The Bad Pages

The Black Album

black_album

The unilluminared and sunless after-life album filled with glorious melodies, eccentric wordplay, bleak soundscapes and Jones’ ghostly vocals. Released November 18th 2002. These are the 4 track recordings made in a bedroom and on a kitchen table

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Tracks

1. Black Intro / It Ended The Way It Began (1.43)
2. Stick it in Me / Come Home (1.44)
3. Coming Alive / Under Your Life (1.55)
4. Unswayed / Give me Something…I’m So Tired (2.30)
5. Hum / Permanent Blindfold (1.23)
6. Get in the Light / Kitchen (2.49)
7. When the Lights Go Out / My Last Seconds on Earth (2.15)
8. The Sun Is Shining / Sunshiner (2.58)
9. Cheap Gold (3.24)
10. Pretty Little Sparks / Pretty Little Xmas Sparks (2.44)
11. Devil Music / I Wanna Be Your Jesus Christ (2.08)
12. Someone Left the Gas on / Take Me Away (The Gas Song) (2.10)
13. Always Here / You Will Always Be Here (2.09)
14. Can’t Breath the Same Air / Your last breath (2.21)
15. Drunk Car (2.03)
16. The End of Life / Harry and Ida Say Goodnight (6.17)

Catalogue numbers:

Baby Bird CD7 (unofficial)/CMYBX560/6 (‘The Original LO-Fi)
Sanctuary Promo: CMYBX560 (silver disc with black lettering housed in a transparent plastic sleeve with song titles printed on white cover sheet.

black_album_promo_big.gif

Random notes:

  • This release contains 16 untitled trakcs with absolutely no clarifying details provided on the black cardboard sleeve.
  • The tracklist here is from a Sanctuary promo. iTunes and other online music databases lists a fan-made list.
  • In october 2012 Stephen put the album for sale on Bandcamp with different titles (secondary titles above).
  • In the life cycle theme contained within the 6 albums of baby bird recordings, this is the unilluminared and sunless after-life album. In the liner notes for The Original Lo.Fi Stephen calls this album a CD zombie.
  • Allmusic: “The Black Album is every bit as chock-full of glorious melodies, eccentric wordplay, and Jones’ touching, sweet vocals. Pianos twinkle eerily over bleak soundscapes, Jones intones alternately with deep tones, high-pitched screeches, and fuzzed-out cacophony; hip-hop beats mingle seamlessly with music box dynamics, and tender personal songs recorded as song fragments work like the most epic pop creations ever recorded.”
  • Only available in the Orgininal Lo-Fi boxset
  • The End of Life is a shorter version of Harry & Ida Swap Teeth released on the Goodnight single in 1996
  • Drunk Car was originally released as 7″ single in 1999.

Lyrics

01. Black Intro

(no proper lyrics)

02. Stick it in Me

So come on home, come back to me,
Your home’s still here, where I used to be
So come on home, come back tonight,
Your home’s still here, where you see the light.

come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on.

Somewhere to stay, someone to cry with,
Somewhere to grow old, someone to die with
So come on home, let us be free,
Take the key, and stick it in me.

Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on.

03. Coming Alive

I’m coming alive in your arms
(Repeated)

04. Unswayed

I can’t sway
I can’t sway
No i cant sway

I’m so tired
(Repeated)

05. Hum

I know I cannot find, I know I cannot see
I know I cannot find, I know I cannot see
I know I cannot find, I know I cannot see

I know I cannot find, I know I cannot find
I know I cannot find, I know I cannot find
I know I cannot find, I know I cannot find
I know I cannot find, I know I cannot find
I know I cannot find, I know I cannot find

06. Get in the Light

Get in the Light
Get in the Light
Get in the Light
Get in the Light

To find the sunshine
Is all I can do
To find me some shade
At last here with you,
At last here with you
At last here with you

To find the blue sky
Is all you can do,
To find some white cloud
To lighten the blue
To lighten the blue
To lighten the blue (the blue, the blue, the blue, the blue, the blue, the blue, the blue)

To find the sunshine
Is all I can do,
To find us some shade
At last here with you,
At last here with you
At last here with you
Love the sun when it shines
It’s all we can do
Don’t pull down the blinds
Let it shine through
Let it shine through

07. When the Lights Go Out

And when the lights go
And when the lights go
And when the lights go out
(repeated)

08. The Sun Is Shining

When the sun is shining down at the square (*don’t have to smile*?)
When you car is stolen it hurts for a while
Then they find it burning, and the wheels are hurting,
Then your head stops turning

Yes the sun is shining
The sun is shi-hi-hi-ning.
The sun is shining
The sun is shi-hi-hi-ning
The sun is shining
The sun is shi-hi-hi-ning.

