn’t, it was all London, London, London”

Louse

Cut a hole in my chest, push in some blood.
I’m about as female as a sexual retard.
Sew up the scar with a rusty nail and rope.
Can I borrow your bra ’til I’m as clean as soap?
In a blue two-in-one (?)  I go out on the town.
We drink like goldfish, flopping on the ground.
Give me a reason to go home to my wife.
My hands are nailed to the bar, Jesus what a life.

Everything’s gonna be alright.
Everything’s gonna be alright.
Everything’s gonna be alright.
Everything’s gonna be alright.

Look down my dress there’s no mountains.
Look in my lap there’s no valley.
Look in my eyes you’ll see a lake there.
Get out a shammy, I’m a fake, dear.

Copper feel

Today when I was walking I saw some good things and I saw some bad things.
A little old lady fell over and a young kid of fourteen picked her up.
That was a good thing and a bad thing.
You gotta feel good to feel bad,
You gotta feel bad to feel good.
You gotta feel good to feel bad,
You gotta feel bad to feel good.

I went into a shop today and left the door wide open
and the woman behind the counter shouted at me to shut the door.
I said that it was very stuffy in here and her store needed ventilation
and after a while she smiled at me.
That was a good thing as well as a bad thing

You gotta feel good to feel bad,
You gotta feel bad to feel good.
You gotta feel bad to feel good,
You gotta feel good to feel bad.

I remember the first time I had a fight with my dad, a proper fisty fight.
I was a little bit taller than him for the first time, I was fifteen,
I remember hitting him on the chin
and he went into a coma for about twenty days but he came out of it fine,
remembered me and everything, but there was no blood on his chin,
That was a good thing and a bad thing.

Feel bad, feel good.
Feel bad because I feel good.
Feel good, feel bad.
Feel bad ’cause I feel good.
Because I feel bad I feel good.
Because I feel bad I feel good.
Because I feel good I feel bad.
Because I feel bad I feel good.

Seagullably

Down by the sea bury me in the sand.
Make a boat, make a boat out of me,
And wait for the sea.
Down by the sea, please don’t be sad.
Bury, bury, bury your dad?
Down by the sea under the sand
Leave me a hole for your hand.

Dead in love

She’s feeling lost today.
Her best friend has gone away.
He floated into the sky.
Where all the lonely people die.
And she’d cry and she’d bawl.
And she’d try to carry on.
There’s a blue owl in a red tree. (Dead in love)
And a yellow bear floating in the green sea. (Dead in love)
Black milk in your white glass. (Dead in love)
And a cold haze from a transparent pass.
And people hear this and they think “drugs”. (?)
But it’s not when you’re dead in love,
when you’re dead in love,
when you’re dead in love.
Dead in love.
Dead, dead, dead , dead, dead, dead in love.

She’s feeling lost today.
Her best friend has gone away.
He floated into the sky.
Where all the lonely people die.  (Dead in love)
And she’d cry (Dead in love)  and she’d bawl her eyes out.  (Dead in love)
And she’d try to carry on. (And she’d try to carry on)
But he wouldn’t want that, no he wouldn’t want that
But where is he now? (Where is he now?)
But where is he now? (Where is he now?)
He promised never to leave her. (But he did.)
He promised never to leave her.
But he did.

There’s a pink stain on my eyes,
And angels coming over the garden wall.
Thing’s must be looking up.
She’s the sweet tea steaming in my cup
In my dark brown coffee cup.

Candy Girl

Are Norway without whales?
Are you the tornado in my sails?
Are you the Bury Met without rails?
Are you Jesus without the nails?
Naturally you’re not, but you’re all I’ve got,
and that’s fine and dandy, when you lick, when you lick my candy girl.
And I don’t mean that rude.
When you lick my, when you lick my, when you lick my candy girl,
You’re my candy girl, my candy, candy girl.
I feel for you
Are you Paris without snails?
Are you the lakes without dales?
Are you a farmer without bales?
Are you the red lion without ales?
Naturally you’re not, but you’re all I’ve got,
and that’s fine and dandy, when you lick, when you lick my candy girl.
When you lick my candy girl.
And I don’t mean that rude, when you lick my candy girl.
Candy Girl, candy girl, candy girl, candy girl

Are you Ra without Dion?
Are you the words in the sky without neon?
Are you indigenous or did you disappear?
Are you the lime in my bottleneck of beer?
Of course you’re not, but you’re all I’ve got,
and that’s fine and dandy, when you lick, when you lick my candy girl.
When you lick my candy girl.
When you lick my candy girl.
When you lick my candy girl.

Candy girl. When you lick my candy girl.
Candy girl. When you lick my candy girl.
And I don’t mean that rude when I ask you.

Gunfingers

It’s really weird, I had this dream last night, I put my fingers through the screen of a little TV with wings on either side.
Gunfingers, gunfingers,  weird man, gunfingers, gunfingers.
Hey I was only five years old with my hands still #### a little TV with my hands in it. My parents locked the door and left me home alone just like Macauley Culkin. Got off on this thing, as it sucked my hands in and my body went with it. I was a little like Sonic the Hedgehog. Gunfingers.

When I was fourteen I found out that there were other things to be done with fingers like exploring dark spaces in between your head and your toes, some that you’re told never to explore. Weird man, I had that wet dream again last night. Gunfingers, gunfingers, gunfingers, fish fingers.

It’s like something you catch off the TV, like a rash of six hundrets dots that cover your skin like a soft scream. Dig your fingers in it. Dig your fingers in it. Gunfingers, gunfingers, gunfingers, the smell lingers.

I had a weird dream last nigh.
I shot you through the head with my gunfingers. Gunfingers.

