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Read (Discography): Document and Eyewitness

5/10

Wisdom hangs uneasily
Upon the long man
His look is straighter than most
His affection lost almost
Most he doesn't care for

C'est la vie
Reba Reba
Amoeba amoeba
Oh staunch believer

Five out of ten without grounds
Would dismiss him
As unfriendly and quiet
It's just another example
Of what made him
Careless for most

12XU (Fragment)

Thank you, thank you. Hey, what could you say? Wild. That last, that last... I know. Thanks, thanks. That's fine. It was good, eh? I don't know what else you can say. ["Fat c*nt!"] You can say that as well. That last number was called—it was a new number—5 out of 10. Thank you, thank you. What can you do? You know, looking around me, I think, uh... One of the things is that... I, I know... But one of the things I know you've been waiting for, and I certainly f——ing have, is my request box. And I wanna hear 12XU! Here it is, a little number called 12XU!

I don't need to go to the Arctic to know it's cold.

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

Everything's Going To Be Nice

"Everything's going to be nice"

Piano Tuner (Keep Strumming Those Guitars)

Oh, retract, retract
To an area filled with me

Keep strumming those f——ing guitars!

We Meet Under Tables

Of our own volition
Like cell division
Only one part smaller
The other is greater
It speaks and we marvel
We cluster around
As we see its position
Tales to tell children

Like what to say, where to go, who to know

We're blind to the event
We take our places
A trio or duet
We meet under tables
We speak in short sentences
Derive any meaning
From any more statements

Eastern Standard

The doldrums... Bombay, Australia. I know. This next song, this next song's about a little place here. Time... eastern standard.

In about one second
It's difficult to be precise
A click, a flash of something exploding
Will maybe cause you to turn a hair
Or possibly a follicle

In 3.87 seconds
Correct to three decimal places
A follicle with a will to be unhinged
Maybe to take up a career in landscape gardening
Or pursue a career in African music

In ten or fifteen years
Consider the follicle's folly
When he was gadding, or Baghdad-ing?
In Calcutta

He was unlucky enough to
Join us all
When we all got wet

Eels Sang Lino

A robin's bad air spin
Corregés was thought
To be its designer
Main mast red
Bliss nurse bin liner
Heidi nil and eels sang lino!

Pagen hen coin workin' Yen
Our kid was thought
To be in west China
Simon cow
Pink note E minor
Heidi nil and eels sang lino!

No stinking Butlins Ian
Playing cupid
Around an angina
I.E. Brine
Night sown too inky
Heidi nil and eels sang lino!

A pair of Stewart Graingers
Henna bought back the old-timer
School mint tea
Sack cloth inside her
Heidi nil and eels sang lino!

Miss Soul a poignant red
Bach wrote songs
In Asia Minor
Handy lion
Switch sale of panther
Heidi nil and eels sang lino!

Revealing Trade Secrets

Half of it's beneath the sand
Where the rabbits eat is where the camel lands
Blood and that is understood

A ditch full of boxes often foxes

Under [locality?] to camera shot
The camera's reporting
The turf, the draft

Shoot sharp, expose her
Motion picture, motion picture
Full length, full length
Panoramic feature

And Then...

The head of priests say their prayers, sing their psalms, and wave their charms
They save their souls, they sell their fears, they grow their beards, and shave their heads

And then we all
Try to make up our minds

Keeps shoving those double-thick slices of electric salad down my throat
Stop slipping those thinly-spread, buttered salmon sandwiches into my suit

Coda

[instrumental]

Go Ahead

Forensic evidence proves
By the profile of the grooves
A serious intent
For the incident
Length and context betwixt
Start events, eventual exit

Advertising communicates
Radio players hesitate
Critical acclaim cannot explain
The extent of the sales
Or why this one pales
In comparison
In comparison with what?
You may well ask
Go ahead

The new single after entering the chart at 75 and in receipt of increased marketing activity plus the few daytime plays on national radio has responded with increasing sales in the chart return shops reflected by next week's chart entry into the top 40 at 27 thus there has been increased daytime play which is coupled with the fact that the promotional video has been well received by all local TV producers guarantees us greater media coverage not to mention what we are doing with the publications.

