LYRICS
Shit Creek
Early morning six days a week
I catch the bus to work
Mopping lifts that reek of piss
for a hundred fifty quid a week
And my mates are playing lotto
on a ten year losing streak
Only half as long as mine
and I don’t even play the damn thing
And we, we’re the lucky ones
Way down shit creek with no paddle
We’re way down shit creek with no paddle
Sometimes a Chinese girl comes around
and sell us DVD’s
She’s all smiles and no speak English
The guys browse through the piles of porn
And I wonder what her choice might be
And I wonder if she’s scared of me
I bet some Mafioso’s got her
Threatening and abusing her
And to think
She’s a lucky one
Way down shit creek with no paddle
She’s way down shit creek with no paddle
Shit creek
This is an australian/kiwi expression; meaning you’re in deep water; you’re out of depth; you’re overwhelmed with trouble and and to get out, you’ll have to swim in shit. It’s another social commentary; people doing shit jobs for little money, people being in a country “illegaly”, with no papers, living 8 people in one room, working all day with the threat of being thrown out or reported to the police and deported… and then knowing that it’s not even the bottom of the ladder but there’s other people who’re much worse off – and it’s tragic.
Enjoy every sandwich
When your problems tower up all around
When the pressure’s bringing you to the ground
Don’t take life so seriously
You’re worrying in vain
Too high expectations will drive anyone insane
After all we’re all a bunch of clowns
You’re not the only one in town
Who knows how to take life for what it is
Life’s a bitch and then you die
So enjoy every sandwich
Sometimes it surprises me
The answer is so clear
What’s the point with living
If you can’t enjoy your share
All those thing we think we have to do
But there’s just one single thing we have to go through
Now I’m still alive
And I’m here to fight for a better place
With armor to wear
‘cause I’ve been there
In the suicidal maze
Enjoy
Sometimes we take too much upon ourselves and life gets to us; and we break; sometimes it’s good to take a fresh look at our priorities.….
Best friend I ever lost
I had a friend when I was a kid
Properly weird, looking back at it
He was kind of camp, but he didn’t play with dolls
He played sex, drugs and rock’n’roll
Then life
Tore these two kids apart
Best friend I ever lost
I think his parents drank pretty hard
Mountains of booze bottles in the yard
All year ‘round, come sun come sleet
We’d play hockey out on the street
Then life
Tore these two kids apart
Best friend I ever lost
ever lost
my friend’s name was dennis; I had a hockey goal and he had goalie equipment; the pads for the legs, the special gloves, the special stick, the mask…..
we used to play all the time…. Then my family moved away and we lost eachother. He was an extra strange kid….
Dead Terrorist
I was burning
Outraging
With all the will
In the world
Wanted to kill
Wanted to die
Now the fire
Is out of fuel
Nothing left
Of me
My dream is dead
I’m dead
Terrorist
I initially wrote this about myself, and then realized it seemed to fit with the sad predicament of suicide bombers…. But I felt dead because my dream had died, there was something I wanted to accomplish and I was struggling and eventually gave up… and this song is an expression of that pain, and the bittersweet memories. My “wanting to kill” and “wanting to die” are metaphorical for that attitude we have sometimes when we want to give everything we have to achieve something. And I lost hope, my fire ran out of fuel, like the remains of a terrorist who’s body has been eaten by the furnace and there’s nothing left…
Care
I have seen the flipside, I’m not blind
I know what’s going on, I’m not stupid
And I have seen the gutter, I’m not blind
I know it can’t go on, I’m not stupid
But don’t tell me that I don’t care
I can hear the beggars, I’m not deaf
I know who’s in charge, I’m not stupid
And I can see the dopers, I’m not blind
Wanna save the world?, I don’t think so
It’s gonna take much more
Than you and I can come up with
You want me to join you?, forget it
Good luck mate, I salute you
But I think you’re wasting time
It’s not gonna change anything
Care
Could be called “Compassion”, this is a song about how overwhelming all the shit in the world can be, and how we sometimes can’t cope and must shut ourselves off a bit. And how I feel that some things are so fundamentally wrong, that attempts to rectify is not only futile but a bad idea. So I might not jump on every bandwagon of protest / revolution. But I still care a lot.
Justice
Once upon a time we all had justice
Once upon a time we all played fair
And no-one had to slave for anybody
Everybody starting with an equal share
Do we all have the same chance?
If Jah’s not in the government, I don’t want one
Mankind cannot govern on its own
Mankind has no right to issue order
The whole idea is rotten to the bone
Do we all have the same chance?
Justice
Social and political justice…. I don’t believe human authority systems can accomplish it, since we’re all human and equal, and unless God is ruler, we shouldn’t have any. The world is very unjust, very unfair, but if it’s only a matter of what every person believes is right or wrong, then we’re doomed to fight eachother forever…. And the “strongest” will win…. That’s not good enough!… and the image in my head when I wrote it, I guess it was of an unemployed person who’s really down…. Slowly getting to the point where enough is enough…. And then, in the song, it explodes – there’s a riot – it’s the underprivilged people starting a revolution to overthrow the system… but then it fizzles out and goes back to the everyday rhythm…. Because it’s only a fantasy… about a change that will never come.