Married

” – All you’re talking about, can I use the ‘M’ word? All you’re talking about is the ‘M’ word with a partner, that’s all
- ‘M’?
- Yeah
- I know what he’s talking about.
- Yeah, he knows, he knows ’cause he does it every day, come on!”
I took a drug once, it made me feel bad,
I took it twice, now I feel good.
I took it three times in one evening,
I climbed your walls and slept on the ceiling.

I had a drug once, it made me feel high,
like a sick plane sucking on a cloud.
I had another drug, it made my head spin,
I spent the whole night cussing your dustbin, cussing your dustbin.

You wouldn’t see me, you wouldn’t let me in,
banging on the door five miles from your home.
My nose is running around my face.
It oozes white blood like the glue that unstuck us.

I took a drug once, it made me feel bad,
I took it twice, now I feel sad.
I took it three times in one evening,
I climbed your heart and fucked without feeling.

I had a drink once, it made me feel ill,
like a whale perched on a window sill.
I had another drink, it made my legs thin,
I cracked like glass on your soft unmarried skin, on your soft unmarried skin.

You wouldn’t see me, you wouldn’t let me in,
banging on the door five miles from your home.
My nose is running around my face.
It oozes white blood like the glue that unstuck us.

In the country

Finally somewhere in the country,
A beautiful house and a beautiful wife,
Two daughters and a chimney.
And a little smog in the garden of my life,
Will make us feel at home like a family.
Like back in the city where the building are ugly,
But the girls are pretty and the men are lovely,
But they have no horses to ride on,
No cloud no shame. (?)
No fields to lie down in, in the hot sunny rain.

I don’t know why I feel this way,
But I know I wanna be making hay,
In the country, yes I love my country,
And I hope she loves me too.

You don’t know you’re born if you’ve never mowed your lawn.
Go out and make a salad with your own sweet corn.
If you wanna hear some beautiful bull.
Shake my Daisy by the horn.
She’s that cow sitting by the pond,
Licking up some frog spawn.

It’s the caviar of the country
It’s the caviar of my life
Is the centre and the soul of my existence

Planecrash Xmas

A shooting star in the sky goes flying by.
If only me and you flew, we could be there too.
Everybody needs somebody, but I want you.
Everybody wants someone, even if they’re blue.
A big plane comes crashing down into our little town.
Thank God that we were away on holiday.
Everybody needs somebody, but I want you.
Everybody wants someone, even if they’re blue.

We’re having a planecrash christmas under the christmas tree.
A planecrash christmas just you and me.

Now that we’re back at home under the christmas tree.
Don’t fuse the lights sweetheart, we won’t be able to see.
Won’t be able, won’t be able to see, won’t be able to see.

This beautiful disease

Open up my heart and push your blood in.
Sew me up with your hair and sprinkle me with gin.
This beautiful, this beautiful, this beautiful disease.
This beautiful, this beautiful disease.
This beautiful, this beautiful, this beautiful disease.
This beautiful, this beautiful disease.

Open up your head and push my brain in.
Sew you up with my toe-nails then glue on my skin.

This beautiful, this beautiful, this beautiful disease.
This beautiful, this beautiful disease.
This beautiful, this beautiful, this beautiful disease.
This beautiful, this beautiful disease.

Open up my knees, rub your fingertips on my bone.
Little drops of saliva making blood their home.

This beautiful, this beautiful, this beautiful disease.
This beautiful, this beautiful disease.
This beautiful, this beautiful, this beautiful disease.
This beautiful, this beautiful disease.

Open up my arms, chew on the muscles.
Push in your money and make that special rustle.

This beautiful, this beautiful, this beautiful disease.
This beautiful, this beautiful disease.
This beautiful, this beautiful, this beautiful disease.
This beautiful, this beautiful disease.

Open up my heart and push your blood in.
Sew me up with your hair and sprinkle me with gin.

This beautiful, this beautiful, this beautiful disease.
This beautiful, this beautiful disease.
This beautiful, this beautiful, this beautiful disease.
This beautiful, this beautiful disease.

We’re dying happy like chalk rubbed in cheese.
We’re giving up now this beautiful disease.

This beautiful, this beautiful, this beautiful disease.
This beautiful, this beautiful disease.
This beautiful, this beautiful, this beautiful disease.
This beautiful, this beautiful disease.
This beautiful, this beautiful, this beautiful disease.
This beautiful, this beautiful disease.
This beautiful, this beautiful, this beautiful disease.
This beautiful, this beautiful disease.

You’ll get a slap

Don’t give me something I need ’cause I want it, ’cause I want it.
Don’t give me something I need ’cause it shortens my life, shortens my life.
Don’t give me something I need just because I want it, because I want it.
Don’t give me something I need just because I ask you for it.
It’s not my birthday, and it’s not Christmas.
It’s not Father’s Day, not Mother’s Day, not Valentine’s Day.

Don’t give me something I want just because I need it. because I need it.
Don’t give me something I want Just because I ask for it, because I ask for it.

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.

Don’t give me something I need just because I beg you for it, beg you fr it.
Don’t give me something you want just because I’m on my knees, because I’m on my knees.
Don’t give in to my baby just because I raise my hand, raise my hand.
And salute you, salute you in my funny, funny, funny, funny way.
Because I salute you  in my funny, funny, funny, funny way.

In the Morning

People die and people live,
people lie and people give.
But I don’t care, when I’ve got air,
and I can breathe through your hair,
In the morning, in the morning
Everything is fine in the morning, in the morning.
People die and people live,
people lie and people give.
But I don’t care, when I’ve got air,
and I can breathe through your hair,
In the morning, in the morning
Everything is fine in the morning, in the morning.