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Read (Discography): 21 May 1990, Hibernian, London

(Please note: lyrics taken from studio albums. Live versions may vary.)

Patterns Of Behaviour

End part beginning
17 and counting
Erase then cut and paste
From here to another place

Demonstrations, indignations
Colour, colour, collar, nation

Empty and filling
Ready and willing
Abrase to cut a dash
It's another current fashion

If I could say these words quicker than you could think them
Someone else would probably steal them

Patterns of behaviour
I've been to Monrovia
Inflate to make a splash
Cut and diced, it always lacks passion

Kidney Bingos (Kidney/Buzz)

Natural splits sunburn jets pride marks smart bets
Strikers luck pitch backs heap tips pit slacks
Dressed pints demon shrinks bread drunk dead drinks
Stretch clubs models box draw skin black shocks

Money spines paper lung kidney bingos organ fun
(Zee zee zee, zum zum
Buzz buzz, buzz buzz in the eardrum)

Flag stunt rock stone dole axe crash dive
Breath thrift take speed double take weekends
Skull row drugs hall colour bars sex calls
Sparkle finds rented rings pretty things clipped wings

Gold street spy fleet scandal food poor treat
Breath thrift take speed double take weekends
Dressed pints demon shrinks bread drunk dead drinks
Skull row drugs hall colour bars sex calls

Marco Polo has lost his way
The Louisville Lip has nothing to say
One thing remains perfectly clear
It’s the buzz buzz buzz in the drum of your ear

Buffalo Bill, deprived of will
Chasing a hamburger down the hill
It seemed to him perfectly clear
The buzz buzz buzz in the drum of the ear

Small Black Reptile

Sporting effects
In a small black reptile
Broadened at the shoulder
And swing at the hips

Room for a big fish
A crack of whips
Demander of service
And generous tips

Narrow in the eye
And puller of wool
The bow on the purse strings
Diaries full, arrangements fixed

A crossing of arms
The sucking of cheeks
The appetite rich
From scaling peaks

Badges of office
Extensive plates
Cultivating pets
Expensive dates

Goodbye Ploy

Leaning backwards, a memory
Staying on the periphery
To all the things that used to be
I'll say goodbye

To the smoky rooms, where they piss their time
To the all right boys, left with no rhyme
To all the ploys as dumb as mine
I'll say goodbye

Nothing ventured, nothing gained
Put it down to expenses, it's all the same
To all the players of the game
I'll say goodbye

To the wait in line and don't complain
To the fake pretending not to be sane
To the someone's loss is always my gain
I'll say goodbye

To the people cocktail that does not mix
To the have-it-all by dirty tricks
Of national airwaves jammed by pricks
I'll say goodbye

To the chilled and labelled haunted face
To the claustrophobic can't-do space
To every lace curtained place
I'll say goodbye

Through the thin and unsupported walls
To the talking big and acting small
To the last ordered home time call
I'll say goodbye

To the paying high and aiming low
To the heads-case places no-go slow
To the someone's dinner in the snow
I'll say goodbye

To the third-rate butcher's dance-hall mix
To the gain-attention finger clicks
To the try it on the wind-up slicks
I'll say goodbye

Sixth Sense

Who are the masked men?
Who are the cashed men?
Who are the flash men?

Where is the funman?
Where is the sunman?
Where is the gunman?

Where are the fast men?
Where are the past men?
Where are the last men?

