Read (Discography): 02 May 2000 Great American, San Francisco

Pink Flag

I was sold up the river to the red slave trade
The stores were gathered, the plans were laid
Synchronised watches at 18:05
How many dead or alive in 1955?

The pink flag was screaming, bugle boys sucked and blew
No time for confessions, orders given
Books were cooked on the 4th of the 3rd
How many seen or heard on the 12th of the 3rd?

How many dead or alive?

Silk Skin Paws

You have nothing to fear
I'm just making enquiries
Dog bone hunting
Gives you back to yourself
Standing before me
The gargoyle turns
Jutting jaws and
The stubble burns

I shift the blame
To the worm in the bottle
I shift the blame
To anyone standing before me

I check-up the once-over
Give yourself an opening
Keep your mouth shut
In the event of an accident
Contact the following
A certain air
An invading smile
Inbreeding seals the flaw

Silk skin paws
Hang by both feet
Embracing the world
Hang the expense
Breugels cut corners
Wring out the senses
I have nothing like it
I've seen nothing like it

Boiling Boy

Gifts of the west winds
Dark and deep
In secret sunsets
Places creep

Lock up your hats
Lock up your hats

Progress with a vision
To practice with at home
A schism with an ism
To practice with at home
A collision with decision
To practice with at home

He transferred his soul
To his imagination
His atoms were excited
And he glowed in the dark
The boiling boy
Was a picture of confusion
But he had the advantage
Of a cold start heart

Lowdown

The time is too short but never too long
to reach ahead, to project the image,
which will in time become a concrete dream.

Another cigarette, another day,
from A to B, again avoiding C, D, and E,
'cos E is where you play the blues.
Avoiding a death is to win the game,
to avoid relegation, the big E.

Drowning in the big swim, rising to the surface

The smell of you
That's the lowdown

Advantage In Height

A brief Bombay, Colossus encounter
A holy rolling, rhino blessing

Two men in white, an advantage in height
In appearance unique, in action delivers

The light fades, the sun never never sets
A: a double blow, B: an immortal being

A creator lover, a bee-driver
A therez wipe-out, a therez wipeout

He Knows

In the Baron’s Nippon charger
The co-pilot a façade
In attendance tucked inside
Riding shot-gun talking hard was Bard
Though his kingdom was subsiding
Beyond the distant blue horizon
Elbow dancing in a fashion
Dressed in stolen threads of passion

Stardom's kingdom in scripted lies
The green room tango, hip no ties
Walk this way, get a wise guy prize
Foxtrot partners, cannibalise

Not belonging even caring; you embrace the ever-caring
Eyes of he who views unblinking
Who knows what you are thinking
Ignoring oceans crossing borders
Fulfilling arms providing borders
Awaiting sentence and what the word is
For you know who their lord is

We so greedy, with so much need
Of your attention, of all your love
We're hypnotised, with all your love

40 Versions

I never know which version I'm going to be
I seem to have so many choices open to me

It's not hard to see another unique event
When you miss the beginning and you miss the end

I've got forty versions all dying to get the part
And so with a change of mind comes a change of heart

A total eclipse arrives now and Niagara Falls
No loss of blood yet and no further calls

I never know which version I'm going to be
I get the feeling my mind is deceiving me

In between are where only edges can be seen of the spaces

Another The Letter

Passed to hand, behind the curtain
The letter brings change, now things are uncertain
Hand to hand, the letter moves on
Like a series of shocks, but the contents are known

Oh faint heart, when the letter arrives
You suddenly find things getting life-size

Once the air rang with things unsaid
Now cruel outlines are easily read
Behind the curtain, in the yellow bulb light
The letter reads: I took my own life

Mercy

Crooks lay in a weighted state
waiting for the dead assassin
while the rust pure powder puffs,
a shimmering opaque red.
Papers spread, no-one driving,
we hurled direct ahead

the windows dark-green tinted,
the hearse a taxi instead.
Snow storms forecast imminently
in areas Dogger, Viking,
Moray, Forth, and Orkney.
Keeping cover in denuded scrub,
the school destroyed raised the club,
panic spreading with threat of fire.

Crowding beneath a layer of foam,
refugees intertwined, alone.

Within the institution walls,
in pastel blue, clinical white,
slashed red lipsticked walls, mercy nurse tonight.

Seems like dark grey stockings
in the raking torchlight with 4 AM stubble,
a midnight transvestite.

Drill

Are you level? How's your trim?
Do you rotate, eddy, or spin?
Are you game? What's your trick?
Do you vibrate, bounce, or tick?
What's your cut? Are you correct?
Do you detour, bend, or stretch?

We're milling through the grinder, grinding through the mill
If this is not an exercise, could it be a drill?

How's it with you? What's your form?
Your outline, shape, or form
How's your price? What do you cost?
Your value, profit, or loss
How's your skull? Does it fit?
Is your mind free, empty, or split?

Drill drill drill
Dugga dugga dugga