I alone can stop myself
I alone can stop myself
Now that feels pretty good
I need to feel that I am in control
I give away what’s right and wrong
To me that’s basic sense
I like my life, I’m perfect for the role
And I’m not talking immortality
I alone
Only me
All those people running around
In circles all their lives
Splendid if that’s what you wanna do
I wonder if it matters
What path we choose to walk
At 40 we’ll wish we’d done different too
And I’m not talking immortality
I alone
Only me
Talk is cheap when on a roll
But I know what you think
You think I’m all holier than thou
But the last thing I want to do is shove
The truth down someone’s throat
Or point a finger at you and go KA-PLOW
I alone
Here’s a silly song written on a “high on life”…. It’s got a connection to “Enjoy”, but rather than a sort of plea, it’s more like a boast – it’s a message of self empowerment, of the idea that every person has some power, and like “Enjoy”, it’s saying “DON’T WORRY SO MUCH”… and, from a personal point of view, it’s a statement of pride, of personal joy…
Murderer Grampa
i’ve heard many stories
of heroes and sacrifice
on battlefields in foreign lands
amongst gunsmoke and battlecries
but while you were risking your life
getting crippled and earning scars
killing people you never met, your ministers
were sitting on their fatty arse
you are a murderer, grampa
and i ain’t proud of you
you are a murdurer, grampa
what do you want me to do?
You are a murderer, grampa
One must call things by the right name
you’re proud you fought for your country
but your so called enemies felt just the same
you say it wasn’t your fault
you only did what you were told
you think you did your duty
taking orders, brave and bold
but although your country called on you
to kill for king and crown
you didn’t know what was going on
you let all of humanity down
you are a murderer, grampa
and i ain’t proud of you
you are a murdurer, grampa
what do you want me to do?
You are a murderer, grampa
One must call things by the right name
you’re proud you fought for your country
but your so called enemies felt just the same
grampa
Confronting loved ones about mistakes, to learn for the future…. The UK “poppy appeal”, BBC war documentaries, the custom of treating was veterans as heroes…. Making out like what they did was great, and that we are so grateful…. When it would make sense to perhaps mention that it was all a horrible mistake and it had better not happen again. And that there’s nothing heroic about killing people on order…
Three o’clock
It’s a couple of reasons
Three o’clock in the bathroom
I thought I’d never get back
To the other side alive
The sun hits my eyes
Glorifies my dreams
Like shots in my arms
Like laserbeams
Passion alarming
Can’t control yourself
Want to reach out
On a world-wide roundabout
And in the graveyard
The Streatham bums gather
The one place that has peace
On the surface and beneath
Three o’clock (Previously titled Laserbeams)
Was written with two friends, we passed a paper between us and wrote one line at the time, without saying what we should write about. So I don’t know what this song is about. I do think it’s a funeral song. So in a way there’s a connection here to “terrorist”.
Keep looking for treasure
Riding through the mountains on a red hot summer day
Cuz I kept looking for treasure
Taking in the view of the Acropolis at night
Cuz I kept looking for treasure
Crawling through a life void of joy and void of love
Isolated and forgotten, robbed of dreams and hope
Staring at dark waters on those desperate lonely walks
But I kept looking for treasure
Laying on the tarmac holding hands under the stars
Cuz I kept looking for treasure
Rowing around a reservoir of friendship, love and rum
Cuz I kept looking for treasure
Treasure
This song is an attempt to encourage people who’re having a bad time to keep fighting. I’ve experienced some wonderful things, but there were times when it was so bad I wanted my life to end… if you keep going, there may be beautiful rewards, but you have to be able spot them too, and appreciate them…
Ladbroke Grove
For twenty years I just keep looking
When I got the chance I turned away
For all you’ve done, for all you’ve given
I didn’t know what to say
Everybody says the door was open
Could have just gone up and shake your hand
But I couldn’t stop thinking
You’d meet thousands like me in every land
Looking back at highs and lows
I wish I’d been to every show
And I wish I’d been there on Ladbroke Grove
Yeah I wish I’d been there on Ladbroke Grove
I just wish that I’d been there in Ladbroke, Joe
And now I walk the streets of Camden
I’ve crossed your path a million times
Been by the Westway outside Wilmcote House
Where you cracked all those wicked rhymes
And there were times when I was thinking
I might bump into you some day
Maybe give something little back to you
And now it’s too bloody late
I keep wasting all my time
My life’s propelling away
I envy all the action
You seemed to pack into every day
When I want to refuel, I still look to you
High octane
Ladbroke Grove
This is part tribute to Joe Strummer, and the Clash; and the sentiment expressed is the simply the one we’ll experience when we lose a friend, a relative, a lover, and that feeling of “I never told him/her”…. it happens easily; and then it’s too late forever… I had the chance a couple of times to go up to Strummer and say “thanks for the songs, they made a difference to my life”, but I didn’t want to waste even a minute of his life, so I didn’t. Now I wish I had. I love the clash, they’re my biggest influence. And the way I sing it, is of a lost little boy. Helpless.
Mary Magdalene
I have nails driven through me
I wear a crown of thorn
But what hurts me most is
Seeing how you mourn
Standing before me
An ocean us part
We could never happen, Mary
You knew it from the start
Mary Magdalene, Mary Magdalene
I know you heart is bursting
Of all that could have been
I will heal your broken heart
Before your tears have dried
I can walk on water, Mary
I’ll cross the great divide
I have healed the blind
The hungry ones I fed
I drove seven demons
Out of your head
Magdalene
This song is very special to me. Around the time of the Da Vinci code and all that, I was thinking – and I’m a believer – but I don’t believe Jesus and Mary Magdalene got married and had kids. But I can see how it can look like there was something between them. (I’m sure you know the story,) she was one of his closest disciples, was there when he was executed, he went to see her when he was resurrected, and she flung herself onto him and wouldn’t let go… but I could see the parallell; it wasn’t for Jesus to settle down and have a family, he had a calling. And it can happen in life that we can fall in love with somebody else, even though we are already committed in marriage. And the question is, what is the greater love, to go with the feelings or to stick to your commitment? And the love never goes away anyway. And so I sing it as Jesus, comforting Mary, and as a man recognizing the love between himself and a woman – again, it could be any person - even though this love cannot be made manifest in that specific bond…
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"Rock'n'roll"
"Avantgarde"