All the little kids
Piss on the car
‘Til the fire is done
And the firemen come
But when the sun is shining
The clouds stay away
I find the keys in the grass
And hide them away.
And they join in the shed (*In a jar in the shed*?)
With the brushes and the spades
That stick so close together
Like all the other useless things
That I found by the roadside
Like the keys in the dew
That they’re looking so hard for
On the tv news

When the sun is shining, down from the sky (**you don’t have to smile*)
When your heart is broken, no need to hide (*you need…*?)

..???……..??…. [cuz you love it? yes you love it? it’s erotic?]*

09. Cheap Gold

Hey little blood stain
Been in the wars again,
Hey little bruise brain
Fix your head again
Hey little cheap gold
Been in the fire again
Hey little meltdown sold out again.

All I want is a little more air
Something I can breathe
But all you want is a little more time
Somewhere else to breathe
9???……????]
somewhere else to breathe

*Pour gasoline on me*
To take away the cold
Melt your broken heart, *like cheap gold*
Turn the fire trucks back,
Turn the sirens off,
*Take me off the map, I’m gone*

All I want is a little more air
Something I can breathe
But all you want is a little more time
Somewhere else to breathe

All I want is a little more light
Something I can still see
But all you get is a little more time
Nowhere else to leave

10. Pretty Little Sparks

Throw some whiskey on the sun, step out on the stars
There’s nothing left to bruise
high voice: ‘just pretty little sparks
Douse the clouds with gas,
Throw matches in the sky,
it’s almost now dark (?)
but pretty little sparks

Pretty little sparks
Pretty little sparks
Pretty little sparks
Pretty little sparks

*[rising on the chimney smoke, rising on the ? ?] or
[rising moon the chimney smoke, rising moon the ? ?]*

Tear away the grass
Sit out on the curb
Happy birds in the sky (*Happy there’s no sky *)
Happy against the wind (*Happy there’s no wind*)
Just you and me
Selfishly

Putting out the stars,
There’s nothing now
To light us up
Just pretty little sparks

Pretty little sparks
Pretty little sparks
Pretty little sparks
Pretty little sparks
Pretty little sparks
(etc.)

*[rising on the chimney smoke, rising on the ? ?] or
[rising moon the chimney smoke, rising moon the ? ?]*

La la la la….

Pretty little sparks
Pretty little sparks

11. Devil Music

Voice:
There’s all these, ummm, candy arses and Jesus freaks all sitting around in this cave and in The middle of it, like a campfire, there’s ummm a refrigerator, and apparently Jesus is in here. They dug his body up, put some lard around it, and painted over with a nice foundation, put some make up and hair on – like a tart, singing some diabolical song:

I wanna be your Jesus Christ
Leave my devils behind
I wanna be your Jesus freak
Leave my devils behind’

Voice:
And everybody’s in this cave with a good supply of Buffalo glass vodka, Quaaludes, and of course the Tricks & Johns which Pimp got, big Hell’s Angel that supplied. And we are around the campfire, singing Christian Science songs, y’know, the good ones. in this refrigerator there’s a little tap on the side, and it says underneath it- a li-little sign, which someone had written on it “who wants to be my Jesus freak?”

I wanna be your Jesus Christ
Leave my devils behind
I wanna be your Jesus freak
Leave my devils behind’

And there’s a little tap on the side, and you can turn it on, pour the blood of jesus into your tankard.

12. Someone Left the Gas on

(‘Death*) There it goes so quietly
Trippin’ on your broken knees
Hang on your toes they won’t give your feet on the ground

Take me away
Somewhere from here
Take me away
Take me away.

Everything’s perfect
With things in the right place
Sadness is gone
Lost without a trace
Something is seeping
And everything’s wrong
Something took you fire
And left the gas on

Take me away
Somewhere from here

take me away
Take me away.

13. Always Here

You wont always be here
You wont always be here
You wont always be here
I wont understand (?) my one fear (*I wont ever stand on my own feet*)
Cos you’ll always be here
You wont always be here
You wont always be here
I wont always be here

14. Can’t Breath the Same Air

This house I bought us feels too far away (too far away)
The earth’s like hands around your throat
Up there waving from your book
Freezing cold in my old space suit

Up there in that little piece of rock
You whispered your last breath
“It’ll seep the same air as me,
you can’t breathe the same air (repeat) (*[a reversed sample of SJ’s voice ? (repeated)]* the same air as me,
the same air as me*)
Can’t breathe the same air as me.

I’m on this piece of cheese moon
Hope she ain’t stolen my rocket keys
But i can’t think straight
My head’s blue
And my hearts leaking like a cooker
You left on
Up there in that little piece of rock
She whispers up to me
*[a reversed sample of SJ’s voice ? (repeated)]* the same air as me,
you can’t breathe the same air” (repeat)
Can’t breathe the same air as me.

15. Drunk Car

I can’t see you, but you can see me
I’ve lost feeling in my legs
One foot is over on the side of the road

I can’t see you, but you can see me
There’s blood all around
And it’s covering my eyes

My arms up, My legs up

You can’t imagine how that feels
I wish you could imagine
how that feels

16. The End of Life

Instrumental

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