On the table they're pawing the details
They wait for the meal to walk in the door
Edible hunter seeks credible victim
Sincerely rich seeks sceptical poor

In the corner they're shifting the ashes
Loyal traitor seeks empty womb
Oaken Tailor seeks viable impasse
Eternal youth seeks fatal bloom

Stampede

In times of peril such as these
Pleased as punch, but not so nimble
Taking chances that you're given

Take the Trabant to Brabant
Find security
In Western arms, in Western arms
Find security

The non-believers can't agree
Hands are tied, we can't discuss it
Swapping pot-pourri for concrete

Take the glitter to Gorky
Find security
In Western arms, in Western arms
Find security

Insiders think they've cracked the nut
Punch to please and not to crumble
Faking answers you are living

Empty larder history
Find security
In Western arms, in Western arms
Find security

The double agent's single cell
Splits the endgame party symbol
Forked, endorsed, but not forgiven

Delegations with stones
Find security
Buy Western charms, buy Western charms
With security

You Hung Your Lights In The Trees/A Craftsman's Touch

What crime is on your record?
When did you lose your wings?
Are your memories chequered?
Do you still dream of having all those things?
Having all of those things?

I want no part of the betrayal
If you should succeed or if you fail
It's you who worries me

Spring withers and summer smothers
My portrait casts its skin, mile after yellow mile
On the walls, thin layers, oily traces

Preserved and exhibited down the stairs
A medicine finish, a craftsman's touch

That's how many came to grief

What time is it on your planet?
What time is it in your heart?
In your past deeds did you plan it?
How far are we apart?

For those who could not flee
Belief in a promised release
You hung your lights in the trees
That's how many came to grief

Ahead

Lips growing for service, eyes steady for peeling
Bring on the special guest, a monkey caught stealing

Standard reward in corners, it's full-board in new quarters
Kneeling for pleasure ensures a good time

I remember, I remember making the body search
That it was nothing but enough for ahead

Someone is taking you, someone has taken me
T. V. doesn't understand a word that matters

Scattering desire to smouldering fires
Someone has taken you, someone is taking me

What Do You See? (Welcome)

Look to the right
Fields on fire
Look to the left
What can you see?
A mint-green bathroom
On a wall-less house

Welcome!

Drive into the Mickey Mouse
The must place to be?
The place we never enter
If we are not with us

Enter!

Look down the street?
A young boy hunting butterflies
Look down the street?
He swallows one
He swallows two
That is not enough

Stay!

In the bed for two hundred crowns
I waited for you
Me and the dancing lamp
With a VIP card
I would have met the blue man
I hear his noise in the stairs

Listen!

Can you hear the ocean?
Did you hear the thunder?
Did you see the signs left by the boy
Who fell through the frozen sea?
The world turned upside down

Down!

Want To Drill You

I got you in a corner
I got you in a corner
I got you in a corner
Want to drill you

This beat is
This beat is
This beat is
Want to drill you

It begins at one and is followed by two
An X marks the spot where I met U

If you're scarred, if you're a fool
If you are hot, if you are cool

Drill drill drill
Dugga dugga dugga

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

Underwater Experiences

I bet your underwater experiences came in handy
When you bit the hand that offered candy
And (which) flashed the smile that sank the ship
And reached the post before the pip
Where salient green depths still refract
To bend the mind and burn/hide the facts

I bet you never learned that you had a track for the vertigo/I knew your head for heights was (but still) responsible for the vertigo
Well I was far too willing to go slow
Launching into attractive space
Falling from that pure state of grace
32 feet per sec per sec per sec per sec
To free my mind and break my neck

Torch It!

His father's smile
And the sparkle in his eye

In the house not home, behind closed doors
They hide their fakes, between the floors
In the house not home, under the bed
Stories are told, and lies are spread
The house not home is full of love
It's the hate which seeps in from above

I'm going to torch it
I'm going to torch it
With you on the top

In the house not home, they gild their flaws
Preen their feathers, and sheath their claws
In the house not home, eyes are closed
Blood runs hot, whilst hell hath froze
In the house not home, me-me prayers
The wailing wall of cheap despair

In the house not home, the long house turns
Shit to gold, the tall house burns
In the house not home, dreams are trained
Innocence, hope, lost mysteries explained

In the house not home
There are four blanks
Your ignorance was unusable
Your thoughtlessness was not

We sing our cheap despair as our secrets are sold
The spirit is broken, I'm gonna torch you down
The spirit is not broken, I'm gonna raise it up from the ground