Are there any questions?

Gentlemen the sales force is to be congratulated on its efforts. Is there any other business? No?

Ally In Exile

An ally in exile
Receives an urgent dispatch
When he's already in trouble
Unable to relax
He recognises the cipher
Quickly resolves the code
The contents of the message
State, area and road

It was, as he feared
His cover's been blown
The extent of the network
Is now overblown
Overgrown the apparatus
To such an unwelcome event
Incommunicado
The last word is sent

He knows that resistance
Is futile but still
He prepares for their arrival
He awaits the kill
Resistance is futile
He awaits the kill
He prepares the arrival
He sits perfectly still
Resistance is futile
He prepares for the kill

He breaks down in the theatre
But hopes not under these lights
Specifically those
Which gain strategic insights
By the best of good fortune
He had provisions in store
He doubles, then trebles
The locks on his door

Relationship

Relationship
You and me, darling
Conversation, it's rather still
Inspiration is extinguished
Conversation moves far ahead

Extra extension
Involves a meeting
Intervention
An accident
High potential
Reach for the stars
Introspection
Popular stores
Elaboration
After attention
Two still breathing
He kept sailing

Resulting action
Occurs at five o'clock
Intervention
My love has withered
Situation
This one's quite low
I don't feel much
I don't feel at all
I've been searching for comparisons
And I'm tired of that way

I've been researching a Parisian
It kept me busy today
Tomorrow, I'll study Europe
I'll mix with the world

Witness To The Fact

Feeling the strain
But supporting the action
One-legged surveillance
And discover the storm
Playing in the shadows
The measuring the dead
He catches a mortal
He failed to regret
Change

Living bones
There's still false evidence
Under the photo
And discover the storm
Probing in the shadows
Measuring the dead
He catches a mortal
He's bound to regret
Change

Banning your instincts
But slow to react
An innocent bystander
Was witness to the fact
Change

Two People In A Room

Two people in a room
Facial movements betray
A private display
Of nervous disorder
And mutual torture

Two people in a room
Bloody image is conjured
But no one is injured
The weapons are chosen
But the action is frozen

Two people in a room
Positions are shifted
The ceasefire uplifted
The lighting is fierce
It's intended to pierce
Any cloak of deceit
And encourage retreat
And God they're so gifted
My God they're so gifted

Our Swimmer

Displaying an interest in forward propulsion
Our swimmer glides (moves) with no actual motion
The stroke he's using needs timing and skill
The effect is graceful, but the progress is nil

Neither backwards nor sideways, it's part of the thrill
The element he performs in is perfectly still
No problems with friction, it's easy for him
It is what he was born to, to swim and to swim

He turned head on tail, tail in head
He thinks that this cycle will get him ahead
Leaden-limbed, his state becomes alarming
Progress expected, not forthcoming
The effect is graceful, but the progress is nil
It is what he was born to, to swim and to swim

Heartbeat

I feel icy
I feel cold
I feel old
Is there something there behind me?
I'm sublime

I feel empty
I feel dark
I remark
I am mesmerised
By my own beat
Like a heartbeat
(In it's own beat)

Midnight Bahnhof Cafe

Objects which merge in the dark
Voices with a peculiar ring
Silhouettes with electric random
While skin diseases itch for tomorrow
A second visit brings confidence
And a cigarette adds security
Midnight railway cafe
Midnight Bahnhof cafe

A deterioration in the weather
Cassette, facetae, half a photograph
A full program, missing persons' bureau
Hall of the mindless, empty biros
Batten the hatches, tie down the cargo
Feeling the edge of my tongue
Lash your tail

Midnight railway cafe
Midnight Bahnhof cafe

Whistle softly, forestall admission
Speak slowly, re-evaluate my fears
Walking the same corridors as before
The passageway ahead is very clear
The carpet luscious, the plot has thickened